Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

CHAPTER VII.

LAKE TITICACA.

The Aymara Indians- Their antiquities · Tiahuanaco - Coati - Sillustani -Copacabana.

THE region which is drained by rivers flowing from the maritime cordillera and the eastern range of the Andes into lake Titicaca consists of elevated plateaux, seldom less than 13,000 feet above the sea, which were orginally inhabited by the Aymara race of Indians, a people differing in some respects from the Indians of Cuzco and further north, and whose civilization dates from a period far anterior to that of the Incas. Their language is different from the Quichua of the Incas, though evidently a sister tongue, and it is still spoken by the Aymara Indians from Puno to the central parts of Bolivia, including all the shores of lake Titicaca. I did not, however, observe much difference between the Indians of Puno, who speak Aymara, and the Quichua Indians of Cuzco. The men are, perhaps, somewhat stouter; but they are the same race in all essential points.

The lake of Titicaca, the great feature in the region inhabited by the Aymara Indians, is about eighty miles long by forty broad; being by far the largest lake in South America. It is divided into two parts by the peninsula of Copacabana; the southern division, called the lake of Huaqui, being eight leagues long by seven, and united to the greater lake by the strait of Tiquina. A number of rivers, which are swollen and of considerable volume during the rainy season, flow into the lake. The largest of these is the Ramiz, which is formed by the junction of the two rivers of Pucara and Azangaro, and enters the lake at its

north-west corner. The Suchiz, formed by the rivers of Cavanilla and Lampa, also flows into the lake on its north side, as well as the Yllpa and Ylave; while on the eastern side are the rivers Huarina, Escoma, and Achacache, all flowing from a low lateral chain, parallel with the great eastern Andes, whose gigantic peaks of Illimani and Sorata form the principal feature of the views from all parts of the lake. Much of the water thus flowing in is drained off by the great river Desaguadero, which flows out of the southwest corner, and disappears in the swampy lake of Aullagas, in the south of Bolivia; and perhaps a greater quantity is taken up by evaporation; for the volume of water which flows in during the rainy season, when the sun travels north, is drunk up again when the tutelar deity of the lake returns, between April and September. Indeed it is evident that the waters are steadily receding, under the combined influence of evaporation and of the sediment brought down by the rivers. Lake Titicaca is very deep in some places, the deepest part being on the Bolivian side; but in others it is so shoal that there is only just room to force the balsas through the rushes. The winds blow from the eastward all the year round, sometimes in strong gales, so as to raise a very heavy sea, during the daytime; but at night they are occasionally westerly. Along the western shore there are acres of tall rushes, and the east winds blow all the dead rushes to the western side, mixing with the living beds, and forming a dense tangled mass. The lake abounds in fish of very peculiar forms, and in aquatic birds.

The principal islands of the lake are those of Titicaca and Coati, near the peninsula of Copacabana; that of Campanario in the east, opposite the town of Escoma, and nine miles from the shore; Soto, also in the northern

1 Evaporation, however, goes on at all seasons, owing to the excessive elevation of the waters.

part, which is said to contain coal; 2 and Esteves, in the bay of Puno, where the patriot prisoners were confined by the Spaniards during the war of independence; besides a small archipelago in the lake of Huaqui.

A very ancient civilization existed on the shores of lake Titicaca long before the appearance of the first Inca of Peru; the principal remains of which are to be found at Tiahuanaco,3 near the southern shore of the lake of Huaqui. An extensive tract is here covered by huge blocks of carved stone. It was with much regret that I was obliged, by my duty, to give up my intention of visiting these interesting remains. M. de Castelnau mentions two colossal statues of a man and a woman, crowned with a kind of turban; a colossal head and a lizard carved on blocks of stone; a great conical artificial hill; and a monolithic doorway, the upper part of which is covered with very curious sculpture. In the centre there is a figure, probably representing the Sun, and on each side. a number of figures all turned towards it, with wings, and sceptres in their hands: those on one side with their heads crowned, and those on the other with heads of griffins, and the bodies adorned with garlands of human heads. All who have visited these ruins consider them to be of a distinct character from those of Cuzco, and other works of the Incas. The stones are more richly carved, and many of them have been united by means of a metal poured into transverse grooves. M. de Castelnau considers that the chief characteristic of Aymara ruins is the minute detail in the carving on the stones, while that of the Incas consists in the grand simplicity of the masonry.5

2 So say the people of Puno, but the island is all limestone.

3 The name is more modern; given, as tradition relates, by one of the Incas, who happened to be encamped here when a chasqui or messenger arrived with extraordinary rapidity from Cuzco. The Inca exclaimed," Tia-huanaco!"

'Be seated, O Huanaco!"-the huanaco being the swiftest animal in Peru. 4 The Hindoo god Siva is also represented with a necklace of human heads.

5 For descriptions of the ruins at Cuzco, see my former work, Cuzco and Lima, chap. iv. and v.

[graphic][subsumed][merged small][merged small]
« AnteriorContinuar »