Even that portion of the Itzas who had separated from the rest of their nation at the time of the destruction of Mayapan (about 1440-50) and wandered off to the far south, to establish a powerful nation around Lake Peten, carried with them a forewarning that at the “eighth age” they should be subjected to a white race and have to embrace their religion; and, sure enough, when that time came, and not till then, that is, at the close of the seventeenth century of our reckoning, they were driven from their island homes by Governor Ursua, and their numerous temples, filled with idols, leveled to the soil.[1]

[Footnote 1:  Juan de Villagutierre Sotomayor, Historia de la Provincia de el Itza, passim (Madrid, 1701).]

The ground of all such prophecies was, I have no doubt, the expected return of the hero-gods, whose myths I have been recording.  Both of them represented in their original forms the light of day, which disappears at nightfall but returns at dawn with unfailing certainty.  When the natural phenomenon had become lost in its personification, this expectation of a return remained and led the priests, who more than others retained the recollection of the ancient forms of the myth, to embrace this expectation in the prognostics which it was their custom and duty to pronounce with reference to the future.

CHAPTER V.

THE QQUICHUA HERO-GOD VIRACOCHA.

VIRACOCHA AS THE FIRST CAUSE—­HIS NAME, ILLA TICCI—­QQUICHUA PRAYERS—­OTHER NAMES AND TITLES OF VIRACOCHA—­HIS WORSHIP A TRUE MONOTHEISM—­THE MYTH OF THE FOUR BROTHERS—­MYTH OF THE TWIN BROTHERS.

VIRACOCHA AS TUNAPA, HE WHO PERFECTS—­VARIOUS INCIDENTS IN HIS LIFE—­RELATION TO MANCO CAPAC—­HE DISAPPEARS IN THE WEST.

VIRACOCHA RISES FROM LAKE TITICACA AND JOURNEYS TO THE WEST—­DERIVATION OF HIS NAME—­HE WAS REPRESENTED AS WHITE AND BEARDED—­THE MYTH OF CON AND PACHACAMAC—­CONTICE VIRACOCHA—­PROPHECIES OF THE PERUVIAN SEERS—­THE WHITE MEN CALLED VIRACOCHAS—­SIMILARITIES TO AZTEC MYTHS.

The most majestic empire on this continent at the time of its discovery was that of the Incas.  It extended along the Pacific, from the parallel of 2 deg. north latitude to 20 deg. south, and may be 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 Yunca, spoken by the coast tribes, and the Aymara, around Lake Titicaca and south of it.  The latter, in phonetics and in many root-words, betrays a relationship to the Qquichua, but a remote one.

The Qquichuas were a race of considerable cultivation.  They had a developed metrical system, and were especially fond of the drama.  Several specimens of their poetical and dramatic compositions have been preserved, and indicate a correct taste.  Although they did not possess a method of writing, they had various mnemonic aids, by which they were enabled to recall their verses and their historical traditions.