In Every Part Of Peru There Were
Certain Houses Or Monasteries, Which Were Inhabited By Women Who Were
Consecrated To The Sun.
These women never went out, but were perpetually
employed in spinning cotton and wool, which they wove into cloth, and then
burned along with the bones of white sheep, throwing the ashes into the
air in honour of the sun.
These women were consecrated to perpetual
celibacy, and were put to death if found to be with child, unless they
could swear that their child was begotten by the sun.
Every year, at the season of the maize harvest, the mountaineer Peruvians
had a solemn festival; on which occasion they set up two tall straight
trees like masts, on the top of which was placed the figure of a man
surrounded by other figures and adorned with flowers. The inhabitants went
in procession armed with bows and arrows and regularly marshalled into
companies, beating their drums and with great outcries and rejoicings,
each company in succession discharging their arrows at the dressed up
figure. After which the priests set up an idol at the bottom of the masts,
before which they sacrificed a man or a sheep, sprinkling the idol with
the blood of the victim; and having inspected the heart and entrails of
the sacrifice, they reported the signs they had discovered to the people,
who were sad or rejoiced according as these were good or bad. The whole of
this festival was usually spent in dancing and drinking, and in various
games and sports, some of which were warlike exercises, with maces, clubs,
axes and other arms.
All the caciques and other principal inhabitants of Peru are reposited
after their death in a kind of vaults, clothed in all their richest
dresses, and seated in a kind of chairs which they name _duos_. It was
customary also to bury along with them one or two of their best beloved
wives, and on this occasion the honour was frequently contested among the
wives of the deceased, unless when the husband had previously settled who
were to be chosen to accompany him in the tomb. Two or three youths of
their train, and all their gold and silver-plate used also to be buried
along with them; all of which was done in the hope of one day rising again
from the dead, and that they might then appear in proper style,
accompanied by their wives and servants. When the Spaniards broke up these
sepulchres on purpose to take possession of their buried treasures, the
Peruvians requested of them not to disturb the bones of the dead, that
they might not be hindered in their resurrection. In the burial ceremony,
the relations of the deceased used to pour some of the liquor formerly
mentioned, named _Chica_, into the grave, of which a portion was conveyed
by some hollow canes into the mouth of the dead person. On the top of the
tomb or sepulchre, wooden images were placed, representing the appearance
of the deceased; but on the graves of the lower orders, they satisfied
themselves by some painted emblems of their profession or employment, more
especially if they happened to be warriors.
In all the provinces of Peru there were certain nobles or principal
persons, of whom the chiefs or rulers were named _curacas_, similar in
every respect to the caciques of the islands. As the Spaniards who
conquered Peru had been accustomed to name many things according to the
language of Hispaniola and Cuba, and were at first ignorant of the
Peruvian language, they continued to employ the terms to which they had
been accustomed; and the Peruvians have so far accommodated themselves to
this language, especially in speaking to the Spaniards, that they mostly
use these terms. Thus they call those chiefs _caciques_, who in their own
language are named _curacas_, their bread corn and drink, which in the
Peruvian are _zara_ and _azua_, they denominate _maize_ and _chica_, which
names were brought from the islands by the Spaniards. These curacas or
caciques were the judges and protectors of their subjects in peace, and
their leaders in war against the neighbouring tribes. The whole people of
Peru lived in that manner for many years under a multiplicity of
independent chiefs, having no king or supreme chief; until at length a
warlike nation came from the environs of the great lake Titicaca named the
Incas in the language of Peru. These men had their heads close shaven, and
their ears pierced, in which they wore large round pendents of gold, by
which their ears were dragged down upon their shoulders, in consequence of
which they were called _ringrim_, or the large ears. Their chief was
called _Zapalla Inca_[30], or the only king; though others say that he was
named _Inca Vira cocha_, or the king from the scum of the lake, because
the astonished natives, not knowing the origin of their invaders, believed
that they had started into existence from the scum or mud of the great
lake. This great lake of Titicaca is about eighty leagues in circumference,
from which a large river runs to the southwards, which in some places is
half a league in breadth, and which discharges its waters into a small
lake about forty leagues from the great lake, which has no outlet. This
circumstance gives great astonishment to many, who are unable to
comprehend how so vast a body of water should disappear in so small a
reservoir. As this smaller lake appears to have no bottom, some conceive
that it discharges itself into the sea by some subterranean communication,
like the river Alphaeus in Greece.
These Incas established themselves in the first place at Cuzco, from
whence they gradually extended their sway over the whole of Peru, which
became tributary to them. The empire of the Incas descended in successive
order, but not by immediate hereditary rules. On the death of a king, he
was succeeded by his immediately younger brother; and on his demise the
eldest son of the preceding king was called to the throne; so as always to
have on the throne a prince of full age.
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