Peruvian antiquities / by Mariano Edward Rivero and John James von Tschudi ; translated by Francis L. Hawks.
- Mariano Eduardo de Rivero y Ustariz
- Date:
- 1854
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Peruvian antiquities / by Mariano Edward Rivero and John James von Tschudi ; translated by Francis L. Hawks. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![aid his neighbor, when the charge of a numerous family, or any other similar circumstance, required it—a fraternal cus- tom which even at this day is practised by the Peruvian In- dians. Next in order were cultivated the lands of the curacas, and finally those of the Inca, by the whole nation, with much ceremony and the greatest rejoicing, singing popular hymns resembling the Spanish romances, in which were celebrated the exploits and noble deeds of the imperial dynasty. These songs at the same time made the work most agreeable, as much by the moral excitement which they pro- duced, as by accommodating the labor to the rhyme, even as soldiers accommodate their pace to the accompanying sound of the drum. The beginning of a song was generally the word hailli, which signifies triumph. Garcilasso assures us that many of these songs were sung by the Spaniards, who were very fond of them. The Peruvians improved the land with manure, principally with human excrement, which they collected and dried, using it in a pulverized state, after having sowed the seed. In certain provinces they used the dung of llamas, alpacas, huanacos, and vicunas ; in maritime provinces, they fertilized the earth with the remains of dried fish, and with the huanu, [f. e. guano] or dung of birds. The circumspec- tion of the monarchs extended even to this point: “ Each island,” says Garcilasso, “was marked as appropriated to such or such a province; and if the island were large, it sup- plied two or three provinces. They placed landmarks, so that those of one province might not encroach upon the dis- tricts of the other; and dividing it particularly, they gave to each one his limits, and to each neighbor also his limits, measuring out the quantity of manure that was necessary ; and under pain of death, the citizen of one place could not take the manure without his own boundary, for it was con-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24883463_0113.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
