Page:The Incas of Peru.djvu/192

156 by Indians at Cuzco, where the scene is laid, in the days of the Incas. The dramatis personæ are:

The other Quichua drama, entitled ',' is more ancient, and was given to me by Dr. Julian Ochoa of Cuzco; but it is strictly an Auto Sacramental. The dramatis personæ are:

I also have copies of twenty songs from the collection of Dr. Justiniani, and several others received from Quichua scholars in Ayacucho, Cuzco, and Puno. Nearly all are love songs, a few bright and cheerful, but the majority are elegies breathing sorrow and despair.

The Incas were able to preserve the pedigrees and events of the reigns of sovereigns for many generations, by the means that have been described. In their dramas and songs they had made great advances in the poetic art, not only using verses to give expression to the passions of love and despair, but also to preserve fanciful myths and legends. In astronomy their knowledge sufficed to fix the periods of the solar year. The Amautas also had