CHAPTER IV.

THE INCA CIVILIZATION IN PERU.

BY CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM, C. B.

THE civilization of the Incas of Peru is the most important, because it

is the highest, phase in the development of progress among the American

races. It represents the combined efforts, during long periods, of

several peoples who eventually became welded into one nation. The

especial interest attaching to the study of this civilization consists

in the fact that it was self-developed, and that, so far as can be

ascertained, it received no aid and no impulse from foreign contact.

It is necessary, however, to bear in mind that the empire of the Incas,

in its final development, was formed of several nations which had,

during long periods, worked out their destinies apart from each other;

and that one, at least, appears to have been entirely distinct from

the Incas in race and language.[1138] These facts must be carefully

borne in mind in pursuing inquiries relating to the history of Inca

civilization. It is also essential that the nature and value of the

evidence on which conclusions must be based should be understood and

carefully weighed. This evidence is of several kinds. Besides the

testimony of Spanish writers who witnessed the conquest of Peru, or

who lived a generation afterwards, there is the evidence derived from

a study of the characteristics of descendants of the Inca people, of

their languages and literature, and of their architectural and other

remains. These various kinds of evidence must be compared, their

respective values must be considered, and thus alone, in our time, can

the nearest approximation to the truth be reached.

[Illustration: MAP IN BRASSEUR’S POPUL VUH.]

The testimony of writers in the sixteenth century, who had the

advantage of being able to see the workings of Inca institutions, to

examine the outcome of their civilization in all its branches, and

to converse with the Incas themselves respecting the history and the

traditions of their people, is the most important evidence. Much of

this testimony has been preserved, but unfortunately a great deal is

lost. The sack of Cadiz by the Earl of Essex, in 1595, was the occasion

of the loss of Blas Valera’s priceless work.[1139] Other valuable

writings have been left in manuscript, and have been mislaid through

neglect and carelessness. Authors are mentioned, or even quoted, whose

books have disappeared. The contemplation of the fallen Inca empire

excited the curiosity and interest of a great number of intelligent men

among the Spanish conquerors. Many wrote narratives of what they saw

and heard. A few studied the language and traditions of the people with

close attention. And these authors were not confined to the clerical

and legal professions; they included several of the soldier-conquerors

themselves.[1140]

[Illustration: EARLY SPANISH MAP OF PERU.

[From the Paris (1774) edition of Zarate. The development of Peruvian

cartography under the Spanish explorations is traced in a note in Vol.

II. p. 509; but the best map for the student is a map of the empire of

the Incas, showing all except the provinces of Quito and Chili, with

the routes of the successive Inca conquerors marked on it, given in the

_Journal of the Roy. Geog. Soc._ (1872), vol. xlii. p. 513, compiled by

Mr. Trelawny Saunders to illustrate Mr. Markham’s paper of the previous

year, on the empire of the Incas. The map was republished by the

Hakluyt Society in 1880. The map of Wiener in his _Pérou et Bolivie_ is

also a good one. Cf. Squier’s map in his _Peru_.—ED.]]

The nature of the country and climate was a potent agent in forming

the character of the people, and in enabling them to make advances in

civilization. In the dense forests of the Amazonian valleys, in the

boundless prairies and savannas, we only meet with wandering tribes

of hunters and fishers. It is on the lofty plateaux of the Andes,

where extensive tracts of land are adapted for tillage, or in the

comparatively temperate valleys of the western coast, that we find

nations advanced in civilization.[1141]

The region comprised in the empire of the Incas during its greatest

extension is bounded on the east by the forest-covered Amazonian

plains, on the west by the Pacific Ocean, and its length along the

line of the Cordilleras was upwards of 1,500 miles, from 2° N. to 20°

S. This vast tract comprises every temperature and every variety of

physical feature. The inhabitants of the plains and valleys of the

Andes enjoyed a temperate and generally bracing climate, and their

energies were called forth by the physical difficulties which had to be

overcome through their skill and hardihood. Such a region was suited

for the gradual development of a vigorous race, capable of reaching

to a high state of culture. The different valleys and plateaux are

separated by lofty mountain chains or by profound gorges, so that the

inhabitants would, in the earliest period of their history, make their

own slow progress in comparative isolation, and would have little

intercommunication. When at last they were brought together as one

people, and thus combined their efforts in forming one system, it is

likely that such a union would have a tendency to be of long duration,

owing to the great difficulties which must have been overcome in its

creation. On the other hand, if, in course of time, disintegration once

began, it might last long, and great efforts would be required to build

up another united empire. The evidence seems to point to the recurrence

of these processes more than once, in the course of ages, and to their

commencement in a very remote antiquity.

One strong piece of evidence pointing to the great length of time

during which the Inca nations had been a settled and partially

civilized race, is to be found in the plants that had been brought

under cultivation, and in the animals that had been domesticated. Maize

is unknown in a wild state,[1142] and many centuries must have elapsed

before the Peruvians could have produced numerous cultivated varieties,

and have brought the plant to such a high state of perfection. The

peculiar edible roots, called _oca_ and _aracacha_, also exist only

as cultivated plants. There is no wild variety of the _chirimoya_,

and the Peruvian species of the cotton plant is known only under

cultivation.[1143] The potato is found wild in Chile, and probably

in Peru, as a very insignificant tuber. But the Peruvians, after

cultivating it for centuries, increased its size and produced a great

number of edible varieties.[1144] Another proof of the great antiquity

of Peruvian civilization is to be found in the llama and alpaca, which

are domesticated animals, with individuals varying in color: the one

a beast of burden yielding coarse wool, and the other bearing a thick

fleece of the softest silken fibres. Their prototypes are the wild

huanaco and vicuña, of uniform color, and untameable. Many centuries

must have elapsed before the wild creatures of the Andean solitudes,

with the habits of chamois, could have been converted into the Peruvian

sheep which cannot exist apart from men.[1145]

[Illustration: LLAMAS.

[One of the cuts which did service in the Antwerp edition of Cieza de

Leon. Cf. Bollaert on the llama, alpaca, huanaco, and vicuña species in

the _Sporting Review_, Feb., 1863; the cuts in Squier, pp. 246, 250;

Dr. Van Tschudi, in the _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, 1885.—ED.]]

These considerations point to so vast a period during which the

existing race had dwelt in the Peruvian Andes, that any speculation

respecting its origin would necessarily be futile in the present state

of our knowledge.[1146] The weight of tradition indicates the south as

the quarter whence the people came whose descendants built the edifices

at Tiahuanacu.

The most ancient remains of a primitive people in the Peruvian Andes

consist of rude _cromlechs_, or burial-places, which are met with in

various localities. Don Modesto Basadre has described some by the

roadside, in the descent from Umabamba to Charasani, in Bolivia. These

cromlechs are formed of four great slabs of slate, each slab being

about five feet high, four or five in width, and more than an inch

thick. The four slabs are perfectly shaped and worked so as to fit into

each other at the corners. A fifth slab is placed over them, and over

the whole a pyramid of clay and rough stones is piled. These cromlechs

are the early memorials of a race which was succeeded by the people who

constructed the cyclopean edifices of the Andean plateaux.

[Illustration: DETAILS AT TIAHUANACU.

KEY:—

A, Lid or cover of some aperture, of stone, with two handles neatly

undercut.

B, A window of trachyte, of careful workmanship, in one piece.

C, Block of masonry with carving.

D, E, Two views of a corner-piece to some stone conduit, carefully

ornamented with projecting lines.

F, G, H, I, Other pieces of cut masonry lying about. ]

For there is reason to believe that a powerful empire had existed

in Peru centuries before the rise of the Inca dynasty. Cyclopean

ruins, quite foreign to the genius of Inca architecture, point to this

conclusion. The wide area over which they are found is an indication

that the government which caused them to be built ruled over an

extensive empire, while their cyclopean character is a proof that their

projectors had an almost unlimited supply of labor. Religious myths

and dynastic traditions throw some doubtful light on that remote past,

which has left its silent memorials in the huge stones of Tiahuanacu,

Sacsahuaman, and Ollantay, and in the altar of Concacha.

[Illustration: CARVINGS AT TIAHUANACU.

KEY:—

A, Portion of the ornament which runs along the base of the rows of

figures on the monolithic doorway.

B, Prostrate idol lying on its face near the ruins; about 9 feet long.]

[Illustration: BAS-RELIEFS AT TIAHUANACU.

KEY:—

A, A winged human figure with the crowned head of a condor, from the

central row on the monolithic doorway.

B, A winged human figure with human head crowned, from the upper row on

the monolithic doorway.

[There are well-executed cuts of these sculptures in Ruge’s _Geschichte

des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen_, pp. 430, 431. Cf. Squier’s _Peru_, p.

292.—ED.]]

The most interesting ruins in Peru are those of the palace or temple

near the village of Tiahuanacu,[1147] on the southern side of Lake

Titicaca. They are 12,930 feet above the level of the sea, and 130

above that of the lake, which is about twelve miles off.

[Illustration: FRAGMENTS AT TIAHUANACU.

Various curiously carved stones found scattered about the ruins.]

[Illustration: REVERSE OF THE DOORWAY AT TIAHUANACU.

[Cf. view in Squier’s _Peru_, p. 289, with other particulars of the

ruins, p. 276, etc.—ED.]]

They consist of a quadrangular space, entered by the famous monolithic

doorway, and surrounded by large stones standing on end; and of a hill

or mound encircled by remains of a wall, consisting of enormous blocks

of stone. The whole covers an area about 400 yards long by 350 broad.

There is a lesser temple, about a quarter of a mile distant, containing

stones 36 feet long by 7, and 26 by 16, with recesses in them which

have been compared to seats of judgment. The weight of the two great

stones has been estimated at from 140 to 200 tons each, and the

distance of the quarries whence they could have been brought is from 15

to 40 miles.

[Illustration: IMAGE AT TIAHUANACU.

[This is an enlarged drawing of the bas-relief shown in the picture of

the broken doorway (p. 218). Cf. the cuts in the article on the ruins

of Tiahuanacu in the _Revue d’Architecture des Travaux publics_, vol.

xxiv.; in Ch. Wiener’s _L’Empire des Incas_, pl. iii.; in D’Orbigny’s

Atlas to his _L’Homme Américain_; and in Squier’s _Peru_, p. 291.—ED.]]

The monolithic portal is one block of hard trachytic rock, now deeply

sunk in the ground. Its height above ground is 7 ft. 2 in., width 13

ft. 5 in., thickness 1 ft. 6 in., and the opening is 4 ft. 6 in. by

2 ft. 9 in. The outer side is ornamented by accurately cut niches

and rectangular mouldings. The whole of the inner side, from a line

level with the upper lintel of the doorway to the top, is a mass of

sculpture, which speaks to us, in difficult riddles, alas! of the

customs and art-culture, of the beliefs and traditions, of an ancient

and lost civilization.

[Illustration: BROKEN MONOLITH DOORWAY AT TIAHUANACU.

[An enlarged drawing of the image over the arch is given in another

cut. This same ruin is well represented in Ruge’s _Gesch. des

Zeitalters der Entdeckungen_; and not so well in Wiener’s _Pérou et

Bolivie_, p. 419. Cf. Squier’s _Peru_, p. 288.—ED.]]

In the centre there is a figure carved in high relief, in an oblong

compartment, 2 ft. 2 in. long by 1 ft. 6 in.[1148] Squier describes

this figure as angularly but boldly cut. The head is surrounded by

rays, each terminating in a circle or the head of an animal. The breast

is adorned with two serpents united by a square band. Another band,

divided into ornamented compartments, passes round the neck, and the

ends are brought down to the girdle, from which hang six human heads.

Human heads also hang from the elbows, and the hands clasp sceptres

which terminate in the heads of condors. The legs are cut off near the

girdle, and below there are a series of frieze-like ornaments, each

ending with a condor’s head. On either side of this central sculpture

there are three tiers of figures, 16 in each tier, or 48 in all, each

in a kneeling posture, and facing towards the large central figure.

Each figure is in a square, the sides of which measure eight inches.

All are winged, and hold sceptres ending in condors’ heads; but while

those in the upper and lower tiers have crowned human heads, those in

the central tier have the heads of condors. There is a profusion of

ornament on all these figures, consisting of heads of birds and fishes.

An ornamental frieze runs along the base of the lowest tier of figures,

consisting of an elaborate pattern of angular lines ending in condors’

heads, with larger human heads surrounded by rays, in the intervals of

the pattern. Cieza de Leon and Alcobasa[1149] mention that, besides

this sculpture over the doorway, there were richly carved statues at

Tiahuanacu, which have since been destroyed, and many cylindrical

pillars with capitals. The head of one statue, with a peculiar

head-dress, which is 3 ft. 6 in. long, still lies by the roadside.

[Illustration: TIAHUANACU RESTORED.

After a drawing given in _The Temple of the Andes_ by Richard Inwards

(London, 1884).]

The masonry of the ruins is admirably worked, according to the

testimony of all visitors. Squier says: “The stone itself is a dark and

exceedingly hard trachyte. It is faced with a precision that no skill

can excel. Its lines are perfectly drawn, and its right angles turned

with an accuracy that the most careful geometer could not surpass. I do

not believe there exists a better piece of stone-cutting, the material

considered, on this or the other continent.”

It is desirable to describe these ruins, and especially the sculpture

over the monolithic doorway, with some minuteness, because, with the

probable exception of the cromlechs, they are the most ancient, and,

without any exception, the most interesting that have been met with in

Peru. There is nothing elsewhere that at all resembles the sculpture on

the monolithic doorway at Tiahuanacu.[1150] The central figure, with

rows of kneeling worshippers on either side, all covered with symbolic

designs, represents, it may be conjectured, either the sovereign and

his vassals, or, more probably, the Deity, with representatives of all

the nations bowing down before him. The sculpture and the most ancient

traditions should throw light upon each other.

Further north there are other examples of prehistoric cyclopean

remains. Such is the great wall, with its “stone of 12 corners,”

in the Calle del Triunfo at Cuzco. Such is the famous fortress of

Cuzco, on the Sacsahuaman Hill. Such, too, are portions of the ruins

at Ollantay-tampu. Still farther north there are cyclopean ruins at

Concacha, at Huiñaque, and at Huaraz.

[Illustration: RUINS OF SACSAHUAMAN.

[After a cut in Ruge’s _Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen_.

Markham has elsewhere described these ruins,—_Cieza de Leon_, 259, 324;

2d part, 160; _Royal Commentaries of the Incas_, ii., with a plan,

reproduced in Vol. II. p. 521, and another plan of Cuzco, showing the

position of the fortress in its relations to the city. There are plans

and views in Squier’s _Peru_, ch. 23.—ED.]]

Tiahuanacu is interesting because it is possible that the elaborate

character of its symbolic sculpture may throw glimmerings of light on

remote history; but Sacsahuaman, the fortress overlooking the city of

Cuzco, is, without comparison, the grandest monument of an ancient

civilization in the New World. Like the Pyramids and the Coliseum,

it is imperishable. It consists of a fortified work 600 yards in

length, built of gigantic stones, in three lines, forming walls

supporting terraces and parapets arranged in salient and retiring

angles. This work defends the only assailable side of a position which

is impregnable, owing to the steepness of the ascent in all other

directions. The outer wall averages a height of 26 feet. Then there is

a terrace 16 yards across, whence the second wall rises to 18 feet.

The second terrace is six yards across, and the third wall averages a

height of 12 feet. The total height of the fortification is 56 feet.

The stones are of blue limestone, of enormous size and irregular in

shape, but fitted into each other with rare precision. One of the

stones is 27 feet high by 14, and stones 15 feet high by 12 are common

throughout the work.

At Ollantay-tampu the ruins are of various styles, but the later works

are raised on ancient cyclopean foundations.[1151] There are six

porphyry slabs 12 feet high by 6 or 7; stone beams 15 and 20 feet long;

stairs and recesses hewn out of the solid rock. Here, as at Tiahuanacu,

there were, according to Cieza de Leon,[1152] men and animals carved on

the stones, but they have disappeared. The same style of architecture,

though only in fragments, is met with further north.

East of the river Apurimac, and not far from the town of Abancay, there

are three groups of ancient monuments in a deep valley surrounded by

lofty spurs of the Andes. There is a great cyclopean wall, a series of

seats or thrones of various forms hewn out of the solid stone, and a

huge block carved on five sides, called the _Rumi-huasi_. The northern

face of this monolith is cut into the form of a staircase; on the east

there are two enormous seats separated by thick partitions, and on

the south there is a sort of lookout place, with a seat. Collecting

channels traverse the block, and join trenches or grooves leading to

two deep excavations on the western side. On this western side there

is also a series of steps, apparently for the fall of a cascade of

water connected with the sacrificial rites. Molina gives a curious

account of the water sacrifices of the Incas.[1153] The _Rumi-huasi_

seems to have been the centre of a great sanctuary, and to have been

used as an altar. Its surface is carved with animals amidst a labyrinth

of cavities and partition ridges. Its length is 20 feet by 14 broad,

and 12 feet high. Here we have, no doubt, a sacrificial altar of the

ancient people, on which the blood of animals and libations of _chicha_

flowed in torrents.[1154]

Spanish writers received statements from the Indians that one or other

of these cyclopean ruins was built by some particular Inca. Garcilasso

de la Vega even names the architects of the Cuzco fortress. But it is

clear from the evidence of the most careful investigators, such as

Cieza de Leon, that there was no real knowledge of their origin, and

that memory of the builders was either quite lost, or preserved in

vague, uncertain traditions.

The most ancient myth points to the region of Lake Titicaca as the

scene of the creative operations of a Deity, or miracle-working

Lord.[1155] This Deity is said to have created the sun, moon, and

stars, or to have caused them to rise out of Lake Titicaca. He also

created men of stone at Tiahuanacu, or of clay; making them pass

under the earth, and appear again out of caves, tree-trunks, rocks,

or fountains in the different provinces which were to be peopled by

their descendants. But this seems to be a later attempt to reconcile

the ancient Titicaca myth with the local worship of natural objects

as ancestors or founders of their race, among the numerous subjugated

tribes; as well as to account for the colossal statues of unknown

origin at Tiahuanacu. There are variations of the story, but there is

general concurrence in the main points: that the Deity created the

heavenly bodies and the human race, and that the ancient people, or

their rulers, were called _Pirua_. Tradition also seems to point to

regions south of the lake as the quarter whence the first settlers came

who worked out the earliest civilization.[1156] We may, in accordance

with all the indications that are left to us, connect the great god

_Illa Ticsi_ with the central figure of the Tiahuanacu sculpture,

and the kneeling worshippers with the rulers of all the nations and

tribes which had been subjugated by the _Hatun-runa_,[1157]—the great

men who had Pirua for their king, and who originally came from the

distant south. The Piruas governed a vast empire, erected imperishable

cyclopean edifices, and developed a complicated civilization, which

is dimly indicated to us by the numerous symbolical sculptures on the

monolith. They also, in a long course of years, brought wild plants

under cultivation, and domesticated the animals of the lofty Andean

plateau. But it is remarkable that the shores of Lake Titicaca, which

are almost treeless, and where corn will not ripen, should have been

chosen as the centre of this most ancient civilization. Yet the ruins

of Tiahuanacu conclusively establish the fact that the capital of the

Piruas was on the loftiest site ever selected for the seat of a great

empire.

The Amautas, or learned men of the later Inca period, preserved the

names of sovereigns of the Pirua dynasty, commencing with Pirua Manco,

and continuing for sixty-five generations. Lopez conjectures that

there was a change of dynasty after the eighteenth Pirua king, because

hitherto Montesinos, who has recorded the list, had always called each

successor son and heir, but after the eighteenth only heir. Hence he

thinks that a new dynasty of Amautas, or kings of the learned caste,

succeeded the Piruas. The only deeds recorded of this long line of

kings are their success in repelling invasions and their alterations of

the calendar. At length there appears to have been a general disruption

of the empire: Cuzco was nearly deserted, rebel leaders rose up in all

directions, the various tribes became independent, and the chief who

claimed to be the representative of the old dynasties was reduced to a

small territory to the south of Cuzco, in the valley of the Vilcamayu,

and was called “King of Tampu Tocco.” This state of disintegration is

said to have continued for twenty-eight generations, at the end of

which time a new empire began to be consolidated under the Incas, which

inherited the civilization and traditions of the ancient dynasties, and

succeeded to their power and dominion.

It was long believed that the lists of kings of the earlier dynasties

rested solely on the authority of Montesinos, and they consequently

received little credit. But recent research has brought to light

the work of another writer, who studied before Montesinos, and who

incidentally refers to two of the sovereigns in his lists.[1158] This

furnishes independent evidence that the catalogues of early kings had

been preserved orally or by means of _quipus_, and that they were in

existence when the Spaniards conquered Peru; thus giving weight to the

testimony of Montesinos.

The second myth of the Peruvians refers to the origin of the Incas,

who derived their descent from the kings of Tampu Tocco, and had their

original home at Paccari-tampu, in the valley of the Vilcamayu, south

of Cuzco. It is, therefore, an ancestral myth. It is related that

four brothers, with their four sisters, issued forth from apertures

(_Tocco_) in a cave at Paccari-tampu, a name which means “the abode

of dawn.” The brothers were called Ayar Manco, Ayar Cachi, Ayar Uchu,

and Ayar Sauca, names to which the Incas, in the time of Garcilasso

de la Vega, gave a fanciful meaning.[1159] One of the brothers showed

extraordinary prowess in hurling a stone from a sling. The others

became jealous, and, persuading Ayar Auca, the expert slingsman, to

return into the cave, they blocked the entrance with rocks. Ayar

Uchu was converted into a stone idol, on the summit of a hill near

Cuzco, called Huanacauri. Manco then advanced to Cuzco with his

youngest brother, and found that the place was occupied by a chief

named Alcaviza and his people. Here Manco established the seat of his

government, and the Alcaviza tribe appears to have submitted to him,

and to have lived side by side with the Incas for some generations. The

Huanacauri hill was considered the most sacred place in Peru; while

the _Tampu-tocco_, or cave at Paccari-tampu, was, through the piety of

descendants, faced with a masonry wall, having three windows lined with

plates of gold.

There is a third myth which seems to connect the ancient tradition

of Titicaca with the ancestral myth of the Incas. It is said that

long after the creation by the Deity, a great and beneficent being

appeared at Tiahuanacu, who divided the world among four kings: Manco

Ccapac, Colla, Tocay[1160] or Tocapo,[1161] and Pinahua.[1162] The

names Tuapaca, Arnauan,[1163] Tonapa,[1164] and Tarapaca occur in

connection with this being, while some authorities tell us that his

name was unknown. Betanzos says that he went from Titicaca to Cuzco,

where he set up a chief named Alcaviza, and that he advanced through

the country until he disappeared over the sea at Puerto Viejo. It is

also related that the people of Canas attacked him, but were converted

by a miracle, and that they built a great temple, with an image, at

Cacha, in honor of this being, or of his god Illa Ticsi Uira-cocha.

This temple now forms a ruin which in its structure and arrangement is

unique in Peru, and therefore deserves special attention.

The ruins of the temple of Cacha are in the valley of the Vilcamayu,

south of Cuzco. They were described by Garcilasso de la Vega, and

have been visited and carefully examined by Squier. The main temple

was 330 feet long by 87 broad, with wrought-stone walls and a steep

pitched roof. A high wall extended longitudinally through the centre

of the structure, consisting of a wrought-stone foundation, 8 feet

high and 5½ feet thick on the level of the ground, supporting an adobe

superstructure, the whole being 40 feet high. This wall was pierced

by 12 lofty doorways, 14 feet high. But midway there are sockets for

the reception of beams, showing the existence of a second story, as

described by Garcilasso. Between the transverse and outer walls there

were two series of pillars, 12 on each side, built like the transverse

wall, with 8 feet of wrought stone, and completed to a height of 22

feet with adobes. These pillars appear to have supported the second

floor, where, according to Garcilasso, there was a shrine containing

the statue of Uira-cocha. At right angles to the temple, Squier

discovered the remains of a series of supplemental edifices surrounding

courts, and built upon a terrace 260 yards long.

The peculiarities of the temple of Cacha consist in the use of rows

of columns to support a second floor, and in the great height of the

walls. In these respects it is unique, and if similar edifices ever

existed, they appear to have been destroyed previous to the rise of

the Inca empire. The Cacha temple belongs neither to the cyclopean

period of the Piruas nor to the Inca style of architecture. Connected

with the strange myth of the wandering prophet of Viracocha, it stands

by itself, as one of those unsolved problems which await future

investigation. The statue in the shrine on the upper story is described

by Cieza de Leon, who saw it.

Both the Titicaca and the Cacha myths have, in later times, been

connected and more or less amalgamated with the ancestral myth of the

Incas. Thus Garcilasso de la Vega makes Manco Ccapac come direct from

Titicaca; while Molina refers to him as one of the beings created

there, who went down through the earth and came up at Paccari-tampu.

Salcamayhua makes the being Tonapa, of the Cacha myth, arrive at Apu

Tampu, or Paccari-tampu, and leave a sacred sceptre there, called

_tupac yauri_, for Manco Ccapac. These are later interpolations, made

with the object of connecting the family myth of the Incas with more

ancient traditions. The wise men of the Inca system, through the care

of Spanish writers of the time of the conquest, have handed down these

three traditions and the catalogue of kings. The Titicaca myth tells us

of the Deity worshipped by the builders of Tiahuanacu, and the story of

the creation. The Cacha myth has reference to some great reformer of

very ancient times. The Paccari-tampu myth records the origin of the

Inca dynasty. Although they are overlaid with fables and miraculous

occurrences, the main facts touching the original home of Manco Ccapac

and his march to Cuzco are probably historical.

The catalogue of kings given by Montesinos, allowing an average of

twenty years for each, would place the commencement of the Pirua

dynasty in about 470 B.C.; in the days when the Greeks, under Cimon,

were defeating the Persians, and nearly a century after the death of

Sakya Muni in India. This early empire flourished for about 1,200

years, and the disruption took place in 830 A.D., in the days of King

Egbert. The disintegration continued for 500 years, and the rise of the

Incas under Manco was probably coeval with the days of St. Louis and

Henry III of England.[1165] By that time the country had been broken

up into separate tribes for 500 years, and the work of reunion, so

splendidly achieved by the Incas, was most arduous. At the same time,

the ancient civilization of the Piruas was partially inherited by the

various peoples whose ancestors composed their empire; so that the Inca

civilization was a revival rather than a creation.

The various tribes and nations of the Andes, separated from each other

by uninhabited wildernesses and lofty mountain chains, were clearly of

the same origin, speaking dialects of the same language. Since the fall

of the Piruas they had led an independent existence. Some had formed

powerful confederations, others were isolated in their valleys. But it

was only through much hard fighting and by consummate statesmanship

that the one small Inca lineage established, in a period of less than

three centuries, imperial dominion over the rest. It will be well, in

this place, to take a brief survey of the different nations which were

to form the empire of the Incas, and of their territories.

The central Andean region, which was the home of the imperial race

of Incas, extends from the water-parting between the sources of the

Ucayali and the basin of Lake Titicaca to the river Apurimac. It

includes wild mountain fastnesses, wide expanses of upland, grassy

slopes, lofty valleys such as that in which the city of Cuzco is built,

and fertile ravines, with the most lovely scenery. The inhabitants

composed four tribes: that of the Incas in the valley of the Vilcamayu,

of the Quichuas in the secluded ravines of the Apurimac tributaries,

and those of the Canas and Cauchis in the mountains bordering on the

Titicaca basin. These people average a height of 5 ft. 4 in., and are

strongly built. The nose is invariably aquiline, the mouth rather

large; the eyes black or deep brown, bright, and generally deep set,

with long fine lashes. The hair is abundant and long, fine, and of

a deep black-brown. The men have no beards. The skin is very smooth

and soft, and of a light coppery-brown color, the neck thick, and the

shoulders broad, with great depth of chest. The legs are well formed,

feet and hands very small. The Incas have the build and physique of

mountaineers.

To the south of this cradle of the Inca race extended the region of

the Collas[1166] and allied tribes, including the whole basin of

Lake Titicaca, which is 12,000 feet above the level of the sea. The

Collas dwelt in stone huts, tended their flocks of llamas, and raised

crops of ocas, quinoas, and potatoes. They were divided into several

tribes, and were engaged in constant feuds, their arms being slings

and _ayllos_, or bolas. The Collas are remarkable for great length of

body compared with the thigh and leg, and they are the only people

whose thighs are shorter than their legs. Their build fits them for

excellence in mountain climbing and pedestrianism, and for the exercise

of extraordinary endurance.[1167] The homes of the Collas were around

the seat of ancient civilization at Tiahuanacu.

A remarkable race, apart from the Incas and Collas, of darker

complexion and more savage habits, dwelt and still dwell among the

vast beds of reeds in the southwestern angle of Lake Titicaca. They

are called Urus, and are probably descendants of an aboriginal people

who occupied the Titicaca basin before the arrival of the Hatun-runas

from the south. The Urus spoke a distinct language, called _Puquina_,

specimens of which have been preserved by Bishop Oré.[1168] The

ancestors of the Urus may have been the cromlech builders, driven

into the fastnesses of the lake when their country was occupied by

the more powerful invaders, who erected the imperishable monuments at

Tiahuanacu. These Urus are now lake-dwellers. Their homes consist of

large canoes, made of the tough reeds which cover the shallow parts of

the lake, and they live on fish, and on quinua and potatoes, which they

obtain by barter.

North of Cuzco there were several allied tribes, resembling the Incas

in physique and language, in a similar stage of civilization, and their

rivals in power. Beyond the Apurimac, and inhabiting the valleys of the

Andes thence to the Mantaro, was the important nation of the Chancas;

and still further north and west, in the valley of the Xauxa, was the

Huanca nation. Agricultural people and shepherds, forming _ayllus_, or

tribes of the Chancas and Huancas, occupied the ravines of the maritime

cordillera, and extended their settlements into several valleys of

the seacoast, between the Rimac and Nasca. These coast people of Inca

race, known as Chinchas, held their own against an entirely different

nation, of distinct origin and language, who occupied the northern

coast valleys from the Rimac to Payta, and also the great valley of

Huarca (the modern Cañete), where they had Chincha enemies both to

the north and south of them. These people were called _Yuncas_ by

their Inca conquerors. Their own name was Chimu, and the language

spoken by them was called _Mochica_. But this question relating to

the early inhabitants of the coast valleys of Peru, their origin and

civilization, is the most difficult in ancient Peruvian history, and

will require separate consideration.[1169]

[Illustration: INCA MANCO CCAPAC.

[After a cut in Marcoy’s _South America_, i. 210 (also in _Tour du

Monde_, 1863, p. 261), purporting to be drawn from a copy of the

taffeta roll containing the pedigree of the Incas, which, in evidence

of their claims, was sent by their descendants to the Spanish king

in 1603. This genealogical record contained the likenesses of the

successive Incas and their wives, and the original is said to have

disappeared. Mr. Markham supposes this roll to have been the original

of the portraits given in Herrera (see cut on p. 267 of the present

volume); but they are not the same, if Marcoy’s cuts are trustworthy.

A set of likenesses appeared in Ulloa’s _Relacion Histórica_ (Madrid,

1748), iv. 604; and these were the originals of the series copied

in the _Gentleman’s Mag._, 1751-1752, and thence are copied those

in Ranking. These do not correspond with those given by Marcoy. See

_post_, Vol. II., for a note on different series of portraits, and in

the same volume, pp. 515, 516, are portraits of Atahualpa. A portrait

of Manco Inca, killed 1546, is given in A. de Beauchamp’s _Histoire de

la Conquête du Pérou_ (Paris, 1808).—ED.]]

North of the Huanca nation, along the basin of the Marañon, there were

tribes which were known to the Incas by their head-dresses. These were

the Conchucus, Huamachucus, and Huacrachucus.[1170] Still further

north, in the region of the equator, was the powerful nation of Quitus.

All these nations of the Peruvian Andes appear to have once formed part

of the mighty prehistoric empire of the Pirhuas, and to have retained

much of the civilization of their ancestors during the subsequent

centuries of separate existence and isolation. This probably accounts

for the ease with which the Incas established their system of religion

and government throughout their new empire, after the conquests were

completed. The subjugated nations spoke dialects of the same language,

and inherited many of the usages and ideas of their conquerors. For

the same reason they were pretty equally matched as foes, and the

Incas secured the mastery only by dint of desperate fighting and great

political sagacity. But finally they did establish their superiority,

and founded a second great empire in Peru.

The history of the rise and progress of Inca power, as recorded by

native historians in their _quipus_, and retailed to us by Spanish

writers, is, on the whole, coherent and intelligible. Many blunders

were inevitable in conveying the information from the mouths of natives

to the Spanish inquirers, who understood the language imperfectly, and

whose objects often were to reach foregone conclusions. But certain

broad historical facts are brought out by a comparison of the different

authorities, the succession of the last ten sovereigns is determined

by a nearly complete consensus of evidence, and we can now relate the

general features of the rise of Inca ascendency in Peru with a certain

amount of confidence.

[Illustration: INCA YUPANQUI.

[After a cut in Marcoy, i. 214.—ED.]]

The Inca people were divided into small _ayllus_, or lineages,

when Manco Ccapac advanced down the valley of the Vilcamayu, from

Paccari-tampu, and forced the _ayllu_ of Alcaviza and the _ayllu_ of

Antasayac to submit to his sway. He formed the nucleus of his power

at Cuzco, the land of these conquered _ayllus_, and from this point

his descendants slowly extended their dominion. The chiefs of the

surrounding _ayllus_, called _Sinchi_ (literally, “strong”), either

submitted willingly to the Incas, or were subjugated. Sinchi Rocca, the

son, and Lloque Yupanqui, the grandson, of Manco, filled up a swamp on

the site of the present cathedral of Cuzco, planned out the city,[1171]

and their reigns were mainly occupied in consolidating the small

kingdom founded by their predecessor. Mayta Ccapac, the fourth Inca,

was also occupied in consolidating his power round Cuzco; but his son,

Ccapac Yupanqui, subdued the Quichuas to the westward, and extended his

sway as far as the pass of Vilcañota, overlooking the Collao, or basin

of Lake Titicaca. Inca Rocca, the next sovereign, made few conquests,

devoting his attention to the foundation of schools, the organization

of festivals and administrative government, and to the construction

of public works. His son, named Yahuar-huaccac, appears to have been

unfortunate. One authority says that he was surprised and killed, and

all agree that his reign was disastrous. For seven generations the

power and the admirable internal polity of the Incarial government

had been gradually organized and consolidated within a limited area.

The succeeding sovereigns were great conquerors, and their empire

was rapidly extended to the vast area which it had reached when the

Spaniards first appeared on the scene.

[Illustration: CUZCO.

[One of the cuts which did service in the Antwerp editions of Cieza de

Leon. There are various views in Squier’s _Peru_, pp. 427-445.—ED.]]

The son of Yahuar-huaccac assumed the name of the Deity, and called

himself Uira-cocha.[1172] Intervening in a war between the two

principal chiefs of the Collas, named Cari and Zapaña, Uira-cocha

defeated them in detail, and annexed the whole basin of Lake Titicaca

to his dominions. He also conquered the lovely valley of Yucay, on the

lower course of the Vilcamayu, whither he retired to end his days. The

eldest son of Uira-cocha, named Urco, was incompetent or unworthy, and

was either obliged to abdicate[1173] in favor of his brother Yupanqui,

the favorite hero of Inca history, or was slain.[1174] It was a moment

when the rising empire needed the services of her ablest sons. She

was about to engage in a death-struggle with a neighbor as powerful

and as civilized as herself. The kingdom of the Chancas, commencing

on the banks of the Apurimac, extended far to the east and north,

including many of the richest valleys of the Andes. Their warlike king,

Uscavilca, had already subdued the Quichuas, who dwelt in the upper

valleys of the Apurimac tributaries to the southward, and was advancing

on Cuzco, when Yupanqui pushed aside the imbecile Urco, and seized

the helm. The fate of the Incas was hanging on a thread. The story is

one of thrilling interest as told in the pages of Betanzos, but all

authorities dwell more or less on this famous Chanca war. The decisive

battle was fought outside the Huaca-puncu, the sacred gate of Cuzco.

The result was long doubtful. Suddenly, as the shades of evening were

closing over the Yahuar-pampa,—“the field of blood,”—a fresh army fell

upon the right flank of the Chanca host, and the Incas won a great

victory. So unexpected was this onslaught that the very stones on the

mountain sides were believed to have been turned into men. It was the

armed array of the insurgent Quichuas who had come by forced marches

to the help of their old masters. The memory of this great struggle

was fresh in men’s minds when the Spaniards arrived, and as the new

conquerors passed over the battlefield, on their way to Cuzco, they saw

the stuffed skins of the vanquished Chancas set up as memorials by the

roadside.

[Illustration: WARRIORS OF THE INCA PERIOD.

[After a cut given by Ruge, and showing figures from an old Peruvian

painting.—ED.]]

The subjugation of the Chancas, with their allies the Huancas, led to a

vast extension of the Inca empire, which now reached to the shores of

the Pacific; and the last years of Yupanqui were passed in the conquest

of the alien coast nation, ruled over by a sovereign known as the

Chimu. Thus the reign of the Inca Yupanqui marks a great epoch. He beat

down all rivals, and converted the Cuzco kingdom into a vast empire. He

received the name of Pachacutec, or “he who changes the world,” a name

which, according to Montesinos, had on eight previous occasions been

conferred upon sovereigns of the more ancient dynasties.

Tupac Inca Yupanqui, the son and successor of Pachacutec, completed

the subjugation of the coast valleys, extended his conquests beyond

Quito on the north and to Chile as far as the river Maule in the south,

besides penetrating far into the eastern forests.

Huayna Ccapac, the son of Tupac Inca Yupanqui, completed and

consolidated the conquests of his father. He traversed the valleys of

the coast, penetrated to the southern limit of Chile, and fought a

memorable battle on the banks of the “lake of blood” (Yahuar-cocha),

near the northern frontier of Quito. After a long reign,[1175] the last

years of which were passed in Quito, Huayna Ccapac died in November,

1525. His eldest legitimate son, named Huascar, succeeded him at Cuzco.

But Atahualpa, his father’s favorite, was at Quito with the most

experienced generals. Haughty messages passed between the brothers,

which were followed by war. Huascar’s armies were defeated in detail,

and eventually the generals of Atahualpa took the legitimate Inca

prisoner, entered Cuzco, and massacred the family and adherents of

Huascar.[1176] The successful aspirant to the throne was on his way to

Cuzco, in the wake of his generals, when he encountered Pizarro and the

Spanish invaders at Caxamarca. This war of succession would not, it is

probable, have led to any revolutionary change in the general policy of

the empire. Atahualpa would have established his power and continued to

rule, just as his ancestor Pachacutec did, after the dethronement of

his brother Urco.[1177]

The succession of the Incas from Manco Ccapac to Atahualpa was

evidently well known to the Amautas, or learned men of the empire,

and was recorded in their _quipus_ with precision, together with

less certain materials respecting the more ancient dynasties. Many

blunders were committed by the Spanish inquirers in putting down the

historical information received from the Amautas, but on the whole

there is general concurrence among them.[1178] Practically the Spanish

authorities agree, and it is clear that the native annalists possessed

a single record, while the apparent discrepancies are due to blunders

of the Spanish transcribers. The twelve Incas from Manco Ccapac to

Huascar may be received as historical personages whose deeds were had

in memory at the time of the Spanish invasion, and were narrated to

those among the conquerors who sought for information from the Amautas.

A.D. | A.D.

1240—Manco Ccapac. | 1360—Yahuar-huaccac.

1260—Sinchi Rocca. | 1380—Uira-cocha.

1280—Lloque Yupanqui. | 1400—Pachacutec Yupanqui.

1300—Mayta Ccapac. | 1440—Tupac Yupanqui.

1320—Ccapac Yupanqui. | 1480—Huayna Ccapac.

1340—Inca Rocca. | 1523—Inti Cusi Hualpa, or Huascar.

The religion of the Incas consisted in the worship of the supreme

being of the earlier dynasties, the Illa Ticsi Uira-cocha of the

Pirhuas. This simple faith was overlaid by a vast mass of superstition,

represented by the cult of ancestors and the cult of natural objects.

To this was superadded the belief in the ideals or souls of all

animated things, which ruled and guided them, and to which men

might pray for help. The exact nature of this belief in ideals, as

it presented itself to the people themselves, is not at all clear.

It prevailed among the uneducated. Probably it was the idea to

which dreams give rise,—the idea of a double nature, of a tangible

and a phantom being, the latter mysterious and powerful, and to be

propitiated. The belief in this double being was extended to all

animated nature, for even the crops had their spiritual doubles, which

it was necessary to worship and propitiate.

But the religion of the Incas and of learned men, or Amautas, was a

worship of the Supreme Cause of all things, the ancient God of the

Titicaca myth, combined with veneration for the sun[1179] as the

ancestor of the reigning dynasty, for the other heavenly bodies, and

for the _malqui_, or remains of their forefathers. This feeling of

veneration for the sun, closely connected with the beneficent work of

the venerated object as displayed in the course of the seasons, led to

the growth of an elaborate ritual and to the celebration of periodical

festivals.

The weight of evidence is decisively in the direction of a belief on

the part of the Incas that a Supreme Being existed, which the sun must

obey, as well as all other parts of the universe. This subordination

of the sun to the Creator of all things was inculcated by successive

Incas. Molina says, “They did not know the sun as their Creator, but

as created by the Creator.” Salcamayhua tells us how the Inca Mayta

Ccapac taught that the sun and moon were made for the service of men,

and that the chief of the Collas, addressing the Inca Uira-cocha,

exclaimed, “Thou, O powerful lord of Cuzco, dost worship the teacher of

the universe, while I, the chief of the Collas, worship the Sun.” The

evidence on the subject of the religion of the Incas, collected by the

Viceroy Toledo, showed that they worshipped the Creator of all things,

though they also venerated the sun; and Montesinos mentions an edict

of the Inca Pachacutec, promulgated with the object of enforcing the

worship of the Supreme God above all other deities. The speech of Tupac

Inca Yupanqui, showing that the sun was not God, but was obeying laws

ordained by God, is recorded by Acosta, Blas Valera, and Balboa, and

was evidently deeply impressed on the minds of their Inca informers.

This Inca compared the sun to a tethered beast, which always makes the

same round; or to a dart, which goes where it is sent, and not where

it wishes. The prayers from the Inca ritual, given by Molina, are

addressed to the god Ticsi Uira-cocha; the Sun, Moon, and Thunder being

occasionally invoked in conjunction with the principal deity.

The worship of this creating God, the Dweller in Space, the Teacher

and Ruler of the Universe, was, then, the religion of the Incas which

had been inherited from their distant ancestry of the cyclopean age.

Around this primitive cult had grown up a supplemental worship of

creatures created by the Deity, such as the heavenly bodies, and of

objects supposed to represent the first ancestors of _ayllus_, or

tribes, as well as of the prototypes of things on whom man’s welfare

depended, such as flocks and animals of the chase, fruit and corn.

It has been asserted that the Deity, the Uira-cocha himself, did not

generally receive worship, and that there was only one temple in

honor of God throughout the empire, at a place called Pachacamac, on

the coast. But this is clearly a mistake. The great temple at Cuzco,

with its gorgeous display of riches, was called the “Ccuri-cancha

Pacha-yachachicpa huasin,” which means “the place of gold, the abode

of the Teacher of the Universe.” An elliptical plate of gold was fixed

on the wall to represent the Deity, flanked on either side by metal

representations of his creatures, the Sun and Moon. The chief festival

in the middle of the year, called Ccapac Raymi, was instituted in

honor of the supreme Creator, and when, from time to time, his worship

began to be neglected by the people, who were apt to run after the

numerous local deities, it was again and again enforced by their more

enlightened rulers. There were Ccuri-canchas for the service of God, at

Vilca and in other centres of vice-regal rule, besides the grand fane

of Cuzco.[1180]

[Illustration: TEMPLE OF THE SUN.

[After a cut in Marcoy, i. p. 234, where it is said to be drawn from

existing remains and printed and manuscript authorities. The modern

structure of the convent of Santo Domingo, built in 1534, is at A,

which contains in its construction some remains of the walls of the

older edifice. B is a cloister. C, an outer court. D, fountains for

purification. E are streets leading to the great square of Cuzco. F,

the garden where golden flowers were once placed; now used as a kitchen

garden. G, the chapel dedicated to the moon. H, chapel dedicated to

Venus and the Milky Way. I, chapel dedicated to thunder and lightning.

J, chapel dedicated to the rainbow. K, council hall of the grand

pontiff and priests of the sun. L, the apartments of the priests and

servants. See the view of the temple from Montanus in Vol. II. p. 555,

and a modern view in Wiener’s. _Pérou et Bolivie_, p. 318. Other plans

and views are in Squier’s _Peru_, pp. 430-445.—ED.]]

Although the first and principal invocations were addressed to the

Creator, prayers were also offered up to the Sun and Moon, to the

Thunder, and to ancestors who were called upon to intercede with the

Deity.[1181] The latter worship formed a very distinctive feature

in the religious observances of nearly all the Incarial tribes. The

_Paccarina_, or forefather of the _ayllu_, or lineage, was often some

natural object converted into a _huaca_, or deity. The _Paccarina_ of

the Inca family was the Sun; with his sister and spouse, the Moon.

A vast hierarchy was set apart to conduct the ceremonies connected

with their worship, and hundreds of virgins, called _Aclla-cuna_,

were secluded and devoted to duties relating to the observances

in the Sun temples. Worship was also offered to the actual bodies

of the ancestors, called _malqui_, which were preserved with the

greatest care, in caves called _machay_. On solemn festivals each

_ayllu_ assembled with its _malqui_. The bodies of the Incas were all

preserved, clothed as when alive, and surrounded by their special

furniture and utensils. Three of these Inca mummies, with two mummies

of queens, were discovered by Polo de Ondegardo, then corregidor of

Cuzco, in 1559, and were sent by him to Lima for interment. Those who

saw them[1182] reported that they were so well preserved that they

appeared to be alive; that they were in a sitting posture; that the

eyes were made of gold, and that they were arrayed in the insignia

of their rank.[1183] The _Paccarina_, or founder of the family, and

the _malquis_, or mummies of ancestors, thus formed the objects of a

distinct belief and religion, based undoubtedly on the conviction that

every human being has a spiritual as well as a corporeal existence;

that the former is immortal, and that it is represented by the

_malqui_. The appearance of the departed in dreams and visions was not

an unreasonable ground for this belief, which certainly was the most

deeply rooted of all the religious ideas of the Peruvian people. The

_paccarina_, or ancestral deities, were innumerable. There was one or

more that received worship in every _tribe_, and was represented by a

rock, or some other natural object. Many were believed to be oracles.

Some, such as _Catequilla_, or _Apu-catequilla_,[1184] the oracle of

the Conchucu tribe, have been brought into undue prominence through

being mentioned by Spanish writers.

[Illustration: ZODIAC OF GOLD FOUND AT CUZCO.

[After a drawing by Mr. Markham of the plate itself, made at Lima in

1853. Mr. Markham’s drawing is reproduced in Bollaert’s _Antiquarian

Researches_, p. 146. The disk is 5-3/10 inches in diameter. The signs

in the outer ring are supposed to represent the months.—ED.]]

Religious ceremonials were closely connected with the daily life of

the people, and especially with the course of the seasons and the

succession of months, as they affected the operations of agriculture.

It was important to fix the equinoxes and solstices, and astronomical

knowledge was a part of the priestly office. There were names for

many of the stars; their motions were watched as well as those of the

sun and moon; and though a record of the extent of the astronomical

knowledge of the Incas has not been preserved, it is certain that they

watched the time of the solstices and equinoxes with great care, and

that they distinguished between the lunar and solar years. Pillars were

erected to determine the time of the solstices, eight on the east and

eight on the west side of Cuzco, in double rows, four and four, two low

between two higher ones, twenty feet apart. They were called _Sucanca_,

from _suca_, a ridge or furrow, the alternate light and shade between

the pillars appearing like furrows. A stone column in the centre of a

level platform, called _Inti-huatana_, was used to ascertain the time

of the equinoxes. A line was drawn across the platform from east to

west, and watch was kept to observe when the shadow of the pillar was

on this line from sunrise to sunset, and there was no shadow at noon.

The principal _Inti-huatana_ was in the square before the great temple

at Cuzco; but there are several others in different parts of Peru.

The most perfect of these observatories is at Pissac, in the valley

of Vilcamayu.[1185] There is another at Ollantay-tampu, a fourth near

Abancay, and a fifth at Sillustani in the Collao.

There is reason to believe that the Incas used a zodiac with twelve

signs, corresponding with the months of their solar year. The gold

plates which they wore on their breasts were stamped with features

representing the sun, surrounded by a border of what are probably

either zodiacal signs or signs for the months. Whether the ecliptic, or

_huatana_, was thus divided or not, it is certain that the sun’s motion

was observed with great care, and that the calendar was thus fixed with

some approach to accuracy.[1186] The year, or _Huata_, was divided into

twelve _Quilla_, or moon revolutions, and these were made to correspond

with the solar year by adding five days, which were divided among the

twelve months. A further correction was made every fourth year. Solar

observations were taken and recorded every month.

The year commenced on the 22d of June, with the winter solstice, and

there were four great festivals at the occurrence of the solstices and

equinoxes.[1187]

The celebrations of the solar year and of the seasons, in their

bearings on agriculture, were identical with the chief religious

observances. The Raymi, or festival of the winter solstice, in the

first month, when the granaries were filled after harvest, was

established in special honor of the Sun. Sacrifices of llamas and

lambs, and of the first-fruits of the earth, were offered up to the

images of the Supreme Being, of the Sun, and of Thunder, which were

placed in the open space in front of the great temple; as well as to

the _huaca_, or stone representing the brother of Manco Ccapac, on the

hill of Huanacauri. There was also a procession of the priests and

people as far as the pass of Vilcañota, leading into the basin of Lake

Titicaca, sacrifices being offered up at various spots on the road.

The sacrifices were accompanied by prayers, and concluded with songs,

called _huayllina_, and dancing. Then followed the ploughing month,

when it is said that the Inca himself opened the season by ploughing a

furrow with a golden plough in the field behind the Colcampata palace,

on the height above Cuzco.

The question here arises whether human sacrifices were offered up,

in the Inca ritual. This has been stated by Molina, Cieza de Leon,

Montesinos, Balboa, Ondegardo, and Acosta, and indignantly denied by

Garcilasso de la Vega. Cieza de Leon admits that there were occasional

human sacrifices, but adds that their numbers and the frequency

of such offerings have been grossly exaggerated by the Spaniards.

If the sacrifices had been offered under the idea of atonement or

expiation, it might well be expected that human sacrifices would be

included. Under such ideas, men offered up what they valued most, just

as Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his son, as Jephthah dedicated

his daughter as a burnt-offering to Jehovah, and as the king of Moab

sacrificed his eldest son to Chemosh.[1188] But, except in the Situa,

when the idea was to efface sins by washing, the sacrifices of the

Incas were offerings of thanksgiving, not of expiation or atonement.

The mistake of the five writers who supposed that the Incas offered

human sacrifices was due to their ignorance of the language.[1189] The

perpetration of human sacrifice was opposed to the religious ideas of

the ancient Peruvians, and formed no part of their ceremonial worship.

Their ritual was almost exclusively devoted to thanksgiving and

rejoicings over the beneficence of their Deity. The notion of expiation

formed no part of their creed, while the destruction involved in such

a system was opposed to their economic and carefully regulated civil

polity.[1190]

The second great festival, called Situa, was celebrated at the vernal

equinox. This was the commencement of the rainy season, when sickness

prevailed, and the object of the ceremony was to pray to the Creator

to drive diseases and evils from the land. In the centre of the great

square of Cuzco a body of four hundred warriors was assembled, fully

armed for war. One hundred faced towards the Chincha-suyu road, one

hundred faced towards Anti-suyu, one hundred towards Colla-suyu, and

one hundred towards Cunti-suyu,—the four great divisions of the empire.

The Inca and the high-priest, with their attendants, then came from

the temple, and shouted, “Go forth all evils!” On the instant the

warriors ran at great speed towards the four quarters, shouting the

same sentence as they went, until they each came to another party,

which took up the cry, and the last parties reached the banks of great

rivers, the Apurimac or Vilcamayu, where they bathed and washed their

arms. The rivers were supposed to carry the evils away to the ocean.

As the warriors ran through the streets of Cuzco, all the people came

to their doors, shaking their clothes, and shouting, “Let the evils be

gone!” In the evening they all bathed; then they lighted great torches

of straw, called _pancurcu_, and, marching in procession out of the

city, they threw them into the rivers, believing that thus nocturnal

evils were banished. At night, each family partook of a supper

consisting of pudding made of coarsely ground maize, called _sancu_,

which was also smeared over their faces and the lintels of their

doorways, then washed off and thrown into the rivers with the cry, “May

we be free from sickness, and may no maladies enter our houses!” The

_huacas_ and _malquis_ were also bathed at the feast of Situa. In the

following days all the malquis were paraded, and there were sacrifices,

with feasting and dancing. A stone fountain, plated with gold, stood

in the great square of Cuzco, and the Inca, on this and other solemn

festivals, poured _chicha_ into it from a golden vase, which was

conducted by subterranean pipes to the temple.

The third great festival at the summer solstice, called _Huaracu_,

was the occasion on which the youths of the empire were admitted

to a rank equivalent to knighthood, after passing through a severe

ordeal. The Inca and his court were assembled in front of the temple.

Thither the youths were conducted by their relations, with heads

closely shorn, and attired in shirts of fine yellow wool edged with

black, and white mantles fastened round their necks by woollen cords

with red tassels. They made their reverences to the Inca, offered up

prayers, and each presented a llama for sacrifice.[1191] Proceeding

thence to the hill of Huanacauri, where the venerated _huaca_ to Ayar

Uchu was erected, they there received _huaras_, or breeches made of

aloe fibres, from the priest. This completed their manly attire, and

they returned home to prepare for the ordeal. A few days afterwards

they were assembled in the great square, received a spear, called

_yauri_, and _usutas_ or sandals, and were severely whipped to prove

their endurance. The young candidates were then sent forth to pass the

night in a desert about a league from Cuzco. Next day they had to run

a race. At the farther end of the course young girls were stationed,

called _ñusta-calli-sapa_,[1192] with jars of chicha, who cried, “Come

quickly, youths, for we are waiting!” but the course was a long one,

and many fell before they reached the goal. They also had to rival each

other in assaults and feats of arms. Finally their ears were bored, and

they received ear-pieces of gold and other marks of distinction from

the Inca. The last ceremony was that of bathing in the fountain called

Calli-puquio. About eight hundred youths annually passed through this

ordeal, and became adult warriors, at Cuzco, and similar ceremonies

were performed in all the provinces of the empire.

In the month following on the summer solstice, there was a curious

religious ceremony known as the water sacrifice. The cinders and ashes

of all the numerous sacrifices throughout the year were preserved.

Dams were constructed across the rivers which flow through Cuzco, in

order that the water might rush down with great force when they were

taken away. Prayers and sacrifices were offered up, and then a little

after sunset all the ashes were thrown into the rivers and the dams

were removed. Then the burnt-sacrifices were hurried down with the

stream, closely followed by crowds of people on either bank, with

blazing torches, as far as the bridge at Ollantay-tampu. There two bags

of coca were offered up by being hurled into the river, and thence

the sacrifices were allowed to flow onwards to the sea. This curious

ceremony seems to have been intended not only as a thank-offering

to the Deity, but as an acknowledgment of his omnipresence. As the

offerings flowed with the stream, they knew not whither, yet went to

Him, so his pervading spirit was everywhere, alike in parts unknown as

in the visible world of the Incas.

A sacred fire was kept alive throughout the year by the virgins of the

sun, and the ceremony of its annual renewal at the autumnal equinox was

the fourth great festival, called _Mosoc-nina_, or the “new fire.” Fire

was produced by collecting the sun’s rays on a burnished metal mirror,

and the ceremony was the occasion of prayers and sacrifices. The year

ended with the rejoicing of the harvest months, accompanied by songs,

dances, and other festivities.

Besides the periodical festivals, there were also religious observances

which entered into the life of each family. Every household had one or

more _lares_, called _Conopa_, representing maize, fruit, a llama, or

other object on which its welfare depended. The belief in divination

and soothsaying, the practice of fasting followed by confession, and

worship of the family malqui, all gave employment to the priesthood.

The complicated religious ceremonies connected with the periodical

festivals, the daily worship, and the requirements of private

families gave rise to the growth of a very numerous caste of priests

and diviners. The pope of this hierarchy, the chief pontiff, was

called _Uillac Umu_, words meaning “The head which gives counsel,”

he who repeats to the people the utterances of the Deity. He was the

most learned and virtuous of the priestly caste, always a member of

the reigning family, and next in rank to the Inca. The _Villcas_,

equivalent to the bishops of a Christian hierarchy, were the chief

priests in the provinces, and during the greatest extension of the

empire they numbered ten. The ordinary ministers of religion were

divided into sacrificers, worshippers and confessors, diviners, and

recluses.[1193] It was indeed inevitable that, with a complicated

ritual and a gorgeous ceremonial worship, a populous class of priests

and their assistants, of numerous grades and callings, should come into

existence.[1194]

* * * * *

But the intellectual movement and vigor of the Incas were not confined

to the priesthood. The Amautas or learned men, the poets and reciters

of history, the musical and dramatic composers, the Quipu-camayoc, or

recorders and accountants, were not necessarily, nor indeed generally,

of the priestly caste. It is probable that the Amautas, or men of

learning, formed a separate caste devoted to the cultivation of

literature and the extension of the language. Our knowledge of their

progress and of the character of their traditions and poetic culture is

very limited, owing to the destruction of records and the loss of oral

testimony. The language has been preserved, and that will tell us much;

but only a few literary compositions have been saved from the wreck of

the Inca empire. Quichua was the name given to the general language of

the Incas by Friar Domingo de San Tomas, the first Spaniard who studied

it grammatically, possibly owing to his having acquired it from people

belonging to the Quichua tribe. The name continued to be used, and

has been generally adopted.[1195] Garcilasso de la Vega speaks of a

separate court language of the Incas, but the eleven words he gives as

belonging to it are ordinary Quichua words, and I concur with Hervas

and William von Humboldt in the conclusion that this court language

of Garcilasso had no real existence.[1196] It is not mentioned by any

other authority.

[Illustration: THE QUIPUS.

[Following a sketch in Rivero and Tschudi, as reproduced by Helps.

It shows a quipu found in an ancient cemetery near Pachacamac. There

are other cuts in Wiener’s _Pérou et Bolivie_, p. 777; Tylor’s _Early

Hist. Mankind_, 156; Kingsborough’s _Mexico_, vol. iv.; Silvestre’s

_Universal Palæography_; and Léon de Rosny’s _Écritures figuratives_,

Paris, 180. Cf. Acosta, vi. cap. 8, and other early authorities

mentioned in Prescott (Kirk’s ed. i. 125); Markham’s _Cieza_, 291;

D. Wilson’s _Prehistoric Man_, ii. ch. 18; _Fourth Rept. Bureau of

Ethnology_ (Washington), p. 79; Bollaert’s description in _Memoirs

read before the Anthropological Society of London_, i. 188, and iii.

351; A. Bastian’s _Culturländer des alten America_, iii. 73; Brasseur

de Bourbourg’s _MS. Troano_, i. 18; Stevens’s _Flint Chips_, 465; T.

P. Thompson’s “Knot Records of Peru” in _Westminster Review_, xi.

228; but in the separate print called _History of the Quipos, or

Peruvian Knot-records, as given by the early Spanish Historians, with a

Description of a supposed Specimen_, assigned to Al. Strong by Leclerc,

No. 2413. The description in Frezier’s _Voyage to the South Sea_ (1717)

is one of the earliest among Europeans. Leclerc, No. 2412, mentions a

_Letter a apologetica_ (Napoli, 1750), pertaining to the quipus, but

seems uncertain as to its value.—ED.]]

It was the custom for the Yaravecs or Bards to recite the deeds of

former Incas on public occasions, and these rhythmical narratives

were orally preserved and handed down by the learned men. Cieza de

Leon tells us that “by this plan, from the mouths of one generation

the succeeding one was taught, and they could relate what took place

five hundred years ago as if only ten years had passed. This was the

order that was taken to prevent the great events of the empire from

falling into oblivion.” These historical recitations and songs must

have formed the most important part of Inca literature. One specimen

of imaginative poetry has been preserved by Blas Valero, in which

the thunder, followed by rain, is likened to a brother breaking his

sister’s pitcher; just as in the Scandinavian mythology the legend

which is the original source of our nursery rhyme of Jack and Jill

employs the same imagery. Pastoral duties are embodied in some of

the later Quichuan dramatic literature, and numerous love songs and

_yaravies_, or elegies, have been handed down orally, or preserved in

old manuscripts. The dances were numerous and complicated, and the

Incas had many musical instruments.[1197] Dramatic representations,

both of a tragic and comic character, were performed before the

Inca court. The statement of Garcilasso de la Vega to this effect

is supported by the independent evidence of Cieza de Leon and of

Salcamayhua, and is placed beyond a doubt by the sentence of the judge,

Areche, in 1781, who prohibited the celebration of these dramas by the

Indians. Father Iteri also speaks of the “Quichua dramas transmitted to

this day (1790) by an unbroken tradition.” But only one such drama has

been handed down to our own time. It is entitled Ollantay, and records

an historical event of the time of Yupanqui Pachacutec. In its present

form, as regards division into scenes and stage directions, it shows

later Spanish manipulation. The question of its antiquity has been much

discussed; but the final result is that Quichua scholars believe most

of its dialogues and speeches and all the songs to be remnants of the

Inca period.

[Illustration: INCA SKULL.

[After the plate in the _Contrib. to N. Am. Ethnology_, vol. v.

(Powell’s survey, 1882), showing the trephined skull brought from Peru

by Squier, in the Army Med. Museum, Washington. Squier in his _Peru_,

p. 457, gives another cut, with comments of Broca and others in the

appendix. Cf. in the same volume a paper on “Prehistoric Trephining and

Cranial Amulets,” by R. Fletcher, and a paper on “Trephining in the

Neolithic Period,” in the _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,

Nov., 1887. Cf. on Peruvian skulls Rudolf Virchow, in the third volume

of the _Necropolis of Ancon_; T. J. Hutchinson in the _Journal of the

Anthropological Institute_, iii. 311; iv. 2; Busk and Davis in _Ibid._

iii. 86, 94; Wilson’s _Prehistoric Man_, ii. ch. 20; C. C. Blake, in

_Transactions Ethnolog. Soc._, n. s., ii. There are two collections

of Peruvian skulls in the Peabody Museum at Cambridge, Mass.,—one

presented by Squier, the other secured by the Haasler Expedition. (Cf.

_Reports_ VII. and IX. of the museum.) Wiener (_L’Empire des Incas_,

p. 81) cites a long list of writers on the artificial deforming of the

skull.—ED.]]

The system of record by the use of _quipus_, or knots, was primarily

a method of numeration and of keeping accounts. To cords of various

colors smaller lines were attached in the form of fringe, on which

there were knots in an almost infinite variety of combination. The

_Quipu-camayoc_, or accountant, could by this means keep records

under numerous heads, and preserve the accounts of the empire. The

_quipus_ represented a far better system of keeping accounts than the

exchequer tallies which were used in England for the same purpose

as late as the early part of the present century. But the question

of the extent to which historical events could be recorded by this

system of knots is a difficult one. We have the direct assertions

of Montesinos, Salcamayhua, the anonymous Jesuit, Blas Valera, and

others, that not only narratives, but songs, were preserved by means of

the _quipus_. Von Tschudi believed that by dint of the uninterrupted

studies of experts during several generations, the power of expression

became developed more and more, and that eventually the art of the

_Quipu-camayoc_ reached a high state of perfection. It may reasonably

be assumed that with some help from oral commentary, codes of laws,

historical events, and even poems were preserved in the _quipus_.

It was through this substitute for writing that Montesinos and the

anonymous Jesuit received their lists of ancient dynasties, and Blas

Valera distinctly says that the poem he has preserved was taken from

_quipus_. Still it must have been rather a system of mnemonics than of

complete record. Molina tells us that the events in the reigns of all

the Incas, as well as early traditions, were represented by paintings

on boards, in a temple near Cuzco, called _Poquen cancha_.

The diviners used certain incantations to cure the sick, but the

healing art among the Incas was really in the hands of learned men.

Those _Amautas_ who devoted themselves to the study of medicine had, as

Acosta bears testimony, a knowledge of the properties of many plants.

The febrifuge virtues of the precious _quinquina_ were, it is true,

unknown, or only locally known. But the _Amautas_ used plants with

tonic properties for curing fevers; and they were provided with these

and other drugs by an itinerant caste, called Calahuayas or Charisanis,

who went into the forests to procure them. The descendants of these

itinerant doctors still wander over South America, selling drugs.[1198]

The discovery of a skull in a cemetery at Yucay, which exhibits clear

evidence of a case of trepanning before death, proves the marvellous

advances made by the Incas in surgical science.

[Illustration: RUINS AT CHUCUITO.

[After a drawing in Squier’s _Primeval Monuments of Peru_, p. 17,

showing a wall of hewn stones, with an entrance. The enclosed rectangle

is 65 feet on each side,—“a type of an advanced class of megalithic

monuments by no means uncommon in the highlands of Peru.” Cf. Squier’s

_Peru_, p. 354.—ED.]]

The sovereign was the centre of all civilization and all knowledge.

All literary culture, all the religious ceremonial which had grown

up with the extension of the empire, had the Inca for their centre,

as well as all the military operations and all laws connected with

civil administration. Originally but the _Sinchi_, or chief of a small

_ayllu_, the greatness of successive Incas grew with the extension of

their power, until at last they were looked upon almost as deities by

their subjects. The greatest lords entered their presence in a stooping

position and with a small burden on their backs. The imperial family

rapidly increased. Each Inca left behind him numerous younger sons,

whose descendants formed an _ayllu_, so that the later sovereigns

were surrounded by a numerous following of their own kindred, from

among whom able public servants were selected. The sovereign was the

“_Sapallan Inca_,” the sole and sovereign lord, and with good reason he

was called _Huaccha-cuyac_, or friend of the poor.

Enormous wealth was sent to Cuzco as tribute from all parts of the

empire, for the service of the court and of the temples. The special

insignia of the sovereign were the _llautu_, or crimson fringe

round the forehead, the wing feathers (black and white) of the

alcamari, an Andean vulture, on the head, forming together the _suntu

paucar_ or sacred head-dress; the _huaman champi_, or mace, and the

_ccapac-yauri_, or sceptre. His dress consisted of shirts of cotton,

tunics of dyed cotton in patterns, with borders of small gold and

silver plates or feathers, and mantles of fine vicuña wool woven and

dyed. The Incas, as represented in the pictures at Cuzco,[1199] painted

soon after the conquest, wore golden breastplates suspended round their

necks, with the image of the sun stamped upon them;[1200] and the

_Ccoya_, or queen, wore a large golden _topu_, or pin, with figures

engraved on the head, which secured her _lliclla_, or mantle. All

the utensils of the palace were of gold; and so exclusively was that

precious metal used in the service of the court and the temple that

a garden outside the Ccuri-cancha was planted with models of leaves,

fruit, and stalks made of pure gold.[1201]

[Illustration: LAKE TITICACA.

[After a cut in Ruge’s _Gesch. des Zeital. der Entdeckungen_. Squier

explored the lake with Raimond in 1864-65, and bears testimony to the

general accuracy of the survey by J. B. Pentland, British consul in

Bolivia (1827-28 and 1837), published by the British admiralty; but

Squier points out some defects of his survey in his _Remarques sur la

Géog. du Pérou_, p. 14, and in _Journal Amer. Geog. Soc._, iii. There

is another view in Wiener’s _Pérou et Bolivie_, p. 441. Cf. Markham’s

_Cieza de Leon_, 370; Marcoy’s Voyage; Baldwin’s _Ancient America_,

228; and Philippson’s _Gesch. des neu. Zeit._, i. 240. Squier in his

_Peru_ (pp. 308-370) gives various views, plans of the ruins, and a map

of the lake.—ED.]]

Two styles are discernible in Inca architecture. The earliest is

an imitation of the cyclopean works of their ancestors on a smaller

scale. The walls were built with polygonal-shaped stones with rough

surfaces, but the stones were much reduced in size. Rows of doorways

with slanting sides and monolithic lintels adorn the façades; while

recesses for _huacas_, shaped like the doorways, occur in the interior

walls. Part of the palace called the Collcampata, at the foot of the

Cuzco fortress, the buildings which were added to the cyclopean work at

Ollantay tampu, the older portion of the Ccuri-cancha temple at Cuzco,

the palaces at Chinchero and Rimac-tampu, are in this earlier style.

The later style is seen mainly at Cuzco, where the stones are laid in

regular courses. No one has described this superb masonry better than

Squier.[1202] No cement or mortar of any kind was used, the edifices

depending entirely on the accuracy of their stone-fitting for their

stability. The palaces and temples were built round a court-yard,

and a hall of vast dimensions, large enough for ceremonies on an

extensive scale, was included in the plan of most of the edifices.

These halls were 200 paces long by 50 to 60 broad. The dimensions of

the Ccuri-cancha temple were 296 feet by 52, and the southwest end

was apsidal. Serpents are carved in relief on some of the stones and

lintels of the Cuzco palaces. Hence the palace of Huayna Ccapac is

called Amaru-cancha.[1203] At Hatun-colla, near Lake Titicaca, there

are two sandstone pillars, probably of Inca origin, which are very

richly carved. They are covered with figures of serpents, lizards,

and frogs, and with elaborate geometrical patterns. The height of the

walls of the Cuzco edifices was from 35 to 40 feet, and the roofs were

thatched. One specimen of the admirable thatching of the Incas is still

preserved at Azangaro.

[Illustration: LAKE TITICACA.

[One of the cuts which did service in the Antwerp editions of Cieza de

Leon.—ED.]]

There are many ruins throughout Peru both in the earlier and later

styles; some of them, such as those at Vilcashuaman and Huanuco el

viejo, being of great interest. The Inca palace on the island in Lake

Titicaca is a rectangular two-storied edifice, with numerous rooms

having ceilings formed of flat overlapping stones, laid with great

regularity. With its esplanade, beautiful terraced gardens, baths,

and fountains, this Titicaca palace must have been intended for the

enjoyment of beautiful scenery in comparative seclusion, like the now

destroyed palace at Yucay, in the valley of the Vilcamayu.

An example of the improvement of architecture after Inca subjugation is

shown in the curious burial-places, or _chulpas_, of the Collao, in the

basin of Lake Titicaca. The earliest, as seen at Acora near the lake,

closely resemble the rude cromlechs of Brittany. Next, roughly built

square towers are met with, with vaults inside. Lastly, the _chulpas_

at Sillustani are well-built circular towers, about 40 feet high and

16 feet in diameter at the base, widening as they rise. A cornice

runs round each tower, about three fourths of the distance from the

base to the summit. The stones are admirably cut and fitted in nearly

even courses, like the walls at Cuzco. The interior circular vaults,

which contained the bodies, were arched with overlapping stones, and a

similar dome formed the roof of the towers.

[Illustration: MAP OF TITICACA, WITH WIENER’S ROUTE.]

The architectural excellence reached by the Incas, their advances in

the other arts and in literature, and the imperial magnificence of

their court and religious worship, imply the existence of an orderly

and well-regulated administrative system. An examination of their

social polity will not disappoint even high expectations. The Inca,

though despotic in theory, was bound by the complicated code of rules

and customs which had gradually developed itself during the reigns of

his ancestors. In his own extensive family, composed of Auqui[1204]

and Atauchi,[1205] Palla[1206] and Ñusta,[1207] to the number of many

hundreds,[1208] and in the Curacas[1209] and Apu-curacas[1210] of the

conquered tribes, he had a host of able public servants to govern

provinces, enter the priesthood, or command armies.

[Illustration: PRIMEVAL TOMB, ACORA.

[After a sketch in Squier’s _Primeval Monuments of Peru_, Salem, 1870.

He considers it an example of some of the oldest of human monuments,

and is inclined to believe these chulpas, or burial monuments, to have

been built by the ancestors of the Peruvians of the conquest in their

earliest development.—ED.]]

[Illustration: RUINS AT QUELLENATA.

[Reduced from a sketch in Squier’s _Primeval Monuments of Peru_, p. 7.

They are situated in Bolivia, northeast of Lake Titicaca, and the cut

shows a hill-fortress (pucura) and the round, flaring-top burial towers

(chulpas). Cf. cut in Wiener’s _Pérou et Bolivie_, p. 538.—ED.]]

The empire was marked out into four great divisions, corresponding

with the four cardinal points of a compass placed at Cuzco. To the

north was Chinchaysuyu, to the east Anti-suyu, to the west Cunti-suyu,

and to the south Colla-suyu.

[Illustration: RUINS AT ESCOMA, BOLIVIA.

[After a cut in Squier’s _Primeval Monuments of Peru_, p. 9,—a square

two-storied burial tower (chulpa) with hill-fortress (pucura) in the

distance, situated east of Lake Titicaca. Cf. Squier’s _Peru_, p.

373.—ED.]]

[Illustration: SILLUSTANI, PERU.

[Sun-circles (Inti-huatana, where the sun is tied up), after a cut in

Squier’s _Primeval Monuments of Peru_, p. 15. The nearer circle is 90

feet; the farther, which has a grooved outlying platform, is 150 feet

in diameter. Cf. plan and views in Squier’s _Peru_, ch. 20.—ED.]]

The whole empire was called Ttahuantin-suyu, or the four united

provinces. Each great province was governed by an Inca viceroy, whose

title was _Ccapac_, or _Tucuyricoc_.[1211] The latter word means “He

who sees all.” Garcilasso describes the office as merely that of an

inspector, whose duty it was to visit the province and report. Under

the viceroy were the native _Curacas_, who governed the _ayllus_, or

lineages. Each _ayllu_ was divided into sections of ten families, under

an officer called _Chunca_ (10) _camayu_. Ten of these came under a

_Pachaca_ (100) _camayu_. Ten _Pachacas_ formed a _Huaranca_ (1,000)

_camayu_, and the _Hunu_ (10,000) _camayu_ ruled over ten _Huarancas_.

The _Chunca_ of ten families was the unit of government, and each

_Chunca_ formed a complete community.[1212]

[Illustration: RUINS OF AN INCARIAL VILLAGE.

[Situated on the road from Milo to Huancayo. Reduced from an ink

drawing given by Wiener in his _L’Empire des Incas_, pl. v.—ED.]]

The cultivable land belonged to the people in their _ayllus_, each

_Chunca_ being allotted a sufficient area to support its ten _Purics_

and their dependants.[1213] The produce was divided between the

government (_Inca_), the priesthood (_Huaca_), and the cultivators or

poor (_Huaccha_), but not in equal shares.[1214] In some parts the

three shares were kept apart in cultivation, but as a rule the produce

was divided at harvest time. The flocks of llamas were divided into

_Ccapac-llama_, belonging to the state, and _Huaccha-llama_, owned by

the people. Thus the land belonged to the _ayllu_, or tribe, and each

_puric_, or able-bodied man, had a right to his share of the crop,

provided that he had been present at the sowing. All those who were

absent must have been employed in the service of the Inca or Huaca, and

subsisted on the government or priestly share. Shepherds and mechanics

were also dependent on those shares. Officers called _Runay-pachaca_

annually revised the allotments, made the census, prepared statistics

for the _Quipu-camayoc_, and sent reports to the _Tucuyricoc_. The

_Llacta-camayoc_, or village overseer, announced the turns for

irrigation and the fields to be cultivated when the shares were grown

apart. These daily notices were usually given from a tower or terrace.

There were also judges or examiners, called _Taripasac_,[1215] who

investigated serious offences and settled disputes. Punishments for

crimes were severe, and inexorably inflicted. It was also the duty of

these officers, when a particular _ayllu_ suffered any calamity through

wars or natural causes, to allot contingents from surrounding _ayllus_

to assist the neighbor in distress. There were similar arrangements

when the completion or repair of any public work was urgent. The most

cruel tax on the people consisted in the selection of the _Aclla-cuna_,

or chosen maidens for the service of the Inca, and the church, or

_Huaca_. This was done once a year by an ecclesiastical dignitary

called the _Apu-Panaca_,[1216] or, according to one authority, the

_Hatun-uilca_,[1217] who was deputy of the high-priest. Service under

the Inca in all other capacities was eagerly sought for.