Tezcatlipocâ, it will be remembered, is alluded to in the cosmogonic

myths of Mendieta and Sahagun, already related in the chapter on

Cosmogony. The Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas refers to him

as the creator, says that “he made the sun to shine,” and states that

he was the constellation Ursa Major, the Great Bear, which “sank in the

water.” He also made the Tazcaquavlt, or “tree of the mirror,”

fashioned four hundred men and a hundred women as food for the sun,

and, along with Quetzalcoatl, constructed “the road in the heavens, the

Milky Way.”

Sahagun states [128] that after Tezcatlipocâ had succeeded in driving

Quetzalcoatl from the country, “he proceeded further guilefully to kill

many Toltecs and to ally himself by marriage with Vemac or Uemac, who

was the temporal lord of the Toltecs, even as Quetzalcoatl was the

spiritual ruler of that people. To accomplish these things Tezcatlipocâ

took the appearance of a poor foreigner and presented himself naked, as

was the custom of such people, in the market-place of Tulla, selling

green chilli pepper. Now the palace of Vemac, the great king,

overlooked the market-place, and he had an only daughter, and the girl,

looking by chance among the buyers and sellers, saw the disguised god.

She was smitten through with love of him, and she began to sicken.

Vemac heard of her sickness, and he inquired of the women who guarded

her as to what ailed his daughter. They told him as best they could,

how for the love of a peddler of pepper, named Toveyo, the princess had

lain down to die. The king immediately sent a crier upon the mountain

Tzatzitepec to make this proclamation: ‘O Toltecs, seek me out Toveyo

that goes about selling green pepper, let him be brought before me.’ So

the people sought everywhere for the pepper vendor, but he was nowhere

to be found. Then after they could not find him, he appeared of his own

accord one day, at his old place and trade in the market. He was

brought before the king, who said to him: ‘Where dost thou belong to?’

and Toveyo answered, ‘I am a foreigner, come here to sell my green

pepper.’ ‘Why dost thou delay to cover thyself with breeches and a

blanket?’ said Vemac. Toveyo answered that in his country such things

were not in the fashion. Vemac continued: ‘My daughter longs after

thee, not willing to be comforted by any Toltec. She is sick of love

and thou must heal her.’ But Toveyo replied: ‘This thing can in no wise

be; kill me first; I desire to die, not being worthy to hear these

words, who get my living by selling green pepper.’ ‘I tell thee,’ said

the king, ‘that thou must heal my daughter of this her sickness; fear

not.’ Then they took the cunning god and washed him, and cut his hair,

and dyed all his body and put breeches on him and a blanket; and the

king Vemac said, ‘Get thee in and see my daughter, there, where they

guard her.’ Then the young man went in and he remained with the

princess and she became sound and well; thus Toveyo became the

son-in-law of the king of Tulla.

“Then, behold, all the Toltecs, being filled with jealousy and

offended, spake injurious and insulting words against King Vemac,

saying among themselves, ‘Of all the Toltecs can there not be found a

man, that this Vemac marries his daughter to a peddler?’ Now when the

king heard all the injurious and insulting words that the people spake

against him he was moved, and he spoke to the people saying, ‘Come

hither, behold I have heard all these things that ye say against me in

the matter of my son-in-law Toveyo; dissimulate then; take him

deceitfully with you to the war of Cacatepec and Coatepec, and let the

enemy kill him there.’ Having heard these words, the Toltecs armed

themselves, and collected a multitude and went to the war, bringing

Toveyo along. Arrived where the fighting was to take place, they hid

him with the lame and the dwarfs, charging them, as the custom was in

such cases, to watch for the enemy, while the soldiers went on to the

attack. The battle began. The Toltecs at once gave way, treacherously

and guilefully deserting Toveyo and the cripples. Leaving them to be

slaughtered at their post, they returned to Tulla and told the king how

they had left Toveyo and his companions alone in the hands of the

enemy. When the king heard the treason he was glad, thinking Toveyo

dead, for he was ashamed of having him for a son-in-law. Affairs had

gone otherwise, however, with Toveyo from what the plotters supposed.

On the approach of the hostile army he consoled his deformed

companions, saying: ‘Fear nothing; the enemy come against us, but I

know that I shall kill them all.’ Then he rose up and went forward

against them, against the men of Coatepec and Cacatepec. He put them to

flight and slew of them without number. When this came to the ears of

Vemac it weighed upon and terrified him exceedingly. He said to his

Toltecs, ‘Let us now go and receive my son-in-law.’ So they all went

out with King Vemac to receive Toveyo, bearing the arms and devices

called quetzalapanecayutl, and the shields called xiuhchimali. [129]

They gave these things to Toveyo, and he and his comrades received them

with dancing and the music of flutes, with triumph and rejoicing.

Furthermore, on reaching the palace of the king, plumes were put upon

the heads of the conquerors, and all the body of each of them was

stained yellow, and all the face red. This was the customary reward of

those that came back victorious from war. And King Vemac said to his

son-in-law: ‘I am now satisfied with what thou hast done, and the

Toltecs are satisfied; thou hast dealt very well with our enemies, rest

and take thine ease.’ But Toveyo held his peace.

“And after this, Toveyo adorned all his body with the rich feathers

called tocivitl, and commanded the Toltecs to gather together for a

festival, and sent a crier up to the top of the mountain Tzatzitepec,

to call in the strangers and the people afar off to dance and to feast.

A numberless multitude gathered to Tulla. When they were all gathered,

Toveyo led them out, young men and girls, to a place called Texcalapa,

where he himself began and led the dancing, playing on a drum. He sang

too, singing each verse to the dancers, who sang it after him, though

they knew not the song beforehand. Then was to be seen a marvellous and

terrible thing. A panic seized the Toltecs. There was a gorge or ravine

there, with a river rushing through it called the Texcaltlauhco. A

stone bridge led over the river. Toveyo broke down this bridge as the

people fled. He saw them tread and crush each other down, under-foot,

and over into the abyss. They that fell were turned into rocks and

stones; as for those that escaped, they did not see nor think that it

was Toveyo and his sorceries had wrought this great destruction; they

were blinded by the witchcraft of the god, and out of their senses like

drunken men.

“Tezcatlipocâ then proceeded to hatch further evil against the Toltecs.

He took the appearance of a certain valiant man called Teguioa, and

commanded a crier to summon all the inhabitants of Tulla and its

neighbourhood to come and help at a certain piece of work in a certain

flower-garden (said to have been a garden belonging to Quetzalcoatl).

All the people gathered to the work, whereupon the disguised god fell

upon them, knocking them on the head with a hoe. Those that escaped the

hoe were trodden down and killed by their fellows in attempting to

escape. A countless number was slain. Every man that had come to the

work was left lying dead among the trodden flowers.

“And after this Tezcatlipocâ wrought another witchcraft against the

Toltecs. He called himself Tlacavepan, or Acexcoch, and came and sat

down in the midst of the market-place of Tulla having a little manikin

(said to have been Uitzilopochtli) dancing upon his hand. There was an

instant uproar of all the buyers and sellers and a rush to see the

miracle. The people crushed and trod each other down, so that many were

killed there; and all this happened many times. At last the

god-sorcerer cried out on one such occasion: ‘What is this? Do you not

see that you are befooled by us? Stone and kill us.’ So the people took

up stones and killed the said sorcerer and his little dancing manikin.

But when the body of the sorcerer had lain in the market-place for some

time it began to stink and to taint the air, and the wind of it

poisoned many. Then the dead sorcerer spake again, saying: ‘Cast this

body outside the town, for many Toltecs die because of it.’ So they

prepared to cast out the body, and fastened ropes thereto and pulled.

But the ill-smelling corpse was so heavy that they could not move it.

Then a crier made a proclamation, saying: ‘Come, all ye Toltecs, and

bring ropes with you, that we may drag out and get rid of this

pestilential carcass.’ All came accordingly, bringing ropes, and the

ropes were fastened to the body and all pulled. It was utterly in vain.

Rope after rope broke with a sudden snap, and those that dragged on a

rope fell and were killed when it broke. Then the dead wizard looked up

and said; ‘O Toltecs, a verse of song is needed.’ And he himself gave

them a verse. They repeated the verse after him, and, singing it,

pulled all together, so that with shouts they hauled the body out of

the city, though still not without many ropes breaking and many persons

being killed as before. All this being over, those Toltecs that

remained unhurt returned every man to his place, not remembering

anything of what had happened, for they were all as drunken.

“Other signs and wonders were wrought by Tezcatlipocâ in his rôle of

sorcerer. A white bird called Iztac cuixtli was clearly seen flying

over Tulla, transfixed with a dart. At night also, the sierra called

Zacatepec burned, and the flames were seen from afar. All the people

were stirred up and affrighted, saying one to another, ‘O Toltecs, it

is all over with us now; the time of the end of Tulla is come; alas for

us, whither shall we go?’

“Then Tezcatlipocâ wrought another evil upon the Toltecs; he rained

down stones upon them. There fell also, at the same time, a great stone

from heaven called Techcatl; and when it fell the god-sorcerer took the

appearance of an old woman, and went about selling little banners in a

place called Chapultepec Cuitlapilco, otherwise named Uetzinco. Many

then became mad and bought of these banners and went to the place where

was the stone Techcatl, and there got themselves killed; and no one was

found to say so much as, ‘What is this that happens to us?’ They were

all mad.

“Another woe Tezcatlipocâ brought upon the Toltecs. All their victuals

suddenly became sour, and no one was able to eat of them. The old

woman, above mentioned, took up then her abode in a place called

Xochitla, and began to roast maize: and the odour of the roasted maize

reached all the cities round about. The starving people set out

immediately, and with one accord, to go where the old woman was. They

reached her instantly, for here it may be again said, that the Toltecs

were exceedingly light of foot, and arrived always immediately

whithersoever they wished to go. As for the Toltecs that gathered to

the mock sorceress, not one of them escaped. She killed them every

one.”

These feats of Tezcatlipocâ against the Toltecs seem to have reference

to the various species of charm wielded by the enchanter; the

love-charm, the charm by music, by disease, by destruction of victuals.

The rain of stone signified barrenness, drought, which was implied by

the nature of the god, the deity of obsidian and of tempests.

For other myths regarding Tezcatlipocâ see the chapter on Cosmogony.

NATURE AND STATUS

In my opinion the early significance of Tezcatlipocâ arises out of his

connection with obsidian. This stone had an especial sanctity for the

Mexicans, as it provided the sacrificial knives employed by the

priests, and we possess good evidence that stone in its fetish form was

worshipped even so late as the eighteenth century by the

Nahuatl-speaking Chotas, who comprised it in a trinity with the Dawn

and the Serpent. [130] From a passage in Acosta [131] we are justified

in assuming that Tezcatlipocâ’s idol was of obsidian, and, like the

Quiche god Tohil, mentioned in the Popol Vuh, he wore sandals of

obsidian, as is witnessed by one of his representations in Codex

Borbonicus, where his footgear is painted with the zigzag line of the

obsidian snake.

Tezcatlipocâ was unquestionably the god of the itztli (obsidian) stone,

and Seler [132] has identified him with Iztli, the stone-knife god, the

second of the lords of the night. In certain codices, too, he is

represented as having such a knife in place of a foot, and we know that

it was a fairly common practice of the Mexican artists to indicate the

name or race of an individual by drawing one of his feet in a

hieroglyphical manner. [133] I believe, too, that the net-like garment

worn at times by the god above his other attire is an adaptation of the

mesh-bag in which Mexican hunters carried flints for use as spear- and

arrow-heads.

This, as well as the fact that he was the god of the sharp-cutting

obsidian from which such weapons were made, caused him to be regarded

as patron deity of the wild hunting Chichimecs of the northern steppes,

a connection which is eloquent of his erstwhile primitive character. It

is clear, too, that Chalchiuhtotolin, the jewelled fowl, which is ruler

of the eighteenth day-sign, tecpatl (obsidian knife), is merely a

variant of Tezcatlipocâ. [134]

But another important link connects Tezcatlipocâ with obsidian. Bernal

Diaz states that they called this “Tezcat.” From it mirrors were

manufactured as divinatory media by the wizard. Sahagun says [135] that

it was known as aitztli (water obsidian), probably because of the high

polish of which it was capable. Another such stone he mentions was

called tepochtli, which I would translate “wizard stone,” and from

which I think, by a process of etymological confusion, Tezcatlipocâ

received one of his minor names, Telpochtli, “the youth.” The name of

the god means “Smoking Mirror,” and Acosta [136] says that the Mexicans

called Tezcatlipocâ’s mirror irlacheaya (an obvious error for

tlachialoni) “his glass to look in,” otherwise the mirror or

scrying-stone in which he was able to witness the doings of mankind. It

is possible that the “smoke” which was said to rise from this mirror

symbolized the haziness which is supposed to cloud the surface of a

divinatory glass prior to the phenomenon of vision therein.

Thus from the shape beheld in the seer’s mirror, Tezcatlipocâ came to

be regarded as the seer. That into which the wizard gazed became so

closely identified with sorcery as to be thought of as wizard-like

itself; for Tezcatlipocâ is, of all Mexican deities, the one most

nearly connected with the wizard’s art. He is par excellence the

nocturnal god who haunts the crossways and appears in a myriad phantom

guises to the night-bound wayfarer. “These,” says Sahagun, “were masks

that Tezcatlipocâ assumed to frighten the people.”

He wears the symbol of night upon his forehead; he is the moon, ruler

of the night, the wizard who veils himself behind the clouds; he bears

the severed arm of a woman who has died in childbed, as a magical

instrument, as did the naualli of old Mexico. From him all ominous and

uncanny sounds proceed: the howl of the jaguar (in which we perceive

Tezcatlipocâ as the wizard metamorphosed into the wer-animal), and the

foreboding cry of the uactli bird, the voc, the bird of Hurakan in the

Popol Vuh.

Tezcatlipocâ was undoubtedly connected with the wind, and this leads me

to suspect that in the course of his evolution he came to be thought of

as among that class of magical stones which in some mysterious manner

is considered capable of raising a tempest under the spell of the

sorcerer. [137] Of such a belief world-wide examples exist. In the

Irish island of Fladdahuan such a stone was anointed when the fisher

desired a wind [138] and was kept in wool wrappings. A piece of

pumice-stone drifted to Puka-Puka, says Lang, [139] and was regarded as

a god of winds and waves, to which offerings were made during

hurricanes. Tezcatlipocâ is none other than the original “hurricane,”

for he has been identified with the Hurakan of the Quiches of Guatemala

alluded to in the Popol Vuh, from whose name the meteorological

expression has been borrowed.

Whether or not he came to be looked upon as the wind of night which

ravined through the empty streets and deserted countryside by virtue of

the train of thought suggested above, many aspects of Tezcatlipocâ are

eloquent of his boreal attributes. Thus, he is invisible and

capricious, the object of mistrust among the people, who discerned in

tempestuous weather a manifestation of his freakish bad temper. The

myth in which he was described as pursuing Quetzalcoatl in tiger-form

will, in the section which deals with that god, be indicated as an

allegory of the clashing of the hurricane with the rain-bringing

trade-wind. Lastly, as patron of war, of the warrior’s club and

dance-house, he is, as the boisterous storm, emblematic of strife and

discord. Seats of stone over-arched with green branches were provided

for him throughout the city so that he might rest from his wanderings

if he thought good.

In the Aztec mind stone was symbolic of sin. Thus Tezcatlipocâ in his

variant, Itzlacoliuhqui, is the just avenger, who punishes evil swiftly

and terribly, for obsidian as the sacrificial knife was the instrument

of justice. [140] The coldness of stone, its hardness and dryness, seem

also to have given rise to the conception of him as god of the Toxcatl

festival in the fifth month of the year, the dry season, when the sun

stood at the zenith above Tenochtitlan. Thus, as the prayers to him

eloquently affirm, he was the god of drought, of sereness, and

barrenness.

In common with the majority of the greater Mexican deities,

Tezcatlipocâ had a stellar connection. He was one of the Tzitzimimê who

had fallen from heaven, and the Historia de los Mexicanos por sus

Pinturas remarks of him, “the constellation of the Great Bear descends

to the water because it is Tezcatlipocâ, who has his seat there,” thus

also indicating that he ruled the northern quarter, out of which, it

was considered, no good thing might come. His Tzitzimimê shape appears

to have been the spider. In American-Indian myth the stars are

frequently regarded as having spider form, and especially so in Mexican

myth. In several of the codices, notably in Codex Borbonicus, the

Tzitzimimê or star-demons are represented in insect shape. Thus,

Tezcatlipocâ, when he descended from heaven to harass Quetzalcoatl, did

so by means of a spider’s web, so that we are justified in regarding

the spider as his stellar form.

The origin of his conception as the sun of the north and as the setting

sun seems reasonably clear and is secondary in character. As the sun

sinks in the west its brilliant gold turns to a glassy red, reminiscent

of the dull reflex of light in a surface of polished obsidian. The

mirror held by Tezcatlipocâ, with its fringe of feathers, obviously

represents the sun of evening. But he is also to be thought of as the

torrid and blazing orb of the dry season, scorching and merciless.

I regard his several coloured forms as symbolic of various kinds of

weather. Thus, in his black form he appears to represent the rainy

season; in his red, the torrid and dry period of the year; in his

white, cold and frost; and in his striped painting, the embodiment of

fair weather. Thus Tezcatlipocâ is the atmospheric god par excellence,

ruler of all meteorological conditions. In the prayers offered up to

him it is frequently stated that he may, if he so chooses, send rain

and plenty, and this aspect of him seems to account for his variously

coloured disguises. That these were, indeed, regarded as practically

separate divine forms is clear from the first chapter of the Historia

de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas, which alludes to the Black and Red

Tezcatlipocâ as two entirely different gods.

Tezcatlipocâ, at the period of the Conquest, had developed attributes

of a more lofty kind than any of those already described. Like

Quetzalcoatl, and because he was a god of the wind or atmosphere, he

came to be regarded as the personification of the breath of life. In

the mind of savage man the wind is usually the giver of breath, the

great store-house of respiration, the source of immediate life. In many

mythologies the name of the principal deity is synonymous with that for

wind, and in others the words “soul” and “breath” have a common origin.

It has been suggested that the Hebrew Jahveh (the archaic form of

Jehovah) is connected with the Arabic hawah, to blow or breathe, and

that Jahveh was originally a wind or tempest god.

Our word “spiritual” is derived from the Latin spirare, to blow; the

Latin animus, “spirit,” is the same word as the Greek anemos, “wind,”

and psukhe has a similar origin. All are directly evolved from verbal

roots expressing the motion of the wind or the breath. The Hebrew word

ruah is equivalent to both “wind” and “spirit,” as is the Egyptian

kneph. If we turn to the American mythologies, nija in the language of

the Dakota means “breath,” or “life”; in Netela piuts is “life,”

“breath,” and “soul”; the Yakuna language of Oregon has wkrisha,

“wind,” wkrishmit, “life.” The Creeks applied to their supreme deity

the name Esaugetuh Emissee, Master of Breath, [141] and the original

name for God in Choctaw was Hustoli, the Storm Wind. “In the identity

of wind with breath, of breath with life, of life with soul, of soul

with God, lies the far deeper and truer reason,” says Brinton, “of the

prominence given to wind-gods in many mythologies.” [142]

But although Tezcatlipocâ was the Giver of Life, he was also regarded

as a deity with power to take it away. In fact at times he appeared as

an inexorable death-dealer, and in this guise he was named

Nezahualpilli (“The Hungry Chief”) and Yaotzin (“The Enemy”). But he

was also known as Telpochtli (“The Youthful Warrior”), from the fact

that his reserve of strength, his vital force, never grew less and was

boisterously apparent, as in the tempest. As the wind at night rushes

through the roads with more seeming violence than it does by day, so

was Tezcatlipocâ pictured in the Aztec consciousness as rioting along

the highways in search of slaughter. Indeed, seats or benches of stone,

shaped like those used by the chiefs of the Mexican towns, were placed

at intervals on the roads for his use, and here he was supposed to

lurk, concealed by the green boughs which surrounded them, in wait for

his victims. Should anyone grapple with and overcome him, he might

crave whatsoever boon he desired, with the surety of its being granted.

The worship of Tezcatlipocâ previous to the Conquest had so advanced,

and so powerful had his cult become, that it would appear as if the

movement would ultimately have led to a monotheism or worship of one

god equivalent to that of the cult of Jahveh, the God of the Old

Testament among the ancient Hebrews. To his priestly caste is credited

the invention of many of the usages of civilized life, and it succeeded

in making his worship universal. The Nahua people regarded the other

gods as objects of special devotion, but the worship of Tezcatlipocâ

was general.

QUETZALCOATL = “FEATHERED SERPENT”

Area of Worship: The Plateau of Anahuac.

Minor Names:

Chicunaui eecatl—“Nine Wind.”

Ce acatl—“One Reed.”

Relationship: Son of Iztacmixcoatl and Chimalman or Xochiquetzal;

one of the Tzitzimimê.

Calendar Place:

Ruler of the second day-count, eecatl.

Ruler of the second week, ce ocelotl.

Ninth of the thirteen day-lords.

Festivals:

Ce acatl (movable feast).

Atlacahualco.

Compass Direction: East.

ASPECT AND INSIGNIA

General.—The insignia of Quetzalcoatl is fairly constant in its

appearance. He usually wears the Huaxtec cone-shaped hat painted in the

design of the jaguar-skin, which is occasionally divided vertically

into a black or blue and a red field, having an eye in the middle. The

hair is bound by a leather strap set with jewels, which has a

conventional bird’s head on the front, and in Codex Borgia consistently

shows a black, stepped pattern on a white ground. Elsewhere a bow with

rounded ends takes the place of this strap, but in Borgia (sheet 62)

the hair is bound up with two intertwined snakes. At the back of the

neck a fan-shaped nape-ornament is usually seen, consisting of black

feathers, from which rise the red plumes of the quetzal bird, and it

seems, from the account of the costume sent to Cortéz by Motecuhzoma,

that this nape-appendage was made from grouse-feathers, although the

Spanish account states that they belonged to the crow. The god usually

wears white ear-pendants of hook-like shape, which, Sahagun states,

were made of gold. The necklace is of spirally voluted snail-shells,

and on the breast is worn a large ornament, also sliced from a shell.

The ends of the loin-cloth are rounded off and are generally painted in

two colours—brown, the colour of the jaguar-skin, and white or red. The

god’s atlatl, or spear-thrower, is painted with the stellar design of

white circles on a black ground, and in his headdress is stuck the

agave-leaf spike and the bone dagger, the implements of penance and

mortification. The body-paint is frequently black, like that of the

priests. Most of these insignia are of Huaxtec origin and show that

Quetzalcoatl was usually associated with this coastal people. The

snail-shell ornament on the breast, the hook-shaped ear-pendant, the

fan-shaped nape-ornament, and the cone-shaped cap, were undoubtedly of

Huaxtec origin, and such objects have been taken from Huaxtec graves

and are found represented on vases and jugs from the State of Hidalgo.

In many representations of him the god is seen wearing a long-snouted

mask, usually painted a bright red, through which he was supposed to

expel the wind in his guise of Eecatl, the Wind-god. This mask is

frequently fringed with a beard.

Codex Vaticanus B.—Sheet 75: Quetzalcoatl’s body-paint is a dark

colour, and in his hair he wears unspun cotton, as does Tlazoltcotl.

Sheet 76: Here his face is painted black and he wears the fillet with

the step-pattern and the two-coloured cap, and in his hair are stuck

the instruments of mortification. He holds in his hand a snake, which

is to be regarded as the agricultural implement with which he tills the

ground.

Codex Borgia.—Sheet 73: In this place he is set back to back with the

Death-god and is surrounded by the twenty day-signs. The body-paint is

light blue, and the anterior part of the face has the stellar painting

of white circles on a black ground. His conical cap has the

parti-coloured painting and the cross, the symbol of the four winds, in

the middle. On his breast he wears the snail-shell and in his hand a

blue staff. His wind-mask is entirely covered with stellar and lunar

emblems. His rattle-staff is light blue, in contradistinction to that

of the Death-god, which is sprinkled with blood. Sheet 56: Here he is

equipped with the hoe and wears the body-paint of a priest, a necklace

of jaguar-skin and teeth, the conical bi-coloured cap, the stepped

fillet with conventional bird’s head in front, and the bearded

face-mask. Stellar symbols and feather-balls dot his dress and

headdress. He stands back to back with the Death-god, and it is clear

that here he is intended to represent the heavenly Quetzalcoatl, the

giver of breath and life. On sheet 72 we see him as a priest surrounded

by day-signs and implements of mortification. Sheet 19: As represented

in this sheet he stands opposite the Death-god. He wears a

dark-coloured garment, and what can be seen of his face is painted

black, with a spiral pattern. His mantle bears the cross-hatchings

indicative of rain or water and is ornamented with feather balls. The

red wind-mask protrudes beneath a parti-coloured cap with stellar eyes,

and a fillet with step-pattern and conventional bird’s head, and he

wears the snail-shell breast ornament and carries the implements of

mortification. Sheet 16: On the lower right-hand corner of this sheet

he is depicted in a precisely similar manner.

Quetzalcoatl’s Dress sent to Cortéz.—When Cortéz landed at Vera Cruz,

Motecuhzoma, believing him to be the god Quetzalcoatl returned, sent

him “the dress that was appropriate to him.” [143] This consisted of

four costumes, that of Quetzalcoatl proper, and those of Tezcatlipocâ,

Tlaloc, and Xiuhtecutli, the Fire-god, who were regarded as the four

deities dominant in the four quarters of the heavens, and had in the

higher theology become fused in the conception of Quetzalcoatl, or were

regarded as variants of him. The Quetzalcoatl dress proper is said by

Sahagun to have consisted of the turquoise snake-mask, now to be seen

in the British Museum, and which can be easily identified by the folds

of the snake’s body forming the eyebrows, the quetzal-feather

adornment, and the turquoise throwing-stick, shaped in the form of a

snake. It seems probable, however, that this dress, although it is

described as that of Quetzalcoatl, was that associated with the

Fire-god.

Codex Magliabecchiano.—Sheet 89: Quetzalcoatl is here represented in a

dancing attitude. He wears the Huaxtec hat made of jaguar-skin, the

shield with the snail-shell ornament, which is also reproduced on his

breast, and the yellow and red face-painting. The bone “reed” for

piercing the tongue is stuck in his headgear, and from it depend balls

of cotton. He carries an atlatl, or spear-thrower, symbolic of rain or

wind, and similar in motif to the nose-ornament of the Maya God B. His

mantle is cross-hatched to symbolize rain or water and is decorated

with red bows. He wears anklets of jaguar-skin, and a panache of green

and yellow feathers.

Sahagun MS. (Biblioteca del Palacio).—In the illustration which

accompanies his description in this MS. he wears a pointed cap of

jaguar-skin, surmounted by quetzal-plumes. The face and body are

painted black with soot, and a curved band falls from beneath the hat

to the neck. He wears the golden “water-snake” collar, and on his back

the wing of the red guacamayo. Over the hips is slung a cloth with a

red border. He wears white sandals, and pieces of jaguar-skin are

fastened over the foot. On his shield he has the shell which is typical

of him, and in his hand a staff with a motif like that of the nose of

the Maya God B. Sahagun says of him: “His image was always in a

recumbent position and covered with blankets. The face of it was very

ugly, the head large and furnished with a long beard.” [144]

Torquemada states that Quetzalcoatl was a white man, large-bodied,

broad-browed, great-eyed, with long black hair and a beard heavy and

rounded. [145]

Acosta says of Quetzalcoatl’s image at Cholula: “They called it

Quetzallcoalt. This idoll was in a great place in a temple very high.

It had about it gold, silver, jewels, very rich feathers, and habits of

divers colours. It had the forme of a man, but the visage of a little

bird with a red bill, and above a combe full of warts, having ranks of

teeth and the tongue hanging out. It carried upon the head a pointed

myter of painted paper, a sithe in the hand, and many toyes of gold on

the legs, with a thousand other foolish inventions, whereof all had

their significations.” [146]

Elsewhere Acosta says: “The greatest idoll of all their gods was called

Quezcalcovately.... He never ware but one garment of cotton, which was

white, narrow and long, and upon that a mantle beset with certain red

crosses. They have certain green stones which were his, and those they

keep for relickes. One of them is like an ape’s head.”

Anales de Quauhtitlan.—In this work Quetzalcoatl is described as

wearing the turquoise snake-mask and the quetzal-feather ornament—that

is, the decorations of the Fire-god: “Lastly in the year one reed they

say, when he had arrived on the shore of the sea, then he began to weep

and put off the garb with which he was arrayed, his quetzal-feather

ornament, his turquoise mask.”

STATUARY

A statuette of the god from the Valley of Mexico exhibits him in a high

cap, ornamented round the lower portion with a serpentine motif, and

wearing the sliced snail-shell dress-ornament. A caryatid found in the

Calle de las Escalerillas, Mexico City, on the 16th of October 1900,

represents him with a long, pointed beard, which might, however, be

interpreted as the mouth-mask of the Wind-god lowered down to show the

upper part of the face more clearly, and it would seem from this statue

that the beard with which Quetzalcoatl is represented in some places in

Mexican art is nothing more or less than the mouth-mask pushed down

over the chin and neck, although it must be admitted that his mask is

frequently depicted with what is undoubtedly a beard. A relief

excavated at the Castillo de Teayo shows Quetzalcoatl wearing the

feathered-serpent helmet-mask, which in this representation is most

elaborate, and the sliced snail-shell dress-ornament. Two figures of

Quetzalcoatl found near Texcuco exhibit considerable differentiation

from other forms. In both he is seated on the top of a teocalli or

temple, and behind him is seen the solar emblem, represented as a

large, flaming disc. He wears a high cap which reminds one of the crown

of Upper Egypt, as seen in Egyptian representations, except that it is

flanked on either side by two large studs or knobs and is surrounded at

the base by the serpent-motif, as in the specimen from the Valley of

Mexico. He also wears his usual breast-ornament. In a round sculpture

found at Puebla we perhaps see Quetzalcoatl as a butterfly, and can

only identify this figure as the god because of the wind-mask it wears.

WALL-PAINTINGS

In several of the wall-paintings at Mitla, and especially in those on

the north side of Palace I, Quetzalcoatl is depicted as wearing the

insignia usually connected with him in Mexico. In one of these he wears

the Huaxtec cap with jaguar-skin markings, having the sacrificial

implements stuck in it, and the wind-mouth mask, with beard. The

snail-shell ornament adorns his shield. In another the facial insignia

is less easily seen, but the large nape-fan with which he is frequently

adorned is well depicted. Immediately behind this is a figure, which,

though partially destroyed, is still interesting because of its high

degree of conventionality. We have here the cap and panache of

Quetzalcoatl, together with the strip running from brow to eye and from

eye to jaw, which is part of the face-painting of the Moon-god.

Moreover, in the corner we have the symbol of the moon, a pot-shaped

bone, so that here, I think, we have a symbol of Quetzalcoatl as the

Moon-god. In the preceding figure, too, we have also the lunar emblem,

in this place in shape like the nose-plug of the octli-gods, but

containing the stellar eye, and flanked by balls of feather-down. It

would thus seem that the symbol has some reference to Quetzalcoatl in

his variant of the planet Venus. Moreover the eye appears as gouged

out. This eye-gouging is seen in the Maya Books of Chilan Balam, in the

case of the god Itzamná. These two latter paintings, Seler thinks, are

symbolic of the Uiyatao, or the high-priests of Mitla, who were

regarded as incarnations of Quetzalcoatl. [147]

MYTHS

The myths concerning Quetzalcoatl are numerous and conflicting. In the

first place I shall provide a careful précis of the more important,

their prolixity rendering full quotation impossible.

Sahagun’s account of Quetzalcoatl may be summarized as follows: The

arts had their inception with Quetzalcoatl. His houses were made of

chalchiuites, silver, white, and red shells, and rich feathers. His

folk were nimble and swift in passage from one place to another, and

were called tlanquacemilhiyme. [148] He gave his commands to the

people for a hundred leagues round by means of a crier stationed on the

mountain Tzotzitepetl. [149] He had wealth in abundance, provision in

plenty, and in his time maize was so large in the head that a man might

not carry more than one stalk in his clasped arms. Pumpkins were in

circumference as great as a man is high, and the stalks of the wild

amaranth grew like trees. Cotton grew in all colours—red, scarlet,

yellow, violet, white, green, blue, black, grey, orange, and tawny. In

the city of Tollan, where Quetzalcoatl dwelt, were many birds of rich

plumage and sweet song. The servants of Quetzalcoatl were wealthy and

had abundance of all things, and food was plentiful with them. Their

master did penance by pricking his legs and drawing blood with the

spines of the maguey and by washing at midnight in a fountain. But

sorcerers came against Quetzalcoatl and his people, the Toltecs, and

these, we are told, were the gods Tezcatlipocâ, Uitzilopochtli, and

Tlacuepan. Tezcatlipocâ visited the house of Quetzalcoatl in the guise

of an old man, but was told that he was sick, and was at first refused

entrance. Later, however, he was admitted, Quetzalcoatl observing that

he had waited for him for many days. Tezcatlipocâ then produced a

draught of medicine which, he assured the sick king, would intoxicate

him, ease his heart, and carry his thoughts away from the trials and

fatigues of death and departure. [150] This latter phrase roused

Quetzalcoatl to ask where he must go, for that he had a premonition of

departure seems clear. “To Tollantlapallan,” replied Tezcatlipocâ,

“where another old man awaits thee. He and you shall speak together,

and on thy return thou shalt be as a youth, yea as a boy.” With little

goodwill Quetzalcoatl quaffed the medicine, and having once tasted of

it he drank more deeply, so that at last he became intoxicated and

maudlin. That which he had drunk was the wine made from the

maguey-plant, called teoncetl (“drink of the gods”). And so great a

longing to depart came upon him that at length he arose and went from

Tollan. [151] Ere departing, Quetzalcoatl burned his houses of shells

and silver and buried many precious things in the mountains and

ravines. He turned the cocoa-trees into mezquites and dispatched all

the birds of brilliant plumage in Anahuac, three hundred miles away. On

his journey to the coast he came to the hill Quauhtitlan, where he

found a great tree, under which he rested. Gazing into a mirror, as he

reclined under its shade, he said, “I am very old,” named the place

Ueuequauhtitlan after his saying, [152] and stoned the tree. The stones

he cast at it sank into its trunk, and were to be seen remaining there

for long afterwards. Preceded by flute-players, he recommenced his

journey, but once more became weary, and rested on a stone by the

wayside. Looking towards Tollan, he wept, and his tears pitted the

stone on which he sat, and the imprints of his hands and thighs also

remained thereon. That place he called Temacpalco. Reaching a great

river, he halted until a stone bridge was built over it, and having

crossed, he called the place Tepanaoya. Certain sorcerers now met him,

and asked him whither he was bound, why he had left his city of Tollan,

and who would now do penance there. Quetzalcoatl replied that he must

go, that he was called to Tlapallan by the Sun. The sorcerers requested

him to leave behind his knowledge of the mechanical arts, the smelting

of silver, the working of precious stones, and masonry, painting, and

feather-work. These he left with them perforce. But his treasure of

jewels he cast into the fountain of Cozcaapan hard by. Another magician

whom he met insisted upon his drinking a draught which he could give

“to none of the living.” Intoxicated, he slept, and when he awoke, tore

his hair. That place was called Cachtoca. Pursuing his journey, he

passed between a mountain of snow and a volcano, where his hump-backed

and dwarfish servants perished from the excessive cold. Bitterly he

bewailed their death in song. Passing on, leaving signs of his progress

on every hand, and sliding down the mountains, he tarried here and

there, building a tlachtli court at one place, the markings of which

were visible in deep gashes on the hills. Once he transfixed a tree

with a dart or with another tree, so that it resembled a cross. In

other localities he constructed subterranean houses (mictlancalco),

and elsewhere balanced a great rolling-stone, and on all these spots he

conferred names. At length he came to the sea-shore, where he commanded

that a raft of snakes (coatapochtli) should be constructed for him. In

this he seated himself as in a canoe, put out to sea, and set out for

Tlapallan. [153]

Torquemada’s account of the Quetzalcoatl myth somewhat resembles that

of Sahagun, due, no doubt, to the circumstance that he had access to

the unpublished MS. of that author, from which he borrowed in a

wholesale manner. The points of difference are these: Quetzalcoatl was

high-priest of Tollan, whence he migrated to Cholula. The ruler of

Tollan was one Huemac, but Quetzalcoatl was its chief in spiritual and

ecclesiastical matters. In drinking the magic potion of Tezcatlipocâ,

Quetzalcoatl desired to render himself immortal. He left the impress of

his body on a stone situated on a mountain near the city of

Tlalnepantla (or Temacpalco), two leagues from Mexico, as the natives

declared to Torquemada himself. Met by the sorcerers Tezcatlipocâ and

the others who tried to hinder his going, he refused to stay his

progress, and said that he must pass on to the sun-land. Father

Sahagun, remarks Torquemada, when at Xochimilco, was asked by the

natives, who were keenly desirous of knowledge on the point, where

Tlapallan was, and replied that he did not know, as he had then not

been long among them. The fountain in which Quetzalcoatl cast his

jewels was now called Coaapan, “in the snake-water.” He then passed on

to Cholula, where he was adored as a god. When he had resided there for

twenty years, he was expelled by Tezcatlipocâ. Setting out once more

for Tlapallan, accompanied by four virtuous youths, he embarked at

Coatzacoalco. Bidding farewell to his disciples, he assured them that

at a future time there would come by way of the sea, where the sun

rises, certain white men with white beards, like him, and that these

would be his brothers and would rule the land. These disciples became

the rulers of the four provinces of Cholula. Quetzalcoatl was god of

the air, and during his life on earth was devoted to the careful

observance of the older forms of worship, but instituted many new

rites, ceremonies, and festivals and made the calendar. Barren women

prayed to him. He swept the road, so that the Tlaloque might rain. For

a month or so before the rainy season stormy winds blew throughout New

Spain. The Cholulans preserved as relics green stones that had belonged

to him, on one of which was carved a monkey’s head. A great temple to

him was founded at Cholula. [154]

Elsewhere Torquemada descants on the Quetzalcoatl myth as follows: A

body of men came from the north by way of Panuco, dressed in long robes

of black linen, cut low at the neck, with short sleeves. They came to

Tollan, but finding the country there too thickly peopled, passed on to

Cholula, where they were well received. Their chief was Quetzalcoatl, a

man with ruddy complexion and long beard. These people multiplied and

sent colonists to the Mixtec and Zapotec countries, raising the great

buildings at Mitla. They were cunning handicraftsmen, not so good at

masonry as at jewellers’ work, sculpture, and agriculture. Tezcatlipocâ

and Huemac conceived an enmity to Quetzalcoatl, and as he did not wish

to go to war with them, he and his folk removed to Onohualco (Yucatan,

Tabasco, and Campeche). [155]

Motolinia says of Quetzalcoatl that when Iztacmixcoatl, the Mexican

Adam, married his second wife Chimalmat, she bore him Quetzalcoatl, who

grew up chaste and temperate. He instituted fasting and mortification,

and never married. He founded the custom of drawing blood from the ears

and tongue in penitence. A certain Chichemecatl fastened a leather

strap to his arm, near the shoulder, and from that time this

Chichemecatl was known as Acolhuatl, and became the ancestor of the

Colhua. Quetzalcoatl was god of the air and many temples were raised to

him. [156]

Mendieta has much to say of Quetzalcoatl, but in a synopsis of his

account we retain only such circumstances as have not been already

alluded to: Many different traditions regarding Quetzalcoatl existed,

some saying that he was the son of Camacotli (Camaxtli), god of hunting

and fishing, and of his wife Chimialuna; others that Chimialuna, when

sweeping one day, found a chalchihuitl stone, by virtue of which she

became miraculously pregnant and gave birth to Quetzalcoatl, who came

either from Tollan or Yucatan. The people came to love him, not only

because he taught them handicrafts, and desired no offerings but those

of bread, flowers, and perfumes. He forbade all war and disturbance.

Pilgrims came to his shrine at Cholula from all parts of Mexico, even

the enemies of Cholula, and the lords of distant lands built them

chapels and idols there. Among all the gods only Quetzalcoatl was

called Lord, and men swore by him. The gods thought it well that the

people should have some means of writing by which they might direct

themselves, and two of their number, Oxomoco and Cipactonal, who dwelt

in a cave in Cuernavaca, especially considered the matter. Cipactonal

thought that her descendant Quetzalcoatl should be consulted, and she

called him into counsel. He, too, thought the idea of a calendar good,

and the two addressed themselves to the task of making the tonalamatl.

To Cipactonal was given the privilege of choosing and writing the first

sign. She painted the cipactli animal, and called the sign ce cipactli

(“one cipactli”). Oxmoco then wrote ome acatl (“two cane”), and

Quetzalcoatl “three house,” and so on, until the thirteen signs were

completed. [157]

Another form of the Quetzalcoatl myth given by Mendieta is in substance

as follows: Tezcatlipocâ let himself down from the upper regions by

means of a spider’s web, and coming to Tollan engaged in a game of

tlachtli (the native ball game) with Quetzalcoatl, in the midst of

which he transformed himself into a tiger. Those who watched the game

were panic-stricken, and cast themselves pell-mell into a ravine, and

were drowned in a river which flowed therein. Tezcatlipocâ then

harassed Quetzalcoatl from city to city, until he drove him to Cholula,

and latterly to Tlapallan, where he died, and where his followers burnt

his body, thus inaugurating the custom of burning the dead. [158]

The interpreter of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis says regarding

Quetzalcoatl:

“Quetcalcoatl they say was he who created the world; and they bestowed

upon him the appellation of Lord of the Wind, because they said that

Tonacatecotli when it appeared good to him breathed and begat

Quecalcoatle. They erected round temples to him without any corners.

They said that it was he (who was also lord of these thirteen signs

which are here represented) who formed the first man. They celebrated a

festival on the sign of four earthquakes, to the destroyer with

reference to the fate which again waited the world; for they said that

it had undergone four destructions and would again be destroyed. He

alone had a human body like that of men; the other gods were of an

incorporeal nature.

“After the deluge the custom of sacrificing commenced. Topilcin

Quetcalcoatle was born on the day of seven canes; and they celebrated

on this same day of seven canes a great festival in Cholula, to which

they came from all parts of the country and the cities and brought

great presents to the lords and papas of the temple; and they did the

same on the day on which he disappeared or died, which was the day of

One Cane. These festivals happened at the expiration of every period of

fifty-two years.

“They here fasted the last four days to Quecalcoatl of Tula, who is he

who was named after the first Calcoatle; and now they name him One

Cane, which is the star Venus, of which they tell the fable accredited

amongst them.

“Tlavizcalpantecutli is the star Venus the first created light

(Civahteltona) before the deluge. They say that it was a fire or a

star: it was created before the sun. This star (Venus) is Quecalcoatle.

They say this is the star which we call Lucifer from its light; and

they accordingly paint it with the sign of one Cane, which was the day

dedicated to it. He took this name on the occasion of his departure or

disappearance. Tlavizcalpantecutli is the God of Morning when it begins

to dawn: he is also the Lord of Twilight on the approach of Night: he

presided over these thirteen days during the four last of which they

fasted. It properly was the first light which appeared in the world; it

here signifies the light which diffuses itself over things, or the

surface of the earth.”

The interpreter of Codex Vaticanus A says:

“They invented dreams, the result of their own blindness, relating that

a god of the name of Citallatonac, which is the sign seen in heaven

called St. James’s or the Milky Way, sent an ambassador from heaven on

an embassy to a virgin of Tulan called Chimalman (a shield) who had two

sisters, the one named Tzochitlique and the other Couatlique; and that

the three being alone in the house, two of them, observing the

ambassador of heaven, died of fright, Chimalman alone remaining alive,

to whom the ambassador announced that it was the will of this god that

she should conceive a son; and having delivered to her the message, he

rose and left the house, and as soon as he had left it she conceived a

son without connection with man, who they called Quetzalcoatle, who

they say is the god of air, and his temples are round in the manner of

churches, although till that time such was not the fashion of their

temples. He was the inventor of temples of this form as we shall show.

He it was, as they say, who caused hurricanes and in my opinion was the

god who was called Citaladuali and it was he who destroyed the world by

winds. This painting is here wanting, together with another which

represented that as soon as the son of this virgin was born he

possessed the use of reason. The son of the virgin, Topilcin

Quetzalcoatle, knowing that the vices of men were necessarily the cause

of the troubles of the world, determined on asking the goddess

Chalchiutlicue (this was the heavenly designation of the virgin

Chimalman) who is she who remained after the deluge with the man in the

tree, and is the mother of the god Tlaloque, whom they have made

goddess of water, that they might obtain rain when they stood in need

of and accordingly Quetzalcoatle commenced offering sacrifices to

obtain rain, as a period of four years had elapsed since it had rained.

“Quetzalcoatltopilzin does penance and makes offerings of prayers,

sacrifice, gold gems, incense, etc., to appease divine wrath against

the people; draws his own blood with thorns. After the expiration of a

long period during which he continued his penance a lizard appeared

scratching the ground giving him to understand that the scourge of

heaven was past and that the earth would with joy produce its fruits,

which quickly came to pass; and accordingly they relate that on a

sudden such abundance followed that the earth, which had remained so

many years barren, bore many kinds of fruit and from that even they

took four signs.

“Quetzalcoatl’s example teaches men to do penance, make offerings. He

founded four temples—the first for the nobles; second, for the people;

third, House of Fear or Serpent; fourth, Temple of Shame.

“Of Quetzalcoatle they relate that, proceeding on his journey, he

arrived at the Red Sea, which is here painted, and which they named

Tlapallan; and that entering into it, they saw no more of him, nor knew

what became of him, except that they say that he desired them at the

time of his departure to restrain their grief and to expect his return,

which would take place at the appointed time; and accordingly they

expect him even to the present time: and when the Spaniards came to

this country they believed that it was he, and when at a later period

of 1550 when the Çapotecas revolted, they alleged, as the cause of

their insurrection, the report that their god who had to redeem them

had already come. Quetzalcoatle was born on the sign One Cane; and the

year of the Spaniards’ arrival commenced on the sign One Cane,

according to their ancient Computation: whence the occasion arose of

their believing that the Spaniards were their gods; because they say

that he had foretold that a bearded nation would arrive in those

countries who would subject them. They adored him as a god, as will be

seen: for they believed it certain that he had ascended into heaven and

was that star which was visible at the north of the sun before the

break of day, which is the planet Venus; and they represented him

accordingly as has already been shown.

“Quetzalcoatle was the first inventor of sacrifices of human blood,

amongst the various other things which they offered to the gods; and

this was the manner in which they pierced their tongues, that the blood

might flow ... and their ears and penis; till at last, as we shall

presently mention, the custom of human sacrifices was introduced, when

they tore out the hearts of the victims to present them to the face of

the idol which they considered the image of their wretched god.

“They declare that their supreme deity Tonacatecotle, whom we have just

mentioned, who by another name was called Citinatonali, when it

appeared good to him, breathed and begot Quetzalcoatle, not by

connection with woman, but by his breath alone, as we have observed

above, when he sent his ambassador, as they say, to the virgin of Tula.

They believed him to be the god of the air and he was the first to whom

they built temples and churches, which they formed perfectly round

without any angles. They say that it was he who effected the

reformation of the world by penance, since as, according to his

account, his father had created the world and men had given themselves

up to vice, on which account it had been frequently destroyed,

Citinatonali sent his son into the world to reform it.... They assigned

to him the dominion over the other thirteen signs, which are here

represented, in the same manner in which they assigned the preceding

thirteen to his father. They celebrated a great festival on this sign,

as we shall see on the sign of four earthquakes, which is the fourth in

order here, because they feared that the world would be destroyed in

that sign, as he had foretold to them when he disappeared in the Red

Sea, which event occurred on the same sign. As they considered him

their advocate, they celebrated a solemn festival and fasted during

four signs.”

The Anales de Quauhtitlan or Codex Chimalpopocâ states that

Quetzalcoatl was born in no natural manner, but was a nine years’

child. He created the four classes of men: the men of the four “suns”

or periods of the world were made by him on the day chicome ehecatl, or

“seven wind.” The record proceeds to relate the circumstances of his

rule at Tollan, the manner in which he discovered the value of precious

stones, gold and silver, red and white shells, quetzal feathers, the

cotinga and red sparrowbill feathers, the various species of cocoa and

cotton. When he had drunk the octli offered him by Tezcatlipocâ, he

forgot his chastity in the intoxication and indulged in intercourse

with Quetzalpetlatl, for which sin he was forced to quit Mexico. When

he was driven from Tollan in the year one reed, he arrived on the

sea-shore, wept, and divested himself of his garb and turquoise

snake-mask. Then he immolated himself by burning, his ashes became dust

and changed into birds and his heart was converted into the morning

star. Lastly, it is said of him that when he died he was not visible

for four days, during which period he tarried in the Underworld. For a

subsequent four days “he was bones.” “After eight days appeared the

great star which they called Quetzalcoatl. They said that he thus

mounted the throne as a god.”

In its second or historical portion the codex states that Quetzalcoatl

discovered maize which was concealed in the mountain Tonacatepetl. Many

of the gods searched for it, but Quetzalcoatl, taking the form of a

black ant, was guided to the spot by a red ant. As he was unable to

lift the mountain, it was split open by the magical prowess of Xolotl

in his manifestation of Nanahuatl, and the maize became the spoil of

Quetzalcoatl. But it was stolen from him by Tlaloc, the rain-god

proper, perhaps an allegorical manner of alluding to the more direct

influence of that deity upon growth.

Other myths relating to Quetzalcoatl, chiefly as a creative agency,

will be found in the précis of the opening chapters of the Historia de

los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas, in the chapter on Cosmogony.

In Codex Borgia we find a passage (sheets 35–46) which appears to refer

to the progress of Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipocâ through the infernal

regions, and which might be described as the Mexican “Harrying of

Hell.” On this passage Seler has briefly commented (see his Commentary

on Codex Vaticanus B, p. 119).

CENTRAL AMERICAN MYTHS RELATING TO QUETZALCOATL

Quetzalcoatl is, perhaps, singular among the deities of Mexico in that

a number of well-authenticated Central American myths cluster around

his name in its forms of Kukulcan, Gucumatz, and Votan. Certain of

these must be considered here, for purposes of comparison and analogy.

Nuñez de la Vega: A book in the Quiche tongue, said to have been

written by Votan, a local name for Quetzalcoatl, was at one time in the

possession of Nuñez de la Vega, Bishop of Chiapas, who included

portions of it in his Constituciones Diocesianos de Chiapas, but

nevertheless destroyed it in his holocaust of MSS. at Heuheutlan in

1691. Ordoñez de Aguilar had, however, made a copy of it before its

destruction, and incorporated it in his Historia de Cielo MS. In this

work Votan declared himself “a snake,” a descendant of Imos, of the

line of Chan [159] of the race of Chivim. Taking Aguilar’s account

along with that of Nuñez de la Vega, as both rely upon the same

authority, we find that Votan proceeded to America by divine command,

his mission being to lay the foundation of civilization. With this

object in view he departed from Valum Chivim, [160] passing the

dwelling of the thirteen snakes, and arrived in Valum Votan, whence,

with some members of his family, he set out to form a settlement,

ascending the Usumacinta River and ultimately founding Palenque. By

reason of their peculiar dress the Tzendal Indians called them

Tzequitles, or “men with shirts,” but consented to amalgamate with

them. Ordoñez states that when Votan had established himself at

Palenque he made several visits to his original home. On one of these

he came to a tower which had been intended to reach the heavens, a

project which had been brought to naught by the linguistic confusion of

those who conceived it. Finally he was permitted to reach “the rock of

heaven” by a subterranean passage. Returning to Palenque, he found that

others of his race had arrived there, and with them he made a friendly

pact. He built a temple by the Heuheutan River, known, from its

subterranean chambers, as “the House of Darkness,” and here he

deposited the national records under the charge of certain old men

called tlapianes, or guardians, and an order of priestesses. Here also

were kept a number of tapirs. A quotation of the passage dealing with

this temple may be made from Nuñez de la Vega:

“Votan is the third heathen in the calendar (that is the deity who is

ascribed to the third division of the calendar), and in the little

history written in the Indian language all the provinces and cities in

which he tarried were mentioned; and to this day there is always a clan

in the city of Teopisa that they call the Votans. It is also said that

he is the lord of the hollow wooden instrument which they call

tepanaguaste (that is, the Mexican teponaztli); that he saw the great

wall, namely, the tower of Babel, which was built from earth to heaven

at the bidding of his grandfather, Noah; and that he was the first man

whom God sent to divide and apportion this country of India, and that

there, where he saw the great wall, he gave to every nation its special

language. It is related that he tarried in Huehueta (which is a city in

Soconusco), and that there he placed a tapir and a great treasure in a

slippery (damp, dark, subterranean) house, which he built by the breath

of his nostrils, and he appointed a woman as chieftain, with tapianes

(that is, Mexican tlapiani, “keepers”) to guard her. This treasure

consisted of jars, which were closed with covers of the same clay, and

of a room in which the picture of the ancient heathens who are in the

calendar were engraved in stone, together with chalchiuites (which are

small, heavy, green stones) and other superstitious images; and the

chieftainess herself and the tapianes, her guardians, surrendered all

these things, which were publicly burned in the market place of

Huehueta when we inspected the aforesaid province in 1691. All the

Indians greatly revere this Votan, and in a certain province they call

him ‘heart of the cities’ (Corazon de los pueblos).”

In his ninth Pastoral Letter Nuñez says of Quetzalcoatl:

“In most of the Calendars, the seventh sign is the figure of a man and

a snake, which they call Cuchulchan. The masters have explained it as a

snake with feathers which moves in the water. This sign corresponds

with Mexzichaut (Mixcoatl), which means Cloudy Serpent, or, of the

clouds. The people also consult them in order to work injury on their

enemies, taking the lives of many through such devilish artifices, and

committing unspeakable atrocities.”

The Popol Vuh.—The myths relating to Quetzalcoatl under his name of

Gucumatz in the Popol Vuh, the sacred book of the Quiche of Guatemala,

are difficult to summarize. In the first chapter he is alluded to as

“the serpent covered with feathers, the heart of the lakes, the heart

of the sea, master of the sky, master of the blue expanse,” and is

connected with the creative gods. Along with Hurakan (Tezcatlipocâ) he

creates the world by uttering the word “earth.” The creation of man

having been considered, the wherewithal for his sustenance is debated.

Gucumatz, who is sometimes alluded to in the plural, like the Hebrew

Elohim, succeeds in discovering maize in Paxil by the aid of the fox,

jackal, parrot, and crow, and obtains the seeds of other alimentary

plants (pt. iii, c. i.) Gucumatz then created man by a “miracle” (c.

ii). In c. v, pt. iii, Quetzalcoatl is alluded to as Tohil, a parallel

for which we have justification in ver. 19 of c. x, where in the song

called Kamucu (“We see”) the first men sing: “Truly Tohil is the name

of the god of the Zaqui nation, which was called Yolcuat-quetzalcuat

when we separated in the place Tolan in Zuiva.” But the myths relating

to this deity are obviously tribal and local, and I am of opinion that

they refer to some tribal deity who possessed some of the

characteristics of Quetzalcoatl and who was identified with him by the

Quiches in rather an arbitrary fashion. [161]

FESTIVALS

Atlacahualco.—The festival of Atlacahualco or Quaitl Eloa was, says

Sahagun, sacred to Quetzalcoatl, as well as to the Tlaloque. For an

account of it see the section which deals with Tlaloc.

Ce Acatl.—Says Sahagun: “On the first day of the sign ce acatl the

great folk made a feast to Quetzalcoatl, the god of winds. This was

celebrated in the calmecac, and here they offered rich gifts to his

idol, perfumes and things to eat. They said it was the sign of

Quetzalcoatl.”

PRIESTHOOD

The order of priests devoted to the service of Quetzalcoatl [162] was

called Tlamacazcayotl, and its members Tlamacazque. Of these Clavigero,

who was well informed regarding the Mexican priesthood, says: “Amongst

the different orders or congregation, both of men and women, who

dedicated themselves to the worship of some particular gods, that of

Quetzalcoatl is worthy to be mentioned. The life led in the colleges or

monasteries of either sex, which were devoted to this imaginary god,

was uncommonly rigid and austere. The dress of the order was extremely

decent; they bathed regularly at midnight, and watched until about two

hours before day, singing hymns to their god, and observing many rules

of an austere life. They were at liberty to go to the mountains at any

hour of the day or night, to spill their blood; this was permitted them

from a respect to the virtue which they were all thought to possess.

The superiors of the monasteries bore also the name of Quetzalcoatl,

and were persons of such high authority, that they visited but the king

when it was necessary. The members of this religious order were

destined to it from their infancy. The parents of the child invited the

superior to an entertainment, who usually deputed one of his subjects.

The deputy brought the child to him, upon which he took the boy in his

arms and offered him with a prayer to Quetzalcoatl, and put a collar

about his neck, which was to be worn until he was seven years old. When

the boy completed his second year, the superior made a small incision

in his breast, which, like the collar, was another mark of his

destination. As soon as the boy attained his seventh year he entered

into the monastery, having first heard a long discourse from his

parents, in which they advertised him of the vow which they had made to

Quetzalcoatl, and exhorted him to fulfil it, to behave well, to submit

himself to his prelate, and to pray to the gods for his parents and the

whole nation.”

The high-priest of Quetzalcoatl was stationed at Cholula and was,

perhaps, the most venerated ecclesiastic in Mexico.

TEMPLES

The principal temple of the cult of Quetzalcoatl in Mexico was the

well-known teocalli at Cholula. He had also a shrine in the great

temple court at Mexico, built in circular form, and thus typical of the

Wind-god.

NATURE AND STATUS

The latest of the myths concerning Quetzalcoatl are obviously those

which regard him as a culture-hero who enters the country as an alien,

and, his beneficent work performed, withdraws to the place whence he

came, under pressure of malignant opposition. Had the basic outline of

his myth been more carefully examined, fewer unsatisfactory hypotheses

concerning Quetzalcoatl’s nature might have been ventured upon. The

Mexicans themselves recognized Quetzalcoatl as a wind-god, but Dr.

Seler has not seen fit to accept their assurance upon this point in

toto, and at various times has advanced the hypotheses that

Quetzalcoatl represents the wind, the planet Venus, or the moon,

latterly confining his personality almost entirely to the lamp of

night. [163]

In my view the physical phenomena which occur in connection with the

courses of the winds typical of the Mexican plateau provide by far the

most simple and natural explanation of the nature of the god

Quetzalcoatl. From April or May to the beginning of October the

trade-wind blows from the east coast over the Plateau of Anahuac,

bringing with it abundance of rain, and accelerating vegetable growth,

thus actually “sweeping the ways for the rain-gods.” Its advance is

comparatively slow, the rains beginning three or four weeks earlier in

Vera Cruz than in Puebla and Mexico. At the beginning of October,

however, it is invariably modified by the local monsoon, which

interrupts it over wide areas, or in certain districts invades it in

violent cyclonic storms, dissipating its energies and altering its

course. Quetzalcoatl represents the gentle trade-wind, which ushers in

the growth-making rains. His reign of peace, plenty, and fertility

over, he comes into opposition with Tezcatlipocâ, who represents the

monsoon and who chases his rival “from city to city,” ravening at him

like a tiger, says Mendieta, and at last hustling him out of the

country. That Tezcatlipocâ is also a god of wind is certain, as is

proved by one of his names, Yoalli Ehecatl, “Wind of Night,” and that

he is the monsoon or hurricane is proved beyond all doubt by the

circumstance that he is said to have rushed along the highways at night

at extraordinary speed, and that Hurakan, his Quiche name, is still

employed for the very wind he represented, and has become a generic

name for a tempestuous wind in practically all European languages,

which have without question adopted it from the American word. [164]

If this simple elucidation of the original myth be accepted, it will be

seen how naturally its later modifications arise out of it or adapt

themselves to it. But before we examine the manner in which they

crystallized around it, it becomes necessary to disentangle from the

whole mass that portion of it which alludes to the advent of a

civilizing agency upon the Mexican plateau.

This speaks of the advance of a body of men from the neighbourhood of

Vera Cruz to the Mexican plateau, and precisely in the direction whence

the trade-wind comes—that is, from the east, the direction of the land

of the Huaxtecs, a people of proto-Maya stock.

Quetzalcoatl is dressed in Huaxtec garb, and wears the truncated

sugar-loaf hat and shell-ornaments of this people. This may signify

nothing more than that he was so attired because he represented a wind

which blew from the direction of the land of the Huaxtecs. Yet, it is

certain that several of the deities adopted by the Mexicans had

undoubtedly a Huaxtec origin, and this is markedly the case with

Tlazoltcotl. There seems to be some ground, then, for the hypothesis

that Quetzalcoatl was a god of Huaxtec origin. But the acceptance of

such a theory will entail the acknowledgment of certain hypotheses

which are among the most controverted questions in Mexican archæology.

In the first place, it makes Quetzalcoatl the deity of a people of Maya

stock, and secondly it would seem to imply a Huaxtec or Maya origin for

the much-debated Toltec culture.

A discussion of these points must begin with the question, “Has the

myth of Quetzalcoatl’s civilizing mission to the Mexican plateau any

historical justification?” Regarding the reality of the civilization

known as Toltec there is now no question, although I fully admit that

it took me a long time to realize this, thanks principally to my

acceptance of Brinton’s well-known theory on the subject, to which I

attached far too much weight. But admitting Toltec reality, what proof

do we possess that such a civilizing agency as that of Quetzalcoatl

gave an impetus to the “prehistoric” culture of Tollan? But little—that

is if we are to regard Quetzalcoatl as a man. But in his guise as the

gentle trade-wind that ushers in the rains, we have every reason to see

in him the founder of the Toltec civilization. Such a culture as the

Toltec must undoubtedly have had its origin in agricultural efficiency.

Only through agricultural efficiency can the corvée system arise and

extensive building become possible. The god whose bountiful patronage

of growth assisted the arts in this manner seems in time to have been

‘humanized.’ [165] Legends of his civilizing prowess clustered around

his supposititious memory, he was thought to have been a culture-hero

who actually moved and had his being among the people. Kings or rulers

were called by his name—a lucky name of happy associations—and the

illusion that he actually existed was thereby heightened. These rulers

seem to have flourished in Mexico ere yet the offices of king and

priest had become separate, so that it is not surprising that

Quetzalcoatl was regarded as having been the priest of his own cult, or

that the Mexican pontiffs of historical times bore his name. From this

point of view, then, Quetzalcoatl was certainly the “founder” of the

Toltec civilization. If this theory be accepted, I do not see how the

myth of Quetzalcoatl can be regarded as having any basis in actual

fact, unless one can find in the rather vague statements of certain

early writers on Mexico a further basis for discussion as to his

reality. To me the meaning of the myth seems very plain. It may be that

Huaxtec influence was brought to bear upon Toltec civilization, but my

hypothesis does not seem to me to require assistance from such an

admission.

CRITICISM OF THE LATER ELEMENTS OF QUETZALCOATL’S MYTH

In short, the myth of Quetzalcoatl as recorded by Sahagun is obviously

developed from a much older one which referred to a season of plenteous

rain—the period of the rule of the gentle and beneficent god

representing the trade-wind. As it was connected with prosperous

conditions in agriculture, it was naturally brought into connection

with the Toltec time, the “good old times of long ago,” when conditions

were greatly better, and no mouth knew want. Such a concept was

obviously of later origin. The revised myth took on a cultural

complexion. In terms of allegory, it tells how the powers of the

rain-making priest-god fail him; he becomes sick, and is beguiled and

defeated by Tezcatlipocâ, the rival wind-god, who tells him that

“another old man” awaits him in Tlapallan. And here we seem to find

interpolated a reference to the guardian genius of the fountain of

perpetual youth, the reservoir of rain and all refreshment, which

Quetzalcoatl must visit if he would be cured of the ills of old age,

and he is counselled to speak with its keeper if he would return to

Mexico “as a boy.” The destruction of his treasure by the banished god

seems to point to a reminiscence of the downfall of the Toltec state,

and the concealment of his gold and gems by burial to analogous Toltec

practice on the defeat or decline of that civilized folk. With his

departure the reign of plenty ceases, the trees wither, the birds

migrate, the season of the trade-wind rains has come to an end. History

and myth are perhaps combined in this story of the latter days of the

Toltec régime and those of the revivifying rains. The priest-god

withdraws eastwards to the “flute-playing” of the retreating

trade-winds. Nahua sorcerers detain him in order to learn the Toltec

arts, perhaps a mythical manner of showing how the Nahua barbarians

forced captive Toltecs to teach them the mysteries of stone- and

metal-craft. He is given the draught of the dead, “that none of the

living can drink,” a mythical episode common in all parts of the world.

His dwarfish followers (the rain-gods, the Tlaloque, with whom Sahagun

associates him elsewhere) are frozen to death in the cold of the

mountains, otherwise the rain is congealed into snow.

Torquemada’s version of Quetzalcoatl’s myth is eloquent of the

pre-eminence of his cult at Cholula. The priest-god’s prophecy of his

return bears an extraordinary resemblance to that given in the Books of

Chilan Balam, a Guatemalan native production, regarding the coming of

white men to Central America. [166]

Motolinia’s story of the fixing of the strap on Quetzalcoatl’s arm is

merely a grotesque explanation of the name Acolhua, which in reality

signifies “the folk of the great shoulder,” “the pushers,” “the

hustling invaders.”

Mendieta, in dwelling upon Quetzalcoatl’s dislike of war, merely

retains for us a characteristic of the effeminate people of Cholula.

The appearance of Tezcatlipocâ as a spider is typical of the god of the

dry season, or of the dry-rot prevalent in that period of the year. As

a tiger he symbolizes the fierceness of the hurricane, and the tlachtli

game which he and Quetzalcoatl engage in is undoubtedly symbolic of the

seasonal strife between the wind-gods.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE CONCEPTION OF QUETZALCOATL

Summarizing the myths relating to Quetzalcoatl we find:

(1) That all of them have their origin in or refer back to an original

nature-myth, in which Quetzalcoatl, the trade-wind, is, at the end of

the rainy season, regarded as driven from the Mexican Plateau by

Tezcatlipocâ (Hurakan) in his guise of the monsoon, or hurricane.

(2) That this myth in the first place became confounded with traditions

of the Toltec civilization, naturally enough, as that civilization was

the direct outcome of the agricultural wealth stimulated by the god

representing the trade-wind.

(3) That it seems to have been associated with a myth relating to the

fountain of youth, that is, the fountain in which the refreshing and

revivifying rains were stored, to which Quetzalcoatl must return for

rejuvenation and a fresh rain-supply.

(4) That the conception of the god Quetzalcoatl became humanized in the

light of the agricultural and other manifestations of Toltec culture,

thus bringing about the idea of his existence as a priest-king, and

culminating in the establishment of a line of priestly rulers bearing

his name, which endured as long as Mexican civilization.

(5) Out of these conceptions there naturally arose other related ideas,

as those of:

(a) Quetzalcoatl as inventor of the tonalamatl, the instrument by which

the festal days of the rain-cult were originally noted, but which on

the adoption of the solar calendar as time-count degenerated into what

may be regarded as an astrological table.

(b) The lunar basis upon which the tonalamatl was founded connected

Quetzalcoatl with the moon. [167]

(c) Regarded as inventor of the tonalamatl, he gained a reputation as

the possessor of profound hieratic wisdom, and came to be looked upon

as the magician or sage par excellence, the patron of education, the

rain-maker who knew precisely when the blood shed in penance should be

spent in order that it might return to the soil of Anahuac in an

abundant rainfall.

(d) Quetzalcoatl as the god of wind was also regarded as the breath of

life, a phenomenon encountered in many mythologies, and therefore came

to be conceived as the agency by which souls were originally placed in

human bodies. From this, too, we may argue his appearance as a creator,

or cosmic deity, although it may have been in his character as

fertilizer that he came to be regarded in this light.

(e) Quetzalcoatl is the great penitent, the supreme protagonist of the

penitential system, because without the blood spent in penitential

exercise no rain might fall. The secondary character of this conception

is probable.

(f) Quetzalcoatl seems at a later date to have been regarded as the god

of the four quarters of the compass, a conception of him indubitably

evolved from his status as a wind-god. I think I also perceive signs

that from this latter idea was further evolved a conception of him as

god of the four elements—fire, air, earth, and water. He is the fire

and the flint, because of the lightning which in Mexico accompanies the

fall of the trade-wind rain. He is the air in his rôle of Wind-god, and

as such is symbolized by the bird, the natural inhabitant of the air,

the beak of which he uses as a funnel from which to expel the wind. He

is earth, and, his myth says, a builder of subterranean houses, and

sometimes bears the earth-staff of agriculture. [168] He is water, or

rain, in which guise he is typified by the feathered snake.

This conception of him, evidently strongly sophisticated by priestly

theological science, is illustrated in the Codex Magliabecchiano, where

he is represented on one sheet along with Tezcatlipocâ, Tlaloc, and

Uitzilopochtli. This group, in my opinion, represents the four

elements: Fire (Uitzilopochtli), as possessor of the tlachinalli

symbol, a hieroglyph for water and fire, and as sun-god; Air

(Quetzalcoatl); Earth (Tezcatlipocâ), who as Tepeyollotl was an

earth-deity; and Water (Tlaloc). The picture may also be descriptive of

the four points of the compass over which he rules. But above and

beyond this, as Seler has shown, it implies that these deities were

later embodied in the idea of Quetzalcoatl. When Cortéz, coming from

the East, landed at Vera Cruz, the Mexicans naturally believed that

Quetzalcoatl had returned, and Motecuhzoma sent him as an offering “the

dress appropriate to him,” four kinds of attire, the ceremonial

costumes of Uitzilopochtli, Tezcatlipocâ, Tlaloc, and Quetzalcoatl.

ETYMOLOGY

There but remains the etymology of Quetzalcoatl’s name. It is

compounded of the element quetzalli and coatl. The first denotes the

bright green tail-feathers of the quetzal bird, and coatl = “snake,” so

that the whole implies “feathered snake.” The generally accepted belief

is that this name applies to the rain-bearing clouds which accompany

the trade-wind, although others have seen in it a description of the

rain itself, and still others the ripples made by wind on water. But

quetzal in a secondary sense means “precious,” and coatl is capable of

being translated “twin.” The Mexicans themselves, however, frequently

drew and sculptured the god as a feathered serpent, although this may

easily have possessed a merely pictographic significance. In any case,

after prolonged consideration on the etymology of the name, I do not,

so far, see any reason to quarrel with the currently accepted rendering

of it.