Chapter VI (2)

The Aztec migration and the itinerary as generally accepted demands consideration before forming any judgment on the location of Aztlan. In this primitive abode we are told that each year the Aztecs crossed a great river or channel to Teo-Culhuacan for the purpose of offering sacrifices in honor of their god Tetzauch. But it happened that a bird appeared to Huitziton, one of the greatest of their chiefs (whom Bancroft thinks was identical with Mecitl or Mexi—hence the name Mexicans), and constantly reiterated the word _tihui_, _tihui_, meaning “let us go, let us go.” This singular occurrence was interpreted by Huitziton as a command from the gods for them to seek a new country, and after persuading the chief Tecpatzin to his view, the divine oracle was announced to the people. Accordingly, in the year 1064, according to some authors,[410] or in 1090 according to others,[411] or a century later than the first-named date according to some of the interpreters of the Aztec migration maps, the Nahuatlaca tribes left their ancient home and entered upon one of those strange and aimless journeys so characteristic of semi-civilized and superstitious peoples. The Aztec migration as given by several authorities is scarcely more satisfactory than that of the Toltecs, nor can any additional light be thrown on the route pursued until Sr. Orozco y Berra publishes the results of his critical examination of the subject.[412] The unimportance of the itinerary in the solution of any question is apparent, since it contributes but little to our knowledge of the location of Aztlan.

Mr. Bancroft has greatly facilitated the comparison of the lists of stations as given by different authors, in a note of great length on pp. 322–4, thus presenting to the eye at a glance the diversity of opinion which meets the reader of this subject. As an example, we select two or three of the itineraries, simply to show the wide range that opinion has taken on the subject. According to Veytia, the tribes left Aztlan in I Tecpatl, 1064 A. D., and one hundred and four years afterwards reached Chicomoztoc, where they dwelt nine years; the subsequent stations and the duration of their sojourn in each as follows: Cohuatlicamac three years, Matlahuacallan six, Apanco five, Chimalco six, Pipiolcomic three, Tollan six, Cohuactepec (Coatepec) three, Atlitlalacayan two, Atotonilco one, Tepexic five, Apasco three, Tozonpanco seven, Tizayocan one, Ecatepec one, Tolpetlac three, Chimalpan four, Cohuatitlan two, Huexachtitlan three, Tecpayocan three, Tepeyacac (Guadalupe) three, Pantitlan two, and thence to Chapultepec, arriving in 1298, after a journey of one hundred and eighty-five years, reckoning an additional forty-nine years for their stay at Michoachan.[413] According to Tezozomoc, the stations are as follows: Aztlan, Culhuacan, Jalisco, Mechoacan, Malinalco (Lake Patzcuaro), Ocopipilla, Acahualcingo, Coatepec (in Tonalan), Atlitlanquin, or Atitalaquia, Tequisquiac, Atengo, Tzompan, Cuachilgo, Xaltocan, and Lake Chnamitl, Eycoac, Ecatepc, Aculhuacan, Tultepetlac, Huixachtitlan, Tecpayuca (in two Calli), Atepetlac, Coatlayauhcan, Tetepanco, Acolnahuac, Popotla (Tacuba), Chapultepec in two Tochtli.[414] Clavigero states that they left Aztlan in 1160, crossed the Colorado River, stayed three years in Hucicolhuacan, went east to Chicomoztoc, reached Tula in 1196, and finally Chapultepec in 1245.[415] Acosta, Herrera and Duran state that Nahuatlaca tribes left Aztlan in 820 A. D., and eighty years later reached Mexico; that the Aztecs, however, did not start until 1122 A. D.[416] Duran identifies Aztlan with Teo-Culhuacan, and locates it towards our Mississippi Valley. He in common with other writers identifies Chicomostoc with the seven caves.[417]

The Tarascos, though speaking a different language, are said to have separated from the Nahuatlacas at Michoacan. They describe the route to the seven caves as across a sea, which they passed in balsas and the trunks of trees.[418] This statement may be of some value in locating that disputed rendezvous of so many tribes; and certainly is more important than a mass of groundless speculation. The next source of interest in this connection is the much perverted and sadly misunderstood migration map first published by Gemelli Carreri, in Churchill’s collection of voyages (vol. iv). Humboldt has given an interpretation which, with the exception of that part which connects it with a deluge and Colhuacan, “the Ararat of the Mexicans,” is generally received.[419]

Gemelli Carreri, Humboldt and many others were quite certain that they could read in this map the account of the Mosaic deluge.[420] Don José Fernando Ramirez, of the Mexican Museum, however, pointed out the fact that the Gemelli Carreri map, copied from one owned by Sigüenza, and published by Humboldt, Clavigero and Kingsborough, was in each case incorrectly represented, and states that the copy contained in the _Atlas_ of Garcia y Cubas is the first correct reproduction of the original presented to the public.[421] Sr. Ramirez explains away the illusion of the Mexican Ararat and deluge in a manner both simple and conclusive.[422] The dove with commas proceeding from its beak, is not talking, nor giving tongues, but is repeating the word _tihui_, “let us go,” referring to the legend already cited, of the bird in Aztlan incessantly uttering this word in the hearing of Huitziton the chief. A little bird called _tihuitochan_ is still heard in Mexico, having a note which is interpreted by the common people to mean the same as their ancestors interpreted it in Aztlan. Sr. Ramirez is convinced that the map referred to is only a record of the wanderings of the Aztecs among the lakes of the Mexican Valley, and that it has no reference whatever to any deluge, not even to one of the former traditional destructions of the world found in the Nahua cosmogony. Mr. Bancroft has added the valuable argument that the story of Cox-cox and the deluge is only the product of false interpretation, or else some of the earlier writers would have been acquainted with the legend. On the contrary, Olmos, Sahagun, Motolinia, Mendieta, Ixtlilxochitl, and Camergo are all silent with regard to it. The mountain and boat and their several adjuncts are found to be nothing but hieroglyphics for proper names.

Chalco Lake is, in the opinion of Señor Ramirez, the point of departure for the fifteen chiefs at the end of their first cycle. His interpretation of the Boturini map of the migration results in the same conclusion. The fifteen chiefs left their island home, passing through Coloacan (Colhuacan, according to Gondra’s interpretation) as their second station. It appears that the first move and point of departure are both unknown, and no satisfactory solution of the question has yet been offered. The prevailing tradition that it is in the north has been perplexing, since no material remains undoubtedly attributable to the Aztecs are found north of the central plateau of Mexico, nor indeed in the territories of the United States. If we adopt the general theory that the Aztecs came from the Mississippi Valley, possibly the original home of the Nahuas, occupied by the Olmecs prior to their arrival at Panuco and their descent into the Chiapan region, and by the Toltecs before their migration to Anahuac, we have a theory which agrees with the testimony of Duran and Sahagun, and seems to find support in the pyramidal mounds of the Lower Mississippi, which we have already seen are almost as perfect in their plan and construction as those found in Mexico, which do not furnish evidence of as great antiquity as those of the Ohio and Missouri Valleys. According to most accounts, a considerable period elapses between their departure and their arrival at Chicomoztoc—the seven caves. According to Veytia it was 104 years, but Brasseur adopts twenty-six years, which is also the opinion of the majority of writers. Chicomoztoc has some features which remind us of the Tulan Zuiva of the Quichés—their seven caves, from which so many tribes derived their origin. Chicomoztoc is the point at which the six Nahuatlaca tribes separated from the Aztecs, and thence proceeded to the Mexican lake region. It is quite probable that a considerable distance may have been traversed in this interval of twenty-six years, a distance which could have brought the Aztecs from a comparatively northern latitude to the Chiapan region. Opposed to this, however, is the fact that the Tulan Zuiva of the Quichés was in a cold, inhospitable region, no doubt at the North. Mr. Bancroft suggests that the first part of the migration tradition may refer vaguely back to the events which followed the Toltecs’ destruction.[423] We have already referred to the tendency to confusion in histories that are chiefly traditional. In opposition to the view that Aztlan and Chicomoztoc were remote from each of these, we have the statement of Duran[424] that these caves are in Teo-Culhuacan, otherwise called Aztlan, which implies that both Teo-Culhuacan and Chicomoztoc were points in the region of Aztlan. Every year it was the custom of the Aztecs, while in Aztlan, to cross a river or channel to Teo-Culhuacan in order to sacrifice to their god Tetzauh, and after their arrival at Chicomoztoc they continued the occupation of boatmen, which they had followed while in Aztlan.[425] By way of summary, then, we may venture the following: 1. Viewed from the standpoint of Sr. Ramirez, Aztlan may be located somewhere not far distant from Chalco Lake. The islands which it encircles may correspond to the description of the ancient home of the Aztecs, given by Duran as quoted on page 257 and described as Culhuacan. Teo-Culhuacan, where the Aztecs sacrificed yearly, may be the city of Culhuacan situated in that neighborhood. As additional testimony we have the fact that most of the stations named in the migrations can be located in the Central Mexican region. The report that they came from the north may refer only to the scattering of the Nahua or Toltec people from Tollan, just north of the valley. 2. The statements of all the writers that the Aztecs came from the north, the fact that Duran and Sahagun assign the primitive Nahua home to the region of Florida, and the prevalence of mounds and shell-heaps in great numbers in the Gulf States, together with the extension of those mounds through Texas into Mexico, may warrant the opinion that Aztlan was in the Mississippi Valley, or, looking in another direction, the rock or cave dwellings recently discovered in Southern Utah and the Rocky Mountain region (of which we shall give a description in the next chapter) may indicate the locality of the ancient and much-sought-for land. The identity in meaning of Chicomoztoc (seven caves) and Tulan Zuiva (seven caves) together with the fact that both places in Quiché and Nahua history were the point of separation for many tribes, is a singular coincidence, if they are not one and the same. In the preceding chapter we have seen that Tulan Zuiva of the Quichés was in a northern or at least a colder climate, where they suffered greatly for want of fire, a fact of no little significance. On the other hand Teo-Culhuacan, the place of yearly sacrifice, may have been a city of the Chiapan region, since Sahagun located Tamoanchan the first city of the Nahuas (Olmec) after their arrival from Florida in Mexico, somewhere in the Usumacinta Valley. It is possible that a large number of the immigrants remained behind the company which migrated northward to Teotihuacan and thence to the seven caves, subsequently uniting with the Toltecs at Tollan. This view has had quite a number of advocates.[426] We will not undertake, in the present state of knowledge on the subject, to decide which of these three claims is the true one, if either one of them is correct. Our only wish is to furnish the reader a margin for his choice. It seems to us that it would be unscientific to attempt to decide a question based upon such slender and contradictory data.

It is unnecessary for us to follow the Aztecs farther in their history. The magnificent empire of the Montezumas, with its advanced civilization, but at the same time cursed with its horrid worship, in which thousands of human victims bathed the altars of Mexico yearly with their life-blood, has been described and its glory handed down to history by that most graceful and romantic of American writers, William H. Prescott. We cannot, however, dismiss this the most primitive period of the growth of the Nahua nations without a reference to the reputed author of the higher phases of their civilization. We refer to that semi-mythical and semi-divine personage, Quetzalcoatl. The numerous legends concerning this culture-hero, scattered chronologically over hundreds of years of Nahua history, may have originated in the life and character of some noted personage—the leader and civilizer of the most ancient branches of the Nahua family, or in the personification of an ideal deity, a nature-god whose chief attribute, whose distinguishing office, was the fertilization of the earth, the revivification of the slumbering forces in nature and consequently the author of prosperity, agriculture, and the arts of peace. In either case the name of the original Quetzalcoatl, were he either man or deity, was eventually inherited by a line of individuals who became the priests of his worship, or the representatives of his teachings, and the inculcators of the most humane and noble principles which entered into the ancient civilization. Without entering into a lengthy discussion of the probabilities in the case, we give the substance of the traditions, arranged in what appears to us not only the most consistent, but also the proper order. We have already acquainted the reader with the meaning of Quetzalcoatl, namely, “plumed serpent.”

From the distant East, from the fabulous Hue hue Tlapalan, this mysterious personage came to Tulla, and became the patron god and high-priest of the ancestors of the Toltecs.[427] He is described as having been a white man, with a strong formation of body, broad forehead, large eyes, and flowing beard. He wore a mitre on his head, and was dressed in a long, white robe, reaching to his feet, and covered with red crosses. In his hand he held a sickle. His habits were ascetic; he never married, was most chaste and pure in his life, and is said to have endured penance in a neighboring mountain, not for its effects upon himself, but as an example to others. Some have here found a parallel for Christ’s temptation. He condemned sacrifices, except of fruits and flowers, and was known as the god of peace; for when addressed on the subject of war, he is reported to have stopped his ears with his fingers.[428]

Quetzalcoatl was skilled in many arts, having invented gem-cutting and metal-casting. He furthermore originated letters and invented the Mexican calendar. The legend which describes the latter states that the gods, having made men, thought it advisable that their creatures should have some means of reckoning time, and of regulating the order of religious ceremonies. Therefore two of these celestial personages, one of them a goddess, called Quetzalcoatl to counsel with them, and the three contrived a system which they recorded on tables, each bearing a single sign. That sign, however, was accompanied with all necessary explanations of its meaning. It is noticeable that the goddess was assigned the privilege of writing the first sign, and that she chose a serpent as her favorite symbol.

Some accounts represent that Huemac was the temporal king, or at least associated with Quetzalcoatl in the government; the latter occupying the priestly as well as the kingly office. Sahagun calls the associate ruler Vemac. At all events, Quetzalcoatl had an enemy, the deity Tezcatlipoca, whose worship was quite opposite in its character to that of Quetzalcoatl, being sanguine and celebrated with horrid human sacrifices. A struggle ensued in Tulla (Tollan) between the opposing systems which resulted favorably to the bloody deity and the faction who sought to establish his worship in preference to the peaceful and ascetic service of Quetzalcoatl.

Tezcatlipoca, envious of the magnificence enjoyed by Quetzalcoatl, determined upon his destruction. His first appearance at Tulla was in the _rôle_ of a great ball-player, and Quetzalcoatl, being very fond of the game, engaged in play with him, when suddenly he transformed himself into a tiger, occasioning a panic among the spectators, in which great numbers were crowded over a precipice into a river, where they perished. Again the vicious god appeared at Tulla. This time he presented himself at the door of Quetzalcoatl’s palace in the guise of an old man, and asked permission of the servants to see their master. They attempted to drive him away, saying that their god was ill. At last, because of his importunities, they obtained leave to admit him.

Tezcatlipoca entered, and seeing the sick deity, asked about his health, and announced that he had brought him a medicine which would ease his body, compose his mind, and prepare him for the journey which Fate had decreed that he must undertake.[429] Quetzalcoatl received the sorcerer kindly, inquiring anxiously as to the journey and the land of his destiny. His deceiver told him that the name of the land was Tullan Tlapalan, where his youth would be renewed, and that he must visit it without delay. The sick king was moved greatly by the words of the sorcerer, and was prevailed upon to taste the intoxicating medicine which he pressed to his lips. At once he felt his malady healed, and the desire to depart fixed itself in his mind.

“Drink again!” exclaimed the old sorcerer; and again the god-king pressed the cup to his lips, and drank till the thought of departure became indelible, chained his reason, and speedily drove him a wanderer from his palace and kingdom.

Upon leaving Tulla, driven from his kingdom by the vicious enmity of Tezcatlipoca, he ordered his palaces of gold, and silver, and turquoise, and precious stones, to be set on fire. The myriads of rich-plumed songsters that made the air of the capital melodious with song accompanied him on his journey, pipers playing on pipes preceded him, and the flowers by the way are said to have given forth unusual volumes of perfume at his approach.

After journeying one hundred leagues southward, he rested, near a city of Anahuac, under a great tree, and as a memorial of the event, he cast stones at the tree, lodging them in its trunk.[430]

He then proceeded still farther southward in the same valley, until he came to a mountain, two leagues distant from the city of Mexico. Here he pressed his hands upon a rock on which he rested, and left their prints imbedded in it, where they remained visible down to a very recent date. He then turned eastward to Cholula, where he was received with greatest reverence.[431] The great pyramid was erected to his honor. With his advent the spirit of peace settled down upon the city. War was not known during his sojourn within it. The reign of Saturn repeated itself. The enemies of the Cholulans came with perfect safety to his temple, and many wealthy princes of other countries erected temples to his honor in the city of his choice.[432]

Here the silversmith, the sculptor, the artist, and the architect, we are led to believe, from the testimony of both tradition and remains, flourished under the patronage of the grand god-king.

However, after twenty years had elapsed, that subtile, feverish draught received from the hand of Tezcatlipoca away back in Tulla, like an old poison in the veins, renewed its power. Again his people, his palaces, and his pyramidal temple were forsaken, that he might start on his long and final journey.[433] He told his priests that the mysterious Tlapalla was his destination, and turning toward the East, proceeded on his way until he reached the sea at a point a few miles south of Vera Cruz. Here he bestowed his blessing upon four young men, who accompanied him from Cholula, and commanded them to go back to their homes, bearing the promise to his people that he would return to them, and again set up his kingdom among them. Then, embarking in a canoe made of serpent-skins, he sailed away into the East.[434]

The Cholulans, out of respect to Quetzalcoatl, placed the government in the hands of the recipients of his blessing. His statue was placed in a sanctuary on the pyramid, but in a reclining position, representing a state of repose, with the understanding that it shall be placed upon its feet when the god returns. When Cortés landed, they believed their hopes realized, sacrificed a man to him, and sprinkled the blood of the unhappy victim upon the conqueror and his companions.[435]

Father Sahagun, when on his journey to Mexico, was everywhere asked if he had not come from Tlapalla.[436] No wonder when the fleet of Cortés hove in sight on the horizon, almost in the same place where Quetzalcoatl’s bark had disappeared, that the Mexican, who had been waiting centuries for the prince of peace to return, believed his waiting to be at an end. No wonder that he inquired of the distant and mysterious Tlapalla. In this state of expectancy we find a most natural and fruitful soil for the operations of the Spanish conquerors.

Such is the form into which the mass of legends concerning Quetzalcoatl have been woven. There is scarcely a doubt, however, that it is a matter of growth—is the accumulation of several centuries. The name Quetzalcoatl (Nahua), Gucumatz (Quiché) and Cukulcan (Maya), translated “feathered” or “plumed” or “winged” serpent, may originally have been applied to an intelligent princely foreigner who was cast upon the shores of the Central American region, and who introduced the art of casting metals, and especially taught agriculture. His doctrines of peace and virtue may have been sufficiently wide-spread to have brought about the prosperity which is ascribed to his age. From this standpoint we would consider him at first to have cast his lot among the descendants of Votan, otherwise known as the “Serpents,” from which occurrence he may have received his name of “Feathered Serpent.” On pages 241–42 we referred to the statements of the Codex Chimalpopoca, that Quetzalcoatl, becoming obnoxious to his companions, who seem to be Quichés, forsook them. The account also states that he afterwards brought maize to Tamoanchan (the city of the Nahuas). Our next account of him describes him as figuring among the Olmecs at Cholula. This realistic view of the tradition applies to the first Quetzalcoatl, who may have been an actual man. While entertaining this view, we must not forget that centuries prior to this period (which we may as well assign to the first or second century as to any other date), the Quichés possessed the ideal of such a personage whom they considered a deity, who figures so actively in their cosmogony under the name of Gucumatz. This deity was the vivifying force in nature, the bringer of the gentle south winds, the god of the harvest and of the air. He was best symbolized to the mind of the savage by the vernal shower and the return of spring.

The serpent was everywhere considered an emblem of the vernal shower, and was thought to be in some way instrumental in bringing it, together with its refreshing and fructifying influences. So here, in the name of Quetzalcoatl, we find a progressive step indicated in the workings of the mind, an advance from the lower figure of the serpent alone to that of an aërial combination, which, while it contained all the virtues of the serpent, is lifted to a higher element—that from which the shower falls. The feathery vapor-clouds of summer are but the plumes or wings of the shower which the serpent symbolized.

At last when a teacher of agriculture and the mechanic arts, so conducive of prosperity and plenty, appeared—an individual who discovers maize and directs the process of its reproduction and guards an improvident people against want and famine, the attributes of the god are recognized as dwelling in him, the ideal vaguely represented by the vernal shower is concreted, is become incarnate, is presented in a shape more comprehensible to the untaught mind, and at once the name, reverence and worship of the god are attached to the man, the culture-hero. This we believe to be the simplest interpretation of the origin of the worship of Quetzalcoatl. A priesthood appears to have been founded who perpetuated the doctrines of this deified man. That part of the legend which relates to Tulla (Tollan) with the expulsion of the king and that which followed, properly belongs to Ceacatl, surnamed Quetzalcoatl, Toltec king of Tollan, who ascended the throne about 873.[437] The father of this monarch had been cruelly murdered, and in his early boyhood Ceacatl is said to have wreaked a terrible vengeance on the murderer of his father, after which he concealed himself for about twenty years. At about the above-named date he reappeared, and established his claims to the throne. He espoused the religion of Quetzalcoatl, and the peace which followed brought great prosperity. Human sacrifices were forbidden, and a golden age seemed to dawn in which Tollan exceeded all the cities of the Mexican valley in importance and wealth. But a rivalry at once sprang up between the priests of the bloody god Tezcatlipoca, worshipped in Culhuacan and at Teotihuacan, and those of the peaceful and humane Quetzalcoatl, which resulted in the voluntary departure of the Pontiff king, to whom the name of his god was attached. The contest between the two sects is symbolized in the legend by the tricks of Tezcatlipoca. Quetzalcoatl was received at Cholula, where he remained some years, but was at last driven away before the leader of the Tezcatlipoca faction, namely, King Huemac, who advanced upon the peaceful king with a strong army. Quetzalcoatl again voluntarily withdrew, rather than occasion the bloodshed of his subjects. It is probable that he ultimately reached Yucatan and figured there in his old character under the name of Cukulcan.[438]