sonry Wall with Three Windows, Machu Picchu
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The principal difficulty with this theory is that while the
first meaning of tocco in Holguin's standard Quichua dictionary is
"ventana" or "window," and while "window" is the only meaning given
this important word in Markham's revised Quichua dictionary (1908),
a dictionary compiled from many sources, the second meaning of tocco
given by Holguin is "alacena," "a cupboard set in a wall." Undoubtedly
this means what we call, in the ruins of the houses of the Incas, a
niche. Now the drawings, crude as they are, in Sir Clements Markham's
translation of the Salcamayhua manuscript, do give the impression
of niches rather than of windows. Does Tampu-tocco mean a tampu
remarkable for its niches? At Paccaritampu there do not appear to be
any particularly fine niches; while at Machu Picchu, on the other hand,
there are many very beautiful niches, especially in the cave which has
been referred to as a "Royal Mausoleum." As a matter of fact, nearly
all the finest ruins of the Incas have excellent niches. Since niches
were so common a feature of Inca architecture, the chances are that Sir
Clements is right in translating Salcamayhua as he did and in calling
Tampu-tocco "the hill with the three openings or windows." In any case
Machu Picchu fits the story far better than does Paccaritampu. However,
in view of the fact that the early writers all repeat the story that
Tampu-tocco was at Paccaritampu, it would be absurd to say that they
did not know what they were talking about, even though the actual
remains at or near Paccaritampu do not fit the requirements.

It would be easier to adopt Paccaritampu as the site of Tampu-tocco
were it not for the legal records of an inquiry made by Toledo at the
time when he put the last Inca to death. Fifteen Indians, descended
from those who used to live near Las Salinas, the important salt works
near Cuzco, on being questioned, agreed that they had heard their
fathers and grandfathers repeat the tradition that when the first Inca,
Manco Ccapac, captured their lands, he came from Tampu-tocco. They did
not say that the first Inca came from Paccaritampu, which, it seems
to me, would have been a most natural thing for them to have said if
this were the general belief of the natives. In addition there is the
still older testimony of some Indians born before the arrival of the
first Spaniards, who were examined at a legal investigation in 1570. A
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