In the Civil Government every symptom of this kind was absent.  Indeed, the methods of the Inca Government, on the whole, were of the benevolent order; at the same time laws applying to the conduct of the populace were in many respects stringent, and were wont to be carried out to the letter.  A number of socialistic doctrines were embodied in these strange constitutions of the past.  The work of the people was mapped out for them, and, although it may be said with justice that no poverty existed, this very admirable state of affairs was frequently brought about by the enforcing of labour on the would-be idle.

The lands of the Inca Kingdom from frontier to frontier were divided into three classes of territory.  The first was the property of the Sun—­that is to say, the proceeds of its harvests were applied to the temples, priests, and all the other requirements of religion.  The land appertaining to the second category was the property of the Royal Family; and the third belonged to the people.  It is interesting to note in connection with this system of land distribution that in the later centuries the Jesuits in Paraguay adopted a very similar procedure, and divided their lands into three sections which corresponded exactly with those of the Incas.  Thus, according to these regulations, every inhabitant of the Inca Empire was a landowner.  This, however, merely in a limited sense, for, although the land was his to work, he was not permitted to obtain any advantage from its possession other than that which he obtained by his own labour, and, as has been explained, the refraining from work was a heavily punishable offence.  When the spirit in which these laws were framed is taken into consideration, it is not surprising that no man was allowed to sell his land, a procedure which would, of course, have rendered the general working of the community inoperative.  The land, in fact, represented a loan from the State which lasted the lifetime of the agriculturist.

[Illustration:  South America

SHOWING THE DISTRICTS OF THE

ABORIGINAL TRIBES

At the time of the Spanish conquest.]

Perhaps the civilization of the Incas and of their predecessors is most of all evident in the industrial monuments which they have left behind them.  In irrigation they had little or nothing to learn from the most advanced European experts of the time.  Many of their aqueducts, indeed, showed an astonishing degree both of ingenuity and of labour.  The nature of the country across which it was necessary to construct these was, of course, sufficiently mountainous to test the powers of the most capable engineer.  The Inca roads, in many respects, rivalled their aqueducts.  From the point of view of the modern highway, it is true that they may be considered as somewhat slender and unimportant affairs.  Certainly in the absence