For the agave of the Mexicans is their maguey, from which they extract pulque, the national beverage. The agave has served them for many other purposes, from the earliest times. Its bruised leaves, properly dressed and polished, make a sort of paper; its leaves furnish a strong protecting thatch for the roofs of houses; thread can be drawn from its long fibrous texture; the thorns furnish a fair substitute for the pin and needle; and the root, well prepared, is nutritious and palatable as food.
Of all these properties of the agave the Toltecs were cognizant. If their wise friend, The Shining Serpent, knew of other attributes it had, he kept silent. It was reserved for a woman to reveal to her race the fatal gift which lay hidden in the blue-green stubborn leaves of the prickly plant.
Xochitl was the name of the woman who showed to the king, Tecpancaltzin, how to extract from the heart of the maguey a sweet honey to drink, which, from that time to this, has been the delight and the curse of Mexicans. The plains of Apan are celebrated for the production of the finest pulque, in itself a thoroughly wholesome drink, suited to the climate of high regions, and beneficial when taken in moderation. From the root of the maguey, however, strong distilled liquors can be made, called mezcal and tequila, and of these it is best not to drink too much.
The new beverage found favor with the chief of the Toltec tribe, and spread its cheerful influence over his people. He married Xochitl, the woman who had offered him honey extracted from maguey.
The result of this discovery, and the consequence of the marriage, were ruin and dispersion for the proud race of the Toltecs. Meconetzin, (Son of Maguey) ruled at first with prudence and practical wisdom, but his habits deteriorated little by little; he became vicious, and revealed himself to be an insupportable tyrant. The honey in the maguey had begun to ferment.
The Toltecs thenceforth deteriorated in the most disastrous manner. Famines and pests fell upon the land, and invasions of strange peoples. The population was thinned, harried, scattered. Its last chieftain was Topiltzin-Meconetzin (Son of Maguey), who, with his wife, Xochitl, was slain in a sanguinary battle against overpowering enemies. And this was the end of the Toltecs. This may have been in the year 1116 of our era, after a duration of about five hundred and fifty years.
Some historians consider that the Toltecs were not a great race, but simply a tribe of sedentary Indians, more advanced than their neighbors, whose traditions have become with time exaggerated into the tale of a great and powerful nation. How this may be, the tourist at Tula may judge, according to his disposition, romantic or prosaic, by the importance of the ruins left by the vanished race.
The excellent compendios of history written by Payne and Zarate for the use of schools in Mexico still give the dynasties of the kings of Tula, as well as of the other early tribes, as if they were sovereigns of a well-established monarchy, accompanied by a list of the royal succession. According to this, the kingdom of the Toltecs lasted from 720 a.d., the date fixed for the end of their wanderings from Huehue-Tlapallan to Tollan, until 1116 a.d., when their destruction was accomplished and their people dispersed.