Page:The Incas of Peru.djvu/61

Rh of the later megalithic school of art. At Tiahuanacu the heads are clearly those of beasts, birds, and fish. On the Chavin stone they are all the same, like heads of snakes. But I incline to believe that the latter are merely conventional heads to finish off the bands or rays. Two also come out of each of the knees of the figure.

As in the Tiahuanacu figure there are two arms, with hands grasping sceptres. But on the Chavin stone the sceptres, though much thicker and more elaborately carved, have lost their symbolic meaning. Each has two long bands terminating in heads.

Above the central figure of the Chavin stone there is a richly ornamented composition. Along the centre there are rows of teeth with tusks and three heads on either side, then curves, tusks alternating with bands ending in volutes. At the sides there are 34 long bands, 17 on each side, ending alternately with volutes and heads. At the very top two bands are twisted round each other, terminating with heads. The whole composition, above the central figure, seems to represent an immense and richly ornamented head-dress.

The same general idea appears to prevail in both the central figures at Tiahuanacu and on the Chavin stone. They represent the genius of the same people, and the same civilisation, though at different periods, the Chavin stone being the latest. 3em