Page:The Incas of Peru.djvu/178

144 writer made search for the original text of the drama, and for the best sources of information. In those days an intelligent and learned scholar, Dr. Julian Ochoa, was Rector of the University of San Antonio Abad at Cuzco, and there also resided in the ancient city of the Incas a venerable lady who remembered the insurrection of Pumacagua, and whose intimate relations with the leading Indians of those times, and profound knowledge of the folklore and language of her countrymen, placed her in the first rank as an exponent of tradition. It was under the guidance of these two high authorities that the present writer conducted his researches.

They told him of the existence of a last descendant of the Incas, living in one of the most secluded valleys of the eastern Andes, and possessing the original text of the old Inca drama, and many other documents of interest. It was necessary to cross the lofty range of mountains which bounds the lovely vale of the Vilcamayu, to pass over grassy plateaux at a great elevation, where the sapphire blue of the small alpine lakes contrasted with the dark surfaces of the precipitous cliffs, and then to descend, by winding paths, into the secluded vale of Laris. Here there was a small church, a few huts, and a house consisting of buildings on two sides of a courtyard, with the church tower seen over the roof. Away in one direction there was a wooded glen of great depth, containing one small