1887.] '^"*^ [Brinton. 



harmony ; but fit a certain time, somewhere between the eighth 

 and tlie eleventh century of our era, they fell out and separated. 

 The legend refers to this as a dispute between the followers of 

 the tribal god Iluitzilopochtli and those of his sister Malinalxo- 

 chitl. We may understand it to have been the separation of two 

 " totems." The latter entered at once tlie Valley of Mexico, 

 while the followers of Huitzilopochtli passed on to the plain of 

 Tula and settled on the Coatepetl. Here, saj'^s the narrative, 

 they constructed houses of stone and of rushes, built a temple 

 for the worship of Huitzilopochtli, set up his image and those 

 of the fifteen divinities (gentes?) who were subject to him, and 

 erected a large altar of sculptured stone and a court for their 

 ball play.* The level ground at the foot of the hill they partly 

 flooded by damming the river, and used the remainder for plant- 

 ing their crops. After an indeterminate time they abandoned 

 Tula and the Coatepetl, driven out by civil strife and warlike 

 neighbors, and journeyed southward into the Valley of Mexico, 

 there to found the famous city of that name. 



This is the simple narrative of Tulan, stripped of its contra- 

 dictions, metaphors and confusion, as handed down by those 

 highest authorities, the Codex Ramirez, Tezozomoc and Father 

 DuraiLJ" It is a plain statement that Tula and its Snake-Hill 

 were merely one of the stations of the Azteca in their migrations 

 — an impoi'tant station, indeed, with natural strength, and one 

 that they fortified with care, where for some generations, prob- 

 ably, they maintained an independent existence, and which the 

 story-tellers of the tribe recalled with pride and exaggeration. 



How long they occupied the site is uncertain. | Ixtlilxochitl 



* It is quite likely that the very stone image figured by Charnay, Aiicievnrs Villes die 

 Nouveau Monde, p. 72, ami the stone ring used in the tlachtli, liall play, wiiieh lie figures, 

 p. 73, are those referroil to in the historic legend. 



t The Codex Bamiirz, p. 24, a most excellent authority, is quite clear. Tlie picture- 

 writing— wiiich is really phonetic, or, as I have termed it, /fo«oOTa</c— rei^resents the 

 Coatepetl lay the sign of a hill (tepetl) inclosing a serpent (c.oatl). Tezozomoc, in his 

 Cronira Mcxicana, cap. 2, presents a more detailed but more confused account. Duran, 

 Hinloiia lie las Indias dc Nucva Espana, cap. 3, is worthy of comparison. The artificial 

 inundation of the plain to which the accounts refer probably means that a ditch or 

 moat was constructed to protect the foot of the hill. Herrera says : " Cercaron de agua 

 el ccrro llamado Coatepec." Decadas de Indias, Dec. iii, Lib. ii, cap. 11. 



I The Annals of CuauhtiUan, a chronicle writtim in the Nahuatl language, gives 30!) 

 years from the founding to the destruction of Tula, but names a dynasty of only four 

 rulers. Vcitia puts tlie Ibunding of Tula in the year IVo A. I >. {Ilisforia de Nucva JCspann, 

 cap. 23). Let us suppose, with the laborious and critical Orozco y Berra (notes to the 

 Codex Ramirez, p. 210) that the Mexl left Aztlan A. D. 648. These three dates would fit 



PROC. AMER. PHILOS. SOO. XXIV, 136. 2d. PRINTED OCT. 20, 1887. 



