The old Indian villages of the Sierra are for the most part situated on heights, or sharp ridges, which are now completely barren, as they no longer receive the artificial watering with which they were formerly supplied. All lie open to the east, so that the inhabitants could behold their Deity the moment he appeared on the horizon. All large towns had a square in their centre, where the religious dances were performed. From the square a certain number of regular roads or streets always ran in the direction of the four quarters of the firmament. There are great varieties in the construction of the houses. Small insignificant huts often stand close to a palace having twenty or twenty-five windows in one front. Private dwellings in the mountainous parts are built of unhewn stone, cemented with a very strong calcareous mortar. On the coast the walls are of brick. In the departments of Junin and Ayacucho, I met with the ruins of great villages, consisting of dwellings of a peculiar construction, in the form of a tower. Each house is quadrangular, with a diameter of about six feet, and seventeen or eighteen feet high. The walls are from one to one and a half feet thick. The doors, which open to the east or south, are only a foot and a half high, and two feet wide. After creeping in (which is a work of some difficulty) the explorer finds himself in an apartment about five and a half feet in height, and of equal breadth, without any windows. In the walls there are closets or cupboards, which served to contain domestic utensils, food, &c. Earthen pots with maize, coca, and other things, are still often found in these closets. The ceiling of the room is overlaid with flat plates of stone, and in the centre an aperture, two feet wide, is left, forming a communication with the second floor, which is precisely like the first, but has two small windows. The roof of this apartment has also an aperture, affording access to the third floor, the ceiling of which forms the roof of the house, and consists of rather thick plates of stone. The upper room is usually less lofty than the two rooms below it, and seems to have been used as a provision store-room. I found in one of these upper rooms the mummy of a child very well embalmed. The family appear to have lived chiefly on the ground-floors. The place for cooking is often plainly perceptible. The second floor was probably the sleeping apartment. In the course of my travels, when overtaken by storms, I often retreated for shelter into one of these ruined dwellings.

The ancient Peruvians frequently buried their dead in their own houses, and then removed from them. This custom appears to have been very general about the time of the Spanish conquest, when a great number of Indians committed suicide in despair. Household utensils were placed in the graves, when the dead were buried in the houses, as well as when they were interred in other places. In many houses in which I made diggings I regularly found the following arrangement. Under a stratum of earth two feet deep lay the body, in a state of good preservation, and generally, but not always, in a sitting posture. On clearing away another stratum of earth equally deep there is found a variety of household vessels for cooking, together with water-pots of clay, gourds, hunting and fishing implements, &c. There is frequently a third layer of earth, beneath which the gold and silver vessels and the household deities are deposited. The idols are of clay, stone, and copper, or of the precious metals. Those of clay are hollow, flat, compressed, and in most instances the faces are painted. Those of stone are of granite, porphyry, or sand-stone. These stone images are solid, and often several feet high. The golden idols are always hollow; but they exhibit no distinct trace of the soldering. They are of various sizes; some of them weigh three quarters of a pound. Those of silver are always solid. All these images of deities have the same physiognomy, and disproportionately large head. In most instances the head is covered by a peculiar kind of cap.

The vessels used for holding water or other liquids are very various in color and form. Most of them exhibit ludicrous caricatures of human figures; others are unrecognisable representations of animals or fancy figures. These vessels have in general two apertures, one by which they were filled, and the other by which the liquid was poured out. On filling them a feeble flute-like sound is heard. It is occasioned by the air escaping through the other aperture. Most of these vessels are made of red or black clay, well glazed. Those for holding chicha were very capacious. Some of them, which have been found hermetically closed, have contained chicha upwards of three hundred years old, and remarkable for a very smoky flavor. On the vessels made of gourds fanciful figures are generally carved. Gold drinking cups have been found, adorned with well executed embossed ornaments, and like the images, showing no trace of soldering. Among the warlike weapons, the stone battle-axes are very remarkable; they have at both ends a tube, in which the handle was fixed by ligatures. Articles for personal adornment, such as nose and lip rings, neck chains, pins, bracelets, and ancle bands, are usually of gold, and set with small colored shells. The sceptres of the Incas are of gold, and exquisitely wrought; those of the Curacas of silver; and those of the Caciques of copper, sometimes gilt.

Idols and utensils made of wood are very rarely found. It would appear that the ancient Peruvians found more difficulty in the working of wood than that of metal and stone. The Peruvians give to all objects dug up from the old graves, the name of Huaqueros, from Huaca, the word for grave in the Quichua language.

The huacas or graves vary in form or magnitude. When destined for single individuals they were made small; but when for families, they were of considerable extent. On the sandy soil of the coast, no elevation marks the spot where the bodies are interred; but further inland (though still in the coast region), the graves are for the most part elevated and arched, and are built of bricks. In the Sierra the tombs are of stone, quadrangular, oval, or of an obelisk form.

In the huacas, the bodies are found in a sitting position, and supported by stones or reeds: the face turned towards the east. In front of the body it was customary to place two rows of pots containing quinua, maize, potatoes, dried llama flesh, and other kinds of provisions, and these pots were all covered with small lids. On each side of the body were ranged cooking utensils, and vessels containing water and chicha. The body and all the objects deposited in the grave were covered with a layer of sand, above which were spread various articles of clothing. Over these was placed another layer of sand, and then the tomb was built above the whole.

The bodies are found wrapped in several coverings; and when first taken out of the graves, they have the appearance of unfinished statues; the position of the head, knees, and feet being alone recognisable. A strong net-work, composed of twisted straw or bast incloses a thick rush mat, in which the body is wrapped. These coverings being removed, there is found a broad, woollen bandage, passing round the body, and fastening the rushes or sticks which support it in a sitting position. Under this bandage is a red or party-colored covering which goes over the whole body; and beneath this are one or two yellowish-white coverings, strongly sewed up. On removing these coverings, there are found some pots or drinking cups, a few ornaments, the Huallqui with coca, and in most instances a silver or gold idol suspended from the neck of the body. The undermost wrapper consists of a cloth of rather fine texture. Probably it was originally white, but time has changed it to a reddish-yellow. This covering being unsewed, the naked corpse appears; the head alone being encircled with two or three bandages, called Huinchas. The body is always in a sitting posture; the knees being drawn up towards the face, and the arms crossed over the breast, in such a manner that the chin rests between the two clenched hands. The wrists are tied together, and the ligature with which they are fastened is passed round the neck. This, which was evidently done only to keep the hands fixed in the required position, has led some commentators on Peruvian antiquities to suppose that the bodies found with strings round the necks were those of hanged persons. In the mouth there is a thin piece of gold, silver or copper; most of the bodies are in a good state of preservation, though the features are not discernible. The hair is always found perfectly free from decay; and that of the females is beautifully plaited.

The question has arisen, whether these bodies were embalmed, or whether their preservation is merely the result of the mummifying nature of the climate. Both conjectures have found zealous supporters. Don Francisco Barrero, keeper of the Museum of Natural History in Lima, mentions, in the Memorial de Ciencias Naturales,[105] that among the ancient Peruvians certain men were appointed as embalmers, and he describes the process they adopted as follows:—They first extracted the brain through the nose, then took out the eyes, and stopped up the sockets with cotton. The bowels, lungs, and even the tongue, were removed, after which the body and skull were filled with a kind of powder, which immediately after it is taken out of the mummies, diffuses a slight odor of turpentine; this odor, however, it soon loses on being exposed to the action of the air. The face, hands, and feet, were rubbed over with an oily substance, after which the body was incased in the envelopes above described. I am disposed to believe that this process never had any existence, save in the imagination of Barrera: it indeed resembles the manner in which the Egyptians prepared their mummies; but no such method was practised among the Indians. The mummies collected in the museum of Lima present not the slightest trace of this powder, or indeed of any kind of preservative material—a fact which is mentioned by the director of that establishment, Don E. Mariano de Rivero, in his Antiguedades Peruanas.[106]

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:

[Footnote 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.]

[Footnote 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.]

[Footnote 104: Of the Quichua, Quitena, 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.]

[Footnote 105: Vol. II., p. 106.]

[Footnote 106: Published in 1846.]

THE END.



Transcriber's Notes:

Inconsistencies in hyphenation retained. (brush-wood, brushwood; court-yard, courtyard; day-break, daybreak; goat-skin, goat-skin; hair-dressers, hairdressers; horse-shoes, horseshoes; house-tops, housetops; light-house, lighthouse; mayor-domos, mayordomos; mid-day, midday; needle-woman, needlewoman; net-work; network; nick-name, nickname; north-west, northwest; run-away, runaway; sea-ports, seaports; shop-keeper/s, shopkeeper/s; south-east, southeast; south-west, southwest; two-fold, twofold)

Inconsistency in abbreviation "P. M." Sometimes it is "P.M." without a space. Original text retained in all cases.

Page 22, inserted opening quote mark. ("_Las diez han)

Page 25, species of fox "Canis Azarae" is attributed to "Wild." Not consistent with Page 174 "Canis azarae" attributed to "Pr. Max." and to Page 221 "Canis Azarae" also attributed to "Pr. Max." Mismatch in captialization and also in name of discoverer. Original text retained in all cases.

Page 25, "III." changed to "Ill." (Scolopax frenata, Ill.)

Page 59, "heterogegeous" changed to "heterogeneous". (heterogeneous objects are jumbled)

Page 67, "Limena" retained. Elsewhere in the text it is "Limena". (Limena is a noble specimen)

Page 75, "grostesque" changed to "grotesque". (painted with grotesque figures)

Page 85, inserted missing comma. (Alsop & Co., Templeman)

Page 108, unusual word "recal" retained. Possibly "recall". (The ladies of Lima recal)

Page 112, missing degree sign added. (December 28, at 6 in the morning, 26.0 deg. C.;)

Page 117, "vavors" changed to "vapors". (there were seen fiery vapors)

Page 135, "litttle" changed to "little". (full of little egg-shaped)

Footnote 42, unusual phrase "no thing" retained. (He who created the world out of no thing)

Page 154, unusual spelling of placename "Cozco" retained. Elsewhere in text it is "Cuzco". (erected in Cozco, the capital)

Page 168, inserted missing period. (Pelecanus thayus, Mol.;)

Page 172, compass directions "SS.E" changed to "S.S.E"; "NN.W." changed to "N.N.W." (Andes, namely from S.S.E.) (N.N.W., the western declivity)

Page 177, "Eschidna" changed to "Echidna". See other occurrence at Footnote 93. (Echidna ocellata, Tsch.)

Page 178, "melancholv" changed to "melancholy". (melancholy howl)

Page 180, inconsistent spelling of placename "Periachi", later on "Pariachi". Original text retained for both. (At Periachi, four leagues from) (Two leagues beyond Pariachi)

Page 182, inserted hyphen. (river of Chillon flowed north-westward)

Page 198, unusual spelling "befel" retained. Possibly "befell". (an accident which befel me)

Page 209, "swenllig" changed to "swelling". (inflammation, swelling of)

Page 218, "jus" changed to "just". (than any of those just)

Page 222, "sent" changed to "scent". (scent for the pishacas)

Page 278, ungrammatical construction "The men takes" retained. (The men takes their bows)

Page 284, period changed to comma. (Quichua, the idioms spoken)

Page 288, period added. (festively celebrated.)

Page 299, inserted missing opening round bracket. (... fly-catchers and shrikes (Muscicapidae and....)

Page 301, unusual bird name "shrites" retained. Possibly "shrikes". (shrites, and even sea-swallows)

Page 301, "tsch." changed to "Tsch." (Odontophorus speciosus, Tsch.)

Page 325, "Fra" retained. Fra is acceptable as a title for friars but elsewhere in this text "Fray" is used. (two priests, Fra Francisco Otasua and Fray Salvador)

Page 327, "coco" changed to "coca", coco is possible but coca more likely from context. (the coca plantation being neglected)

Footnotes frequently have missing end of paragraph/sentence punctuation. Periods added.