322 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



eternity, existence, &c. and is able to express in words every 

 numerical combination which can be denoted by figures. I am 

 devoting myself particularly to the Inca language, which is in 

 ordinary use in this part of the country Quito, Lima, &c. 

 and is so rich in variety and delicacy of expression, that the 

 young gentlemen, when making themselves agreeable to the 

 ladies, usually adopt it after they have completely exhausted 

 the vocabulary of the Castilian tongue. 



'These two languages, together with some others of equal 

 richness, afford sufficient evidence that there once reigned in 

 America a higher state of civilisation than existed at the time 

 of the Spanish conquest in 1492 ; but I am in possession of 

 proofs of a much more positive nature in regard to this fact. 

 Not only in Mexico and Peru, but at the court of the King of 

 Bogota, the priests of those ages possessed sufficient knowledge 

 of astronomy to draw a meridian line and to observe the actual 

 nrbment of the solstice ; they changed the lunar into the solar 

 year by the intercalation of days, and I have in my possession a 

 stone in the form of a heptagon which was found at Santa Fe, 

 and was employed by them in the calculation of these inter- 

 calary days. Nor is this all. At Erivaro, in the interior of the 

 district of Parime, the natives believe that the moon is in- 

 habited, and know, by the traditions of their ancestors, that its 

 light is derived from the sun. 



c From Eiobamba, the route to Cuenpa led me over the famous 

 Paramo of Assuay. Before setting out I visited the extensive 

 sulphur mines at Tiscan. The rebel Indians conceived the idea 

 of setting fire to these sulphur works, after the earthquake of 

 1797 ; certainly the most horrible plan ever devised even by a 

 people driven to despair. They hoped by this means to pro- 

 duce an eruption by which the whole province of Alausi should 

 be destroyed. On the Paramo of Assuay, at a height of 15,090 

 feet, the magnificent road of the Incas may still be traced. 

 This causeway reaches almost to Cuzco, and is constructed 

 entirely of hewn stone ; it is perfectly straight, and resembles 

 the finest roads of the ancient Eomans. In the same neigh- 

 bourhood are the ruins of the palace of the Inca Tupayupangi, 

 which was described by La Condamine in the Memoirs of the 

 Academy of Berlin. I do not know whether he mentions the 



