began from that epocha to enlighten our planet 
during the night. Bochica, moved with com- 
passion for those who were dispersed over the 
mountains^ broke with his powerful arm the 
roeks that enclosed the valley, on the side of 
Canoas and Tequendama. By this outlet he 
drained the waters of the lake of Bogota; he built, 
towns, introduced the worship of the Sun, named 
two chiefs, between whom he divided the civil 
and ecclesiastical authority, and then withdrew 
himself, under the name of Idacanzas, into the 
holy valley of Iraca, near Tunja, where he lived 
in the exercise of the most austere penitence for 
the space of two thousand years. ' 
This Indian fable, which attributes the cata- 
ract of Tequendama to the founder of the empire 
of Zaque, contains a number of peculiarities, 
which we find scattered in the religious tradi- 
tions of several nations of the old continent. 
The good and evil principle here seem to be 
personified in the old man Bochica and his wife 
Fluythaca. The remote period when the Moon 
did not exist, reminds us of the boast of the 
Arcadians on the antiquity of their origin. The 
planet of the night is represented as a malignant 
being, augmenting the humidity of the Earth ; 
while Bochica, child of the Sun, dries the soil, 
promotes agriculture, and becomes the benefac- 
tor of the Muyscas, as the fir*st Inca was that of 
the Peruvians. 
