824 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The proofs that the Incas . . . had a real system of astronomy 

 are scattered, partly in what remains of the monuments that were 

 consecrated to the sun, and partly i-n the accounts of historians 

 accounts which, whether because their importance has not been 

 suspected, or because of the difficulty of quoting them, most of 

 them having been printed only once, others having remained in 

 the state of manuscript, and very few of them having been trans- 

 lated, are but little known to men of science. Whatever the 

 verity of the legends preserved in these accounts, we find a com- 

 paratively highly developed astronomical system among the In- 

 cas, of which the most interesting parts are here given from 

 rare documents already published, and from American manu- 

 scripts and traditions. The work has not before been done so 

 completely. 



Six nations only China, Mongolia, India, Chaldea, Egypt, and 

 Australia had, before the discovery of America, divided the 

 visible celestial sphere into constellations, and had used figures of 

 their own invention to represent them. The Peruvians, although 

 situated at the meeting of the Northern and Southern hemispheres, 

 did not extend their division over the whole sphere ; they recog- 

 nized and studied only a few of the more brilliant constellations, 

 like the Pleiades, the Jaguar, the Standard, the Southern Cross, 

 and some other groups which have not yet been identified.* It is 

 probable that they extended this division further than the first 

 historians who were not learned in astronomy, and could there- 

 fore pay little attention to all the details represent. Later writers 

 speak of other constellations which they do not mention. The 

 Incas called the milky way the dust of stars, and gave names to 

 its different parts. What is now called the Coal Sack was fig- 

 ured by them as a doe suckling her fawn a simple and poetic 

 transformation of the Grecian and Aryan legend of Hercules and 

 his nurse, f A few stars of the first magnitude, such as Capella 

 and Vega, had special names. J It is almost impossible that the 

 Incas should have failed to give distinct names to the splendid 

 stars of the Southern hemisphere, such as Sirius, Canopus, Acher- 

 nar, etc. The silence of historians respecting this point is far 

 from being conclusive, and may be accounted for by supposing 

 that many of these stars not being visible in our hemisphere, they 

 did not ask the natives for their names, and limited their inquiries 

 to the stars of the Northern hemisphere which they knew. 



The only planet which the Incas had discovered was Venus, 

 which they called the hairy, on account of the brightness of its 



* Acosta, Histoire des Indes, 1591, Book V, chap. iv. 



f Garcilaso, First Part of the Royal Commentaries, 1609, Book II, chap, xxiii. 



\ Acosta. Caelius, Cselum astronomico-poeticum, 1662, chap. xix. 



