Quetzalcoatl's Enemy

QUETZALCOATL'S ENEMY

Quetzalcoatl's enemy did not leave Tollan. Naked he went into the market-place and stayed there; where he sat was under the palace of the king. The king had but one daughter, and this girl, looking out

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upon the market-place, saw Tezcatlipoca. He pretended to be selling peppers. The girl, straightway, was smitten with love for him; she sickened and was like to die. When the king inquired about her the women told him that his daughter was like to die because of her love for a man whom she had seen in the market-place, a foreigner and a naked man.

The king sought out this foreigner. And when Quetzalcoatl's enemy was brought before him, the king said, "Thou must heal my daughter of her sickness." Then they clothed him, and dyed his body, and cut his hair, and brought him in to the king's daughter. And the girl was delighted with his company, and the cunning Tezcatlipoca made her sound and well.

After this Tezcatlipoca adorned himself, and he sent a crier from the king's palace to tell the youths and girls of Tollan of a feast he had prepared for them. They all gathered together in the market-place. Tezcatlipoca led them, playing upon his flute; the youths and girls followed him, singing and dancing. Up the mountain Texcalapa he led them. There he had them dance. He sang songs to them; they sang the same songs after him, verse for verse, although they had not known before the songs he sang. Then he beat upon a drum and a panic came upon the youths and girls; they ran, and their way was across a bridge. But Tezcatlipoca crossed the bridge before them, and he broke the bridge down, and the youths and girls, as they came to the place, pushed each other down. Those who fell from that place were turned into rocks and stones.

He changed himself again and he went into the garden that Quetzalcoatl had made. He called on the men and women of Tollan to come into it, that they might repair the waste of that garden. And when they came into it he fell upon them with a digging-tool, and left them lying dead amongst the blasted flowers in Quetzalcoatl's garden.

Another evil he did to the people of Tollan. Changing himself again he came into the market-place, and he showed the people a manikin that he had, a manikin the size of his finger who danced upon the palm of his hand. All crowded round him to see the wonder, and many of the people were trampled down. Then they heard a voice--it was Tezcatlipoca's voice, but he made it come from afar--that said, "Do not be befooled, people of Tollan. Take stones and slay this sorcerer

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and his manikin." They took up stones and flung them at the man and the manikin, and they left them on the ground, covered with heaps of stones. Then the odour from their bodies infected the place, and many people died of sickness that came from that odour. A voice was heard by them; it said, "Cast the bodies of the man and the manikin outside the town so that no more will die from the disease that comes from them." Then the people of Tollan fastened ropes to the man and the manikin and pulled at them. But such was the weight that was in the bodies that the people by no effort could move them. More ropes were fastened to the bodies and more people pulled at the ropes. But the ropes broke with sudden snaps, and those who were pulling were killed when they broke.

Then a voice came to the people, saying, "O people of Tollan, a verse of a song will do it." The corpse of the man and the corpse of the manikin sang, and the people took up the song, and pulled at the bodies. This time they dragged them outside the city. They cast the bodies down a steep place, and they returned to the city of Tollan.

They went back as if they were all drunken, and none amongst them could remember what they had been doing. As they went back they saw that the mountain that was beside Tollan was all on fire. They saw a white bird transfixed with an arrow flying over the city. And then stones rained down upon them, and their city was left waste and uninhabitable.