The following morning it was removed to the church of
San Francisco, where his funeral obsequies were performed with
great solemnity. Pizarro and the principal cavaliers went into
mourning, and the troops listened with devout attention to the
service of the dead from the lips of Father Valverde. *35 The
ceremony was interrupted by the sound of loud cries and wailing,
as of many voices at the doors of the church. These were
suddenly thrown open, and a number of Indian women, the wives and
sisters of the deceased, rushing up the great aisle, surrounded
the corpse. This was not the way, they cried, to celebrate the
funeral rites of an Inca; and they declared their intention to
sacrifice themselves on his tomb, and bear him company to the
land of spirits. The audience, outraged by this frantic
behaviour, told the intruders that Atahuallpa had died in the
faith of a Christian, and that the God of the Christians abhorred
such sacrifices. They then caused the women to be excluded from
the church, and several, retiring to their own quarters, laid
violent hands on themselves, in the vain hope of accompanying
their beloved lord to the bright mansions of the Sun. *36
[Footnote 35: The secretary Sancho seems to think that the
Peruvians must have regarded these funeral honors as an ample
compensation to Atahuallpa for any wrongs he may have sustained,
since they at once raised him to a level with the Spaniards!
Ibid., loc. cit.]
[Footnote 36: Relacion del Primer.
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