Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/384

334 We, at least, are inclined to be of this opinion, and do not hesitate to add, that the spirit of system can never lead to the true understanding of the primitive derivation of antique fables. To endeavour to deduce the whole of them from the same class of circumstances, is a nugatory and useless undertaking. The greater part of the extravagances of father Hardouin emanated from this principle; and if the celebrated Bianchini discovers a weak part in his Universal History, it is because he endeavoured to adhere tenaciously to a system, which could not, by itself alone, explain, all the different vicissitudes of antiquity in the historical and traditional part. Each of the fables may repose partially on a fact, or on a preconceived opinion; and it is indifferent whether it originated in Palestine, Egypt, or Greece.

In the sides and small level spaces of the mountains situated at the entrance of the province of Tarija, where the Indians inhumed the dead bodies, petrifications of bones, the most prodigious that Nature can furnish, are to be found. In one of the MSS. which have been transmitted to us, an individual residing in that province communicates the following fact: "In digging." he observes, "at the base of a hill, in the descent to Tascora, I met with a hard substance, which appeared to be of stone, of a colour between grey and yellow. I had