Lost City of the Incas (Phoenix Press) (8 page)

The use of bar-locks, eye-bonders, and roof-pegs by the Incas is evidence of inventive genius which testifies to long occupancy in the highlands. Those devices are not found in Asia or Europe. They were not borrowed or imported. They were autochthonous.

So far as we know there was no furniture in the houses of the Incas. They used neither chairs nor tables but sat on the ground or on a pile of blankets made from the wool of the llama or alpaca. The place of furniture was taken by a series of niches arranged symmetrically in the walls. These niches were usually about 3 feet in height, 10 inches in depth, and 2 feet in width, narrower at the top than at the bottom, and placed in the wall so as to be nearer the floor than the ceiling. They may have been designed originally for ceremonial purposes but they came eventually to be recognized as a great household convenience. Crudely made niches can be seen to-day in the huts of the mountain Indians, where they take the place of shelves, cupboards, and bureaux. Stone pegs were usually placed between the niches and on a level with the lintels. They made handy hooks for all sorts of purposes. It is quite possible that from them were hung the characteristic water or
chicha
(beer) jars which had pointed bottoms. Their handles are so placed in the line of the centre of gravity as to make it easy to suspend them and, by using a nubbin on the shoulder of the jar, to pour out a drink without having to take the jar down from the peg.

The pegs were also convenient for fastening one end of a hand loom, while the weaver sat on the ground with the other end of
the loom tied to his or her waist. Sometimes a ring stone was bonded in the wall at a convenient height. Since the Peruvians were famous weavers, making warm clothing and blankets of both wool and cotton, these ring stones and pegs were undoubtedly in frequent use for that purpose.

Inca architects were careful about drainage and guarded against the accumulation of ground water wherever it was not wanted. Small channels or conduits were constructed under their storehouses and under the walls of courtyards wherever pools were likely to collect.

In the making of roads, bridges, aqueducts, and irrigation ditches they showed a remarkable knowledge of engineering. At the time of the Spanish Conquest the Incas’ paved roads ran for thousands of miles through the Central Andes, from Quito, the capital of Ecuador, all the way to Argentina and Chile, as well as from the Pacific Coast over the mountains to the warm valleys of the eastern Andes. Since they had no wheeled vehicles it was not necessary for the surface of their roads to be levelled. Where the road had to be taken over a steep hillside, stone stairways were constructed. Where the road had to pass a small precipice, tunnels large enough to permit the passage of a loaded beast of burden, whether man or llama, were cut out of the solid rock.

Over these roads trained runners, operating in relays, carried messages with extraordinary dispatch from the capital of the empire to distant magistrates. It is said that fresh fish caught in the Pacific Ocean were brought over the mountains by the special messengers of the Inca Emperor and reached his table in excellent condition. Post houses were provided at convenient intervals so that before a runner’s strength was exhausted his message could be picked up and carried forward with the least possible delay. Furthermore the runners were permitted to chew coca leaves as a stimulant.

The Incas had never acquired the art of writing, but they had developed an elaborate system of knotted cords called
quipus
.
These were made of the wool of the alpaca or the llama, and dyed in various colours, the significance of which was known to the magistrates. The cords were knotted in such a way as to represent the decimal system and were fastened at close intervals along the principal strand of the
quipu
. Thus an important message relating to the progress of crops, the amount of taxes collected, or the advance of an enemy could be speedily sent by the trained runners along the post roads.

Caravans of llamas carrying supplies could proceed safely, if slowly, over the most mountainous country.
Tambos
, or resthouses, as well as storehouses, were built wherever it was likely that those who travelled on the Inca’s business – and there were no other travellers – would need suitable accommodation and supplies. The storehouses were large enough to provide for companies of soldiers as well as llama drivers.

The roads were carried across rivers on suspension bridges made by braiding together countless strands of lianas, the ropelike vines found frequently in the jungles of the Amazon basin. Using huge cables of remarkable thickness, the Inca engineers were able to construct bridges 200 or 300 feet in length whenever it was necessary. These bridges, of course, sagged in the middle, swayed in the wind, and were not at all pleasant to use. Furthermore, they could be destroyed easily, but the death penalty awaited anyone found guilty of such an act. Had they not been so highly regarded or had the Incas had the foresight to destroy them when Pizarro and his conquistadors started to enter the Central Andes, the conquest of Peru would have been extremely difficult, if not well-nigh impossible.

No less striking than the remarkable system of highways were the irrigation ditches, which ran for scores of miles in the Central Andes. The height of the mountains, often rising to 18,000 or 20,000 feet, forces the moisture-laden winds coming from the east across the humid basin of the Amazon to deposit their burden in heavy rains on the eastern slopes of the great
Andean chain. Little rain falls on the western slopes. In fact, one of the greatest deserts in the world is the 2,000-mile coastal strip extending from central Chile to Ecuador.

The soil in the bottom of the valleys that cross this region is rich enough to grow luxuriant crops of sugar cane, cotton, and corn, but it needs to be regularly irrigated in order to do so. For this purpose the rivers, fed by melting snow in the high Andes, are deflected into irrigation ditches which follow the contours of the valleys for many miles. Inca engineers must have had good eyes and a fine sense of grading since they had none of the instruments on which our engineers depend to lay out similar projects. Imagine running a perfect contour for twenty miles!

Not only did the Incas provide their fields with necessary water, they also saw to it that their towns and cities had adequate supplies and for that purpose built fine aqueducts.

To the Incas the art of agriculture was of supreme interest. They carried it to a remarkable extreme, attaching more importance to it than we do today. They not only developed many different plants for food and medicinal purposes, but they understood thoroughly the cultivation of the soil, the art of proper drainage, correct methods of irrigation, and soil conservation, by means of terraces constructed at great expense. Most of the agricultural fields in the Peruvian Andes are not natural. The soil has been assembled, put in place artificially, and remains fertile after centuries of use.

The Incas learned the importance of fertilizers to keep the soil rich and fruitful. They had discovered the value of the guano found on the bird-islands that lie off the coast of Peru, setting aside various of these islands for the benefit of different provinces. No one was allowed to visit the islands during the breeding season. Although hundreds of thousands of fish-eating birds inhabit the islands, the Incas punished by death anyone killing a single guano-producing bird.

They depended on terrace agriculture. It is seen in its most
conspicuous form on steep slopes. Terraces are found in many other countries, notably in east Asia and the Philippines, but it is very doubtful whether any equal those constructed by the Incas. In Peru the artificial reconstruction of the surface soil was not limited to slopes, but was also undertaken in large areas of reclaimed land in valley bottoms. They even narrowed and straightened the course of the rivers, filled in the land behind strong walls and topped off the work with a surface layer of fine soil.

The system of terrace agriculture which they developed consists roughly of three parts, the retaining wall and two distinct layers of earth that fill the space behind the wall. The underlying stratum, an artificial sub-soil, is composed of coarse stones and clay to a thickness that depends upon the height of the retaining wall. This stratum was covered by a layer of rich soil 2 or 3 feet deep.

Fortunately for the Incas the soils in the terraced districts are tenacious and not readily eroded. A few sods or a small ridge of earth will hold in check a stream of water, thus greatly facilitating the irrigation of the terraces. In places, large stones deeply grooved lengthwise served as spouts to carry the water out from a terrace wall, thus avoiding the danger of erosion or undermining.

The height and width of the terraces depended entirely on the gradient of the slope. Terraces on very steep slopes were narrow shelves, sometimes only 3 or 4 feet wide, although the usual range is from 6 to 15 feet. The height is usually from 8 to 14 feet. In parts of the Andes, hillsides containing 100 terraces, one above the other, are not uncommon. In many places they are used by the modern Indians for raising crops of wheat and barley. Originally they were used chiefly for potatoes and maize.

Long banks of terraces are interrupted at regular intervals by passageways that serve the double purpose of roads for reaching the terraces, and drainage channels to permit surface water from the upper slopes to flow freely down without washing away any of the precious soil which had been brought to the terraces in baskets or mats carried on men’s backs. It fairly staggers
the imagination to realize how many millions of hours of labour were required to construct these great agricultural terraces. Since terraced agriculture is well known in the Philippines and in Asia, some writers are inclined to maintain that the Incas did not originate it but brought it with them when they migrated from Asia, if and when they did. If they came from Asia it is strange that they did not bring any Asiatic food plants or seeds with them.

Mr O. F. Cook, the distinguished authority on tropical agriculture who was the botanist on one of my Peruvian expeditions, tells me that the Incas and their predecessors domesticated more kinds of food and medicinal plants than any other people in the world.

They found a small plant growing in the high Andes, with a tuberous root about the size of a small pea. It proved to be edible and from it, in the course of the centuries, they finally developed a dozen varieties of what we call the ‘Irish’ or white potato, suitable for cultivation at elevations varying from sea level to 14,000 feet above it. After the Spanish Conquest of Peru, it took Europeans nearly three centuries to appreciate the staple food of the Incas. In fact, had it not been for famines in France and Ireland it is hard to say when the Peruvian potato would have been accepted as part of their daily ration.

The skill and ingenuity of the Inca agriculturists were shown not only in the breeding and raising of many kinds of potatoes, but also in the very many varieties of maize or Indian corn, suitable for cultivation at varying elevations, which they developed. No one knows exactly from what plant maize was originally derived. Agricultural experts are divided in their opinion as to whether it was domesticated from an Andean plant which has long since disappeared or whether it was brought from Guatemala. Central American authorities, specialists in Maya civilization, are convinced that corn originated in Guatemala, where there is a wild plant remotely resembling it. There is no doubt, however, that the Incas had more varieties of maize, a whole series that were unlike any that are known from Central
America or Mexico, and had gone much further in developing them than did the Mayas.