92 THE COLLECTION OF OSTEOLOGICAL MATERIAL FROM MACHU PICCHU. 



the chief places in all the provinces, by the Ynca governors, wherever they might be : and, 

 although the ceremonies were less grand, and the sacrifices fewer, no part of the festival 

 was omitted." 



The writings of Garcilasso de la Vega contain very little regarding the feast of Situa, 

 and record nothing at all about the heavy drinking of chicha by the people on that occasion. 

 In his description of the celebration of the Yntip Raymi, however, Garcilasso refers apolo- 

 getically to this failing:* "After the eating was over, they brought liquor in great quantity, 

 for this was one of the most prevalent vices among the Indians. But at the present day, 

 through the mercy of God and the good example which has been set them in this particular 

 by the Spaniards, no Indian can get drunk without being despised and reviled by his fellows. 

 If the Spaniards had set a like example as regards other vices, they would have been apostolic 

 preachers of the gospel." 



I have quoted freely from these two most conscientious writers, who were witnesses of 

 many of the acts they described, in order to establish at least a strong probability that the 

 inhabitants of the magnificent city of Machu Picchu, following the practises of their race 

 and times, visited the bodies of their dead at certain seasons and accorded them essentially 

 the same formal honors as have been described in the scenes at Cuzco. Indeed, as Machu 

 Picchu is one of the few "chief places" that seem to have escaped invasion by armed 

 bands of the conquerors, it is altogether credible that some of the ancient mortuary customs 

 persisted there long after their abandonment by those communities that fell completely under 

 the Spanish power. 



I now come to a part of my argument that ma)' not seem entirely dignified, yet is advanced 

 for a serious purpose. From the preceding quotations it must be apparent that great 

 quantities of intoxicating liquor were consumed by the Indians at their religious feasts. 

 Although neither Garcilasso nor Molina refer in detail to any disorderly conduct on the 

 part of the people, no one who has witnessed the modern descendants of these same Indians 

 during the celebration of Corpus Christi, more or less intoxicated and struggling for the 

 honor of carrying the effigies of the Virgin and the Savior, can doubt that the closing scenes 

 of the ancient festivals were occasionally conducted with less decorum than was in keeping 

 with their sacred character. 



The bodies of the dead were returned to their mortuaries at the close of the feast. Is 

 it then to be wondered at that some of the older and more fragile mummies should have 

 suffered from occasional rough handling, especially on the difficult trails of a steep mountain- 

 side where most of the Machu Picchu graves were located, or that lower jaws and parts of 

 limbs or even entire skulls should have been lost, and the mummies not always returned to 

 their former graves? 



Other possible explanations of the loss of skeletal parts from the Machu Picchu graves 

 will doubtless suggest themselves to students of South American Archaeology. It is inter- 

 esting to find that Nordenskiold has recently observed somewhat similar losses from old 

 graves in the Titicaca Plateau. For the sake of brevity I quote from tlie reviewf of his 

 Ethnograi)hischc und archffiologische Forschungen, etc. : 



♦Royal Commentaries of the Yncas. Translation by Sir Clements Markham. First Part, Sixth Book, 

 Chapter XXII. 

 t L'Anthropologic, XVII, 1906, page 485. 



