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. In every part of Peru there were certain houses or monasteries, which were inhabited by women who were consecrated to the sun.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 558 of 796
Words from 154373 to 154636 of 221091