Peruvian antiquities / by Mariano Edward Rivero and John James von Tschudi ; translated by Francis L. Hawks.

Mariano Eduardo de Rivero y Ustariz

Date:: 1854

Credit: Peruvian antiquities / by Mariano Edward Rivero and John James von Tschudi ; translated by Francis L. Hawks. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$Peruvians designated all the minor deities worshipped by single families and individuals, excepting those already men- tioned, in fields and canals. They counted several classes among them, although they applied the names above men- tioned particularly to individuals. Every small stone or piece of wood of singular form was worshipped as a Conopa. These private Deities were buried with their owners, and generally hung to the neck of the dead. Sometimes they are found made of metal, like a human figure, or with an allusion to some event in the life of the individual who wor- shipped them. The most esteemed Conopas were the bezoar stone {Quicti)^ and the small crystals of quartz rock {Quispi, or Llaca). The Indians derived these idols from those events which had most influenced their course through life, and which they thus commemorated; or from such freaks of nature as impressed the imagination, and thus conduced to an idol- atrous worship. Corn {Zara), for instance, their principal food, was the origin of the several species of Zarapconopas. They called Zaramama, certain stones cut in the shape of ears of corn, and certain vessels of white earth, or clay, with orna- ments like wooden sandals or shoes. Another class of Zara- mama consisted of a doll made of corn-stalks, clothed with anaco and Chilla, [an Indian mantle] and iopus of silver such as are used by the Indians. The corn-stalks with many ears or with double ears, were considered as sacred things, but not as Deities ; they were called by the Indians Huantazara They also call Canobus the four vessels which are found in the four corners of the Egyptian mummies, and of which the first figure is a bird, the second a baboon, the third a sparrow-hawk, and the fourth a human head. Canobus was also the name of an island of the Nile, and of an Egyptian city, disgraced by the luxury of its inhabitants.$