Inca Rocca, the sixth monarch of the royal house of Cuzco, was one of its greatest warriors and most renowned statesmen. The fame of his conquests spread to the most remote regions, and the wisdom of his administration was no less widely known and admired. Everywhere great palaces were reared to display the grandeur of his imperial house, and it was decreed that, at his death, all the vast treasures collected for their adornment should be used to ornament his tomb and for the service of his family; his successors followed his example, and the brilliancy of the Inca’s court increased with each subsequent reign. He founded schools for the education of the nobility under the direction of the Amauttas, though the children of the common people were not admitted, because, according to his view, it was enough for them to learn the trade of their fathers. He was, however, very solicitous for the welfare and protection of all his subjects, and made strict laws that punished with death homicides, incendiaries, and thieves. [Illustration: STONE WALLS OF THE PALACE OF OLLANTA, OLLANTAYTAMBO.] When the sceptre passed from Inca Rocca to Yahuar Huaccac, whose name signifies “he who weeps blood,” the great fiestas that were held to celebrate his coronation gave little premonition of the sad ending that was to befall this unhappy monarch, who was deposed and died alone in the desert, some say, at the hand of an assassin. The coronation ceremony was as brilliant and imposing as that of his illustrious father had been, the young king wearing “a black tunic and a blue manta dotted with lizards, with a white _masca paicha_ and plumage of gold.” It is said that the cause of his “weeping blood” was the arrogant, self-willed, and quarrelsome disposition of the heir-apparent, and the impossibility of holding him under restraint. At last, his patience exhausted, the emperor banished his unmanageable son from court and condemned him, under penalty of death if he disobeyed, to spend the remainder of his life among the shepherds on the hills of Chitapampa, a league away from Cuzco. Three years the young prince passed in herding sheep, and, as subsequent events proved, in learning other things besides. At the end of that time he braved his father’s sentence of death and returned to the royal palace, where, upon being received by the Inca, he related a remarkable story of a vision that had appeared to him while he was tending his flocks—a vision of a majestic personage, clad in a tunic that reached the ground, and wearing a long beard—and thus spoke to him: “I am the god Viracocha, who created man and all that is on the earth; yet you hold me in no more veneration than the sun, the lightning, and other works of my hands. I come to notify you that the tribes of Chinchasuyo are gathering a great army to advance against the holy city. Announce it to your father, by my order, so that he may be warned in time to repel the invaders. For yourself, never fear; in