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228 including cobs of Indian corn and cotton twine. The depth at which ancient relics have been found in the deposits of guano on the Chincha Islands has been considered as another proof of the very remote period when there were inhabitants in these coast valleys. There is, however, some reason to doubt the cogency of this argument. Still the evidence, especially that given by Darwin, is in favour of the peopling of these valleys from a very remote antiquity.

Whence, then, did these coast people originally come? I believe that the mountains of the maritime cordillera, with their gorges and ravines opening on the coast valleys, answer the question. In a former chapter we have seen that the mountain fastnesses of Huarochiri, Yauyos, and Lucanas overlook the coast, and were inhabited by hardy tribes of mountaineers speaking a dialect of Quichua. From remote antiquity they descended into the coast valleys and multiplied exceedingly, being periodically recruited from the mountains.

We have no history, barely a tradition, to throw any light on these coast people—nothing but the confused side-light thrown by their ruins and the contents of their tombs. Touching their superstitions and religious beliefs we have a little more, due to the fact that two or three priests,