388 PEOFIT FROM THE STUDY 



ing, wlierewith the assistants were pleasantly intertained. 

 This doone, they made a maske or mummerie with all these 

 personages, and so the feast ended : the which were vsually 

 doone in their principall feasts. 



CHAP. xxxi. What profit may be drawne out of this discourse 

 of the Indians superstitions. 



This may suffice to vnderstand the care and paine the In 

 dians tooke to serve and honour their Idolls, or rather the 

 divell : for it were an infinite matter, and of small profit, to 

 report every thing that hath passed, for that it may seeme 

 to some needlesse to have spoken thus much : and that it is 

 a losse of time, as in reading the fables that are fained by 

 the Eomaines of Knighthoode. But if such as holde this 

 opinion will looke wel into it, they shall finde great differ 

 ence betwixt the one and the other : and that it may be 

 profitable, for many considerations, to have the knowledge 

 of the customs and ceremonies the Indians vsed : first, this 

 knowledge is not only profitable, but also necessary in those 

 countries where these superstitions have been practised, to 

 the end that Christians, and the maisters of the Law of 

 Christ, may knowe the errours and superstitions of the An- 

 tients, and observe if the Indians vse them not at this day, 

 either secretely or openly. For this cause many learned and 

 worthy men have written large Discourses of what they 

 have found : yea, the Provinciall counsells have commaunded 

 them to write and print them, as they have doone in Lima, 

 where hath beene made a more ample Discourse than this. 

 And therefore it importeth for the good of the Indians, that 

 the Spaniardes being in those parts of the Indies, should 

 have the knowledge of all these things. This Discourse may 

 likewise serve the Spaniards there, and all others wherso- 

 ever, to give infinite thankes to God our Lord, who hath im- 



