Note 1426 — Chapter VII · INCARNATE HUMAN GODS

Garcilasso de la Vega, First Part of the Royal Commentaries of the Yncas, bk. ii. chs. 8 and 15 (vol. i. pp. 131, 155, Markham’s translation). This writer tells us that the Peruvian Indians “held their kings not only to be possessed of royal majesty, but to be gods” (ib. bk. iv. ch. v. vol. i. p. 303, Markham’s Trans.). Mr. E. J. Payne denies that the Incas believed in their descent from the sun, and stigmatises as a ridiculous fable the notion that they were worshipped as gods (History of the New World called America, i. 506, 512). I content myself with reproducing the statements of Garcilasso de la Vega, who had ample means of ascertaining the truth. His good faith has been questioned, but, as I believe, on insufficient grounds. See below, vol. ii. p. 244 note¹.