The deity whose worship the Incas especially inculcated, and which
they never failed to establish wherever their banners were known to
penetrate, was the Sun. It was he who, in a particular manner, presided
over the destinies of man; gave light and warmth to the nations, and
life to the vegetable world; whom they reverenced as the father of
their royal dynasty, the founder of their empire; and whose temples
rose in every city and almost every village throughout the land.
Besides the Sun, the Incas acknowledged various objects of worship,
in some way or other connected with this principal deity. Such was
the Moon, his sister-wife; the Stars, revered as part of her heavenly
train, though the fairest of them, Venus, known to the Peruvians by
the name of Chasca, or the “youth with the long and curling locks,”
was adored as the page of the Sun, whom he attends so closely in his
rising and in his setting. They dedicated temples also to the Thunder
and Lightning, in whom they recognized the Sun’s dread ministers, and
to the Rainbow, whom they worshiped as a beautiful emanation of their
glorious deity.
In addition to these, the subjects of the Incas enrolled among their
inferior deities many objects in nature, as the elements, the winds,
the earth, the air, great mountains and rivers, which impressed them
with ideas of sublimity and power, or were supposed in some way or
other to exercise a mysterious influence over the destinies of man.
But the worship of the Sun constituted the peculiar care of the Incas,
and was the object of their lavish expenditure. The most renowned of
the Peruvian temples, the pride of the capital, and the wonder of
the empire, was at Cuzco, where, under the munificence of successive
sovereigns, it had become so enriched that it received the name of
“The Place of Gold.” It consisted of a principal building and several
chapels and inferior edifices, covering a large extent of ground in the
heart of the city, and completely encompassed by a wall, which, with
the edifices, was all constructed of stone.
The interior of the temple was most worthy of admiration. It was
literally a mine of gold. On the western wall was emblazoned a
representation of the deity, consisting of a human countenance looking
forth from amidst innumerable rays of light which emanated from it in
every direction, in the same manner as the sun is often personified
with us. The figure was engraved on a massive plate of gold of enormous
dimensions, thickly powdered with emeralds and precious stones. It was
so situated in front of the great eastern portal that the rays of the
morning sun fell directly upon it at its rising, lighting up the whole
apartment with an effulgence that seemed more than natural, and which
was reflected back from the golden ornaments with which the walls and
ceiling were everywhere encrusted. Gold, in the figurative language
of the people, was “the tears wept by the Sun,” and every part of the
interior of the temple glowed with burnished plates and studs of the
precious metal.
From Prescott’s “Conquest of Peru.”
[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO DOMINICAN CHURCH, CUZCO, PERU]
_THE INCAS_
_The Tellers of the Story_