it was regarded as a beauty by the natives.

When this operation was performed, one of the most venerable of the
nobles dressed the feet of the candidates in the sandals worn by the order,
which may remind us of the ceremony of buckling on the spurs of the
Christian knight. They were then allowed to assume the girdle or sash
around the loins, corresponding with the toga virilis of the Romans, and
intimating that they had reached the season of manhood. Their heads
were adorned with garlands of flowers, which, by their various colors,
were emblematic of the clemency and goodness that should grace the
character of every true warrior; and the leaves of an evergreen plant were
mingled with the flowers, to show that these virtues should endure without
end.30 The prince's head was further ornamented by a fillet, or tasselled
fringe, of a yellow color, made of the fine threads of the vicuna wool,
which encircled the forehead as the peculiar insignia of the heir apparent.
The great body of the Inca nobility next made their appearance, and,
beginning with those nearest of kin, knelt down before the prince, and did
him homage as successor to the crown. The whole assembly then moved
to the great square of the capital, where songs, and dances, and other
public festivities closed the important ceremonial of the huaracu.31

The reader will be less surprised by the resemblance which this
ceremonial bears to the inauguration of a Christian knight in the feudal
ages, if he reflects that a similar analogy may be traced in the institutions
of other people more or less civilized; and that it is natural that nations,
occupied with the one great business of war, should mark the period,
when the preparatory education for it was ended, by similar characteristic
ceremonies.
Having thus honorably passed through his ordeal, the heir-apparent was
deemed worthy to sit in the councils of his father, and was employed in