How they have a custom of naming children, in most of these provinces, and how they sought after sorceries and charms.

ONE thing that I observed during the time that I was in these kingdoms of Peru was, that they are accustomed to name their children, in most of the provinces, when they are fifteen or twenty days old. This name is retained until they are ten or twelve years old, when they receive another, the relations and friends of the father having previously been assembled on a certain day which is set apart for such purposes. They dance and drink according to their usual custom, and then one of them, who is the oldest and most respected, cuts the hair and nails of the boy or girl who receives the new name. The hair and nails are preserved with great care. The names which they receive are those of villages, birds, plants, or fish.[336]

I learnt these particulars because an Indian servant whom I employed was called Urco,[337] which means sheep; another was called Llama, also a name for sheep; and another Piscu, which means a bird. Some of the Indians are careful to retain the names of their fathers and grandfathers. The chiefs and principal men seek out names according to their pleasure. For Atahualpa (the Ynca whom the Spaniards captured in the province of Caxamarca) means “a fowl,” and his father was called Huayna Ccapac, which signifies “a rich youth.”[338]

These Indians hold it to be unlucky for a mother to bring forth two babes at once, or when a child is born with any natural defect, such as having six fingers on one hand.[339] If these things happen, the man and his wife become sad, and fast, without eating aji[340] or drinking chicha, which is their wine, and they do other things according to their customs, as they have learnt them from their fathers.

These Indians also believe much in signs and wonders. If a star falls, the noise they make is prodigious. There are many sorcerers among them, and they take great note of the moon and the planets. There are some Christians now alive who were with the Marquis Don Francisco Pizarro when he seized Atahualpa in the province of Caxamarca, and they saw a green sign in the sky, in the middle of the night, as broad as a cubit, and as long as a lance. When Atahualpa heard that the Spaniards were looking at it, he requested that he also might be allowed to see it; and when he beheld it, he became very sad, and continued so during the next day. The governor Don Francisco Pizarro asked him why he continued to be so sad, and he replied, “I have seen a sign in the sky, and I tell you that when my father, Huayna Ccapac, died he saw a similar sign.”[341] Within fifteen days Atahualpa was dead.