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$Title{History Of The Conquest Of Peru
Chapter III: Part I}
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$Date{1864}
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Title:       History Of The Conquest Of Peru
Book:        Book I: Introduction. View Of The Civilization Of The Incas.
Author:      Prescott, William H.
Date:        1864

Chapter III: Part I

Peruvian Religion. - Deities. - Gorgeous Temples. - Festivals. - Virgins Of
The Sun. - Marriage.

     It is a remarkable fact, that many, if not most, of the rude tribes
inhabiting the vast American continent, however disfigured their creeds may
have been in other respects by a childish superstition, had attained to the
sublime conception of one Great Spirit, the Creator of the Universe, who,
immaterial in his own nature, was not to be dishonored by an attempt at
visible representation, and who, pervading all space, was not to be
circumscribed within the walls of a temple.  Yet these elevated ideas, so far
beyond the ordinary range of the untutored intellect, do not seem to have led
to the practical consequences that might have been expected; and few of the
American nations have shown much solicitude for the maintenance of a religious
worship, or found in their faith a powerful spring of action.

     But, with progress in civilization, ideas more akin to those of civilized
communities were gradually unfolded; a liberal provision was made, and a
separate order instituted, for the services of religion, which were conducted
with a minute and magnificent ceremonial, that challenged comparison, in some
respects, with that of the most polished nations of Christendom.  This was the
case with the nations inhabiting the table-land of North America, and with the
natives of Bogota, Quito, Peru, and the other elevated regions on the great
Southern continent.  It was, above all, the case with the Peruvians, who
claimed a divine original for the founders of their empire, whose laws all
rested on a divine sanction, and whose domestic institutions and foreign wars
were alike directed to preserve and propagate their faith.  Religion was the
basis of their polity, the very condition, as it were, of their social
existence.  The government of the Incas, in its essential principles, was a
theocracy.

     Yet, though religion entered so largely into the fabric and conduct of
the political institutions of the people, their mythology, that is, the
traditionary legends by which they affected to unfold the mysteries of the
universe, was exceedingly mean and puerile.  Scarce one of their traditions -
except the beautiful one respecting the founders of their royal dynasty - is
worthy of note, or throws much light on their own antiquities, or the
primitive history of man.  Among the traditions of importance is one of the
deluge, which they held in common with so many of the nations in all parts of
the globe, and which they related with some particulars that bear resemblance
to a Mexican legend. ^1

[Footnote 1: They related, that, after the deluge, seven persons issued from a
cave where they had saved themselves, and by them the earth was repeopled. One
of the traditions of the Mexicans deduced their descent, and that of the
kindred tribes, in like manner, from seven persons who came from as many caves
in Aztlan.  (Conf. Acosta, lib. 6, cap. 19; lib. 7, cap. 2. - Ondegardo, Rel.
Prim., Ms.) The story of the deluge is told by different writers with many
variations, in some of which it is not difficult to detect the plastic hand of
the Christian convert.]

     Their ideas in respect to a future state of being deserve more attention.
They admitted the existence of the soul hereafter, and connected with this a
belief in the resurrection of the body.  They assigned two distinct places for
the residence of the good and of the wicked, the latter of which they fixed in
the centre of the earth.  The good they supposed were to pass a luxurious life
of tranquillity and ease, which comprehended their highest notions of
happiness.  The wicked were to expiate their crimes by ages of wearisome
labor.  They associated with these ideas a belief in an evil principle or
spirit, bearing the name of Cupay, whom they did not attempt to propitiate by
sacrifices, and who seems to have been only a shadowy personification of sin,
that exercised little influence over their conduct. ^2

[Footnote 2: Ondegardo, Rel. Seg., Ms. - Gomara, Hist. de las Ind., cap. 123.
- Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 2, cap. 2, 7.

     One might suppose that the educated Peruvians - if I may so speak -
imagined the common people had no souls, so little is said of their opinions
as to the condition of these latter in a future life, while they are diffuse
on the prospects of the higher orders, which they fondly believed were to keep
pace with their condition here.]

     It was this belief in the resurrection of the body, which led them to
preserve the body with so much solicitude, - by a simple process, however,
that, unlike the elaborate embalming of the Egyptians, consisted in exposing
it to the action of the cold, exceedingly dry, and highly rarefied atmosphere
of the mountains. ^3 As they believed that the occupations in the future world
would have great resemblance to those of the present, they buried with the
deceased noble some of his apparel, his utensils, and, frequently, his
treasures; and completed the gloomy ceremony by sacrificing his wives and
favorite domestics, to bear him company and do him service in the happy
regions beyond the clouds. ^4 Vast mounds of an irregular, or, more
frequently, oblong shape, penetrated by galleries running at right angles to
each other, were raised over the dead, whose dried bodies or mummies have been
found in considerable numbers, sometimes erect, but more often in the sitting
posture, common to the Indian tribes of both continents.  Treasures of great
value have also been occasionally drawn from these monumental deposits, and
have stimulated speculators to repeated excavations with the hope of similar
good-fortune.  It was a lottery like that of searching after mines, but where
the chances have proved still more against the adventurers. ^5

[Footnote 3: Such, indeed, seems to be the opinion of Garcilasso, though some
writers speak of resinous and other applications for embalming the body.  The
appearance of the royal mummies found at Cuzco, as reported both by Ondegardo
and Garcilasso, makes it probable that no foreign substance was employed for
their preservation.]

[Footnote 4: Ondegardo, Rel. Seg., Ms

     The Licentiate says, that this usage continued even after the Conquest;
and that he had saved the life of more than one favorite domestic, who had
fled to him for protection, as they were about to be sacrificed to the Manes
of their deceased lords.  Ibid., ubi supra.]

[Footnote 5: Yet these sepulchral mines have sometimes proved worth the
digging.  Sarmiento speaks of gold to the value of 100,000 castellanos, as
occasionally buried with the Indian lords; (Relacion, Ms., cap. 57;) and Las
Casas - not the best authority in numerical estimates - says that treasures
worth more than half a million of ducats had been found, within twenty years
after the Conquest, in the tombs near Truxillo.  (Oeuvres, ed. par Llorente,
(Paris, 1822,) tom. II. p. 192.) Baron Humboldt visited the sepulchre of a
Peruvian prince in the same quarter of the country, whence a Spaniard in 1576
drew forth a mass of gold worth a million of dollars!  Vues des Cordilleres,
p. 29.]

     The Peruvians, like so may other of the Indian races, acknowledged a
Supreme Being, the Creator and Ruler of the Universe, whom they adored under
the different names of Pachacamac and Viracocha. ^6 No temple was raised to
this invisible Being, save one only in the valley which took its name from the
deity himself, not far from the Spanish city of Lima.  Even this temple had
existed there before the country came under the sway of the Incas, and was the
great resort of Indian pilgrims from remote parts of the land; a circumstance
which suggests the idea, that the worship of this Great Spirit, though
countenanced, perhaps, by their accommodating policy, did not originate with
the Peruvian princes. ^7

[Footnote 6: Pachacamac signifies "He who sustains or gives life to the
universe." The name of the great deity is sometimes expressed by both
Pachacamac and Viracocha combined.  (See Balboa, Hist. du Perou, chap. 6. -
Acosta, lib. 6, cap. 21.) An old Spaniard finds in the popular meaning of
Viracocha, "foam of the sea," an argument for deriving the Peruvian
civilization from some voyager from the Old World.  Conq. i Pob. de. Piru,
Ms.]

[Footnote 7: Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq. Ms. - Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms.,
cap. 27.

     Ulloa notices the extensive ruins of brick, which mark the probable site
of the temple of Pachacamac, attesting by their present appearance its ancient
magnificence and strength.  Memoires Philosophiques, Historiques, Physiques,
(Paris, 1787,) trad. Fr., p. 78.]

     The deity whose worship they especially inculcated, and which they never
failed to establish wherever their banners were known to penetrate, was the
Sun.  It was he, who, in a particular manner, presided over the destinies of
man; gave light and warmth to the nations, and life to the vegetable world;
whom they reverenced as the father of their royal dynasty, the founder of
their empire; and whose temples rose in every city and almost every village
throughout the land, while his altars smoked with burnt offerings, - a form of
sacrifice peculiar to the Peruvians among the semi-civilized nations of the
New World. ^8

[Footnote 8: At least, so says Dr. McCulloh; and no better authority can be
required on American antiquities.  (Researches, p. 392.) Might he not have
added barbarous nations. also?]

     Besides the Sun, the Incas acknowledged various objects of worship in
some way or other connected with this principal deity.  Such was the Moon, his
sister-wife; the Stars, revered as part of her heavenly train, - though the
fairest of them, Venus, known to the Peruvians by the name of Chasca, or the
"youth with the long and curling locks," was adored as the page of the Sun,
whom he attends so closely in his rising and in his setting.  They dedicated
temples also to the Thunder and Lightning, ^9 in whom they recognized the
Sun's dread ministers, and to the Rainbow, whom they worshipped as a beautiful
emanation of their glorious deity. ^10

[Footnote 9: Thunder, Lightning, and Thunderbolt, could be all expressed by
the Peruvians in one word, Illapa.  Hence some Spaniards have inferred a
knowledge of the Trinity in the natives!  "The Devil stole all he could,"
exclaims Herrera, with righteous indignation.  (Hist. General, dec. 5, lib. 4,
cap. 5.) These, and even rasher conclusions, (see Acosta, lib. 5, cap. 28,)
are scouted by Garcilasso, as inventions of Indian converts, willing to please
the imaginations of their Christian teachers.  (Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 2,
cap. 5, 6; lib. 3, cap. 21.) Imposture, on the one hand, and credulity on the
other, have furnished a plentiful harvest of absurdities, which has been
diligently gathered in by the pious antiquary of a later generation.]

[Footnote 10: Garcilasso's assertion, that these heavenly bodies were objects
of reverence as holy things, but not of worship, (Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 2,
cap. 1, 23,) is contradicted by Ondegardo, Rel. Seg., Ms., - Dec. de la Aud.
Real., Ms., - Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 5, lib. 4, cap. 4, - Gomara, Hist.
de las Ind., cap. 121, - and, I might add, by almost every writer of authority
whom I have consulted.  It is contradicted, in a manner, by the admission of
Garcilasso himself, that these several objects were all personified by the
Indians as living beings, and had temples dedicated to them as such, with
their effigies delineated in the same manner as was that of the Sun in his
dwelling.  Indeed, the effort of the historian to reduce the worship of the
Incas to that of the Sun alone is not very reconcilable with what he else
where says of the homage paid to Pachacamac, above all, and to Rimac, the
great oracle of the common people.  The Peruvian mythology was, probably, not
unlike that of Hindostan, where, under two, or at most three, principal
deities, were assembled a host of inferior ones, to whom the nation paid
religious homage, as personifications of the different objects in nature.]

     In addition to these, the subjects of the Incas enrolled among their
inferior deities many objects in nature, as the elements, the winds, the
earth, the air, great mountains and rivers, which impressed them with ideas of
sublimity and power, or were supposed in some way or other to exercise a
mysterious influence over the destinies of man. ^11 They adopted also a
notion, not unlike that professed by some of the schools of ancient
philosophy, that every thing on earth had its archetype or idea, its mother,
as they emphatically styled it, which they held sacred, as, in some sort, its
spiritual essence. ^12 But their system, far from being limited even to these
multiplied objects of devotion, embraced within its ample folds the numerous
deities of the conquered nations, whose images were transported to the
capital, where the burdensome charges of their worship were defrayed by their
respective provinces.  It was a rare stroke of policy in the Incas, who could
thus accommodate their religion to their interests. ^13

[Footnote 11: Ondegardo, Rel. Seg., Ms.

     These consecrated objects were termed huacas, - a word of most prolific
import; since it signified a temple, a tomb, any natural object remarkable for
its size or shape, in short, a cloud of meanings, which by their contradictory
sense have thrown incalculable confusion over the writings of historians and
travellers.]

[Footnote 12: "La orden por donde fundavan sus huacas que ellos llamavan a las
Idolatrias hera porque decian que todas criava el sol i que les dava madre por
madre que mostravan a la tierra, porque decian que tenia madre, i tenian le
echo su vulto i sus adoratorios, i al fuego decian que tambien tenia madre i
al mais i a las otras sementeras i a las ovejas iganado decian que tenian
madre, i a la chocha ques el brevaje que ellos usan decian que el vinagre
della hera la madre i lo reverenciavan i llamavan mama agua madre del vinagre,
i a cada cosa adoravan destas de su manera." Conq. i Pob. del Piru, Ms.]

[Footnote 13: Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms.

     So it seems to have been regarded by the Licentiate Ondegardo.  "E los
Idolos estaban en aq1 galpon grande de la casa del Sol, y cada Idolo destos
tenia su servicio y gastos y mugeres, y en la casa del Sol le iban a hacer
reverencia los que venian de su provincial para lo qual e sacrificios que se
hacian proveian de su misma tierra ordinaria e muy abundantemente por la misma
orden que lo hacian quando estaba en la misma provincia, que daba gran
autoridad a mi parecer e aun fuerza a estos Ingas que cierto me causo gran
admiracion." Rel. Seg., Ms.]

     But the worship of the Sun constituted the peculiar care of the Incas,
and was the object of their lavish expenditure.  The most ancient of the many
temples dedicated to this divinity was in the Island of Titicaca, whence the
royal founders of the Peruvian line were said to have proceeded.  From this
circumstance, this sanctuary was held in peculiar veneration.  Every thing
which belonged to it, even the broad fields of maize, which surrounded the
temple, and formed part of its domain, imbibed a portion of its sanctity. The
yearly produce was distributed among the different public magazines, in small
quantities to each, as something that would sanctify the remainder of the
store.  Happy was the man who could secure even an ear of the blessed harvest
for his own granary! ^14

[Footnote 14: Garcilasso. Com. Real, Parte 1, lib. 3, cap. 25.]

     But the most renowned of the Peruvian temples the pride of the capital,
and the wonder of the empire, was at Cuzco, where, under the munificence of
successive sovereigns, it had become so enriched, that it received the name of
Coricancha, or "the Place of Gold." It consisted of a principal building and
several chapels and inferior edifices, covering a large extent of ground in
the heart of the city, and completely encompassed by a wall, which, with the
edifices, was all constructed of stone.  The work was of the kind already
described in the other public buildings of the country, and was so finely
executed, that a Spaniard, who saw it in its glory, assures us, he could call
to mind only two edifices in Spain, which, for their workmanship, were at all
to be compared with it. ^15 Yet this substantial, and, in some respects,
magnificent structure, was thatched with straw!

[Footnote 15: "Tenia este Templo en circuito mas de quatro cientos pasos, todo
cercado de una muralla fuerte, labrado todo el edificio de cantera muy
excelente de fina piedra, muy bien puesta y asentada, y algunas piedras eran
muy grandes y soberbias, no tenian mezcla de tierra ni cal, sino con el betun
que ellos suelen hacer sus edificios, y estan tan bien labradas estas piedras
que no se les parece mezcla ni juntura ninguna.  En toda Espana no he visto
cosa que pueda comparar a estas paredes y postura de piedra, sino a la torre
que llaman la Calahorra que esta junto con la puente de Cordoba, y a una obra
que vi en Toledo, cuando fui a presentar la primera parte de mi Cronica al
Principe Dn Felipe." Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms., cap. 24]

     The interior of the temple was the most worthy of admiration.  It was
literally a mine of gold.  On the western wall was emblazoned a representation
of the deity, consisting of a human countenance, looking forth from amidst
innumerable rays of light, which emanated from it in every direction, in the
same manner as the sun is often personified with us.  The figure was engraved
on a massive plate of gold of enormous dimensions, thickly powdered with
emeralds and precious stones. ^16 It was so situated in front of the great
eastern portal, that the rays of the morning sun fell directly upon it at its
rising, lighting up the whole apartment with an effulgence that seemed more
than natural, and which was reflected back from the golden ornaments with
which the walls and ceiling were everywhere incrusted.  Gold, in the
figurative language of the people, was "the tears wept by the sun," ^17 and
every part of the interior of the temple glowed with burnished plates and
studs of the precious metal.  The cornices, which surrounded the walls of the
sanctuary, were of the same costly material; and a broad belt or frieze of
gold, let into the stonework, encompassed the whole exterior of the edifice.
^18

[Footnote 16: Conq. i Pob. del Piru, Ms - Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap. 44, 92.

     "La figura del Sol, muy grande, hecha de oro obrada muy primamente
engastonada en muchas piedras ricas." Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms., cap. 24.]

[Footnote 17: "I al oro asimismo decian que era lagrimas que el Sol llorava."
Conq. i Pob. del Piru, Ms.]

[Footnote 18: Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms., cap. 24.  - Antig. y Monumentos del
Peru, Ms.

     "Cercada junto a la techumbre de una plancha de oro de palmo i medio de
ancho i lo mismo tenian por de dentro en cada bohio o casa i aposento." (Conq.
i Pob. del Piru, Ms.) "Tenia una cinta de planchas de oro de anchor de mas de
un palmo enlazadas en las piedras." Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms.]

     Adjoining the principal structure were several chapels of smaller
dimensions.  One of them was consecrated to the Moon, the deity held next in
reverence, as the mother of the Incas.  Her effigy was delineated in the same
manner as that of the Sun, on a vast plate that nearly covered one side of the
apartment.  But this plate, as well as all the decorations of the building,
was of silver, as suited to the pale, silvery light of the beautiful planet.
There were three other chapels, one of which was dedicated to the host of
Stars, who formed the bright court of the Sister of the Sun; another was
consecrated to his dread ministers of vengeance, the Thunder and the
Lightning; and a third, to the Rainbow, whose many-colored arch spanned the
walls of the edifice with hues almost as radiant as its own.  There were
besides several other buildings, or insulated apartments, for the
accommodation of the numerous priests who officiated in the services of the
temple. ^19

[Footnote 19: Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms., cap. 24. - Garcilasso, Com. Real.,
Parte 1, lib. 3, cap. 21. - Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms.]

     All the plate, the ornaments, the utensils of every description,
appropriated to the uses of religion, were of gold or silver.  Twelve immense
vases of the latter metal stood on the floor of the great saloon, filled with
grain of the Indian corn; ^20 the censers for the perfumes, the ewers which
held the water for sacrifice, the pipes which conducted it through
subterraneous channels into the buildings, the reservoirs that received it,
even the agricultural implements used in the gardens of the temple, were all
of the same rich materials.  The gardens, like those described, belonging to
the royal palaces, sparkled with flowers of gold and silver, and various
imitations of the vegetable kingdom.  Animals, also, were to be found there, -
among which the llama, with its golden fleece, was most conspicuous, -
executed in the same style, and with a degree of skill, which, in this
instance, probably, did not surpass the excellence of the material. ^21

[Footnote 20: "El bulto del Sol tenian mui grande de oro, i todo el servicio
desta casa era de plata i oro, i tenian doze horones de plata blanca que dos
hombres no abrazarian cada uno quadrados, i eran mas altos que una buena pica
donde hechavan el maiz que havian de dar al Sol, segun ellos decian que
comiese." Conq. i Pob. del Piru, Ms.

     The original, as the Spanish reader perceives, says each of these silver
vases or bins was as high as a good lance, and so large that two men with
outspread arms could barely encompass them!  As this might, perhaps, embarrass
even the most accommodating faith, I have preferred not to become responsible
for any particular dimensions.]

[Footnote 21: Levinus Apollonius, fol. 38. - Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte 1,
lib. 3, cap. 24. - Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms.

     "Tenian un Jardin que los Terrones eran pedazos de oro fino y estaban
artificiosamente sembrado de maizales los quales eran oro asi las Canas de
ello como las ojas y mazorcas, y estaban tan bien plantados que aunque
hiciesen recios bientos no se arrancaban.  Sin todo esto tenian hechas mas de
veinte obejas de oro con sus Corderos y los Pastores con sus ondas y cayados
que las guardaban hecho de este metal; havia mucha cantidad de Tinajas de oro
y de Plata y esmeraldas, vasos, ollas y todo genero de vasijas todo de oro
fino; por otras Paredes tenian esculpidas y pintadas otras mayores cosas, en
fin era uno de los ricos Templos que hubo en el mundo." Sarmiento, Relacion,
Ms., cap. 24.]

     If the reader sees in this fairy picture only the romantic coloring of
some fabulous El Dorado, he must recall what has been said before in reference
to the palaces of the Incas, and consider that these "Houses of the Sun," as
they were styled, were the common reservoir into which flowed all the streams
of public and private benefaction throughout the empire.  Some of the
statements, through credulity, and others, in the desire of exciting
admiration, may be greatly exaggerated; but, in the coincidence of
contemporary testimony, it is not easy to determine the exact line which
should mark the measure of our skepticism.  Certain it is, that the glowing
picture I have given is warranted by those who saw these buildings in their
pride, or shortly after they had been despoiled by the cupidity of their
countrymen.  Many of the costly articles were buried by the natives, or thrown
into the waters of the rivers and the lakes; but enough remained to attest the
unprecedented opulence of these religious establishments.  Such things as were
in their nature portable were speedily removed, to gratify the craving of the
Conquerors, who even tore away the solid cornices and frieze of gold from the
great temple, filling the vacant places with the cheaper, but - since it
affords no temptation to avarice - more durable, material of plaster.  Yet
even thus shorn of their splendor, the venerable edifices still presented an
attraction to the spoiler, who found in their dilapidated walls an
inexhaustible quarry for the erection of other buildings.  On the very ground
once crowned by the gorgeous Coricancha rose the stately church of St.
Dominic, one of the most magnificent structures of the New World.  Fields of
maize and lucerne now bloom on the spot which glowed with the golden gardens
of the temple; and the friar chants his orisons within the consecrated
precincts once occupied by the Children of the Sun. ^22

[Footnote 22: Miller's Memoirs, vol. II. pp. 223, 224.]

     Besides the great temple of the Sun, there was a large number of inferior
temples and religious houses in the Peruvian capital and its environs,
amounting, as is stated, to three or four hundred. ^23 For Cuzco was a
sanctified spot, venerated not only as the abode of the Incas, but of all
those deities who presided over the motley nations of the empire.  It was the
city beloved of the Sun; where his worship was maintained in its splendor;
"where every fountain, pathway, and wall," says an ancient chronicler, "was
regarded as a holy mystery." ^24 And unfortunate was the Indian noble who, at
some period or other of his life, had not made his pilgrimage to the Peruvian
Mecca.

[Footnote 23: Herrera, Hist. General, dec 5, lib. 4, cap. 8.

     "Havia en aquella ciudad y legua y media de la redonda quatrocientos y
tantos lugares, donde se hacian sacrificious, y se gastava mucha suma de
hacienda en ellos." Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., Ms.]

[Footnote 24: "Que aquella ciudad del Cuzco era casa y morada de Dioses, e
ansi no habia en toda ella fuente ni paso ni pared que no dixesen que tenia
misterio." Ondegardo, Rel. Seg., Ms.]

     Other temples and religious dwellings were scattered over the provinces;
and some of them constructed on a scale of magnificence, that almost rivalled
that of the metropolis.  The attendants on these composed an army of
themselves.  The whole number of functionaries, including those of the
sacerdotal order, who officiated at the Coricancha alone, was no less than
four thousand. ^25

[Footnote 25: Conq. i Pob. del Piru, Ms.

     An army, indeed, if, as Cieza de Leon states, the number of priests and
menials employed in the famous temple of Bilcas, on the route to Chili,
amounted to 40,000!  (Cronica, cap. 89.) Every thing relating to these Houses
of the Sun appears to have been on a grand scale.  But we may easily believe
this a clerical error for 4,000.]

     At the head of all, both here and throughout the land, stood the great
High-Priest, or Villac Vmu, as he was called.  He was second only to the Inca
in dignity, and was usually chosen from his brothers or nearest kindred.  He
was appointed by the monarch, and held his office for life; and he, in turn,
appointed to all the subordinate stations of his own order.  This order was
very numerous.  Those members of it who officiated in the House of the Sun, in
Cuzco, were taken exclusively from the sacred race of the Incas.  The
ministers in the provincial temples were drawn from the families of the
curacas; but the office of high-priest in each district was reserved for one
of the blood royal.  It was designed by this regulation to preserve the faith
in its purity, and to guard against any departure from the stately ceremonial
which it punctiliously prescribed. ^26

[Footnote 26: Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms., cap. 27. - Conq i Pob. del Piru, Ms.

     It was only while the priests were engaged in the service of the temples,
that they were maintained, according to Garcilasso, from the estates of the
Sun.  At other times, they were to get their support from their own lands,
which, if he is correct, were assigned to them in the same manner as to the
other orders of the nation.  Com Real., Parte 1, lib. 5, cap. 8]