Note 326 — Chapter IV · MARKET DAYS
Reading edition
Garcilasso de la Vega, Comentarios reales de los Incas, pt. i, bk. vi, ch. 35; C. R. Markham, First Part of the Royal Commentaries of the Yncas, London, 1871, ii, 206. It is an old error, for which Garcilasso de la Vega (op. cit., pt. i, bk. ii, ch. 23) appears to be responsible, that the Peruvians had a week of seven days, following the successive phases of the moon. But Acosta, who visited Peru soon after the Spanish conquest of that country, is better informed and says clearly that neither Peruvians nor Mexicans had a seven-day week (J. de Acosta, Historia de las Indias, bk. vi, ch. 3; The Natural and Moral History of the Indies, edited by C. R. Markham, London, 1880, ii, 396).