Although the number of traditions concerning the origin of the Inca empire is legion, the two best known are the Titicaca (tee-tee-kä´-kä) and Tampu-tocco (täm-poo-tok´-ko) legends. The former has been given us by the immortal Prescott, relying on the Commentaries of the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega (gär-sil´-ä-so day lä vay-gä). From him we know there was a time when the ancient races of the continent were all plunged in deplorable barbarism. “The Sun, the grand luminary and parent of mankind, taking compassion on their degraded condition, sent two of his children, Manco Ccapac (män´-ko k-kä´-päk) and Mama Occlo (mä´-mä ok´-klo), to gather the natives into communities and teach them the arts of civilized life. The celestial pair, brother and sister, husband and wife, advanced along the high plains in the neighborhood of Lake Titicaca to about the 16th degree south. They bore with them a golden wedge, and were directed to take up their residence on the spot where the sacred emblem should without effort sink into the ground. They proceeded but a short distance--as far as the valley of Cuzco (koos´-ko), the spot indicated by the performance of the miracle; there the wedge speedily sank into the earth and disappeared forever. On this spot the children of the Sun established their residence, and laid the foundations of the city of Cuzco.” [Illustration: RUINS OF PATALLACTA Showing niches with holes for bar locks in the upper room of the temple on top of the rock] [Illustration: INCA FORTRESS WALL, SACSAHUAMAN The gigantic size of the stones and the precision with which they are fitted, without mortar, bear testimony to the engineering genius of the Inca megalithic builders] The Titicaca myth, however, does not receive as much consideration today as the Tampu-tocco (täm´-poo-tok´-ko) myth. The former is characterized by the late Sir Clements Markham as an obvious invention to account for the ancient ruins and statues in the vicinity of Tiahuanaco (tee-ä-wane-ä´-ko), and on the islands of Titicaca and Koati (ko-ä´-tee). “It has no historical value,” he says, “while the Tampu-tocco myth is as certainly the outcome of a real tradition, and is the fabulous version of a distant historical event.” [Illustration: CUZCO, PERU PALACE OF THE INCA ROCCA A large gravure picture of this massive structure will be found in The Mentor (No. 132) on “Peru”]