Page:The Incas of Peru.djvu/90

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64
ACTS OF INCA ROCCA

new inventions. The happy feature of my promises is that they come from my father the sun, and cannot fail. The punishment of disobedience will be thunder that will terrify you, tempests to afflict you, rains to destroy your crops, and lightning to deprive you of life.'

Rocca said all this with such solemnity that no one dared to dispute his words. The whole people proclaimed him their sovereign by acclamation, and the revolution was completed. He began to reign with the title of Inca Rocca. His first act was to remove from the Inti-cancha, which ceased to be the royal residence, and was given up entirely to the temple for the service of the sun. The Inca moved to the upper part of the town, and fixed his residence in an ancient building of the megalithic age. In its wall is the huge stone of twelve corners.

This interesting tradition is told by Montesinos, and is probably near the truth, for there are indications of a revolution of some kind, in Acosta, Morua, and other writers, at the time of Rocca's accession.

An important measure of the new sovereign was the division of people of every district into upper and lower, Hanan and Hurin. Great importance was attached to this arrangement, though it is not quite clear on what grounds it was instituted, and what purposes it was intended to serve. In Cuzco it was decreed that all the descendants of Inca Rocca should be Hanan