The island of Coata, a league to the eastward of Titicaca, was dedicated to the Moon, the name being derived from Coyata, the accusative of Coya, a queen; the Moon ranking as wife to the Sun. The ruins of the _Accla huasi_, or convent of virgins, on Coata island, are 120 feet long, the interior being divided into numerous cells, with rows of niches in the walls. They are now overshadowed by queñua-trees, whose dark foliage adds to the sombre melancholy of these silent memorials of the past. On both the islands there were, in the time of the Incas, large establishments of Virgins of the Sun, who were divided into three grades, according to their beauty. The most lovely were called _Guayruro_; the next _Yurac Aclla_, or white maidens; and the plain ones _Paco Aclla_, or beast maidens. Each grade was governed by a _Mamacona_ or nurse, and an _Apu-panaca_ or governor lived near the convent, who guarded it, and supplied its inmates with provisions. The occupations of the virgins were weaving, embroidery, and brewing sacrificial _chicha_, to be poured out on the altar of the deity.[158]
After the conquest, the Spanish Viceroys handed over the province of Chucuito, and the islands in the lake, to the Dominican friars, who succeeded in introducing far grosser and more degrading superstitions amongst the Indians than they had ever practised on the islands of Titicaca and Coata; and in establishing, on the adjacent peninsula of Copacabana, a shrine, the pretended sanctity of which attracted devotees and rich presents from all parts of Spanish America.
Its origin appears to have been as follows:--A member of the family of the Incas, named Francisco Titu Yupanqui, not having money enough to buy an image of the Virgin for his church, painted a very bad picture, and the cura, Antonio de Almeida, either to please the Indian, or because there were few images or pictures in the country, allowed it to be placed near the altar. But the next cura, Antonio de Montoro, seeing that it caused more laughter than devotion, ordered it to be put in a corner of the sacristy. The poor artist then went to Potosi to learn to paint, and, after much labour, he succeeded in completing a picture which, the moment it was placed in the church at Copacabana, began to work miracles. It was set up in 1583, and the Inca painter died in 1608. The first thing the picture did was to banish all devils out of the province, and to cure many Indians of their diseases; and its fame became so great that in 1588 the Count of Villar, viceroy of Peru, solemnly delivered it to the care of the Augustine friars by a royal edict. Between 1589 and 1652 it is said to have performed 186 miracles. One Alonzo de Escote, for favours received, saved up money for the purpose of giving the Virgin a lamp, and at length he presented the richest then to be found in the Spanish colonies, twenty feet long, with sockets for as many candles as there are days in the year, all of solid silver. Even as late as 1845, when Dr. Weddell saw the church, it was very richly gilt.