It may be of some importance to note that Tula or Tollan was not at first the name of the town, but of the locality—that is, of the warm and fertile meadow-lands at the foot of the Coatepetl. The town was at first called Xocotitlan, the place of fruit, from xocotl, fruit, ti, connective, and tlan, locative ending. (See Sahagun, Historia de Nueva España, Lib. x, cap. 29, secs. 1 and 12.) This name was also applied to one of the quarters of the city of Mexico when conquered by Cortes, as we learn from the same authority.
[111]. Buschmann, Ueber die Aztekischen Ortsnamen, ss. 794, 797, (Berlin, 1852.)
[112]. The verbal radical is tona, to warm (hazer calor, Molina, Vocabulario de la Lengua Mexicana, s. v.); from this root come many words signifying warmth, fertility, abundance, the sun, the east, the summer, the day, and others expressing the soul, the vital principle, etc. Siméon, Dict. de la Langue Nahuatl, s. v. tonalli. As in the Algonkin dialects the words for cold, night and death are from the same root, so in Nahuatl are those for warmth, day and life. (Comp. Duponceau, Mémoire sur les Langues de l’Amérique du Nord, p. 327, Paris, 1836.)
[113]. Coatlan, to-nan, from coatl, serpent; tlan, among; to-nan, our mother. She was the goddess of flowers, and the florists paid her especial devotion (Sahagun, Historia, Lib. ii, cap. 22). A precinct of the city of Mexico was named after her, and also one of the edifices in the great temple of the city. Here captives were sacrificed to her and to the Huitznahua. (Ibid., Lib. ii. Appendix. See also Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana, Lib. x. cap. 12.)
[114]. Centzon Huitznahua, “the Four Hundred Diviners with Thorns.” Four hundred, however, in Nahuatl means any indeterminate large number, and hence is properly translated myriad, legion. Nahuatl means wise, skillful, a diviner, but is also the proper name of the Nahuatl-speaking tribes; and as the Nahuas derived their word for south from huitzli, a thorn, the Huitznahua may mean “the southern Nahuas.” Sahagun had this in his mind when he said the Huitznahua were goddesses who dwelt in the south (Historia de Nueva España, Lib. vii, cap. 5). The word is taken by Father Duran as the proper name of an individual, as we shall see in a later note.
[115]. Huitzilopochtli, from huitzilin, humming-bird, opochtli, the left side or hand. This is the usual derivation; but I am quite sure that it is an error arising from the ikonomatic representation of the name. The name of his brother, Huitznahua, indicates strongly that the prefix of both names is identical. This, I doubt not, is from huitz-tlan, the south; ilo, is from iloa, to turn; this gives us the meaning “the left hand turned toward the south.” Orozco y Berra has pointed out that the Mexica regarded left-handed warriors as the more formidable (Historia Antigua de Mexico, Tom. i, p. 125). Along with this let it be remembered that the legend states that Huitzilopochtli was born in Tula, and insisted on leading the Mexica toward the south, the opposition to which by his brother led to the massacre and to the destruction of the town.
[116]. This myth is recorded by Sahagun, Historia de Nueva España, Lib. iii, cap. 1, “On the Origin of the Gods.” It is preserved with some curious variations in the Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas, cap. 11. When the gods created the sun they also formed four hundred men and five women for him to eat. At the death of the women their robes were preserved, and when the people carried these to the Coatepec, the five women came again into being. One of these was Coatlicue, an untouched virgin, who after four years of fasting placed a bunch of white feathers in her bosom, and forthwith became pregnant. She brought forth Huitzilopochtli completely armed, who at once destroyed the Huitznahua. Father Duran translates all of this into plain history. His account is that when the Aztecs had occupied Tollan for some time, and had fortified the hill and cultivated the plain, a dissension arose. One party, followers of Huitzilopochtli, desired to move on; the other, headed by a chieftain, Huitznahua, insisted on remaining. The former attacked the latter at night, massacred them, destroyed the water-dams and buildings, and marched away (Historia de las Indias de Nueva España, Tom. i, pp. 25, 26). According to several accounts, Huitznahua was the brother of Huitzilopochtli. See my American Hero Myths, p. 81.
[117]. I have discussed both these accounts in my American Hero Myths, chap. iii., and need not repeat the authorities here.
[118]. The most highly-colored descriptions of the mythical Tula are to be found in the third and tenth book of Sahagun’s Historia de Nueva España, in the Anales de Cuauhtitlan, and in the various writings of Ixtlilxochitl. Later authors, such as Veitia, Torquemada, etc., have copied from these. Ixtlilxochitl speaks of the “legions of fables” about Tulan and Quetzalcoatl which even in his day were still current (“otras trescientas fabulas que aun todavia corren.” Relaciones Historicas, in Kingsborough, Mexico, Vol. ix, p. 332).
[119]. In the collection of Ancient Nahuatl Poems, which forms the seventh volume of my Library of Aboriginal American Literature, p. 104, I have printed the original text of one of the old songs recalling the glories of Tula, with its “house of beams,” huapalcalli, and its “house of plumed serpents,” coatlaquetzalli, attributed to Quetzalcoatl.