Besides the virgins who professed perpetual virginity in the monasteries, there were many women of the blood royal who led the same life in their own houses, having taken a vow of chastity, though they were not secluded; for they did not cease to visit their nearest relations when they were sick, or in childbirth, or when their first-borns were shorn and named. These women were held in great veneration for their chastity and purity, and, as a mark of worship and respect, they were called Ocllo, which was a name held sacred in their idolatry. The chastity of these women was not feigned, but was truly observed, on pain of being burnt alive if it was lost, or of being cast into the lake of lions. I myself was acquainted with one of these women, when she was in extreme old age, and who, having never married, was called Ocllo. She sometimes visited my mother, and I was given to understand that she was her great aunt, being a sister of her grandfather. She was held in great veneration and was given the first place, and I am witness that my mother so treated her, as well because she was her aunt, as on account of her age and purity of life.

The chastity of the widows must not be forgotten, which they preserved, with great strictness, during the first year of their bereavement, and very few of those who had no children ever married again, and even those who had continued to live single; for this virtue was much commended in their laws and ordinances.