576 ARCHEOLOGICAL RESEARCHES IN ARGENTINA AND BOLIVIA, 



having been provided with handles. I made the discovery, how- 

 ever, very soon, that the implement had had a handle, for on several 

 of the specimens I obtained there were plain marks of friction against 

 some hard object on one of the surfaces of the projecting part, 

 which itself resembled a handle. On some of the axes is plainly 

 to be seen that the wooden handle has produced a shallow, level 

 furrow in the stone (pi. viii, fig. 4). Subsequently I found in 

 another grave a handle bent at an acute angle and shaped at one 

 end for fastening the ax more securely to it. I placed one of the 

 axes before described in contiguity to this handle, and thereby con- 

 vinced myself that the Avorn surface on the ax very closely corre- 

 sponded to the level surface of the handle; the two parts were prob- 

 ably united together by means of something wound around them 

 or b}^ being incased in leather. It is possible that resin or some 

 other adhesiA'e substance may have been employed to prevent the 

 ax gaping; the fact of its having been insecurely attached is, how- 

 ever, amply proved by the considerable amount of wear shown on 

 the handle. 



The fragile material of which the ax is made renders it an impos- 

 sibility that it can have been used for dealing with any hard sub- 

 stance; on the other hand, this ax Avould be an admirable implement 

 for peeling oif the soft exterior of the pillar cactuses, Avhen the hard 

 internal stem of the plant is to be got at. With the trifling exception 

 of small bushes and the Polyleph racemoui^ Avhich resembles a shrub, 

 and, moreover, occurs A^ery sparsely, there do not exist any trees but 

 the cactuses in the Avhole of the Puna that A'ield Avood for manufac- 

 turing purposes or for fuel. These cactuses (pi. ii, fig. 1) attain a 

 respectable growth. The adaptability of the Avood of the cactus for 

 manufactures is shoAvn both by the loom (pi. iii, fig. 1) made of cac- 

 tus Avood and by the door (pi. ii, fig. 2) of the same material. 



About 8 kilometers nortliAvest of Casabindo, in a narroAv A'alley, 

 there are numbers of remains of round stone huts. They are, indeed, 

 so numerous that aac may Avell assume that a population of several 

 thousands clAvelt here. Stone huts of a similar appearance are still 

 used in the Puna, though only sparsely. The illustration (pi. iii, 

 fig. 2) shoAvs a modern hut of the kind. The roof timbers are of 

 cactus Avood, covered Avith sticks and straAV. The valley leading from 

 Casabindo to the ruined city is hennned in by fairly steep slopes, 

 coA'ered almost throughout with stone terraces of from 1 to 2 meters 

 in height and of similar a]:)i)earance to the irrigation terraces of the 

 Inca period, Avhich are so common in Peru. Plate iv, figure 1, repre- 

 sents a terraced mountain slope at Casabindo. Plate iv, figure 2, shows 

 a small grotto, the entrance to which has been blocked up with a 

 stone AA^all. Grottoes of that kind are of very general occurrence in 

 the vicinity of the irrigation terraces. At the foot of the Avail there 



