The Incas of Peru/Chapter 6
CHAPTER VI
THE STOLEN CHILD
A strange and unlooked-for event cast a shadow, though only for a brief period, over the Inca Rocca's life. He had married a very beautiful girl named Micay, the daughter of a neighbouring chief who ruled over a small tribe called Pata Huayllacan.[1] She was the mother of four princes: Cusi Hualpa, the heir, Paucar, Huaman, and Vicaquirau, the future general.
We are told that Micay, the Inca's wife, had previously been promised by her father to Tocay Ccapac, the powerful chief of the Ayamarcas, a much more numerous tribe than the Huayllacans. Her marriage with the Inca caused a deadly feud between those two tribes. Hostilities were continued for a long time, and at last the Huayllacans prayed for peace. It was granted, but with a secret clause that the chief of the Huayllacans would entice away the Inca's eldest son and heir, and deliver him into the hands of his father's enemy, the chief of the Ayamarcas. If this condition was not complied with, Tocay Ccapac declared that he would continue the war until the Huayllacans were blotted out of existence.
These Ayamarcas[2] were at one time a very powerful tribe, in a mountainous region about twenty miles SSW. of Cuzco; while the Huayllacans were in a fertile valley between the Ayamarcas and that city.
In accordance with the agreement, a treacherous plot was laid. An earnest request was sent to the Inca that his heir, the young Cusi Hualpa, might be allowed to visit his mother's relations, so as to become acquainted with them. Quite unsuspicious, the Inca consented and sent the child, who was then about eight years of age, to Micucancha, or Paulu, the chief place of the Huayllacans, with about twenty attendants. The young prince was received with great festivities, which lasted for several days. It was summer time. The sun was scorching, and the child passed his time in a verandah or trellis work, called arapa, covered with bright flowers.
One day it was announced that the whole tribe must march to some distance to harvest the crops. As it was still very hot, the Huayllacan chief insisted that the young prince should remain in the shade, and not accompany the harvesters, who had to go a considerable distance under the blazing sun. The prince's attendants consented, and all the tribe, old and young, boys and girls, marched up the hills to the harvesting, singing songs with choruses. All was bright sunshine, and their haylli, or harvest song, was in praise of the shade:
'Seek the shadow, seek the shade,
Hide us in the blessed shade.
Yahahaha,
Yahaha.
'Where is it? where, where, O where?
Here it is, here, here, O here.
Yahahaha,
Yahaha.
'Where the pretty cantut[3] blooms,
Where the chihua's[4] flower smiles,
Where the sweet amancay[5] droops.
Yahahaha,
Yahaha.
'There it is! there, there, O there!
Yes, we answer, there, O there.
Yahahaha,
Yahaha.'
The child listened to the sounds of singing as the harvesters passed away out of sight, and then played among the flowers, surrounded by his personal attendants. The place was entirely deserted. When the sound of the singers had died away in the distance there was profound silence. Suddenly, without the slightest warning, the warcry 'Atau! Atau!' was heard in all directions, and the little party was surrounded by armed men. The Orejones struggled valorously in defence of their precious charge until they were all killed, when the young prince was carried off.
Tocay Ccapac waited to hear the result of his treacherous raid in his chief abode, called Ahuayra-cancha, or 'the place of woof and warp.' When the raiders returned they entered their chief's presence, with the young prince, shouting 'Behold the prisoner we have brought you.' The chief said, 'Is this the child of Mama Micay, who should have been my wife?' The Prince answered, 'I am the son of the great Inca Rocca and of Mama Micay.' Unsoftened by his tender years, or by his likeness to his beautiful mother, the savage chief ordered the child to be taken out and killed.
Then a strange thing happened. Surrounded by cruel enemies with no pitying eye to look on him, young Cusi Hualpa, a child of eight years, stood up to defy them. He must show himself a child of the sun, and maintain the honour of his race. With a look of indignation beyond his years he uttered a curse upon his captors. His shrill young voice was heard amidst the portentous silence of his enemies. 'I tell you,' he cried, 'that as sure as you murder me there will fall such a curse upon you and your children that you will all come to an end, without any memory being left of your nation.' He ceased, and, to the astonishment of his captors, tears of blood flowed from his eyes. 'Yahuar huaccac!' 'Yahuar huaccac!' 'He weeps blood,' they shouted in horror. His curse and this unheard-of phenomenon filled the Ayamarcas with superstitious fear. They recoiled from the murder. Tocay Ccapac and his people thought that the curse from so young a child and the tears of blood betokened some great mystery. They dared not kill him. He stood up in their midst unhurt.
Tocay Ccapac saw that his people would not kill the young prince then, or with their own hands at any time, yet he did not give up his intention of gratifying his thirst for vengeance. He resolved to take the child's life by a course of starvation and exposure. He gave him into the charge of shepherds who tended flocks of llamas on the lofty height overlooking the great plain of Suriti, where the climate is exceedingly rigorous. The shepherds had orders to reduce his food, day by day, until he died.
Young Cusi Hualpa had the gift of making friends. The shepherds did not starve him, though for a year he was exposed to great hardships. No doubt, however, the life he led on those frozen heights improved his health and invigorated his frame.
The Inca was told that his son had mysteriously disappeared, and that his attendants were also missing. The Huayllacan chief expressed sorrow, and pretended that diligent searches had been made. Inca Rocca suspected the Ayamarcas, but did not then attack them, lest, if the child was alive, they might kill him. As time went on the bereaved father began to despair of ever seeing his beloved son again.
Meanwhile the prince was well watched by the shepherds and by a strong guard, which had been sent to ensure his remaining in unknown captivity. But help was at hand. One of the concubines of Tocay Ccapac, named Chimpu Urma, or 'the fallen halo,' had probably been a witness of the impressive scene when the child wept blood. At all events, she was filled with pity and the desire to befriend the forlorn prince. She was a native of Anta, a small town at no great distance from Cuzco. As a friend of Tocay Ccapac she was free to go where she liked, within his dominions and those of the chief of Anta, who was her father.
Chimpu Urma persuaded her relations and friends at Anta to join with her in an attempt to rescue the young prince. It had been arranged by the shepherds and guards that, on a certain day, some boys, including Cusi Hualpa, should have a race up to the top of a hill in front of the shepherds' huts. Hearing this, Chimpu Urma stationed her friends from Anta, well armed, on the other side of the same hill. The race was started, and the prince reached the summit first, where he was taken up in the arms of his Anta friends, who made a rapid retreat. The other boys gave the alarm, and the jailers (shepherds and guards) followed in chase. On the banks of a small lake called Huaylla-punu, the men of Anta, finding that they were being overtaken, made a stand. There was a fierce battle, which resulted in the total defeat of the Ayamarcas. The men of Anta continued their journey, and brought the prince safely to their town, where he was received with great rejoicings.
Cusi Hualpa quite won the hearts of the people of Anta. They could not bear to part with him, and they kept him with great secrecy, delaying to send the joyful news to the Inca. Anta is a small town built up the side of a hill which bounds the vast plain of Suriti to the south. There is a glorious view from it, but the climate is severe. At last, after nearly a year, the Anta people sent messengers to inform the Inca. The child had been given up for lost. All hope had been abandoned. Rocca examined the messengers himself, but still he felt doubt. He feared the news was too good to be true. He secretly sent a man he could trust, as one seeking charity, to Anta, to find out the truth. The Inca's emissary returned with assurances that the young prince was certainly liberated, and was at Anta.
The Inca at last gave way to rejoicing, all doubt being removed. Principal lords were sent with rich presents of gold and silver to the chief of Anta, requesting him to send back the heir to the throne. The chief replied that all his people wished that Cusi Hualpa could remain, for they felt much love for the boy, yet they were bound to restore him to his father. He declined to receive the presents, but he made one condition. It was that he and his people should be accepted as relations of the Inca. So the young prince came back to his parents, and was joyfully received Inca Rocca then visited Anta in person, and declared that the chief and his people were, from henceforward, raised to the rank of Orejones. The Huayllacans made abject submission, and, as Cusi Hualpa generously interceded for them, they were forgiven. Huaman Poma furnishes a curious corroboration of the story of the stolen child. Of all his portraits of the Incas, Rocca is the only one who is portrayed with a little boy. Huaman Poma did not know the story of the kidnapping and the recovered boy—at least, he never mentions it. All he knew was that only Inca Rocca was to be portrayed with a little boy.[6]
Inca Rocca died after a long and glorious reign, during which he firmly laid the foundations of a great empire. His son Cusi Hualpa succeeded at the age of nineteen. He was commonly known by his surname of Yahuar Huaccac, or 'weeping blood.' His reign was memorable for the changes that took place in the system and objects of Inca warfare. The campaigns were no longer mere raids on hostile or rebellious tribes. The Inca's brother, Vicaquirau, and his cousin, Apu Mayta, were administrators quite as much as generals. Every attack on a hostile tribe ended in complete annexation. As the fame of the generals spread, the greater number of tribes submitted without resistance. Those who resisted were made terrible examples of, and if necessary a garrison was left in their principal place. The Ayamarcas were entirely crushed. Thus the Inca realm was every year extended, and at the same time consolidated.
Cusi Hualpa had five sons: Pahuac Hualpa Mayta, so named from his agility as a runner;[7] Hatun Tupac, Vicchu Tupac, Marca Yutu,[8] and Rocca. The Huayllacans, unimpressed by the pardon for their former treachery, conspired to make Marca Yutu the successor of his father, because he was more nearly related to their chief. With this object they enticed Pahuac Hualpa into their power and murdered him. For this there could be no forgiveness, and the tribe was entirely wiped out of existence by the Inca's generals. The second son, Hatun Tupac, then became the heir.
The new heir to the throne had, rather blasphemously, added to his real name of Hatun Tupac, the surname of Uira-cocha, which was that of the Deity. One reason that is given was that, being at Urcos, a town about twenty-five miles south of Cuzco, a vision of the Deity appeared to him in a dream. When he related his experience to his attendants next morning, his tutor, named Hualpa Rimachi, offered congratulations and hailed the young prince as Inca Uira-cocha. Others say that he took the name because he adopted the Deity as his godfather, when he was armed and went through other ceremonies at the festival of Huarachicu. Be this how it may, he always called himself Uira-cocha. His father, mindful of the debt of gratitude he owed to the people of Anta, married his heir to a daughter of their chief, and niece of his deliverer, Chimpu Urma. The lady's name was Runtu-caya.[9]
In the fulness of time Cusi Hualpa (Yahuar Huaccac) was succeeded by his son Hatun Tupac, calling himself Uira-cocha. The policy of the two great generals was continued, and the whole region between the rivers Apurimac and Vilcamayu, the Inca region, was annexed and consolidated into one realm under the Inca. The names of Uira-cocha's sons by Runtu-caya were Rocca, Tupac, and Cusi.[10] By a beautiful concubine named Ccuri-chulpa the Inca had two other sons named Urco and Sucso. For the sake of Ccuri-chulpa he favoured her children, and even declared the bastard Urco to be his heir. His eldest son was a valiant young warrior, trained in the school of Vicaquirau and Apu Mayta, and, when his age was sufficient, this prince Rocca became their colleague. Cusi was the most promising youth of the rising generation, endowed with rare gifts, beautiful in form and feature, of dauntless courage and universally beloved.
- ↑ Huaylla, green, fresh; can, he is.
- ↑ Marca is a terrace or a village on a hill. Ayar was the title of Manco and his brothers. But Cieza de Leon, Garcilasso de la Vega, Sarmiento, and Salcamayhua leave out the r. It then becomes Aya, 'dead.' The month of October was called Ayamarca Raymi, Molina says, because the Ayamarcas held their chief festival in that month.
- ↑ Pariphragmos uniflora (R.P.), a phlox.
- ↑ Chihuayhua, a calceolaria. Chihua is a sort of thrush.
- ↑ Amancay, Amaryllis aurea (R.P.)
- ↑ The story of the kidnapping is also mentioned by Morua.
- ↑ Pahuani, I run.
- ↑ Hillside partridge.
- ↑ Runtu, an egg, and Caya, a particle conveying an abstract idea, as Runa, a man; Runa Caya, humanity: Runtu, an egg; Runtu Caya, oval face.
- ↑ Joyful.