Uilcapampa. Here there was an extensive level
space, with very sumptuous and majestic buildings, erected with great
skill and art, all the lintels of the doors, the principal as well
as the ordinary ones, being of marble, elaborately carved." Could
it be that "Picchu" was the modern variant of "Pitcos"? To be sure,
the white granite of which the temples and palaces of Machu Picchu
are constructed might easily pass for marble. The difficulty about
fitting Ocampo's description to Machu Picchu, however, was that there
was no difference between the lintels of the doors and the walls
themselves. Furthermore, there is no "white rock over a spring of
water" which Calancha says was "near Uiticos." There is no Pucyura
in this neighborhood. In fact, the canyon of the Urubamba does not
satisfy the geographical requirements of Uiticos. Although containing
ruins of surpassing interest, Machu Picchu did not represent that
last Inca capital for which we were searching. We had not yet found
Manco's palace.

CHAPTER XI

The Search Continued

Machu Picchu is on the border-line between the temperate zone and the
tropics. Camping near the bridge of San Miguel, below the ruins, both
Mr. Heller and Mr. Cook found interesting evidences of this fact in
the flora and fauna. From the point of view of historical geography,
Mr. Cook's most important discovery was the presence here of huilca,
a tree which does not grow in cold climates. The Quichua dictionaries
tell us huilca is a "medicine, a purgative." An infusion made from
the seeds of the tree is used as an enema. I am indebted to Mr. Cook
for calling my attention to two articles by Mr. W. E. Safford in
which it is also shown that from seeds of the huilca a powder is
prepared, sometimes called cohoba. This powder, says Mr. Safford, is a
narcotic snuff "inhaled through the nostrils by means of a bifurcated
tube." "All writers unite in declaring that it induced a kind of
intoxication or hypnotic state, accompanied by visions which were
regarded by the natives as supernatural. While under its influence
the necromancers, or priests, were supposed to hold communication
with unseen powers, and their incoherent mutterings were regarded as
prophecies or revelations of hidden things. In treating the sick the
physicians made use of it to discover the cause of the malady or the
person or spirit by whom the patient was bewitched." Mr. Safford quotes
Las Casas as saying: "It was an interesting spec