Encyclopedia of the Incas

used in marriage rituals, offerings, sacrifice, and burned with coca leaves for
divination. Camelid bones were fashioned into tools for working leather and
weaving textiles. Sandal soles were created from llama hides softened with fat,
skins were used as water containers, and slings were made from tendons. Dung
was used for fuel and fertilizer. Young llama bucks, packed with loads of up to
29 kilograms (65 pounds), were driven in dry season caravans that traveled an
average of 17.7 kilometers (11 miles) from daybreak to noon when they stopped
for water and pasture. Crown herds were primarily used in army campaigns to
carry supplies and tribute goods, and were eaten or offered as tribute. Camelid
fiber, a state prerogative, was deposited in storehouses and issued to subject
peoples who, as a function of their labor obligation, reciprocated with woven
cloth. Alpacas provided the major source of Inca fiber, while llama fiber was
used for making ropes and coarser cloth.
Llamas were preferred for ritual use and served as multipurpose sacrificial
offerings. Garcilaso mentions that young llamas were the most esteemed solar
sacrifices. Male llamas and barren ewes followed in order of preference, while
the magistrate Juan Polo Ondegardo mentioned that fertile females were never
sacrificed. Llamas were the most important animals in the Inca religious cycle.
They were roasted and consumed in feasts during elite funerals. Llamas were
sacrificed during eclipses, full moon ceremonies, investitures, before and after
wars, and to ensure good harvests. Llama viscera, in particular, were important
for prognostication.
Domesticated dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) were early introductions into the
western hemisphere from Asia and may have descended from ancestral Eurasian
gray wolves (C. lupus). Illustrations such as those accompanying the chronicle
of Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala often depict Inca dogs with a medium-sized
body, short legs, pointed snout and ears, long curly tail, and short hair. Early
attempts to classify Native American dog breeds recognized this Inca dog along
with long-haired and pug-nosed varieties. Dogs in the Inca world were likely
little more than omnipresent companions and scavengers, despite the chronicler
Garcilaso’s assertion that they held religious importance among many pre-Inca
people. The Huarochirí Manuscript (see Avila, Francisco de) relates how the
Huanca people of the central highlands were transformed into “dog eaters” upon
the defeat of their deity Huallallo Carhuincho whom they propitiated with dogs.
Dogs also figured in Inca history and cosmology. An early document by Agustín
de Zárate recounts the story of provisioned caves used by the Inca to escape a
universal flood, from which they sent dogs to test whether the waters had