The people of Texcuco, says Olmos, naturally placed the occurrence of these events within their own boundaries, but they added (according to a pictorial manuscript which they showed the friar) that the Sun shot a dart into the ground and at this spot the first man arose. He was imperfect, being formed only from the armpits upward. He was followed by a woman. Mendieta suppresses the remainder of the myth because of its Rabelaisian details, but we may conclude that from these twain humanity was descended.
Sahagun’s account of the creation of the sun and moon[16] [[44]]differs somewhat from the foregoing and is as follows: The gods met at Teotihuacan, and asked one another: “Who will undertake the task of lighting the world?” to which one god called Tecciztecatl (he who was to become the Moon-god) replied: “That will I.” They cast about for still another member of the pantheon to undertake the duty. At last they fixed upon one who was afflicted with a terrible disease who at once agreed to the accomplishment of their desires. During four days the gods prepared for the occasion by acts of penitence, then they kindled a fire on a rock named Teotexcalli (high place of the gods). Meanwhile Tecciztecatl made offerings of many precious things, rich feathers and golden ornaments. The spines with which the gods ceremonially pricked themselves were like the spines of the maguey, but were made from precious stones, and the copal they used for incense was of no common sort. The victim, who was called Nanahuatl, offered nine green reeds, joined three and three, instead of the ordinary branches and balls of grass and spines of the maguey generally employed for such ceremonies, and these he saturated with his own blood. In place of copal he offered up the scabs of his sores. The gods built a tower for each of the two divinities who had undertaken the illumination of the world, and performed penance for four days and four nights. They then strewed the ground with the branches, flowers, and other objects of which they had made use during that time. On the night following, shortly before midnight, they brought Tecciztecatl his ornaments. These consisted of a plumage called aztacomitl, made of herons’ feathers, and a jacket of light stuff, whilst to Nanahuatl they gave a crown of paper called amatzontli (paper hair) and a stole and cincture, likewise of paper. Midnight having arrived, all the gods ranged themselves in the place called Teotexcalli, where the fire had burned for four days. They arranged themselves into two files, one on either side of the fire, and Tecciztecatl was requested to cast himself into the burning mass. Terrified by the intense heat which he experienced as he advanced towards the flames, the god recoiled; again and again he essayed [[45]]to leap into the fire, but his courage failed him. Then the gods called upon Nanahuatl, who, on being summoned, immediately cast himself into the blazing mass, where he at once began to crackle “like meat that roasts.” Tecciztecatl, ashamed of his former conduct, now followed him into the conflagration, and it was said that the eagle entered the flames at the same time, which is the reason assigned for its dark plumage. The tiger or ocelot followed, and was only partly burnt, as is witnessed by its spots. It is evident that this myth applied in some manner to the Aztec military brotherhoods of quauhtli and ocelotl, who wore the eagle and ocelot insignia respectively.[17]
The gods had already waited some time to witness the resurrection of Nanahuatl, when they beheld the heavens commence to grow red. Terrified at the sight, they fell upon their knees and could not comprehend whence the light had arisen. The glow of sunrise illuminated every point of the compass, but many fixed their gaze upon the East, feeling that in that direction the luminary would first be sighted. Those who gazed thither were Quetzalcoatl (also called Eecatl), Totec, and Tezcatlipocâ. Others called Mimixcoa were innumerable, and there were also present four goddesses, Tiacapan, Teicu, Tlacoeua, and Xocoyotl. When the sun rose at length he appeared very red, and no one might look upon him without being blinded by his rays. The moon appeared at the same time, and gave forth light equal to that of the orb of day. But the gods thought it ill that the moon should be as bright as the sun, and therefore one of them took a rabbit and cast it at the face of the moon, so that it remained there to dim its splendour. Although the sun and moon were raised above the earth, they remained stationary. They spoke mockingly to their erstwhile companions.
“How now,” they said, “do you wish to remain in mortal shame? Die all of you and confer life upon the stars.” The wind then offered to discharge the function of immolating [[46]]the gods and slew them one by one. Only Xolotl refused to die, and begged for life, weeping so sorely that his eyes dropped out. When those who were to make the sacrifice laid hold of him he fled and concealed himself in a field of maize, where he changed himself into a stalk of that plant having two feet (roots) such as the peasants call xolotl. But having been recognized among the maize, he took flight a second time and hid himself among some maguey plants, where he changed himself into the double maguey plant which is called mexolotl (maguey of Xolotl). On being discovered a third time he took flight once more and threw himself into the water, where he took the form of a fish called axolotl.[18] But in this last disguise he was caught and killed.
When the gods had been slain the wind commenced to whistle and blow with violence, so that at length the burning globe of the sun began to drift over the heavens. But the moon still remained at rest, and in this manner they became separated, so that their habit is to rise at different hours.
The Anales de Quauhtitlan, after the manner of the Book of Genesis, states that the world and all therein were created in seven days. In the sign Tochtli the earth was created, the firmament was erected in Acatl, animals came into being in Tecpatl, and man was made out of dust or ashes on Ehecatl, the seventh day, but completed and perfected by Quetzalcoatl, who appears to have played the part of a demiurgos as regards the human race. There can be little doubt that this myth has been sophisticated, or is a later invention. The Anales de Quauhtitlan, however, sustains the accounts of Olmos and Sahagun regarding the creation of the sun and moon.
Camargo, speaking of the Tlaxcaltec cosmology,[19] says that the Indians did not believe that the world had been created, but that it had been produced by chance. Space, according [[47]]to their philosophy, has always existed. Veytia[20] states that the Mexicans believed the world and man to have been created by Tloque Nahuague (Tonacatecutli). Boturini credits the creation to the same first cause, and passages in Sahagun lead us to believe that both Tezcatlipocâ and Quetzalcoatl were regarded as sub-creative spirits, who were either partly or wholly responsible for the existence of the universe. Clavigero expressly states that the former was “the soul of the world, the creator of heaven and earth and lord of all things.”[21] Mendieta,[22] a much older authority, gives it as his opinion that the making and moulding of the world was the handiwork of several gods, but especially of Tezcatlipocâ, Uitzilopochtli, and an obscure deity, Ocelopuchtli, who equates with the ocelot alluded to in Sahagun’s account.
Sahagun, it will be observed, disappoints us in his account of the creation, which he confines to the details of the appearance of the sun and moon and is silent concerning the creation of gods and men. This is strange when the facilities he had for the collection of myths are considered, but as a priest, it is evident that he is more interested in points of ritual than in religious narrative, which, he evidently agrees with Curtin’s French-Canadian, is to be regarded as “chose d’absurde.”[23] Even although we possess the sonorous warning of Prescott and the objections of others to bias us against Ixtlilxochitl, there is little ground for regarding his version of the Mexican creation story as being other than he received it from sources which would have been unspeakably precious had he made better use of them as regards other subjects.
Regarding Ixtlilxochitl’s version of the creation myth, that the creator Tloque Nahuague, the maker of the planets, brought into being a man and a woman from whom all human beings are descended, we have no parallel in Mexican myth, nor, indeed, in American myth, if we accept that of [[48]]the creation of man current in ancient Peru, and it is probable that, so far as his version of the creation of humanity is concerned, Ixtlilxochitl had encountered a myth which was either of relatively late origin, or had arisen out of the ideas engendered by contact with Christianity. This is, however, by no means to say that Ixtlilxochitl himself invented the account.[24]