made in this land. There are
houses where the tribute is kept which the vassals bring to the
caciques; and there is a house where are kept more than a hundred dried
birds because they make garments of their feathers, which are of many
colors, and there are many houses for this [work]. There are bucklers,
oval shields made of leather, beams for roofing the houses, knives and
other tools, sandals and breast-plates for the warriors in such great
quantity that the mind does not cease to wonder how so great a tribute
of so many kinds of things can have been given. Each dead lord has here
his house and all that was paid to him as tribute during his life, for
no lord who succeeds another [and this is the law among them] can, after
the death of the last one, take possession of his inheritance. Each one
has his service of gold and of silver, and his things and clothes for
himself, and he who follows takes nothing from him. The caciques and
lords maintain their houses of recreation with the corresponding staff
of servants and women who sow their fields with maize and place a little
of it in their sepulchres. They adore the sun and have built many
temples to him, and of all the things which they have, as much of
clothes as of maize and other things, they offer some to the sun, of
which the warriors later avail themselves.

CHAPTER XVIII

Of the province of the Collao and of the qualities and customs of
its people, and of the rich gold mines that are found there.

The two Christians who were sent to see the province of the Collao were
forty days upon their journey, and, as soon as they had returned to
Cuzco where the governor was, they gave him news and a report of all
that they had seen and learned, which is set forth below. The land of
the Collao is far off and a long way from the sea, so much so that the
natives who inhabit it, have no knowledge of it. The sierra is very high
and rather broad, and with all this, it is excessively cold. There are
in the region no groves or woods, nor is there any wood for burning, and
what little there is in use there comes from trade, in exchange for
merchandise, with those who live near the sea and are called Ingres,
and also with those who live below near the rivers, for these people
have fire-wood and they exchange it for sheep[112] and other animals and
vegetables, since, for the most part, the land is sterile, and all the
people live on roots, herbs, maize and sometimes fl