Page:Native Religions of Mexico and Peru.djvu/216

Rh great veneration. We find it reproduced in wood and stone on an enormous number of the greater and smaller relics of Peruvian art. The god of subterranean treasures, Urcaguay, was a great serpent, with little chains of gold at his tail, and a head adorned with stag-like horns. The dwellers by the shore worshipped the whale and the shark. There were fish-gods, too, in the temple of Pachacamac, no doubt because of the enormous power of reproduction possessed by fishes. The condor was a messenger of the Sun, and his image was graven on the sceptre of the Incas. It is remarkable that the llama does not appear amongst these divine animals, probably because it was so completely domesticated and wholly subject to man.

And finally, when we come to the Guacas, or Huacas, we reach the point where the Peruvian religion sinks into absolute fetichism.

The meaning of the word Guaca, or Huaca, was not very precise in the mouths of the Peruvians themselves. On the one hand, it was applied to