d "sown with stones," that it might be
effectually forgotten. It would take an enterprising and desperate lover
indeed to dare such results, even could he have overcome the
difficulties of access and the reluctance of his mistress.

Yet, with all this strict regard for chastity on the part of the
consecrated virgins, it was only while the latter were inhabitants of
the cloister that they were so rigorously bound. Indeed, their destiny
was to be brides of the Inca; and thus the whole system was but a sort
of sacred concubinage, and it may be suspected that in the eyes of the
framers of the severe law above cited it was less the offence against
purity than that against the Inca that called for such heavy penalties.
When the Virgins of the Sun attained a fitting age, they were, if
sufficiently beautiful, sent to the seraglio of the Inca. The number of
these royal concubines at times amounted to thousands, and it is not
improbable that to the majority of them a visit from the monarch was
unknown. They lived in sumptuous seclusion at the various royal palaces
scattered throughout the country, guarded and attended by the trusted
officers of the Inca, until the monarch determined, as periodically
happened, to reduce his establishment in this respect, when a large
number of his "brides" were sent away. They did not return to the
conventual institutions from which they had come, but to the home of
their childhood, where they lived in state befitting those who had been
the spouses, even if only theoretically, of the monarch. Nor did these
ladies suffer any loss of good repute for their past; on the contrary,
they were held in reverence as having been admitted into such close
relation with the Child of the Sun. It does not appear whether they were
allowed to contract ordinary marriages after their dismissal from the
royal harem; but it is not probable that this was permitted to those who
might still be termed brides of the Inca, however he might be pleased to
dispense with their society for a time.

Besides the place of woman in the cult of the country, she had high
position in the dynastic as well as domestic polity and customs of the
land. Notwithstanding the number of concubines possessed by the Inca,
there was but one legal queen, the _Coya_, whose eldest son inherited
the crown,--at least so say most authorities, although there are some
dissentients,--and it is stated by the Inca historian that the
succession came down in un