THE ROAD TO BOLIVIA 277 



priests addressed tlie people and witnessed the festivals. Some scien- 

 tists liold tliat their age is greater than the Inca dynast}^ and tliat the}^ 

 were the seats of judgment from which earlier monarchs pronounced 

 decrees and proclaimed edicts. However that may be, they are among 

 the most extraordinary relics of an extinct civilization. The early 



UDMVIAN SUI.I)[K1!S 



Catholic missionaries did not resist the native customs of the Indians, 

 hut witli exceeding skill amalgamated the most important of them 

 with tlie authorized festivals of their own church. Upon the ruins of 

 the pagan temples and with the same nuiterial of whicii tlic}'' were 

 built they erected at Copacabana a magnificent edifice, and upon the 



