Page:Ollanta An Ancient Ynca Drama.pdf/19

Rh writing from the mouths of Indians by Dr Valdez, the friend and sympathiser of the last of the Yncas. The old priest merely made the divisions into scenes, which suggest themselves, and introduced the stage directions in accordance with what he had himself seen, when the play was acted by the Indians.

A knowledge of Ynca civilisation, derived from the pages of Prescott, is sufficient for the appreciation of the argument of this curious drama, which is as follows. The time is placed in the reign of Pachacutec, an Ynca who flourished in the latter part of the fourteenth century, whose numerous reforms and conquests caused him to be remembered as one of the most famous of the Peruvian sovereigns. The hero of the drama was a warrior named Ollanta, who was not of the blood royal, but who nevertheless entertained a sacrilegious love for a daughter of the Ynca, named Cusi Coyllur. Ollanta is a word without special meaning in Quichua, but Cusi Coyllur means "the Joyful Star." The play opens with a dialogue between Ollanta and his servant, Piqui Chaqui, a witty and facetious lad, whose punning sallies form