394 Voyage of the Novara. 



corpses, which the negroes had disinterred in my presence. 

 All these objects were in excellent preservation, about three 

 or four feet under the surface, some in simple graves, others 

 in longish sepulchres of hewn stone, such as we might imagine 

 were occupied by the wealthier class of the community. It 

 is usual to find several skeletons (probably members of the 

 same family) in each separate grave. I also found layers of 

 woven stuffs, some of very superior design and finish, inter- 

 posed between various corpses. 



While the negroes were engaged in further excavations, I 

 once more ascended the hill on which the Temple of the Sun 

 must once have stood, and which to this day is called by the 

 neighbouring inhabitants " Castillo del 8olP On the side next 

 the sea, there are still visible a number of buttresses, which 

 seem as though they had formed part of an older line of forti- 

 fications. There was nothing resembling a sacrificial altar, 

 or to tell of the religious ceremonies that must once have been 

 performed here. Here and there the' material of the wall was 

 still covered with a reddish tint, just as if it had been but re- 

 cently painted. In several portions of the wall still standing, 

 there were pieces of wood alternating with layers of mortar, 

 now quite decayed, and affording unmistakeable evidence of 

 the antiquity of the buildings. We also remarked in the walls 

 of several of the Indian huts niche-shaped depressions, about 

 \\ feet deep by 1| feet in length and width, the use of which 

 has never been even plausibly conjectured. While the whole 

 of the buildings of Cajamarquilla consisted of sun-dried tiles 



