Up above the city hangs the stupendous fortress of Sachsahuaman, exceeding all the seven wonders of the world, a cyclopean work of the primitive age. Squier says: “The largest stone in the fortress has a computed weight of 361 tons.” Sachsahuaman must indeed have been raised by enchantment in a night like Tiahuanacu, for it surpasses the art of man, the labyrinth of passageways contracting here and there so that a single man could keep back an army, subterranean tunnels leading to temples
IN THE MARKET, PLAZA PRINCIPAL, CUZCO.
and palaces of the city. From the inmost recesses of the fortress, a fountain of clear water bubbles. Its mysterious murmur fills the secret passageways.
Even a single stone destined as a part of the fortress partakes of the enchantment. According to legend, twenty thousand Indians had dragged it from a distant quarry, up and down over the wild mountains. Once it fell, killing “three or four thousand of those Indians who were the guides to direct and support it.” And when, after its painful journey, the monster finally beheld the lofty fortress of which it was to form a part, it fell for the last time, shedding bloody tears from the hollow orbs of its eyes. It still lies on the same spot, receding deeper and deeper into the ground whenever attempts are made to remove it.
CHAPTER V
SERVICE OF THE SUN-GOD
“In the beginning there arose the golden child. He was the one born lord of all that is. He established the earth and the sky.
“Who is the god to whom we shall offer sacrifice?
“He who gives life; he who gives strength; whose command all the bright gods revere; whose light is immortality; whose shadow is death. He who through his power is the one god of the breathing and awakening world.... He whose greatness these snowy mountains, whose greatness the sea proclaims, with the distant river. He through whom the sky is bright and the earth firm.... He who measured out the light in the air, ... wherever the mighty water clouds went, where they placed the seed and lit the fire, thence arose he who is the sole life of the bright gods.... He to whom heaven and earth, standing firm by his will, look up, trembling inwardly....