[Footnote 1:  Ibid., p. 140.]

[Footnote 2:  Ibid., p. 147.]

In the prayers for the dead, Illa Ticci was appealed to, to protect the body, that it should not see corruption nor become 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.[1] Were other gods also called upon, it was that they might intercede with the Supreme Divinity in favor of these petitions of mortals.

[Footnote 1:  Ibid., p. 154.]

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:—­

“Oh, Lord, we offer thee 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."[1]

[Footnote 1:  Herrera, Historia de las Indias, Dec. v, Lib. iv, cap. i.]

Or such a prayer as this was offered up by the assembled multitude:—­

“Oh, Viracocha 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."[1]

[Footnote 1:  Christoval de Molina, The Fables and Rites of the Incas, p. 29.  Molina gives the original Qquichua, the translation of which is obviously incomplete, and I have extended it.]

Thus Viracocha 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 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 a loan from Christian theology is conclusively shown by the fact that the very writers who preserved them often did not know their meaning, and translated them incorrectly.

Thus even Garcilasso de la Vega, himself of the blood of the Incas, tells us that neither he nor the natives of that day could translate Ticci.[1] Thus, also, Garcia and Acosta inform us that Viracocha was surnamed Usapu, which they translate “admirable,"[2] but really it means “he who accomplishes all that he undertakes, he who is successful in all things;” Molina has preserved the term Ymamana, which means “he who controls or owns all things;"[3] the title Pachayachachi, which the Spanish writers