Chapter III: Mexico (2)

Its leaders were not the Aztec, but the related Acolhua, whose capital, Tezcuco, became the Athens of an empire of which Tenochtitlan was to be the Rome; and the great age of Tezcuco came with King Nezahualcoyotl, less than a century before the appearance of Cortez. Cautious writers point to the resemblances between the career and character of this monarch as pictured by Ixtlilxochitl, and that of the Scriptural David: both, in their youth, are hunted and persecuted by a jealous king, and are forced into exile and outlawry; both triumphantly overthrow their enemies and inaugurate reigns of splendour, erecting temples, cultivating the arts, and reforming the state; both are singers and psalmists, and prophets of a purified monotheism; both assent to the execution of an eldest son and heir because of palace intrigue; and, finally, both, in the hour of temptation, cause an honoured thane to be treacherously slain in order that they may possess themselves of a woman who has captivated their fancy. In each case, too, the queen dishonourably won becomes the mother of a successor whose reign is followed by a decline of power, for Nezahualpilli was the last of the great Tezcucan kings. Certainly the parallels are striking and the chronicler may well have been influenced by Biblical analogy in the form which he gives his stories; but it is surely not unfair to remark that such repetitions of event are to be expected in a world whose possibilities are, after all, limited in number; that, for example, a whole series of similarities can be drawn between Inca and Aztec history (where there is no suspicion of influence), and that there are not a few striking likenesses of the characters of Nezahualcoyotl and Huayna Capac, to both of whom is ascribed an enlightened monotheism. Various fragments of Nezahualcoyotl's poems--or such as bear his name--have survived, among them a lament which has the very tone of the Aztec prayers preserved by Sahagun, and which, indeed, breathes the whole world-weary dolour of Nahuatlan religion.[58]

"Hearken to the lamentations of Nezahualcoyotl, communing with himself upon the fate of Empire--spoken as an example to others!

"O king, inquiet and insecure, when thou art dead, thy vassals shall be destroyed, scattered in dark confusion; on that day rulership will no longer be in thy hand, but with God the Creator, All-Powerful.

"Who hath beheld the palace and court of the king of old, Tezozomoc, how flourishing was his power and firm his tyranny, now overthrown and destroyed--will _he_ think to escape? Mockery and deceit is this world's gift, wherefore let all be consumed!

"Dismal it is to contemplate the prosperity enjoyed by this king, even to his senility, like an old willow, animated by desire and by ambition, uplifting himself above the weak and humble. Long time did the green and the flowers offer themselves in the fields of springtime, but at last, worm-eaten and dried, the wind of death seized him, uprooted him, and scattered him in fragments on Earth's soil. So, also, the olden king Cozastli passed onward, leaving neither house nor lineage to preserve his memory.

"With such reflections, with melancholy song, I bring again the memory of the flowery springtime gone, and of the end of Tezozomoc who so long knew its joys. Who, harkening, shall withhold his tears? Abundance of riches and varied pleasures, are they not like culled flowers, passed from hand to hand, and at the end cast forth stripped and withered?

"Sons of kings, sons of great lords, give heed and consideration to what is made manifest in my sad and lamenting song, as I relate how passed the flowery springtime and the end of the powerful king Tezozomoc! Ah, who, harkening, will be hard enough to restrain his tears--for all these varied flowers, these pleasures sweet, wither and end with this passing life!

"Today we possess the abundance and beauty of the blossoming summer, and harken to the melody of birds, where the butterflies sip sweet nectar from fragrant petals. But all is like culled flowers, that pass from hand to hand, and at the end are cast forth, stripped and withered!"

V. AZTEC MIGRATION-MYTHS[59]

Common tradition makes of the Aztec, or Mexica, late comers into the central valley, although they are regarded as belonging to the general movement of tribes known as the Chichimec immigration. Apparently they entered obscurely in the wake of kindred groups, perhaps in the middle of the eleventh century; wandered from place to place for a period; and finally settled on the swampy islands of Lake Tezcuco, founding Tenochtitlan, or Mexico, which eventually became the capital of empire. The founding of the city is variously dated--one group of references placing it at or near 1140, and another assigning dates from 1321 to 1327, variations which may refer to an earlier and later occupation by different or related tribal groups. The Aztec formed a league with their kindred neighbours, the Tecpanec of Tlacopan and the Acolhua of Tezcuco, in which their own _rôle_ was a secondary one, until finally, under Axayacatl, Tizoc, and Ahuitzotl, the immediate predecessors of the last Montezuma (whose name is variously rendered Moteuhçoma, Moteczuma, Moteçuma, Motecuhzoma, etc.), they rose to undisputed supremacy. This, however, was in war and politics, for Tezcuco, previous to the Conquest, was still the seat of Mexican learning.

Many of the Nahuatlan peoples retained mythic reminiscences of the period and course of their migrations; but of the narratives which remain hardly two are in accord, although most of them mention the "House of Seven Caves" (Chicomoztoc) as a place of dispersal. Back of this several of the narratives go, giving details of which the purely mythic character is evident, for the leaders named are gods and eponymous sires, while tribes of utterly unrelated stocks are given a common source. Thus, according to Mendieta's account,[60] at Chicomoztoc dwelt Iztacmixcoatl ("the White Cloud-Serpent") and his wife Ilancue ("the Old Woman"), from whom were sprung the ancestors--"as from the sons of Noah"--of the leading nations of Mexico, excepting that the Toltec were descended from Ixtacmixcoatl by a second wife, Chimalmatl (or Chimalma), who is named as mother of Quetzalcoatl, and who is represented elsewhere as the priestess or ancestress of the Aztec in their fabled first home, Aztlan.

Sahagun[61] gives a version starting with the landing of the ancestral Mexicans at Panotlan ("Place of Arrival by Sea"), whence he says that they proceeded to Guatemala, and thence, guided by a priest, to Tamoanchan, where the Amoxoaque, or wise men, left them, departing toward the east with their ritual manuscripts and promising to return at the end of the world. Only four of the learned ones remained with the colonists--Oxomoco, Cipactonal, Tlaltetecuin, and Xochicauaca--and it was they who invented the calendar and its interpretation in order that men might have a guide for their conduct. From Tamoanchan the colonists went to Teotihuacan, where they made sacrifices and erected pyramids in honour of the Sun and of the Moon. Here also they elected their first kings, and here they buried them, regarding them as gods and saying of them, not that they had died, but that they had just awakened from a dream called life. "Hence the ancients were in the habit of saying that when men die, they in reality began to live," addressing them: "Lord (or Lady), awake! the day is coming! Already the first light of dawn appears! The song of the yellow-plumed birds is heard, and the many-coloured butterflies are taking wing!" Even at Tamoanchan a dispersal of the tribes had begun: the Olmac and the Huastec had departed toward the east, and from them had come the invention of the intoxicating drink, pulque, and (apparently as a result of this) the power of creating magical illusions; for they could make a house seem to be in flames when nothing of the sort was taking place, they could show fish in empty waters, and they could even make it appear that they had cut their own bodies into morsels. But the peoples associated with the Mexicans departed from Teotihuacan. First went the Toltec, then the Otomi, who settled in Coatepec, and last the Nahua; they traversed the deserts, seeking a home, each tribe guided by its own gods. Worn by pains and famines, they at length came to the Place of Seven Caves, where they celebrated their respective rites. The Toltec were the first to go forth, finally settling at Tollan. The people of Michoacan departed next, to be followed by the Tepanec, Acolhua, Tlascaltec, and other Nahuatlan tribes, and last of all by the Aztec, or Mexicans proper, who, led by their god, came to Colhuacan. Even here they were not allowed to rest, but were compelled to resume their wanderings, and, passing from place to place--"all designated by their names in the ancient paintings which form the annals of this people"--finally they came again to Colhuacan, and thence to the neighbouring island where Tenochtitlan was founded.

Section, comprising about one third, of the "Map Tlotzin," after Aubin, _Mémoires sur la peinture didactique (Mission scientifique au Mexique et dans l'Amérique Centrale_), Plate I. The map is described by Boturini as a "map on prepared skin representing the genealogy of the Chichimec emperors from Tlotzin to the last king, Don Fernando Cortès Ixtilxochitzin." Two of the six "caves," or ancestral abodes of the Chichimec, shown on the whole map, are here represented. At the right, marked by a bat in the ceiling, is Tzinacanoztoc, "the Cave of the Bat"; below it, in Nahuatl, being the inscription, "Tzinacanoztoc, here was born Ixtilxochitzin." The second cave shown is Quauhyacac, "At the End of the Trees"; and here are shown a group of ancestral Chichimec chieftains, whose wanderings are indicated in the figures below. The Nahuatlan text below the figure of the cave is translated: "All came to establish themselves there at Quauhyacoc, where they were yet all together. Thence departed Amacui; with his wife he went to Colhuatlican. Thence again departed Nopal; he went with his wife to Huexotla. Thence again departed Tlotli; he went with his wife to Oztoticpac."

Of the "ancient paintings," mentioned by Sahagun, several are preserved,[62] portraying the journey of the Aztec from Aztlan, their mythical fatherland, which is represented and described as located beyond the waters, or as surrounded by waters; and the first stage of the migration is said to have been made by boat. For this reason numerous speculations as to its locality have placed it overseas--in Asia or on the North-west Coast of America--although the more conservative opinion follows Seler, who holds that it represents simply an island shrine or temple-centre of the national god, and hence a focus of national organization rather than of tribal origin. According to the Codex Boturini (one of the migration picture-records), as interpreted by Seler and others, after leaving Aztlan, represented as an island upon which stood the shrine of Huitzilopochtli in care of the tribal ancestor and his wife Chimalma, the Aztec landed at Colhuacan (or Teocolhuacan, i. e. "the divine Colhuacan"), where they united with eight related tribes, the Uexotzinca, Chalca, Xochimilca, Cuitlauaca, Malinalca, Chichimeca, Tepaneca, and Matlatzinca, who are said to have had their origin in a cavern of a crook-peaked mountain. From Colhuacan, led by a priestess and four priests, they journeyed to a place (represented in the codex by a broken tree) which Seler identifies as Tamoanchan, or "the House of Descent," and which is also the "House of Birth," for it is here that souls are sent from the thirteenth heaven to be born. Thence, after a sojourn of five years, the Aztec, perhaps urged on by some portent of which the broken tree is a symbol, took their departure alone, leaving their kindred tribes; and guided by Huitzilopochtli, they came to the land of melon-cacti and mesquite, where the god gave them bow and arrows and a snare. This land they called Mimixcoua ("Land of the Cloud-Serpent"); and it was here that they changed their name, for the first time calling themselves "Mexica"--an appellation which Sahagun describes as formed from that of a chieftain, who was also an inspired priest, ruling over the nation while they were in the land of the Chichimec, and whose cradle, it was said, was a maguey plant, whence he was called Mexicatl ("Mescal Hare"). Perhaps this is the incident represented in the curious picture which shows human beings clad in skins and with ceremonial face-paintings, recumbent upon desert plants; and no doubt it signifies some important change in cult, such, perhaps, as the introduction of the mescal intoxication, with its attendant visions. It may, too, portray the institution of human sacrifice; for the next station indicated on the chart, Cuextecatlichocayan ("Where the Huastec Weep"), was the scene of the offering of the Huastec captives by arrow-slaying (see p. 79, _supra_). From this place the journey led to Coatlicamac ("In the Jaws of the Serpent"), where the people "tied the years" and kindled the new fire; and from Coatlicamac they made their way to Tollan, with the reaching of which the first stage of the migration-story may be said to end. Seler regards the whole as a myth of the world-quarters: Tamoanchan is the West, as in the Books of Fate; Mimixcoua is the North; Cuextecatlichocayan is the East, as the reference to the Huastec shows; and Coatlicamac is the South; finally, Tollan is the Middle Place, being regarded, like other sacred cities, as the navel of the world.

A second stage of the myth depicts the journey of the Aztec from Tollan, through many stops, back to Colhuacan, until at last they came to the site of Tenochtitlan. It is said that as the tribes halted by the waters of Tezcuco they beheld a great eagle perched on a cactus growing from a wave-washed rock; and while they gazed the bird ascended to the rising sun with a serpent in his talons. This was regarded as a divine augury, and here Tenochtitlan was founded. Such is the tradition which gives modern Mexico its national emblem. The places of sojourn between Tollan and Tenochtitlan, as represented in the writings, are all with fair certainty identified with towns or sites in the Valley of Mexico, so that here we are in the realm of history rather than of myth. Historic also are the names (and approximate dates) of the nine lords or emperors who ruled from the Mexican capital before the coming of the Spaniards brought the native power to its unhappy end.

The fifth of the Aztec monarchs was the first Montezuma. Of him it is told (the story is recorded by Fray Diego Durán)[63] that after he had extended his realm and consolidated his rule, he decided to send an embassy to the home of his fathers, especially since he had heard that the mother of Huitzilopochtli was still living there. He summoned his counsellor Tlacaelel, who brought before him an aged man learned in the nation's history. "The place you name," said the old man, "is called Aztlan ['White'], and near it, in the midst of the water, is a mountain called Culhuacan ['Crooked Hill']. In its caverns our fathers dwelt for many years, much at their ease, and they were known as Mexitin and Azteca. They had quantities of duck, heron, cormorants, and other waterfowl, while birds of red and of yellow plumage diverted them with song. They had fine large fish; handsome trees lined the shores; and the streams flowed through meadows under the cypress and alder. In canoes they fared upon the waters, and they had floating gardens bearing maize, chile, tomatoes, beans, and all the vegetables which we now eat and which we have brought thence. But after they left this island and set foot on land, all this was changed: the herbs pricked them, the stones wounded, and the fields were full of thistle and of thorn. Snakes and venomous vermin swarmed everywhere, while all about were lions and tigers and other dangerous and hurtful beasts. So is it written in my books." Then the king dispatched his messengers with gifts for the mother of Huitzilopochtli. They came first to Coatepec, near Tollan, and there called upon their demons (for they were magicians) to guide them; and thus they reached Culhuacan, the mountain in the sea, where they beheld the fisherfolk and the floating gardens. The people of the land, finding that the foreigners spoke their tongue, asked what god they worshipped, and when told that it was Huitzilopochtli and that they were come with a present for Coatlicue, his mother, if she yet lived, they conducted the strangers to the steward of the god's mother. When they had delivered their message, stating their mission from the King and his counsellor, the steward answered: "Who is this Montezuma and who is Tlacaelel? Those who went from here bore no such names; they were called Teçacatetl, Acacitli, Oçelopan, Ahatl, Xomimitl, Auexotl, Uicton, Tenoch, chieftains of the tribes, and with them were the four guardians of Huitzilopochtli." The messengers answered: "Sir, we own that we do not know these lords, nor have we seen them, for all are long dead." "Who, then, killed them? We who are left here are all yet living. Who, then, are they who live to-day?" The messengers told of the old man who retained the record of the journey, and they asked to be taken before the mother of the god to discharge their duty. The old man, who was the steward of Coatlicue, led them forward; but the mountain, as they ascended, was like a pile of loose sand, in which they sank. "What makes you so heavy?" asked the guide, who moved lightly on the surface; and they answered, "We eat meat and drink cocoa." "It is this meat and drink," said the elder, "that prevent you from reaching the place where your fathers dwelt; it is this that has brought death among you. We know naught of these, naught of the luxury that drags you down; with us all is simple and meagre." Thereupon he took them up, and swift as wind brought them into the presence of Coatlicue. The goddess was foul and frightful to behold, and like one near death, for she was in mourning for her son's departure; but when she heard the message and beheld the rich gifts, she sent word to her son, reminding him of the prophecy that he had made at the time of his going forth: how he should lead the seven tribes into the lands they were to possess, making war and reducing cities and nations to his service; and how at last he should be overthrown, even as he had overthrown others, and his weapons cast to earth. "Then, O mother mine, my time will be accomplished, and I will return fleeing to thy lap, but until then I shall know naught save pain. Therefore give me two pairs of sandals, one for going forth and one for returning, and four pairs of sandals, two pair for going forth and two for returning." "When he thinks on these words," continued the goddess, "and remembers that his mother yearns after him, bring to him this mantle of nequen and this breechband." With these gifts she dismissed the messengers; and as they descended, the steward of Coatlicue explained how the people of Aztlan kept their youth, for when they grew old, they climbed the mountain, and the climbing renewed their years. So the messengers returned, by the way they had come, to King Montezuma.

VI. SURVIVING PAGANISM

In 1502 Montezuma Xocoyotzin ("Montezuma the Young") was elected Emperor of Mexico, assuming a pomp and pride unknown to his predecessors. Five years later, in 1507, the Aztec "tied the years" and for the last time kindled the new fire on the breast of a noble captive. Ominous portents began to appear with the new cycle, and the chronicles abounded with imaginations of disaster.[64] The temple turret of the war-god was burned; another shrine was destroyed by fire from heaven, thunderlessly fallen in the midst of rain; a tree-headed comet was seen; Lake Tezcuco overflowed its banks for no cause; a rock which the King had ordered made into a sacrificial altar refused to be moved, saying to the workmen that the Lord of Creation would not suffer it; twins and monsters were born, and there were nightly cries, as of women in travail--

"Lamentings heard i' the air; strange screams of death,
And prophesying with accents terrible
Of dire combustion and confused events
New-hatched to the woeful time."

Fishermen caught a strange bird with a crystal in its head, and in the crystal, as in a mirror, Montezuma beheld unheard-of warriors, armed and slaying. Most terrible of all, a huge pyramid of fire appeared in the east, night after night, coruscating with points of brilliance. In his terror Montezuma summoned old Nezahualpilli of Tezcuco, noted as an astrologer, to interpret the sign; and this King, whose star was in the decline, took perhaps a grim satisfaction in reading from the portents the early overthrow of the empire. Montezuma, it is said, put the interpretation to test, challenging Nezahualpilli to the divinatory game of _tlachtli_; but just on the point of winning, the monarch lost and returned discomfited. Another tale, doubtless apocryphal, tells how Papantzin, sister of Montezuma, died and was buried; shortly afterward she was found sitting by a fountain in the palace garden, and when the lords were assembled in her presence, she told how a winged youth had taken her to the banks of a river, beside which she saw the bones of dead men and heard their groans, while upon the waters were strange craft, manned by fair and bearded warriors coming to possess the kingdom. Certain it is, at least, that the hearts of all men regarded the return of Quetzalcoatl as near--the oppressed looking with hope, the powerful with dread, to the coming of the god--and the vestments of the deity were among the first gifts with which the unhappy Mexican sought to win the favour of Cortez.

Interior of chamber, Mitla, showing type of mural decoration peculiar to this region. After photograph in the Peabody Museum.

Nevertheless the memory of the King did not fade from native imagination with the fall of his throne. Stories of the greatness, the pride and the destruction of Montezuma spread; they became confused with older legends; and finally the Mexican monarch himself became the subject of myth. Far to the north the Papago[65] still show the cave of Montezuma, whom they have identified with Sihu, the elder brother of Coyote; and they tell how Montezuma, coming forth from a cave dug by the Creator, led the Indian nations thence. At first all went happily, and men and beasts conversed with one another until a flood ended this age of felicity, only Montezuma and his brother, Coyote, escaping in arks which they made for themselves. When the waters had subsided, they aided in the repeopling of the world, and to Montezuma was assigned the lordship of the new race, but, being swollen with pride and arrogance by his high dignity, he failed to rule justly. The Great Spirit, to punish him, removed the sun to a remote part of the heavens; whereupon Montezuma set about building a house which should reach the skies, and whose apartments he lined with jewels and precious metals. This the Great Spirit destroyed with his thunder; but Montezuma was still rebellious, whereupon as his supreme punishment, the Great Spirit sent an insect to summon the Spaniards from the East for his destruction.

How far the political influence of the Aztec Empire extended is not clearly certain, but there are numerous indications that its cultural relations were very wide. There are rites and myths of the Pueblo Indians, Hopi and Zuñi, whose resemblance to the Mexican seems surely to imply a connexion not too remote; while far to the south, among the Nahua of Lake Nicaragua, the creator pair and ruling gods, Tamagostad and Çipattoval, are identical with the Mexican generative couple, Oxomoco and Cipactonal.[66]

In outlying districts today the less-touched Nahuatlan tribes preserve their essential paganism, and Lumholtz's and Preuss's accounts[67] of the pantheons of the Cora and Huichol Indians give us a living image of what must have been the ancestral religion of the Nahuatlan tribes, at least in the crude days of their wanderings. Father Sun, say the Cora, is fierce in the summer-time, slaying men and animals; but Chuvalete, the Morning Star, keeps watch over him to prevent him from harming the people. Morning Star is cool and dislikes heat, and once he shot the Sun, causing him to fall to earth; but an old man restored him to the heavens, giving him a new start, Chuvalete is the first friend of the Cora among the gods, and it is to him that they address their prayers as they go to the spring to bathe in the early dawn; they call him, "Elder Brother," just as the Earth is "Our Mother" and the Sun "Our Father." The Water Serpent of the West, the Moon, the Winds, the Rain, the Lightning,--all these are familiar deities. Preuss[68] calls attention to the striking emphasis which the Cora place on the power of thought: the leaders of the ceremonies are called "thinkers" and in their prayers and rites the conception of a magical preservative and creative power in thought frequently recurs, not only as a power of priests, who have obtained it through purification, but as the essential power of the gods. Thus, of the sun about to rise:

"Our Father in Heaven thinks upon his Earth, our Father the Shining One.
There he is, on the other side of the World.
He thinks with his Thought, our Father, the Shining One.
He remembers, too, what he is, our Father, the Shining One."

And again it is the sacred words handed down in ritual through which men acquire that mystical participation in the divine power that preserves them in life:

"Here are present his Words, which he has given to us, his children,
Wherewith we live and continue in the World.
Indeed, all his Words are here present, which he has uttered and left unto us.
Here leaves he unto his children his Thought."

The Huichol have a more populous pantheon. Tatevali ("Grandfather Fire") is the deity of life and health, and also of shamans and prophesying. Great-grandfather Deer-Tail is likewise a fire-god and a singing shaman; he is the son of Grandfather Fire and yet his elder; for, it is said, Great-grandfather Deer-Tail is the spark produced in striking flint, while Grandfather Fire is the flame fed by wood. Father Sun is another important deity who was created, they say, when the Corn Mother (or the Eagle Mother, as some have it) threw her young son, armed with bow and arrows, into an oven, whence he emerged as the divinity. Setting Sun is the assistant of Father Sun; and with the Moon, who is a Grandmother, he helps to keep Tokakami, the black and blood-smeared god of death, from leaving his underworld abode to devour the Indians. Tamats, the Elder Brother, is divinity of wind and air and messenger of the gods;[69] the cock belongs to him, because it follows the course of the Sun and always knows where the Sun is; and he is also the deity who conquered the underworld people and put the world into shape. He appears in different forms (like Tezcatlipoca), now a wolf, now a deer, a pine-tree, a whirlwind; and it is he who taught the ancients "all they had to do in order to comply with what the gods wanted at the five points of the world." There are goddesses, too. Takotsi Nakawe ("Grandmother Growth") is the Earth goddess who gives long life and is the mother of the armadillo, the peccary, and the bear; to her belong maize, and squash, and beans, and sheep; she is water, likewise, and is a Rain-Serpent in the east. Rain-Serpent goddesses live in each of the Quarters--she of the east is red, and the flowers of spring are her skirt; she of the west is white, like a white cloud; blue is the Rain-Serpent goddess of the south, and to her belong seeds and singing shamans; while the Rain-Serpent goddess of the north, whose name means "Rain and Fog hanging in the Trees and Grass," is spotted. Another goddess is Young Mother Eagle, the Sun's mother, and it is she who holds the world in her talons and guards everything; the stars are her dress. With Grandmother Growth beneath, Young Mother Eagle above, and the four Rain-Serpent goddesses, the six cardinal points of the world are defined. It will be observed, too, that the goddesses are deities of the feminine element, earth and water; while the gods are divinities of the masculine elements, fire and air.

Beliefs such as these inevitably suggest those of the older Mexico, and similarly in many of the rites of these Indians there are analogies to Aztec cult. Perhaps most striking of all is the elaborate and partly mystical adoration of the hikuli, or peyote (cacti of the genus _Lophophora_), to which are ascribed mantic power and the induction of ecstacy; and in which, no doubt, we see the marvellous plant which the Aztec encountered in their migration. The cult extends to tribes remote in the north and is not without a touch of welcome poetry, as in the Tarahumare song given by Lumholtz[70]--

"Beautiful lily, in bloom this morning, guard me!
Drive away sorcery! Make me grow old!
Let me reach the age at which I have to take up a walking-stick!
I thank thee for exhaling thy fragrance, there where thou art standing!"