From the moment they entered the establishment, they were cut off
from all connection with the world, even with their own family
and friends. No one but the Inca, and the Coya or queen, might
enter the consecrated precincts. The greatest attention was paid
to their morals, and visitors were sent every year to inspect the
institutions, and to report on the state of their discipline. *41
Woe to the unhappy maiden who was detected in an intrigue! By
the stern law of the Incas, she was to be buried alive, her lover
was to be strangled, and the town or village to which he belonged
was to be razed to the ground, and "sowed with stones," as if to
efface every memorial of his existence. *42 One is astonished to
find so close a resemblance between the institutions to find so
close a resemblance between the institutions of the American
Indian, the ancient Roman, and the modern Catholic! Chastity and
purity of life are virtues in woman, that would seem to be of
equal estimation with the barbarian and with the civilized. - Yet
the ultimate destination of the inmates of these religious houses
was materially different.
[Footnote 38: Llamavase Casa de Escogidas; porque las escogian. o
por Linage, o por Hermosura." Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte 1,
lib. 4, cap. 1.]
[Footnote 39: Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., Ms.
The word mamacona signified "matron"; mama, the first half of
this compound word, as already noticed, meaning "mother." See
Garcilasso, Com.
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