The travels of Pedro de Cieza de Léon, A.D. 1532-50, / contained in the first part of his Chronicle of Peru

by Pedro de Cieza de León

These plains form beautiful and extensive meadows, the herbage of which is always plentiful, and at times very green, although in the spring it is parched up as in Spain. The winter begins (as I have already said) in October, and lasts until April. The days and nights are almost equal, and the cold in this district is greater than in any other part of Peru, excepting the snowy peaks, because the land is high, and comes up to the mountains. Certainly if this land of the Collao had a deep valley like those of Xauxa or Chuquiapu, which would yield maize, it would be one of the richest in all the Indies. When the wind is blowing it is hard work to travel over these plains of the Collao, but when there is no wind, and the sun is shining, it is very pleasant to see the beautiful and well-peopled meadows. But the climate is so cold that there is no maize, nor any kind of tree; and the land is too sterile to yield any of the fruits which grow in other parts.[484] The houses in the villages are built of stone, and roofed with straw instead of tiles, and they are placed close together. This country of the Collao was once very populous, and was covered with large villages, round which the Indians had their fields, where they raised crops for food. Their principal food is potatoes,[485] which are like earth nuts, as I have before declared in this history. They dry these potatoes in the sun, and keep them from one harvest to another. After they are dried they call these potatoes chuñus, and they are highly esteemed and valued among them.[486] They have no water in channels for irrigating the fields, as in many other parts of this kingdom, so that, if the natural supply of water required for the crops fails, they would suffer from famine and want if they had not this store of dried potatoes. Many Spaniards have enriched themselves and returned prosperous to Spain by merely taking these chuñus to sell at the mines of Potosi. They have another kind of food called oca,[487] which is also profitable, but not so much so as a seed which they also raise, called quinua,[488] a small grain like rice. When the harvest is abundant, all the inhabitants of the Collao live contented and free from want, but when there is want of water they suffer great distress.

But, in truth, the Kings Yncas who ruled over this empire were so wise, and such excellent governors, that they established laws and customs without which the majority of their people would have suffered great hardships, as they did before they came under the rule of the Yncas. In the Collao, and in all the parts of Peru, where, owing to the cold climate, the land is not so fertile and abundant as in the warm valleys, they ordered that, as the great forests of the Andes bordered on these sterile tracts, a certain number of Indians with their wives should be taken from each village, and stationed to cultivate the land in the places where the chiefs directed them to settle. Here they sowed the things which would not grow in their own country, sending the fruits of their labours to their chiefs, and they were called Mitimaes. At the present day they serve the principal encomienderos, and cultivate the precious coca.

Thus, although no maize can be raised throughout the Colloa, the chiefs and people did not fail to obtain it by this arrangement, for the Mitimaes brought up loads of maize, coca, and fruits of all kinds, besides plenty of honey, which abounds in all parts of the forests, where it is formed in the hollows of trees in the way I have described when treating of Quinbaya.[489] In the province of Charcas this honey is excellent. It is said that Francisco de Carbajal, master of the camp to Gonzalo Pizarro, always ate this honey, and though he drank it as if it had been water or wine, he always remained strong and healthy, as he was when I saw him judged in the valley of Xaquixaguana, although he was over eighty years of age according to his own account.

CHAPTER C.

Of what is said concerning the origin of these Collas, of their appearance, and how they buried their dead.

MANY of these Indians say that they have heard from their fathers that, in times past, there was a great deluge, in the manner described by me in the third chapter of the second part. They also declare that the origin of their ancestors was very ancient, and they relate so many sayings and fictions that I shall not stop to write them down, for some say that their ancestors came out of a fountain, others from a rock, and others out of a lake, so that no sense can be learnt from them concerning their origin. But they all agree that their ancestors lived in a wild state before they were subjugated by the Yncas, that they had strongholds in the mountains whence they came out to fight, and that they had many vicious customs. Afterwards they learnt from the Yncas all that had been made known to the other vassals, and they built their villages in the same way as they have them now. Both men and women are clothed in woollen dresses. They say that, before marriage, the women may go loosely, but that they are punished with death if they are guilty of infidelity after they have been delivered to husbands. These people wear woollen caps called chucos on their heads. Their heads are very long, and flattened behind, because they are pressed and forced into what shape they choose during childhood. The women wear hoods on their heads, almost of the same shape as those worn by friars. Before the Yncas conquered the country, many of the Indians declare that there were two great lords in the Colloa, the one called Sapana and the other Cari, who conquered many pucaras, which are their fortresses. They add that one of these chiefs entered the large island in the lake of Titicaca, and found there a white people who had beards; that they fought with them in such a manner that all were killed; and that they also fought great battles with the Canas and Canches. After they had performed notable deeds, these tyrants, or lords, who had risen up in the Collao, turned their arms against each other, seeking also for the friendship of the Ynca Huira-ccocha, who then reigned in Cuzco. The Ynca made a treaty of peace with Cari at Chucuito, and intrigued so skilfully that he became lord of a great part of the Collao without fighting. The principal chiefs of this country go about with a large retinue, and, when they travel, they are carried in litters, and treated with great respect by all the Indians. They had their temples and huacas in secret places, where they adored their gods, and those who were selected for that duty conversed with the devil.

The things which, to my mind, are most worthy of notice in the Collao, are the tombs of the dead. When I travelled over this country I stopped to write down all that deserved mention concerning the Indians; and I was truly astonished to see how little they cared for having large and handsome houses for the living, while they bestowed so much care on the tombs where the dead were interred, as if all happiness did not consist in something else. Thus, in the plains and meadows near their villages, the tombs were built in the form of small towers, some of stones only, and others of stones mixed with earth, some broad and others narrow, according to the rank and wealth of those who built them.[490] Some of them were roofed with straw, and others with large slabs. I observed that the doors of these towers were towards the east. When the natives of the Collao died they were mourned for during many days, the women holding staves in their hands, and putting ashes on their bodies. The relations of the deceased each contributed something, as well sheep, lambs, and maize, as other things, and, before they buried the corpse, they killed sheep, put the cooked meat into the rooms of their houses, and made much drink from the maize. The deceased is honoured according to the quantity of this beverage that is made. When the drink is ready, and the sheep and lambs killed, they carry the corpse to the place where the tomb is prepared, accompanied, if the deceased was a chief, by the people of the village. Then they burnt ten, twenty, or more sheep, according to the rank of the dead man, and killed the women, boys and servants who were to accompany him, according to their vain belief. All these are buried in the same tomb with the body, into which they also put some people alive. Having interred the deceased in this manner, they all return to the house whence they had taken the body, and there eat the food and drink the chicha, coming out from time to time to dance mournful dances in the appointed places near the house. This goes on for some days, at the end of which the poorest men and women are assembled, and given what remains of the food and chicha. If the deceased was a great chief, they did not bury him immediately, but, before doing so, they practised superstitious vanities for some days, which I shall not describe. When these are finished, the women and servant-girls who have not been killed come out into the village in their mantles and hoods, some carrying the arms of the chief, others his ornamental head-dress, and others his clothes and other things. They walk along uttering sad and sorrowful words, while an Indian goes before them mourning and playing on a drum. Thus they traverse the greater part of the village, declaring, in their songs, the deeds of the dead chief, and other things concerning him. I remember that when I was going to Charcas in company with Diego de Uzeda, who now lives in the city of La Paz, we saw certain women walking in this way through the village of Nicasio,[491] and we learnt from the people of the village that they were saying what I have described in this chapter. One of the Indians added that when these women had finished their lamentations, they would be made drunk, and some of them would be killed to accompany the dead man. In many other villages I have seen them mourn for the dead during many days, and put ropes of sedge round their heads as a sign of grief.

CHAPTER CI.

How these Indians perform their annual ceremonies, and of the temples they had in ancient times.

IN the last chapter I have declared how these people made great ado when they put their dead into the tombs. After the interment the women and servants shaved their heads, put on their commonest clothing, and took no care of their persons. Besides this, in order to show their grief, they twisted ropes of sedge round their heads, and uttered continual lamentations during a whole year if the deceased was a chief, and had no light in the house for several days. These people, by the permission of God, were, like all the others, deceived by the devil with the false and delusive apparitions of some people who were dead, dressed and adorned in the way their bodies had been put into the tombs. In order to show more care for the dead they held annual festivals, when they brought animals and killed them near the tombs, also emptying many vases of liquor over the tombs, which completed this vain and foolish ceremony.