At page 32 of the present volume, Cieza de Leon says that the most learned among the people were selected to make known historical events by songs and recitations, which were handed down from memory. This is the germ of dramatic representation, which might be expected to attain fuller development; and that it did so is clear from the evidence of other historians. Garcilasso de la Vega says:--“The _Amautas_, or philosophers, were not wanting in ability to compose comedies and tragedies, which were represented before their kings on solemn festivals. The subject matter of the tragedy always related to military deeds, triumphs, and victories, or to the grandeur of former kings and of other heroic men. The arguments of the comedies were on agriculture and familiar household subjects. All the plays were on decorous and important topics, the sentences being such as befitted the occasion. They understood the composition of long and short verses, with the right number of syllables in each. They did not use rhymes in the verses, but all were blank.”[24] The native author, Salcamayhua, also bears witness to the existence of an ancient drama, and even gives the Quichua names of four different kinds of plays. “In the festival they represented plays called _añay sauca_,[25] _hayachuca_,[26] _llama-llama_,[27] and _hañamsi_.”[28] That the memory of the old dramatic lore was preserved, and handed down after the Spanish conquest, is proved by the sentence pronounced on the rebels at Cuzco in 1781, by the Judge Areche. It prohibited “the representation of dramas, as well as all other festivals which the Indians celebrated in memory of their Yncas.”[29] Dr. Justiniani, a descendant of the Yncas, who was eighty-five when I knew him, in 1853, told me that he could remember having seen, when a very little boy, a Quichua tragedy acted by Indians in the town of Tinta.[30] The Spanish priests took advantage of this aptitude of the Indians for dramatic representation, and composed religious plays in the Quichua language, in imitation of the _Autos Sacramentales_ then in vogue. Garcilasso says,--“The Jesuits composed comedies for the Indians to act, _because they knew that this was the custom in the time of the Yncas_.” He mentions three such plays,[31] and adds, “the Indian lads repeated the dialogues with so much grace, feeling, and correct action that they gave universal satisfaction and pleasure; and with so much plaintive softness in the songs, that many Spaniards shed tears of joy at seeing their ability and skill. From that time the Spaniards disabused themselves of the opinion that the Indians were dull, barbarous, and stupid.”