PERUVIAN CONFESSION. 301 



sinnes reserved for the superiors. They received penaunce, LlD - 

 yea, sometimes very sharpely, especially when the offender 

 was a poore man, and had nothing to give his Confessor. 

 This office of Confessor was likewise exercised by women. 

 The manner of these confessors sorcerers, whom they call 

 Ychuiri or Ychuri, 1 hath beene most generall in the pro 

 vinces of Collasuio. 2 They holde opinion that it is a heinous 

 sinue to concealo any thing in confession. The Ychuyri 

 or confessors discovered by lottos or by the view of some 

 beast hides if anything were concealed, and punished them 

 with many blowes with a stone vpou the shoulders, vntill 

 they had revealed all : then after they gave him penaunce, 

 and did sacrifice. They doe likewise vse this confession 

 when their children, wives, husbands, or their Caciques bo 

 sicke, or in any great exploite. And when their Ynca was 

 sicke all the provinces confessed themselves, chiefly thoso 

 of the province of Collao. The Confessors were bound to 

 hold their confessions secret, but in certain cases limited. 

 The sinnes that they chiefly confessed was first to kill ono 

 another out of \varrc, then to steale, to take another man s 

 wife, to give poison or sorcery to doe any harme; and they 

 helde it to bo a grievous si Line to be forgetfull in the rever 

 ence of their Uuacas, or Oratories, not to observe the feasts, 

 or to speako ill of the Ynca and to disobey him. They ac 

 cused not themselves of any secret actes and sinnes. But, 

 according to the report of some Priests, after the Christians 

 came into that countrey, they accused themselves of their 

 thoughts. The Ynca confessed himselfo to no man, but 

 onely to the Sunnc, that hee might tell them to Virachoca, 

 and that he might forgive them. After the Yuca had been 

 confessed, hee made a certaine bath to cleanse hiinselfc in a 

 running river, saying these words : &quot; I have told my siunes 

 to the Sunne, receive them O thou river, and carry them to 



1 Ychurichuc is a confessor, according to Arriaga, from YcJtitri/ti, I 

 confess. 2 Colhi-suyu : the southern division of the Yucu Empire-. 



