Afraid to touch the king, the poor farmer hesitated. “Do it!” he was commanded. Then he held the hot tip of the tobacco against the king’s thigh and saw that he felt nothing. He did not even stir.
The voice continued. “You see how drunk he is with his own power It is for this reason that I had you brought here. Now go back where you came from and tell Montezuma what you have seen and what I ordered you to do. So that he will believe you, have him show you his thigh. Then point to the spot where you touched him and he will find a burn. Tell him the Lord of Creation is angry and that because of his arrogance his rule is about to end. The time is short. Say to him, ‘Enjoy what is left!’ ”
With those words the eagle reappeared, took hold of the man’s scalp, and carried him back to his garden. As it turned to leave, it said, “Listen to me, poor farmer. Don’t be afraid. Strengthen your heart and do what the Lord commands, not forgetting a single word that he told you to say.” Then the bird rose into the air and vanished.
The poor farmer stood amazed, but with his digging stick still in his hand he went straight to Mexico and asked to speak to Montezuma. Given permission to enter, he bowed low and said, “Lord, I come from Coatepec, and while I was working in my garden an eagle came and took me to a place where there was a lord of great power. He made me sit down where it was bright and shining, and you were there beside me. Then he gave me flowers and a lighted smoking tube, and when it got hot he commanded me to hold it against your thigh. I burned you with it, but you felt nothing and didn’t move. He told me you didn’t know what was happening because of your pride, and very soon your rule would come to an end and you would be in trouble, because your deeds are not good. Then he told me to come back and tell you what I saw. The time will be short. Enjoy what is left.”
Remembering a dream he had had the night before, in which a poor man had wounded him with a smoking tube, Montezuma looked down at his thigh and saw that he had been burned. Suddenly the wound was so painful that he could not touch it. Without a word to the poor farmer, he called for his storekeeper and ordered him to lock the man up and give him no food until he died of starvation. As the prisoner was being led away, the pain increased and Montezuma himself had to be taken to his bed. For four days he lay suffering, and only with great difficulty were his doctors able to make him well.
III. EIGHT OMENS
Ten years before the Spaniards arrived, the sky omen appeared for the first time. It was like a fire tassel, a fire plume, a shower of dawn light that pierced the sky, narrow at the tip, wide at the base. Rising in the east, it reached all the way to the sky’s center, the heart of the sky, right to the sky’s heart, and so bright when it came up that it seemed like daybreak in the middle of the night. Then at sunrise it would disappear. It began in 12 House and kept coming up for a whole year. As soon as it appeared, men cried out, slapping their mouths with the palms of their hands. Everybody was afraid, everybody wailed.
There was a second omen here in Mexico. A fire broke out in the house of the devil Huitzilopochtli, the house known as His Kind of Mountain at the place called Commander’s. Nobody set it. It flared on its own. When it was first noticed, the wooden pillars were already burning, and the fire tassels, the fire tongues, the fire plumes were shooting out, licking the whole temple. People were screaming. They said, “Mexicans, your water jars! Run! Put it out!” But when they poured water, it just fanned the flames, and then there was a real fire.
A third omen. The thatch-roofed temple of the fire god, the temple called Tzommolco, was hit by lightning. It was considered an omen because there was no heavy rain, just a sprinkle. It was a heat flash for no reason. There was no thunder.
A fourth omen. While it was still daylight, a comet that looked like three comets came out of the west and fell in the east, like a long-tailed shower of sparks, with its tail stretched out far. As soon as it was seen, there was a great roar, as though people were screaming everywhere.
A fifth omen. The lake boiled without any wind to make it boil. It sort of welled up, welled up swirling. And when it rose, it went very far, all the way to the bottoms of the houses, flooding them. Houses were crumbling. This was the big lake next to us here in Mexico.
A sixth omen. Often a woman was heard. She went weeping and crying. At night she cried out loud and said, “My children, already we’re passing away.” Sometimes she said, “My children, where can I take you?”
A seventh omen. One day when the water people were hunting, using their snares, they caught an ash-colored bird like a crane, and they brought it to the Black Chambers to show it to Montezuma. The sun had peaked, but it was still daylight. On the bird’s head was a kind of mirror, a kind of reflecting surface, round and circular, and in it you could observe the sky and the constellation Fire Drill. When Montezuma saw this, he took it as a great omen. And when he looked again, he saw what seemed to be people coming into view, coming as conquerors with weapons, riding on animals. Then he called his astrologers and wise men and said, “Do you see what I see? It looks like people coming into view.” But as they were about to answer him, the image disappeared and they could tell him nothing.
An eighth omen. Monstrous people kept showing up with two heads on one body. They were taken to the Black Chambers for Montezuma to see, but as soon as he looked at them, they disappeared.
IV. THE RETURN OF QUETZALCOATL
One day a poor man who had no ears, no thumbs, and no big toes came before Montezuma and explained that he had something to tell. Wondering what kind of creature this could be, Montezuma asked where he had come from. “From Deadland Woods,” was the reply. And who had sent him? He had come on his own to serve the king and to tell what he had seen. He had been walking along the ocean, he said, when he noticed what seemed to be a large hill moving from one place to another on the water, and no such thing had ever been seen before.
“Very well,” said Montezuma. “Rest yourself, catch your breath.” Then he called for his storekeeper and told him to lock the man up and watch him carefully.
As the prisoner was being taken away, the king ordered his chief server, Tlillancalqui, to leave immediately for the seacoast to find out if the man with no thumbs had been telling the truth. “Take along your slave Girded Loins. Go to the ruler who serves me in Cuetlaxtlan and speak harshly to him. Say, ‘Who stands guard here? Is there something on the ocean? Why hasn’t the king been told, and what is it?’ ”
When they got to Cuetlaxtlan, they asked for the ruler and gave him the king’s message word for word. “Sit down and rest,” said the ruler. Then he sent a runner along the shore to find out the truth, and when the man returned, he was running fast. “I see something like two pyramids or a pair of hills,” he said, “and it moves on top of the water.”
The chief server and Girded Loins went to look for themselves. They saw the thing moving not far from the beach, and there were seven or eight men who came out in a little boat, fishing with fishhooks. To get a better view, they climbed a whitewood tree, a very bushy one, and watched until the fishermen returned to the twin pyramids with their catch. Then the chief server said, “Girded Loins, let’s go,” and they climbed out of the tree, went back to Cuetlaxtlan to pay their respects to the ruler, and rushed home to Mexico Tenochtitlan.
When they reached the city, they went directly to the palace to tell Montezuma what had been seen. “Lord and king, it is true. An unknown kind of people has come to the edge of the ocean, and we saw them fishing from a boat, some with poles, some with nets. When they had made their catch, they went back to the two pyramids that float on the water and were carried up into them. There may be fifteen in all, dressed in different colors, blue, brown, green, dirty gray, and red. They have headdresses like cooking pots that must be for protection against the sun. Their skin is very light, lighter than ours; most have long beards, and their hair hangs only to their ears.”
At this news Montezuma bowed his head and without saying a word put his hand on his mouth and sat motionless fo
r a long time, as though he were dead or dumb, powerless to speak. At last he said, “Who can I trust if not you, a lord in my palace? You bring me the truth every day.” Then he told his storekeeper to go get the man with no thumbs and set him free. But when they went to the locker and opened the door, the man wasn’t there. He had disappeared.
The storekeeper was amazed and ran to tell Montezuma, who was also amazed, but after a moment’s thought said, “No, I am not surprised, because almost all those people from the coast are wizards.” And then he said, “Now I will give you an order that you must keep secret on pain of death. If you reveal it to anyone, I will have to bury you beneath my chair, and all your wives and children will be put to death and everything you have will be taken away and all your houses torn down and their foundations dug up until the water spurts from the ground. Secretly, then, I want you to bring me the two best gold casters, the two best jade carvers, and the two best feather workers,” and without delay the storekeeper went and found them. “Lord, they are here,” he called.
“Show them in,” answered the king, and when he saw them he said, “My fathers, you have been brought for a particular purpose. Reveal it to any man and you will suffer death and all penalties, houses uprooted, loss of possessions, and death to your wives, children, and relatives. Now, each of you must make two works. There must be a gold neck chain, each link four fingers wide, with pendants and medals; and gold wristbands, ear jewels, fans, one with a gold half-moon in the center and the other with a polished gold sun that can be seen from far away. You must do it as quickly as possible.”
In only a few days and nights the work was finished, and in the morning, when Montezuma was awake, they sent one of his dwarfs to tell him to come to the Hall of the Birds to see what had been made. “My lord, examine it,” they said when they saw him coming, and when he examined it, he found it good. He called for his storekeeper and said, “Take these grandfathers of mine and give them each a load of coarse mantles of four, eight, and ten forearms mixed, also fine mantles, blouses, and skirts for my grandmothers, and corn, chilies, squash seeds, cotton, and beans,” and with these things the workers went home contented.
Montezuma then showed the jewels and the featherwork to his chief server and said, “Here, the gifts are finished. You must take them to the one who has arrived, the one we have been expecting. I am convinced it is the spirit Quetzalcoatl. When he went away, he promised to come back and rule in Tula and in all the world. The old people of Tula are certain of this. And before he left, he buried his treasure in mountain ravines and in canyons, and these are the gold and precious stones we find today. Since it is known that he would return from the place in the sky beyond the ocean, the place called House of Dawn, where he went to meet with another spirit, and since it is certain that all kinds of jewels in this world were once part of his treasure, it can only be that he now returns to enjoy what is his. Even this throne is his, and I am only borrowing it.
“Return immediately to Cuetlaxtlan and have the ruler make up all kind of dishes, tamales, rolled tamales, tortillas with and without beans, all kinds of grilled birds, quail, grilled deer, rabbit, chili powder, stewed greens, and every kind of fruit.
“If you see that he eats these things, you will know he is Quetzalcoatl. If he does not eat them, you will know it is not he. If he likes only human flesh and if he eats you, all will be well because I myself will protect and maintain your houses, your women, and your children forever. Have no fear of it. Take Girded Loins with you, and if you see by these signs that their lord is Quetzalcoatl, adorn him with the jewels and give him the two large fans. Humbly beg him to let me die, and when I am dead he may come enjoy his mat and throne, which I have been guarding for him.”
The next morning the chief server and Girded Loins set out with the gifts, traveling day and night. The moment they reached Cuetlaxtlan they told the ruler to prepare the food, using the finest ollas and baskets, and at midnight they carried it all to the edge of the ocean, so that at daybreak there they were, waving their arms and signaling across the water.
The small boat was lowered. Four men came rowing to shore to greet them and to ask who they were and where they were from. But the Mexicans answered them only in signs, saying they wished to be taken to their lord to give him the things they had brought. Then they loaded the food and the sacks with the gifts and rowed back across.
When they reached the ship, the captain appeared with the Indian woman, Malintzin, who translated his words. “Come here,” she said. “Where are you from?”
“We are from the great city of Mexico Tenochtitlan.”
“Why do you come here?”
“O lady, our daughter, we have come to see your lord.”
Then Malintzin withdrew to an inner room and spoke to the captain. When she reappeared, she asked, “Who is your king?”
“Lady, his name is Montezuma.”
“Why did he send you? What did he say?”
“He wants to know where this lord intends to go.”
“This lord is your god, and he says he will go see King Montezuma.”
“That would please him very much. But he begs this lord to let him finish his reign, waiting until after his death before ruling the country he left when he went away.”
Then the Mexicans opened their sacks and presented the jeweled gifts and the two great fans, and when these had been received by the captain, they were passed from hand to hand, and the Spaniards admired them with much joy and great satisfaction. “O lady and daughter,” said the Mexicans, “we have also brought food for the lord and chocolate for him to drink.”
“The spirit will eat this food,” said Malintzin, “but first he must see you eat from it yourselves.” When the Mexicans had done as they were asked, the Spaniards all ate, offering the chief server and Girded Loins some sea biscuits, which were a little stale, and wine that made them drunk. They said that they wished to return with an answer to their lord Montezuma. “What is your name?” asked Malintzin. “My name is Tlillancalqui,” said the chief server. Then she gave him this answer: “Tell Montezuma we kiss his hands and will be back in eight days and come see him.”
Carrying these words, the Mexicans returned to their king and reported everything that had happened, describing the weapons they had seen and the horses, and showing him one of the biscuits.
“What flavor does it have?” asked the king, and touching it, he declared that it felt like tufa stone. He called for a piece of tufa, compared it, and found that the biscuit was heavier. Then he called for his dwarfs and ordered them to try it, and though they said it was good-tasting, Montezuma was afraid to eat it himself, saying that this was the food of gods. Instead, he ordered his priests to bring it to Tula and bury it in the temple of Quetzalcoatl. They took the biscuit, placed it in a fine jar all worked with gold, and covered the jar with a cloth. As they traveled north from Mexico, carrying incense burners, they sang songs of Quetzalcoatl, and when they reached Tula, they buried the spirit’s food to the sound of shell trumpets, the roaring of conch horns.
V. IS IT YOU?
When the Spaniards arrived at the edge of the city, things came to a head, and it reached the point where Montezuma fixed himself and got dressed up to meet them, along with the other high lords and princes who were his chiefs and nobles. And so they all went out to make the greeting.
Fine flowers were placed on a gourd tray, with popcorn-, yellow tobacco-, and cacao flowers surrounded by shield- and heartflowers in wreaths and garlands, and they brought gold necklaces, collars, and neck bands, so that when Montezuma met them there at Hummingbird Point he had gifts for the captains and warlords. Then he gave them the flowers, necklaced them with necklaces, with flower necklaces, adorned them with flowers, and wreathed their heads. Then he showed the Marquis all the necklaces made of gold, and as he necklaced him with a few of them, the greeting came to a close.
Then the Marquis said to Montezuma, “Is it you? Are you he? Are you Montezuma?”
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p; “Yes, I am he,” said Montezuma, and he arose and went over to him and made a low bow. Then he pulled himself up to his full height, stood straight, and addressed him, saying, “My lord, you must be tired, you must be weary. You have arrived in this city of Mexico. You have reached this mat and throne of yours that I have held for you briefly. I have been taking care of things for you.
“Gone are those rulers of yours, Itzcoatl, Montezuma the elder, Axayacatl, Tizoc, and Ahuitzotl, who briefly stood guard for you, governing this city of Mexico. I, your servant, came after them. I wonder, can they look back and see over their shoulders? If only just one of them could see what I see, could marvel at what is happening to me now! For this is no dream. I am not sleepwalking, not seeing things in my sleep. I am not dreaming that I see you and look into your face. Indeed, I have been troubled for as many days as there are fingers on my two hands. I have gazed into the Unknown and have seen you coming out of the clouds, out of the mists.
“Those kings used to say that you would come back to your city and proceed to your mat and throne, that you would return. And this has come true. You are here, and you must be tired, you must be weary. Welcome to this land. Rest yourself. Go to your palace and rest your body. Our lords are welcome here.”
Nahua (Mexico)
2. Legends of the Inca Kings
I. MAYTA CAPAC
The Inca Lloque Yupanqui had grown old without an heir. And now it was widely believed that he was too old, too weak, to father a child.
Yet one day as he sat grieving, deep in sorrow, the Sun appeared to him in human form and consoled him, saying, “Do not grieve, Lloque Yupanqui, for your descendants shall be great lords. You shall father a child.”
Latin American Folktales Page 4
