Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/305

Rh their saliva on the ychu. They were persuaded that by these acts their pains would be mitigated or dispelled.

If there was an eclipse either of the sun or moon, they fancied that these luminaries, being pursued by powerful enemies, were fatigued, and were in need of succour. On these occasions, they began to weep, and to utter the most lamentable shouts and cries, imagining, with all simplicity, that their echoes would reach the sphere, and would disconcert the enemy, so as to oblige him to desist from his enterprize.

They considered the sparks which fire is wont to emit, as evident tokens of its wrath; to appease which, and to shun the mischiefs its severity might otherwise occasion to them, they offered up to it maize and chicha. The cooing of the turtle-dove, and the plaintive notes of other birds, were to them the most sinister prognostics. Either their own death was near at hand, or that of their neighbours, or that of those at whose abode these ominous birds appeared. Anxious to shift from themselves the calamity by which they were threatened, they made offerings to them, beseeching them to leave them free, and to discharge all their fury on their enemies.

Stimulated by a vain curiosity, and desirous to penetrate into the future, they had recourse to impostures, and to magic charms. The Camascas and Achicamayos were their oracles. These individuals pretended to obtain a knowledge of that which was most hidden and obscure, by laying the juice of the coca