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$Title{History Of The Conquest Of Peru
Chapter IV: Part I}
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$Author{Prescott, William H.}
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$Date{1864}
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Title:       History Of The Conquest Of Peru
Book:        Book I: Introduction. View Of The Civilization Of The Incas.
Author:      Prescott, William H.
Date:        1864

Chapter IV: Part I

Education. - Quipus. - Astronomy. - Agriculture. - Aqueducts. - Guano. -
Important Esculents.

     "Science was not intended for the people; but for those of generous
blood.  Persons of low degree are only puffed up by it, and rendered vain and
arrogant.  Neither should such meddle with the affairs of government; for this
would bring high offices into disrepute, and cause detriment to the state." ^1
Such was the favorite maxim, often repeated, of Tupac Inca Yupanqi, one of the
most renowned of the Peruvian sovereigns.  It may seem strange that such a
maxim should ever have been proclaimed in the New World, where popular
institutions have been established on a more extensive scale than was ever
before witnessed; where government rests wholly on the people; and education -
at least, in the great northern division of the continent - is mainly directed
to qualify the people for the duties of government.  Yet this maxim was
strictly conformable to the genius of the Peruvian monarchy, and may serve as
a key to its habitual policy; since, while it watched with unwearied
solicitude over its subjects, provided for their physical necessities, was
mindful of their morals, and showed, throughout, the affectionate concern of a
parent for his children, it yet regarded them only as children, who were never
to emerge from the state of pupilage, to act or to think for themselves, but
whose whole duty was comprehended in the obligation of implicit obedience.

[Footnote 1: "No es licito, que ensenen a los hijos de los Plebeios, las
Ciencias, que pertenescen a los Generosos, y no mas; porque como Gente baja,
no se eleven, y ensobervezcan, y menoscaben, y apoqueen la Republica:
bastales, que aprendan los Oficios de sus Padres; que el Mandar, y Governar no
es de Plebeious, que es hacer agravio al Oficio, y a la Republica,
encomendarsela a Gente comun." Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 8, cap.
8.]

     Such was the humiliating condition of the people under the Incas, while
the numerous families of the blood royal enjoyed the benefit of all the light
of education, which the civilization of the country could afford; and, long
after the Conquest, the spots continued to be pointed out where the seminaries
had existed for their instruction.  These were placed under the care of the
amautas, or "wise men," who engrossed the scanty stock of science - if science
it could be called - possessed by the Peruvians, and who were the sole
teachers of youth.  It was natural that the monarch should take a lively
interest in the instruction of the young nobility, his own kindred. Several of
the Peruvian princes are said to have built their palaces in the neighbourhood
of the schools, in order that they might the more easily visit them and listen
to the lectures of the amautas, which they occasionally reinforced by a homily
of their own. ^2 In these schools, the royal pupils were instructed in all the
different kinds of knowledge in which their teachers were versed, with
especial reference to the stations they were to occupy in after-life.  They
studied the laws, and the principles of administering the government, in which
many of them were to take part.  They were initiated in the peculiar rites of
their religion, most necessary to those who were to assume the sacerdotal
functions.  They learned also to emulate the achievements of their royal
ancestors by listening to the chronicles compiled by the amautas.  They were
taught to speak their own dialect with purity and elegance; and they became
acquainted with the mysterious science of the quipus, which supplied the
Peruvians with the means of communicating their ideas to one another, and of
transmitting them to future generations. ^3

[Footnote 2: Ibid., Parte 1, lib 7, cap. 10.  The descendant of the Incas
notices the remains, visible in his day, or two of the palaces of his royal
ancestors, which had been built in the vicinity of the schools, for more easy
access to them.]

[Footnote 3: Ibid., Parte 1, lib. 4, cap. 19]

     The quipu was a cord about two feet long, composed of different colored
threads tightly twisted together, from which a quantity of smaller threads
were suspended in the manner of a fringe.  The threads were of different
colors and were tied into knots.  The word quipu, indeed, signifies a knot.
The colors denoted sensible objects; as, for instance, white represented
silver, and yellow, gold.  They sometimes also stood for abstract ideas. Thus,
white signified peace, and red, war.  But the quipus were chiefly used for
arithmetical purposes.  The knots served instead of ciphers, and could be
combined in such a manner as to represent numbers to any amount they required.
By means of these they went through their calculations with great rapidity,
and the Spaniards who first visited the country bear testimony to their
accuracy. ^4

[Footnote 4: Conq. i Pob. del Piru, Ms. - Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms., cap. 9.
- Acosta, lib. 6, cap. 8. - Garcilasso Parte 1, lib. 6, cap. 8.]

     Officers were established in each of the districts, who, under the title
of quipucamayus, or "keepers of the quipus," were required to furnish the
government with information on various important matters.  One had charge of
the revenues, reported the quantity of raw material distributed among the
laborers, the quality and quantity of the fabrics made from it, and the amount
of stores, of various kinds, paid into the royal magazines.  Another exhibited
the register of births and deaths, the marriages, the number of those
qualified to bear arms, and the like details in reference to the population of
the kingdom.  These returns were annually forwarded to the capital, where they
were submitted to the inspection of officers acquainted with the art of
deciphering these mystic records.  The government was thus provided with a
valuable mass of statistical information, and the skeins of many-colored
threads, collected and carefully preserved, constituted what might be called
the national archives. ^5

[Footnote 5: Ondegardo expresses his astonishment at the variety of objects
embraced by these simple records, "hardly credible by one who had not seen
them." "En aquella ciudad se hallaron muchos viejos oficiales antiguos del
Inga, asi de la religion, como del Govierno, y otra cosa que no pudiera creer
sino la viera, que por hilos y nudos se hallan figuradas las leyes, y
estatutos asi de lo uno como de lo otro, las sucesiones de los Reyes y tiempo
que governaron: y hallose lo que todo esto tenian a su cargo que no fue poco,
y aun tube alguna claridad de los estatutos que en tiempo de cada uno se
havia: puesto." (Rel. Prim., Ms.) (See also Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms., cap. 9.
- Acosta, lib. 6, cap. 8, - Garcilasso, Parte 1, lib. 6, cap. 8, 9.) A vestige
of the quipus is still to be found in some parts of Peru, where the shepherds
keep the tallies of their numerous flocks by means of this ancient arithmetic]

     But, although the quipus sufficed for all the purposes of arithmetical
computation demanded by the Peruvians, they were incompetent to represent the
manifold ideas and images which are expressed by writing.  Even here, however,
the invention was not without its use.  For, independently of the direct
representation of simple objects, and even of abstract ideas, to a very
limited extent, as above noticed, it afforded great help to the memory by way
of association.  The peculiar knot or color, in this way, suggested what it
could not venture to represent; in the same manner - to borrow the homely
illustration of an old writer - as the number of the Commandment calls to mind
the Commandment itself.  The quipus, thus used, might be regarded as the
Peruvian system of mnemonics.

     Annalists were appointed in each of the principal communities, whose
business it was to record the most important events which occurred in them.
Other functionaries of a higher character, usually the amautas, were intrusted
with the history of the empire, and were selected to chronicle the great deeds
of the reigning Inca, or of his ancestors. ^6 The narrative, thus concocted,
could be communicated only by oral tradition; but the quipus served the
chronicler to arrange the incidents with method, and to refresh his memory.
The story, once treasured up in the mind, was indelibly impressed there by
frequent repetition.  It was repeated by the amauta to his pupils, and in this
way history, conveyed partly by oral tradition, and partly by arbitrary signs,
was handed down from generation to generation, with sufficient discrepancy of
details, but with a general conformity of outline to the truth.

[Footnote 6: Ibid., ubi supra.]

     The Peruvian quipus were, doubtless, a wretched substitute for that
beautiful contrivance, the alphabet, which, employing a few simple characters
as the representatives of sounds, instead of ideas, is able to convey the most
delicate shades of thought that ever passed through the mind of man. The
Peruvian invention, indeed, was far below that of the hieroglyphics, even
below the rude picture-writing of the Aztecs; for the latter art, however
incompetent to convey abstract ideas, could depict sensible objects with
tolerable accuracy.  It is evidence of the total ignorance in which the two
nations remained of each other, that the Peruvians should have borrowed
nothing of the hieroglyphical system of the Mexicans, and this,
notwithstanding that the existence of the maguey plant, agave, in South
America might have furnished them with the very material used by the Aztecs
for the construction of their maps. ^7

[Footnote 7: Ibid., ubi supra. - Dec. de la Aud. Real., Ms. - Sarmiento,
Relacion, Ms., cap. 9.

     Yet the quipus must be allowed to bear some resemblance to the belts of
wampum - made of colored beads strung together - in familiar use among the
North American tribes, for commemorating treaties, and for other purposes.]

     It is impossible to contemplate without interest the struggles made by
different nations, as they emerge from barbarism, to supply themselves with
some visible symbols of thought, - that mysterious agency by which the mind of
the individual may be put in communication with the minds of a whole
community.  The want of such a symbol is itself the greatest impediment to the
progress of civilization.  For what is it but to imprison the thought, which
has the elements of immortality, within the bosom of its author, or of the
small circle who come in contact with him, instead of sending it abroad to
give light to thousands, and to generations yet unborn!  Not only is such a
symbol an essential element of civilization, but it may be assumed as the very
criterion of civilization; for the intellectual advancement of a people will
keep pace pretty nearly with its facilities for intellectual communication.

     Yet we must be careful not to underrate the real value of the Peruvian
system: nor to suppose that the quipus were as awkward an instrument, in the
hand of a practised native, as they would be in ours.  We know the effect of
habit in all mechanical operations, and the Spaniards bear constant testimony
to the adroitness and accuracy of the Peruvians in this.  Their skill is not
more surprising than the facility with which habit enables us to master the
contents of a printed page, comprehending thousands of separate characters, by
a single glance, as it were, though each character must require a distinct
recognition by the eye, and that, too, without breaking the chain of thought
in the reader's mind.  We must not hold the invention of the quipus too
lightly, when we reflect that they supplied the means of calculation demanded
for the affairs of a great nation, and that, however insufficient, they
afforded no little help to what aspired to the credit of literary composition.

     The office of recording the national annals was not wholly confined to
the amautas.  It was assumed in part by the haravecs, or poets, who selected
the most brilliant incidents for their songs or ballads, which were chanted at
the royal festivals and at the table of the Inca. ^8 In this manner, a body of
traditional minstrelsy grew up, like the British and Spanish ballad poetry, by
means of which the name of many a rude chieftain, that might have perished for
want of a chronicler, has been borne down the tide of rustic melody to later
generations.

[Footnote 8: Dec. de la Aud. Real., Ms. - Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte 1,
lib. 2, cap. 27.

     The word haravec signified "inventor" or "finder"; and in his title, as
well as in his functions, the minstrel-poet may remind us of the Norman
trouvere.  Garcilasso has translated one of the little lyrical pieces of his
countrymen.  It is light and lively; but one short specimen affords no basis
for general criticism.]

     Yet history may be thought not to gain much by this alliance with poetry;
for the domain of the poet extends over an ideal realm peopled with the
shadowy forms of fancy, that bear little resemblance to the rude realities of
life.  The Peruvian annals may be deemed to show somewhat of the effects of
this union, since there is a tinge of the marvellous spread over them down to
the very latest period, which, like a mist before the reader's eye, makes it
difficult to distinguish between fact and fiction.

     The poet found a convenient instrument for his purposes in the beautiful
Quichua dialect.  We have already seen the extraordinary measures taken by the
Incas for propagating their language throughout their empire.  Thus
naturalized in the remotest provinces, it became enriched by a variety of
exotic words and idioms, which, under the influence of the Court and of poetic
culture, if I may so express myself, was gradually blended, like some finished
mosaic made up of coarse and disjointed materials, into one harmonious whole.
The Quichua became the most comprehensive and various, as well as the most
elegant, of the South American dialects. ^9

[Footnote 9: Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., Ms.

     Sarmiento justly laments that his countrymen should have suffered this
dialect, which might have proved so serviceable in their intercourse with the
motley tribes of the empire, to fall so much out of use as it has done.  "Y
con tanto digo que fue harto beneficio para los Españoles haver esta lengua
pues podian con ella andar por todas partes en algunas de las quales ya se va
perdiendo." Relacion, Ms., cap. 21.

     According to Velasco, the Incas, on arriving with their conquering
legions at Quito, were astonished to find a dialect of the Quichua spoken
there, although it was unknown over much of the intermediate country; a
singular fact, if true.  (Hist. de Quito, tom. I. p. 185.) The author, a
native of that country, had access to some rare sources of information; and
his curious volumes show an intimate analogy between the science and social
institutions of the people of Quito and Peru.  Yet his book betrays an obvious
anxiety to set the pretensions of his own country in the most imposing point
of view, and he frequently hazards assertions with a confidence that is not
well calculated to secure that of his readers.]

     Besides the compositions already noticed, the Peruvians, it is said,
showed some talent for theatrical exhibitions; not those barren pantomimes
which, addressed simply to the eye, have formed the amusement of more than one
rude nation.  The Peruvian pieces aspired to the rank of dramatic
compositions, sustained by character and dialogue, founded sometimes on themes
of tragic interest, and at others on such as, from their light and social
character, belong to comedy. ^10 Of the execution of these pieces we have now
no means of judging.  It was probably rude enough, as befitted an unformed
people.  But, whatever may have been the execution, the mere conception of
such an amusement is a proof of refinement that honorably distinguishes the
Peruvian from the other American races, whose pastime was war, or the
ferocious sports that reflect the image of it.

[Footnote 10: Garcilasso, Com. Real., ubi supra.]

     The intellectual character of the Peruvians, indeed, seems to have been
marked rather by a tendency to refinement than by those hardier qualities
which insure success in the severer walks of science.  In these they were
behind several of the semi-civilized nations of the New World.  They had some
acquaintance with geography, so far as related to their own empire, which was
indeed extensive; and they constructed maps with lines raised on them to
denote the boundaries and localities, on a similar principle with those
formerly used by the blind.  In astronomy, they appear to have made but
moderate proficiency.  They divided the year into twelve lunar months, each of
which, having its own name, was distinguished by its appropriate festival. ^11
They had, also, weeks; but of what length, whether of seven, nine, or ten
days, is uncertain.  As their lunar year would necessarily fall short of the
true time, they rectified their calendar by solar observations made by means
of a number of cylindrical columns raised on the high lands round Cuzco, which
served them for taking azimuths; and, by measuring their shadows, they
ascertained the exact times of the solstices.  The period of the equinoxes
they determined by the help of a solitary pillar, or gnomon, placed in the
centre of a circle, which was described in the area of the great temple, and
traversed by a diameter that was drawn from east to west. When the shadows
were scarcely visible under the noontide rays of the sun, they said that "the
god sat with all his light upon the column." ^12 Quito, which lay immediately
under the equator, where the vertical rays of the sun threw no shadow at noon,
was held in especial veneration as the favored abode of the great deity.  The
period of the equinoxes was celebrated by public rejoicings.  The pillar was
crowned by the golden chair of the Sun, and, both then and at the solstices,
the columns were hung with garlands, and offerings of flowers and fruits were
made, while high festival was kept throughout the empire.  By these periods
the Peruvians regulated their religious rites and ceremonial, and prescribed
the nature of their agricultural labors.  The year itself took its departure
from the date of the winter solstice. ^13

[Footnote 11: Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., Ms.

     Fernandez, who differs from most authorities in dating the commencement
of the year from June, gives the names of the several months, with their
appropriate occupations.  Hist. del Peru, Parte 2, lib. 3, cap. 10.]

[Footnote 12: Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 2, cap. 22-26.

     The Spanish conquerors threw down these pillars, as savouring of idolatry
in the Indians.  Which of the two were best entitled to the name of
barbarians?]

[Footnote 13: Betanzos, Nar. de los Ingas, Ms., cap. 16. - Sarmiento,
Relacion, Ms., cap. 23. - Acosta, lib. 6, cap. 3.

     The most celebrated gnomon in Europe, that raised on the dome of the
metropolitan church of Florence, was erected by the famous Toscanelli, - for
the purpose of determining the solstices, and regulating the festivals of the
Church, - about the year 1468; perhaps at no very distant date from that of
the similar astronomical contrivance of the American Indian.  See Tiraboschi,
Historia della Letteratura Italiana, tom. VI. lib. 2, cap. 2, sec. 38.]

     This meagre account embraces nearly all that has come down to us of
Peruvian astronomy.  It may seem strange that a nation, which had proceeded
thus far in its observations, should have gone no farther; and that,
notwithstanding its general advance in civilization, it should in this science
have fallen so far short, not only of the Mexicans, but of the Muyscas,
inhabiting the same elevated regions of the great southern plateau with
themselves.  These latter regulated their calendar on the same general plan of
cycles and periodical series as the Aztecs, approaching yet nearer to the
system pursued by the people of Asia. ^14

[Footnote 14: A tolerably meagre account - yet as full, probably, as
authorities could warrant - of this interesting people has been given by
Piedrahita, Bishop of Panama, in the first two Books of his Historia General
de las Conquistas del Nuevo Regno de Granada, (Madrid, 1688.) - M. de Humboldt
was fortunate in obtaining a Ms., composed by a Spanish ecclesiastic resident
in Santa Fe de Bogota, in relation to the Muysca calendar, of which the
Prussian philosopher has given a large and luminous analysis.  Vues des
Cordilleres. p. 244.]

     It might have been expected that the Incas, the boasted children of the
Sun, would have made a particular study of the phenomena of the heavens, and
have constructed a calendar on principles as scientific as that of their
semi-civilized neighbours.  One historian, indeed, assures us that they threw
their years into cycles of ten, a hundred, and a thousand years, and that by
these cycles they regulated their chronology. ^15 But this assertion - not
improbable in itself - rests on a writer but little gifted with the spirit of
criticism, and is counter-balanced by the silence of every higher and earlier
authority, as well as by the absence of any monument, like those found among
other American nations, to attest the existence of such a calendar.  The
inferiority of the Peruvians may be, perhaps, in part explained by the fact of
their priesthood being drawn exclusively from the body of the Incas, a
privileged order of nobility, who had no need, by the assumption of superior
learning, to fence themselves round from the approaches of the vulgar.  The
little true science possessed by the Aztec priest supplied him with a key to
unlock the mysteries of the heavens, and the false system of astrology which
he built upon it gave him credit as a being who had something of divinity in
his own nature.  But the Inca noble was divine by birth.  The illusory study
of astrology, so captivating to the unenlightened mind, engaged no share of
his attention.  The only persons in Peru, who claimed the power of reading the
mysterious future, were the diviners, men who, combining with their
pretensions some skill in the healing art, resembled the conjurors found among
many of the Indian tribes.  But the office was held in little repute, except
among the lower classes, and was abandoned to those whose age and infirmity
disqualified them for the real business of life. ^16

[Footnote 15: Montesinos, Mem. Antiguas, Ms., lib. 2, cap. 7.

     "Renovo la computacion de los tiempos, que se iba perdiendo, y se
contaron en su Reynaldo los anos por 365 dias y seis horas; a los anos anadio
decadeas de diez anos, a cada diez decadas una centuria de 100 anos, y a cada
diez centurias una capachoata o Jutiphuacan, que son 1000 anos, que quiere
decir el grande ano del Sol; asi contaban los siglos y los sucesos memorables
de sus Reyes." Ibid., loc. cit.]

[Footnote 16: "Ansi mismo les hicieron senalar gente para hechizeros que
tambien es entre ellos, oficio publico y conoscido en todos, . . . . . los
diputados para ello no lo tenian por travajo, por que ninguno podia tener
semejante oficio como los dichos sino fuesen viejos e viejas, y personas
inaviles para travajar, como mancos, cojos o contrechos, y gente asi a quien
faltava las fuerzas para ello." Ondegardo, Rel. Seg., Ms.]