view, then, Quetzalcoatl was certainly the “founder” of the Toltec civilization. If this theory be accepted, I do not see how the myth of Quetzalcoatl can be regarded as having any basis in actual fact, unless one can find in the rather vague statements of certain early writers on Mexico a further basis for discussion as to his reality. To me the meaning of the myth seems very plain. It may be that Huaxtec influence was brought to bear upon Toltec civilization, but my hypothesis does not seem to me to require assistance from such an admission.
CRITICISM OF THE LATER ELEMENTS OF QUETZALCOATL’S MYTH
In short, the myth of Quetzalcoatl as recorded by Sahagun is obviously developed from a much older one which referred to a season of plenteous rain—the period of the rule of the gentle and beneficent god representing the trade-wind. As it was connected with prosperous conditions in agriculture, it was naturally brought into connection with the Toltec time, the “good old times of long ago,” when conditions were greatly better, and no mouth knew want. Such a concept was obviously of later origin. The revised myth took on a cultural complexion. In terms of allegory, it tells how the powers of the rain-making priest-god fail him; he becomes sick, and is beguiled and defeated by Tezcatlipocâ, the rival wind-god, who tells him that “another old man” awaits him in Tlapallan. And here we seem to find interpolated a reference to the guardian genius of the fountain of perpetual youth, the reservoir of rain and all refreshment, which Quetzalcoatl must visit if he would be cured of the ills of old age, and he is counselled to speak with its keeper if he would return to Mexico “as a boy.” The destruction of his treasure by the banished god seems to point to a reminiscence of the downfall of the