Page:The Incas of Peru.djvu/146

 of the people, and has never been eradicated. It accounts for their innumerable huacas and household gods, and for the way in which the idea of the presence of the supernatural was inextricably mingled with all the actions of their lives. From these various beliefs and cults, firmly established in the minds and hearts of all classes of the people, we may gather some idea of the causes which led to the establishment among them of a government based on the system of ayllus or village communities. The rooted beliefs in the Paccarisca or common ancestry of each ayllu, placed their village system on a very firm basis, and as the Incas confirmed all local usages and superstitions of their subjects, a feeling of devoted loyalty appears to have been combined with veneration for the sun, the ancestor of their sovereigns. It is clear that the religious beliefs of the people were in perfect harmony with the remarkable social system on which the Inca government was based.