The New International Encyclopædia/Viracocha
VIRACOCHA, vē'rȧ-kō'chȧ (foam of the sea,
in allusion to his white beard). The supreme
god of the ancient ../Quichua/ (q.v.) of Peru. He
is represented as the creator and ruler of the
sun, moon, and all other objects in nature,
including the human race. In his incarnate form
he is said to have issued from Lake Titicaca as
a venerable man, with a fair skin and a flowing
white beard. He proceeded northward, teaching
those who would listen, and visiting swift
miraculous destruction upon those who refused to
hear. To the chief of Pacari-tampu or Paucar-tambo,
‘The House of the Dawn,’ who received
him with special hospitality, he gave his staff,
which afterwards turned to pure gold on the
birth of the chiefs next son, the famous Manco-Capac,
founder of the Inca dynasty. Having
accomplished his mission of organizing the Quichua
tribes into a civilized community, he departed by
way of the western ocean. In his principal
attributes Viracocha appears as the universal Light
God, as indicated by his fair complexion, white
beard, his appearance in the east, and his journeying
to the west. The god ../Pachacamac/ (q.v.)
appears to be only Viracocha under another
form. As the Aztec Emperor saw in Cortés the
messenger of the lost ../Quetzalcoatl/ (q.v.), so the
Peruvians, expecting the return of their great
incarnate god, hailed the Spaniards, with their
fair-skinned and bearded faces, as the children
of Viracocha, and the name continues in common
use among the natives to designate those of
the white race.