The
great body of the Inca nobility next made their appearance, and,
beginning with those nearest of kin, knelt down before the
prince, and did him homage as successor to the crown. The whole
assembly then moved to the great square of the capital, where
songs, and dances, and other public festivities closed the
important ceremonial of the huaracu. *31
[Footnote 30: Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 6, cap. 27.]
[Footnote 31: Ibid. Parte 1, lib. 6, cap. 24 - 28.
According to Fernandez, the candidates wore white shirts, with
something like a cross embroidered in front! (Historia del Peru,
(Sevilla, 1571,) Parte 2, lib. 3, cap. 6.) We may fancy ourselves
occupied with some chivalrous ceremonial of the Middle Ages.]
The reader will be less surprised by the resemblance which this
ceremonial bears to the inauguration of a Christian knight in the
feudal ages, if he reflects that a similar analogy may be traced
in the institutions of other people more or less civilized; and
that it is natural that nations, occupied with the one great
business of war, should mark the period, when the preparatory
education for it was ended, by similar characteristic ceremonies.
Having thus honorably passed through his ordeal, the
heir-apparent was deemed worthy to sit in the councils of his
father, and was employed in offices of trust at home, or, more
usually, sent on distant expeditions to practice in the field the
lessons which he had hitherto studied only on the mimic theatre
of war.
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