Rotten Teeth and a Metal Pin

Today we went to a museum named Museo Santuarios Andinos. It was a museum that had a frozen child on display. How they froze the child was simple. This is back when the Inkas lived in Peru. Sometimes the mountain gods got angry. They would make eruptions or earthquakes in Peru. So the Inkas had only one choice to make the earthquakes or eruptions stop in Peru. So they would take a popular child, or a princess, and they would get them drunk and everybody would hike to the top of a mountain with the ruler and the chosen child in the front. The mountain was called Nevado Ampanto, a snow covered volcano. The whole time the people were walking, the ruler was carrying a big long stick with a big rock on the end that was shaped like a star. When the Inkas stopped at the top they built a fire and the child was given a drink that put the child asleep. Then the ruler would raise the big stick and bash it on the child's head. Then they burried the child on the mountain and walked back down the mountain hoping that the child would make the gods happy and they would stop the earthquakes and eruptions.

Well I guess I should now tell you a bout the musem we went to. They found about 20 children on the many mountains in the Andes, the most popular one was named Juanita. She was a maiden and a princess of the Inkas. They were not showing her because she was being studied. Inside the musem ther was mostly the stuff that they burried with Juanita. Inside there was alot of clay pots with beautiful old designs. In the Inka's time the king and the queen would wear special clothes than everybody else. The queen would wear a dress and a shawl with a big metal pin that would fasten the shawl together. The king would wear the sam, but with pants and a shirt. The pin was sharp at the end and had a curve at the other end. They could be gold, copper, silver, and bronze. The frozen child we got to see on display was the oldest girl of the lot. She was 16 and she had ice all around her. But her teeth were rotten. They were brown and white teeth.

I had learned alot about the museum and I was glad.