eak
their vows of celibacy. Calancha says that after consultation with
his priests and soothsayers Titu Cusi selected as tempters the most
beautiful Indian women, including some individuals of the Yungas who
were unusually attractive. It is possible that these women, who lived
at the "University of Idolatry" in "Vilcabamba Viejo," were "Virgins of
the Sun," who were under the orders of the Inca and his high priests
and were selected from the fairest daughters of the empire. It is
also evident that "Vilcabamba Viejo" was so constructed that the
monks could be kept for three weeks in its vicinity without being
able to see what was going on in the city or to describe the kinds of
"abominations" which were practiced there, as they did those at the
white rock of Chuquipalta. As will be shown later, it is possible
that this Vilcabamba, referred to in Calancha's story as "Vilcabamba
Viejo," was on the slopes of the mountain now called Machu Picchu.

In the meantime it was necessary to pursue the hunt for the ruins
of Vilcabamba called "the old" by Ocampo, to distinguish it from
the Spanish town of that name which he had helped to found after
the capture of Tupac Amaru, and referred to merely as Vilcabamba by
Captain Garcia and his companions in their accounts of the campaign.

CHAPTER XIV

Conservidayoc

When Don Pedro Duque of Santa Aria was helping us to identify places
mentioned in Calancha and Ocampo, the references to "Vilcabamba Viejo,"
or Old Uilcapampa, were supposed by two of his informants to point
to a place called Conservidayoc. Don Pedro told us that in 1902 Lopez
Torres, who had traveled much in the montana looking for rubber trees,
reported the discovery there of the ruins of an Inca city. All of Don
Pedro's friends assured us that Conservidayoc was a terrible place
to reach. "No one now living had been there." "It was inhabited by
savage Indians who would not let strangers enter their villages."

When we reached Paltaybamba, Senor Pancorbo's manager confirmed what
we had heard. He said further that an individual named Saavedra lived
at Conservidayoc and undoubtedly knew all about the ruins, but was
very averse to receiving visitors. Saavedra's house was extremely
difficult to find. "No one had been there recently and returned
alive." Opinions differed as to how far away it was.

Several days later, while Professor Foote and I were studying the ruins
near Rosaspata, Senor Pancorbo, returning from his