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dialects still existing, to some extent, at the time of the Spanish conquest, besides the separate Mochica language on the coast, were the speech used in the northern part of the empire of the Incas, called Chinchay-suyu, differing very slightly from the Runa-simi, and the Cauqui, a form of the Chinchay-suyu, spoken by the mountaineers of Yauyos. In the Colla-suyu a language was spoken which was more distinct, its declining and conjugating particles differing from those of the general language, but it contained a great number of roots which were the same. A wild aquatic tribe, living on fish among the reeds in the south-west angle of Lake Titicaca, spoke a dialect called Puquina.

The Spanish administrators, especially the priests, at once saw the importance of acquiring a knowledge of the highly cultivated or general language, before turning their attention to the dialects. Several Spanish soldiers studied and mastered the language, including Juan de Betanzos, husband of Atahualpa's daughter, and the only Spanish lay Quichua scholar whose writings have reached us. To the priests, some of whom were burning with impatience for the means of teaching the natives the tenets of their Church, it was a matter of greater importance. One of their first duties, as they understood them, was to make the language accessible to their fellow