294 THE LEGEND OF QUETZALCOATL. 



the eft'ects of famine, and there are many beggai^, who 

 ask alms from the rich in the streets, houses, and market- 

 place, as is done by the mendicants in Spain, and other 

 civilized countries." 



When the pyramid of Cholula was in its prime, its 

 summit was covered with an altar dedicated to Quetzal- 

 coatl, the God of the Air. He was a white and bearded 

 man, like the Bochica, of whom we have spoken in our 

 description of the falls of Tequendema. He was high 

 priest of Tula, legislator and chief of a religious sect, 

 which inflicted on themselves the most cruel penances. 

 He introduced the custom of piercing the lips and ears, 

 and lacerating the rest of the body with the prickles of 

 the agave leaves, or the thorns of the cactus ; and of 

 putting reeds into the wounds, in order that the blood 

 might be seen to trickle more copiously. 



The reign of Quetzalcoatl, strange to say, was the 

 golden age of the people of Anahuac. Men and animals 

 lived in peace : the earth brought forth without culture 

 the fruitfullest of harvests, and the air was filled with in- 

 numerable birds, of whom it was difficult to say, which 

 was most admired — the beauty of their plumage, or the 

 sweetness of their song. Such a blessed epoch could 

 not, and did not last long. The great spirit Tezcatlipoca, 

 offered Quetzalcoatl a rare beverage which rendered him 

 immortal, and inspired him with a taste for travelling. 

 He started off at once for the distant country of Tlap 

 allan. The inhabitants of Cholula, through whose terri- 

 tory he passed, offering him the reins of government, he 

 remained among them twenty years. He taught them to 

 cast metals; ordered fasts of eight days; regulated the 

 intercalations of their year ; preached peace to them, and 



