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HUAROCHIRI MYTHS
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words 'Cconi-rayac,'[1] meaning 'appertaining to heat.' They addressed him as 'Ccoñi-rayac Uira-cocha,' saying, 'Thou art Lord of all; thine are the crops, thine are all the people.'

Yet with all their reverence for the Deity, they told grotesque mythological stories about him. In one of these there was a virgin goddess whom he caused to conceive by dropping before her the fruit from a lucma tree.[2] To her own astonishment the goddess, whose name was Cavillaca,[3] gave birth to a son. She assembled all the huacas (gods) to see who was the father, by the test of the child recognising him. Uira-cocha came as a wretched mendicant. The child went at once to the beggar as his father. Cavillaca was ashamed and enraged at being supposed to have connection with any one so despicable. She snatched up the child and fled towards the sea. Uira-cocha resumed his godlike form and, clothed in golden robes, he ran after her. His splendour illuminated the whole country, and he cried to her to turn and look at him, but she rather increased her speed, disdaining to look on such a vile and filthy creature. She was soon out of sight, and when she reached the shore of Pachacamac she entered the sea with her child. They were turned into two rocky islets, which may

  1. Cconi, heat in Quichua; rayac is a particle, meaning 'that which appertains to.'
  2. Caballeria latifolia (R.P.).
  3. Cavi means a small kind of oca (Oxalis tuberoso); llaca, a diminutive particle.