PERUVIAN MUMMY. 



73 



shoulder. In the countenance there was an ex^ 

 pression of agony very distinctly marked. The 

 tradition with respect to this and other similar 

 bodies is, that, at the time of the conquest, many 

 of the Incas and their families were persecuted 

 to such a degree, that they actually allowed them- 

 selves to be buried alive rather than submit to 

 the fate with which the Spaniards threatened 

 them. They have generally been found in the 

 posture above described, in pits dug more than 

 twelve feet deep in the sand ; whereas the bodies 

 of persons known to have died a natural death, 

 are invariably discovered in the regular burying- 

 places of the Indians, stretched out at full length. 

 There was seated near the same spot a female fi- 

 gure with a child in her arms. The female had 

 crumbled into dust on exposure to the air, but the 

 child, which was shown to us, was entire. It was 

 wrapped in a cotton cloth woven very neatly, and 

 composed of a variety of brilliant colours, and 

 quite fresh. Parts of the cloths also which the fe- 

 male figure had worn were equally perfect, and 

 the fibres quite strong. These bodies were dug 

 up in a part of the country where rain never falls, 



