Page:Ollanta An Ancient Ynca Drama.pdf/9



literature of the Yncas of Peru consisted of love-songs, elegies, allegoric hymns, and dramatic compositions. Unfortunately, most of these evidences of ancient civilisation have disappeared, or are still in manuscript. The earliest writers knew little or nothing of them. They were preserved as traditions in the families of the conquered and fallen Yncas, and were not communicated to the Spaniards; who, indeed, took little pains to seek for them.

Garcilasso Ynca de la Vega was the only author, contemporary with the first conquerors, who had a correct knowledge of the language of the Yncas; and the only one, therefore, whose testimony has any real value. He tells us little, but that little is important. We learn from his pages that the Amautas or philosophers of the Ynca court composed dramas relating to the deeds of former sovereigns and heroes, which were performed by persons of rank. They also composed poems and love-songs with alternate long and short verses, having the right number of syllables in each; and