Page:The Incas of Peru.djvu/42

24 The point next in interest to the enormous size of the stones is the excellence of the workmanship. The lines are accurately straight, the angles correctly drawn, the surfaces level. The upright monoliths have mortices and projecting ledges to retain the horizontal slabs in their places, which completed the walls. The carvings are complicated, and at the same time well arranged, and the ornamentation is accurately designed and executed. Not less striking are the statues with heads adorned with curiously shaped head-dresses. Flights of stone steps have recently been discovered, for the ancient city, now several miles from the lake, was once upon its borders. Remarkable skill on the part of the masons is shown by every fragment now lying about. Such are the angle-joints of a stone conduit; a window-frame of careful workmanship with nine apertures, all in one piece; and numerous niches and mouldings. There is ample proof of the very advanced stage reached by the builders in architectural art.

There are some particulars respecting the ruins in Oliva's history of Jesuits in Peru, obtained from an Indian named Catari, a Quipucamayoc, or reader of the quipus, who was living at Cochapampa in the end of the sixteenth century. It appears that Bartolomé Cervantes, a canon of Chuquisaca,