808 SOUTH AMEEICA-THE ANDES REGIONS. 



memory of times anterior to the Inca rule, and was itself intimately associated 

 with astronomic phenomena, the movements of the heavenly bodies, the seasons 

 and harvests. 



The sun, whose rays quickened the sluggish life of the plateaux, was the God 

 of the Quichuas in a pre-eminent sense, whereas the Yuncas worshipped more 

 especially Mama Cocha, the " Mother Lake," whose waves, stirred up by the 

 underground forces, came at times to waste their lands. The great chief of the 

 Quichua cult was of royal blood, a "child of the sun," and the priests and 

 priestesses owed him absolute obedience; even the nunneries were royal harems. 



No other nation in the whole world was ever more thoroughly classified, 

 drilled and disciplined. Every man had his badge ; everywhere the people were 

 numbered and enrolled in set divisions, which were classed in groups of five, ten 

 and ten times ten ; each hundred had its centurion, each thousand its captain, 

 while each viceroy of the four provinces — North, South, East, and West — knew 

 exactly how many captains were at his disposal. 



The working of the vast machine was controlled by a secret police, and the 

 education suitable to each child was likewise determined by the State. The sons 

 of the Incas and of the " decorated gentlemen " alone were taught the arts and 

 sciences, mathematics and astronomy, theology, history and law, politics and the 

 art of war, music and poetry. Agriculture, the manufacture of arms, implements, 

 and clothes comprised the education of the sons ; weaving, cooking, and certain 

 field operations that of the daughters, of plebeians. 



Marriage was obligatory, its date, like that of the military service, being 

 determined by the magistrates. All unions were essentially endogamic, even the 

 Inca himself being compelled to marry his eldest sister. Government supervision 

 was extended to every act of daily life, and the very doors of the houses had to 

 be left unbolted, so that the agents of the police might have access at all hours. 



All conquered nations were at once subjected to the same régime, which 

 extended in their case to the style of dress and the cut of the hair. The different 

 types of special cranial deformation, as found in the graves, are even supposed to 

 have been officially prescribed to the different tribal groups. The result of all 

 this drilling and meddlesome interference was that when Pizarro, at the head of a 

 few Spanish brigands, presented himself before the highly-disciplined armies of 

 Atahuallpa, seized the Inca by his embroidered robe and dragged him from his 

 throne, the empire collapsed ! 



A partial destruction of the nation rapidly followed the fall of the dynasty. 

 Massacres, epidemics, famines, swept away hundreds of thousands and even millions, 

 say the early chroniclers. But the new economic conditions were certainly 

 the chief cause of the mortality. Not only were the natives forcibly con- 

 verted to the Christian religion, and subjected to the tribute as under the Incas 

 but they had also to submit to the system of mita, requiring all to take their turn 

 in the mines. One year of excessive labour carried off half the hands, so that the 

 mining districts were converted into ever -increasing solitudes, while the losses 

 were supplied by fresh importations. 



