uri, who descended to
the earth and there seduced the sister of certain Guachemines, rayless
ones, or Darklings, who then possessed it. For this crime they destroyed
him, but their sister proved pregnant, and died in her labor, giving
birth to two eggs. From these emerged the twin brothers, Apocatequil
and Piguerao. The former was the more powerful. By touching the corpse
of his mother he brought her to life, he drove off and slew the
Guachemines, and, directed by Ataguju, released the race of Indians from
the soil by turning it up with a spade of gold. For this reason they
adored him as their maker. He it was, they thought, who produced the
thunder and the lightning by hurling stones with his sling; and the
thunderbolts that fall, said they, are his children. Few villages were
willing to be without one or more of these. They were in appearance
small, round, smooth stones, but had the admirable properties of
securing fertility to the fields, protecting from lightning, and, by a
transition easy to understand, were also adored as gods of the Fire, as
well material as of the passions, and were capable of kindling the
dangerous flames of desire in the most frigid bosom. Therefore they were
in great esteem as love charms.

Apocatequil's statue was erected on the mountains, with that of his
mother on one hand, and his brother on the other. "He was Prince of Evil
and the most respected god of the Peruvians. From Quito to Cuzco not an
Indian but would give all he possessed to conciliate him. Five priests,
two stewards, and a crowd of slaves served his image. And his chief
temple was surrounded by a very considerable village whose inhabitants
had no other occupation than to wait on him." In memory of these
brothers, twins in Peru were deemed always sacred to the lightning, and
when a woman or even a llama brought them forth, a fast was held and
sacrifices offered to the two pristine brothers, with a chant
commencing: _A chuchu cachiqui_, O Thou who causest twins, words
mistaken by the Spaniards for the name of a deity.[154-1]

Garcilasso de la Vega, a descendant of the Incas, has preserved an
ancient indigenous poem of his nation, presenting the storm myth in a
different form, which as undoubtedly authentic and not devoid of poetic
beauty I translate, preserving as much as possible the trochaic
tetrasyllabic verse of the original Quichua:--

"Beauteous princess,
Lo, thy brother
Breaks thy vessel
Now in fragme