This feast is made comming from the chacra or farme unto the house,
saying certaine songs, and praying that the Mays (maize) may long
continue, the which they call Mama cora.

What a chance this word offers to etymologists of the old school: how
promptly they would recognise, in mama mother--[Greek], and in
cora--[Greek], the Mother and the Maiden, the feast of Demeter and
Persephone! However, the days of that old school of antiquarianism are
numbered. To return to the Peruvian harvest home:--

They take a certaine portion of the most fruitefull of the Mays that
growes in their farmes, the which they put in a certaine granary which
they do calle Pirua, with certaine ceremonies, watching three nightes;
they put this Mays in the richest garments they have, and, being thus
wrapped and dressed, they worship this Pirua, and hold it in great
veneration, saying it is the Mother of the Mays of their inheritances,
and that by this means the Mays augments and is preserved. In this
moneth they make a particular sacrifice, and the witches demand of
this Pirua, 'if it hath strength sufficient to continue until the next
yeare,' and if it answers 'no,' then they carry this Mays to the farme
to burne, whence they brought it, according to every man's power, then
they make another Pirua, with the same ceremonies, saying that they
renue it, to the ende that the seede of the Mays may not perish.

The idea that the maize can speak need not surprise us; the Mexican held
much the same belief, according to Sahagun:--

It was thought that if some grains of maize fell on the ground, he who
saw them lying there was bound to lift them, wherein, if he failed, he