Some years ago, while engaged in writing on the Incas of Peru, their civilization and knowledge of the fine and the industrial arts, I came to doubt what has been so confidently set forth by some historians, that the Children of the Sun knew of a secret in metallurgy that baffles the scientific knowledge of the nineteenth century to discover. It is true that the Incas had their mirrors of polished copper, which their women greatly prized; and did not Humboldt bring to Europe a copper chisel, that was found in a silver mine close to Cuzco? And is it not true that many of the vessels, weapons, tools, and ornaments, which belong to Incarial times and are now and again found in various parts of Peru, are of a brown complexion, and not blue or green with rust? And does not all this prove that the Incas possessed and practised the art of hardening copper?

The Incas were a wonderful people: their system of colonization and settlement is worthy the attention of modern statesmen. Their way of life was admirable and enviable for many things: no one, for example, of their kingdom could die for lack of bread; idleness was punished as a crime; no lawsuit could be postponed longer than five days. Everybody received an education peculiar to his state and condition.

In no other land of the ancient world does the worship of the Cow play so important a part as in Egypt. The representations and inscriptions on the oldest monuments already contain copious references to the sacred Cow; but it is only from the monuments of later periods that scientific enquiry is first supplied with clearer information as to the origin of this worship and its connection with a goddess of the Egyptian Olympus of learned investigation. The following account, founded on mounmental records, comprises in one view everything that relates to the origin of this worship, and that is calculated to throw light on the nature of this peculiar veneration for the cow.

In the oldest representations, relating to the creation of the world, the cow, coming forth out of the primeval waters, appears on the territory of the Hermopolite nome in Upper Egypt as the mother of the young Sun-god. Clinging to the horns of his parent, the young god kindles the light of day, and the life of all creatures begins with him.

I have already shown that the site of the second city must have been deserted for a long time before it was again built upon. The new settlers began, as M. Burnouf remarks, “with levelling the débris upon the ruins of the Second City: they filled the cavities and ravines with stones and other material, in many places only with ashes or clay, interlaid with clay cakes (galettes).”

The great wall c on the view No. 144, which their predecessors had built on the south side, did not appear strong enough to them, because it sloped at an angle of 45°, and could, consequently, be very easily scaled. They therefore built just before it, on the south side, the large wall marked b on No. 144, which slopes to the south at an angle of 15° from the vertical line, whilst on the north side, where it faces the old wall c, it was built up vertically. In this manner there was formed between the two walls a great triangular hollow, which was filled up with earth. My excavations in this hollow have proved that it is pure earth, without any intermixture of débris. But, like the wall c, this second wall b does not consist altogether of solid masonry.