Toltec

“ The Toltec is the only one whose aspirations beyond the grave are free from grossness and cruelty; his heaven is a resting-place for the weary, a perpetual spring, amidst flowers, fields of yellow maize, verdure and flowers.
From these graver matters we will pass to the legend, told by Veytia, which makes Papantzin the inventor of pulque ”

“ Traces of this people can unquestionably be detected in historic times; and many cities, particularly those which carried on traffic with the coast, claimed to be of Toltec origin. The conception of Toltecs, like that of Chichimecs, acquired in time so general and vague a significance that in vocabularies such a word as “ toltecatl ” is interpreted as meaning merely an expert artist. So that in some cases the name “ Toltecs ” denotes no more than some race of Nahua affinities possessed of a certain degree of culture. ”

“ Not far off, in the course of time, they founded their great city of Tollan, now Tula, which became the centre of the Toltec nation.
These people built so well and so ruins found at tula.
much that the name became the word to mean builders. The few ruins left of their capital attest their skill. They felt themselves to be a superior race to that they found in their new home. The Toltecs were tall, robust, and well-formed, of light-sallow complexion, with but little hair on their face. They were wonderful for running, and could run at the greatest speed for hours. ”

“ One of these was cleft from casque to shoulders29 by Tlahuicol's awful weapon, which seemed to the breathless spectators like a thunderbolt in the hands of a god. Ere the Toltec could recover himself, the other rushed in and bore him to the ground, where, falling uppermost, the Aztec hoped to deal a fatal blow with his dagger. Before he could accomplish his purpose the champion's arms had enfolded him in an embrace so deadly that the breath was driven from his body with a sound that might be heard in all parts of the amphitheatre, and his ribs were crushed like pipe-stems. ”

“ Legends of Toltec Artistry
Happily settled in their new country, and ruled over by a king whom they could regard with reverence, the Toltecs made rapid progress in the various arts, and their city began to be celebrated far and wide for the excellence of its craftsmen and the beauty of its architecture and pottery. The name of "Toltec," in fact, came to be regarded by the surrounding peoples as synonymous with "artist," and as a kind of hall-mark which guaranteed the superiority of any article of Toltec workmanship. ”

“ Finally a journey of eighteen days or eighty leagues brought them to Tulancingo—written also Tulantzinco and Tollantzinco—discovered by Acapichtzin. Here they built a house sufficiently large to contain all the people, and remained eighteen years before transferring their capital to Tollan farther east and establishing what was afterwards known as the Toltec empire. ”

“ But his reign was a short one, and he had been on the throne but a few years, when he died, and was succeeded by his son Icxochitlanex.
Nopaltzin, following the example set by his father, did all in his power to further Toltec culture. Great attention was paid to agriculture; masters were appointed in the several towns to teach the various arts, new laws were made and old ones revised, and civilization began to assume a higher phase than it had hitherto done since the fall of the Toltec empire. ”

“ Sahagun states definitely that the Toltec spoke Nahua, and relates a migration myth which brings them into contact with the Nahua peoples before their settlement in Tulan. Another legend makes the founder of their state a Chichimec, one Mixcoamazatzin, whose name bears a strong resemblance to that of the Chichimec hunting-god, Mixcoatl, compounded with the native word for the miraculous deer, mazatl, with which he was associated. Further, excavation has proved that before the “Toltec” culture, another of lower grade existed in the valley. ”

“ So the position was left unfilled until Cortes made application for it on behalf of Huetzin. In spite of his youth the young Toltec had been trained for a military life from his childhood by his father, the greatest warrior ever known in Tlascala, and was thus well fitted for the position. Of his bravery there was no question, and, as a son of the house of Titcala, his rank was second to none. Besides all this, the young man possessed an invaluable knowledge of the Aztec capital, gained while a prisoner within its walls. ”

“ Comparing the Toltec tradition with those that have been already given, we find, except in names, a strong resemblance in general features. In the successive creations and destructions of men; the apes that peopled the land after one of the destructions; the ancient settlement and growth to power of the Toltecs in a fertile country named Huehue Tlapallan; the destruction of a rival power, that of the Quinames; the regulation or invention of the calendar by an assemblage of wise men in Huehue Tlapallan ”

“ Upon the mysterious departure of "the venerable Toltec Masters", the Cem Anahuac peoples and cultures started, little by little, changing and modifying the laws, regulations, rules and traditions to govern, direct and manage the peoples that were taught and supervised by the Toltec for more than ten centuries. The solid social structures began breaking and the "the inertia of matter" began gaining strength and momentum, i.e., ambition, ego, greed, envy, abuse and violence. ”

“ He is a genuine Toltec, a member of that mysterious race which flourished in the Valley of Mexico ages before the arrival of the Aztecs, and the marvellous remains of whose works astonish the traveller in Yucatan and Guatemala. He is a native of Oajaca, one of the Pacific States, and the same that contained the vast estates bestowed upon Cortés, to whom the Valley of Oajaca furnished his title of Marquis. ”

“ Situated southeast of Tula, and about forty miles distant from Mexico City, are other ruins intimately connected with Toltec history,—the pyramids of Teotihuacan. Both during their residence at Tula, and after the disruption of their empire, when a remnant of the Toltecs turned their faces in this direction, these pyramids were considered by them as the nucleus of a holy city, Teotihuacan, City of the Gods. Their kings came here to be crowned, and here dwelt their priests; but though their traditions undoubtedly refer to these pyramids, yet they are doubtless of pre-Toltec origin. ”

“ Comalcalco was a Toltec city just as was Palenque, and this is clearly demonstrated in the pyramidal form given to the basement of edifices, in the invariable shape of the monuments, bearing so striking aPg 261 resemblance to the Toltec calli, in the fragments, in the masks of terra-cotta, the pottery, and the small figures, facsimiles of those we found on the plateaux; in the cultus of the cross, emblem of the Toltec Tlaloc, and lastly in the important quotations from Juarros and Diaz, affirming that Palenque was called Tula. ”

“ Both Huetzin and Sandoval deeply regretted that they were unable to question Tlalco concerning certain matters. Knowing what they did of his personality, they feared lest it should have been discovered by the chief priest, in which case they knew there was little hope of ever again meeting with the devoted Toltec.
A day or two after his arrival, Cortes, having completed his despatches for Vera Cruz, entrusted them to a messenger who was ordered to proceed to that fort. He set forth; but in less than half an hour, came flying back, terror-stricken and covered with wounds. "The city is in arms!" ”

“ The plain truth is, as we wrote earlier, that this Toltec theory represents a myth bred of a confusion of historical facts which, if critically examined, flatly contradict it. In his Myths of the New World (1868) , the late D. G. Brinton, than whom no one has given a more wholehearted and enlightened attention to the problem, writes: "The story of Tula and its inhabitants the Toltecs, so currently related in ancient Mexican history, is a myth and not history." ”

“ The most populous Toltec settlements were found at Culhuacan, Quauhtitenco, Chapultepec, Totoltepec, Tlazalan, and Tepexomaco, all ruled by lords, and at Cholula, where two priests held the reigns of government. ”

“ They locate the arrival of the mysterious nation of the Ulmecas, in the beginnings of the third age, very nearly a thousand years before, Christ, and categorically fix the beginning of the second Toltec monarchy—because in remote times they had constituted another—in the year 674 of our era. Twenty-six years later, the year 700 was Ce técpatl; and all the traditions affirm that the Toltecs initiated a new epoch in Ce técpatl. ”

“ Tezcatlipoca, in pursuance of his policy inimical to the Toltec state, took the form of an Indian of the name of Toueyo (Toveyo) , and bent his steps to the palace of Uemac, chief of the Toltecs in temporal matters. This worthy had a daughter so fair that she was desired in marriage by many of the Toltecs, but all to no purpose, as her father refused her hand to one and all. The princess, beholding the false Toueyo passing her father's palace, fell deeply in love with him, and so tumultuous was her passion that she became seriously ill because of her longing for him. ”

“ The young Toltec, with the permission of Cortes and accompanied by Sandoval, also visited every temple in the city, and, throwing open the doors of their cages or dungeons, gave freedom to hundreds of wretched prisoners who had been doomed to sacrifice.142 The only service required of these, in return for their liberty, was that they should bury the victims of the recent battle. As the dead numbered nearly three thousand, and as their bodies were exposed to the hot sun in all parts of the city, their speedy removal was a matter of prime necessity. ”

“ The order of march had been carefully planned beforehand, and, according to it, Sandoval, mounted on Motilla, and commanding the advance guard was the first to ride forth. At his left hand rode the only mounted native of the New World, Huetzin, the young Toltec; for besides a score of cavaliers, and two hundred foot soldiers, the advance contained two thousand Tlascalan warriors. To these faithful mountaineers had been entrusted the object deemed most precious by the whole army, the covered litter in which was borne Marina, their well-loved interpreter. ”

“ Ever in the front, using his keen Toledo blade with deadly effect, Huetzin cheered on his followers. Suddenly he detected a body of skulking priests who had come from all the temples of the city to share in138 the anticipated victory of their benighted adherents. Now they were seeking safety in flight. Like a flash of light came a vision of innocent children torn to death by these human wolves, and, with an inarticulate cry of rage, the young Toltec darted after them. ”

“ It does not appear that the Toltecs consummated the sacrifice by devouring the flesh of the victim. This seems to have been the only exception to the blameless character of the Toltec rites. Tlaloc was the oldest deity in the Aztec mythology, in which he found a suitable place. Yet, as the knowledge of him was originally derived from the Toltecs, it cannot be denied that this people, as Ramirez says, possessed in their peculiar civilization the germs of those sanguinary institutions which existed on so appalling a scale in Mexico. See Ramirez, Notas y Esclarecimientos, ubi supra. ”

“ It is not difficult to form a tolerably clear idea of the state of affairs in Anáhuac at the downfall of the Toltec empire, notwithstanding the confusion of the records. There is, as we have seen, no evidence of a general migration southward or in any other direction. It is true the records speak of a large majority of the Toltecs as having migrated in different directions as a result of their disasters, but it must be remembered that in America, as elsewhere, historical annals of early periods had to do with the deeds and fortunes of priests and kings and noble families ”

“ An express stipulation must, however, be required on the part of the Chichimec king that the Toltecs should ever be a perfectly free and independent people, owing no allegiance whatever to the Chichimecs, although the two powers would enter into an alliance for mutual defense and assistance. The advice of the aged and venerated counsellor was of course accepted without objection; in fact, as pictured by the Spanish writers, Toltec history is for the most part but a record of sage counsels of wise rulers cheerfully acquiesced in by an appreciative and obliging people. ”

“ We know that the worship of the sun was general with all the American tribes, and if at Tikal we call him the god of one particular race, it is owing to the details which surround him; both pyramids, temples, inscriptions, figures, and emblems particularise him, and give us the right to connect him with the religion of the Uplands and call him Toltec. ”

“ They said he was one of those handsome youths for whom the king expresses such a preference."
As Sandoval's impatience to make a start for the Aztec capital was equal to Huetzin's own, they proceeded to the quarters occupied by Cortes, and in spite of the lateness of the hour, obtained an audience. To the commander the young Toltec gave a full and detailed account of what had taken place in Tenochtitlan since his departure from that city. ”

“ Thus, the toltec, symbolically represented the balance desired between spirit and matter, through "Quetzal-cóatl". Religious-philosophical figure, promoting the incarnation of the equilibrium symbol.
"As Quetzalcoatl teaches that the human greatness lies on a higher order consciousness, his effigy cannot be other than the symbol of this truth, and the serpent feathers that represent him should speak of the spirit which allows men —a man whose body, such as the reptile, crawls on the dust— knowing the superhuman creation joy, thus constituting an ode to the sovereign inner freedom. ”