QUITUS-CARAS

The Quitus dominions extended to the territories of Aloag, Amaguaa Calacal

Chillo, Chillogallo, Pilar, Cumbay, Gualea, Gupulo, Guayllabamba, Lloa,
Machachi, Pntag, Pomasqui, Puembo, Quinche, Sangolqu, Tumbaco, Uyumbicho,
etc. None of these names were pronounced with the vowel or with the u, because
the language of the Quitus (quechua maran) lacked the mentioned vowel. The
Quitus were conquered by the Caras that inhabited, by the year 1000 of the
Christian era, the shores of Manab and Shyri Caran settled at the foot of the
Pichincha.

They worshipped the Sun and the moon. In Quito they built a temple to the Moon
in what is now the neighborhood of San Juan and the other dedicated to the Sun
in the elevation known as Panecillo. The temple to the Sun was square, all of stone
carved quite perfectly, a pyramidal roof with an open door towards the East
accompanied by two tall columns which were the observatories of the solstices for
the regulation of the solar year. They were also 12 pilasters contour of the temple,
which were other so many gnomons to mark the first day of each month by order.

Unlike the Quitus, who buried their dead by opening graves in the soil, the Shyris
placed the corpse on the surface, in a place away from towns, and placed it in its
contour the favorites weapons and jewels. After the funeral ceremony, they builted
around a low panel of stones covering the body in a sort of vault loading over
stone and Earth known as tola.

His Government, appointed by the Board of Lords of the Kingdom, was governed
by the law of succession, the sons were nominated as Shyris with the exclusion of
the daughters, in the absence of sons, nephews will be nominated. The Shyri,
whose badge was a large Emerald placed on the forehead, married a single
woman and could have the concubines that he wanted. The issues of war and
grave matters of State that the Shyri solved, could not be put in action without
the Board Of lords approval and in turn, this could not resolved any matter
without the approval of the Shyri.

They used a kind of writing similar to the Peruvian quipus. It is reduced to certain
files or deposits made of wood, stone or mud, with various separations in which
they placed pebbles of various sizes, colors and angular figures, with the different
combinations they registered their facts and accounts of everything.

They were skilled in making fabrics of cotton and wool but much more in tanning
leather, and they are the supposedly the first of carve hard stones, such as
emeralds, to have been the first established in the region of Manab and
Esmeraldas.

Through conquests, the Shyris territories expanded north to Cayambi, Otavalo,

Dacha and Tusa (today provinces of Imbabura and Carchi) and South, to the lands
of Latacunga (today the province of Cotopaxi) and later, with the marriage of Toa
Duchicela, is appended to the Puruhaes (today Chimborazo province), and came to
dominate until the land of the Huancabambas.

In the reign of Hualcopo Duchicela, Shyri 14, towards 1450, the Quitu Kingdom
began to break up, the Inca Tupac Yupanqui undertook his campaign of conquest.
The Quitu Kingdom was conquered by the inca but not before presenting a fierce
defense of armies commanded by Epiclachima. Hualcopo Duchicela was succeeded
by his eldest son Cacha, who sought to regain the territories, lost by his father and
encountered stubborn resistance by the Caaris adepts to Inca domination. Cacha
had one daughter, named Pacha, who married with Huayna Capac, sealing the
conquest of the Kingdom of Quito and the extension of the Tahuantinsuyu.

Pacha and Huayna Capac had two sons: Atahualpa and Huascar. On the death of
Huayna Capac the land of the Incas was divided and in 1534 the Quitu-Cara
culture were conquered by the Spanish. They became extinct chiefly from
exposure to new European infectious diseases, which took a heavy toll in fatalities.
In addition, the Spanish conquerors married Quitu-Cara women, and descendants
continued to intermarry, producing the mestizo population of the region.

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