GENERAL CONCLUSIONS.

233

new institutions is as deeply shrouded in mystery as is that of their predecessors, although the nature of the institutions themselves is well known to us in a later and doubtless somewhat modified state of development. The language of the nations among which these institutions were first established was doubtless the Nahua, or old Aztec. The Plumed Serpent, known in different tongues as Quetzalcoatl, Gucumatz, and Cukulcan, was the being who traditionally founded the new order of things. The Nahua power grew up side by side with its Xibalban predecessor, having its capital Tulan apparently in Chiapas. Like the Maya power, it was not confined to its original home, but was borne by the Olmec colonies towards Anáhuac, where it came in contact with that of the Quinames; and in the person of Cukulcan it penetrated the peninsula of Yucatan to exert its influence upon the Itzas and Cocomes. The two powers seem not to have been on unfriendly terms at first. In fact there is much reason to suspect that their respective institutions did not differ radically, and that their rivalry developed into open hostility only after the Nahuas had succeeded in introducing their ideas among so many Maya nations, and in reducing to a life of civilization so many wild tribes, that they had acquired a balance of political power. For it is certain that, whatever may have been true of the Maya culture, the Nahua institutions and power were by no means confined to nations of the Nahua language, and that some of the leading nations which accepted the Nahua ideas of religion and government spoke other and even Maya tongues. The struggle on the part of the Xibalbans seems to have been that of an old effete monarchy against a young and progressive people. Whatever its cause,

bourg declines to vouch, dates the first appearance of the Nahuas at 279 B. C. The abbé thinks that event was probably during the century before Christ; but he, it must be remembered, accepts the coming of Quetzalcoatl and his followers and the introduction of a new civilization literally. Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 101.

the result of the conquest was the overthrow of the Votanic monarchs at a date which may be approximately fixed within a century before or after the beginning of our era.95 From that time the ancient empire disappears from traditional history, and there is no conclusive evidence that the Xibalban kings or their descendants ever renewed the struggle. Yet we read of no great destruction or enslavement or migration of the Chanes resulting from the Nahua victory. The result was only a change of dynasty accompanied by the introduction of some new features government and religious rites. The old civilization was merged in the new, and practically lost its identity; so much so that all the many nationalities that in later times traced their origin to this central region were proud, whatever their language, to claim relationship with the successful Nahuas, whose institutions they had adopted and whose power they had shared.

in

Respecting the ensuing period of Nahua greatness in Central America nothing is recorded save that it ended in revolt, disaster, and a general scattering of the tribes at some period probably preceding the fifth century. The national names that appear in connection with the closing struggles are the Toltecs, Chichimecs, Quichés, Nonohualcas, and Tutul Xius, none of them apparently identical with the Xibalbans. Indeed there seems to be very little reason to suppose that this final struggle was a renewal of the old contest between the followers of Votan and Quetzalcoatl, although Brasseur de Bourbourg seems inclined to take that view of it; but a series of civil wars between rival Nahua tribes, or tribes that had accepted Nahua government, seems rather to have been the agency that brought about their final forced migrations. Of the subsequent history of the nations that

95 I find no authority for Brasseur de Bourbourg's opinion that the fall of Xibalba preceded the final scattering of the Nahua nations by only one century.

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS.

235

finally remained masters of their central home nothing is known; it may be conjectured that the Tzendales and Chiapanecs found by the Spaniards in that part of the country were their somewhat degenerate descendants. Of the tribes that were successively defeated and forced to seek new homes, those that spoke the Maya dialects, although considering themselves Nahuas, seem to have settled chiefly in the south and east." Some of them afterwards rose to great prominence in Guatemala and Yucatan, and their annals will form the subject of future chapters. The Nahua-speaking tribes as a rule established themselves in Anáhuac and in the western and northwestern parts of Mexico, as their companion tribes, the Olmecs and Xicalancas, had already established themselves in the south-eastern region. The valley of Mexico and the country immediately adjoining soon became the centre of the Nahuas in Mexico; its history or that of the nations that successively rose to power there, will be continued in the following chap

ter.

From this epoch of separation in Chiapas the Mayas of the south and the Nahuas of the north were practically distinct peoples, as they have been considered in the preceding volumes of this work. At the date of separation all were in a certain sense Nahua nations, and the Nahuas proper had doubtless been considerably affected by the ancient peoples whom they had overcome or converted, and with whom they had so long associated:-hence the analogies that appear between the institutions and monuments of the north and south. Of the contrasts that also appear, some date back to original differences between the two rival powers; others result from development and progress in different paths, during the

96 Orozco y Berra, Geografía, pp. 128-9, judges from the occurrence of Nahua names in Guatemala that nations speaking Nahua were formerly located there, and were overcome either by Maya-speaking tribes that they found in the country, or by others that invaded the country after them.

ten centuries that elapsed before the coming of the Spaniards.

Bradford, Squier, Tylor, Viollet-le-Duc, Bartlett, and Müller," may be mentioned with Brasseur de Bourbourg among the authorities who practically agree with the conclusions expressed above, at least so far as the southern origin of the Nahua culture is concerned. It is true that the Abbé Brasseur's general conclusions differ in many points from those that I have given; that his opinions expressed in different works and even in different parts of the same work differ most perplexingly from each other; that his theories in many of their details rest on foundations that seem purely imaginary; that his style, while fascinating to the general reader, is most confusing to the student; and that his citations of authorities are often inaccurate; yet he must be regarded as the true originator of the views advanced in this chapter, inasmuch as the material from which they are built up was largely the fruit of his investigations, and his researches have done more than those of all other writers combined to throw light on primitive American history.

97 Amerikanische Urreligionen, p. 524. Some of these writers, however, believe strongly in a migration of tribes from the north, although attributing the Nahua culture to the south.

CHAPTER IV.

THE TOLTEC PERIOD.

THE NAHUA OCCUPATION OF MEXICO IN THE SIXTH AND SEVENTH CENTURIES-CONDITION OF ANÁHUAC-THE MIXCOHUAS AND CHICHIMEC CULHUAS-THE TOLTECS AT TULANCINGO AND TOLLAN-ESTABLISHMENT OF A MONARCHY AND CHOICE of a King, 710-720 A. D.KINGDOMS OF CULHUACAN AND QUAUHTITLAN-THE TEOAMOXTLI— PROPHECIES AND DEATH OF HUEMAN-BIRTH OF QUETZALCOATLFOUNDATION OF THE EMPIRE, 856, A. D.-ALLIANCE BETWEEN CULHUACAN, OTOMPAN, AND TOLLAN-REIGN OF TOPILTZIN CEACATL QUETZALCOATL AT TOLLAN-EXCESSES OF HUEMAC II., OR TECPANCALTZIN-XOCHITL, THE KING'S MISTRESS-FULFILLMENT OF THE PROPHET'S PREDICTIONS-TOVEYO'S ADVENTURES-PLAGUES SENT UPON THE TOLTECS-FAMINE AND PESTILENCE-REIGN OF ACXITL, OR TOPILTZIN-DEBAUCHERY OF KING, NOBLES, AND PRIESTSTOKENS OF DIVINE WRATH - FOREIGN INVADERS-FINAL OVERTHROW OF THE TOLTEC EMPIRE.

The sixth and seventh centuries of our era saw the Nahua power, represented by the various Toltec Chichimec tribes, transferred from Central America to the Mexican plateaux, with its centre about the lakes of the valley. The general nature of this transfer we may comprehend from what has been said in the preceding chapter; of its details we know little or nothing. Each tribe that rose to national prominence in Anáhuac during the succeeding centuries, preserved a somewhat vague traditional memory of its past history, which took the form in every case of a long migration from a distant land. In each of these records