Word: incas
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Such considerations have not dampened the enthusiasm of flower farmers, and their fondness for Helianthus at least has a historical precedent. When Francisco Pizarro's conquistadors invaded Peru in 1532, they found Inca priestesses wearing sunflower emblems-symbolic of the sun god-on their breasts. The material: solid gold...
Whether such lavish ceremonies really took place is uncertain. But unlike most of the Aztec, Maya and Inca treasures, which the Spaniards melted down and shipped back home in the form of ingots, many of the ancient gold objects of the Colombian Indians have survived. Protected by rugged terrain, dispersed over a wider area in many different tribal groupings, the Colombians avoided some of the worst depredations of the European invaders. They also buried their treasures in hidden tombs that escaped detection until recent times...
...ground covers of any North American city: more than 50,000 indigenous maples, dogwoods, pines, brooms, junipers, sword ferns, rhododendrons, yews and creeping roses. In some green areas, traffic cannot be seen-or heard over the splashing of waterfalls. To some, the sloping, low-rise structure resembles an Inca temple reflecting the spectacular beauty of the Pacific rim on which it sits...
...Inca ruler allowed only the aristocracy and the royal messengers to use the coca. The Indian population was forbidden its use because it tended to make them nonproductive. When Pizarro and his fellow Christians took over the empire, one of their first acts was to make coca chewing available to the whole populace. The result was that there was no effort to resist or overthrow the Spaniards because of the lethargy the drug produced. Gordon H. Dalton Pinehurst...
Cocaine, which reaches the U.S. through the Colombian network, often does not originate in Colombia. Most coca shrubs grow in neighboring Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador, where the Indians of the Andes have chewed the leaves for more than 2,500 years. According to legend, the founder of the Inca dynasty, Manco Capac, brought coca to earth from his father, the sun. The Indians used it to dull their hunger, cold and weariness. (When Georgia Pharmacist John Styth Pemberton invented Coca-Cola, he included small amounts of cocaine to "cure your headache" and "relieve fatigue," but the drug was eliminated from...