Page:The Incas of Peru.djvu/153

Rh Feb. 22 to March 22. (March 22), Autumn Equinox. Great ripening. March 22 to April 22. (March 22), Autumn Equinox. Mosoc Nina. April 22 to May 22. May 22 to June 22. (June 22), Winter Solstice. Harvest.  Gold plates 5 inches in diameter, representing the sun, with a border apparently designed to denote the months by special signs, were worn on the breast by the Incas and the great councillors. The gold ornaments were seized and ruthlessly destroyed by the Spaniards wherever they could be found. A great number were never found. Some were presented to General Echenique, then President of Peru, in 1853. There was the golden breastplate, a gold topu or pin, the head with a flat surface about 4 in. by 2 in., covered with incised ornaments; four half-discs forming two globes and a long stalk, also a flat piece of gold with a long stalk. We thought that the flat piece like a leaf and the discs were from the golden garden of the sun, and a golden belt or fillet for the head. The President brought them to the house of Don Manuel Cotes, at Lima, for me to see, on October 25, 1853, and I made a copy of the golden breastplate and of the topu. The Señora Grimanesa Cotes (née Althaus), the most beautiful lady in Lima at that time, held the tracing paper while I made the copy. It was very thin, and the 