And as the valour of the Incas, and the great power of Viracocha was spread abroad over all that region, each of these chiefs, desiring to obtain his friendship, sent ambassadors to Cuzco to secure his alliance and induce him to take part against the rival chief. These messengers set out with great presents, and arrived at Cuzco when the Inca was at the places or _tampus_ which, for his diversion, he had ordered to be built in Xaquixaguana. Hearing that they were coming, the Inca ordered that they should be lodged in the city and provided with all they required. The Inca consulted with the Orejones and venerable councillors touching the course that ought to be adopted in the matter of the embassies that had come from the Collao; and it was decided that a reply should be sought from the oracles. This is done by the priests in front of the idols. They bow down their shoulders, put their chins into their breasts, and begin to speak in loud voices. Occasionally I myself, with my own ears, have heard the Indians converse with the devil. In the province of Cartagena, in a seaport town called Bahayre,[176] I heard the devil answer in a clear whistle, and so loudly, that a Christian who was in the same town but more than half a league from where I was, heard the same whistle and was dismayed, being rather unwell. On another day the Indians made great shoutings, publishing the reply of the devil. In some parts of these lands where they keep the dead in hammocks, the devils occasionally enter into the bodies and give answers. I heard a man named Aranda say that, in the island of Carex,[177] he also saw one of these dead bodies speak, and the lies and nonsense they utter are laughable. When the Inca determined to seek for an answer from the oracles, he sent for those who were accustomed to manage those things, and they say that the reply was that he should arrange to go to the Collao and seek the alliance of Cari. So he ordered the messengers of Zapana to be brought before him, and told them to say to their lord that he would shortly leave Cuzco and march to the Collao, where he would treat of the question of friendship. To those who came on the part of Cari he said that they were to explain to the lord how he was preparing to come to his aid, and that he would soon be with him.[178] When this was done, the Inca ordered forces to be assembled to march from Cuzco, leaving one of the principal persons of his lineage as governor. CHAPTER XLII. _How Viracocha Inca passed by the provinces of the Canches and Canas, and marched until he entered the territory of the Collao, and of what happened between Cari and Zapana._