introduced it by making his son Tupac Yupanqui marry his daughter Mama
Ocllo, but this was quite unprecedented. The transgression of a rule
which he had just made may account for his extreme severity.


The play opens with a dialogue between Ollantay and Piqui Chaqui, his
page, a witty and humorous lad. Ollantay talks of his love for the
Princess Cusi Coyllur, and wants Piqui Chaqui to take a message to her,
while the page dwells on the danger of loving in such a quarter, and
evades the question of taking a message. Then to them enters the Uillac
Uma, or High Priest of the Sun, who remonstrates with Ollantay--a scene
of great solemnity, and very effective.

The next scene is in the Queen's palace. Anahuarqui, the Queen, is
discovered with the Princess Cusi Coyllur, who bitterly laments the
absence of Ollantay. To them enters the Inca Pachacuti, quite ignorant
that his daughter has not only married Ollantay in secret, but that she
is actually with child by him. Her mother keeps her secret. The Inca
indulges in extravagant expressions of love for his daughter. Then boys
and girls enter dancing and singing a harvest song. Another very
melancholy yarahui is sung; both capable of being turned by the Princess
into presages of the fate of herself and her husband.

In the third scene Ollantay prefers his suit to the Inca Pachacuti in
octosyllabic quatrains, the first and last lines rhyming, and the second
and third. His suit is rejected with scorn and contempt. Ollantay next
appears on the heights above Cuzco. In a soliloquy he declares himself
the implacable enemy of Cuzco and the Inca. Then Piqui Chaqui arrives
with the news that the Queen's palace is empty, and abandoned, and that
Cusi Coyllur has quite disappeared; while search is being made for