Myths and Legends Beyond Our Borders/Other Wiles of the Evil God
OTHER WILES OF THE EVIL GOD
TEZCATLIPOCA was not satisfied with the mischief he had wrought at Texcalapa. He knew the reverence of the people for his enemy, the white god, and summoned them all to work in the flower-garden which belonged to that kind deity, using the disguise of one of their respected soldiers when he called them together. While the people were bent at their work he passed down the line knocking them on the head with a stout wooden hoe, and in this he exhibited such a fury that all ran away who could, and many were trodden and killed in the panic. He lighted the peak of Zacatepec, and the Toltecs nearly died in their terror. He threw stones upon them in showers, and the sight of one great meteor was so appalling that many of them went mad and ran to the blistering hot stone, after it had fallen, as to an altar, and were there killed. He turned all provisions sour, so they could not eat them; then, disguised as an old woman, he roasted maize and threw the scent of it to every quarter, until the people became delirious with appetite and ran to the house in the white god's garden, whence the odor came, to beg or buy the food. As each one reached the door Tezcatlipoca struck him dead. At another time this god sat in the market-place of Tula with a dancing manikin in his hand, and the gaping multitude so pressed about him to see miracles that many had their breath squeezed out, while others fell and were crushed. Then Tezcatlipoca cried, in derision, "You fools! Don't you see that you are deceived? You kill each other instead of killing us!" This angered the company. They gathered stones out of the street and killed the sorcerer and his manikin. The corpse lay so long in the public place that the air was tainted by it and the people were sickened, yet none could move it. The corpse itself demanded to be cast out of the town, and the crier summoned all the people to bear a hand. A long rope was tied to the neck of the carcass, and the men bent back with a will. Snap went the rope, and down went the men, who, striking on their heads on the stones, became as soundly dead as Tezcatlipoca was not. Again they hauled, again the rope broke, and again several were killed. Then said the corpse, "You need a song. Sing after me." And he intoned a verse, which the Toltecs sang in unison, pulling together at certain words, just as sailors do at the heaviest part of a lift; and so the body was taken out, though not till more lives had been lost in the moving. When the survivors returned to their homes they could remember nothing of all this, for it was as if they had been drunk.