CHAPTER VII.

GODS, SUPERNATURAL BEINGS, AND WORSHIP.

IMAGE OF TEZCATLIPOCA -- HIS SEATS AT THE STREET-CORNERS --

VARIOUS LEGENDS ABOUT HIS LIFE ON EARTH -- QUETZALCOATL -- HIS

DEXTERITY IN THE MECHANICAL ARTS -- HIS RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES

-- THE WEALTH AND NIMBLENESS OF HIS ADHERENTS -- EXPULSION FROM

TULLA OF QUETZALCOATL BY TEZCATLIPOCA AND HUITZILOPOCHTLI --

THE MAGIC DRAUGHT -- HUEMAC, OR VEMAC, KING OF THE TOLTECS, AND

THE MISFORTUNES BROUGHT UPON HIM AND HIS PEOPLE BY TEZCATLIPOCA

IN VARIOUS DISGUISES -- QUETZALCOATL IN CHOLULA -- DIFFERING

ACCOUNTS OF THE BIRTH AND LIFE OF QUETZALCOATL -- HIS GENTLE

CHARACTER -- HE DREW UP THE MEXICAN CALENDAR -- INCIDENTS OF

HIS EXILE AND OF HIS JOURNEY TO TLAPALLA, AS RELATED AND

COMMENTED UPON BY VARIOUS WRITERS -- BRASSEUR'S IDEAS ABOUT THE

QUETZALCOATL MYTHS -- QUETZALCOATL CONSIDERED A SUN-GOD BY

TYLOR, AND AS A DAWN-HERO BY BRINTON -- HELPS -- DOMENECH --

THE CODICES -- LONG DISCUSSION OF THE QUETZALCOATL MYTHS BY J.

G. MÜLLER.

In the preceding chapter I have given only the loftier view of

Tezcatlipoca's nature, which even on this side cannot be illustrated

without many inconsistencies. We pass now to relations evidencing a

much meaner idea of his character, and showing him whom we have seen

called invisible, almighty, and beneficent, in a new and much less

imposing light. We pass, in fact, from the Zeus of Plato and Socrates

to the Zeus of Hesiod and Homer.

Let us glance first at the fashion of his representation in the

temples, though with little hope of seeing the particular fitness of

many of the trappings and symbols with which his statue was decorated.

His principal image, at least in the city of Mexico, was cut out of a

very shining black stone, called iztli, a variety of obsidian--a

stone valued, in consideration of its capabilities of cleavage, for

making those long splinters, used as knives by the Aztecs, for

sacrificial and other purposes. For these uses in worship, and perhaps

indeed for its manifold uses in all regards, it was surnamed

_teotetl_, divine stone. In places where stone was less convenient the

image was made of wood. The general idea intended to be given was that

of a young man; by which the immortality of the god was set forth. The

ears of the idol were bright with ear-rings of gold and silver.

Through his lower lip was thrust a little crystal tube, perhaps six

inches long, and through the hollow of this tube a feather was drawn;

sometimes a green feather, sometimes a blue, giving the transparent

ornament the tint at one time of an emerald, at another of a

turquoise. The hair--carved from the stone, we may suppose--was drawn

into a queue and bound with a ribbon of burnished gold, to the end of

which ribbon, hanging down behind, was attached a golden ear with

certain tongues of ascending smoke painted thereon; which smoke was

intended to signify the prayers of those sinners and afflicted that,

commending themselves to the god, were heard by him. Upon his head

were many plumes of red and green feathers. From his neck there hung

down in front a great jewel of gold that covered all his breast.

Bracelets of gold were upon his arms, and in his navel was set a

precious green stone. In his left hand there flashed a great circular

mirror of gold, bordered like a fan with precious feathers, green and

azure and yellow; the eyes of the god were ever fixed on this, for

therein he saw reflected all that was done in the world. This mirror

was called _itlachia_, that is to say, the 'looker-on,' the 'viewer.'

Tezcatlipoca was sometimes seated on a bench covered with a red cloth,

worked with the likeness of many skulls, having in his right hand four

darts, signifying, according to some, that he punished sin. To the top

of his feet were attached twenty bells of gold, and to his right foot

the fore-foot of a deer, to show the exceeding swiftness of this

deity in all his ways. Hiding the shining black body, was a great

cloak, curiously wrought in black and white, adorned with feathers,

and fringed about with rosettes of three colors, red, white, and

black. This god, whose decorations vary a little with different

writers--variations probably not greater than those really existing

among the different figures representing in different places the same

deity--had a kind of chapel built to hold him on the top of his

temple. It was a dark chamber lined with rich cloths of many colors;

and from its obscurity the image looked out, seated on a pedestal,

with a costly canopy immediately overhead, and an altar in front; not

apparently an altar of sacrifice, but a kind of ornamental table, like

a Christian altar, covered with rich cloth. Into this holy of holies

it was not lawful for any but a priest to enter.

[Sidenote: WORSHIP OF TEZCATLIPOCA.]

What most of all, however, must have served to bring the worship of

Tezcatlipoca prominently before the people, were the seats of stone,

built at the corners of the streets, for the accommodation of this god

when he walked invisibly abroad. Mortal, born of woman, never sat

thereon; not the king himself might dare to use them: sacred they

were, sacred for ever, and always shadowed by a canopy of green

boughs, reverently renewed every five days.[VII-1]

Lower and lower we must now descend from the idea of an almighty god,

to take up the thread of various legends in which Tezcatlipoca figures

in an anything but creditable light. We have already seen him

described as one of those hero-gods whom the new-born Sun was

instrumental in destroying;[VII-2] and we may suppose that he then

ascended into heaven, for we find him afterward descending thence,

letting himself down by a rope twined from spider's web. Rambling

through the world he came to a place called Tulla, where a certain

Quetzalcoatl--another, according to Sahagun, of the hero-gods just

referred to--had been ruling for many years. The two engaged in a game

of ball, in the course of which Tezcatlipoca suddenly transformed

himself into a tiger, occasioning thereby a tremendous panic among the

spectators, many of whom in the haste of their flight precipitated

themselves down a ravine in the neighborhood into a river and were

drowned. Tezcatlipoca then began to persecute Quetzalcoatl from city

to city till he drove him to Cholula. Here Quetzalcoatl was held as

chief god, and here for some time he was safe. But only for a few

years; his indefatigable and powerful enemy forced him to retreat with

a few of his adherents toward the sea, to a place called Tlillapa or

Tizapan. Here the hunted Quetzalcoatl died, and his followers

inaugurated the custom of burning the dead by burning his body.[VII-3]

The foregoing, from Mendieta, gives us a glimpse, from one point of

view, of that great personage Quetzalcoatl, of whom we shall know much

more anon, and whom in the meantime we meet again and again as the

opponent, or rather victim of Tezcatlipoca. Let us consider Sahagun's

version of the incidents of this strife:--

[Sidenote: QUETZALCOATL.]

Quetzalcoatl was, from very ancient times, adored as a god in Tulla.

He had a very high _cu_[VII-4] there, with many steps up to it, steps

so narrow that there was not room for a whole foot on any of them. 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. The adherents of this god were all devoted to the mechanical

arts, dexterous in working the green stone called chalchiuite, and in

founding the precious metals; all of which arts had their beginning

and origin with the said Quetzalcoatl. He had whole houses made of

chalchiuites, others made of silver, others of white and red shells,

others of planks, others of turquoises, and others of rich feathers.

His adherents were very light of foot and swift in going whither they

wished, and they were called _tlanquacemilhiyme_. There is a mountain

called Tzatzitepetl on which Quetzalcoatl used to have a crier, and

the people afar off and scattered, and the people of Anáhuac, a

hundred leagues distant, heard and understood at once whatever the

said Quetzalcoatl commanded. And Quetzalcoatl was very rich; he had

all that was needful both to eat and to drink; maize was abundant, and

a head of it was as much as a man could carry clasped in his arms;

pumpkins measured a fathom round; the stalks of the wild amarinth were

so large and thick that people climbed them like trees. Cotton was

sowed and gathered in of all colors, red, scarlet, yellow, violet,

whitish, green, blue, blackish, grey, orange, and tawny; these colors

in the cotton were natural to it, thus it grew. Further it is said

that in that city of Tulla, there abounded many sorts of birds of rich

and many-colored plumage, the _xiuhtototl_, the _quetzaltototl_, the

_zaquan_, the _tlauquechol_, and other birds that sang with much

sweetness. And this Quetzalcoatl had all the riches of the world, of

gold and silver, of green stones called chalchiuites, and of other

precious things, and a great abundance of cocoa-nut trees of divers

colors. The vassals or adherents of Quetzalcoatl were also very rich

and wanted for nothing; they were never hungry; they never lacked

maize, nor ate the small ears of it, but burned them like wood to heat

the baths. It is said lastly that Quetzalcoatl did penance by pricking

his legs and drawing blood with the spines of the maguey and by

washing at midnight in a fountain called _xicapoya_;[VII-5] this custom

the priests and ministers of the Mexican idols adopted.

There came at last a time in which the fortunes of Quetzalcoatl and of

his people, the Toltecs, began to fail; for there came against them

three sorcerers, gods in disguise, to wit Tezcatlipoca,

Huitzilopochtli, and Tlacavepan, who wrought many deceits in Tulla.

Tezcatlipoca especially prepared a cunning trick; he turned himself

into a hoary-headed old man, and went to the house of Quetzalcoatl,

saying to the servants there, I wish to see and speak to your master.

Then the servants said, Go away, old man, thou canst not see our king,

for he is sick, thou wilt annoy him and cause him heaviness. But

Tezcatlipoca insisted, I must see him. Then the servants bid the

sorcerer to wait, and they went in and told Quetzalcoatl how an old

man without affirmed that he would see the king and would not be

denied. And Quetzalcoatl answered, Let him come in, behold for many

days I have waited for his coming. So Tezcatlipoca entered, and he

said to the sick god-king, How art thou? adding further that he had a

medicine for him to drink. Then Quetzalcoatl answered, Thou art

welcome, old man, behold for many days I have waited for thee. And the

old sorcerer spake again, How is thy body, and how art thou in health?

I am exceedingly sick, said Quetzalcoatl, all my body is in pain, I

cannot move my hands nor my feet. Then, answered Tezcatlipoca, behold

this medicine that I have, it is good and wholesome and intoxicating;

if thou will drink it, thou shalt be intoxicated and healed and eased

at the heart, and thou shalt have in mind the toils and fatigues of

death and of thy departure.[VII-6] Where, cried Quetzalcoatl, have I to

go? To Tullantlapallan, replied Tezcatlipoca, where there is another

old man waiting for thee; he and thou shall talk together, and on thy

return thence thou shalt be as a youth, yea, as a boy. And

Quetzalcoatl hearing these words his heart was moved, while the old

sorcerer, insisting more and more, said, Sir, drink this medicine. But

the king did not wish to drink it. The sorcerer, however, insisted,

Drink, my lord, or thou wilt be sorry for it hereafter; at least rub a

little on thy brow and taste a sip. So Quetzalcoatl tried and tasted

it, and drank, saying, What is this? it seems to be a thing very good

and savory; already I feel myself healed and quit of mine infirmity;

already I am well. Then the old sorcerer said again, Drink once more,

my lord, since it is good; so thou shall be the more perfectly healed.

And Quetzalcoatl drank again, he made himself drunk, he began to weep

sadly, his heart was eased and moved to depart, he could not rid

himself of the thought that he must go; for this was the snare and

deceit of Tezcatlipoca. And the medicine that Quetzalcoatl drank was

the white wine of the country, made from the magueys that are called

_teumetl_.

[Sidenote: TEZCATLIPOCA AS A PEDDLER.]

So Quetzalcoatl, whose fortunes we shall hereafter follow more

particularly, set out upon his journey; and Tezcatlipoca proceeded

further guilefully to kill many Toltecs, and to ally himself by

marriage with Vemac, who was the temporal lord of the Toltecs, even as

Quetzalcoatl was the spiritual ruler of that people. To accomplish

these things Tezcatlipoca 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 chilly 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 that 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 handsome pepper vender; 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 with a

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

were not in 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 to 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, 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 or devises

called _quetzalapanecayutl_, and the shields called _xiuchimali_. 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.

[Sidenote: TRIUMPH OF TEZCATLIPOCA.]

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 before hand. Then was to be

seen there a marvelous and terrible thing. From sunset till midnight

the beat of the countless feet grew faster and faster; the tap, tap,

tap of the drum closed up and poured into a continual roll; the

monotonous song rose higher, wilder, till it burst into a roar. The

multitude became a mob, the revel a riot; the people began to press

upon and hustle each other; the riot became a panic. There was a

fearful 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; grim corypheus of this fearful

revel, 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 them 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.

Far from being satisfied with the slaughter at Texcalapa, Tezcatlipoca

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 neighborhood 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 _coa_.[VII-7] Those that escaped

the _coa_ 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.

[Sidenote: TEZCATLIPOCA DEAD.]

And after this Tezcatlipoca 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 Huitzilopochtli) 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 talkative and 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 a 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 Tezcatlipoca in his rôle of

sorcerer. A white bird called Yztaccuixtli, was clearly seen flying

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

Zacatepec burned, and the flames were seen from far. 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 Tezcatlipoca 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 Chapultepecuitlapilco, otherwise named

Vetzinco. 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 Tezcatlipoca 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[VII-8], and began to roast maize; and the odor 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 sham sorceress, not one of them escaped, she killed them every

one.[VII-9]

[Sidenote: IMAGE OF QUETZALCOATL.]

Turning, without remark for the present, from Tezcatlipoca, of whose

life on earth the preceding farrago of legends is all that is known,

let us take up the same period in the history of Quetzalcoatl. The

city of Cholula was the place in which this god was most honored, and

towards which he was supposed to be most favorably inclined; Cholula

being greatly given to commerce and handicraft, and the Cholulans

considering Quetzalcoatl to be the god of merchandise. As Acosta

tells: "In Cholula, which is a commonwealth of Mexico, they worshipt a

famous idoll which was the god of marchandise, being to this day

greatly given to trafficke. They called it Quetzaalcoalt. This idoll

was in a great place in a temple very hie: it had about it, golde,

silver, jewells, very rich feathers, and habites 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 wartes, having ranckes of teeth, and

the tongue hanging out. It carried vpon the head, a pointed myter of

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

legges; with a thousand other foolish inventions, whereof all had

their significations, and they worshipt it, for that hee enriched

whome hee pleased, as Memnon and Plutus. In trueth this name which the

Choluanos gave to their god, was very fitte, although they vnderstood

it not: they called it Quetzaalcoalt, signifying colour of a rich

feather, for such is the divell of covetousnesse."[VII-10]

Motolinia gives the following confused account of the birth as a man,

the life, and the apotheosis of this god. The Mexican Adam, called

Iztacmixcoatl by some writers, married a second time.[VII-11] This second

wife, Chimamatl by name, bore him, it is said, an only son who was

called Quetzalcoatl. This son grew up a chaste and temperate man. He

originated by his preaching and practice the custom of fasting and

self-punishment; and from that time many in that country began to do

this penance. He never married, nor knew any woman, but lived

restrainedly and chastely all his days. The custom of sacrificing the

ears and the tongue, by drawing blood from these members, was also

introduced by him; not for the service of the devil but in penitence

for the sins of his speech and his hearing: it is true that afterward

the demon misappropriated these rites to his own use and worship. A

man called Chichimecatl fastened a leather strap on the arm of

Quetzalcoatl, fixing it high up near the shoulder; Chichimecatl was

from that time called Acolhuatl, and from him, it is said, are

descended those of Colhua, ancestors of Montezuma and lords of Mexico

and Coluacan. This Quetzalcoatl is now held as a deity and called the

god of the air; everywhere an infinite number of temples has been

raised to him, and everywhere his statue or picture is found.[VII-12]

According to the account of Mendieta, tradition varied much as to the

facts of the life of Quetzalcoatl. Some said he was the son of

Camaxtli, god of hunting and fishing, and of Camaxtli's wife Chimalma.

Others make mention only of the name of Chimalma, saying that as she

was sweeping one day she found a small green stone called chalchiuite,

that she picked it up, became miraculously pregnant, and gave birth to

the said Quetzalcoatl. This god was worshiped as a principal deity in

Cholula, where, as well as in Tlaxcala and Huejotzingo, there were

many of his temples. We have already had one legend from

Mendieta,[VII-13] giving an account of the expulsion from Tulla and death

of Quetzalcoatl; the following from the same source gives a different

and more usual version of the said expulsion:--

[Sidenote: DEPARTURE OF QUETZALCOATL.]

Quetzalcoatl came from the parts of Yucatan (although some said from

Tulla) to the city of Cholula. He was a white man, of portly person,

broad brow, great eyes, long black hair, and large round beard; of

exceedingly chaste and quiet life, and of great moderation in all

things. The people had at least three reasons for the great love,

reverence, and devotion with which they regarded him: first, he taught

the silversmith's art, a craft the Cholulans greatly prided themselves

on; second, he desired no sacrifice of the blood of men or animals,

but delighted only in offerings of bread, roses and other flowers, of

perfumes and sweet odors; third, he prohibited and forbade all war and

violence. Nor were these qualities esteemed only in the city of his

chiefest labors and teachings; from all the land came pilgrims and

devotees to the shrine of the gentle god. Even the enemies of Cholula

came and went secure, in fulfilling their vows; and the lords of

distant lands had in Cholula their chapels and idols to the common

object of devotion and esteem. And only Quetzalcoatl among all the

gods was preëminently called Lord; in such sort, that when any one

swore, saying, By Our Lord, he meant Quetzalcoatl and no other; though

there were many other highly esteemed gods. For indeed the service of

this god was gentle, neither did he demand hard things, but light; and

he taught only virtue, abhorring all evil and hurt. Twenty years this

good deity remained in Cholula, then he passed away by the road he had

come, carrying with him four of the principal and most virtuous youths

of that city. He journeyed for a hundred and fifty leagues, till he

came to the sea, in a distant province called Goatzacoalco. Here he

took leave of his companions and sent them back to their city,

instructing them to tell their fellow citizens that a day should come

in which white men would land upon their coasts, by way of the sea in

which the sun rises; brethren of his and having beards like his; and

that they should rule that land. The Mexicans always waited for the

accomplishment of this prophecy, and when the Spaniards came they took

them for the descendants of their meek and gentle prophet, although,

as Mendieta remarks with some sarcasm, when they came to know them and

to experience their works, they thought otherwise.

Quetzalcoatl is further reported by Mendieta to have assisted in

drawing up and arranging the Mexican Calendar, a sacred book of

thirteen tables, in which the religious rites and ceremonies proper to

each day were set forth, in connection with the appropriate signs. It

is said that the gods having created mankind, bethought themselves

that it would be well if the people they had made had some writings by

which they might direct themselves. Now there were, in a certain cave

at Cuernavaca, two personages of the number of the gods, and they

were man and wife, he Oxomoco and she Cipactonal; and they were

consulting together. It appeared good to the old woman that her

descendant Quetzalcoatl should be consulted. The Cholulan god thought

the thing of the calendar to be good and reasonable; so the three set

to work. To the old woman was respectfully allotted the privilege of

choosing and writing the first sign; she painted a kind of

water-serpent called _cipactli_, and called the sign _Ce Cipactli_,

that is "a serpent." Oxomoco, in his turn wrote "two canes," and then

Quetzalcoatl wrote "three houses;" and so they went on till the whole

thirteen signs of each table were written out in their order.[VII-14]

[Sidenote: THE SUN CALLS QUETZALCOATL.]

Let us now take up again the narrative of Sahagun, at the point where

Quetzalcoatl, after drinking the potion prepared by Tezcatlipoca,

prepares to set off upon his journey. Quetzalcoatl, very heavy in

heart for all the misfortunes that this rival god was bringing upon

the Toltecs, burned his beautiful houses of silver and of shell, and

ordered other precious things to be buried in the mountains and

ravines. He turned the cocoa-nut trees into a kind of trees that are

called _mizquitl_; he commanded all the birds of rich plumage, the

quetzaltototl, and the xiuhtotl, and the tlauquechol, to fly away and

go into Anáhuac, a hundred leagues distant. Then he himself set out

upon his road from Tulla; he traveled on till he came to a place

called Quauhtitlan, where was a great tree, high and very thick. Here

the exile rested, and he asked his servants for a mirror, and looked

at his own face. What thoughts soever were working in his heart, he

only said, I am already old. Then he named that place Vevequauhtitlan,

and he took up stones and stoned the great tree; and all the stones he

threw sank into it, and were for a long time to be seen sticking

there, from the ground even up to the topmost branches. Continuing his

journey, having flute-players playing before him, he came to a place

on the road where he was weary and sat down on a stone to rest. And

looking toward Tulla, he wept bitterly. His tears marked and ate into

the stone on which he sat, and the print of his hands, and of his back

parts, was also found therein when he resumed his journey. He called

that place Temacpalco. After that he reached a very great and wide

river, and he commanded a stone bridge to be thrown across it; on that

bridge he crossed the river, and he named the place Tepanoaya. Going

on upon his way, Quetzalcoatl came to another place, where certain

sorcerers met and tried to stop him, saying, Whither goest thou? why

dost thou leave thy city? to whose care wilt thou commend it? who will

do penance? Quetzalcoatl replied to the said sorcerers, Ye can in no

wise hinder my going, for I must go. They asked him further, Whither

goest thou? He said, To Tlapalla. They continued, But to what end

goest thou? He said, I am called and the sun calls me. So the

sorcerers said, Go then, but leave behind all the mechanical arts, the

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

painting, feather-working, and other crafts. And of all these the

sorcerers despoiled Quetzalcoatl. As for him, he cast into a fountain

all the rich jewels that he had with him; and that fountain was called

Cohcaapa, and it is so named to this day.

Quetzalcoatl continued his journey; and there came another sorcerer to

meet him, saying, Whither goest thou? Quetzalcoatl said, To Tlapalla.

The wizard said, Very well; but drink this wine that I have. The

traveler answered, No: I cannot drink it; I cannot so much as taste

it. Thou must drink, said the grim magician, were it but a drop; for

to none of the living can I give it; it intoxicates all, so drink.

Then Quetzalcoatl took the wine and drank it through a cane. Drinking,

he made himself drunk; he slept upon the road; he began to snore; and

when he awoke, he looked on one side and on the other, and tore his

hair with his hands. And that place was called Cochtoca.

Quetzalcoatl going on upon his way and passing between the sierra of

the volcano and the snowy sierra, all his servants, being hump-backed

and dwarfs, died of cold in the pass between the said mountains. And

Quetzalcoatl bewailed their death bitterly and sang with weeping and

sighing. Then he saw the other snowy sierra, which is called

Poyauhtecatl and is near Tecamachalco; and so he passed by all the

cities and places, leaving many signs, it is said, in all the

mountains and roads.[VII-15] It is said further that he had a way of

crossing the sierras whereby he amused and rested himself at the same

time: when he came to the top of a mountain he used to sit down, and

so seated, let himself slide down the mountain-side to the bottom. In

one place he built a court for ball-play, all of squared stone, and

here he used to play the game called _tlachtli_.[VII-16] Through the

midst of this court he drew a line called the _telcotl_; and where

that line was made the mountain is now opened with a deep gash. In

another place he cast a dart at a great tree called a _pochutl_,

piercing it through with the dart in such wise that the tree looked

like a cross; for the dart he threw was itself a tree of the same

kind.[VII-17] Some say that Quetzalcoatl built certain subterranean

houses, called _mictlancalco_; and further, that he set up and

balanced a great stone, so that one could move it with one's little

finger, yet a multitude could not displace it. Many other notable

things remain that Quetzalcoatl did among many peoples; he it was that

named all the places and woods and mountains. Traveling ever onward,

he came at last to the sea-shore, and there commanded a raft to be

made of the snakes called _coatlapechtli_. Having seated himself on

this raft as in a canoe, he put out to sea, and no man knows how he

got to Tlapallan.[VII-18]

Torquemada gives a long and valuable account of Quetzalcoatl, gathered

from many sources, which cannot be overlooked. It runs much as

follows:--The name Quetzalcoatl means Snake-plumage, or Snake that

has plumage--and the kind of snake referred to in this name, is found

in the province of Xicalanco, which is on the frontier of the kingdom

of Yucatan as one goes thence to Tabasco. This god Quetzalcoatl was

very celebrated among the people of the city of Cholula, and held in

that place for the greatest of all. He was, according to credible

histories, high priest in the city of Tulla. From that place he went

to Cholula, and not, as Bishop Bartolomé de las Casas says in his

_Apologia_, to Yucatan; though he went to Yucatan afterwards, as we

shall see. It is said of Quetzalcoatl that he was a white man, large

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

heavy and rounded.[VII-19] He was a great artificer, and very ingenious.

He taught many mechanical arts, especially the art of working the

precious stones called chalchiuites, which are a kind of green stone

highly valued, and the art of casting silver and gold. The people,

seeing him so inventive, held him in great estimation, and reverenced

him as king in that city; and so it came about that, though in

temporal things the ruler of Tulla was a lord named Huemac,[VII-20] yet

in all spiritual and ecclesiastical matters Quetzalcoatl was supreme,

and as it were chief pontiff.

[Sidenote: SWIFTNESS OF THE SERVANTS OF QUETZALCOATL.]

It is feigned by those that seek to make much of their god that he had

certain palaces made of green stone like emeralds, others made of

silver, others of shells, red and white, others of all kinds of wood,

others of turquoise, and others of precious feathers. He is said to

have been very rich, and in need of nothing. His vassals were very

obedient to him, and very light of foot; they were called

tlanquacemilhuique. When they wished to publish any command of

Quetzalcoatl, they sent a crier up upon a high mountain called

Tzatzitepec, where with a loud voice he proclaimed the order; and the

voice of this crier was heard for a hundred leagues distance, and

farther, even to the coasts of the sea: all this is affirmed for true.

The fruits of the earth and the trees flourished there in an

extraordinary degree, and sweet singing birds were abundant. The great

pontiff inaugurated a system of penance, pricking his legs, and

drawing blood and staining therewith maguey thorns. He washed also at

midnight in a fountain called Xiuhpacoya. From all this, it is said,

the idolatrous priests of Mexico adopted their similar custom.

[Sidenote: QUETZALCOATL LEAVES MARKS ON A STONE.]

While Quetzalcoatl was enjoying this good fortune with pomp and

majesty, we are told that a great magician called Titlacahua

[Tezcatlipoca], another of the gods, arrived at Tulla. He took the

form of an old man, and went in to see Quetzalcoatl, saying to him, My

lord, inasmuch as I know thine intent and how much thou desirest to

set out for certain distant lands, also, because I know from thy

servants that thou art unwell, I have brought thee a certain beverage,

by drinking which thou shalt attain thine end. Thou shalt so make thy

way to the country thou desirest, having perfect health to make the

journey; neither shalt thou remember at all the fatigues and toils of

life, nor how thou art mortal.[VII-21] Seeing all his projects thus

discovered by the pretended old man, Quetzalcoatl questioned him,

Where have I to go. Tezcatlipoca answered, That it was already

determined with the supreme gods, that he had to go to Tlapalla, and

that the thing was inevitable, because there was another old man

waiting for him at his destination. As Quetzalcoatl heard this, he

said that it was true, and that he desired it much; and he took the

vessel and drank the liquor it contained. Quetzalcoatl was thus easily

persuaded to what Tezcatlipoca desired, because he wished to make

himself immortal and to enjoy perpetual life. Having swallowed the

draught he became beside himself, and out of his mind, weeping sadly

and bitterly. He determined to go to Tlapalla. He destroyed or buried

all his plate and other property and set out. First he arrived at the

place, Quauhtitlan, where the great tree was and where he, borrowing a

mirror from his servants, found himself "already old." The name of

this place was changed by him to Huehuequauhtitlan, that is to say,

"near the old tree, or the tree of the old man;" and the trunk of the

tree was filled with stones that he cast at it. After that he

journeyed on, his people playing flutes and other instruments, till he

came to a mountain near the city of Tlalnepantla, two leagues from the

city of Mexico, where he sat down on a stone and put his hands on it,

leaving marks embedded therein that may be seen to this day. The truth

of this thing is strongly corroborated by the inhabitants of that

district; I myself have questioned them upon the subject, and it has

been certified to me. Furthermore we have it written down accurately

by many worthy authors; and the name of the locality is now

Temacpalco, that is to say "in the palm of the hand."

Journeying on to the coast and to the kingdom of Tlapalla,

Quetzalcoatl was met by the three sorcerers, Tezcatlipoca and other

two with him, who had already brought so much destruction upon Tulla.

These tried to stop or hinder him in his journey, questioning him,

Whither goest thou? He answered, To Tlapalla. To whom, they inquired,

hast thou given the charge of thy kingdom of Tulla, and who will do

penance there? But he said that that was no longer any affair of his

and that he must pursue his road. And being further questioned as to

the object of his journey, he said that he was called by the lord of

the land to which he was going, who was the sun.[VII-22] The three

wizards seeing then the determination of Quetzalcoatl, made no

further attempt to dissuade him from his purpose, but contented

themselves with taking from him all his instruments and his mechanical

arts, so that though he departed those things should not be wanting to

the state. It was here that Quetzalcoatl threw into a fountain all the

rich jewels that he carried with him; for which thing the fountain was

called from that time Cozcaapan, that is to say, "The water of the

strings or chains of jewels." The same place is now called Coaapan,

that is to say, "In the snake-water," and very properly, because the

word Quetzalcoatl means "feathered snake." In this way he journeyed

on, suffering various molestations from those sorcerers, his enemies,

till he arrived at Cholula where he was received (as we in another

part say),[VII-23] and afterward adored as god. Having lived twenty

years in that city he was expelled by Tezcatlipoca. He set out for the

kingdom of Tlapalla, accompanied by four virtuous youths of noble

birth, and in Goatzacoalco, a province distant from Cholula toward

the sea a hundred and fifty leagues, he embarked for his destination.

Parting with his disciples, he told them that there should surely come

to them in after times, 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 that land.

After that the four disciples returned to Cholula, and told all that

their master and god had prophesied when departing. Then the Cholulans

divided their province into four principalities and gave the

government to those four, and some four of their descendants always

ruled in like manner over these tetrarchies till the Spaniard came;

being, however, subordinate to a central power.

[Sidenote: QUETZALCOATL SWEPT THE ROADS.]

This Quetzalcoatl was god of the air, and as such had his temple, of a

round shape and very magnificent. He was made god of the air for the

mildness and gentleness of all his ways, not liking the sharp and

harsh measures to which the other gods were so strongly inclined. It

is to be said further that his life on earth was marked by intensely

religious characteristics; not only was he devoted to the careful

observance of all the old customary forms of worship, but he himself

ordained and appointed many new rites, ceremonies, and festivals for

the adoration of the gods; and it is held for certain that he made the

calendar. He had priests who were called quequetzalcohua, that is to

say "priests of the order of Quetzalcoatl." The memory of him was

engraved deeply upon the minds of the people, and it is said that when

barren women prayed and made sacrifices to him, children were given

them. He was, as we have said, god of the winds, and the power of

causing them to blow was attributed to him as well as the power of

calming or causing their fury to cease. It was said further that he

swept the road, so that the gods called Tlaloques could rain: this the

people imagined because ordinarily a month or more before the rains

began there blew strong winds throughout all New Spain. Quetzalcoatl

is described as having worn during life, for the sake of modesty,

garments that reached down to the feet, with a blanket over all, sown

with red crosses. The Cholulans preserved certain green stones that

had belonged to him, regarding them with great veneration and

esteeming them as relics. Upon one of these was carved a monkey's

head, very natural. In the city of Cholula there was to be found

dedicated to him a great and magnificent temple, with many steps, but

each step so narrow that there was not room for a foot on it. His

image had a very ugly face, with a large and heavily bearded head. It

was not set on its feet but lying down, and covered with blankets.

This, it is said, was done as a memorial that he would one day return

to reign. For reverence of his great majesty, his image was kept

covered, and to signify his absence it was kept lying down, as one

that sleeps, as one that lies down to sleep. In awaking from that

sleep, he was to rise up and reign. The people also of Yucatan

reverenced this god Quetzalcoatl, calling him Kukulcan, and saying

that he came to them from the west, that is from New Spain, for

Yucatan is eastward therefrom. From him it is said the kings of

Yucatan are descended, who call themselves Cocomes, that is to say

"judges or hearers."[VII-24]

[Sidenote: CLAVIGERO ON QUETZALCOATL.]

Clavigero's account is characteristically clear and comprehensible. It

may be summed up as follows:--

Among the Mexicans and other nations of Anáhuac, Quetzalcoatl was

accounted god of the air. He is said to have been sometime high-priest

of Tulla. He is described as having been white--a large,

broad-browed, great-eyed man, with long black hair and thick beard.

His life was rigidly temperate and exemplary, and his industry was

directed by the profoundest wisdom. He amassed great treasure, and his

was the invention of gem-cutting and of metal-casting. All things

prospered in his time. One ear of corn was a man's load; and the

gourds, or pumpkins, of the day were as tall as one's body. No one

dyed cotton then, for it grew of all colors; and all other things in

like manner were perfect and abundant. The very birds in the trees

sang such songs as have never since been heard, and flashed such

marvelous beauties in the sun as no plumage of later times could

rival. Quetzalcoatl had his laws proclaimed from the top of the hill

Tzatzitepec, (mountain of outcry), near Tulla, by a crier whose voice

was audible for three hundred miles.

All this, however, was put an end to, as far as Tulla was concerned,

by Tezcatlipoca, who, moved perhaps by jealousy, determined to remove

Quetzalcoatl. So the god appeared to the great teacher in the guise of

an old man, telling him it was the will of the gods that he betake

himself to Tlapalla, and administering at the same time a potion, the

effect of which was to cause an intense longing for the said journey.

Quetzalcoatl set out and, having performed many marvels on the way,

arrived in Cholula. Here the inhabitants would not suffer him to go

farther, but persuaded him to accept the government of their city; and

he remained with them, teaching many useful arts, customs, and

ceremonies and preaching against war and all other forms of cruelty.

According to some, he at this time arranged the divisions of the

seasons and the calendar.

Having lived twenty years in Cholula, he left, still impelled by the

subtle draught, to seek this imaginary city of Tlapalla. He was no

more seen of men, some said one thing and some another; but, however

he might have disappeared, he was apotheosized by the Toltecs of

Cholula, who raised him a great mound and built a sanctuary upon it. A

similar structure was erected to his honor at Tulla. From Cholula his

worship as god of the air spread over all the country; in Yucatan the

nobles claimed descent from him.[VII-25]

[Sidenote: BRASSEUR ON QUETZALCOATL.]

The ideas of Brasseur with regard to Quetzalcoatl have their roots in

and must be traced back to the very first appearing of the Mexican

religion, or of the religion or religions by which it was preceded; so

that to arrive at those ideas I must give a summary of the abbé's

whole theory of the origin of that creed. He believes that in the

seething and thundering of volcanoes a conception of divinity and of

supernatural powers first sprang up in the mind of the ancestors of

the Mexicans. The volcanoes were afterwards identified with the stars,

and the most terrific of all, Nanahuatl or Nanahuatzin,[VII-26] received

the honors of apotheosis in the sun. Issued from the earth of the

Crescent (Brasseur's sunken island or continent in the Atlantic),[VII-27]

personified in the antique Quetzalcoatl, prototype of priests and of

sacerdotal continence, he is thus his son and identifies himself with

him; he (the divinity, Tylor's "Great Somebody") is the model of sages

under the name of Hueman and the prototype of kings under that of

Topiltzin. Strange thing to find united in one being, personalities so

diverse! King, philosopher, priest par excellence, whose virtues serve

as a rule to all the priests of the pagan antiquity, and, side by side

with all that, incontinence and passion deified in this invalid, whose

name even, "the syphilitic," is the expression of the abuse he has

made of the sex.

At the commencement of the religion two sects appear to have sprung

up, or rather two manners of judging the same events. There was first

a struggle, and then a separation; under the banner-names of

Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca the rival schools fought for the most

part--of course there were divers minor factions; but the foregoing

were the principal and most important. There is every reason to

believe that the religion that took Quetzalcoatl for symbol was but a

reformation upon another more ancient, that had the moon for its

object. It is the moon, male and female, _Luna Lunus_, personified in

the earth of the Crescent, engulfed in the abyss, that I believe (it

is always the abbé that speaks) I see at the commencement of the

amalgam of rites and symbols of every kind, religion of enjoyments and

material pleasures, born of the promiscuity of the men and women,

taken refuge in the lesser Antilles after the cataclysm.

The religion that had taken the moon for point of departure, and in

which women seem to have played the principal rôle, as priestesses,

attacked formally, by this very fact, a more antique religion, a

pre-diluvian religion that appears to have been Sabaism, entirely

exempt from idolatry, and in which the sun received the chief homage.

In the new religion, on the contrary, it was not the moon as a star,

which was the real object of worship, it was the moon-land

(lune-terre), it was the region of the Crescent, shrouded under the

waves, whose death was wept and whose resurrection was afterward

celebrated in the appearance of the isles--refuge of the shipwrecked

of the grand catastrophe--of the Lesser Antilles; to the number of

seven principal islands, sung, in all American legends, as the Seven

Grottoes, cradle of nations.

This is the myth of Quetzalcoatl, who dies or disappears, and whose

personality is represented at the outset in the isles, then

successively, in all the countries whither the civilization was

carried of which he was the flag. So far as I can judge at present,

the priest who placed himself under the ægis of this grand name,

labored solely to reform what there was of odious and barbarous in the

cult of which the women had the chief direction, and under whose

regime human blood flowed in waves. After the triumph of Quetzalcoatl,

the men who bore his name took the direction of religion and society,

which then made considerable progress in their hands.

But if we are to believe the same traditions, their preponderance had

not a very long duration. The most restless and the most audacious

among the partisans of the ancient order of things, raised the flag of

revolt: they became the chiefs of a warlike faction, rival of the

sacerdotal--a conquering faction, source of veritable royal dynasties

and of the religion of the sun living and victorious, in opposition to

the god entombed in the abyss. Quetzalcoatl, vanquished by

Tezcatlipoca, then retired before a too-powerful enemy, and the

Toltecs were dispersed among all nations. Those of them that remained

coalesced with the victors, and from the accord of the aforementioned

three cults, there sprang that monstrous amalgam of so many different

ideas and symbols, such as is found to-day in what remains to us of

the Mexican religion.

For me (and it is always the abbé that speaks), I believe I perceive

the origin of the struggle, not alone in the diversity of races, but

principally in the existence of two currents of contrary ideas, having

had the same point of departure in the events of the great cataclysm

of the Crescent Land, above referred to. Different manners of looking

at these events and of commemorating them, seem to me to have marked

from the beginning the starting point of two religions that lived,

perhaps, side by side for centuries without the explosion of their

disagreements, otherwise than by insignificant agitations. Before

these two could take, with regard to each other, the proportions of a

schism or a heresy, it was necessary that all the materials of which

these religions are constituted had had time to elaborate themselves,

and that the hieroglyphics which represented their origin had become

sufficiently obscure for the priesthood to keep the vulgar from

understanding them. For, if schism has brought on the struggle between

and afterward the violent separation of families, this separation can

not have taken place till after the entire creation of myths, the

entire construction of these divine genealogies, of these poetic

traditions, that are found scattered among all the peoples of the

earth, but of which the complete whole does not exist, save in the

history and religion of Mexico.[VII-28]

[Sidenote: MANY CHARACTERS OF QUETZALCOATL.]

Two orders of gods--the one order fallen from heaven into the abyss,

becoming there the judges of the dead, and being personified in one of

their number, who came to life again, symbolizing thus life and

death--the other order surviving the cataclysm and symbolizing thus

an imperishable life--such, at its origin, is the double character of

the myth of Quetzalcoatl. But, in reality, this god he is the earth,

he is the region swallowed up by the waters, he is the vanquished

stifled under the weight of his adversary, under the force of the

victorious wave; which adversary, which power in opposition to the

first, joining itself to the fire on the blazing pile of Nanahuatl, is

Tezcatlipoca, is Hercules, conqueror of enemies, is the god whose

struggle is eternal as that of the ocean beating the shore, is he in

whom the light becomes afterward personified, and who becomes thus the

battle-flag of the opponents of Quetzalcoatl. To the dead god a victim

is necessary, one that like him descends into the abyss. This victim

was a young girl, chosen among those that were consecrated at the foot

of the pyramid, and drowned; a custom long found as well in Egypt as

at Chichen-Itza,[VII-29] and in many other countries of the world. But

to the god come to life again, to the god in whom fire was personified,

and immortal life, to Quetzalcoatl when he became Huitzilopochtli,

victims were sacrificed, by tearing out the heart--symbol of the jet

of flame issuing from the volcano--to offer it to the conquering sun,

symbol of Tezcatlipoca, who first demanded holocausts of human

blood.[VII-30]

Mr Tylor declares Quetzalcoatl to have been the Sun: "We may even

find him identified with the Sun by name, and his history is perhaps a

more compact and perfect series of solar myths than hangs to the name

of any single personage in our own Aryan mythology. His mother, the

Dawn or the Night, gives birth to him, and dies. His father Camaxtli

is the sun, and was worshiped with solar rites in Mexico, but he is

the old Sun of yesterday. The clouds, personified in the mythic race

of the Mixcohuas, or "Cloud-Snakes" (the Nibelungs of the western

hemisphere), bear down the old Sun and choke him, and bury him in

their mountain. But the young Quetzalcoatl, the Sun of to-day, rushes

up into the midst of them from below, and some he slays at the first

onset, and some he leaves, rift with red wounds to die. We have the

Sun boat of Helios, of the Egyptian Ra, of the Polynesian Maui.

Quetzalcoatl, his bright career drawing toward its close, is chased

into far lands by his kinsman Tezcatlipoca, the young Sun of

to-morrow. He, too, is well known as a Sun God in the Mexican

theology. Wonderfully fitting with all this, one incident after

another in the life of Quetzalcoatl falls into its place. The

guardians of the sacred fire tend him, his funeral pile is on the top

of Orizaba, he is the helper of travelers, the maker of the calendar,

the source of astrology, the beginner of history, the bringer of

wealth and happiness. He is the patron of the craftsmen, whom he

lights to his labor; as it is written in an ancient Sanskrit hymn, 'He

steps forth, the splendor of the sky, the wide-seeing, the far-aiming,

the shining wanderer; surely enlivened by the sun, do men go to their

tasks and do their work.' Even his people, the Toltecs, catch from

him solar qualities. Will it be even possible to grant to this famous

race, in whose story the legend of Quetzalcoatl is the leading

incident, anything more than a mythic existence?"[VII-31]

[Sidenote: BRINTON ON QUETZALCOATL.]

Dr Brinton is of opinion "that there were in truth many

Quetzalcoatls, for his high priest always bore his name, but he

himself is a pure creation of the fancy, and all his alleged history

is nothing but a myth. His emblematic name, the Bird-Serpent, and his

rebus and cross at Palenque, I have already explained. Others of his

titles were, Ehecatl, the air; Yolcuat, the rattlesnake; Tohil, the

rumbler; Huemac, the strong hand; Nanihehecatl, lord of the four

winds. The same dualism reappears in him that has been noted in his

analogues elsewhere. He is both lord of the eastern light and the

wind.

As the former, he was born of a virgin in the land of Tula or

Tlapallan, in the distant Orient, and was high priest of that happy

realm. The morning star was his symbol, and the temple of Cholula was

dedicated to him expressly as the author of light. As by days we

measure time, he was the alleged inventor of the calendar. Like all

the dawn heroes, he too was represented as of white complexion,

clothed in long white robes, and, as most of the Aztec gods, with a

full and flowing beard. When his earthly work was done he too returned

to the east, assigning as a reason that the sun, the ruler of

Tlapallan, demanded his presence. But the real motive was that he had

been overcome by Tezcatlipoca, otherwise called Yoalliehecatl, the

wind or spirit of night, who had descended from heaven by a spider's

web and presented his rival with a draught pretended to confer

immortality, but, in fact, producing uncontrollable longing for home.

For the wind and the light both depart when the gloaming draws near,

or when the clouds spread their dark and shadowy webs along the

mountains, and pour the vivifying rain upon the fields.

In his other character, he was begot of the breath of Tonacateotl,

god of our flesh or subsistence, or (according to Gomara) was the son

of Iztac Mixcoatl, the white cloud serpent, the spirit of the tornado.

Messenger of Tlaloc, god of rain, he was figuratively said to sweep

the road for him, since in that country violent winds are the

precursors of the wet seasons. Wherever he went all manner of singing

birds bore him company, emblems of the whistling breezes. When he

finally disappeared in the far east, he sent back four trusty youths

who had ever shared his fortunes, 'incomparably swift and light of

foot,' with directions to divide the earth between them and rule it

till he should return and resume his power. When he would promulgate

his decrees, his herald proclaimed them from Tzatzitepec, the hill of

shouting, with such a mighty voice that it could be heard a hundred

leagues around. The arrows which he shot transfixed great trees, the

stones he threw leveled forests, and when he laid his hands on the

rocks the mark was indelible. Yet as thus emblematic of the

thunderstorm, he possessed in full measure its better attributes. By

shaking his sandals he gave fire to men; and peace, plenty, and riches

blessed his subjects. Tradition says he built many temples to

Mictlantecutli, the Aztec Pluto, and at the creation of the sun that

he slew all the other gods, for the advancing dawn disperses the

spectral shapes of night, and yet all its vivifying power does but

result in increasing the number doomed to fall before the remorseless

stroke of death.

His symbols were the bird, the serpent, the cross and the flint,

representing the clouds, the lightning, the four winds, and the

thunderbolt. Perhaps, as Huemac, the Strong Hand, he was god of the

earthquakes. The Zapotecs worshiped such a deity under the image of

this number carved from a precious stone, calling to mind the 'Kab

ul,' the Working Hand, adored by the Mayas, and said to be one of the

images of Zamná their hero god. The human hand, 'that divine tool,' as

it has been called, might well be regarded by the reflective mind as

the teacher of the arts and the amulet whose magic power has won for

man what vantage he has gained in his long combat with nature and his

fellows."[VII-32]

[Sidenote: ANALOGUES OF QUETZALCOATL.]

Mr Helps sees in Quetzalcoatl the closest analogies with certain other

great civilizers and teachers that made their appearance in various

parts of the American continent:--"One peculiar circumstance, as

Humboldt remarks, is very much to be noted in the ancient records and

traditions of the Indian nations. In no less than three remarkable

instances has superior civilization been attributed to the sudden

presence among them of persons differing from themselves in appearance

and descent.

Bohica, a white man with a beard, appeared to the Mozca Indians in the

plains of Bogota, taught them how to build and to sow, formed them

into communities, gave an outlet to the waters of the great lake, and,

having settled the government civil and ecclesiastical, retired into a

monastic state of penitence for two thousand years.

In like manner Manco Capac, accompanied by his sister, Mama Oello,

descended amongst the Peruvians, gave them a code of admirable laws,

reduced them into communities, and then ascended to his father, the

Sun.

Amongst the Mexicans there suddenly appeared Quetzalcoatl

(green-feathered snake), a white and bearded man, of broad brow,

dressed in a strange dress; a legislator, who recommended severe

penances, lacerating his own body with the prickles of the agave and

the thorns of the cactus, but who dissuaded his followers from human

sacrifice. While he remained in Anáhuac, it was a Saturnian reign; but

this great legislator, after moving on to the plains of Cholula, and

governing the Cholulans with wisdom, passed away to a distant country,

and was never heard of more. It is said briefly of him that 'he

ordained sacrifices of flowers and fruits, and stopped his ears when

he was spoken to of war.'"[VII-33]

The Abbé Domenech considers the tradition of the lives of

Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca to be a bit of simple and slightly

veiled history, and also that there were several Quetzalcoatls. Let it

be remembered in reading the abbé's version of this matter that the

names of places, peoples, and the dates he gives are in great part

mythical and conjectural:--"After the enfranchisement of the Olmecs, a

man named Quetzalcoatl arrived in the country, whom Garcia,

Torquemada, Sahagun, and other Spanish writers took to be Saint

Thomas. It was also at that time that the third age ended, and that

the fourth began, called Sun of the fire, because it was supposed that

it was in this last stage that the world would be destroyed by fire.

It is in this fourth period that the Mexican historian places the

Toltecs' arrival in New Spain, that is to say, about the third century

before the Christian era. According to the Quichés' traditions, the

primitive portion of the Nahoas, or ancestors of the Toltecs, were in

a distant East, beyond immense seas and lands. Amongst the families

and tribes that bore with least patience this long repose and

immobility, those of Canub, and of Tlocab may be cited, for they were

the first who determined to leave their country. The Nahoas sailed in

seven barks or ships, which Sahagun calls Chicomoztoc, or the seven

grottos. It is a fact worthy of note, that in all ages the number

seven was a sacred number among the American people, from one pole to

the other. It was at Pánuco, near Tampico, that those strangers

disembarked; they established themselves at Paxil, with the Votanites'

consent, and their state took the name of Huehue-Tlopallan. It is not

stated from whence they came, but merely that they came out of the

regions where the sun rises. The supreme command was in the hand of a

chieftain, whom history calls Quetzalcohuatl, that is to say, Lord par

excellence. To his care was confided the holy envelope, which

concealed the divinity from the human gaze, and he alone received from

it the necessary instructions to guide his people's march. These kinds

of divinities, thus enveloped, passed for being sure talismans, and

were looked upon with the greatest respect and veneration. They

consisted generally of a bit of wood, in which was inserted a little

idol of green stone; this was covered with the skin of a serpent or of

a tiger, after which it was rolled in numerous little bands of stuff,

wherein it would remain wrapped for centuries together. Such is,

perhaps, the origin of the medicine bags made use of, even in the

present day, by the Indians of the Great Desert, and of which we shall

speak in the second volume of this work."

Of apparently another Quetzalcoatl, he writes: "The Toltecs became

highly flourishing under the reign of Ceocatl Quetzalcohuatl, a

Culhuacan prince, who preached a new religion, sanctioning auricular

confession and the celibacy of the priests. He proscribed all kinds of

warfare and human sacrifices. Tezcatlipoca put himself at the head of

the dissatisfied party, and besieged Tollan, the residence of Ceocatl

Quetzalcohuatl; but the latter refused to defend himself, in order to

avoid the effusion of blood, which was prohibited by the laws of the

religion he himself had established, and retired to Cholula, that had

been constructed by his followers. From thence he went to Yucatan.

Tezcatlipoca, his fortunate rival, after a long reign became in his

turn the victim of the popular discontent, and fell in a battle that

was given him by Ceocatl Quetzalcohuatl's relatives. Those two kings

are elevated to the rank of gods, and their worship was a perpetual

subject of discord and civil war in all Anáhuac until the arrival of

the Spaniards in the New World."[VII-34]

[Sidenote: THE CODICES ON QUETZALCOATL.]

The interpreters of the different codices, or Mexican paintings

represented in Kingsborough's great work, give, as is their wont in

all matters, a confused, imperfect, and often erroneous account of

Quetzalcoatl:--"Quetzalcoatl is he who was born of the virgin, called

Chalchihuitztli, which means the precious stone of penance or of

sacrifice. He was saved in the deluge, and was born in Zivenaritzcatl

where he resides. His fast was a kind of preparation for the arrival

of the end of the world which they said would happen on the day of

Four Earthquakes, so that they were thus in daily expectation of that

event. Quetzalcoatl was he who they say created the world, and they

bestowed on him the appellation of lord of the wind, because they said

that Tonacatecotli, when it appeared good to him, breathed and begat

Quetzalcoatl. They erected round temples to him, without any corners.

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

which are here represented), who formed the first man. He alone had a

human body like that of men, the other gods were of an incorporeal

nature."[VII-35]

"They declare that their supreme deity, or more properly speaking,

demon Tonacatecotle, whom we have just mentioned, who by another name

was called Citinatonali, ... begot Quetzalcoatl, not by connection

with a woman, but by his breath alone, as we have observed above, when

he sent his ambassador, as they say, to the virgin of Tulla. 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 it was he who effected the reformation of

the world by penance, as we have already said; since, according to

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

themselves up to vice, on which account it had been so frequently

destroyed. Citinatonali sent this his son into the world to reform it.

We certainly must deplore the blindness of these miserable people, on

whom Saint Paul says the wrath of God has to be revealed, inasmuch as

his eternal truth was so long kept back by the injustice of

attributing to this demon that which belonged to Him; for He being the

sole creator of the universe, and He who made the division of the

waters, which these poor people just now attributed to the Devil, when

it appeared good to Him, dispatched the heavenly ambassador to

announce to the virgin that she should be the mother of his eternal

word; who, when He found the world corrupt, reformed it by doing

penance and by dying upon the cross for our sins; and not the wretched

Quetzalcoatl, to whom these miserable people attributed this work.

They assigned to him the dominion over the other thirteen signs, which

are here represented, in the same manner as they had assigned the

preceding thirteen to his father. They celebrated a great festival on

the arrival of his sign, as we shall see in 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."[VII-36]

[Sidenote: MÜLLER ON QUETZALCOATL.]

J. G. Müller holds Quetzalcoatl to be the representative national god

of the Toltecs, surviving under many misconceptions and amid many

incongruities--bequeathed to or adopted into the later Mexican

religion. The learned professor has devoted an unusual amount of care

and research to the interpretation of the Quetzalcoatl myths; and as

no other inquirer has shown therein at once so accurate and extensive

an acquaintance with the subject and so calm and judicious a judgment,

we give his opinion at length, and first his summing up of the

fable-history of Quetzalcoatl:--

The Toltecs, a traditional pre-historic people, after leaving their

original northern home Huehuetlapallan (that is Old-red-land) chose

Tulla, north of Anáhuac as the first capital of their newly founded

kingdom. Quetzalcoatl was their high-priest and religious chief at

this place. Huemac, or Huematzin, conducted the civil government as

the companion of Quetzalcoatl, and wrote the code of the nation.

Quetzalcoatl is said to have been a white man (some gave him a bright

red face), with a strong formation of body, broad forehead, large

eyes, black hair, and a heavy beard. He always wore a long white robe;

which, according to Gomara, was decorated with crosses; he had a mitre

on his head and a sickle in his hand. At the volcano of Cotcitepec, or

Tzatzitepec, near Tulla, he practised long and numerous penances,

giving thereby an example to his priests and successors. The name of

this volcano means "the mountain of outcry;" and when Quetzalcoatl

gave laws, he sent a crier to the top of it whose voice could be heard

three hundred miles off. He did what the founders of religions and

cults have done in other countries: he taught the people agriculture,

metallurgy, stone-cutting, and the art of government. He also arranged

the calendar, and taught his subjects fit religious ceremonies;

preaching specially against human sacrifices, and ordering offerings

of fruits and flowers only. He would have nothing to do with wars,

even covering his ears when the subject was mentioned. His was a

veritable golden age, as in the time of Saturn; animals and even men

lived in peace, the soil produced the richest harvests without

cultivation, and the grain grew so large that a man found it trouble

enough to carry one ear; no cotton was dyed, as it grew of all colors,

and fruits of all kinds abounded. Everybody was rich and Quetzalcoatl

owned whole palaces of gold, silver, and precious stones. The air was

filled with the most pleasant aromas, and a host of finely feathered

birds filled the world with melody.

But this earthly happiness came to an end. Tezcatlipoca rose up

against Quetzalcoatl and against Huemac, in order to separate them,

and to destroy their government. He descended from the sky on a rope

of spider-web and commenced to work for his object with the aid of

magic arts. He first appeared in the form of a handsome youth (and in

the dress of a merchant), dressed as a merchant selling pepper-pods,

and presented himself before the daughter of king Huemac. He soon

seduced the princess, and thereby opened the road to a general

immorality and a total collapse of the laws. He presented himself

before Quetzalcoatl in the form of an old man, with the view of

inducing him to depart to his home in Tlapalla. For this purpose he

offered him a drink which he pretended would endow him with

immortality. No sooner had Quetzalcoatl taken the drink, then he was

seized with a violent desire to see his fatherland. He destroyed the

palaces of gold, silver, and precious stones, transformed the

fruit-trees into withered trunks, and ordered all song-birds to leave

the country, and to accompany him. Thus he departed, and the birds

entertained him during his journey with their songs.

[Sidenote: TRAVELS OF QUETZALCOATL.]

He first traveled southward, and arrived in Quauhtitlan, in Anáhuac.

In the vicinity of this town he broke down a tree by throwing stones,

the stones remaining in the trunk. Farther south, in the same valley,

near Tlalnepantla, or Tanepantla, he pressed hand and foot into a rock

with such force that the impression has remained down to the latest

centuries, in the same manner as the mark of the shoes of the horses

of Castor and Pollux near Regillum. The Spaniards were inclined to

ascribe these and similar freaks of nature to the Apostle Thomas.

Quetzalcoatl now turned toward the east, and arrived in Cholula, where

he had to remain for a longer period, as the inhabitants intrusted him

with the government of their state. The same order of things which had

taken place in Tulla, his first residence, was here renewed. From this

centre his rule spread far and wide; he sent colonists from Cholula to

Huaxayacac, Tabasco and Campeche, and the nobility of Yucatan prided

themselves on their descent from him; men having been found in our

time who bear his name, just as the descendants of Votan bore the name

of Votan in Chiapas. In Cholula itself he was adored, and temples were

everywhere erected in his honor, even by the enemies of the Cholulans.

After a residence of twenty years in Cholula, he proceeded on his

journey toward Tlalpalla until he arrived at the river and in the

province of Coatzacoalco, or Goasacoalco, Guasacualco, that is,

Hiding-nook of the snake--south of Vera Cruz. He now sent the four

youths, who had accompanied him from Cholula, back to the Cholulans,

promising to return later on and renew the old government. The

Cholulans placed the four youths at the head of their government, out

of love for him. This hope of his return still existed among the

Mexican nations at the time of Cortés' arrival. In fact, Cortés was at

first held to be the returning Quetzalcoatl, and a man was sacrificed

to him, with whose blood the conqueror and his companions were marked.

Father Sahagun was also asked, by everybody on his journey to Mexico,

if he and his suite came from Tlapalla. According to Montezuma's

account to Cortés, Quetzalcoatl really did once return to Cholula, but

after such a length of time that he found his subjects married to the

native women, having children, and so numerous that a number of new

districts had to be founded. This new race would not recognize their

old chief, and refused to obey him. He thereupon departed angrily,

threatening to return at another time and to subdue them by force. It

is not remarkable that an expectation, which was a hope to the

Cholulans, should be a dread to Montezuma and his subjects.

According to some accounts, Quetzalcoatl died in the Hiding-nook of

the snakes, in the Goatzacoalco country; according to others, he

suddenly disappeared toward the east, and a ship, formed of snakes

wound together, brought him to Tlapalla.

A closer view and criticism of this tale, in the light of the analogy

of mythological laws, shows us that Quetzalcoatl is the euhemerized

religious ideal of the Toltecan nations. The similarity of this tale

with those of Manco Capac, Botschika, Saturn, and others, is at once

apparent. The opinion of Prescott, Wuttke, and many others, who held

him for a deified man, founder of a religion and of a civilization, is

confirmed by the latest version of the fable, in which Quetzalcoatl is

represented in this character. Although euhemerism is an old idea with

all people, as well as with the Americans--personification being the

first step toward it--the general reasons which everywhere appear

against the existence of such founders of a civilization must also be

made to speak against this idea of Quetzalcoatl.

If a special value is placed upon the white face and the beard, it

must be remembered that the beard, which is given to the Mexican

priests, could not be omitted with Quetzalcoatl; and the mention by

some of his having had a white face, and by others a red, might arouse

a suspicion that Quetzalcoatl has been represented as a white man on

account of his white robe.

The fable of Quetzalcoatl contains contradictions, the younger

elements of which are a pure idealism of the more ancient. For

instance, the statement that the earth produced everything

spontaneously, without human labor, does not agree with the old

version of the myth, according to which Quetzalcoatl taught

agriculture and other industries requiring application and hard work.

The sentimental love of peace has also been attributed to this god in

later times, during a time when the Toltecs had lost the martial

spirit of their victorious ancestors, and when the Cholulans, given to

effeminacy, distinguished themselves more by cunning than by courage.

The face of the god is represented, in the fable, as more beautiful

and attractive, than it is depicted on the images. At the place where

he was most worshiped, in Cholula, the statue of Quetzalcoatl stood in

his temple, on the summit of the great pyramid. Its features had a

gloomy cast, and differed from the beautiful face which is said to

have been his on earth.

[Sidenote: QUETZALCOATL AND THE TOLTECS.]

The fable shows its later idealized elements in these points. In all

other respects, the Toltecan peculiarities of the entire nation are

either clearly and faithfully depicted in their hero, as in a

personified ideal, or else the original attributes of the nature deity

are recognizable. Where the Toltecs were, there was he also, or a hero

identical with him; the Toltecs who journeyed southward are colonists

sent by him; the Toltec capitals, Tulla and Cholula, are his

residences; and as the laws of the Toltecs extended far and wide, so

did the voice of his crier reach three hundred miles into the country.

The arts and welfare of the Toltecs, their riches and religious

feeling, even their later unwarlike peacefulness, all these attributes

are transferred to Quetzalcoatl. The long robe of the Toltecs was also

the dress of their hero; the necktie of the boys of his religious

order is attached to his image; and, as his priests wore the mitre, he

is also represented with it. He is, above all, depicted as the

original model of the Toltec priests, the Tlamacazque (the order was

called Tlamacazcojotl), whose chief, or superior, always bore the name

of Quetzalcoatl. As these orders of his had to submit to the strictest

observances--their members having to slit the tongue, ears and lips

in honor of Quetzalcoatl, and the small boys being set apart for him

by making an incision on their breasts--so he submitted, before all

others, to these penances on the Tzatzitipec Mountain. These

self-inflicted punishments must not be termed penances, as is often

done, for they have no moral meaning, such as to do penance for

committed sins, nor have they the mystic meaning of the East Indian

idea of the end of the world (Weltabsterben) and the return to the

pantheistic chaos (Urall and Urnichts); all this is foreign to the

American religion. They are, on the contrary, blood-offerings,

substitutes for the human sacrifices in the background, to obtain

earthly blessings, and to avert earthly misfortunes. As Quetzalcoatl

preached against human sacrifices, so his priests under the Aztec

rule, were very reluctant to make them. After the great slaughter by

Cortés, in Cholula, Montezuma proceeded to the great temple of

Huitzilopochtli, made many human sacrifices, and questioned the god,

who bade him to be of good heart, and assured him that the Cholulans

had suffered so terribly merely on account of their reluctance to

offer up human beings.

As the disappearance of the Toltecs toward the south and the south-east

agrees with the disappearance of Quetzalcoatl, so we find many traits

from the end of the last Toltec king reproduced in the end of the

Toltec hero. After the defeat of king Tlolpintzin, he (Tlolpintzin)

fled southward, toward Tlapalla. He made use of these words, in his

last farewell to his friends: I have retired toward the east, but will

return after 5012 years to avenge myself on the descendants of mine

enemies. After having lived thirty years in Tlapalla, he died. His

laws were afterward accepted by Nezalhualcoyotzin. The belief that

Tlolpintzin stayed with Nezalhualcoyotzin, and some other brave kings,

in the cave of Xicco, after death, like the three Tells of Switzerland,

but would at some time come out and deliver his people, was long

current among the Indians. Every one will notice how well this agrees

with Montezuma's account of the return of Quetzalcoatl.

[Sidenote: QUETZALCOATL A NATURE-DEITY.]

Quetzalcoatl cannot, however, be a representative and a national god

of the Toltecs, without having an original nature-basis for his

existence as a god. It is everywhere the case among savages with their

national god, that the latter is a nature-deity, who becomes gradually

transformed into a national god, then into a national king,

high-priest, founder of a religion, and at last ends in being

considered a human being. The older and purer the civilization of a

people is, the easier it is to recognize the original essence of its

national god, in spite of all transformations and disguises. So it is

here. Behind the human form of the god glimmers the nature shape, and

the national god is known by, perhaps, all his worshipers as also a

nature deity. From his powerful influence upon nature, he might also

be held as the creator.

The pure human form of this god, as it appears in the fable, as well

as in the image, is not the original, but the youngest. His oldest

concrete forms are taken from nature, to which he originally belongs,

and have maintained themselves in many attributes. All these symbolize

him as the god of fertility, chiefly, as it is made apparent, by means

of the beneficial influence of the air. All Mexican and European

statements make him appear as the god of the air and of the wind;

even the euhemeristic idea deifies the man Quetzalcoatl into a god of

the air. All the Mexican tribes adored him at the time of the conquest

as god of the air, and all accounts, however much they may differ on

the particular points of his poetical life, agree, without exception,

in this one respect, as the essential and chief point. Besides the

symbols, which are merely attached to the image, there are three

attributes, which represent as many original visible forms and

exteriors of the god, in which he is represented and worshiped: the

sparrow, the flint (Feuerstein), and the snake.

According to Herrera, the image of Quetzalcoatl had the body of a man,

but the head of a bird, a sparrow with a red bill, a large comb, and

with the tongue hanging far out of the mouth. The air-god of these

northern people, parallel to Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec Huitzilopochtli,

was represented with devices connected with the humming-bird, in

remembrance of his former humming-bird nature. This is the northern

element. The great spirit of the northern redskins also appear in his

most esteemed form as a bird. The Latin Picus was originally a

woodpecker (Specht), afterward anthropomorphized and even euhemerized,

but he has ever the woodpecker by his side, in his capacity of human

seer. Several Egyptian gods have human bodies and animal heads,

especially heads of birds. Birds are not alone symbols of particular

godlike attributes, as used in the anthropomorphic times, not mere

messengers and transmitters of the orders of the gods, but they have

originally been considered as gods themselves, with forms of godlike

powers, especially in North America; and the exterior of the god of

the air, the fructifying air, is naturally that of a bird, a

singing-bird. The hieroglyphic sign among the Mexicans for the air is,

therefore, the head of a bird with three tongues. Wherever

Quetzalcoatl stayed and ruled, there birds filled the air, and

song-birds gave indication of their presence; when he departed, he

took them with him, and was entertained during the journey by their

singing.

[Sidenote: QUETZALCOATL AND THE FLINT.]

A second form of Quetzalcoatl was the flint, which we have already

learned to know as a symbol and hieroglyphic sign for the air. He was

either represented as a black stone, or several small green ones,

supposed to have fallen from heaven, most likely ærolites, which were

adored by the Cholulans in the service of Quetzalcoatl. Bétancourt

even explains the meaning of the name Quetzalcoatl, contrary to the

usual definition, as "twin of a precious stone." The fable of

Quauhtitlan is also connected with this stone-worship; how

Quetzalcoatl had overthrown a tree by means of stones which remained

fixed in it. These stones were later on adored as holy stones of

Quetzalcoatl. The stone at Tlalnepantla, into which he pressed his

hand, must also have represented the god himself. Similar ancient

stone-worships, of greater nature deities as well as fetiches, were

found, in many instances, in Peru, in the pre-Inca times. In ancient

Central America we meet with the worship of such green stones called

chalchihuites. Votan was worshiped in the form of such a green stone,

connected with the other two attributes. This attribute of

Quetzalcoatl most likely belongs to the south.

The third form of Quetzalcoatl, which also belongs to the south, is

the snake; he is a snake-god, or, at least, merged into an ancient

snake-god. The snake is not, as far as I know, a direct symbol of the

air, and this attribute is, therefore, not the one pertaining to him

from the beginning; but the snake represents the season which, in

conjunction with heat and rain, contains the fructifying influence of

the atmosphere, spring, the rejuvenating year. However, the very name

of the god signifies, according to the usual explanation given to it,

"the feathered snake, the snake covered with feathers, the green

feathered-snake, the wood-snake with rich feathers." A snake has

consequently been added to the human figure of this god. The other

name, under which he is adored in Yucatan, is Cuculcan, a snake

covered with godlike feathers. The entrance to his round temple in

Mexico represented the jaw and fangs of a tremendous snake.

Quetzalcoatl disappeared in Goatzacoalco, the Snake-corner (or nook),

and a ship of snakes brought him to Tlapalla. His followers in Yucatan

were called snakes, Cocome (plural of Coatl), while he himself bore

the name of Cocolcan in this country as well as in Chiapas. The snake

attribute signifies, in connection with Huitzilopochtli, also the

beneficial influence of the atmosphere, the yearly renewed course of

nature, the continual rejuvenation of nature in germs and blossoms.

The northern celestial god, Odin, is in many ways connected with

snakes, he transformed himself into a snake, and bore the by-name of

Snake.

The relationship of Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl, as given in the

fable, may be touched upon here. The driving away of the latter by

Tezcatlipoca does not, as may be supposed, signify a contest between

the Aztec religion and the preceding Toltecan. In such a case

Huitzilopochtli, the chief of the Aztec gods, by whose adoration the

contrast is painted in the deepest colors, would have been a much

better representant.

Quetzalcoatl no doubt preached against human sacrifices, brought into

such unprecedented swing by the Aztecs, yet the worshipers of this god

adopted the sacrifice of human beings in an extensive way during the

Aztec rule, to which period this part of the Quetzalcoatl fable

necessarily owes its origin. At this time the contrast was so slight

that Quetzalcoatl partook of the highest adoration of Aztecs, not only

in Cholula, but in Mexico and everywhere. His priest enjoyed the

highest esteem and his temple in Mexico stood by the side of that of

Huitzilopochtli. Montezuma not only calls the Toltec hero a leader of

his forefathers, but the Aztecs actually consider him as a son of

Huitzilopochtli. The opposition of the two gods, Quetzalcoatl and

Tezcatlipoca, has another reason: the difference lies not in their

worship, but in their nature and being, in the natural phenomena which

they represent. If the god of the beneficial atmosphere, the

manifested god-power of the atmosphere of the fructifying seasons, is

adored in Quetzalcoatl; then Tezcatlipoca is his opposite, the god of

the gloomy lower regions destitute of life and germ, the god of

drought, of withering, of death.

[Sidenote: QUETZALCOATL AND THE SNAKE.]

Wherever, therefore, Quetzalcoatl rules, there are riches and

abundance, the air is filled with fragrance and song-birds--an actual

golden era; but when he goes southward with his song-birds, he is

expelled by Tezcatlipoca, drought sets in, and the palaces of gold,

silver, and precious stones, symbols of wealth, are destroyed. He

promises, however, everywhere to return. A representation mentioned

and copied by Humboldt, shows Tezcatlipoca in the act of cutting up

the snake. This has not the meaning of the acts of Hercules, of

Tonatiuh, of the great spirit of the Chippewas, of the German

Siegfried, of the Celtic dragon-killers Tristan and Iwein, or of the

other sun-gods, spring-gods, and culture-heroes, who fight and subdue

the snake of the unfertile moisture; such an interpretation would be

opposed to the nature of this god. On the contrary, the god of death

and drought here fights the snake as the symbol of moisture, of the

fertilization of the plant-life.

The question now arises: if Quetzalcoatl only received his snake

attribute in the south, and this his name, what was his original

northern and Toltecan name? We answer, coinciding with the views

expressed by Ixtlilxochitl and others, who affirm that Quetzalcoatl

and his worldly companion, Huemac, were one and the same person. The

opposed opinion of Ternaux-Compans, who states that Quetzalcoatl must

have been an Olmec, while Huemac was a Toltec, actually gives the key

to the solution of the question. Both are right, Ixtlilxochitl and

Ternaux, Huemac is the original Toltec name of the Toltec national

god, ruler, and author of the holy books, the ancient name used by the

Toltecs. As this people succumbed more and more to southern

influences, and their ancient air-god in his sparrow form received in

addition the snake attribute, on account of his rejuvenating influence

upon nature, then, the new name of the more cultivated people soon

appeared. The name may, therefore, be Olmec, but not the god; we may

sooner suppose that the attributes of the Maya god, Votan, have been

transferred to the Toltec god. Both names having thus a double origin;

the legend which found two names, made also two persons of them, and

placed them side by side. It is, however, easy to see that they are

naturally one: Huemac has just as much a religious signification as

Quetzalcoatl; as Huematzin, he wrote the divine book, containing all

the earthly and heavenly wisdom of the Toltecs. Quetzalcoatl has, in

the same degree, besides his religious position, the worldly one of

ruler and founder of a civilization. As Quetzalcoatl possesses a

divine nature, so does Huemac, to whom also are ascribed the three

hundred years of life, and the impression of the hand in the rock.

Besides the attributes of the sparrow, flint, and snake, there are

others which ascribe to Quetzalcoatl the same properties, but less

prominently. As god of the air, he holds the wonderfully painted

shield in his hand, a symbol of his power over the winds. As god of

the fertilizing influence of the air, he holds, like Saturn, the

sickle, symbol of the harvest--he it is that causes the grain to

ripen. It used to be said that he prepared the way for the water-god,

for in these regions, the rains are always preceded by winds. It was

on account of this intimate connection with the rain, which had

already procured him the snake attribute, that his mantle was adorned

with crosses. We have already seen that such crosses represented the

rain-god with the Mayas, and are symbols of the fructifying rain.

Consequently they are well suited for the god who is only air-god in

the sense of the air exercising its fructifying and invigorating

influence upon the earth.

[Sidenote: QUETZALCOATL AND THE TRADE-WINDS.]

Another question, which has already occurred to us, must here be

considered. Why did this god come from the east, depart toward the

east, and why should he be expected from the east? The Toltecs have,

according to almost unanimous statements, come from the north, and

even Quetzalcoatl commences his rule in the north, in Tulla, and

proceeds gradually on his journey from the north to the south-east,

just like the Toltecs, who traveled southward from Tulla. It is plain

that he departs for the east, because this is his home, from which he

came and will return. His eastern origin is, no doubt, based upon the

direction of the eastern trade-winds, which carry rain and, with it,

fertility to the interior of Central America. The rains began three or

four weeks earlier in Vera Cruz, Tampico, and Tabasco than in Puebla

and Mexico. Another reason, which has, however, a certain connection

with the above, may be the relationship of the god of air and the

sun-god, who often assumed an equal position in nature and in worship.

We know that the founders of the Peruvian and Muyscan cults come from

the east, because they are sun-gods. Quetzalcoatl is not such a deity,

it is true, but the fertilizing air-god is also in other places

closely connected with the fructifying sun, as, for example

Huitzilopochtli, Odin, and Brama. The sun is his eye. This connection

with the sun, Montezuma referred to when he spoke in the presence of

Cortés of the departure of Quetzalcoatl for the regions from which the

sun comes. As the sun is the eye of heaven, to whom the heart of the

victim sacrificed to the god of heaven is presented, so it is at night

with the moon, to whom the same tribute was paid at the feast of

Quetzalcoatl. I merely refer to this here to show the connection of

the air-god with the great heavenly bodies.

Several other significations are attached to the idea of an air-god.

It is natural that the god of heavenly blessing should also be the god

of wealth. All wealth depends originally upon the produce of the soil,

upon the blessing of heaven, however worldly the opinion of the matter

may be. Gold is merely the symbol of this wealth, like the golden

shower of Zeus. The image of Quetzalcoatl was, therefore, according to

Acosta, adorned with gold, silver, jewels, rich feathers, and gay

dresses, to illustrate his wealth. For this reason he wore a golden

helmet, and his sceptre was decorated with costly stones. The same

view is also the basis of the myths of the ancients about snakes and

dragons guarding treasures. The fact that the merchants of Cholula

worshiped the god of wealth before all others, and as their chief

deity, requires no explanation.

His worship in Cholula was conducted as follows: Forty days before the

festival, the merchants bought a spotless slave, who was first taken

to bathe in a lake called the Lake of the Gods, then dressed up as the

god Quetzalcoatl, whom he had to represent for forty days. During this

time he enjoyed the same adoration as was given to the god: he was set

upon a raised place, presented with flowers, and fed on the choicest

viands. He was, however, well guarded during the night, so that he

might not escape. During his exhibition through the town, he danced

and sang, and the women and children ran out of their houses to salute

him and make him presents. This continued until nine days before the

end of the forty days. Then two old priests approached him in all

humility, saying, in deep voice: Lord, know that in nine days thy

singing and dancing will cease, because thou must die! If he continued

of good spirit, and inclined to dance and sing, it was considered a

good omen, if the contrary, a bad one. In the latter case they

prepared him a drink of blood and cacao, which was to obliterate the

remembrance of the past conversation. After drinking this, it was

hoped that he would resume his former good humor. On the day of the

festival still greater honors were shown him, music sounded and

incense was burnt. At last, at the midnight hour, he was sacrificed,

the heart was torn out of his body, held up to the moon, and then

thrown toward the image of the god. The body was cast down the steps

of the temple, and served the merchants, especially the slave-dealers,

for a sacrificial meal. This feast and sacrifice took place every

year, but after a certain number of cycles, as in the divine year,

Teoxihuitl, they were celebrated with much more pomp. Quetzalcoatl

had, generally, his human sacrifices during the Aztec rule, as well

as the other gods.

[Sidenote: QUETZALCOATL AS A HEALING GOD.]

The power which reëstablishes the macrocosm, heals and rejuvenates the

microcosm also: it is the general healing power. With the good weather

thousands of invalids are restored, and refreshing rains not only

revive the thirsty plains of the tropics, but man himself. Thus the

air-god, the atmosphere, becomes a healing god. A Phœnician told

Pausanius that the snake god, Æsculapius, signified the

health-restoring air. If this god of heaven is also a snake-god, like

Quetzalcoatl, the rejuvenating and reinvigorating power of nature is

expressed in a clear parallelism.

The snake-god is also a healing god, and even the Greek Æsculapius

cannot dispense with the snake. It is, thus, not to be wondered at

that the sterile women of the Mexican peoples directed their prayers

to Quetzalcoatl.[VII-37]

This concludes the able summing-up presented by Müller, and it is

given as I give all theoretical matter, neither accepting nor

rejecting it, as simply another ray of light bent in upon the god

Quetzalcoatl, whose nature it is not proposed here to either explain

or illustrate, but only to reproduce, as regarded from many sides by

the earliest and closest observers.

FOOTNOTES:

[VII-1] _Acosta_, _Hist. Nat. Ind._, pp. 353-4; _Clavigero_, _Storia

Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 7; _Duran_, _Hist. Ant. de la Nueva

España_, MS., quoted in _Squier's Notes to Palacio_, _Carta_, note 27,

pp. 117-8; _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., p. 242;

_Explicacion del Codex Telleriano-Remensis_, lam. ii. and xxvi., in

_Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., pp. 132, 144-5; _Spiegazione

delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano_, tav. xlii., xlix., in

_Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., pp. 185, 188.

[VII-2] See this volume p. 62.

[VII-3] _Mendieta_, _Hist. Ecles._, p. 82.

[VII-4] Temple; see this vol., p. 192, note 26.

[VII-5] Or perhaps _xipacoya_, as in Kingsborough's ed. of _Sahagun_,

_Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., p. 108.

[VII-6] 'Y acordarseos há de los trabajos y fatigas de la muerte, ó de

vuestra ida.' _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., p. 109. 'Y

acordarseos ha los trabajos y fatigas de la muerte, ó de vuestra

vida.' _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., pp. 245-6.

[VII-7] Hoe of burnt wood. '_Coa_: palo tostado, empleado por los indios

para labrar la tierra, á manera de hazada. (Lengua de Cuba.)' _Voces

Americanas Empleadas Por Oviedo_, appended to _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._,

tom. iv., p. 596.

[VII-8] _Xochitla_, garden; see _Molina_, _Vocabulario_. Perhaps that

garden belonging to Quetzalcoatl, which had been already so fatal to

the Toltecs. See this volume p. 246.

[VII-9] _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., pp. 108-13; _Sahagun_,

_Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., pp. 243-55. It will be seen that in

almost all point of spelling the edition of Kingsborough is followed

in preference to the, in such points very inaccurate, edition of

Bustamante.

[VII-10] _Acosta_, _Hist. Nat. Ind._, p. 354.

[VII-11] As to the first wife and her family see this vol. p. 60.

[VII-12] _Motolinia_, _Hist. Indios_, in _Icazbalceta_, _Col._, tom. i.,

pp. 10-11.

[VII-13] See this vol., p. 240.

[VII-14] _Mendieta_, _Hist. Ecles._, pp. 82, 86, 92-3, 97-8.

[VII-15] See this vol. p. 243.

[VII-16] _Tlachtli_, juego de pelota con las nalgas; el lugar donde

juegan assi. _Molina_, _Vocabulario_.

[VII-17] This last clause is to be found only in Bustamante's ed.; see

_Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., p. 258.

[VII-18] _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., pp. 114-5; _Sahagun_,

_Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. iii., pp. 255-9.

[VII-19] 'Era Hombre blanco, crecido de cuerpo, ancha la frente, los

ojos grandes, los cabellos largos, y negros, la barba grande y redonda.'

_Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 47.

[VII-20] Spelled Vemac by Sahagun; see preceding pages of this chapter.

[VII-21] This agrees ill with what is related at this point by Sahagun;

see this vol. p. 242.

[VII-22] At this part of the story Torquemada takes opportunity,

parenthetically, to remark that this fable was very generally current

among the Mexicans, and that when Father Bernardino de Sahagun was in

the city of Xuchimilco, they asked him where Tlapalla was. Sahagun

replied that he did not know, as indeed he did not (nor any one

else--it being apparently wholly mythical), nor even understand their

question, inasmuch as he had been at that time only a little while in

the country--it being fifty years before he wrote his book [the

_Historia General_]. Sahagun adds that the Mexicans made at that time

divers trials of this kind, questioning the Christians to see if they

knew anything of their antiquities. _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom.

ii., p. 50.

[VII-23] The passage of Torquemada referred to I condense as

follows:--Certain people came from the north by way of Panuco. These

were men of good carriage, well-dressed in long robes of black linen,

open in front, and without capes, cut low at the neck, with short

sleeves that did not come to the elbow; the same, in fact, as the

natives use to this day in their dances. From Panuco they passed on

very peaceably by degrees to Tulla, where they were well received by

the inhabitants. The country there, however, was already too thickly

populated to sustain the new-comers, so these passed on to Cholula

where they had an excellent reception. They brought with them as their

chief and head, a personage called Quetzalcoatl, a fair and ruddy

complexioned man, with a long beard. In Cholula these people remained

and multiplied, and sent colonies to people Upper and Lower Mizteca

and the Zapotecan country; and these it is said raised the grand

edifices, whose remains are still to be seen at Mictlan. These

followers of Quetzalcoatl were men of great knowledge and cunning

artists in all kinds of fine work; not so good at masonry and the use

of the hammer, as in casting and in the engraving and setting of

precious stones, and in all kinds of artistic sculpture, and in

agriculture. Quetzalcoatl had, however, two enemies; Tezcatlipoca was

one, and Huemac, king of Tulla the other; these two had been most

instrumental in causing him to leave Tulla. And at Cholula, Huemac

followed him up with a great army; and Quetzalcoatl, not wishing to

engage in any war, departed for another part with most part of his

people--going, it is said, to a land called Onohualco, which is near

the sea, and embraced what are now called Yucatan, Tabasco, and

Campeche. Then when Huemac came to the place where he had thought to

find Quetzalcoatl, and found him not, he was wrath and laid waste and

destroyed all the country, and made himself lord over it and caused

also that the people worshipped him as a god. All this he did to

obscure and blot out the memory of Quetzalcoatl and for the hate that

he bore him. _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. i., pp. 254-6.

[VII-24] _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., pp. 48-52.

[VII-25] _Clavigero_, _Hist. Ant. del Messico_, pp. 11-13.

[VII-26] See p. 60 of this volume.

[VII-27] See p. 112 of this volume.

[VII-28] This, in its astounding immensity, is the abbé's theory: his

suppositional Crescent Land was the cradle of all human races and

human creeds. On its submergence the aforesaid races and creeds spread

and developed through all the world to their respective present

localities and phases. The Mexican branch of this development he

considers the likest to and the most closely connected with the

original.

[VII-29] In Yucatan.

[VII-30] _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Quatre Lettres_, pp. 154-7. Much of

this last paragraph seems utterly incomprehensible and absurd, even

viewed from the stand-point of the Abbé Brasseur himself. By no means

certain, at all points, of having caught the exact meaning by its

author, I give the original:--'Deux ordres de dieux, dont les uns,

tombés du ciel dans l'abîme où ils deviennent les juges des morts, se

personnifient en un seul qui ressuscite, symbole de la vie et de la

mort; dont les autres survivent à la destruction, symbole de la vie

impérissable; tel est le double caractère du mythe de Quetzal-Coatl, à

son origine. Mais en réalité, ce dieu, c'est la terre, c'est la région

ensevelie sous les eaux, c'est le vaincu étouffé sous le poids de son

adversaire, sous l'effort de la vague victorieuse et celle-ci

s'unissant au feu sur le bûcher de Nanahuatl, c'est Tezcatlipoca,

c'est Hercule, vainqueur de ses ennemis, c'est le dieu dont la lutte

est éternelle, comme celle de l'Océan battant le rivage, c'est celui

en qui se personnifie ensuite la lumière et qui devient ainsi le

drapeau des adversaires de Quetzal-Coatl. Au dieu mort, il fallait une

victime, comme lui, descendue dans l'abîme: ce fut une jeune fille,

choisie parmi celles qui lui étaient consacrées au pied de la

pyramide, et qu'on noyait en la plongeant sous l'eau, coutume qu'on

retrouva longtemps en Egypte, comme à Chichen-Itza, ainsi que dans

bien d'autres pays du monde. Mais au dieu ressuscité, au dieu en qui

se personnifiait le feu, la vie immortelle, à _Quetzal-Coatl_, devenu

_Huitzil-Opochtli_, on sacrifia des victimes sans nombre, à qui l'on

arrachait le cœur, symbole du jet de flamme sortant du volcan, pour

l'offrir au soleil vainqueur, symbole de Tezcatlipoca qui, le premier,

avait demandé des holocaustes de sang humain.' _Id._, pp. 342-3.

[VII-31] _Tylor's Researches_, pp. 155-6.

[VII-32] _Brinton's Myths_, pp. 180-3.

[VII-33] _Helps' Span. Conq._, vol. i., pp. 286-7.

[VII-34] _Domenech's Deserts_, vol. i., pp. 32-3, 39.

[VII-35] _Explicacion del Codex Telleriano-Remensis_, parte ii., lam.

ii., in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., pp. 135-6.

[VII-36] _Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano_, tav. xli.,

_Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., pp. 184-5.

[VII-37] _Müller_, _Amerikanische Urreligionen_, pp. 577-590. Some

further notes regarding this god from a different point, may be found

in _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Palenqué_, pp. 40 etc., 66 etc.