ILLTJSTR. (16). FREE-THINKING OF HUAYNA CAPAC. 431 



creator and maker of all things (el hacedor de todas las 

 cosas) ; but whosoever desires to do a thing completely must 

 continue at his task without intermission. Now many things 

 are done when the sun is absent, therefore, he cannot be the 

 creator of all. It may also be doubted whether the sun be 

 really living, for, though always moving round in a circle, he is 

 never weary (no se causa). If the sun were a living thing he 

 would, like ourselves, become weary ; and if he were free, he 

 would, doubtless, sometimes move into parts of the heavens 

 in which we never see him. The sun is like an ox bound by 

 a rope, being obliged always to move in the same circle (eomo 

 una Res atada que siempre hace wi mismo cerco), or like an 

 arrow which can only go where it is sent, and not where it 

 may itself wish to go." (Garcilaso, Comment. Reales, p. i. 

 lib. viii. cap. 8, p. 276.) The Inca's simple comparison of 

 the circling movement of a heavenly body to that of an ox 

 fastened by a rope is very curious, owing to a circumstance 

 which may be explained here. Huayna Capac died at Quito 

 in 1525 (seven years prior to the invasion of the Spaniards), 

 and his empire was divided between Huascar and Atahuallpa. 

 Now, in the native language of Peru, the name Huascar sig- 

 nifies rope, and Atahuallpa means a cock or a fowl. Instead 

 of res Huayna Capac probably used the word signifying, in his 

 native language, animal generally; but, even in Spanish, the 

 word res is not applied exclusively to oxen, but is employed 

 to denote cattle of all kinds. How far the Padre, with the 

 view of weaning the natives from the dynastic service of the 

 Inca, may have mingled passages from his own sermons with 

 the heresies of the Inca, we need not here inquire. That it 

 was deemed very important to keep these doubts from the 

 knowledge of the lower classes of the people is evident, from 

 the very conservative policy and the state maxims of the 

 Inca Roca, the conqueror of the province of Charcas. This 

 Inca founded schools exclusively for the higher classes, and, 

 under heavy penalties, prohibited instruction being given to 

 the common people, lest it should render them presumptu- 

 ous, and cause them to disturb the State. (No es licito que 

 ensenen a los hijos de los Plebeios las Ciencias, porque la 

 gente baja no se eleve y ensobervezca y menoscabe la Pepub- 

 lica; Garcilaso, p. i. p. 276.) Thus the theocracy of the Incas 

 may be said to have resembled the Slave States in the free 

 land of the North American Union. 



