Page:The Incas of Peru.djvu/199

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SYSTEM OF ADMINISTRATION
163

of the blood-royal, called Ccapac Apu, for each of the four great provinces.

There was also a system of periodical visitors to overlook the census and the tribute, and to examine minutely and report upon the state of affairs in each district. Other visitors, in consultation with the local officials, selected young people of both sexes from the households of the purics for employments in the service of the State and of religion, according to their several aptitudes. Marriages were also arranged by the visiting officials.

From the ranks of the people, men and women were needed for many purposes of state, each chosen from out of a puric household. First there were the shepherds. A census was taken of all the llamas and alpacas in each district and they were divided into flocks for the state, for religion and sacrifices, and for the curacas. They were sent to the best pastures in charge of the shepherds, and each puric received two couples for breeding purposes. Other youths were required as hunters, soldiers, chasquis or messengers, road-makers, builders, miners, artificers, and for the service of religion. Maidens were taken for the special service of the sun, selected by an official called Apu-panaca. Servants, called yana-cuna, were latterly chosen in a different way. It appears that a small tribe, living on the banks of a stream called Yana-mayu (black river), had been guilty of some shocking treason to Tupac Inca, and was to be annihilated. But the queen interceded for them,

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