Peruvian Religion--Deities--Gorgeous Temples--Festivals-
Virgins Of The Sun--Marriage
It is a remarkable fact, that many, if not most, of the rude tribes
inhabiting the vast American continent, however disfigured their creeds
may have been in other respects by a childish superstition, had attained
to the sublime conception of one Great Spirit, the Creator of the
Universe, who, immaterial in his own nature, was not to be dishonored
by an attempt at visible representation, and who, pervading all space,
was not to be circumscribed within the walls of a temple. Yet these
elevated ideas, so far beyond the ordinary range of the untutored
intellect, do not seem to have led to the practical consequences that
might have been expected; and few of the American nations have shown
much solicitude for the maintenance of a religious worship, or found in
their faith a powerful spring of action.
But, with progress in civilization, ideas more akin to those of civilized
communities were gradually unfolded; a liberal provision was made, and
a separate order instituted, for the services of religion, which were
conducted with a minute and magnificent ceremonial, that challenged
comparison, in some respects, with that of the most polished nations of
Christendom. This was the case with the nations inhabiting the table-
land of North America, and with the natives of Bogota, Quito, Peru, and
the other elevated regions on the great Southern continent. It was, above
all, the case with the Peruvians, who claimed a divine original for the
founders of their empire, whose laws all rested on a divine sanction, and
whose domestic institutions and foreign wars were alike directed to
preserve and propagate their faith. Religion was the basis of their polity,
the very condition, as it were, of their social existence. The government
of the Incas, in its essential principles, was a theocracy.
Yet, though religion entered so largely into the fabric and conduct of the
political institutions of the people, their mythology, that is, the
traditionary legends by which they affected to unfold the mysteries of the
universe, was exceedingly mean and puerile. Scarce one of their
traditions--except the beautiful one respecting the founders of their royal
dynasty--is worthy of note, or throws much light on their own antiquities,
or the primitive history of man. Among the traditions of importance is
one of the deluge, which they held in common with so many of the
nations in all parts of the globe, and which they related with some
particulars that bear resemblance to a Mexican legend.1
Their ideas in respect to a future state of being deserve more attention.
They admitted the existence of a soul hereafter, and connected with this
a belief in the resurrection of the body. They assigned two distinct
places for the residence of the good and of the wicked, the latter of
which they fixed in the centre of the earth. The good they supposed were
to pass a luxurious life of tranquillity and ease, which comprehended
their highest notions of happiness. The wicked were to expiate their
crimes by ages of wearisome labor. They associated with these ideas a
belief in an evil principle or spirit, bearing the name of Cupay, whom
they did not attempt to propitiate by sacrifices, and who seems to have
been only a shadowy personification of sin, that exercised little influence
over their conduct.2
It was this belief in the resurrection of the body, which led them to
preserve the body with so much solicitude, by a simple process,
however, that, unlike the elaborate embalming of the Egyptians,
consisted in exposing it to the action of the cold, exceedingly dry, and
highly rarefied atmosphere of the mountains.3 As they believed that the
occupations in the future world would have great resemblance to those of
the present, they buried with the deceased noble some of his apparel, his
utensils, and, frequently, his treasures; and completed the gloomy
ceremony by sacrificing his wives and favorite domestics, to bear him
company and do him service in the happy regions beyond the clouds.4
Vast mounds of an irregular, or, more frequently, oblong shape,
penetrated by galleries running at right angles to each other, were raised
over the dead, whose dried bodies or mummies have been found in
considerable numbers, sometimes erect, but more often in the sitting
posture, common to the Indian tribes of both continents. Treasures of
great value have also been occasionally drawn from these monumental
deposits, and have stimulated, speculators to repeated excavations with
the hope of similar good-fortune. It was a lottery like that of searching
after mines, but where the chances have proved still more against the
adventurers.5
The Peruvians, like so many other of the Indian races, acknowledged a
Supreme Being, the Creator and Ruler of the Universe, whom they
adored under the different names of Pachacamac and Viracocha.6 No
temple was raised to this invisible Being, save one only in the valley
which took its name from the deity himself, not far from the Spanish city
of Lima. Even this temple had existed there before the country came
under the sway of the Incas, and was the great resort of Indian pilgrims
from remote parts of the land; a circumstance which suggests the idea,
that the worship of this Great Spirit, though countenanced, perhaps, by
their accommodating policy, did not originate with the Peruvian
princes.7
The deity whose worship they 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, while his altars
smoked with burnt offerings,--a form of sacrifice peculiar to the
Peruvians among the semi-civilized nations of the New World.8
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,9 in
whom they recognized the Sun's dread ministers, and to the Rainbows
whom they worshipped as a beautiful emanation of their glorious
deity.10
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.11 They
adopted also a notion, not unlike that professed by some of the schools
of ancient philosophy, that every thing on earth had its archetype or idea,
its mother, as they emphatically styled it, which they held sacred, as, in
some sort, its spiritual essence.12 But their system, far from being
limited even to these multiplied objects of devotion, embraced within its
ample folds the numerous deities of the conquered nations, whose
images were transported to the capital, where the burdensome charges of
their worship were defrayed by their respective provinces. It was a rare
stroke of policy in the Incas, who could thus accommodate their religion
to their interests.13
But the worship of the Sun constituted the peculiar care of the Incas, and
was the object of their lavish expenditure. The most ancient of the many
temples dedicated to this divinity was in the Island of Titicaca, whence
the royal founders of the Peruvian line were said to have proceeded.
From this circumstance, this sanctuary was held in peculiar veneration.
Every thing which belonged to it, even the broad fields of maize, which
Surrounded the temple, and formed part of its domain, imbibed a portion
of its sanctity. The yearly produce was distributed among the different
public magazines, in small quantities to each, as something that would
sanctify the remainder of the store. Happy was the man who could
secure even an ear of the blessed harvest for his own granary! 14
But 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 Coricancha, or "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 work was of the kind already described in the other public
buildings of the country, and was so finely executed, that a Spaniard,
who saw it in its glory, assures us, he could call to mind only two
edifices in Spain, which, for their workmanship, were at all to be
compared with it.15 Yet this substantial, and, in some respects,
magnificent structure, was thatched with straw !
The interior of the temple was the 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.16 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 in crusted. Gold, in the figurative language of
the people was "the tears wept by the sun," 17 and every part of the
interior of the temple glowed with burnished plates and studs of the
precious metal. The cornices, which surrounded the walls of the
sanctuary, were of the same costly material; and a broad belt or frieze of
gold, let into the stonework, encompassed the whole exterior of the
edifice.18
Adjoining the principal structure were several chapels of smaller
dimensions. One of them was consecrated to the Moon, the deity held
next in reverence, as the mother of the Incas. Her effigy was delineated
in the same manner as that of the Sun, on a vast plate that nearly covered
one side of the apartment. But this plate, as well as all the decorations of
the building, was of silver, as suited to the pale, silvery light of the
beautiful planet. There were three other chapels, one of which was
dedicated to the host of Stars, who formed the bright court of the Sister
of the Sun; another was consecrated to his dread ministers of vengeance,
the Thunder and the Lightning; and a third, to the Rainbow, whose
many-colored arch spanned the walls of the edifice with hues almost as
radiant as its own. There were besides several other buildings, or
insulated apartments, for the accommodation of the numerous priests
who officiated in the services of the temple.19
All the plate, the ornaments, the utensils of every description,
appropriated to the uses of religion, were of gold or silver. Twelve
immense vases of the latter metal stood on the floor of the great saloon,
filled with grain of the Indian corn;20 the censers for the perfumes, the
ewers which held the water for sacrifice, the pipes which conducted it
through subterraneous channels into the buildings, the reservoirs that
received it, even the agricultural implements used in the gardens of the
temple, were all of the same rich materials. The gardens, like those
described, belonging to the royal palaces, sparkled with flowers of gold
and silver, and various imitations of the vegetable kingdom. Animals,
also, were to be found there,--among which the llama, with its golden
fleece, was most conspicuous,--executed in the same style, and with a
degree of skill, which, in this instance, probably, did not surpass the
excellence of the material.21
If the reader sees in this fairy picture only the romantic coloring of some
fabulous El Dorado, he must recall what has been said before in
reference to the palaces of the Incas, and consider that these "Houses of
the Sun," as they were styled, were the common reservoir into which
flowed all the streams of public and private benefaction throughout the
empire. Some of the statements, through credulity, and others, in the
desire of exciting admiration, may be greatly exaggerated; but, in the
coincidence of contemporary testimony, it is not easy to determine the
exact line which should mark the measure of our skepticism. Certain it
is, that the glowing picture I have given is warranted by those who saw
these buildings in their pride, or shortly after they had been despoiled by
the cupidity of their countrymen. Many of the costly articles were buried
by the natives, or thrown into the waters of the rivers and the lakes; but
enough remained to attest the unprecedented opulence of these religious
establishments. Such things as were in their nature portable were
speedily removed, to gratify the craving of the Conquerors, who even
tore away the solid cornices and frieze of gold from the great temple,
filling the vacant places with the cheaper, but--since it affords no
temptation to avarice--more durable, material of plaster. Yet even thus
shorn of their splendor, the venerable edifices still presented an
attraction to the spoiler, who found in their dilapidated walls an
inexhaustable quarry for the erection of other buildings. On the very
ground once crowned by the gorgeous Coricancha rose the stately church
of St. Dominic, one of the most magnificent structures of the New
World. Fields of maize and lucerne now bloom on the spot which
glowed with the golden gardens of the temple; and the friar chants his
orisons within the consecrated precincts once occupied by the Children
of the Sun.22
Besides the great temple of the Sun, there was a large number of inferior
temples and religious houses in the Peruvian capital and its environs,
amounting, as is stated, to three or four hundred.23 For Cuzco was a
sanctified spot, venerated not only as the abode of the Incas, but of all
those deities who presided over the motley nations of the empire. It was
the city beloved of the Sun; where his worship was maintained in its
splendor; "where every fountain, pathway, and wall," says an ancient
chronicler, "was regarded as a holy mystery." 24 And unfortunate was
the Indian noble who, at some period or other of his life, had not made
his pilgrimage to the Peruvian Mecca.
Other temples and religious dwellings were scattered over the provinces;
and some of them constructed on a scale of magnificence, that almost
rivalled that of the metropolis. The attendants on these composed an
army of themselves. The whole number of functionaries, including those
of the sacerdotal order, who officiated at the Coricancha alone, was no
less than four thousand.25
At the head of all, both here and throughout the land, stood the great
High-Priest, or Villac Vmu, as he was called. He was second only to the
Inca in dignity, and was usually chosen from his brothers or nearest
kindred. He was appointed by the monarch, and held his office for life;
and he, in turn, appointed to all the subordinate stations of his own order.
This order was very numerous. Those members of it who officiated in
the House of the Sun, in Cuzco, were taken exclusively from the sacred
race of the Incas. The ministers in the provincial temples were drawn
from the families of the curacas; but the office of high-priest in each
district was reserved for one of the blood royal. It was designed by this
regulation to preserve the faith in its purity, and to guard against any
departure from the stately ceremonial which it punctiliously
prescribed.26
The sacerdotal order, though numerous, was not distinguished by any
peculiar badge or costume from the rest of the nation. Neither was it the
sole depository of the scanty science of the country, nor was it charged
with the business of instruction, nor with those parochial duties, if they
may so be called, which bring the priest in contact with the great body of
the people,--as was the case in Mexico. The cause of this peculiarity
may probably be traced to the existence of a superior order, like that of
the Inca nobles, whose sanctity of birth so far transcended all human
appointments, that they in a manner engrossed whatever there was of
religious veneration in the people. They were, in fact, the holy order of
the state. Doubtless, any of them might, as very many of them did, take
on themselves the sacerdotal functions; and their own insignia and
peculiar privileges were too well understood to require any further badge
to separate them from the people.
The duties of the priest were confined to ministration in the temple.
Even here his attendance was not constant, as he was relieved after a
stated interval by other brethren of his order, who succeeded one another
in regular rotation. His science was limited to an acquaintance with the
fasts and festivals of his religion, and the appropriate ceremonies which
distinguished them. This, however frivolous might be its character, was
no easy acquisition; for the ritual of the Incas involved a routine of
observances, as complex and elaborate as ever distinguished that of any
nation, whether pagan or Christian. Each month had its appropriate
festival, or rather festivals. The four principal had reference to the Sun,
and commemorated the great periods of his annual progress, the solstices
and equinoxes. Perhaps the most magnificent of all the national
solemnities was the feast of Raymi, held at the period of the summer
solstice, when the Sun, having touched the southern extremity of his
course, retraced his path, as if to gladden the hearts of his chosen people
by his presence. On this occasion, the Indian nobles from the different
quarters of the country thronged to the capital to take part in the great
religious celebration.
For three days previous, there was a general fast, and no fire was allowed
to be lighted in the dwellings. When the appointed day arrived, the Inca
and his court, followed by the whole population of the city, assembled at
early dawn in the great square to greet the rising of the Sun. They were
dressed in their gayest apparel, and the Indian lords vied with each other
in the display of costly ornaments and jewels on their persons, while
canopies of gaudy feather-work and richly tinted stuffs, borne by the
attendants over their heads, gave to the great square, and the streets that
emptied into it, the appearance of being spread over with one vast and
magnificent awning. Eagerly they watched the coming of their deity,
and, no sooner did his first yellow rays strike the turrets and loftiest
buildings of the capital, than a shout of gratulation broke forth from the
assembled multitude, accompanied by songs of triumph, and the wild
melody of barbaric instruments, that swelled louder and louder as his
bright orb, rising above the mountain range towards the east, shone in
full splendor on his votaries. After the usual ceremonies of adoration, a
libation was offered to the great deity by the Inca, from a huge golden
vase, filled with the fermented liquor of maize or of maguey, which,
after the monarch had tasted it himself, he dispensed among his royal
kindred. These ceremonies completed, the vast assembly was arranged
in order of procession, and took its way towards the Coricancha.27
As they entered the street of the sacred edifice, all divested themselves of
their sandals, except the Inca and his family, who did the same on
passing through the portals of the temple, where none but these august
personages were admitted.28 After a decent time spent in devotion, the
sovereign, attended by his courtly train, again appeared, and preparations
were made to commence the sacrifice. This, with the Peruvians,
consisted of animals, grain, flowers, and sweet-scented gums; sometimes
of human beings, on which occasions a child or beautiful maiden was
usually selected as the victim. But such sacrifices were rare, being
reserved to celebrate some great public event, as a coronation, the birth
of a royal heir, or a great victory. They were never followed by those
cannibal repasts familiar to the Mexicans, and to many of the fierce
tribes conquered by the Incas. Indeed, the conquests of these princes
might well be deemed a blessing to the Indian nations, if it were only
from their suppression of cannibalism, and the diminution, under their
rule, of human sacrifices.29
At the feast of Raymi, the sacrifice usually offered was that of the llama;
and the priest, after opening the body of his victim, sought in the
appearances which it exhibited to read the lesson of the mysterious
future. If the auguries were unpropitious, a second victim was
slaughtered, in the hope of receiving some more comfortable assurance.
The Peruvian augur might have learned a good lesson of the Roman,--to
consider every omen as favorable, which served the interests of his
country.30
A fire was then kindled by means of a concave mirror of polished metal,
which, collecting the rays of the sun into a focus upon a quantity of dried
cotton, speedily set it on fire. It was the expedient used on the like
occasions in ancient Rome, at least under the reign of the pious Numa.
When the sky was overcast, and the face of the good deity was hidden
from his worshippers, which was esteemed a bad omen, fire was
obtained by means of friction. The sacred flame was intrusted to the care
of the Virgins of the Sun, and if, by any neglect, it was suffered to go out
in the course of the year, the event was regarded as a calamity that boded
some strange disaster to the monarchy.31 A burnt offering of the victims
was then made on the altars of the deity. This sacrifice was but the
prelude to the slaughter of a great number of llamas, part of the flocks of
the Sun, which furnished a banquet not only for the Inca and his Court,
but for the people, who made amends at these festivals for the frugal fare
to which they were usually condemned. A fine bread or cake, kneaded
of maize flour by the fair hands of the Virgins of the Sun, was also
placed on the royal board, where the Inca, presiding over the feast,
pledged his great nobles in generous goblets of the fermented liquor of
the country, and the long revelry of the day was closed at night by music
and dancing. Dancing and drinking were the favorite pastimes of the
Peruvians. These amusements continued for several days, though the
sacrifices terminated on the first.--Such was the great festival of Raymi;
and the recurrence of this and similar festivities gave relief to the
monotonous routine of toil prescribed to the lower orders of the
community.32
In the distribution of bread and wine at this high festival, the orthodox
Spaniards, who first came into the country, saw a striking resemblance to
the Christian communion; 33 as in the practice of confession and
penance, which, in a most irregular form, indeed, seems to have been
used by the Peruvians, they discerned a coincidence with another of the
sacraments of the Church.34 The good fathers were fond of tracing such
coincidences, which they considered as the contrivance of Satan, who
thus endeavored to delude his victims by counterfeiting the blessed rites
of Christianity.35 Others, in a different vein, imagined that they saw in
such analogies the evidence, that some of the primitive teachers of the
Gospel, perhaps an apostle himself, had paid a visit to these distant
regions, and scattered over them the seeds of religious truth.36 But it
seems hardly necessary to invoke the Prince of Darkness, or the
intervention of the blessed saints, to account for coincidences which
have existed in countries far removed from the light of Christianity, and
in ages, indeed, when its light had not yet risen on the world. It is much
more reasonable to refer such casual points of resemblance to the general
constitution of man, and the necessities of his moral nature.37
Another singular analogy with Roman Catholic institutions is presented
by the Virgins of the Sun, the "elect," as they were called,38 to whom I
have already had occasion to refer. These were young maidens,
dedicated to the service of the deity, who, at a tender age, were taken
from their homes, and introduced into convents, where they were placed
under the care of certain elderly matrons, mamaconas, who had grown
grey within their walls.39 Under these venerable guides, the holy virgins
were instructed in the nature of their religious duties. They were
employed in spinning and embroidery, and, with the fine hair of the
vicuna wove the hangings for the temples, and the apparel for the Inca
and his household.40 It was their duty, above all, to watch over the
sacred fire obtained at the festival of Raymi. From the moment they
entered the establishment, they were cut off from all connection with the
world, even with their own family and friends. No one but the Inca, and
the Coya or queen, might enter the consecrated precincts. The greatest
attention was paid to their morals, and visitors were sent every year to
inspect the institutions, and to report on the state of their discipline.41
Woe to the unhappy maiden who was detected in an intrigue! By the
stern law of the Incas, she was to be buried alive, her lover was to be
strangled, and the town or village to which he belonged was to be razed
to the ground, and "sowed with stones," as if to efface every memorial of
his existence.42 One is astonished to find so close a resemblance
between the institutions of the American Indian, the ancient Roman, and
the modern Catholic! Chastity and purity of life are virtues in woman,
that would seem to be of equal estimation with the barbarian and with the
civilized.--Yet the ultimate destination of the inmates of these religious
houses was materially different.
The great establishment at Cuzco consisted wholly of maidens of the
royal blood, who amounted, it is said, to no less than fifteen hundred.
The provincial convents were supplied from the daughters of the curacas
and inferior nobles, and, occasionally, where a girl was recommended by
great personal attractions, from the lower classes of the people.43 The
"Houses of the Virgins of the Sun" consisted of low ranges of stone
buildings, covering a large extent of ground, surrounded by high walls,
which excluded those within entirely from observation. They were
provided with every accommodation for the fair inmates, and were
embellished in the same sumptuous and costly manner as the palaces of
the Incas, and the temples; for they received the particular care of
government, as an important part of the religious establishment.44
Yet the career of all the inhabitants of these cloisters was not confined
within their narrow walls. Though Virgins of the Sun, they were brides
of the Inca, and, at a marriageable age, the most beautiful among them
were selected for the honors of his bed, and transferred to the royal
seraglio. The full complement of this amounted in time not only to
hundreds, but thousands, who all found accommodations in his different
palaces throughout the country. When the monarch was disposed to
lessen the number of his establishment, the concubine with whose society
he was willing to dispense returned, not to her former monastic
residence, but to her own home; where, however humble might be her
original condition, she was maintained in great state, and, far from being
dishonored by the situation she had filled, was held in universal
reverence as the Inca's bride.45
The great nobles of Peru were allowed, like their sovereign, a plurality of
wives. The people, generally, whether by law, or by necessity stronger
than law, were more happily limited to one. Marriage was conducted in
a manner that gave it quite as original a character as belonged to the
other institutions of the country. On an appointed day of the year, all
those of a marriageable age--which, having reference to their ability to
take charge of a family, in the males was fixed at not less than
twentyfour years, and in the women at eighteen or twenty--were called
together in the great squares of their respective towns and villages,
throughout the empire. The Inca presided in person over the assembly of
his own kindred, and taking the hands of the different couples who were
to be united, he placed them within each other, declaring the parties man
and wife. The same was done by the curacas towards all persons of their
own or inferior degree in their several districts. This was the simple
form of marriage in Peru. No one was allowed to select a wife beyond
the community to which he belonged, which generally comprehended all
his own kindred; 46 nor was any but the sovereign authorized to dispense
with the law of nature--or at least, the usual law of nations--so far as to
marry his own sister.47 No marriage was esteemed valid without the
consent of the parents; and the preference of the parties, it is said, was
also to be consulted; though, considering the barriers imposed by the
prescribed age of the candidates, this must have been within rather
narrow and whimsical limits. A dwelling was got ready for the new-
married pair at the charge of the district, and the prescribed portion of
land assigned for their maintenance. The law of Peru provided for the
future, as well as for the present. It left nothing to chance.--The simple
ceremony of marriage was followed by general festivities among the
friends of the parties, which lasted several days; and as every wedding
took place on the same day, and as there were few families who had not
someone of their members or their kindred personally interested, there
was one universal bridal jubilee throughout the empire.48
The extraordinary regulations respecting marriage under the Incas are,
eminently characteristic of the genius of the government; which, far from
limiting itself to matters of public concern, penetrated into the most
private recesses of domestic life, allowing no man, however humble, to
act for himself, even in those personal matters in which none but himself,
or his family at most, might be supposed to be interested. No Peruvian
was too low for the fostering vigilance of government. None was so high
that he was not made to feel his dependence upon it in every act of his
life. His very existence as an individual was absorbed in that of the
community. His hopes and his fears, his joys and his sorrows, the
tenderest sympathies of his nature, which would most naturally shrink
from observation, were all to be regulated by law. He was not allowed
even to be happy in his own way. The government of the Incas was the
mildest, --but the most searching of despotisms.