Page:The Incas of Peru.djvu/142

112 statesman, Yupanqui Pachacuti, was finally buried in the court of the hospital of San Andres at Lima. Yahuar Huaccac, the stolen child, alone escaped desecration. His body was never found.

The Orejones and other important people were generally interred in caves, Machay, with two chambers, one for the mummy with his 'brother' or Lar, the other for his property, and for the offerings brought by the people. These caves were in desert places or on the sides of mountains. The heights overlooking the lovely valley of Yucay, called are literally honeycombed with these burial caves. All have been desecrated by the Spaniards in search for treasure.

This curious belief in a spiritual essence of all the things that concerned the daily well-being of the people explains the multiplicity of huacas, or objects of worship. Every household had a Sara Mama to represent the spiritual essence of the maize, to which prayers and sacrifices were made. Sometimes it was a figure covered with cobs of maize, at others it was merely a vase fashioned as a cob. In like manner there was a Llama Mama for the flocks. More especially was the spirit of the earth itself, the Pacha Mama, an object of worship. The offerings consisted of the figures of llamas roughly fashioned. There was a cavity in their backs into which the sacrificial offering was placed, and they were buried in the fields. The offerings were chicha, spirits, or coca, the things the poor husbandman loved best. Dr. Max Uhle