alpaca, and the tame animal is dependent on man for the performance of most of its functions. It must have taken ages to bring the silken fleeces to such perfection.
There is thus good reason for assigning very great antiquity to the civilisation of the megalithic people. Another deduction from the premises is that there must have been a dense population for working quarries, moving the cyclopean monoliths from a distance and placing them, as well as for cultivation and the provision of supplies for the workers. This suggests extensive dominions, and some movement of the people.
We only have tradition to indicate the direction whence the megalithic people came. I am quite in agreement with Dr. Brinton that 'the culture of the Andean race is an indigenous growth, wholly self-developed, and owing none of its germs to any other races.' Mr. Squier came to the same conclusion as regards Peru, and Mr. Maudslay as regards the Mayas of Central America. There were doubtless movements among the Andean tribes, gradual progress extending over vast periods of time, and an influx from some direction to form the megalithic empire. But from what direction? Tradition points to the south, to Charcas and Tucuman, and to countries beyond the southern tropic, as the sources of its population. It is interesting to find Garcilasso de la Vega, in one of his letters, describing himself as an 'Antarctic Indian,' Cieza de Leon, the earliest author to
