Apu Ollantay Part 31

[Footnote 9: The Peruvians personified a mountain as two spirits, good and evil. In writing poetically of a mountain opposing, it would be referred to in the persons of its genii or spirits, and spoken of as two foes, not one.]

[Footnote 10: Rurun, desert, solitude.]

[Footnote 11: Tasquiy, to march; tasquina, promenade, path.]

[Footnote 12: Cusi Coyllur, while daylight lasted, was, in the eyes of Piqui Chaqui, like the sun. A change takes place at twilight, and at night she is like the moon.]

[Footnote 13: Fasting was a preparation for all great religious ceremonies. Victims for sacrifice underwent a previous fast, which was looked upon in the fight of purification before being offered to the Deity.]

[Footnote 14: They gave the attributes we usually a.s.sign to the fox to the puma.]

[Footnote 15: Intip llirpun, 'apple of the sun's eye.' There is no English equivalent that is suitable.]

[Footnote 16: Huayruru is the seed of a th.o.r.n.y bush, erythrina rubra, of a bright red colour. Zegarra has coral as the equivalent for huayruru.]

[Footnote 17: The tuya (coccoborus chrysogaster) is a small finch, and tuyallay means 'my little tuya.']

[Footnote 18: The piscaca is a much larger bird than the tuya. These piscacas (coccoborus torridus) are nailed to trees as a warning to other birds. They are black, with white b.r.e.a.s.t.s.]

[Footnote 19: In the tuya she sees her husband Ollantay, while the poor princess herself is the forbidden grain.]

[Footnote 20: This is a yarahui or mournful elegy, of which there are so many in the Quichua language. The singers of them were known as yarahuec.]

[Footnote 21: Colla-suyu, the basin of lake t.i.ticaca.]

[Footnote 22: Chayanta, a tribe in the montana south of the Collas.]

[Footnote 23: Champi, a one-handed battle-axe.]

[Footnote 24: Huancar, a drum; pututu, fife.]

[Footnote 25: Yunca, inhabitant of warm valley. Here it refers to the wild tribes of the montana.]

[Footnote 26: In the original Quichua, Ollantay makes his appeal to the Inca in quatrains of octosyllabic verses, the first line rhyming with the last, and the second with the third. Garcila.s.so de la Vega and others testify to the proficiency of the Incas in this form of composition.]

[Footnote 27: Ollantay was Viceroy of Anti-suyu.]

[Footnote 28: Chahuar, a rope of aloe fibre. A curb or restraint.]

[Footnote 29: Raprancutan cuchurcani: literally, 'I have clipped their wings.' Rapra, a wing.]

[Footnote 30: The powerful nation of Chancas, with their chief, Huancavilca, inhabited the great valley of Andahuaylas and were formidable rivals of the Incas. But they were subdued by Pachacuti long before Ollantay can have been born. An allowable dramatic anachronism.]

[Footnote 31: Huancavilca was chief of the powerful nation of Chancas.]

[Footnote 32: Nusta, Princess.]

[Footnote 33: Pisipachiyqui, to suffer from the void caused by absence.

Pisipay, to regret the absence of, to miss any one.]

[Footnote 34: The Dominican text has misi, a cat, instead of allco, a dog. Von Tschudi thought that misi was a word of Spanish origin.

Zegarra says that it is not. Before the Spaniards came, there was a small wild cat in the Andes called misi-puna. But the Justiniani text has allco, a dog.]

[Footnote 35: Achancara, a begonia. A red flower in the neighbourhood of Cuzco, according to Zegarra. One variety is red and white.]

[Footnote 36: The llanta is the main rope of the quipu, about a yard long. The small cords of llama wool, of various colours, denoting different subjects, each with various kinds of knots, recording numbers.]

[Footnote 37: This, as we have seen, was not the reason why Ollantay fled from Cuzco; but, from a leader's point of view, it was an excellent reason to give to the people of Anti-suyu. The great wars of the Incas were, to some extent, a heavy drain upon the people, but the recruiting was managed with such skill, and was so equally divided among a number of provinces, that it was not much felt.]

[Footnote 38: The snowy mountain far to the south, in sight from Cuzco.

Uilca, sacred; unuta, water. Here is the source of the river Uilcamayu, which flows by Ollantay-tampu.]

[Footnote 39: The aged Hanco Huayllu as Auqui, or Prince of the Blood, and relation of the High Priest, gave eclat to these ceremonies.]

[Footnote 40: Quiscahuan. anything full of thorns.]

[Footnote 41: Puna, the loftier parts of the Andes.]

[Footnote 42: Compi, cloth or a cloak. This was an expression of the ancient Peruvians, perhaps equivalent to our 'hoodwinking.']

[Footnote 43: Apu Maruti was the head of the ayllu of the Inca Yahuar Huaccac, grandfather of Pachacuti. It was called the ayllu Aucaylli Panaca.--Mesa, a.n.a.les del Cuzco, quoted by Zegarra.]

[Footnote 44: Uilcapampa, ma.s.s of mountains between the Uilcamayu and Apurimac.]

[Footnote 45: Tinqui Queru, between Urupampa and Tampu. The word means 'two vases coupled.' Here are two rounded hills connected by a saddle, three and a half miles from Tampu.]

[Footnote 46: Chara, was another descendant of Yahuar Huaccac.]

[Footnote 47: A ravine on the right bank of the Vilcamayu.]

[Footnote 48: Pachar is on the left bank of the Vilcamayu opposite Ollantay-tampu, with which it is connected by a rope bridge.]

[Footnote 49: Huancas, natives of the valley of Jauja--Inca recruits.]

[Footnote 50: Like Ollantay in his appeal to the Inca, Rumi-naui, in the original Quichua, has recourse to octosyllabic quatrains, the first and last lines rhyming, and the second and third.]

[Footnote 51: Rumi, a stone.]

[Footnote 52: Clearly, from Rumi-naui's own account, the strategy of Urco Huaranca had been a complete and brilliant success.]

[Footnote 53: Aclla Cuna, the selected ones, the Virgins of the Sun.

They were under the supervision of so called Mothers--Mama Cuna. The novices were not obliged to take the oaths at the end of their novitiate.]

[Footnote 54: Rumi-naui is the interlocutor in the Justiniani text, in the Dominican text, and in the text of Spilsbury. Yet Zegarra would subst.i.tute the Uillac Uma or High Priest for Rumi-naui. His argument is that the interlocutor was of the blood-royal, and that the High Priest was always of the blood-royal, while Rumi-naui was not. But the text does not say that the interlocutor was of the royal blood. Zegarra also says that the interlocutor wore a black cloak with a long train, and that this was the dress of the High Priest. But it was not the dress of the High Priest as described by the best authorities. It was probably the general mourning dress. The threats addressed to Piqui Chaqui were likely enough to come from a soldier, but not from the High Priest as he is portrayed in this drama.]

[Footnote 55: Paccay (mimosa incana), a tree with large pods, having a snow-white woolly substance round the seeds, with sweet juice.]

[Footnote 56: The Zegarra and Spilsbury texts have Ccan Incacri, which Zegarra translates, 'relation of the Inca, of the royal family.'