190 XATURE STUDY. 



was its soft bod}'. It shone golden, and that was from its 

 tin)' helmet and long, long tail. 



Wherever this bird appeared, men kilew that the god 

 Quezalcoatl was nigh. So the}- came to know the shin- 

 ing bird as the bird of their sun god, and they called it 

 quezal. 



Evidently we have in this myth an instance of the phi- 

 losophy of a primitive people explaining the presence in 

 their forests of a bird of rare beauty. But manifestly no 

 such tale can stop at the golden age, if it is to have the 

 appearance of truth. The gentle Maya, who worshipped 

 the beautiful quezal, knew that in their own time the earth 

 did not bring forth without labor, that the maize was fre- 

 quently small, and sometimes failed altogether ; the fierce 

 Aztecs already pressed sore upon them, and there was 

 cruel strife in the world. 



Plainl}', these obvious facts in Mayan experience, in all 

 human experience, demanded explanation, and so the 

 myth continued : 



There came a day when Tezcatlipoca, the god of Dark- 

 ness, gave Quezalcoatl a magic potion that made him old 

 and weak, and filled his heart with longing for his home 

 in Tlapallan. And he went to the shore of the sea, and he 

 stepped into his great shell canoe and went out into the 

 sea never to return. 



What followed is still told by the old men among the 

 Indians, who rehearse to their young men the tales of 

 other days. 



When Quezalcoatl's shining boat disappeared beyond 

 the horizon, the maize became small, and the cotton died, 

 and the hearts of men awoke again to war. 



In the battles that came the temples of Quezalcoatl were 

 thrown down. His priests fled from place to place, till at 

 last only a few still worshipped him and performed his rites 

 in the deepest of the mysterious mountains. 



