The Peruvian sun-worshippers preserved the harmony between their recurrent festivals and the true solar time, by a ruder process of adjustment than that which was devised by the remarkable proficiency of the Aztec priests in astronomical science. Nevertheless, they too had their secular festival of Raymi, held annually at the period of the summer solstice. For three days previous a general fast prevailed, the fire on the great altar of the sun went out, and in all the dwellings of the land no hearth was kindled. As the dawn of the fourth day approached, the Inca, surrounded by his nobles, who came from all parts of the country to join in the solemn celebration, assembled in the great square of the capital to greet the rising sun. The temple of the national deity presented its eastern portal to the earliest rays, emblazoned with his golden image, thickly set with precious stones; and as the first beams of the morning were reflected back from this emblem of the sun-god, songs of triumph mingled with the jubilant shout of his worshippers. Then after various rites of adoration, preparations were made for rekindling the sacred fire. But this, with the Peruvians, was done by a process far in advance of that retained by the Aztec priests. The rays of the sun, collected into a focus by a concave mirror of polished metal, were made to inflame a heap of dried cotton; and a llama was sacrificed as a burnt-offering to the sun. Only in the case of the sky being overcast did the priests resort to friction for rekindling the altar; but the hiding of his countenance by the god of day was regarded as little less ominous than the extinction of the sacred fire, which it became the duty of the virgins of the sun to guard throughout the year. A slaughter of the llama flocks of the sun furnished a universal banquet; and, while the god was propitiated by offerings of fruit and flowers, there appear to have been some rare occasions on which the sacrifice of a human victim—a beautiful maiden or a child,—gave to this graceful anniversary a nearer resemblance to the appalling rites of Aztec worship.