66 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



A tradition regardiiii;- tlie warfare between Ruminalmi and Ollanta 

 is interesting, because it is one of the strange historical parallels always 

 cropping up, tliat calls to mind Livy's story of the taking of Gabii by 

 Sextus Tarquinius, and Herodotus' account of the cajiture of Babylon 

 tlirou<i-h Zopyrus. This tradition states that the nobleman Ollanta was 

 deu-raded from his high rank for the crime of being sui-prised in the 

 House of the Virgins of the Sun. a crime punishable with death. He 

 took refuge in an almost inaccessible and very strong mountain fortress 

 called Ollanta Tambo. the ruins of which still exist. The Inca Yupanqui 

 and his general, being imable to storm the fortress, accepted the ])roposal 

 of a devoted chief, who begged to be publicly punished in the sight of 

 both armies, so as to attbrd a plausible pretext for his subsequent deser- 

 tion to the rebels. His proposition was carried out, and he fled to Ollanta 

 Tambo, wliere he was joyfully received, and soon found himself in the 

 confidence of the besieged. On the anniversary of Ollanta's birthday) 

 when the troops, contident of their security, gave themselves up to revel- 

 ling, this treacherous chief who had been placed in charge of one of the 

 gates, at the sight of a preconcerted signal, opened it to the royal forces, 

 wlio put the drunken garrison to the sword and made Ollanta prisoner. 

 Historians who think highly of the Inca Yupanqui's character, doubt the 

 truth of this tradition ; but certainly those who tell it are as ignorant of 

 Livy and Herodotus, as are tbe Aymaras of Tiahuauaco of the coincidence 

 with (ieotfrey of Monmouth's account of the Giant's Dance brf)ught from 

 Ireland, of the story that their Stonehenge was set uj» in a single 

 night by an invisible hand. If the ancients had only had the foresight to 

 pulilish newspapers, even if they were written on clay tiles or sheets of 

 papyrus, the Memphis G-lobe or the Babylon G-azette, the Nineveh Mail 

 or the .Terusalem AYitness might have told us where these stories liad their 

 origin. 



My aim in these pages has been to show that our Indians, prioi- to 

 the arrival of Europeans in the continent, were by no means all ignorant 

 savages, but men and w(jmen in jwwers and in passions very like our- 

 selves, and who cultivated their intellectual powei'S to portray their 

 passions. Apart from the benign influences of Christianity and the 

 comforts of cuv Old "World civilization, the Indian may be said to have 

 deterioi-ated rather than to have advanced, since the Conquest. Mexico 

 and Central America, Colombia and Peru were once great centres of 

 native culture and activity, as their ruins and minor works of art attest. 

 That culture and activity in commercial and othei- ])ursuits the Conquest 

 arrested, deba.sing,not only the commcmpeopleso much for they wereslaves 

 e\jough before, biit the highe]- and intelligent classes of aborigines, to the 

 position of serfs and of feeble reluctant imitators of their conquerors. 

 Save in some favoured quarters, the remnants of the old Indian races 

 have lost all their fire and energy, have become listless, apathetic, unin- 



