250 NATURAL AND CIVIL 



the increasing and unavoidable miseries of life ; 

 and they were assisting them in their journey to 

 the other country." Nor 'is it to be doubted 

 but that they assigned the true reason and mo- 

 tive, upon which they acted ; for no people were 

 ever known to pay a greater reverence to the 

 aged, or were more cntnusiastic in the venera- 

 tion they paid to the tombs and memories of 

 their ancestors. 



Such customs are not derived from any nat- 

 ural appetite, or from any thiig peculiar to the 

 state of the hunter, or the savage ; but must be 

 deemed extraordinary, uncommon, and arbitra- 

 ry. Being found only among the men of Asia 

 and America, the presumption is, that they were 

 derived from the one to the other ; or that the 

 latter had taken them from the former. 



4. In the empire of Peru, there were several 

 appearances of Chinese customs and manners. 

 The appearance, the dress, and the superior 

 knowledge, of Manco Capac and Mama OcoUo ; 

 the knowledge of agriculture and the arts, in 

 which the one instructed the men : the knowl. 

 edge of spinning, knitting, weaving, and mak- 

 ing garments of cotton, which the other diffused 

 among the vv^omen ; the high estim.ation which 

 the children of the sun assigned to agriculture, 

 above all other arts and professions ; their cus- 

 tom of tilling a field with their own hands ; the 

 ceremony with which the Inca began the busi- 

 ness in the spring ; the festivals which attended 

 it ; the unlimited authority of the emperor, with 

 the patriarchal aspect of the government ; the 

 beiievolcnt tendency of their laws, and wars ; 

 and their public regulations respecting roads^ 



