no ELLIOT SMITH, Distribution of Mummification. 



of his attendants and favourite concubines, amounting 

 sometimes, it is said, to a thousand, were immolated on 

 his tomb .... 



"The body of the deceased Inca was skilfully em- 

 balmed and removed to the great Temple of the Sun at 

 Cuzco. There the Peruvian sovereign on entering the 

 awful sanctuary might behold the effigies of his royal 

 ancestors, ranged in opposite files — the men on the right 

 and their queens on the left of the great luminary which 

 blazed in refulgent gold on the walls of the temple. The 

 bodies, clothed in princely attire which they had been 

 accustomed to wear, were placed on chairs of gold, and 

 sat with their heads inclined downwards, their hands 

 placidly crossed over their bosoms, their countenances 

 exhibiting their natural dusky hue — less liable to change 

 than the fresher colouring of a European complexion — 

 and their hair of raven black, or silvered over with age, 

 according to the period at which they died. It seemed 

 like a company of solemn worshippers fixed in devotion, 

 so true were the forms and lineaments to life. The Peru- 

 vians were as successful as the Egyptians in the miserable 

 attempt to perpetuate the existence of the body beyond 

 the limits assigned to it by nature. [Note. — Ondegardo, 

 Rel. Prim., MS. — Garcilasso, Com. Real., parte i., lib. v., 

 cap. xxix. The Peruvians secreted their mummies of 

 their sovereigns after the Conquest, that they might not 

 be profaned by the insults of the Spaniards. Ondegardo, 

 when corregidor of Cuzco, discovered five of them, three 

 males and two females. The former were the bodies of 

 Viracocha, of the great Tupac, Inca Yupanqui, and of his 

 son, Huayna Cupac. Garcilasso saw them in 1650. They 

 were dressed in their regal robes, with no insignia but the 

 llautu on their heads. They were in a sitting position, 

 and, to use his own expression, ' perfect as life, without so 



