d to be safe from the prevailing
chaos and disorder and the tyranny of the independent chiefs or
"robber barons." In their new capital, they elected a king, Titi
Truaman Quicho.

The survivors of the old regime enjoyed living at Tampu-tocco,
because there never have been any earthquakes, plagues, or tremblings
there. Furthermore, if fortune should turn against their new young
king, Titi Truaman, and he should be killed, they could bury him
in a very sacred place, namely, the cave where they hid the body of
Pachacuti VI.

Fortune was kind to the founders of the new kingdom. They had chosen
an excellent place of refuge where they were not disturbed. To their
ruler, the king of Tampu-tocco, and to his successors nothing worth
recording happened for centuries. During this period several of the
kings wished to establish themselves in ancient Cuzco, where the great
Amautas had reigned, but for one reason or another were obliged to
forego their ambitions.

One of the most enlightened rulers of Tampu-tocco was a king called
Tupac Cauri, or Pachacuti VII. In his day people began to write on
the leaves of trees. He sent messengers to the various parts of the
highlands, asking the tribes to stop worshiping idols and animals,
to cease practicing evil customs which had grown up since the fall
of the Amautas, and to return to the ways of their ancestors. He
met with little encouragement. On the contrary, his ambassadors were
killed and little or no change took place. Discouraged by the failure
of his attempts at reformation and desirous of learning its cause,
Tupac Cauri was told by his soothsayers that the matter which most
displeased the gods was the invention of writing. Thereupon he forbade
anybody to practice writing, under penalty of death. This mandate was
observed with such strictness that the ancient folk never again used
letters. Instead, they used quipus, strings and knots. It was supposed
that the gods were appeased, and every one breathed easier. No one
realized how near the Peruvians as a race had come to taking a most
momentous step.

This curious and interesting tradition relates to an event supposed
to have occurred many centuries before the Spanish Conquest. We
have no ocular evidence to support it. The skeptic may brush it
aside as a story intended to appeal to the vanity of persons with
Inca blood in their veins; yet it is not told by the half-caste
Garcilasso, who wanted Europeans to admire his maternal anc