ever, seldom happened that
they had to read a quipu without some verbal commentary. Something was
always required to be added if the quipu came from a distant province,
to explain whether it related to the numbering of the population, to
tributes, or to war, &c. Through long-continued practice, the officers
who had charge of the quipus became so perfect in their duties, that
they could with facility communicate the laws and ordinances, and all
the most important events of the kingdom, by their knots.

All attempts made in modern times to decipher Peruvian quipus have
been unsatisfactory in their results. The principal obstacle to
deciphering those found in graves, consists in the want of the oral
communication requisite for pointing out the subjects to which they
refer. Such communication was necessary, even in former times, to the
most learned quipucamayocuna. Most of the quipus here alluded to seem
to be accounts of the population of particular towns or provinces,
tax-lists, and information relating to the property of the deceased.
Some Indians in the southern provinces of Peru are understood to
possess a perfect knowledge of some of the ancient quipus, from
information transmitted to them from their ancestors. But they keep
that knowledge profoundly secret, particularly from the whites. The
ancient Peruvians also used a certain kind of hieroglyphics, which
they engraved in stone, and preserved in their temples. Notices of
these hieroglyphics are given by some of the early writers. There
appears to be a great similarity between these Peruvian hieroglyphics
and those found in Mexico and Brazil.

I have already mentioned one of the largest and most wonderful works of
Peruvian antiquity, namely, the great military road which passes through
the whole empire leading from Cuzco to Quitu, and which has many highly
important lateral branches. The magnificent water-conduits, by which
barren sand wastes and sterile hills were converted into fruitful
plantations, are monuments of equivalent greatness. Traces of these
water-conduits are to be seen throughout the whole of Peru, and even
where the canals themselves no longer exist, the divisional boundaries
of the fields they watered are still discernible. In many districts
where the valleys of the Sierra run into the Puna--(I allude here only
to the declivities above Tarmatambo, on the road towards Jauja)--there
may be seen many square fields of uniform size, each of which is
su