Page:The Incas of Peru.djvu/145

 and the Princess Theresa of Bavaria have discovered that the ceremony of offering these things to Pacha Mama still prevails, in spite of the priests. The llamas of stone or clay are even offered for sale in the markets; Dr. Uhle saw them at Sicuani. The present practice is to bury the figures, with offerings, in the places where flocks of llamas or alpacas feed. The figure is placed between stones, and covered with another stone. Each year the offering is renewed by another figure, which is placed below the old one and nearer the Pacha Mama, This kind of sacrifice is called Chuya. It shows that the ancient beliefs and customs of the Peruvian Indians cannot be eradicated by any amount of persecution.  The religion of the ancient Peruvians was composed of several beliefs, all more or less peculiar to the Andean people, except the worship of a Supreme Being; which, however, only prevailed among the higher and more intellectual minds. Some of the Incas undoubtedly sought earnestly for a knowledge of the great First Cause, which they called Uira-cocha. The worship of the fabulous ancestor or originator of each ayllu, or clan, was universal, and as the sun was the accepted ancestor of the sovereign, its cult took the precedence of all others. The peculiar belief in the existence of a spiritual essence of all the things that concerned their well-being prevailed among the mass 