Machu-Pichu, heart of the Inca empire, May 1462
Preparations for the Inti Raymi festival are well under way. The monsoon is over and the peasants are bringing gifts. They arrive in their numbers along the fabled Inca Trail that feeds the east coast of South America and the Andes mountain range. From high up in his gazebo, the Inca king Yupan gazes fondly at the Sacred Valley through which flows the river Urubamba. Crowds are converging on the capital Cuzco and though the sight of so many people would normally delight the king, he remains pensive. Remarks have been addressed to him by members of society’s elite in response to the king’s decision to allow a priestess to preside over the celebrations.
It is customary for this grand ceremony to be officiated by shaman priests, but the king has decreed that the year will be placed under the aegis of the moon, in accordance with ancestral customs that he wishes to preserve. His decision is not met with approval. The Sun and Gold, symbols of masculinity, are worshipped; the Moon and Silver symbolize femininity and hence the priestess’ role will be legitimized and her power reaffirmed. But to whom will the role be assigned?
How will he choose among those few aspirants who have honoured the function of priestess since the ancient Mochicas? Moreover, the chosen priestess is to carry out her rituals in the sanctuary of Pisat and is therefore called upon to create a link between the gifts offered up by the kingdom and the deities so as to assure the protection of the gods.
With his eyes fixed on a valley between two massive peaks, the king recalls that one of his emissaries revealed to him that beyond the mountains among the Taïnos people, an alloy of copper and gold, the tumbaga, is greatly appreciated for the variations of its colours and for its scent. Sensitive as he is to the latter, it occurs to him to choose between the priestesses according to the perfume each one wears, evoking as though by magic the entire territory of the Inca people.
The task is made more difficult as there is little time left and only a perfume thought out and matured over time will fulfil his wish. A young lady is chosen for her perfectly balanced fragrance but the source of her skill in elaborating the fragrance will remain unknown. She recounts that she has been inspired by numerous aromas to be found in the circular terracing over which the Incas possess such mastery Its citrus head notes come from oranges bursting with ripeness from the sun God; the heart notes are carried by the Pacific seaspray while the base notes mix with chocolate, a fruit of the Inca people’s commercial exchanges with Amazonia and Guyana.
In the final moments of her dance routine, the priestess carries out a graceful movement of the arms and, with a sculpted flask, releases upwards a cloud that perfumes the air to the very edges of the sanctuary with her magnificent fragrance.
The celebration is a resounding success and the formula jealously guarded so that every subsequent Moon year the perfume will be used uniquely to embalm the sanctuary The Gods fell under its charm and blessed the land with clement weather to assure abundant crops year after year.
A century later, this balance was upset by the advent of Pizarro’s conquistadors. Fortunately, not everything was pillaged and not far from Magdalena de Cao, a young woman was exhumed 1700 years after her mummification.
She is known as the “Lady of Cao” and has been conferred the highest rank in honour of her beauty, her courage and her piety.
It has been said that, on opening the sarcophagus, archaeologists were surprised by a magnificent fragrance from ages gone by.
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