Part 11 (1/2)
[Footnote 2: Ibid., p. 23, et seq. - Garcila.s.so, Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 8, cap. 16. - Acosta, lib. 4, cap. 41.
Llama, according to Garcila.s.so de la Vega, is a Peruvian word signifying ”flock.” (Ibid., ubi supra.) The natives got no milk from their domesticated animals; nor was milk used, I believe, by any tribe on the American continent.]
The employment of domestic animals distinguished the Peruvians from the other races of the New World. This economy of human labor by the subst.i.tution of the brute is an important element of civilization, inferior only to what is gained by the subst.i.tution of machinery for both. Yet the ancient Peruvians seem to have made much less account of it than their Spanish conquerors, and to have valued the llama, in common with the other animals of that genus, chiefly for its fleece. Immense herds of these ”large cattle,” as they were called, and of the ”smaller cattle,”
*3 or alpacas, were held by the government, as already noticed, and placed under the direction of shepherds, who conducted them from one quarter of the country to another, according to the changes of the season. These migrations were regulated with all the precision with which the code of the mesta determined the migrations of the vast merino flocks in Spain; and the Conquerors, when they landed in Peru, were amazed at finding a race of animals so similar to their own in properties and habits, and under the control of a system of legislation which might seem to have been imported from their native land. *4
[Footnote 3: Ganado maior, ganado menor.]
[Footnote 4: The judicious Ondegardo emphatically recommends the adoption of many of these regulations by the Spanish government, as peculiarly suited to the exigencies of the natives. ”En esto de los ganados parescio haber hecho muchas const.i.tuciones en diferentes tiempos e algunas tan utiles e provechosas para su conservacion que conven dria que tambien guardasen agora.” Rel.
Seg., Ms.]
But the richest store of wool was obtained, not from these domesticated animals, but from the two other species, the huanacos and the vicunas, which roamed in native freedom over the frozen ranges of the Cordilleras; where not unfrequently they might be seen scaling the snow-covered peaks which no living thing inhabits save the condor, the huge bird of the Andes, whose broad pinions bear him up in the atmosphere to the height of more than twenty thousand feet above the level of the sea. *5 In these rugged pastures, ”the flock without a fold” finds sufficient sustenance in the ychu, a species of gra.s.s which is found scattered all along the great ridge of the Cordilleras, from the equator to the southern limits of Patagonia. And as these limits define the territory traversed by the Peruvian sheep, which rarely, if ever, venture north of the line, it seems not improbable that this mysterious little plant is so important to their existence, that the absence of it is the princ.i.p.al reason why they have not penetrated to the northern lat.i.tudes of Quito and New Granada. *6
[Footnote 5: Malte-Brun, book 86.]
[Footnote 6: Ychu, called in the Flora Peruana Jarava; Cla.s.s, Monandria Digynia. See Walton, p. 17]
But, although thus roaming without a master over the boundless wastes of the Cordilleras, the Peruvian peasant was never allowed to hunt these wild animals, which were protected by laws as severe as were the sleek herds that grazed on the more cultivated slopes of the plateau. The wild game of the forest and the mountain was as much the property of the government, as if it had been inclosed within a park, or penned within a fold. *7 It was only on stated occasions, at the great hunts, which took place once a year, under the personal superintendence of the Inca or his princ.i.p.al officers, that the game was allowed to be taken.
These hunts were not repeated in the same quarter of the country oftener than once in four years, that time might be allowed for the waste occasioned by them to be replenished. At the appointed time, all those living in the district and its neighbourhood, to the number, it might be, of fifty or sixty thousand men, *8 were distributed round, so as to form a cordon of immense extent, that should embrace the whole country which was to be hunted over.
The men were armed with long poles and spears, with which they beat up game of every description lurking in the woods, the valleys, and the mountains, killing the beasts of prey without mercy, and driving the others, consisting chiefly of the deer of the country, and the huanacos and vicunas, towards the centre of the wide-extended circle; until, as this gradually contracted, the timid inhabitants of the forest were concentrated on some s.p.a.cious plain, where the eye of the hunter might range freely over his victims, who found no place for shelter or escape.
[Footnote 7: Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., Ms.]
[Footnote 8: Sometimes even a hundred thousand mustered, when the Inca hunted in person, if we may credit Sarmiento. ”De donde haviendose ya juntado cinquenta o sesenta mil Personas o cien mil si mandado les era.” Relacion, Ms., cap. 13.]
The male deer and some of the coa.r.s.er kind of the Peruvian sheep were slaughtered; their skins were reserved for the various useful manufactures to which they are ordinarily applied, and their flesh, cut into thin slices, was distributed among the people, who converted it into charqui, the dried meat of the country, which const.i.tuted then the sole, as it has since the princ.i.p.al, animal food of the lower cla.s.ses of Peru. *9
[Footnote 9: Ibid., ubi supra.
Charqui; hence, probably, says McCulloh, the term ”jerked,”
applied to the dried beef of South America. Researches, p. 377.]
But nearly the whole of the sheep, amounting usually to thirty or forty thousand, or even a larger number, after being carefully sheared, were suffered to escape and regain their solitary haunts among the mountains. The wool thus collected was deposited in the royal magazines, whence, in due time, it was dealt out to the people. The coa.r.s.er quality was worked up into garments for their own use, and the finer for the Inca; for none but an Inca n.o.ble could wear the fine fabric of the vicuna. *10
[Footnote 10: Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms. loc. cit. - Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap. 81. - Garcila.s.so, Com. Real. Parte 1, lib. 6, cap.
6.]
The Peruvians showed great skill in the manufacture of different articles for the royal household from this delicate material, which, under the name of vigonia wool, is now familiar to the looms of Europe. It was wrought into shawls, robes, and other articles of dress for the monarch, and into carpets, coverlets, and hangings for the imperial palaces and the temples. The cloth was finished on both sides alike; *11 the delicacy of the texture was such as to give it the l.u.s.tre of silk; and the brilliancy of the dyes excited the admiration and the envy of the European artisan. *12 The Peruvians produced also an article of great strength and durability by mixing the hair of animals with wool; and they were expert in the beautiful feather-work, which they held of less account than the Mexicans from the superior quality of the materials for other fabrics, which they had at their command. *13
[Footnote 11: Acosta, lib. 4, cap. 41.]
[Footnote 12: ”Ropas finisimas para los Reyes, que lo eran tanto que parecian de sarga de seda y con colores tan perfectos quanto se puede afirmar.” Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms., cap. 13]
[Footnote 13: Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms.
”Ropa finissima para los senores Ingas de lana de las Vicunias.
Y cierto fue tan prima esta ropa, como auran visto en Espana: por alguna que alla fue luego que se gano este reyno. Los vestidos destos Ingas eran camisetas desta opa: vnas pobladas de argenteria de oro, otras de esmeraldas y piedras preciosas: y algunas de plumas de aues: otras de solamente la manta. Para hazer estas ropas, tuuiero y tienen tan perfetas colores de carmesi, azul, amarillo, negro, y de otras suertes: que verdaderamente tienen ventaja a las de Espana.” Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap. 114.]
The natives showed a skill in other mechanical arts similar to that displayed by their manufacturers of cloth. Every man in Peru was expected to be acquainted with the various handicrafts essential to domestic comfort. No long apprentices.h.i.+p was required for this, where the wants were so few as among the simple peasantry of the Incas. But, if this were all, it would imply but a very moderate advancement in the arts. There were certain individuals, however, carefully trained to those occupations which minister to the demands of the more opulent cla.s.ses of society. These occupations, like every other calling and office in Peru, always descended from father to son. *14 The division of castes, in this particular, was as precise as that which existed in Egypt or Hindostan. If this arrangement be unfavorable to originality, or to the development of the peculiar talent of the individual, it at least conduces to an easy and finished execution by familiarizing the artist with the practice of his art from childhood. *15