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Show 442 PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. and that of the Peruvian theocracy or empire of the Incas, the Children of the Sun, have so engrossed attention in Europe, that a third point of comparative light and of dawning civilizat.ion, which existed among the nations inhabiting the mountains of New Granada, was long almost entirely overlooked. I have touched on this subject in some detail in the Vue des Cordilleres et Monumens des Peuples Indigenes del' Amerique (ed. in 8vo.) t. ii. p. 220-267. The form of the government of the Muyscas of New Granada reminds us of the constitution of Japan and the relation of the Secular Ruler (Kubo or Seogun, at Jeddo) to the sacred personage, the Da'iri, at Miyako. When Gonzalo Ximenez de Quesada advanced to the high table land of Bogota (Bacata, i. e. the extremity of the cultivated fields, probably from the proximity of the mountain wall), he found there three powers or authorities respecting whose reciprocal relations and subordination there remains some uncertainty. The spiritual chief, who was appointed by election, was the high-priest of Iraca or Sogamoso (Sugamuxi, the place of the disappearance of Nemterequeteba): the secular rulers or princes were the Zake (Zaque of Hunsa or Tunja), and the Zipa of Funza. In the feudal constitution, the last-named prince appears to have been originally subordinate to the Zake. The Muyscas had a regular mode of computing time, with intercalation for amending the lunar year: they used small circular plates of gold, cast of equal diameter, as money (any traces of which among the highly civilized ancient Egyptians have been sought in vain), and they had temples of the Surr with stone columns, remains of which have very recently been discovered in the Valley of Leiva. (Joaquin Acosta, Compendia historico del Descubrimiento de la Nueva Granada, 1848, pp. 188, 196, 206, and 208; Bulletin de la Societe de Geographie de Paris, 1847, p. 114.) The tribe or race of the Muyscas ought, properly speaking, to be always denoted by the name of Chibchas; as-Muysca, in the Chibcha language, signifies merely "men," "people." The origin and elements of the civilization introduced are attributed to two mystical forms, Bochica (Botschica) and Nemterequeteba, which are often confounded together. The first of these is still more mystical than the second; for it was only Botschica who was regarded as divine, and made almost equal |
