Note 50 — INTRODUCTION.

The points raised by General Mitré may, however, be enumerated and disposed of in a foot-note:—

I. He discusses the words huañuy ychunantin, or “death with his scythe”. The word ychuna means an instrument for cutting ychu (grass). General Mitré argues that the idea of death with a scythe is exclusively European. But the word does not occur in the Rosas version, although I printed it by mistake in my book. Nodal has ychuspa, which is quite a different word.

II. The High Priest performs a miracle by squeezing water out of a flower. Ollantay exclaims it would be easier to squeeze it from a rock. General Mitré says that the idea must have been suggested by the miracle of Moses making a fountain flow from a rock. It is really a play upon words, involving an essentially Quichuan idea. The word in the Rosas version is not rock, but brick. Ttica is a flower, and tica a brick. The general could not have hit upon a passage which is more certainly of native origin.

III. General Mitré refers to the words misi (cat), asna (ass), and llama occurring, and considers their appearance as a proof of Spanish origin. But all are the errors of copyists. In the true version the word atoc (a fox), takes the place of those words in every instance.

IV. The General further maintains that the interjection ay! which occurs fifteen times in the Dominican text, is not Quichuan, but Spanish, and is an indisputable proof of Spanish origin. But another manuscript text has nay! and anay, which are good Quichuan interjections.

V. There is an allusion to an owl on the roof as a warning of death, which General Mitré considers to be an anachronism. This is not the case. It is alluded to as a popular superstition by the Council of Lima in 1583.