File:The myths of Mexico and Peru (1913) (14761137836).jpg

Identifier: mythsofmexicoper01spen (find matches)
Title: The myths of Mexico and Peru
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: Spence, Lewis, 1874-1955
Subjects: Indians of Mexico Indian mythology Indians of Mexico Indians of South America Indian mythology Indians of South America
Publisher: New York, T. Y. Crowell company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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wont to describe the land of their origin asKi Pixab (Corner of the Earth). The present republicof Argentina was at a remote period covered by a vast,partially land-locked sea, and beside the shores of thisthe ancestors of the Quichua-Aymara race may havesettled as fishers and fowlers. They found a morepermanent settlement on the shores of Lake Titicaca,where their traditions state that they made considerableadvances in the arts of civilisation. It was, indeed,from Titicaca that the sun emerged from the sacredrock where he had erstwhile hidden himself. Here,too, the llama and paco were domesticated and agricul-tural life initiated, or perfected. The arts of irrigationand terrace-building—so marked as features of Peruviancivilisation—were also invented in this region, and thebasis of a composite advancement laid. The Quichua-Aymara This people consisted of two groups, the Quichuaand Aymara, so called from the two kindred tonguesspoken by each respectively. These possess a common254
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4j a THE COMING OF MANGO GGAPAG grammatical structure, and a great number of words arecommon to both. They are in reality varying formsof one speech. From the valley of Titicaca theAymara spread from the source of the Amazon river to the higher parts of the Andes range, so that in courseof time they exhibited those qualities which stamp themountaineer in every age and clime. The Quichua, onthe other hand, occupied the warm valleys beyond theriver Apurimac, to the north-west of the Aymara-speak-ing people—a tract equal to the central portion of themodern republic of Peru. The name Quichua im-plies a warm valley or sphere, in contradistinction to the Yunca, or tropical districts of the coast and low-lands. The Four Peoples The metropolitan folk or Cuzco considered Peru tobe divided into four sections—that of the CoUa-suyu,with the valley of Titicaca as its centre, and stretchingfrom the Bolivian highlands to Cuzco ; the Conti-suyu,between the Colla-suyu and the ocean ; the QuichuaChin

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