Cholula

“ Cholula was neither a specially sacred city nor an emporium of trade. The people had their gods, like any other of the tribes, and among them Quetzalcohuatl was held in high reverence. Pilgrims did not flock to his shrine from near and far, as to Einsiedeln or Mecca, and the lordly neighbors of Tlascala and Huexotzinco, as well as those of Mexico, regarded the idol of Cholula, accordingly as they felt friendly or hostile toward it, as representing a gallant hero, or a blasphemous image, or an evil spirit. ”

“ Their first destination was the beautiful and sacred city of Cholula—the Rome, as it were, of Mexico. The Tlascalans eagerly warned the Spaniards against approaching it or entering its streets. The Cholulans, they declared, were fair speaking but crafty, making amends to themselves for cowardly weakness by cunning, and the most unscrupulous treachery.
But Cortes was never a man to be easily turned aside from his purpose. ”

“ The great city of Cholula was situated about six miles from the present city of Puebla. It was here the terrible slaughter was committed which has left the deepest stain upon the otherwise glorious and wonderful character of Cortez. Not a vestige—literally none—not a brick or a stone standing upon another, remains of this immense city except the great pyramid, which still stands in gloomy and solitary grandeur in the vast plain which surrounds it, and there it will stand forever. ”

“ This remarkable legend, which was popular with all the Indian tribes, was one of the most powerful auxiliaries of the Spanish conquerors, in whom the simple Indians thought they recognised the lofty stature, noble mien, clear complexion, and blue eyes, of the deity they had so long expected.
But talking of Cholula has made us forget that the train is going to start: the guards, hurrying in every direction to look for us, summon us into our carriages, the signal is given, and we speed away. ”

“ We were now not far from the ancient city of Cholula, lying on a great plain at a short distance from the mountains, and glittering in the sunbeams, as if it still were the city of predilection as in former days, when it was the sacred city, "the Rome of Anahuac." It is still a large town, with a spacious square and many churches, and the ruins of its great pyramid still attest its former grandeur; but of the forty thousand houses and four hundred churches mentioned by Cortes, there are no traces. ”

“ Cholula, capital of the republic of that name, is six leagues north of Tlascala, and about twenty southeast of Mexico. In the time of the conquest of the table-land of Anahuac, as the whole district is sometimes termed, this city was large and populous. The people excelled in mechanical arts, especially metal-working, cloth-weaving, and a delicate kind of pottery. Reference has already been made to the god Quetzalcoatl, in whose honor a huge pyramid was erected here. ”

“ Cholula was not a “Holy City” or pilgrim resort for other tribes. “It suffices to recall the state of intertribal warfare which prevailed in aboriginal Mexico to establish the utter fallacy of this pretension.... Even the preëminence which Quetzalcohuatl, the chief idol of Cholula, is said to have enjoyed over the whole of Central Mexico is vigorously denied by the Indians of Tlascala and of the Mexican valley itself.” Cholula was a great mart of trade and crowds flocked to it because of that fact. Outside Indians were accustomed to bring presents to its chief idol. ”

“ A ride of an hour and a half brings us to the mud-brick huts that begin the once magnificent city of Cholula. I fear the huts were about the same sort when the city was at the height of its magnificence. The pepper, or Peru, tree grows thickly and uselessly, except to the eye and the birds—the redness of its berry pleasing our vision, and its bitter pungency their taste. The maguey grows yet finer to the eye and yet worse to the taste. ”

“ They also heartily protested against the general's going to Cholula. The people, they said, though not brave in the open field, were crafty; they were Montezuma's tools, and would do his bidding. That city, too, was specially under the protection of the god Quetzalcoatl, and the priests were confidently believed to have the power of opening an inundation from the foundations of his shrine, which should overwhelm their enemies in the deluge, and lastly, though many distant places had sent to testify their goodwill, and offer their allegiance, Cholula, only six leagues distant, had done neither. ”

“ The natives trembled at the prowess and vengeance of the "white gods."
Cholula is now a mere village. Its four hundred pagan towers have long been demolished, but from the eminence where we stood I counted twenty spires and crosses on the Christian temples of the adjacent Indian hamlets.
The imagination may find full scope in contemplating this grand scene. Looking northward stands the mountain Malinche—the name given to Cortez by the Indians—brown and sere in the distance, on whose rugged and massive sides not a plant grows nor a flower blooms to break the monotony of its awful self. ”

“ We see the great pyramid of Cholula for miles before reaching it—a grand and imposing monument to the aboriginal builders! That these ready-handed Indian workers should have erected a mountain, without beasts of burden or implements of any kind, and by passing the brick from hand to hand, surpasses the calculations of all scientists. ”

“ Before me rose, against the darkening sky, a mighty cross, the sculptured proof that here Christianity had proved victorious; and as I lingered, my feet upon the Aztec pyramid, my hand upon the symbol of the conqueror’s faith, my eyes turned towards that everlasting pinnacle of snow, I thought the lesson of Cholula to be this: that higher, grander, and far more enduring than all the different religions of humanity are the Eternal Power they imperfectly reveal ”

“ If we add to this picture the little company of Spaniards with their uniforms, their horses, and their small artillery, we can imagine the entrance of Cortés into Cholula as a festival far less formal and ceremonious than most of the historians have represented it, but still extraordinary, gorgeous, and strange enough. I have found the first impression in all the Indian dances well-nigh overpowering, but the eye gradually becomes accustomed to regard the spectacle with indifference. ”

“ Cholula was of old sacred to Quetzalcoatl, the "God of the Air," who, during his abode upon earth, taught mankind the use of metals, the practice of agriculture, and the arts of government. Translating myth into history, we may call him the great Aztec reformer. He is represented as a man of fair complexion with curling hair and flowing beard, very different from the type of the Aztecs. On his way from Mexico to the coast he remained for a while at Cholula, where a mound and temple was raised to his honor. ”

“ In point of fact, very few visitors fail to see it, and many of them go to Cholula before doing anything else.
"It is an easy excursion," wrote Frank, "as Cholula is only six or seven miles from Puebla, and can be reached by a tram-way which deposits you at the very foot of the great pyramid. A special car for sixteen persons or a smaller number can be had for ten dollars, and it is [Pg 382] as much subject to your orders as a private carriage would be. ”

“ Cholula was the Olmec capital, a flourishing city celebrated particularly for its lofty pyramid crowned with a magnificent temple built in honor of Quetzalcoatl. Teotihuacan within the valley of Anáhuac had long been as it long continued to be the religious centre of all the Nahua nations. Here kings and priests were elected, ordained, and buried. Hither flocked pilgrims from every direction to consult the oracles, to worship in the temples of the sun and moon, and to place sacrificial offerings on the altars of their deities. ”

“ An ear of Indian corn was as much as a man could carry. The cotton, as it grew, took of its own accord the rich dyes of human art. The air was filled with intoxicating perfumes and the sweet melody of birds." The great pyramid or temple of Cholula was said to have been erected in his honor; and if a grander monument exists, made of earthly material by human hands, history has not recorded it. ”

“ At the foot of the spectator{*} lay the sacred city of Cholula, with its bright towers and pinnacles sparkling in the sun, reposing amidst gardens and verdant groves, which then thickly studded the cultivated environs of the capi{188}tal. Such was the magnificent prospect which met the gaze of the Conquerors, and may still, with slight change, meet that of the modern traveller, as from the platform of the great pyramid his eye wanders over the fairest portion of the beautiful plateau of Puebla. ”

“ In Cholula, nevertheless, we were set upon by the army. No thanks to thee that we are alive to-day. And, in the same connection, when thou wert upbraided for inviting us, the lords and princes were told that such was the instruction of one of thy bloody gods, who had promised here in the capital to deliver us prisoners for sacrifice.” Montezuma offered to speak.
“Deny it not, deny it not!” said Cortes, with the slightest show of passion. “In god or man, such perfidy cannot be excused. ”

“ The people of Cholula did not know what sort of guests they had invited, or what means they possessed for opposing any treachery. The behavior of the Cholulans was in direct contradiction to the popular view that they regarded the white men as gods. One does not entice gods into traps, and does not try, as was done after the coming of the Spaniards, to enfeeble them gradually by depriving them of food. Both devices were tried against Cortés and his companions. ”

“ The population of a place was always greatly overestimated, for wherever the Spaniards showed themselves the people ran together, and the same throngs accompanied them all around, so that they met at every step a multitude that gave the appearance of great traffic.
Cholula had in its original condition not many more than 25,000 inhabitants, who were divided among the six quarters that surrounded, at considerable intervals, the chief sacrificial hill. ”

“ This was once crowned by a temple, but now by a church called Nuestro Señora de los Remedios. The City of Cholula was the sacred city of the Aztecs, but the pyramid antedates their tradition. When it was built, by whom and for what purpose will not be known till the sea yields up its dead, but there it stands built of brick, twice larger than Cheops, and so overgrown with trees that it looks like a natural hill. A winding road with steps leads to the top, whence a view of the whole valley is to be had. ”

“ Not much regard was felt in the neighborhood [89] for the shrine of the holy Quetzal-cohuatl, but its people were generally looked upon as cowards and knaves, and its idol as a “bad medicine”; and every appeal was made to Cortés to induce him not to go by way{264} of Cholula to Mexico. In Cholula the people were not pleased with the sojourn of the Spaniards in Tlascala, for that tribe stood in bad repute among them. It was inclined to favor Cholula’s neighbors of Huexotzinco, between whom and Cholula bloody feuds prevailed at the time over a question of water-supply. ”

“ The great pyramid of Cholula with its hemispherical temple of Quetzalcoatl at the top, now an almost shapeless hill surmounted by a church, was about thrice as long and twice as high as the teocalli of Mexico. A large fraction of the Mexican population were set apart as priests or attendants to the services of the gods. ”

“ Eighteen miles from Tlascala was situated the city of Cholula, and this city was but sixty-four miles east of the renowned Mexican metropolis. Cholula was a city whose population was estimated at one hundred thousand. As it belonged to Mexico, the bitterest animosity existed between its inhabitants and those of Tlascala. Cortez was warned by his new allies not to enter the city, as he might depend upon encountering treachery there; but the Spanish general considered himself now too strong to turn aside from any danger. ”

“ Cholula was not the resort only of the indigent devotee. Many of the kindred races had temples of their own in the city, in the same manner as some Christian nations have in Rome, and each temple as provided with its own peculiar ministers for the service of the deity to whom it was consecrated. In no city was there seen such a concourse of priests, so many processions, such pomp of ceremonial sacrifice, and religious festivals. Cholula was, in short, what Mecca is among Mahometans, or Jerusalem among Christians ”

“ The other towns of this State are:—Cholula, adjacent to the remains of the Pyramid of Cholula, which will be subsequently noticed;—Atlixco; Guauchinango, in the northern valley of the State, where the Indians still indulge in their ancient sport of the Juégo del Volador or flying game;—Tehuacan de las Granadas, containing near 6,000 inhabitants; Tepeaca or Tepéyacac, where Cortéz laid the foundations of a city which he called "Segura de la Frontéra;"—Huajocingo or Huexotzingo; Chiautla, Tlapan, Tlacotepec, Amozoqué, San Martin, Nopaluca, Acajete, Ojo de Agua. ”

“ The pyramid of Cholula is very disappointing to any one who has seen illustrations of it in histories of Mexico; there it is represented as a mass of steps, growing narrower as they reach the top. At present it looks like many of the other queerly-shaped hills which one sees so frequently in Mexico. ”

“ After the return of its priests Cholula quickly regained its ancient prosperity. The old laws were enforced and the executive authority was entrusted to a military chief, who was assisted in his duties by a council of six nobles, and this form of government was preserved until the time of the Conquest. From this time the city was rarely troubled with wars, but was respected and held in veneration as a sacred place of pilgrimage by all the surrounding peoples. ”