That the health of the Ynca also led to sacrifice of children is stated by Acosta:
“They vsed in Peru to sacrifice yong children of foure or six yeares old vnto tenne; and the greatest parte of these sacrifices were for the affaires that did import the Ynca, as in sickness for his health, and when he went to the warres for victory, or when they gave the wreathe to their new Ynca, which is the marke of a King, as heere the Scepter and the Crowne be. In this solemnitie they sacrificed the number of two hundred children, from foure to tenne yeares of age, which was a cruell and inhumane spectacle. The manner of the sacrifice was to drowne them and bury them with certaine representations and ceremonies; sometimes they cutte off their heads, annointing themselves with the blood from one eare to another.”[203]
Acosta also declared that when an ordinary man was sick and believed he would die, his own son was sacrificed to the Sun or to Virachoca.
Francisco de Jerez says that the Peruvian Indians sacrificed their own children and tinted the doors of their temples and the faces of their idols with the blood.
THE INCAS OFFERING A HUMAN SACRIFICE TO THEIR CHIEF
(FROM “MOEURS DES SAUVAGES AMERIQUAINS,” BY P. LAFITAU, PARIS, 1724)
AMERICAN SAVAGES SUBSTITUTING AN ANIMAL FOR A HUMAN SACRIFICE
(FROM “MOEURS DES SAUVAGES AMERIQUAINS,” BY P. LAFITAU, PARIS, 1724)
“They sacrifice each month their own children, and with their blood smear the faces of the idols and the doors of the temples, and sprinkle the blood over the graves of their dead.”[204]