by whom they are recited with the sweetness, tenderness, and soft melancholy, which are the soul of these compositions.
The sciences which were cultivated by the Yncas with the greatest industry, were astronomy and medicine. Several pillars erected to point out the equinoctials and solstices; the names given to the planets; the celestial observations relative to eclipses; and those by which they kept their time, are so many data by which their progress in the former of these sciences may be calculated. Their acquirements in the latter may be estimated by the medical practice of the Indians who inhabit the mountainous territory, and by the skill of the Ceamatas[1], the successors of the ancient Amautas.
The government of the Caciques over several of the tribes, which they ruled without controul; their inflexible justice; and the order and economy they observed, are illustrative of the mild sway exercised in every part of Peru by the Yncas, during the existence of their monarchies.
If to these materials, the examination of the Quechua tongue were to be added, an estimate might be formed, both of the degree of civilization they had attained, and of the duration of their empire. Words are the images of thought: the beauty and taste displayed in its delineation, and the vivacity with which it is represented, point out the ratio of the state and cultivation of the human mind.
- ↑ These are Indians of the province of Choque Ceamata, situated in the intendency of La Paz, who, in imitation of the earlier physicians of Greece, travel over the kingdom, provided with herbs, drugs, &c. curing empirically, but often-times with great success.
these compositions give them a decided advantage over all the similar ones of other nations, so far as they tend to inspire the human heart with sentiments of piety and love.
