18 



MONUMENTS OF ANCIENT PERU. 



by whom they are recited with the sweetness, tenderness, and 

 soft melancholy, which are the soul of these compositions. 



The sciences which were cultivated by the Yncas with the 

 greatest industry, were astronomy and medicine. Several pil- 

 lars ere£led to point out the equinoftials and solstices ; the 

 names given to the planets ; the celestial observations relative 

 to eclipses ; and those by which they kept their time, are so 

 many data by which their progress in the former of these sci- 

 ences may be calculated. Their acquirements in the latter may 

 be estimated by the medical pra6t.ice of the Indians who in- 

 habit the mountainous territory, and by the skill of the Cea- 

 matas*, the successors of the ancient Amautas. 



The government of the Caciques over several of the tribes, 

 which they ruled without controul ; their inflexible justice ; 

 and the order and economy they observed, are illustrative of 

 the mild sway exercised in every part of Peru by the Yncas, 

 during the existence of their monarchies. 



If to these materials, the examination of the Quechua tongue 

 were to be added, an estimate might be formed, both of the 

 degree of civilization they had attained, and of the duration of 

 their empire. Words are the images of thought : the beauty 

 and taste displayed in its delineation, and the vivacity with 

 which it is represented, point out the ratio of the state and 

 cultivation of the human mind. 



these compositions give them a decided advantage over all the similar ones of other 

 nations, so far as they tend to inspire the human heart with sentiments of piety and 

 love. 



* These are Indians of the province of Choque Ceamata, situated in the inten- 

 dency of La Paz, who, in imitation of the earlier physicians of Greece, travel 

 over the kingdom, provided with herbs, drugs, &c. curing empirically, but often- 

 times with great success. 



Plate 



