complicated system of nature-worship. For example, Fire, considered as
derived from the Sun, was the object of profound veneration, and the
worship rendered it must have served admirably as a link between the
religion of the Incas and that of Pachacamac. Strange as it may seem at
first sight, the symbols of fire were stones. But our surprise will
cease when we remember that stones were thought, in a high antiquity, to
be animated by the fire that was supposed to be shut up within them,
since it could be made to issue forth by a sharp blow. The Peruvian
religion likewise adds its testimony to that of all the religions of the
Old World, as to the importance which long attached to the preservation
amongst the tribes of men of that living fire which it was so difficult
to recover if once it had been allowed to escape. A perpetual fire
burned in the temple of the Sun and in the abode of the Virgins of the
Sun, of whom we shall have to speak presently. The wide-spread idea that
fire becomes polluted at last and loses its divine virtue by too long
contact with men, meets us once more. The fire must be renewed from
time to time, and this act was performed yearly by the chief-priest of
Peru, who kindled wood by means of a concave golden mirror. This miracle
is very easy for us to explain, but we cannot doubt that the priests and
people of Peru saw something supernatural in the phenomenon.[87]
The thunder, likewise, was personified and adored in certain provinces
under the name of _Catequil_, but it is a peculiarity of the Peruvian
religion that it assigns a subordinate rank in the hierarchy to the god
of thunder, who elsewhere generally takes the supreme place. In Peru, he
was but one of the Sun's servants, though the most redoubtable of them
all. The Peruvians are remarkable for their childish dread of thunder. A
great projecting rock, often one that had been struck by the thunder,
passed for the deity's favoured residence. Catequil appears in three
forms: _Chuquilla_ (thunder), _Catuilla_ (lightning), and _Intiallapa_
(thunderbolt). His remaining name, _Illapa_, also means thunder. He had
special temples, in which he was represented as armed with a sling and a
club.[88] They sacrificed children, but more especially llamas, to him.
Twins were regarded as children of the lightning, and if they died young
their skeletons were preserved as precious relics. And, finally, we find
in Peru the same idea that prevails in a great part of southern Africa,
viz. that a house or field that has been struck by lightning cannot be
used again. Catequil has taken possession of it, and it would be
dangerous to dispute it with him.[89]
We have seen how the element of water was adored under the names of
Viracocha and his sister Mama Cocha. The earth was worshipped in grottos
or caves, often considered as the places whence men and gods had taken
their origin, and as giving oracles.[90] There were also trees and
plants that were clothed with a divine character, especially the
esculent plants, such as the maize, personified as _Zarap Conopa_, and
the potato, as _Papap Conopa_. A female statue was often made of maize
or coca leaves, and adored as the mother of plants.[91]
Thus we descend quite gently from the official heights of the religion
of the Incas towards those substrata of religious thought which always
maintain themselves beneath the higher religion that more or less
expressly patronizes them, but to which they are not really bound by any
necessary tie. They are the survivals of old superstitions, to which the
common people are often far more attached than they are to the exalted
doctrines which they are taught officially. And it is thus, for example,
that we note in Peru the very popular worship of numerous animals,
mounting, without doubt, to a much higher antiquity than was reached by
the religion of the Incas. Indeed, I should be inclined to ascribe to
the religious diplomacy of the children of the Sun the Peruvian belief
which established a connection of origin between each kind of animal and
a particular star. The serpent, especially, seems to have been, in Peru
as in Africa, the object of great veneration. We find it reproduced in
wood and stone on an enormous number of the greater and smaller relics
of Peruvian art. The god of subterranean treasures, _Urcaguay_, was a
great serpent, with little chains of gold at his tail, and a head
adorned with stag-like horns. The dwellers by the shore worshipped the
whale and the shark. There were fish-gods, too, in the temple of
Pachacamac, no doubt because of the enormous power of reproduction
possessed by fishes. The condor was a messenger of the Sun, and his
image was graven on the sceptre of the Incas.[92] It is remarkable that
the llama does not appear amongst these divine animals, probably because
it was so completely domesticated and wholly subject to man.
And finally, when we come to the _Guacas_, or _Huacas_, we reach the
point where the Peruvian religion sinks into absolute fetichism.
The meaning of the word _Guaca_, or _Huaca_, was not very precise in the
mouths of the Peruvians themselves. On the one hand, it was applied to
everything that bore a religious character, whether an object of
worship, the person of the priests, a temple, a tomb, or what not. The
Sun himself was _Huaca_. The chief priest of Cuzco bore amongst other
names that of _Huacapvillac_, "he who converses with huaca beings."[93]
On the other hand, in ordinary language, this same term was used to
signify those wood, stone and metal objects which were so abundant in
Peru, of which we still possess numerous specimens, and of which we must
now say a few words. Some of these huacas, especially the stone ones,
were of considerable size, and no doubt dated from the pre-historic
religion before the Incas. But as a rule they were small and portable,
were private and hereditary property, and were regarded as veritable
fetiches, that is to say, as the dwelling-places of spirits. Animism, in
fact, never ceased to haunt the imaginations of the Peruvians,
especially amongst the lower orders, whether the spirits were dreaded as
malevolent sprites, or courted as protectors and revealers. These huacas
represented (as true fetiches should) forms which were sometimes
animal, sometimes human, sometimes simply grotesque, but always ugly and
exaggerated. Every valley, every tribe, every temple, every chief, had a
guardian spirit. Those which were analogous to _paenates publici_ were
recognized by the Incas, who endowed them with flocks and various
presents. Often a stone in the middle of the village passed as the abode
of the patron spirit of the place. It was the _huacacoal_, the stone of
the huaca, whereas the huacas of the family or house were distinguished
as _conopas_. Meteorites or thunderbolts were in great demand as huacas,
and especially amongst lovers, since they were supposed to inspire a
reciprocity of affection. The Christian missionaries had more difficulty
in rooting out the worship of the Huacas than in abolishing that of the
Sun and Moon, and we may still detect numerous traces of this ancient
superstition amongst the natives of Peru.[94]
IV.
Let us now turn to the priesthood which presided over the worship of
these numerous deities.
There was no sacerdotal caste in Peru, or, to speak more correctly, the
Inca family constituted the only sacerdotal caste in the strict sense of
the word. This family retained for itself all the highest positions in
the priesthood, as well as in the army and administration. These priests
of the higher rank bore special garments and insignia, while the lower
clergy wore the ordinary costume. At the head of all the priests of the
empire, first after the reigning Inca, stood the _Villac Oumau_, "the
chief sacrificer," also, as we have seen, called the _Huacapvillac_. He
was nominated by the reigning Inca, and in his turn nominated all his
subordinates. His name indicates that he was the living oracle, the
interpreter of the will of the Sun. You can understand, therefore, how
important it was for the policy of the Incas that he should himself be
subject to the authority and discretion of the sovereign. After him came
the rest of the chief priests, also members of the Inca family, whom he
put in charge of the provincial temples of the Sun. At Cuzco itself all
the priests had to be Incas. They were divided into squadrons, which
attended in succession, according to the quarters of the moon, to the
elaborate ritual of the service. And here we must admire the consummate
art with which the Incas had planned everything in their empire to
secure their supremacy against all attaint, in religion as in all else,
while still leaving the successively annexed populations a certain
measure of religious freedom. In the provinces, the Inca family,
numerous as it was, could not have provided priests for all the
sanctuaries; and, moreover, there would be local rites, traditions,
perhaps even priesthoods, which could not well be fitted into the
framework of the official religion. The Incas therefore had decided that
the priests of the local deities should be affiliated to the imperial
priesthood, but in such a way that the chief priests of the local
deities should at the same time be subordinate priests of the deities of
the empire. What a wonderful stroke of political genius! What happier
method could have been found of teaching the subject populations, while
still maintaining their traditional forms of worship, to regard the
imperial cultus patronized by the reigning Inca as superior to all
others? And what an invaluable guarantee of obedience was obtained by
this association of the non-Inca priests with the official priesthood,
the honours and advantages of which they were thus made to share,
without any room for an aspiration after independence! I regard this
organization of the priesthood in ancient Peru as one of the most
striking proofs of the political genius of the Incas, and as one of the
facts which best explain how a theocracy, which was after all based on
the absolute and exclusive pretensions of one special mythology, was
able to consolidate itself and endure for centuries, while exercising a
large toleration towards other traditions and forms of worship.[95]
By the side of the priests there were also priestesses; and they were
clothed with a very special function. I refer to those _Virgins of the
Sun_ (_acllia_ = chosen ones), those Peruvian nuns, who so much
impressed the early historians of Peru. There were convents of these
Virgins at Cuzco and in the chief cities of the empire. At Cuzco there
were five hundred of them, drawn for the most part from the families of
the Incas and the _Curacas_ or nobles, although (for a reason which will
be apparent presently) great beauty gave even a daughter of the people a
sufficient title to enter the sacred abode. They had a lady president--I
had almost said a "mother abbess"--who selected them while yet quite
young; and under her superior direction, matrons, or _Mamaconas_,
superintended the young flock. They lived encloistered, in absolute
retreat, without any relationship with the outside world. Only the
reigning Inca, his chief wife, the _Coya_, and the chief priest, were
allowed to penetrate this sanctuary of the virgins. Now these visits of
the Inca's were not exactly disinterested. The fact is, that it was here
he generally looked for recruits for his harem. You will ask how that
could be reconciled with the vow of chastity which the maidens had
taken; but their promise had been never to take any consort except the
Sun, or _him to whom the Sun should give them_. Now the Inca, the child
of the Sun, his representative and incarnation upon earth, began by
assigning the most beautiful to himself, after which he might give some
of those who had not found special favour in his eyes to his Curacas.
And thus the vow was kept intact. In other respects, the most absolute
chastity was sternly enforced. If any nun violated her vow, or was
unhappy enough to allow the sacred fire that burned day and night in the
austere abode to be extinguished, the penalty was death. And the strange
thing is, that the mode of death was identical with that which awaited
the Roman vestal guilty of the same offences. The culprit was buried
alive. This illustrates the value of the theories started by those
authors who can never discover any resemblance of rites or beliefs
between two peoples without forthwith setting about to inquire which of
the two borrowed from the other! It will hardly be maintained that the
Peruvians borrowed this cruel custom from the ancient Romans, and
assuredly the Romans did not get it from Peru. Whence, then, can the
resemblance spring? From the same train of ideas leading to the same
conclusion. By the sacrilege of the culprit, the gods of heaven and of
light, the protecting and benevolent deities, were offended and
incensed, and the whole country would feel the tokens of their wrath. To
disarm their anger, its unhappy cause must expiate her guilt, and at the
same time must be removed from their sight and given over to the powers
of darkness, for she was no longer worthy to see the light. And that is
why the dark tomb must swallow her. She had betrayed her spouse the
Sun--let her henceforth be the spouse and the slave of darkness; and let
her be sent alive to those dark powers, that they might do with her as
they would. We must add that the guilty nun's accomplice was strangled,
and that her whole family from first to last was put to death.
The ordinary occupations of the Virgins of the Sun consisted in making
garments for the members of the imperial family and tapestries destined
to adorn the temples and palaces, in kneading and baking the sacred
loaves, preparing the sacred drinks, and, finally, in watching and
feeding the sacred fire. You perceive that it was not exactly the
ascetic principle which had given rise to these convents--as in the
case of the Buddhist and Christian institutions, for example--but rather
the desire to do honour to the Sun, the supreme god, by consecrating
seraglios to him, in which his numerous consorts, protected by a severe
rule, could be kept from all except himself and those to whom he might
give them; accomplishing, meanwhile, those menial tasks which,
especially under the rule of polygamy, woman is required to perform in
the abode of her lord and master.[96]
All this shows us once more, Gentlemen, how the same fundamental logic
of the human mind asserts itself across a thousand diversities, and
re-appears under every conceivable form in every climate and every race.
Only let us look close enough and with the requisite information, and we
shall find in every case that all is explained, that all holds together,
that all is justified, by some underlying principle, and that "that
idiot of a word," _chance_, is never anything but a veil for our
ignorance. And thus, when we notice anything paradoxical, grotesque, and
unexplained by the resources we command at present, we must be very
careful not to pronounce it inexplicable. We should rather suspend our
judgment, wait till wider reflection and renewed investigation have
shown us the middle terms, and meanwhile keep silence rather than
attribute to chance or to influences which escape all human reason the
phenomena that seem abnormal.
For instance, you have heard sometimes of the strange custom in
accordance with which the father of a new-born child goes to bed and is
nursed as an invalid. You are perhaps aware that this custom, that
appears so strange to us and is now restricted to a few savage tribes,
was noted in ancient times in Europe itself, and has been preserved
almost to our own time in certain cantons of the Pyrenees. It must
therefore have been extremely wide-spread. Yet for a long time it seemed
inexplicable. But now, thanks to investigations and comparisons, the
explanation has been found. There is no doubt that the custom in
question rested on the idea that there was a close solidarity between
the health of the father and that of the new-born babe, so that if the
father should fall sick, his far weaker child would die. The father,
therefore, must be guarded from all over-exertion, must abstain from all
excess--in short, was best in bed!
So, too, in the present case. How are we to explain the resemblance
between the treatment of the Vestals at Rome and the Virgins of the Sun
at Cuzco? It was once impossible, but now that we are better acquainted
with the genesis, the spirit, the inner logic of the primitive
religions, and the modes of life, the wants and the apprehensions proper
to the pre-historic ages, we have no difficulty in attaching two
parallel customs to a single religious principle which had found
acceptance alike in Italy and Peru. And this is one of the chief tasks,
and one of the greatest charms, of the branch of study which I have the
honour of professing. It shows us that even in human error, human reason
has never abdicated its throne.
We have still to speak of the temples, the ritual and the chief
festivals of ancient Peru. To these subjects we shall devote the first
part of our sixth and last Lecture, reserving the closing portion for
the conclusions and the general lessons suggested by our two-fold study
of Mexico and Peru.
LECTURE VI.
PERUVIAN CULTUS AND FESTIVALS.--MORALS AND THE FUTURE
LIFE.--CONCLUSIONS.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
To complete my account of the native religion of Peru, I have still to
speak of the cultus, the festivals, the religious ethics, and the ideas
of a future life.
I.
The Peruvian cultus had given birth to the _temple;_ and, indeed, it is
highly interesting to witness what one may call the "genesis of the
temple" on this soil, so different from those of the Old World. There
were temples, indeed, before the Incas, but they differed both in style
and in signification from those reared under their patronage. In Peru,
as in Mexico, the temples were originally neither more nor less than
extremely lofty altars; that is to say, artificial elevations, on the
summit of which the sacrifices were presented, while a little chapel
served to contain the image of the god or gods adored. Round this great
altar were grouped other chapels, galleries and columns, as though to
accompany the great central altar formed by the eminence itself. Under
the Incas, the crowning chapel increased so enormously that it encircled
the altar and became the essential part of the sacred structure. The
Inca temples were veritable palaces, destined as abodes for the gods.
None of them remain; but their ruins attest the fact that the architects
aimed rather at colossal than at beautiful effects. They contained
gigantic stone statues, gates cut out of monoliths, and the well-known
pyramidal structures of which we have spoken already. The most imposing
of the temples was the one at Cuzco, which consisted in a vast central
edifice, flanked with a number of adjacent buildings. Gold was so
prodigally lavished on its interior that it bore the name of
_Coricancha,_ that is to say, "the place of gold." The roof was formed
by timber-work of precious woods plated with gold, but was covered, as
in the case of all the houses of the land, with a simple thatch of maize
straw. The doors opened to the East, and at the far end, above the
altar, was the golden disk of the Sun, placed so as to reflect the first
rays of the morning on its brilliant surface, and, as it were, reproduce
the great luminary. And note that the mummies of the departed Incas,
children of the Sun, were ranged in a semicircle round the sacred disk
on golden thrones, so that the morning rays came day by day to shine on
their august remains. The adjacent buildings were abodes of the deities
who formed the retinue of the Sun. The principal one was sacred to the
Moon, his consort, who had her disk of silver, and ranged around her the
ancient queens, the departed _Coyas_. Others served as the abodes of
Chaska, our planet Venus, the Pleiades, the Thunder, the Rainbow, and
finally the officiating priests of the temple. In the provinces, the
Incas reared a number of temples of the Sun on the model of that at
Cuzco, but on a smaller scale.[97]
The Incas, however, had been anticipated in this striking development of
the temple by the religions anterior or adjacent to their own. Witness
the great temple of Pachacamac, which they left standing in the valley
of Lurin, and the remarkable ruins of another great temple situated at
some miles distance from Lake Titicaca, which has quite recently been
made the subject of a careful reconstructive study by your compatriot
Mr. Inwards.[98]
The offerings presented to the gods were very varied in kind. Flowers,
fragrant incense, especially from preparations of coca, vegetables,
fruits, maize, prepared drinks offered in cups of gold. At some of the
feasts the officiating priest moistened the tips of his fingers in the
cup and flung the drops towards the Sun. We also find in Peru a very
special form of that remnant of self-immolation which enters, in more or
less reduced and restricted shape, into the devotions of so many peoples
and assumes such varied forms. The Red-skin offers his sweat; the Black
offers his saliva or his teeth; the more poetical Greek, a lock of his
hair, or even all of it. The Peruvian pulled out a hair from his eyebrow
and blew it towards the idol![99]
But there were also sacrifices of blood. A llama was sacrificed every
day at Cuzco. Before setting out on war, the Peruvians sacrificed a
black llama that they had previously kept fasting, that the heart of
their enemies might fail as did his. This was the Peruvian application
of the principle that lies at the base of all those superstitious
ceremonies intended to provoke or stimulate a desired effect by
reproducing its analogue in advance. Small birds, rabbits, and, for the
health of the Inca, black dogs, were also sacrificed frequently. All
these offerings were as a rule burned, that they might so be transmitted
to the gods.[100] It should be noted that they only sacrificed edible
animals,[101] which is a clear proof that the intention was to feed the
gods. The sacrificing priest turned the animal's eyes towards the Sun,
and opened its body to take out its heart, lungs and viscera, and offer
them to the idols. It is a characteristic fact that when the victim was
not burned, its flesh was divided amongst the sacrificers and _eaten
raw_. The Peruvians had long learned to cook their meat, but this rite
carries us back to a high antiquity, when cooking food was still an
innovation which the power of tradition excluded from the ritual. It is
to analogous causes that we must attribute the continued use of stone
instruments in the religious ceremonies of peoples who are acquainted
with iron and use it in ordinary life. In conclusion, they smeared the
idols and the doors of the temples with the blood of the victims in
order to appease the gods.[102]
All this is sufficiently crude and material, and rests upon the same
premisses as those which drove the Mexicans to the frightful excesses
which I have previously described. But humanity was far less outraged
in the Peruvian than in the Mexican religion. Garcilasso deceives
himself, or is attempting to deceive his readers, when he gives his
ancestors, the Incas, the honour of having put an end to human
sacrifices.[103] It is certain that in the religion of Pachacamac more
especially this kind of sacrifice was frequent, and for that matter we
know that it was universal in the primitive epochs. All that we can
allow to the descendant of the Incas is, that they did not encourage,
and were rather disposed to restrain, human sacrifice. But for all that,
when the reigning Inca was ill, they sacrificed one of his sons to the
Sun, and prayed him to accept the substitution of the son for the
father. At certain feasts a young infant was immolated. Others were
sacrificed to the subterranean spirits when a new Inca was enthroned. To
the same category we must attach the custom which enjoined upon wives,
especially those of the Incas, the duty of burying themselves alive on
the death of their husbands. It is asserted that when Huayna Capac
died, a thousand members of his household incurred a voluntary death
that they might go with him to serve him. The widows, however, were not
compelled to take this step, and we know that the Incas had organized
the support of widows without resources. But public opinion was not
favourable to those who refused to follow their husbands to the tomb. It
was regarded as a species of infidelity.[104] We see, however, from
other well-established facts, that the Peruvian religion had been
gradually softened. In Peru, as in China, instead of the living beings
that they used formerly to bury with the dead, they now placed
statuettes of men and women with him in his tomb to represent his wives
and his servants.[105]