u desire, Brother, who can have even to the half of the
kingdom?"

"Kari," I replied, "I cry not for the Earth, but for the Moon."

He understood, and his face grew stern.

"Brother, the Moon alone is beyond you, for she inhabits the sky while
you still dwell upon the earth," he answered with a frown, and then
began to talk of the peace with Huaracha.

CHAPTER X

THE GREAT HORROR

The day of the new moon came and with it the great horror that caused
all the Empire of Tavantinsuyu to tremble, fearing lest Heaven should be
avenged upon it.

Since Upanqui had found his elder son again he began to dote upon him,
as in such a case the old and weak-minded often do, and would walk about
the gardens and palaces with his arm around his neck babbling to him
of whatever was uppermost in his mind. Moreover, his soul was oppressed
because he had done Kari wrong in the past, and preferred Urco to him
under the urging of that prince's mother.

"The truth is, Son," I myself heard him say to Kari, "that we men who
seem to rule the world do not rule it at all, because always women rule
us. This they do through our passions which the gods planted in us for
their own ends, also because they are more single in their minds. The
man thinks of many things, the woman only thinks of what she desires.
Therefore the man whom Nature already has bemused, only brings a little
piece of his mind to fight against her whole mind, and so is conquered;
he who was made for one thing only, to be the mate of the woman that she
may mother more men in order to serve the wills of other women who yet
seem to be those men's slaves."

"So I have learned, Father," answered the grave Kari, "and for this
reason having suffered in the past, I am determined to have as little to
do with women as is possible for one in my place. During my travels in
other lands, as in this country, I have seen men great and noble brought
to nothingness and ruin by their love for women; down into the dirt,
indeed, when their hands were full of the world's wealth and glory.
Moreover, I have noticed that they seldom learn wisdom, and that what
they have done before, they are ready to do again, who believe anything
that soft lips swear to them. Yes, even that they are loved for
themselves alone, as I own to my sorrow, once I did myself. Urco could
not have taken that fair wife of mine, Father, if she had not been
willing to go when she saw that I had lost your favour and with i