Glossary
Añu: A species of nasturtium with edible roots.
Aryballus: A bottle-shaped vase with pointed bottom.
Azequia: An irrigation ditch or conduit.
Bar-hold: A stone cylinder or pin, let into a gatepost in such a way as to permit the gate bar to be tied to it. Sometimes the bar-hold is part of one of the ashlars of the gatepost. Bar-holds are usually found in the gateway of a compound or group of Inca houses.
Coca: Shrub from which cocaine is extracted. The dried leaves are chewed to secure the desired deadening effect of the drug.
Conquistadores: Spanish soldiers engaged in the conquest of America.
Eye-bonder: A narrow, rough ashlar in one end of which a chamfered hole has been cut. Usually about 2 feet long, 6 inches wide, and 2 inches thick, it was bonded into the wall of a gable at right angles to its slope and flush with its surface. To it the purlins of the roof could be fastened. Eye-bonders are also found projecting above the lintel of a gateway to a compound. If the “bar-holds” were intended to secure the horizontal bar of an important gate, these eye-bonders may have been for a vertical bar.
Gobernador: The Spanish-speaking town magistrate. The alcaldes are his Indian aids.
Habas beans: Broad beans.
Huaca: A sacred or holy place or thing, sometimes a boulder. Often applied to a piece of prehistoric pottery.
Mañana: To-morrow, or by and by. The ”mañana habit” is Spanish-American procrastination.
Mestizo: A half-breed of Spanish and Indian ancestry.
Milpa: A word used in Central America for a small farm or clearing. The milpa system of agriculture involves clearing the forest by fire, destroys valuable humus and forces the farmer to seek new fields frequently.
Montaña: Jungle, forest. The term usually applied by Peruvians to the heavily forested slopes of the Eastern Andean valleys and the Amazon Basin.
Oca: Hardy, edible root, related to sheep sorrel.
Quebrada: A gorge or ravine.
Quipu: Knotted, parti-colored strings used by the ancient Peruvians to keep records. A mnemonic device.
Roof-peg: A roughly cylindrical block of stone bonded into Page 344a gable wall and allowed to project 12 or 15 inches on the outside. Used in connection with “eye-bonders,” the roof-pegs served as points to which the roof could be tied down.
Sol: Peruvian silver dollar, worth about two shillings or a little less than half a gold dollar.
Sorocho: Mountain-sickness.
Stone-peg: A roughly cylindrical block of stone bonded into the walls of a house and projecting 10 or 12 inches on the inside so as to permit of its being used as a clothes-peg. Stone-pegs are often found alternating with niches and placed on a level with the lintels of the niches.
Temblor: A slight earthquake.
Temporales: Small fields of grain which cannot be irrigated and so depend on the weather for their moisture.
Teniente gobernador: Administrative officer of a small village or hamlet.
Terremoto: A severe earthquake.
Tesoro: Treasure.
Tutu: A hardy variety of white potato not edible in a fresh state, used for making chuño, after drying, freezing, and pressing out the bitter juices.
Ulluca: An edible root.