ouse of the
Inca," at the northwestern corner of the basin. Raimondi visited it
in 1863. The representative of the owner of Parinacochas occupies
one of the houses. The other buildings are used only during the third
week in August, at the time of the annual fair. In the now deserted
plaza were many low stone rectangles partly covered with adobe and
ready to be converted into booths. The plaza was surrounded by long,
thatched buildings of adobe and stone, mostly of rough ashlars. A
few ashlars showed signs of having been carefully dressed by ancient
stonemasons. Some loose ashlars weighed half a ton and had baffled
the attempts of modern builders.

In constructing the large church, advantage was taken of a beautifully
laid wall of close-fitting ashlars. Incahuasi was well named; there had
been at one time an Inca house here, possibly a temple--lakes were once
objects of worship--or rest-house, constructed in order to enable the
chiefs and tax-gatherers to travel comfortably over the vast domains
of the Incas. We found the slopes of the hills of the Parinacochas
Basin to be well covered with remains of ancient terraces. Probably
potatoes and other root crops were once raised here in fairly large
quantities. Perhaps deforestation and subsequent increased aridity
might account for the desertion of these once-cultivated lands. The
hills west of the lake are intersected by a few dry gulches in which
are caves that have been used as burial places. The caves had at one
time been walled in with rocks laid in adobe, but these walls had
been partly broken down so as to permit the sepulchers to be rifled of
whatever objects of value they might have contained. We found nine or
ten skulls lying loose in the rubble of the caves. One of the skulls
seemed to have been trepanned.

On top of the ridge are the remains of an ancient road, fifty feet
wide, a broad grassy way through fields of loose stones. No effort
had been made at grading or paving this road, and there was no
evidence of its having been used in recent times. It runs from the
lake across the ridge in a westerly direction toward a broad valley,
where there are many terraces and cultivated fields; it is not far from
Nasca. Probably the stones were picked up and piled on each side to
save time in driving caravans of llamas across the stony ridges. The
llama dislikes to step over any obstacle, even a very low wall. The
grassy roadway would certainly encourage the supercilious