Peruvian architectural structures composed of stone were characterized by simplicity. sym metry. and solidity. These stones, often huge boulders. were put together without mortar. but so exactly cut and fitted to each other that the blade of a penknife could not lie forced between them. The Peruvians excelled as road-builders. Remains of many of these roads exist. the most important ones extended from Quito to ('uzco. and, diverging, continued in a southerly direction. In galleries were cut. for miles. through solid rock, rivers crossed by swinging bridges, and ravines filled up with solid masonry. It is esti mated that some of these roads. which were used f r ry purr sL-, were from t _ ) 1 i:es in length.
.1 if, ture cf textile fabrics the Peru . I arnonz ancier-t peoples.
irz iut, I with every style of weaving km 1 n t) we of their tape-try. in the ex anl fini-h of the weaving and beauty of e 1. r- an I dL-lms. has probably never been ex-elled. They sho.. a deg.ree of skill in other n echanical arts -imilar to that di-played in their manufacture of cloth. They have left behind them nianv remarkable evidences of their knowl edge in working metal-. They were familiar with the proce-se= of -melting. casting in mold-. ham merin,. and soldering. Tool= and various objects of bronze were in use. In the ancient tombs have been blind many elegant and curious objects of gold and silver. vases. cups. bracelet-. collars, and personal ornament-. they possessed in considerable quantity and these they cut with great -kill. In the manufacture of pottery they attained to a high degree of excellence. Many of thee vessels are beautiful in outline. Often they represent the human form or that of some familiar object or animal, and in the firing and decoration they show an advanced stage in the potter% art.
In music they had reached considerable profi ciency. judoin, by the number and variety of the musical instrument, left behind them. Among these are flutes of cane and bone. clay trumpets. trumpets of shell. bells of bronze and copper. and a great variety of whistles. capable of yielding a scale of several tones. It does not appear that they ever reached the more advanced stage of stringed instruments. Of the character of their veal music we know nothing.
They had considerable knowledge of medi cine and surgery. employing bleeding and purg ing. In astronomy they had made some prog ress. dividing the year into twelve lunar months. They al-o had weeks. but of how many days is uncertain. As their lunar year would necessarily
fall short of the true time. they corrected their calendar by solar observations made by means of columns raised on the high at Cuzco. These served them for taking azimuths. and by meas uring their shadows they ascertained the exact time- of the sol-tices. The period of the equi noxes was determined by the help of a solitary pillar.
The ancient Peruvian-. haying no written lan guage. made use of the Quipu. a device con-i-t in; of a main cord with others of different colors depending from it like a fringe. Each color de noted some object or abstract i lea. Quipu ties a knot. Knots tied in the depending cords served as ciphers. and by tying them at different distance= from the main cord and from each other. they could be male to represent numbers to any amount required. These knotted cords were also used as mnemonic ail-. There was also a con=iiierable body of song. leoend, and drama handed down by oral traditi n. Among these the drama of 011anta. committed to writing soon after the Conquest. has been translated into several languages.
The burial customs varied in different parts of the country. Believinz in the resurrection of the body, the same care was everywhere exercised to preserve it. The mummies, or more strietiv speaking the desiccated bodies of the dead. owe their preservation to the exceedingly and rarefied atmosphere of the mountain- or the dry nitruu= sand of the coast regions. In preparing the body for the grave. it was commonly placed in a sitting posture. with the knee- drawn up and the chin and hands resting upon them. In the extreme northwestern part of Peru the body was buried in an extended position. The mummies of the better class were often covered with wrap pings L f fine cotton cloth; over this were ponchos and blankets made of the wool of the alpaca and vicuna. With them were placed vases of elegant design. and often objects of gold and silver. The cerements of the poor are scanty and mean. and the objects buried with them of inferior quality. Food was always placed with the dead, and gen erally the objects most prized in life. The last resting place varied with the locality. In some places vast mounds, penetrated by galleries. were raised over the dead. In others mummies are found in little vault- or chambers of adobe. roofed with =ticks or canes. often containing four or five bodies. In the Callao and parts of Bolivia the burials were in stone chulpas or burial towers.