ABSTRACT
Selecting the best language, the Incas ordered, on pain of serious punishment, that all the natives of the empire should understand the tongue that was spoken at Cuzco, as well the men as the women. Even a child had scarcely left the breast of its mother before they began to teach it the language which it was bound to know. When a captain of Cuzco, or some one of the Orejones, set out to take an account of the revenues, or to act as judge on commission among the provinces, or on any other duty, he did not speak any other language than that of Cuzco to the people, nor they to him. If the time should come when a language which was used by so many people shall be forgotten, it should at least be known which words belonged to the first and general language, and whence they came.
