Page:The Incas of Peru.djvu/216

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THE YAUYOS

Advancing northwards up the Jauja valley, the Incas next defeated and brought under subjection the Huanca nation, which cultivated and inhabited that fertile region. In the mountains to the westward there were two remarkable tribes, the Yauyos and Huarochiris, who appear to have descended into the adjacent coast valleys, and to have greatly increased their well-being by exchanges of products raised in different climes. The Yauyos seem to have spread over the valleys of Pisco, Chincha, Huarcu (Cañete), and Mala; and in a ravine leading up from the Huarcu valley, called Runa-huana, there are some interesting ruins, referred to in an appendix. According to Garcilasso the inhabitants of Huarcu made a very desperate resistance to the Inca arms, and this seems to be confirmed by the fact that the ruins of an extensive Incarial fortress and palace, called Hervay, exist on a defensive hill close to the sea, flanked by a rapid river on one side and the desert on the other.

The Yauyos spoke a peculiar dialect of their own, called Cauqui. Much reduced in numbers and living in small villages high up in the mountains, there are now not more than 1500 people who still speak this dialect. Like the Rucanas and Morochucos, the Yauyos are an intelligent race, and make excellent artificers when any of them have opportunities of learning trades in the coast valleys which once belonged to them.

The Huarochiris lived in lofty gorges of the maritime cordilleras to the north of the Yauyos,