Of apparently another Quetzalcoatl, he writes: "The Toltecs became highly flourishing under the reign of Ceocatl Quetzalcohuatl, a Culhuacan prince, who preached a new religion, sanctioning auricular confession and the celibacy of the priests. He proscribed all kinds of warfare and human sacrifices. Tezcatlipoca put himself at the head of the dissatisfied party, and besieged Tollan, the residence of Ceocatl Quetzalcohuatl; but the latter refused to defend himself, in order to avoid the effusion of blood, which was prohibited by the laws of the religion he himself had established, and retired to Cholula, that had been constructed by his followers. From thence he went to Yucatan. Tezcatlipoca, his fortunate rival, after a long reign became in his turn the victim of the popular discontent, and fell in a battle that was given him by Ceocatl Quetzalcohuatl's relatives. Those two kings are elevated to the rank of gods, and their worship was a perpetual subject of discord and civil war in all Anáhuac until the arrival of the Spaniards in the New World."[VII-34]
THE CODICES ON QUETZALCOATL.
The interpreters of the different codices, or Mexican paintings represented in Kingsborough's great work, give, as is their wont in all matters, a confused, imperfect, and often erroneous account of Quetzalcoatl:—"Quetzalcoatl is he who was born of the virgin, called Chalchihuitztli, which means the precious stone of penance or of sacrifice. He was saved in the deluge, and was born in Zivenaritzcatl where he resides. His fast was a kind of preparation for the arrival of the end of the world which they said would happen on the day of Four Earthquakes, so that they were thus in daily expectation of that event. Quetzalcoatl was he who they say created the world, and they bestowed on him the appellation of lord of the wind, because they said that Tonacatecotli, when it appeared good to him, breathed and begat Quetzalcoatl. They erected round temples to him, without any corners. They said that it was he (who was also the lord of the thirteen signs which are here represented), who formed the first man. He alone had a human body like that of men, the other gods were of an incorporeal nature."[VII-35]
"They declare that their supreme deity, or more properly speaking, demon Tonacatecotle, whom we have just mentioned, who by another name was called Citinatonali, ... begot Quetzalcoatl, not by connection with a woman, but by his breath alone, as we have observed above, when he sent his ambassador, as they say, to the virgin of Tulla. They believed him to be the god of the air, and he was the first to whom they built temples and churches, which they formed perfectly round, without any angles. They say it was he who effected the reformation of the world by penance, as we have already said; since, according to their account, his father had created the world, and men had given themselves up to vice, on which account it had been so frequently destroyed. Citinatonali sent this his son into the world to reform it. We certainly must deplore the blindness of these miserable people, on whom Saint Paul says the wrath of God has to be revealed, inasmuch as his eternal truth was so long kept back by the injustice of attributing to this demon that which belonged to Him; for He being the sole creator of the universe, and He who made the division of the waters, which these poor people just now attributed to the Devil, when it appeared good to Him, dispatched the heavenly ambassador to announce to the virgin that she should be the mother of his eternal word; who, when He found the world corrupt, reformed it by doing penance and by dying upon the cross for our sins; and not the wretched Quetzalcoatl, to whom these miserable people attributed this work. They assigned to him the dominion over the other thirteen signs, which are here represented, in the same manner as they had assigned the preceding thirteen to his father. They celebrated a great festival on the arrival of his sign, as we shall see in the sign of Four Earthquakes, which is the fourth in order here, because they feared that the world would be destroyed in that sign, as he had foretold to them when he disappeared in the Red Sea; which event occurred on the same sign. As they considered him their advocate, they celebrated a solemn festival, and fasted during four signs."[VII-36]
MÜLLER ON QUETZALCOATL.
J. G. Müller holds Quetzalcoatl to be the representative national god of the Toltecs, surviving under many misconceptions and amid many incongruities—bequeathed to or adopted into the later Mexican religion. The learned professor has devoted an unusual amount of care and research to the interpretation of the Quetzalcoatl myths; and as no other inquirer has shown therein at once so accurate and extensive an acquaintance with the subject and so calm and judicious a judgment, we give his opinion at length, and first his summing up of the fable-history of Quetzalcoatl:—
The Toltecs, a traditional pre-historic people, after leaving their original northern home Huehuetlapallan (that is Old-red-land) chose Tulla, north of Anáhuac as the first capital of their newly founded kingdom. Quetzalcoatl was their high-priest and religious chief at this place. Huemac, or Huematzin, conducted the civil government as the companion of Quetzalcoatl, and wrote the code of the nation. Quetzalcoatl is said to have been a white man (some gave him a bright red face), with a strong formation of body, broad forehead, large eyes, black hair, and a heavy beard. He always wore a long white robe; which, according to Gomara, was decorated with crosses; he had a mitre on his head and a sickle in his hand. At the volcano of Cotcitepec, or Tzatzitepec, near Tulla, he practised long and numerous penances, giving thereby an example to his priests and successors. The name of this volcano means "the mountain of outcry;" and when Quetzalcoatl gave laws, he sent a crier to the top of it whose voice could be heard three hundred miles off. He did what the founders of religions and cults have done in other countries: he taught the people agriculture, metallurgy, stone-cutting, and the art of government. He also arranged the calendar, and taught his subjects fit religious ceremonies; preaching specially against human sacrifices, and ordering offerings of fruits and flowers only. He would have nothing to do with wars, even covering his ears when the subject was mentioned. His was a veritable golden age, as in the time of Saturn; animals and even men lived in peace, the soil produced the richest harvests without cultivation, and the grain grew so large that a man found it trouble enough to carry one ear; no cotton was dyed, as it grew of all colors, and fruits of all kinds abounded. Everybody was rich and Quetzalcoatl owned whole palaces of gold, silver, and precious stones. The air was filled with the most pleasant aromas, and a host of finely feathered birds filled the world with melody.
But this earthly happiness came to an end. Tezcatlipoca rose up against Quetzalcoatl and against Huemac, in order to separate them, and to destroy their government. He descended from the sky on a rope of spider-web and commenced to work for his object with the aid of magic arts. He first appeared in the form of a handsome youth (and in the dress of a merchant), dressed as a merchant selling pepper-pods, and presented himself before the daughter of king Huemac. He soon seduced the princess, and thereby opened the road to a general immorality and a total collapse of the laws. He presented himself before Quetzalcoatl in the form of an old man, with the view of inducing him to depart to his home in Tlapalla. For this purpose he offered him a drink which he pretended would endow him with immortality. No sooner had Quetzalcoatl taken the drink, then he was seized with a violent desire to see his fatherland. He destroyed the palaces of gold, silver, and precious stones, transformed the fruit-trees into withered trunks, and ordered all song-birds to leave the country, and to accompany him. Thus he departed, and the birds entertained him during his journey with their songs.
TRAVELS OF QUETZALCOATL.
He first traveled southward, and arrived in Quauhtitlan, in Anáhuac. In the vicinity of this town he broke down a tree by throwing stones, the stones remaining in the trunk. Farther south, in the same valley, near Tlalnepantla, or Tanepantla, he pressed hand and foot into a rock with such force that the impression has remained down to the latest centuries, in the same manner as the mark of the shoes of the horses of Castor and Pollux near Regillum. The Spaniards were inclined to ascribe these and similar freaks of nature to the Apostle Thomas.