The Native Races [of the Pacific states], Volume 5, Primitive History

THE TEOAMOXTLI, OR DIVINE BOOK

Returning now to the other version of Toltec history we learn that after the death of the first king of Tollan, his son Ixtlilcuechahuac mounted the throne.393 His reign, like that of his predecessor, was peaceful and prosperous; but the only event recorded was a meeting of all the sages under the direction of the aged Hueman, which took place only a few years before the end of the second king's term of office. At this assembly there were brought forward all the Toltec records reaching back to the earliest period of their existence, and from these documents, after a long conference and the most careful study, the Teoamoxtli, or 'book of God,' was prepared. In its pages were inscribed the Nahua annals from the time of the deluge, or even from the creation; together with all their religious rites, governmental system, laws and social customs; their knowledge respecting agriculture and all the arts and sciences, particular attention being given to astrology; and a complete explanation of their modes of reckoning time and interpreting the hieroglyphics. To the divine book was added a chapter of prophecies respecting future events and the signs by which it should be known when the time of their fulfillment was drawing near.

After the completion of the Teoamoxtli, Hueman, now three hundred years old, announced his approaching end and made known to the Toltecs their future. After ten cycles had elapsed from the time when they left Huehue Tlapallan, they were to be ruled by a king whose right to the royal power would not be undisputed among his subjects. From his mother's womb he would have certain personal peculiarities by which he might be known; his curly hair would assume the form of a mitre or tiara. The earlier years of his reign were to be years of great prosperity; his rule would be wise, just, and able. In middle life the king would abandon the ways of wisdom and virtue, giving himself up to all manner of vice leading infallibly to disaster; and worst of all his subjects would imitate his vicious conduct and share in his misfortunes. Great calamities were to come upon the Toltecs, sent by Tloque Nahuaque, the great God, and like unto these with which their ancestors were afflicted in the remote past. Finally the kingdom was to be destroyed by civil wars, and the king, driven from his possession, after nearly all his subjects had perished, was to return to the ancient home of their race, there in his later years to become once more wise and discreet. Yet a sign was not denied this fated people; for certain unnatural phenomena were to announce their destruction as drawing nigh. When the rabbit should have horns like a deer, and the humming-bird be found with spurs, and stones yield fruit; when the priests of the temples should forget their vows of chastity with noble ladies, pilgrims to the shrines of the god – then might they look for the fulfillment of Hueman's predictions; for lightnings and hail and snow, for famine and pestilence and devouring insects, to be followed by desolating wars. For such as escaped these disasters, or for their descendants, another visitation of divine wrath was reserved in the form of a foreign people from the east, who ten cycles later were to take possession of the country in fulfillment of the words of the ancient prophet Quetzalcoatl. No further information is given of Hueman's death or of Ixtlilcuechahuac's rule.

Huetzin, the third king, was crowned, according to Veytia's chronology, in 823,394 a date that very nearly agrees with that given in the other version, or 817. Totepeuh,395 the fourth, elsewhere mentioned as second king at Culhuacan, took the throne from his father after fifty-two years; and handed it down after a like period to his own son Nacaxoc,396 the fifth monarch at Tollan, who was in turn succeeded by Mitl in 979.397 These reigns, the last of which lasted fifty-nine years, were marked by the occurrence of no event specially important, though in all great progress was made, new towns founded, old cities beautified, and new temples built, including one of great magnificence at Quauhnahuac (Cuernavaca, possibly Xochicalco) and another at Tollan intended to rival that of the Sun at Teotihuacan, which city is incidentally admitted to have surpassed Tollan in extent and magnificence. During this period the Toltec power was firmly established over a broad territory, and there were yet no tokens of approaching destruction.398

TOTEPEUH KING OF TOLLANVENGEANCE OF QUETZALCOATL

In the annals of Culhuacan we left Totepeuh on the throne. His first military expedition was directed towards the eastern plateau, where Chalchiuhapan, later Tlascala, seems to have been founded at about this time, and where this king was afterwards worshiped under his name of Camaxtli. In his next expedition, to the province of Huitznahuac, he encountered, defeated after many fruitless attempts, and finally married a bold princess Chimalman, who fought entirely naked at the head of a body of amazons. The conquest of Cuitlahuac next claimed his attention, for this was the only city on the lakes that had been able to withstand the power of his father and predecessor. To this city and this period Brasseur traces back the foundation of the Nahual Teteuctin, an order of chivalry, whence proceeded the highest titles of learning and nobility, down to the coming of the Spaniards.399 Queen Chimalman, becoming enceinte immediately after marriage, dreamed that she bore in her bosom a chalchiuite, or precious stone, and decided to name her son, predestined to a glorious career, Quetzalcoatl Chalchiuitl. At his birth, which occurred nine months later, the heir was named also Ceacatl, probably from the day on which he was born. In addition to his mother's dream and the auguries drawn from it, the fact that Ceacatl Quetzalcoatl united in his veins the noblest blood of the Toltecs and the pre-Toltec peoples, gave special import to his birth, and the event was celebrated with great pomp at Culhuacan, and gifts of great value were sent from all directions.400 839 is the approximate date to which Ceacatl Quetzalcoatl's birth is referred; his mother died in childbed, and the child was entrusted to the king's sister Cohuatl, a priestess of the temple, perhaps the same as Cihuacoatl, or Cioacoatl, afterwards deified as the goddess of childbirth.401 In 845 King Totepeuh Nonohualcatl himself, now far advanced in years, was murdered by conspiring nobles under the leadership of Apanecatl, Zolton, and Cuilton; he was succeeded by Yohuallatonac, and at the same time Ihuitimal, – a name that bears no resemblance to that of Huetzin's successor according to the Spanish writers, – took Huetzin's place on the throne of Tollan. Brasseur believes that Huetzin left Tollan to become king at Culhuacan, and that he was the same as Yohuallatonac. It must be noted that the confused state of the aboriginal annals is due not only to the incompleteness of the native records – many having been destroyed – and the errors of interpreters, but also largely to the unfortunate custom of the Nahua peoples of giving many names to the same person, and multiplying names apparently in proportion to fame and rank. It is recorded that Ceacatl, while yet a boy, wreaked a terrible vengeance on the murderers of his father. The latter took refuge in the fortress of Cuitlahuac on one of the lake islands deemed impregnable, but by a subterranean passage leading under the waters, the prince and his followers gained access to fort and temple. The leaders of the conspiracy were sprinkled with red pepper after a preparatory flaying and mangling, and dying in indescribable torture were sacrificed to the memory of Totepeuh, the first of the many thousand victims subsequently offered to the same divinity under his name of Camaxtli. From this time nothing whatever is recorded of Ceacatl for about twenty years, until he re-appears under his name of Quetzalcoatl as the most celebrated of the Toltec kings and high-priests, afterwards deified like most heroes of this early time.

The only event recorded before the re-appearance of Quetzalcoatl is one of great importance, a convention of the princes and wise men of Anáhuac and vicinity. At this assemblage the system of government and the laws of succession were perfected and as may be supposed given substantially the form which they preserved down to the Conquest; but the most important act was the establishment of an alliance between the crowns of Culhuacan, Otompan, and Tollan. Each king was to be perfectly independent in the affairs of his own domain; but in matters affecting the general interests the three monarchs were to constitute a council, in which the king of Culhuacan was to rank first, assuming a title nearly equivalent to that of Emperor. Otompan took the second place and Tollan the third. This is the first mention of Otompan as a capital, but since its domain seems to have included the territory of Teotihuacan and Tezcuco, its prominent position in the league is not improbable. The establishment of this alliance, or, as it may be more conveniently termed, empire, is referred to the date 1 Tecpatl, 856.402

CEACATL QUETZALCOATL

Ceacatl Quetzalcoatl re-appears in history, still following the same authorities, about the year 870, and succeeded Ihuitimal as king of Tollan, assuming the title Topiltzin, on the death of that king in 873.403 All the Spanish writers have much to say of Quetzalcoatl, although none of them – except Sahagun, who expresses himself very clearly on the subject —404 seem to have regarded him as one of the Toltec kings in the regular order of succession to the throne; and their accounts are inextricably confused by reason of their having made no distinction between Quetzalcoatl the original culture-hero, and Quetzalcoatl, the pontiff-ruler of Tollan, applying indiscriminately to one person all the traditions in which the name occurred. I will give first the regular Spanish version of these traditions.

Mendieta records the tradition that he was the son of Camaxtli and Chimalman, and also another to the effect that Chimalman became pregnant by swallowing a chalchiuite, which she found when sweeping; but other authorities, without going back to his birth, represent him as appearing on the eastern coast, most of them agreeing on the region of Pánuco as the locality. He was tall, well formed, with broad forehead and large eyes, of fair complexion, with long black hair405 and a full beard. Bare as to his head and feet, he wore a long white robe ornamented with black flowers, according to Las Casas, or with black or red crosses, as other writers say, supporting his steps with a staff. He was austere in manner, but in character all that is good, and gentle, disapproving all acts of violence and blood, and withal most chaste, neither marrying nor knowing women. With him was a large company of artists and men learned in every branch of science, whom some of the authors seem to consider a colony from a foreign land. From Pánuco Quetzalcoatl, with his companions, came to Tollan after having tarried for some time, as Camargo tells us, at Tulancingo. He was at first received by the Toltecs with much enthusiasm, and during his stay in Tollan filled the position of high-priest or supreme spiritual ruler. His rule was mild, but he insisted on a strict performance of all religious duties, and subjected himself to severe penances, such as the drawing of blood from tongue and limbs by means of maguey-thorns. He was not without supernatural powers, since his announcements made by a crier from the top of a neighboring mountain could be heard for a distance of three hundred miles. He introduced many new religious rites, including the practice of fasting and the drawing of blood from their own body by penitents, also according to some authorities, the establishment of convents and nunneries, and the sacrifice of birds and animals; to human sacrifices he was ever opposed. He was a patron of all the arts and sciences, which in his time reached their highest state of development.406 Finally, Quetzalcoatl left Tollan and went to Cholula, which city with others on the eastern plateau, some authors – still referring to another Quetzalcoatl, and another epoch – credit him with having founded. There are many versions of his motives for abandoning Tollan, most referring to certain troubles between him and a rival Huemac or Tezcatlipoca. Playing ball with Tezcatlipoca, the latter assumed the form of a tiger, scared the spectators so that many fell over a precipice, and pursued his opponent from town to town until he reached Cholula; or he was driven away by the tricks of a sorcerer named Titlacaâon, or Titlacahua, who appeared in the form of an old man. By dint of much persuasion the magician induced Quetzalcoatl, who was unwell, to drink a medicine which he had brought, recommended to act as a narcotic. The medicine proved to be pulque, the high-priest was soon intoxicated, and in this condition was easily persuaded that by going to the ancient country of Tlapallan he might regain his youth. The other tricks of this sorcerer are many, but they seem to belong to the final overthrow of the Toltec empire rather than to Quetzalcoatl's time. Many details are given of the high-priest's journey towards Tlapallan, of the places through which he passed, and the wonderful traces which he left. He is generally credited with having stopped a short time at Quauhtitlan, and with having lived some years at Cholula, where he was especially popular, and where in after years his doctrines found their most devoted followers. But his chief enemy, Huemac, and the necromancers followed him even to Cholula with their persecutions, and he was forced to set out again on his journey towards Tlapallan. He finally disappeared in the Goazacoalco region, after predicting the future coming of bearded white men from the east. I have given here only a brief outline of the traditions respecting Quetzalcoatl, because a full account has been presented in another volume, to which the reader is referred.407

FLIGHT OF QUETZALCOATL

The supposition that Quetzalcoatl was a member of the Toltec royal family and reigned as a king at Tollan, together with the evident confounding in the traditions as recorded by the Spanish writers of two distinct persons named Quetzalcoatl,408 remove most of the difficulties connected with this famous personage, the second of the name. It seems to me most probable that the traditions relating to Quetzalcoatl's foreign origin or his long absence in distant parts of the country, his arrival at Pánuco, and his final disappearance in the south – although these are all accepted by Brasseur – should be referred to the Quetzalcoatl of primitive times. The young prince, unable for some unrevealed reason, to obtain after his arrival at years of discretion the crown of his murdered father, retired to some city in or near Anáhuac, probably Tulancingo, where he first comes into notice, to bide his time. Here he settled on his future policy including some religious reforms, communicated with powerful friends throughout Anáhuac, and perfected his plans for recovering his lost throne. Some crosses and other relics seen by the Spaniards in the mountains of Meztitlan, were attributed by native tradition to Ceacatl's residence in Tulancingo.409 Such was the force of his claim as son of Totepeuh, and such the influence of the religious dogmas zealously promulgated by him and his disciples, that at last on the death of Ihuitimal, perhaps his brother, he was raised to the throne of Tollan, as has been said, in 873, under the title of Topiltzin Ceacatl Quetzalcoatl.

REIGN OF CEACATL

There is nothing in the Spanish version of the Quetzalcoatl traditions by which to fix the epoch in which he flourished. It is merely implied that Huemac, his chief enemy, was temporal ruler at the same time that he exercised the functions of high-priest, and succeeded him in power. Huemac is identified by Brasseur, not without some reason, with Nacaxoc, the fifth king of the Spanish writers, whose reign is represented by them as having been most peaceful and uneventful. He is also known as Tezcatlipoca, and was closely related to Yohuallatonac,410 the king of Culhuacan. In the Codex Chimalpopoca he is called both Huemac and Matlacxochitl.

After Quetzalcoatl had been about ten years on the throne, opposition to his power, fomented by his enemies from the first, assumed serious proportions. Several causes are plausibly attributed by the records and their interpreters to this opposition. The new pontiff-king had effected many innovations in religious ceremonies. It does not appear that his doctrines differed very materially from those entertained by his predecessors, but the changes introduced by him had been so readily admitted by reason of the popularity and zeal of their author and his subordinates, as to excite jealousy among the ecclesiastical powers. Most prominent among his peculiar reforms, and the one that is reported to have contributed most to his downfall, was his unvarying opposition to human sacrifice. This sacrifice had prevailed from pre-Toltec times at Teotihuacan, and had been adopted more or less extensively in Culhuacan and Tollan. By Quetzalcoatl it was absolutely prohibited in the temples of the latter capital, and thus the powerful priesthood of Otompan, and Culhuacan was arrayed against him. Again it is thought that under Quetzalcoatl the spiritual power always closely connected with the temporal in Nahua governments, became so predominant as to excite the jealousy and fears of the nobility in Tollan, who were restive under a priestly restraint not imposed on their brothers of corresponding rank in the other nations of the empire. Finally, under the rule of Ceacatl, Tollan had become the metropolis of the empire. It does not appear that the terms of the alliance, according to which the monarch of Culhuacan outranked the others, had been changed; but in the magnificence of her palaces and temples, and the skill and fame of her artists, if not in population, Tollan now surpassed the cities of the valley, and thus naturally was looked upon as a too successful rival. The dissatisfied element at home was headed by Huemac, or Tezcatlipoca, who had perhaps some well-founded claim to the throne, and received the support of the allied monarchs. The ensuing struggle is symbolized in the record of the Spanish writers by the successive tricks of the necromancers; and the religious strife between rival sects was continued with more or less bitterness down to the latest Aztec epoch. Such was Quetzalcoatl's repugnance to the shedding of human blood, that he seems to have voluntarily abandoned his throne against the wishes of his more warlike partisans, and after a brief stay in Quauhtitlan, to have crossed to the eastern plateau of Huitzilapan in 895. Huemac, Tezcatlipoca, or Nacaxoc succeeded immediately to the royal power in Tollan.411

CONQUEST OF CHOLULA

The teachings and influence of Quetzalcoatl had preceded him among the Olmec nations of the eastern region. His father, under the name of Camaxtli, had done more than any other to bring these nations under the Toltec power, had founded the city afterwards known as Tlascala, and was perhaps already worshiped as a deity. Moreover the Quetzalcoatl of old had traditionally introduced Nahua institutions in this region, where he was still the object of supreme veneration. Whether the city of Cholula was actually founded at this time or by the first Quetzalcoatl, it is impossible to determine,412 but the coming of Ceacatl seems to have marked the beginning of a new era of prosperity on the eastern plateau. Temples in honor of Camaxtli were erected in Tlascala and Huexotzinco, while Cholula became the capital of what may almost be termed a new Toltec monarchy. All the southern and eastern provinces subject to the empire during Ceacatl's reign at Tollan, gave in their adhesion to him at Cholula. Large numbers of his partisans also followed him from Tollan, and all the primitive peoples, among whom human sacrifice in pre-Toltec times had been unknown, were glad to submit to the royal high-priest. His reign in Cholula lasted about ten years,413 and during this time his doctrines are thought to have been introduced by disciples dispatched from Cholula into the southern regions of Oajaca.

In 904 Yohuallatonac was succeeded in Culhuacan by Quetzallacxoyatl, and Huemac, having subdued by his strict and severe measures all open opposition to his rule at home, but looking with much uneasiness on the prosperity of Ceacatl in his new capital, and the constant emigration of his own subjects eastward, resolved again to attack his former rival. At the head of a large army he directed his march towards Cholula. Quetzalcoatl as before, notwithstanding the remonstrance of his people, refused to resist his progress, but departed before Huemac's arrival for other lands as before related. Cholula, with the neighboring cities and provinces fell an easy prey to the valiant Huemac; but so long did he remain absent in his insatiable desire to conquer new territory, that his subjects revolted and with the co-operation of the king of Culhuacan proclaimed Nauhyotl king about the year 930.414 Huemac did not yield without a struggle. Returning westward to defend his throne he met Nauhyotl on the lake shores; his army was routed and he was killed, or at least disappeared. As Tezcatlipoca and under various other titles he ever after ranked among the highest in the pantheon of Nahua divinities.415

During the ensuing era of peace among the Toltecs under Nauhyotl, or Mitl, and his allies, it seems that Cholula regained its prosperity, re-established the institutions and worship of Quetzalcoatl, and soon rivaled in magnificence Tollan, Culhuacan, and Teotihuacan. Still remaining to a certain extent a part of the Toltec empire, under the rule of the king at Tollan, Cholula seems to have preferred from this period a republican form of home rule, similar, if not identical, to that in vogue on the eastern plateau at the coming of the Spaniards.416 Four of Quetzalcoatl's chief disciples were charged with the establishment of a permanent government, which they entrusted to two supreme magistrates, one chosen from the priesthood and exercising the functions of high-priest under the title of Tlachiach or 'lord from on high,' and the other from the nobility being at the head of the civil government with the title Aquiach.

REIGN OF NAUHYOTL

The reign of Nauhyotl, or Mitl,417 at Tollan was one of great prosperity and peace. The new king devoted all his energies to promoting the glory of his capital city, where he re-established nearly all the reforms instituted by Ceacatl and partially abolished by Huemac. He is represented as having looked with some uneasiness on the growing prosperity of Cholula, and on the pilgrimages continually undertaken by residents of Tollan to the eastern shrines; but instead of resorting like his predecessor to hostile measures, he determined to eclipse the glory of Cholula by the erection of new and magnificent temples at home. The finest of these temples was that built in honor of the Goddess of Water,418 or the Frog Goddess, to which was attached a college of priests vowed to celibacy. Meantime the worship of Camaxtli and Tlaloc were more firmly established than before at Tlascala and Huexotzinco, and grand temples were built in several Toltec provinces without Anáhuac, particularly in the south, one of the most famous being near Quauhnahuac, later Cuernavaca, the ruins of which may be supposed with some plausibility to be identical with those of Xochicalco.419 After having restored Tollan to the position it had occupied under Ceacatl Quetzalcoatl, Nauhyotl died after a reign of fifteen years in 945.420

All the authorities agree that Nauhyotl was succeeded at his death by his queen Xiuhtlaltzin,421 who reigned four years, showing great zeal and wisdom in the management of public affairs, and dying deeply regretted by all her subjects.422 The Spanish writers name Tecpancaltzin as the successor of the lamented queen, referring to his reign and to that of his successor the events which brought about the overthrow of the Toltec empire. The Nahua records, however, represent queen Xiuhtlaltzin as having been followed by her son Matlaccoatl, who reigned from 949 to 973, and who in his turn was succeeded by Tlilcoatzin, ruling from 973 to 994, and preceding Tecpancaltzin, respecting whose reign these records agree to a great extent with the other authorities. We have no record of any specific events that occurred during the reign of the three sovereigns last mentioned, save that in Culhuacan Quetzallacxoyatl was succeeded in 953 by Chalchiuh Tlatonac, and the latter in 985 by Totepeuh, the second of the name.423