Page:The Incas of Peru.djvu/260

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
222
ARRIVAL OF STRANGERS

Balboa tells us that, a long time ago, a great fleet of boats came from the north under the command of a very able and valiant chief named Naymlap, with his wife Ceterni. The emigration may have been from the coast called by the Spaniards Esmeraldas, or from further north. Naymlap was accompanied by eight officers of his household: his purveyor, Fongasigde; his cook, Ochocalo; his trumpeter and singer, Pitazofi and Ningentue; his litter bearer, Ninacolla; his perfumer, Xam; his bath man Ollopcopoc; and Llapchilulli, his worker in feathers. The chief landed at the mouth of a river called Faquisllanga, where he built a temple called Chot, in which he placed an idol he had brought with him, made of a green stone, and called Llampallec, whence the name of Lambayeque. Naymlap died after a long reign, and was succeeded by his son Cium, married to a lady named Zolzdoñi. After a long reign Cium shut himself up in an underground vault to die and conceal his death from the people, who thought him immortal. A list of eight other kings is given, the last of the dynasty being Tempellec. This unfortunate prince wanted to take the idol out of Chot when an unheard-of thing happened. It began to rain, and the deluge continued for a month, followed by a year of sterility and famine. The priests, knowing of the conduct of Tempellec with regard to Chot, looked upon him as the cause of the calamity. So they put him into the sea, with his feet and wrists tied. Lambayeque