Note 362.1 — Chapter XIII · NOTES

ii. Garcilasso, 442. Elsewhere (i. 59) he speaks of the participants as “the nearest relations of the bride and her most intimate friends.” He only refers vaguely to the peoples addicted to this form of the rite, and cites Pedro de Cieza as making the same assertion. I have not seen De Cieza’s work; but Mr. Markham observes that he refers to New Granada, not Peru. I am strongly inclined to suspect, on more grounds than one, that Garcilasso’s information is not to be relied on; and that, wherever the custom was followed, it was the bridegroom’s rather than the bride’s relations who took part. Did a somewhat similar custom obtain in Paraguay? See Featherman, Chiapo-Mar., 435. It is to be distinguished from a well-known East Indian custom which springs from a different motive. See Hertz, 41.