The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1911-03-23
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streets; and thousands of skulls whiten the sur
rounding sands, grewsome reminders of the null
titude who formerly lived and worshped at these
ruined shrines
Peru has few merely tourist visitors and Of
these fewer still Pachacamac the trip from
Lima being considered long and hard But for
one accustomed to the saddle land little Of South
America can be otherwise seem Pachacamac is
comfortably accessible.
The simplest route is by the excellent electric
cars to the pretty suburb Chorillos, beyond Mira
nores, where horses should have been ordered
IN advance to await the traveller.
over roadside walls of mud adobe brick
wild nasturtiums Chamber in a riot of color; bare
high hills rise at one side the battlefield of San
JUAN famous in the Chilean war, and here and
there populous haciendas passed before the
open country is reached. mile or two of Jungle
like swamp follows, rich in interest for lovers
of birds and growing things But beyond this
FERTILE tangle one may canter along the hard sand
beach for nearly all the remaining miles Sea
birds in such myriads that the sun Is actually
darkened as they fly up at approach, seven
or eight lines Of superb Pacific rollers breaking
In thunderous surf rampant of high sand noun
tains just back of the beach-and In two or three
hours appear the familiar walls and dun-colored
remains Of Inca occupation.
For Pachacamac has been the scene of sew
eral superimposed civilizations whereby its
study is rendered more confusing than that of
other ancient shrines The many graves and
their contents were seemingly at variance
chronologically inconsistent-with fragments of
pottery and implements found near by But Il
Is certain that pre-Inca Indians had here their
chief temple, and that when these alconquering
mobiles with their hordes of willing workers ar
rived triumphantly upon the scene, so far from
trying to wipe out the old faith they treated IL
with much respect, perhaps from prudential mo-
tives, building their great temple to the sun on
the hill above, but still permitting, even encour-
aging, continued worship of the creator god, Pac-
hacamac, so that the temples religious prestige
did not suffer under the Incas
The Sun temple seems to have been built to
include this earlier sanctuary, which shows an
amicable relationship between the older cult and
that worship OF the sun which the Incas ultimate
ly imposed on conquered tribes.
A beautiful site these early dwellers chose for
their rites. Although desert bounded on north
and east, the temples themselves set in sand by
whose encroaching drifts they now half COW
cred, toward the west rolls the blue Pacific, and
LuriD, watered by its river of the same name
off whose mouth rise rugged islands, the wings
of myriad sea birds flashing in the sunshine as
they dip and circle and about the lofty
cliffs.
Only " miles wide at the coast the little Ll-
rim valley rapidly toward the interior
A mile and half distant lies the village, on the
same side of the river as the ruins Only 500
inhabitants belong here, but perhaps 1000
can be counted in the whole parish. Modern Pac-
of many kinds abound-the willow (Salix) al.
bearing the chirimoya. palta, lucuma and other