As he approached he beheld a venerable man seated under the shade of a palm tree, with a great book open before him from which he was reading to an attentive circle of auditors the wars and wanderings of their forefathers.

With difficulty the priest got a sight of the precious volume, and found it covered with figures and signs in marvellous symmetry and order.[14-1] No wonder such a romantic scene left a deep impression on his memory.
The Peruvians adopted a totally different and unique system of records, that by means of the _quipu_.

This was a base cord, the thickness of the finger, of any required length, to which were attached numerous small strings of different colors, lengths, and textures, variously knotted and twisted one with another.

Each of these peculiarities represented a certain number, a quality, quantity, or other idea, but _what_, not the most fluent _quipu_ reader could tell unless he was acquainted with the general topic treated of.

Therefore, whenever news was sent in this manner a person accompanied the bearer to serve as verbal commentator, and to prevent confusion the _quipus_ relating to the various departments of knowledge were placed in separate storehouses, one for war, another for taxes, a third for history, and so forth.