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* Quetzal, or more properly Quetzalcoatl, was the divinity who is fabled to have taught the natives of Anahuac all the useful arts, including those of government and policy, he was white-skinned and dark-haired. Finally he sailed from the shores of Anahuac for the fabulous country of Tlapallan in a bark of serpents' skins.
The occurrences alluded to are the marvels performed by Quetzalcoatl on his journey from Tulan. See my American Hero Myths, p. 115. The departure of Quetzalcoatl was because he was ordered to repair to Tlapallan, supposed to be beyond Xicalanco. 8. quinti, for iquintia; the reference is to the magic draught given Quetzalcoatl by Tezcatlipoca.
On his way he stopped at the city of Cholula, where a temple was dedicated to him, of which the great ruins remain to this day. When he reached the shores of the Mexican Gulf he embarked in his magic boat, made of serpents' skins, for the fabulous land of Tlapallan, but before he bade his followers farewell he promised that he and his descendants would one day come again.
At Tollan there stood the house of beams, there yet stands the house of plumed serpents left by Nacxitl Topiltzin; going forth weeping, our nobles went to where he was to perish, down there at Tlapallan. Nechcayan Cholollan oncan tonquizaya Poyauhtecatitlan, in quiyapanhuiya y Acallan anquiquiztica ye choquililon ye.
I come from Nonohualco as if I carried quechol birds to the place of the nobles; I grieve that my lord has gone, garlanded with feathers; I am wretched like the last flower. With the falling down of mountains I wept, with the lifting up of sands I was wretched, that my lord had gone. In Tlapallan aya mochieloca monahuatiloca ye cochiztla o anca ca zanio ayao, ayao, ayao.
At Tlapallan he was waited for, it was commanded that there he should sleep, thus being alone. Zan tiyaolinca ye noteuc ic ihuitimali, tinahuatiloya ye Xicalanco o anca zacanco. In our battles my lord was garlanded with feathers; we were commanded to go alone to Xicalanco.
The garden “eastward in Eden” of the Pentateuch, the land of Tulan or Tlapallan in Aztec myth, the islands of the Hesperides, the rose garden of Feridun, and a score of other legends attest with what strong yearning man seeks in the past the picture of that perfect felicity which the present never yields. Nor can he be persuaded that the golden age has gone, no more to return.
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