Note 208 — Chapter LI

There are several versions of the native tradition relating to this monolith, which is called piedra cansada, or the “tired stone”, in Quichua, saycusca rumi. The Spanish editor gives the least known and most curious of these versions, which he found in the manuscript history of the Yncas by Padre Morúa. He says that an Ynca of the blood royal, named Urco or Urcon, a great engineer and architect, was the official who directed the moving of the tired stone from the quarry, and that on reaching this spot where it stopped, the Indians who were dragging it, killed him. This Urcon designed and traced out the fortress of Cuzco. He also conceived and carried out the idea of transporting from Quito the best soil for potatoes, with the object of raising them in it for the sovereign’s table. With this soil he made the hill called Allpa Suntu, to the east of the fortress.