Chapter 5 Part 2, The QQuichua Hero-God Viracocha

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Section seventeen, Chapter five, Part two of American Hero Myths.
This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Linda Sonrisa Jones. American

(00:23):
Hero Myths, A study in the Native religions of the
Western Continent by Daniel Garrison Brinton, Chapter five, Part two.
The Quechewa hero god Viracocha. In the mythology of the
Quechewas and apparently also of the Aymairas, the leading figure

(00:44):
is Viracocha. His august presence is in one cycle of
legends that of infinite Creator, the primal Cause. In another,
he is the beneficent teacher and wise ruler. In other words,
he too, like Ketzukuwato and the others whom I have
told about, is at one time God and at others

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the incarnation of God as the first cause and ground
of all things. Viracocha's distinctive epithet was Tichi the Cause,
the beginning, or Eatchi the ancient cause, the first beginning
and endeavor. In words, to express the absolute priority of

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his essence and existence. He it was who had made
and molded the Sun, and endowed it with a portion
of 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

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the earth, and the parturition of women. And it was
still he, the great Viracocha, who had created the beautiful Chasca,
the Aurora, the dawn goddess of all unspotted maidens, like
herself her, who in turn decked the fields and woods
with flowers, whose time was the gloaming and the twilight,

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whose messengers were the fleecy clouds which sail through the sky,
and who, when she shakes her clustering hair, drops noiselessly
pearls of dew on the green grass fields. Invisible and
incorporeal himself, so also were his messengers, the light rays

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called Waminka, the faithful soldiers, and high high Panti, the
shining ones, who conveyed his decrees to every part. He
himself was omnipresent, imparting motion and life, form an existence
to all that is. Therefore, it was, says an old

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writer with more than usual insight into man's moral nature,
with more than usual charity for a persecuted race. That
when these natives worship 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

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God Ilatchi had created and placed it there, and impressed
upon it some mark of distinction beyond other objects of
its class, that it might thus be designated as an
appropriate spot whereat to worship the maker of all things.
And this is manifest from the prayers they uttered when
engaged in adoration, because they are not addressed to that

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mountain or river or cave, but to the great et
Iyatichi Viracocha, who they believed lived in the heavens and
yet was invisibly present in that sacred object. In the
prayers for the dead, Iyatichi was appealed to to protect
the body, that it should not seek corruption or become

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lost in the earth, and that he should not allow
the 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 which loving
hands laid upon the tomb. Were other gods also called upon,

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It was that they might intercede with the Supreme Divinity
in favor of these petitions of mortals to him. Likewise,
the chief priest at certain times offered a child of
six years with a prayer for the prosperity of the Inca.
In such terms as these, O, Lord, we offer thee

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this child, in order that thou wilt maintain us in comfort,
and give us victory in war, and keep to our
lord the Inca, his greatness and his state, and grant
him wisdom that he may govern us righteously. Or such
a prayer as this was offered up by the assembled multitude. Oh, Viracocha,

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ever present, Viracocha, cause of all, Viracocha, the helper, the
ceaseless worker, Viracocha, who gives the beginnings, Viracocha, who encourages Viracocha,
the always fortunate Viracocha, ever near. Listen to this our prayer,
Send health, send prosperity to us thy people. Thus Viracocha

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was placed above and beyond all other gods, the essential
first cause, infinite, incorporeal, invisible above the sun, older than
the beginning, but omnipresent, accessible, beneficent. Does this seem too abstract,
too elevated a notion of God for a race whom

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we are accustomed to deem gross and barbaric. I cannot
help it. The testimony of the earliest observers 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 were
not alone from Christian theology is conclusively shown by the

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fact that the very writers who preserved them often did
not know their meaning and translated them incorrectly. Thus, even
Garcilaso de la Vega, himself of the Blood of the Incas,
tells us that neither he nor the natives of that
day could translate Tchi. Thus, also Garcia and Acosta inform

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us that Viracocha was surnamed Usapu, which they translate admirable,
but really it means he who accomplishes all that he undertakes,
he who is successful in all things. Molina has preserved
the term imamana, which means he who controls or owns

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all things. That tai Pachi yachachi, which the Spanish writers
render creator, really means the teacher of the world. That
of Caya signifies the ever present one. Taripaca, which has
been guessed to be the same as tarapaca an eagle,
is really a derivative of tarapani to sit in judgment,

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and was applied to Viracocha as the final arbiter of
the actions and destinies of man. Another of his frequent
appellations for which no explanation has been offered, was tokey
or tocapo properly toukupe. It means he who finishes, who
completes and perfects, and is antithetical to tichi, he who begins. Footnote.

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Melchior Ernandez, one of the earliest writers whose works are
now lost, but who is quoted in the relation Anonyma,
gives this name tocapu cristoph while de Molina Ubisup spells
it tocapo la vega tokay Molina gives its signification the maker.

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It is from the word tukupei or toukuchani to finish, complete,
perfect end footnote. These two terms express the eternity of divinity.
They convey the same idea of mastery over time and
the things of time, as to those words heard by

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the evangelist in his vision in the Isle, called Patmos
I am Alpha and Omega I am the beginning and
the End. Yet another epithet of Viracocha was Zappala. It
conveys strongly and positively the monotheistic idea. It means the one,

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or more strongly, the only one. Nor must it be
supposed that this monotheism was unconscious, that it was for
a form of hinotheism, where the devotion of the adorer
filled his soul merely to the forgetfulness of other deities,
or that it was simply the logical law of unity

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asserting itself, as was the case with many of the
apparently monotheistic utterances of the Greek and Roman writers. No,
the evidence is such that we are obliged to acknowledge
that the religion of Peru was a consciously monotheistic cult,
every wit as much so as the Greek or Roman

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Catholic churches of Christendom. Those writers who have called the
Inca religion a sun worship have been led astray by
superficial resemblances. One of the best early authorities. Christovalde Molina
repeats with emphasis the statement they did not recognize the
Sun as their creator, but as created by the Creator,

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and this creator was not born of woman, but was
unchangeable and eternal. For conclusive testimony on this point, however,
we may turn to an informacion or inquiry as to
the ancient belief, instituted in fifteen seventy one by order
of the Viceroy Don Francisco de Torleedo. The oldest Indians,

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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 replies have great uniformity. They

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all agreed that Viracocha was worshiped as creator and as
the ever present, active divinity. He alone answered prayers and
aided in time of need. He was the sole efficient God.
All prayers to the Sun, or to the deceased Incas
or to idols were directed to them as intercessors. Only.

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On this point the statements were most positive. Footnote Aeos
solo Viracoca Tenian poras edor de todas las cosas ike
el solo los podia so cooreer ike de todus los
de mas los Tenian pursus intersess ike anzi los de

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cien aeos and susoraciones antiguas anti quevus and cristianos ike
a si lodicen. In the claren porcosa usierta verdadera Informacion
de las Idolotras de los incas a Indios in the
Colleccion de Documentos Ineditos del Archivo de Indias, Volume twenty one,

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page one ninety eight, other witnesses said, los dichos ingas
is susante pasados Tenian por creator al solo viracoca ike
soo solo los podia sokorer id page one eighty four.
Ador raban Ariracocha porasdor de tols las cosas como a

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el sol ia hachakuna los adoraba portelos Tenian porijos de
Viracocha iporcosa mui ayegada suya, page one thirty three, and
footnote the son was but one of Viracocha's creations, not
itself the creator. It is singular that historians have continued

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to repeat that the Quechuas adored the Sun as their
principal divinity in the face of such evidence. To the contrary,
if this inquiry 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 Deacosta. That author says and repeats with great

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positiveness that the Son was in Peru a second day divinity,
and that the supreme deity, the creator and ruler of
the world, was Virakocha. Another misapprehension is that these natives
worshiped directly their ancestors. Thus, mister Markham rites the Incas
worshiped their ancestors, the Pakarina or forefather of the Ayu

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or lineage, being idolized as the soul or essence of
his descendants. But in the inquiry above quoted, it is
explained that this belief, in fact was that the soul
of the Inca went at death to the presence of
the deity Virakocha and its emblem. The actual body, carefully preserved,

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was paid divine honors in order that the soul might
intercede with Viracocha for the fulfillment of the prayers. We
are compelled, therefore, by the best evidence now attainable, to
adopt the conclusion that the Inca religion, in its purity,
deserved the name of monotheism. The statements of the natives

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and the terms of their religious language unite in confirming
this opinion. It is not right to depreciate the force
of these facts simply because we have made up our
minds that a people in the intellectual stage of the
Peruvians could not have mounted to such a pure air
of religion. A prejudgment of this kind is unworthy of

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a scientific mind. The evidence is complete that the terms
I have quoted did belong to the religious language of
ancient Peru. They expressed 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 bound in duty to
accept it and explain it as best we can. Other

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instances might be quoted from the religious history of the
Old World, where a nation's insight into the attributes of
deity was singularly in advance of their general state of
cour cultivation. The best thinkers of the Semitic race, for example,
from Moses to Spinosa, have been in this respect far
ahead of their often more generally enlightened Aryan contemporaries. The

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more interesting in view of this lofty ideal of divinity
they had attained became the Peruvian myths of the incarnation
of Iracocha, his life and doings as a man among men.
These myths present themselves indifferent, but to the reader who
has accompanied me thus far, now familiar forms. Once more

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we meet the story of the four brothers, the first
of men. They appeared on the earth after it had
been rescued from the primeval waters, and the face of
the land was divided between them. Mounco Kapak took the north,
Koya the south, Pinahua the west, and the east the
region whence come the sun and the light was given

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to tokay O Tokapa to Viracocha under his name of
the Finisher, he who completes and perfects. The outlines of
this legend are identical with another, where Viracocha appears under
the name of a Arcacci. This was, in its broad
outlines the most general myth that which has been handed

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down by the most numerous authorities, and which they tell
us was taken directly from the ancient songs of the Indians,
as repeated by those who could recall the days of
the Incas Wascar and Atawalpa it Ran. In this wise,
in the beginning of things, there appeared on the earth
four brothers, whose names were of the oldest Ayarcacci, which

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means he who gives being or who causes of the youngest, Iarmanco,
and of the others aar Auka, the enemy, and Iaruchu.
Their father was the son. And the place of their birth,
or rather of their appearance on earth was Pakai Tampu,
which means the house of the morning or the mansion

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of the dawn. In after days, a certain cave near
Gusco was so called and pointed out as the scene
of this momentous event. But we may well believe that
a nobler sight than any the earth affords could be
correctly designated. These brothers were clothed in long and flowing
robes with short upper garments without sleeves or collar, and

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this raiment was worked with marvelous skill 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 parts, the north, the South, the East,
and the west. Hence they were called by the people Tawanten, Suryu, Kapac,

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lords of all four quarters of the earth. The most
powerful of these was Ayarkachi. He possessed a sling of
gold and in it a stone with which he could
demolish lofty mountains and hurl aloft to the clouds themselves.
He gathered together the natives of the country at Pakhari Tampu,
and accumulated at the house of the Dawn a great

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treasure of yellow gold, like the glittering horde which we
read of in the Lay of Nebelung. The treasure brought
with it the destruction of its owner. For his brothers,
envious of the wondrous pile, persuaded Aarkachi to enter the
cave where he kept his hoard, in order to bring
out a certain vase, and also to pray to their father,

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the Son, to aid them to rule their domains. As
soon as he had entered, they stopped the mouth of
the cave with huge stones, and thus rid of him.
They set about collecting the people and making a settlement
at a certain place called Tampu Kiru, the teeth of
the house. But they did not know the magical power

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of their brother. While they were busy with their plans,
what was their dismay to see the Ayarcacci freed from
the cave and with great wings of brilliantly colored feathers
hovering like a bird in the air over their heads.
They expected swift retribution for their intended fratricide, but instead
of this they heard reassuring words from his lips. Have

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no fear, he said, I left you in order that
the great Empire of the Incas might be known to men.
Leave therefore this settlement of Tampu Kiu, and descend into
the valley of Cusco, where you shall found a famous city,
and in it build a sumptuous temple to the sun.

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As for me, I shall remain in the form in
which you see me, and shall dwell in the mountain
Peak guanacare ready to help you. And on that mountain
you must build me an altar and make to me
sacrifices and the sign that you shall wear, whereby you
shall be feared and respected of your subject is that

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you shall have your ears pierced as are mine, saying
which he showed them his ears pierced and carrying large
round plates of gold. They promised him obedience in all things,
and forthwith built an altar on the mountain Guanacare, which
ever after was esteemed a most holy place. Here again

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Ayarcacci appeared to them and bestowed on Ayarmanco the scarlet filet,
which became the perpetual insignia of the reigning Inca. The
remaining brothers were turned into stone, and Mancho assuming the
title of Capac King and the metaphorical surname of Perhua
the granary or treasure house, founded the city of Cusco,

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married his four sisters, and became the first of the
dynasty of the Incas. He lived to a great age,
and during the whole of his life never omitted to
pay divine honors to his brothers and especially to Ayrcachi.
In another myth of the incarnation, the infinite creator, Tichi

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Virakocha duplicates himself in the twin incarnation of Imamana Virakocha
and Tokapu Viracocha, names which we have already seen mean
he who has all things, and he who perfects all things.
The legend was that these brothers started in the distant
east and journeyed toward the west. The one went by

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the way of the mountains, the other by the paths
of the lowlands, And each, on his journey, like Itzamna
in Yucatan's 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

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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 waves seem to stretch
westward into infinity. There, having accomplished all they had to
do in this world, they ascended into heaven once more,

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to form part of the infinite being. For the venerable authority,
whom I am following is careful to add most explicitly
that these Indians believed for a certainty that neither the
Creator nor his sons were born of women, but that
they all were unchangeable and eternal. Still more human does

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Viracocha become in the myth, where he appears under the
surnames tu Napa and Taripaka. The latter I have already
explained to mean he who judges, and the former is
a synonym of Tokapu, as it is from the verb
tani or tanini and means he who finishes, completes, or perfects.

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Although like several other of his names, the significance of
this one has up to the present remained on explained
and lost, the myth has been preserved to us by
a native Indian writer, Juan de Santa Cruz Pachacuti, who
wrote it out somewhere about the year sixteen hundred. Footnote

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Relacium the Antiqueades de ste Reno del Peru por don
Juan de Santa Cruz Pachacuti yam qui Passim Pachacuti relates
the story of Tunapa as being distinctly the hero myth
of the quechuas he was also the hero god of Amaras,
and about him, says father Ludovico Bertonio, they to this

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day relate many fables and follies. Vocabulario de la Lengua
Amara s v. Another name he bore in Amara was Ecaco,
which in that language means as a common noun, an ingenious,
shifty man of many plans Bertonio vocabulario s v thunupa

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as Bertonio spells. It does not lend itself to any
obvious etymology in Amara, which is further evidence that the
name was introduced from the Quechua. This is, by no
means a singular example of the identity of religious thought
and terms between these nations. In comparing the two tongues

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m alciree de orbignier long since observed en retrove meme
apupre un vinemier de mont quillonte e vedemont la meme
ourhine ser toot se qui experiment le sides relicusis leom

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americane consideresu say rapour phisiologics e more tom i, page
three twenty two, Paris, eighteen thirty nine. This author endeavors
to prove that the Quechewa religion was mainly borrowed from
the Imaras, and of the two, he regards the latter
as the senior in civilization. But so far as I

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have been able to study the mythology of the Aymaras,
which is but very superficially on account of a lack
of sources, it does not seem to be entitled to
this credit and footnote. He tells us that at a
very remote period, shortly after the country of Peru had
been populated, there came from Lake Titicaca to the tribes,

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an elderly man with flowing beard and abundant white hair.
Supporting himself on a staff and dressed in wide spreading robes,
he went among the people, calling them his sons and daughters,
relieving their infirmities and teaching them the precepts of wisdom. Often, however,
he met the fate of so many other wise teachers,

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and was rejected and scornfully entreated by those whom he
was striving to instruct. Swift retribution sometimes fell upon some
stiff necked listeners. Thus he once entered the town of
Yama Kesupa, the principal place in the province of the south,
and began teaching the inhabitants. But they heeded him not

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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 into the earth with all its inhabitants, and
the depression was filled with water, and all were drowned.
To this day it is known as the Lake of

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yam Kesupa, and all the people about there well know
that what is now a sheet of water was once
the site of a flourishing city. At another time he
visited Tiawuanaco, where may yet be seen the colossal ruins
of some ancient city and massive figures in stone of
men and women. In his time, this was a populous

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mart 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 anger, and in an instant the
dancers were changed into stone just as they stood, and

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there they remained to this day, as any one can see,
perpetual warnings not to scorn the words of the wise.
On another occasion, he was seized by the people who
dwelt by the great Lake of Carapaco and tied hands
and feet with stout cords, it being their intention to
put him to a cruel death. The next day, but

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very early in the morning, just at the time of
the dawn, a beautiful youth entered and said, fear not,
I have come to call you in the name of
the lady who was 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,

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and they went forth, untouched by the guards who stood around.
They descended to the lake shore, and just as the
dawn appeared, Dunapa spread his mantle on the waves, and
he and his companion, stepping upon it as upon a raft,
were wafted rapidly away into the rays of the morning light.

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The causus Patchakouti does not let us into the secret
of this mysterious assignation, either because he did not know,
or because he would not disclose the mysteries of his
ancestral faith. But I am not so discreet, and I
vehemently suspect that the lady who was awaiting the virtuous
Tunapa was Chaska, the dawn maiden, She of the beautiful

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hair which distills the dew, and that the place of
joys whither she invited him was the mansion of the sky,
into which daily the light God, at the hour of
the morning twilight is ushered by the chaste maiden Aurora.
As the anger of Tunipau was dreadful, so his favors

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were more than regal. At the close of a day,
he once reached the town of the chief, Apo Tampo,
otherwise Pacari Tampu, which means the house or lodgings of
the dawn, where the festivities of a wedding were in progress.
The guests, intent upon the pleasures of the hour, listened

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with small patience to the words of the old man,
but the Chief himself heard them with profound attention and delight. Therefore,
as Tunipau 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

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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 into fine gold, and that child was none
other than the far famed manco Capac, destined to become

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the ancestor of the illustrious line of the Incas, sons
of the Sun, and famous in all countries that it
shines upon. And as for the golden staff, it became
through all after time until the Spanish conquest, the scepter
of the Incas and the sign of their sovereignty, the
famous and sacred Tupa Yauri, the royal wand. It became

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indeed to Mouncha Kappac, a mentor and guide. His father
and mother having died, he started out with his brothers
and sisters, seven brothers and seven sisters of them, to
seek new lands, taking this staff in his hand. Like
the seven brothers who in Mexican legend left Astlan the

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White Land to found nations and cities, so the brothers
of Manco Kapak, leaving Pakari Tampu, the lodgings of the Dawn,
became the sinshi or heads of various noble houses and
chiefs of tribes in the Empire of the Incas. As
for Monco, it is well known that with his golden wand,

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he journeyed on, overcoming demons and destroying his enemies, until
he reached the mountain over against the spot where the
city of Cusco now stands. Here, the sacred wand sunk
of its own motion into the earth, and Moncho Kapak,
recognizing the divine monition, named the mountain Juanakwaudi the place

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of repose. In the valley at the base, he founded
the great city, which she called Cusco the Navel. Its inhabitants,
ever afterwards, classed Juanakwaodi as one of their principal deities. Footnote.
Don Gavino Pacheco Zegara derives Juanakaui from Huanaya to rest

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oneself and cain here say Ichi Kilfo sereposer Olantai introduction,
page twenty five. It was distinctly the huska or sacred
fetish of the Incas, and they were figuratively said to
have descended from it. Its worship was very prominent in

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ancient Peru. See the information de las Idolatras de los
incas i Indius sixteen seventy one, previously quoted and footnote.
When Unco Kapak's work was done, he did not die
like other mortals, but rose to heaven and became the

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planet Jupiter under the name Pirua. From this, according to
some writers, the country of Peru derived its name. It
may fairly be supposed that this founder of the Inca
dynasty was an actual historical personage, but it is evident
that much that is told about him is imagery, drawn

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from the legend of the light God and what became
of Tunapa. We left him sailing on his outspread mantle
into the light of the morning over Lake Carapace, But
the legend does not stop there. Wherever he went that day,
he returned to his toil and pursued his way down
the river Chachamarca till he reached the sea. There his

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fate becomes obscure. But as 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, Porachaeus ingas Antiquissimos.
We may well believe he did, for the light of day,

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which is quenched in the western ocean, passes back again
by the straits or in some other way, and appears
again the next morning, not in the west, where we
watched its dying rays but in the east, where again
it is borne to pursue its daily and ever recurring journey.

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According to another and also very early account, Viracocha was
preceded by a host of attendants who were his messengers
and soldiers. When he reached the sea, he and these
followers marched out upon the waves as if it had
been dry land, and disappeared in the west. These followers were,
like himself, white and bearded. Just as in Mexico, the

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natives attributed the erection of buildings, the history of which
had been lost to the white Toltecs the subjects of
ketzel Kuwato see above, Chapter three, Section three. So in Peru,
various ancient ruins whose builders had been lost to memory
were pointed out to the Spaniards as the work of

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a white and bearded race who held the country in
possession long before the Incas had founded their dynasty. The
explanation in both cases is the same. In both the
early works of art of unknown origin were supposed to
be the productions of the personified light rays, which are

(35:25):
the source of skill, because they supplied the means indispensable
to the acquisition of knowledge. The versions of these myths
which have been preserved to us by Juan de Betanzos,
and the documents on which the historian Herrera founded his
narrative are in the main identical with that which I
have quoted from the narrative of Pachacuti. I shall, however,

(35:49):
give that of Errera, as it has some interesting features.
He tells us that the traditions and songs which the
Indians had received from their remote ancestry related that in
very early times, there was a period when there was
no sun, and men lived in darkness. At length, in

(36:09):
answer to their urgent prayers, the sun emerged from Lake Titikaka,
and soon afterwards there came a man from the south,
of fair 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

(36:32):
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 among the people,
giving them wise counsel, working miracles, and teaching. He went
on his journey toward the north, but until the latest

(36:54):
times they bore his deeds and person in memory, under
the names of Tichi, Viracocha and Tuapaca, and elsewhere as Arnava.
They erected many temples to him, in which they placed
his figure an image as described. They also said that

(37:14):
after a certain length of time there reappeared another like
this first one, or else he was the same who
also gave wise counsel and cured the sick. He met disfavor,
and at one spot the people set about to slay him,
but he called down upon them fire from heaven, which
burned their village and scorched the mountains into cinders. Then

(37:37):
they threw away their weapons and begged of him to
deliver them from the danger, which he did. Footnote. This
incident is also related by Pachacuti and Betanzos. All three
locate the scene of the event at Karcha, eighteen leagues
from Cusco, where the kanastribe lived at the conquest. Pachacuti

(37:58):
states that the cause of the anger of Iracocha was
that upon the sierra there was the statue of a
woman to whom human victims were sacrificed. If this was
the tradition, it would offer another point of identity with
that of Keselcuatto, who was also said to have forbidden
human sacrifices and footnote. He passed on toward the west

(38:23):
until he reached the shore of the sea. There he
spread out his mantle, and, seating himself upon it, sailed
away and was never seen again. For this reason, adds
the chronicler. The name was given to him Viracocha, which
means foam of the sea, though afterwards it changed in signification.

(38:46):
This leads me to the etymology of the name. It
is confessedly obscure. The translation which Edrera gives is that
generally offered by Spanish writers, but it is not literal.
The word yura means fat and cocha lake sea or
other large body of water. Therefore, as the genitive must

(39:09):
be prefixed in the Quechewa tongue, the translation must be
lake or sea of fat. This was shown by Garcilaso
de la Vega in his royal commentaries, and as he
could see no sense or propriety in implying such a
term as lake of Greece to the supreme divinity, he

(39:31):
rejected this derivation and contented himself by saying that the
meaning of the name was totally unknown. In this Mister
clements R. Markham, who is an authority on Peruvian matters, coincides,
though acknowledging that no other meaning suggests itself. I shall
not say anything about the derivations of this name from

(39:52):
the Sanskrit or the ancient Egyptian. These are etymological amusements
with which serious studies have nothing to do. Footnote. Viracocha
is the ill or ra of the Babylonian monuments, and
thus the raw of Egypt, et cetera. Professor John Campbell,

(40:13):
Comteendudu Congre Internacional de Americanists, Volume one, page three, sixty two,
eighteen seventy five. End Footnote. The first and accepted derivation
has been ably and to my mind successfully defended by
probably the most accomplished Quetchewa scholar of our age, signor

(40:36):
Gavino Pacheco Zegara, who, in the introduction to his most
excellent edition of the Drama of Olantai, maintains that Viracocha,
literally lake of fat, was a simile applied to the
frothing foaming sea, and adds that as a personal name
in this signification it is in entire conformity with the

(41:00):
genius of the Quechua tongue. Footnote Olantai Drama and Versquechua's Introduction,
page thirty six, Paris, eighteen seventy eight. There was a
class of diviners in Peru who foretold the future by
inspecting the fat of animals. They were called Vira pirikuk

(41:23):
Molina Fables and Writes, page thirteen, and footnote to quote
his words. The tradition was that Vira Kocha's face was
extremely white and bearded. From this his name was derived,
which means taken literally like of fat. By extension, however,

(41:44):
the word means sea foam, as in the Quechua language,
the foam is called fat no doubt on account of
its whiteness. It had a double appropriateness in its application
to the hero god. Not only was supposed in one
myth to have risen from the waves of Lake Titikaka,

(42:05):
and in another to have appeared 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
the white race should so persistently have represented their highest

(42:26):
gods as of this hue, and what is more, with
the flowing beard and abundant light hair, which is their characteristic.
There is no denying, however, that such is the fact.
Did it depend on legend alone? We might, however strong
the consensus of testimony, harbor some doubt about it, but

(42:49):
it does not. The monuments themselves attest it. There is
indeed a singular uniformity of statement in the myths. Viracocha,
under any and all his surnames, is always described as
white and bearded, dressed in flowing robes, and of imposing mien.
His robes were also white, and thus he was figured

(43:12):
at the entrance of one of his most celebrated temples,
that of Orkos. 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. So also,
on a certain occasion, when he was said to have

(43:33):
appeared in a dream to one of the Incas, who
afterwards adopted his name, he was said to have come
with beard more than a span in length, and clothed
in a large and loose mantle, which fell to his feet,
while with his hand he held by a cord to
its neck some unknown animal, and thus in after times

(43:54):
he was represented in painting and statue by order of
that Inca. An early writer tells us that the great
temple of Cusco, which was afterwards chosen for the cathedral,
was originally that of eat Tchi Viracocha. It contained only
one altar, and upon it a marble statue of the god.

(44:17):
This is described as being both as to the hair, complexion, features, raiment,
and sandals, just as painters represent the apostle Saint Bartholomew.
Misled by the statements of the historian Garcilaso de la Vega,
some later writers, among whom I may note the eminent

(44:39):
German traveler Vonchudi, have supposed that Viracocha belonged to the
historical deities of Peru, and that his worship was of
comparatively recent origin. La Vega, who could not understand the
name of the divinity, and moreover either knew little about
the ancient religion or else concealed his na knowledge, as

(45:01):
is shown by his reiterated statement that human sacrifices were unknown,
pretended that Viracocha first came to be honored through a
dream of the Inca who assumed his name. But the
narrative of the occurrence that he himself gives shows that
even at that time the myth was well known and
of great antiquity. The statements in which he makes on

(45:25):
the authority of Father Blas Valera, that the Inca Tupac
Yupanqui sought to purify the religion of his day by
leading it toward the contemplation of an incorporeal God, is
probably in the main correct. It is supported by a
similar account given by Acosta of the famous Wayna Capac. Indeed,

(45:48):
they read so much alike that they are probably repetitions
of teachings familiar to the nobles and higher priests. Both
Incas maintained that the son could not be the chief God,
because as he ran daily his accustomed course like a
slave or an animal that is led, He must therefore
be the subject of a mightier power than himself. We

(46:12):
may reasonably suppose that these expressions are proof of a
growing sense of the attributes of divinity. They are indications
of the evolution of religious thought, and go to show
that the monotheistic ideas which I have pointed out in
the titles and names of the highest god were clearly
recognized and publicly announced. Viracocha was also worshiped under the

(46:36):
title Kontchi Rakocha. Various explanations of the name Khan have
been offered. It is not positively certain that it belongs
to the Quetchawatangu. A myth preserved by Gomara treats Khan
as a distinct deity. He is said to have come
from the north, to have been without bones, muscles, or members,

(46:59):
to the power of running with infinite swiftness, and to
have leveled mountains, filled up valleys, and deprived the coast
plains of rain. At the same time. He is called
a son of the Sun and the Moon, and it
was owing to his good will and creative power that
men and women were formed, and maize and fruits given

(47:21):
them upon which to subsist Another more powerful god, However,
by name Pacha Kamak, also a son of the Sun
and Moon, and hence brother to Khan, rose up against
him and drove him from the land. The men and
women whom Khan had formed were changed by Pacha Kamak

(47:41):
into brutes and others created who were the ancestors of
the present race. These he supplied with what was necessary
for their support, and taught them the arts of war
and peace. For these reasons they venerated him as a god,
and constructed for his worship a sumptuous temple a league
and a half from the present city of Lima. This

(48:05):
myth of the conflict of the two brothers is too
similar to others I have quoted for its significance to
be mistaken. Unfortunately, it has been handed down in so
fragmentary a condition that it does not seem possible to
assign it its proper relations to the cycle of Viracocha legends.

(48:25):
As I have hinted, we are not sure of the
meaning of the name Khan, nor whether it is of
Quechewa origin. If it is, as it is indeed likely,
then we may suppose that it is a transcription of
the word Kun, which in Quechua is the third person
singular present, indicative of KUNI I give, He gives the

(48:47):
giver would seem an appropriate name for the first creator
of things, But the myth itself, and the description of
the deity in corporeal and swift bringer at one time
of the fertilizing reigns at another of the drought seems
to point unmistakably to a god of the winds. Linguistic

(49:07):
analogy bears this out, for the name given to a
whirlwind or violent wind storm was con Chui, with an
additional word to signify whether it was one of rain
or merely a dust storm. For this reason, I think m.
Weener's attempt to make of Khan or Kuan, as he

(49:27):
prefers to spell it merely a deity of the rains
is too narrow. The legend would seem to indicate that
he was supposed to have been defeated and quite driven away,
but the study of the monuments indicates that this was
not the case. One of the most remarkable antiquities in
Peru is at a place called Concaca, three leagues south

(49:50):
of aban Cay, on the road from Cusco to Lima. M.
Leonce Ngrande has observed that this was evidently one of
the great religious centers 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

(50:12):
its summit into varied streams and to quaint receptacles. Whether
the liquid was the blood of the victims, the intoxicating
beverage of the country, or pure water, all of which
have been suggested, we do not positively know. But I
am inclined to believe with m. Weener that it was

(50:33):
the last mentioned, and that it was as the beneficent
deity of the rains that Khan was worshiped at this
sacred spot. Its name Koncaca, the messenger of Khan, points
to this footnote. These remains are carefully described by Charles
Wiener Peru et Bolivill, page two eighty two. Sequence from

(50:55):
the Notes of m Angrande by Deharjin Les Peru avant
la Conque Espanol, page one thirty two, and in a
superficial manner by Squire Peru, page five hundred fifty five
end footnote. The words pacha camac mean animating or giving
life to the world. It is said by father Acosta

(51:19):
to have been one of the names of Viracocha, and
in a sacred song preserved by Garcilaso de la Vega,
he is appealed to by this title. The identity of
these two divinities seems therefore sufficiently established. The worship of
Pacha co mac is asserted by competent antiquarian students to

(51:39):
have been more extended in ancient Peru than the older
historians supposed. This is indicated by the many remains of
temples which local tradition attribute to his worship, and by
the customs of the natives. Footnote Vonchudi, who in one
part of his work maintains that son worship was the
prevalent religion of Peru. Madrifis the assertion considerably in the

(52:04):
following passage. Elculto de Pacha camac Saya yaba mucho mass
extendido de lo ke supon and los historiadores isepudesen eror
aventuradla opinon de querra, ladidad popular iacatada or las masas
peruanas miantrasquilla reli hion del sol era, la de la corte,

(52:28):
culto ke poor mas adoptado kefues and tre los indios
nung ca diego adsa regar la fe iladevosion al numen
primitivo an effecto and torus las raciones de la vid
de los indios resulte la profunda veneracion que tributavan a

(52:49):
Pacha camac Antiguidades Peruana's page one forty nine. Inasmuch as
elsewhere this author takes pains to show that the Incas
discover guarded the worship of the Sun and instituted in
place of it that of Viracocha. The above would seem
to diminish the sphere of sun worship very much, and footnote,

(53:12):
for instance, at the birth of a child, it was
formerly offered to him and his protections solicited. On reaching
some arduous height, the toiling Indian would address a few
words of thanks to Patcha Kamak, and the piles of stones,
which were the simple signs of their gratitude, are still
visible in all parts of the country. This variation of

(53:34):
the story of Viracocha aids to an understanding of his
mythical purport. The oft recurring epithet contize Viracocha shows a
close relationship between his character and that of the divinity Khan,
in fact, an identity which deserves close attention. It is explained,
I believe by the supposition that Viracocha was the lord

(53:56):
of the wind as well as of the light, like
all 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
us to reconcile the seeming contradictions which it suggests. Moreover,

(54:18):
it must be ever remembered that all religions repose on contradictions,
contradictions of fact, of logic, and of statement, so that
we must not seek to force any one of them
into consistent unity of form, even with itself. I have
yet to add another point of similarity between the myth
of Viracocha and those of Ketzelkuwato its Mana and the

(54:42):
others which I have already narrated. As in Mexico, Yugatan
and elsewhere, so in the realms of the Incas, the
Spaniards found themselves not unexpected guests. Here too. Texts of
ancient prophecies were called to mind, words of warning from
solemn and antique songs for telling that other Viracochas, men

(55:05):
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 Weina
Capac was on his death bed, he recalled these prophecies
and impressed them upon the mind of his successor, so
that when de Soto, the Lieutenant of Pisaro, had his

(55:29):
first interview with the envoy of Attawalpa, the latter humbly
addressed him as Viracocha, the great god son of the Sun,
and told him that it was Weina Capac's last command
to pay homage to the white men when they should arrive.
We need no longer entertain about such statements that suspicion

(55:52):
or incredulity which so many historians have thought it necessary
to indulge in. They are too generally paralleled in other
American hero myths to leave the slightest doubt as 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

(56:16):
of what was originally a statement of simple occurrence of
daily routine, they became transmitted in the limbic of mythology
to the story of the beneficent God of the past
and the promise of golden days when again he should
return to the people whom erstwhile he ruled and taught

(56:37):
the quechuas expected the return of Iracocha not merely as
an earthly ruler to govern their nation, but as a
god who, by his divine power, would call the dead
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. So

(56:59):
in Peru the cadaver was mummied and deposited in the
most secret and inaccessible spots, so that it should remain
undisturbed to the great day of resurrection. And when was
that to be? We are not left in doubt on
this point. It was to be when Viracocha should return

(57:20):
to earth in his bodily form, then he would restore
the dead to life, and they should enjoy the good
things of a land far more glorious than this workaday
world of ours. As at the first meeting between the races,
the name of the hero god was applied to the
conquering strangers, so to this day the custom has continued.

(57:41):
A recent traveler tells us among Los Indios del Campo,
or Indians of the Fields, the Lama, herdsmen of the Punas,
and the fishermen of the lakes. The common salutation to
strangers of a fair skin and blue eyes is taetai viracocha.
Even if this is used now as am Weener seems

(58:02):
to think merely as a servile flattery, there is no
doubt but that at the beginning it was applied because
the white strangers were identified with the white and bearded
hero and his followers of their culture myth, whose return
had been foretold by their priests. Are we obliged to

(58:22):
explain these similarities to the Mexican tradition by supposing some
ancient intercourse between these peoples, the arrival, for instance, and
settlement on the highlands around Lake Titicaca of some Toltec colony,
as has been maintained by such able writers on Peruvian
antiquities as Leonce Angrande and J. J. Vonchudi, I think

(58:46):
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 plateaus of the Andes. These impressions

(59:09):
found utterance in similar myths, and were represented in art
under similar forms. It is therefore to the oneness of
cause and of racial psychology, not to ancient migrations, that
we must look to explain the identities of myth and
representation that we find between such widely sundered nations. End

(59:33):
of Chapter five, Part two. End of Chapter five read
by lind Sonrisa Jones