Note 1189 — Chapter IV

The sacrifices were called runa, yuyac, and huahua. The Spaniards thought that runa and yuyac signified men, and huahua children. This was not the case when speaking of sacrificial victims. Runa was applied to a male sacrifice, huahua to the lambs, and yuyac signified an adult or full-grown animal. The sacrificial animals were also called after the names of those who offered them, which was another cause of erroneous assumptions by Spanish writers. There was a law strictly prohibiting human sacrifices among the conquered tribes; and the statement that servants were sacrificed at the obsequies of their masters is disproved by the fact, mentioned by the anonymous Jesuit, that in none of the burial-places opened by the Spaniards in search of treasure were any human bones found, except those of the buried lord himself.