THE CHAIR OF THE INCAS. 243 



ingly done. Humboldt saw traces of tlieir chisels in all 

 the circles. 



The foot of the rock was cut into steps, which led to a 

 seat, hollowed out on the top, and so placed that from the 

 bottom of a hollow the image of the sun might be seen. 

 The natives related that when the Inca Yupa-Yupangi 

 advanced with his army to conquer the kingdom of 

 Quito, then commanded by the conchocando of Lican, 

 the priests who accompanied him discovered on the 

 stone the image of the Divinity whose worship ought to 

 be introduced among the conquered nations. The prince 

 and his soldiers considered the discovery of the stone as 

 a lucky augury, and it no doubt contributed the choice 

 of the ground on which the Fortress of Cannar was 

 built. 



Kear by was a chain of hills which was once a part of 

 the garden belonging to the ancient fortress. Here, as at 

 the ravine, the travellers found a number of small path- 

 ways cut in the slope of a rock, which was scarcely 

 covered with veofetable mould. There was not a tree 

 which seemed to have outlived fifty years. Nothing re- 

 minded them of the Incas, except a small monument of 

 stone, placed on the edge of a precipice. At a distance 

 it resembled a sofa, the back of which was decorated 

 with a sort of arabesque, in the form of a chair. From 

 this singular chair, in which but one person could sit at 

 a time, there was a delightful prospect. Here, without 

 doubt, the Incas used to sit and gaze over the surround- 

 ino- country. Before them was the verdant valley, 

 through which ran the river Gulan, broken into cascades, 

 and foaming along through tufts of gunnera and mela* 

 stomas : behind and around were the everlasting hills ! 



