pointed out to them. They were always very much amused when they heard that the King, working daily in a bank, earned just one hundred and fifty soles a month.
One day, when some charitable souls were chaffing the King's widow about the mediocre state in which she lived, the Coya, as she was derisively called, retorted that had she and her husband so wished, they could have been the wealthiest couple on earth. But the treasures of the Incas, she added, belonged to the gods and the dead, and none might touch them.
Asked if she had ever seen those treasures, the Coya asserted that her husband had shown them to her once, and she told fabulous stories of the riches hidden in the Temple of Death.[1] Naturally, nobody believed her.
- ↑ The anonymous author of the MS. "Antiy y monumentos del Peru," says:—
"It is widely known, and generally admitted, that there exists in the ancient fortress of the Cuzco a secret room in which is hidden a vast treasure, consisting chiefly of golden statues of all the Incas. A lady who has been in this room is still living. This is Dona Maria de Esquivel, wife of the last Inca. I have heard her tell how she was taken there.
"Don Carlos, husband of this lady, did not live in a manner suited to his rank, and she often upbraided him, saying that she had been cozened into marrying a poor Indian under the pompous style of 'Lord of the Incas.' She said this so often that Don Carlos grew angry, and one day retorted: 'Madam, I will show you whether I am
