THE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS UF THE INCAS. 



By Charles W. Mead. 



Assistant, Department of Archa2ology. 



INTRODUCTION 



Ancient Peru, the land of the Incas, extended, according to 

 the historians, Garcilasso de la Vega ' and Prescott, ■ from about 

 the second degree of north latitude to the Maule River in Chile, 

 about the thirty-sixth degree of south latitude. The country- 

 included the region now comprised within the Republic of Peru, 

 and the greater part of Ecuador, Bolivia and Chile, and was 

 nearly equal in size to that part of the United States east of the 

 Rocky Mountains. The Incas had no written language, and no 

 small part of our knowledge of their customs has been derived 

 from their practice of representing the scenes of daily life in 

 the decoration of their pottery vessels. In the study of the 

 musical instruments in particular, the decorations on the pot- 

 tery of the ancient Peruvians is important, because the Spanish 

 conquerers of the land and their followers have left in their ac- 

 counts but little information bearing upon the subject. From 

 the pottery and other objects found in the ancient tombs and 

 burial places, therefore, we have derived most of our knowledge 

 of the musical instruments of the Incas, and the present dis- 

 cussion is based upon a study of the prehistoric Peruvian col- 

 lections in the American Museum of Natural History. In these 

 collections there are not only many of the musical instrutnents 

 themselves, but also artifacts, principally pottery vessels, deco- 

 rated with figures of men in the act of playing upon such 

 instruments. 



It is commonly said that "Peru is a puzzle"; and certainly 

 this may be truthfully said of its music. Although we find re- 

 corded a number of characteristic songs, kno\\'n to the Peru\'ian 

 Indians for nearly two hundred years, we cannot say positively 

 of any one of them that it is wholly pre-Spanish. Dr. von 



' Royal Commentarifs of Peru. Ed. Ryeaul, Part 1, Book I, Chap. III. 

 ^ Conquest of Peru, Vol. I, p. 2S. 



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