A large gravure picture of this massive structure will be found in The
Mentor (No. 132) on “Peru”]
The story is somewhat as follows. At a distance from Cuzco is a
place called “Tampu-tocco” (“House of the Windows”). This was long
considered to be identical with “Paccari-tampu” (päk´-kä-ree-tam´-poo)
(“House of the Dawn”), but the explorations and study of Dr. Bingham
have shown that the evidence is in favor of his statement that Machu
Picchu is Tampu-tocco. From this locality, at a date placed by
students somewhere between 950 B. C. and 200 A. D., came four brothers
accompanied by four sisters. Their leader, Manco (män´-ko) (the
princely), succeeded in making away with his three brothers, so that
at length, on their arrival at Cuzco, where the golden rod which this
Manco also carried sank into the ground, the first Inca and his sisters
were able to found their kingdom without rivals. Under the leadership
of Manco and his successors, sometimes known as “Pre-Megaliths,” the
empire grew. In the seventeenth or nineteenth reign a change in dynasty
took place, and thenceforth the megalithic monarchs, who were often
distinguished and skilful astrologers and reformers, ruled with the
title of Amauta (ä-mä-oo´-tä).
About 450 A. D. came the end of this dynasty. Pachacuti
(pä-chä-koo´-tee) VI, a ruler of peoples on the east, south and west
and subject tribes, had risen in revolt. The invaders ultimately
retired, but the power of Cuzco was broken, and the ruler slain.
The city was left to the priests, and the inhabitants, under a new
sovereign, took refuge at Tampu-tocco, where some twenty-four princes
ruled in succession. At length, when the provinces once under the
control of the princes of Cuzco had relapsed into barbarism, a woman
of high birth named Siyu-yacu (see´-yoo-yä´-koo), contrived a plot to
place on the throne one who would initiate a bold attempt to recover
the power once possessed by their forefathers. The individual selected
was Siyu-yacu’s own son, Rocca (rok´-kä). The plot was successful,
and Rocca, later known as Sinchi Rocca (seen´-chee rok´-kä) or the
Great Rocca, was the first of the Inca sovereigns whose reign looms
up clearly enough to remove it from the realm of traditions and give
it a place, although slightly hazy, in history. From the accession of
Rocca to the throne, about 1100 A. D., down to the murder of Tupac
Amaru (too´-päk ä´-mä-roo) in 1671 by the Viceroy Francisco de Toledo
(frän-sees´-ko day to-lay-do), the course of events is fairly well
authenticated. It is to this period that a discussion of the Incas must
necessarily be confined.
[Illustration: ALPACAS
A semi-domesticated animal resembling sheep, and yielding a long, fine
wool, usually brown or black]
[Illustration: GROUP OF LLAMAS IN JULIACA]
_When the Spanish Came_
When the Spaniards arrived, the little kingdom of Cuzco had already
grown to an empire that extended to the equator on the north, and was
bounded on the south by the River Maule (mä´-oo-lay) in southern Chile
(chee´-lay). On the west it extended to the Pacific Ocean, and on the
east faded away in the torrid forests of the Amazon and the rolling
hills of the Argentine uplands. The Incas had succeeded in conquering
the many tribes scattered over this whole region, and for the most part
had enforced the use of their own language, the Quichua (kee´-choo-a).
They had evolved a system of government which, expanding from that of
a village community, had met the needs of a vast empire; and they had
done it so gradually that the inhabitants at large had been conscious
of little change save in the direction of increased prosperity and
security.
[Illustration: MACHU PICCHU RUINS