8 SOUTH AMERICA

" Looking Backward " has already largely been enacted in
the theater of the Andean world. Some of the accounts
of the glory of the Incas seem to belong, indeed, to the
dazzling epoch of fables. Plutarch tells us that the birds
in the air were affected when the Roman herald proclaimed
the liberty of the Greeks ; and Sarmiento, in his " Revo-
lution," says the shouts that hailed the Inca on his pil-
grimages among his people caused " the birds to fall to
the ground."

The ancient Peruvian realm was one of equality and
fraternity. The people were like one family, of which the
Inca was the father. None were rich, none poor. All
labored for the good of the whole, and the labor was not
exacting. Age and infancy were alike protected. The
temples were opened to all ; the delights of the festivals
were shared by all ; the bards sang for all ; and the people
rejoiced together in the golden gardens of Yucay.
The memory of the Incarial festivals was the light of
the past. In those days the highways were strewn with
flowers. The worshipers on the hills acclaimed with de-
light the rising of the sun, wondering if that would be the
day when the first Inca would return to the world again.
