11. An ancient Inca story

 

 

A story told to some of the early Spanish chroniclers with regard to a distant historical event
runs somewhat as follows:
Thousands of years ago there (0)  (live) in the highlands of Peru a megalithic folk who developed a (1)  (remark) civilization and who left, as architectural records, such cyclopean structures as the fortresses of Sacsahuaman and Ollantaytambo. These people were attacked by barbarian hordes (2)  (come) from the south, possibly from the Argentine pampas. They were defeated, and (3)  (flee) into one of the most inaccessible Andine cañons. Here, in a region strongly defended by nature, they established (4)  (they) ; here
their descendants lived for several centuries. The chief place was called Tampu Tocco. Eventually regaining their military (5)  (strong) and becoming crowded in this mountainous valley, they left Tampu Tocco, and, under the (6)  (lead) of three brothers, went out of three windows (or caves) and started for Cuzco.

The migration was slow and deliberate. They eventually reached Cuzco, and there established the Inca (7)  (king) which, over several centuries, spread by conquest over the entire plateau and even as far south as Chile and as far north as Ecuador.

This Inca Empire had reached its (8)  (high) when the Spaniards came. The Spaniards (9)  (be) told that Tampu Tocco was at a place called Pacaritampu, a small village a day’s journey southwest of Cuzco and in the Apurimac Valley. The chroniclers duly noted this location, and it has been taken for granted ever since that Tampu Tocco was at Pacaritampu.