The Ancient Cities of the New World

inations- Foundation of Tula-Toltec Religion-Chief Divinities

s far as the eye can reach, presents nothing but the same plantations, the same hamlets, the same poor squalid huts, whilst here and there a few Indians in tatters, and swarms of naked children, gaze at us stupidly as we speed along. Now we come to a fortress-like church, formerly used as a stronghold by the Pronunciados; we notice for the first time some stunted poplars, some rare willow-trees, and by-and-by hedges of prickly pear, and now that we are in the diligence, the country somewhat changes; instead of long stretches of green maize, we have immense plantations of aloe, which to my mind, whether viewe

e to fill up the enormous discrepancies to be met with at almost every page, by the monuments it has been our good fortune to bring to light. Two writers, Ixtlilxochitl and Mariano Veytia, have written about this people: the first in his "Historia Chichemeca" and "Relaciones," the second in his "Historia Antigua de Mejico;" the latter being more explicit, it is from him that we will chiefly borrow, without neglecting, however, other chroniclers. Both made use of the same documents, drew from the same sources, the traditionary legen

TING P

s, nor other historians, are able to bring the array of documents with which our history abounds in support of their assertions. I have purposely omitted Herodotus, the most curious and instructive among ancient historians, because modern discoveries and modern criticism have cleared him from the unjust attacks of Plutarch. A history is true and highly instructive, although it may contain absurd

d, in writing these chapters, we wil

Straits, by means of large flat canoes, and square rafts made of wood and reeds; the former are described, and called acalli, "water houses," in their manuscripts. Directing their course southward, they built their first capital, Tlapallan, "coloured," subsequently Huehue-Tlapallan, to distinguish it from a later Tlapallan. Huehue-Tlapallan was the

is due the invention of hieroglyphs and characters, which, arranged after a certain method, reproduced their history on skins of animals, on aloe and palm-leaves, or by knots of different colours, which t

capital. But the arrival of fresh immigrants caused them to remove further south, and, under the command of their wise man, Hueman,28 "the Strong Hand," who is endowed with power, wisdom, and intelligence, the Toltecs set out in 607, and marked their progress by

d altars, which remind one of the Mexican manuscripts from which the Toltec, Aztec, and Yucatec temple was built, make it clear that the civilising races came from the northwest; and Guillemin Tarayre,2

me their capital. The date of its foundation is variously given; Ixtlilxochitl sets it down at 556, Clavigero 667, and Veytia assigns 71

different tribes were common to all; and in default of documents which have been lost, we ascribe nearly all the historians of the Conquest relate of the Aztecs, whom they found the dominant race, as applicable to the Toltecs, the fountain of all progress both on the plateaux and in Central

ple called Quetzali, consisting of pillars in the shape of serpent

mecs and Xicalancas came to swear allegiance and submit to his authority; and there is nothing to make one suppose that they were compelled to leave the country, for they seem to have amalgamated so well with the new-comers that their very name was merged in theirs, although they retain the memory of their origin even to this day. "There can be no doubt," says Veytia, "that

C POT

ble; whilst at Totonac they erected palaces of cut stone, ornamented with designs and human figures, recalling their chequered history." "At Cuernavaca" (probably Xochicalco), he adds, "were palaces entirely built of cut stone, without mortar, beams, girders, or wood of any kind." Torquemada speaks of the Toltecs in the same terms, observing that "they were supposed to have come from the west, and to have brought with them maize, cotton, seeds, and the vegetables to be found in this country; that they

on," to whom temples were first erected; to these they added Tlaloc, god of rain, and Quetzalcoatl, god of air and wisdom.35 Tlaloc, according to Torquemada, was the oldest deity known, for when the Acolhuans, who followed the Chichemecs, arrived in the country, he was found on the highest summit of the Texcucan mountain.36 His paradise, called Tlalocan, was a place of delight, an Eden full of flowers and verdure; whilst the surrounding hills were called "Tlaloc mounts."37 He was emphatically the god of many places, of many names, and numerous personifications; as Popocatepetl he presided over the fo

ent;" but he was severally called Huemac,40 the "Strong Hand," the "white-bearded man," his mantle studded with crosses, or dressed in a tiger's skin; "god of air," when he was the companion of Tlaloc, whose path he swept, causing a strong wind to prevail before the rainy season; and also a youthful, beardless man, etc. The various attributes of Quetzalcoatl and Tlaloc developed according to the people, the country, and epoch. Such transformations have been observed among all nations: in India the great Agni was at first but the spark produced by rubbing two pieces of wood together, which became cloud, dawn, the sun, the flash, Indra, etc. With the Greeks, Apollo was the god of light, poetry, music, medicine, etc. The Christian religion presents the same phenomenon; for we have the Ancient of Days

c Cro

s at Mitla. No. 3, Mayapan Cross. No. 4, Cross of Teotihuacan. Nos. 5 and 7, Crosse

d to have been present at the Creation as Genius of the Ocean. He was the god of wisdom, the titular deity of mankind; and we find him at B?roe-B?dor, in Java, beautifully sculptured on a bas-relief, where Buddha is seen crossing the se

NDER HIS BEST-K

f eighty days, during which the priests devoted to his service were subjected to horrible penances. He reigned successively at Izama

N SPI

eauty. Ixtlilxochitl43 is afraid to pursue the panegyric of this people, lest it should appear exaggerated. Their calendar was adopted by all the tribes of Anahuac and Central America; it divided the year into eighteen months of twenty days each, adding five intercalary days to make up the full number of three hundred and sixty-five days; these belonged to no month, and were regarded as unlucky. Both months and days were expressed by peculiar signs; and as the year has nearly six hours in excess of three hundred and sixty-five days, they provided for this by intercalating six days at the end of four years, which formed leap year. Tlapilli, "knots," were cycles of thirteen years; four of these cycles was a century, which they called xiuhmolpilli, "binding up of knots," represented by a quantity of reeds bound together. Besides the "bundle" of fifty-two years, the Toltecs had a larger cycle of one hundred and four years, called "a great age," but not much used. The whole system rested on the repetition of the

PIL

ies. Seco

House 10. Ho

: : :

abbit 11. Rab

.˙ ˙.˙.˙

. Reed 12.

: : : :

Flint 13. F

˙ ˙.˙.˙.˙.

Fli

˙

ad everything else been destroyed, we might nevertheless pronounce with safety that all the monuments in North America were of Toltec origin. The genius of a nation, like that of an individual, has generally one dominant note, traceable through the various expressions of h

of CALLI, IN PROFILE. every great cycle, will find here a

tain near Iztapalapan, some two leagues from Mexico, was the place chosen for kindling the new fire, which was effected by the friction of two sticks placed on the breast of the victim. The fire was soon communicated to a funeral pile, on which the body of the victim was placed and consumed. This ceremony always took place at midnight, and as the light mounted up towards heaven shouts of joy burst forth from the multitudes who covered the hills, the house-tops, and terraces of the tem

, FOUND

ID OF THE