# The Incas of Peru/Chapter 8

CHAPTER VIII
RELIGION OF THE INCAS
It is very difficult to obtain a correct and clear idea of the religious beliefs of a people like the Peruvians, whose thoughts and traditions were entirely different from those of the nations of the old world. Besides the inherent difficulty of comprehending the bent of their minds, which resulted in the religious practices recorded of them, there are many others. The record was made by very superstitious priests, with strong prejudices against the beliefs of the conquered people, and with only a general knowledge of the language. There was but one important authority who had known the language from childhood. The manuscripts were often incorrectly transcribed by ignorant clerks, so that mistakes and misspellings crept into the texts, and there were contradictions among the authorities. On the whole it is fortunate that there should have been such painstaking and conscientious writers as Blas Valera, Cieza de Leon, and Molina, upon whose evidence reliance can be placed as, at all events, the impartial impressions of the writers. ​Still, a very careful weighing of the amount of trust to be given to the various authorities is necessary, with reference to their characters, positions, and circumstances; as well as a comparison of the same statement in various authorities, in order to judge which version is nearest to the truth, and to arrive at the nearest approximation to accuracy. Such a scrutiny is the work of years, but the subject, from every point of view, is worthy of this serious and prolonged study.
The god who was regarded as the creator and ruler of the universe in the megalithic age was, as we have seen, Illa Tici Uira-cocha. The names were handed down, by tradition, through the centuries, and were used by the Incas when contemplating or worshipping the Supreme Being. The names came to them, and were not invented by them. For them they were the names of the ruler of the universe, whatever their meaning might be. For the Incas, and the more thoughtful among those who surrounded them, were convinced that the deities worshipped by the people were not supreme, but that they obeyed some irresistible and unknown but orderly force. It was this Supreme Being that the Incas worshipped, and sought, with fervency, to know and to understand. Both Molina and Salcamayhua tell us that there was a temple at Cuzco to the Supreme Being, and that his worship was included in the elaborate ritual of the later Incas. Molina gives the prayers ​that were offered to Uira-cocha, whose temple is stated to have been apart from the temple of the sun. Salcamayhua tells us that the Supreme Creator was represented in the sun temple by an oval slab of gold, having a higher place than the images of the sun or moon. The prayers were for health and strength, for good harvests and the multiplication of flocks, for victory over enemies, and for prosperity. Nine of these prayers, in Quichua, are given by Molina. One is given by Morua. The most remarkable prayer is that for the sun, called Punchau, in which it is fully recognised that its movements and heat-attributes are the work of Uira-cocha.
This recognition of an almighty, unseen being who created and regulates all things visible was probably confined to the higher intellects, who had more time and were better trained for thought and reflection. The rest of the people would seek for visible objects of worship. But for the Incas the Uira-cocha cult was certainly very real. It occupied their thoughts in life and in death, and they earnestly prayed for a knowledge of the Deity. Some of the hymns addressed to the Almighty have been preserved in a manuscript written early in the seventeenth century by a native named Yamqui Pachacuti Salcamayhua. They were first printed by the present writer in a translation of Salcamayhua's work (1873), the text of the hymns being left in the original Quichua. Some years afterwards the Spanish text was edited by Don ​Marcos Jimenez de la Espada at Madrid, but again without any attempt to translate the Quichua hymns. This was at last done through the instrumentality of Don Samuel A. Lafone Quevedo. The text was very corrupt, the words were misspelt and not divided from each other, and it would require a most profound Quichua scholar to restore the meaning of the original. Señor Lafone Quevedo secured the services of Dr. Miguel Mossi, of Bolivia, now no more, by far the best modern scholar of the language of the Incas. The result was the publication in 1892 of Spanish translations of the hymns to Uira-cocha. These hymns are the expression of a longing to know the invisible god, to walk in his ways, and to have the prayers heard which entreat the Deity to reveal himself. They show a strong sense of his guiding power in regulating the seasons and the courses of the heavenly bodies, and in making provision for reproduction in nature. There is a strange expression of wonder respecting the sex of the Deity; but this is wonder and nothing more, not, as Señor Lafone Quevedo suggests, an allusion to phallic worship. There is, indeed, a plaintive note in these cries to the Deity for a knowledge of the unknowable, which is touching in its simplicity.
O Uira-cocha! Lord of the universe,
Whether thou art male,
Whether thou art female,
Lord of reproduction,
Whatsoever thou mayest be,
O Lord of divination,
Where art thou? Thou mayest be above,
Thou mayest be below,
Or perhaps around
Thy splendid throne and sceptre.
Oh hear me!
From the sky above,
In which thou mayest be,
From the sea beneath,
In which thou mayest be,
Creator of the world,
Maker of all men; Lord of all Lords,
My eyes fail me
For longing to see thee;
For the sole desire to know thee.
Might I behold thee,
Might I know thee,
Might I consider thee,
Might I understand thee.
Oh look down upon me,
For thou knowest me.
The sun—the moon— The day—the night— Spring—winter. Are not ordained in vain
By thee, O Uira-cocha!
They all travel
To the assigned place;
They all arrive
At their destined ends,
Whithersoever thou pleasest.
Thy royal sceptre
Thou holdest.
Oh hear me! Oh choose me! Let it not be
That I should tire,
That I should die.
One of the hymns is composed as from an aged Inca on his death-bed praying for light and for a knowledge of the Deity.
O creator of men,
Thy servant speaks,
Then look upon him,
Oh, have remembrance of him,
The King of Cuzco.
I revere you, too, Tarapaca. O Tonapa, look down,
Do not forget me.
O thou noble Creator,
O thou of my dreams,
Dost thou already forget,
And I on the point of death? Wilt thou ignore my prayer,
Or wilt thou make known
Who thou art? Thou mayst be what I thought,
Yet perchance thou art a phantom,
A thing that causes fear.
Oh, if I might know!
Oh, if it could be revealed!
Thou who made me out of earth,
And of clay formed me,
Oh look upon me! Who art thou, O Creator,
Now I am very old.
Another hymn to Uira-cocha is attributed, by Salcamayhua, to the Inca Rocca:
Oh come then,
Great as the heavens,
Lord of all the earth,
Great First Cause,
Creator of men.
Ten times I adore thee,
Ever with my eyes
Turned to the ground,
Hidden by the eyelashes,
Thee am I seeking.
Oh look on me! Like as for the rivers,
Like as for the fountains,
When gasping with thirst,
I seek for thee.
Encourage me,
Help me!
With all my voice
I call on thee;
Thinking of thee,
We will rejoice
And be glad.
This will we say
And no more.
​The cult of Uira-cocha by the Incas was confined to the few. The popular religion of the people was the worship of the founder or first ancestor of each ayllu or clan. The father of the Incas was the sun, and naturally all the people joined in the special adoration of the ancestor of their sovereign, combined with secondary worship of the moon, thunder and lightning, the rainbow, and the dawn, represented by the morning star Chasca. But each clan or ayllu had also a special huaca, or ancestral god, which its members worshipped in common, besides the household gods of each family.
In the last century or two, the ceremonial and ritual observances of the sun-worship at Cuzco assumed extraordinary magnificence. The splendid temple was built of masonry, which, for the beauty and symmetry of its proportions and the accuracy with which the stones fitted into each other, is unsurpassed. The cornices, the images, and the utensils were all of pure gold. When the Inca and his court were present at the ceremonies it must have been a scene of marvellous splendour.
* ↑ Revista del Museo de la Plata, J. III. p. 320. Ensayo Mitologico. El culto de Tonapa. Los himnos sagrados de los Reyes del Cuzco, segun el Yamqui-Pachacuti por Samuel A. Lafone Quevedo (Talleres del Museo de la Plata, 1892).
* ↑ Servants of Uira-cocha, according to Salcamayhua. Sanniento has Tahuapaca. Cieza de Leon alludes to Tuapaca. No other authority mentions them.
* ↑ Gomara and Betanzos are responsible for a god they called Con. No other authority knew of it. Gomara had never been in America. He recorded a story of a being named Con, child of the sun, who created men, but afterwards, being enraged with them, he turned the land into deserts, and gave no more rain, so that they only had water from the rivers. This is evidently a story from the coast. It is merely a version of the Huarochiri legend, and Gomara's Con is Coniraya Uira-cocha, the god ruling over the heat of the sun. He was superseded on the coast by the fish god and oracle, Pachacamac. Betanzos is a more important authority, as he was many years in Peru, and spoke Quichua. He gives Con titi as a prefix to the name of Uira-cocha, while all other authorities give the words Illa Tici. The manuscript has Con titi, but the editor altered it to Con Tici, to be nearer the other authorities. Titi is no doubt a clerical error. Probably it should be Inti, when it would be Conip Inti, the sun giving warmth; like Coniraya, appertaining to warmth, attributes of the Deity, not a separate person. The name Con occurs five times in the first and second chapters of Betanzos, but not in any of the other chapters. Salcamayhua, in relating a version of the Titicaca myth, mentions two servants of Uira-cocha named Tonapa and Tarapaca. Sarmiento spells the latter Tahuapaca. Cieza de Leon has Tuapaca. Salcamayhua is alone responsible for Tonapa. This author was a native of Collahua, where the C becomes a T, Conapa, merely a form of Coniraya. The words in Conapa are Cconi, heat, and apac, bearing, 'Heat bearing' or 'conveying.' It is another form for this attribute of the Deity, not a separate person. There has been an amazing amount of conjecture and erudition bestowed on this word Con; and Don Samuel A. Lafone Quevedo has written a very learned essay on the cult of Tonapa.
WALLS OF THE TEMPLE OF THE SUN, CUZCO
​The elaborate ritual and ceremonies necessitated ​the employment of a numerous hierarchy, divided into many grades. The High Priest was an official of the highest rank, often a brother of the sovereign. He was called Uillac Uma, 'the head which counsels.' He was the supreme judge and arbiter in all religious questions and causes relating to the temples. His life was required to be passed in religious contemplation and abstinence. He was a strict vegetarian and never drank anything but water. His ordinary dress was a robe going down to the ankles, and a grey mantle of vicuna wool. But when he celebrated the festivals in the temple he wore the grand tiara, called Uilca Chucu, which included a circular plate of gold representing the sun, and under the chin a half-moon of silver. The head-dress was adorned with the feathers of the guacamaya, or great macaw; the whole covered with jewels and plates of gold. The complete head-dress was called Huampar Chucu. His ceremonial tunic without sleeves reached to the ground, with no belt. Over it there was a shorter pelisse of white wool, trimmed with red, which came down to the knees, and was covered with precious stones and plates of gold. His shoes were of fine wool, and bracelets of gold were on his arms. Directly the ceremony was over he divested himself of his vestments and remained in his ordinary clothes. He received ample rents, bestowing the greater part on those afflicted by blindness or other disabling infirmities. Besides being of illustrious lineage, the High Priest was an ​Amauta, or man of learning. He appointed the visitors and inspectors whose duty it was to report on all the temples and idols throughout the empire; and the confessors (Ichuri) who received confessions and assigned penances; and he superintended the record of events by the Amautas and Quipucamayocs. On his death the body was embalmed and interred with great pomp on some high mountain.
Under the Uillac Uma there were ten or twelve chief priests in the provinces, called Uilca, who had authority over the very numerous priests in charge of huacas, called Huacap Uillac, and over those who received and announced oracles from the huacas, Huacap Rimachi.
A very remarkable and interesting institution was that of the chosen virgins for the service of the sun, called Aclla. They were also known as Intip Chinan, or Punchau Chinan, servants of the sun; selected by inspectors from all parts of the empire. All the sun temples had virgins, those at Cuzco coming chiefly from the neighbourhood of the city, from Huanuco and Chachapoyas. After examination they were placed under the government of matrons, called Mama Cuna, and had to serve a novitiate. There were over 3000 virgins at Cuzco, with a matron for every ten. Each virgin had a servant. The novitiate lasted for three years, during which time the girls were taught to sew, weave, make fine bread and cakes, sweep and clean the temple, and keep alive the ​sacred fire which was always burning, called Nina Uilca. Many princesses and daughters of nobles were sent to be educated with the novices, although they were not going to be Aclla. When the novices had served their three years they were called Huamac. They were brought before the Inca and the Uillac Uma. Those who did not feel a vocation received husbands. Those who wished to remain as virgins of the sun were dressed in white, and garlands of gold (Ccuri Uincha) were placed on their heads. They were dedicated to the sun for the rest of their lives, employed in the service of the temple, and in weaving very fine cloth for the deities, the Inca and his family, and the Uillac Uma. They never went abroad without an armed escort, and were treated with profound respect. When the Spanish destruction came, many of these virgins became nuns and were protected, others married baptised Indians, and the rest fled in various directions.
Another numerous class in this complicated hierarchy was that of diviners and soothsayers, called Huatuc. They were dressed in grey, were celibate while holding office, living on herbs and roots, and were almost always to be found in the vestibules of the temples. Those who divined by the flight of birds and by the intestines of animals sacrificed were called Hamurpa. The Lllaychunca divined by odds and evens, the Pacchacuc by the legs of a great hairy spider, the Socyac by maize heaps, the Hualla, Achacuc, ​Canchu, Canahuisa, Layca, and Yarcacaes in other ways. The Macsa cured by enchantment.
There was an elaborate system of sacrifices, entailing an enormous expenditure. The victims were llamas, huanacus, vicuñas and their lambs, pumas, antas or tapirs, birds and their plumes, maize, edible roots, coca, shells, cloth, gold, silver, sweet woods, guinea-pigs, dogs, in short everything they valued. The sacrificing priest was called Tarpuntay; the lay brother who cut up the victims, Nacac; and the recorder, Uilca Camayoc. The sacrifice itself was called Arpay. There remains the question of human sacrifices, or Ccapac Cocha. The idea of sacrifice is the offering of what is most prized. The sacrificer says to his god: 'What I loved best to thee I gave.'
Abraham was ready to sacrifice his son, the king of Moab actually did so. It is the logical outcome of sacrificial doctrine. Was this logical conclusion reached by the Peruvians, either habitually or in extreme cases? The weight of evidence is certainly against the accusation, which was first made by the licentiate Polo de Ondegardo in 1554, when he was conducting inquiries at Cuzco. He says that grown men and children were sacrificed on various occasions, and that 200 boys were sacrificed at the accession of Huayna Ccapac. Valera denies the value of Polo's evidence, who, he says, scarcely knew anything of the language, had no interpreters at that time, and was without ​the means of becoming acquainted with the ancient customs. So that he could not fail to write down many things which were quite different from what the Indians said. Polo was followed by Molina and others, especially by Sarmiento, whose official instructions were to make the worst of the Inca polity and government.
Valera declares, on the contrary, that there was a law prohibiting all sacrifices of human beings, which was strictly observed. It is true that Huahuas, or children, and Yuyacs, or adults, were sacrificed, but the Huahuas were lambs, not human children, and by Yuyac were meant full-grown llamas, not men. Valera is supported by Garcilasso de la Vega and other authorities, and the weight of evidence is decidedly against Polo's accusation.
There remains the logical tendency of the sacrificial idea to offer up the dearest and most valued possession; while the admission of Blas Valera that there was a law against human sacrifices seems to show that they were not unknown. Cieza de Leon is the most unprejudiced and the most reliable of all the authorities, and he says that if human sacrifices were ever offered, they were of very rare occurrence. This is probably the truth. The horrible offerings were not common nor habitual, but they had been known to be offered, on very extreme and exceptional occasions.
With the worship of the ancestor, Paccarisca, or the fabulous origin of each clan, whether the ​sun, the moon, a star, a mountain, rock, spring, or any other natural object, the Peruvians had some peculiar beliefs which pervaded their daily life. They had special personal deities in which they trusted. The sovereign Incas kept such images always with them and gave them names, calling them Huauqui, or brother. That of the Inca Uira-cocha was called Inca Amaru, probably in the form of a serpent. It was found by Polo de Ondegardo, with that Inca's ashes. Pachacuti had a very large golden Huauqui, called Inti Illapa, which was sent in pieces to Caxamarca for the ransom. Cusi Churi was the name of the Huauqui of the Inca Tupac, which was found concealed at Calis Puquio, near Cuzco, by Polo. The Huauqui of Huayna Ccapac, a gold image of great value, has never been found. It was called Huaraqui Inca. The tradition handed down in the Incarial family is that the Huauqui of Manco Ccapac was a sacred bird called Inti, kept in a sort of hamper; that of Sinchi Rocca was called Huanachici Amaru; that of Lloque Yupanqui, Apu Mayta. The rest of the Orejones and many others had their special Lar or brother, and the Huauqui was buried with the body of the deceased.
The universal belief of the Peruvians was that all things in nature had a spiritual essence or counterpart, to which prayers and sacrifice might be offered if the spirit belonged to any of the reproductive powers of nature, or good might be ​done to it, if the departed spirit was a relation or friend. This explains the method of interment and the rites and ceremonies observed for the well-being of the departed. It was thought that so long as the embalmed body was carefully preserved, with the personalty of the deceased, the welfare of the departed spirit was secured. So long as food and other requisites were duly placed with the mummy, the spirit would be furnished with the spiritual essence of all that was offered materially. These strange beliefs occupied the thoughts and pervaded the lives of the people.
The funeral ceremonies of the Incas were occasions for all the magnificence and pomp of a great empire. The body was embalmed and splendidly attired. The palace of the deceased was set apart for the Malqui, or mummy, a staff of servants was appointed for it, and it was endowed with lands, so that offerings might be constantly provided. Friends and dependants were invited to immolate themselves so as to accompany their lord in the spirit world, but in later times a llama was allowed as a substitute, the name of the supposed human victim being given to it. The Inca mummies were brought out for processions and other very solemn rites and ceremonies. When the Spanish destroyers came, the unfortunate people concealed the mummies of their beloved sovereigns, but the ferret-eyed Polo de Ondegardo searched diligently, and succeeded in accounting for all but one. The body of the great warrior ​statesman, Yupanqui Pachacuti, was finally buried in the court of the hospital of San Andres at Lima. Yahuar Huaccac, the stolen child, alone escaped desecration. His body was never found.
The Orejones and other important people were generally interred in caves, Machay, with two chambers, one for the mummy with his 'brother' or Lar, the other for his property, and for the offerings brought by the people. These caves were in desert places or on the sides of mountains. The heights overlooking the lovely valley of Yucay, called Ttantana Marca, are literally honeycombed with these burial caves. All have been desecrated by the Spaniards in search for treasure.
This curious belief in a spiritual essence of all the things that concerned the daily well-being of the people explains the multiplicity of huacas, or objects of worship. Every household had a Sara Mama to represent the spiritual essence of the maize, to which prayers and sacrifices were made. Sometimes it was a figure covered with cobs of maize, at others it was merely a vase fashioned as a cob. In like manner there was a Llama Mama for the flocks. More especially was the spirit of the earth itself, the Pacha Mama, an object of worship. The offerings consisted of the figures of llamas roughly fashioned. There was a cavity in their backs into which the sacrificial offering was placed, and they were buried in the fields. The offerings were chicha, spirits, or coca, the things the poor husbandman loved best. Dr. Max Uhle ​and the Princess Theresa of Bavaria have discovered that the ceremony of offering these things to Pacha Mama still prevails, in spite of the priests. The llamas of stone or clay are even offered for sale in the markets; Dr. Uhle saw them at Sicuani. The present practice is to bury the figures, with offerings, in the places where flocks of llamas or alpacas feed. The figure is placed between stones, and covered with another stone. Each year the offering is renewed by another figure, which is placed below the old one and nearer the Pacha Mama, This kind of sacrifice is called Chuya. It shows that the ancient beliefs and customs of the Peruvian Indians cannot be eradicated by any amount of persecution.
* ↑ They had fled owing to the insurrection of Giron.
* ↑ Las llamitas de piedra del Cuzco, Dr. Max Uhle (Lima, September 1906).
MAIZE CONOPA
​The religion of the ancient Peruvians was composed of several beliefs, all more or less peculiar to the Andean people, except the worship of a Supreme Being; which, however, only prevailed among the higher and more intellectual minds. Some of the Incas undoubtedly sought earnestly for a knowledge of the great First Cause, which they called Uira-cocha. The worship of the fabulous ancestor or originator of each ayllu, or clan, was universal, and as the sun was the accepted ancestor of the sovereign, its cult took the precedence of all others. The peculiar belief in the existence of a spiritual essence of all the things that concerned their well-being prevailed among the mass ​of the people, and has never been eradicated. It accounts for their innumerable huacas and household gods, and for the way in which the idea of the presence of the supernatural was inextricably mingled with all the actions of their lives. From these various beliefs and cults, firmly established in the minds and hearts of all classes of the people, we may gather some idea of the causes which led to the establishment among them of a government based on the system of ayllus or village communities. The rooted beliefs in the Paccarisca or common ancestry of each ayllu, placed their village system on a very firm basis, and as the Incas confirmed all local usages and superstitions of their subjects, a feeling of devoted loyalty appears to have been combined with veneration for the sun, the ancestor of their sovereigns. It is clear that the religious beliefs of the people were in perfect harmony with the remarkable social system on which the Inca government was based.