Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/300

256, but likewise in the idols; Apuinii, the sun, the father and lord; Churi Inti, the son of the sun; Imic Vatiqui, the brother of the sun; and Tarigatanga ; all of which received the highest homage and adoration.

Virgins, to whom they gave the name of Acllacunas, were dedicated to his service, and lived perpetually in the cloisters of his temple, to watch over his altars;—a prerogative which rendered them highly venerable, insomuch that an affront offered to them was deemed a sacrilege. The Ynca, and the Cucipatas, or priests of the sun, alone were allowed to approach the altars of this divinity, but not without giving tokens of the greatest respect, by their genufle6tions and silence. It was thus that they presented themselves during the raymi, one of their most solemn festivals, celebrated with dances and songs in the month of December.

The monarchs of this empire, zealous in the worship of their father, followed, in their conquests, maxims very different from those of ancient Rome. That republic, when at the summit of its power, had no sooner received its triumphant generals, crowned with martial laurels, than it placed in the Capitol the gods of the vanquished countries, to the end that they might partake of the victims it offered up to its deities. But the former, at the same time that they tended