"
It should be added, in justice to the Peruvian government, that
the best authorities concur in the admission, that the sacrifices
were few, both in number and in magnitude, being reserved for
such extraordinary occasions as those mentioned in the text.]
At the feast of Raymi, the sacrifice usually offered was that of
the llama; and the priest, after opening the body of his victim,
sought in the appearances which it exhibited to read the lesson
of the mysterious future. If the auguries were unpropitious, a
second victim was slaughtered, in the hope of receiving some more
comfortable assurance. The Peruvian augur might have learned a
good lesson of the Roman, - to consider every omen as favorable,
which served the interests of his country. *30
[Footnote 30: "Augurque cum esset, dicere ausus est, optimis
auspiciis ea geri, quae pro reipublicae salute gererentur."
Cicero, De Senectute.
This inspection of the entrails of animals for the purposes of
divination is worthy of note, as a most rare, if not a solitary,
instance of the kind among the nations of the New World, though
so familiar in the ceremonial of sacrifice among the pagan
nations of the Old.]
A fire was then kindled by means of a concave mirror of polished
metal, which, collecting the rays of the sun into a focus upon a
quantity of dried cotton, speedily set it on fire. It was the
expedient used on the like occasions in ancient Rome, at least
under the reign of the pious Numa.
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