38 



ABORIGINES. 



kings, and she was at once claimed by that city ; but Cuzco was the 

 aboriginal city of the kings, and a dispute arose. Those of Cuzco de- 

 clared, that as she came in a box, which might be carried across the 

 Andes on the back of an ass, she was not sent to Lima. This argument 

 gained the lady, and she travelled over the mountains. 



The Indians, and many of the Creoles, believe, when they have too 

 much or too 'little rain for their crops, and take her through the streets 

 praying, God will listen, and send water, as required, for their fields. 

 When they are visited by disease, as at present, and the influenza is fatal 

 to their children, the Belen lady is implored. 



The Convent of San Domingo is built over the ruins of the Tempi* 

 of the Sun, Moon, and Stars, which were worshipped together by the 

 old Peruvians — a worship objected to in moral laws. We are told that 

 the sun of the temple was made of a mass of silver and gold ; so were 

 the moon and the stars. When the Spaniards captured Cuzco the 

 treasure of this temple was squandered at the gambling tables. 



Before the days of the Incas, the Indians of these regions are thought 

 to have lived in holes in the ground, in crevices, or under overhanging 

 masses of rocks, and in caves, like wild bears, biscachas, or eagles. 

 They ate grass and roots of the earth like beasts ; roamed among each 

 other as animals of the desert. Like the Chunchos, they reverenced 

 brave animals, large birds, and serpents. There were many tribes, with 

 different languages, and different worships of birds or beasts. In war 

 they flayed their prisoners, ate their flesh, drank their blood, made drum- 

 heads of their skins, and sticks of their bones. They went about in 

 flocks, robbing each other like wolves, the weaker giving way to the 

 strong. It has been said they fattened the children of their enemy like 

 lambs or calves, and ate them. 



A man and a woman of some different race suddenly appeared among 

 them ; they knew not from whence they came ; the opinion was that 

 they were from out of the great Lake Titicaca. The man and his sister 

 told the Indians they had been sent by their father, the sun, to draw 

 them from their savage life, and to instruct them how they might live 

 like men, and not like beasts ; to show them how to cultivate the land 

 and raise food ; to teach them to make clothing and to wear it. The 

 Indians were pleased, and ran off telling their neighbors, who gathered 

 together about the man, while his sister and wife taught the women 

 how to spin the wool of animals and to make clothing. 



The language taught them was called Quichua; they were also in- 

 structed to worship the sun, moon, and stars; to build towns on the 

 western end of the valley ; to rise at the break of day, that they might 



