Page:Mexico as it was and as it is.djvu/289

226 sprinkle with their blood, and a human pair should spring from it to regenerate the species.

Xolotl, one of the heroes, departed on the dangerous errand, and having obtained the gift from the infernal deity, hastened off precipitately in fear that he might repent the present. So rapidly did he return to earth, that in his speed he accidentally fell and broke the bone! Nevertheless, he returned to his brothers with the fragments, and, placing them in a vessel, sprinkled the precious relics with blood drawn from their bodies. On the fourth day there appeared a boy; and, after a lapse of three days more—during which the bloody sprinklings were continued—a girl was formed. They were reared by their guardian Xolotl with the milk of thistles—and thus commenced the regeneration of the world!

But there was no Sun nor Moon! The luminaries that existed in former days had been extinguished in the general ruin.

The heroic brothers, therefore, assembled on the plain of Teotihuacan. They built a huge pile, and, kindling it, declared that the first who threw himself into the flames should have the glory to be transformed into a S. Nanahuatzin, the boldest of the multitude, immediately leaped into the blaze and descended to hell. After a short period, the Sun rose in the east!

But scarcely had he appeared above the horizon when he stopped in his course. They sent a message to the Orb desiring him to continue his travels, but he politely declined doing so until he should see them all put to death!

This, as may well be imagined, was anything but agreeable to the band of sixteen hundred, and not a few undertook to manifest their displeasure very openly. One seized his bow and shot an arrow, which the Sun safely avoided by dodging! Another made an equally passionate and fruitless demonstration; and, so on with several, until the luminary, tired of the sport, and somewhat annoyed, flung back one of the arrows, and fixed it in the forehead of the first hero who had rashly aimed at his blazing disc.

The heroic brothers, intimidated by the fate of their companion, and unable to cope with the Orb, resolved to yield to his behests and to die by the hands of the daring Xolotl; who, after slaying all his relatives, committed suicide. Before the heroes perished, they bequeathed their clothes to their servants; and, even at the period of the conquest, many "ancient garments" were preserved by the Mexicans with singular veneration, under the belief that they were the dying gifts of the valiant heroes, who had restored the lost Sun for the comfort of their race.

A similar fable is told of the origin of the Moon. Before the final sacrifice of the 1600, another person of the same assemblage followed the example of his brother Nanahuatzin, and threw himself into the flames. But the strength of the fire had declined, and as the voluntary victim burned with a paler flame, he was glorified only by the humbler dignity of a Moonship!