ers escaped; in the hieroglyphs of the former
country, these seven are represented as issuing from an egg.

It is remarkable that a Peruvian tradition declares the first
missionaries of civilization who visited them to have been white and
bearded. 'This may remind us,' says Prescott, 'of the tradition existing
among the Aztecs, in respect to Quetzalcoatl, the good deity, who, with
a similar garb and aspect, came up the great plateau from the East, on a
like benevolent mission to the natives.' In like manner the _Aesir_,
children of Light, or of the Sun, came from the East to Scandinavia, and
taught the lore of the Gods.

The Peruvian embalming of the royal dead takes us back to Egypt; the
burning of the wives of the deceased Incas, reveals India; the
singularly patriarchal character of the whole Peruvian policy is like
that of China in the olden time; while the system of espionage, of
tranquillity, of physical well-being, and the iron-like immovability in
which the whole social frame was cast, brings before the reader Japan,
as it even now exists. In fact, there is something strangely Japanese in
the entire _cultus_ of Peru, as described by all writers.

It is remarkable that the Supreme Being of the Peruvians was worshiped
under the names of _Pachacomac_, 'he who sustains, or gives life to the
universe,' and of _Viracocha_, 'Foam of the Sea,' a name strikingly
recalling that of Venus Aphrodite, the female second principle in all
ancient mythologies. Not less curious was the institution of the Vestal
Virgins of the Sun, who were buried alive if detected in an intrigue,
and whose duty it was to keep burning the sacred fire obtained at the
festival of Raymi.

'Vigilemque sacraverat ignem Excubias divum aeternas.'

This fire was obtained as by the ancient Romans, on a precisely similar
occasion, by means of a concave mirror of polished metal. The Incas, in
order to preserve purity of race, married their own sisters, as did the
kings of Persia and other Oriental nations, urged by a like feeling of
pride. Among the Peruvians, _Mama_, signified 'mother,' while _Papa_,
was applied to the chief priest. 'With both, the term seems to embrace
in its most comprehensive sense, the paternal relation, in which it is
more familiarly employed by most of the nations of Europe.'

It should be borne in mind, that as in the case of the Green Corn
festival, many striking analogies can be established between the Indian
tribes of Nor