The Indians In
The Plain Seldom Have Any Houses, Or At Best A Kind Of Rude Huts Or Cabins
Made Of Branches Of Trees, Often Dwelling Under The Shade Of Trees,
Without Any Habitation Whatever.
The women are habited in long dresses of
cotton which descend to their feet; while the men wear breeches and vests
which come down to their knees, and have a kind of cloak or mantle thrown
over their shoulders.
They are all dressed in a similar manner, having no
distinctions except in their head-dresses, according to rank or the
different districts of the country; some wearing a tuft of wool, others a
single cord, and others several cords of different colours. All the
Indians of the plain are distributed into three orders; the first named
_Yungas_, the second _Tallanes_, and the third _Mochicas_. Every province
has its own peculiar language or dialect, different from all the rest. But
all the caciques or principal people and nobles of the country, besides
the language peculiar to their respective countries or districts, were
obliged to understand and speak the language of Cuzco. One of the Peruvian
kings, named Huana Capac, the father of Atahualpa or Atabalipa, was much
displeased that the caciques and principal people of his empire should be
under the necessity of employing interpreters when they had occasion to
speak to him; and gave orders that all the caciques and their relatives
should send their children to reside at court, to be instructed in the
language of Cuzco which was spoken by the Incas.
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