192 HISTORY OF 



thousand years old, but without any certain proofs 

 of such great antiquity. This people, who pro- 

 bably came first from the coasts of Africa, might 

 have learned this art from the Egyptians, as there 

 was a traffic carried on from thence into the most 

 internal parts of Africa. 



Father Acosta and Garcilasso de la Vega make 

 no doubt but that the Peruvians understood the 

 art of preserving their dead for a very long space 

 of time. They assert their having seen the bodies 

 of several Incas, that were perfectly preserved. 

 They still preserved their hair and their eye- 

 brows ; but they had eyes made of gold put in 

 the places of those taken out. They were cloth- 

 ed in their usual habits, and seated in the manner 

 of the Indians, their arms placed on their breasts. 

 Garcilasso touched one of their fingers, and found 

 it apparently as hard as wood ; and the whole body 

 was not heavy enough to overburden a weak man, 

 who should attempt to carry it away. Acosta 

 presumes that these bodies were embalmed with 

 bitumen, of which the Indians knew the proper- 

 ties. Garcilasso, however, is of a different opi- 

 nion, as he saw nothing bituminous about them ; 

 but he confesses that he did not examine them 

 very particularly ; and he regrets his not having 

 inquired into the methods used for that purpose. 

 He adds, that being a Peruvian, his countrymen 

 would not have scrupled to inform him of the 

 secret, if they really had it still among them. 



Garcilasso, thus being ignorant of the secret, 

 makes use of some inductions to throw light 

 upon the subject. He asserts that the air is so 



