Collquiri is the water god of the Concha people, a youthful huaca associated with springs, lakes, and the underground movement of water. Seeing from afar the woman Capyama of Yampilla, he fell in love and, to reach her, sank into the earth and travelled beneath it as flowing water, bursting out near her dwelling to court and win her. Their marriage bound the two communities, and Collquiri became the giver of the water impounded in the lake Yansa, whose sluice and annual repair the Concha ayllu maintained. When at first he sent too much water and threatened to flood the fields, the ancestors taught him to stop the outlet with cloth and clay, establishing the measured control of the reservoir. He personifies the sacred, willful character of the water that a highland community must both court and restrain.