Word: incas
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...last letter I promised to send you an account of the Qua Quan Quot, the scoral organization that once made itself felt in the Inca University. At the outset let me explain that the last word, Quot, seems to be translatable somewhat like the Latin "volgus" or Greek "polloi" and may be rendered in English as "herd" or "clan". It was often used by the Incas to refer to cattle, though in this case it seems to imply some sort of men. The significance of the other two words is unknown...
...star-worshippers. There seems to have been no definite program, no set of principles which all members acknowledged, only the common tie of dissatisfaction and hatred. Many students in the university seem to have joined; mainly from among the younger groups or those from the southern part of the Inca realm, where moon-worship was particularly rampant. The appeal for membership was made largely on romantic grounds, by hints that each man would take part in a great crusade, and no doubt the mysterious rites of initiation--of which I found a horrible example in the cave--and the unusual...
...Golden Age of Inca history, there was a highly developed written language, consisting of signs and symbols which I cannot describe here, and written most often on dried jugilatsi or plantain leaves, sometimes on another leaf like the elephant-ear or burdock--these being unaccountably preferred for public writings because of their cumber-some size Now it came to pass (as they say in the fairy stories) that one season the burdock leaves all withered, and the sun-prophets prophesied evil, declaring that the almighty Sun was withered the leaves because of displeasure at what was written thereon...
...fact has evidently been overlooked, and it leaves room for a theory which has been borne out by our discoveries here. That fact is the clause "by the people" in the edict banning the alphabet. Just what did that phrase mean to the Incas? It will be remembered that the Circle of the Elders at the university were also priests of the Sun-god. Clearly, then, what was written on the burdock by members of their sacred caste could not be displeasing to the god, and did not need to be destroyed, to ward off evil, as did the popular...
This letter is so long-drawn-out already that I shall have to reserve my account of the Qua Quan Quat, the Inca secret organization, until my next letter. Cordially yours...