Ancient Faiths And Modern / A Dissertation upon Worships, Legends and Divinities in Central and Western Asia, Europe, and Elsewhere, Before the Christian Era. Showing Their Relations to Religious Customs as They Now Exist.

by Thomas Inman

The high priest was second in dignity only to the Inca, and he was generally closely related to this ruler. The monarch appointed this Peruvian pope, who held office for life. He had the appointment of inferior priests, but all must be from the sacred race of Incas. The high priests of the provinces were always of the blood royal. The hierarchy wore no peculiar badge or dress, nor was it the sole depositary of learning, and it had not to superintend education, or to do parochial work. These duties were performed by others of the Inca class, all of whom were holy, though not, so to speak, in "holy orders." The priest's business was to minister in the temple; his science was confined to a knowledge of the fasts and festivals to be observed in connection with religion, for these were very numerous, and demanded separate rituals. The four principal festivals were solar, i.e., at the equinoxes and solstices, that of Midsummer being the grandest, on which occasion every one who could find time and money enough to do so visited the capital city. The feast was preceded by a three days' fast, and no fires were to be lighted during that period.

When the day arrived a vast array of people, dressed in their handsomest apparel, crowded the streets and squares, waiting for the rising of the sun. When it appeared shouts of joy, heightened by instrumental music, were raised in swelling tones, until the whole orb had ascended above the horizon, after which a libation was poured of fermented liquor, and all the nobles and the king repaired to the great temple, each individual, except members of the royal family, removing their sandals as they entered. After prayer came sacrifice, animals, grain, flowers, and sweet-scented gums being the prescribed offerings; sometimes a child or lovely maiden was also immolated, generally to commemorate a coronation, the birth of a royal heir, or a great victory. Cannibalism never followed the sacrifice; and it may be added, parenthetically, that when the Incas conquered and annexed man-sacrificing and man-eating tribes, they always abrogated the custom, and with far more decision and firmness than Britain has shown in abolishing self-immolation of Juggernaut pilgrims in her Indian Empire, and the burning of widows with their dead spouses. Some may doubt whether a conqueror ought to interfere with the religious customs of the vanquished, but few would plead for the continuance of such customs as human sacrifice and cannibalism.

The animal usually sacrificed by the Peruvians was the llama, and the priest who officiated drew auguries from the appearance of the intestines. To effect the oblation a sacred fire was now kindled by a concave mirror which acted as "a burning glass," precisely as was done by Numa in the days of Ancient Rome. If the sky was clouded, and no rays could be collected, fire was produced by friction. When lighted, the fire was committed to the care of the virgins of the sun, who were bound to keep it up for the ensuing year. After the single sacrifice was completed, great numbers of other animals were slaughtered, and a regular carousal began, attended with music, dancing, and drinking, that lasted for many days, during which period all the lower orders kept holiday. In the distribution of bread and wine at this high festival, the invading Spaniards saw a striking resemblance to the Christian communion, and they recognised a similar likeness in the Peruvian practices of confession and penance. The virgins of the sun were called "the elect," and were young maidens taken from their homes at an early age, and introduced into convents, where they were placed under the care of elderly matrons, who taught them their religious duties, and how to spin and weave, embroider and adorn hangings for the temples, and to frame garments for the Incas. Their work was such, that it was found to be superior to any which the Spaniards had ever seen, or were themselves able to produce. The virgins were separated wholly, not simply, from the world in general, but also from their own relations and friends—none but the king and queen could enter into their convent. The closest attention was paid to the morals of these maidens, and visitors were sent every year to inspect the institutions, and to report on the state of their discipline; a plan similar to which has been repeatedly proposed in Christian England, yet never sanctioned by the parliament! If a virgin was discovered in an intrigue she was buried alive, her lover was strangled, and the town or village to which he belonged was razed to the ground, and sowed with stones, to efface even the memory of its site. These solar attendants were all of royal blood, and were estimated to number fifteen hundred; but to provincial convents the inferior nobility were allowed to send their daughters, and sometimes a peculiarly lovely peasant girl was admitted. The convents were all sumptuously furnished. But, though virgins of the sun, they were brides of the Incas, and we cannot fail, when we read of the vast harem of the Peruvian monarch, to think of the female establishments of the Jewish Solomon, of the Persian Ahasuerus, and that of Louis XV. of Christian France. If at any time the Inca reduced his harem, the superfluous concubines were restored to their homes, swelling with the importance which they had gained by their familiarity with the monarch.

Polygamy was permitted. Matrimony was effected by the Inca, or other chief man, joining the hands of the parties. The king usually espoused his own sister, but no other person was allowed to do so. No marriage was valid without the consent of parents. As a general rule, all unions were effected on the same day of the year, and thus the wedding of couples was followed by general rejoicing.

The genius of the Peruvian government penetrated into the most private recesses of domestic life, allowing no man to act for himself, even in those personal matters in which none but himself, or his family, could be interested. No Peruvian was too low for the fostering vigilance of the government; none was so high that he was not made to feel his dependence upon it in every act of his life. The government of the Incas was the mildest, but the most searching and beneficent, of despotisms.

We now, but with great reluctance, leave our friendly guide, the accomplished Prescott, and ask ourselves, once more, the lessons which we have learned from the departed races of the vast American continent. Can anyone doubt that one of the most conspicuous results obtained is, that Christian rule, and the Christian doctrine, have not proved themselves, in any respect, superior to the Incas' government and their solar religion? Who can read of the civilization, the theology, and the practice of the Peruvians, without believing one of two things—the one, that Jewish ritualism, and the majority of Christian teaching, is of human invention; the other, that the Almighty has revealed His will in the Western as well as in the Eastern Hemisphere? Can any thoughtful man believe that the brutal, covetous, lying Spaniards, who broke, with impunity, every commandment promulgated in those Gospels, to whose authority they professed allegiance, and upon which their faith is founded, were better men, or more favoured by the Lord, "who loveth righteousness and hateth iniquity," than were the gentle Peruvians, who fell before them as lambs and sheep before wolves and tigers? Surely the story of the Incas should make Christians, in all ages, blush for their inferiority to those, amongst whom neither Moses, Samuel, and other so-called prophets, Jesus, nor any of his apostles, preached; and more strongly should it convince us that the wish to do good on a large scale can come otherwise than by the Gospel. If grace, and peace, and love came by the Nazarene alone, how is it—and let us ponder over the question deeply—that all Christian countries have been, and that some are still, conspicuous for the brutality of their political and priestly governments, for the frequency with which they make war, for their ferocity in the destruction of religious enemies, and for the intense hatred evinced against rival sects, by those who call themselves the representatives of the Prince of Peace; whilst, on the other hand, a nation who never heard of the son of Joseph or of Mary, should be conspicuous for the virtues which ought to adorn the soldiers of the cross, but do not? Surely, if the saying be true, "by their fruit ye shall know them," the denizens of the old world must be children of the Devil, who do the work, of their father, whilst certain of the nations of the new world, as it is called, were really children of the light, abounding in love, charity, and goodwill towards all men.

To me it is astonishing how thoughtful men, who have read accounts of the Mexicans and the Peruvians, can continue to believe that the Bible is the book of God, written by holy men, whose thoughts and diction were essentially those of the third person in the Trinity. Who can assert that Abraham and Jacob, Moses and Aaron, were taught of God, and that to the Hebrews alone has the Creator revealed His will? Who can see, in the sensual king David, a man after God's heart, and applaud the brutal murder of Agag, the destruction of the priests of Baal, by the orders of Elijah, and the extermination of the Baalites in Israel by Jehu? Compared with such wretches as these the Incas were angels. They had not left to them the bloody legacy which has come to the Christian world by means of the Old Testament: they had not been taught to believe that the Almighty revelled in the blood of human beings: they never had, amongst their sacred songs, verses like the following—"that thy foot may be dipped in the blood of enemies, and the tongue of thy dogs in the same" (Ps. lxviii. 23).

Ah, it is time for civilized men to cease their admiration for a book which has produced such frightful fruits, and which has converted millions of human beings into incarnate fiends.

The Vedas and the Shasters—the writings of the Buddhists, and those of the Parsees and the Chinese, contain, nowhere, such a justification of wholesale murder, as do the Scriptures of the Jews and of the Christians.* From these have been drawn the power to persecute, and, if possible, to exterminate those who worship God in a different fashion to those in power. Calvin was as bad as Torquemada; and, even at the present time, it is only public opinion that prevents fanatics, like the early New Englanders, from reducing their Christian hate to practical torture. Everywhere the professed followers of Jesus assume the power to torment their opponents, whenever they can do so without breaking the civil law, and there are few pulpits from which the voice of revilement, contumely, and denunciation is not repeatedly heard. The Romans abuse the Anglicans; the Establishment sneers at Dissent; Nonconformists censure all churches; and all libel those whom they call Free Thinkers and Atheists. To find "toleration" in matters of religion, one must seek amongst the Deists, or amongst those who refuse to see in the Bible the revealed will of God to man.

* See Matthew x. 34, 85; Luke xii. 49, 51, 52, 53.