“For the better understanding of the idolatry, mode of life and customs of the Indians of Peru,” he says, “it will be necessary for us to divide those times into two epochs” (I. p. 46). This he does in order that the customs and gods of the Incas may not be confounded with those of the indigenous population. “It must be understood, then, that in the first epoch some of the Indians were little better than tame beasts, and others much worse than wild beasts. . . . Each province, each nation, each house had its gods, different from one another. . . . Thus they worshipped herbs, plants, flowers, all kinds of trees, high hills, great rocks. . . . hollow caves. . . . pebbles, . . . they worshipped different animals, some for their fierceness, such as the tiger [jaguar], lion [puma], and bear; and as they looked upon them as gods, they did not fly from them . . . and allowed themselves to be killed and eaten . . . They also adored other animals for their cunning, such as foxes and monkeys . . . some nations adored the eagle because they thought they were descended from it, as well as the cuntur [condor], pp. 47, 48.
“Some worshipped the earth, and called it Mother, because it yielded their fruits; others adored the air for its gift of breath to them, saying that it gave them life; others the fire for its heat, and because they cooked their food with it; others worshipped a sheep [llama], because of the great flocks they reared, . . . others adored maize or sara, as they call it, because it was their bread; others worshipped other kinds of corn and pulse, according to the abundance of the yield in each province.
“The inhabitants of the sea-coast, besides an infinity of other gods, worshipped the sea, which they called Mama-ccocha or, “Mother Sea,” meaning that it filled the office of a mother, by supplying them with fish. . . . Besides this ordinary .system of worship, which prevailed throughout the coast, the people of the different provinces adored the fish that they caught in greatest abundance. . . .
