their reverential manner towards the rest of us, who so obviously were
not of their own race. And Pablo was as much perplexed by their
questions as they were by his answers; for never was a conversation
carried on so hopelessly at cross-purposes. Our boy, being spoken to by
folk who obviously were as entirely Mexicans as he was himself, and in a
tongue that practically was that which he had been born to--for the
Indians dwelling in the Guadalajara suburb of Mexicalcingo, being the
direct descendants of a pure Aztec stock, speak the Nahua language very
correctly--could not at all realize that he was at last among the
ancient race for which we had searched so long. It was his belief that
we had come out, in accordance with Rayburn's forecast, into the coast
country, and that the people around him were the ordinary dwellers in
the hot lands. And the Aztecs, knowing him to be one of themselves, no
doubt believed that he knew of the purpose for which they had been left
to dwell apart, and so plied him with questions concerning their
brethren from whom through long ages they had been separated.
As their talk went on, getting the more involved with every question
and reply, a tendency towards ill-temper began to develop itself on each
side; for Pablo considered that these people, who professed to be
ignorant of so important a city as Guadalajara, were making game of him;
and they were not less disposed to believe that he either was answering
them falsely or that he was a fool. Fortunately, before any harm came of
these misunderstandings, an interruption brought a temporary end to
their talk.
There was a stir among the crowd, and then an opening was made in it,
through which came an elderly man wearing military trappings similar to,
but much handsomer than those worn by the two warriors whom we had first
encountered; and it was obvious, from the air of deference with which
these saluted him, that he was their superior officer. In spite of the
dignity of his demeanor it was evident that he was greatly excited by
our advent, and his voice quivered and broke a little as he asked us who
we were and whence we came. As I repeated what I had already told the
guard, and showed the gold token, the expression upon his face was that
of extreme perplexity. That the gold token gave us a strong claim upon
his respect, almost upon his reverence, was apparent in his manner as I
showed it to him; but the conditions under which it was presented
obviously rendered him very uncertain as to what action was proper for
him to take.
When I had finished my statement, and had returned the token to its
place in the snake-skin bag (for the wisdom of carefully retaining this
potent talisman in our possession was evident), the officer turned to
the two warriors, and they conversed for a while in low tones apart
from us. Of their talk I could catch only a few words, but several times
I heard repeated the name Itzacoatl, and frequent reference was made to
the Twenty Lords. I gathered, too, that the name of the officer was
Tizoc, and that the name of the elder of the two warriors, a swarthy
man, was Ixtlilton. In the mean time, out of respect to the officer, the
crowd had drawn away from us--being now swelled to very considerable
numbers--but those composing it gazed at us in wonder, and among them
was a steady murmur of low talk, like the buzzing of a hive of bees.
When his conference with the warriors was ended, Tizoc approached us,
and with him came a younger man, who carried a roll of paper in his
hand. The face of the officer still wore a troubled, doubting
expression, and these feelings were expressed also in the tones of his
voice as he spoke to us. "For the coming of the token from our lord
Chaltzantzin we who dwell in this Valley of Aztlan have waited through
many ages," he said; "but the promise was given that the token should
come to us from our brethren in the time of their need, and should be
brought by those of our own race. But you tell us that the time of need
long since is past, and ye who bring the token are of a race that is
strange to us; and even this one among you who seems to be of our
brethren speaks strangely of strange things. Had ye come in the way that
long past was promised, there would have been no room for questioning
your right of entry here nor your authority over us; and I, who am the
Warden of the Pass--being in right succession from him whom our lord
Chaltzantzin appointed to this high office--would have been the first to
do you reverence and honor. But in this strange case that has arisen I
hold it to be my duty to send news of your coming to the Priest Captain,
Itzacoatl, that he and his Council of the Twenty Lords may decide what
now is right to do. In this I mean no disrespect and no unkindness; and
while we await the Priest Captain's orders I shall have the pleasure to
offer you that rest and refreshment of which you stand in need."
To this firm but courteous speech I was in the act of replying in fit
terms of equal courtesy--for all that Tizoc had said was so reasonable
that no exception could be taken to it--when an outburst on Young's part
interrupted me.
"Hold on there, young fellow!" he cried. "I'll be shot if I'm goin' t'
stand bein' made a fool of that way! If you can't make a better likeness
of me than that, you'd better shut up shop an' go out of th' business."
I turned quickly, and saw Young standing beside Tizoc's attendant, and
looking half angrily and half laughingly at the sheet of paper that he
held in his hand. Fearful that some harm might come from Young's
maladroitness, I joined them quickly; and only a strong sense of the
gravity of our situation restrained me from laughing outright as I
behold the cause of his wrath. For the secretary, as I now perceived him
to be, had made sketches in color of each member of our party; and while
they all did violence to our vanity, that of Young--with a bald head
out of all proportion to the size of his body, and with most
aggressively red hair--was so outrageous a caricature that there really
was some justice in his resentment of it.
But this was not a time when resentment could be safely manifested, and
I hurriedly explained to Young that these pictures, no doubt, were to be
transmitted as a part of the report that Tizoc was about to make to the
King concerning us, and that he must find no fault with them.
"He's goin' t' send that thing t' th' King an' say it's me, is he? No,
he's not--not by a jugful! See here, Professor! here's a photograph that
I had taken last spring in Boston. I meant t' give it to a girl before I
came away, but she went back on me an' I didn't. It's not much of a
photograph, but it don't look like a squash trimmed with red clover. If
they want to send anything, let 'em send that." And before I could stop
him, Young had taken the photograph out of his pocket-book and had
handed it to the secretary, with the remark, "Just say t' him,
Professor, that he is t' give that t' th' King, an' tell him t' tell th'
King that Mr. Seth Young, of Boston, sends it with his compliments."
After all, no harm came of this absurd performance, but rather good; for
the secretary exhibited the photograph to Tizoc, and both of them, and
the two warriors also, were lost in wonder at its marvellous likeness to
the original, and evidently held us in increasingly great respect
because we were the possessors of such an extraordinary work of art.
Young was a good deal chagrined, however, because the picture of him
that the secretary had drawn was forwarded as a part of Tizoc's
despatches. He said that since he had set up a good likeness of himself,
it wasn't the square thing to send the King a bad one.
When the secretary, bearing the despatches, had departed, Tizoc
requested us to accompany him to the near-by guard-house, where we could
refresh ourselves by bathing, and where food and drink would be provided
for us. This order, for such it was, we obeyed gladly; for we were both
weary and hungry, and the prospect of what Young described as a good
wash and a square meal after it, was very pleasing to us. A detachment
of men from the guard-house, accoutred in the same handsome fashion as
Ixtlilton and his companion, had arrived while the secretary's
portrait-work was in progress; and I observed that all of these
guardsmen (excepting only Ixtlilton, whose skin was dark,) were much
lighter in color and more gracious in bearing than the men in the crowd
around us. So marked, indeed, was this difference that they seemed
scarcely to belong to the same race.
As we moved away through the opening that the crowd made for us, with a
platoon of guardsmen in advance, and another in our rear, Pablo touched
my arm and was about to speak to me; but before his mouth could open
there sounded suddenly from the hollow way in the mountain behind us a
mighty bray. "Ah, the little angel!" Pablo cried. "Hearken to him,
señor, calling to me." And so moved was Pablo by this evidence of El
Sabio's affection that only my firm grasp upon his arm restrained him
from attempting a dash through the guards to where the creature was
penned in by the metal bars.
Truly, there is no sound more terrifying to those who are strangers to
it than the braying of an ass; therefore, I was not at all surprised
that a very considerable part of the crowd incontinently took to its
heels; and I needed no better evidence of the bravery of the guardsmen
who composed our escort than the steadiness with which they faced about
in readiness to meet whatever danger might come forth from the gap in
the mountain in the wake of this great roaring. Yet what they saw there
was only the mild face of the Wise One extended towards us through the
opening in the bars.
To Tizoc, who was standing beside me, and who had not displayed even the
slightest tremor of alarm as the appalling noise had broken upon us, I
explained that the roaring creature was not harmful, but gentle and
biddable; and I begged that other of the bars might be removed, so that
it might come forth and join us. That he acceded instantly to my request
gave me a good opinion of his own faithfulness and honesty; for a man of
a suspicious and crafty nature assuredly would have believed that my
request was but a trap laid for his destruction; and thereupon the bars
were removed. And the truth of my words was made manifest, as El Sabio
came instantly to Pablo and received his caresses with every sign of
gentleness and affection. But even Tizoc did not disguise his wonder
upon beholding this strange beast, for the largest four-footed creature
in all that valley, as he told me, was a little animal of the deer
species, that was not much bigger than a hare. And when I bade Pablo
mount upon El Sabio's back, the look of surprise in Tizoc's face changed
suddenly to an expression of troubled doubt, in which was also alarm.
Under his breath I heard him mutter, "Can it be that the prophecy will
be fulfilled?" But whatever the cause of his inward disturbance was, he
spoke not of it, but turned once more forward, and gave the order to
march.
[Illustration: THE FULFILMENT OF THE PROPHECY]
The crowd, seeing that no harm was like to come to them, pressed forward
once more, and gazed with open-mouthed wonder--and also, as it seemed to
me, with awe--at the prodigious spectacle which Pablo, gravely riding
upon the ass's back, presented to them. And so, with the guards before
and behind us, we marched onward into the Valley of Aztlan.
XVIII.
THE STRIKING OF A MATCH.
As we emerged from the nook in the mountain-side the whole of the valley
lay open before us, and never was a more lovely spot beheld by the eyes
of man. A half-dozen leagues in front of us rose the great mountain wall
which shut in its farther side, and about as far away to the right and
to the left these walls swept around in vast curves and joined the
cliffs through which we had come by the hollow way that tunnelled
beneath them. A noble lake extended nearly the whole length of the
valley, and covered near a third of its width, and so seemed less like a
lake than like a calm and majestic river. From the water-side the land
rose in broad terraces, broken by belts of timber and by many groups of
smaller trees, which, because of the regularity of their growth, I took
to be fruit plantations. All the open country seemed to be one vast
garden, most carefully tended, and everywhere cut up by little canals,
whence water for irrigation was drawn. Scattered everywhere about the
valley were single houses embowered in trees, and from where we stood we
could see also four or five little towns, which also were plentifully
shaded. And on the lake many boats were passing, of which several were
of a considerable size, and were fitted with curiously shaped sails. And
all this exquisite tropical beauty of ample water and luxuriant foliage
shone richly beneath the bright splendor of a deep blue tropical sky.
Yet that which most strongly attracted our attention was not this
charming display of the manifold excellencies of God's handiwork, but
rather a wonderful manifestation of the handiwork of man. Over against
us, on the far side of the lake, slantingwise from where we stood, rose
a mass of buildings of such vastness and such majestic design that at
the first glance we took it to be one of the square-topped mountains
which are found not uncommonly in this portion of the world, and around
the bases of which are sloping heaps of the fragments of rock which
have broken away through countless ages from their weather-worn sides.
Yet in a moment we perceived that what we saw was a walled city built
upon a great promontory, that jutted out from the mountain-side; and in
the same breath Fray Antonio and I called out together, "It is the city
of Culhuacan!"
As we uttered this name Tizoc turned towards us quickly, and with a
startled, troubled look upon his face. "They are not of our race," he
said, as though speaking his thoughts aloud; "yet the sacred name, that
among us only a few know, is known to them!" and the troubled look upon
his face deepened as we went onward.
The way by which we descended was a narrow road carried zigzag down the
cliff--for the pass by which we had entered the valley was fully six
hundred feet above the level of the lake--and at short intervals along
its course this road was defended by walls of very solid masonry,
pierced with openings so narrow that only one man at a time could pass
through them. That the walls were for defence was shown by the piles of
metal bars on the inner side of each opening--the side towards the
mountain--so arranged that in a moment they could be slipped into
sockets in the stone-work, thus closing effectually the way.
Perceiving that we regarded with surprise this curious system of
fortification, Tizoc explained: "These are the barriers set up against
the Tlahuicos, who, heeding not the order given of old by our lord
Chaltzantzin, have striven many times to break forth from the
valley--for among these men there are many of perverse natures and evil
minds."
In _tlahuico_ I recognized a Nahua word that means "men turned towards
the earth," but what its meaning might be in the sense in which Tizoc
employed it I did not know. I should have asked for further
explanation--for the manner of this man was so frank and so friendly
that it invited a cordial familiarity--but as I was about to speak we
passed through the narrow opening in a wall of unusual height and
strength, and so came into a charming garden, in the midst of which
stood a large house well built of stone. For the making of this garden a
natural nook on the side of the mountain had been enlarged by filling in
along its outer edge against a great retaining-wall, built up from a
depth of a hundred feet from the slope below; and on the farther side of
the plateau thus created, where the path down into the valley went on
again, were heavy defensive walls. Near this exit, also, was a long low
building that I took to be a guard-house.
The crowd that had followed behind us from the height above went on
across the plateau, and out through the gate beside the guard-house--its
members casting many curious looks at us as they departed--and the
guardsmen who had formed our escort, at an order from Tizoc, went on to
their quarters. But Tizoc led us across the garden to the large house
that stood in the midst of it, and there, with a formal courtesy, bade
us enter. This was his home, he said, and we were his welcome guests.
The house was so like the houses ordinarily found in Mexico that we had
no feeling of strangeness in entering it. It was built of stone neatly
laid in cement; was but a single story in height, and enclosed a large
central court, in the midst of which a fountain sparkled, surrounded by
small trees and shrubs and beds of flowers. All of the rooms opened upon
this central court, and in the outer wall the only opening was the
narrow way by which we had entered--for the prompt closing of which
there lay in readiness a pile of metal bars. The flat roof, also of
stone, was reached by a stone stair-way from the court, and had about it
a heavy stone parapet that was pierced with narrow slits through which
javelins and arrows could be discharged. But these arrangements for
defence did not by any means produce a gloomy effect, as they would had
we encountered them in a country-house in our own part of the world--for
similar defence arrangements are found in every hacienda in Mexico at
the present day, and even I, though my stay in the country had been so
short, already had become accustomed to them.
A buzzing chatter of talk, in which women's voices predominated, ceased
suddenly as we entered the court; and from the swaying and twitching of
the curtains hanging in the front of the openings leading into several
of the rooms, we inferred that we were undergoing a keen inspection. In
response to a call from Tizoc, some men-servants came out from one of
the rooms and received his order to prepare food for us; and he then led
us to a large room in a corner of the court that was arranged very
delightfully as a bath. Here was a great stone tank, twenty feet or so
square, and with a slanting bottom, so that the depth of it ranged from
two feet to nearly five, in which was fresh running water; and over the
portion of the room that the tank occupied there was no roof but the
bright blue sky. On the stone floor were beautifully woven mats, and
towels of cotton cloth hung upon pegs driven into the walls, and in
earthen bowls were fresh pieces of a saponaceous root that I have seen
the like of in use among the Indians of New Mexico. It seemed to strike
Tizoc as odd that we preferred to make use of the bath successively
rather than all together; but he was too polite a man to interpose any
objections to our eccentricities. Pablo only--coming last of all of
us--had a companion in his bathing in the person of El Sabio; and the
sleekness of that excellent animal, when Pablo had brushed carefully his
long coat when his bath was ended, was a wonder to behold.
Being thus refreshed, we heartily welcomed the excellent meal that was
served to us in the cool shade of the veranda by which the court-yard
was surrounded. Our eating was somewhat in the Roman fashion, for the
table was a broad slab of stone, raised but a little from the ground,
and around it we reclined upon mats, with cushions woven of rushes to
lean upon. The food was excellent--a small animal of the deer species,
but no larger than a hare, roasted whole; birds very like quails,
delicately broiled; little cakes made of maize, which were rather like
the hoe-cakes of our Southern negroes than _tortillas_; some sort of
sweet marmalade; and a great abundance of oranges, mangoes, bananas, and
other fruits common to the hot lands of Mexico; all of which fruits
were much more delicate in flavor than Mexican fruits usually are; the
result, as we found later, of the great care bestowed upon their
culture. Only water was served with the meal, but at the end of it a
small jar of some sort of potent liquor was brought, very cool, and with
an excellent spicy taste, that Tizoc warned us must be taken but
sparingly; and truly he was right, as I found from the warm and mellow
feeling of benevolent friendliness that but half a cup of it infused
into me. Tizoc himself did not follow very rigidly the advice that he
had given us; and to this fact, probably, was due the exceeding
frankness with which he subsequently spoke with us concerning grave
matters, of which he surely would have been reticent had he been in a
less genial mood.
"Just ask th' Colonel if he minds my smokin' a pipe, won't you,
Professor?" Young said, when our meal was ended; and as I myself wanted
to smoke, and as I was sure that Rayburn did also, I made the request
general. Tizoc, to my surprise--for I believed smoking to be common to
all the indigenous races--evidently did not at all understand my
meaning; but perceiving that I asked to have some favor granted, he
courteously gave the permission that I desired. As we filled our pipes
he watched us curiously; but when we drew out our matches and struck
fire by what seemed to him but the turn of our hands, he started to his
feet and manifested a strange excitement, in which there seemed to be
less of alarm than of awe. His voice shook, and his whole person
trembled, as he asked, "Are ye the children of Chac-Mool, the God of
Fire, and therefore the chosen servants of Huitzilopochtli the
Terrible, that ye thus can do what among us is done only by our Priest
Captain Itzacoatl?"
[Illustration: THE STRIKING OF A MATCH]
Both Fray Antonio and I heard with delight this utterance, that in a
moment settled the long-disputed question as to whether or not Chac-Mool
was an idol, and settled it, also, in favor of the ingenious hypothesis
presented by the learned Señor Chavero. The moment was not a favorable
one, however, for pursuing the matter in its archæological bearings, for
all of our tact and skill just then were required to restore Tizoc to
calmness. As well as this was possible in the language common to us--we
suddenly realized how difficult it was to express in the Nahua tongue
more than rudimentary concepts of the ideas that we sought to convey--we
explained to him how matches were made; and illustrated our words by
showing him how fire was induced by friction, even as the rubbing of two
pieces of wood together produced fire also. This explanation was less
exact than ingenious; but it was one that he could understand, and it
had the effect of allaying his alarm sufficiently to permit him to
resume his seat, when he at once drank off a whole bowlful of the
strong, spicy liquor at a draught. Added to what he already had inside
of him, this draught set his tongue to wagging in the free way that I
have already referred to, and he grew bold enough to take a match in his
hand. But even in his cups he manifested a certain reverence in his
handling of it; and presently, from a little bag that was hung about his
neck, he produced the burnt remnant of a match that he compared with it
critically. "They are the same?" he asked, as he extended the whole
match and the fragment together towards us that we might examine them.
"They are the same," Fray Antonio answered. "Whence comes the one that
you guard so carefully?"
"From the Priest Captain--from Itzacoatl. With such things does he
miraculously set burning the fire of sacrifice; but he does not speak of
them lightly, as you do; he tells us that they are the handiwork of the
Fire God, Chac-Mool; and when the fire of sacrifice is kindled he gives
what remains of them as high rewards to those who have served well the
State by brave acts or honorable deeds. This which I cherish was my
reward for crushing a revolt among the Tlahuicos."
Fray Antonio and I exchanged curious glances, for the conviction was
forced upon us both that the Priest Captain of whom Tizoc spoke must
either have invented friction matches, or that he must have some secret
channel of communication with the outside world. In either case it was
evident that he must be a man of unusual shrewdness; and it also was
evident that his feeling towards us--since we also could perform a
miracle that he obviously made use of as a means of manifesting his
divine right to rule--must be that of strong hostility.