CHAPTER 7

OF THE SUPERSTITIONS THAT WERE EMPLOYED WITH THE DEAD

Among the Indians of Peru there was a widespread belief that their souls lived on after this life, and that the good received glory and the bad punishment, and so there is little difficulty in persuading them of these articles of faith. But they did not grasp the idea that bodies would arise along with souls, and so they expended a great deal of effort, as has been said, in preserving bodies and honoring them after death. To this end their descendants clothed them and made sacrifices; the Inca kings especially, in their burials, had to be accompanied by a large number of servants and women for their service in the other life. And so on the day they died their favorite women and servants and officials were killed so that they might go to serve them in the other life. On the death of Huayna Capac, the father of Atahualpa, during whose reign the Spaniards came into Peru, more than a thousand persons of all ages and conditions were put to death for his service and company in the other life. They were killed after much singing and excessive drinking and considered themselves fortunate; many things were sacrificed to the dead, especially children, and with their blood they drew a line from ear to ear on the dead man's face. This same superstition and inhumane practice, of killing men and women for the company and service of the dead in the other life, has been used and is still used by other barbarian nations. And according to Polo it has been almost universal in the Indies, and the Venerable Bede even says that the Angles, before they were converted to the Gospel, had the same custom of killing people to accompany and serve the dead. The story is told of a Portuguese who, when he was a captive among savages, received an arrow wound from which he lost an eye. When they wanted to sacrifice him to accompany a dead chief, he replied that those who dwelt in the other life would have a poor opinion of the dead man if his people gave him a one-eyed man for a companion and that it was better to give him one with two eyes; and as this reasoning seemed good to the savages they let him go.

Apart from this superstition of sacrificing men to the dead, which is done only with very important chiefs, there is another that is much more common and widespread all over the Indies, that of placing food and drink for the dead on their tombs and in their caves and believing that they feed themselves with it, which according to Saint Augustine was also an error of the ancients.' And even today many heathen Indians secretly disinter their dead from churches and cemeteries and bury them on hills or in ravines, or in their own houses, in order to give them food and drink. They also used to put silver in their mouths, in their hands, and in their bosoms, and dress them in new and usable clothing, folded under the shroud. They believe that the souls of their dead wander about and feel cold and thirst and hunger and travail, and that is why they celebrate their anniversaries by bringing them food and drink and clothing. For this reason the prelates in their synods rightly insist upon the priests making the Indians understand that the offerings placed on tombs in the church are food and drink not for souls but for the poor, or ministers of the Church, and that it is God alone who nourishes souls in the other life, for they do not eat or drink any corporeal thing. And it is very important for them to learn this thoroughly, so as not to change holy usage into heathen superstition, as many of them do.