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wall is perceptibly lower, might have mounted, 
as 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 P 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. 
/ 
