Page:Vol 1 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/221

Rh For the chief divinity of the Nahua nations was Quetzalcoatl, the gentle god, ruler of the air, controller of the sun and rain, and source of all prosperity. In the palmy days of the Toltecs he had been their king, the creator of their golden age, giving them metals, improved government, and products of spontaneous growth; after which he was their god, with his chief shrine at Cholula, where surrounding peoples, even those inimical to the city, maintained temples for his worship. From toward the rising sun Quetzalcoatl had come; and he was white, with large eyes, and long black hair, and copious beard. After a final rule of twenty years at Cholula he set out for the country whence he came, and on reaching the seaboard of Goazacoalco he sailed away on a craft of snakes. His last words were that one day bearded white men, brethren of his, perhaps he himself, would come by way of the sea in which the sun rises, and would enter in and rule the land; and from that day, with a fidelity befitting Hebrews waiting the coming of their Messiah, the Mexican people watched for the fulfilment of this prophecy, which promised them a gentle rule, free from bloody sacrifices and oppression; but to their sovereign the thought gave rise to deep apprehension, for then his own reign must terminate.

Thus it was that the tidings of strange sails and bearded white men on their eastern border were received at the gay capital with mingled fear and joy. And marvel-mongers went about the streets talking of the good Quetzalcoatl and his pedigree, of the signs and wonders that had been seen, the prodigies, oracles, and occult divinations, as in ancient Athens the old families of Olympus, with their ape-gods and bull-gods of Memphis, and the dog-headed monster Anubis, were discussed; and as for Rome, Lucan has recorded