PLATE XXXI.
PLATE XXXI.
Sculptured monolith from Chavin de Huantar, now in the Museum of Lima. The design appears to be a deity armed with thunderbolts or elaborate wands, with a monster head surmounted by an elaborate head-dress. If the figure be viewed reversed the head-dress will be seen to consist of a series of masks each pendent from the protruding tongue of the mask above, a motive frequent in Nasca pottery (cf. PlateXXXII). The figure strongly suggests the central image of the Tiahuanaco monolithic gateway, but it is to be observed that serpent heads, from the girdle, the rays of the head-dress, and in the caduceus-like termination of the head-dress, take the place of the puma, fish and condor accessories of the Tiahuanaco monument. The relationship of this deity to those represented on PlatesXXXII,XXXIII,XXXIV,XXXV, andXXXVII, is scarcely to be doubted. Markham,Incas of Peru, page 34.
Thus, in shadowy fashion, the cycles of Andean civilization are restored. There are two great regions, the highland and the littoral, Inca and Yunca, each with a long history. The primitive fisher-families of the coast gave way to a civilization which may have received its impetus, as traditions indicate, from tribes sailing southward in greatbalsas; at any rate it had developed, doubtless before the Christian era, important and characteristic culture centres—Truxillo in the north, Nasca to the south—and great shrines, Pachacamac and Rimac, venerable to the Incas; while long after its own acme, and long before the Inca conquest, the coastal civilization had had important commerce with the ancient culture of the highlands. The origin of the pre-Inca empire from the Megalithic culture of Tiahuanaco leads back toward the middle of the first milleniumb. c., perhaps to dimly remote centuries. It passed its floruit, marked by the rise of Cuzco as a great capital, and then followed barbarian migrations and wars; the retirement of a defeated handful to Tampu-Tocco; a long period of decline; and finally, about the beginning of the thirteenth century, a renaissance of culture, marked by a religious reform amounting to a new dispensation and stamping the revived power as essentially ecclesiastical in its claims,—for all Inca conquests were undertaken with a Crusader's plea for the expansion of the faith in the beneficent Sun and for the spread of knowledge of the Way of Life revealed through his children, the Inca.
It is impossible not to be struck with the resemblance between the development of this civilization and that of Europe during the same period. Cuzco and Rome rise to empire simultaneously; the ancient civilizations of Tiahuanaco, Nasca, and Truxillo, excelling the new power in art, but inferior in power of organization and engineering works, are the American equivalents of Greece and the Orient. Almost synchronously, Rome and Cuzco fall before barbarian invasions; and in each case centuries follow which can only be known as dark, duringwhich the empire breaks in chaos. Finally, both civilizations rise, again during the same period, as leaders in a new movement in religion, animated by a crusading zeal and basing their authority upon divine will. It is true that Rome does not attain the material power that was restored to Cuzco, but Christendom, at least, does attain this power. Such is the picture,—though it must be added that in the present state of knowledge it is plausible restoration only, not proven truth.
It is not possible to reconstruct in any detail the religions and mythologies of the pre-Inca civilizations of the central Andes, but of the four culture centres which have been most studied some traits are decipherable. Two of these centres are montane, two coastal. Of the former, the Megalithic highland civilization, whose first home is supposed to have been the region of Lake Titicaca, is assuredly ancient; the civilization of the Calchaqui, to the south of this, was a late conquest of the Incas and was doubtless a contemporary of Inca culture. On the coast, the Yunca developed in two branches, both, apparently, as ancient as the Megalithic culture, and both, again, late conquests of the Incas. To the north, extending from Tumbez to Paramount, with Chimu (Truxillo) as its capital, was the realm of the Grand Chimu—a veritable empire, for it comprised some twenty coastal valleys—while the twelve adjoining southern valleys, from Chancay to Nasca, were the seat of the Chincha Confederacy, a loose political organization with a characteristic culture of its own, though clearly akin to that of the Chimu region. All these centres having fallen under the sway of conquerors with a creed to impose (the Incas even erected a shrine to the Sun on the terraces of oracular Pachacamac), their religious traditions were waning in importance in the time of theconquistadores, who, unhappily, secured little of the lore that mighthave been salved in their own day. There are fragments for the Chimu region in Balboa and Calancha, for the Chincha in Arriaga and Avila; but in the main it is upon the monuments—vases, burials, ruins of temples—that, in any effort to define the beliefs of these departed peoples, we must depend for a supplementation of the meagre notices recorded in Inca tradition or preserved by the early chroniclers.[129]
Fortunately these monuments permit of some interesting guesses which, surely, are no unjustified indulgence of human curiosity when the mute expression of dead souls is their matter; and in particular the wonderful drawings of the Truxillo and Nasca vases and the woven figures of their fabrics suggest analogical interpretation. Despite their family likeness, the styles of the two regions are distinct; and, as the investigations of Uhle show, they have undergone long and changing developments, with apogees well in the past. The zenith of Chimu art was marked by a variety and naturalism of design rivaled, if at all in America, only by the best Maya achievements; while Chincha expression realized its acme in polychrome designs truly marvellous in complexity of convention. That the art of both regions is profoundly mythological is obvious from the portrayals.
Striking features of this Yunca art are the monster-forms[130]—man-bird, man-beast, man-fish, man-reptile—and, again, the multiplication of faces or masks, both of men and of animals. The repetition of the human countenance is especially frequent in the art of Nasca, where series of masks are often enchained in complex designs, one most grotesque form of this concatenation representing a series of masks issuing, as it were, from the successive mouths, and joined by the protruding tongues. Again, there are dragon-like or serpentine monsters having a head at each extremity, recalling not only the two-headed serpent of Aztec and Maya art, but also the Sisiutl of the North-West Coast of North America—a region whose art, also, furnishes an impressive analogue, in complexityof convention, to that of the Yunca. Frequently, in Nasca art, the fundamental design is a man-headed bird, or fish, or serpent, whose body and accoutrements are complexly adorned with representations of the heads or forms of other animals—the puma, for example, or even the mouse. Oftentimes heads, apparently decapitations, are borne in the hands of the central figure; and on one Truxillo vase there is a depiction[131]of what is surely a ceremonial dance in which the participants are masked and disguised as birds and animals; the remarkable Nasca robes in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (see PlatesXXXI,XXXII,XXXIII,XXXIV) also suggest masked forms, the representations of the same personage varying in colour and in the arrangement of facial design.
PLATE XXXII.
PLATE XXXII.
Polychrome vase from the Nasca valley, showing the multi-headed deity represented also by PlateXXXI. The succession of masks connected by protruded tongues is a striking form of Nasca design. Examples are found elsewhere, even into Calchaqui territory. The vase here pictured is in the American Museum of Natural History.
The heads which are held in the hands and which adorn the costumes of these figures are regarded by some authorities as trophy heads, remotely related, perhaps, to those which are prepared as tokens of prowess by some of the Brazilian tribes; and, in fact, the discovery of the decapitated mummies of women and girls, buried in the guano deposits of the sacred islands of Guañape and Macabi, points to a remote period when human sacrifices were made, perhaps to a marine power, and certainly connected with some superstition as to the head. Another suggestion, however, will account for a greater variety of the forms. The dances with animal masks irresistibly recall the ancestral and totemic masked dances of such peoples as the Pueblo Indians of North America and of the tribes of the North-West Coast; the figures of bird-men, fish-men, and snake-men, with their bodies ornamented with other animal figures, are again reminiscent of the totemic emblems of the far North-West; and surely no image is better adapted to suggest the descent of a series of generations from an ancestral hero than the sequence of tongue-joined masks figured on the Nasca vases, each generation receiving its name, as it were, from the mouth of the preceding. The recurrence of certain constant designs, both on vases and infabrics, is at least analogous to the use of totemic signs on garments and utensils in the region of the North-West Coast.
It is certain that ancestor-worship was an important feature of Yunca religion, for Arriaga, speaking of the Chincha peoples, says that for festivals they gathered inayllus(tribes or clans), each with mummies of its kinsfolk to which were offered vases, clothes, plumes, and the like. They had household gods (called Conopa or Huasi-camayoc), as distinguished from the communal deities, which were of several classes; more than three thousand of these Conopas it is said, were destroyed by the Spaniards. Garcilasso informs us that each coastal province worshipped a special kind of fish, "telling a pleasant tale to the effect that the First of all the Fish dwells in the sky"—a statement which is certainly in tone with a totemic interpretation.
In addition to the special idols of each province, says Garcilasso,[132]all the peoples of the littoral from Truxillo to Tarapaca adored the ocean in the form of a fish, out of gratitude for the food that it yielded, naming it Mama Cocha ("Mother Sea"); and it is indeed plausible that the Food-Giver of the Sea was a great deity in this region, although some of the Truxillo vases seem to indicate that the ocean was also regarded as the abode of dread and inimical monsters, since they portray the conflicts of men or heroes with crustacean and piscine monsters of the deep. Antonio de la Calancha, who was prior of the Augustines at Truxillo in 1619, gives a brief account of the Chimu pantheon.[133]The Ocean (Ni) and the earth (Vis) were worshipped, prayers being offered to the one for fish and to the other for good harvests. The great deity, however, was the Moon (Si), to which sacrifices of children were sometimes made; and this heavenly body, regarded as ruler of the elements and bringer of tempests, was held to be more powerful than the Sun. Possibly the crescent- or knife-shaped symbol which appears on the head-gear of vase representations of chieftains, in Truxillo ware, is a token ofthis cult, which finds a parallel among the Araucanians of the far south, among whom, too, the Moon, not the Sun, is the lofty deity.
The language of the subjects of the Grand Chimu was Mochica, which was unrelated to any other in Peru; but though they regarded the Quichua-speaking Chincha as hereditary enemies, the religious conceptions of the two groups were not very different. In Arriaga's account,[134]the Chincha worshipped the Earth (Mama Pacha) as well as Mama Cocha (the Sea); and they also venerated the "Mamas," or Mothers, of maize and cacao. There were likewise tutelary deities for their several villages—just as each family had its Penates—and Garcilasso states that the god Chincha Camac was adored as the creator and guardian of all the Chincha. The worship of stones in fields and stones in irrigating channels is also mentioned (both for Chimu and for Chincha), and these may well have been in the nature of herms in valleys where fields were narrowly limited; while in addition there were innumerable huacas—sacred places, fetishes, oracles, idols, and, in short, anything marvellous, for Garcilasso, in explaining the meaning of the word, says that it was applied to everything exciting wonder, from the great gods and the peaks of the Andes to the birth of twins and the occurrence of hare-lip. It is in this connexion that he speaks of "sepulchres made in the fields or at the corners of their houses, where the devil spoke to them familiarly," a description suggestive of ancestral shrines; and it is quite possible that the wordhuacais most properly applied in that sense in which it has survived, to tombs.
In Chincha territory were located the two great shrines of Rimac and Pachacamac, whose oracles even the Incas courted. Rimac, says Garcilasso, signifies "He who Speaks"; he adds that the valley was called Rimac from "an idol there, in the shape of a man, which spoke and gave answers to questions, like the oracle of the Delphic Apollo"; and Lima, which is inthe valley of Rimac, receives its appellation from a corruption of this name. A greater shrine, however, and an older oracle was Pachacamac. According to Garcilasso, the word means "Maker and Sustainer of the Universe" (pacha, "earth,"camac, "maker"); and he is of opinion that the worship of this divinity originated with the Incas, who, nevertheless, regarded the god as invisible and hence built him no temples and offered him no sacrifices, but "adored him inwardly with the greatest veneration." Markham (not very convincingly) identifies Pachacamac with the great fish-deity of the coast, considering him as a supplanter of the older and purer deity, Viracocha.
One of the most interesting of coastal myths, quoted by Uhle, tells how Pachacamac, having created a man and a woman, failed to provide them with food; but when the man died, the woman was aided by the Sun, who gave her a son and taught the pair to live upon wild fruits. Angered at this interference, Pachacamac killed the youth, from whose buried body sprang maize and other cultivated plants; the Sun gave the woman another son, Wichama, whereupon Pachacamac slew the mother; while Wichama, in revenge, pursued Pachacamac, driving him into the sea, and thereafter burning up the lands in passion, transformed men into stones. This legend has been interpreted as a symbol of the seasons, but it is evident that its elements belong to wide-spread American cycles, for the mother and son suggest the Chibcha goddess, Bachue, while the formation of cultivated plants from the body of the slain youth is a familiar element in myths of the tropical forests and, indeed, in both Americas. From the story it is clear that Pachacamac is a creator god, antagonistic (if not superior) to the Sun, who seems to supplant him in power; but surely it is anomalous that the Earth-Maker should find his end by being driven into the sea unless, indeed, Pachacamac, spouse of Mother Sea, be the embodied Father Heaven, descending in fog and damp and driven seaward by thedispelling Sun. Such an interpretation would make Pachacamac simply a local form of Viracocha; and this, certainly, is suggested in the descriptions, by Garcilasso and others, of the reverence paid to this divinity.
From Francisco de Avila's account[135]of the myths of the Huarochiri, in the valley of the Rimac, we may infer that Viracocha was known to the Chincha tribes, at one period probably as a supreme god. An idol called Coniraya (meaning according to Markham, "Pertaining to Heat") they addressed as "Coniraya Viracocha," saying, "Thou art Lord of all; thine are the crops, and thine are all the people"; and in every toil and difficulty they invoked this deity for aid.
PLATE XXXIII.
PLATE XXXIII.
Embroidered figure from a Nasca robe in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Nasca fabrics represent the highest achievement in textile art of aboriginal America. Figures of the type here shown are repeated with minor variations, each, no doubt, of symbolic significance, in a chequered or "all-over" design. The deity represented may be totemic, but obviously belongs to the same group as those shown in such pottery paintings as are represented in PlatesXXXIIandXXXIV.
One of the decorative designs that occurs and recurs on the vases of both the Chimu and Chincha regions—in the characteristic style of each—is the plumed serpent. What is apparently a modification of this is the man-headed serpent, or the warrior with a serpent's or dragon's tail, a further modification representing the man or deity as holding the serpent in one hand, while frequently, in the other hand, is a symbolic staff or weapon that in certain forms is startlingly like the classical thunderbolt in the hand of Jove. Another step shows only the serpent's head held in the one hand, while the staff, or thunderbolt, is made prominent; and, finally, in the style known as that of Tiahuanaco, from its resemblance to the ancient art of the highlands, a squat deity, holding a winged or snake-headed wand in each hand gives the counterfeit presentment of the central figure on the Tiahuanaco arch and the monolith of Chavin. In Central and North America the plumed serpent is a sky-symbol, associated with rainbow, lightning, rain, and weather; and it is not too much to follow the guesses hitherto ventured that this cycle of images, appearing in various forms in the different periods of Yunca art, is intimately associated with the ancient and nearly universal Jovis Pater of America—Father Sky. As in the old world, the eagle, so in South America the condor and the falcon are theespecial ministers of this deity; as also are the most powerful of the beasts of prey known in the region—the puma, or mountain lion; and, again, a fish, which we may suppose to typify lordship over the waters, as the condor and lion symbolize dominion over air and earth. Thus, as it were, through their grotesque masks and gorgeous fantasies, the pots and jars of the Yunca peoples mutely attest the universal reverence of mankind for the great powers of Nature.
What were the tales which the Yunca peoples told of their gods? The little that we know is almost wholly due to the unfinished manuscript of Francisco de Avila,[136]composed in 1608; but brief and fragmentary though this treatise be, ending abruptly with the heading of a Chapter VIII, which was never written, it throws a curiously suggestive light upon the archaeological discoveries of our own day, with their revelation of successive civilizations and successive cults in the coastal valleys.
Avila's narrative tells of a series of ages of the gods, each marked by its new ruler, which he confesses he did not well comprehend because of the contradictoriness of the legends. At all events, however, in the most ancient period there were "certainhuacas, or idols,... supposed to have walked in the form of men. Thesehuacaswere called Yananamca Intanamca; and in a certain encounter they had with anotherhuaca, called Huallallo Caruincho, they were conquered and destroyed by the said Huallallo, who remained as Lord and God of the land. He ordered that no woman should bring forth more than two children, of which one was to be sacrificed for him to eat, and the other,—whichever of the two the parents chose,—might be brought up. It was also a tradition that, in those days, all who died were brought to life again on the fifth day; and that what was sown in that land also sprouted, grew, andripened on the fifth day; and that all these three provinces [Huarochiri, Mama, Chaclla] were then a very hot country, which the Indians callYuncaorAnde." The last allusion probably refers to some recollection of a migration from the coast, for the Huarochiri region is in the highlands drained by the Rimac and Lurin rivers.
The story goes on to record the overthrow of Huallallo by another hero-god, Pariacaca; but before narrating this event, Avila turns aside to tell the tale of Coniraya Viracocha, whom he regards as certainly a great deity at one time, though whether before or after the rise of Pariacaca is not evident.
In ancient times Coniraya appeared as a poor Indian, clothed in rags and reviled by all. Nevertheless, he was the creator of all things, at whose command terraces arose to support the fields and channels were formed to irrigate them—feats which he accomplished by merely hurling his hollow cane. He was also all-wise with respect to gods and oracles, and the thoughts of others were open to him. This Coniraya fell in love with a certain virgin, Cavillaca; and as she sat weaving beneath a lucma-tree, he dropped near her a ripe fruit, containing his own generative seed. Eating the fruit unsuspectingly, she became with child; and when the babe was old enough to crawl, she assembled all "thehuacasand principal idols of the land," determined to discover the child's father; but as, to her amazement and disgust, the infant crawled to the beggar-like Coniraya, she snatched it up and fled away toward the sea. "But Coniraya Viracocha desired the friendship and favour of the goddess; so, when he saw** her take flight, he put on magnificent golden robes, and leaving the astonished assembly of the gods, he ran after her, crying out: 'O my lady Cavillaca, turn your eyes and see how handsome and gallant am I,' with other loving and courteous words; and they say that his splendour illuminated the whole country." But Cavillaca only increased her speed, and plunging into the sea, mother and child were transformed intotwo rocks, still to be seen. Coniraya, distanced, kept on his quest. He met a condor, and the condor having promised him success in his pursuit, he gave the condor the promise of long life, power to traverse wildernesses and valleys, and the right to prey; and upon those who should slay the condor he set the curse of death. Next he met a fox, but the fox told him his quest was vain; so he cursed the fox, telling it that it must hunt at night and be slain by men. The lion next promised him well, and he gave the lion power over prey and honour among men. The falcon was similarly blessed for fair promises, and parrots cursed for their ill omen. Arrived at the seaside, Coniraya discovered the vanity of his pursuit, but he was easily consoled; for on the beach he met two daughters of Pachacamac. In the absence of their mother, who was visiting Cavillaca in the sea, they were guarded by a great serpent, but Coniraya quieted the serpent by his wisdom. One of the maidens flew away in the form of a dove,—whence their mother was called Urpihuachac, "Mother of Doves"; but the other was more complaisant. "In those days it is said that there were no fishes in the sea, but that this Urpihuachac reared a few in a small pond. Coniraya was enraged that Urpihuachac should be absent in the sea, visiting Cavillaca; so he emptied the fishes out of her pond into the sea, and thence all the fishes now in the sea have been propagated."
That Coniraya is a deity of sun or sky appears evident from this tale; and he is, clearly, at the same time a demiurgic transformer, with not a little of the mere trickster about him. The condor, falcon, and lion are his servants and beneficiaries; foxes and parrots are his antipathies; he has something to do with the provision of fish, and he conquers the serpent of the sea-goddess. Avila says that the tradition is rooted in the customs of the province: the people venerate the condor, which they never kill, as also the lion; they have a horror of the fox, slaying it where they can; "as to the falcon, there is scarcely a festival in which one does not appear on the headsof the dancers and singers; and we all know that they detest the parrots, which is not wonderful considering the mischief they do, though their chief reason is to comply with the tradition."
PLATE XXXIV.
PLATE XXXIV.
Vase from Nasca representing a deity with serpentiform body. The commonest motive in Nasca designs is the multiplication, in grotesque forms, of human masks. The deity here represented is commonly shown with a mask head-dress, masks upon either cheek, with a girdle of masks or trophy heads, and with masks elsewhere; while either the body is shown as serpentiform or serpent-like wands are wielded by the hands. It is probable that a sky-god is represented, possibly a local form of Viracocha. Compare PlatesXXXI,XXXVI,XXXVII. The vase pictured is in the American Museum of Natural History.
Cataclysmic events which apparently followed the deeds of the Demiurge were a five-day deluge, in which all men were destroyed save one who was led by a speaking llama to a mountain height where he was safe; and a five-day darkness, during which stones knocked together, while both the stones with which they ground grain and the animals of their herds arose against their masters. It was after these cataclysms, in the days when there were as yet no kings, that five eggs appeared on a certain mountain, called Condor-coto: round them a wind blew, for until that time there had been no wind. These eggs were the birth-place of Pariacaca and his four brothers; but before the hero had come forth from his egg, one of his brothers, a great and rich lord, built his house on Anchicocha, adorning it with the red and yellow feathers of certain birds. This lord had llamas whose natural wool was of brilliant colours—some red, some blue, some yellow—so that it was unnecessary to dye it for weaving; but notwithstanding he was very wise, and even pretended to be God, the Creator, misfortune befell him in the form of a disgusting disease of which he was unable to cure himself, though he sought aid in every direction. Now at this time there was a poor and ill-clad Indian named Huathiacuri, "who, they say, was a son of Pariacaca and who learned many arts from his father," whom, in his egg, he visited in search of advice. This youth, having fallen in love with a daughter of the rich man, one day overheard foxes conversing about the great lord's illness. "The real cause," said a fox, "is that, when his wife was toasting a little maize, one grain fell on her skirt, as happens every day. She gave it to a man who ate it, and afterward she committed adultery with him. This is the reason that the rich man is sick, and a serpent is now hovering over his beautiful house to eatit, while a toad with two heads is waiting under his grinding-stone with the same object." When Huathiacuri learned this, he told the girl that he knew the cure for her parent's malady; and though she did not believe him, she informed her father, who had the young man brought before him. Promised the price he demanded—the maiden's hand—the youth revealed her mother's iniquity and gave orders to kill two serpents, which were found in the roof, as well as a two-headed toad, which hopped forth when the grinding-stone was lifted. After this the rich man became well, and Huathiacuri received his bride. The sister of this girl, however, was married to a man who, resenting so beggarly a person in the family as Huathiacuri, challenged the latter to a series of contests—first, to a drinking-bout; next, to a match in splendour of costume, at which the youth appeared in a dress of snow; then to a dance, in lions' skins, wherein he won because of a rainbow that appeared round the head of the magic lion's skin which he wore; and, finally, to a contest in house-building, wherein all the animals aided him at night. Thus having vanquished his brother-in-law, Huathiacuri in turn issued a challenge to a dance, ending it in a wild race during which he transformed the brother-in-law into a deer and his wife into rock. The deer lived for some time by devouring people, but finally deer began to be eaten by men, not men by deer. Subsequent to all this, Pariacaca and his brothers issued from the eggs, causing a great tempest in which the rich man and his house were swept into the sea. Pariacaca is also said to have destroyed by a torrent a village of revellers who refused him drink when he appeared among them as a thirsty beggar, all but one girl who took pity upon him; and there is a story of his love for Choque Suso, a maiden whom he found in tears beside her withering maize-fields and for whom he opened an irrigation-channel, converting the girl herself into a stone which still guards the headwaters. After this, in Avila's narrative, comes a heading: "How the Indians of the Ayllu ofCopara still worship Choque Suso and this channel, a fact which I know not only from their stories, but also from judicial depositions which I have taken on the subject"—and there the manuscript abruptly ends.
Nevertheless, this fragment has given us enough to see, if not the system, at least the character of Chincha mythology. There are the generations of the elder gods, with transformations and cataclysms. There are the cosmic eggs—perhaps earth's centre and the four winds symbolized in the five of them. There is the toad-symbol of the underworld, and the serpent-symbol of the sky-world. The Rich Man, in his house of red and yellow feathers, is surely a sky-being—perhaps a sun-god, perhaps a lunar divinity whose ceaseless crescence and senescence, to and from its glory, may be imaged in his cureless disease. Pariacaca is clearly a deity of waters, probably a divine mountain, giving rain and irrigating streams, and clothing his son in the snow and the rainbow; while the women—Cavillaca, and the Mother of Doves, and Choque Suso, the Nymph of the Channel—who were turned into rocks speak again the hoary sanctity of these images of perdurability.
The Yunca peoples, both Chimu and Chincha, recalled a time when their ancestors entered the coastal valleys to make them their own, "destroying the former inhabitants,... a vile and feeble race," as Chincha tradition has it. In the uplands the followers of the Scyris of Quito were remembered as coming from the littoral; but for the rest, highland legends point almost uniformly to a southerly or south-easterly origin—where, indeed, the tale is not of an autochthonous beginning—and with general agreement it is to the plains about Titicaca that the stories lead, as to the most ancient seat of mankind. These traditions, coupled with the immemorial and wonderful ruins of the sacred place at Tiahuanaco—whetherthe precinct of a city or of a temple—give a special fascination to this region as being plausibly the key to the solution of the problem of central Andean civilization.
Certainly no more puzzling key was ever given for the unlocking of a mystery, since the basin of Lake Titicaca is a plateau, some thirteen to fourteen thousand feet above sea-level, where cereals will not ripen, so that only potatoes and a few other roots, along with droves of hardy llamas and alpacas, form the reliance for subsistence of a population which at best is sparse. Yet in the midst of this plateau are ruins characterized by the use of enormous stones—only less than the great monoliths of Egypt—and by a skill in stone-working which implies an extraordinary development of the mason's art. It is the judgement of archaeologists who have visited the scene that nothing less than the huge endeavour of a dense population could have created the visible works; and there is a tradition, derived from an Indianquipu-reader and recorded by Oliva, that the real Tiahuanaco is a subterranean city, in vastness far exceeding the one above the ground. The apparent discrepancy between the capacity of the region for the support of population and the effort required to produce the megalithic works has led Sir Clements Markham to suggest that these structures may date from a period when the plateau was several thousand feet lower than at present (for the elevation of the Andes is geologically recent); it would seem, however, in view of the huge tasks which Inca engineers accomplished, and of the fact that sacred cities in remote sites were venerated by the Andeans, more reasonable to assume that the ruins of Tiahuanaco and the islands represent, in part at least, the devotion of distant princes, who here maintained another Delphi or Lhassa.
The speaking monument of this ancient shrine (and there is no more remarkable monolith in the world) is the carved monolithic gate, now broken. Above the portal (see PlateXXXV) is the decoration, a broad band in low relief; while a centralfigure, elevated above the others, is a divine image—the god with rayed head and with wands or bolts in each hand, whose likeness is met in the Yunca region and on the Chavin stele. On either side, in three ranks of eight each, are forty-eight obeisant figures—kings, some have called them, but others see in them totemic symbols of clan ancestors, although it is not impossible that they are genii of earth and air and water: all are winged, all bear wands, and those of the middle tier are condor-headed, while the wand and crest and garb of each is adorned with heads of condor and puma and fish. In case of the central figure the two wands are adorned with condors' heads, and some of the rays of the head-dress terminate in pumas' heads, while on his dress are not only heads of condors, pumas, and human beings, but centrally, on the breast, is a crescent design most resembling a fish. Another curious feature, alike of the forty-eight and of the central god, are circles under the eyes, seemingly tears, which recall the wide-spread trope that rain is heaven's tears, and the fact that tears were sometimes painted on ceremonial masks used in supplications for rain. Beneath the design just described is a meander, perhaps the symbol of earth,[137]adorned with the same condor-heads; and framing plaque-like representations of what are surely celestial divinities (still with tearful eyes); and it is not beyond reason to suppose that the tiny trumpeter who appears above one of these rayed masks may be the Morning Star, herald of the day.
PLATE XXXV.
PLATE XXXV.
Monolithic Gateway, Tiahuanaco, Bolivia. This is regarded by many as the most remarkable prehistoric monument in America. It is approximately ten by twelve and a half feet in front dimension, and is estimated to weigh nine to twelve tons. The decoration consists of a central figure, above the doorway, which is certainly a sky-god and probably Viracocha, and a banded frieze showing groups of mythic beings. For description see pages233-34. After a photograph in the Peabody Museum.
There is little ground to doubt that this monument is cosmical in meaning (it may also be totemic, for at least the ruling Andeans became "Children of the Sun"), and that the central figure is a heaven-god or a sun-god. The most curious of its emblems, taking into account the nature of the region, is the fish; for while there are fish in Lake Titicaca, the natives (at least today) are little given to taking them. It is possible, as suggested by the crescent on the breast of the god, that the fish is here a symbol of the moon, which may have been mistressof the waves; and this would lead us, analogically, to the capital of the Grand Chimu and the temple of Si An, where were the great deities, the Moon above and the Sea below. Certainly, if an animal form were sought to symbolize the crescent of the skies, none could be found more perfect than that of the fish; or, by extension, the bark by which man conquers the piscine realm might be conceived and imaged as symbol of the lunar ship.
Such an hypothesis implies a relation of Tiahuanaco to the coastal regions as well as to the mountain valleys; and this relationship, in a period long past, is demonstrated, representations of the deity of Tiahuanaco being found, drawn in Tiahuanaco style, on the Yunca vases. But what of its extension in the highlands? The Chavin stone (see PlateXXXI) from the region of the headwaters of Rio Marañon far to the north of Cuzco is, as monumental evidence of the ancient cult, second in importance only to the Tiahuanaco arch. The figure on this monument is in Nasca rather than in Tiahuanaco style, having as its head-dress an elaborate structure which, when viewed reversed, is found to be formed of that series of masks, each depending from the lolling tongue of its predecessor, which is so common on Nasca vases; while snakes' heads replace the condor-puma-fish adornments of the southern monument, and it is interesting to note that the whole structure terminates in a caduceus-like twist of serpents. The main figure, however, with its elaborate wands, ending exactly in the form of Jove's bolt, certainly follows the style of the central figure of Tiahuanaco, so that we are justified in assuming that it represents a similar conception—a celestial deity, from which proceed the serpentine rays, sunlight or lightning. To the far south, in the Calchaqui-Diaguité region, potsherds have been discovered implying the same central conception—the deity with mask and bolt, the dragon with head at each extremity, and a series of dragons' heads united by protruding tongues (a design whose far extension leads into the countryof the unconquered Araucanians in the Chilean Andes).[138]More remarkable are the ceremonial and votive objects discovered in this region, among them certain plaques which include a masterpiece (PlateXXXVI) bearing many traits that identify it with the monumental images: the rayed head, the tears beneath the eyes, the crescent-shaped breast-ornament, and, on either side of the central image, crested dragons which appear to take the place of the wands in the type figures.
The names of this heaven-god, ancient in origin and wide in the range of his cult, have doubtless been many in the course of history; but though several of them have survived in the traditions which have been recorded, paramount among them all is that by which the divinity was known to the Inca—Viracocha (or Uiracocha). Montesinos's list of kings commences, says Markham,[139]"with the names of the deity, Illa Tici Uiracocha. We are told that the first word, Illa, means 'light.' Tici means 'foundation or beginning of things.' The word Uira is said to be a corruption of Pirua, meaning the 'depository or store-house of creation.'... The ordinary meaning of Cocha is a lake, but here it is said to signify an abyss—profundity. The whole meaning of the words would be, 'The splendour, the foundation, the creator, the infinite God.' The word Yachachic was occasionally added—'the Teacher.'"
PLATE XXXVI.
PLATE XXXVI.
Plaque probably representing Viracocha. The head is surmounted by a rayed disk, doubtless the sun; tears, symbolic of rain, stream from the eyes; above the hands, on either side, are dragon-like creatures which are doubtless the equivalent of the wands or serpents shown in the hands of similar figures, and which may represent the two servants of the god, as they appear in legend. AfterCAxii, Plate VIII.
Molina, Salcamayhua, Huaman Poma, all give Inca prayers addressed to Viracocha—prayers which are our best evidence for the character in which he was regarded. In the group recorded by Molina[140]the deity appears as lord of generation of plants and animals and humankind; and to him are addressed supplications for increase. But he is very clearly, also, a supreme creator: "O conquering Viracocha! Ever-present Viracocha! Thou who art in the ends of the earth without equal! Thou gavest life and valour to men, saying, 'Let this be a man!' and to women, saying, 'Let this be a woman!' Thou madest them and gavest them being! Watch over themthat they may live in health and peace. Thou who art in the high heavens, and among the clouds of the tempest, grant this with long life, and accept this sacrifice, O Creator!" In other prayers Viracocha is represented as creator of the sun, and hence as supreme over the great national god of the Incas; and in the rites which Molina describes, Viracocha (the creator), the Sun, and the Thunder form a triad, addressed in the order named. The same supremacy of Viracocha is recognized in the elaborate hymn recorded by Salcamayhua and translated by Markham after the emended text of Dr. Mossi and the Spanish version of Lafone Quevado:[141]
"O Uira-cocha! Lord of the universe;Whether thou art male,Whether thou art female,Lord of reproduction,Whatsoever thou mayest be,O Lord of divination,Where art thou?Thou mayest be above,Thou mayest be below,Or perhaps aroundThy splendid throne and sceptre.Oh, hear me!From the sky above,In which thou mayest be,From the sea beneath,In which thou mayest be,Creator of the world,Maker of all men;Lord of all Lords,My eyes fail meFor longing to see thee;For the sole desire to know thee.Might I behold thee,Might I know thee,Might I consider thee,Might I understand thee.Oh, look down upon me,For thou knowest me.The sun—the moon—The day—the night—Spring—winter,Are not ordained in vainBy thee, O Uira-cocha!They all travelTo the assigned place;They all arriveAt their destined ends,Whithersoever thou pleasest.Thy royal sceptreThou holdest.Oh hear me!Oh choose me!Let it not beThat I should tire,That I should die."
It were easy to accept a pantheistic interpretation of a divinity so addressed; it is plausible to regard that deity as androgynous, as Lafone Quevado suggests. What is certain is that here we have a creator-god superior to the world of visible nature, so that he was represented, according to Salcamayhua, by an oval plate of fine gold above the symbols of the heavenly bodies in the great temple at Cuzco. Salcamayhua, moreover, connects with Viracocha two other names, Tonapa and Tarapaca, which, he declares, are appellatives of a servant (or servants) of Viracocha; and here we have a glimpse into another cycle of mythic history.
The story, as Salcamayhua tells it,[142]begins with the remote Purunpacha—the time when all the nations were at war with each other, and there was no rest from tumults. "Then, in the middle of the night, they heard the Hapi-ñuños [harpy-like daemones] disappearing with mournful complaints, and crying,—'We are conquered, we are conquered, alas that we should lose our bands!'" This Salcamayhua interprets as a New-World equivalent of the death-cry of Old-World paganism, "Great Pan is dead!"—for from their cry, he says, "it must be understood that the devils were conquered by Jesus Christ our Lord on the cross on Mount Calvary."Some time after the devils departed, there appeared "a bearded man, of middle height, with long hair, and a rather long shirt. They say that he was somewhat past his prime, for he already had grey hairs, and he was lean. He travelled by aid of a staff, teaching the natives with much love and calling them all his sons and daughters. As he went through the land, he performed many miracles. The sick were healed by his touch. He spoke all languages better than the natives." They called him, Salcamayhua says, Tonapa or Tarapaca ("Tarapacameans an eagle"), associating these names with that of Viracocha; "but was he not the glorious apostle, St. Thomas?"
Many tales are told of the miracles performed by Tonapa, among others the story, which Avila narrates of Pariacaca, of the overwhelming by flood of a village, the inhabitants of which had abused him; and similar legends in which the offenders were transformed into stones. "They further say that this Tonapa, in his wanderings, came to the mountains of Caravaya, where he erected a very large cross; and he carried it on his shoulders to the mountain of Carapucu, where he preached in a loud voice, and shed tears." In 1897 Bandelier[143]visited the village of Carabuco, on Lake Titicaca, and there saw the ancient cross, known for more than three centuries, which tradition associates with pre-Columbian times. "The meaning of Carapucu," Salcamayhua continues, "is when a bird calledpucu-pucusings four times at early dawn." May there not be here a clue to the meaning both of the myth and of the emblem? At dawn, when the herald birds first sing, the four quarters of the world, of which the cross is symbol, are shaped by the light of day—a token and a reminiscence of the first creation of Earth by shining Heaven.
Molina, Cieza de León, Sarmiento, Huaman Poma[144]tell of the making of sun and moon, and of the generations of men, associating this creation with the lake of Titicaca, its islands, and its neighbourhood. Viracocha is almost universally represented as the creator, and the story follows the main plot ofthe genesis narratives known to the civilized nations of both Americas—a succession of world aeons, each ending in cataclysm. As told by Huaman Poma, five such ages had preceded that in which he lived. The first was an age of Viracochas, an age of gods, of holiness, of life without death, although at the same time it was devoid of inventions and refinements; the second was an age of skin-clad giants, the Huari Runa, or "Indigenes," worshippers of Viracocha; third came the age of Puron Runa, or "Common Men," living without culture; fourth, that of the Auca Runa, "Warriors," and fifth that of the Inca rule, ended by the coming of the Spaniards. As related by Sarmiento the first age was that of a sunless world inhabited by a race of giants, who, owing to the sin of disobedience, were cataclysmically destroyed; but two brothers, surviving on a hill-top, married two women descended from heaven (in Molina's version these are bird-women) and repeopled a part of the world. Viracocha, however, undertook a second creation at Lake Titicaca, this time with sun, moon, and stars; but out of jealousy, since at first the moon was the brighter orb, the sun threw a handful of ashes over his rival's face, thus giving the shaded colour which the moon now presents. Viracocha, we are told, was assisted by three servants, one of whom, Taguapaca, rebelled against him; for this he was bound and set adrift upon the lake (an event which, in a different form, is given by Salcamayhua as a part of the persecution of Tonapa); and then, taking his two remaining servitors with him, the deity "went to a place now called Tiahuanacu ... and in this place he sculptured and designed on a great piece of stone all the nations that he intended to create," after which he sent his servants forth to command all tribes and all nations to multiply. The last act of Viracocha's career was his miraculous departure across the western sea, "travelling over the water as if it were land, without sinking," and leaving behind him the prophecy that he would send his messengers once again to protect and to teach his people.