conquest, the greater part of what is now called Los AltOS, or the highlands, of Guatemala, including the
districts ol Quiche, Totonicapam, and Quesaltenango.
Their traditions indicate that they sprang from the Toltec stock. Their records, as written out by mem- bers of the royal house immediately after the conquest, give a long array of kings, and imply a high antiquity. It Beeras that the. Kachiquels and Zutugils were om t t in- braced in the Quiche kingdom, and that their separation was the act of the king Acxopil, who divided his power with his two so,,s. retaining to himself the capital and surrounding regions, which preserved the name of Qui- che. These three divisions, subsequently becoming hostile, wc re easily c [tiered by the Spaniards, Al-
varado encountered his most vigorous resistance in Quiche', where the king, Tecum -Umam, went out to meet him. according to the chroniclers, with 232,000 men. They fought with great bravery; but mu-kitrv and cannon, and, above all. the terror" inspired by the Spanish horse, proved too powerful tor the rude means of resistance at their command. The battle lasted six daw the In, bans fighting desperately a- they tell back. The king at last was slain by Alvarado, and the subju- gation of the Quiches was completed. The ruins ol the city of Quiche, described by Mr. Stephens, attest the grandeur and power of this people, and give a fair sup- port to the early accounts ol their numbers. The dis- trict whi,h they occupied is the best-populated portion of Guatemala, and is almost purely Indian, the ancient language being still in general use. The people are described by Arthur Morelel as "an active, courageous race, whose heads never grow gray, persevering in th< ir industry, skilful in almost every department of art, good workers in iron ami the precious metals, generally well- dressed, neal in person, with a firm step and indepen- dent bearing, and altogether constituting a class of cit- izens who only require to be better educated to rise equal to the best." Their language is regarded as a purer dialect than either the Kachiipiol or Zutugil, with which it is compared by Fray Lldefonso Flores, in his Arte di In Liiii/ini Kachiquel (Guatemala, 17.".:;'. Much lias recently been done for a better know It dge of this people by Brasseur de Bourbourg, especially in his Grammaire de In Lasngut Quichit mist i n Parallele avecsesDeux Dialectes Cakckiquel et TzutuhU, avec un Vocabulaire, servant d 'Introduction mi Rabinal Achi, Drame Indigent (Paris, 1862); and Popul Vohylt Livre Sacre it les Mythes dt VAntiquitt Americaine, avec Us Liv7-esNeroigue.il/ Historiques dt Quicht (1861).— TAe l mt , . Cyclop, s. v.
Quicliuas, the dominant people in the empire of Peru under the incas. who made their language the general one of their territory. The Quichuas extend- ed from Lake Titicaca to Quito, and towards t lie coast to the territory of the I Ihinchas and Yuncas. The Ay- maras, extending from Lake Titicaca to what is now the southern limit of Bolivia, were tirst reduced by the Quichuas under the incas. The Quichuas are gay, cheerful, energt tic, and, under the wise sway of the in- cas, -''in to have risen rapidly in many arts. They were assiduous cultivators of the soil; maize and other grains raised in Titicaca were sent to all parts of the empire as sacred p resents, and the inca himself gave an example of the honor of agriculture. The] wove and spun the wool of the llama, vicuna, and alpaca: they worked mines of gold, silver, and copper; buill suspen- sion-bridges; erected adobe houses with gables, niches, and arches, and temples of the same material or stone, culling and fitting the blocks with an accuracy and finish thai cannot be excelled; made sterile tracts pro- ductive by a wise and extended system of azequias and aqueducts, and also by excavating till moisture was reached. In astronomy they had not reached as high a degree as the Mexicans: aud in literature, though preserving records mainly by quipus,ot knotted cords, they cultivated poetry, .and had dramas, as well as touching song-, thai won the admiration of the Span- iards. The incas claimed to descend from the sun, and introduced the worship Of that luminary. They re- duced the Cbancas and Huancas, apparently intrusive eastern tribes, and then attacked the Yuma-, the people of the coast, whose capital was al ( Ilium, near Trujillo, and who worshipped I'achac.iinac. creator of the World et whom there were a famOUS idol and temple at the
place that still bears the name), the god Rimac (who bad a famous oracle near Lima |, and other deities, After a
long and bloody war, the inca ( apac Yupanipii over- threw Chuqui Manca, king ofChimu, and reduced the Yuncas. They were compelled to accept the sun-wor- ship; but the inca allowed me temple ol Pachacamac
to stand, as its fame was spread through most of South
QUICK
843
QUICUNQUE VULT
America. There are remnants of the Yuncas still re- taining their language at Moche, Eten, etc. ; it is en- tirely different from the Quichua. The priests of the sun dressed in white, and practiced celibacy and fasts. Near each temple was also a convent of virgins of the sun. The men wore woollen tunics and leggins, the women long skirts and short cloaks, joined by gold, sil- ver, or copper clasps. The incas were distinguished by the llautu, a fillet with a ball descending between the eyes. After the Spanish conquest, the Indians lost much of the arts they had gained, and retrograded generally. A desperate effort was made by the Quichuas in the last century to recover their freedom ; but their leader, Tu- pac Amaru, a descendant of the incas, was taken and torn in pieces by horses in the plaza of Cuzco in 1780. There is a series of grammars of the Quichua, begin- ning with that of Fray Domingo de San Tomas (Valla- dolid, 15G0), and coming down to Markham, Contribu- tions towards a Grammar and Dictionary of Quichua (London, 1864). Ollantay, a Quichua drama, and sever- al songs of the haravecs, or bards, have been published. — The A mer. Cyclop, s. v.