Page:The Incas of Peru.djvu/79

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AYAR UCHU
53

He just had time to say: 'Go, happy brothers. When you celebrate the Huarachicu, I shall be adored as the father of the young knights, for I must remain here for ever.' Garcilasso explains that the name of pepper (Uchu) was applied to this Ayar as symbolically meaning the delight experienced from leading a rational life. Huanacauri[1] or Huayna-captiy[2] became one of the most sacred Huacas of the Peruvians. The word seems to have reference to the great festival when the youths received a sort of knighthood, the ceremony being performed near the Huaca. Huayna means a youth. Cauri is corrupt and has no meaning, but Captiy is the present subjunctive of the auxiliary verb. Here the unfortunate pepper Ayar was kept in memory, and received adoration at the great annual festival of arming the youths, for many generations.

Ayar Manco had now disposed of two of his brothers. The turn of the joyful or fighting Ayar was to come next. Meanwhile the march continued festina lente; and two years were passed in sowing and reaping at a place called Matahua, just within the Cuzco valley. Then it is related that Ayar Manco hurled his golden staff as far as Huanay-pata, where it sank into the earth. By this they knew that the land was fertile and

  1. Cieza de Leon tells much the same story. Garcilasso mentions Huanacauri four times as a place of great sanctity. It is frequently mentioned by Molina.
  2. Salcamayhua has Huayna-captiy.