American Hero-Myths

ERS--OTHER NAMES AND TITLES OF VIRACOCHA--HIS WORSHIP A TRUE MONO

RIOUS INCIDENTS IN HIS LIFE--RELATION TO

S REPRESENTED AS WHITE AND BEARDED--THE MYTH OF CON AND PACHACAMAC--CONTICE VIRACOCHA--PRO

roughly said to have been 1500 miles in length, with an average width of 400 miles. The official and principal tongue was the Qquichua, the two other languages of importance being the Yunc

ral specimens of their poetical and dramatic compositions have been preserved, and indicate a correct taste. Although they did not posse

n one cycle of legends that of Infinite Creator, the Primal Cause; in another he is the beneficent teacher and wise ruler; in ot

f his own divinity, to wit, the glory of its far-shining rays; he had formed the Moon and given her light, and set her in the heavens to rule over the waters and the winds, over the queens of the earth and the parturition of women; and it was still he, the great Viracocha, who had created the beautiful Chasca, the Aurora, the Da

an usual charity for a persecuted race, that when these natives worshiped some swift river or pellucid spring, some mountain or grove, "it was not that they believed that some particular divinity was there, or that it was a living thing, but because they believed that the great God, Illa Ticci, had created and placed it there and impressed upon it some mark of distinction, beyond other objects

e soul to wander aimlessly in the infinite spaces, but that it should be conducted to some secure haven of contentment, where it might receive the sacrifices and offerings w

offered a child of six years, with a prayer for th

omfort, and give us victory in war, and keep to our Lord, the Inca, his great

s was offered up by the

Viracocha who gives the beginnings, Viracocha who encourages, Viracocha the always fortunate, V

ntial First Cause, infinite, incorporeal, invisible, above the sun,

and the living proof of language, are too strong to allow of doubt. The adjectives which were applied to this divinity by the native priests are still on record, and that they w

all things;"[10] the title Pachayachachi, which the Spanish writers render "Creator," really means the "Teacher of the World;" that of Caylla signifies "the Ever-present one;" Taripaca, which has been guessed to be the same as tarapaca, an eagle, is really a derivative of taripani, to sit in judgment, and was applied to Viracocha as the final arbiter of the actions and destinies of man. Another of his frequent appellations for whic

onveys strongly and positively the monotheistic idea.

votion of the adorer filled his soul, merely to the forgetfulness of other deities; or that it was simply the logical law of

he religion of Peru was a consciously monotheistic cult, every whi

n Informacion or Inquiry as to the ancient belief, instituted in 1571, by order of the viceroy Don Francisco de Toledo. The oldest Indians, especially those of noble birth, including many descendants of the Incas, were assembled at different times and in different parts of the country, and carefully questioned, through the official interpreter, as to just what the old religion was. The questions were not leading ones, and the repli

and its important statements had not been accessible to them, at any rate they could readily have learned the same lesson from the well known History of Father Joseph de Acosta. Tha

e, being idolized as the soul or essence of his descendants."[16] But in the Inquiry above quoted it is explained that the belief, in fact, was that the soul of the Inca went at death to the presen

that the Inca religion, in its purity, deserved the name of monotheism. The statements o

long to the religious language of ancient Peru. They express the conception of divinity which the thinkers of that people had formed. And whether it is thought to be in keeping or not with the rest of their development, it is our bounden duty to accept it, and explain it as best we can. Other instances might be quoted, from the

ty they had attained, become the Peruvian myths of the inca

. They appeared on the earth after it had been rescued from the primeval waters, and the face of the land was divided between them. Manco Capac took the North, Colla the South, Pinah

outlines, the most general myth, that which has been handed down by the most numerous authorities, and which they tell us was taken d

the others, Ayar Aucca (the enemy), and Ayar Uchu. Their father was the Sun, and the place of their birth, or rather of their appearance on earth, was Paccari-tampu, which means The House of the Morning or the Mansion of

ll, and glittered and shone like light. They were powerful and proud, and determined to rule the whole earth, and for this purpose divided it into four pa

of yellow gold. Like the glittering hoard which we read of in the lay of the Nibelung, the treasure brought with it the destruction of its owner, for his brothers, envious of the wondrous pile, persuaded Ayar Cachi to enter the cave where he kept his hoard, in order to bring out a certain vase, an

r Cachi, freed from the cave, and with great wings of brilliantly colored feathers, hovering like a bird in the air over their he

build a sumptuous temple to the Sun. As for me, I shall remain in the form in which you see me, and shall dwell in the mountain peak Guanacaure, ready to help you, and on that mountain you must build me an altar and make to me sacrifices

t which became the perpetual insignia of the reigning Inca. The remaining brothers were turned into stone, and Manco, assuming the title of Kapac, King, and the metaphorical surname of Pirhua, the Granary or Treasure house, founded t

ands, and each on his journey, like Itzamna in Yucatecan story, gave names to the places he passed, and also to all trees and herbs of the field, and to all fruits, and taught the people which were good for food, which of virtue as medicines, and which were poisonous and to be shunned. Thus they journeyed westward, imparting knowledge and doing good works, until they reached the western ocean, the great Pacific, whose

ynonym of Tocapu, as it is from the verb ttaniy or ttanini, and means He who Finishes completes or perfects, although, like several other of his names, the significance of this one has up

tribes an elderly man with flowing beard and abundant white hair, supporting himself on a staff and dressed in wide-spreading robes

ipal place in the province of the South, and began teaching the inhabitants; but they heeded him not, and seized him, and with insult and blows drove him from the town, so that he had to sleep in the open fields. Thereupon he cursed their town, and straightway it sank i

its people rich and proud, given to revelry, to drunkenness and dances. Little they cared for the words of the preacher, and they treated him with disdain. Then he turned upon them his an

utiful youth entered and said, "Fear not, I have come to call you in the name of the lady who is awaiting you, that you may go with her to the place of joys." With that he touched the fetters on Tunapa's limbs, and the ropes snapped asunder, and they went forth un

h. But I am not so discreet, and I vehemently suspect that the lady who was awaiting the virtuous Tunapa, was Chasca, the Dawn Maiden, she of the beautiful hair which distills the dew, a

und attention and delight. Therefore, as Tunapa was leaving he presented to the chief, as a reward for his hospitality and respect, the staff which had assisted his feeble limbs in many a journey. It was of no great seemliness, but upon it were inscribed characters of magic power, and the chief wisely cherished it among his treasures. It was well he did, for on the day of the birth of his next child the staff turned

anco Capac, leaving Pacari tampu, the Lodgings of the Dawn, became the sinchi, or heads of various noble houses and chiefs of tribes in the empire of the Incas. As for Manco, it is well known that with his golden wand he journeyed on, overcoming demons and destroying his enemies, until he reached the mountain over against the spot where the city of Cu

rose to heaven, and became the planet Jupiter, under the name Pirua. From

an actual historical personage. But it is evident that much that i

re his fate becomes obscure; but, adds Pachacuti, "I understand that he passed by the strait (of Panama) into the other sea (back toward the East). This is what is averred by the most ancient sages of the Inca line, (por aquellos ingas antiquissimos)." We may well believe he did; for t

dants, who were his messengers and soldiers. When he reached the sea, he and these his follo

Peru various ancient ruins, whose builders had been lost to memory, were pointed out to the Spaniards as the work of a white and bearded race who held the country in possession long before the Incas had founded their dynasty.[29] The explanation in

h the historian Herrera founded his narrative, are in the main identical with that which I have quoted fro

complexion, large in stature, and of venerable presence, whose power was boundless. He removed mountains, filled up valleys, caused fountains to burst from the solid rocks, and gave life to men and animals. Hence the people called him the "Beginning of all Created Things," and "Father of the Sun." Many good works he performed, bringing order

them fire from heaven, which burned their village and scorched the mountains into cinders. Then they threw away their weapons and begged of him to deliver them from the danger, which he did[30]. He passed on toward the West until he reached the shore of the s

lation must be "Lake or Sea of Fat." This was shown by Garcilasso de la Vega, in his Royal Commentaries, and as he could see no sense or propriety in applying such a term as "Lake of Grease" to the Supreme Divinity, he rejected this derivation, and contented himself by saying that the meaning of the name was totally unknown.[32] In t

acheco Zegarra, who, in the introduction to his most excellent edition of the Drama of Ollanta?, maintains that Viracocha, literally "Lake of Fat," was a simile a

his name was derived, which means, taken literally, 'Lake of Fat;' by extension, however, the word mean

d when the primeval ocean left the land dry, but he was universally described as of fair complexion, a white man. Strange, indeed, it is that these people who had never seen a member of

in flowing robes and of imposing mien. His robes were also white, and thus he was figured at the entrance of one of his most celebrated temples, that of Urcos. His image at that place was of a man with a white robe falling to his waist, and thence to his feet; by him, cut in stone, were his birds, the eagle and the falcon.[37] So, also, on a certain occasion when he was said

of Illa Ticci Viracocha. It contained only one altar, and upon it a marble statue of the god. This is described as being, "b

omparatively recent origin.[40] La Vega, who could not understand the name of the divinity, and, moreover, either knew little about the ancient religion, or else concealed his knowledge (as is shown by his reiterated statement that human sacrifices w

in the main, correct. It is supported by a similar account given by Acosta, of the famous Huayna Capac. Indeed, they read so much alike that they are probably repetitions of teachings familiar to the nobles and higher p

They are indications of the evolution of religious thought, and go to show that the monotheistic ideas which

n as a distinct deity. He is said to have come from the north, to have been without bones, muscles or members, to have the power of running with infinite swiftness, and to have leveled mountains, filled up valleys, and deprived

on had formed were changed by Pachacamac into brutes, and others created who were the ancestors of the present race. These he supplied with what was necessary for their support, and taugh

nificance to be mistaken. Unfortunately it has been handed down in so fragmentary a condition th

ver, would seem an appropriate name for the first creator of things. But the myth itself, and the description of the deity, incorporeal and swift, bringer at one time of the fertilizing rains, at another of the drought, seems to point unmistakably to a god of the winds. Linguistic analogy bears this out

rved that this "was evidently one of the great religious centres of the primitive peoples of Peru." Here is found an enormous block of granite, very curiously carved to facilitate the dispersion of a liquid poured on its summit into varied streams and to quaint receptacles. Whether the liquid was the blood of victims, the intoxicating

been one of the names of Viracocha,[47] and in a sacred song preserved by Garcilasso de la Vega he is appe

ich local tradition attribute to his worship, and by the customs of the natives.[49] For instance, at the birth of a child it was formally offered to him and his protection solicited. On reaching some a

ve, by the supposition that Viracocha was the Lord of the Wind as well as of the Light. Like all the other light gods, and deities of the cardinal points, he was at the same time the wind from them. What has been saved from the ancient mythology is enough to show this, but not enough to allow

mind, words of warning from solemn and antique songs, foretelling that other Viracochas, men of fair complexion and flowing beards, would some day come from the Sun, the father of existent nature, and subject the empire to their rule. When the great Inca, Huayna Capac, was on his death-bed, he recalled these prophecies, and impres

s to their reality, or as to their significance. They are again the expression of the expected return of the Light-God, after his departure and disappearance in the western horizon. Modifications of what was originally a statement of a sim

to life. Precisely as in ancient Egypt the literal belief in the resurrection of the body led to the custom of preserving the corpses with the most sedulous care,

was tha

earth in his bodily form. Then he would restore the dead to life, and they should enj

e llama herdsmen of the punas, and the fishermen of the lakes, the common salutation to strangers of a fair skin and blue eyes is 'Tai-tai Viracocha.'"[52] Even if this is used now, as M. Wiener seems to think,[53] merely as a servile

J. von Tschudi?[54] I think not. The great events of nature, day and night, storm and sunshine, are everywhere the same, and the impressions they produced on the minds of this race were the same, whether the scene was in the forests of the north temperate zone, amid the palms of the tropics, or on the lofty and barren plateaux

guin, Vocabulario de la Lengua Qquichua ó del Inga (Ciudad de los Reyes, 1608). Ticci is not to be conf

umbres Antiguos de los Naturales del Piru,

3: Ibid.

4: Ibid.

5: Ibid.

istoria de las Indias,

Incas, p. 29. Molina gives the original Qquichua, the transla

ci Viracocha, que yo no se que signifique, ni ellos tampoco."

. iii, cap. vi; Acosta, Historia, Natural y Mo

lina, The Fables and Rites of

Relacion Anónima, gives this name Tocapu; Christoval de Molina (ubi sup.) spells it Tocapo; La Vega Tocay; Molin

storia de las Indias, p.

ina, The Fables and Rites of th

ue ansi lo dicen y declaran por cosa muy cierta y verdadera." Information de las Idolatras de los Incas é Indios, in the Coleccion de Documentos Ineditos del Archivo de Indias, vol. xxi, p. 198. Other witnesses said: "Los dichos Ingas y sus antepasados t

racocha. * * Despues del Viracocha, o supremo Dios, fui, y es en los infieles, el que mas comunmente vene

eographical Society, 1871, p. 291. Pacarina is the presen

Informacion,

de la Vega, Comentarios R

e los tiempos de Guascar i de Atahualpa; * * * cuentan los Indios del Cuzco mas viejos, etc.," re

e la Lengva Qquichua, sub voce, cachipuni. The names differ little in Herrera (who, however, omits Uchu), Montesinos,

gives paccarin, the morning, paccar

our, from tahua, four; suyu, d

de Molina, Fables and R

n of many plans (Bertonio, Vocabulario, s.v.). "Thunnupa," as Bertonio spells it, does not lend itself to any obvious etymology in Aymara, which is further evidence that the name was introduced from the Qquichua. This is by no means a singular example of the identity of religious thought and terms between these nations. In comparing the two tongues, M. Alcide D'Orbigny long since observed: "On retrouve même à peu prés un vingtième des mots qui ont evidemment la même origine, surtout ceux

ra insignia real del Inca." Holguin, Vocabvl

." Ollantai, Introd., p. xxv. It was distinctly the huzca, or sacred fetish of the Incas, and they were figuratively said to have descended

th the planet Jupiter is mentioned in the Relacion

, Origen de los Indi

os Indios comarcanos quien hizo aquella antigualla, responden que otras gentes barbadas y blancas como nosotros: los cuales, muchos

tribe lived at the Conquest. Pachacuti states that the cause of the anger of Viracocha was that upon the Sierra there was the statue of a woman to whom human victims

ia de las Indias Occidentales

sino proprio de aquella fantasma que dijó llamarse Viraco

o Narratives of the Rites an

e sanskrite est si frappante," etc. Desjardins, Le Pe

and thus the Ra of Egypt," etc. Professor John Campbell, Compte-Rend

There was a class of diviners in Peru who foretold the future by inspecting the

stoval de Molina,

de la Vega, Comentarios R

Relacion ano

* * Dos siglos contaba el culto de Viracocha á la llegada de los Espa?oles

ios Reales, Lib. ii, cap. iv; Lib. iv, cap. xxi, xxiii, with that in

rios Reales, Pt. i, L

de Gomara, Historia de las Ind

, rain), one with clouds of dust, allpa conchuy (allpa, eart

rou et Bolivie, p.

livie, p. 282, seq; from the notes of M. Angrand, by Desjardins, Le Perou avant la

atural y Moral de las In

ntarios Reales, Li

nion de que era la Deidad popular y acatada por las masas peruanas; mientras que la religion del Sol era la de la corte, culto que, por mas adoptado que fuese entre los Indios, nunca llegó á desarraigar la fe y la devocion al Numen primitivo. En effecto, en todas las relaciones de la vida de los Indios, resa

ps. xiv, xv; Cieza de Leon, Relacion, MS. in Prescott, Conquest of P

ierra, y habia de resucitar esos muertos, y que estos habian de bibir en esta tierra.". Information de las

. Squier, Travels

Wiener, Perou et

Extrait du 24eme vol. de la Revue Generale d'Architecture, 1866. Von Tschudi, Das Ollantadrama, p. 177-9. The latter says: "Der von dem Pl