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Updated: May 23, 2025
Aua; this word I take to be a form of the interjection yahue, or, as Olmos gives it in his Grammar, aa. 2. nepohualoyan; "the place of counting or reckoning," from pohua, to count. The reference is not clear, and the translation uncertain. In some parts of ancient Mexico they used in their accounting knotted cords of various colors, like the Peruvian quipus. These were called nepohualtzitzin.
This mandate was observed with such strictness that the ancient folk never again used letters. Instead, they used quipus, strings and knots. It was supposed that the gods were appeased, and every one breathed easier. No one realized how near the Peruvians as a race had come to taking a most momentous step.
The ancient Peruvians also had a system, not exactly of writing, but of record by means of QUIPUS or twisted woollen cords of different colours: it is through such records that we have some knowledge of Peruvian history during about a hundred years before the coming of the Spaniards, and some traditions reaching still further back.
All along these routes, small buildings were erected, at the distance of less than five miles asunder,47 in each of which a number of runners, or chasquis, as they were called, were stationed to carry forward the despatches of government.48 These despatches were either verbal, or conveyed by means of quipus, and sometimes accompanied by a thread of the crimson fringe worn round the temples of the Inca, which was regarded with the same implicit deference as the signet ring of an Oriental despot.49
They lacked the art of writing, although they possessed a highly developed system of mnemonic aids in the form of curiously knotted and particolored strings called quipus. Their literature, if the contradiction be permitted, was handed down like their history, by oral tradition. Great as had been their achievements, however, they were in a curious state of arrested development.
Indeed, the word 'quipu' means 'a knot. By means of the colours and the various knots the Peruvians expressed ideas it was their method of writing but the quipus were chiefly used for arithmetical purposes.
The messages might be verbal, or conveyed by means of the 'quipus. A quipu was a cord two feet long, composed of differently coloured threads twisted together, from which were hung a number of smaller threads, also differently coloured and tied in knots.
But, although the quipus sufficed for all the purposes of arithmetical computation demanded by the Peruvians, they were incompetent to represent the manifold ideas and images which are expressed by writing, Even here, however, the invention was not without its use.
In every district officers were stationed who were called 'keepers of the quipus'; their duty was to supply the Government with information as to the revenues, births, deaths, and marriages, number of population, and so on.
A register was kept of all the births and deaths throughout the country, and exact returns of the actual population were made to government every year, by means of the quipus, a curious invention, which will be explained hereafter.25 At certain intervals, also, a general survey of the country was made, exhibiting a complete view of the character of the soil, its fertility, the nature of its products, both agricultural and mineral, -in short, of all that constituted the physical resources of the empire.26 Furnished with these statistical details, it was easy for the government, after determining the amount of requisitions, to distribute the work among the respective provinces best qualified to execute it.
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