Nodal thinks that Olla is really Colla, the c having suffered elision, that the n is the pronoun for the third person, and ta the accusative. He translates Ollanta as “her lover”, with reference to Cusi-coyllur.
Dr. de la Rosa says that Lopez is mistaken in his etymology, that the suggestion of Barranca is more plausible; but that he thinks he has himself hit upon a more rational derivation. He has not, however, yet given it to the world.
Zegarra rejects all these derivations.
[47] Ollantay. Estudio sobre el drama Quechua. Por Bartolomé Mitré, publicada en la Nueva Revista de Buenos Ayres. (Buenos Ayres, 1881.) Pp. 44.
[48] Bartolomé Mitré was born on June 26th, 1821, and in early life was several years in Peru and Chile as an officer and journalist. Returning to Buenos Ayres, he distinguished himself as an orator in the Representative Assembly, and was Minister of War in 1859. In 1860 he was appointed Governor of Buenos Ayres, and was promoted to the rank of General. On September 17th, 1860, he defeated General Urquiza in the battle of Pavon, and soon afterwards signed a treaty with him. On October 5th, 1862, he was elected President of the Argentine Republic, and held that office with credit to himself and benefit to his country for six years. He is an able and enlightened statesman, as well as an accomplished scholar. General Mitré is the author of a Life of General Belgrano and other works.
[49] Ticknor, ii, p. 167.
[50] The points raised by General Mitré may, however, be enumerated and disposed of in a foot-note:—
I. He discusses the words huañuy ychunantin, or “death with his scythe”. The word ychuna means an instrument for cutting ychu (grass). General Mitré argues that the idea of death with a scythe is exclusively European. But the word does not occur in the Rosas version, although I printed it by mistake in my book. Nodal has ychuspa, which is quite a different word.
II. The High Priest performs a miracle by squeezing water out of a flower. Ollantay exclaims it would be easier to squeeze it from a rock. General Mitré says that the idea must have been suggested by the miracle of Moses making a fountain flow from a rock. It is really a play upon words, involving an essentially Quichuan idea. The word in the Rosas version is not rock, but brick. Ttica is a flower, and tica a brick. The general could not have hit upon a passage which is more certainly of native origin.
III. General Mitré refers to the words misi (cat), asna (ass), and llama occurring, and considers their appearance as a proof of Spanish origin. But all are the errors of copyists. In the true version the word atoc (a fox), takes the place of those words in every instance.