Page:Gaston Leroux--The bride of the sun.djvu/282

268 his son, the Sun, and his daughter, the Moon; and Pacahuamac gave them armies, which are the Stars.

"Unto the Sun and Moon were born children. First were the Pirhuas, king-pontiffs; then the Amautas, pontiff-kings; and then the Incas, kings of kings, sent on earth to rule mankind."

The assembly repeated Huascar's words like a litany. When it was ended, young men brought a llama to the altar, and the Guardians of the Temple offered up the sacrifice. Huascar bent over the entrails.

"The gods are propitious," he announced to the King.

At a sign from the throne, the chief of the quipucamyas rose to his feet, and in a few verses recalled the chief terrestrial episodes of the history of the Incas, the assembly chanting other verses in reply in the same monotonous rhythm, while the priest slipped the knots of the quipus through his fingers like a monk telling his beads.

When he reached the verse recounting Atahualpa's martyrdom, a great shout went up in the temple. The King, from his throne, raised a sceptered hand, and spoke. The end of the bondage placed upon his people by the gods was near; he, Huayna Capac Runtu, had been chosen by the Sun to drive out the strangers; and as a gage of his reconciliation with the faithful, the