Page:Romance of History, Mexico.djvu/104

 No sacrifice would he allow save offerings of fruits and flowers.

But the Fair God had a deadly foe in Tezcat, the savage "Soul of the World." Mad with jealousy this blood-stained monster resolved to drive the Plumed Serpent, as Quetzalcoatl was called, from the land of Anahuac. Now it chanced one day that the Fair God was ill, and there came to the gate of his palace an aged man bearing a medicine which he declared would give immediate health and strength. In an evil moment Quetzalcoatl quaffed the magic drug, and at once his sickness left him, but in his mind sprang a craving to depart. "Drink again!" cried the old man, who was really the god Tezcat in disguise. Once again the Fair God drained the cup, and the second draught instilled into his very blood an irresistible passion to wander.

Burning his palaces of gold and silver, turquoise and precious stones, he set forth on his journey followed by bright-feathered singing birds, and where he passed the flowers gave forth a sweeter scent. At the city of Cholula, thenceforth sacred, he paused for twenty years, and in his honour a great pyramid was raised. But again the potent poison in his veins drove him from his palace, temple, and people. To the eastern sea he made his way, and there awaited him a magic boat of serpents' skins. Before embarking he turned to his weeping followers and bade them bear this solemn promise to his faithful people: "One day I will come again with my descendants and will rule once more as god and emperor."

So the Aztecs looked ever for his coming. And 80