American Hero-Myths: A Study in the Native Religions of the Western Continent

[Footnote 42 (#x2_x_2_i122): Ibid.]

[Footnote 43 (#x2_x_2_i123): For the character of the Toltecs as here portrayed, see Ixtlilxochitl, Relaciones Historicas, and Veitia, Historia, passion.]

[Footnote 44 (#x2_x_2_i126): "Se metió (Quetzalcoatl) la tierra adentro hasta Tlapallan ó segun otros Huey Xalac, antigua patria de sus antepasados, en donde vivió muchos años." Ixtlilxochitl, Relaciones Historicas, p. 394, in Kingsborough, vol. ix. Xalac, is from xalli, sand, with the locative termination. In Nahuatl xalli aquia, to enter the sand, means to die.]

[Footnote 45 (#x2_x_2_i127): "Dicen que caminó acia el Oriente, y que se fué á la ciudad del Sol, llamada Tlapallan, y fué llamado del sol." Libro. viii, Prologo.]

[Footnote 46 (#x2_x_2_i129): Ramirez de Fuen-leal, Hist. de los Mexicanos, cap. viii.]

[Footnote 47 (#x2_x_2_i129): Monarquia Indiana, Lib. vi, cap. xxiv. Camaxtli is also found in the form Yoamaxtli; this shows that it is a compound of maxtli, covering, clothing, and ca, the substantive verb, or in the latter instance, yoalli, night; hence it is, "the Mantle," or, "the garb of night" ("la faja nocturna," Anales del Museo Nacional, Tom. ii, p. 363).]

[Footnote 48 (#x2_x_2_i130): Codex Vaticanus, Tab. x; Codex Telleriano-Remensis, Pt. ii, Lam. ii. The name is from chalchihuitl, jade, and vitztli, the thorn used to pierce the tongue, ears and penis, in sacrifice. Chimalman, more correctly, Chimalmatl, is from chimalli, shield, and probably, matlalin, green.]

[Footnote 49 (#x2_x_2_i132): Mendieta, Historia Eclesiastica Indiana, Lib. ii, cap. vi.]

[Footnote 50 (#x2_x_2_i132): Ibid.]

[Footnote 51 (#x2_x_2_i132): Motolinia, Historia de los Indios de Nueva España, Epistola Proemial, p. 10. The first wife was Ilancueitl, from ilantli, old woman, and cueitl, skirt. Gomara, Conquista de Méjico, p. 432.]

[Footnote 52 (#x2_x_2_i133): The derivation of Aztlan from aztatl, a heron, has been rejected by Buschmann and the best Aztec scholars. It is from the same root as izlac, white, with the local ending tlan, and means the White or Bright Land. See the subject discussed in Buschmann, Ueber die Atzekischen Ortsnamen. p. 612, and recently by Señor Orozco y Berra, in Anales del Museo Nacional, Tom. ii, p. 56.]

[Footnote 53 (#x2_x_2_i133): Colhuacan, is a locative form. It is usually derived from coloa, to curve, to round. Father Duran says it is another name for Aztlan: "Estas cuevas son en Teoculacan, que por otro nombre se llama Aztlan." Historia de los Indios de Nueva España, Lib. i, cap. i.]

[Footnote 54 (#x2_x_2_i135): Mendieta, Historia Eclesiastica Indiana, Lib. ii, cap. xxxiii.]

[Footnote 55 (#x2_x_2_i135): See my work, The Myths of the New World, p. 242.]

[Footnote 56 (#x2_x_2_i136): "En esta tierra nunca envejecen los hombres. * * * Este cerro tiene esta virtud, que el que ya viejo se quiere remozar, sube hasta donde le parece, y vuelve de la edad que quiere." Duran, in Kingsborough, Vol. viii, p. 201.]

[Footnote 57 (#x2_x_2_i139): Ixtlilxochitl, Relaciones Historicas, p. 330, in Kingsborough, Vol. ix.]

[Footnote 58 (#x2_x_2_i139): In the work of Ramirez de Fuen-leal (cap. viii), Tezcatlipoca is said to have been the discoverer of pulque, the intoxicating wine of the Maguey. In Meztitlan he was associated with the gods of this beverage and of drunkenness. Hence it is probable that the name Meconetzin applied to Quetzalcoatl in this myth meant to convey that he was the son of Tezcatlipoca.]

[Footnote 59 (#x3_x_3_i0): Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana, Lib. vi, cap. xxiv. This was apparently the canonical doctrine in Cholula. Mendieta says: "El dios ó idolo de Cholula, llamado Quetzalcoatl, fué el mas celebrado y tenido por mejor y mas digno sobre los otro dioses, segun la reputacion de todos. Este, segun sus historias (aunque algunos digan que de Tula) vino de las partes de Yucatan á la ciudad de Cholula." Historia Eclesiastica Indiana, Lib. ii, cap. x.]

[Footnote 60 (#x3_x_3_i0): Historia Chichimeca, cap. i.]

[Footnote 61 (#x3_x_3_i0): Historia, cap. xv.]

[Footnote 62 (#x3_x_3_i1): Sahagun, Lib. ix, cap. xxix.]

[Footnote 63 (#x3_x_3_i2): The name of the bath of Quetzalcoatl is variously given as Xicàpoyan, from xicalli, vases made from gourds, and poyan, to paint (Sahagun, Lib. iii, cap. iii); Chalchiuhapan, from atl, water pan, in, and chalchiuitl, precious, brilliant, the jade stone (id., Lib. x, cap. xxix); and Atecpanamochco, from atl, water, tecpan, royal, amochtli, any shining white metal, as tin, and the locative co, hence, In the Shining Royal Water (Anales de Cuauhtitlan, p. 21). These names are interesting as illustrating the halo of symbolism which surrounded the history of the Light-God.]

[Footnote 64 (#x3_x_3_i5): Ramirez de Fuen-leal, Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas, cap. viii.]

[Footnote 65 (#x3_x_3_i25): The original is–

Quetzal, quetzal, no calli,
Zacuan, no callin tapach
No callin nic yacahuaz
An ya, an ya, an quilmach.

Literally–

Beautiful, beautiful (is) my house
Zacuan, my house of coral;
My house, I must leave it.
Alas, alas, they say.

Zacuan, instead of being a proper name, may mean a rich yellow leather from the bird called zacuantototl.]

[Footnote 66 (#x3_x_3_i33): It is not clear, at least in the translations, whether the myth intimates an incestuous relation between Quetzalcoatl and his sister. In the song he calls her "Nohueltiuh," which means, strictly, "My elder sister;" but Mendoza translates it "Querida esposa mia." Quetzalpetlatl means "the Beautiful Carpet," petlatl being the rug or mat used on floors, etc. This would be a most appropriate figure of speech to describe a rich tropical landscape, "carpeted with flowers," as we say; and as the earth is, in primitive cosmogony, older than the sun, I suspect that this story of Quetzalcoatl and his sister refers to the sun sinking from heaven, seemingly, into the earth. "Los Nahoas," remarks Chavero, "figuraban la tierra en forma de un cuadrilátero dividido en pequeños quatros, lo que semijaba una estera, petlatl" (Anales del Museo Nacional, Tom. ii, p. 248).]

[Footnote 67 (#x3_x_3_i37): Designated in the Aztec original by the name Teoapan Ilhuicaatenco, from teotl, divine, atl, water, pan, in or near, ilhuicac, heaven, atenco, the waterside: "Near the divine water, where the sky meets the strand."]

[Footnote 68 (#x3_x_3_i37): The whole of this account is from the Anales de Cuauhtitlan, pp. 16-22.]

[Footnote 69 (#x3_x_3_i39): Ramirez de Fuen-leal, Historia, cap. xx, p. 102.]

[Footnote 70 (#x3_x_3_i41): Sir George A. Cox, The Science of Mythology and Folk Lore, p. 96.]

[Footnote 71 (#x3_x_3_i43): Gabriel de Chaves, Relacion de la Provincia de Meztitlan, 1556, in the Colecion de Documentos Ineditos del Archivo de Indias, Tom. iv, p. 536.]

[Footnote 72 (#x3_x_3_i45): Titlacauan was the common name of Tezcatlipoca. The three sorcerers were really Quetzalcoatl's three brothers, representing the three other cardinal points.]

[Footnote 73 (#x3_x_3_i68): From teotl, deity, divine, and metl, the maguey. Of the twenty-nine varieties of the maguey, now described in Mexico, none bears this name; but Hernandez speaks of it, and says it was so called because there was a superstition that a person soon to die could not hold a branch of it; but if he was to recover, or escape an impending danger, he could hold it with ease and feel the better for it. See Nieremberg, Historia Naturae, Lib. xiv, cap. xxxii. "Teomatl, vitae et mortis Index."]

[Footnote 74 (#x3_x_3_i69): Toveyome is the plural of toveyo, which Molina, in his dictionary, translates "foreigner, stranger." Sahagun says that it was applied particularly to the Huastecs, a Maya tribe living in the province of Panuco. Historia, etc., Lib. x, cap. xxix, §8.]

[Footnote 75 (#x3_x_3_i69): Huemac is a compound of uey, great, and maitl, hand. Tezozomoc, Duran, and various other writers assign this name to Quetzalcoatl.]

[Footnote 76 (#x3_x_3_i83): Texcalapan, from texcalli, rock, and apan, upon or over the water.]

[Footnote 77 (#x3_x_3_i83): Texcaltlauhco, from texcalli, rock, tlaulli, light, and the locative ending co, by, in or at.]

[Footnote 78 (#x3_x_3_i91): Clarence Mangan, Poems, "The Mariner's Bride."]

[Footnote 79 (#x3_x_3_i111): These myths are from the third book of Sahagun's Historia de las Cosas de Nueva España. They were taken down in the original Nahuatl, by him, from the mouth of the natives, and he gives them word for word, as they were recounted.]

[Footnote 80 (#x3_x_3_i114): For this version of the myth, see Mendieta, Historia Eclesiastica Indiana, Lib. ii, caps, v and x.]

[Footnote 81 (#x3_x_3_i115): Ixtlilxochitl, Relaciones Historicas, p. 388, in Kingsborough, vol. ix.]

[Footnote 82 (#x3_x_3_i117): Torquemada gives a long but obscure description of it. Monarquia Indiana, Lib. xiv, cap. xii.]

[Footnote 83 (#x3_x_3_i117): Nieremberg, "De septuaginta et octo partibus maximi templi Mexicani," in his Historia Naturae, Lib. viii, cap. xxii (Antwerpt, 1635). One of these was called "The Ball Court of the Mirror," perhaps with special reference to this legend. "Trigesima secunda Tezcatlacho, locus erat ubi ludebatur pilâ ex gumi olli, inter templa." The name is from tezcatl, mirror, tlachtli, the game of ball, and locative ending co.]

[Footnote 84 (#x3_x_3_i118): "Citlaltlachtli," from citlalin, star, and tlachtli, the game of ball. Alvarado Tezozomoc, Cronica Mexicana, cap. lxxxii. The obscure passage in which Tezozomoc refers to this is ingeniously analyzed in the Anales del Museo Nacional, Tom. ii, p. 388.]