244 
says that the edifices of Thomebamba have a 
covering of rushes^ so well made^ that^ if it be 
not consumed by fire^ it will last without alter- 
ation for several ages. From this obseryation 
we may be led to believe^ that the gable of the 
house of Cannar was added after the conquest ; 
and what seems especially to favor this hypothe- 
sis is the existence of open windows in this part 
of the building ; for it is certain^ that in the edi- 
fices of ancient Peruvian construction, as in the 
remains of the houses of Pompeia and Hercula- 
neum, no windows are to be found. 
M. de la Condamine, in a very interesting 
Memoir on some ancient Monuments of Peru 
is inclined also to think, that the gable which we 
observe in the small edifice at Cannar is not of 
the time of the Incas. He says, that it is per- 
haps of modern fabrication ; and that it is not of 
free-stone like the rest of the walls, but of a kind 
of brick dried in the air, and kneaded with 
straw.” He adds in another place, that the use 
of those bricks, to which the Indians gave the 
name of tica^ was known to the Peruvians long 
before the arrival of the Spaniards ; and that, for 
this reason, the gable may be of ancient construc- 
tion, though formed of bricks. 
* Pedro de Cieca de Leon, Chronica del Peru (Anvers, 
1554), tom. 1, c. 44, p. 120. 
t Metnoires de TAcademie de Berlin^ 1746, p. 444. 
