Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-l82ql Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-29T14:19:00.586Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

CHAP. CI - How these Indians perform their annual ceremonies, and of the temples they had in ancient times

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2011

Get access

Summary

In the last chapter I have declared how these people made great ado when they put their dead into the tombs. After the interment the women and servants shaved their heads, put on their commonest clothing, and took no care of their persons. Besides this, in order to show their grief, they twisted ropes of sedge round their heads, and uttered continual lamentations during a whole year if the deceased was a chief, and had no light in the house for several days. These people, by the permission of God, were, like all the others, deceived by the devil with the false and delusive apparitions of some people who were dead, dressed and adorned in the way their bodies had been put into the tombs. In order to show more care for the dead they held annual festivals, when they brought animals and killed them near the tombs, also emptying many vases of liquor over the tombs, which completed this vain and foolish ceremony.

As this nation of the Collao was so numerous, they had, in former times, great temples and superstitious rites, venerating those whom they set apart as priests, and who conversed with the devil. They held their festivals at the season when they got in their potatoes, which is their principal food, and then they killed animals as sacrifices.

Type
Chapter
Information
Travels of Pedro de Cieza de León, A.D. 1532–50
Contained in the First Part of his Chronicle of Peru
, pp. 366 - 367
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010
First published in: 1864

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×