Part 11 (2/2)

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.]

<script>