The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-08-08

tered Tn the 10TH Ol d nONels lC SAAoiAS of the title and the especial attention which Wallace draws to the worship of Quetzal shows that the question of who and what the Fair God of the Aztecs really was much impressed him as 1t must impress any one who reads the remarkable story of the lost empire of Montezuma-
 " ROM a tower on the royal hill of Chapultepec the great Montezuma, 4 priest and warrior, in whose halls 30 subject kings bore torches to light his feasts, looked toward the east at the rising of the sun. About him his empire lay in peace and prosperity. His wars were over, his enemies conquered-all but the Tlascalans, those warlke mountain eers who in a fastness of the Sierras held their little republic safe from all the power that could be brought against them-the Switzers of the new world. Really Montezuma did not care particu- larly about subjugating the Tiascalans. Their country was hardly worth going to a great deal of trouble about, and their fighting qualities gave him at all times a means of preventing his armies from going to rust in sloth and idleness. When the king saw that lack of war was mak- ing his soldiers effeminate he had an easy remedy by ordering an expedition against Tlascala,
 But now the monarch watched with anxious eyes for the first glimpses of the sun over the eastern barrier of moun- tdins, for his heart was heavy. Below him lay the City of Mexico, the Tenoch- titlan O. the Aztecs, floating as 1t were on the lake and lighted by the fires which scared aloft from 1000 altars built to strange gods upon those truncated pyramids which the dwellers in the vale Of Anahuac called teocali Beyond, across the lake, was the once royal and Independent but now subject city of Tezcnco, and adown the valley sparkled the lights of other cities, thick strewn as Jewels in the setting of the fruitful land. From sea to sea extended the empire of AIontezuma, and from where, on the northern frontiers, towers and forts kept watch over the savage tribes who roamed the lards from which once the Aztecs
 
 the south, the empire lost itself among the ruins of an older civilization, the mysterious kingdoms of Co and Maya.
 But the greatness of his power and the vastness of his empire weighed heavy upon the heart of Montezuma as his eyes strove to catch the first ray of the coming dawn. Among the fires ia it,nnn a Pf a his feet was one which shone upon the ancient Gu" or burial mound, dedi- cated to the fair god Quetzal. The shrine of Quetzal was abandoned now except by one old priest who still kept the sacred flames glowing upon the altars And this old priest. Mualox, had warned the king that the end of his empire was approaching, that In sh ort time Anahuac would be no more. He had shown the monarch, painted on the walls of secret chambers in the Gu the story of the empire of the A7tecs, and that story had ended in the kings own death-and after that a blank. Ages before there had ap- peared In the Valley of Mexico a man, fair of complexion and wearing fair beard, who had taught to the Aztecs or more probably to their predeces- sors, the mysterious Toltecs, the wor- ship of god whose service was love and whose aItars required no offering but fruits and flowers. The teacher became known as a god, the Fair God, and one day he went to the eastern coast and, stepping into a great canoe, departed into some fabled region across the waves, from which, prophecy said, he should come again to ask account of the king and of the people. The mild worship of Quetzal had long been neglected by the Aztecs. In its stead a ruder savager more barbarous wor- ship had grown up, that of the war god Huitzil whose altars reeked with human blood and before whose hideous image were daily thrown scores of palpitating human hearts torn by the priests from victims bound alive to the sacrihcal stone. The stench from the ghastly temples was horrible, the heather rites performed were revolt ing.
 Yet the Aztecs were a race refined as well as warlike, lovers of pomp and luxury of the most artistic sort. Their nobles blazed with jewels when they were in state attire and the royal fam fly wore cloaks made from the green breasts of humming birds. Kings and nobles ate from dishes of gold. silver and delicate earthenware. They had their literature and their songs, their stately palaces and gardens which never have been equaled out of the legends of the Ara bian Nights. Their gilded and carved canoes they had, too, and their floating islands upon the bosom of the lake where, on warm nights. the nobility reposed amid bow CTS of ragrance and beauty while the minstrels sang and happy people praised tn great king and extolled the majesty of Anahuac From the lake canals ran through the city intersect- ing the streets, which were carried over them by bridges of wood connecting causeways of stone. There was vast market place; there was even in the capital a restaurant such as might vie with If indeed not excel any of which tfe world can boast today. It's portfco was upborn on alternate pillars or white marble and green porphyry, back of which hung wonderfully beautiful curtains; and inside there were rooms