How they made great festivities and sacrifices at the grand and solemn feast called Hatun Raymi.

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, quinuas,[146] ocas,[147] 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. This time of fasting being over, the people brought to Cuzco a great number of lambs, of sheep, of doves and cuys, and of other birds and beasts which were killed for the sacrifices. Having killed a vast number, they anointed the statues and figures of their gods, or rather devils, with the blood, as well as the doors of the temples and oracles. After an interval, the soothsayers and diviners looked for omens in the entrails, announcing what they prognosticated, to which the people gave great credit.

When the sacrifice was finished, the High Priest, with the other priests, went to the temple of the Sun; and, after reciting their accursed psalms, they ordered the mama conas, or virgins, to come forth richly dressed, with the great store of chicha they had prepared; and all those who were in the great city of Cuzco ate of the sheep and birds which had been killed for the vain sacrifices, and drank of that chicha which was held to be sacred. It was contained in jars of silver, out of the great numbers there were in the temple; and they drank it out of cups of gold.

Having eaten and drunk many times, and the Inca, High Priest, and all the rest being merry in consequence, it was still only a little after noon. They then formed in procession, and the men began to sing, with loud voices, the romances and chaunts which had been prepared for use at this festival by their ancestors. The purport of them all was to give thanks to the gods, promising to do them services for the blessings received. To accompany the songs they had many drums of gold, some of them encrusted with precious stones, which their women played upon, who, together with the sacred mama conas, joined in the song.

In the centre of the plaza it is said that a great theatre was placed, with steps, adorned with cloths and plumes richly embroidered with golden beads, very large mantles of their exceedingly fine cloth, also garnished with silver and gold work, and precious stones. On the summit of this throne was placed the figure of Ticiviracocha, large and richly adorned. As they held it to be the sovereign God, maker of all created things, they gave it the highest place; and all the priests were near it. The Inca and all the principal men and the people came to worship it, taking off their sandals with much humility, bending their shoulders, filling out their cheeks, and sighing towards it, thus performing mucha, which is their word for worship.

Below this throne was placed the figure of the Sun, but they do not state of what it was made, and also that of the Moon, and other figures of idols sculptured in wood and stone. We hold it to be very certain that neither in Jerusalem, nor in Rome, nor in Persia, nor in any other part of the world, by any state or king of this earth, was such wealth of gold and silver and precious stones collected together, as in this square of Cuzco when this festival and others like it were celebrated. For the images of the Incas, their deceased kings were brought out, each one with its service of gold and silver. That is to say, such of them as had been good and brave fathers of their people, generous in granting favours, pardoners of injuries. These were canonized as saints, in their blindness, and their bones were honoured by those who did not comprehend that their souls were burning in hell, thinking that they were in heaven.

It was the same with some other Orejones, or chiefs of another nation, whom, for some cause or other, they, in their heathen minds, looked upon as saints. They call those who were canonized in this way Ylla, which signifies the body of him who did good in his lifetime. Another meaning of Yllapa is thunder and lightning. Hence the Indians call discharges of artillery Yllapa, from the loud report.

The Inca and High Priest, with all the courtiers, and the great concourse of people that came from the neighbourhood, did mucha (which means reverence and worship), to the gods arranged round the square. They also made many offerings, such as small golden figures of idols, sheep, women, and many other trinkets. This festival of Hatun Raymi continued for fifteen or twenty days, during which there was much singing and dancing, drinking bouts, and other feasting, according to their custom. At the end of the time they finished with the sacrifices, and put back the images of the idols into the temples, and those of the deceased Incas into their houses.

The High Priest enjoyed that dignity during his life. He was married, and was so respected that he vied in dignity with the Inca, and had jurisdiction over all the oracles and temples, appointing and removing priests. The Inca and the High Priest often played together at their games, and these functionaries were of high lineage and had powerful relations. The dignity was not conferred upon obscure persons, even if they should possess great merit. All those who lived in the parts of Cuzco which they called Hurin-Cuzco and Hanan-Cuzco, and their descendants, were considered to be noble, although they should reside in other parts. I remember when I was in Cuzco in the year 1550, during the month of August, after the harvests had been got in, that a great crowd of Indians entered the city with their wives, making much noise. They carried their ploughs in their hands, and some stalks of maize, to make a festival by merely singing and reciting as had been their custom at harvest time. The Apus and Priests do not consent that these heathen festivals shall be performed in public as in former times, nor in secret if they can prevent it. But as there are so many thousands of Indians who have not become Christians, it is probable that these rites are still performed in secret.

The figure of Ticiviracocha, and those of the Sun and Moon, and the great chain of gold, besides other recorded pieces of great value, have not been found. There is neither Indian nor Christian who knows where they are. But although their value is great,[148] it is small when compared with all that has been buried in Cuzco, in the places of the oracles, and in other parts of this great empire.