122 CRANIA AMERICANA. 



any possible dispute or misunderstanding in this matter, the plebeian lands were 

 newly distributed every year. 



The monarchy appears to have had its due portion of insurrections and dis- 

 turbances of various kinds, some of which reached the palace itself. One Inca, at 

 least, was deposed and put to death ; and when Atahualpa contested the empire 

 with Guascar, he had that prince murdered, together with no less than thirty of 

 his brothers, and a vast number of their dependants. We have already alluded to 

 the destruction of the Collas in the early times of the monarchy ; and as another 

 example of unsparing cruelty, Huyna Capac, after a revolt of the Caranques, 

 ordered two thousand of them to be put to death in cold blood, on a single 

 occasion.* These facts suiBficiently show, that the civilisation and comparative 

 refinement of the Incas, were blended with some remains of the ferocity of the 

 savage. 



In their social relations, however, they appear to have been characterised by 

 gentleness and affection ; and although by a remarkable law^, all crimes were alike 

 punished with death, such was the natural docility of the temper of the Peruvians, 

 that executions are said to have been unfrequent among them. 



Matrimonial engagements were entered into with very little ceremony or 

 forethought, and they were as readily set aside at the option of the parties. 

 Polygamy was lawful, but not prevalent. Among the common people, inconti- 

 nence among unmarried persons was scarcely regarded as a crime, and sensuality 

 was a prevailing vice, in some degree countenanced by the royal authority. As a 

 natural consequence, child-murder became so common, that foundling-hospitals 

 were established by the government, in which children were received and provided 

 for at the public expense. In truth, the morals of the Peruvians in these respects 

 have nothing to commend them.f 



Their diet was chiefly vegetables, maize entering largely into their aliments. 

 Exhilarating drinks were in common use among the men ; the principal prepara- 

 tion of this kind was called chica, which was fermented from the maize. So fond 

 were the natives of this beverage, that it was even placed beside the dead in their 

 tombs ;t and UUoa asserts, that among the Peruvians of the present day, spirituous 

 liquors destroy more men in one year than the mines do in fifty. 



* Garcilaso, Lib. IX, p. 367. FrycauVs TV.—Coreal, Voy. II, p. 54. 

 t M'CuLLOH, Researches, p. 379.— Carli, Lettres Americaines, I. p. 138. 

 X Stevenson, S. Amer. II. p. 371. 



