INDIAN CORN. 29 



I 



4 Their food was herbs or grass, roots of trees, wild 

 4 fruits, and human flesh ; and all the covering they 

 4 had, consisted of the leaves or bark of trees, and the 

 4 skins of beasts. 



4 And now, I pray that you listen with due atten- 

 1 tion, for I would not be troubled to repeat what I 

 c am to say. Our Father, the Sun, beholding these 

 1 Indians as they existed in the state that I have just 

 4 related, took compassion on them, and sent a son and 

 1 a daughter of his own from heaven to earth, to in- 

 { struct our people in his knowledge, so that they 

 4 might worship and adore him, and esteem him as their 

 4 God, giving them laws and precepts, unto which 

 4 they might conform their lives like men of reason 

 4 and refinement of manners, that they might live 

 4 in houses and society, learn to till the earth, culti- 

 1 vate trees, plants, and corn, feed their flocks, and 

 4 enjoy them as rational men, and not as brutes. 

 4 With these orders and instructions, our Father, the 

 4 Sun, placed his two children by the Lake Titicaca, 

 4 giving them liberty to go which way they pleased, 

 4 and that, in what place soever they stopped to eat, or 

 4 sleep, they should strike a little wedge of gold into 

 4 the ground, ^which was about half a yard long, and 

 4 two fingers thick, and where, with one stroke this 

 4 wedge should sink into the earth, there should be the 

 4 place of their abode, and the court unto which all 

 4 people should come. Lastly, he ordered that when 

 4 they should have subjected these people to the rules 

 4 of obedience, they should maintain them with reason, 

 4 justice, piety, clemency, and gentleness, performing 

 4 all the good offices of indulgent parents towards the 

 4 children they love ; and that in imitation of him, 

 4 and by his example who doeth good to all the world, 

 4 by affording them light to perform their work, 

 4 and the actions of life ; warming them when they 

 4 are cold ; making their pastures and their seeds to 

 4 grow, their trees to fructify, and their flocks to in- 

 4 crease ; and watering their lands with timely dews. 

 ( And in order to manifest his earthly care, he said, 



