The job of Inca roadrunner was a specialized
profession in the Inca Empire.
Young men studied how to be an Incan
roadrunner. Incan roadrunners carried orders and news from one
end of the entire to the other. They were the mailmen of
the Incan Empire. Messages always reached the Sapa Inca
accurately. If it was discovered that a message was not accurate,
punishment was severe.
Each runner would run like the wind for a short
distance along the famous Inca roads. As
he approached the next relay station, the runner blew loudly on a
conch shell to alert the next runner to get ready. The next runner
would appear, running along side him. Without stopping, the first
runner told the second runner the message. The second runner speeded
ahead until he reached the next relay station.
When messages were secret, runners carried the
message in the form of a
quipu - a series of knots and colored string. The
quipu would be handed from runner to runner until it reached its
destination. There, a special quipu reader would decipher the
message.
This relay system was so effective that runners
could messages at a rate of about 250 miles a day. Without these
specially trained Incan mailmen, controlling the vast Inca
Empire would have been next to impossible.
