PALPAN AND THE TOLTECS.
Aspect of the Hill—Mogotes—The Toltecs
and their Building Propensities—A Toltec
House—Antiquities—Fragments—_Malacates_—Toltec Palace—Toltec
Organisation—Dress—Customs—Education—Marriage—Orders of
Knighthood—Philosophy—Religion—Future Life—Pulque—End of the
Toltec Empire—Emigration.
The plateau on the Palpan hill, of which we give a ground plan, was
occupied by a royal park, and maybe those of a few notables. Its
direction is south-west, north-west, about a mile in length and
half-a-mile in breadth, growing to a point towards the south-west,
and fenced on two sides by a natural wall of perpendicular rocks
overhanging the river. The plateau is covered with mounds, pyramids,
and esplanades, showing that here were the royal villas, temples,
and public edifices, but no trace of building, wall, or ruin, is
visible, for the whole area is shrouded with immense cactuses, nopals,
gorambullos, gum-trees, and mesquites, amongst which towers the
_biznaga_, a cactus which grows here to nearly 10 ft. high by 6 ft.
wide. I was shown a plant of this kind near Pachuca, in which an Indian
couple have established themselves.
The summits of pyramids, called _mogotes_ by the natives, were always
occupied by temples and palaces; the largest here, No. 4 and No. 5
in our cut, must have served as basements for the temples of the
Sun and Moon. Unfortunately they have been opened and ransacked by
treasure-seekers, and half-demolished by brick-layers, who found here
materials ready to hand for their constructions.
[Illustration: GROUND PLAN OF FIRST TOLTEC HOUSE UNEARTHED AT TULA
(FROM LEMAIRE).
A, Cisterns. B, Various Apartments. C, Kitchen. D, Seats. E, Entrance.]
I began my excavations by sounding the small mound No. 1 to the
north-east, where the side of a wall was visible; and I found
everywhere the ground connecting houses, palaces, and gardens, thickly
coated with cement: but in the inner rooms the flooring was of red
cement. The rubbish was cleared away, and in a few days a complete
house was unearthed, consisting of several apartments of various
size, nearly all on different levels; having frescoed walls, columns,
pilasters, benches, and cisterns, recalling a Roman _impluvium_,
whilst flights of steps and narrow passages connected the various
apartments. We had brought to light a Toltec house!
[Illustration: PLAN OF THE HILL AT TULA (ANCIENT PALPAN).
No. 1, Excavations of Toltec House. No. 2, Tomb Excavated. No.
3, Palace Excavations. Nos. 4 and 5, Pyramids of Sun and Moon.
No. 6, Esplanades and Mounds, Sites of Ancient Dwellings. No. 7,
Tlachtli, Tennis-Court. No. 8, Tula River.]
I picked out of the rubbish many curious things: huge baked bricks,
from one foot to nine inches by two and two and a half in thickness;
filters, straight and curved water-pipes, vases and fragments of vases,
enamelled terra-cotta cups, bringing to mind those at Tenenepanco;
seals, one of which (an eagle’s head) I had engraved for my personal
use; bits which were curiously like old Japanese china; moulds, one
having a head with a huge plait and hair smoothed on both sides of her
face, like an old maid; besides innumerable arrow-heads and knives of
obsidian strewing the ground. In fact, a whole civilisation.
This house, the first it was our fortune to discover, was built on a
somewhat modified natural elevation; the various apartments follow the
direction of the ground and are ranged on different levels, numbering
from zero elevation for the lowest to 8 ft. for the highest. The walls
are perpendicular, the roofs flat; and a thick coating of cement,
the same everywhere, was used, whether for roofs, ceilings, floors,
pavements, or roads.
[Illustration: GROUND PLAN OF TOLTEC PALACE UNEARTHED AT TULA (LEMAIRE).
No. 1, Principal Court. No. 2, Façade. No. 3, Entrance. No. 4,
Reception Apartment. No. 5, Ruined Wall. No. 6, Enclosures for
Animals. No. 7, Right Wing of the Palace. No. 8, Left Wing.]
On examining the monuments at Tula, we are filled with admiration for
the marvellous building capacity of the people who erected them; for,
unlike most primitive nations, they used every material at once. They
coated their inner walls with mud and mortar, faced their outer walls
with baked bricks and cut stone, had wooden roofs, and brick and stone
staircases. They were acquainted with pilasters (we found them in
their houses), with caryatides, with square and round columns; indeed,
they seem to have been familiar with every architectural device. That
they were painters and decorators we have ample indications in the
house we unearthed, where the walls are covered with rosettes, palms,
red, white, and gray geometrical figures on a black ground.
My next soundings were towards the centre of the hill, at a mound
marked No. 2, which I took at first for a tomb; but finding nothing,
I directed my men south-east, at the extremity of the hill, No. 3.
Here we attacked a pyramid of considerable size, thickly covered with
vegetation, having a hole and a thick plaster coating, which, to my
extreme delight, revealed an old palace, extending over an area of
nearly 62 ft. on one side, with an inner courtyard, a garden, and
numerous apartments on different levels, ranged from the ground-floor
to 8 ft. high, exactly like the first house; the whole covering a
surface of 2,500 square yards. We will give a description of it,
together with the probable use of the various apartments. No. 1 (see
plan) is the inner courtyard, which we take as our level; No. 3 to the
right, paved with large pebbles, is the main entrance. Facing this to
the left, No. 7 is a small room about 4 ft. high, which was entered
by a flight of seven low steps; it is a Belvedere, from which a view
of the whole valley could be obtained. Next comes No. 4, perhaps a
reception-room, 32 ft. long, having two openings towards the court. On
the other side, to the north, is a smaller, narrower Belvedere, from
which an ante-room, on a slightly lower level, furnished with benches,
was reached. The main body of the palace consists of ten apartments of
different size, with stuccoed walls and floors. The façade, No. 2, 8
ft. high, opens on the courtyard; whilst two winding stone staircases
to the right, and an equal number to the left, led to the apartments on
the first storey. Brick steps, covered with a deep layer of cement,
connected the various chambers. The cells on both sides of the main
apartments may have been the servants’ quarters. No. 6, are a kind of
yards, without any trace of roof, and if we are to judge from Aztec
dwellings, they were probably enclosures for domestic and wild animals.
The Americans, says Clavigero,[51] had no flocks; nevertheless their
table was well supplied by innumerable animals to be found about
their dwellings, and unknown to Europe; whilst the poor people had an
edible dog, _techichi_, the breed of which was lost by the abuse the
Spaniards made of it in the early times of the Conquest. Royal palaces
had extensive spaces reserved for turkeys, ducks, and every species of
volatile, a menagerie for wild animals, chambers for reptiles and birds
of prey, and tanks for fish; so that the purpose we ascribe to these
enclosures becomes highly probable. Here and there closed-up passages,
walls rebuilt with materials other than those employed in the older
construction, seem to indicate that the palace was occupied at two
different periods; this would agree with Veytia[52] when he says, “that
on the Chichemecs invading the country under the command of _Xolotl_,
they found Tula (_cir._ 1117) deserted, and grass growing in the
streets; but that the King was so pleased with the site that he ordered
the monuments to be repaired and the town inhabited. He followed the
same policy at Teotihuacan and other places, ordering his people to
preserve old names, and only authorising them to give new appellations
to those they should build themselves.”[53]
[Illustration: VIEW OF RUINED TOLTEC PALACE.]
The building we unearthed is entire, its outer wall intact; presenting
a valuable specimen of the houses dating long before the Conquest.
Here we found the same kind of objects as in our first excavations:
plates, dishes, three-footed cups having striated bottoms and used
for grinding Chili pepper; fragments of pottery, enamels, terra-cotta
whorls of different size covered with sunk designs having a hole in the
centre. These whorls are called “_malacates_” by the natives, and used
by Indian women to this day. A round piece of wood or spindle-stick is
introduced in the hole of the whorl, projecting about five inches from
the lower plane, and about nine inches from the upper. The spinner,
who is sitting, rests the point of her spindle on a varnished plate,
and impels it round with her thumb and forefinger, twisting the cotton
or wool attached thereto.[54] In Mexico, rich ladies used a golden
plate.[55]
The edifice No. 7 is undoubtedly a tennis-court, for it answers
exactly the description given by historians of such structures;
moreover, I found one of the rings still in place. Veytia is wrong,
therefore, in crediting the Mexicans with the invention of the game;
were it so we should not have found a tennis-court at Chichen-Itza.
Mendieta[56] relates how Tezacatlipoca came down from his celestial
abode on a spider’s ladder, and how in his long peregrinations on earth
he visited Tula, brought thither by his jealousy of Quetzalcoatl, whom
he challenged to play tennis; but the latter turning into a tiger
discomfited him utterly. The spectators were so terrified that they
fled, and in the tumult which ensued many were drowned _in the river
flowing close by_.
This tradition shows plainly that tennis existed in the remote
period of Quetzalcoatl’s rule at Tula; that the game was of Toltec
origin, that the court was on the hill, since the spectators in their
precipitancy to run away were drowned, that Quetzalcoatl was a good
tennis-player, and that the expression, “he was turned into a tiger,”
is merely honorific, applied to him on the spot for having sent his
ball through the ring. This passage also explains the tiger frieze over
the tennis-court at Chichen-Itza.
The Toltecs had public granaries which were opened to the people in
time of famine. A passage in Cuauhtitlan seems to indicate that the
resistance they opposed to a grasping and bloodthirsty priesthood, was
one of the chief causes of their downfall.[57] “Under the mild rule of
Quetzalcoatl, demons tried in vain to persuade him to allow _men born
at Tula to be sacrificed_. As for himself, his offerings were birds,
serpents, and butterflies he had captured in the valley.”
The Toltecs were peaceful, their organisation was feudal and
aristocratic, indicative of conquest, yet their government was
paternal. Besides the great feudatory lords, they had military orders
and titles, which were bestowed on distinguished soldiers for services
in the field or the council, and finally the celebrated order of the
_Tecuhtlis_, which was divided in sub-orders of the “tiger,” the
“lion,” the “eagle,” and other animals, each having its peculiar
privileges. The initiatory ceremonies resembled somewhat those
attending our knights of the Middle Ages, and may interest the reader.
At the nomination of a candidate, all the tecuhtlis assembled in the
house of the new knight, whence they set out in a body for the temple,
where the high priest, at the request of the neophyte, perforated
his nose and ears with a pointed tiger’s bone, or an eagle’s claw,
inserting in the holes thus made twigs, which were changed every day
for larger ones, until the healing of the wound; pronouncing the
while invocations to the gods that they would give the novice the
courage of the lion, the swiftness of the deer, etc.; followed by a
speech in which he was reminded that he who aspires to the dignity of
a tecuhtli, must be ready to perform the duties of his new office.
He was henceforth to be distinguished by greater meekness, patience,
forbearance, and moderation in all things, together with submission
to the laws. After this speech, he was deprived of his rich garments,
and dressed in a coarse tunic; the only articles of furniture allowed
him were a common mat and a low stool. He was besmeared with a black
preparation, and only broke his fast once in twenty-four hours with
a tortilla and a small quantity of water. Meanwhile the priests and
tecuhtlis came in turns to feast before the novice, and make his fast
more intolerable, heaping insults and injurious epithets upon the
man who stood meekly before them; jostling and pointing their fingers
jeeringly at him. At night he was only allowed to sleep a few minutes
at a time; and if overcome by sleep, his guardians pricked him with the
thorn of the maguey.
“At the expiration of sixty days the new knight, accompanied by friends
and relatives, repaired to some temple of his own district, where he
was received by the whole order of tecuhtlis, ranged in two rows on
each side of the temple, from the main altar down to the entrance.
He advanced alone, bowing right and left to each tecuhtli, until he
reached the idol, where the mean garments he had worn so long were
taken off by the oldest tecuhtli, his hair bound up in a knot on the
top of his head with a red string; whilst a wreath, having a medallion
with his motto graven on it, circled his brow. He was next clad in rich
and fine apparel, ornamented and delicately embroidered; in his hands
he received arrows and a bow; balls of gold were inserted in his ears
and nostrils, and a precious stone, the distinctive badge of his order,
hung from his lower lip. The ceremony ended with another discourse to
the effect that the neophyte should aim at being liberal, just, free
from arrogance, and willing to devote his life to the service of his
country and his gods.”[58]
The Toltecs paid great attention to the instruction of youth. Texcuco
possessed schools of art, in which the broad principles laid down by
their forefathers were doubtless remembered, differing from those of
the Aztecs, whose exaggerated religiosity caused them to leave the
education of children entirely in the hands of the priests. That the
latter were less influential with the Toltecs seems indicated in the
following passage: “Among the various sumptuous edifices at Utatlan
was the college, having a staff of seventy teachers, and five or six
thousand pupils, who were educated at the public expense.”[59] The
truth of this account is borne out by the fact that the city was only
destroyed in 1524 by Alvarado, so that the early missionaries had ample
opportunity given them to collect materials for a trustworthy history.
[Illustration: FEMALE DANCERS AND TECUHTLIS, FROM RAMIREZ MS. AND
FATHER DURAN.
No. 1, Knight of the Kite. No. 2, Knight of the Tiger. No. 3,
Teponaztli. No. 4, Huehuetl. No. 5, Knight of the Eagle.]
Marriage among the Toltecs was celebrated with ceremonies it may
interest the reader to know something about. On this occasion friends
and relations were invited, the walls of the best apartment were
adorned with pretty devices, made with flowers and evergreens, whilst
every table and bracket was covered with them. The bridegroom occupied
a seat to the right, the bride sat on the floor to the left of the
hearth, which stood in the middle of the room, where a bright fire
was burning. Then the “marriage-maker,” as he was called, stood up
and addressed the young people, reminding them of their mutual duties
in the life they were about to enter, and, at the termination of his
speech, they were given new cloaks, and received the good wishes and
congratulations of their friends, who as they came up threw each in
turn some perfume on the hearth. Now the bride and bridegroom were
crowned with chaplets of flowers, and the day was wound up with dance,
music, and refreshments. There was also a religious ceremony similar
to this in all respects, in which a priest officiated; when instead
of cloaks they put on costly dresses with a skeleton head embroidered
on them, and thus attired, the new married couple were accompanied to
their home and left to themselves.[60]
In order to have a complete idea of this extraordinary people, a few
words upon their philosophy and ethics may find an appropriate place
here. A Toltec maiden, about to enter into life, was admonished with
great tenderness by her father to preserve simplicity in her manners
and conversation, to have great neatness in attire and attention
to personal cleanliness. He inculcated modesty, faithfulness, and
obedience to her husband, reminding her that this world is a place of
sorrow and disappointment, but that God had given as a compensation
domestic joys and material enjoyments; softening his advice by such
endearing words as: “daughter mine, my beloved daughter, my precious,”
etc. Nor was the advice of a mother less touching—breathing throughout
a parent’s love: “My beloved daughter, my little dove, you have heard
the words which your father has told you. They are precious words,
such as are rarely spoken, and which have proceeded from his heart.
Speak calmly and deliberately; do not raise your voice very high, nor
speak very low, but in a moderate tone. Neither mince, when you speak,
nor when you salute, nor speak through your nose; but let your words
be proper, and your voice gentle. In walking, see that you behave
becomingly, neither going with haste, nor too slowly; yet, when it is
necessary to go with haste, do so. When you are obliged to jump over a
pool of water, do it with decency. Walk through the streets quietly;
do not look hither and thither, nor turn your head to look at this and
that; walk neither looking at the skies nor at the ground. See likewise
that you neither paint your face nor your lips, in order to look
well, since this is a mark of vile and immodest women. But that your
husband may take pleasure in you, adorn yourself, wash yourself, and
wear nothing but clean clothes, but let this be done with moderation,
since if you are over nice—too delicate—they will call you _tapetzeton,
tinemaxoch_. This was the course and the manner of your ancestors. In
this world it is necessary to live with prudence and circumspection.
See that you guard yourself carefully and free from stain, for should
you give your favour to another who is not your husband, you would be
ruined past all recall; since for such a crime they will kill you,
throw you into the street for an example to all the people, where your
head will be crushed and dragged upon the ground,” etc.[61]
We will end these quotations by the advice to a son: “My beloved son,
lay to heart the words I am going to utter, for they are from our
forefathers, who admonished us to keep them locked up like precious
gold-leaf, and taught us that boys and girls are beloved of the Lord.
For this reason the men of old, who were devoted to His service, held
children in great reverence. They roused them out of their sleep,
undressed them, bathed them in cold water, made them sweep the temples
and offer copal to the gods. They washed their mouths, saying that
God heard their prayers and accepted their exercises, their tears,
and their sorrow, because they were of a pure heart, perfect, and
without blemish, like _chalchihuitl_ (precious stones). They added
that this world was preserved for their sake, and that they were
our intercessors before Him. Satraps, wise men, and those killed by
lightning were supposed to be particularly agreeable to the Sun, who
called them to himself that they might live for ever in his presence in
a perpetual round of delight,” etc.[62]
[Illustration: YOUNG TOLTEC GIRL, FROM MODERN INDIAN TYPES AND FATHER
DURAN’S “HIST. DE LAS INDIAS.”]
And what can be more beautiful than the prayer addressed to Tlaloc:
“O Lord, liberal giver of all things, Lord of freshness and verdure,
Lord of sweet-smelling paradise, Lord of incense and copal. Alas!
your vassals, the gods of water, have disappeared, and lie concealed
in their deep caverns, having stowed away all things indispensable
to life, although they continue to receive the _ulli yauhtli_ and
copal offering. They have also carried away their sister, the goddess
of substance. O Lord, have pity on us that live. Our food goes to
destruction, is lost and dried up for lack of water; it is as if turned
to dust and mixed with spiders’ webs. Wilt thou have no pity on the
_macehuetes_ and the common people, who are wasted with hunger, and
go about unrecognisable and disfigured? They are blue under the eyes
as with death; their mouths are dry as sedge; all the bones of their
bodies show as in a skeleton. The children are disfigured and yellow as
earth; not only those that begin to walk, but even those in the cradle.
This torment of hunger comes to every one; the very animals and birds
suffer from dire want. It is pitiful to see the birds, some dragging
themselves along with drooping wings, others falling down unable to
walk, and others with their mouth still open through hunger and
thirst. O Lord, Thou wert wont to give us abundantly of those things
which are the life and joy of all the world, and precious as emeralds
and sapphires; all these things have departed from us. O Lord God of
nourishment, most kind and compassionate, what hast Thou determined
to do with us? Hast Thou utterly forsaken us? Shall not Thy wrath and
indignation be appeased? Wilt Thou destroy these Thy servants, and
leave this city and kingdom desolate and uninhabited? Is it so decreed
in heaven and hades? O Lord, grant, at least, that these innocent
children, who cannot so much as walk, and those still in the cradle,
may have something to eat, so that they may live and die not in this
terrible famine. What have they done that they should be so tried,
and should die of hunger? They have committed no iniquity, neither do
they know what thing it is to sin; they neither offended the gods of
heaven nor the gods of hell. We, if we have offended in many things, if
our sins have reached heaven and hades and the uttermost parts of the
world, it is but just that we should be destroyed. O Lord, invigorate
the corn and other substances, much wished for and much needed, now
sown and planted; for the ridges of the earth suffer sore need and
anguish from lack of water. Grant, O Lord, that the people receive this
favour and mercy at Thine hand; let them see and enjoy the verdure and
coolness which are as precious stones. See good that the fruit and the
substance of the Tlalocs be given, which are the clouds that these gods
carry with them and that give us rain. May it please Thee, O Lord,
that the animals and herbs be made glad, and that the fowls and birds
of precious feather, such as the _quechotl_ and the _çaquan_, fly and
sing and feast upon the herbs and flowers. And let not this come about
with thunder and lightning, symbols of Thy wrath; for if our lords the
Tlalocs come in this way, the people, being lean and very weak with
hunger, would be terrified.”[63]
The degree of culture of a nation can be gauged from its religion, and
notably its ideas of a future life. The beauty and eloquence-loving
Greek discoursed upon philosophy walking under noble porticoes; the
thoughts of the barbarous worshipper of Woden were of bloody fights,
and of wassail in which he drank hydromel out of his enemies’ skulls;
the Arab goes to sleep cradled on the lap of houris; the Red Indian
dreams of endless hunting-fields, whilst the starving Bushman hopes
for a heaven of plenty. The Toltec is the only one whose aspirations
beyond the grave are free from grossness and cruelty; his heaven is a
resting-place for the weary, a perpetual spring, amidst flowers, fields
of yellow maize, verdure and flowers.
From these graver matters we will pass to the legend, told by Veytia,
which makes Papantzin the inventor of pulque; and although, in our
opinion, he places this event too late, it is none the less instructive
as showing another side of Toltec history. In the year 1049, or,
according to Clavigero, 1024-1030, Tecpancaltzin was one day taking
his _siesta_ in the palace, when Papantzin, one of his great nobles,
presented himself together with his daughter, the beautiful _Xochitl_
(“flower”), bearing, with other gifts to the king, a kind of liqueur,
made from the maguey juice by a process of which Papantzin was the
inventor. The new drink pleased the royal palate, and the lovely
form and face of the young maiden were still more pleasing to the
royal taste. The king expressed his desire to have more of the new
beverage at the hands of the fair Xochitl, adding that she might
bring it unattended save by her nurse. Proud of the honour shown him,
Papantzin a few days later sent Xochitl, accompanied by a dueña,
with some pulque. Xochitl was introduced alone to the presence of
Tecpancaltzin. Bravely the maiden resisted the monarch’s protestations
of ardent love, but alone and unprotected she was unable to resist
the threats and violence used against her. She was then sent to the
strongly-guarded palace of Palpan near the capital;” and there, cut
off from all communication with parents or friends, she lived as the
king’s mistress. Her father meanwhile was told that his daughter had
been entrusted by the king to the care of some matrons, who would
perfect her education and fit her for a high position among the court
ladies. Meanwhile the king visited Xochitl, and in 1051 a child was
born, who received the name of _Meconetzin_ (“child of the maguey”),
and later that of _Topiltzin_ (the “Justicer”[64]), by which he is
known in history. But at last Papantzin, suspecting that all was not
right with his daughter, visited the palace of Palpan in the disguise
of a labourer; he found her and listened to the tale of her shame. His
wrath knew no bounds, but he was quieted with the king’s promise that
the child should be proclaimed heir to the throne, and that, should
the queen die, Xochitl would succeed her as his legitimate consort.
It should be mentioned that polygamy and concubinage were strictly
forbidden among the Toltecs of that period; that the laws were binding
on king and peasant alike; and this explains why Tecpancaltzin was
obliged to keep his love for Xochitl secret, until he was free to
proclaim her publicly his queen; a step which was fraught with endless
evils for his country, since after his death the Toltec princes, who
were thus deprived of their hope of succession, broke out into open
hostilities. The most powerful of these and nearest to the throne
was Huehuetzin;[65] with him were banded the caciques of the northern
provinces beyond Jalisco and those bordering on the Atlantic Ocean,
when after years of warfare, followed by calamitous inundations,
tempests, droughts, famine, and pestilence (1097), the Toltecs, greatly
reduced in numbers, dispersed; some directing their march south (the
Toluca and Cuernavaca branch), others going north (the Tula and
Teotihuacan branch) founded establishments at Tehuantepec, Guatemala,
Goatzacoalco, Tabasco, and Campeche; whilst a few remained at Cholula
and Chapultepec.[66] Ixtlilxochitl[67] places this event in 1008.
Sixteen hundred are said to have settled at Colhuacan, intermarried
with Chichemec caciques, and founded the family from which the kings
of Texcuco were descended. Clavigero writes that the miserable remains
of the nation found a remedy in flight (1031-1050), some settling in
Yucatan and Guatemala, whilst others, with the two sons of Topiltzin,
remained in the Tula valley, and that their grandsons were subsequently
closely connected with the royal families of Mexico, Texcuco, and
Colhuacan.[68] Finally Torquemada[69] writes “that they were counselled
by the devil to abandon their country to escape utter annihilation,
and that the account of their migrations is to be found in Acolhuan
histories, written in peculiar characters as is the custom of these
aborigines.”
[Illustration: INDIAN KING, DRAWN FROM CLAVIGERO, RAMIREZ MS., AND
FATHER DURAN.]
The Toltec soldiers wore a quilted cotton tunic that fitted closely to
the body and protected also the shoulders and thighs; their offensive
weapons consisted of spears, light javelins, and clubs studded with
steel, silver, or gold nails. They used a copper currency, which a
short while ago was still found among the Tutupecans.[70]
These quotations, which might be multiplied, clearly prove that the
Toltecs migrated south, following the coasts of both oceans; that they
ceased to exist as a nation after the disruption of their empire; but
that their scattered remnants carried on the work of civilisation in
Central America, on the high plateaux, and in Anahuac; evidenced in the
strong resemblance that the civilisations of these various regions bear
to one another.
We will close this chapter with a few words about the Chichemecs,
who occupied the valley after the Toltecs. Their emperor Xolotl made
Tenayuca, to the west of Lake Texcuco, his capital, and despatched
four chiefs, with a strong escort, to explore the country in every
direction. They were absent four years, and in their report (1124) they
stated that they had met with some Toltecs in the region formerly held
by them; but that the greater proportion had founded important colonies
in the far-off provinces of Tehuantepec, Guatemala, Tecocotlan, and
Tabasco. Nopaltzin, the son of this emperor, sent likewise emissaries
from Teotihuacan, whose report was to the effect that they had found a
few Toltecs scattered in five different places, who told them of their
hardships, adding that most of their fellow-citizens had gone farther
west and south.
From these quotations it is clearly seen that the date of the oldest
edifices in Tabasco cannot be anterior to the beginning of the twelfth
century;[71] that Toltec influence was felt simultaneously on the high
plateaux and in Central America, shown by the flourishing small Toltec
state of Colhuacan, where King Architometl (1231) had revived those
arts and sciences his ancestors had initiated, and which, since their
extermination, had fallen into utter decay. This king succeeded so
well in his enlightened policy that his country became an intelligent
centre, which proved so beneficial to the barbarous Chichemecs.
Nopaltzin, following the example of Xolotl, compelled those of
his subjects who still lived in caverns to build houses, live in
communities, cultivate the land, and feed on prepared viands. He
invited jewellers and lapidaries from Colhuacan to teach his people,
instituting prizes for those who became proficient in mechanical arts,
and also for those who made astrology, historical paintings, and the
deciphering of ancient manuscripts their particular study.[72] And,
lastly, in the closing words of Veytia’s account, he says: “Among the
documents I possess for the completion of my work are several bearing
on the Mexicans. I found no difficulty in reading the paintings and
maps; but although they are systematically classified as regards events
posterior to their arrival in the valley, it is very different with
their antiquities, their origin, and their wanderings; _their documents
relating to this period being more rare and obscure than those of the
Toltecs_.”[73]
Having proved, and we think we have proved, the diffusion of Toltec
arts and industries among the primitive populations of America, we will
proceed to Teotihuacan.
[Illustration: MURAL PAINTING OF TOLTEC HOUSE. (_See p. 105, Toltec
House._)]
[Illustration: PYRAMIDS OF SUN AND MOON, TEOTIHUACAN.]