HISTORY OF MEXICO. 11 



guetzalcoatL (Feathered ferpent.) This was among 

 the Mexicans, and all the other nations of Anahuac^ 

 the god of the air. He was faid to have once been high- 

 prieft of Tula. They figured him tall, big, and of a fair 

 complexion, with an 'open forehead, large eyes, long 

 black hair, and a thick beard. From a love of decency, 

 he wore always a long robe ; he was fo rich that he had 

 palaces of filver and precious (tones ; he was thought to 

 poflefs the greater! induftry, and to have invented the 

 art of melting metals and cutting gems. He was fup- 

 pofed to have had the mod profound wifdom, which he 

 difplayed in the laws which he left to mankind \ and 

 above all to have had the moll rigid and exemplary man- 

 ners. Whenever he intended to promulgate a law in 

 his kingdom, he ordered a crier to the top of the moun- 

 tain Tzatzitepec (the hill of fhouting) near the city of 

 Tula, whofe voice was heard at the diftance of three 

 hundred miles. In his time, the corn grew fo ftrong that 

 a fingle ear was a load for a man : gourds were as long 

 as a man's body : it was unneceiTary to dye cotton, for 

 it grew naturally of all colours : and all other fruits and 

 feeds were in the fame abundance and of extraordinary 

 lize. Then too there was an incredible number of beau- 

 tiful and fweet finging birds. All his fubjedts were rich, 

 and to fum up all in one word, the Mexicans imagined 

 as much happinefs under the priefthood of S^uetzalcoatl^ 

 as the Greeks did under the reign of Saturn, whom this 

 Mexican god likewife refembled in the exile which he 

 fuffered. Amidft all this profperity, Tezcatlipoca^ I know 

 not for what reafon, wifhing to drive him from that coun- 

 try, appeared to him in the form of an old man, and 

 told him that it was the will of the gods that he Ihould 

 be taken to the- kingdom of Tlagalku At the fame time 



he 



