Chapter VII: Gods, Supernatural Beings, and Worship (3)

[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.