The Myth of Achikay

Peru (Quechua)

During a period of great famine, two young children were abandoned by their parents, who had nothing left to feed them. After wandering for some time, the sister and her younger brother arrived at the door of an old woman.

The old woman, whose name was Achikay, welcomed the two children. But very quickly, she revealed herself as a monstrous ogress. Having led the sister to sleep with her daughter, she brought the young boy to sleep in her own bed. But during the night the boy cried out with pain from her hard pinching.

The following day, the sister was sent out to fetch water with a basket, which was impossible because the basket leaked. While the sister was struggling to fetch the water Achikay threw the young boy into her large clay cooking pot and boiled him up. When the sister returned with the empty basket, Achikay departed to fetch more water herself. During her absence, the little girl discovered the morsels of her brother in the cooking pot. She gathered together all the bits and bones in her shawl. Then, she went to find Achikay's own daughter and told her to check the cooking pot. When the ogre child bent over the pot, the little girl pushed her into the boiling water.

The little girl ran away, carrying the bones and bits of her brother on her back.

Achikay returned to the house feeling famished, and without realizing the exchange that had been made, she quickly ate up her own boiled child! When the bones of her daughter cried out to her from inside her stomach, the ogress realized her error and set out in furious pursuit of the little girl.

The little girl ran and ran with her brother's bones and bits on her back. Soon she saw a condor and cried pitifully for help, saying, "Uncle Condor, please cover me with your great wing. Achikay has boiled my brother and I am running to escape from her!" The condor took pity on the little girl and hid her under his great wing. When Achikay came up to him, she called out, "Uncle Condor, have you seen a child with bones on her back? They are the bones of my murdered daughter." The condor lifted his other wing and buffeted the ogress in the face. Achikay was blinded and had to wait until her eyes healed to continue the pursuit. The girl ran off quickly.

Soon, however, Achikay was close behind the little girl again. The girl saw a skunk who was digging a hole. The girl called out to him, saying, "Uncle Skunk, Achikay has cooked my little brother. Please hide me in your earthen hole!" The skunk hid her in his hole. When Achikay arrived, she demanded, "Have you seen a small girl with bones on her back? They are the bones of my murdered daughter." The skunk scorned her and sprayed a jet of nauseating liquid at her face. While Achikay was temporarily blinded, the little girl slipped out of the hole and ran away again.

Before long, however, Achikay was again close on the heels of the little girl. The girl saw a fox and called out, "Help me, Uncle Fox. Achikay has killed my brother and wants to kill me, too!" The fox told her to seek out the weaver who lived on the next mountain while he delayed Achikay. The little girl ran off wearily to find the weaver. When Achikay arrived, she demanded, "Uncle Fox, have you seen a small girl with bones on her back? They are the bones of my murdered daughter." The fox dealt Achikay a great blow to the face, which blinded the ogress for some time.

Meanwhile, the little girl had found the weaver, who was cheerfully working next to a large clay pot full of fermenting chicha, or beer made from maize kernels. The girl cried out, "Uncle, please hide me in your woven cloth. You see what Achikay has done to my brother!" The tinker looked carefully at the girl, and at the bits and bones on her back, and said, "Put your brother's bones in this pot and do not open it for one full hour." The girl did as she was told, and the tinker gave her food to eat. He told her that when Achikay came, as she surely would, the girl must run to the next mountain, where she would find a flat meadow with a wooden cross on it. There she must call out to god for an iron chain to the sky.

When the hour was almost done, Achikay appeared on the horizon, having healed from the fox's terrible blow. The little girl was mad with terror, but knew she must wait the full hour. Just as Achikay arrived, the hour was up and the girl tore the lid off the clay pot. Inside was her brother, good as new! The two children raced to the top of the next mountain with Achikay close behind.

They ran up to the cross and called out, "All-powerful God, help us. Throw down a chain for us to climb to the sky!" Immediately a strong iron chain came down from the sky and the children clung to it as it lifted them into the sky. Achikay heard their request and called out for a chain also. God, however, threw down a rope of reeds rather than a strong chain. Achikay climbed the rope of reeds until she was halfway to the sky. But two mice came running down the rope from heaven and gnawed the reed rope until it broke.

Achikay fell from the sky with a tremendous crash, and her body exploded out over the Andes. Her bones became the spine of the mountain range, and her blood drenched the high mountain earth and made it barren. Her hairs became poisonous or thorny plants. Her scream lingered in the cliffs as an echo. Her great cooking pot became the glacial lakes that boil over and destroy the land.

Source: Doris Walter, 2002. L'Alpiniste, le paysan et le Parc National du Huascarán. La domestication de la nature sauvage dans les Andes péruviennes. Translation from the French by Elizabeth Byers.