[1]
[Footnote 1: Juan de Villagutierre Sotomayor, _Historia de la Provincia
de el Itza_, passim (Madrid, 1701).]
The ground of all such prophecies was, I have no doubt, the expected
return of the hero-gods, whose myths I have been recording. Both of them
represented in their original forms the light of day, which disappears at
nightfall but returns at dawn with unfailing certainty. When the natural
phenomenon had become lost in its personification, this expectation of a
return remained and led the priests, who more than others retained the
recollection of the ancient forms of the myth, to embrace this expectation
in the prognostics which it was their custom and duty to pronounce with
reference to the future.
CHAPTER V.
THE QQUICHUA HERO-GOD VIRACOCHA.
VIRACOCHA AS THE FIRST CAUSE--HIS NAME, ILLA TICCI--QQUICHUA
PRAYERS--OTHER NAMES AND TITLES OF VIRACOCHA--HIS WORSHIP A TRUE
MONOTHEISM--THE MYTH OF THE FOUR BROTHERS--MYTH OF THE TWIN BROTHERS.
VIRACOCHA AS TUNAPA, HE WHO PERFECTS--VARIOUS INCIDENTS IN HIS
LIFE--RELATION TO MANCO CAPAC--HE DISAPPEARS IN THE WEST.
VIRACOCHA RISES FROM LAKE TITICACA AND JOURNEYS TO THE WEST--DERIVATION OF
HIS NAME--HE WAS REPRESENTED AS WHITE AND BEARDED--THE MYTH OF CON AND
PACHACAMAC--CONTICE VIRACOCHA--PROPHECIES OF THE PERUVIAN SEERS--THE WHITE
MEN CALLED VIRACOCHAS--SIMILARITIES TO AZTEC MYTHS.
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