Piqui Chaqui.

Well! treat thy servant as a dog,
But do not night and day repeat,
'Piqui Chaqui! swift of foot!
Go once more to seek the star.'



Ollantay.

Have I not already said
That e'en if death's fell scythe[FN#8] was here,
If mountains should oppose my path
Like two fierce foes[FN#9] who block the way,
Yet will I fight all these combined
And risk all else to gain my end,
And whether it be life or death
I'll cast myself at Coyllur's feet.



[FN#8] Ichuna, a sickle or scythe. The expression has been cited by
General Mitre and others as an argument that the drama is modern,
because this is a metaphor confined to the old world. But ichuna was in
use, in Quichua, in this sense, before the Spaniards came. The word is
from Ichu, grass.

[FN#9] The Peruvians personified a mountain as two spirits, good and