A long time ago, when the city of Cuzco was still surrounded by fields and forests, some communities near the city still were outside the influence of modern technology. They did not have telephones and only a few had electricity, especially those with a reservoir of water from which they could get electric service.
All the people and the families carried out their daily routines such as dedicating themselves to agriculture and raising cattle or sheep. They started working very early in the mornings and they returned home at nightfall.
One day they carried out a traditional fiesta to celebrate the anniversary of the community. They performed traditional dances from the place along with music, typical food, and drink.
While everyone was enjoying the feast daylight ended. The majority of the people who were there returned home in order to rest and recover their energies for the next day. In the morning a desperate woman ran from house to house on the edge of falling apart in despair. She was asking if anyone had seen her husband.
He had not returned home from the fiesta the day before, she said. The whole community went out looking and they could not find the lost man.
Several weeks passed and there was no news of the lost man. Then, one day, a woman who had been drinking because of problems she had also disappeared and the people knew nothing more about her.
No one knew what was going on. Some said they must have left the community for some reason. Others insisted some beast or animal must have eaten them. But they could not settle on a solution and only knew that the man and the woman had disappeared.
On a different day two men who had been drinking were returning home when one of them fell against a wall while the other continued. Something terrifying was waiting for them. The man who had less to drink got up and was looking at his friend. He saw a flaming chariot drawn by flaming horses carry away his friend.
The man who stayed behind was perplexed and frightened from what he saw, though nothing had happened to him. The next morning he went and told everyone about what had happened. Some people believed him and others not. In this way, every year, one or two people of the community were carried away by the flaming chariot.
People said that these people were taken away because they had sinned. They had committed adultery, theft, lies, and such. Even today, in some communities, they say that some people still disappear in flaming chariots. As a result people are afraid to walk around late at night. They fear the burning chariot will come for them.
