Travels in Peru, on the Coast, in the Sierra, Across the Cordilleras and the Andes, into the Primeval Forests

by Johann Jakob von Tschudi

There still exist vast remains of well-constructed colossal buildings, as palaces, fortresses, and temples. The walls of these edifices were built of square stones, so finely cut, and joined so closely together, that between any two there is not space sufficient to insert the edge of the thinnest paper. In the royal palace of Cuzco, and in the Temple of the Sun, a fusion of gold or silver was used for cement between the stones. This was, however, only employed as a luxury; for in other great edifices, for example, in the baths of Huamalies in the province of Jauja, stones are kept together by their own weight and the precision of the workmanship. These stones are of very considerable magnitude; some being from twelve to sixteen feet long, from eight to ten feet high, and equally broad. They are not all square; some are polygonal, and some spherical, but they were all joined one to another with the same exactness: of this a remarkable example is presented in the highly interesting ruins of the palace of Limatambo. A question which naturally suggests itself is,—how did the ancient Peruvians, without iron tools, hew these vast stones, and afterwards work the different fragments so skilfully? The first point is to me quite inexplicable; the second may possibly be accounted for by friction; the softest of two stones which was to be brought into a particular shape being rubbed by a harder, and afterwards polished by pyritous plants. The removal of the block from the quarry where it was excavated to the place of its destination, and the raising of fragments of stone to considerable heights, could only have been effected by the co-operation of thousands of men, for no kind of elevating machinery or lever was then known.

The fortresses give a high idea of the progress made by the ancient Peruvians in architectural art. These structures were surrounded by ramparts and trenches. The larger ones were protected by the solidity of the walls, and the smaller ones by difficulty of access. The approaches to them were chiefly subterraneous; and thereby, they were enabled to maintain secret communication with the palaces and temples in their neighborhood. The subterraneous communications were carefully constructed; they were of the height of a man, and in general from three to four feet broad. In some parts they contract suddenly in width, and the walls on each side are built with sharp pointed stones, so that there is no getting between them, except by a lateral movement. In other parts they occasionally become so low, that it is impossible to advance, except by creeping on all fours. Every circumstance had been made a subject of strict calculation; it had been well considered how treasures might be removed from the palaces and temples to the fortresses, and placed securely beyond the reach of an enemy, for in the rear of every narrow pass there were ample spaces for soldiers, who might dispute the advance of a whole army. Besides the remains of the fortress of Cuzco, which are gradually disappearing every year, the most important are those of Calcahilares and Huillcahuaman. Less interesting, though still very curious, are the ruins of Chimu-canchu in Manische, near Truxillo, which are not of stone but of brick. The architecture of the small fortress of Huichay, two leagues from Tarma, which defended the entrance to that valley, is very remarkable. The front is built of small but firmly united stones, and covers a large cavity, in which there are numerous divisions, intended for the preservation of warlike stores, and for quartering soldiers. On the steep declivity of the hill there had been a deep trench, between which there was a wall fourteen feet higher, flanked by three bastions. Around this fortress nitre is found in great abundance. It is now collected by the Huancas (the inhabitants of the valley of Jauja), for making gunpowder. The diggings for nitre have almost obliterated the entrance to the cavity, and the fortress is already so much injured that possibly in another century scarcely a trace of the edifice will remain. Notwithstanding a search of several days, I did not succeed in discovering the mouth of the cavity, though an old Indian, who, years ago, had often visited it, pointed out to me what he supposed to be its precise situation. The walls of perpendicular rock in the neighborhood of Huichay are often 60 to 80 feet high, and the clefts or fissures in them are filled up with small stones. It would be incomprehensible how the Indians ascended to perform this labor, were it not perceived that they have hollowed passages in the mountain. It would appear they must have had dwellings, or stores for provisions, on the higher part of the hill, for small windows are often perceptible in walls of masonry.

The old Indian villages of the Sierra are for the most part situated on heights, or sharp ridges, which are now completely barren, as they no longer receive the artificial watering with which they were formerly supplied. All lie open to the east, so that the inhabitants could behold their Deity the moment he appeared on the horizon. All large towns had a square in their centre, where the religious dances were performed. From the square a certain number of regular roads or streets always ran in the direction of the four quarters of the firmament. There are great varieties in the construction of the houses. Small insignificant huts often stand close to a palace having twenty or twenty-five windows in one front. Private dwellings in the mountainous parts are built of unhewn stone, cemented with a very strong calcareous mortar. On the coast the walls are of brick. In the departments of Junin and Ayacucho, I met with the ruins of great villages, consisting of dwellings of a peculiar construction, in the form of a tower. Each house is quadrangular, with a diameter of about six feet, and seventeen or eighteen feet high. The walls are from one to one and a half feet thick. The doors, which open to the east or south, are only a foot and a half high, and two feet wide. After creeping in (which is a work of some difficulty) the explorer finds himself in an apartment about five and a half feet in height, and of equal breadth, without any windows. In the walls there are closets or cupboards, which served to contain domestic utensils, food, &c. Earthen pots with maize, coca, and other things, are still often found in these closets. The ceiling of the room is overlaid with flat plates of stone, and in the centre an aperture, two feet wide, is left, forming a communication with the second floor, which is precisely like the first, but has two small windows. The roof of this apartment has also an aperture, affording access to the third floor, the ceiling of which forms the roof of the house, and consists of rather thick plates of stone. The upper room is usually less lofty than the two rooms below it, and seems to have been used as a provision store-room. I found in one of these upper rooms the mummy of a child very well embalmed. The family appear to have lived chiefly on the ground-floors. The place for cooking is often plainly perceptible. The second floor was probably the sleeping apartment. In the course of my travels, when overtaken by storms, I often retreated for shelter into one of these ruined dwellings.

The ancient Peruvians frequently buried their dead in their own houses, and then removed from them. This custom appears to have been very general about the time of the Spanish conquest, when a great number of Indians committed suicide in despair. Household utensils were placed in the graves, when the dead were buried in the houses, as well as when they were interred in other places. In many houses in which I made diggings I regularly found the following arrangement. Under a stratum of earth two feet deep lay the body, in a state of good preservation, and generally, but not always, in a sitting posture. On clearing away another stratum of earth equally deep there is found a variety of household vessels for cooking, together with water-pots of clay, gourds, hunting and fishing implements, &c. There is frequently a third layer of earth, beneath which the gold and silver vessels and the household deities are deposited. The idols are of clay, stone, and copper, or of the precious metals. Those of clay are hollow, flat, compressed, and in most instances the faces are painted. Those of stone are of granite, porphyry, or sand-stone. These stone images are solid, and often several feet high. The golden idols are always hollow; but they exhibit no distinct trace of the soldering. They are of various sizes; some of them weigh three quarters of a pound. Those of silver are always solid. All these images of deities have the same physiognomy, and disproportionately large head. In most instances the head is covered by a peculiar kind of cap.

The vessels used for holding water or other liquids are very various in color and form. Most of them exhibit ludicrous caricatures of human figures; others are unrecognisable representations of animals or fancy figures. These vessels have in general two apertures, one by which they were filled, and the other by which the liquid was poured out. On filling them a feeble flute-like sound is heard. It is occasioned by the air escaping through the other aperture. Most of these vessels are made of red or black clay, well glazed. Those for holding chicha were very capacious. Some of them, which have been found hermetically closed, have contained chicha upwards of three hundred years old, and remarkable for a very smoky flavor. On the vessels made of gourds fanciful figures are generally carved. Gold drinking cups have been found, adorned with well executed embossed ornaments, and like the images, showing no trace of soldering. Among the warlike weapons, the stone battle-axes are very remarkable; they have at both ends a tube, in which the handle was fixed by ligatures. Articles for personal adornment, such as nose and lip rings, neck chains, pins, bracelets, and ancle bands, are usually of gold, and set with small colored shells. The sceptres of the Incas are of gold, and exquisitely wrought; those of the Curacas of silver; and those of the Caciques of copper, sometimes gilt.

Idols and utensils made of wood are very rarely found. It would appear that the ancient Peruvians found more difficulty in the working of wood than that of metal and stone. The Peruvians give to all objects dug up from the old graves, the name of Huaqueros, from Huaca, the word for grave in the Quichua language.

The huacas or graves vary in form or magnitude. When destined for single individuals they were made small; but when for families, they were of considerable extent. On the sandy soil of the coast, no elevation marks the spot where the bodies are interred; but further inland (though still in the coast region), the graves are for the most part elevated and arched, and are built of bricks. In the Sierra the tombs are of stone, quadrangular, oval, or of an obelisk form.

In the huacas, the bodies are found in a sitting position, and supported by stones or reeds: the face turned towards the east. In front of the body it was customary to place two rows of pots containing quinua, maize, potatoes, dried llama flesh, and other kinds of provisions, and these pots were all covered with small lids. On each side of the body were ranged cooking utensils, and vessels containing water and chicha. The body and all the objects deposited in the grave were covered with a layer of sand, above which were spread various articles of clothing. Over these was placed another layer of sand, and then the tomb was built above the whole.

The bodies are found wrapped in several coverings; and when first taken out of the graves, they have the appearance of unfinished statues; the position of the head, knees, and feet being alone recognisable. A strong net-work, composed of twisted straw or bast incloses a thick rush mat, in which the body is wrapped. These coverings being removed, there is found a broad, woollen bandage, passing round the body, and fastening the rushes or sticks which support it in a sitting position. Under this bandage is a red or party-colored covering which goes over the whole body; and beneath this are one or two yellowish-white coverings, strongly sewed up. On removing these coverings, there are found some pots or drinking cups, a few ornaments, the Huallqui with coca, and in most instances a silver or gold idol suspended from the neck of the body. The undermost wrapper consists of a cloth of rather fine texture. Probably it was originally white, but time has changed it to a reddish-yellow. This covering being unsewed, the naked corpse appears; the head alone being encircled with two or three bandages, called Huinchas. The body is always in a sitting posture; the knees being drawn up towards the face, and the arms crossed over the breast, in such a manner that the chin rests between the two clenched hands. The wrists are tied together, and the ligature with which they are fastened is passed round the neck. This, which was evidently done only to keep the hands fixed in the required position, has led some commentators on Peruvian antiquities to suppose that the bodies found with strings round the necks were those of hanged persons. In the mouth there is a thin piece of gold, silver or copper; most of the bodies are in a good state of preservation, though the features are not discernible. The hair is always found perfectly free from decay; and that of the females is beautifully plaited.

The question has arisen, whether these bodies were embalmed, or whether their preservation is merely the result of the mummifying nature of the climate. Both conjectures have found zealous supporters. Don Francisco Barrero, keeper of the Museum of Natural History in Lima, mentions, in the Memorial de Ciencias Naturales,[105] that among the ancient Peruvians certain men were appointed as embalmers, and he describes the process they adopted as follows:—They first extracted the brain through the nose, then took out the eyes, and stopped up the sockets with cotton. The bowels, lungs, and even the tongue, were removed, after which the body and skull were filled with a kind of powder, which immediately after it is taken out of the mummies, diffuses a slight odor of turpentine; this odor, however, it soon loses on being exposed to the action of the air. The face, hands, and feet, were rubbed over with an oily substance, after which the body was incased in the envelopes above described. I am disposed to believe that this process never had any existence, save in the imagination of Barrera: it indeed resembles the manner in which the Egyptians prepared their mummies; but no such method was practised among the Indians. The mummies collected in the museum of Lima present not the slightest trace of this powder, or indeed of any kind of preservative material—a fact which is mentioned by the director of that establishment, Don E. Mariano de Rivero, in his Antiguedades Peruanas.[106]