The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-06-14
Lake Titicaca Highest Nav;gab1e Lake ;1 World

times great storms come up. We had a rain last night just before the sun set, and a mighty bow of all colors seemed to rise from the mountains, spanning the lake and to lose itself in the mountains bordering upon it. As I looked 1 thought of the vast treasure vaults of the Andes and the gold that may really lie at the two ends of that rainbow little later the sun went down. The sky was still full of clouds and the blazing god of the Incas covered it with a hundred tints of wonderful hues The sunset was re- leeted in the waters of the lake, and we sailed through one maze of gold cop per and blue above and below.
 As we rose the next morning the air was so clear that We could see for miles. The islands seemed to float upon the fa- ters They looked like blue balloons ris- ing from a sheet of silver rather than the outcroppings of the highest mountain chain on our hemisphere Coati, the Is- land of the Moon, l remember, rose out of the lake in the shape of a gigantic mushroom of blue velvet. Another island looked like a huge whale. whose head and tail stood high above the water, and there were other optical illusions, due to the atmosphere, that seems to work here like the mirage over the desrt.
 There are hundreds of islands in Lake Titicaca. They are the tops of partially submerged mountains, the peaks of the Andes that are here up to their necks in the water Most of the islands have hillsides covered with farms. There are many Indian huts In places the hills are terraced so that they form great steps running around with the curving shores of the lake and covered with patches of potatoes. quinua and barley.
 Upon these islands are ruins of the old Inca civilization The Island of Titicaca, or as it is called, the Island of the Sun, was where the first Inca appeared. It was there that the sun dropped down upon the earth the first representative of civilized man, and from there he directed this man, Manco Capac and Mama Cello, his wife, to take the golden rod he gave them and go forth and found great city where it should sink into the earth. The Quichua Indians still reverance that is- land; and you may see there today the ruins of the temples of the Incas, the walls of which were bedded in gold.
 Titioaca Island was especially holy. The Indians looked upon it as a garden of Eden and thought that the grain grown upon it was blessed by the sun. They brought soil from the mainland to build up it's terraces, and the corn grown upon it was considered so precious that it sanctified and preserved all other grains. HtItioit, IL WdS tdTI1tu aDOuI over lne country, and small portions of it were put in the public warehouses. It was also said that man who could have as much as one grain of Titicaca Island corn in his his lifetime. On this island is still shown his lifetime.2 On this island is still shown the rock where Nance Capac, and his sister wife stepped when they dropped down from the sky. They were, you know the Adam and Eve of the Ineas Ia whom thic eoc la Plymouth Rock is to us. It is said to have been plated with gold and kept cov- eyer with d veil The temples about 1t were decorated with gold, which the In- looked upon as the solidified tears of the sun.
 About six miles from Titicaca is the Island of the Moon. This island is now called Coat. In coming to Guaqui, as we wound our way around the peninsula of Copocabana, We skirted it's shores, and with our glasses could see the ruins that still stand on the hillsides. Here was the Temple of the Moon and the palace of the wife of the Inca, and here also was the great convent where lived the virgins of the sun. The ruins show the remains of many rooms, surrounding a court. They are high upon terraces. the walls o
 which are put together without cement The stones join as closely as those ii the Qualifications of Sacsahua man, or il the temples of CuZco.
 It was inside that convent that wer, kept the loves of the Incas, who also act ed as priestesses to the sun. According to tradition, none could be admitted t, this life except maidens of royal descent who in their earliest youth had beer placed under the care of aged matron. and trained for the purpose. As the girl reached maturity they were obliged t' take an oath of perpetual seclusion, ant were supposed to be the spouses of tn
 sun. Some of the records say that no even the Emperor was admitted to se
 them, but others allege that they are sup posed to have been his secondary wive and in short, his harem.
 The Lake Titicaca of today is more in
 teresting than the traditional lake of tn
 past. It is now the halfway station ol
 one of the chief high roads of traffi from the capital of Bolivia out to tn ocean and northward co the Panama ca nal. Right here at Guaqui they are nov , unloading flour from California Tha
 flour has come up the Andes and owe
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