"An anthology of twenty myths and legends, gathered from the sixteenth-century chronicles of missionaries and conquistadores and from the reports of folklorists working in remote villages of the Andes. The creation of the world, the rise of the Inca empire, the great wars of expansion, omens of doom, and the Spanish Conquest are among the themes woven into these stories, many of which are here translated into English for the first time."--Jacket flap.