Cu. XI. SOUTH AI\ÍERICA. 469 



figure ; but at the entrance of the door are plane. 

 But there is a visible inequality, both in the stones 

 and in their courses : which o-ives a more sins'ular air 

 to the work ; tor a small stone is immediately fol- 

 lowed by one large and ill-squared ; and that above 

 is made to fit the inequalities of the utiier two, and 

 at the same lime fill up all the interstices between the 

 projections and irregularity of their faces ; and this in 

 such perfection, that, whatsoever way they are viewed, 

 all parts appear joined with the same exactness. The 

 height of these walls is about two toises and a half, 

 and about three or four feet in thickness. The doors 

 are about two toises high, and their breadth at the 

 bottom about three or four feet ; but runs narrowing 

 upwards, where the aperture is only two feet and a 

 half. The doors of the palaces, where the yncas 

 resided, were made of such a height, .to allow room 

 for the chairs in which the monarch Mas carried on 

 men's shoulders into his apartment, the only place 

 in which his feet touched the ground. It is not 

 known whether this or the other palaces of the 

 yncas had any stories, nor how they were roofed : 

 for those we examined were either open, or had been 

 roofed by the Spaniards : But it is highly probable 

 that they covered them m ith boards, in the form of 

 a terrace, that is, supported by beams laid across : 

 for in the v/alls there is nothing near the ground that 

 aifords room for a conjecture, that they ever sup- 

 ported any roofs : on this horizontal roof they con- 

 trived some slope for carrying off the waters. The 

 reason of contracting their doors at the top was, that 

 the lintel might be of one stone ; for they had no idea 

 either of arches or of key-stones, as may be conclu- 

 ded from no such works occurring among ill their 

 edifices. 



About fifty toises north of this palace, fronting 

 its entrance, is a mountain, the more singular as 



H h 3 beino- 



