340 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull, go 



table gives the dimensions of the slabs in feet and tenths, commencing with 

 the one at the left : 



Height 



Width at base 

 Width at top.. 

 Thickness 



No. 

 6. 



13.3 

 7.1 



6.4 

 5.9 



The faces of these slabs are not hewn entirely smooth, but have several 

 projections, indicating that the work of accurately facing them was never 

 completed. Ko. 4 shows traces of the same kind of ornamentution observed 

 on some of the blocks at Tiahuanuco, only here the ornament is in relief. But 

 gigantic as are these blocks, they are small in comparison with the " Tired 

 Stones " lying on the inclined plane leading to the fortress or at its foot, as if 

 abandoned there by the ancient workmen. One of these is 21 feet 6 inches 

 long, by 15 feet broad. It is partly embedded in the ground, l)ut shows a thick- 

 ness of 5 feet above the soil.* 



The traces of the ancient work at Cuzco as described by Squier are 

 equally marvelous: 



The stones composing the walls are massive blocks of blue limestone, irreg- 

 ular in size and shape, and the work is altogether without doubt the grandest 

 specimen of the style called Cyclopean extant in America. The outer wall, as 

 I have said, is heaviest. Each salient terminates in an immense block of stone, 

 sometimes as high as the level of the terrace which it supports, but generally 

 sustaining one or more great stones only less in size than itself. One of these 

 stones is 27 feet high, 14 broad, and 12 in thickness. Stones of 15 feet length, 

 12 in width, and 10 in thickness are common in the outer walls. They are all 

 slightly beveled on the face, and near the joints chamfered down sharply to the 

 contiguous faces. The joints — what with the lapse of time, and under the 

 effects of violence, earthquakes, and the weather — are not now, if they ever 

 were, so perfect as represented by the chroniclers. They are, nevertheless, 

 wonderfully close, and cut with a precision rarely seen in modern fortifications. 

 The inner walls are composed of smaller and more regular stones, and are less 

 impressive.^ 



Garcilasso de la Vega, as quoted by Squier, writes of the marvelous 

 structiu-es of Cuzco as follows: 



This was the greatest and most superb of the edifices that the Incas raised 

 to demonstrate their majesty and power. Its greatness is incredilile to those 

 who have not seen it ; and those who have seen it, and studied it with attention, 

 will be led not alone to imagine, but to believe, that it was reared by enchant- 

 ment — by demons, and not by men, l)ecause of the number and size of the stones 

 placed in the three walls, which are rather cliffs than walls, and which it is 

 impossible to believe were cut out of quarries, since the Indians had neither 

 iron nor steel wherewith to extract or shape them. And how they were brought 



* Squier, Peru : Incidents of Travel and Exploration in the Land of the Incas, pp. 500- 

 501. 



= Ibid., pp. 471-472. 



