2-889-475 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Peruvian Mummies, 1850. 'Two days' journey from Calama lies an old Peruvian burial-place, called Chin-Chin. The bodies are there in a semicircle, to the number of 500 or 600 - men, women, and children - all in a sitting posture, staring vacantly forward, and partly decayed, partly covered with sand...The general opinion is, that these bodies were buried here, but it is most probable that they buried themselves. For, in the first place, there is no place near where they could have lived; and, secondly, there are amongst these mummies several women with sucklings at their breast. Lastly, the fact of their being all in the same position, and with an expression of pain, which is yet visible on their countenances, may serve to shew that these miserable creatures withdrew themselves from the ravages of the Spaniards, and, in despair, sought death in this awful wilderness.' From "Illustrated London News", 1850.