1485: Express to Pellucidar (Scroll Down)
Tales of tunnels under the Andes are very old... and quite commonplace..in Ecuador. And one of these tales dates back to before the Spanish conquest and involves Huayna Capac, the ninth Inca emperor.
In 1485, then-prince Huayna Capac was given command of the army and ordered by his father, Inca Tupac Yupanqui, to extend the borders of Tawatinsuyu (the Incas' name for their South American empire--J.T.) northward from Quito.
After much campaigning, Huayna Capac laid siege to Otavallu (modern Otavalo, Ecuador, 100 kilometers north of Quito).
"The war lasted for two years. It was a very modern war, in duration, and none got the upper hand."
Otavallu, you see, was a fairly advanced civilization, like the Incas. The city was already thousands of years old when Manco Capac and his sister-wife, Mama Ocllo Huallpa, left their home in Bolivia to wander the Andes, eventually founding the Inca capital of Cuzco around 900 A.D.
The city was ruled by a young and beautiful woman named Quillago. She was a heichera-colla (Quechua for sorceress-queen--J.T.) and, in addition to her queenly duties, presided with the high priestess over a religion devoted to a goddess of the moon, whose name, unfortunately, is lost to history.
"At last the queen was captured. The Inca sought to gain her over with rich presents, which she would not accept. Then he ordered her to be liberated."
Returning to Otavallu, Quilloga plotted with the elderly high priestess, Pichamba, to assassinate the Inca prince. She told Pichamba to hide a knife in the temple's subterranean chamber and then invited the Incas to a feast at her palace.
During the feast, Quilloga invited Huayna Capac to the temple to see their magical cenote (sacred well), which was supposed to lead to Uru Ticsi, the world below. The catch was, only the three of them could visit the subterranean chamber--the Inca prince, Quilloga and her high priestess.
Huayna Capac was no fool. He had Quilloga and Pachimba searched by Inca "chosen women," just as the queen knew he would, and when they were found to be unarmed, he agreed to accompany them to the temple.
"Hand in hand, Inca and Amazon queen descended the stairway to the inner chamber where the snare was all set."
There was something strange and eerie about the dank, stone-rimmed cenote. Strange hieroglyphics marked the well. At Quilloga's invitation, Huayna Capac leaned over and peered into the well. And surprisingly, a soft perfumed wind blew into his face. He couldn't believe it. A wind? This far below the ground?
The circular well seemed to fall away into infinity. At the bottom was a queer glimmer. Almost like a pinprick of daylight. As he looked into the well, the Inca felt disoriented. He later told his friends that he felt as if he were at the bottom of the well, looking upward towards a tiny spot of sunshine.
He struggled against a surge of vertigo. Seeing her chance, Quilloga glanced at the priestess. Pichamba's gaze darted to a nearby stone altar. The queen went directly to the spot, lifted a chahuar (alpaca shawl) and found the knife.
Maybe it was ESP or fate, or maybe it was just dumb luck, that saved the Inca. Closing his eyes, Huayna Capac stepped away from the cenote, then turned just in time to see Quilloga coming at him with the knife. He "caught the lintel of the door, with his left hand, and fixing his feet strongly against the top of the well, heaved his body against the Amazon queen and caused her to stumble and pitch headlong," screaming, into the cenote.
"A shouting virago," Pichamba, "came at him with tooth and nail, but she, too, he siezed around the waist and sent her to join the queen at the bottom of the well."
The women's screams lasted for minutes, faded to whispers, and then there was silence. Hayna Capac listened carefully, but he never heard them hit the bottom. He also had no further desire to peer into Quilloga's magic well.
Instead, he marched out of the temple and took possession of Otavallu for the Inca empire.
Reference: Secret Cities of Old South America by Harold T. Wilkins, 1952, reprinted 1998 by Adventures Unlimited Press, pages 151 and 152.
CRYSTALINKS MAILING LIST, NEWSLETTER, UPDATES
ALPHABETICAL INDEX OF ALL FILES