Llama Legends Illustration

Inca Empire for Kids
Llama Legends

A llama has much in common with a camel. In fact, llamas are members of the camel family. The Inca did not have horses or cows. Llamas were the important animal high in the Andes mountains. Llamas provided the Inca with wool, food, and a way to transport goods. Llamas were not worshipped, but they well cared for.

The Inca believed that once upon a time, llamas could talk.

Flood Story
(loosely based on an Incan myth)

There was a time when some people forgot the gods. They were greedy, and spent all their time fighting with each other instead of working in the fields and worshipping their gods. Only people high in the Andes Mountains behaved as people should.

The gods were not angry at the people who lived high in the mountains. They were not angry with the good llamas who served these people well. But they were very angry with the greedy people who lived in the valley below.

One day, the good people who lived high in the Andes Mountains noticed that their llamas were staring up at the sky. The llamas told the good people that the gods had told them that a terrible flood was coming and to hide as high in the mountains as they could.

So all the good people, and all the llamas packed food for a long stay, and climbed to the top of the mountain peaks, where the gods lived. They were just in time. The very next day, a big wave came. It was so big and so high that it almost reached the mountain peaks. The big wave swept all the bad people away.

Llamas - The camel's cousin

Incas for Kids