Folio 106v of the original Huarochiri Quechua manuscript, held by the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid, Spain. The larger letters are the title of Chapter 12: "How Paria Caca's Children Undertook the Conquest of All the Yunca People."
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- Paria Caca
- Mullu Cocha
- San Damian de los Checa
- Llacsa Tambo
- Concha Sica
- Tupi Cocha
- Suni Cancha
- Pacha Camac
- Sici Caya
- Huaro Cheri
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The Quechua manuscript welds many myths and rituals together around a central idea. That idea is a complementarity between a great female deity of the coastal valleys -- Chaupi Ñamca, whose temple stood by the Rímac River near where Lima would be built -- and a great male deity of the heights, Paria Caca, whose body was the snowcapped mountain of the same name. Paria Caca was associated with the heights and and water, Chaupi Ñamca with the earth. The myth tellers thought of the kin groups who dominated the heights as the children of Paria Caca's fivefold incarnation, and the peoples of the coast ("Yunca") as the progeny of Chaupi Ñamca, who also had five component personalities.
In many myths, the superhuman powers of Paria Caca and the valor of his human protegés overcome the rich, ancient Yuncas. But the Yuncas -- especially their women -- get their way over the victors by manipulating them sexually. A new order results in which descendants of Paria Caca marry into the Yunca descent groups. The ritual order articulates both traditions. The joint fertility of earth and water (through irrigation) is likened to the political relationship between invaders and aborigenes, and between female and male. The complex as a whole seems to ideologically justify "Yauyo" (highland) encroachment, which, according to Rostworowski, created "vertical archipelagos" of control over valley coca lands. But it also encodes what seems to have been a real and farflung system of coexistence and joint worship.
The people of Tupicocha are descended from those who identified with "the strongest" of Paria Caca's five heroic alter egos, Tutay Quiri. Their village, like others, was said also to house people descended from ancient Yuncas.
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[2] chay hina captinpas canan cama mana quillcasca captinpas caypim churani cay huc yayayuc guaro cheri ñiscap machoncu nap causascanta yma ffeenioccha carcan yma yñah canancamapas causan chay chay cunacta chayri sapa llactanpim quillcasca canca hima hina causascampas pacariscanmanta
If the ancestors of the people called Indians had known writing in former times, Then the lives they lived would not have faded from view until now. As the mighty past of the Spanish Vira Cochas is visible until now, So too would theirs be.
But since things are as they are, And since nothing has been written until now, I set forth here the lives of the ancient forebears of the Huaro Cheri people, who all descend from one common forefather: What faith they held, How they live up until now, Those things and more. Village by village it will all be written down: How they lived from their dawning age onward.
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Once Paria Caca had become human and was full grown, he began to search for his enemy. His enemy's name was Huallallo Caruincho, the Man Eater, the Man Drinker. Later on we'll describe him together with his battles. In fact we already did talk in the first chapter about Huallallo Caruincho's life, how he ate people, and all his deeds.
Now we'll tell about the things he did in Huaro Cheri and all around there. The story goes like this: When Paria Caca was already a full grown person, he went to Huallallo Caruincho's dwelling, to the place called Upper Paria Caca.
In the valley which lies below Huaro Cheri there once was a village named Huauqui Usa, a village of the Yuncas. On that occasion the villagers were celebrating an important festival. They drank, and drank hard. While they were drinking, Paria Caca arrived at the village. He sat down at the end of the banquet as he arrived , just like a friendless stranger.
Not a single one of the villagers offered him a drink while he sat there. He was there all day long. Finally a woman who was also a native of that village, exclaimed, "Oh, no! How come no one is offering this poor fellow a drink?" She brought over some maize beer in a large white gourd and gave it to him.
"Sister," Paria Caca said to that woman, "It's a lucky thing for you that you offered me this beer. Five days from now, you'll see something awful happen in this village. So take care not to be in the village that day. Back off far away. Otherwise I might kill both you and your children by mistake. These people have made me damn mad!" And he added, "As for these people, don't let them hear even a single word about it. If you let them hear anything, I might kill you too."
Five days later the woman, together with her children and her brothers, did go away from that village. But the people of the village went right on drinking without a care. Then Paria Caca climbed the mountain that overlooks Huaro Cheri. (That mountain is called Matao Coto now. Farther down there's another mountain called Puypu Huana, the one we descend on our way from here to Huaro Cheri. These are the names of those mountains.)
On the mountain Paria Caca started a torrential rainstorm. Rising up as yellow hail and red hail, he washed all those people away to the ocean and didn't spare a single one. At that moment, the waters gushed down in a mudslide and shaped the high slopes and the valleys of Huaro Cheri. When Paria Caca finished all these things, he didn't explain them to the rest of the aboriginal Yunca people, who'd seen it all happen without knowing or understanding what it meant, but instead headed to the fields of the Cupara, which are across the river.
The native people of Cupara village survived just by channeling some water from a spring to their fields, and they were suffering greatly for lack of water at that time. (This spring flowed from a tall mountain which rises above San Lorenzo village. This mountain is called Suna Caca today.) At that time , they say, it was just a big lake.
They used to irrigate their fields by channeling the water downhill to fill some small reservoirs . In those days there was a native woman of that village named Chuqui Suso , a really beautiful woman. This woman was weeping while she irrigated her maize plants because they were drying out so badly, and because her water supply was so very scarce. When Paria Caca saw this, he obstructed the mouth of her little pond with his cloak.
The woman started to cry even more bitterly when she saw him do that. "Sister, why are you crying so hard?" Paria Caca asked her. "Sir, this little maize field of mine is drying up on me for lack of water!" she replied . "Don't worry about it," Paria Caca said to her. "I'll make water flow from this pond of yours, plenty of water. But first, let me sleep with you."
" Get the water flowing first," she retorted. "When my field is watered , then by all means let's sleep together." "Fine!" said Paria Caca, and released an ample amount of water. Overjoyed, the woman thoroughly watered all her fields. After she finished irrigating, Paria Caca said , "Let's sleep together." "Not right now," she replied . "Let's sleep together tomorrow or the day after." Paria Caca , who desired the woman ardently, thought, "I wish I could sleep with her right now!" and promised her all kinds of things: "I 'll fix this field of yours up with a water source direct from the river," he said.
"Do that first, and then we'll sleep together," the woman replied. "All right," Paria Caca said. He widened an irrigation canal that had belonged to the Yunca people , a little ditch that descended long ago from the ravine called Coco Challa to the small hill overlooking San Lorenzo. He extended this canal down as far as the fields of Lower Cupara.
Pumas, foxes, snakes, and all kinds of birds cleaned and fixed that canal. Pumas, jaguars, and all kinds of animals vied with each other to improve it, saying "Who 'll be the leader when we lay out the watercourse?" "Me first ! Me first!" exclaimed this one and that one. The fox won, saying "I'm the curaca, so I'll lead the way first." And so he, the fox, went on ahead.
While the fox was leading the way after he'd laid the watercourse out halfway up the mountain over San Lorenzo, a tinamou suddenly darted up whistling " Pisc pisc!" Startled, the fox yelped "Huac!" and fell down the slope. Then those animals got indignant and had the snake direct the way. If the fox hadn't fallen, that canal of theirs would've run at a higher level. But now it runs somewhat lower. The spot from which the fox fell is clearly visible to this day. In fact the water flows down the course the fox's fall opened.
When in fact he'd finished all this, Paria Caca said to her, "Let's sleep together!" "Let's climb to a high ledge. There we'll sleep together," she answered him. (Today , this ledge is called Yana Caca.) There the two of them did sleep together.
Once she'd slept with him, that woman said "Let's just the two of us go off someplace!" "Let 's go!" he replied and led her to the mouth of the canal called Coco Challa.
When they got there the woman named Chuqui Suso said, "Right in this canal of mine, that's where I 'll stay!" And she froze stock still, and turned to stone. Paria Caca left her there and went on climbing upward. We'll tell about that next.
Someone congealed into stone does in fact stand today at the mouth of the canal named Coco Challa. It's the woman called Chuqui Suso. Cuni Raya, also frozen to stone, dwells today above this place in a different canal, at the spot which was named Vincompa at that time. It was there that Cuni Raya came to his end. But we'll tell about the various things he did in some later chapters.
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