The Codex Ramirez
(History of the Mexica From the Beginning of Time)
Note: Henry Phillips Jr.
originally translated the spanish version to english in 1883 but as
you will soon find out, he knew nothing of Nahuatl. Many of his incorrect
Nahuatl spellings are corrected in the footnotes. Some resemble the
correct spelling but others are way off such as Huitzilopochtli which
he spells as "Vchilobi".
History of the Mexicans as Told by Their Paintings
Translated and edited by Henry Phillips Jr.
Read before the American Philosophical Society, October 19, 1883
Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society XXI:616-651, 1883.
Edited by Alec Christensen
THE FOUNDATION RESEARCH DEPARTMENT
History of the Mexicans as Told by Their PaintingsTranslated and edited
by Henry Phillips Jr.Read before the American Philosophical Society,
October 19, 1883Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society XXI:616-651,
1883.Edited by Alec Christensen Printable version The following text
is an important sixteenth-century account of the religion and history
of the Colhua Mexica, or Aztecs. It is translated from a Spanish text,
preserved in the library of the University of Texas at Austin, which
was written down in the 1530s and apparently is based upon one or more
indigenous hieroglyphic codices. It may have been composed by Fray Andrés
de Olmos, one of the early Franciscan friars who was most interested
in native culture. In Spanish it is usually referred to as the Historia
de los Mexicanos por sus pinturas, and in English as the History of
the Mexicans as Told by Their Paintings, although Phillips also refers
to it as the Codex Ramírez, after Bishop Ramírez de Fuen
Leal.This edition is the only available complete English translation,
published one year after Joaquín García Icazbalceta first
published the Spanish text in the Anales del Museo Nacional de México.
The language is more than a little convoluted; this is due in part to
the translator, and in part to the original text, which is garbled and
archaic in places. I include all of Phillips’ original introduction
and notes, although these are primarily of historical value. Most of
the sources that he cites, such as various of Daniel Brinton’s
works, are secondary and are no longer considered particularly important.
His notes concerning various spellings of the proper names have all
been superseded by later work, and his understanding of the Nahuatl
language was clearly deficient. Note 17 is set aside as its own page,
because it includes a lengthy translation of a different creation account,
from the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca. Note 18 also stands on its own with
a lengthy, although not always valid, account of the native calendar.I
also preserve Phllips’ typography, which is not always consistent
in its use of italics. For the most part, he italicizes all non-English
words and names, but some slipped through copy-editing in roman type,
and I have left them as is. His orthography appears to preserve that
of the original manuscript, with all of its errors and inconsistency.
The most easily available Spanish edition (Teogonía e historia
de los Mexicanos, edited by Angel Maria Garibay K., Mexico City: Porrua,
1965) standardizes all names to the correct Classical Nahuatl orthography.In
the original manuscript, only some of the chapters were numbered and
named. The chapter numbers and headings used here are those of Phillips,
unless they appear in brackets, in which case they are an editorial
insertion by myself. Throughout the text, parentheses usually indicate
an editorial aside by Phillips, and brackets by myself; for added clarity,
all new editorial insertions are in orange. Page breaks in Phillips’
text are also indicated in brackets, with the number referring to the
page on which the following text appears.The chapters vary greatly in
length, and in importance. Chapter 11 covers the Mexica migration from
just after their departure from Aztlan until their arrival at Huitzilopochco.
Chapter 20 is the longest, and spans the history of Tenochtitlan from
its foundation in 1322 until 1529. Chapter 21 is almost as long. It
contains various disconnected notes on the history and laws of Tenochtitlan.--Alec
ChristensenTable of ContentsINTRODUCTION by Henry Phillips [p.616]CHAPTER
1. Of the Creation and Beginning of the World and of the Original and
Superior Deities. [p.616]CHAPTER 2. Of how the World was created and
by whom. [p.617]CHAPTER 3. Of the Creation of the Sun, and how many
Suns there have been, and how long each one lasted, and how the Maceguales
ate in the time of each Sun, and of the Giants in those Days. [p.619]CHAPTER
4. Of the manner which they have of reckoning. [p.619]CHAPTER 5. Of
the Deluge, and of the Fall from Heaven and of the Restoration. [p.621]CHAPTER
6. What happened after the Raising of the Heaven and Stars. [p.621]CHAPTER
7. How the Sun was made and what took place afterwards. [p.622]CHAPTER
8. Of what happened after the Sun and Moon were made. [p.622]CHAPTER
9. Of the beginning and coming of the Mexicans to this New Spain. [p.624]CHAPTER
10. How they Departed, the People of Culuacan, and what Peoples went
with them, and how they were named. [p.624]CHAPTER 11. Of the Road they
journeyed and of the Places they went, and of the Time they tarried
in each Place where they were. [p.625]CHAPTER [12. The Return to Chapultepec.]
[p.629]CHAPTER [13. The Sacrifice of Copil.] [p.629]CHAPTER [14. The
Death of Huitzilihuitl.] [p.630]CHAPTER [15. The Burial of the Heart
of Copil.] [p.630]CHAPTER [16. Submission to Colhuacan.] [p.630]CHAPTER
[17. War with Xochimilco.] [p.630]CHAPTER [18. Flight from Colhuacan.]
[p.631]CHAPTER [19. The Foundation of Tlatelolco and Tenochtitlan.]
[p.631]CHAPTER [20. The History of Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco.] [p.632][CHAPTER
21. Various Notes on Cosmology, History, and Laws.] [p.637][CHAPTER
22.] Whence originated the Lords of Tochimilco. [p.642][CHAPTER 23.]
Of the Manner in which they Reckon their Months and Days. [p.643]APPENDIX.
Annotations and Corrections to the Codex Ramirez. [p.643]NOTE 17. [A
Mixtec Creation Account.] [p.645]NOTE 18. Of the Mexican Year. [p.646]NOTES
19-48. [p.647]NOTES 49-62. [p.650]
Perhaps one of the most valuable fragments of antiquity that has survived
the bigoted fury of the Spanish ecclesiastics is the Codex Ramirez,
a history of the Mexicans as shown forth by their hieroglyphical and
symbolical writings. It was prepared shortly after the Conquest by the
orders and for the use of Señor Ramirez de Fuen Leal, Bishop
of Cuenca, President of the Chancelleria, to be used in deciding upon
questions of all nature that were likely to arise before that tribunal.
He caused the Aztec sages and priests to come together before him, and
to agree upon an explanation of the characters and signs in which the
law, history and mythology of the Mexicans were written. As an authentic
exposition of such, it is unique and of the greatest value to students.
Brinton (Am. Hero Myths, 78), calls it "the most valuable authority
we possess;" Pinelo (Vol. II, 603), refers to its having been used
by Herrera; Chavero (Anales del Museo Nacional, III, iv, 120), "se
considera como la mejor fuente, acaso la unica verdaderamente autorizada,
para conocer los hechos pasados en Tenochtitlan." When Bishop Ramirez
returned to Spain, he took with him this MS., which now exists in Madrid
in a volume of twelve leaves folio entitled Libro de oro y Thesoros
Indicos, and bears upon it various memoranda attesting its authenticity.
The work is extremely difficult to understand, and full of obscurities
arising partly from errors in transcription, partly from the use of
antiquated expressions, and a most involved and puerile style, and partly
from incorrect and vulgar orthographies.
In the following translation I have endeavored to reproduce the simplicity
and meaning of the original, adding copious notes of explanation and
conjecture wherever a passage seemed to demand it.
(NOTE.--Tz is pronounced like the Maya Ç; X like the sound of
sh in English; t between two "l"s is dropped; o and u were
pronounced almost identical (Molina). Anales de Museo Nacional, I, VI,
212.)
CHAPTER 1ST. [p.616]
Of the Creation and Beginning of the World and of the Original and Superior
Deities.
Through symbols and writings formerly used, through the traditions of
the old and of those who in the days of their infidelity were priests
and pontiffs, and through the narrations of the lords and chief men
to whom they were accustomed to teach the law and educate in their temples
in order to render them learned, brought together before me with their
books and hieroglyphics, which according to what is demonstrated are
believed [617] to be of ancient origin, many of them anointed with human
blood, it appears that there was originally one god named Tonacatecli,
1 who took for wife Tonacaçiguatl, or as she is sometimes called
Cachequacalt, who created themselves, and were perpetual inhabitants
of the thirteenth heaven; of whose creation and beginning likewise there
is nothing known except the fact that it also originated in the thirteenth
heaven. Of this god and goddess were engendered four sons, the eldest
was called Tlaclau queteztzatlipuca, 2 whom the peoples of Quaxoçingo
and Tascala reverenced as their chief divinity under the name of Camaxtle,
3 and who was said to have been born of a ruddy color all over. They
had a second son named Yayanque tezcatlipuca; he who was the greatest
and the worst, who overpowered and bore sway over the other three, because
he was born in the middle of all (naçio en medio de todos); he
was totally black at birth. The third was called Queçalcoatl,
4 and for another name Yaguelicatl. To the fourth and the smallest they
gave the appellation of Omitecilt, 5 and Maquezcoatl, whom the Mexicans
termed Vchilobi, because he was left-handed, and looked upon him as
their chief deity, because in the land from whence they came, he was
so considered, and was more especially the god of warfare than were
the other divinities. Of these four sons of Tonacatecli and Tonacaçigulatl
(sic), Tezcatlipuca was the one who knew all thoughts, and was in all
places and read all hearts, for which he was called Moyocoya, 6 which
is to say "the all-powerful," according to which idea he is
represented in painting only as the air, by which name he is not commonly
known. Vchilobi, 7 the younger brother, and god of the Mexicans, was
born without flesh (naciò sin carne), but only bones, in which
condition he lived six hundred years, during which period of time the
gods did nothing whatever, the father as well as the sons, and in their
representation there is no account taken of these six hundred years,
counting them as they do from twenty to twenty, according to the sign
which he holds, which stands for twenty. These gods were known by these
and many other names, according to how their attributes are understood,
for each community called them differently by reason of their dialects,
and so they were given diverse appellations.
CHAPTER 2ND Of how the World was created and by whom.
When the six hundred years after the birth of
the four brethren gods, the sons of Tonacatecli, had passed away, they
all four came together, and said that it was good that they should arrange
what they had to do, and the law they were to be governed by, and they
all committed to Quezalcoatl and Vchilobi, the performance of this task,
in pursuance of which they created, under the orders and judgment of
the others, the fire, and this being done they made the half-sun, which,
on account of not being entire, gave not much but only a slender light.
Presently they created a man and a woman; the man they called Vxumuco,
and the woman Çipastonal, 8 and to them they gave command that
they should till the ground, and that the woman [618] should spin and
weave, and that of them should be born the Maçeguales, and that
they should find no pleasure, but should always be obliged to work;
to the woman the gods gave certain grains of maiz, 9 so that with them
she should work cures, and should use divination and witchcraft, and
so it is the custom of women to do to this very day. Then they created
the days which they divided into months, giving to each month twenty
days, of which they had eighteen, and three hundred and sixty days in
the year, of which will be spoken subsequently. Then they created Mitlitlatteclet
and Michitecaçiglat, husband and wife, and these were the gods
of the lower regions (infierno), in which they were placed; then the
gods created the heavens below the thirteenth, and then they made the
water and created in it a great fish similar to an alligator which they
named Çipaqli, and from this fish they made the earth as shall
be told; and to create the god and goddess of water, all the four divinities
joined themselves together, and made Tlalocatecli, 10 and his wife Chalchiutlique,
11 whom they assigned to be the gods of water, to whom they betook themselves
in prayer whenever it was needful. Of this god of water it was said
that he had his dwelling of four apartments, in the middle of which
was a large courtyard, where stood four large earthen pans full of water.
In one of these pans the water was excellent, and from it the rain fell
which nourished all manner of corn and seeds and grain, and which ripened
things in good season; from the second rained bad water from which fell
cobwebs on the crops, and blight and mildew ensued; from another fell
ice and sleet; when from the fourth rain fell nothing matured or dried.
This god of rain water created many servants, small of body, who were
in the rooms of the aforesaid house, and they held money boxes, 12 in
which they caught the water from the great earthen pans, and various
rods in the other hand; and when the god of water sent them to irrigate
any especial places, they started off with their boxes and sticks, and
let fall the water where they were directed, and when it thunders the
noise is caused by their striking the boxes with their rods, and when
it lightens it comes from within these boxes. It is eighty years since
Señor de [or "the lord of"] Chalco wished to sacrifice
to these servants of the gods of water one of his hunchbacks 13 and
took him to the Volcano, a very high mountain always covered with snow,
fifteen leagues distant from the City of Mexico, and placed the humpback
inside of a cave of which the entrance was closed up, and from lack
of food he became drowsy, and was carried to where he could see the
aforesaid palace and the manner of life of the deity; sometime later
the servants of Señor de Chalco came to look for him to see if
he were dead, but finding him living, took him home where he told what
he had seen; in this very year the people of Chalco were subdued by
the Mexicans, and became enslaved, and it was said that this had been
the signal for their loss as it took place. Afterwards all the four
gods. being united in work, they created from the fish Cipacuatli 14
the earth, which they called Tlaltecli, 15 and represent as the god
of the earth, extended over a fish as having been made of it.
CHAPTER 3RD. [p.619]
Of the Creation of the Sun, and how many Suns there have been, and how
long each one lasted, and how the Maceguales ate in the time of each
Sun, and of the Giants in those Days.
All the aforesaid was made, and created without any account being taken
of the year, except that it was all in one, and without any difference
of time, and it is narrated that of the first man and woman who did
as has been already said, about the time when these things began to
be performed, there was born a son to whom was given the name of Pilcetecli,
and as there was lacking some woman for him to marry, the gods made
of the hairs of Suchiqueçar, 16 a woman with whom his first marriage
took place. When this was done all the four deities took notice that
the half sun which they had created gave but very little light, so they
resolved to make another half sun, so that it should illumine the whole
earth. When Tezcatlipuca saw this he became himself a sun in order to
give light, as we represent him in painting, and they say that what
we see is only the brightness of the sun and not the sun himself, because
the sun rises in the morning, traverses till midday, and then returns
to the east in order to start again next day, and that which is visible
from noon till sunset is its brightness, and not the sun itself, and
that at night it neither shows itself nor has motion. So from being
a god Tezcatlipuca made himself a sun, and then all the other deities
created giants, who were very large men, and of such extreme strength
that they could tear up trees with their hands, and they lived on the
acorns of evergreen oak trees, and nothing else.17 This state of affairs
lasted as long as this sun did, which was thirteen times fifty-two years,
which make 676 years.
CHAPTER 4TH. [p.619]
Of the manner which they have of reckoning.18
And since they commence to count time from this first sun, and their
reckoning runs on from it continuously, leaving behind the 600 years,
the period of the birth of the gods, and while Vchilobus was in his
bones, and without flesh, as has been narrated, I shall now proceed
to tell the manner and order in which they reckon their year, and this
is it. As has been already said, each year contains 360 days, and 18
months, each month of 20 days; and of how they use up 5 days in festivals,
which became fixed, we shall speak later in our chapters touching on
the feasts and their celebrations. Holding the year as has been said
they correct from four to four, and neither in their language nor in
their paintings, take any account of more than four years. The first
they call tectapatl, and paint it as a stone or flint with which they
cut open the body in order to draw out the heart; the second, cali,
which they represent as a house, for by this name they call a house;
the third, tochili, whom they paint with a rabbit’s [620] head,
for by this term they rabbit; the fourth, acal, which they represent
as a sign for water. They reckon with these four numbers and objects
till they come to the thirteenth year, which then rounds the great cycle,
like the indiction or lustrum of the Romans; and when finished four
times thirteen. the four years being run four times thirteen, making
fifty and two, this they call an age (epoch), and when fifty and two
years are ended, with much pomp they celebrate the great year, and place
the period with those already passed, and recommence anew their four
year computation; the festival of which and the entrance into the new
cycle was celebrated among the Mexicans by extinguishing all the lights
that existed, and the priests would go to seek light again at a temple
situated on a high mountain near Estapalapa, where the ceremonies took
place, about two leagues distant from Mexico. They then continued henceforth
their count of four years, and then of thirteen, till they had reached
their fifty-two, and so on from fifty-two to fifty-two for all time.
Returning to the giants who were created at the time when Tezcatlipuca
was the sun, it is said that when he ceased lo be the sun, they all
perished, and tigers made an end to them and ate them up, so that no
one remained; and these tigers were created in this fashion; that after
thirteen times fifty-two years had passed Queçalcoatl became
the sun, and Tezcatlipuca ceased to be it, because he gave him a blow
with a great stick, and threw him over into the water, and there he
was metamorphosed into a tiger, and issued forth thence to slay the
giants; and this appeared in the heavens, for it is said that the ursa
major came down to the water because he is Tezcatlipuca, and was on
high in memory of him.
In these eras the Maceguales ate the nuts of the pine trees and nothing
else, which lasted while Queçalcoatl was the sun, during thirteen
times fifty-two years, which was 676 years, which being come to an end
Tezcatlipuca, on account of being a god did the same actions as his
other brothers, and hence was made a tiger, and gave a kick in the breech
to Queçalcoatl, which upset him and finished his term of being
the sun; and then a terrible wind arose which carried away all the Maceguales,
except a few who remained suspended in the air, and the rest turned
into apes and monkeys; then Tlalocatecli, the god of the lower regions,
became the sun, and remained so seven times fifty-two years, which are
364 years, in which time the Maceguales had nothing to eat, but açiçiutli,
which is a species of seed of a grain which is hunt in the water. When
these years were over, Queçalcoatl sent down a rain of fire from
heaven, and deprived Atlalocatecli of being the sun, and made his wife
Chalchiutlique, the sun in his place, who remained so six times fifty-two
years, which are 312 years, and during that time the Maceguales ate
only a seed of a grain like maize named cintrococopi.19 And so from
the birth of the gods to the fulfillment of the sun according to the
count were 2000 and 600 and 20 and 8 years.
CHAPTER 5TH. [p.621]
Of the Deluge, and of the Fall from Heaven and of the Restoration.
In the last year of the sun Chalchiutlique, as has been told, it rained
so much water and so great an abundance thereof that the heavens themselves
felt, and the waters carried away all the Maceguales that were, and
from them were made all manner of the fishes that exist at the present
day; and so there ceased to be any more Maceguales, and the heaven itself
had ceased to exist, for it had fallen upon the earth.20 And when the
four gods had seen that the heaven had fallen on the earth, which took
piece in the first year of the four after the sun had ended, and the
rain had fallen, which was the year tochili, they ordained that all
the four should make through the centre of the earth four roads by which
to enter it in order to raise the heaven, to assist in which task they
created four men; one they called Cotemuc, another Yzcoaclt, another
Yzmali, and the fourth Tenesuchi. These four men having been created,
the two gods, Tezcatlipuca and Quiçalcoatl, then formed themselves
into enormous trees, 21 Tezcatlipuca becoming the one known as Tazcaquavilt,
meaning the tree of the mirror, and Quiçalcoatl, the Queçalhuesuch,
and gods and men and trees together raised on high the heaven and the
stars, just as they are to-day, and as a recompense for having raised
them, Tonacatecli, the father, made them lords of the heaven and the
stars; and when the heaven was raised, Tezcatlipuca and Quiçalcoatl
walked through it, and made the road which we now see there, and met
in it, and remained there in it, and held their abode there.
CHAPTER 6TH. [p.621]
What happened after the Raising of the Heaven and Stars.
After that the heaven was lifted up, the gods renewed life to the earth
which had expired when the heaven fell upon it, and in the second year
after the deluge which was acalt, Tezcatlipuca altered his name, and
changed himself into Mixcoatl, 22 which means viper of snow, and for
this reason he is painted among the gods a viper. In this year he desired
to feast the gods, and for this purpose drew a light from the rods whence
they were in the habit of drawing it, and hence the origin of drawing
fire from flint, which are rods that have a heart. The fire being once
drawn, it was the festival of making many and large flames.
From this second year in which fire came forth until the sixth. nothing
happened noteworthy, except in the sixth year after the deluge Çinteul
was born, son of Picenticli, eldest son of the first man, who, because
he was a god and his wife a goddess, being made of the hairs of the
goddess mother, could not die; two years later, which was the eighth
year after the deluge, the gods created the Maceguales, just as they
had formerly existed, and there is no record of any other event till
this cycle of thirteen years was accomplished. In the first year of
the second cycle of thirteen years thereafter all the four gods came
together and said that the earth had no light [622] but was in darkness,
there being nothing else to give any light save the fires, so they created
a sun to illuminate the earth, and this sun should eat hearts and drink
blood; so to feed it they were obliged to carry on continual warfare
to obtain for it blood and hearts. And since it was the will of all
the gods that it should be so, in the first year of the second cycle
of thirteen, which was the fourteenth after the deluge, they made a
war which lasted two years till it was finished; again in three years
they made war, in which time Tezcatlipuca created 400 men and five women,
so as to have some people for the sun to eat, 23 these men lived only
four years after which the women were the sole survivors. In the decennial
year of this second thirteenth it is said that Suchiçicar, first
wife of Piçiçiutecli, son of the first man, died in the
war, being the first woman to expire in warfare, and much the next powerful
of all women, so many as died in war.
CHAPTER 7TH. [p.622]
How the Sun was made and what took place afterwards.
In the thirteenth year of this second cycle of thirteen, which is in
the twenty-sixth year after the deluge, we have seen how the gods agreed
to make the sun, and how they made war in order to give it something
to eat, Quiçalcoatl wanted to make his son the sun, of whom he
was the father hut who had no mother, and at the same time talocatecli,
the god of water, made to himself a son by Chalchiutli, 12 his wife,
which is the moon, eating nothing until (here there is a lacuna in the
original), and they drew blood from their ears, 24 and with this they
fasted, and they drew blood from their ears, and their body in their
prayers and sacrifices; and this being done Quiçalcoatl took
his son and heated him red hot in a great fire, from whence he issued
as a sun to illumine the earth; and after the fire died out, Talocatecli,
25 came and threw his own son in the cinders from whence he issued forth
as the moon, for which reason he appears ashy colored and obscure. In
the last year of this thirteen, the sun began to give his light, for
before that time it had always been night, and the moon began to run
after the sun, and never to catch up with him, and they traversed the
air perpetually without ever arriving at the heavens.
CHAPTER 8TH. [p.622]
Of what happened after the Sun and Moon were made.
One year after the sun was made, which was the first of the third thirteen
after the deluge, Camasale, one of the four gods, went to the eighth
heaven, and created four men and one woman for a daughter, so that they
should go to war, that there should be hearts for the sun and blood
for it to drink; and being made they fell into the water, and then returned
to heaven, and as they fell and there ensued no war, the next year,
which was the second of the third thirteen, the same Camasale, or as
he is sometimes called Mixcoatl, took a rod and struck with it on a
rock from which sallied forth forty [623] Chichimecas, 26 and this they
say was the beginning of the Chichimecas, which we call Otomis, which
in the language of Spain signifies mountaineers, and these, as we shall
narrate hereafter, were the inhabitants of this country before the Mexicans
came to conquer, and to dwell there and in the eleven years following
of this third thirteen, Camasale 27 did penance, taking the thorns of
the maguëy and drawing blood from his tongue and ears, and for
this reason it is the custom to draw blood from such places with the
thorns whenever they supplicate the gods. He did this penance so that
his four sons and daughter that he had created in the eighth heaven
should descend and slay the Chichimecas, so that the sun should have
hearts to eat; and in the eleventh year of the third thirteenth, down
came the four sons and the daughter, and placed themselves in some trees
whence they fed eagles; and now it was that the Camasale invented the
wine of the maguëy and other kinds of wines in which the Chichimecas
busied themselves, and knew nothing better than drunkenness; and being
in the trees the sons of Camasale, they were seen by the Chichimecas,
who went to them, so they descended from the trees, and slew all the
Chichimecas, only three escaping; one was called Ximbel, another Mimichil,
and the third was the Camasale, the god who had created them, and who
transformed himself into a Chichimeca. In the eighth year of the fourth
thirteen after the deluge there was a great noise in the heaven from
whence there fell a deer with two heads, and Camasale caused it to be
caught, and ordered the men who then inhabited Cuitlalavaca, three leagues
distant from Mexico, that they should capture that deer and regard it
as a god, and they did so, and they gave it for four years to eat of
rabbits and vipers and butterflies; and in the eighth year of the fourth
thirteen Camasale had a war with some of his adjoining neighbors, and
in order to conquer them he took the aforesaid stag and carrying it
to them overcame them; and in the second year of the fifth thirteen
did this same god Camasale celebrate a festival in heaven, making many
fires; and until there was completed the fifth thirteen after the deluge
did Camasale keep on continuously making war, and with it he gave nutriment
to the sun.
They say, and the paintings likewise show it, that in the first year
of the sixth thirteen the Chichimecas waged war against Camasale, and
took away his deer, through which he was enabled to be victorious; and
the reason why he lost it was that while wandering about the field he
fell in with a female relation of Tezcatlipuca, a descendant of the
five women whom he had made at the time when he created the 400 men
which latter died, but the females remained alive, and this one was
descended from them, and bore a son who was known as Ceacalt; 28 and
in this thirteen they represent that afterwards when Çeacalt
(sic) was a youth he did seven years of penance, wandering alone through
the mountains, and drawing blood from himself that the gods might make
him a mighty warrior. And in the sixth thirteen after the deluge began,
this Çeacalt to wage war, and he was the first lord of Tula whose
inhabitants chose him for their chief on [624] account of his valor.
This Çeacalt lived until the second year of the ninth thirteen,
being lord of Tula, and four years before that time he built a very
large temple in Tula, and when he had done it there came to him Tezcatlipuca,
who told him, that towards Honduras, in a place which is now called
Tlapalla, there was a house built for him, and that there he should
betake himself and breathe his last, for that he must go away from Tula,
29 in which town Çeacalt was reverenced as a god; to what Tezcatlipuca
said to him, he replied that the heavens and the stars had told him
that it was his fate to leave there within four years. And so when these
four years were completed, he departed and took with him all the Maceguales
of Tula, and left them at the city of Chulula, whence are descended
all its inhabitants, and others he left in the province of Cuzcatan,
whence descends the present population of that place, and in the very
same manner he left behind him in Çempoal others who settled
there, and he proceeded on his journey till he reached Tlapala (sic),
and on the very day in which he arrived there he fell ill, and on the
day following he died. Then Tula remained depopulated, and without a
lord nine years.
CHAPTER 9TH. [p.624]
Of the beginning and coming of the Mexicans to this New Spain.
It is said that after the completion of ten thirteens after the deluge,
which are 130 years, the Mexicans were settled in a community named
Azcla to the west of the New Spain slightly trending toward the North,
which was very much populated, and in whose centre stood a mountain
whence issued a fountain which became a river, like Chapultepeque 30
is in Mexico, and on the other side of this river was another settlement,
and a very large one, named Culuacan, 31 and since their computation
begins with the first year of their emigration, so from now on for the
future we shall reckon time starting from the year in which this Mexican
agreed to sally out to find new lands that they might conquer, and for
that reason they chose three war chiefs or captains, one they named
Xinçi, another Tecpaçi, and the third Coantlique, and
with these three started off many Mexicans (the paintings do not set
out their number), and they carried with them the figure and manner
of constructing their temples, so as to be able to erect them to Vchilobi
wherever be should come. So they took their adieu of the temple they
had in Azcla, 32 and began their journey, for which reason the painting
representing their expedition, makes its beginning with the temple.
CHAPTER 10TH [p.624]
How they Departed, the People of Culuacan, and what Peoples went with
them, and how they were named.
As has been already narrated on the eastern side of the river they represent
the City of Culuacan, a very large city with many populous places around
it filled with people, on the account of which the inhabitants determined
[625] to seek a country to settle in, and being united they took for
captain and war chief one named Ynqualtlatlanqui, and they took the
names of the old towns and places they had left, and gave them to new
ones in the country to which they immigrated. It is said that the following
people went with them, and each one took its own god which it worshiped,
and the manner of its own temple, for in each one the service was different,
and no one was identical with another, for which reason they are painted
dissimilar; and so there went forth with them those of Culuacan, which
was the principal city, and was placed in the new settlement distant
two leagues from the one whence they populated it as they came, of which
more will be said in the hereafter. They took their gods, named Çinteul,
son of Pinçetecli, Suchimulco 33 went with them, taking his god
named Quelazcli, who was the stag of Mixcoatl 34 ashas been told; Atitlalabaca,
went forth with his god Amimicli, which was a rod of Mixcoatl whom they
reverenced as a god, and carried that rod in memory of him; Mizquique,
went forth with Quiçalcoatl as his god; Chalco 35 went forth
with Tezcatlipuca napatecli for his god. The people went forth of Tacuba,
and Culucan and Ascapuzalco, which was called Tenpanecas, 36 and these
took as their god Ocotecli, which is fire, and for this reason they
are accustomed to consume in the fire all whom they capture in war.
These people, say the Mexicans, and no more sallied forth, although
those of Tazcuco, 37 and Tascala and Guejoçingo boast and vaunt
themselves that they too came when the others came from Mexico, and
are also of that land. All these people with their gods set out in this
first year, which was tecpalt, and there went forth of them forty bands.
CHAPTER 11TH [p.625]
Of the Road they journeyed and of the Places they went, and of the Time
they tarried in each Place where they were.
All having departed they came to two lofty mountains, in whose midst
they encamped and remained there two years, and as the days are not
painted that they occupied in reaching this spot, nothing appears more
clearly than that up to the time of their resting in these sierras they
reckon one year, and two years they spent there sowing what they had
to eat and carry off with them, and here they erected their first temple
to Vchilobo, according as they had done in that city.
These two mountains stood opposite each other, and their habitation
was in their middle.
After three years had passed since their departure from Astla (sic),
from when the Mexicans came forth, as has been told, they left the place
or site of the two hills where they had remained two years, after having
built a temple to Uchilogos (sic), as has been said, and came to a valley
where there were many great trees, which they named Quausticaca, 38
on account of the many pine trees that were there, and there they stayed
a year, which completed the four years since they had left their homes.
[626] Thence they traveled onward till they came to a place which they
named Chicomuxtoque, 39 and they settled there and remained nine years,
and so here they completed the thirteen years from the time of their
departure and when they left there they laid the place waste; and there
was born in this place, Tlacuxquin, and Mançamoyagual and Minaqueciguatle,
who were the two males, and one woman, their chief personages, and here
was accomplished the thirteenth year of their exodus, and they began
to reckon the second thirteen.
When they had departed from Chicomuztoque (sic), they came to a plain,
which is the spot where at the time dwelt the Chichimecas, whose home
was in front of Panuco, and here they remained three years, and to this
valley they gave the name of Cuatlicamat. At the end of the three years
they went forth and came to a ranche which they called Matlauacala,
where they dwelt three years, and erected a temple to Vchilogos, thence
they came to another ranche, named by them near the one where the Otomies
lived, the indigines of the land; and here they rested five years, and
erected another temple to Vchilogos, and here was fulfilled eleven years
of the second thirteen since their departure.
From this sojourning place they came to a mountain opposite Tula named
Coatebeque, 40 and when they came the Maçeguales held in great
veneration the mantas of the five women whom Tezcatlipuca made, and
who died the day the sun was created, as has been said, and from these
mantas the aforesaid five women came again to life, and wandered in
this mountain, doing penance, drawing blood from their tongues and ears;
and when four years of their penance had passed by, one named Quatlique
41 who was a virgin, took a small quantity of white feathers and placed
them in her bosom, from which she conceived without having known a man,
and there was born of her Vchilogos, for a new birth, in addition to
his other nativities, for he was a god all-powerful, and could do whatever
he wished.
And here came again to life the 400 men whom Tezcatlipuca created, and
who died before the sun was made, and when they saw the woman was pregnant,
they sought to burn her, but Vchilogos was born of her fully armed,
and slew the whole of the 400 men; and this the feast of his nativity
and the slaughter of the 400 men they celebrate every year, as will
be narrated in the chapter relating to their festivals; and before the
feast there is a great general fast who shall participate, lasting eighty
days, during which they only eat once a day; and these 400 men whom
Vchilogos slew, the inhabitants of the province of Cuzco 42 burnt up
and took for their gods, and reverence as such down to the present day,
and in this way they celebrated for the first time the festival of the
birth of Vchilogos and the massacre of the 400 men by him.
When thirty-three years had elapsed since their departure from their
home, they went forth from Coatebeque and came to Chimalcoque, where
they remained three years; thence they came to Ensicox, where they dwelt
another three years, and built a temple and placed the mast of Vchilobos
(sic); and after the thirty-ninth year from their departure they [627]
drew out the mast of Vchilobos (sic), and gave it to Vingualti, to carry
it with the greatest veneration on their journey, and they came to Tlemaco,
which is near to Tula, and raised a temple to Vchilogos (sic), and remained
there twelve years, and these twelve years being passed, they departed
thence and took up the mast of Vchilogos, and gave it to Caçiçi
to carry. And after all this had happened, they came to Tlitlalaquia,
a well known town, and it was on the borders of Tula, where they rested
two years and built a temple to Vchilogos; and after these two years
the Mexicans came to the town of Tula itself, which in these days was
peopled with its aborigines, who were the Chichimecas, and when they
came to the said town they erected a temple to Vchilogos, and placed
before it the candelabras that are now in use, in which they placed
cepal and other savory things; and as soon as the Mexicans had come
Vchilogos appeared to the inhabitants of the country in a black form,
and they heard Vchilogos wailing beneath the earth, and they asked wherefore
the god of the Mexicans was weeping below the ground, and the answer
because every inhabitant of Tula was doomed to death. Four years later,
an old woman, a native of Tula, went about giving out flags of paper
fastened to rods, and making it manifest to them that they should get
ready to die, because their time had come; and presently they all cast
themselves upon the stone on which the Mexicans were wont to offer up
their sacrifices, and the one of them who took charge of the temple
which was in Tula, by name Tequipuyul, who was a stranger and a vagabond
without employ, and whom they believed to be the devil, slew them all;
and before the Mexicans erected their temple, that stone was a temple
to the inhabitants of Tula; and so were put to death all the inhabitants
of Tula, so that not one remained alive, and the Mexicans were lords
of Tula.
Departing afterwards from Tula they came to the place where now stands
the town of Atotoniltengo, where they remained one year, and thence
they came to the town of Tecuzquiciac where they rested four years;
thence they came to the town of Apazco, and from Pazco (sic) to Zumpango,
where they stayed three years, and as they arrived near the town of
Çumpango (sic), they encountered one sole Chichimeca, named Tlacizcal
Potongui, who went out to meet the Mexicans, as he saw them coming;
and they sacrificed to Vchilogos, god of the Mexicans another Chichemeca,
whom they had made prisoner in battle, and they placed his head upon
a pole for which reason this town is called Zumpango, which signifies
a pole that transfixes human heads. Thence after four years they departed
and came to Tlilac, where they tarried seven years, and leaving there
as they were on their road to Clautitlan, they lost one of their women
who had been captured by the Chichimecas, and taken to Michuacan, and
from her were born all the dwellers in Michuacan, who before that time
were all Chichimecas, and they pursued their road to Quatitlan, where
they were one year. Thence they proceeded and come to Ecatebeque, where
they stayed one year, and when they left Catebeque (sic), they reached
Nepopoalco, [628] which signifies a narrow passage where a shepherd
can count his flocks for here they took the number of those who came;
and no one knows how many there were of them, nor is there any memorial
of the number in their paintings. Here they built a house to Cipan and
to Xincaque, who were those who took the census of the people as they
came, and from here went forth three Mexicans, one named Navalci, another
Tenaçi, and the third Chiautotolt; and these three went forth
to settle Marinalco, a town that exists at this day; and being there
the Mexicans built a temple to Vchilogos at Çimalpal, two leagues
from the City of Mexico, and then the Mexicans gave the name of Tlatlatevique
to a mountain near Chimalpa, and thence they came to another mountain
named Quatitlan which is two leagues from Mexico, where they rested
four years, and thence they came to a mountain named Visachichitlan,
where at the present the inhabitants of the suburb of Santiago live,
thence they came to the mountain called Teubulco, thence to Tenayucan,
and here a leading Mexican died, Tepayuca or Tehayuco, which was his
name, and they found a Chichimeca in this place for their ruler named
Tloçi; here they raised a temple to Vchilogos, and sacrificed
a woman and made a grand festival, taking her there highly ornamented,
as was their custom when they offered up a woman-sacrifice. Having made
the feast to Vchilogos, they departed and came to a mountain named Tepexaquilla
where they settled for nine years; and when the nine years were passed,
they descended from this mountain, and dwelt near a lofty rock which
issues warm water, now known as El Peñolcillo, which divides
the suburbs of Mexico and Santiago, and all was barren up to the said
rock, and there flowed the stream of Chapultepeque, and they made a
certain enclosed place of chalk and stone to keep these waters, and
they dwelt by them for four years; thence they came to Chapultepeque,
where they gave a direction to the stream, and placed behind it many
rods with pennons such as the old woman gave to the people of Tula,
when they wished to sacrifice themselves, for which see what has been
already narrated; then the Mexicans ceased being in Chapultepeque, and
went forward and came to Tlachetongo, which is now San Lázaro,
near to Tianguez [marketplace] of the Mexicans, and thence they proceeded
to the suburb called Aqualcomac, which is nigh to the said Tianguez,
and thence to Vetetlan, and thence to Ixocan, which is the road of Cuyacan,
and thence they came to Tenculuacan, where at the present they make
salt, and thence to a mountain named Tepetocan, which is near to Cuyoacan
(sic), and thence to Vchilobusco, distant two short leagues from Mexico,
named Ciaxuhilat in the Chichimeca tongue, because it was peopled by
them, and in their religion they worship Vbuchilti, who was the god
of water; and this god of water met * the Indian who carried the mast
and plumes of Vchilogos, and as he did so he gave him certain arms which
are those with which they slay the water fowl, and a dart; and because
Vchilogos, was left handed as well [629] as was the god of water, they
said that it must be his son, and the four were close friends, and they
changed the name of the town where they had met with him; which was
formerly called Vichilat, so that for the future it was known as Vchilobusco.
CHAPTER [12TH] [p.629]
[The Return to Chapultepec.]
From thence they came to Culuacan, where they found for ruler Achitometl,
and then they passed onwards to the mountain named Visachitla, which
stands near Estapalapa, and from there they came to Quesumalc, where
they dwelt three years; and thence they went to Capulco, and made a
detour to Tacuxcalco, which is the road of Talmanalco, where they built
a temple to Vchilogos, and all the Mexicans assembled together at this
place, Tacuxcalco, Xinteça and Caley and Escualt, being their
war-chiefs, and they spoke to all the people; and because the Chichimecas,
the aborigines of this land would not join themselves against them,
but divided themselves off into many places, and in order not to be
recognized altered their fashion of wearing the hair, so it was all
done; because as they said Vchilogos had commanded them to act in this
manner, and every one of those who went away, carried off his weapons,
and those who remained took the plumes and deer skin of Micoatl, and
his darts for arms, and the sack into which he was in the habit of throwing
wild figs, because in those days people ate nothing else; then they
kept on still farther to adjoining places in the neighborhood, and the
war-chiefs addressed the people, telling them that four years they had
to be dispersed, hidden and at the end of the said time they should
all be reunited at Cacaquipa; and when the four years were passed they
came together and returned lo the mountain and bridge 43 of Chapultepeque,
and there they captured Copil, the son of the woman whom the Chichimecas
had taken prisoner, whence descends the people of Mechuacan, and they
offered him up as a sacrifice, tearing out his heart towards the sun,
and they remained dwelling in Chapultepeque fifteen years.
CHAPTER [13] [p.629]
[The Sacrifice of Copil.]
Whilst they remained in Chapultepeque they had three war-chiefs, 44
one named Clautliqueçi, son of the chief who brought them, and
was known by the same name, as has been told, and Acipa, son of Çipayiavichiliutl,
son of Tlauizcal Potongui, and they chose this latter as their ruler
to rule over them, and he governed them all the fifteen years they were
in Chapultepeque. This Vichiliutl (sic), had two daughters, one named
Tuzcasuch, and the other Chimalasuch; and, as we have already narrated,
there was sacrificed in Chapultepeque, a son of the woman whom the Chichemecas
took to carry off to Mechuacan, whence are descended those of Mechuacan,
so they say that in this place also the aforesaid son of the said woman
came to Mechuacan to see two Mexicans, 45 and when they wanted to sacrifice
him, he said that he was not to be sacrificed except in Mechuacan, where
his mother was, so over that they had [630] a fight by command of Vichiliutl
and Quatliqueçi, and conquering him offered him up for sacrifice,
and buried his heart in a place called Temestitan, which was a City
of Mexico, afterward founded in this place, and the head they interred
in Tluchitongo. [The Death of Huitzilihuitl.]
These nine years being passed, they rested likewise twenty-five years
additional in peace and quiet, Vichiliutl governing them, and they built
on the hill of Chapultepeque a grand temple to Vchilogos; and while
they were here, the Mexican aborigines, who were all Chichimecas, joined
themselves together and assaulted them, and sat down their camp to besiege
them near to the southward of Chapultepeque, and when night came on
they fell upon the Mexicans and slew them, so that but few escaped by
flight and took refuge among the canebrakes and recesses of the lagoon
which was near by; and they burnt the temple which had been built, and
the people of Caltoca captured the two daughters of Vchiliutl, and carried
them away captive; and also was Vchiliutl taken prisoner and the men
of Culuacan slew him after he was captured; and those who fled and escaped
were hidden for eighty days in the canebrakes, and ate nothing but herbs
and vipers, and they bore with them Vchilogos being (here occurs apparently
a lacuna in the MS.).
[The Death of Huitzilihuitl.]
These nine years being passed, they rested likewise twenty-five years
additional in peace and quiet, Vichiliutl governing them, and they built
on the hill of Chapultepeque a grand temple to Vchilogos; and while
they were here, the Mexican aborigines, who were all Chichimecas, joined
themselves together and assaulted them, and sat down their camp to besiege
them near to the southward of Chapultepeque, and when night came on
they fell upon the Mexicans and slew them, so that but few escaped by
flight and took refuge among the canebrakes and recesses of the lagoon
which was near by; and they burnt the temple which had been built, and
the people of Caltoca captured the two daughters of Vchiliutl, and carried
them away captive; and also was Vchiliutl taken prisoner and the men
of Culuacan slew him after he was captured; and those who fled and escaped
were hidden for eighty days in the canebrakes, and ate nothing but herbs
and vipers, and they bore with them Vchilogos being (here occurs apparently
a lacuna in the MS.).
CHAPTER [15] [p.630]
[The Burial of the Heart of Copil.]
We have told how the heart of Copil, the son of the woman who went to
Mechuacan * was interred at Tinustitan, and the reason why was that
one day when Coautliquezçi was standing beneath a hut built of
branches there appeared before him Vchilogos, and ordered him to bury
the heart in that place, for in that place was to be his home, and he
went there for that reason, and was buried there.
CHAPTER [16] [p.630]
[Submission to Colhuacan.]
When all the aforesaid had taken place, the Mexicans who had been in
hiding among the canebrakes and herbage were driven out by the great
hunger they felt, and came to Culuacan to seek for food; and they told
the people of that place when they reached there that they had come
to serve them, that they should not slay them, and they prayed to Vchilogos,
for him to give his orders that they should not be put to death; and
they gave to the men of Culuacan the plume and the staff of Vchilogos,
and remained in their service. In these days Achitomel was lord of Culuacan,
and Chalchiutlatonac the chieftain, and they had a very fine temple
in which the people of Culuacan celebrated a feast to Çiguacoatl,
46 the wife of the god of the infernal regions, whom the people of Culuacan
reverenced as their especial god.
CHAPTER [17] [p.630]
[War with Xochimilco.]
For the space of twenty five years the Mexicans remained under the dominion
of the people of Culuacan during which time the people of [631] Culuacan
waged warfare against the people of Suchimilco, and in order to prove
if the Mexicans were really warriors, they ordered them to go with them
to help them; and the Mexicans thinking they were regarded as women,
sent ten Mexicans, and no more, with them to the war, and the remainder
stayed in their houses, which they possessed in Tiçapan, 47 at
that time a domain of Culuacan, and they gave orders to the ten men
who went, that they should not slay any of the Suchimilcans, but that
they should make them captives and cut off their ears; and the ten Mexicans
did as they were directed so well, that they made prisoners of eighty
of Suchimilcans, and from whom they cut off the ears, and from this
the men of Culuacan recognized that the Mexicans were men of war.
CHAPTER [18] [p.631]
[Flight from Colhuacan.]
At the end of the aforesaid twenty-five years the Mexicans left a temple
which they had built to Vchilogos in Culuacan, and erected another very
large one at Tiçapaa, 47 and when the Culuacans saw so grand
a temple they asked the Mexicans what they were going to have in that
temple, and what they should place in it; to which they were answered
hearts, and when the Culuacans heard this reply, they threw straw and
filthy things into the temple, mocking at the Mexicans. Then the Mexicans
[took a woman] 47* who was called Avençi, and sacrificed her
to Vchilogos smeared blood on the walls with one of her legs; and when
the Culuacans saw this sacrifice they were astounded, and arose against
the Mexicans, and they all ran near to Catitlan, a river which flows
close to Culuacan and kept on flying all the way to Nextiquipaque in
which place at this day there are ten households that are subject to
Mexico, and Coxcoçi, chief of Culuacan, looked favorably upon
the Mexicans, and because they had risen against the Mexicans, he slew
many Culuacans.
CHAPTER [19] [p.631]
[The Foundation of Tlatelolco and Tenochtitlan.]
When all the aforesaid twenty-five years already written about had elapsed,
there began the first year in which they commenced to enter into the
bounds of Tenustitlan, Mexico, and to populate it, and they came to
Istacalco, which is a country near Mexico, and thence they went to Mixuacan,
where a woman bore a child to which they gave this name, which signifies
the fertile. and from there they settled in a suburb named Temazcaltitlan
which signifies the suburb of the bath, and is in these days the district
and suburb of St. Peter and St. Paul, and in the place it said that
some Mexicans who carried Vchilogos went astray, murmured against him,
and Vchilogos told them in their dreams that things must be as they
had been, but that they were near to the place where they were to take
their final rest and home, and that those who had murmured against him
had sinned like men of two faces and two tongues; and in order that
they should obtain pardon, they made themselves a head with two faces
and two tongues, and having made the head of it of the grains that they
ate, they shot arrows at it, and covering up their [632] eyes, those
who had shot the figure, sought to find it, and finding it they ate
it up, dividing it up among them all; and so it was performed, and they
all came together and settled in Tatilulco, which was a small island,
and is now known as the suburb of Santiago. In this first year in which
the Mexicans came to the aforesaid place, Vchilogos appeared to one
of them named Tiunche, and told him that his home was to be in this
spot, and that the Mexicans would not have to wander any farther, and
he should tell them that when it was morning they should go seek a man
of Culuacan, because he had abused them, and take him and sacrifice
him, and give him to the sun to eat. So Xomemitleuts went forth and
found a man of Culuacan named Chichilquautli, and sacrificed him to
the sun on going out; and they named this place Quanmixtlitlan, 48 which
afterwards was called Tenustitan, because they found there a wild fig
tree grown on a stone, and the roots thereof grew forth out of the place
where lay buried the heart of Copil as has been already narrated.
CHAPTER [20] [p.632]
[The History of Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco.]
In the second year of the settlement of Mexico the Mexicans began to
lay the foundations of the large and important temple of Vchilogos,
which kept on increasing at a great rate, for every ruler of the dwellers
in Mexico who succeeded another in power added to it a building equally
as large as the original one which the first inhabitants had erected
there; and this the Spaniards found very tall and strong and broad,
and it was much to look at.
In these days the Mexicans had for their ruler Illancueitl, a woman
of importance who had power over them; and she was the wife of Acamapichi,
49 a native of Culuacan, and she was of Coatlixan, and although of Culuacan,
descended from the Mexicans, for her mother married there one of the
chief men of Culuacan, and the mother was a Mexican; and her husband,
at the suggestion of his wife, came to Mexico, and she told them that
as he was of the best family and they had no lord, they should take
him for their ruler, and so he was the first ruler, and his wife died
in [the] twenty-fourth year after the foundation of Mexico; and after
her death they chose him for lord because in her life he was only looked
upon as the chief man; 50 three years before this, which was reckoned
as twenty-one years from the foundation of Mexico, the Mexicans made
war upon the people of Culuacan and burnt their temple. In the next
year, the twenty-second from the foundation of the city, the Culuacans
took notice of the great progress the Mexicans had made in those twenty
two previous years, and were smitten with fear, and placed their gods
in a canoe with which they went to Suchimilco; and when they had reached
the town of Cuantlecaxtan, the sun shone forth with so much brilliancy
that his rays struck them blind, and so they could not see until they
had come close to Mexico; and when they had recovered their sight they
placed their gods in Mexico, and built for them a small temple a short
distance further on than the place where now stand the shambles.
[633]
In the twenty-eighth year from the foundation of the city in which the
fifty-two years were fulfilled, there was held a great public festival
in which all light was extinguished throughout the land, and when it
was all extinct they would draw fire anew from the mountain of Estapalapa.
This festival took place from every fifty-two to fifty-two years, so
that the year that completed the four times thirteen years was the fifty-second
one.
At the thirty-first year from the foundation of the city fire first
began to issue forth from the volcano, and in the forty-seventh the
Mexicans conquered Tenayuca, and burnt its temple, which was of straw,
and the people of Tenayuca were Chichimecas.
In the fifty-second year of the foundation of the city the people of
Tatilulco petitioned for a ruler Teçuxomutli, the lord of Escapuçalco,
and he gave them for their master Teutleuac, whose rule did not endure
forty days, for he bore too hardly upon their braves, and they helped
him in no manner. Teçucumutli, who was a Mexican, was chosen
for their lord by those of Escapuçalco, as one of the two which
it was their custom to have, and they have always had that number, and
have to this day.
Quaquanpuanaque was the second ruler of the Tatilulcans whom the lord
of Escapuçalco gave them; his reign lasted fifty days, at the
end of which time they fled away from him; he is represented with claws
on his feet. In the fifty third year of the foundation, Acamapichi was
made ruler of Mexico. In the fifty-sixth year the Mexicans made war
upon the Suchimilcans, and burnt their temple; and in the year 59 Acamapichi
conquered Mezquiqué. In the year 63 from the foundation of the
city there went forth from Mexico forty men and women by Guaximalpan,
and the Otomis of Matalçingo found them, and slew them by treachery
in Cuitralavaca (sic).
In the seventieth year from the foundation of the city Acamapichi conquered
Cuitralavaca, and burnt for them their temple. In the seventy-third
year Lord Acamapichi died, and they made Vichilivci, the son of Acamapichi,
their ruler. In the year 75 Miciaçixiuci, the daughter of Escoaçi,
lord of Cuernavaca, 51 wife of Viciliuçi, bore Mutiçuma,
the elder, who first was called Iluican Minaçi, and afterward
Mutiçuma; because his father was lord against the will of very
many people, the son changed his name into Mutiçuma, which signifies
angry lord. In the year 79 a sister of Viciliuçi married with
Istlisuchilci, lord of Tezcuco, and bore Neçavalcuyuci, who became
lord of Tezcuco. In the year 81 the Mexicans conquered Quaximalpan from
the Otomies.
In the year 85 from the foundation of the city the Mexicans conquered
Capiscla, and in the same year Quanximilco, in the province of Chalco,
and in the next year they waged war against all the aforesaid peoples,
and in that year they gave themselves up. In the ninetieth year from
the foundation they conquered Tezquiaque. In the ninety-second year
the Mexicans sent out seven of their chieftains to ascertain if the
peoples of Puchitlan were for war, and as they passed by Xaltocan three
of them were treacherously made captive and murdered, and the other
four escaped by [634] flight. In the next following year conquered the
province of Tazcuco, and they began upon Tepepan, much against the wishes
of its ruler, who, when he saw them. went away and fled to Tezmuluco,
a town of Suyocingo; the father (here occurs a lacuna) being dead, because
they were at peace with the Mexicans.
In the following year 94, Viçiluicin died, and they took for
their lord a brother of his named Chimalpupucaçi. In the year
97 the people of Tuzcuco gave themselves up to Chimalpupucaçi,
and in the same year they captured Tulancingo, and the Mexicans were
a whole year in making themselves masters of it. In the year 99 the
people of Tatiluco fled to Tula, and as they had died out, and had left
their god, named Tlacauepan there, so they took him and carried him
to Tatilulco. In the year 105 from the foundation of Mexico, Teçocumuc,
lord of Escapuçalco, died, and as Maxtlato, son of Çocumuc
was lord of Cuiuacan in the lifetime of his father, and as his father
was now dead, he came to be lord of Ecapuçalco; and this one
gave orders that there should be a general uprising against Mexico,
and when Ximalpupacaçi saw that the land was in rebellion, he
slew himself, and being dead the Mexicans chose as their lord one of
his brothers named Izcuaçi; and when Tlacateulti lord of Tatilulcoco
saw the great force and command that the lord of Escapuçalco
had, he fled away from him, but to no avail, for he was captured near
the fountain of Saltoca, and there they slew them; and it was because
formerly, when he was lord of Escapuçalco, the lord of Tatiluco
seduced his wife, and for that reason the captive was ordered to be
slain; and in this year Neçagualcuyuci fled from Tezcuco, * because
the Tezcucans were in revolt against Mexico. In the following year 106,
the natives of the country endeavored to make war against Mexico, by
order of the lord of Escapuçalco, but one of the chiefs of Escapuçalco,
named Totolayo, made peace with Mexico in the year 108, and the inhabitants
of Mexico would not permit of a peace unless they slew the lord of Escapuçalco,
and seeing how on account of their desire for a peace they could do
no other thing, they caused him to be slain, and so it was done (In
the year 109 Tatilulco rose in revolt), and in the year 112 they came
into conflict with the Mexicans. In the next year, 113, Quautlatoaçi,
the lord of Tatiluco (sic), revolted against Mexico, and one night in
his dreams there appeared to him one of the gods they worshiped w ho
told him he had done wrongly, and for this reason he rendered himself
up at Mexico, and the Mexicans were unwilling to slay him, so they handed
him over to his own people that they might put him to death, and so
they killed him. In the [year] 117 the Mexicans gained Guautitlan, and
in the next year Izcoaci died, and they raised to be their lord Mutiçuma,
the elder. In the year 125 of the foundation of Mexico, Vchilobos (sic),
renewed himself, and made himself enormous.
In the 128 at the Easter-of-Bread season there fell such a terrible
hail, and so much of it that the houses were destroyed and fell in ruins,
and the lagoon froze up. In the year 132 there was terrible hail and
famine, so much [635] so that in the next year it was ordered that if
one took but a thread of maize, even if the maize field belonged to
him, he should die for the act. In the year 136 Moteçuma the
elder, having made a round buckler (or disk: rodela) of stone, the same
which Rodrigo Gomez drew forth, caused it to be buried at the door of
his house, and placed a hole in the middle of it, and it was a very
big hole, and in that hollow they placed the captives taken in war,
fastening them to it, so that they could command only their arms, and
gave them a shield and a sword of wood, and they brought in three men
dressed respectively as a lion, a tiger, and an eagle, and all these
fought the prisoner, and wounded him; then they took a large knife and
cut out his heart; they made these knives out of stone, under this enormous
large and round stone; and afterwards the others who were lords of Mexico
made two other stones and placed them, each lord his own, one over the
other, and the one they took away, 52 and it stands to this day underneath
the baptismal font; and the other was broken up and burned when the
Spaniards entered, and the very first persons who used this stone were
the people of Cuaistravaca.
In the year 139 Cruistravaca was taken, and much precious stones were
brought to Muteçuma. In the year 141 the Mexicans took Quetlasta.
In the year 147 Moteçuma (sic), died, and Axayacaçin,
his son, was raised to be lord. In the year 151 Mochiuçi, the
lord of Tutilulco, surrendered himself to Mexico, and in the next year
the people of Quetlastla revolted on account of the annual tribute of
twenty men, and they took refuge in a house filled with red pepper (agí),
and consumed themselves with fire; but soon in the year 153 they were
subjugated. Next year Axayacaçi made Citlalcoaçi the lord
of Malinalco. In the year 155 Axaycaçi seized three men himself,
and was wounded, and so he personally gained Matalçingo. The
following year, 159, Axayacaçi died, and they made his brother,
Tizçoçicaçi, lord of Mexico.
The following year, 160, they endeavored to make Vchilobi very large,
and almost all, even to the infants, set to work on him. Next year they
held a festival in the temple of Vchilovi (sic), with the blood of the
Matalçingos and Tlaulans, for they slew many of them. In the
year Tizcoçicaçi died, and his younger brother Auiçoçi
was raised to be lord of Mexico. Next year Vchiloci (sic) was finished
by Auiçoçi and he sacrificed many people on that occasion.
In 176 the water rose so high in the lake, especially the river of Cuiuacan,
that all the houses were drowned and the water came up to the first
circle of Vchilobi, and the houses which were of adobe fell in; and
it is said that the water that rose was black and full of vipers, and
it was looked upon as a miracle. In 180 Aucoçi (sic), died, and
was succeeded by his brother Muteçuma, who was the last lord.
In 182 Muteçuma built a temple to Quiçalcoatla, where,
at the present time, stands the house of the bishop, and covered the
roof with straw. Next year the lightning fell on it. and consumed it,
’twas said that the bolt was sped by Tlaloque, the god of water.
They built a very large temple to the honor [636] of Çintelil,
the son of Piciutetl. In the year 184 the inhabitants of Mexico slew
many of those of Çoçola, whom they had captured in war;
having stretched them out on two pieces of wood in the form of a St.
Andrew’s cross, they shot them to death with arrows, and every
year they celebrated this festival. In the 185th year from the foundation
of Mexico, the fifty-two years were completed, and Muteçuma celebrated
the festival for the last time. In the [year] 189 there appeared an
omen in the heavens, which arose from near the summit of the volcano
and floated on high over the city, and it was of a white color as broad
as two arms; and Moteçuma endeavored to discover what this thing
might portend, and his wise men responded that it foretold his decease
in that year, and it turned out that this was the very year in which
the Christians appeared on their journey to this land. In the year 193
the Tascalans 52* laid siege to Guaxocingo, and they were reduced to
great straits through hunger, until Muteçuma brought them assistance,
and took some of them to Mexico, and others of them he placed there
for his defence; and they prayed to Camastle, their god, and after that
they had made an end of prayer, they rose in revolt so that the Mexicans
let go their prisoners and returned to the city; and the people of Guaxocingo
slew the Mexican women who had intermarried with the men of Guaxocingo,
and all their sons, because they were of Mexican blood.
In the year 196 in Guaçacalco (sic), came two ships which were
received at Vera Cruz de Paz, to spy on whom Muteçuma sent one
of his people, and soon Muteçuma said that these were his gods;
the ships remained at Guaçacualco (sic), and said they would
return a year later; 53 the day they arrived at Guaçacalco was
called centochil; the port of Vera Cruz bore the name of Chalchuecan.
In the year 197 came the Marquis to New Spain to whom Muteçuma
sent an envoy to Vera Cruz with many shields and plumes, and a sun made
of gold, and a star of silver; they made themselves understood by the
Indians by means of an interpreter named Marina. 54 Afterwards the Marquis
came to Cempoal, where they received him with trumpets. Thence he proceeded
to Tascala, where the warriors sallied forth to battle, and all who
came forth were slain; and he being informed that the Tascalans desired
to massacre the Chululans, he joined with them in another place and
slew them all. It is said that whilst the Marquis was in Chulula, he
sent Alvarado to the province of Chalco, who returned with the information
that the land and the people were both bad, and that he should turn
back; on which Tamaya, the lord of Çempoal said that he had better
march to Mexico, where Muteçuma lived very richly, and that everything
he owned was made of gold, and that he styled himself lord. The Marquis
was forty days in Chulula. Then there came on the behalf of Muteçuma,
Viznagual, the father of Tapía, who was with the Marquis, to
tell him by the orders of Muteçuma, that he would give him much
gold and silver if he would turn home again; him the Marquis caused
to be seized which caused great fear to Muteçuma. (In this year
198 was held the festival of Vchilobi), and Muteçuma died from
the effect of a blow with a stone thrown by one of his [637] own subjects,
who would not listen to him, but used opprobrious language to him; and
they put in their Vchilobi beams, and the bravest soldiers whom the
Spaniards were unable to rescue when they left the city, and who were
all put to death. One night the Marquis left the city and went to Tascula,
where be was received by its lord, Xicotenga.
On the death of Muteçuma, the Mexicans chose for their lord Cuitlavaçi,
lord of Estapalapa, a brother of Muteçuma, he ruled eighty days,
the smallpox 55 broke out throughout all the Indians, and many perished
before they returned to subjugate the city.
The Marquis came to Tezcuco having conquered all the land in its vicinity,
and the people of Chalco made war on it; while he was in Tezcuco, Guatemuça,
son of Viçoçi, was chosen lord. and he made war on Chalco,
and without cause he slew six of their chiefs (in the year 199). It
took the Marquis eighty days to conquer his way to Mexico. The Marquis
made Istisuchl lord of Mexico, who in the year 200 died, lord of Tezcuco,
and Juan Velasquez, deposed him. and reigned eighty days. Guatemuça
was made lord of Tatilulco (year 201), and presently sent to all the
surrounding people to call them to a war against Mexico; and these people
came at once and informed Juan Velasquez of the matter, and he said
it made no odds to him, for he was not its lord. The Marquis left new
Spain in peace and went to Honduras (called in Indian Guaimula), and
left his subordinate deputy, Peralmildez, as Captain-General, and returned
to Castile. Don Martin, son of Muteçuma (year 202), and the deputy
who were named in place of the Marquis, made requisitions on the Mexicans
for gold and silver, and they put to the torture one Rodrigo De Paez,
because he would not tell where the Marquis kept his gold and valuables,
and finally as he would not give them the information, they hung him
(year 203); when the Marquis returned, he seized the factor and overseer,
but did not punish them as they had deserved, but sent them back to
Spain (year 204). The Marquis made Tapia, Governor of Mexico, his Deputy,
and in this year 205, Nuño de Guzman came to Panuco. The Marquis
departed for Castile. In the year 206 there were rains of bloody drops,
and it was the Sabbath about two o’clock, and everybody saw them,
and in this year there appeared an omen in the sky of a white color,
and shaped like a lance. In the year 207 Nuño de Guzman left
for Nueva Galicia, and the four councillors of Castile came, Salmeron,
Maldonado, Çainos and Quiroga; 56 they made Don Pablo, Governor.
[CHAPTER 21] [p.638]
[Various Notes on Cosmology, History, and Laws]
[Note By H. P., Jr.-- Here follows what should have been a chapter by
itself, being entirely disconnected from the subject already treated
of. The historical part has come to an end, and this seems like an addition
by another hand, being somewhat of a repetition of matters previously
touched upon.]
They calculate their year from the March equinox, when the sun casts
a direct shadow, and as soon as they can notice that the sun is beginning
to rise 57 they count it as the first day, and from the twenty to twenty
days, which make their months: they reckon their year with five days
omitted, so their year only comprises 360 days; and from the day which
was the [638] equinox they reckon the day of their feasts, and so feast
of bread, which was the day of the nativity of Vchilobi from the plume,
was the day when the sun was in declination, and so as to the other
festivals.
The Mexican Indians believed that in the first heaven there was a star
Çitalmene, 58 which was a woman, and Tetal Latorras (sic), who
was a male, whom Tenacatecli (sic) made for guardians of the skies,
and the woman never is seen because she is on the road that the heavens
make.
In the second (heaven) they say there are certain women who have no
flesh whatever, but are all bones, named Teçauçigua, 58
and otherwise called Çiçimine; and that these are placed
there so that when the world comes to end, their duty will be to eat
up all the men.
And when the old people are asked when the end of the world shall come,
they say they don’t know unless it is when the gods themselves
shall all become extinct, and Tlazquitlepuca (sic) shall carry away
the sun, and then all things shall pass away.
In the third (heaven) are the 400 men whom Tezcatlapuca (sic) created,
and who were of five colors, yellow, black, white, blue and red, so
these kept ward in the heavens. 23
In the fourth were all manner of birds who from thence descended to
the earth.
In the fifth were vipers of fire, whom the Fire-god had made, and from
them issue the comets and omens of the heavens.
In the sixth were all the winds.
The seventh was full of dust which thence came down on earth.
In the eighth all the gods came together, and from there no one could
ever ascend higher, to where dwelled Tenacatli (sic) and his wife; and
no one knows what is in the rest of the upper heavens.
Being questioned as to the sun’s whereabouts, they replied that
he dwelt in the air, and traveled in daytime and not at night, because
he returned to the east when he had reached the summit at midday, and
that his light then was that which already shone forth towards his setting
place; and that the moon is always traveling after the sun, and never
catches up with him.
Being questioned as to the matter of thunder and lightning, they said
that the Water-god had many subjects made by him, who carried each one
an earthen money-jug 13 and a rod, and that from these earthen vessels
they cast down the rain, and that the thunder was when they struck the
vessels with their rods, and that the lightning flashed from these vessels.
The people of Culuacan say that they came, conjointly with the Mexicans
to Tula, and there they split and went direct to Culuacan, and thence
to Suchimilco and Malinalco and Ocuyla. These four towns they settled
and on the way peopled Cuitralavaca, and so 120 years passed away, and
afterwards the Mexicans came and arrived at Chapultepec, as has been
said, and waged war on the people of Culuacan.
In the histories of Mexico, represented by Indian paintings, are shown
many naked Indians, at whose beginning are some clothed in plants, [639]
thereby meaning to convey that when they fled to Mexico they were dressed
in that manner, and that they subsisted on what they could obtain by
fishing, and that they had to undergo great hardships; and they paint
no more valiant warriors. And these were forty years without a lord.
The first lord of the Mexicans was named Acamapichil, who lived twenty
years. In this time it happened that two women misbehaved, 59 the one
with the other, and they stoned them to death close to Escapuçalco,
which is called Teculuapa; before this judicial act was performed, the
lord of Escapuçalco reported it to him of Guatlinchan, and the
two reported it to the lord of Mexico, and all of them ordered it to
be done. And likewise came to pass that Xilot Iztac, daughter of Anil
Mixtli, was married to the brother of the lord of Ascapuçalco
(sic), and when he died his brother, the lord of Ascapuçalco,
took her for his wife; and she went off to Suchimilco, and did wickedness
with Ananacalt, and when it became known to the three lords, they took
them and stoned them to death. They say it was the custom that a brother’s
widow could not lawfully remarry except with a surviving brother, and
if she married any one else she forfeited her lands and all her possessions.
The first lord of Ascapuçalco was named Teçoçomucli.
At this very same time it came to pass that two lads stole the grains
of maize that had been sowed in the earth, and they were taken and sold
for slaves, and the price paid for each one was five mantas.
And in these days it happened that a woman stole certain maize from
a granary, and a man saw her and told her that if she would let him
lie with her he would not inform on her, and she did so; but afterwards
the man accused her of the deed, and the woman confessed all that had
taken place, whereupon she was acquitted, and the man was given as a
slave to the owner of the maize.
At this time it happened that two lads robbed five ears of maize before
it had ripened, and they were ordered to be hung, as it was a greater
crime to take them before they were mature than afterwards. And when
the first lord of Mexico was dead, the Mexicans remained three years
without a ruler, after which they chose Viçiliutli, son of their
first lord, who lived twenty-five years. In his time it came to pass
that a man of Tezcuco kept a watch over his wife, and three days after
her confinement he caught her with the sacristan of the temples, and
he seized them and the three lords condemned them to death. And it also
happened that a man found his wife with another man, slew the man and
not the women, and she came back to live with her husband, for which
reason both she and he were put to death.
When the second lord died the Mexicans chose Chimalpupuca for their
ruler, who lived eleven years. In the days of this third lord it happened
in Chimaloacan that a woman saw a drunken man and went to him and lay
with him, and for this they stoned the woman, but inflicted no punishment
whatever upon the man.
And at this time it happened that a man of Tenayuca had a granary of
[640] maize, and from Guatlitlan robbed him by an enchantment cast upon
it, for he fell into a deep sleep by this contrivance, and the man and
his wife took all they found; and when this was known to the three lords
they were both condemned to death, the man and his wife.
He who stole a hen was enslaved, but he who took a dog was not punished,
for they said that the dog had teeth wherewith to defend itself.
When the third lord died the Mexicans elected to that power Izcoaçi.
And at this time the Escapuçalcans commenced a war against the
Mexicans and called on the people of Tezcuco and Tultitlan, Quautitlan,
Tenayuca, Tlacuba, Atlacubaya, Cuhuacan, Culiacan, Suchimilco, Cuitlavaca,
and Mizquique; all these peoples marched against Mexico, and were vanquished.
Whilst the Mexicans were ruled by lords that part of Tatilulco, which
now is known as Santiago, was likewise under rulers, for whilst Acamapichil
and Vichiliuitli reigned in Mexico, which was for forty years, in Tatilulco
ruled Quaquapuauaque, the father of the lord of Escapulçalco;
this latter was for two years ruler of Mexico before they had a lord
in Mexico; he lived forty years. And while there ruled in Mexico Chimalpupuçi
and Izcoaçi, there reigned in Tatilulco, Tlacateuçi, son
of the first, who lived twenty-three years. Whilst Muteçuma the
elder reigned in Mexico, in Tatilulco ruled Quatlatloaçi, son
of Tlatecuçi, and he slew the former, and lived thirty years.
Whilst in Mexico ruled Axayacaçi, in Tatilculco ruled Moquiuiçin,
brother of the last, and married to the sister of Axayacaçi,
and on her account there was war between the two because she gave out
her husband was a man of war who had conquered the Cotastans and Mexicans,
and on that account his neighbors hired his services. Whilst Teçiçicaçi
ruled in Mexico, in Tatilulco ruled Ouacoizçiçi. Tacaxcal
Tecli and Tlaueloquiçi, and Tatilulco. Whilst Auçoçi
ruled in Mexico, in Tatilulco reigned Çiquac Pupucu, who was
the son of Tacatecal, and son of Quatlatoaçij, and Yalocoauiçi.
Whilst in Mexico Muteçuma then reigned, in Tatilulco there ruled
Topantemitçi, Ticoque and Aguatal, grandson of Muquiniçi
and Yzciaçi Tacuxcalcotlequinal, and this one could not 59* with
Muteçuma. While Muteçuma and Juan Velazquez and Tapia
were governors of Mexico, he who at first was not a chief personage
in the time of the Marquis, Don Juan, was governor of Tatilulco, the
father of him who is governor to-day, and he was a common man and maçegual
of Mexico.
They held certain laws in war which they executed in grand style; and
it was the custom that if the captains sent out a messenger and he did
not tell the truth he died for that; and likewise they had another law
that any one who should give advice to their adversaries should die
for it, and likewise they slew any man who lay with a captive woman,
and likewise he who was captured alive was slain. And if one captured
a prisoner alive and another tried to rescue him, it was punished with
death. In war-time they had five captains who at the same time were
judges. There was a person who hunted up crimes and painted them, and
gave the [641] information to the five lords jointly, and after consultation
with the chief lord there were other five who carried into execution
what the five had decreed.
There were other laws in their Tianguez or fairs which are as follows:
If the son of the lord turned out a gambler and a swindler (tahur),
and sold his father’s possessions or other portion of land, he
was secretly choked to death, and if he was a maçegual or fisherman,
he was sold into slavery. Likewise, if one stole magueys to the number
of twenty to make honey, they should pay as many mantas as the judges
should ordain, and if the party did not own sufficient or if there were
more magueys, he or they became a slave or slaves. Whoever should borrow
mantas as a loan, and neglect to repay them, should be a slave. A theft
of a fishing net was to be paid for in mantas, and if the party did
not own them he became a slave. If one stole a canoe or vessel in which
people went, he should pay the value of the canoe in mantas, and if
he had not enough he became a slave. If a man lay with a woman slave
who was under age be became a slave also with her, and if she became
sick and died, he became a slave, and if she did not die he paid for
her cure.
If any one brought a slave to Escapuçalco, where there was a
slave mart, and the purchaser gave mantas for him, and the seller unfolded
them and was content with them, if afterward he rued his bargain he
should return the mantas, but the slave became free. If any one did
not grow up to natural size, and the relations sold him, and it was
known afterwards, when he had come of age, the judges should order as
many mantas to be paid as to them seemed fit to give his owner, and
the slave became free. If a slave woman fled away and was sold to another
person, upon its being discovered, she should return to her master and
the price be lost that was paid for her.
If a man lie with a slave, and she dies, being pregnant, he shall become
the slave of her master, but if she conceive and bring forth a child,
the child is free, and shall belong to its father. 60 If any conspire
to sell a free man for a slave, and the fact become known, all who took
part in the affair shall become slaves, and one of them shall be given
to the purchaser, and the others be divided between the mother of the
person wrongfully enslaved, and the informer who discovered the transaction.
Any persons who administer potions with intent to procure death shall
be strangled for the same, but if the person murdered was a slave, the
murderer shall become the slave of his master. If any one shall steal
as much as twenty arribas of maize, he shall die for it, but if less
he shall be redeemed by a ransom.
He who steals unripened maize shall be beaten to death with rods. He
who steals the yetecomatl, a species of gourd fastened with thongs,
and worn on the head with tufts of feathers, such as the lords wear,
sprinkled with green tobacco. he who steals it shall be garroted to
death. He who steals a chalchui, which was a string with certain computations
forbidden to be owned by men of low degree, shall be stoned to death
in the [642] Tianguez, wherever he may be. And he who in the Tianguez
61 shall steal anything from the dwellers within the Tianguez, shall
be stoned to death. Highway robbers were also to be publicly stoned
to death. Any priest who got drunk was to be slain in the house where
he became intoxicated, and to be beaten to death with clubs; and the
marriageable youth who got drunk was taken to a house known as tepuxcali,
where he was choked to death; and any person of importance who held
public office and got drunk, was deprived of his position, and if he
was a warrior they took away from him the title of valiant man. If a
father lay with his daughter, both were to be strangled to death by
a rope passed around both their throats. He who lay with his sister
was to be strangled with the garrote, a crime they considered detestable;
and if one woman lay with another, they strangled them with the garrote.
If a pontiff was found with a woman, they slew him secretly with the
garrote or burned him alive, tearing down his house, and forfeiting
all his possessions, and all who knew the matter and kept silence about
it and concealed it, were likewise put to death. There was no punishment
for adulterers unless they were taken in flagrante delictu, in which
case when caught they were stoned to death publicly.
[CHAPTER 22] [p.642]
Whence originated the Lords of Tochimilco.
The beginning of these lords was one Yzcoatl who came from Tula, and
dwelt in Atlixco where they received him for their ruler, and afterwards
he left them and settled in Xuctectitl and Vepevcan, now known as Tuchomilco,
and there he died. His wife was named Chimalmaçi, and likewise
she came from Tula. On his death his son Tonaltemitl succeeded him whose
wife was Çalpaloci, a native of Petlauca. On his death Çintlavilçi
succeeded to his father’s power, his wife was Teyacapançi;
he was a native of Cuyuacan, and left sons, who, however, did not inherit
his position.
On Çintlavilçi’s death his two brothers, named Yxteveyuçi
and Çivacoaçi succeeded him in reign, and they held equal
powers; their wives were natives of Vepetlavca. On the death of these
two lords they were followed in their seignory by two others, Cacamaçi
and Civacoaçi; Cacamaçi was uncle of Civacoaçi,
who was the son of Yxteveyuçi, and their wives were natives of
Vepetlavaca. On the death of these two lords, Cuapili succeeded to the
throne, and he was a grandson of Civacvaci; who was lord before the
other two; and Cuapili, while still living, made his son, Mixcoaci,
ruler of a certain portion of the people; the wives of the father and
son were from Petlauca, and in the days of these came the Xpianos. *
When these were dead, Don Miguel and Don Juan succeeded them, of whom
Don Miguel was the more powerful; and he came to the seignory, because
his uncle was Cuapili, and the former came forth in peace to the Christians,
while the latter fled away. The Marquis made him lord with the consent
of the people. Don Juan was his brother Mixcoaci, and for [643] this
reason succeeded to the seignory; the wife of Don Miguel was of Quizuquechula,
and that of Don Juan of Aupetlavaca.
[CHAPTER 23] [p.643]
Of the Manner in which they Reckon their Months and Days.
It is to be remarked that they consider twenty days as their week or
month, counting in both the first and the last as being but one day,
as if we should say there were eight days in the week, reckoning Sunday
as both first and last. Also they count time from four years to four
years, because they do not number their years higher. Also (a lacuna,
* *)
In these festivals when the sacrifice is offered by the pontiffs, 62
they cover up their heads with certain white mantas on which they arrange
white plumes, I mean on their heads, and they robe themselves in a painted
shirt open in front, and in this manner they sacrifice.
APPENDIX. [p.643]
Annotations and Corrections to the Codex Ramirez.
1 Tonacatecli, called by Brinton (who follows the classical authorities)
Tonacatecutli and his wife Tonacacihuatl. The name Tonacatecutli is
supposed to signify Lord of our Existence, and Tonaca Cihuatl to mean
Queen of our Existence (Vide Am. Hero Myths, p. 73 and note.)
2 There were two Tezcatlipocas, the red and the black, of whom the myths
blended. (Brinton, A.H.M., 73.) The names of these four brothers are
differently stated by various authors. Tezcatlipoca-Camaxtli was the
spirit of darkness (co. lib., 68). (The shining mirror.) Stone seats
were placed around the streets for him to repose on, on which no native
ever dared to sit. Clavigero, 1, 244.
His principal image was Teotetl (divine stone), black and shining like
marble and richly dressed. He was called by Herrera (III, ii, ch. XV)
Tezcaltiputça; by Boturini (p. 11) Tezcatlipoca; by Garcia (IV,
300) Tlezcatipuca; Titlacauan was also one of his common names, meaning
"we are his slaves." (A.H.M., 106.)
Of the three names, the one given by Boturini is correct. According
to Mendoza (Anales de Museo Mexicano), the meaning of the word is brightness,
darkness and smoke, being the silver resplendency of the moon illuminating
the darkness of the night, breaking through a smoke-like obscurity.
Brinton (Am. Hero Myths, p. 71), leans to the more generally received
interpretation of smoky mirror (from Tezcapoctli), meaning the rising
of the mist from the surface of the waters. Tezcatlipoca was the god
of gods, compared by Garcia to Jupiter, the supreme invisible essence,
"the most sublime figure in the Indian Pantheon’" (Brinton,
lib. cit., 69); also the youth, omnipotent, exacting of prayer, creator
and disposer of men; the enemy, the worker and night wind. The divine
Providence according to Boturini. See note 7.
3 Camaxtli. Also called Teotlamacà zqui (the hieroglyphic of
the priests). Tezcatlipoca- Camaxtli the spirit of darkness. (American
Hero Myths, Brinton, ch. 3. p. 68.) Tiitlacàhuan, we are thy
slaves. (Bot. xi.) (Cf. Note 27).
4 Quatzalcoatl (Bot. 11.) Herrera 3, 3, xiv. Quetzalcoatl (Brinton A.H.M.),
passim. Quetzalcohuatl (Bot. 25) hieroglyphic of the Air. Quetzalcoatl
(Garcia, IV, vii, 262), was a "white man with a beard, of industry
and intelligence, who fled from the tyranny of Huemac (the great hand),
King of Tula, and took refuge at Cholulla. He is the spirit of light
and culture, ever engaged in a continual warfare with his brother, Tazcatlipoca,
the spirit of darkness. (A.H.M.)
Quetzalcoatl (Clavigero, 1, 218), "feathered serpent," god
of the air.
Vetancourt (Clav. 1, 250). Coatl, a twin, Quetzalli, a gem.
[644]
Queçalcoatl, por otro nombre yagualiecatl. The name was applied
to him in his relation to the winds, whose ruler he was, the words Yahualli
ecatl, meaning ’"the Wheel of the Winds." Yahualli is
from the root yaual or youal, circular or round, and the towers where
he was worshiped were of this form. (A.H.M., 121.)
5 Om tecilt. Qy. Ometochtli (two rabbits), the god of wine.
Omiticult. Clavigero 1, 245.
Ometeuctli and omicihuatl, god and goddess residing in heaven, propitious
to mortals: Also known as Citlallalonac and Citlalicue.
6 Moyocoya, or more properly moyocoyatzin, is the third person singular
of the verb yocoya, to do, with the respectful or reverential termination
tzin (A.H.M., 70), meaning "he who acts or does." Ramirez
translates it as "the omnipotent" (todo poderoso); Brinton,
the determined doer. The title is given him in reference to his demiurgic
power.
7 Evidently an error for the terrible war-god, Huitzilopochtli. (Boturini
27; Herrera III, iii, 17, Vitzilipuztli. Lorenzana, I. Huitzilo-potzil.)
In the sixteenth century it was customary to express the same sound
indiscriminately by Vi and Hui. (Orozco y Berra. Anales II, i, 71.)
Garcia (IV, 300) Huitzilopuctli answers to Mars. In this author the
name occurs most frequently as Vitzilipuctli.
Vchilobos. Clavigero (Cullen 1, 254). Huitzilin, a humming bird. Opochtli,
left.
Boturini wrong. The Spaniards, unable to pronounce the name, usually
called him Huichilobos. Orozco y Berra (Anales II, 1, p. 71), thinks
that of an the forms Vitziliutl is the most correct.
8 (Çipactonal, Boturini 46, the father superior to the son.)
Çipastonal and Uxumuco, more properly Çipactonal and Oxomuco.
(Oxomozco, Boturini, p. 46), whose names have not been as yet satisfactorily
explained. "Tonal is no doubt from tena to shine, and cipactli***
from chipauac, beautiful or clear. (A.H.M., 74. Vide Chavero, Anales,
II, 116.)
9 Maize. Maize was the emblem of Centeotl, goddess of cereals, who was
the same as Xilomen (from Xilotl, a young grain of maize). She was also
the same as Tzazolteotl, the Venus vaga, goddess of impure love. L’Ecriture
hieratique Maya par Leon de Rosny, p. 185.
10 Tlalocatecli. Tlaloc was, according to Boturini (p. 72), the second
deity and quasi minister of the Divine Providence. Brinton (A.H.M.,
75, 123) considers him as the god of darkness; his name being, according
to some, wine of the earth. Tlal (tlalli, earth) oc (ocqui), wine of
the maguey plant; according to others, dweller on earth, tlalli (the
earth) and onac (being).
The name according to Brinton (A.H.M., 123) should be Tlaloctecutli,
lord of the wine of the earth.
Garcia (IV, ii, 139, ch. vii) Tlalocatecutli is the god of water; Tlaloc
(IV, viii, ii, 143).
Clavigero 1, 251. Tlaloc, god of water; he resided on the highest mountains
where the clouds are formed.
11 Chalchiuhcueitl (Boturini 25). La della Saya de Piedras preciosas,
hieroglyphic of water; is generally shown with reeds. Probably took
her origin among canebrakes. Cf. Venus sprung from the Sea.
Chalchiuitlicue, Chalchihuitlicue, Brinton. (A.H.M. 123, p.75), From
Chalchihuitl, jade. Cueitl, skirt, petticoat. Cf. Kilt.
If Tlaloc was the god of water and tropical rains, may not his wife
have signified the verdant results from his beneficial showers.
Chalchihuitlicue. Clavigero (tr. Cullen I, 240), goddess of water, 252.
The high priest wore the same habit in which they represented her as
the goddess of water. Cf. p. 252, for names given by Torquemada and
Boturini.
Chalchihuitlique was the goddess of water and companion of Tlaloc. Torquemada
calls her Xochiquetzal, and Boturini, Macuixochiquezalli (Clavigero
I, 252). According to the Codex Telleriano-Remensis, Chalchiutli saved
herself from the [645] deluge. Her name signifies "The woman adorned
with a dress of precious stones. According to Sahagun she was the sister
of the Tlalocs, the rain gods (Codex Troano, 102).
Chalchiuhtteuh, a modo de Esmeralda. Sandoval, Gram. Mex., 53.
12 Alcançia, literally, a money-jug of earthenware.
13 Hunchback. It was the custom among the Aztec lords to have among
their attendants for their diversion hunchbacks, just as the Mediaeval
barons had in their train their fools and jesters. The sacred cavern
was that of Cincalco.
Quetzalcoatl was followed in his passage of the Sierra Nevada by hunchbacks,
who mostly froze to death (A.H.M., 115). These formed part of the suite
of the last Montezuma. They were interred with their Caciques. (Herrera
ii, 165.) Chalco, seems to be derived from Challi, an emerald. Buschman,
689.
14 Called Çipagli in preceding part of the chapter.
Çipactli (A.H.M., 74, 126). the great fish. Cf. the fish Oannes
in the Chaldaean mythology, Dagon of the Philistines and Phoenicians,
Pisces of the Syrian and Egyptian Zodiac: supposed to be sun myths,
the sun rising out of the East.
Cipoconal and Oxomuco, the first created pair, qy. pisces of the Zodiac,
&c. Note 9. Chavero (Anales I, vii, 245) considers Cipactli the
first light below the horizon.
Jesus is represented as a fish, because the Messiah in the Talmud is
called Dag, i.e., the fish. King’s Gnostic’s and their remains,
138.
15 Tlaltecli, the earth, from tlalli, the earth.
16 The wife of this son was made of the hairs of the divine mother of
the four brethren-gods, whose name was Xochiquetzal (Beautiful rose).
(A.H.M., 73, 74.)
Annotations and Corrections to the Codex Ramirez. [continued]
17 Garcia (Origin de los Indios, V, iv, 327), gives a different recount
of the creation of which the following is a résumé:
"At the distance of a league and a half from Guaxaca, in an Indian
settlement named Cuilapa, there is a convent of my order whose Vicar,
at the time of my coming there, owned a MSS. volume, * * * written in
the figures used by the Mexicans, and with the explanations thereof,
setting forth the origin and creation of the world, and the deluge,
&c. This book I tried by all matter of means to obtain, but the
holy father set too great a store on it to part with It, but permitted
me to make such extracts from it as I desired.
"In the year and in the day of darkness and clouds, before there
were any days or years, the world was plunged into total obscurity,
and all was chaos and confusion; the earth was covered with the waters,
and there was nothing but mud and débris over the face of the
globe in these days there appeared visible to sight a god whose name
was the stag (Ciervo), and whose surname was Lion-viper (Culebra de
lion), and a very charming and beautiful goddess, whose name was likewise
Ciervo, and whose surname was Tiger viper (Culebra de tigre). From these
divinities originated all the other gods of the Indians. As soon as
these two gods appeared they took on human shape, and being omnipotent
and omniscient, they founded a huge rock (Peña), on which they
built sumptuous palaces, made with the greatest art, where was their
home, and their abode on earth; and on the summit of the most lofty
part of the palaces, there stood an axe of copper with its edge upwards,
upon which the heavens rested. This rock and the palaces of the gods
were on a very lofty mountain peak (Cerro) near the pueblo of Apoala,
in the Province known as Mixteca Alta. This rock, in the language of
that people, bore for its name The-place-where-the-heaven-was, by which
they meant to express that it was the Paradise and abode of all manner
of pleasure and happiness, and where there was an abundance of everything
that was good, and where not the slightest element was ever lacking
to complete felicity. This place was where the gods abode at their first
coming on earth, where they remained many ages in quiet and contented
rest, as the locality was so pleasant and charming, but the world was
all in darkness and clouds. * * * Of these gods, the father and mother
of all the other divinities, in their palaces and court, were born two
sons, very beautiful, shrewd and learned in all the arts and sciences.
The first was called The-wind-of-the-nine-vipers, which he took from
the name of the day on which he was born; the second received the appellation
of the Wind-of-the-nine-caverns, that being likewise the name of the
day on which his nativity occurred. These two youths were brought up
in great pomp. The elder when he would amuse himself, took the form
of an eagle and went flying through the highest skies, the second transformed
himself into a tiny animal in the form of a winged snake, with which
he flew through the air with so great a velocity and subtlety that he
penetrated the hardest rocks, and became invisible. The effect of which
was that those who were over his head could hear the noise and turmoil
that was made below. The meaning of these figures was to exhibit the
power that these gods possessed of transforming themselves and of their
returning to their own shapes.
"These brothers then remained in their paternal home, living in
comfort and peace; they bethought themselves that they would make an
offering and sacrifice to the gods, their parents, to effect which they
took censers of clay with burning embers upon which they cast a certain
quantity of ground poison in lieu of incense. This, say the Indians,
was the first offering ever made in the world. After they had made this
oblation, the brothers created a pleasure garden for their recreation,
in which they placed trees and flowers, fruits and roses, sweet-smelling
plants and other varieties of vegetation Here in this garden and orchard.
they refreshed and recreated themselves all the time and they made near
it another pleasure-ground (Prado), in which were stored all manner
of things necessary for the oblations and sacrifices which they had
to make and offer to the gods, their parents.
"Whenever these brothers left the house of their parents, they
disported themselves in this garden, taking care of the trees and plants,
and seeing to their increase and preservation, and offering from time
to time the aforesaid oblation of poison, &c. They prayed to their
parents at the same time, making vows and promises, and supplicating
them by virtue of the oblation which they were offering, and through
the other sacrifices they gave them, that they would think well of creating
a heaven, and that they should shed a light upon the world, that they
should create the earth, or rather let the waters sink and the dry ground
appear, for that they had no other abode and resting place than the
narrow limits of their garden and orchard. And still more to force the
gods to accede to their request, the suppliants pierced their ears with
lancets of flint, drawing blood from them in torrents. This they did
also to their tongues, and with the blood they sprinkled the branches
and trunks of the trees by means of a sprinkler made of the branches
of the willow tree as a thing holy and blessed. This action they performed
to show their entire submission to the will of their parents whom they
regarded as being greater gods than themselves. * * * These gods had
children * * * after which there was a general deluge in which many
of the gods were drowned. When this had ceased, the creation of the
heavens and the earth was begun by a god whom they name Creator of all
things, who restored the human race, from which was populated the Mixtec
kingdom."
Annotations and Corrections to the Codex Ramirez. [continued]
18 OF THE MEXICAN YEAR.
Boturini 2 Gemelli (Anales I, 7, 299).
1 Tecpatl, (pebble) 1 Calli
2 Acatl, (reed) 2 Acatl
3 Tochtli, (rabbit) 3 Tecpatl
4 Calli, (house) 4 Tochtli
Veytia agrees with Boturini, and Orozco y Berra (Anales l, 7, 299),
accepts their arrangement and nomenclature.
The eighteen months of the year are named as follows:
NAMES OF THE MONTHS.
(Lorenzana, 2.) Orozco y Berra (Anales I, vii, 294).
1. Atemoztli (water month) 1. Itzcalli, Xochilhuitl.
2. Tititl (things even and just) 2. Xilomanalzitli, atlacahualco, Cuahuitlehua,
Cihuailhuitl.
3. Yzcalli (new creation) 3. Tlacaxipehualiztli, cohuailhuitl.
4. Xilomanizte (offerings of the new maize) 4. Tozoztontli.
5. Coanilhuitl (grand festival of the viper) 5. Hueytozoztli.
6. Tozcotzintli (lesser fast) 6. Toxcatl, Tepepochuiliztli.
7. Huey Tozcoztli (greater fast) 7. Etzalcua liztli.
8. Toxcatl (dangerous for the fields) 8. Tecuil Nuitzintli.
9. Ezalqualliztle (eating of dry fruits) 9. Huey tecuilhuatl.
10. Tecuilhuitzintli (feast of the youthful cavaliers) 10. Micailhuitzuitli,
Tlarochimaco.
11. Huey Tecuithuitl (feast of elder lords) 11. Huey micail huitl, Xocotlhuetzi.
12. Micta ilhutzintlil (lesser feast of the dead) 12. Ochpaniztli, Tenahuatilztli.
13. Huey mictail huit (greater feast of the dead) 13. Pachtli, Teotleco.
14. Ochpanitzli (broom) 14. Hueypachtli, Tepeilhuitl.
15. Pachtlizintli (early grains) 15. Quecholli.
16. Hueypachtli (grains and large trees) 16. Panquetzaliztli.
17. Quecholli (the flamingo?) 17. Atemoztli.
18. Panquetzallitztli (pennons or banners) 18. Tititl.
DAYS OF THE MONTHS.
Lorenzana (2) Chavero (Anales I, VII, 245)
Cipactli (serpent) 1. Cipactli (the first light from below the horizon)
Ehecatl (air) 2. Ehecatl (the wind)
Calli (house) 3. Calli
Cueztpallin (lizard) 4. Cuetzpalin
Cohuatl (viper) 5. Cohuatl
Miquiztli (death) 6. Miquiztli
Mazatl (deer) 7. Mazatl
Tochtli (rabbit) 8. Tochtli
Atl (water) 9. Atl
Ytzcuintli (a common dog) 10. Itzcuintli
Ozmatli (a she ape) 11. Ozomatli
Malinalli (a mesh of cords) 12. Malinalli
Acatl (reed) 13. 1. Acatl
Then follows the second group:
Ocelotl (tiger) 14. 2. Ocelotl
Quaotli (eagle) 15. 3. Cuauhtli
Temtlatl (grindstone) 16. 4. Cozcacuauhtli
Quiahuitl (rainy water) 17. 5. Ollin
Xochitl (flower) 18. 6. Tecpatl
19. 7. Quiahuitl
20. 8. Xochitl
Annotations and Corrections to the Codex Ramirez. [continued]
19 Cintrococopi, qy. from cintli, spindles
20 The story of the falling down. of the heavens appears among the myths
of Samoa, where two trees are reported to have grown up and pushed them
into proper place. The natives of Vaitupu have a tradition in which
two of the sons of the first couple "distinguished themselves by
raising the heaven higher." In Nikundu, the legend runs of an universal
darkness in the beginning of all things and that the heavens were down
and resting upon the earth until raised by two brothers. (Samoa, by
George Turner, pp. 198, 283, 291.)
21 The two trees into which the gods changed themselves; more properly,
Tezcaquahuitl, the tree of the warrior. Quetzalveixochitl, the beautiful
rose tree. - A.H.M., 75.
22 Mixcoatl, a name of Tezcatlipoca. Brinton, A.H.M., 84. Iztac Mixcoatl
(A.H.M. 92), white-cloud, twin.
23 Four hundred men created. Brinton considers them to be the stars,
especially as they later were translated to the sky. Codex Chimalpopoca
(Myths, New World, 207.). Four birds devoured the antediluvian dwellers
on earth.
24 They drew blood from their ears, &c. In ch. 8 (seq.) Camaxtil
takes a maguey thorn and draws blood from his tongue and ears. The Persians
drew blood from ears, arms and face. Cf. Garcia, iv, 301.
25 Talocatecli threw his son into the cinders. Should be Tlaloc. (Cf.
Abraham and Isaac.)
26 Chichimecas (Garcia, V, 2, 322), offered no let or hindrance to the
immigrants who drove them away, but were filled with fright and astonishment,
and hid themselves among the most inaccessible rocks.
But the C. on the other side of the Sierra Nevada, where the Tlascaltecans
came, did not behave in this manner, but valiantly resisted the invaders,
being of gigantic stature, endeavored to drive them out of the land,
but were ultimately overcome by the force of the Tlascaltecans. Then
they had resort to stratagem, and feigning peace and submission invited
their conquerors to a banquet at which concealed men precipitated themselves
upon the Tlascaltecans when they had become drunken and helpless. However,
the Tlascaltecans rallied to the assistance of their comrades, and being
better armed and disciplined, ultimately defeated the giants, leaving
not one man alive. After many generations the barbarous Chichimecas
became civilized, wore clothes and became as other people, forming themselves
a state. (Cf. Garcia, V, 302.)
Chichimeca. (Clavigero tr. Cullen, I, 91), recording to some from Techichiani,
sucking, because they sucked the blood of the animals which they hunted.
C. calls them Chechemecatl, (Betancourt), from Chichimi, dogs’
beans. If the name had been one of contempt they would not have prided
themselves upon it, as they did. Another point to show it was an indigenous
word.
A number of conjectural etymologies have been assigned for this name,
but all unsatisfactory. As this people appear to have been aboriginal
it seems to me that any attempt to explain its name by means of the
language of the conquerors must be futile. Those who speak an alien
tongue have always been looked upon by their neighbors as barbarians,
and even as not possessed of rational speech, but as using only an unintelligible
jargon. The Latin dramatist expresses the feeling in his lines, Barbarus
hic ego, quid non intelligor nulli.
According to Garcia (V, 3, 321), the word Nahuatl means the people that
speaks distinctly and makes itself understood (Cf. Sahagun X, 29.) (Buschman,
685) "well sounding, clear, distinct."
Boturini, 78. Chichimècatl, el qué chupa, from their sucking
the blood of animals. Chichi means mamar, to nurse. Anales 3, 2, 60.
27 Camasale, more properly, Camaxtli, qu., a name of Tezcatlipoca (
A.H.M., 90) la faja noturna (Anales 3, 363). He was worshiped by the
Tlascallans, being there the same as Huitzilopochtli. Clavigero I, 2,
111. (Cf. Note 3)
28 Ce acatl, one reed, the day of Quetzalcoatl’s birth, and by
which he was often called.. It was a day of evil omen, and no one born
on it could hope for success
This year which returns but once in the Mexican cycle of fifty-two years,
was the one in which the god Quetzalcoatl was expected to reappear;
and it so happened that in this very year Cortez entered the land of
Mexico. Gloomy prophecies had preceded his advent, and he met a sovereign
predisposed to submission.
29 Tlapalla. This is the Tlapallan which Brinton (A.H.M., 89) believes
to be the "City of the Sun," the original home of the Aztecs.
All this he considers a sun myth. The word signifies "the red land"
(Codex Mendoza, Anales I, 4, 173). It was to this country that Quetzalcoatl
was to take his journey. (Buschman, p.684)
"Tlapallan, the red land, and Tizapan, the white land, were really
the names for the land of the sun. Tizapan from tizatl, white earth,
and pan in." (Am Hero Myths, 135.) The idea holds ground among
some scholars that this long record is only one of journeyings up and
down through the valley of Mexico.
30 Chapultepeque. Monte des Conejos. (Garcia, IV, 203.) Cerro del Chapulin
(Bot. 78). See note 43.
31 Culuacan. Colhuacan (A.H.M., 92). The bent or curved mountain, the
home of the mother of the gods; on it the old become young and remain
at any age they desire; years leave no trace upon them. In the legends
of the Choctaws occurs mention of a bending hill (Myths New World, 225).
Duran (I, 1) considers it another name for Aztlan. Cf. Buschman, 691.
32 Azclan, regio de garças, land of the heron. (Garcia, 4, 293)
Bright or white land. (Brinton A.H.M., 92. Buschman, 612.) The latter
the more generally received; cf. Tlapallan, Note 29.
33 Suchimilco, first people (gente de sementeras de Flores), occupied
the banks of the great lagoon of Mexico and founded a city of the same
name. Garcia, V, § 2, 322.
34 Xochimilco. Place of the field of flowers. (Buschmann, p. 700; Clavigero,
2, 228 Boturini, 78.) Sometimes written Suchimilco.
35 Mixcoatl (Brinton A.H.M., 92. Iztac-Mixcoatl, the white cloud twin),
goddess of hunting, Clav., i. 126. Same as Camasale (Note 3, Note 27).
35 [bis] Chalcas. The name signifies Gente de las Bocas. Garcia V, 2,
322.
36 Tenpaneca (Garcia, V, 2, 322). Gente de la puente, settled on the
west side of the lagoon. They soon founded a large city, Azcapuzalco
(Hormiguero).
37 Tezcuco. Garcia (V, 2, 322) says the Tezcucans were the fourth population
of Mexico, coming from Culua (Gente corva), because in their country
there was a very crooked Cerro.
These four nations encircled the lagoon, and of them all, the Tezcucans
were considered as the most polished.
38 Quausticaca ? lugar de los Pinos.
39 Chicomuxtoque, more properly should be Chicomoztoc, the Seven caverns.
(Garcia, V, 325: Boturini, 78. Buschmann, Über die Aztek. Ortsnamen,
688)
40 Coatebeque, more properly Coatepec, the hill of serpents
41 Quatlique, more properly Coatlicue, "one of the serpent skirt"
(A.H.M., 77) from whom Huitzilopochtli was born. According to Clavigero
(1[,] 257), she was the goddess of flowers.
A similar myth is narrated (A.H.M., 99) of the birth of Quetzalcoatl,
"the feathered serpent," which seems more probable from the
connection of this name with the bunch of feathers, the virgin is stated
here to have placed in her bosom
42 Cuzco means (Garcia, IV, 293) the navel of the earth
* Topó means, first, to meet; second, to strike. It may be that
it should read "touched."
43 Bridge of Chapultepeque: this is probably a clerical error of puente
for fuente as in the preceding chapter a (fountain or) stream of water
(fuente) is spoken of as existing at that place. The word means hill
of the locust, from chapulin, locust, and tepec, a hill. (Cf. Note 30.)
44 In the original tes, meaning evidently tres.
45 In the original dos, probably an error for los.
* Mechoacan, El tierra de pescado (Garcia, v, 325).
46 Çiguacoatl, more properly Cihuacoatl: the serpent woman (Myths
New World, 120); Cihuacohuatl (Clavigero, I, 246).
47 Tiçapan, Tiçapaa- the same place. (Garcia, 326, Tizaapán,
aguas blancas, white water). The general view entertained by scholars
is that the word means the white land (A.H.M., 136), and is the same
as Tlapallan, the home in the distant sun. See note 29.
47* Here there is something omitted, probably the words "a woman,"
as the rest of the sentence requires it.
Clavigero (Book II, § 21, Cullen, p. 124), tells a horrible story
of a woman’s sacrifice (too long to copy), which may be the one
here referred to.
48 Quanmixtitlan, postea Tenustitan. Garcia, 325; Ciudad del popul,
Bot. 78. Tenoxtitlan, more correctly Tenochtitlan, from tetl, a stone,
and Nochtli, a nopal (meaning the wild fig on the rock. Tunal en piedra,
Garcia, V, 326). Buschmann, p. 702.
Annotations and Corrections to the Codex Ramirez. [continued]
49 Acamapictli. Garcia, V, § 3, 334. Third king of the Mexicans,
Coringio, being second, and Tenuch first. (Clavigero, I, iii, 127; Lorenzana,
p. 9.)
Names of the kings of Tenochtitlan according to
Clavigero, i, III, 127. Lorenzana, 9. Anales II, 1, 53.
Tenuch, A.D. 1324.
Acamapitzin Acamapixtli Acampichi, A.D. 1370.
Huitzilihuitl Huitztlihuil Huicilyhuitl, A.D. 1396.
Chimalpopoca Chimalpopoca Chimalpupuca, A.D. 1417.
Itzcoatl Ixcoatl Ixcoaci, A.D. 1427.
Monteuczoma or Montezuma Montezuma, the elder Huehue motecçuma,
A.D. 1440.
Axajacatl Tizotzin Axayacaci, A.D. 1469.
Tizoc Axaiacac Tiçocicatzi, A.D. 1482.
Ahuitzotl Ahuitzol Ahuiçocin, A.D. 1486.
Montezuma Montezuma Motecçuma, A.D. 1502.
Garcia (V, iii, 324), makes Acamapictli the third ruler.
50 Seems to resemble the title of Prince Consort.
51 Cuernavaca. Garcia (Origin de los Indios, Lib.V, § ii, p. 322)
says that Quauhnahuac (a word meaning the place whence the voice of
the eagle sounds) was corrupted in common language into Cuernavaca.
He states that it was the capital city of a fertile and populous province,
which, in his days was known.
* Tetzcuco, (Molina); Tetzcoco (Buschmann, 697).
52 They took away. (Qy. the original one?)
52* Tlascaltecas (gente de pan). Garcia, V, 1, 322. Were the sixth people;
built and settled, and their chief city was named Tlascala. This nation
aided the Spaniards.
53 Dende un año ynvernan?
54 The Indian woman, Marina, who fell in love with Cortez, and accompanied
him as his interpreter. The words in the original are, "por una
lengua dicha Marina."
55 Sahagun, Lib. XII, ch. 29, also speaks of this epidemic of small-pox.
56 Oydores, auditors, councillors of state.
57 I.e., the days to lengthen.
58 Tçauçigua (fleshless women), alias Çiçemine.
More properly, Tzitzimimine (Anales II, i, 7), the dreadful ones. The
conclusion of a cycle was a grave event for the Mexicans, for, according
to their religious ideas, it was possibly the date for the end of the
world. "All the inhabitants," says Torquemada, "were
in great fear and trembling lest when the lights were extinguished they
should never more be rekindled, but on that very night the human race
would come to an end, and darkness eternal would reign over all; no
sun should ever appear again, but the Tzitzimimes, fearful demons, would
descend and eat up all mankind." Anales, &c, II, i, 7.
59 1. Se echaron una con otra.
59* Quey, ver, omitted? In which case the sentence read Este no pudo
(ver), á Montezuma, could not bear with Montezuma, detested him.
60 How much more humane than the maxim of the civil law, partus sequitur
ventrem. One who lay with an immature girl, or another’s slave,
became a slave. (Garcia, 3, 2, 111: Torquemada, XII, 8: Herrera, IV,
8, 10)
61* Tianguez should be more properly Tianquitzli. (Anales III, 2, 66.)
* Meaning Christians? ["Xpianos" is actually a fairly common
abbreviation, despite Phillips’ lack of certainty.]
62 Papa. "The Mexicans called in their tongue the Supreme Pontiffs
by the name of Papa." (Herrera III, ii, xv, p. 690. Similiter,
Garcia V, xii 300.)
Papachtic. "He of the flowing locks," corrupted to Papa, was
one of the names of Quetzalcoatl (A.H.M., 69), hence the title may easily
have been transferred to his priests.
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