stablishment of a Monarchy and Choice of a King, 710-720 A.D.-Kingdoms of Culhuacan and Quauhtitlan-The Teoamoxtli-Prophecies and Death of Hueman-Birth of Quetza

ntures-Plagues sent upon the Toltecs-Famine and Pestilence-Reign of Acxitl, or Topiltzin-Debauchery of

a long migration from a distant land. In each of these records there is probably an allusion to the original southern empire, its disruption, and the consequent tribal scattering; but at the same time most of the events thus recorded relate apparently to the movements of particular tribes in and about Anáhuac at periods long subsequent to the original migration and immediately preceding the final establishment of each tribe. The Toltec version of this common record has already been given, down to the establishment of one of the many exiled tribes-the To

he hands of these priests, as the Spanish writers tell us, yearly offerings were made of the first fruits of all their fields; and each year at harvest-time a solemn festival was celebrated, not unattended by human sacrifice. It is true that the Spanish authorities in their descriptions of Teotihuacan and the ceremonies there performed, refer for the most part to the Toltec rather than the pre-Toltec period; but it has been seen in the preceding chapter that this city rose to its position as the religious centre of the Nahuas in Mexico long before the appearance of the Toltecs, and there is no evidence of any essential change in its priesthood, or the nature of its theocratic rule.[IV-1] No national name is applied in tradition to the people that dwelt in Teotihuacan at this period, although the Totonacs c

N THE SIX

, and retained much of their original culture. The more powerful nations, probably the most advanced in culture as well, established themselves in and about the valley of Mexico, where their capitals were soon flourishing cities, and where all branches of aboriginal art received more attention than elsewhere and were correspondingly developed. These central peoples became known, perhaps at once, but more probably at a later date, as Toltecs, a name w

MIXC

t of some of the other nations that settled in Anáhuac at this period, even prior to the establishment of the Toltecs at Tollan. These two documents are the chief authorities for the whole Toltec period, and since neither of them has ever been published, nothing remains but to accept the version given by the abbé.[IV-5] The Mixcohuas were the first of the new tribes that came into notice in the annals. They first appear at Chalchiuhapan, afterwards Tlascala, but soon present themselves before the priests of Teotihuacan to receive their sanction and become 'vassals of the Sun.' Faithless to the vows taken at the sacred city, the new-comers, instead of establishing themselves peaceably in the land, proved at first a torment to the older inhabitants and a source of great anxiety to the priests who had encouraged their coming; but the first bands of Mixcohuas were finally subdued and forced to submit to the requirements of the priests of the Sun by the aid of other succeeding but kindred bands of Chichimecs. Thus the first epoch

ION OF

itory, as had been their custom wherever they had stopped in their long migration. Finally they listened to the counsels of the venerable Hueman, and, still under the command of their seven chiefs, transferred their home to Xocotitlan on the river Quetzalatl, since called Tula, Tullanatl, or Montezuma, where they founded the city of Tollan,[IV-8] where now stands the little village of Tula, about thirty miles north-west of the city of Mexico. According

e, does not, of course merit serious discussion, since it cannot be literally accepted. The most natural, yet a purely conjectural, interpretation of the tradition is that a line or family of chieftains is represented by its founder or by its most famous member; and that by Hueman is to be understood the powerful priesthood that ruled the destinies of the Toltecs, from the earliest days to the fall of their empire. The government was a theocratic republic, each chief directing the movements of his band in war and, so far as such direction was needed, in peace, but all yielding, through fear of the gods or veneration for their representatives, implicit obedience to the counsels of their spiritual leader in all matters of national import. But in the seventh year after their arrival in Tollan, when the republic was yet in a

CHY EST

of avoiding future strife, that an embassy with rich presents be sent to the Chichimec monarch, asking for a son or other near relative who should be crowned king of the Toltecs. An express stipulation must, however, be required on the part of the Chichimec king that the Toltecs should ever be a perfectly free and independent people, owing no allegiance whatever to the Chichimecs, although the two powers would enter into an alliance for mutual defense and assistance. The advice of the aged and venerated counsellor was of course accepted without objection; in fact, as pictured by the Spanish writers, Toltec history is for the mos

it was provided that the state should be ruled during the unexpired term by magistrates chosen by the people. In addition to the inherent improbability of such extraordinary legislation, it should be noted that subsequent events, even as related by Ixtlilxochitl, do not in all cases agree with it. Its meaning can only be conjectured; it is noticeable, however, that the time allotted to each reign was exactly a cycle of fifty-two years, and it is not altogether unlikely that a custom prevailed of alluding in the pictured annals to each cycle by the name of the most famous king whose reign fell within the period. The next event, and the only one particularly recorded in the reign of Chalchiuh Tlatonac, was his marriage. Real

GDOM OF

of events as the others, and refer them to approximately the same date; they tell us of the original theocratic republic ruled by independent chieftains who were subordinate to a central sacerdotal power; the determination finally reached to adopt a monarchical form of government; and the choice of a king, who does not seem to have been one of the tribal chieftains. But they attribute these acts to several more or less closely allied nations, of which that established at Tollan was only one, and not the chief. The sacerdotal supremacy attributed to the priesthood of Tollan under the name of Hueman, was really exercised by the priests of the sun at Teotihuacan; there were the deliberations held; and there probably did the first king receive the rites of coronation. The leading nation in Anáhuac at the time was that of the Chichimec Culhuas under Mixcohuatl Mazatzin; those at Tollan and Quauhtitlan, and perhaps others whose name has not been preserved, having been less powerful allies. The choice of the chiefs fell upon Nauhyotl, or Nauhyotzin, as the first Toltec king, and having been crowned probably at Teotihuacan, he established his capital at Culhuacan, then, as for a long time after the metropolis of Anáhuac, in 11 Calli, or 721 A.D. Of Nauhyotl's family and prev

OF QUA

s subjects, or as the tradition has it, was stabbed through the liver by a native woman in whose arms he was sleeping. A revolt followed, by which the Toltec power in that province was temporarily overthrown by the aboriginal inhabitants, whoever they may have been. In 767 Nauhyotl, king at Culhuacan, died and was succeeded by Totepeuh, identical with Mixcohua Camaxtli, also known as Nonohualcatl, and whose father was at the time reigning at Tollan. Early in the reign of Totepeuh a wide-spread war is vaguely reported as having been waged chiefly in the regions outside the valley. In this war the original inhabitants of the country, the Toltec tribes already settled there, and newly arrived Chichimec bands are vaguely mentioned as the combatants; Xochi

XTLI, OR D

ice. At this assembly there were brought forward all the Toltec records reaching back to the earliest period of their existence, and from these documents, after a long conference and the most careful study, the Teoamoxtli, or 'book of God,' was prepared. In its pages were inscribed the Nahua annals from the time of the deluge, or even from the creation; together with all their religious rites, governmental syst

ly to disaster; and worst of all his subjects would imitate his vicious conduct and share in his misfortunes. Great calamities were to come upon the Toltecs, sent by Tloque Nahuaque, the great God, and like unto these with which their ancestors were afflicted in the remote past. Finally the kingdom was to be destroyed by civil wars, and the king, driven from his possession, after nearly all his subjects had perished, was to return to the ancient home of their race, there in his later years to become once more wise and discreet. Yet a sign was not denied this fated people; for certain unnatural phenomena were to announce their destruction as drawing nigh. When the rabbit should have horns like a deer, and the humm

caxoc,[IV-23] the fifth monarch at Tollan, who was in turn succeeded by Mitl in 979.[IV-24] These reigns, the last of which lasted fifty-nine years, were marked by the occurrence of no event specially important, though in all great progress was made, new towns founded, old cities beautified, and new temples built, including one of great magnificence a

KING OF

E OF QUE

tl, probably from the day on which he was born. In addition to his mother's dream and the auguries drawn from it, the fact that Ceacatl Quetzalcoatl united in his veins the noblest blood of the Toltecs and the pre-Toltec peoples, gave special import to his birth, and the event was celebrated with great pomp at Culhuacan, and gifts of great value were sent from all directions.[IV-27] 839 is the approximate date to which Ceacatl Quetzalcoatl's birth is referred; his mother died in childbed, and the child was entrusted to the king's sister Cohuatl, a priestess of the temple, perhaps the same as Cihuacoatl, or Cioacoatl, afterwards deified as the goddess of childbirth.[IV-28] In 845 King Totepeuh Nonohualcatl himself, now far advanced in years, was murdered by conspiring nobles under the leadership of Apanecatl, Zolton, and Cuilton; he was succeeded by Yohuallatonac, and at the same time Ihuitimal,-a name that bears no resemblance to that of Huetzin's successor according to the Spanish writers,-took Huetzin's place on the throne of Tollan. Brasseur believes that Huetzin left Tollan to become king at Culhuacan, and that he was the same as Yohuallatonac. It must be noted that th

the establishment of an alliance between the crowns of Culhuacan, Otompan, and Tollan. Each king was to be perfectly independent in the affairs of his own domain; but in matters affecting the general interests the three monarchs were to constitute a council, in which the king of Culhuacan was to rank first, assuming a title nearly equivalent to that of Emperor. Otompan

QUETZA

tl, although none of them-except Sahagun, who expresses himself very clearly on the subject-[IV-31] seem to have regarded him as one of the Toltec kings in the regular order of succession to the throne; and their accounts are inextricably confused by reason of their hav

e of all religious duties, and subjected himself to severe penances, such as the drawing of blood from tongue and limbs by means of maguey-thorns. He was not without supernatural powers, since his announcements made by a crier from the top of a neighboring mountain could be heard for a distance of three hundred miles. He introduced many new religious rites, including the practice of fasting and the drawing of blood from their own body by penitents, also according to some authorities, the establishment of convents and nunneries, and the sacrifice of birds and animals; to human sacrifices he was ever opposed. He was a patron of all the arts and sciences, which in his time reached their highest state of development.[IV-33] Finally, Quetzalcoatl left Tollan and went to Cholula, which city with others on the eastern plateau, some authors-still referring to another Quetzalcoatl, and another epoch-credit him with having founded. There are many versions of his motives for abandoning Tollan, most referring to certain troubles between him and a rival Huemac or Tezcatlipoca. Playing ball with Tezcatlipoca, the latter assumed the form of a tiger, scared the spectators so that many fell over a precipice, and pursued his opponent from town to town until he reached Cholula; or he was driven away by the tricks of a sorcerer named Titlacaaon, or Titlacahua, who appeare

OF QUET

isappearance in the south-although these are all accepted by Brasseur-should be referred to the Quetzalcoatl of primitive times. The young prince, unable for some unrevealed reason, to obtain after his arrival at years of discretion the crown of his murdered father, retired to some city in or near Anáhuac, probably Tulancingo, where he first comes into notice, to bide his time. Here he settled on his future policy including some religious reforms, communicated with powerful friends throughout Anáhuac, and perfected his

OF C

xercised the functions of high-priest, and succeeded him in power. Huemac is identified by Brasseur, not without some reason, with Nacaxoc, the fifth king of the Spanish writers, whose reign is represented by them as

less extensively in Culhuacan and Tollan. By Quetzalcoatl it was absolutely prohibited in the temples of the latter capital, and thus the powerful priesthood of Otompan, and Culhuacan was arrayed against him. Again it is thought that under Quetzalcoatl the spiritual power always closely connected with the temporal in Nahua governments, became so predominant as to excite the jealousy and fears of the nobility in Tollan, who were restive under a priestly restraint not imposed on their brothers of corresponding rank in the other nations of the empire. Finally, under the rule of Ceacatl, Tollan had become the metropolis of the empire. It does not appear that the terms of the alliance, according to which the monarch of Culhuacan outranked the others, had been changed; but in the magnificence of her palaces and temples, and the skill and fame of her artists, if not in population,

ST OF

n. Whether the city of Cholula was actually founded at this time or by the first Quetzalcoatl, it is impossible to determine,[IV-39] but the coming of Ceacatl seems to have marked the beginning of a new era of prosperity on the eastern plateau. Temples in honor of Camaxtli were erected in Tlascala and Huexotzinco, while Cholula became the capital of what may almost be termed a new Toltec monarchy. All the southern and eastern provinces subject to the empire during

towards Cholula. Quetzalcoatl as before, notwithstanding the remonstrance of his people, refused to resist his progress, but departed before Huemac's arrival for other lands as before related. Cholula, with the neighboring cities and provinces fell an easy prey to the valiant Huemac; but so long did he remain absent in his insatiable desire to conquer new territory, that his subjects revolted and with

of the Toltec empire, under the rule of the king at Tollan, Cholula seems to have preferred from this period a republican form of home rule, similar, if not identical, to that in vogue on the eastern plateau at the coming of the Spaniards.[IV-43] Four of Quetzalcoatl's chief disciples were charged with the est

OF NAU

eastern shrines; but instead of resorting like his predecessor to hostile measures, he determined to eclipse the glory of Cholula by the erection of new and magnificent temples at home. The finest of these temples was that built in honor of the Goddess of Water,[IV-45] or the Frog Goddess, to which was attached a college of priests vowed to celibacy. Meantime the worship of Camaxtli and Tlaloc were more firmly established than before at Tla

eign and to that of his successor the events which brought about the overthrow of the Toltec empire. The Nahua records, however, represent queen Xiuhtlaltzin as having been followed by her son Matlaccoatl, who reigned from 949 to 973, and who in his turn was succeeded by Tlilcoatzin, ruling from 973 to 994, and preceding Tecpancaltzin, respec

if that city alone constituted the empire; but the Nahua documents also ascribe almost exclusively to Tollan the occurrences which caused the destruction of the Toltec power. The latter documents, however, still keep up the thread of historical events at Culhuacan and in other provinces, and they are doubtless much more reliable in the matter of dates than the Spanish version, besides narrating the invasions of foreign tribes, a disturbing element in Toltec politics almost entirely ignored by Ixtlilxochitl and his followers. Notwithstandin

OF HUE

voluntary allegiance to the allied monarchs of the central region. And at the same time it cannot be believed that foreign conquest by force of arms had so small a place among the events of Toltec history as the records would imply. Huemac II., unlike the first of the same name, belonged to the sect of Quetzalcoatl, using his power to restrain the practice of human sacrifice if not altogether abolishing it in the temples of Tollan. He even seems to have added the name of Quetzalcoatl to his other royal and pontifical titles, or possibly had this title before his coronation, as high-priest of the sect at Culhuacan. The application of this title to Huemac, and that of Tezcatlipoca to the high-priest of the rival sect, has been productive of no little confusion in the record, since it is sometimes impossible to decide whether certain events should be attributed to this reign or to the time of Ceacatl and Huemac I. The new king was endowed with fine natural qualifications for his position, and enjoyed to a remarkable degree

NG'S M

ace of Palpan near the capital, and there, cut off from all communication with parents or friends, lived as the king's mistress. Her parents were notified that their daughter had been entrusted by Huemac to the care of certain ladies who would perfect her education and fit her for a prominent position among the ladies of the court and for a brilliant marriage. To Papantzin the royal manner of showing honor to his family seemed at best novel and strange, but he could suspect no evil intent on the part of the pious representative of Quetzalcoatl. New favors were subsequently shown the dishonored father, in the shape of lands and titles and promises. For three years Huemac continued his guilty amour in secret, and in the meantime, in 1002,[IV-55] a child was born, named Meconetzin, 'child of the maguey,' or at a later period Acxitl. According to the Codex Chimalpopoca the king during these three years gave himself up to the pleasures of the wine cup also, yielding to the temptations placed before him by the crafty followers of Tezcatlipoca, and during one of his drunken orgies revealed the secret of his love; but however this may have been, that secret was finally suspected; Papantzin in the disguise of a laborer visited the palace of Palpan, met his daughter with the young Meconetzin in her arms, and listened to the tale of her shame. The angry father seems to have been quieted with the promise that his daughter's son shou

'S ADV

e was entirely naked and awakened in the bosom of the princess a love for which her Toltec suitors had sighed in vain. So violent was her passion as to bring on serious illness, the cause of which was told by her maids to Huemac, and the indulgent father, though very angry with Toveyo at first, finally, as the only means of restoring his daughter to health, sought out the plebeian vender of pepper and forced him, perhaps not very much against his will, to be washed and dressed and to become the husband of the love-sick princess. This marriage caused great dissatisfaction and indignation among the Toltecs; an indignation

we have only the continuation of Toveyo's adventures, which seems to belong to this war. The tale runs that Huemac, somewhat frightened at the storm of indignation which followed his choice of a son-in-law, sent him out to fight in the wars of Cacatepec and Coatepec, giving secret orders that he should be so stationed in battle as to be inevitably killed. The main body of the Toltec army yielded to the superior numbers of the foe and fled to T

F DESTR

til midnight, when by reason of the darkness and their intoxication they crowded each other off a precipice into a deep ravine, where they were turned to stone. A stone bridge was also broken by the necromancer and crowds precipitated into the river.[IV-61] Other wonderful acts of the sorcerer against the well-being of the Toltecs as related by Sahagun have been given in another volume.[IV-62] From one of the neighboring volcanoes a flood of glowing lava poured, and in its lurid light appeared frightful spectres threatening the capital. A sacrifice of captives in honor of Tezcatlipoca, was decided upon to appease the angry gods, a sacrifice which Huemac was forced to sanction. But when a young boy, chosen by lot as the first victim, was placed upon the altar and the obsidian knife plunged into his breast, no hea

NT UPON TH

and causing much starvation. Next heavy frosts destroyed what little the heat had spared, not even the hardy maguey surviving; and then came upon the land great swarms of birds and locusts and various insects. Lightning and hail completed the work of devastation, and as a result of all their afflictions Ixtlilxochitl informs us that nine hundred of every thousand Toltecs perished. Huemac and his followers were held responsible for disasters that had come upon the people; a hungry mob of citizens and strangers crowded the street of Tollan and even invaded the palace of the nobles, instigated and headed by th

n to place Acxitl on the throne. The immediate consequence was a new revolt, and from an unexpected source, since it was abetted if not originated by the followers of Quetzalcoatl, who deemed Acxitl, the child of adulterous love, an unworthy successor of their great prophet. Maxtlatzin was the most prominent of the many nobles who espoused the rebel cause, and Quauhtli was the choice of the malcontents for the rank of high-priest of Quetzalcoatl. To such an extremity was the cause of Huemac and his son reduced that they were forced to a compromise with the two leaders of the revolt, who consented to support the cause of Acxitl on condition of being themselves raised to the highest rank after the son of Huemac, and of forming with him a kind of triumvirate by which the kingdom should be ruled. All the authorities agree respect

ES OF

into all manner of lasciviousness and riotous living. So low did he fall as to make use of his position of high-priest to gratify his evil passions. His inciters and agents were still Tezcatlipoca and his crafty partisans, who persuaded ladies of every rank that by yielding to the king's embraces they would merit divine favor. The royal example was followed by both nobles and priests. High church dignitaries and priestesses of the temples consecrated to life-long chastity forgot all their vows; force was employed where persuasion failed. So openly were the requirements of morality disregarded, that the high-priestess of the Goddess of the Water, a princess

saster. The king's reformation was sudden and complete; the priests held out hopes that the prodigies were warnings, and that their consequences might possibly be averted by prayer, sacrifice, and reform. The Spanish writers introduce at this period the series of plagues, which I have given under Huemac's reign; and Brasseur adds to the appearance of the rabbit and the humming-bird two or three of the wonderful events attributed by Sahagun to the necromancer Titlacaaon, without any reason that I know of for ascribing these occurrences to this particular time. Such were the appearance of a bird

MEC IN

t rebellious provinces; but as Brasseur says to the headquarters of the hostile army not very far from Tollan. The presents were received, but no satisfactory agreement seems to have been made at first. Veytia and Ixtlilxochitl speak vaguely of a truce that was concluded as a result of this or a subsequent embassy, to the effect that the Toltecs should not be molested for ten years, an old military usage requiring that ten years should always intervene between the declaration of war and the c

numerous Nahua bands who had settled in the west and north-west, in Michoacan, Jalisco, and Zacatecas, about the same time that the nations called Toltecs had established themselves in and about Anáhuac. Brasseur finds in his authorities, the only ones that give any particulars of the invaders, that among the first Chichimec bands to arrive were the Acxotecas and Eztlepictin, both constituting together the Teotenancas. The Eztlepictin settled in the valley of Tenanco, south of the lakes, while the Acxotecas took possession of the fertile valleys about Tollan. A war between Nauhyotl II. of Culhuacan and the king of Tollan is then vaguely recorded, in which Acxitl was victorious, but is supposed to have suffered from the constant hostility of Culhuacan from that time forward, although that king

OF DIVI

n every direction the demon seized upon the Toltecs that came in his way and dashed them lifeless at his feet. Multitudes perished but none had the strength to fly. A second time the giant appeared in a slightly different form and again the Toltecs fell by hundreds in his grasp. At his next appearance the demon assumed the form of a white and beautiful child sitting on a rock and gazing at the holy city from a neighboring hilltop. As the people rushed in crowds to investigate the new phe

my, ready to submit his differences with the Toltec king to the arbitration of the battle-field. According to Brasseur, the Teo-Chichimecs invaded the rest of Anáhuac, while the former foes of Huemac and his son, under Huehuetzin, from the provinces of Quiahuiztlan and Jalisco, threatened Tollan. I may remark here that I have little faith in this author's division into tribes of the hordes that invaded Anáhuac at this period and in the following years. We know that many bands from the surrounding region, particularly on the north, most of them probably Nahua tribes, did take advantage of internal dissensions among the Toltec nations to invade the central region. For a period of many years they warred unceasingly with the older nations and among themselves; but to trace the fortunes of particular tribes through this maze of inter-tribal conflict is a hopeless task which I shall not attempt. Many of these so-called Chichimec invad

ST OF

hrone, brought all their forces to aid the king against whom they had formerly rebelled. The aged Huemac came out from his retirement and strove with the ardor of youth to ward off the destruction which he could but attribute to his indiscretions of many years ago. Even Xochitl, the king's mother, is reported to have enlisted an army of amazons from the women of Tollan and to have placed herself at their head. Acxitl formed his army into two divisions, one of which, under a lord named Huehuetenuxcatl, marched out to meet the enemy, while the other, commanded by the king himself, was stationed within intrenchments at Tultitlan. The advance army, after one day's battle without decisive result, fell back and determined to act on

T OF

w followers. Other bodies of Toltecs had previously abandoned the country and gone in the same direction, and large numbers are reported to have remained in Culhuacan, Cholula, Chapultepec and many other towns that are named. Veytia, Ixtlilxochitl, Torquemada, and Clavigero tell us that of these who fled some founded settlements on the coasts of both oceans, from which came parties at subsequent periods to re-establish themselves in Anáhuac. Others crossed the isthmus of Tehuantepec and passed into

mecs and Nonohualcas. They even went through the forms of choosing a successor to Acxitl, selecting a boy named Matlacxochitl, whom they crowned as Huemac III. To him the chiefs rendered a kind of mock allegiance, but still held the power in their own hands. Desperate struggles ensued between the two Chichimec bands led by Huehuetzin and Icx

L OF TH

When by civil strife and foreign invasion their power was overthrown, many of the leaders, spiritual and temporal, doubtless abandoned the country, preferring to try their fortunes in the southern provinces which seem to have suffered less than those of the north from the Toltec disasters. Their exiles took refuge in the Miztec and Zapotec provinces of Oajaca, and some of them probably crossed to Guatemala and Yucatan, where they were not without influence in molding future political events. The mass of the Toltec people remained in Anáhuac; some of them kept up a distinct national existence for a while in Culhuacan, and perhaps in Cholula; but most simply became subjects of the invading chiefs, whose language and institutions were for the most part identical with those to which they had been accustomed. The