Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-12-26
SOME ANCIENT TRADITIONS.

Of these burial pyramids of San Juan
Teotihuacan (the Westminster Abbey of
the Toltecs) there are many curious tradi-
tions. Space forbids the recital of but one
of them, concerning the temperance of the
Sun and Moon after the regeneration of
the human race. Omecihuatl, wife of the
god Ometenctli, after having borne many
children in heaven, happened at one time
to bring forth knife of flint, which her
enraged children flung 10 the earth, when
10 from its fragments sprang sixteen hun
bred heroes. Immediately they petitioned
their mother to grant them power to create
men for their servants. But she declined
to aid her children, and sent them 10 the
god ofh ell, who, she declyred, would fur
nish them with bone of one of the men
who had persisted in the general destruc-
ton of the race. She ordered them to
sprinkle this fragment with their blood
and from it should spring human pair TO
regenerate the species. One of the heroes
whose name was Nolotl, departed on the
dangerous errand, and having obtained the
gift from the internal deity, fastened off
precipitately for fear he might repent the
present. SO rapidly did he return to earth
that he accidentally fell and broke the bone
Nevertheless, he returned to his brothers
with the fragments, and placing them in
vessel, they sprinkled the precious relics
with blood drawn from their bodies On
the fourth day there appeared boy; and
after three days more, during which the
bloody sprinklings were continued, a girl
was formed. Xolou constituted himself
their guardian and reared them on the
milk OF thistles-and thus commenced the
regeneration of the world. But there was
still no sun nor moon, for the
luminaries that existed in former
dow hoe ID 81,
eral ruin. Therefore one day the heroic
brothers assembled on the plain of
Teotihuacan, where they built huge fire,
and, kneeling before it, declared that the
first who threw himself into the flames
should have the eternal glory to be trans
formed into a sun. The boldest of the
multitude, Nanahuatzin, immediately
leaped into the blaze and descended TO
hell when, after a short period, the sun
arose in the east But scarcely had he ap-
peared above the horizon when he stopped.
The remaining brothers sent message to
the orb, desiring him to continue his
course, but he politely declined to do so
until he should see them all put to death.
As may well be imagined, this was not
agreeable to the band of l $50, and not a
few manifested their displeasure openly.
One seized his bow and shot an arrow,
which the sun escaped by lodging; Others
made equally passionate but fruitless dem
onstrations, and thus it went on till the
luminary, tired of the sport, flung back one
of the arrows and fixed it in the
forehead of the first hero who had rashly
aimed at his flaming disc. Then the
! brothers, finding themselves unable to cope
with the orb, resolved to yield to his
behests, and to die by the hand of the
daring Xolotl, who, after Staying all his
| relatives, committed suicide. Before the
heroes persisted. however, they consider
ately bequeathed all their clothes to their
seryants-the offspring of the boy and girl
| born from the bones of holland even as
late as the period of the conquest many an.
! Gent garments were preserved by the
! Mexicans with religious care and
| veneration, under the belief that they were
the dying gifts of the heroes who had re
stored the lost sun for the benefit of the
race. A similar fable pertains to
THE ORIGIN OF THE MOON.
! Before the final sacrifice of the sixteer
| hundred, another person of the same as
semblage followed the example of hi
| brother, Nanahuatzin, and threw himsel
into the flames. But the strength of tn,
/ fire had declined, and as the voluntary vic
tim burned with paler flame, he was glo
rified only by the humber dignity O
MoGnship.
On the plain which had been the seen