Palpan and the Toltecs.

Aspect of the Hill—Mogotes—The Toltecs and their Building Propensities—A Toltec House—Antiquities—Fragments—Malacates—Toltec Palace—Toltec Organisation—Dress—Customs—Education—Marriage—Orders of Knighthood—Philosophy—Religion—Future Life—Pulque—End of the Toltec Empire—Emigration.

The plateau on the Palpan hill, of which we give a ground plan, was occupied by a royal park, and maybe those of a few notables. Its direction is south-west, north-west, about a mile in length and half-a-mile in breadth, growing to a point towards the south-west, and fenced on two sides by a natural wall of perpendicular rocks overhanging the river. The plateau is covered with mounds, pyramids, and esplanades, showing that here were the royal villas, temples, and public edifices, but no trace of building, wall, or ruin, is visible, for the whole area is shrouded with immense cactuses, nopals, gorambullos, gum-trees, and mesquites, amongst which towers the biznaga, a cactus which grows here to nearly 10 ft. high by 6 ft. wide. I was shown a plant of this kind near Pachuca, in which an Indian couple have established themselves.

The summits of pyramids, called mogotes by the natives, were always occupied by temples and palaces; the largest here, No. 4 GROUND PLAN OF FIRST TOLTEC HOUSE UNEARTHED AT TULA (FROM LEMAIRE). GROUND PLAN OF FIRST TOLTEC HOUSE UNEARTHED AT TULA (FROM LEMAIRE).
A, Cisterns. B, Various Apartments. C, Kitchen. D, Seats. E, Entrance. and No. 5 in our cut, must have served as basements for the temples of the Sun and Moon. Unfortunately they have been opened and ransacked by treasure-seekers, and half-demolished by brick-layers, who found here materials ready to hand for their constructions.

I began my excavations by sounding the small mound No. 1 to the northeast, where the side of a wall was visible; and I found everywhere the ground connecting houses, palaces, and gardens, thickly coated with cement: but in the inner rooms the flooring was of red cement. The rubbish was cleared away, and in a few days a complete house was unearthed, consisting of several apartments of various size, nearly all on different levels; having frescoed walls, columns, pilasters, benches, and cisterns, recalling a Roman impluvium, whilst flights of steps and narrow passages connected the various apartments. We had brought to light a Toltec house!

I picked out of the rubbish many curious things: huge baked bricks, from one foot to nine inches by two and two and a half in thickness; filters, straight and curved water-pipes, vases and fragments of vases, enamelled terra-cotta cups, bringing to mind those at Tenenepanco; seals, one of which (an eagle’s head) I had engraved for my personal use; bits which were curiously like old Japanese china; moulds, one having a head with a huge plait and hair smoothed on both sides of her face, like an old maid; besides innumerable arrow-heads and knives of obsidian strewing the ground. In fact, a whole civilisation.

This house, the first it was our fortune to discover, was built on a somewhat modified natural elevation; the various apartments GROUND PLAN OF FIRST TOLTEC HOUSE UNEARTHED AT TULA (FROM LEMAIRE). GROUND PLAN OF TOLTEC PALACE UNEARTHED AT TULA (LEMAIRE).
No. 1, Principal Court. No. 2, FaÇade. No. 3, Entrance. No. 4, Reception Apartment. No. 5, Ruined Wall. No. 6, Enclosures for Animals. No. 7, Right Wing of the Palace. No. 8, Left Wing. follow the direction of the ground and are ranged on different levels, numbering from zero elevation for the lowest to 8 ft. for the highest. The walls are perpendicular, the roofs flat; and a thick coating of cement, the same everywhere, was used, whether for roofs, ceilings, floors, pavements, or roads.

On examining the monuments at Tula, we are filled with admiration for the marvellous building capacity of the people who erected them; for, unlike most primitive nations, they used every material at once. They coated their inner walls with mud and mortar, faced their outer walls with baked bricks and cut stone, had wooden roofs, and brick and stone staircases. They were acquainted with pilasters (we found them in their houses), with caryatides, with square and round columns; indeed, they seem to have been familiar with every architectural device. That they were painters and decorators we have ample indications in the house we unearthed, where the walls are covered with rosettes, palms, red, white, and gray geometrical figures on a black ground.

My next soundings were towards the centre of the hill, at a mound marked No. 2, which I took at first for a tomb; but finding nothing, I directed my men south-east, at the extremity of the hill, No. 3. Here we attacked a pyramid of considerable size, thickly covered with vegetation, having a hole and a thick plaster coating, which, to my extreme delight, revealed an old palace, extending over an area of nearly 62 ft. on one side, with an inner courtyard, a garden, and numerous apartments on different levels, ranged from the ground-floor to 8 ft. high, exactly like the first house; the whole covering a surface of 2,500 square yards. We will give a description of it, together with the probable use of the various apartments. No. 1 (see plan) is the inner courtyard, which we take as our level; No. 3 to the right, paved with large pebbles, is the main entrance. Facing this to the left, No. 7 is a small room about 4 ft. high, which was entered by a flight of seven low steps; it is a Belvedere, from which a view of the whole valley could be obtained. Next comes No. 4, perhaps a reception-room, 32 ft. long, having two openings towards the court. On the other side, to the north, is a smaller, narrower Belvedere, from which an ante-room, on a slightly lower level, furnished with benches, was reached. The main body of the palace consists of ten apartments of different size, with stuccoed walls and floors. The faÇade, No. 2, 8 ft. high, opens on the courtyard; whilst two winding stone staircases to the right, and an equal number to the left, led to the apartments on the first storey. Brick steps, covered with a deep layer of cement, connected the various chambers. The cells on both sides of the main apartments may have been the servants’ quarters. No. 6, are a kind of yards, without any trace of roof, and if we are to judge from Aztec dwellings, they were probably enclosures for domestic and wild animals. The Americans, says Clavigero,51 had no flocks; nevertheless their table was well supplied by innumerable animals to be found about their dwellings, and unknown to Europe; whilst the poor people had an edible dog, techichi, the breed of which was lost by the abuse the Spaniards made of it in the early times of the Conquest. Royal palaces had extensive spaces reserved for turkeys, ducks, and every species of volatile, a menagerie for wild animals, chambers for reptiles and birds of prey, and tanks for fish; so that the purpose we ascribe to these enclosures becomes highly probable. Here and there closed-up passages, walls rebuilt with materials other than those employed in the older construction, seem to indicate that the palace was occupied at two different periods; this would agree with Veytia52 when he says, “that on the Chichemecs invading the country under the command of Xolotl, they found Tula (cir. 1117) deserted, and grass growing in the streets; but that the King was so pleased with the site that he ordered the monuments to be repaired and the town inhabited. He followed the same policy at Teotihuacan and other places, ordering his people to preserve old names, and only authorising them to give new appellations to those they should build themselves.”53

The building we unearthed is entire, its outer wall intact; presenting a valuable specimen of the houses dating long before the Conquest. Here we found the same kind of objects as in our first excavations: plates, dishes, three-footed cups having striated bottoms and used for grinding Chili pepper; fragments of pottery, enamels, terra-cotta whorls of different size covered with sunk designs having a hole in the centre. These whorls are called “malacates” by the natives, and used by Indian women to this day. A round piece of wood or spindle-stick is introduced in the hole of the whorl, projecting about five inches from the lower plane, and about nine inches from the upper. The spinner, who is sitting, rests the point of her spindle on a varnished plate, and impels it round with her thumb and forefinger, twisting the cotton or wool attached thereto.54 In Mexico, rich ladies used a golden plate.55

The edifice No. 7 is undoubtedly a tennis-court, for it answers exactly the description given by historians of such structures; moreover, I found one of the rings still in place. Veytia is wrong, therefore, in crediting the Mexicans with the invention of the game; were it so we should not have found a tennis-court at Chichen-Itza. Mendieta56 relates how Tezacatlipoca came down from his celestial abode on a spider’s ladder, and how in his long peregrinations on earth he visited Tula, brought thither by his jealousy of Quetzalcoatl, whom he challenged to play tennis; but the latter turning into a tiger discomfited him utterly. The spectators were so terrified that they fled, and in the tumult which ensued many were drowned in the river flowing close by.

This tradition shows plainly that tennis existed in the remote period of Quetzalcoatl’s rule at Tula; that the game was of Toltec origin, that the court was on the hill, since the spectators in their precipitancy to run away were drowned, that Quetzalcoatl was a good tennis-player, and that the expression, “he was turned into a tiger,” is merely honorific, applied to him on the spot for having sent his ball through the ring. This passage also explains the tiger frieze over the tennis-court at Chichen-Itza.

The Toltecs had public granaries which were opened to the people in time of famine. A passage in Cuauhtitlan seems to indicate that the resistance they opposed to a grasping and bloodthirsty priesthood, was one of the chief causes of their downfall.57 “Under the mild rule of Quetzalcoatl, demons tried in vain to persuade him to allow men born at Tula to be sacrificed. As for himself, his offerings were birds, serpents, and butterflies he had captured in the valley.”

The Toltecs were peaceful, their organisation was feudal and aristocratic, indicative of conquest, yet their government was paternal. Besides the great feudatory lords, they had military orders and titles, which were bestowed on distinguished soldiers for services in the field or the council, and finally the celebrated order of the Tecuhtlis, which was divided in sub-orders of the “tiger,” the “lion,” the “eagle,” and other animals, each having its peculiar privileges. The initiatory ceremonies resembled somewhat those attending our knights of the Middle Ages, and may interest the reader.

At the nomination of a candidate, all the tecuhtlis assembled in the house of the new knight, whence they set out in a body for the temple, where the high priest, at the request of the neophyte, perforated his nose and ears with a pointed tiger’s bone, or an eagle’s claw, inserting in the holes thus made twigs, which were changed every day for larger ones, until the healing of the wound; pronouncing the while invocations to the gods that they would give the novice the courage of the lion, the swiftness of the deer, etc.; followed by a speech in which he was reminded that he who aspires to the dignity of a tecuhtli, must be ready to perform the duties of his new office. He was henceforth to be distinguished by greater meekness, patience, forbearance, and moderation in all things, together with submission to the laws. After this speech, he was deprived of his rich garments, and dressed in a coarse tunic; the only articles of furniture allowed him were a common mat and a low stool. He was besmeared with a black preparation, and only broke his fast once in twenty-four hours with a tortilla and a small quantity of water. Meanwhile the priests and tecuhtlis came in turns to feast before the novice, and make his fast more intolerable, heaping insults and injurious epithets upon the man who stood meekly before them; jostling and pointing their fingers jeeringly at him. At night he was only allowed to sleep a few minutes at a time; and if overcome by sleep, his guardians pricked him with the thorn of the maguey.

“At the expiration of sixty days the new knight, accompanied by friends and relatives, repaired to some temple of his own district, where he was received by the whole order of tecuhtlis, ranged in two rows on each side of the temple, from the main altar down to the entrance. He advanced alone, bowing right and left to each tecuhtli, until he reached the idol, where the mean garments he had worn so long were taken off by the oldest tecuhtli, his hair bound up in a knot on the top of his head with a red string; whilst a wreath, having a medallion with his motto graven on it, circled his brow. He was next clad in rich and fine apparel, ornamented and delicately embroidered; in his hands he received arrows and a bow; balls of gold were inserted in his ears and nostrils, and a precious stone, the distinctive badge of his order, hung from his lower lip. The ceremony ended with another discourse to the effect that the neophyte should aim at being liberal, just, free from arrogance, and willing to devote his life to the service of his country and his gods.”58

The Toltecs paid great attention to the instruction of youth. Texcuco possessed schools of art, in which the broad principles laid down by their forefathers were doubtless remembered, differing from those of the Aztecs, whose exaggerated religiosity caused them to leave the education of children entirely in the hands of the priests. That the latter were less influential with the Toltecs seems indicated in the following passage: “Among the various sumptuous edifices at Utatlan was the college, having a staff of seventy teachers, and five or six thousand pupils, who were educated at the public expense.”59 The truth of this account is borne out by the fact that the city was only destroyed in 1524 by Alvarado, so that the early missionaries had ample opportunity given them to collect materials for a trustworthy history.

Marriage among the Toltecs was celebrated with ceremonies it may interest the reader to know something about. On this occasion friends and relations were invited, the walls of the best apartment were adorned with pretty devices, made with flowers and evergreens, whilst every table and bracket was covered with them. The bridegroom occupied a seat to the right, the bride sat on the floor to the left of the hearth, which stood in the middle of the room, where a bright fire was burning. Then the “marriage-maker,” as he was called, stood up and addressed the young people, reminding them of their mutual duties in the life they were about to enter, and, at the termination of his speech, they were given new cloaks, and received the good wishes and congratulations of their friends, who as they came up threw each in turn some perfume on the hearth. Now the bride and bridegroom were crowned with chaplets of flowers, and the day was wound up with dance, music, and refreshments. There was also a religious ceremony similar to this in all respects, in which a priest officiated; when instead of cloaks they put on costly dresses with a skeleton head embroidered on them, and thus attired, the new married couple were accompanied to their home and left to themselves.60

In order to have a complete idea of this extraordinary people, a few words upon their philosophy and ethics may find an appropriate place here. A Toltec maiden, about to enter into life, was admonished with great tenderness by her father to preserve simplicity in her manners and conversation, to have great neatness in attire and attention to personal cleanliness. He inculcated modesty, faithfulness, and obedience to her husband, reminding her that this world is a place of sorrow and disappointment, but that God had given as a compensation domestic joys and material enjoyments; softening his advice by such endearing words as: “daughter mine, my beloved daughter, my precious,” etc. Nor was the advice of a mother less touching—breathing throughout a parent’s love: “My beloved daughter, my little dove, you have heard the words which your father has told you. They are precious words, such as are rarely spoken, and which have proceeded from his heart. Speak calmly and deliberately; do not raise your voice very high, nor speak very low, but in a moderate tone. Neither mince, when you speak, nor when you salute, nor speak through your nose; but let your words be proper, and your voice gentle. In walking, see that you behave becomingly, neither going with haste, nor too slowly; yet, when it is necessary to go with haste, do so. When you are obliged to jump over a pool of water, do it with decency. Walk through the streets quietly; do not look hither and thither, nor turn your head to look at this and that; walk neither looking at the skies nor at the ground. See likewise that you neither paint your face nor your lips, in order to look well, since this is a mark of vile and immodest women. But that your husband may take pleasure in you, adorn yourself, wash yourself, and wear nothing but clean clothes, but let this be done with moderation, since if you are over nice—too delicate—they will call you tapetzeton, tinemaxoch. This was the course and the manner of your ancestors. In this world it is necessary to live with prudence and circumspection. See that you guard yourself carefully and free from stain, for should you give your favour to another who is not your husband, you would be ruined past all recall; since for such a crime they will kill you, throw you into the street for an example to all the people, where your head will be crushed and dragged upon the ground,” etc.61

We will end these quotations by the advice to a son: “My beloved son, lay to heart the words I am going to utter, for they are from our forefathers, who admonished us to keep them locked up like precious gold-leaf, and taught us that boys and girls are beloved of the Lord. For this reason the men of old, who were devoted to His service, held children in great reverence. They roused them out of their sleep, undressed them, bathed them in cold water, made them sweep the temples and offer copal to the gods. They washed their mouths, saying that Pg 117
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Pg 119God heard their prayers and accepted their exercises, their tears, and their sorrow, because they were of a pure heart, perfect, and without blemish, like chalchihuitl (precious stones). They added that this world was preserved for their sake, and that they were our intercessors before Him. Satraps, wise men, and those killed by lightning were supposed to be particularly agreeable to the Sun, who called them to himself that they might live for ever in his presence in a perpetual round of delight,” etc.62

And what can be more beautiful than the prayer addressed to Tlaloc: “O Lord, liberal giver of all things, Lord of freshness and verdure, Lord of sweet-smelling paradise, Lord of incense and copal. Alas! your vassals, the gods of water, have disappeared, and lie concealed in their deep caverns, having stowed away all things indispensable to life, although they continue to receive the ulli yauhtli and copal offering. They have also carried away their sister, the goddess of substance. O Lord, have pity on us that live. Our food goes to destruction, is lost and dried up for lack of water; it is as if turned to dust and mixed with spiders’ webs. Wilt thou have no pity on the macehuetes and the common people, who are wasted with hunger, and go about unrecognisable and disfigured? They are blue under the eyes as with death; their mouths are dry as sedge; all the bones of their bodies show as in a skeleton. The children are disfigured and yellow as earth; not only those that begin to walk, but even those in the cradle. This torment of hunger comes to every one; the very animals and birds suffer from dire want. It is pitiful to see the birds, some dragging themselves along with drooping wings, others falling down unable to walk, and others with their mouth still open through hunger and thirst. O Lord, Thou wert wont to give us abundantly of those things which are the life and joy of all the world, and precious as emeralds and sapphires; all these things have departed from us. O Lord God of nourishment, most kind and compassionate, what hast Thou determined to do with us? Hast Thou utterly forsaken us? Shall not Thy wrath and indignation be appeased? Wilt Thou destroy these Thy servants, and leave this city and kingdom desolate and uninhabited? Is it so decreed in heaven and hades? O Lord, grant, at least, that these innocent children, who cannot so much as walk, and those still in the cradle, may have something to eat, so that they may live and die not in this terrible famine. What have they done that they should be so tried, and should die of hunger? They have committed no iniquity, neither do they know what thing it is to sin; they neither offended the gods of heaven nor the gods of hell. We, if we have offended in many things, if our sins have reached heaven and hades and the uttermost parts of the world, it is but just that we should be destroyed. O Lord, invigorate the corn and other substances, much wished for and much needed, now sown and planted; for the ridges of the earth suffer sore need and anguish from lack of water. Grant, O Lord, that the people receive this favour and mercy at Thine hand; let them see and enjoy the verdure and coolness which are as precious stones. See good that the fruit and the substance of the Tlalocs be given, which are the clouds that these gods carry with them and that give us rain. May it please Thee, O Lord, that the animals and herbs be made glad, and that the fowls and birds of precious feather, such as the quechotl and the Çaquan, fly and sing and feast upon the herbs and flowers. And let not this come about with thunder and lightning, symbols of Thy wrath; for if our lords the Tlalocs come in this way, the people, being lean and very weak with hunger, would be terrified.”63

The degree of culture of a nation can be gauged from its religion, and notably its ideas of a future life. The beauty and eloquence-loving Greek discoursed upon philosophy walking under noble porticoes; the thoughts of the barbarous worshipper of Woden were of bloody fights, and of wassail in which he drank hydromel out of his enemies’ skulls; the Arab goes to sleep cradled on the lap of houris; the Red Indian dreams of endless hunting-fields, whilst the starving Bushman hopes for a heaven of plenty. The Toltec is the only one whose aspirations beyond the grave are free from grossness and cruelty; his heaven is a resting-place for the weary, a perpetual spring, amidst flowers, fields of yellow maize, verdure and flowers.

From these graver matters we will pass to the legend, told by Veytia, which makes Papantzin the inventor of pulque; and although, in our opinion, he places this event too late, it is none the less instructive as showing another side of Toltec history. In the year 1049, or, according to Clavigero, 1024-1030, Tecpancaltzin was one day taking his siesta in the palace, when Papantzin, one of his great nobles, presented himself together with his daughter, the beautiful Xochitl (“flower”), bearing, with other gifts to the king, a kind of liqueur, made from the maguey juice by a process of which Papantzin was the inventor. The new drink pleased the royal palate, and the lovely form and face of the young maiden were still more pleasing to the royal taste. The king expressed his desire to have more of the new beverage at the hands of the fair Xochitl, adding that she might bring it unattended save by her nurse. Proud of the honour shown him, Papantzin a few days later sent Xochitl, accompanied by a dueÑa, with some pulque. Xochitl was introduced alone to the presence of Tecpancaltzin. Bravely the maiden resisted the monarch’s protestations of ardent love, but alone and unprotected she was unable to resist the threats and violence used against her. She was then sent to the strongly-guarded palace of Palpan near the capital;” and there, cut off from all communication with parents or friends, she lived as the king’s mistress. Her father meanwhile was told that his daughter had been entrusted by the king to the care of some matrons, who would perfect her education and fit her for a high position among the court ladies. Meanwhile the king visited Xochitl, and in 1051 a child was born, who received the name of Meconetzin (“child of the maguey”), and later that of Topiltzin (the “Justicer”64), by which he is known in history. But at last Papantzin, suspecting that all was not right with his daughter, visited the palace of Palpan in the disguise of a labourer; he found her and listened to the tale of her shame. His wrath knew no bounds, but he was quieted with the king’s promise that the child should be proclaimed heir to the throne, and that, should the queen die, Xochitl would succeed her as his legitimate consort. It should be mentioned that polygamy and concubinage were strictly forbidden among the Toltecs of that period; that the laws were binding on king and peasant alike; and this explains why Tecpancaltzin was obliged to keep his love for Xochitl secret, until he was free to proclaim her publicly his queen; a step which was fraught with endless evils for his country, since after his death the Toltec princes, who were thus deprived of their hope of succession, broke out into open hostilities. The most powerful of these and nearest to Pg 123
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Pg 125the throne was Huehuetzin;65 with him were banded the caciques of the northern provinces beyond Jalisco and those bordering on the Atlantic Ocean, when after years of warfare, followed by calamitous inundations, tempests, droughts, famine, and pestilence (1097), the Toltecs, greatly reduced in numbers, dispersed; some directing their march south (the Toluca and Cuernavaca branch), others going north (the Tula and Teotihuacan branch) founded establishments at Tehuantepec, Guatemala, Goatzacoalco, Tabasco, and Campeche; whilst a few remained at Cholula and Chapultepec.66 Ixtlilxochitl67 places this event in 1008. Sixteen hundred are said to have settled at Colhuacan, intermarried with Chichemec caciques, and founded the family from which the kings of Texcuco were descended. Clavigero writes that the miserable remains of the nation found a remedy in flight (1031-1050), some settling in Yucatan and Guatemala, whilst others, with the two sons of Topiltzin, remained in the Tula valley, and that their grandsons were subsequently closely connected with the royal families of Mexico, Texcuco, and Colhuacan.68 Finally Torquemada69 writes “that they were counselled by the devil to abandon their country to escape utter annihilation, and that the account of their migrations is to be found in Acolhuan histories, written in peculiar characters as is the custom of these aborigines.”

The Toltec soldiers wore a quilted cotton tunic that fitted closely to the body and protected also the shoulders and thighs; their offensive weapons consisted of spears, light javelins, and clubs studded with steel, silver, or gold nails. They used a copper currency, which a short while ago was still found among the Tutupecans.70

These quotations, which might be multiplied, clearly prove that the Toltecs migrated south, following the coasts of both oceans; that they ceased to exist as a nation after the disruption of their empire; but that their scattered remnants carried on the work of civilisation in Central America, on the high plateaux, and in Anahuac; evidenced in the strong resemblance that the civilisations of these various regions bear to one another.

We will close this chapter with a few words about the Chichemecs, who occupied the valley after the Toltecs. Their emperor Xolotl made Tenayuca, to the west of Lake Texcuco, his capital, and despatched four chiefs, with a strong escort, to explore the country in every direction. They were absent four years, and in their report (1124) they stated that they had met with some Toltecs in the region formerly held by them; but that the greater proportion had founded important colonies in the far-off provinces of Tehuantepec, Guatemala, Tecocotlan, and Tabasco. Nopaltzin, the son of this emperor, sent likewise emissaries from Teotihuacan, whose report was to the effect that they had found a few Toltecs scattered in five different places, who told them of their hardships, adding that most of their fellow-citizens had gone farther west and south.

From these quotations it is clearly seen that the date of the oldest edifices in Tabasco cannot be anterior to the beginning of the twelfth century;71 that Toltec influence was felt simultaneously on the high plateaux and in Central America, shown by the flourishing small Toltec state of Colhuacan, where King Architometl (1231) had revived those arts and sciences his ancestors had initiated, and which, since their extermination, had fallen into utter decay. This king succeeded so well in his enlightened policy that his country became an intelligent centre, which proved so beneficial to the barbarous Chichemecs.

Nopaltzin, following the example of Xolotl, compelled those of his subjects who still lived in caverns to build houses, live in communities, cultivate the land, and feed on prepared viands. He invited jewellers and lapidaries from Colhuacan to teach his people, instituting prizes for those who became proficient in mechanical arts, and also for those who made astrology, historical paintings, and the deciphering of ancient manuscripts their particular study.72 And, lastly, in the closing words of Veytia’s account, he says: “Among the documents I possess for the completion of my work are several bearing on the Mexicans. I found no difficulty in reading the paintings and maps; but although they are systematically classified as regards events posterior to their arrival in the valley, it is very different with their antiquities, their origin, and their wanderings; their documents relating to this period being more rare and obscure than those of the Toltecs.”73

Having proved, and we think we have proved, the diffusion of Toltec arts and industries among the primitive populations of America, we will proceed to Teotihuacan.