INDIAN AND OTHER INTIABITANTS OP PERU, S55 



which he owed to his Creator, drew down ignorance on his 

 posterity, and established idolatry. Thence originated the 

 chimerical traditions which led man by degrees to the greatest 

 absurdities. In this deplorable state every thing is God : even 

 that which is most vile receives the adorations that are solely 

 due to him. Some offer up their incenses to the crocodile ; 

 others, possessed by a religious terror, prostrate themselves 

 before the voracious ibis, which feeds on serpents ; others ere6t 

 golden statues to the ape ; and others, again, worship the 

 dog, and the fishes of the seas and rivers, dreading least they 

 should prophane the leek and the onion which grow in their 

 gardens, if, peradventure, they should be made to constitute 

 a part of their food. 



The infatuations of the inhabitants of Peru were similar to 

 these extravagancies, when Manco-Capac, the founder of the 

 Peruvian empire, replete with cunning and ambition, sup- 

 posed himself , the offspring and envoy of the sun, sent to es- 

 tablish his worship, and to govern all nations in his name. 

 The brilliancy of this luminary, the stupidity which prevailed 

 among the Peruvians, and the fabulous relations contrived by 

 that adventurer, laid the foundation of a new religion, and of 

 the monarchy of the Yncas. As the latter gloried in deriving 

 their origin from the above planet, they were very anxious to 

 give proofs of the zeal with which they fulfilled the wishes of 

 their progenitor, and of the profound veneration in which , 

 they held him. They ere6ted to him, in the capital of their 

 empire, a sumptuous temple, on which they bestowed a pro- 

 fusion of gold and silver, adorning it with magnificent statues 

 of animals of every description. The sun did not shine on his 

 altar solely beneath the figure by which he is usually repre- 



sentedj 



