Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/700

* 613 QUETZALCOATL. grace, have made it so desirable for juillinery trimmings that the quetzal is now verj- rare. The female is less V)rilliant and lacks the loii;; pluiiH's covering the tail and wings of her male. QUETZALCOATL, kets'al-kA-ufl. The tra ditional beneticent hero King of the Aztecs (q.v. i and the originator of their earliest culture. The meaning of the name is disputed, but the most probable interpi-etatiou seems to be 'the admir- able twin.' although it may have reference to oni adorned with the green plumes of the sacrcil quetzal (q.v.). In what seems to be the olde-t form of the myth, he is represented as a god. on. of four brothers born at the same time, sons ot the supreme creator. Two of these play no further part in legend, while the other, tlic maleficent but powerful Tezcatlipoca. who-o name seems to have the mystic significance of 'the smoking mirror,' remained to become tli.- great evil-working rival of his brother, whi> finally, after a long series of creations and d<' structions. gave up the contest for a time anl disappeared in a mysterious manner, but with a promise to return on some recurrence oi his natal year, known in the Aztec calendar a- Cc Aciitl. the year of the "one reed.' Four cyclic of 670 years' had passed, each terminating in widespread calamity and destruction by liood, fire, storm, or earthquake. The near approach of the fifth and final doom was to be fort- shadowed by the return of Quetzalcoatl in sonic unknown future year of the Ce Acatl. According to the more popular form of thf tradition, Quetzalcoatl was an early king of mysterious and miraculous birth, the son of a virsin mother, who reigned at the ancient city of Tollan or Tula, about 40 miles north of the present City of Mexico. He was entirely unlike his people in appearance, being of fair skin, with a long white beard and flowing gar ments also of white and embroidered with tlic figure of the cross in red. He was mild and di- nified in manner, took no wife, and founded cini vents of nuns devoted to the worship of tlu temple and vowed to chastity. He preached uni- versal iH>ace and brotherhood, and under his rule war became a thing unknown. He taught his subjects, known from their chief city as the Toltecs. the arts of agriculture, metal-working, and architecture, and devised for them the cal- endar. At last by the evil wiles of Tezcatlipoca he was deprived of all his dignities at one blow. He made no resistance, telling his people that it general habits of the trogons (q.v.). It clings was only the necessary accomplishment of a to trees and scrambles about like a woodjx-cker, predestined fate, and that he must leave them QtTESNEL. found to contain all the most obno.ious doctrines of Jansenius: and Quesnel. having been de- nounced to the authorities, was arrested by order of Philip V. and put into prison. He escaped to Amsterdam, where he died December -21, 1719. But his book was condenuied. first by the decree of an assemblv of the bishops of France, after- wards bv a decision of Clement XI. in 1711, and finally by the celebrated bull Vnigenitus. See J.v..4:.MsM. QUETELET, ket'ia'. Lambert Adolphe jAcyiES (1796-1S74). A Belgian st.atistician and astronomer, born at Ghent. He stiulied at the lyceuni of his native city, where in ISl-t he became profes.sor of mathematics. In ISID he was appointed to the same chair at the Brussels Athemeum: and in 1S2G was chosen by William I. to superintend the construction of the royal observatorv in the capital, of which he became director in 1S2S. In 1S36 he was made professor of astronomy and geodesy at the Brussels Mili- tarv School." His numerous and valuable writ- inos include: J.stroiio»iic lU'incntaire (1826; 4tE ed. 1848); Rechcixhcs stir hi impulaiion, etc. (1827-32); .S'lir Vhomnic et le dcveloppe- meiit de ses facultcs on cssai de physique sociale (1835): Du systcme sociale et Jes lots qiii le ri'gissent (1848) : and Physique (1855). He also published numerous papers on meteorology, as- tronomv, terrestrial magnetism, etc., in the Me- moires' and Bulletins of the Belgian Royal Academy. QTJETTA, kwet'ta. The chief town of British Baluchistan, 104 miles north of Khelat. It is situated among high mountains in a posi- tion of great strategic importance, commanding the Khojok and Bolan passes (Map: India. A 2|. There are extensive fortifications, with a strong giirrisou and an arsenal. The town is con- nected by rail with the railway system of India and is the centre of considerable trade. Quetta has grown rapidly since 1876. when a residency was established bv Sir Robert Sandeman. Popu- lation, with cantoimient. in 1S91, 18.802: in 1901, 24. .■^S4. QUETZAL ( Xahuatl quetzalli, green feather). A celebrated trogon [Phuromacrus nioiiinio) of Central America, adopted as the national bird or symbol of Guatemala, because in ancient times it was regarded with veneration and its decora- tive feathers were reserved for chiefs of the native tribes. It inhabits the higher districts of Guatemala and Southern Mexico, and has the as its feet are ill-adapted to walking: and its utterance is described as two sibilant, plaintive notes, gradually swelling into a loud, discordant cry. its upjier plumage is brilliant, iridescent green, golden on the crested head and bluish on the soft tail-coverts, the two central ones of which are elongjited to from 28 to 30 inches, or about four times the length of the true tail, the outer feathers of which are white barred with black. The wing-coverts are also enlarged into phtmes draped over the upper parts of the wing, and all the under parts below the breast are blood-red. (See Plate of Trogox. Hoopoe, etc.) This mag- nificent creature has the further value of having its colors 'fast.' that is. their brilliance does not fade after death, as is usual with such plumage: and this fact, together with the bird's beauty and to so to the home of his father. Tlapallan. the ■Red Land' in the southeast, but that he would return to them in some far future year of Ce Acatl. He started on his long journey, halting twenty years at Cholula. where he taught all his mysteries to the people, who thus became the priests of the Aztec religion, and their city with its great temple pyramid the Mecca of the Aztec Empire. Arrived at the seashore, he sailed on a raft of twisting serpents out into the sunrise. While this second version has been widely ac- cepted as clouded history, disguised by poetic additions and lapse of time, and various writers have tried to identify the kingly teacher with Saint Thomas. Saint Brendan, or some other earlv Christian apostle, others have seen in it onlv another form of the imiversal myth of day