By This Man The Ancient
Indians Were Created; And As Those Of The Plain Had Given Him Some Cause
Of
Displeasure, he rendered their country sterile and sandy as it now is,
and commanded that it should never rain in
That district; yet sent them
the rivers and torrents which run through it, that they might have
wherewithal to quench their thirst. This person, named _Con_, who they
allege was son of the sun and moon, they esteemed and adored as a god,
pretending that he had given the herbs and wild fruits as food for the
people whom he had created. After him came another man from the south,
named _Pachacamac_, or the creator, who was likewise the son of the sun
and moon, but more powerful than _Con_, who disappeared on his arrival,
leaving the men whom he had created without chiefs or laws, and Pachacamac
transformed them all into various animals, as birds, cats, bears, lions,
and the like, giving origin in this manner to all the beasts and birds
which are now found in the country. After this Pachacamac created the
present race of Indians, teaching them the art of labouring the ground for
the cultivation of plants of various kinds for food. Pachacamac is
considered as a god, and all the principal persons among the Peruvians are
desirous of being buried in the province named from him Pachacamac, as he
resided there, which is about four leagues from the city of Lima[29].
They pretended that their god Pachacamac continued several ages among them,
even to the time of the arrival of the Spaniards, since when he has
disappeared. Hence we may presume that he was some demon by whom they were
miserably abused and misled, and who filled their minds with so many
extravagant absurd fables.
The Indians believe likewise, that even before Con and Pachacamac, there
was a great deluge, during which mankind saved themselves in great caves
in the high mountains, into which they carried a store of food, shutting
up the entries, and carefully filling up all the crevices, to keep out the
water. After a long while, they sent out some dogs, who returned to them
all wet but not dirtied with mud, from which circumstance they concluded
that the waters still remained very high, and they did not venture to
leave their caverns till the dogs came back a second time all covered with
mud. They allege that great numbers of serpents were engendered by the
moisture left in the earth by this deluge, by which their ancestors were
much distressed for a long time, till they at length succeeded to
extirpate them. From this tradition they appear to have retained some
confused notion of the deluge, although they were ignorant of the way in
which Noah and seven other persons were saved in the ark to repeople the
whole earth. Perhaps their tradition may refer to some partial deluge,
like that of Deucalion.
The have a notion that the world is to come to an end; before which there
is to be a great drought, when no rain is to fall for several years. On
this account, in former times, the caciques used to lay up large magazines
of maize to serve them during the long drought. Even yet, the more timid
among the Peruvians make a great lamentation when the sun or moon are
eclipsed, believing the end of the world to be at hand; as they allege
that these luminaries are to be extinguished at the destruction of the
world.
The Peruvians worship the Sun and Moon as deities, and swear by these
luminaries and by the earth, which they consider as their mother. In their
temples they adore certain stones, as representatives of the sun, which
they name _guacas_, a word signifying to weep, which they do on entering
into their temples. No person is permitted to approach these guacas except
the priests who sacrifice to these idols, who are all clothed in white.
When they go up to their idols, they carry certain white cloths in their
hands, prostrating themselves and crawling on the earth, and addressing
their idols in a language which is not understood by any of the natives.
By these priests all the offerings for the idols are received and buried
in the temples, as the Indian votaries make gifts of figures in gold or
silver of those things for which they address their prayers to the guaca.
These priests likewise offer sacrifices of animals and even of men to
their gods, searching the hearts and intrails of the victims for certain
signs which they wish to find, and repeating their abominable sacrifices
until they meet with those signs which they desire; pretending that the
idols are not satisfied by the sacrifices till these appear. During all
the time that the priests are engaged in sacrificing, they never appear in
public, neither have they any intercourse with women, and employ
themselves all night in loud cries, invoking the demons near to the places
in which the guacas are kept, which are extremely numerous, as most houses
have each their own guaca. The priests prepare themselves for having
intercourse with the demons by long fasts, after which they tie up their
eyes and some even carry their superstition to such excess as to put out
their own eyes. The caciques and other great men among the Peruvians never
undertake any affair of importance without having first consulted the
idols, or demons rather, by means of the priests.
In the temples of the sun the Spaniards found several large earthen jars
containing the dried bodies of children which had been sacrificed. Among
the figures of gold and silver which were used as ornaments to the guacas,
there were several which had a strong resemblance to the mitres and
crosiers of our bishops, and some of these idols were found having mitres
on their heads. When Thomas de Verlanga, bishop of Tierra Firma travelled
through Peru, with his mitre, in which he was seen by the Indians
celebrating the mass, they asked if he was the guaca of the Christians.
When asked the reason of these mitres, they could only say that they had
been handed down from their ancestors.
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