Yastay

Yastay was remembered as the protector of the mountain animals and of the hunt in the Andes of north-western Argentina and Chile, where the Diaguita lived. In a legend of their neighbours the Huarpe, Yastay warned the proud hunter Gilanco to stop killing animals for sport. When Gilanco ignored him, Pachamama, the earth mother, swept him away in a whirlwind of hot wind, and the Zonda is said to blow whenever someone disobeys her.

The Diaguita had no priestly class, only a shaman in each village who led the rites and healed the sick. Their lands fell to the Inca in the late fifteenth century, and from 1560 to 1667 they fought the Calchaquí Wars against the Spaniards.