ASTRONOMY OF THE INC AS. 823 



ASTRONOMY OF THE INCAS. 



By M. jean DU GOUECQ. 



THE traveler who in these days penetrates to the high plateaus 

 of upper Peru and Bolivia, explores the basin of Lake Titi- 

 caca, and returns to Cuzco, is struck with the great number of 

 ruins, hieroglyphic inscriptions, broken pottery work, and huacas 

 which he meets at every step. They are the relics of the fanati- 

 cism of the conquerors and of their unbounded rapacity. Of the 

 magnificent palaces adorned with gold and silver, the temples 

 of the sun glistening with jewels, and the astronomical columns 

 which stood at all points in the country from La Paz to 

 Anito, there remain nothing but fragments of crumbled walls, 

 an infinite number of pieces of bricks, deformed and muti- 

 lated statues disintegrated by time, blocks of granite and basalt 

 standing in the deserted fertile lands like black ghosts, and at 

 long distances apart a few tombs which have been forgotten by 

 the Spaniards. The monuments standing at Tyahuanaco and on 

 steep hills difficult of access, and in the archipelagoes of Lake 

 Titicaca, although dilapidated and also victims of the hands of 

 iconoclasts, deserve serious attention on account of their relatively 

 good state of preservation. 



Popular superstition has, furthermore, contributed no little 

 to preserve the ruins of Lake Titicaca from complete spoliation. 



Why are not more pains taken to send out scientific expedi- 

 tions to these regions, to study the ancient civilization of the In- 

 cas ? A work might be undertaken there of like nature with 

 that which has been accomplished in Egypt by Champollion and 

 Mariette Bey. Much that is valuable has been done there, it is 

 true ; but the whole story is still far from being told, and I am 

 confident that huacas have many secrets and surprises in reserve 

 for us. The astronomy of the Incas, a curious side of Peruvian 

 civilization, while it has been lightly touched upon by some of 

 the American reviewers and superficially noticed by a few ex- 

 plorers, is yet almost wholly unknown to us. Some even, of 

 whom Mr. Wiener is one, have gone so far as to deny that as- 

 tronomy existed among these peoples, or to reduce it to simple 

 rudimentary notions. Yet we have only to keep our eyes open in 

 passing through the country, or to consult the contemporary 

 annals of the conquest, to be assured that their science was not 

 a mere chimera or a legend invented to amuse. It would be 

 strange, indeed, if a people whose only cult was the worship of 

 the stars had not been moved to study the nature, movements, 

 and phenomena of the heavenly bodies, and had not attempted to 

 explain them in some way. 



