[328] Unfit for translation.
[329] The Collao is the great plateau of the Andes, including the basin of lake Titicaca, between two chains, the maritime cordillera, and the eastern range, out of which rise the lofty peaks of Illimani and Yllampu (Sorata).
[330] The obsequies of the Yncas at Cuzco were celebrated with great pomp. The bodies were embalmed with such extraordinary skill that they appeared to be alive, and were seated on thrones within the great temple of the sun. The bowels were deposited in golden vases, and preserved in a temple at Tampu (twelve miles from the capital); just as the Emperors of Austria have their bodies buried in one church at Vienna, their hearts kept in silver pots in another, and their bowels deposited in St. Stephen’s. The corregidor Polo de Ondegardo found five bodies of Yncas at Cuzco, three of men and two of women, said to have been those of the Ynca Huira-ccocha, with hair white as snow, of the great Tupac Ynca Yupanqui, of Huayna Ccapac, of Huira-ccocha’s queen Mama Runtu, and of Ccoya Mama Ocllo, the mother of Huayna Ccapac. These bodies were so well preserved that all the hair, eyebrows, and even eyelashes remained intact. They were dressed in royal robes, with the llautu, or royal fringe round their foreheads. They seem to have excited much curiosity, were conveyed by order of the viceroy Marquis of Cañete to Lima, and finally buried in the courtyard of the hospital of San Andres in that city.
The chiefs were buried in tombs of stone masonry on the mountain heights round Cuzco. A very peculiar kind of maize is often found in the tombs, now little cultivated, called Zea rostrata. The bodies, which are in a squatting posture with the knees forced up to the head, are found enveloped in many folds of cloth, over which is placed a mat of reeds, secured by a strong net. The covering next the body is generally of fine cotton; round the neck there is almost invariably a small household god, called Conopa in Quichua, made of clay, stone, silver, or gold; and a piece of copper, gold, or silver is often found in the mouth. The hair is, in most instances, well preserved, but the skin is withered up. None of the thousands of bodies that have been examined, show any signs of having been embalmed. It seems clear that this operation was only resorted to in the case of the Yncas themselves. G. de la Vega; Rivero, Antiq. Per.; Personal Observation.
[331] Fray Geronimo Loayza was appointed bishop of Lima in 1540, and was the first archbishop from 1548 to 1575. When Gonzalo Pizarro rebelled, he sent the archbishop as his envoy to Spain, but, meeting La Gasca at Panama on his way, that prelate returned with him, and accompanied him throughout the campaign, which ended in the overthrow of Gonzalo Pizarro in 1548. This Friar Loayza was a cruel fanatic. The inquisition was not introduced into Peru until 1569, but the archbishop had previously held three autos de fé at Lima on his own account, at one of which, John Millar, a Fleming, was burnt as a Lutheran heretic. The first auto de fé held by the inquisition at Lima took place in 1573, two years before the death of Loayza, when a Frenchman was burnt as a heretic. Loayza presided over two provincial councils, one in 1552 and the other in 1567. There have been twenty-two archbishops of Lima since the death of Loayza. The present one, Dr. Don Sebastian de Goyeneche, who succeeded in 1860, is probably the oldest bishop in Christendom, having been consecrated bishop of Arequipa in 1817, and is also one of the richest men in South America. He is now seventy-nine years of age.
[332] The nation of the Chinchas, and others on the coast, buried their dead on the surface of the ground, covered with a light coat of sand, so that the place is only indicated by a very slight inequality. Rivero, p. 199.
[333] Now corrupted into Luna-huana; near the rich sugar estates of Cañete, between Lima and Pisco.
[334] Huaca is a word of many significations in Quichua (e.g., idol, temple, sacred place, tomb, figures of men, animals, etc., hill), but its most ordinary meaning is a tomb. Cieza de Leon probably calls it a “mournful name,” partly from its being the word for a tomb, and partly from his having confused it with the nearly similar word huaccani, “I mourn.” The mummy or dead body was called malqui. There were holes in the tombs, leading from the exterior sides to the vases placed round the bodies, through which the Indians poured liquor, on the days when festivals were held in honour of the malquis. Rivero.
[335] This chapter is unfit for translation.
[336] The children were weaned at two years of age, when their heads were shaved, and they received a name. On these occasions all the relations assembled, and one was selected as godfather, who cut off the first lock of hair with an instrument made of stone. Each relation followed, according to his age or rank, and cut off a few hairs. The name was then given, and the relations presented gifts, such as cloth, llamas, arms, or drinking vessels. Then followed singing, dancing, and drinking until nightfall, and these festivities were continued for three or four days. G. de la Vega, lib. iv, cap. 11; Rivero, p. 177.