that were offered to Uira-cocha, whose temple is stated to have been apart from the temple of the sun. Salcamayhua tells us that the Supreme Creator was represented in the sun temple by an oval slab of gold, having a higher place than the images of the sun or moon. The prayers were for health and strength, for good harvests and the multiplication of flocks, for victory over enemies, and for prosperity. Nine of these prayers, in Quichua, are given by Molina. One is given by Morua. The most remarkable prayer is that for the sun, called Punchau, in which it is fully recognised that its movements and heat-attributes are the work of Uira-cocha.
This recognition of an almighty, unseen being who created and regulates all things visible was probably confined to the higher intellects, who had more time and were better trained for thought and reflection. The rest of the people would seek for visible objects of worship. But for the Incas the Uira-cocha cult was certainly very real. It occupied their thoughts in life and in death, and they earnestly prayed for a knowledge of the Deity. Some of the hymns addressed to the Almighty have been preserved in a manuscript written early in the seventeenth century by a native named Yamqui Pachacuti Salcamayhua. They were first printed by the present writer in a translation of Salcamayhua's work (1873), the text of the hymns being left in the original Quichua. Some years afterwards the Spanish text was edited by Don
