The serpent was everywhere considered an emblem of the vernal shower, and was thought to be in some way instrumental in bringing it, together with its refreshing and fructifying influences. So here, in the name of Quetzalcoatl, we find a progressive step indicated in the workings of the mind, an advance from the lower figure of the serpent alone to that of an aërial combination, which, while it contained all the virtues of the serpent, is lifted to a higher element—that from which the shower falls. The feathery vapor-clouds of summer are but the plumes or wings of the shower which the serpent symbolized.
At last when a teacher of agriculture and the mechanic arts, so conducive of prosperity and plenty, appeared—an individual who discovers maize and directs the process of its reproduction and guards an improvident people against want and famine, the attributes of the god are recognized as dwelling in him, the ideal vaguely represented by the vernal shower is concreted, is become incarnate, is presented in a shape more comprehensible to the untaught mind, and at once the name, reverence and worship of the god are attached to the man, the culture-hero. This we believe to be the simplest interpretation of the origin of the worship of Quetzalcoatl. A priesthood appears to have been founded who perpetuated the doctrines of this deified man. That part of the legend which relates to Tulla (Tollan) with the expulsion of the king and that which followed, properly belongs to Ceacatl, surnamed Quetzalcoatl, Toltec king of Tollan, who ascended the throne about 873.[437] The father of this monarch had been cruelly murdered, and in his early boyhood Ceacatl is said to have wreaked a terrible vengeance on the murderer of his father, after which he concealed himself for about twenty years. At about the above-named date he reappeared, and established his claims to the throne. He espoused the religion of Quetzalcoatl, and the peace which followed brought great prosperity. Human sacrifices were forbidden, and a golden age seemed to dawn in which Tollan exceeded all the cities of the Mexican valley in importance and wealth. But a rivalry at once sprang up between the priests of the bloody god Tezcatlipoca, worshipped in Culhuacan and at Teotihuacan, and those of the peaceful and humane Quetzalcoatl, which resulted in the voluntary departure of the Pontiff king, to whom the name of his god was attached. The contest between the two sects is symbolized in the legend by the tricks of Tezcatlipoca. Quetzalcoatl was received at Cholula, where he remained some years, but was at last driven away before the leader of the Tezcatlipoca faction, namely, King Huemac, who advanced upon the peaceful king with a strong army. Quetzalcoatl again voluntarily withdrew, rather than occasion the bloodshed of his subjects. It is probable that he ultimately reached Yucatan and figured there in his old character under the name of Cukulcan.[438]
CHAPTER VII.
THE ANCIENT PUEBLOS AND CLIFF-DWELLERS.
Casas Grandes of Chihuahua—Ruins in the Casas Grandes and Janos Valleys—Casa Grande of the Rio Gila—Ruins in the Gila Valley—Also in the Valley of the Rio Salado—Ruins in the Cañon of the Colorado—In the Valley of the Colorado Chiquito—Pueblos of the Zuñi River—Zuñi and the “Seven Cities of Cibola”—“El Moro”—Pueblos of the Chaco Valley—Cliff-Dwellers—Mr. Jackson’s Discoveries in the Valley of the Rio San Juan—Cliff Houses of the Rio Mancos—Cliff-Dwellings on the McElmo—Traditional Origin and Fate of the Cliff-Dwellers—Ancestors of the Moquis—Remarkable Discoveries by Mr. Holmes—The Seven Moqui Towns—The Montezuma Legend.
IN the State of Chihuahua, Mexico, and in our Territories of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and the State of Colorado, a class of remains are found, wholly unlike those of the Mayas, Nahuas, or Mound-builders, though in some instances they are associated with earthworks resembling those of the latter race. The style of architecture is unlike that of any other people on either continent, and though varying considerably in its individual examples, still present certain marked and general features which leave little room for doubt that the peoples of the Pueblos and the Cliffs were the same. The earliest discovered of this class of remains are known as the Casas Grandes, situated at about half a mile from the modern town of the same name, in the fertile valley of the Casas Grandes or San Migual River in Northern Chihuahua. These ruins have often been described second-hand and their nature is well-known to persons interested in this field of inquiry. Of the above-named class of descriptions, the latest and best is by Mr. Bancroft, who has added a bibliographical apparatus to his account.[439] We will, therefore, confine our discussion of this group of remains to the essential facts as given by Mr. J. R. Bartlett, whose account of his researches is quite full and satisfactory.[440] These facts we will give as briefly as possible, preferring to devote our space to the new material composing the latter part of the chapter. Several of the early writers refer to the Casas Grandes as one of the Aztec stations; but a little intelligent study of the characteristics of the ruins, especially in the light of recent explorations in the Territories, is likely to dissipate such an opinion. The first examination of the ruins of which any reliable record is left, was by Sr. Escudero, in 1819, published in his Noticias Estadísticas del Estado de Chihuahua. A contributor to the Album Mexicano (tom. i, pp. 374–5) furnished a good account of the ruins as he found them in 1842. None of the hasty sketches subsequently made by several writers are worth a reference until we come to the excellent description written by Mr. Bartlett in 1851, while acting as United States Commissioner, in fixing the United States and Mexican boundary line. The Casas Grandes, according to Mr. Bartlett, are built of adobe or mud, in large quadrangular blocks measuring about twenty-two inches in thickness by three feet or more in length. The irregularity of the length of the blocks, however, seemed to indicate that they had been formed on the wall, in situ, by means of a box open at the ends, which, when the block dried, was moved along to mould a fresh block. The mud is filled with coarse gravel from the plateau, which gives greater hardness to the material. The Casas face the cardinal points and consist of erect and fallen walls, ranging from five to thirty feet in height. The accumulation of rubbish is, however, considerable, and if the highest standing walls rest upon a common level with the lowest, they will measure from forty to fifty feet in height. The edifice was discovered in ruins by the conquerors, and could not have been occupied for a century, at the least calculation, prior to its discovery. It is, therefore, reasonable to presume that all the walls now standing were originally much higher than at present. It appears that the outer portions of the edifices were the lowest, and not more than one story in height, while the central ones were from three to six stories. The central or inner walls are better preserved, partly by their greater thickness—five feet at the base—and partly by the heaps of ruined walls which have fallen around them. Once prostrate, the blocks absorb the water, and in a few years are reduced to a mass of mud and gravel. It was with difficulty that Mr. Bartlett traced all the outlines of the buildings; but close examination revealed the fact that three lofty edifices were connected into one by means of a low range of buildings, one storey high, which may have merely inclosed intervening courts. The total length of this continuous edifice was at least 800 feet by 250 feet wide. A regular and continuous wall was observed on the south side, while the eastern and western fronts, with their projecting walls, were very irregular. The question of the exact number of stories is not capable of solution, as no vestige of timbers or wood now remains. The explorer could not even detect a trace of any cavities where the floor-timbers had been inserted in the walls, so decayed and washed was their condition. Many doorways remained, but the lintels having decayed, the tops had fallen in. Clavigero states that the edifice had “three floors with a terrace above them and without any entrance to the under floor, so that a scaling ladder is necessary.” García Condé confirms this statement as to the three stories besides a roof,[441] while both authors consider this to have been a station on the Aztec migration. Certainly, no architectural analogies with the remains farther south justify this opinion. Mr. Bartlett was unable to obtain but a partial plan of the Casas Grandes.
PART OF GROUND PLAN OF CASAS GRANDES CHIHUAHUA. One class of apartments, however, attracted his especial attention, from the fact that they were evidently designed for granaries. They were arranged along one of the main walls, and measured twenty feet in length by ten in breadth. They were connected by doorways “with a small inclosure or pen in one corner, three or four feet high.” Numerous long and narrow apartments, too contracted for sleeping or dwelling-rooms, lighted by circular apertures in the upper walls, are supposed to have been devoted to the same use. Large inclosures, too extensive in their dimensions ever to have been roofed, evidently were used as courts. Two hundred feet west of the Casas, on the plateau, are the remains of a building about 150 feet square, divided into compartments, as shown in the accompanying plan:
