57 / 1060
'·
,
.
..,-
BooK
II.
Royal
Commentaries.
CH.
A
P. ·
XI.
Of
the learning dnd Sciences to which the·
Incas
attained,;
and
firfl of
their
Aflrnlogy.
·THE
improvement which the
IncM
had
made eithet
in Afirology
or Philo–
.
fophy, was as yet for want of Letters very .imperfett, howf?ever
th~re
were fome certain men amongfi them of good wit and underfiandmg, which
they called
Amautas;
who
wer~
fubtile
i!l
their
Argumentation~,
;and_ laid
do~vn
certain
Phtt.nomena
of natural dungs; but
m
regard they were unacqu
nted
wHh
Letters, they could leave none
of.
thofe conception
~hey
had formed unt.o pofie–
rity,
unlefs fome few principles d1fcovered by the Light of
N~ture,
wh1di. they
denoted by Glyphicks, or forne
qncouth
and
rud~
figures ; yet
.tn
Moral Ph1l<?f
o-
·phy they attained
to
a
greater
degr~e,
for their Laws,
Cu~oms
and Prachces
·were
their
daily lefions, and the doCl:rme of good manners bemg the
work
of the
Magifirate, an eafie and conftant improvement
~as
n:ade therein.
Of
Natural Philo[ophy indeed they had fiud1ed lmle ; they knew not how
to
fearch into the fecrets of nature, or lay down the
firll:
principles ofit; they knew
not what the qualities of the Elements were, or could fay that the Earth
was
cola
and dry, and the fire hot and dry ; they onely obferved the effe& of things, that
fire wouJd warm a-n.d burn them: Howfoever, they learned fomething of Medi–
cines,
and of rl1e
V
errues of certain Herbs
and
Plants
hich experience
and ne–
cefficy had taught them.
In
Afirology they had proceeded yet farther,
for
the apparent objects of the
Sun, and Moon, and Stars yielded them more fenfible matter for
fi
ecularion
t
they had obferved the various motions of the Planet
Pcnm,
the increafe,
full
an'O
qecreafe of the Moon; and when it was upon the change and conjunetion with
the Sun, they called
it
the Death of the Moon. The Sun efpecially afforded
them the mofi profound matter of [peculation; they obferved chat by his motion
the
feafons of the year were difl:inguifhed, the hours of the day counted, and the
da~s
and nights meafured;
in
all which they attained not
to
a
farcher fearch or
conlideration than what was vifible, and materially prefented it felf before their
eyes: they admired the ttfe&, but laboured not to penetrate into the caufe, or
know the reafon
of
the variou changes of the Moon, or motions of the Planets.
They called the Sun
Ynti,
the tvfoon
~illa,
the bright Star of
Vmm,
Chafta,
which
fignifies radiant ; other Stars alfo of greater Magnitude they obferved, but did noc
dillinguifh
them by their particular names, but onely under that
general
denomi–
nation of
Coyll-ur,
which fignifies a Star. And yet for all this fottifh fiupidity
1
the
Incas
had obferved that the Sun accomplifhed his courfe in the fpace of
a
year;
which they called
Huata,
though the Commonalty divided it oAely by its feafons,
and reckoned their year to end, or
be
finifhed with their Harveft. The
tenn~
of
~ummer
and Winter Solllices,. they denoted by the
large
charaCl:ers
of
eight
Tuwers, which rhey had ereeted to the
Ealt,
and
as many to the Weft of the
~ity
C:vuo
?
~eing
ranked four and four in feveral Pofitions, thofe two
in
the mid–
Ole bemg higher than
the
othet two
at
each end, and were built much
in
the
form
of the
Wat-ch-
towers
in
Spain :
When the Sun came to rife exattly oppo–
fit~
to four
~f
thefe Towe!s,
\vhich
were to the Eafl: of the City, and to fet juft a–
gamll: thofe
1h
the
Weft,
1t was then the Summer Solltice; and in like manner
w
~en i~
came to
rife,
and fet jull: '
ith
the other four Towers on e ch fide of the
Cuy;
tt
Was
then the.Winter SoHtice.
Pedro de Cieca
and
Acoffa,
make mention
of thefe Towe!s,. wh.1ch
fe~ve9
for
their Alma!Jacks, and were the befi cyphers
they
had to
d1fhng01fh
their
times and feafons,
for
they had
not
attained as yec
t-0
other meafures
by
Days and Months, though they kept an account by Moons,
as
we
iliall
hereafter declare ;
by
which and by their Solftices they divided one
Year
fr~m
another
1
thef~
Solftitial Towers I
left remaining
in
the
year
1
560,
and
'7
~
may
17fl2i9
43