Note 20 — Chapter XIX · HUMAN SACRIFICE

Acosta, op. cit. ii. 344. de Molina, ‘Fables and Rites of the Yncas,’ in Narratives of the Rites and Laws of the Yncas, pp. 55, 56, 59. According to Cieza de Leon (Segunda parte de la Crónica del Perú, p. 100), the practice of human sacrifice has been much exaggerated by Spanish writers, but he does not deny its existence among the Incas; nay, he gives an account of such sacrifices (ibid. p. 109 sqq.). Sir Clements Markham seems to attach undue importance to the statement of Garcilasso de la Vega that human victims were never sacrificed by the Incas (First Part of the Royal Commentaries of the Yncas, i. 130, 131, 139 sqq. n. †). Cf. Prescott, History of the Conquest of Peru, p. 50 sq. n. 3.