The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations Part 9

[Ill.u.s.tration.]

Figure 44.

The hideous necklaces of alternate hands and hearts which encircle the neck of a great monolithic idol in the city of Mexico and of an image in the "Lyfe of the Indians" are thus also proven to be the touching though uncouth and child-like expression of a devout prayer. Having gained this insight into the deep significance of native emblems it is interesting to study the peculiar breast-ornament which is the emblem of Xiuhtecuhtli, literally "the azure lord," or the lord of the year or of fire and of the Cihuacoatl or woman-serpent. It consists of an oblong plaque, the narrow ends of which are cut out so as to simulate two air pyramids with steps.

The name of this symbolical ornament is recorded by Sahagun as xiuh-tetelli, literally the turquoise or gra.s.s-green pyramid. It is invariably painted blue and displays a round plate of burnished gold in its centre. For more reasons than I can pause to relate here, it can be shown that the plaque probably symbolized the Above, the blue sky, water and air, whilst the gold plate was an image of the central divinity. The sides of the square stool on which the G.o.d is seated are also cut out so as to convey the idea that he is resting above terraced air-pyramids (fig.

44). His s.h.i.+eld is surrounded by a cord and contains a cross-symbol with lines conveying the idea of rotation and four circles. The banner above the s.h.i.+eld named pantli conveys the sound of the word pan=above, whilst his conical ear-ornament symbolizes the Centre and Above. These details are noteworthy because I am about to point out the striking a.n.a.logy between a Zuni idol or fetish and the ancient Mexican pictures of the lord of fire and the lord of the north or the underworld=Tezcatlipoca.

This Zuni idol was sent to the Royal Ethnographical Museum at Berlin as part of a representative collection by Mr. Frank H. Cus.h.i.+ng and has been figured and described in the publications of the Museum, with notes by Dr.

E. Seler.(18) It represents the Zuni G.o.d atchialatopa whose attributes are stone knives, who is the patron of the secret society, "Small fire" and who is identified with a great star. His fetish represents him as standing on the centre of a cross, formed of four beams placed vertically and perforated with step-like perforations. The ends are cut out like those of Xiuhtecuhtli's blue emblem. Two parallel bars, the upper one of which is painted blue, the color of heaven, and the lower painted green, the color of the earth, convey the ever-present native idea of the Above and Below.

The arms of the cross are painted red with yellow ends which, according to Mr. Cus.h.i.+ng, represent the light emanating, in four directions, from the star. The arms are distinctly a.s.sociated with the cardinal points and each supports the effigies of a mountain lion and a bird-typifying, evidently, as in Mexico, the Above and Below. This cross, with the figure standing on its centre, is suspended from above and, during a certain ceremony, it is set into rapid gyratory motion, from left to right by the officiating high priest.

It is impossible not to see, in this fetish, a swastika in substantial form and in actual rotation; whilst the figure of the G.o.d, decorated with stone knives, moves as on a pivot in the centre, presenting exactly the same idea as in the Mexican image of the G.o.d held in the centre of a cross-symbol by the jaws of a tecpatl or flint knife. It is unnecessary to mention again here that the only star in the heaven, which could possibly have been regarded as a centre of rotation, is Polaris; but I should like to draw attention to the fact that bunches of feathers are attached to the extremities of the cross-beams and to the summit of the terraced head-dress of the fetish and recall the circ.u.mstance that, amongst the Mexicans and Mayas, the names for feather were almost identical with those for heaven or something celestial and divine.

As the Zuni G.o.d is said to be standing on his red star (an mo-yatchun thlana) and figures as a centre of rotation, I look upon this fetish as affording most striking confirmation of my conclusions concerning the origin of the swastika and cross symbols. If it is certain that, at the present day, the Zunis a.s.sociate this star-G.o.d with Sirius and their cross symbol with the morning star, then it is quite obvious that they have lost the original meaning of the rotating-star fetish, which could never have been suggested by either of these or, indeed, by any other heavenly body but Polaris. I regret that s.p.a.ce does not permit me to consider here, more fully, other close a.n.a.logies between ancient Mexican and modern Zuni religious ceremonies, etc., besides those which have been so well described by Dr. J. Walter Fewkes.

I cannot omit to note here for further reference that the national war G.o.ds of the Zunis are the twin-brothers Ahaiiuta, the elder, whose altars were situated _to the right_ or south and west of Zuni, and Matsailema, the younger, whose altars stood _to the left_ or north and east of the village. The secret society of the warriors and priests of the bow dedicated their cult to these brothers, whose counterparts we have already studied in Mexico and Yucatan.

Returning to the primitive designs which expressed the union of the Above and Below, I point out an interesting example from the "Lyfe of the Indians," which likewise symbolizes the four quarters, and their subdivision and their relation to the whole (fig. 32, no. 3). A somewhat a.n.a.logous design, from Peru, presents an outline resembling a swastika (fig. 40, no. 9) which, when filled in with alternate colors, yields fig.

40, no. 1, in which the idea of the Above and Below preponderates. Another example of an a.n.a.logous employment of a light and dark color is furnished by a s.h.i.+eld in the Codex Mendoza, shown in fig. 1, no. 1, alongside of an interesting image which gives us an insight into the depths of meaning contained in the dualistic native designs. It consists of a disk, one-half of which represents the starry heaven and the other the sun, resting on a parti-colored support (no. 8). It is evident that day and night are thus symbolized, and it is reasonable to infer that in some centres of thought especially the ideas of light and darkness should have become a.s.sociated with the two different forms of cult the followers of which would be respectively designated as the children of light and the children of darkness. By means of a light and a dark color numberless variations of the one theme were indeed obtained. In the native Codices, in textile fabrics and on pottery, there are also numerous examples of an extremely simple design consisting of a single zigzag line running between two parallel lines and dividing the intervening s.p.a.ce into two fields, the lower of which is filled out with black and the other with some light color. The dark upright and light inverted peaks were evidently employed as familiar and favorite emblems of earth and heaven.

[Ill.u.s.tration.]

Figure 45.

I am inclined to see in the serrated summit of the remarkable edifice, known as the House of Doves at Uxmal, a rendering of the same symbolism on a gigantic scale (fig. 45). It cannot but be recognized, moreover, that a high edifice presenting a regular series of cones, and extending from east to west, would have afforded an excellent means of registering the varying positions of heavenly bodies. To observers looking towards it from the north or south, at judiciously chosen distances, the entire span of the sky would have seemed divided into eight equal parts, seen as inverted air pyramids between nine sections which rise in steps and terminate in points, each gable being perforated with thirty window-like openings, arranged in seven horizontal rows. The purpose of these gable-like piles has been a riddle to the archaeologists, who have visited Uxmal. Dr. Wm.

H. Holmes, from whose valuable works I cite the above descriptions, expresses his wonder at "the great building, bearing upon its roof a colossal masonry comb, built at an enormous expenditure of time and labor ... which seemed to have been built exclusively for the purpose of embellis.h.i.+ng the building and holding aloft its sculptured ornaments"

(Ancient cities of Mexico, pl. I, p. 95).

I venture to maintain that this remarkable edifice not only afforded facilities for astronomical observation but const.i.tuted in itself a great prayer for rain wrought in stone and addressed to the Lord of Heaven by a devout people. In corroboration of this inference, besides the foregoing data, I point out that to this day the Pueblo Indians a.s.sociate the step pyramid form with beneficent rain and even give this shape to the edges of the sacred bowls which are carried in the ceremonial dances by the "rain-makers." According to Mr. Cus.h.i.+ng the Zunis compare the rim of such bowls to the line of the "horizon, terraced with mountains, whence rise the clouds." He was likewise informed that the terrace form represents "the ancient sacred place of the s.p.a.ces," an expression which, though somewhat vague, seems to corroborate my view of the Uxmal building. The Zuni statement that the terrace form figured mountains leads to the subject of so-called "mountain wors.h.i.+p." In ancient Mexico, at the approach of the rainy season, religious ceremonies are performed in honor of the mountains which were looked upon as active agents in the production of rain, because they attracted and gathered the clouds around their summits. The tops of mountains were thus regarded as the sacred place where the sky and heaven met and produced the showers which vivified the earth. Pilgrimages and offerings to mountain summits formed a part of the duties of the Mexican priesthood, but in the cities the pyramid temple served as a convenient subst.i.tute for the mountain.

The close a.s.sociation of the terrace form with rain and water symbolism is certainly exemplified in the Mexican design on a temple roof (fig. 35, _e_). The most remarkable application of the dualistic designs is, however, met with in Peru where, according to Wiener, the irrigation ca.n.a.ls which carried water to the maize fields were laid out so as to form pattern bands like fig. 40, nos. 4 and 7, for instance. It is evident that this system of irrigation must have been an extremely effective and practical one, but that it had been probably adopted from superst.i.tious motives as an ill.u.s.tration of the vivifying union of the celestial shower with the seed-laden soil. The a.s.sumption that the ancient Peruvians shared the same ideas as the Mexicans and Mayas will be found justified by the following data.

It is now my intention to give a brief and bare outline sketch of the Peruvian civilization, by means of a series of quotations from the best authorities.(19) Incomplete though this must necessarily be, it will, nevertheless, establish, beyond a doubt, that the founders of the great Inca empire were under the dominion of the same set of ideas which I have been tracing throughout the American continent. The lucid records of the Peruvian chronicles and the purity with which the system had been maintained by the Incas, enable us to recognize and appreciate its manifold perfections as a mode of primitive government.

The best authorities agree that the inhabitants of the country, now known as Peru, lived in barbarism until civilization was introduced amongst them by the Incas. One tradition designates an island in the t.i.ticaca lake, another Tiahuanaco, as the place where, "after the deluge," a man or deity appeared, divided the land into four parts and distributed these to four brothers, amongst whom was Manco Capac, to whom was a.s.signed the province to the north. Each brother had a sister who was also his wife. Manco Capac and his sister and wife Mama-Ocllo or, according to other authorities, the third Inca Lloque Yupanqui and his consort, founded Cuzco, also given as Kosko or Kuska, a name which, according to Garcilaso de la Vega signifies "navel of the earth" and was bestowed "because the newly-founded capital was to be the centre and point of all." The city was divided into two parts: Hanan Cuzco=the Above, which was ruled over by the Inca, and Hurin Cuzco=the Below, which was governed by his wife and sister, who bore the honorific t.i.tle of Coya=queen and Mamanchic=our mother. The inhabitants consequently became separated into two categories: the upper lineage and the lower lineage, Hanan-ayllu and Hurin-ayllo. At the same time this division was not made so "that those of one-half should have an advantage over the other ... the command was that only one difference and acknowledgment of superiority was to be conceded to the inhabitants of the upper town. They were to be respected and looked upon as the first born and elder brothers, whilst the dwellers in the lower town were to be regarded as younger or second brothers. They were to rank as the right arm and the left arm in all offices or places where precedence was necessary.

The same division was subsequently carried out in all the towns, great or small, throughout the country, their inhabitants being constantly cla.s.sed into upper and lower lineages or cla.s.ses." The empire itself was named Tauantin-suyu, signifying the four in one, or the empire, which was divided into four provinces: Anti-suyu=East; c.u.n.ti-suyu=West, on the road to which were two famous brooks of water named the silver serpents, Collquemachachuay; Chincha-suyu=North; Colla-suyu=South. It is recorded that the Coya or queen went to the Colla-suyu or South and taught the women the art of weaving, of planting maize and of preparing it for food.

In connection with the name of female rule=Coya, and the South=Colla-suyu it is interesting to note that the name for granary was Coll-cana. Padre Arriaga (quoted by Rivero and Tschudi, p. 163) describes a remarkable monument which shows that the West was also a.s.sociated with the female ruler. "The monolithic statue [magnificently sculptured and placed on a sepulchral eminence near Hilavi] represented two monstrous figures standing back to back. One, representing a man, faced to the East; the other, with a woman's face, looked towards the West.(20) Serpents were represented as crawling up the figures and these stood on other reptiles resembling frogs. In front of each of these idols there was a square slab of stone which seemed to have served as an altar."

With the dual division of the population the seeds of dissension were sown in Peru as elsewhere. At a certain festival the youths of the upper lineage encountered those of the lower lineage in trials of strength and prowess, which sometimes resulted in violence. A certain feeling of rivalry and opposition must have been thus fostered. Two forms of cult prevailed: the Inca lords and warriors were a.s.sociated with the cult of the Above of which the emblems were golden images of the Creator and of the Sun, "the lord of day," to whose power rain and thunder were attributed. The silver huaca or image of the moon, called Quilla in Quechua and Pacsa in the Colla dialect, was in the figure of a woman and was kept under the charge of women, the reason for this being "that the moon was a woman." During the festival Situa, one day was dedicated to the Creator, the Sun and Thunder and another to "the Moon and Earth, when the accustomed sacrifices and prayers were offered up." We thus clearly distinguish a cult of the Heaven and Day presided over by the Inca and a cult of Earth and Night, whose high priestess was the Coya. She, moreover, had charge of the embalmed bodies of her predecessors, which were regarded as sacred and were solemnly carried forth in certain festivals, whilst the bodies of the defunct Incas were guarded by their successor. The emblems of both cults were, however, preserved in a single Great Temple, whose princ.i.p.al doorway looked to the north, a fact of special importance in connection with what follows.

All authorities, indeed, designate the north as the quarter whence the foreign culture-heroes came to Peru. "The Incas had a knowledge of the Creator from the first," but it was not until the time of the Inca Yupanqui that the ignorant sun-wors.h.i.+p of the primitive inhabitants of the country was superseded by a firmly established new and superior religion.

"Inca Yupanqui appears to have been the first to order and settle ceremonies and religions. He it was who established the twelve months of the year, giving a name to each and ordaining the ceremonies that were to be observed in each. For although his ancestors used months and years counted by the quippus, yet they were never previously regulated until the time of this Lord. He was of such clear understanding that he reflected upon the respect and reverence shown by his ancestors to the Sun who wors.h.i.+pped it as a G.o.d. He observed that it never had any rest and that it daily journeyed round the earth; and he said to those of his council that _it was not possible that the Sun could be the G.o.d who created all things, for if he was he would not permit a small cloud to obscure his splendour; and that if he was creator of all things he would sometimes rest and light up the whole world from one spot. Thus it cannot be otherwise but that there is someone who directs him and this is the Pacha-Yachachi, the Creator_, literally, the Teacher of the World." His predecessors had ordered an oval plate of fine gold which was to serve as an image of the Creator of heaven and earth, and, in order to convey this meaning it was placed between images of the sun and moon; a proof that the latter were employed as symbols of heaven and earth.

Inca Yupanqui, however, also caused a statue of the Creator to be made of fine gold and of the size of a boy of ten years of age in order to convey the idea of his eternal youth. "It was in the shape of a man standing up, the right arm raised and the hand almost closed, the fingers and thumb raised as one who was giving an order." The second gold statue he had made, a personification of the sun "which was dressed like the Inca and wore all his insignia," shows he claimed to be and const.i.tuted himself as the visible representative and Lord of the Above. The silver female statue of the Moon doubtlessly exhibited, in the same manner, the insignia of the Coya. Inca Yupanqui also ordered the houses and temple of Quisuar-cancha to be built and, at this spot, Sir Clements Markham observed an ancient wall, with serpents carved upon it. The name signifies, literally, "the place of the Quisuar tree," and will be again referred to further on.

Without pausing to discuss the subject at length let us examine further the scheme of government, etc., introduced by the Incas, the most striking feature of which was the systematical cla.s.sification of the people, their a.s.signment to specified dwelling places and the distribution of labor according to prescription.

The key to the entire gigantic system was the conception of a central immutable supreme power which directed all visible and invisible manifestations and which sent forth and re-absorbed all energy. In Cuzco and in the Inca Empire we have a minutely described instance of the application, to terrestrial government, of the laws of fixed order, harmony, periodicity and rotation learned by earnest and patient observers of the northern heaven, during countless centuries of time. The centre of Cuzco consisted of a great square whence four roads radiated to the cardinal points. In the centre of this stood a gold vase from which a fountain flowed. The Spaniards also found in Cuzco a large, beautifully-polished stone-cross which evidently symbolized, as in Mexico, the four quarters and must have been appropriately placed in the square.

Garcilaso de la Vega states that the capital formed an actual image of the whole empire, "for it was divided into four quarters and an extremely ancient law rendered it obligatory that representatives of each province and of each cla.s.s of population should reside there in homes, the location of which precisely corresponded to the geographical position of their respective provinces. Each lineage was thus represented and occupied separate dwellings, a.s.signed to them by the governors of the quarters. All persons were obliged to adhere to the customs of their forefathers and also wear the costumes of their ayllus or tribes (Cieza de Leon, Cronica chap. XCIII). For the Incas had decreed that the dresses worn by the members of each tribe should be different, so that the people might be distinguished from each other as, down to that time, there had been no means of knowing to what locality or tribe an Indian belonged."... In order to avoid confusion the modes of wearing the hair were rigidly prescribed and the bands worn on the head by the va.s.sals had to be black or of a single color only. The higher in rank a person was the more his costume resembled that of the Inca, without, however, approaching it in length and richness. "Thus, even in an a.s.semblage of 100,000 persons it was easy to recognize individuals of each tribe and of each rank by the signs they wore on their heads."...

"It was obligatory that each should permanently live in the province he belonged to. Each province, each tribe and, in many parts each village, had its own language which was different from that of its neighbors. Those who understood each other by speaking the same language considered themselves as related to each other and were friends and confederates....

The Incas employed a private language of their own which none but members of the royal lineage presumed or dared to learn." Garcilaso de la Vega, who claimed royal descent, stated that unfortunately no records remained to enable one to form an idea of what the Inca language was like.

The autocratic, though peaceable way in which the novel scheme of government was imposed upon the inhabitants of Peru by the foreign chieftains is best proven by the following pa.s.sages from the Rites and Laws of the Incas (p. 77) and Garcilaso de la Vega (pp. 9 and 10). "With a view that each tribe should be clearly distinguishable and after a.s.signing a different costume to each they were ordered to choose their respective pacariscas, a word meaning, literally, their birth and origin. They were told to choose for themselves whence they were descended and whence they came, and as the Indians were generally very dull and stupid, some chose to a.s.sign their origin to a lake, others to a spring, others a rock, others a hill or ravine. But every lineage chose some object for its pacarisca. Some tribes [subsequently] adored eagles because they boasted to have descended from them ... others adored fountains, rivers, the earth, which they call Mother, or air, fire, ... snow-mountains, maize, the sea, named mother-sea."

According to Garcilaso de la Vega "the Peruvian tribes subsequently invented an infinity of fables concerning the origin of their different ancestors.... An Indian does not consider himself honorable unless he can trace his descent from a river, fountain, lake or the sea, or from some wild beast like the bear, puma, ocelot, eagle, etc." An example of a certain amount of vain-glory was indeed set by the diplomatic Inca himself who claimed, for himself and lineage, descent from the Sun and reserved burnished gold ornaments for his particular use. His successors subsequently built a temple of the Sun at Cuzco and set up its image made of gold and precious stones. Around this, the royal "pacarisca," they placed the mummies of all the dead Incas. In another room there was an image of "the moon, with a woman's face," and about it were the mummies of the royal women. From this we learn that the latter a.s.signed their origin to the moon and that it was their pacarisca or huaca. As an ill.u.s.tration of the way in which creation-myths are sometimes evolved from actual occurrences, it is interesting to study another account of the mode in which tribal regulations were introduced into Peru. Owing, most probably, to the fact that one of the t.i.tles given to the Creator was "the Teacher,"

we find Molina attributing to the Creator himself the establishment of the tribal system and the a.s.signment of totems and different costumes to each group or family. If we read his account and, with Garcilaso de la Vega and others, attribute to the Incas the introduction of civilization into Peru, we recognize the practical good sense with which they accomplished the rather difficult task of obliging each tribe to wear a different costume.

"In Tiahuanaco ... he made one of each nation of clay and painted [these]

with the dresses that each one was to wear. Those who were to wear their hair, with hair; and those who were to be shorn, with hair cut ... when he had finished making the nations and painting the said figures of clay, he gave life and soul to each one, as well man as woman ... each nation then went to the place to which he ordered it to go."

I confess that, until I studied the above record in full, I had very vague ideas about the huacas or "idols" of the Peruvians. But when I found it stated, further on, that "each tribe wore the dress with which their huaca is invested," I began to realize what huacas might originally have been.

It would seem that on a.s.signing a different costume and distinctive name to each tribe, the founder of the new colony gave each chief as a model, a different clay doll, painted with the distinctive marks he and his people were to adopt. This figure would naturally have been kept for reference and treated as something sacred. On certain official occasions it would be produced as a means of identification or proof that the prescribed costumes had been strictly adhered to. To this practical and sensible plan the origin of the so-called tribal and household idols of the Peruvians and of the Mexicans can doubtlessly be a.s.signed. Invented as an aid in the establishment of tribal-names and dress-regulations and intimately connected with the entire system of government, these huacas gradually became the representative of the ancestor of the clan, its "canting" arms and its sacred palladium. We are told that after the tribes had chosen their various ancestors or origins, such as caves, hills, fountains, etc., they settled in the land and multiplied. Then, on account of having "issued or descended from stated localities, the people made huacas and places of wors.h.i.+p of these, in memory of the origin of their lineage....

The huacas they use are in different shapes.... Some say the first of their lineages were turned into falcons, condors and other animals or birds" (Molina ed. Hakluyt, p. 5). A certain form of ancestor-cult was thus evolved in a natural manner. "Idolatrous rites increased and people devoted themselves to the wors.h.i.+p of huacas ... each village had its huaca. The cult a.s.sumed such proportions under Ccapac Yupanqui that he exclaimed: 'How many false G.o.ds are there in the land, to my sorrow and the misfortune of my va.s.sals! When shall we see these evils remedied?' "

At the same time we find that clay or wooden figures continued to be employed evidently as a method of keeping an accurate register of the population. In the capital, one building held duplicates of all the huacas throughout the land. When a new province was conquered the Inca carried its princ.i.p.al huaca to Cuzco. One or more living representatives of the conquered tribe, wearing its characteristic dress, were obliged to reside in the capital. In ancient Mexico these "living images of the G.o.ds" are one of the most striking features of the native civilization and have been persistently misunderstood, especially by modern authorities. As these "living G.o.ds" are specially treated in the "Lyfe of the Indians," I shall merely point out here that small clay portraits or effigies of persons were made in Mexico at certain stages of an individual's life and also after his death. These seem to have been employed for statistical purposes.

In Mexico and Peru large numbers of small images were preserved in each household and were under the charge of its chief or "older brother," who was obliged to guard and render account of them. Of course the Spanish conquerors took it for granted that all of these were idols and, in their ignorance, destroyed them unmercifully. Once the native system of tribal organization is understood, it becomes evident that an accurate register of all members of a tribe was of utmost importance. By means of a group of more or less skillfully-modelled figures or heads the size of a family could be ascertained at a glance by the government recorder. In the light of this recognition it seems more than probable that the immense numbers of small clay heads of various kinds, found in the "street of the dead" at the base of the great pyramids of Teotihuacan, and elsewhere, indicate that, in these localities, a periodical and official registration of deaths was carefully carried on. This a.s.sumption is fully corroborated by the conclusions I reached, in 1886, after making a minute study of a large number of terra-cotta heads(21) and ascertaining that numbers of them were portraits of dead persons. The above inference is, moreover, confirmed by the name of Teotihuacan, which means, literally, "the place of the lords or masters of the teotle." The term teotl was given to the head of a tribe, who const.i.tuted the living image of the tribal ancestor. When he died he himself became one of the tribal ancestors and all dead lords were termed teotle.

The foregoing data enlighten us as to the practical value of a sternly enforced system of division and differentiation for the control of the population, and of clay images of persons for statistical purposes. We have seen that, during many centuries, the energy of the rulers was directed towards making groups of people as distinct and different from each other as possible. They were rigidly kept apart and, in all a.s.semblages, they occupied separate positions, in a fixed order of relation to each other. "All the people of Cuzco came out according to their tribes and lineages ... and a.s.sembling in the great square ... sat down on their benches, each man according to the rank he held, the Hanan-Cuzco on one side and the Hurin-Cuzco on the other" (Molina ed.

Hakluyt, p. 26). Beside this dual division of the entire population, under the separate rulers.h.i.+ps of the Inca and Coya, who were linked together, however, in a sacred and indissoluble union and respectively represented Heaven and Earth, let us study the executive administration of the religious and civil governments.

Two sets, each consisting of four rulers, next in rank to the Inca and Coya, are described: Each quarter or Suyu was ruled over by a "viceroy,"

or "Inca governor," ent.i.tled tucuyricoc="he who sees all," or Capac. In the days of the Inca Huayna Capac the names of the four "viceroys" are recorded as having been Capac=Achachic, Capac=Larico, Capac=Yochi, Capac=Hualcaya. These were obviously members of the Inca family and next in rank to the Inca, who presided as supreme pontiff over the religious government. The civil and tribal administration was executed by four Curacas, each of which had charge of 10,000 persons belonging to the ayllus=tribes or lineages. The t.i.tles of these four Curacas are recorded as: Hunu-Camayu or Camayoc, Huaronca-Camayu or Camayoc, Pachaca-Camayu or Camayoc, Chunca-Camayu or Camayoc. As their t.i.tles show, they were the chief accountants or recorders of statistics, which were recorded by means of the quippus. Under them, in regular order there were officers, who respectively had charge of 500, 100, 50 or 10 individuals. In the latter instance it is expressly stated that it was always one man out of the ten who governed and rendered account of the remaining nine. The four chief recorders dwelt in Cuzco but "left it every year and returned in February to make their report ... bringing with them the tribute of the whole empire. They also reported upon the administration every year recording the births and deaths that had occurred among men and flocks, the yield of crops and all other details, with great minuteness" (Polo de Ondegardo).

From the recorded details of organization we learn that the governmental scheme introduced by the Incas was based on the a.s.sumption that the standard population of the empire should number 40,000 individuals under the civil rulers.h.i.+p of 4 recorders, 40 first-grade officers, 400 second-grade officers, 4,000 third-grade officers-each of the last being responsible for nine individuals besides himself. It is noteworthy that the three grades of officers correspond to the threefold division of the entire produce of the land, between the Inca, the Huaca and the Ayllu, equivalent to the religious government, the civil government and the people-to the Above, Below and Middle. The minimal division of people into groups of ten of which one was the governmental representative corresponds, moreover, to the cla.s.sification into the following ten categories, according to their ages:

1. Mosoc-aparic: baby, "newly begun," "just born."

2. Saya-huarma: child, "standing boy," age 2-6.

3 Macta-puric: "child that can walk," age 6-8.

4. Itanta-requisic: "bread-receiver," boy about 8.

5. Pucllac-huarma: "playing boy," age 8-16.

6. Cuca-pallac: "Coca pickers," age 16-20.

7. Yma-huayna: "as a youth," light service, age 20-25.

8. Puric: "able-bodied," tribute and service, age 25-50.

9. Chaupi-rucca: elderly, light service, age 50-60.

10. Punuc-rucca: dotage, no work, 60 upwards.(22)

Although for statistical purposes, exact registers of each of these groups were annually made by the recorders, it is evident that the purics or "able-bodied" men const.i.tuted the most important portion of the population. They naturally fell into two groups consisting of the n.o.bility and commoners, but scattered evidence amply provides that they were strictly cla.s.sified according to the special service or tribute they rendered to the government. The best produce of each province was brought to Cuzco.

The inhabitants of each region were specially trained to render certain services or to excel in particular industries-by this means each tribe gradually became identified with its special industry or apt.i.tude. The necessity that the supply of their produce should be constant and regular, must have necessitated the permanent maintenance of a fixed number of workers at each branch of industry, a fact which would give rise to rigid laws controlling the liberty of the individual, forcing children to adopt their parents' avocations and forbidding intermarriages between persons of different provinces. As scattered mention is made of the following general cla.s.sification of the male population, I venture to note them as follows, provisionally:

n.o.bility: Commoners.

1. lords: shepherds (of lamas), 2. priests: hunters, 3. warriors: farmers, 4. civil governors: artificers.

The female population was doubtlessly subdivided in an a.n.a.logous manner, for it is expressly recorded that all marriageable girls were kept in four different houses. Those of the first cla.s.s, qualified as "the white virgins," were dedicated to the service of the Creator, the Sun and the Inca; the second were given in marriage to the n.o.bility; the third cla.s.s married the Curacas or civil governors, and the last were qualified as "black," and pertained to the lower cla.s.ses.