The Native Races [of the Pacific states], Volume 5, Primitive History. Hubert Howe Bancroft

rejects the idea that a race of giants actually existed, and Clavigero considers their existence as a race very doubtful, although admitting that there were doubtless individuals of great size. Most other writers of this class accept more or less literally the tradition of the giants who were the first dwellers in the land, deeming the discovery of large bones in various localities and the scriptural tales of giants in other parts of the world, to be sufficient corroborative authority. Veytia thinks the Quinames were probably of the same race as the Toltecs, but were tribes cast out for their sloth; Ixtlilxochitl records the opinion entertained by some that they were descended from the Chichimecs. The former fixes the date of their destruction as 107, the latter as 299, A.D. Oviedo adopts the conclusion of Mendoza that the giants probably came from the Strait of Magellan, the only place where such beings were known to exist. Boturini saw no reason to doubt the existence of the giants. Being large in stature, they could out-travel the rest of mankind, and thus became naturally the first settlers of distant parts of the world. Torquemada, followed by Veytia, identifies them with a similar race that traditionally appeared at a very early time in Peru, where they were destroyed by fire from heaven.334

      The Quinames were of course not giants, and it is not at all probable that they were savage tribes. Such tribes are described as animals rather than giants in the American traditionary annals. The spirit of the narrative, the great power ascribed to the Quinames, their kind reception of the strangers, their growing insolence, even their vices, point clearly, here as in Chiapas, to a powerful nation, at first feared as masters, then hated as rivals, but finally ruled as subjects by the newly risen power. While it is impossible to decide authoritatively in the matter, it may be regarded as more than likely that this foe was a branch of that overthrown in the south; that the Xibalban power, as well as that of the Nahuas, extended far towards Anáhuac in the early days; that the great struggle was carried on in the north as well as in the south.

      About the time the Quinames were defeated, the pyramid of Cholula was erected under the direction of a chief named Xelhua. The occasion of its being built seems to have been connected in some way with a flood, probably that mentioned in the Quiché tradition, the reports of which may or may not be founded on an actual inundation more than usually disastrous in a country subject to periodical overflow. The authorities are not agreed whether the mighty mound was intended as a memorial monument in honor of the builder's salvation from a former flood, or as a place of refuge in case the floodgates of the skies should again be opened; neither is it settled whether Xelhua was an Olmec or a Quiname chieftain, although most authors incline to the former opinion. Pedro de los Rios tells us that the bricks for the construction of the pyramid were manufactured at Tlalmanalco and passed by a line of men from hand to hand for a distance of several leagues. Of course the Spanish writers have not failed to connect this pyramid in some way with the Hebrew traditions respecting the tower of Babel, especially as work on the Cholula tower was stopped by fire, sent from heaven by the irritated deities.335

QUETZALCOATL, THE CULTURE-HERO

      During the Olmec period, that is, the earliest period of Nahua power, the great Quetzalcoatl appeared. We have seen that in the Popol Vuh and Codex Chimalpopoca this being is represented as the half-divinity, half-hero, who came at the head of the first Nahuas to America from across the sea. Other authorities imply rather that he came later from the east or north, in the period of the greatest Olmec prosperity, after the rival Quinames had been defeated. To such differences in detail no great importance is to be attached; since all that can be definitely learned from these traditions is the facts that Quetzalcoatl, or Gucumatz, was the most prominent of the Nahua heroes, and that his existence is to be attributed to this earliest period, known in Mexico as Olmec, but without a distinctive name in the south. Quetzalcoatl was a white, bearded man, venerable, just, and holy, who taught by precept and example the paths of virtue in all the Nahua cities, particularly in Cholula. His teachings, according to the traditions, had much in common with those of Christ in the Old World, and most of the Spanish writers firmly believed him to be identical with one of the Christian apostles, probably St Thomas. During his stay in this region his doctrines do not seem to have met with a satisfactory reception, and he left disheartened. He predicted before his departure great calamities, and promised to return in a future year Ce Acatl, at which time his doctrines were to be fully accepted, and his descendants were to possess the land. Montezuma is known to have regarded the coming of Cortés and the Spaniards as a fulfillment of this prediction, and in his speech to the new-comers states further that after his first visit Quetzalcoatl had already once returned,336 and attempted unsuccessfully to induce his followers to go back with him across the sea. The first part of the prophet's prediction actually came to pass, as traditions tell us, for only a few days after his departure occurred the earthquake which destroyed the pyramid at Cholula, the American Babel, and ushered in the new or fourth age of fire, according to Ixtlilxochitl. On the ruins of the pyramid was built a temple to Quetzalcoatl, who was afterwards worshiped as a god.337

      We shall find very similar traditions of another Quetzalcoatl who appeared much later, during the Toltec period, and who also made Cholula a centre of his reform. As we shall see, the evidence is tolerably conclusive that the two are not the same, yet it is more than likely that the traditions respecting them have been considerably mixed both in native and European hands. After the time of Quetzalcoatl we know nothing of Olmec or Xicalanca history down to the establishment of the Toltec empire, when these nations were still in possession of the country of Puebla and Tlascala. Boturini conjectures that, being driven from Mexico, they migrated to the Antilles and to South America. There is not, however, the slightest necessity to suppose that the Olmecs ever left the country at all. Their institutions and language were the same as that of the Toltec peoples that nominally succeeded them, and although like the Toltecs they became extinct as a nation, yet there is no reason to doubt that their descendants lived long in the land, and took part in the new political combinations that make up Nahua history down to the Conquest.338

THE TOTONACS AND TEOTIHUACANAPOTHEOSIS OF NANAHUATZIN

      The Totonacs are included by the authorities among the primitive, or Pre-Toltec nations in Anáhuac. At the time of the Conquest they occupied central Vera Cruz, their chief city being Zempoala; but they claimed to have migrated from the valley of Mexico, and to have lived long near the banks of Lake Tezcuco, where they built the pyramids at Teotihuacan, a place already noticed as a religious centre in this early period. Torquemada seems to be the original authority for the Totonac traditions respecting their primitive history, having obtained his information from an aged native. His brief account, quoted in substance by all others who have mentioned the subject, is as follows: – "Of their origin they say that they set out from the place called Chicomoztoc, or Seven Caves, together with the Xalpanecs; and that they were twenty divisions, or families, as many of one as of the other; and although thus divided into families, they were all of one language and of the same customs. They say they started from that place, leaving the Chichimecs still shut up there; and they directed their journey towards this part of Mexico, and having arrived at the plains on the lake, they halted at the place where Teotihuacan now is; and they affirm that they built these two temples which were dedicated to the sun and moon. Here they remained for some time, but either not contented with the place, or with a desire to pass to other places, they went to Atenamitic, where Zacatlan now stands." Thence they gradually moved eastward until at last they settled on the coast in their present location. That the pyramids of Teotihuacan339 were built by the Nahuas – the Olmecs or one of their companion nations – and became their religious centre and the burial-place of their kings and priests long before the establishment of the empire of Tollan, there can be but little doubt; nor is it improbable that the Totonacs were, as they claim to be, a pre-Toltec tribe in Anáhuac; but that they were in this early time a Nahua tribe, a nation contemporaneous with the Olmecs and of the same institutions, that they were the builders of Teotihuacan, is only proved by their own claim as recorded by Torquemada. This evidence must probably be regarded as insufficient in view of the fact that the Totonac language is wholly distinct from the Nahua.340 It is true that, as will be seen later,

334

Concerning the giants, see Ixtlilxochitl, in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. ix., pp. 205-6, 392, 459; Veytia, Hist. Ant. Mej., tom. i., pp. 143-54; Duran, Hist. Indias, MS., tom. i., cap. ii. This author represents the Quinames as having been killed while eating and drinking, by the Tlascaltecs who had taken possession of their arms. He says they yielded after a desperate resistance. Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. i., pp. 34-6; Boturini, Idea, pp. 130-5; Arlegui, Chrón. Zacatecas, p. 6; Oviedo, Hist. Gen., tom. iii., pp. 539-41; Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. i., p. 125; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., pp. 66, 153-4; Id., Popol Vuh, pp. lxviii., cxxvii.; Id., Esquisses, p. 12; Granados y Galvez, Tardes Amer., pp. 15, 21; Rios, Compend. Hist. Mex., p. 5; Piñeda, in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, tom. iii., p. 346; Pimentel, in Dicc. Univ., tom. x., p. 610.

335

On building of Cholula pyramid, see Codex Mexicano, in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 172; Ixtlilxochitl, in Id., vol. ix., pp. 206, 459; Gondra, in Prescott, Hist. Conq. Mex., tom. iii., pp. 45, 69; Veytia, Hist. Ant. Mej., tom. i., pp. 15, 18, 153; Boturini, Idea, pp. 113-14; Humboldt, Mélanges, p. 553; Id., Vues, tom. i., p. 114; Popol Vuh, p. cxxv.; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., pp. 153, 301-3; Orozco y Berra, Geografía, p. 132; Gallatin, in Amer. Ethno. Soc., Transact., vol. i., p. 167.

336

Cortés, Cartas, p. 86. Quetzalcoatl however is not named.

337

Respecting Quetzalcoatl in his mythological aspects as a divinity, see vol. iii., pp. 248-87. The story of his visit to the Olmecs is told in Ixtlilxochitl, in Kingsborough, vol. ix., pp. 206, 459; Veytia, Hist. Ant. Mej., tom. i., pp. 155-6, 161-204.

338

Boturini, Idea, p. 135; Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. iv., p. 52, tom. i., p. 147. Between Chiapas and Zacatecas is a vast space, of which the only notion given us by history is the fact that the Olmecs, Xicalancas, and Zapotecs lived in the region of Puebla and Tlascala. They were the primitive peoples, that is, the first known. Orozco y Berra, Geografía, pp. 124-5. The Xicalancas founded Atlixco and Itzucan, but migrated to South America. The Olmecs who had been driven to the gulf coasts followed them. Carbajal Espinosa, Hist. Mex., tom. i., p. 242. The Xicalancas possessed the country before the Chichimecs, by whom they were regarded as enemies. Ixtlilxochitl, in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. ix., p. 461. Mexicans, Culhuas, Tepanecs, Olmecs, Xicalancas, Tarascos, and Chichimecs were all of the same race and language. Camargo, Hist. Tlax., in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1843, tom. xcviii., pp. 131, 135, 188. See also Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., pp. 67, 196, tom. iii., p. 9; Bradford's Amer. Antiq., pp. 200, 213; Hellwald, in Smithsonian Rept., 1866, p. 337; Müller, Reisen, tom. iii., pp. 33-4.

The Olmecs passed from Mexico to Guatemala, which they conquered. Alcedo, Dicc., tom. iii., p. 374. Palenque, the oldest American city, was built by the Olmecs, a mixture of yellow aborigines and the first white immigrants. Viollet-le-Duc, in Charnay, Ruines Amér., p. 45. The Mazahuas and Olmecs belong to the aborigines of Guatemala. Müller, Amerikanische Urreligionen, p. 456.

339

For description see vol. iv., pp. 529-44.

340

Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 56, pronounces the Totonac very like the Maya. Orozco y Berra, Geografía, p. 127, deems the relationship doubtful. See vol. iii., pp. 776-7.