WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES VAZQUEZ DE ESI'INOSA 563 



their deceitful ways of sacrificing and hoodwinking the people may 

 be seen in Inca Garcilaso, in Father Acosta, and other historians. 



1519. Besides the magnificence already described, and the majesty 

 and splendor of the temple, there were 12 doorways leading from it 

 and the chambers or chapels of the moon and stars, etc., to the cloister. 

 Ten of them were lined with sheets of gold ; only the two of the 

 moon and stars were silver-lined, thus being different and distin- 

 guishable from the others. For its majesty and splendor the temple 

 had a garden with everything such a garden could have of the most 

 remarkable abundance in the world, but all the herbs, plants, and 

 flowers were manufactured with great accuracy out of gold and silver, 

 like those to be found in all the royal palaces of the Incas. The trees 

 were full of fruit, in gold counterfeit ; there were animals large and 

 small, serpents, lizards, tigers, lions, guanacos, vicuiias, and many 

 other animals and small creatures, as well as human figures policing 

 and cultivating the garden, so that it seemed like a forest with all 

 this diversity of animals ; there were even ostriches there ; and they 

 were all fabricated out of gold and silver. There was a very remark- 

 able field of corn with golden ears, blocks of wood, and other curiosi- 

 ties of the same nature, which demonstrated the majesty and 

 sovereignty of their god. There were many other temples patterned 

 after this magnificent one, over the whole empire and built to worship 

 and honor the Sun and to pay homage to their kings. These were 

 all decorated in the same fashion with great lavishness. I saw most 

 of them in ruins, when I was in that Kingdom ; but I omit any 

 further description, to avoid prolixity. 



Chapter LXXVII [ ] (76) 



Of the Convent of the Virgins Dedicated to the Sun. 



1520. In the majesty and grandeur which those kings enjoyed in 

 their heathen days, it seemed suitable to them that their father the 

 Sun, whose children they were proud to be, should have chosen 

 maidens consecrated to him alone as his wives. Accordingly in the 

 ward which they called Aclla Huaci, which means House of the 

 Chosen Virgins, they built it near the House of the Sun, between 

 the two streets which lead from the Plaza Mayor to the Dominican 

 convent, which is where the Sun Temple stood ; these streets run 

 N. and S. The front of the Convent of the Chosen Virgins over- 

 looked the Plaza Mayor, and its rear extended to the street running 

 through from E. to W., so that the convent formed an island at this 

 locality just described. 



