Xaltotun

“ We wish to place Tarascus on the throne of Nemedia, and to win for Valerius the crown of Aquilonia. With your necromancy you can aid us."
Xaltotun's mind was devious and full of unexpected slants.
"You must be deep in the arts yourself, Orastes, to have been able to restore my life. ”

“ And we have loosed a demon upon the earth, a fiend inexplicable to common humanity. I have plumbed deep in evil, but there is a limit to which I, or any man of my race and age, can go. My ancestors were clean men, without any demoniacal taint; it is only I who have sunk into the pits, and I can sin only to the extent of my personal individuality. Out behind Xaltotun lie a thousand centuries of black magic and diabolism, an ancient tradition of evil. He is beyond our conception not only because he is a wizard himself, but also because he is the son of a race of wizards. ”

“ One man of them lived long enough to reach me and give the jewel into my hands, before he died slavering and gibbering of what he had seen in that accursed crypt. The thieves of Zamora are the most faithful of men to their trust. Even with my conjurements, none but they could have stolen the Heart from where it has lain in demon-guarded darkness since the fall of Acheron, three thousand years ago.'
Xaltotun lifted his lion-like head and stared far off into space, as if plumbing the lost centuries. ”

“ It may be that, even if the thief intends carrying out Tarascus's order, he'll have some difficulty finding an outbound ship at this time of the year."
"And if you find the Heart," cried Hadrathus, "I will prepare the way for your conquest. Before you return to Aquilonia I will spread the word through secret channels that you live and are returning with a magic stronger than Xaltotun's. I will have men ready to rise on your return. They will rise, if they have assurance that they will be protected from the black arts of Xaltotun. ”

“ I obtained a glimpse of your sarcophagus in the demon-haunted crypts below the black giant-walled temple of Set in the hinterlands of Stygia, and I learned of the arts that would bring back life to your shriveled corpse. From moldering manuscripts I learned of the Heart of Ahriman. Then for a year I sought its hiding-place, and at last I found it.'
'Then why trouble to bring me back to life?' demanded Xaltotun, with his piercing gaze fixed on the priest. 'Why did you not employ the Heart to further your own power?'
'Because no man today knows the secrets of the Heart,' answered Orastes. ”

“ The palace of King Tarascus seemed a shadowy, nighted place, that shunned natural illumination. The spirit of darkness and shadow hovered over it, and that spirit, Conan felt, was embodied in the stranger Xaltotun. The negroes carried the king along a winding corridor so dimly lighted that they moved through it like black ghosts bearing a dead man, and down a stone stair that wound endlessly. A torch in the hand of one cast the great deformed shadows streaming along the wall; it was like the descent into hell of a corpse borne by dusky demons. ”

“ Let the hills rock and the stones topple upon my enemies! Let the sky grow dark above them, the earth unstable beneath their feet! Let a wind from the deep black earth curl up beneath their feet, and blacken and shrivel them——'
He halted short, dagger lifted. In the tense silence the roar of the hosts rose beneath him, borne on the wind.
On the other side of the altar stood a man in a black hooded robe, whose coif shadowed pale delicate features and dark eyes calm and meditative.
'Dog of Asura!' whispered Xaltotun, his voice was like the hiss of an angered serpent. ”

“ And on the morrow he must hurl his host against the grimmest fighter in the western nations, and his desperate horde. If Xaltotun failed them now—
Half a dozen men-at-arms strode out of the shadows. The firelight glinted on their breast-plates and helmet crests. Among them they half led, half dragged a gaunt figure in tattered rags.
Saluting, they spoke: 'My lord, this man came to the outposts and said he desired word with King Valerius. He is an Aquilonian.'
He looked more like a wolf—a wolf the traps had scarred. Old sores that only fetters make showed on his wrists and ankles. ”

“ In the tent of Valerius, the baron pointed to the man who crouched shivering before them, huddling his rags about him.
"He says he knows a way to aid us on the morrow. We will need aid, if Xaltotun's plan is no better than it has proved so far. Speak on, dog."
The man's body writhed in strange convulsions. Words came in a stumbling rush:
"Conan camps at the head of the Valley of Lions. It is shaped like a fan, with steep hills on either side. If you attack him tomorrow you will have to march straight up the valley. You cannot climb the hills on either side. ”

“ Valerius plundered and raped and looted and destroyed until even Amalric protested, warning him that he would beggar the kingdom beyond repair, not knowing that such was his fixed determination.
But while in both Aquilonia and Nemedia men talked of the madness of the king, in Nemedia men talked much of Xaltotun, the masked one. Yet few saw him on the streets of Belverus. Men said he spent much time in the hills, in curious conclaves with surviving remnants of an old race: dark, silent folk who claimed descent from an ancient kingdom. ”

“ They closed their ranks, locking up the gaps made by the fallen. Sweat ran into their eyes from under their steel caps. They gripped their spears and waited, their fierce hearts swelling with pride that a king should fight on foot with them. Behind them the Aquilonian knights had not moved. They sat their steeds, grimly immobile.
A knight spurred a sweating horse up the hill called the King's Altar, and glared at Xaltotun with bitter eyes.
"Amalric bids me say that it is time to use your magic, wizard," he said. "We are dying like flies down there in the valley. We cannot break their ranks." ”

“ The site of Tollan being too important to be abandoned, Xolotl established [294] some families there, which formed the nucleus of a future population. He then continued his march to Mizquiyahualan and Tecpan, and finally came to Xaltocan, on the shore of the lake of the same name, where he and his followers abode for a long time in the caves that abounded in that region, and where they subsequently founded the town of Xoloc or Xolotl, which afterwards became a city of considerable importance in Anáhuac. ”

“ Xolotl is of southern, possibly Zapotec, origin. He represents either fire rushing down from the heavens or light flaming upward. It is noticeable that in the pinturas the picture of the setting sun being devoured by the earth is nearly always placed opposite his image. He is probably identical with Nanahuatl, and appears as the representative of human sacrifice. He has also affinities with Xipe. On the whole Xolotl may be best described as a sun-god of the more southerly tribes. ”

“ They were a dying race when our ancestors broke through the forest and came into the plain. Their wizards had died, and the people had forgot their ancient necromancy. They could fight neither by sorcery nor the sword.
"Well, our fathers slew the people of Xuchotl, all except a hundred which were given living into the hands of Tolkemec, who had been their slave; and for many days and nights the halls re-echoed to their screams under the agony of his tortures.
"So the Tlazitlans dwelt here, for a while in peace, ruled by the brothers Tecuhltli and Xotalanc, and by Tolkemec. ”

“ Then, seeing that the wizard had wrought no open evil, and that none had endured palpable harm from his presence, the people took heart; and Zotulla drank deeply, and feasted in oblivious luxury as before; and dark Thasaidon, prince of all turpitudes, was the true but never-acknowledged lord of Xylac. And in time the men of Ummaos bragged a little of Namirrha and his dread thaumaturgies, even as they had boasted of the purple sins of Zotulla. ”

“ A second version of the legend, recorded by Mendieta, makes Xolotl the sacrificial celebrant who gave death to the other gods and then to himself that the sun might have life. In still another tale, recorded also by Mendieta, it is the dog Xolotl who is sent to the Underworld for bones of the forefathers, that the first human pair might be created; but being pursued by Mictlantecutli, Xolotl stumbled, and the bone that he carried was dropped and broken into fragments, from which the various kinds of people sprang. ”

“ Quetzalcoatl turns himself into a black ant, and a red ant guides him thither, but the mountain is too heavy to lift, so the god Xolotl (in his manifestation as Nanauatzin) splits it open. This god Xolotl, who will be mentioned later, is closely associated in dress and attributes with Quetzalcoatl, as also are the octli-gods, and he is sometimes given as the hero of the creation-myth quoted above. But the maize was not destined to remain the possession of Quetzalcoatl, for it was stolen by Tlaloc, to whom since that time it belongs. ”

“ She turned toward the skull, which still glowed and pulsed on the floor, and was reaching a booted toe tentatively toward it, when the man who called himself Techotl sprang forward with a cry.
"Do not touch it! Do not even look at it! Madness and death lurk in it. The wizards of Xotalanc understand its secret—they found it in the catacombs, where lie the bones of terrible kings who ruled in Xuchotl in the black centuries of the past. To gaze upon it freezes the blood and withers the brain of a man who understands not its mystery. To touch it causes madness and destruction." ”

“ In myth Tezcatlipoca plays the leading rôle as adversary of Quetzalcoatl, the ruler and god of the Toltec city of Tollan. In Sahagun's version of the story, three magicians, Huitzilopochtli, Titlacauan ("We are his Slaves," an epithet of Tezcatlipoca) , and Tlacauepan, the younger brother of the others, undertook by magic and wile to drive Quetzalcoatl from the country and to overthrow the Toltec power. ”

“ My name is Techotl. I am of Tecuhltli. I and this man who lies with his throat cut came into the Halls of Science to try and ambush some of the Xotalancas. But we became separated and I returned here to find him with his gullet slit. The Burning Skull did it, I know, just as he would have slain me had you not killed him. But perhaps he was not alone. Others may be stealing from Xotalanc! The gods themselves blench at the fate of those they take alive! ”

“ Die all of you and confer life upon the stars.” The wind then offered to discharge the function of immolating [46] the gods and slew them one by one. Only Xolotl refused to die, and begged for life, weeping so sorely that his eyes dropped out. When those who were to make the sacrifice laid hold of him he fled and concealed himself in a field of maize, where he changed himself into a stalk of that plant having two feet (roots) such as the peasants call xolotl. ”

“ These chiefs allied themselves with Xolotl, and the first two were given his two daughters in marriage, receiving at the same time the towns of Azcapotzalco and Xaltocan respectively as residences. Tzontecomatl married a woman from Chalco and established himself at Coatlichan. Colhuacan at this time was ruled by Pochotl, a descendant of the last Toltec king, and Xolotl seems to have exercised a loose suzerainty over all. The invaders rapidly adopted the remains of civilization which they found in the valley, and applied themselves to agriculture ”

“ Satisfied with the experiment, the gods repeated it, and at the end of another four days a girl arose from the vessel. Xolotl was appointed guardian to the children so miraculously created,14 and nourished them upon the milk-like juice of the maguey plant. They throve apace, and in course of time became [42] man and woman, the progenitors of the entire human race, who differ in bulk and stature as the pieces of the rescued bone varied in size and shape. Thus were born Iztac Mixcoatl the first man and Ilanceuitl or Ilamatecutli, his wife. ”

“ He was a penance-inflicting god, perhaps particularly a deity of priests and their lore; yet he was also associated with education and the rearing of the young. He is named as the patron of the arts, the teacher of metallurgy and of letters, and in tradition he is the god of the cultured people of yore from whom the Aztec derived their civilization. A part of the story, as narrated by Sahagun, has been told: how Quetzalcoatl was the aged and wise priest-king of Tollan, driven thence by the magic and guile of Tezcatlipoca and his companions. ”

“ At last he came to Tlalamoztoc, whence his view extended over [295] the country toward Tlazalan, and Culhuacan valley, [V-11] and Chapultepec, on the other side of the lake; throughout this region smoke arose in various places, denoting the presence of human inhabitants. Without loss of time, the prince returned to his father with the news of his discovery, passing the ruined city of Teotihuacan on his way. Xolotl had in the meantime visited the large Toltec city of Cuhuac (Culhuacan?) , and had also received information of Toltec settlements on the coast and in the interior. ”

“ In several of the MSS. Xolotl is depicted striving at this game against other gods. For example, in the Codex Mendoza we see him playing with the Moon-god, and can recognize him by the sign ollin which accompanies him, and by the gouged-out eye in which that symbol ends. Seler thinks “that the root of the name olin suggested to the Mexicans the motion of the rubber ball olli and, as a consequence, of ball-playing.” It seems to me to have represented both light and darkness, as is witnessed by its colours. Xolotl is, indeed, the darkness that accompanies light. ”