INCA PRIESTS AND PRIESTESSES

Priests and priestesses listened to confessions of carelessness in saying prayers, neglect of festivals, witchcraft, poisoning, and even murder. To hide anything during a confession was regarded as a sin. After confession the penitent fasted and bathed in a running stream to purify himself. The emperor and his household did not have to confess to any priests. They confessed directly to the Sun and asked the Sun to speak for them to Viracocha....

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GOOD MAGIC AND EVIL MAGIC

Among the Inca there was good magic and evil magic. Men who practiced evil magic were hated and feared, and if a man accused of sorcery proved to be guilty, he and his family were killed. To bring sickness or death to an enemy the sorcerer made an image of him and spit on it or burned it. This, the sorcerer hoped, would harm the enemy or kill him. A sorcerer could plant a foreign object in a person's body, the Inca believed, and he could turn a...

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EVIL SPIRITS AND SUPERNATURAL BEINGS

The Inca also believed in the existence of evil spirits and supernatural beings. Evil spirits were feared but not worshiped. Some of these spirits, it was thought, had been witches in life, and in death they went abroad at night and did harm. Everyone avoided them. The supernatural beings, however, were friends of man and full of kindness. They punished transgressors with bad luck but never inflicted severe physical suffering. The Inca nobles, the generals, and the emperor consulted the supernaturals before setting out on a journey. There...

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FORETELLING THE FUTURE.

There were sorcerers, too, who foretold the future. Some sorcerers drank themselves into unconsciousness with special concoctions they had prepared. When they recovered they told what they had dreamed and foreseen. Fire was also used to foretell events. This divination by fire was a most impressive ceremony. The people of Huaro, near Cuzco, who were fire diviners, were highly respected and feared. Even the emperor fasted for three days to attend one of their fire-divining sessions. At the ceremony a diviner placed two ceramic burners, or braziers,...

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INCA WORSHIPED THE NUMEROUS HUACAS

In addition to worshiping the deities, the Inca worshiped the numerous huacas—sacred places —which were everywhere throughout the Inca Empire. Mountaintops were huacas, because man could not penetrate them. The emperor's palace, with all his goods, was sealed after his death and became a huaca. Battlefields, caves, springs, quarries, and even the roots of trees were huacas. There always seemed to be room for more huacas in the religion of the Andeans. When the Inca conquered a village and introduced new huacas, the villagers gladly accepted...

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INCA CEREMONIES

Inca ceremonies followed the Inca calendar. The seasons of the year were very important to the Inca, because they lived off the land. Their calendar was divided into twelve lunar months, named for important agricultural and religious events. Since the seasons south of the equator are reversed, the January of the Inca calendar was the equivalent of June in North America. The calendar year began with December, which is like May in the north. Here...

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