The Story of Mexico/Chapter 4
IV.
CHICHIMECS.
According to the old version of Anahuac story, the proud, brilliant dynasty of the Toltecs shone like a jewel upon the background of the savage tribes surrounding it, who remained during the period it flourished in the same condition as when the Toltecs came. It was from one of these less cultivated races that the Toltecs took their first chief, Chalchiuhtlatonac, son of the so-called Emperor of the Chichimecs, to whose account is attributed a line of fourteen monarchs, and a duration of over two hundred years, but all this is very uncertain and vague; on the other hand, Baudelier is of opinion that there was no Chichimecan period in Mexico. The word Chichimecatl signifies indiscriminately a savage, a good hunter, or a brave warrior. The far-off region from which they immigrated like the other tribes upon Anahuac, called by them Amaquemecan, like the Huehue-Tlapallan of the Toltecs, was a fertile country of their dreams, pleasant to work in, and free from earthly disasters.
Probably they came from the same region as the Toltecs; their language is classed with the Nahuatl, though their dialect was their own. They called themselves the Eagles. They not only had no culture, but scorned it, preferring the advantages of barbarism. Their occupation was hunting, which was fully furnished them by the game in the mountain regions, which they found unclaimed, and took possession of. They lived upon the flesh of wolves and pumas,—their smaller dishes were weasels, moles, and mice, without objecting to lizards, snakes, grasshoppers, and earthworms.
The Chichimecs seem to have wandered about completely naked, with skins of beasts to protect them from the occasional cold of their mild climate. Their houses were, for the most part, caves or cracks in the rocks, but they knew how to build rude huts, roofed with palm leaves. Gourds were their drinking vessels, and they could make a rude sort of pottery, out of which they fashioned jugs, and also little balls used for bullets in war, which could make dangerous wounds. They were always at war with their neighbors, and protected their own territory from incursions with their bows and arrows, and clubs, which they handled with great vigor.
Each warrior of the Chichimecs wore a bone at his waist, which carried a mark for every enemy he had killed. Competition was sure to keep these bones well marked, as it was a distinction to bear the record of the most victims. Their battles were bloodthirsty. Prisoners were scalped upon the field of battle, and their heads carried in triumph back to camp, while dances of victory were performed. They had the reputation of eating the flesh and drinking the blood of their victims. The several tribes of the Chichimecs acknowledged no authority, other than obedience to the warrior they themselves selected to lead them to battle. Their wives were their slaves; and though they limited themselves to one wife at a time, they reserved to themselves the liberty of changing one for another at any moment. The women prepared the food, cut down trees, brought wood and water, and made the pottery—bullets as well as pots and pans. The Chichimecs feared and worshipped the sun as a supreme deity, and the spirit of the thunder and lightning, whom they rudely depicted with bolts in his hands, like Jupiter, and called Nixcoatl, (the Serpent of the Clouds).
These were the people who lived side by side with the Toltecs, their better-behaved neighbors, despised as inferiors, and regarded with disgust for their coarseness and horror for their bloody practices. By these, the Toltecs were conquered and destroyed.
Xolotl, the leader of the Chichimecs, to use the greatly exaggerated reports gathered from historic paintings, which depicted these things, came to invade the realm of the Toltecs with a million warriors under six great chiefs, and twenty thousand or so of inferior officers. He had under his command more than three million men and women, not counting the children who came along with their mothers. The Toltecs were much deteriorated since their proud days. Allies whom they had oppressed had deserted them; a religious sect which differed from the prevailing belief had sought elsewhere a place of independent worship; the sovereign and his favorites were delivered over to dissipation. But even the royal family gave proof of energy and resolution when the hour of danger came.
An old chief, named Ayaxitl, called the country to arms, inspiring them with tales of the deeds of their ancestors. Old men and young boys took up arms; and old Xochitl herself, the mother of the inefficient king, led forth to battle a legion of Amazons, and was slain at their front. But all this show of bravery came too late. The Toltecs were entirely defeated after a prolonged conflict, which was renewed for several days. Tollan was taken, the whole country surrendered, and its ruling race entirely exterminated.
The Toltecs were no more, and the Chichimecs ruled in. their stead. But these people, recovering from their barbarism in a measure, took on the advanced customs of their conquered enemies, entered into their palaces, and enjoyed the fruits of their civilization.
Xolotl took the title of Chichimecatl Tecuhtli, the great chief of the Chichimecs; and his descendants added to this the name Huactlatohani (Lord of the Whole World). The territory claimed for him included a large part of the present Mexico, the states Morelos and Puebla, a portion of Vera Cruz, the greater part of Hidalgo, the whole of Tlaxcalla, and the valley of Mexico. He strengthened his power by marrying his son to a daughter of the late Toltec sovereign, saved from the destruction of the race, and altogether showed wisdom and judgment not to be expected from the antecedents of his people. Such conduct inclines students of this remote period to think that these Chichimecs were not the barbarous tribe who lived in caves and ate lizards, but a later arrival from the mysterious north.
During the reign of Xolotl new tribes came wandering down from these remote regions. These successive waves of emigration give the idea of a constantly renewed struggle for supremacy far off in the unknown Amaquemecan, resulting in the migration of the conquered side. Xolotl received these new arrivals with benign hospitality, gave them lands to plant, and encouraged them to settle in his realm. Among these were the Aculhuas and Tepanecs, who founded the kingdoms, afterwards important, of Atzcapotzalco and Tlacopan.
Xolotl had the credit of reigning from 1120 to 1232, when he died. This would make him at least one hundred and twenty years old at his death. And some people from this imagine that there were several Xolotls that succeeded one another. Let us believe that he lived to this great age. The name means "Eye of great vigilance."
For three generations his immediate successors ruled the kingdom with firmness and judgment, compelling their people to cultivate the land, thus protecting agriculture, which was their chief source of wealth, and building towns to put an end to wandering habits inherited from the men who lived in caves on the mountain side.
Quinatzin, in the beginning of the thirteenth century, established the capital of the kingdom of the Chichimecs in Texcuco. It was during his reign that the Aztecs, or Mexicans, whom we now hear of for the first time, established themselves in Tenochtitlan, which was on the site of what is now the city of Mexico, though their arrival made but
portico at kaboh.
little stir in the neighborhood. The Chichimecs were troubled by quarrels with the new kingdom of Atzcapotzalco, but for a century they maintained their good standing, always advancing in civilization and the arts of peace, and it was not until 1409 that one of their kings, Ixtlilxochitl, found these rising neighbors too strong for him. The Tepanecs and the Aztecs united, and swore together a conspiracy to overwhelm him. He was assassinated, and his throne was usurped by Tezozomoc, the king of Atzcapotzalco.
The Chichimecs may be said to come to an end here; for, after the return of the legitimate line, their realm was called the kingdom of Texcuco, where their capital was already established. This city was occupied by the invaders, who made it their principal seat. The usurper at his death was succeeded upon his stolen throne by his wicked son Maxtla. The adventures of Nezahualcoyotl, the rightful heir, are told by a native historian descended in a direct line from the sovereigns of Texcuco, Ixtlilxochitl, whose writings, though probably not over accurate, are more tangible evidence than the faint reports of previous legends.
