Polo de Ondegardo, who lived in Cuzco in 1560, says that the Incas used to bring fresh fish from the sea by special runners, and that "they have records in their quipus of the fish having been brought from Tumbez, a distance of more than three hundred leagues."

Instead, they used quipus, strings and knots.

The rulers and priests, however, found that the important records of tribute and taxes could be kept perfectly well by means of the quipus.

Montesinos says further that Tupac Cauri established in Tampu-tocco a kind of university where boys were taught the use of quipus, the method of counting and the significance of the different colored strings, while their fathers and older brothers were trained in military exercisesin other words, practiced with the sling, the bolas and the war-club; perhaps also with bows and arrows.

In some parts of ancient Mexico they used in their accounting knotted cords of various colors, like the Peruvian quipus.