Part 16 (1/2)
[Footnote 2: ”Ellos solo Viracocha tenian por hacedor de todas las cosas, y que el solo los podia socorrer, y que de todos los demas los tenian por sus intercesores, y que ansi los decian ellos en sus oraciones antiguas, antes que fuesen cristianos, y que ansi lo dicen y declaran por cosa muy cierta y verdadera.” _Information de las Idolatras de los Incas e Indios_, in the _Coleccion de Doc.u.mentos Ineditos del Archivo de Indias_, vol. xxi, p. 198. Other witnesses said: ”Los dichos Ingas y sus antepasados tenian por criador al solo Viracocha, y que solo los podia socorrer,” id. p. 184.
”Adoraban a Viracocha por hacedor de todas las cosas, como a el sol y a Hachaccuna los adoraban porque los tenia por hijos de Viracocha y por cosa muy allegada suya,” p. 133.]
It is singular that historians have continued to repeat that the Qquichuas adored the Sun as their princ.i.p.al 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 de Acosta. That author says, and repeats with great positiveness, that the Sun was in Peru a secondary divinity, and that the supreme deity, the Creator and ruler of the world, was Viracocha.[1]
[Footnote 1: ”Sientan y confiessan un supremo senor, y hazedor de todo, al qual los del Piru llamavan Viracocha. * * Despues del Viracocha, o supremo Dios, fui, y es en los infieles, el que mas comunmente veneran y adoran el sol.” Acosta, _De la Historia Moral de las Indias_, Lib, v. cap. iii, iv, (Barcelona, 1591).]
Another misapprehension is that these natives wors.h.i.+ped directly their ancestors. Thus, Mr. Markham writes: ”The Incas wors.h.i.+ped their ancestors, the _Pacarina_, or forefather of the _Ayllu_, or lineage, being idolized as the soul or essence of his descendants.”[1] 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 presence of the deity Viracocha, and its emblem, the actual body, carefully preserved, was paid divine honors in order that the soul might intercede with Viracocha for the fulfillment of the prayers.[2]
[Footnote 1: Clements R. Markham, _Journal of the Royal Geographical Society_, 1871, p. 291. _Pacarina_ is the present participle of _pacarini_, to dawn, to begin, to be born.]
[Footnote 2: _Informacion_, etc., p. 209.]
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 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 a scientific mind. The evidence is complete that the terms I have quoted did belong 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 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 cultivation. The best thinkers of the Semitic race, for example, from Moses to Spinoza, have been in this respect far ahead of their often more generally enlightened Aryan contemporaries.
The more interesting, in view of this lofty ideal of divinity they had attained, become the Peruvian myths of the incarnation of Viracocha, his life and doings as a man among men.
These myths present themselves in different, but to the reader who has accompanied me thus far, now familiar forms. Once more 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. Manco Capac took the North, Colla the South, Pinahua the West, and the East, the region whence come the sun and the light, was given to Tokay or Tocapa, to Viracocha, under his name of the Finisher, he who completes and perfects.[1]
[Footnote 1: Garcila.s.so de la Vega, _Comentarios Reales_, Lib. i, cap.
xviii.]
The outlines of this legend are identical with another, where Viracocha appears under the name of Ayar Cachi. This was, in its broad outlines, the most general myth, that which has been handed 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 Huascar and Atahualpa.[1]
[Footnote 1: ”Parece por los cantares de los Indios; * * * afirmaron los Orejones que quedaron de los tiempos de Guascar i de Atahualpa; * * *
cuentan los Indios del Cuzco mas viejos, etc.,” repeats the historian Herrera, _Historia de las Indias Occidentals_, Dec. v, Lib. iii, cap. vii, viii.]
It ran in this wise: In the beginning of things there appeared on the earth four brothers, whose names were, of the oldest, Ayar Cachi, which means he who gives Being, or who Causes;[1] of the youngest, Ayar Manco, and of 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 the Dawn_.[2] In after days a certain cave near Cuzco was so called, and pointed out as the scene of this momentous event, but we may well believe that a n.o.bler site than any the earth affords could be correctly designated.
[Footnote 1: ”_Cachini_; dar el ser y hazer que sea; _cachi chiuachic_, el autor y causa de algo.” Holguin, _Vocabvlario de la Lengva Qquichua, sub voce, cachipuni_. The names differ little in Herrera (who, however, omits Uchu), Montesinos, Balboa, Oliva, La Vega and Pachacuti; I have followed the orthography of the two latter, as both were native Qquichuas.]
[Footnote 2: Holguin (_ubi supra_,) gives _paccarin_, the morning, _paccarini_, to dawn; _tampu_, _venta o meson_.]
These brothers were clothed in long and flowing robes, with short upper garments without sleeves or collar, and 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, _Tahuantin Suyu Kapac_, Lords of all four Quarters of the Earth.[1]
[Footnote 1: _Tahuantin_, all four, from _tahua_, four; _suyu_, division, section; _kapac_, king.]
The most powerful of these was Ayar Cachi. 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 Pacari tampu, and acc.u.mulated at the House of the Dawn a great treasure of yellow gold. Like the glittering h.o.a.rd 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 h.o.a.rd, in order to bring out a certain vase, and also to pray to their father, the Sun, 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 quiru_ (the Teeth of the House).
But they did not know the magical power of their brother. While they were busy with their plans, what was their dismay to see Ayar Cachi, 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 rea.s.suring words from his lips.
”Have 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 quiru, and descend into the Valley of Cuzco, where you shall found a famous city, and in it 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. And the sign that you shall wear, whereby you shall be feared and respected of your subjects, is that 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 Guanacaure, which ever after was esteemed a most holy place.
Here again Ayar Cachi appeared to them, and bestowed on Ayar Manco the scarlet fillet which became the perpetual insignia of the reigning Inca.
The remaining brothers were turned into stone, and Manco, a.s.suming the t.i.tle of _Kapac_, King, and the metaphorical surname of _Pirhua_, the Granary or Treasure house, founded the City of Cuzco, 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 Ayar Cachi.
In another myth of the incarnation the infinite Creator Ticci Viracocha duplicates himself in the twin incarnation of _Ymamana Viracocha_ and _Tocapu 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 way of the mountains, the other by the paths of the lowlands, and each on his journey, like Itzamna in Yucatecan story, gave names to the places he pa.s.sed, 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 waves seem to stretch westward into infinity. There, ”having accomplished all they had to do in this world, they ascended into Heaven,” once more 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 woman, but that they all were unchangeable and eternal.”[1]