Owing to the nitrous quality of the sand, and to its almost perfect dryness, the bodies are quite entire, and not the least defaced, although many of them have been buried at least three centuries: the clothes are also in the same state of preservation, but both soon decay after being exposed to the sun and air. I dug up one man whose hair grew from his eyebrows, covering his forehead, or rather he had no visible forehead; a great quantity of dried herbs had been buried with him, some small pots, and several dolls: the indians who saw him assured me, that he had been a _brujo_, a wizard or diviner; but I was inclined to believe him to have been a physician: however, the two sciences might be considered by them as somewhat similar.
Many persons are persuaded that these huacas were only burying grounds, and not places of residence for the living: if so, it shews the respect which the people had for their dead; but as some of the tribes of wild indians bury their dead in the house where they lived, and then abandon it, building for themselves another, this appears to be a sufficient reason for suspecting that such was the practice with the ancient Peruvians.
I resided several months at the small village of la Barranca, and I here witnessed the great earthquake that happened on the 1st of December, 1806, supposed to be one of the periodical shocks felt in Lima and its vicinity; they have occurred in the following years:--1586, 1609, 1655, 1690, 1716, 1746, and 1806. This earthquake, however, did not extend its desolating effects to the capital; these appear to have been limited by the rivers of Barranca and Huaura, an extent of about ten leagues; but the shock was felt at Ica, a hundred leagues to the southward, although it was not perceived at Huaras, thirty leagues to the eastward.
No hollow sound was observed to precede this shock, a circumstance particularly remarked by several of the old people, who said, that it came on so suddenly, that the dogs did not hear it, nor the pigs smell it, before every one felt the shock. I inquired their reason for thus expressing themselves, and was informed, that it had always been found when the shocks were severe, that they were announced by the howling of the dogs and the squealing of the pigs. This effect, I think, can only be accounted for by the dogs lying on the ground, and either hearing the noise or feeling the motion before either become perceptible to the people; and probably if any gaseous vapour be ejected the olfactory nerves of the pigs may be affected by it. Immediately after the earthquake many people saw red flames rising out of the sea, and others burning over a low piece of ground on the shore called the Totoral. The cattle which were feeding here at the time, died shortly afterwards from the effect produced on the grass by this burning vapour.