The Native Races [of the Pacific states], Volume 5, Primitive History. Hubert Howe Bancroft
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of May, 1558." "Earth and the heavens were formed in the year Ce Tochtli; but man had already been created four times. God formed him of ashes, but Quetzalcoatl had perfected him." After the flood men were changed into dogs.322 After a new and successful attempt at creation, all began to serve the gods, called Apantecutli, 'master of the rivers,' Huictlollinqui, 'he who causes the earth to shake,' Tlallamanac, 'he who presides on the earth,' and Tzontemoc, 'he whose hair descends.' Quetzalcoatl remained alone. Then they said, "the vassals of the gods are born; they have already begun to serve us," but they added, "what will you eat, O gods?" and Quetzalcoatl went to search for means of subsistence. At that time Azcatl, the 'ant,' going to Tonacatepetl, 'mount of our subsistence,' for maize, was met by Quetzalcoatl, who said, "where hast thou been to obtain that thing? Tell me." At first the Ant would not tell, but the Plumed Serpent insisted, and repeated, "whither shall I go?" Then they went there together, Quetzalcoatl metamorphosing himself into a 'black ant.'323 Tlaltlauhqui Azcatl, the 'yellow ant,'324 accompanied Quetzalcoatl respectfully, as they went to seek maize and brought it to Tamoanchan. Then the gods began to eat, and put some of the maize in our mouths that we might become strong.325 The same record implies that Quetzalcoatl afterwards became obnoxious to his companions and abandoned them.326
In this document we have evidently an account of substantially the same events that are recorded in the Tzendal and Quiché records: – the division of the earth by the Sun in the year 955 B.C., or as Ordoñez interprets the Tzendal tradition, by Votan 'about 1000 B.C.'; the formation of the earth by the supreme being, and the successive creations of man, or attempts to introduce civilization among savages through the agency of Quetzalcoatl, – acts ascribed by the Quiché tradition to the same person under the name of Gucumatz; the flood and resulting transformation of men into dogs, instead of monkeys as in the Popol Vuh, symbolizing perhaps the relapse into savagism of partially civilized tribes; – the adoption of agriculture represented in both traditions as an expedition by Quetzalcoatl, or Gucumatz, in search of maize. According to the Popol Vuh he sought the maize in Paxil and Cayala, 'divided and stagnant waters,' by the aid of Utïu, 'the coyote;' while in the Nahua tradition, aided by Azcatl, 'the ant,' he finds the desired food in Tonacatepetl, 'mount of our subsistence.' Finally, the Codex Chimalpopoca identifies the home of the Nahua nations, whence the search for maize was made, with Tamoanchan, which Sahagun has clearly located in Tabasco.
Before considering the traditions that relate the migration of the Toltecs proper to Tollan in Anáhuac, it will be most convenient to give the little that is known of those nations that are supposed to have preceded the Toltecs in Mexico. The chief of these are the Quinames, Olmecs, Xicalancas, Totonacs, Huastecs, Miztecs, Zapotecs, and Otomís.327 The Olmecs and Xicalancas, who are sometimes represented as two nations, sometimes as divisions of the same nation, are regarded by all the authorities as Nahuas, speaking the same language as the Toltecs, but settled in Anáhuac long before the establishment of the Toltec Empire at Tollan. As nations they both became extinct before the Spanish Conquest, as did the Toltecs, but there is little doubt that their descendants under new names and in new national combinations still lived in Puebla, southern Vera Cruz, and Tabasco – the region traditionally settled by them – down to the coming of the Spaniards. They are regarded as the first of the Nahua nations in this region and are first noticed by tradition on the south-eastern coasts, whither they had come in ships from the east. Sahagun, as we have seen, identifies them with certain families of the Nahuas who set out from Tamoanchan to settle in the northern coast region. Ixtlilxochitl tells us they occupied the land in the third age of the world, landing on the east coast as far as the land of Papuha,328 'muddy water,' or in the region about the Laguna de Terminos. Veytia names Pánuco as their landing-place, and gives the date as a few years after the regulation of the calendar, already noticed in Sahagun's record.329 Their national names are derived from that of their first rulers Olmecatl and Xicalancatl. Two ancient cities called Xicalanco are reported on the gulf coast; one of them, which flourished nearly or quite down to the time of the Conquest, and whose ruins are still said to be visible,330 was just below Vera Cruz; the other, probably the more ancient, stood at the point which still bears the name of Xicalanco at the entrance to the Laguna de Terminos. This whole region is also said to have borne the name of Anáhuac Xicalanco.331 Mendieta and Torquemada332 relate that the followers of Xicalancatl peopled the region towards the Goazacoalco, where stood the two cities referred to. The people of that part of the country were generally known at the time of the Conquest as Nonohualcas. The chief development of this people, or of its Olmec branch, was, so far as recorded in tradition, in the state of Puebla further north and inland.
This tradition of the arrival of strangers on the eastern coast, and the growth of the Olmec and Xicalanca powers on and north of the isthmus, in view of the facts that these nations are universally regarded as Nahuas and as the first of the race to settle in Anáhuac, cannot be considered as distinct from that given by Sahagun respecting the Nahua race, especially as the latter author speaks of the departure of certain families from Tamoanchan to settle in the provinces of Olmeca Vixtoti. It is most natural to suppose that the new power extended gradually northward to Puebla as well as inland into Chiapas, where it came more directly in contact with its great rival. This view of the matter is likewise supported by the fact that Quetzalcoatl, the culture-hero, is said to have wrought his great works in the time of the Olmecs and Xicalancas – according to some traditions to have been their leader when they arrived on the coast. Sahagun also applies the name Tlalocan, 'land of riches,' or 'terrestrial paradise,' to this south-eastern region, implying its identity with Tamoanchan.333
Our knowledge of Olmec history subsequent to their first appearance, is confined to a few events which occurred in Puebla. Here, chiefly on the Rio Atoyac near Puebla de los Angeles and Cholula, they found the Quinames, or giants, a powerful people who long kept them subordinate in rank and power, or, as the tradition expresses it, 'enslaved them.' These Quinames, as Ixtlilxochitl states, were survivors of the great destruction which closed the second age of the world. They were, according to Veytia, "more like brutes than rational beings; their food was raw meat of birds and beasts which they hunted indiscriminately, fruits and wild herbs, since they cultivated nothing; but they knew how to make pulque with which to make themselves drunk; going entirely naked with disheveled hair." They were cruel and proud, yet they received the strangers kindly, perhaps through fear of their great numbers, they being so few, and magnanimously permitted them to settle in their lands. The Olmecs were treated well enough at first, although they looked with terror upon the giants. The latter, aware of the fear they inspired, became more and more insolent, claiming that as lords and masters of the land they were showing the strangers a great favor in permitting them to live there. As a recompense for this kindness they obliged the Olmecs to serve as slaves, neither hunting nor fishing themselves, but depending on their new servants for a subsistence. Thus ill-treated, the Nahuas soon found their condition insupportable. Another great cause of offence was that the Quinames were addicted to sodomy, a vice which they refused to abandon even when they were offered the wives and daughters of the newcomers. At last it was resolved at a council of the Olmec chiefs to free themselves once for all from their oppressors. The means adopted were peculiar. The giants were invited to a magnificent banquet; the richest food and the most tempting native beverages were set before the guests; all gathered at the feast, and as a result of their unrestrained appetites were soon stretched senseless like so many blocks of wood on the ground. Thus they became an easy prey to the reformers, and perished to a man. The Olmecs were free and the day of their national prosperity dawned.
The Quinames, traditionally assigned as the first inhabitants of nearly every part of the country, have been the subject of much discussion among the Spanish writers.
Or, as Brasseur suggests, adopting the customs of the people in order to obtain the entrée of Tonacatepetl and the secret of their agriculture.
Molina,
The Cuicatecs, Triquis, Chinantecs, Mazatecs, Chatinos, Papabucos, Soltecos, Chontales, and Cohuixcas, in the south-western regions, are regarded by Orozco y Berra as fragments of pre-Toltec nations.
See vol. iv., p. 434.
See vol. ii., p. 112.