Incas... Superstitions

The Incas

    It is  believed that the Inca civilization of the eastern coast of South America,had rituals which was pretty spooky and could possibly give shivers even today, all in the name of greatness.

   500 years ago, the Incan people selected a girl as a princess. She was a chosen one, out of all the girls in her generation; her sacrifice was what would keep them alive and functioning.

   The Princess was sacrificed to their mountain God Sabancaya. An offering buried alive for an eternity in a dark tomb. The Princess remained there with a cursed seal placed on her hands as a warning to any who would wake her.If the seal was removed, the mummy would rise, and so would her protector, the spirit of the warrior awakened in a common man.The Inca Princess mummy could suck out the essence of people with a kiss on the lips...

  Souls of others gave her the liveliness that she needed to be considered a normal person, or else she would be all bones and no skin.The soul-sucked human turned into skeletons. Horrific to look at, literally. A normal teenage girl, mummified, buried alive, to protect the world. She didn’t have any choice. It was all a result of the ancients succumbing to superstitions.

  It was believed to be a noble cause. But, was it? Was it truly that the girl’s sacrifice came in handy? The Inca civilisation perished, and so will all forms of civilizations, since nothing is permanent. Believing in illogical superstitions is really very harmful.

     Inca children were offered to gods. An unfortunate event believed to bring fortune to the Incas.This occurred more than 5 centuries ago. They ended their ceremonies in a pilgrimage.

In a sedated sleep with lives slipping away.

The children would walk through the volcanic mountain and into it.

Step down inside it,

And sleep,

Only never to wake.

The cruel mindsets of the Incas did not end there...

   When a child was born they would wash the baby in cold water and wrap it in a quilt. Later the baby was put in a  pit in the ground as a simple playground. By the age of one the baby was expected to receive severe discipline. At the age of 14, boys earned a loincloth in a ceremony to mark their manhood. Boys from noble families were subject to many different procedures, of endurance and knowledge, much like the parallel Indian civilization at that point of time.

After the test they received earplugs and a weapon, whose colour represented their rank in society. Whoever was the best, would be picked out to rule. The best warrior would go through a fire ritual to inhale the essence of the first warrior, who had joined his own spirits with that of the devil to be the unconquered one.

Misled into thinking by their own selves, that they were unconquerable they perished… slowly and steadily, under the fire of the same Mountain God, whom they sacrificed their young to. Buried under the ashes, forever.

Subhanjali Saraswati