Latin American Folktales by John Bierhorst Page B

toward the sea. But there, at the hour of midnight, he had a vision, in which he saw himself surrounded by millions upon millions of men. No one knows who they were. The Inca believed they were souls of the living, sent to warn him that a great many people would die of the pestilence. But the souls announced that they had come against the Inca himself and by this he understood that they were enemies and he saw that they were armed and hostile. He marched no more, but returned to Quito, and it was there that he celebrated the December feast called Capac Raymi.
    Just at the dinner hour there came to him a messenger dressed in a black cloak. With great reverence he kissed the Inca and placed in his hands a small chest, its lid sealed. The Inca ordered him to open it, but the messenger excused himself, saying that it was the command of the Creator that the Inca himself must be the one to remove the cover. The Inca believed him, and as he opened the chest, out came a scattering swarm of moths and butterflies, and this was the pestilence. Within two days the chief of all the Inca’s armies and many of his captains were dead, their faces covered with scabs.
    When the Inca saw what had happened, he ordered a sepulcher carved out of stone, and when it was finished he placed himself in it, and there he died. When eight days had passed, the Inca’s body, partly rotted, was taken out and mummified and carried home to Cuzco in a litter as though it were alive. This Inca left behind him in Quito a son named Atahualpa.
    V. THE ORACLE AT HUAMACHUCO
    The Inca Atahualpa was inordinately cruel. He murdered left and right. He razed. He burned. Whatever stood in his way he destroyed. As he marched from Quito to Huamachuco he committed the worst cruelties, ravages, and tyrannical abuses that had ever been known in this land.
    When he reached Huamachuco he sent two of his chief lords to make sacrifices to the idol that presided there and to question it as to his future success. The lords went and made their sacrifices, but when they consulted the oracle they were told that Atahualpa would come to an evil end as punishment for his cruelty and bloodshed.
    Then the lords went and told the Inca what the idol had said and the Inca was enraged. Summoning his warriors, he started toward the temple where the idol was kept. As he drew near, he armed himself with a golden ax and advanced with the two lords who had made the sacrifice.
    When he reached the entrance to the temple, out came an aged priest, more than a hundred years old, dressed in a long, shaggy robe tangled with seashells, which reached to his feet. This was the priest of the oracle, and it was he who had spoken the prophecy. So informed, Atahualpa raised the ax and with a single blow cut off the old man’s head.
    Then he entered the little temple, and the idol too he struck with the ax; he chopped off its head, although it was made of stone. Then he ordered the old priest’s body set on fire and also the idol and its temple. When all had been burned, there was nothing but ashes, and these he allowed to fly off with the wind.
    Quechua (Peru)

3. Bringing Out the Holy Word
    God says it, and he creates it: first was the light. And on the second day he made the sky.
    The third day he makes the ocean and also the land. And the fourth day he establishes the sun. Oh, and the moon and all the stars.
    On the fifth day the water creatures were made, then all the birds that fly along.
    The sixth day our lord made the wild beasts and all the living things on earth, and at that time he created the first man. “Ah, let it be thus. Our very likeness, our very image shall be made. This is the one that will rule the earth.
    “My creation, all that lies on earth, will be his property and his dominion.”
    When God had created the first people, then he blessed them. He says, “Increase, multiply! Dwell in all the earth!
    “Behold, for I have given you every fruitful tree that exists in this world and