]
[Footnote 31: "Heran tantos los atambores que de noche se oian
por todas cartes bailando y cantando y belendo que toda la mayor
parte de la noche se les pasava en esto cotidianamente." Pedro
Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms.]
The edifices of the better sort - and they were very numerous -
were of stone, or faced with stone. *32 Among the principal were
the royal residences; as each sovereign built a new palace for
himself, covering, though low, a large extent of ground. The
walls were sometimes stained of painted with gaudy tints, and the
gates, we are assured, were sometimes of colored marble. *33 In
the delicacy of the stone-work," says another of the Conquerors,
"the natives far excelled the Spaniards, though the roofs of
their dwellings, instead of tiles, were only of thatch, but put
together with the nicest art." *34 The sunny climate of Cuzco did
not require a very substantial material for defence against the
weather.
[Footnote 32: "La maggior parte di queste case sono di pietra, et
l'altre hano la meta della facciata di pietra." Ped. Sancho,
Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. III. fol. 413.]
[Footnote 33: The buildings were usually of freestone. There may
have been porphyry from the neighbouring mountains mixed with
this, which the Spaniards mistook for marble.]
[Footnote 34: "Todo labrado de piedra muy prima, que cierto toda
la canteria desta cibdad hace gran ventaja a la de Espana, aunque
carecen de teja que todas las casas sino es la fortaleza, que era
hecha de azoteas son cubiertas de paja, aunque tan primamente
puesta, que parece bien.
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