ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 309 



267. The form of the government of the Muyscas of New 

 Granada reminds us of the constitution of Japan and the 

 relation of the Secular Buler (Kubo or Seogun at Jeddo) to 

 the sacred personage the Dairi at Miyako. When Gonzalo 

 Ximenez de Quesada advanced to the high table land of 

 Bogota (Bacata, i. e. the extremity of the cultivated fields, 

 probably from the proximity of the mountain wall), he found 

 there three powers or authorities respecting whose reciprocal 

 relations and subordination there remains some uncertainty. 

 The spiritual chief, who was appointed by election, was the 

 high priest of Iraca or Sogamoso (Sugamuxi, the place of 

 the disappearance of Nemterequeteba) : the secular rulers 

 or princes were the Zake (Zaque of Hunsa or Tunja), and 

 the Zipa of Eunza. In the feudal constitution the last- 

 named prince appears to have been originally subordinate 

 to the Zake. 



The Muyscas had a regular mode of computing time, 

 with intercalation for amending the lunar year : they used 

 small circular plates of gold, cast of equal diameter, as 

 money (any traces of which among the highly civilised 

 ancient Egyptians have been sought in vain), and they had 

 temples of the Sun with stone columns, remains of which 

 have very recently been discovered in the Yalley of Leiva. 

 (Joaquin Acosta, Compendio historico del Descubrirniento 

 de la Nueva Granada, 1848, p. 188, 196, 206, and 208; 

 Bulletin de la Societe de Geographic de Paris, 1847, p. 114.) 

 The tribe or race of the Muyscas ought properly speaking 

 to be always denoted by the name of Chibchas ; as Muysca 

 in the Chibcha language signifies merely " men," " people." 



