Peru : incidents of travel and exploration in the land of the Incas / by E. George Squier.

  • Ephraim George Squier
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Peru : incidents of travel and exploration in the land of the Incas / by E. George Squier. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    93/666 (page 63)
    inland to the mountains, that rise, naked and barren, in the dis- tance. In contrast to these are the green and fertile little val- ley of Lurin on the south, and the blue waters of the Pacific on the west, with its ]3icturesque rocky islands, against which the waves chafe with a ceaseless roar, and over which constantly hovers a cloud of sea-birds. The ruins consist of large adobe bricks, and the stones already mentioned.' Some of the walls are in a fair state of preservation, considering the heavy and frequent shocks of earthquakes to which they are exposed on this coast; but, owing to the absence of rain and frost, they have suffered Kttle from the effects of the weather. Pachacamac is one of the most notable spots in Peru, for here, as we are told by the old chroniclers, was the sacred city of the natives of the coast, before their conquest by the Incas. Here was the shrine of Pachacamac, their chief divinity, and here also the Incas erected a vast Temple of the Sun, and a house of the Virgins of the Sun, side by side with the temple of Pachacamac, whose worship they were too politic to sup- press, but which they rather sought to undernune, and in the end merge in that of their own tutelary divinity. The name Pachacamac signifies “He who animates the universe,” “The Creator of the world.” The early Spanish priests thought they had discovered in this definition “ that it was the Unknown God the people here worshipped, and rendered respect and honor to his name. They also tell us that “ it was the same among the Gieeks and Patins, with the Pa/ntocTCbtor and Omnipotsns, by which names were invoked the True God, Creator of the Uni- verse, and Verifier of all things. In this way there was estab- lished the worship of the Supreme Deity, who from his incom- prehensibility was not represented by any figure in this tem- ple, which, although constructed of fragile materials, equalled in wealth of gold and silver those of Cuzco and Titicaca. “ Profuse were the oblations and sacrifices of the Indians in this temple. Of the precious metals the Spaniards took away among their spoils, twenty-seven cargas of gold* and two tliou- * A carga ia two and a half arrobas, or sixty-two and a half .pounds.