At the end of the appointed time, the candidates selected
as worthy of the honors of their barbaric chivalry were {re-
sented to the sovereign, who condescended to take a principal
part in the ceremony of inauguration. He b^;an with a brief
discourse, in which, after congratulating the young aspnrants
on the pn^dency they had ^own in martial exercises, he
reminded them of the responsibilities attached to their Inrdi
and station, and, addressing them aflectionately as ^< children
of the Sun," he exhorted them to imitate their great pro-
genitor in his gkxioas career of beneficence to mankind. The
novices then drew near, and, kneeling one by cme before the
Inca, he {Merced their ears with a golden bodkin ; and this
was suffered to remain there till an opening had been made
brge^ enough for the euOTinous pendants whidi were peculiar
to thdr cn-der, and which gave them, with the Spaniards, the
name of orejonesV This ornament was so massy in the ears

** From cr«tfa, ^earj* — " Los cabadleros de fat sangre Reid tenMtn orejas hcradadas, y
de dlas colgando giandet rodetes de plata y ore : Ur^uuronles por esto los orejonua loi
CksteHanos la pnmeni vex que lot Tieron. \Monte9inot» Menonas anbgim owtonales cM
Fwub MS.» lib. s, cap. 6.) The onuunent^ which was in ibe fbm «f a wkeci did not d^



40 CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS. [book v

of the sovereign that the cartilage was distended by it nearly
to the shoulder, producing what seemed a monstrous deformity
in the eyes of the Europeans, though, under the magical in-
fluence of fashion, it was regarded as a beauty by the natives.
