sented as elder brothers, and those
of Lower Cuzco as younger brothers."
Such is the account of the settlement of Upper and Lower Cuzco. Any one
acquainted with the general principles on which the division of Indian
tribes into phratries took place, can not help concluding that these
divisions were simply two phratries. The inhabitants of each traced
their descent back to a supernatural personage. They were equal in
power to each other as elder and younger brothers. Polo Ondegardo simply
remarks that "the lineage of the Incas was divided into two branches,
the one called Upper Cuzco, the other Lower Cuzco."<24> There ought to
be no objection to substituting for the word branches used above the
scientific term our scholars now employ; that is, phratry. Each tribe of
the Iroquois confederacy was divided into two phratries, and their name
for this division was a word which meant brotherhood.<25>
Whatever doubt we may have on this point vanished when we come to
examine into the customs of the Incas. We must not forget that the most
prominent way a phratry shows itself is in matters of religion, and in
the play of social games. "The phratry, among the Iroquois," says Mr.
Morgan, "was partly for social and partly for religious objects....
In the ball game, for example, they play by phratries, one against the
other. Each phratry puts forward its best players, usually from six to
ten on a side, and the members of each phratry assemble together, but on
opposite sides of the field in which the game is played. The members of
each phratry watch the game with eagerness, and cheer their respective
players at every successful turn of the game."
Illustration of Relics from Guano Deposits.---------
Let us see how it was among the Incas.<26> Like all Indian tribes, the
Incas were very fond of ceremonious feasts. Nearly every month they
celebrated one or more. We gather from Molina that on occasions when the
whole tribe participated in such religious observances, the people of
Upper Cuzco sat apart front Lower Cuzco. In the month corresponding to
August they had a celebrated feast, the object of which was to drive out
all evil from the land. We read: "All the people of Cuzco came out,...
richly dressed, sat down on benches, each man according to the rank he
held, those of the Upper Cuzco being on one side, and those of Lower
Cuzco on the other." And of another feast we read: "They brought out the
embalmed (?) bodies of the dead
|