American Hero-Myths Part 6

--3. _Quetzalcoatl, the Hero of Tula._

But it was not Quetzalcoatl the G.o.d, the mysterious creator of the visible world, on whom the thoughts of the Aztec race delighted to dwell, but on Quetzalcoatl, high priest in the glorious city of Tollan (Tula), the teacher of the arts, the wise lawgiver, the virtuous prince, the master builder and the merciful judge.

Here, again, though the scene is transferred from heaven to earth and from the cycles of other worlds to a date not extremely remote, the story continues to be of his contest with Tezcatlipoca, and of the wiles of this enemy, now diminished to a potent magician and jealous rival, to dispossess and drive him from famous Tollan.

No one versed in the metaphors of mythology can be deceived by the thin veil of local color which surrounds the myth in this its terrestrial and historic form. Apart from its being but a repet.i.tion or continuation of the genuine ancient account of the conflict of day and night, light and darkness, which I have already given, the name Tollan is enough to point out the place and the powers with which the story deals. For this Tollan, where Quetzalcoatl reigned, is not by any means, as some have supposed, the little town of Tula, still alive, a dozen leagues or so northwest from the city of Mexico; nor was it, as the legend usually stated, in some undefined locality from six hundred to a thousand leagues northwest of that city; nor yet in Asia, as some antiquaries have maintained; nor, indeed, anywhere upon this weary world; but it was, as the name denotes, and as the native historian Tezozomoc long since translated it, where the bright sun lives, and where the G.o.d of light forever rules so long as that orb is in the sky. Tollan is but a syncopated form of _Tonatlan_, the Place of the Sun.[1]

[Footnote 1: "Tonalan, o lugar del sol," says Tezozomoc (_Cronica Mexicana_, chap. i). The full form is _Tonatlan_, from _tona_, "hacer sol," and the place ending _tlan_. The derivation from _tollin_, a rush, is of no value, and it is nothing to the point that in the picture writing Tollan was represented by a bundle of rushes (Kingsborough, vol. vi, p.

177, note), as that was merely in accordance with the rules of the picture writing, which represented names by rebuses. Still more worthless is the derivation given by Herrera (_Historia de las Indias Occidentals_, Dec.

iii, Lib. i, cap. xi), that it means "Lugar de Tuna" or the place where the tuna (the fruit of the Opuntia) is found; inasmuch as the word _tuna_ is not from the Aztec at all, but belongs to that dialect of the Arawack spoken by the natives of Cuba and Haiti.]

It is worth while to examine the whereabouts and character of this marvelous city of Tollan somewhat closely, for it is a place that we hear of in the oldest myths and legends of many and different races. Not only the Aztecs, but the Mayas of Yucatan and the Kiches and Cakchiquels of Guatemala bewailed, in woful songs, the loss to them of that beautiful land, and counted its destruction as a common starting point in their annals.[1] Well might they regret it, for not again would they find its like. In that land the crop of maize never failed, and the ears grew as long as a man's arm; the cotton burst its pods, not white only, but naturally of all beautiful colors, scarlet, green, blue, orange, what you would; the gourds could not be clasped in the arms; birds of beauteous plumage filled the air with melodious song. There was never any want nor poverty. All the riches of the world were there, houses built of silver and precious jade, of rosy mother of pearl and of azure turquoises. The servants of the great king Quetzalcoatl were skilled in all manner of arts; when he sent them forth they flew to any part of the world with infinite speed; and his edicts were proclaimed from the summit of the mountain Tzatzitepec, the Hill of Shouting, by criers of such mighty voice that they could be heard a hundred leagues away.[2] His servants and disciples were called "Sons of the Sun" and "Sons of the Clouds."[3]

[Footnote 1: The _Books of Chilan Balam_, of the Mayas, the _Record from Tecpan At.i.tlan_, of the Cakchiquels, and the _Popol vuh_, National Book, of the Kiches, have much to say about Tulan. These works were all written at a very early date, by natives, and they have all been preserved in the original tongues, though unfortunately only the last mentioned has been published.]

[Footnote 2: Sahagun, _Historia_, Lib. iii, cap. iii.]

[Footnote 3: Duran, _Historia de los Indios_, in Kingsborough, vol. viii, p. 267.]

Where, then, was this marvelous land and wondrous city? Where could it be but where the Light-G.o.d is on his throne, where the life-giving sun is ever present, where are the mansions of the day, and where all nature rejoices in the splendor of its rays?

But this is more than in one spot. It may be in the uppermost heavens, where light is born and the fleecy clouds swim easily; or in the west, where the sun descends to his couch in sanguine glory; or in the east, beyond the purple rim of the sea, whence he rises refreshed as a giant to run his course; or in the underworld, where he pa.s.ses the night.

Therefore, in ancient Cakchiquel legend it is said: "Where the sun rises, there is one Tulan; another is in the underworld; yet another where the sun sets; and there is still another, and there dwells the G.o.d. Thus, O my children, there are four Tulans, as the ancient men have told us."[1]

[Footnote 1: Francisco Ernantez Arana Xahila, _Memorial de Tecpan At.i.tlan_. MS. in Cakchiquel, in my possession.]

The most venerable traditions of the Maya race claimed for them a migration from "Tollan in Zuyva." "Thence came we forth together," says the Kiche myth, "there was the common parent of our race, thence came we, from among the Yaqui men, whose G.o.d is Yolcuat Quetzalcoat."[1] This Tollan is certainly none other than the abode of Quetzalcoatl, named in an Aztec ma.n.u.script as _Zivena vitzcatl_, a word of uncertain derivation, but applied to the highest heaven.

[Footnote 1: _Le Popol Vuh_, p. 247. The name _Yaqui_ means in Kiche civilized or polished, and was applied to the Aztecs, but it is, in its origin, from an Aztec root _yauh_, whence _yaque_, travelers, and especially merchants. The Kiches recognizing in the Aztec merchants a superior and cultivated cla.s.s of men, adopted into their tongue the name which the merchants gave themselves, and used the word in the above sense.

Compare Sahagun, _Historia de Nueva Espana_, Lib. ix, cap. xii.]

Where Quetzalcoatl finally retired, and whence he was expected back, was still a Tollan--Tollan Tlapallan--and Montezuma, when he heard of the arrival of the Spaniards, exclaimed, "It is Quetzalcoatl, returned from Tula."

The cities which selected him as their tutelary deity were named for that which he was supposed to have ruled over. Thus we have Tollan and Tollantzinco ("behind Tollan") in the Valley of Mexico, and the pyramid Cholula was called "Tollan-Cholollan," as well as many other Tollans and Tulas among the Nahuatl colonies.

The natives of the city of Tula were called, from its name, the _Tolteca_, which simply means "those who dwell in Tollan." And who, let us ask, were these Toltecs?

They have hovered about the dawn of American history long enough. To them have been attributed not only the primitive culture of Central America and Mexico, but of lands far to the north, and even the earthworks of the Ohio Valley. It is time they were a.s.signed their proper place, and that is among the purely fabulous creations of the imagination, among the giants and fairies, the gnomes and sylphs, and other such fancied beings which in all ages and nations the popular mind has loved to create.

Toltec, Toltecatl,[1] which in later days came to mean a skilled craftsman or artificer, signifies, as I have said, an inhabitant of Tollan--of the City of the Sun--in other words, a Child of Light. Without a metaphor, it meant at first one of the far darting, bright s.h.i.+ning rays of the sun. Not only does the tenor of the whole myth show this, but specifically and clearly the powers attributed to the ancient Toltecs. As the immediate subjects of the G.o.d of Light they were called "Those who fly the whole day without resting,"[2] and it was said of them that they had the power of reaching instantly even a very distant place. When the Light-G.o.d himself departs, they too disappear, and their city is left uninhabited and desolate.

[Footnote 1: Toltecatl, according to Molina, is "oficial de arte mecanica maestro," (_Vocabulario de la Lengua Mexicana_, s.v.). This is a secondary meaning. Veitia justly says, "Toltecatl quiere decir artifice, porque en Thollan comenzaron a ensenar, aunque a Thollan llamaron Tula, y por decir Toltecatl dicen Tuloteca" (_Historia_, cap. xv).]

[Footnote 2: Their t.i.tle was _Tlanqua cemilhuique_, compounded of _tlanqua_, to set the teeth, as with strong determination, and _cemilhuitia_, to run during a whole day. Sahagun, _Historia_, Lib. iii, cap. iii, and Lib. x, cap. xxix; compare also the myth of Tezcatlipoca disguised as an old woman parching corn, the odor of which instantly attracted the Toltecs, no matter how far off they were. When they came she killed them. Id. Lib. iii, cap. xi.]

In some, and these I consider the original versions of the myth, they do not const.i.tute a nation at all, but are merely the disciples or servants of Quetzalcoatl.[1] They have all the traits of beings of supernatural powers. They were astrologers and necromancers, marvelous poets and philosophers, painters as were not to be found elsewhere in the world, and such builders that for a thousand leagues the remains of their cities, temples and fortresses strewed the land. "When it has happened to me,"

says Father Duran, "to ask an Indian who cut this pa.s.s through the mountains, or who opened that spring of water, or who built that old ruin, the answer was, 'The Toltecs, the disciples of Papa.'"[2]

[Footnote 1: "Discipulos," Duran, _Historia_, in Kingsborough, vol. vii, p. 260.]

[Footnote 2: Ibid.]

They were tall in stature, beyond the common race of men, and it was nothing uncommon for them to live hundreds of years. Such was their energy that they allowed no lazy person to live among them, and like their master they were skilled in every art of life and virtuous beyond the power of mortals. In complexion they are described as light in hue, as was their leader, and as are usually the personifications of light, and not the less so among the dark races of men.[1]

[Footnote 1: For the character of the Toltecs as here portrayed, see Ixtlilxochitl, _Relaciones Historicas_, and Veitia, _Historia, pa.s.sion_.]

When Quetzalcoatl left Tollan most of the Toltecs had already perished by the stratagems of Tezcatlipoca, and those that survived were said to have disappeared on his departure. The city was left desolate, and what became of its remaining inhabitants no one knew. But this very uncertainty offered a favorable opportunity for various nations, some speaking Nahuatl and some other tongues, to claim descent from this mysterious, ancient and wondrous race.

The question seems, indeed, a difficult one. When the Light-G.o.d disappears from the sky, shorn of his beams and bereft of his glory, where are the bright rays, the darting gleams of light which erewhile bathed the earth in refulgence? Gone, gone, we know not whither.

The original home of the Toltecs was said to have been in Tlapallan--the very same Red Land to which Quetzalcoatl was fabled to have returned; only the former was distinguished as Old Tlapallan--Hue Tlapallan--as being that from which he and they had emerged. Other myths called it the Place of Sand, Xalac, an evident reference to the sandy sea strand, the same spot where it was said that Quetzalcoatl was last seen, beyond which the sun rises and below which he sinks. Thither he returned when driven from Tollan, and reigned over his va.s.sals many years in peace.[1]

[Footnote 1: "Se metio (Quetzalcoatl) la tierra adentro hasta Tlapallan o segun otros Huey Xalac, antigua patria de sus antepasados, en donde vivio muchos anos." Ixtlilxochitl, _Relaciones Historicas_, p. 394, in Kingsborough, vol. ix. Xalac, is from _xalli_, sand, with the locative termination. In Nahuatl _xalli aquia_, to enter the sand, means to die.]

We cannot mistake this Tlapallan, new or old. Whether it is bathed in the purple and gold of the rising sun or in the crimson and carnation of his setting, it always was, as Sahagun tells us, with all needed distinctness, "the city of the Sun," the home of light and color, whence their leader, Quetzalcoatl had come, and whither he was summoned to return.[1]

[Footnote 1: "Dicen que camino acia el Oriente, y que se fue a la ciudad del Sol, llamada Tlapallan, y fue llamado del sol." Libro. viii, Prologo.]

The origin of the earthly Quetzalcoatl is variously given; one cycle of legends narrates his birth in Tollan in some extraordinary manner; a second cycle claims that he was not born in any country known to the Aztecs, but came to them as a stranger.

Of the former cycle probably one of the oldest versions is that he was a son or descendant of Tezcatlipoca himself, under his name Camaxtli. This was the account given to the chancellor Ramirez,[1] and it is said by Torquemada to have been the canonical doctrine taught in the holy city of Cholollan, the centre of the wors.h.i.+p of Quetzalcoatl.[2] It is a transparent metaphor, and could be paralleled by a hundred similar expressions in the myths of other nations. The Night brings forth the Day, the darkness leads on to the light, and though thus standing in the relation of father and son, the struggle between them is forever continued.

[Footnote 1: Ramirez de Fuen-leal, _Hist. de los Mexicanos_, cap. viii.]

[Footnote 2: _Monarquia Indiana_, Lib. vi, cap. xxiv. _Camaxtli_ is also found in the form _Yoamaxtli_; this shows that it is a compound of _maxtli_, covering, clothing, and _ca_, the substantive verb, or in the latter instance, _yoalli_, night; hence it is, "the Mantle," or, "the garb of night" ("la faja nocturna," _a.n.a.les del Museo Nacional_, Tom. ii, p.

363).]

Another myth represents him as the immediate son of the All-Father Tonaca tecutli, under his t.i.tle Citlallatonac, the Morning, by an earth-born maiden in Tollan. In that city dwelt three sisters, one of whom, an unspotted virgin, was named Chimalman. One day, as they were together, the G.o.d appeared to them. Chimalman's two sisters were struck to death by fright at his awful presence, but upon her he breathed the breath of life, and straightway she conceived. The son she bore cost her life, but it was the divine Quetzalcoatl, surnamed _Topiltcin_, Our Son, and, from the year of his birth, _Ce Acatl_, One Reed. As soon as he was born he was possessed of speech and reason and wisdom. As for his mother, having perished on earth, she was transferred to the heavens, where she was given the honored name Chalchihuitzli, the Precious Stone of Sacrifice.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Codex Vatica.n.u.s_, Tab. x; _Codex Telleriano-Remensis_, Pt.

ii, Lam. ii. The name is from _chalchihuitl_, jade, and _vitztli_, the thorn used to pierce the tongue, ears and p.e.n.i.s, in sacrifice.

_Chimalman_, more correctly, _Chimalmatl_, is from _chimalli_, s.h.i.+eld, and probably, _matlalin_, green.]

This, also, is evidently an ancient and simple figure of speech to express that the breath of Morning announces the dawn which brings forth the sun and disappears in the act.

The virgin mother Chimalman, in another legend, is said to have been brought with child by swallowing a jade or precious green stone (_chalchihuitl_);[1] while another averred that she was not a virgin, but the wife of Camaxtli (Tezcatlipoca);[2] or again, that she was the second wife of that venerable old man who was the father of the seven sons from whom all tribes speaking the Nahuatl language, and several who did not speak it (Otomies, Tarascos), were descended.[3] This latter will repay a.n.a.lysis.

[Footnote 1: Mendieta, _Historia Eclesiastica Indiana_, Lib. ii, cap. vi.]

[Footnote 2: Ibid.]

[Footnote 3: Motolinia, _Historia de los Indios de Nueva Espana, Epistola Proemial_, p. 10. The first wife was Ilancueitl, from _ilantli_, old woman, and _cueitl_, skirt. Gomara, _Conquista de Mejico_, p. 432.]

All through Mexico and Central America this legend of the Seven Sons, Seven Tribes, the Seven Caves whence they issued, or the Seven Cities where they dwelt, constantly crops out. To that land the Aztecs referred as their former dwelling place. It was located at some indefinite distance to the north or northwest--in the same direction as Tollan. The name of that land was significant. It was called the White or Bright Land, _Aztlan_.[1] In its midst was situated the mountain or hill Colhuacan the Divine, _Teoculhuacan_.[2] In the base of this hill were the Seven Caverns, _Chicomoztoc_, whence the seven tribes with their respective G.o.ds had issued, those G.o.ds including Quetzalcoatl, Huitzilopochtli and the Tezcatlipocas. There continued to live their mother, awaiting their return.

[Footnote 1: The derivation of Aztlan from _aztatl_, a heron, has been rejected by Buschmann and the best Aztec scholars. It is from the same root as _izlac_, white, with the local ending _tlan_, and means the White or Bright Land. See the subject discussed in Buschmann, _Ueber die Atzekischen Ortsnamen_. p. 612, and recently by Senor Orozco y Berra, in _a.n.a.les del Museo Nacional_, Tom. ii, p. 56.]