Page:Narrative of the Proceedings of Pedrarias Davila (Haklyut, 34).djvu/119

Rh high mountain, came down with great diligence, with his children on his back. In telling these chiefs of the flood of Noe, they began to speak, and said that they held the same, having received it from their ancestors and grandfathers; and that they also held that there would be another destruction of the world by fire, and that afterwards there would be no more worlds. They said they believed all that was told them, because part of it was what they held. On pressing them with the questions why, if they believed these things, they did not consider who it was that could have power to destroy the world, and that no one could do this except He who made it? and why, if they understood this, they did not worship Him who was powerful to do this? They replied that they worshipped no one, and knew nothing more than what they had said: that all things in the world were made from heaven, and that they were ruled and governed from thence, but that they did not know who did this.

On another day of the conversion, mass was said, and a great cross was blessed. All the converted were present, numbering as many as six hundred souls, and they took the cross in procession, and placed it before the house of their chief. They worshipped it on their knees, as if they had seen it there all their lives. The servant of the chief was not there, being out purveying. When he returned, and entered the place where the chiefs were, they told him what had been done touching the adoration of the cross. He then went out alone, thirty men being seated in the open space where the cross stood, and, without saying anything, he passed us, went up to the cross, and fell on his knees, at a distance of four paces from it. In this position he went up to it and kissed it, then retired backwards a pace, rose up, and made a reverence with his whole body. He had a hooded cap in his hand, which he never put on until he had done all this. After rising from the place where he had adored