Pari Pichiu's Box

0 Conversations








Pari Pichiu's Box1


Pari Pichiu runs the pathway

Starlit by the milky stairway

Where the Gods descend from heaven

Where the condor steals the sunshine

Where the fire gods spew up Lava

Where the ice gods cover mountains

Where the earthquake topples temples

Pari Pichiu runs the pathway

Pari Pichiu with a message

Message box for Atahuallpa

From the White God Viracocha

From the White God of the ocean

From the bearded God of fables

As was foretold by ancestors

As was taught us by the priestess

Stories tell of Viracocha

From the stars the world creator

How the White God will return here

Send a message to the Inca

Send a message of a meeting

Meeting with the greatest Inca

Viracocha, Atahuallpa

As the Sun God melts the ice peaks

So will Inca thaw the White God

Pari Pichiu runs the pathway

As his father did before him

Pari Pichiu Royal runner

Carries box with royal message

Over stones that straddle torrents

Through the hanging orchid gardens

Past the llamas grazing gently

Past the llamas at the milking

Past the women at their spinning

Past the weavers at their weaving

Smell the evening fires for cooking

Smell the evening bowls of coca

By the terraced fields of sweet corn

By potatoes dried for freezing

Towns and fields lay far below now

Pari Pichiu Runs the pathway

Now the shadows quickly growing

Now the sun dies, on the mountains

Now the darkness hides the dangers

Through the woodland hung with mosses

Dancing fireflies light the pathway

Eyes are straining in the glooming

Bears are grunting, bats are flying,

Hunters sniff the evening breezes

From an outcrop leaps a tiger

Striking, clawing, neck and shoulders

Pari Pichiu with his stone axe

Tiger with his fangs and claws out

In the darkness, through the bushes

Down the hillside man and beast roll

In the darkness, in the water

Roll the partners, in their struggle

Fighting, gasping, in the river

Man and tiger, eye to eyeball

Pari Pichiu raised his stone axe

Crashing, smashing tiger’s skull in

Stars above them hide their faces

Tiger trembles, breaths its last gasp

Tiger’s soul now leaps to heaven

Starlight leaves its dieing eyes

Life has left it limp and ragged

Pari Pichiu knows he’s wounded

Feels the bruises on his forearms

Feels the gashes on his shoulders

Feels the warm blood trickle slowly

Cool and freeze upon his shoulders

Pari Pichiu feels his message

Feels the box still in his backpack

Feels it safe upon his shoulder

Pari Pichiu struggles onward

Now the last of six great passes

Climbs ahead of Pari Pichiu

Ghostly moonlight lights the pathway

Ghostly moonlight soothes his aching

Pari Pichiu climbs the pathway

Feels the ice beneath his footsteps

Feels his lungs are burning fiercely

Pari Pichiu’s strength is failing

Hears the voice of those before him

Those who ran this Royal pathway

Sing the songs of Royal runners

Pari Pichiu struggles upward

Now the sun gate is before him

Now the sun is almost on him

Pari Pichiu crawls the pathway

On his knees he sees the city

Sees the city there before him

Cusco city lays before him

Guards approaching from the fortress

Coca tea for Royal runner

Tea will give him strength for running

Pari Pichiu Royal runner

Pari Pichiu runs the pathway

Pari Pichiu enters Cusco

Mighty city of the Incas

Navel of the greatest empire

Sees the sunshine light the temples

Sees the golden buildings glowing

Hears the golden trumpets sounding

Echo round the Cusco mountains

Bringing crowds to cheer the runner

Pari Pichiu holds his box up

Pari Pichiu has a message

For the Inca Atahuallpa

Atahuallpa hears the story

Viracocha has arrived here

How he came from over ocean

As the fables did foretell it

Now he sends this box as greeting

Atahuallpa shows his courtiers

Shows the box to all around him

Atahuallpa shows the message

Takes the cloth that is inside it

Shows the picture painted there of

Christian Saint who meekly kneeling

See the message from the White God

Kneeling down to Atahuallpa

Kneeling to the king of Incas

Twenty thousand soldiers cheer him

Atahuallpa king of Incas

With the message hides another

Death is stirring from the message

Hidden in that box a present

From the White God Viracocha

Death within the box is lurking

Waiting for the time to rise up

Waiting for the time to fly out

Time has come to spread his shadow

Atahuallpa shows the message

Shows his family, shows his courtiers

Shows the empire of the Andes

Spreads the spores of its destruction

Death spreads back along the pathway

Death runs faster than the runner

Weavers, spinners, farmers, children

Condor sees the shadow spreading

Every town in every valley

Every house on every hilltop

Hears death’s footsteps, sees death’s shadow,

Knows the message from the white God

Knows the message in that box which

Pari Pichiu carried bravely

Starlit by the milky heavens

'neath the stairway to the gods









1
In 1531, Francisco Pizarro was in a sea port on the edge of the Inca Empire. He sent a message of greeting, a picture of a saint torn from a book, to the Inca King. A year later he returned with 175 men and horses and defeated the greatest empire South America had ever seen. There are many reasons for the Spanish defeat of the Incas. One theory is that Pizarro’s original message was unknowingly infected with smallpox. The disease killed much of the Inca population so that when Pizarro returned the empire was collapsing. Another possible reason is that the Inca King Atahuallpa believed that Pizarro was the Inca God Viracocha just returned to Earth. The Incas believed that the Milky Way was a stairway used by the gods to visit Earth and in 1531 the Inca astronomers would have seen that the Milky Way's inclination to the horizon was its lowest in 10,000 years. A time for the Gods to descend. The wealth of the Incas was built on their roads. But the Incas had not invented the wheel. Only authorised people could travel the roads.


Pari Pichiu means “little sparrow” in Quechua, the language of the Incas and lions are called tigers in South America.


Pronunciation Guide


Viracocha = bira cocka


Pari Pichiu = Pari pitchoo


Atahuallpa = Ata walpa

Bookmark on your Personal Space


Conversations About This Entry

There are no Conversations for this Entry

Entry

A2518904

Infinite Improbability Drive

Infinite Improbability Drive

Read a random Edited Entry


Written and Edited by

Disclaimer

h2g2 is created by h2g2's users, who are members of the public. The views expressed are theirs and unless specifically stated are not those of the Not Panicking Ltd. Unlike Edited Entries, Entries have not been checked by an Editor. If you consider any Entry to be in breach of the site's House Rules, please register a complaint. For any other comments, please visit the Feedback page.

Write an Entry

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a wholly remarkable book. It has been compiled and recompiled many times and under many different editorships. It contains contributions from countless numbers of travellers and researchers."

Write an entry
Read more