The Fall of the Golden Empire (Novel) (Volume 1) "Bloody Sunset" by Zhang Baotong
Inca weddings were usually held in temples. The weddings of kings and princes were held in the Sun Temple. The wedding officially begins when the first ray of the sun hits the earth.
Since last night, many women have gathered in the recently renovated exquisite and elegant Yafei Pavilion courtyard. There are Princess Parya, the mother of King Atahualpa, Yina, Uga and many other princesses, as well as Princess Anna Yama’s aunts, aunts and sisters. They are all helping her make various preparations. Late at night, everyone let Princess Anna take a nap. At the third watch, they woke up Princess Anna and started to dress her up. Princess Yina combed her hair, Princess Uga changed her clothes, and someone else put on light makeup for her. She suddenly became much more beautiful.
At five o'clock, the soldiers of the palace guard were already at the gate of the small courtyard to pick her up in the sedan chair. Accompanied by everyone, she got on the sedan chair and came to the Sun Temple. At this time, the square was already crowded with people. People singing, dancing and reveling blocked the road leading to the temple. The soldiers opened a narrow passage through the crowd, allowing them to pass through and enter the gate of the Sun Temple.
Entering a lounge next to the main hall of the Temple of the Sun, she saw that her husband, Atahualpa, had arrived and was asking about the preparations for the wedding to the high priest of the palace, Riti Kaleba. Seeing Princess Anna Yama entering the house, Prince Atahualpa came over and took Princess Anna's hand and said, "My little dove, you are so beautiful." After saying this, he held Princess Anna's hand in front of everyone. The princess embraced her and kissed her, then made her sit beside her and spoke to her affectionately.
After a while, the high priest of the palace, Letika Leba, said to the prince, "It is already dawn, and the sun will come out soon."
"We're all ready," Atahualpa said.
Litika Leba asked the two of them to walk hand in hand in front of the Sun Temple, waiting for dawn to break. After a while, the horn sounded. The golden light of the sun shone brightly from the eastern sky. But because of the clouds, the entire sky was not illuminated.
Prince Atahualpa held Princess Anna's hand and was embraced by a group of princes and nobles as they walked out of the gate of the Temple of the Sun, and then entered the square along a passage opened by a queue of soldiers. The princes and nobles lined up in an open space under the high platform. And Prince Atahualpa led Princess Anna up to the high platform. The high platform is built with huge stones, about twenty meters long, ten meters wide, and three to four meters high. It is used by the king to receive people when worshiping the sun god.
The prince wore yellow tassels, a red gown and brocade clothing that reached his knees, and a square shawl with two long diagonal strips as a cloak. These clothes are woven from the finest Inca alpaca wool. There are many blue ribbons on the brocade dress, royal flowers are printed on the chest, and the skirt is bordered in purple. The lower body is wearing a purple skirt with simple floral patterns embroidered on it. This is the most typical and noble costume of the Inca royal family.
Princess Anna Yama is wearing a pure white dress. Although the color is single, the dress has many flower-like wrinkles and patterns, which makes her appear to have broad breasts and a small waist, while the bottom of the skirt is always dragging on the ground. It makes the slim princess look very graceful and elegant. The dress is very thin, shiny, and made of pure white camel wool. This dress is very noble and elegant, making the princess look even more pure and holy.
The high platform is covered with a red carpet and surrounded by colorful flowers. It can be said that there are colorful ribbons and colorful flowers. In the square, there were thousands of colorful flags and drums and trumpets. When Prince Quito and Princess Anna walked hand in hand to the stage and waved to people, they saw deafening cheers from the sea of people, "Celebrate, celebrate! Celebrate!"
Suddenly, a blast of joyful horns sounded through the sky, and the cheers suddenly fell silent. The noble, elderly and highly respected high priest of the palace, Letikaleba, walked up to the prince and princess and said in a loud voice, "Today is the happy day for Prince Atahualpa and Princess Anna Yama to get married. Now, Let us express our blessings to Prince Atahualpa and Princess Anna Yama with our best wishes and the highest respect." As he said, he walked between the two relatives and held Prince Atahualpa's hand with one hand. , took Queen Anna Yama's hand with one hand, raised it high, and then put their hands together again, letting their hands hold tightly. This is the clearest expression of marriage between Inca men and women. As their hands clasped together, long-lasting cheers erupted in the square again.
When the cheers lasted for a few minutes, Prince Atahualpa waved to the people, asking them to quiet down, and said loudly, "People of the Kingdom of Quito, my father, Emperor Huayna Capac, expressed his gratitude to Quito. He had a deep affection for this land. He loved this land and its people. Therefore, he lived almost all the rest of his life in Quito. And my grandfather turned out to be the king of the Kingdom of Quito. My mother is the princess of the Kingdom of Quito, so I have half of Quito’s blood. So, I love Quito, and I love you.” At this point, cheers rang out in the square that lasted for several minutes, “Quito. Prince of many, Prince of Quito.”
Then, Prince Atahualpa said, "Today I am getting married to Ana Yama, the most beautiful, intelligent and noble princess of the Inca Kingdom. This is a combination of Quito's martial arts and Inca wisdom. I, Prince Atahualpa, am not the only one." It is an honor for you and the entire Kingdom of Quito." Thunderous cheers rang out in the square again, "Prince of Quito, Prince of Quito."
After the people calmed down, Prince Atahualpa waved to the people again and said, "Today is the wedding day of Princess Anna Yama and I, and it is also the day of the winter solstice and sun festival of the year. I ask all the priests in the city to We must pray for everyone and every family in the Kingdom of Quito. I wish you peace and tranquility, abundant children and grandchildren, abundant harvests, and happiness and good health!" People in the square began to cheer enthusiastically again, "Bless the prince, bless the princess."
Prince Quito waved to the people again, and then led his princess bride to start walking towards the bottom of the high platform. When the prince and princess came down to the square, people cheered louder. At this time, the princes and nobles, the chiefs and governors of various provinces and districts who were standing in line under the stage followed the passage built with the bodies of the palace guards and surrounded the prince and princess and walked towards the Sun Temple.
After entering the Sun Temple, because women were not allowed to enter the temple hall, Princess Anna Yama entered the lounge accompanied by her female relatives. Prince Atahualpa and his princes lined up in a long line, barefooted, and entered the temple hall according to their official positions and began to worship their ancestors.
There is a radiant sun made of gold in the center of the wall on the front of the main hall of the Sun Temple. This is their Sun Father. One by one, they walked to the Father of the Sun and knelt before him, chanting, "Thank you, the Father of the Sun, for giving us life and wealth." Then, they went to the Incas in order from the first king to the twelfth king. Kneel down and worship the golden statues of the king sitting on both sides of the hall.
After that, they entered the Moon Temple, which was much smaller than the Sun Temple. On the front wall is a statue of the moon made of silver. There are gold statues of queens in the past dynasties in the small temple. Prince Quito and his princes and ministers also bowed to each queen in the same way.
After leaving the Moon Temple, they went to the Star Temple, Thunder Rain Temple and Rainbow Temple to worship. After the worship, the princes and ministers entered the ceremonial hall next to the main hall of the Sun Temple. The Prince of Funds went straight back to the lounge. After sitting for a while, Haya came over and said to Atahualpa, "The high priest of the palace said that the princes and ministers are waiting at the ceremonial hall, and he wants you and the princess to go there now."
Prince Atahualpa and Princess Anna walked towards the ceremonial hall next to the Temple of the Sun with the royal family members and concubines beside them. The ceremonial hall is about the same size as the main hall of the Sun Temple and is specially used for weddings and ceremonies of royal family members, princes and nobles. Atahualpa and Princess Anna entered the hall. There are about forty large square tables in the hall, and each table is filled with delicacies and delicacies. Some food was specially sent by post from other provinces or along the coast, so some of the delicacies had never been seen or heard of by many officials. But no one had entered the banquet hall yet.
The high priest of the palace, Letika Leba, asked the two of them to stand on one side of the hall, followed by several palace maids. Before the prince could understand what was going on, he saw the princes, nobles, chiefs and governors of various provinces lining up, walking towards them with various gifts. Walking at the front was Prince Kiskis, holding a small piece of glass in his hand. Glass could be used as a mirror. At that time, only Europeans had it, and the Incas had never seen it. This was a gift from a provincial chief. He walked up to the prince and princess and said, "Congratulations to the prince and princess on their marriage. Congratulations." As he said that, he handed the gift in his hand to the palace etiquette personnel standing beside the prince and princess.
The prince and princess nodded to Prince Kiskis to express their gratitude. At this time, Princess Anna asked for the piece of glass from the palace etiquette staff and looked at it curiously, and saw her young and beautiful face revealed on the glass. She stared at the glass for a long time. At this time, several princes had already presented gifts and walked towards the banquet. However, Princess Anna did not care about all other gifts, but she only liked this piece of glass. So, she just put the piece of glass in her pocket.
There were three to four hundred princes and ministers who came to present gifts. After they presented gifts, they sat at the banquet table in order and waited quietly. Therefore, from here you can listen to the singing and carnival coming from the square. After everyone had finished presenting their gifts, the high priest of the palace, Letikaleba, took the prince and princess to a banquet table in the center of the hall. This table is different from all other tables in that it is a long table made of gold. The long table is about two meters long and less than one meter wide. Opposite him sat Prince Kiskis, Prince Luminawi, Prince Gilabamba and the High Priest of the Chalkuchima Palace.
Seeing the prince and princess arriving at the banquet table, everyone in the hall stood up and rushed to pay tribute to the prince and princess. The prince waved his hands to everyone and motioned for everyone to sit down.
After everyone sat down, the prince said to everyone, "I am very happy that you can come to attend my wedding to Princess Anna. Today is our annual Sun Festival again, which can be said to be even more joyous."
At this time, a young palace maid brought two glasses of wine on a round plate, handed one to the prince and one to the princess. The newlyweds picked up their wine glasses, clinked them, and drank them all in one gulp. Afterwards, King Atahualpa raised his hands and said loudly to the officials in the hall, "On this day of great joy and congratulations, my Princess Anna Yama and I propose a toast to everyone, and please enjoy your spree. Drink and get drunk before you rest." The prince and princess toasted everyone and waved for everyone to sit down. Everyone sat down respectfully and began to eat and drink in a leisurely manner.
The prince and princess began to clink glasses with Prince Chiskis, Prince Luminawi, Prince Gilabamba, High Priest Chalkuchma and High Priest Liticaleba who were sitting across the table. After drinking, we had another conversation with them. Prince Atahualpa stood up, waved to everyone, and left the banquet hall with Princess Anna Yama.
Prince Atahualpa took Princess Anna Yama out of the ceremonial banquet hall of the Sun Temple, and came out of the back door of the Sun Temple surrounded by many relatives and concubines. At this time, someone had taken their shoes and socks from outside the temple door. They put on their shoes and socks, got on the sedan chair carried by the palace guards, and walked towards the palace along an alley that led directly to the palace. At this time, you can still hear people singing and dancing enthusiastically in the square not far away.
