INHABITANTS OP PERU. 



261 



charging their saliva on the ychu*. They were persuaded 

 that by these a6ts their pains would be mitigated or dis- 

 pelled. 



If there was an eclipse either of the sun or moon, they 

 fancied that these luminaries, being pursued by powerful ene- 

 mies, were fatigued, and were in need of succour. On these 

 occasions, they began to weep, and to utter the most lamen- 

 table shouts and cries, imagining, with all simplicity, that 

 their echoes would reach the sphere, and would disconcert 

 the enemy, so as to obhge him to desist from his enter- 

 prize. 



They considered the sparks which fire is wont to emit, as 

 evident tokens of its wrath ; to appease which, and to shun 

 the mischiefs its severity might otherwise occasion to them, 

 they offered up to it maize and chicha. The cooing of the 

 turtle-dove, and the plaintive notes of other birds, were to 

 them the most sinister prognostics. Either their own death 

 was near at hand, or that of their neighbours, or that of those 

 at whose abode these ominous birds appeared. Anxious to 

 shift from themselves the calamity by which they were threat- 

 ened, they made offerings to them, beseeching them to 

 leave them free, and to discharge all their fury on their 

 enemies. 



Stimulated by a vain curiosity, and desirous to penetrate 

 into the future, they had recourse to impostures, and to ma- 

 gic charms. The Camascas and Achicamayos were their oracles. 

 These individuals pretended to obtain a knowledge of that 

 which was most hidden and obscure, by laying the juice of the 



* A kind of reed. 



coca 



