[134] Summarized by Markham [a], pp. 235-36.
[135] Avila .
[136] Avila's Narrative in Rites and Laws of the Yncas (HS), 1883, pp. 121-47, is the authority for the myths given in the text; but several of the stories appear also in Molina, Salcamayhua, and Sarmiento, showing that the mythic cycle was widespread, extending into the highlands as well as along the coast. The people from whom Avila received his tales were of a tribe that had migrated from the coast to higher valleys.
[137] The Tiahuanaco monolith is interpreted by Squier [e], ch. xv; Markham [a], ch. ii; Gonzalez de la Rosa, "Les deux Tiahuanaco," CA xvi (1910); and by Posnansky, "El signo escalonado," CA xviii (1913). The latter regards the meander design, or its element, the stair-design in its various forms, as a symbol of the earth; and he believes Tiahuanaco to be the place of origin of this symbol, whence it spread northward into Mexico. It is, of course, among the Pueblo Indians of the United States an earth-symbol. If this be the correct interpretation, the central figure is the sun, rising or standing above the earth. Bandelier [e] gives ancient and modern myths in regard to Titicaca and its environs.
[138] Representations of pottery and other designs from the Diaguité region showing the influence of Tiahuanaco and possibly Nasca influence are to be found in the publications of Ambrosetti, Boman, Lafone Quevado and others. Perhaps the most interesting is the potsherd showing the figure of a deity (?) bearing an axe with a trident-like handle, while near him is what seems clearly to be a representation of a thunderbolt; a trophy head is at his girdle.
[139] Markham [a], pp. 41-42. Caparó y Pérez, Proceedings of the Second Pan American Scientific Congress, section i, pp. 121-22, interprets the name "Uirakocha" as composed of uira, "grease," and kocha "sea"; and, since grease is a symbol for richness and the sea for greatness, it "signified that which was great and rich."
[140] Molina (Markham, Rites and Laws), p. 33.
[141] Markham [a], ch. viii; another version is given by Markham [c]; while the text and Spanish translation are in Lafone Quevado [a]. Cf. the fragments from Huaman Poma given by Pietschmann , especially the prayer, p. 512: "Supreme utmost Huiracocha, wherever thou mayest be, whether in heaven, whether in this world, whether in the world beneath, whether in the utmost world, Creator of this world, where thou mayest be, oh, hear me!"
[142] Salcamayhua (Markham, Rites and Laws), pp. 70-72.