" In the dark recesses of the Chavín temples the gods sneered with their feline mouths, with their terrible projecting fangs, with their distorted eyes turned upwards, perhaps as effect of the sacred drugs used by their priests-oracle, whilst their hair, eyelashes and belt were formed by snakes whose hiss was almost likely to be perceived. From their backs protruded wings or plumed tails.

For thousands of years the Andean deity has reunited in itself elements of the three animals to express the totality of power in the three realms: that nocturnal and fertile of the earth and of the dead, symbolized by the snake; that of the living, of which jaguar and puma are lords, and that of the uranic deities, into which soar the majestic condor and the eagle."