Every year, at the season of the maize harvest, the mountaineer Peruvians had a solemn festival; on which occasion they set up two tall straight trees like masts, on the top of which was placed the figure of a man surrounded by other figures and adorned with flowers.  The inhabitants went in procession armed with bows and arrows and regularly marshalled into companies, beating their drums and with great outcries and rejoicings, each company in succession discharging their arrows at the dressed up figure.  After which the priests set up an idol at the bottom of the masts, before which they sacrificed a man or a sheep, sprinkling the idol with the blood of the victim; and having inspected the heart and entrails of the sacrifice, they reported the signs they had discovered to the people, who were sad or rejoiced according as these were good or bad.  The whole of this festival was usually spent in dancing and drinking, and in various games and sports, some of which were warlike exercises, with maces, clubs, axes and other arms.

All the caciques and other principal inhabitants of Peru are reposited after their death in a kind of vaults, clothed in all their richest dresses, and seated in a kind of chairs which they name duos.  It was customary also to bury along with them one or two of their best beloved wives, and on this occasion the honour was frequently contested among the wives of the deceased, unless when the husband had previously settled who were to be chosen to accompany him in the tomb.  Two or three youths of their train, and all their gold and silver-plate used also to be buried along with them; all of which was done in the hope of one day rising again from the dead, and that they might then appear in proper style, accompanied by their wives and servants.  When the Spaniards broke up these sepulchres on purpose to take possession of their buried treasures, the Peruvians requested of them not to disturb the bones of the dead, that they might not be hindered in their resurrection.  In the burial ceremony, the relations of the deceased used to pour some of the liquor formerly mentioned, named Chica, into the grave, of which a portion was conveyed by some hollow canes into the mouth of the dead person.  On the top of the tomb or sepulchre, wooden images were placed, representing the appearance of the deceased; but on the graves of the lower orders, they satisfied themselves by some painted emblems of their profession or employment, more especially if they happened to be warriors.

In all the provinces of Peru there were certain nobles or principal persons, of whom the chiefs or rulers were named curacas, similar in every respect to the caciques of the islands.  As the Spaniards who conquered Peru had been accustomed to name many things according to the language of Hispaniola and Cuba, and were at first ignorant of the Peruvian language, they continued to employ the terms to which they had been accustomed; and the Peruvians have so far accommodated