Part 9 (2/2)
May we not go farther, and in this Rock of Light which stands hard by the river, recognize the Heavenly Hill which rises beside the World Stream?
The bright light of one day cannot extend to the next. The bridge is broken by the intervening night, and the rays are lost in the dark waters.
But whether this interpretation is too venturesome or not, we cannot deny the deep human interest in the story, and its poetic capacities. The overmastering pa.s.sion of love was evidently as present to the Indian mind as to that of the mediaeval Italian. In New as well as in Old Spain it could break the barriers of rank and overcome the hesitations of maidenly modesty. Love clouding the soul, as night obscures the day, is a figure of speech, used, I remember, by the most pathetic of Ireland's modern bards:--
”Love, the tyrant, evinces, Alas! an omnipotent might; He treads on the necks of princes, He darkens the mind, like night.”[1]
[Footnote 1: Clarence Mangan, _Poems_, ”The Mariner's Bride.”]
I shall not detail the many other wiles with which Tezcatlipoca led the Toltecs to their destruction. A mere reference to them must suffice. He summoned thousands to come to labor in the rose-garden of Quetzalcoatl, and when they had gathered together, he fell upon them and slew them with a hoe. Disguised with Huitzilopochtli, he irritated the people until they stoned the brother G.o.ds to death, and from the corrupting bodies spread a pestilential odor, to which crowds of the Toltecs fell victims. He turned the thought of thousands into madness, so that they voluntarily offered themselves to be sacrificed. By his spells all articles of food soured, and many perished of famine.
At length Quetzalcoatl, wearied with misfortune, gave orders to burn the beautiful houses of Tollan, to bury his treasures, and to begin the journey to Tlapallan. He transformed the cacao trees into plants of no value, and ordered the birds of rich plumage to leave the land before him.
The first station he arrived at was Quauht.i.tlan, where there was a lofty and spreading tree. Here he asked of his servants a mirror, and looking in it said: ”I am already old.” Gathering some stones, he cast them at the tree. They entered the wood and remained there.
As he journeyed, he was preceded by boys playing the flute. Thus he reached a certain spot, where he sat upon a stone by the wayside, and wept for the loss of Tollan. The marks of his hands remained upon the stone, and the tears he dropped pierced it through. To the day of the Conquest these impressions on the solid rock were pointed out.
At the fountain of Cozcapan, sorcerers met him, minded to prevent his departure:--
”Where are you going?” they asked. ”Why have you left your capital? In whose care is it? Who will perform the sacred rites?”
But Quetzalcoatl answered:--
”You can in no manner hinder my departure. I have no choice but to go.”
The sorcerers asked again: ”Whither are you going?”
”I am going,” replied Quetzalcoatl, ”to Tlapallan. I have been sent for.
The Sun calls me.”
”Go, then, with good luck,” said they. ”But leave with us the art of smelting silver, of working stone and wood, of painting, of weaving feathers and other such arts.”
Thus they robbed him, and taking the rich jewels he carried with him he cast them into the fountain, whence it received its name _Cozcapan_, Jewels in the Water.
Again, as he journeyed, a sorcerer met him, who asked him his destination:--
”I go,” said Quetzalcoatl, ”to Tlallapan.”
”And luck go with you,” replied the sorcerer, ”but first take a drink of this wine.”
”No,” replied Quetzalcoatl, ”not so much as a sip.”
”You must taste a little of it,” said the sorcerer, ”even if it is by force. To no living person would I give to drink freely of it. I intoxicate them all. Come and drink of it.”
Quetzalcoatl took the wine and drank of it through a reed, and as he drank he grew drunken and fell in the road, where he slept and snored.
Thus he pa.s.sed from place to place, with various adventures. His servants were all dwarfs or hunchbacks, and in crossing the Sierra Nevada they mostly froze to death. By drawing a line across the Sierra he split it in two and thus made a pa.s.sage. He plucked up a mighty tree and hurling it through another, thus formed a cross. At another spot he caused underground houses to be built, which were called Mictlancalco, At the House of Darkness.
At length he arrived at the sea coast where he constructed a raft of serpents, and seating himself on it as in a canoe, he moved out to sea. No one knows how or in what manner he reached Tlapallan.[1]
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