All these nations were familiar with gold and silver, but they used them
as sacred metals for the adornment of the temples of the sun and moon.
The color of gold was something of the color of the sun's rays, while
the color of silver resembled the pale light of the moon, and hence they
were respectively sacred to the gods of the sun and moon. And this is
probably the origin of the comparative value of these metals: they
became the precious metals because they were the sacred metals, and gold
was more valuable than silver--just as the sun-god was the great god of
the nations, while the mild moon was simply an attendant upon the sun.
The Peruvians called gold "the tears wept by the sun." It was not used
among the people for ornament or money. The great temple of the sun at
Cuzco was called the "Place of Gold." It was, as I have shown, literally
a mine of gold. Walls, cornices, statuary, plate, ornaments, all were of
gold; the very ewers, pipes, and aqueducts--even the agricultural
implements used in the garden of the temple--were of gold and silver.
The value of the jewels which adorned the temple was equal to one
hundred and eighty millions of dollars! The riches of the kingdom can be
conceived when we remember that from a pyramid in Chimu a Spanish
explorer named Toledo took, in 1577, $4,450,284 in gold and silver.
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