458 



The Andes and the Amazons. 



their oppressors, they tread with downcast looks tlie mount- 

 ains that once resounded with the proud steps of their un- 

 conquered ancestors. As well might the Hebrews sing in 

 Babylon. Yet here is a song (if a note of despair can be 

 called a song) heard by a .traveler from the lips of a 

 young Indian mother in the wild recesses of the Andes : 



"My mother begat me, amid rain and mist, 

 To weep like tiie rain and be drifted like the clouds. 

 ' You are born in the cradle of sorrow, ' 

 Says my mother ; and she weeps as she wraps me around. 

 If I wander the wide world over, 

 I would not meet my equal in misery. 

 Accursed be the day of my birth. 

 Accursed be the night I was born. 

 From this time, for ever and ever!" 



The Quichua language was first reduced to writing by 

 a Domiuican friar in 1560. It has great facihty of ex- 

 pression and a complicated granunar. Many of the words 

 are decidedly musical, as Chosica, Vilcamaj-o, Lauricocha. 

 From the few fragments of a traditional literature which 

 have floated down to us, we gather that the Quichua was 



fitted for a high and poetic 

 class of composition above all 

 the dialects of the ISTew World. 

 Tlie Aymaras probably rep- 

 resent an older race than the 

 Quichuas, judging from the 

 style of the ruins at Tiahua- 

 naco and Sillustani. But they 

 did not emerge into history 

 till the third Inca, Tupanqui 

 (1100), who annexed the re- 

 gion to his kingdom. They frequently revolted, and nev- 

 er gave up their language. They, however, joined the 

 Quichuas in rebelling against their common oppressor, the 

 Spaniard. But, though dwelling in amity for centuries, 



Section of a Burial-tower at Sillustani. 



