rcilaso de la Vega and
others, attribute to the Incas the introduction of civilization into Peru,
we recognize the practical good sense with which they accomplished the
rather difficult task of obliging each tribe to wear a different costume.
"In Tiahuanaco ... he made one of each nation of clay and painted [these]
with the dresses that each one was to wear. Those who were to wear their
hair, with hair; and those who were to be shorn, with hair cut ... when he
had finished making the nations and painting the said figures of clay, he
gave life and soul to each one, as well man as woman ... each nation then
went to the place to which he ordered it to go."

I confess that, until I studied the above record in full, I had very vague
ideas about the huacas or "idols" of the Peruvians. But when I found it
stated, further on, that "each tribe wore the dress with which their huaca
is invested," I began to realize what huacas might originally have been.
It would seem that on assigning a different costume and distinctive name
to each tribe, the founder of the new colony gave each chief as a model, a
different clay doll, painted with the distinctive marks he and his people
were to adopt. This figure would naturally have been kept for reference
and treated as something sacred. On certain official occasions it would be
produced as a means of identification or proof that the prescribed
costumes had been strictly adhered to. To this practical and sensible plan
the origin of the so-called tribal and household idols of the Peruvians
and of the Mexicans can doubtlessly be assigned. Invented as an aid in the
establishment of tribal-names and dress-regulations and intimately
connected with the entire system of government, these huacas gradually
became the representative of the ancestor of the clan, its "canting" arms
and its sacred palladium. We are told that after the tribes had chosen
their various ancestors or origins, such as caves, hills, fountains, etc.,
they settled in the land and multiplied. Then, on account of having
"issued or descended from stated localities, the people made huacas and
places of worship of these, in memory of the origin of their lineage....
The huacas they use are in different shapes.... Some say the first of
their lineages were turned into falcons, condors and other animals or
birds" (Molina ed. Hakluyt, p. 5). A certain form of ancestor-cult was
thus evolved in a natural manner. "Idolatrous rites increased and p