290 PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. 



rally prevailing Peruvian custom. There may still be found 

 subterranean chambers below many of the private dwellings 

 of Caxamarca. 



We were shown steps cut in the rock, and also what 

 is called the Inca's foot-bath (el lavatorio de los pies). 

 The washing of the monarch's feet was accompanied by 

 some inconvenient usages of court etiquette. ( 13 ) Minor 

 buildings, designed according to tradition for the servants, 

 are constructed partly like the others of cut stones, and 

 provided with sloped roofs, and partly with well formed 

 bricks alternating with siliceous cement (muros y obra de 

 tapia). In the latter class of constructions there are 

 vaulted recesses, the antiquity of which I long doubted, 

 but, as I now believe, without sufficient grounds. 



In the principal building the room is still shown in which 

 the unhappy Atahuallpa was kept a prisoner for nine months 

 ( 14 ) from November 1532, and there is pointed out to the 

 traveller the wall on which the captive signified to what 

 height he would fill the room with gold if set free. This 

 height is given very variously, by Xerez in his " Conquista 

 del Peru" which Barcia has preserved for us, by Hernando 

 Pizarro in his letters, and by other writers of the period. 

 The prince said that "gold in bars, plates, and vessels, 

 should be heaped up as high as he could reach with his 

 hand." Xerez assigns to the room a length of 23, andx a 

 breadth of 18 English feet. Garcilaso de la Vega, who 

 quitted Peru in his 20th year, in 1560, estimates the value 

 of the treasure collected from the temples of the sun at 

 Cuzco, Huaylas, Huamachuco, and Pachacamac, up to the 



