The History of Initiation - The Masonic Trowel

IN AMERICA. 211
general lustration, cleanse the soul from all its impurities,
and render the body healthy and less susceptible of disease.
They prepared for this solemnity by a fast of four
and twenty hours' continuance; and then kneaded tin-
purifying element, which was a sort of dough 82 mixed
with blood, and called Cancu. 83
After washing their
bodies, they anointed them with this dough, and fixed
the remainder on the door of their habitation. Thus
purified, the people watched the rising of the sun84 with
and when his radiance burst upon their
great emotion ;
view, the eastern doors of their temple were expanded,
and his image in burnished gold was illuminated with the
blazing splendour of his beams. The whole multitude,
in devout prostration, chanted the sacred hymn, led by
the High Priest. 85
After this, the mild and equitable
laws of Peru, were rehearsed ; and the Inca, with the
chief officers of the realm, swore to administer justice
with strict impartiality. A procession of young men
and maidens succeeded, habited in white and spotless
garments, and bearing garlands of flowers. These paraded
round the temple until the Sun had attained his
meridian height, 86 when the Inca and High Priest offered
up a solemn prayer to that deity. The consecrated
virgins then approached, and were presented to the Inca,
and heard from the unpolluted lip of the High Priest,
the awful denunciations attached to violated vows of
perpetual celibacy.
sa The night after the fast, they used to knead pieces or balls of
a dough which they called cancu. They par-boiled these in earthen
kettles, till such time as they were collected into one great lump. Of
this they made two sorts, one of which was mixed with blood, which
they drew from between the eyebrows and nostrils of young children."
(Univ. Dis., vol. i., p. 271.)
83 How similar is this ceremony to a rite practised by the idolatrous
Israelites when the fury of the Lord was ready to be poured upon
"
them. The children gather wood and the fathers kindle the tire,
and the women knead the dough to make cakes to the queen of heaven,
and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may
provoke me to anger, saith the Lord." ( Jer. vii., 18. See also xliv.,
15-19.)
84 The first dynasties of Incas were dignified with the names of the
sun and moon. (Horn, de Orig. Gent. Amer., p. 105.
85 Marm. Incas, vol. i., pp. 25-27.
86 u Upon twelve mountains that surrounded the city of Cusco, there
were twelve stone columns, dedicated to the sun, and answering to
the twelve months of the year." (Fab. Pag. Idol., vol. iii., p. 230.)