Account of the Fables and Rites of the Incas

3. Of Quipus and Inca Yupanqui

14 Chapter 3 They tell and relate other similar absurdities about the past that, as I have said, I have not included for the sake of brevity . The reason for all this, besides the main fact that they did not know God and they gave themselves over to vices and idolatries, is [that] they were not people who use writing. Because if they [had] used [writing], they would not have [had] such blind and obtuse and foolish errors and fables. Nevertheless, they used a very clever method of counting with strands of wool with two knots, using different-colored wool in the knots, which they call quipus [knotted strings]. They communicated and [still] communicate so well by means of this, [that] they can recall everything that has occurred in this land over the span of five hundred years. They had Indian specialists and masters in these quipus and accounts. They transmitted what had passed from generation to generation, embedding it into the memory of the next generation, who miraculously did not forget even the smallest detail that they kept on those quipus. These look almost like the strings with which women pray in our Spain,1 except that they are hanging strands. They kept account [on the quipus] of the years, months, and moons to such a degree that no error was committed in a moon, year, or month. However, the [use of quipus] was not so [well] organized until after Inca Yupanqui began to rule and conquer this land, since before his time the Incas had not expanded beyond the surroundings of Cuzco, as is told in the account that Your Most Reverend Lordship has.2 It seems this Inca was the first who began to take Of Quipus and Inca Yupanqui of quipus and inca yupanqui [ 15 account of and to calculate everything, and the one who removed [some] rituals and added [other] rituals and ceremonies. He was also the one who established the twelve months of the year, gave names to each one, and created the ceremonies they hold in each one of them. Even though before the rule [of the Incas], their ancestors did [track the] months and years on their quipus, they were not as well organized as when he was Lord, since they were only regulated by the winters and the summers. This [Lord] was so wise that he started pondering upon the respect and reverence that his ancestors have had for the Sun, noting that they worshipped him as a god who never stopped or rested and who traveled every day around the world. This [Lord] spoke and discussed with those of his council that it was not possible for the Sun to be the god who created everything, because if he were, a smallcloudwouldnotbeabletopassinfrontofhimandobscurehis resplendence so he could not shine. And that if he were the Creator of All Things, then one day he would rest; and from that place he would illuminate the entire world and order what he wanted. This being the case, it was not possible [that the Sun was the Creator], hence there had to be another [god] who ordered and governed him; this was the Pachayachachi, which means “Creator.”3 Thus, with this agreement and understanding, he ordered the houses and temple of Quis[h]uarcancha4 built, which is above the houses of Diego Ortiz de Guzmán, going toward the Cuzco plaza, where Hernán López de Segovia now lives (Map 3.1).5 There he placed the gold statue of the Creator, [which was] the size of a tenyear -old boy.6 It was shaped like a standing man, his right arm raised high, with the hand almost closed, and the thumb and second finger raised, like a person who was ordering. Although the Incas had knowledge of a Creator of All Things from the beginning, and they revered him and made sacrifices to him, he had not been revered as much as he was from this Inca onward. Thus [Inca Yupanqui] ordered a temple built to him in the capitals of all the provinces that he conquered and to have livestock, servants,chacras [fields], and estates [dedicated] to him, from which the sacrifices would be made. 16 ] Account of the Fables and Rites of the incas This was the Inca who sumptuously built the House of the Sun in Cuzco, because before him, it was very poor and small. The reason...