[154-1]
Garcilasso de la Vega, a descendant of the Incas, has preserved an
ancient indigenous poem of his nation, presenting the storm myth in a
different form, which as undoubtedly authentic and not devoid of poetic
beauty I translate, preserving as much as possible the trochaic
tetrasyllabic verse of the original Quichua:--
"Beauteous princess,
Lo, thy brother
Breaks thy vessel
Now in fragments.
From the blow come
Thunder, lightning,
Strokes of lightning.
And thou, princess,
Tak'st the water,
With it rainest,
And the hail, or
Snow dispensest.
Viracocha,
World constructor,
World enliv'ner,
To this office
Thee appointed,
Thee created."[155-1]
In this pretty waif that has floated down to us from the wreck of a
literature now forever lost, there is more than one point to attract the
notice of the antiquary. He may find in it a hint to decipher those
names of divinities so common in Peruvian legends, Contici and Illatici.
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