On those parts of the coast where it never rains, the combined heat of the sun and the sand has dried up the bodies; in the mountain districts, the pure atmosphere and the peculiarly drying nature of the wind have produced the same effect. Similar appearances may be traced to different circumstances. Of this fact the burial ground of Huacho, and the mummified animals seen on the level heights, furnish the most convincing proofs. In districts exposed to frequent rain, mummies are found in very bad preservation, most of them being mere skeletons. All are in sitting postures. In those parts of the Sierra where the soil is impregnated with nitre, bodies, which must have lain in the ground for several centuries, are found in a very fresh condition, notwithstanding the humidity.
Garcilaso de la Vega and the Padre Acosta state that the ancient Peruvians were acquainted with the art of embalming, but that they employed it only for the bodies of their kings. In the Temple of the Sun at Cuzco, there were found excellently preserved mummies of the Incas, each seated on a throne. Several years after the Spanish conquest, these mummies were conveyed to Lima, and were buried in the court of the hospital of San Andres. It is deeply to be deplored that the fanaticism of the Spanish conquerors should have destroyed these interesting remains of the ancient sovereigns of Peru.
The facts adduced in the course of this volume, relative to the barbarous colonization system of the Spaniards, must sufficiently prove how adverse was Spanish dominion to the improvement of the natives, and to the prosperity of the country. For Peru, Nature's bounteously favored land, let us hope that there is reserved a future, happier than either the past or the present!
FOOTNOTES:
[102] Even to this day the custom of forced domestic service is kept up in some parts of the Sierra, where the priest is allowed the services of a female cook, who is called a Mita, and a man servant, for whom the name of Pongo is reserved. These servants are kept for the space of a week.
[103] Adelung, in his "Review of all Languages," considers the Calchaqui (still spoken in Tucuman) to be a dialect of the Quichua. It is, however, a dialect of the Aymara. Adelung makes another mistake when he observes, that the Lama language is spoken in the neighborhood of Truxillo.
[104] Of the Quichua, Quiteña, and Lama languages several grammars and dictionaries exist. Of the Kauqui only single words have been preserved. There is a very imperfect dictionary of the Chinchaysuyo by Figueredo. Of the Yunga there is a grammar with a Confesionario and Prayers by Fernando de Carrera—a very scarce work.
[105] Vol. II., p. 106.
[106] Published in 1846.
THE END.