INHABITANTS OF COLOMBIA. 173 



cotton fabric, which the artists embellished with brilliant designs. The houses, 

 built of wood and clay with conic roofs, were poorly furnished ; but the temples of 

 the gods and the palaces of the kings and priests contained objects worked with 

 great care. They appear to have even raised stone structures, and certain build- 

 ings on the hills of Leiva east of the Rio Saravita were supported by sandstone 

 columns. The materials of what seemed to Velez to have been a large city built 

 of stone have been utilised in the erection of the church and various houses in 

 Moniquira. As amongst the nations of the Old World professing religions with 

 sanguinary rites, the Muyscas sought the favour of the gods for their buildings by 

 cementiug them with human blood. They hoped to build for eternity by fixino- 

 each support in the bod}' of a fair young maiden, or of a valiant foe. 



They also laid out paved highways, and towns, fortresses, places of pilgrimage 

 were approached by well-constructed roads carried over marshes, precipices, and 

 other obstacles. A main route was said to have run from Sogamoso for " a hundred 

 leagues" in the direction of the eastern land whence came Bochica; vestiges of 

 this road were still to be seen in the seventeenth century. 



Time was divided into months, and ten periods of three days, or three of ten 

 days. According to Oviedo, the first third of the month was set apart for religious 

 worship) and " the exercise of the virtues," the second for work, and the third 

 given up to rest and recreation. The great agricultural periods of sowing and 

 reaping were preceded by "rogations," during which the people disguised them- 

 selves as wild beasts, regarded, perhaps, as the guardians of the fields. But the 

 great feast was that of the sun, kept every fifteenth year. The moon also was 

 worshipped with much solemnity, and on stated occasions received messages from 

 the priests conveyed by parrots, which, before being sacrificed, had been taught to 

 repeat the words of the communication. 



As amongst so many other peoples, marriage was an affair of purchase, the 

 wooer sending to the young woman's father a mantle corresponding in costliness 

 to his means. At the wedding the bride was asked by the priest whether she 

 loved Bochica better than her husband, her husband better than her children, and 

 her children better than herself. But Bochica often exacted his victims, and as 

 the eldest child had to be a son, all girls born before him were put to death, as 

 was also one of twins. 



The sick were well cared for, and great respect was shown to the dead. 

 Shadowland was situated in the centre of the earth, and was reached by the 

 gossamer souls of the departed by crossing a large river in a boat made of the 

 threads of a spider, regarded as a sacred insect. The funeral rites, both tedious 

 and costly, varied with the castes and districts ; in some places the disembowelled 

 bodies were filled with precious objects ; in others they were exposed on platforms 

 round about the temples, or else dried in the sun. Certain caves contained 

 hundreds of bodies, all seated in circles with their hands joined. Valiant 

 captains were embalmed and borne before the armies to ensure the victory. 



At present the Muyscas, merged in the Hispauo-Colombian race, have com- 

 pletely disappeared as a distinct nation. For over a century the language has 



