Cihuatl=woman. She
bore him a son who was named Atau (_cf._ Ahau and Ahua=Maya and Mexican
words for lord or chief), who was, in time, the father of Manco Capac, the
reputed founder of civilization in Peru. When the latter was a child "an
eagle approached him and never left him." In view of these traditions it
is interesting to note that, on two of the Santa Lucia bas-reliefs figured
by Habel and reproduced by Mr. Hermann Strebel in pl. II, fig. 13, of his
extremely useful and comprehensive monograph on the bas-reliefs of Santa
Lucia, an eagle is represented in connection with a figure wearing divine
insignia.

On one of the seven analogous slabs representing a personage addressing a
supplication to a celestial apparition, a large eagle or vulture is
actually sculptured behind the supplicant, being, as it were, his
individual totem (Strebel, Pl. II, fig. 5).

A drawing of a part of another slab (Strebel, Pl. II, fig. 13) displays an
eagle or vulture holding in his beak the body of a bearded personage who
wears a neck ornament and circular ear pieces, and from whose head two
serpents hang. This last detail associates him with the celestial figure
which usually displays knotted serpents on or above its head, suggesting
its connection with Quetzalcoatl, the divine title of the Supreme Being
and also of the supreme rulers of the Mexicans. It is curious to find in
Peru a tradition recording that, when "the Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui
undertook the conquest of the Antisuyus with 100,000 men, their Huaca sent
forth fire and stopped the passage with a fierce serpent which destroyed
many people. The Inca raised his eyes to heaven and prayed for help with
great sorrow, and a furious eagle descended, and seizing the head of the
serpent raised it on high, and then hurled it to the ground. In memory of
this miracle the Inca ordered a snake to be carved in stone on the wall of
a terrace in this province, which was called Aucapirca." When divested of
all fanciful details, the foregoing Peruvian traditions seem to show that
the eagle was the totem of one or more of the Incas and that the serpent
was the totem of a tribe which was conquered by the Incas. It is likewise
recorded by Padre Oliva that the Inca named Mayta Capac Amaru ordered his
shield to be painted with weapons and a serpent=Amaru, "because he had
killed one in the Andes and therefore took it for his surname."

It is impossible for any Mexicanist to read the foregoing texts w