American Hero-Myths Part 11

In some myths Quetzalcoatl was the sole framer of the Calendar; in others he was a.s.sisted by the first created pair, c.i.p.actli and Oxomuco, who, as I have said, appear to represent the Sky and the Earth. A certain cave in the province of Cuernava (Quauhnauac) was pointed out as the scene of their deliberations. c.i.p.actonal chose the first name, Oxomuco the second, and Quetzalcoatl the third, and so on in turn.[1]

[Footnote 1: Mendieta, _Hist. Eclesiastia Indiana_, Lib. ii, cap. xiv.

"Una tonta ficcion," comments the worthy chronicler upon the narrative, "como son las demas que creian cerca de sus dioses." This has been the universal opinion. My ambition in writing this book is, that it will be universal no longer.]

In many mythologies the G.o.ds of light and warmth are, by a natural a.n.a.logy, held to be also the deities which preside over plenty, fertility and reproduction. This was quite markedly the case with Quetzalcoatl. His land and city were the homes of abundance; his people, the Toltecs, "were skilled in all arts, all of which they had been taught by Quetzalcoatl himself. They were, moreover, very rich; they lacked nothing; food was never scarce and crops never failed. They had no need to save the small ears of corn, so all the use they made of them was to burn them in heating their baths."[1]

[Footnote 1: Sahagun, _Historia_, Lib. iii, cap. iii.]

As thus the promoter of fertility in the vegetable world, he was also the genius of reproduction in the human race. The ceremonies of marriage which were in use among the Aztecs were attributed to him,[1] and when the wife found she was with child it was to him that she was told to address her thanks. One of her relatives recited to her a formal exhortation, which began as follows:--

[Footnote 1: Veitia, cap. xvii, in Kingsborough.]

"My beloved little daughter, precious as sapphire and jade, tender and generous! Our Lord, who dwells everywhere and rains his bounties on whom he pleases, has remembered you. The G.o.d now wishes to give you the fruit of marriage, and has placed within you a jewel, a rich feather. Perhaps you have watched, and swept, and offered incense; for such good works the kindness of the Lord has been made manifest, and it was decreed in Heaven and h.e.l.l, before the beginning of the World, that this grace should be accorded you. For these reasons our Lord, Quetzalcoatl, who is the author and creator of things, has shown you this favor; thus has resolved He in heaven, who is at once both man and woman, and is known under the names Twice Master and Twice Mistress."[1]

[Footnote 1: Sahagun, _Historia_, Lib. vi, cap. xxv. The bis.e.xual nature of the Mexican G.o.ds, referred to in this pa.s.sage, is well marked in many features of their mythology. Quetzalcoatl is often addressed in the prayers as "father and mother," just as, in the Egyptian ritual, Chnum was appealed to as "father of fathers and mother of mothers" (Tiele, _Hist. of the Egyptian Religion_, p. 134). I have endeavored to explain this widespread belief in hermaphroditic deities in my work ent.i.tled, _The Religious Sentiment, Its Source and Aim_, pp. 65-68, (New York, 1876).]

It is recorded in the old histories that the priests dedicated to his service wore a peculiar head-dress, imitating a snail sh.e.l.l, and for that reason were called _Quateczizque_.[1] No one has explained this curiously shaped bonnet. But it was undoubtedly because Quetzalcoatl was the G.o.d of reproduction, for among the Aztecs the snail was a well known symbol of the process of parturition.[2]

[Footnote 1: Duran, in Kingsborough, vol. viii, p. 267. The word is from _quaitl_, head or top, and _tecziztli_, a snail sh.e.l.l.]

[Footnote 2: "Mettevanli in testa una lumaca marina per dimostrare que siccome il piscato esce dalle pieghe di quell'osso, o conca. cosi va ed esce l'uomo _ab utero matris suae_." _Codice Vaticana, Tavola XXVI._]

Quetzalcoatl was that marvelous artist who fashions in the womb of the mother the delicate limbs and tender organs of the unborn infant.

Therefore, when a couple of high rank were blessed with a child, an official orator visited them, and the baby being placed naked before him, he addressed it beginning with these words:--

"My child and lord, precious gem, emerald, sapphire, beauteous feather, product of a n.o.ble union, you have been formed far above us, in the ninth heaven, where dwell the two highest divinities. His Divine Majesty has fashioned you in a mould, as one fashions a ball of gold; you have been chiseled as a precious stone, artistically dressed by your Father and Mother, the great G.o.d and the great G.o.ddess, a.s.sisted by their son, Quetzalcoatl."[1]

[Footnote 1: Sahagun, _Historia_, Lib. vi, cap. x.x.xiv.]

As he was thus the G.o.d on whom depended the fertilization of the womb, sterile women made their vows to him, and invoked his aid to be relieved from the shame of barrenness.[1]

[Footnote 1: Torquemada, _Monarquia Indiana_, Lib. xi, cap. xxiv.]

In still another direction is this function of his G.o.dship shown. The worship of the genesiac principle is as often characterized by an excessive austerity as by indulgence in s.e.xual acts. Here we have an example. Nearly all the accounts tell us that Quetzalcoatl was never married, and that he held himself aloof from all women, in absolute chast.i.ty. We are told that on one occasion his subjects urged upon him the propriety of marriage, and to their importunities he returned the dark answer that, Yes, he had determined to take a wife; but that it would be when the oak tree shall cast chestnuts, when the sun shall rise in the west, when one can cross the sea dry-shod, and when nightingales grow beards.[1]

[Footnote 1: Duran, in Kingsborough, vol. viii, p. 267. I believe Alva Ixtlilxochitl is the only author who specifically a.s.signs a family to Quetzalcoatl. This author does not mention a wife, but names two sons, one, Xilotzin, who was killed in war, the other, Pochotl, who was educated by his nurse, Toxcueye, and who, after the destruction of Tollan, collected the scattered Toltecs and settled with them around the Lake of Tezcuco (_Relaciones Historicas_, p. 394, in Kingsborough, vol. ix). All this is in contradiction to the reports of earlier and better authorities.

For instance, Motolinia says pointedly, "no fue casado, ni se le conocio mujer" (_Historia de los Indios, Epistola Proemial_).]

Following the example of their Master, many of the priests of his cult refrained from s.e.xual relations, and as a mortification of the flesh they practiced a painful rite by transfixing the tongue and male member with the sharp thorns of the maguey plant, an austerity which, according to their traditions, he was the first to inst.i.tute.[1] There were also in the cities where his special worship was in vogue, houses of nuns, the inmates of which had vowed perpetual virginity, and it was said that Quetzalcoatl himself had founded these inst.i.tutions.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Codex Vatica.n.u.s_, Tab. xxii.]

[Footnote 2: Veitia, _Historia_, cap. XVII.]

His connection with the worship of the reproductive principle seems to be further indicated by his surname, _Ce acatl_. This means One Reed, and is the name of a day in the calendar. But in the Nahuatl language, the word _acatl_, reed, cornstalk, is also applied to the virile member; and it has been suggested that this is the real signification of the word when applied to the hero-G.o.d. The suggestion is plausible, but the word does not seem to have been so construed by the early writers. If such an understanding had been current, it could scarcely have escaped the inquiries of such a close student and thorough master of the Nahuatl tongue as Father Sahagun.

On the other hand, it must be said, in corroboration of this identification, that the same idea appears to be conveyed by the symbol of the serpent. One correct translation of the name Quetzalcoatl is "the beautiful serpent;" his temple in the city of Mexico, according to Torquemada, had a door in the form of a serpent's mouth; and in the _Codex Vatica.n.u.s_, No. 3738, published by Lord Kingsborough, of which we have an explanation by competent native authority, he is represented as a serpent; while in the same Codex, in the astrological signs which were supposed to control the different parts of the human body, the serpent is pictured as the sign of the male member.[1] This indicates the probability that in his function as G.o.d of reproduction Quetzalcoatl may have stood in some relation to phallic rites.

[Footnote 1: Compare the _Codex Vatica.n.u.s_, No. 3738, plates 44 and 75, Kingsborough, _Mexican Antiquities_, vol. ii.]

This same sign, _Ce Coatl_, One Serpent, used in their astrology, was that of one of the G.o.ds of the merchants, and apparently for this reason, some writers have identified the chief G.o.d of traffic, Yacatecutli (G.o.d of Journeying), with Quetzalcoatl. This seems the more likely as another name of this divinity was _Yacacoliuhqui_, With the End Curved, a name which appears to refer to the curved rod or stick which was both his sign and one of those of Quetzalcoatl.[1] The merchants also constantly a.s.sociated in their prayers this deity with Huitzilopochtli, which is another reason for supposing their patron was one of the four primeval brothers, and but another manifestation of Quetzalcoatl. His character, as patron of arts, the model of orators, and the cultivator of peaceful intercourse among men, would naturally lend itself to this position.

[Footnote 1: Compare Torquemada, _Monarquia Indiana_, Lib. vi, cap. xxviii and Sahagun, _Historia de Nueva Espana_, Lib. ix, _pa.s.sim_.

_Yacatecutli_, is from _tecutli_, lord, and either _yaqui_, traveler, or else _yacana_, to conduct.

_Yacacoliuhqui_, is translated by Torquemada, "el que tiene la nariz aquilena." It is from _yaque_, a point or end, and hence, also, the nose, and _coliuhqui_, bent or curved. The translation in the text is quite as allowable as that of Torquemada, and more appropriate. I have already mentioned that this divinity was suspected, by Dr. Schultz-Sellack, to be merely another form of Quetzalcoatl. See above, chapter iii, --2]

But Quetzalcoatl, as G.o.d of the violent wind-storms, which destroy the houses and crops, and as one, who, in his own history, was driven from his kingdom and lost his all, was not considered a deity of invariably good augury. His day and sign, _ce acatl_, One Reed, was of bad omen. A person born on it would not succeed in life.[1] His plans and possessions would be lost, blown away, as it were, by the wind, and dissipated into thin air.

[Footnote 1: Sahagun. _Historia_, Lib. iv, cap. viii.]

Through the a.s.sociation of his person with the prying winds he came, curiously enough, to be the patron saint of a certain cla.s.s of thieves, who stupefied their victims before robbing them. They applied to him to exercise his maleficent power on those whom they planned to deprive of their goods. His image was borne at the head of the gang when they made their raids, and the preferred season was when his sign was in the ascendant.[1] This is a singular parallelism to the Aryan Hermes myth, as I have previously observed (Chap. I).

[Footnote 1: Ibid. Lib. IV, cap. x.x.xI.]

The representation of Quetzalcoatl in the Aztec ma.n.u.scripts, his images and the forms of his temples and altars, referred to his double functions as Lord of the Light and the Winds.

He was not represented with pleasing features. On the contrary, Sahagun tells us that his face, that is, that of his image, was "very ugly, with a large head and a full beard."[1] The beard, in this and similar instances, was to represent the rays of the sun. His hair at times was also shown rising straight from his forehead, for the same reason.[2]

[Footnote 1: "La cara que tenia era muy fea y la cabeza larga y barbuda."

_Historia_, Lib. III, cap. III. On the other hand Ixtlilxochitl speaks of him as "de bella figura." _Historia Chichimeca_, cap. viii. He was occasionally represented with his face painted black, probably expressing the sun in its absence.]

[Footnote 2: He is so portrayed in the Codex Vatica.n.u.s. and Ixtlilxochitl says, "tubiese el cabello levantado desde la frente hasta la nuca como a manera de penacho." _Historia Chichimeca_, cap. viii.]

At times he was painted with a large hat and flowing robe, and was then called "Father of the Sons of the Clouds," that is, of the rain drops.[1]

[Footnote 1: Diego Duran, _Historia_, in Kingsborough, viii, p. 267.]

These various representations doubtless referred to him at different parts of his chequered career, and as a G.o.d under different manifestations of his divine nature. The religious art of the Aztecs did not demand any uniformity in this respect.

--5. _The Return of Quetzalcoatl._

Quetzalcoatl was gone.

Whether he had removed to the palace prepared for him in Tlapallan, whether he had floated out to sea on his wizard raft of serpent skins, or whether his body had been burned on the sandy sea strand and his soul had mounted to the morning star, the wise men were not agreed. But on one point there was unanimity. Quetzalcoatl was gone; but _he would return_.

In his own good time, in the sign of his year, when the ages were ripe, once more he would come from the east, surrounded by his fair-faced retinue, and resume the sway of his people and their descendants.

Tezcatlipoca had conquered, but not for aye. The immutable laws which had fixed the destruction of Tollan a.s.signed likewise its restoration. Such was the universal belief among the Aztec race.

For this reason Quetzalcoatl's statue, or one of them, was in a reclining position and covered with wrappings, signifying that he was absent, "as of one who lays him down to sleep, and that when he should awake from that dream of absence, he should rise to rule again the land."[1]

[Footnote 1: Torquemada, _Monarquia Indiana_, Lib. vi, cap. xxiv. So in Egyptian mythology Tum was called "the concealed or imprisoned G.o.d, in a physical sense the Sun-G.o.d in the darkness of night, not revealing himself, but alive, nevertheless." Tiele, _History of the Egyptian Religion_, p. 77.]

He was not dead. He had indeed built mansions underground, to the Lord of Mictlan, the abode of the dead, the place of darkness, but he himself did not occupy them.[1] Where he pa.s.sed his time was where the sun stays at night. As this, too, is somewhere beneath the level of the earth, it was occasionally spoken of as _Tlillapa_, The Murky Land,[2] and allied therefore to Mictlan. Caverns led down to it, especially one south of Chapultepec, called _Cincalco_, "To the Abode of Abundance," through whose gloomy corridors one could reach the habitation of the sun and the happy land still governed by Quetzalcoatl and his lieutenant Totec.[3]

[Footnote 1: Sahagun, _Historia_, Lib. iii. cap. ult.]