Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The Indians Said That Powder Of Gold And
Golden Vessels Were Thrown Into This Lake, As A Sacrifice To The
Adoratorio De Guatavita.
Vestiges are still found of a breach which
was made by the Spaniards for the purpose of draining the lake.
The
temple of the sun at Sogamozo being pretty near the northern coasts of
Terra Firma, the notions of the gilded man were soon applied to a
high-priest of the sect of Bochica, or Indacanzas, who every morning,
before he performed his sacrifice, caused powder of gold to be stuck
upon his hands and face, after they had been smeared with grease.
Other accounts, preserved in a letter of Oviedo addressed to the
celebrated cardinal Bembo, say that Gonzalo Pizarro, when he
discovered the province of cinnamon-trees, "sought at the same time a
great prince, noised in those countries, who was always covered with
powdered gold, so that from head to foot he resembled an image of gold
fashioned by the hand of a skilful workman (a una figura d'oro
lavorato di mano d'un buonissimo orefice). The powdered gold is fixed
to the body by means of an odoriferous resin; but, as this kind of
garment would be uneasy to him while he slept, the prince washes
himself every evening, and is gilded anew in the morning, which proves
that the empire of El Dorado is infinitely rich in mines." It seems
probable that there was something in the ceremonies of the worship
introduced by Bochica which gave rise to a tradition so generally
spread. The strangest customs are found in the New World. In Mexico
the sacrificers painted their bodies and wore a kind of cape, with
hanging sleeves of tanned human skin.
On the banks of the Caura, and in other wild parts of Guiana, where
painting the body is used instead of tattooing, the nations anoint
themselves with turtle-fat, and stick spangles of mica with a metallic
lustre, white as silver and red as copper, on their skin, so that at a
distance they seem to wear laced clothes. The fable of the gilded man
is, perhaps, founded on a similar custom; and, as there were two
sovereign princes in New Granada, the lama of Iraca and the secular
chief or zaque of Tunja, we cannot be surprised that the same ceremony
was attributed sometimes to the prince and sometimes to the
high-priest. It is more extraordinary that, as early as the year 1535,
the country of El Dorado was sought for on the east of the Andes.
Robertson is mistaken in admitting that Orellana received the first
notions of it (1540) on the banks of the Amazon. The history of Fray
Piedro Simon, founded on the memoirs of Queseda, the conqueror of
Cundirumarca, proves directly the contrary; and Gonzalo Diaz de
Pineda, as early as 1536, sought for the gilded man beyond the plains
of the province of Quixos. The ambassador of Bogota, whom Daza met
with in the kingdom of Quito, had spoken of a country situate toward
the east.
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