The Incas held many festivals during the year, at which they offered great sacrifices according to their custom; but to notice them all would require a separate volume. It is also well not to dwell long on the sorceries and follies that were practised on these occasions; but only to describe the feast of Hatun Raymi, which is very famous. It was kept in many provinces, and was the principal ceremony of the whole year, and the occasion on which the greatest number of sacrifices was offered up.

This festival was celebrated in the end of August, when the maize harvest had been got in, as well as the potatoes, quinicas, ocas, and the other seeds that they sow. They call this feast Hatun Raymi, which in our language means “a very solemn festival”; and in it they had to offer up thanks and praise to God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, whom they called, as has often been mentioned before, Ticiviracocha, as well as to the Sun, to the Moon, and to their other gods, for having granted them a good harvest of food for their support. In order to celebrate this festival with greater devotion and solemnity, it is said that they fasted for ten or twelve days, abstaining from too much food; and from intercourse with women; drinking chicha only in the morning, which is the time when they eat, and at other times only water; abstaining from the use of aji and from carrying anything in the mouth, and practising other usages such as were observed on these occasions of fasting.