Myths and Legends Beyond Our Borders/Fathers of the Miztecs
FATHERS OF THE MIZTECS
FAR back, in the time before light, when the earth was covered with water and slime, a god and a goddess appeared. They knew their power, and they practised it in building a palace for themselves that should be worthy of the occupancy of gods. It was vast in size, splendid in appointments, a true Walhalla, and on its roof was a copper axe, edge upmost, on which the heavens rested. The rock on which this palace stood was near Apoala, in Mizteca Alta, and was called The Place of Heaven. Two sons were born to these deities, the elder amusing himself as an eagle by long flights through the air, and the other turning himself into a winged snake, in which form he could pass through rocks. Such were the roaring and clashing in their wild rushes that the mountains rang with echoes. These sons made a temple in a flowering and fruiting meadow, where they burned incense in clay vessels and made sacrifices to their father and mother, praising them greatly and begging for a better light. Their garden was the only dry place, except the Place of Heaven, and they prayed that the waters might be drawn off so as to leave other spots to stand on. In order to please the parents more, the sons lacerated themselves, cutting their ears and tongues with stones and throwing the blood over the garden, with willow twigs. Thus they gained light and other favors. Afterward came the human race, and being wicked it was drowned from off the face of the earth, all save the ruling family, for this did not owe its origin to the gods, but to two great trees that stood at the gate of Apoala gorge, bending in a constant gale. Each of these trees begat a boy, and the braver of the two, finding the sun mischievous in its glare and heat, shot at it with arrows until he had much wounded it and forced it to hide behind the mountains. To our own day the Miztec coat of arms remains,—a chief with bow, arrows, and shield, with the sun setting behind clouds in the distance.