254 



wall is perceptibly lower, might have mounted, 

 us much as it had descended, if thrown with 

 sufficient force : but were this supposition true, 

 should we not find at the end of the chain some 

 hole, to receive the balls when their course was 

 finished ? The place where the wall of the en- 

 closure is the lowest, the point opposite the seat, 

 corresponds to an opening* in the rock on the 

 brink of the precipice. A narrow pathway, cut 

 in the sandstone, leads to this grotto, in which, 

 according to the tradition among the natives, 

 there are treasures hidden by Atahualpa. They 

 say too, that a streamlet formerly ran along this 

 pathway. Is it there that we should look for the 

 Sport of the Inca ? and was this enclosure so 

 situate, that the prince could conveniently see 

 what passed on the steep declivity of the rock ? 

 We shall speak more of this grotto in the nar- 

 rative of our journey to Peru. 





