The official religion was a worship of the sun; but along with it were carried the myths of Viracocha, the national hero-god, whom it is not difficult to identify with the personifications of light so common in American religions. The ceremonies of the cult were elaborate, and were not associated with the bloody sacrifices frequent in Yucatan and Mexico. Their mythology was rich, and many legends were current of the white and bearded Viracocha, the culture hero, who gave them their civilization, and of his emergence from the “house of the dawn.” According to some authorities which appear to be trustworthy, the more intelligent of the Kechuas appear to have risen above object-worship, and to have advocated the belief in a single and incorporeal divinity. A variety of ancestral worship also prevailed, that of the _pacarina_, or forefather of the _ayllu_ or gens, idealized as the soul or essence of his descendants. The emblem worshipped was the actual body, called _malqui_, which was mummied and preserved with reverential care in sacred underground temples. The morality of the Peruvians stood low. Their art relics abound in obscene devices and the portraiture of unnatural passions. We can scarcely err in seeing in them a nation which had been deteriorated by a long indulgence in debasing tastes. The Kechua language is one of harsh phonetics, especially in the southern dialects, but of considerable linguistic development. The modifications of the theme are by means of suffixes, which are so numerous as to give it a flexibility and power of conveying slight shades of meaning rare in American tongues, and which Friedrich Müller compares to that of the Osmanli Turks.[300] Its literature was by no means despicable. In spite of the absence of a method of writing, there was a large body of songs, legends and dramas preserved by oral communication and the quipus. A number of these have been published. Among them the drama of _Ollanta_ is the most noteworthy. It appears to be a genuine aboriginal production, committed to writing soon after the conquest, and bears the marks of an appreciation of literary form higher than we might have expected.[301] The poems or _yaraveys_, usually turn on love for a theme, and often contain sentiments of force and delicacy.[302] Several excellent grammatical studies of the Kechua have appeared in recent years.[303] KECHUA LINGUISTIC STOCK.