Page:The Incas of Peru.djvu/155

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APPEARANCE OF THE INCA
121

Rising above the buildings to the north could be seen the beautiful façade of the palace of Pachacuti, with the sacred farm of Sausiru, and above them the precipice of the Sacsahuaman, crowned by the fortress. On the sides of the square were the temples to Uira-cocha, and other edifices built of stone and roofed with thatch. The images of Uira-cocha, of the Sun and of Thunder, were brought out and placed on their golden altars. Presently the Inca and the Ccoya entered the square at the head of a long procession, with the standard, the Tupac Yauri, or golden sceptre, and the royal weapons borne before them.

This central figure of the Sovereign Inca was constantly seen on all great occasions. With the help of the portraits at Santa Ana, of the sketches in the curious manuscript of Huaman Poma, and of descriptions, we can imagine the appearance of the Peruvian emperor.

Many generations of culture and of rule had produced men of a very different type from any Peruvian Indian of to-day. We see the Incas in the pictures at the church of Santa Ana at Cuzco. The colour of the skin was many shades lighter than that of the down-trodden descendants of their subjects; the forehead high, the nose slightly aquiline, the chin and mouth firm, the whole face majestic, refined, and intellectual. The hair was carefully arranged, and round the head was the sign of sovereignty. The llautu appears to have been a short piece of red fringe on the forehead,