"De donde
haviendose ya juntado cinquenta o sesenta mil Personas o cien mil
si mandado les era." Relacion, Ms., cap. 13.]
The male deer and some of the coarser kind of the Peruvian sheep
were slaughtered; their skins were reserved for the various
useful manufactures to which they are ordinarily applied, and
their flesh, cut into thin slices, was distributed among the
people, who converted it into charqui, the dried meat of the
country, which constituted then the sole, as it has since the
principal, animal food of the lower classes of Peru. *9
[Footnote 9: Ibid., ubi supra.
Charqui; hence, probably, says McCulloh, the term "jerked,"
applied to the dried beef of South America. Researches, p. 377.]
But nearly the whole of the sheep, amounting usually to thirty or
forty thousand, or even a larger number, after being carefully
sheared, were suffered to escape and regain their solitary haunts
among the mountains. The wool thus collected was deposited in
the royal magazines, whence, in due time, it was dealt out to the
people. The coarser quality was worked up into garments for
their own use, and the finer for the Inca; for none but an Inca
noble could wear the fine fabric of the vicuna. *10
[Footnote 10: Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms. loc. cit. - Cieza de Leon,
Cronica, cap. 81. - Garcilasso, Com. Real. Parte 1, lib. 6, cap.
6.]
The Peruvians showed great skill in the manufacture of different
articles for the royal household from this delicate material,
which, under the name of vigonia wool, is now familiar to the
looms of Europe.
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