In Peruvian tales from the records of the first Spanish conquistadors, Creator begs Sun to make people so as to populate the earth. Sun throws three eggs down to earth: the chiefs (men) are born of the golden egg, their wives (women) of the silver one and the ordinary folk emerge from the copper egg since copper represents mortality: it tarnishes and oxydizes, and is subject to change, deterioration and death. Source: Gold and Power in Ancient Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia Edited by Jeffrey Quilter and John W. Hoopes.