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 his followers marched out upon the waves as if it had been dry land, and disappeared in the West.[1]

[Footnote 1:  Garcia, Origen de los Indios, Lib. v, Cap. vii.]

These followers were, like himself, white and bearded.  Just as, in Mexico, the natives attributed the erection of buildings, the history of which had been lost, to the white Toltecs, the subjects of Quetzalcoatl (see above, chapter iii, Sec.2), so in 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.[1] 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 the source of skill, because they supply the means indispensable to the acquisition of knowledge.

[Footnote 2:  Speaking of certain “grandes y muy antiquissimos edificios” on the river Vinaque, Cieza de Leon says:  “Preguntando a los Indios comarcanos quien hizo aquella antigualla, responden que otras gentes barbadas y blancas como nosotros:  los cuales, muchos tiempos antes que los Ingas reinasen, dicen que vinieron a estas partes y hicieron alli su morada.” La Cronica del Peru, cap. lxxxvi.]

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, give that of Herrera, as it has some interesting features.

He tells us that the traditions and songs which the Indians had received from their remote ancestors related that in very early times there was a period when there was no sun, and men lived in darkness.  At length, in answer to their urgent prayers, the sun emerged from Lake Titicaca, 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 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 times they bore his deeds and person in memory, under the names of Tici Viracocha and Tuapaca, and elsewhere as Arnava.  They erected many temples to him, in which they placed his figure and image as described.