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CHIMALMAN, 
 
 AND OTHER POEMS 
 
 BY 
 
 GRACE ELLIS TAFT 
 
 Author of "Cayuga Notes," former correspondent of 
 "American Antiquarian and Oriental Journal," 
 and Member International Congress of 
 Americanists, and American An- 
 thropological Association 
 
 THE CAMEO PRESS 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 MCMXVI 
 
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 Copyright, 1916, 
 
 By The Author, 
 
 GRACE ELLIS TAFT 
 
 Printed in the United States of America 
 All Mights Reserved 
 
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 / * 
 
 AUG 23 1916 
 
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 THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO MY MOTHER 
 
 MARY HALL TAFT 
 
 A stela of Palenque bears the glyphic of its king. 
 So evermore on childhood's thought a mother's touches cling: 
 She fashions into miracles the life's primeval clay. 
 And carves to its enraptured prime the idol of her day; 
 Thy love restores the lens of truth, to concentrate in one, 
 Beams hidden in the dusty air, still golden from the sun! 
 (New York, April 4, 1916.) 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 The sweet idyllic story of " Chimalman " is unique 
 among Indian myths, being absolutely native to Mex- 
 ican folk-history, from their genesis in north-central 
 Mexico about the year 700 a. d. When conquest 
 brought Christian history into this mission field, the 
 Jesuit and Franciscan fathers were greatly astounded 
 by the similarity of this tale to the beautiful religious 
 version of the Virgin Mary's life. Their belief was that 
 the " Chimalman " story was a grotesque perversion of 
 some Biblical narrative caught from the lips of an edu- 
 cated white captive; but later investigation proves it 
 to be an original Mexican idea, nearly a thousand years 
 old at the time of the Spanish conquest. It is only 
 given in brief in any books at the author's disposal, and 
 she has read much in both public and private libraries. 
 All characters have been the creation of the author's 
 fancy, except the general idea of " Chimalman " and 
 the identity of the deities of the Aztec pantheon. The 
 plan of this series of tiny plays, is to introduce a sin- 
 gle scene in the life of the god Quetzalcoatl in each 
 one; and a further series of plays, already begun, will 
 complete this Quetzalcoatl Cycle in a dozen playlets, 
 with connecting lyrics to complete the idea. Three 
 only of these plays are included in the present volume. 
 
 Rose de Vaux-Royer. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Chimalman 9 
 
 Tecpancaltzin 38 
 
 Teoteuctli 57 
 
 Xtacunbil Xunan (The Hidden Lady) .... 79 
 
 ZuBAK (The Flute) 81 
 
 To William H. Holmes 83 
 
 To Edward H. Thompson 84 
 
 To Professor Marshall H. Saville 87 
 
 Storm Echoes 95 
 
 The Man of Sorrows 96 
 
CHIMALMAN 
 
 List of Characters 
 Green 
 
 Sisters y dwelling in 
 Tulan. 
 
 Aztec gods. 
 
 Chimalman, " The 
 Shield j'* youngest. 
 
 Temictu, " The Dream,''' sec- 
 ond. 
 
 TuLLi, " Black,*' eldest. 
 
 Tecpancaltzin, " Lord of the Ruling House/* king 
 of Tulan. 
 
 CiTLALATONAC, " The Moming 
 Star, known also as Tonaca- 
 tecutliy " Lord of Life.*' 
 
 QuETZALCOATL, " The Feath- 
 ered Serpent," his son, who 
 has fallen from Paradise for 
 disobedience. 
 Scene: In Tulan, a forest glade, below the palace 
 
 of Palpan. 
 
 {Enter three Aztec sisters.) 
 
 Temictli. (Sings.) 
 
 Shortens the ceiba's shadow 
 
 On meadows of the sun. 
 And chirimoya branches 
 
 Bear white bells every one; 
 9 
 
Forth comes the King of Tulan 
 
 In gold all glistening, 
 That like the sunbeam sparkles, 
 
 To greet the Sun, our King! 
 Forth comes the King of Tulan, 
 
 Resplendent in his pride. 
 To greet his Sire supernal 
 
 B J whom he is deified ; 
 Beneath the chirimoya 
 
 And ceiba's fringy tent, 
 His trembling tribal children 
 
 Join in the sacrament! 
 
 Tlilli. Here let, us drain the chirimoya's fount 
 Of fragrance; till our spirits drowse upon 
 The warming breezes, like those flower-bells 
 Wherefrom the wings of morning-dew have fled 
 Before the flocking sunbeams, and the flight 
 Of broad-winged butterflies as bright as they: 
 Upward, the leafless forest crowds, with lure 
 Of white and golden blossoms on the bare 
 Outstretching limbs the changing year re-clothes, 
 Above the hedge, whose sheltering gown infolds 
 The flowery garden from a stranger's eye. 
 And our thatched cottage only overpeeps 
 Entwining bushes to assure us safe. 
 
 Chimalman, Within the hedge the sweetest roses blow. 
 
 Tem. Along the open highway glides my gaze 
 To the broad terrace throning Tulan's king; 
 Rarer the blossoms cherished at Palpan. 
 
 10 
 
Chim. Upon the wayside, thorns and pebbles lie, 
 And many paces stretch from here to there. 
 
 Tl. Sisters ! Along the palace steps, a flock 
 Of maids, attired and tongued like paroquets 
 Shrieking across the carven gateway's gods, 
 Bear a long chain of buckets, from the lake; 
 And others writhe like monkeys, back and forth. 
 Naked and dripping, till the stones are scoured 
 White as Iztaccihuatl's coverlet, 
 Worthy to face the glories of the sun. 
 
 Tem. (Sings.) 
 
 Adobe walls my father's house ; 
 
 Of rushes is our roof entwined; 
 But for the King of Tulan's spouse 
 
 A spacious mansion is designed: 
 Of feathers from a tinted bird. 
 
 Her mantle is; gold-hung, her gown; 
 Ah! might some kindly god afford 
 
 To change, for hers, my robe of brown! 
 
 Chim. (Sings.) 
 
 Her roses climb a marble wall, 
 
 A simple trellis bears my flowers ; 
 She listens to the fountain's call. 
 
 The mountain brook delights my hours ! 
 The golden chains of high estate 
 
 Confine her to a small demesne; 
 Fetterless as a bird's, my fate! 
 
 I would not change for Tulan's queen! 
 11 
 
Tem. Contented one, not empty fancy fills 
 My head, with dizzy joy anticipant; 
 For Ochpaniztli, summer's festival. 
 Discovered me to the discerning eye 
 Of Tecpancaltzin, Tulan's sovereign. 
 The black-haired one, our elder sister here, 
 Was of the mother-queen's attendant maids, 
 And I among the dancers drew his gaze 
 By that soft mien that won my name " The Dream " ! 
 You, little one, too young for palace pride, 
 Saw not the look, nor heard his words of praise : 
 Who says, Temictli should not thence aspire, 
 "Fairest of maids," by Tulan's king declared? 
 A thousand roses should delight you then. 
 Dear Chimalman, as sister of the queen ! 
 
 Chim. Ah, is it so, then? Shadow of destiny. 
 Blight not our garden, prithee! but depart! 
 
 (Sings.) 
 Hast thou been far? How should I say? 
 
 With me art thou, asleep or awake. 
 Painting my dreams ; and my eardrops betray. 
 
 Thy trembling image, my life-pulses shake. 
 
 Tem. Were it but you, how true your words would be. 
 Chim. Home-roses please my heart. No canker eats 
 
 Their tender petals by court jealousies. 
 Tl. What will the roses say, if dewy mouths 
 
 Twinning their sweetness, hearts disclose of gall? 
 
 If Tecpancaltzin truly should observe 
 
 12 
 
The beauty of Temictli, pleasant would 
 
 Our duty be, to doubly honor her 
 
 As sister cherished and as queen adored. 
 
 (Sings.) 
 Climbing the clifF, I thee beheld one perfect hour, 
 
 Lovely as myrtle by my side ! 
 My heart thou pluckest, as I pluck a flower ! 
 
 Alas, our onward paths divide ! 
 Mine only is the memory, maiden dear ! 
 Where fall thy footsteps, love shall follow near! 
 
 Tem. (Speaks.) 
 
 Solid as any epitaph my facts. 
 Although you flout them. Should I further go. 
 To state what glances and what messages 
 Revolved in buzzing circles round my charms, — 
 But Chimalman is dreaming! Tlilli laughs! 
 For sympathy, commend myself to gods ! 
 
 Tl. Look to the chirimoya for your peer, 
 Temictli, even within your sisters' eyes. 
 Sated with charm familiar ; but the queen 
 Of Tulan by her sovereign nature rules. 
 If, in your bosom, thoughts magnanimous 
 Temper the fires of pride, and constancy 
 Steadies the arm of resolution 'gainst 
 Assaults of flattery and self-regard, — 
 Such queenly nature might demand a king: 
 Spoil not our pleasure with unreason's frown ; 
 Friends give one softer state, than a thousand slaves. 
 
 13 
 
(Sings.) 
 A queen's heart must a palace be 
 
 Fair of design; 
 Not lovelier in symmetry 
 
 Its outward line, 
 Than in perspective of bright rooms 
 
 For regal state. 
 Dim chambers and mysterious glooms 
 
 Love-consecrate ; 
 A throne for the judiciary 
 
 Of courtiers' care ; 
 A charming nest, where melody 
 
 May friends ensnare; 
 A chapel, — where the queen resides, 
 
 God-reconciled ; 
 And many a pretty corner bides, 
 
 Soft for a child ! 
 So various must her nature be 
 
 For sovereign might; 
 A palace beautiful, is she 
 
 In the king's sight! 
 
 Tem. Ah, but the bright eye lures the bird withal; 
 And eagle-wings, shiningest locks entangle! 
 
 (Sings.) 
 Pattern of kingliness, he ! 
 Voice like a roar of the sea. 
 Storm-cloud the jet of his hair. 
 Lightning his glances declare; 
 14 
 
Where may the equal serene 
 Find, for such kingship, a queen? 
 
 Cheek of magnolia bloom, 
 Eyes deep as midforest gloom, 
 Foot of the antelope fleet. 
 Throat of the canyon wren sweet; 
 Brave-heart his power disowns. 
 Beauty beside him enthrones. 
 
 Frail as the maguey flower 
 Sword-leaves encircle in power. 
 She by his sovereignty held, 
 He by her loveliness quelled; 
 Honeys of maguey, her charm 
 Soon may the conqueror disarm ! 
 
 Tl. Did Meconetzin, piercing the tough rind 
 First, at the root of that tall waving plume 
 Of cloudlike blossom, taste its secret sweet 
 And drive all revellers with mezcal mad, 
 Merely that parrot-shrieking vanity 
 Might, in such likeness, self intoxicate? 
 Still in Palpan, the throne's unoccupied, 
 And rich in ancestry alone are we. 
 
 (Sings,) 
 Whiteness of dawn up the parapet ran 
 Of that fortress of ancientry, fabled Aztlan! 
 Their myriads out-peopling the fields of their sires, 
 
 15 
 
Arose the rude Aztecs, ere daylight expires : 
 Beyond their White City, by forest and stream, 
 They followed to eastward, the lure of a dream ; 
 Borne on the bosom of Lake Chapallan, 
 Too soon were they parted from mother Aztlan. 
 
 The Hummingbird-god and his sister led on; 
 Till, discord unknotting a clan's unison, 
 Popocatepetl, enthroned in the clouds. 
 Frowned down from his smoke-wreaths on quarreling 
 
 crowds : 
 Through a fair verdant valley, his sister forsook 
 The brother whose dearness her city's name spoke ; 
 But brother Mexitl the mountains o'erran. 
 And settled his folk on the plain of Tulan. 
 
 Oh, Place of the Sun ! By the hand of a god 
 Were thy hesitant tribes weaned from older abode. 
 To the shining Atoyac meandering below 
 The Hill of the Serpents, whose battlements show 
 Pie-colored and gay as the hummingbird wing 
 That emblems Mexitl, their founder and king, — 
 Thou, Huitzilopochtli ! more godhead than man. 
 Whose foresight provided our palace, Palpan. 
 
 Tem. Palpan, the many-colored paradise, 
 Whose rainbow walls and sculpture-guarded gates 
 Beguile fantastic dreams from humdrum toil, — 
 There might a slave kneel by a sandstone mill 
 Grinding my bread, as I reclined at ease. 
 
 16 
 
Tl. Lazy Temictli, turn those busy eyes 
 Upon our gate; this labor you enjoy 
 To gaze abroad! Now, tell what stranger comes. 
 
 Tem. Taller than Tecpancaltzin, our great king, 
 Shining of countenance, reverend of mien 
 As high-priest of Mexitl, — I admire 
 Some prince approaching! On his will, await! 
 
 Tl. Down to the wicket, sisters, fleetly go ! 
 (Exit Tlilli and Temictli,) 
 
 Chim. Kings have no import on a morning fair, 
 And the hummingbird flickers emerald through my 
 
 flowers ; 
 Drink at the lily's cup, sweet messenger 
 Of deity, and tell me of thy lord. 
 
 {Sings,) 
 Say, red rose ! Which of the spirits kissed 
 
 Thee into being, whom knew I not yestre'en.? 
 Which of the stars condescends to assist 
 
 Thee, white rose, to become a star terrene? 
 Butterfly, resting upon the bush, I pray 
 Is it thy wing that waves in the yellow rose-spray ? 
 (Speaks.) Aye! but I shiver; for the motmot skims 
 Into the covert, as though refuge seeking 
 And a hawklike hovering cloud, pausing a moment, 
 Steals from my flowers their gorgeous coloration. 
 When Tlaloc lifts his vase again, is season 
 Enough for thee ! Fly, cloud, and leave the sun 
 Shining again upon his Toltec child. 
 And yet, a fear more tangible than cloud, 
 
 17 
 
Drives me to follow motmot to his lair; 
 How very soft the zephyr ! Yet, I tremble I 
 
 (Enter Quetzalcoatl, floating as a spirit i/n the air, 
 
 unseen to the mortal maid. ) 
 QuETZALcoATL. (Singing,) 
 
 Xochitlycacan ! 
 
 How far from thy gate 
 
 Thy son is exiled, 
 
 The plaything of fate ! 
 
 How dull and abhorred 
 
 Are flowers of Tulan 
 
 Compared to thy blooms, 
 
 Xochitlycacan ! 
 
 Xochitlycacan ! 
 
 The Place of the Rose ! 
 
 What evil impelled 
 
 My pranking jocose? 
 
 Forbidden the tree, 
 
 I laughed at the ban 
 
 And plucked of thy flowers, 
 
 Xochitlycacan ! 
 
 Xochitlycacan ! 
 The paradise blest 
 With only one law, 
 Our Father's behest ; 
 Four brothers were we 
 Who the heavens o'erran, 
 18 
 
Till I stumbled from grace, 
 Xochitlycacan ! 
 
 Xochitlycacan ! 
 Divinities dwell 
 Serene in thy shade, 
 Who never rebel; 
 I wander forlorn, 
 Neither godhead nor man, 
 And long for thy bliss, 
 Xochitlycacan ! 
 
 Xochitlycacan ! 
 One rose have I hid 
 More golden of heart, 
 More fragrance bespread. 
 More brilliant of hue 
 Than these of Tulan ; 
 It fades in earth-air, 
 Xochitlycacan ! 
 
 Chim. Oh, but a dream of Paradise is mine; 
 A great and shining rose floats in the air 
 Like a comet, whose fragrant exhalation drowns 
 Every odor of my starlike older flowers! 
 What here portends? Paradise touches earth! 
 Within my hands I lift thee, loveliness 
 Celestial! whose sweet odors drown my fears. 
 A weakness of sweet ecstacy overcomes me! 
 Sisters, I tremble! Sisters, return! Wherefore 
 Do I know the gods are near, yet see them not? 
 
 19 
 
(Enter Citlalatonac, the god shadowmg through his 
 
 human semblance; on either side, the sisters TliUi 
 
 and Temictli advance, with adori/ng gestures.) 
 Tl. Where plucked you, Chimalman, that wondrous 
 flower, 
 
 Overf raught love torn from captivity ! 
 Tejm. Ah, but she must have stolen it from the 
 king ! 
 
 Have you a lover then, and tell us not? 
 Chim. No lover is mine, although all-loving I. 
 Tii. Pardon, good sir, our unpremeditated 
 
 Words; for such flowers bloomed not here be- 
 fore. 
 CiT. This flower must have grown in Paradise. 
 Chim. I breathe of Paradise, enfolding it; 
 
 Now am I blest, and do not need to die. 
 Tem. If gods hear blasphemy of Chimalman, 
 
 Not Tonaca-tecutli, the forgiving. 
 
 Even would show compassion for her sin. 
 Chim. The Lord of Life delights in worshippers ; 
 
 Who love his handiwork, himself they love. 
 Tl. Welcome the stranger with a gift, my sister ; 
 
 He comes from far Aztlan. Give him the rose. 
 
 Hasten, Temictli, for a draught of pulque. 
 
 Him to refresh who seeks our mighty king. 
 
 The rose, Chimalman! 
 (Temictli disappears into cottage-doorway.) 
 
 Chim. Paradise, lost to me? 
 
 Farewell, dear rose! Sir, pray accept the flower. 
 
 20 
 
CiT. More paradise blossoms by sowing paradise 
 In another's hand. This you will not regret. 
 
 {Temictli re-enters, carrying cup and pottery ewer on 
 her shoulder,) 
 
 Tem. Golden the cup which at Palpan is lifted 
 At the king's carouse ; but in our earthen mug 
 Dwells the same distillation blessing us. 
 They say Tezcatlipoca, the twin god, 
 Laid bare the maguey's secret to our sire, 
 Great Meconetzin, lately Tulan's king : 
 Heard you the song, that a pulque-inebriate 
 Poet went chanting, from the king's high feast? 
 
 {Sings.) 
 Who is the goddess of glistening hair, 
 
 Within the maguey hedge, 
 Against the Toltec's following prayer. 
 
 Raising a leaf's sword-edge? 
 Nymph of the desert or dark ravine. 
 
 Enshrined among the rocks. 
 She shuns the daylight's prying keen. 
 
 Shaking her milkwhite locks ; 
 But faces soft the rising moon, 
 
 Tezcatlipoca's hour. 
 And smiles upon their little son. 
 
 Child of the maguey flower ; 
 Him only, Meconetzin, she 
 
 Enfolds upon her breast. 
 Whose honey-sweetness magicly 
 
 Weaves visions for his rest; 
 21 
 
The mother-milk, with soft embrace 
 
 To Meconetzin given, 
 Now brings unto the Toltec race 
 
 All here they taste of heaven ! 
 
 CiT. Well-pleased with song, enlivened by the 
 draught, — 
 
 Thanks to you, sisters three ! Let me repose 
 
 An interval among the ceiba's roots. 
 
 Before my pilgrim-stafF is again in hand. 
 Tl. Our garden, flattered by your dalliance here. 
 
 Is yours, good stranger, while you choose to 
 stay! 
 Tem. Although unknown your name, be welcome here ! 
 CiT. I am Citlalatonac ; though, to you, 
 
 " The Burning-Star " is nothing but a name. 
 Tl. Grave your demeanor! And my memory gives 
 
 Clue to Citlalatonac only as 
 
 The name of godhead, first supremacy 
 
 Above the heavens ! Dustborn man are you ; 
 
 Yet as a god should be received, I pray 
 
 Accept our welcome, which is all we have. 
 
 Within our cottage, sisters, let us turn 
 
 For cookery to cheer our visitor. 
 CiT. Grateful your kindness to my weary sense. 
 
 As this delicious turfage at the root 
 
 Of twisted ceiba ; sweet be your return. 
 Tl. Chimalman, leave your flowers ; Temictli, run. 
 
 Fast are the hours, and far he goes ere noon. 
 {Exetmty the sisters,) 
 
QuETZALCOATL ( returning , sings.) 
 Xochitljcacan, 
 I wander forlorn 
 Having tasted the fruit 
 Disobedience-born ; 
 From Paradise thrust, 
 I, nor godhead nor man, 
 Find no pleasure on earth ; 
 Xochitlycacan ! 
 
 CiT. Thou, Quetzalcoatl ! 
 
 QuETZ. Mortal, dost thou see 
 
 Ethereal god-shape? Who, I pray art thou? 
 
 CiT. A friend of mourners. What is your distress ? 
 
 QuETz. Friend, of such subliminal sense thine eyes 
 Thus to observe, when earthly grossness fails, 
 Some brother-god must hide beneath thy clay ! 
 Not to the laughter of an idle god. 
 Would I betray my plight. Nevertheless, 
 Rightly you named me. Quetzalcoatl, I! 
 Alas ! Was I not happy on the height ? 
 What mischievous Tzitzimime accursed 
 Me, that a momentary flout of boyish pride 
 Caused me to overstep my sire's command? 
 Divine Rose-Garden, Xochitlycacan, 
 Above the thirteen heavens, waving soft 
 Hands of a thousand blossoms, at the feet 
 Of Tonaca-tecutli lord of all ! 
 My father, Tonaca-tecutli, who 
 Smiled at the rivalry of brothers four, 
 
The two Tezcatlipocas, black and red, 
 Huitzilopochtli, and unhappy me! 
 Alas ! alone in disobedience, 
 Who from the merry sports of brotherhood 
 Was thrust and all the joys of Paradise; 
 Because, forsooth ! from off the wondrous tree 
 At the garden's heart, covered with precious bloom, 
 The flowers of heavenly virtue, that delight 
 The eye unfadingly, which are forbid 
 Even the gods to gather from their stems, — 
 I ! the one fool in heaven ! Luckless I ! — 
 Recklessly tore, in showers of roses off, 
 Flinging them earthward. Rashness, I repented 
 Too soon ; but all the heavens were afloat 
 In roses ! And my father seeing, frowned 1 
 No word of menace ; but his will I knew. 
 And step by step through heavens my descent 
 Trod on the flowers that ordained my fall : 
 The gray Tzitzimime, the spiteful women, 
 Laughed as they twined my roses in their hair ; 
 And emerald-skirted Chalchiutlicue, 
 And Tlaloc, lord of rains, looked pitying. 
 For heaven's blossoms resting on the clouds 
 Informed the rainstorm with their fragrancy, 
 And earth as well as heaven knew my sins ! 
 Theirs the delight, and mine the bitterness ! 
 Below the thirteen heavens I have fallen; 
 No resting-place I find on earth awaiting 
 For, being no man, no earthly self is mine ; 
 Immortal banned, no mortal hope have I. 
 
 24 
 
CiT. Softens your heart by depth of loneliness? 
 Or does a glimmer pierce your darkling pride, 
 Of sympathy for grief your father feels? 
 
 QuETZ. Alas ! That sting I do not dare to feel ; 
 I dwell upon my own deep misery 
 Lest for a moment I remember his, 
 Who gazed on me with sorrow-darkened eyes. 
 
 CiT. Then to his pity may not you appeal. 
 Whereby to medicine your grief sincere? 
 
 QuETZ. Doubt not my courage, but I do not dare. 
 
 CiT. His anger still is menace, I presume? 
 
 QuETZ. Nay, his affection is too strong for rage: 
 I grovel in my sorrow at his feet 
 And dare not ask for pardon, knowing that 
 My careless sin betrayed how little love 
 I bore him, who so well had cherished me. 
 
 CiT. Renewed affection your excuses show. 
 
 QuETZ. Might he but know it is affection true, 
 More simple, more intense for his remove. 
 And not mere longing for the bliss of heaven; 
 Then would I plead re-entrance to his sight. 
 
 CiT. The lord of heaven would interpret truth. 
 
 QuETZ. Well might he doubt, when thus I failed before. 
 
 CiT. A loving son is readily believed. (Discloses him- 
 self in brightness.) 
 
 QuETZ. The Star that Burns! It is the Morning- 
 Star ! 
 Citlalatonac, thou? My father, here? 
 Thou, Tonaca-tecutli, come to earth, 
 Wherefore from heaven following the steps 
 Of thy unhappy offspring? 
 25 
 
CiT. To perceive 
 
 If cankerous pride had eaten deep thy heart, 
 Or wert thou ready to return to heaven? 
 
 QuETZ. This much of pride remains ; I could not bear 
 My brothers' taunts, the ridicule of heaven, 
 Should I return. 
 
 CiT. Remain until the scar 
 
 Of hatred heals ; love can out-laugh the scorners. 
 
 QuETZ. Here have I no existence. 
 
 CiT. I perceive 
 
 A way whereby to bring thee unto men, 
 Teaching of heaven while your hopes revive. 
 
 QuETZ. Again the brightness of the Morning-Star 
 Burns without blighting on an earthly hill : 
 The sisters three approach, and I unseen 
 Await your will when bidding them farewell. 
 
 CiT. They shall be instruments for your release. 
 
 (Enter Tlilli, TemictU, Chimalman, from cottage.) 
 Tl. Grave sir, I thought the garden was on fire. 
 Chim. My roses are not withered ! 
 Tl. Did you kindle 
 
 A beacon, sir, to call a messenger? 
 Chim. The rose upon his breast shines like a star ! 
 Tem. How warm the air! as though midsummer 
 
 reigned ! 
 Tl. I faint 1 Oh, sir, what fear upon me falls! 
 Chim. His raiment sparkles now at every seam! 
 Tl. Sir, have compassion ! — 
 
 Tem. Call the king, I pray ! — 
 
 26 
 
Chim. a thousand beams of lightning fill his hair! 
 Tl. Where shall I hide? The light is everywhere. 
 Tem. It is the Sun-god here on earth revealed. 
 Tl. My sin I know not — 
 Tem. Pride of mine, begone ! - 
 
 Never shall I be Tecpancaltzin's queen \ 
 Chim. Around myself, some delicate breeze imposes 
 
 Relief from godhead. Hither, sisters, run! 
 Tl. Farewell, Chimalman I Breath I hardly find,- 
 
 Upon the grass, I stumble, — Oh, I die ! — 
 {Falls to earth,) 
 
 Tem. All the dark horrors of the sun's embrace 
 Deprives of motion; sisters, fare-thee-well! 
 (Drops beside her sister.) 
 
 Chim. Alas ! I see the brilliance, but feel not 
 The blast of death that has my sisters slain. 
 Temictli, raise your head! Alas! so dully 
 It rolls beneath my touch. Tlilli, look up ! 
 Both dead? But, impossible! Oh, mighty lord. 
 Whosoever thou mayst be, help thou my two 
 Dearest of sisters, loveliest of girls ! 
 
 CiT. Their souls already to the abode of death, 
 Unshining Mictlan, have discerned the way. 
 
 Chim. Again the miserable brightness springs 
 Like a thin cloak about thee. Might it be 
 More like the sunshine, giving life again. 
 Than like the lightning fatal ! Tlilli, dear ! 
 Can you not lift your eyelids? Hark, Temictli! 
 
 a7 
 
A stir of feet along the highway comes. 
 
 Sisters, dear sisters, might you breathe again ! 
 CiT. They build the cross, thy spirit mounts to mine ; 
 
 Mourn for your sisters other time, my child; 
 
 Learn now what fate awaits you. 
 Chim. Cold misfortune 
 
 Has chilled my hearthfire till the end of time. 
 CiT. Fate wills you, mother of a god to be. 
 Chim. A woman's heart is prisoner in thy hands. 
 CiT. Only impurity is pressed away; 
 
 The gentle heart is warmed to life renewed. 
 Chim. Women are playthings for the mirth of heaven. 
 CiT. One, who, in heaven spurned his birthright 
 there, 
 
 And, fallen to earth, finds no admittance, begs 
 
 A mortal body for a penitent god, — 
 
 From Chimalman, whom maiden purity 
 
 As flawless blossom as in Tulan grows, 
 
 I find transfigured by this blow of fate 
 
 To likeness of the Rose of Paradise 
 
 Which I return, although so freely given. 
 
 Speak for thy sad despoiler. Heavenly Rose, 
 
 To the heart of Chimalman, until she sees 
 
 The floating Quetzalcoatl at her side. 
 
 Exiled from heaven, who eartWy life desires. 
 Chim. How am I suited for such mighty fate, 
 
 A simple maid, not worldly wise nor fair? 
 CiT. Fear not; although divinity appears 
 
 Again upon me in a shining cloud. 
 
 For thou hast shield against my majesty 
 
 28 
 
In purity like fleckless mountain snow. 
 
 Not Tlilli, wise in home and courtly ways, — 
 
 No, nor Temictli, by her beauty queen. 
 
 Might thus endure my plenitude of power. 
 
 The pride of knowledge or of loveliness 
 
 Is chafF upon the winds of heaven's will ; 
 
 But the kind heart remains, like golden grain 
 
 Gladdening the godhead more than a host of stars, 
 
 And the pure spirit is a kindred tie 
 
 Between a mortal and immortal sphere. 
 
 Chim. Tlilli! Temictli! 
 
 CiT. They are far from thee ; 
 
 Their bodily husks the grasses almost hide, 
 But Mictlan greets their souls, their truer selves. 
 
 Chim. No more to see them ! 
 
 CiT. When the blessed day 
 
 Dawns, when as mother, thou the god delight 
 By giving him a mortal residence. 
 Thou shalt be lightened of thine earthly woes 
 And dwell in heaven ; thence to wander freely 
 Upward to paradise, where reigned thy son, 
 Or down to Mictlan where thy sisters dwell. 
 
 Chim. Again we meet.'* 
 
 CiT. And never more be parted ! 
 
 Chim. Blessed the day — 
 
 CiT. Which heaven's blessing seals! 
 
 Chim. Thy will is mine, — 
 
 CiT. No longer broken-hearted ; 
 
 Chim. My sacrifice — 
 
 CiT. New hope for men reveals! 
 
(Enter Quetzalcoatl, floati/ng m the air, seen only to 
 Chimalman, as a pale green wraith, or a floating 
 emerald- stone.) 
 QuETZ. (Sings.) 
 
 Xochitlycacan ! 
 No longer I mourn 
 Thy vanished delights, 
 Nor wander forlorn ; 
 The heart of a maid 
 Creates me a man, 
 For a while I forget 
 Xochitlycacan ! 
 
 (He vanishes.) 
 
 CiT. A cloud in likeness of an emerald-stone 
 Enters the rosy lips of Chimalman. 
 
 Chim. Do I breathe or no? The world transfigured 
 Lies about me. I had thought, to the heavenborn 
 Of little worth terrestrial scenes would be; 
 Yet my uplifted sense discerns a glow 
 Unseen before in daylight. A thousand forms 
 Above, below, in water or in air, 
 Within the earth, my startled sense perceives, 
 Sounds, delicate perfumes, thoughts, immensities 
 Of feeling; yet I feel not overwhelmed 
 With riches. Supernatural is the flood 
 Of spiritual life I now inhale; 
 But the clear purport of my blessedness 
 Drawn from the fountain of celestial light. 
 Far-streaming from Citlalatonac's form, 
 
 30 
 
Is the fair vision of a floating god 
 Gazing on me with soft celestial looks 
 Of pleading for a birthright among men ; 
 And the warm breath of one desiring birth 
 Mingles with his that is the Lord of Life, 
 Until bright heaven all my veins informs : 
 Alas ! Mortality between two gods, 
 Maidenhood undefended, needs must yield. 
 
 CiT. A bride of godhead fears no earthly harm. 
 
 Chim. Unearthly terrors still harass her way. 
 The face of Quetzalcoatl disappears ! 
 
 CiT. Within thee, is he mystically born. 
 
 Chim. Am I still Chimalman? May twain be one? 
 Or all unknown to me have I divided? 
 Too young am I such mysteries to know. 
 
 CiT. Knowledge from older lips has not polluted 
 Thy tender mind, at its maturity 
 Blossom-like soft, though ripening at the heart; 
 Nor has a wind of chill experience 
 Toughened the sapling, nor has sin attacked 
 The delicate buds of promise unfulfilled. 
 Perfection of simplicity and truth 
 Must have attracted QuetzalcoatPs flight 
 To thee-ward, the one excellent piece of jade 
 Worthy to grace the bosom of a god ! 
 The one fair fountain undefiled, wherein 
 The Feathered-Serpent might regain a home 
 Without demeaning his divinity ! 
 
 Chim. Around my humble self a veil of light 
 Now gathers. 
 
 31 
 
CiT. Evermore to cover thee, 
 
 Until the day of motherhood arrives 
 And heaven opens to receive thy soul. 
 
 (Enter King Tecpancaltzin.) 
 
 Tec. Tlilli! Temictli! Where are the maidens 
 three 
 Herein who dwell? Are they destroyed by fire.'* 
 Pardon, grave sir ! I saw your light afar, 
 And feared some accident to those who give 
 My mother-queen court-service in Palpan. 
 Before my vassals, I arrive, from dread 
 Suspicion of attacking enemies. 
 The youngest sister's here. What means the blaze 
 So suddenly extinguished, though so bright? 
 
 Chim. It shines before you. Kneel to heaven's King! 
 
 Tec. Astonishment unloosens the stiff knees 
 Of royalty. I dare not further face 
 One, who in lightning clothes his majesty; 
 Yet is the simple maid more brave than I, 
 Monarch of Tulan, Tecpancaltzin, king. 
 Whom she has peradventure knelt before 
 Without my noticing a paltry child. 
 Serene her smile on him who dazzles me ; 
 Her face reflects the glories that I shun. 
 
 CiT. " The Morning-Star " shines upon " the Green- 
 Shield"; 
 Citlalatonac's bride is Chimalman, 
 Her tender bosom shall become the nest 
 For the Feathered-Serpent, godhead come to earth, 
 
When Quetzalcoatl, as her son, acquires 
 Life upon earth and place for penitence. 
 
 Tec. Peasant no more; but goddess, in the light 
 Reflected from divinity you wed! 
 I worship humbly before Chimalman. 
 
 CiT. A rose of paradise gleams in her hand. 
 As promise of the tender babe to be ; 
 And thenceforth be her earthly name " The Rose," 
 Xochitl, till she stands at Mictlan's gate 
 Demanding at my hand the promised key. 
 Opening to her the portals of all heavens ; 
 Thus, who Citlalatonac has espoused. 
 May find in spirit immortality. 
 
 Tec. An altar to Xochitl shall be raised. 
 
 CiT. Not before death. Womanly must she dwell, 
 Protected by strong-handed men from harm. 
 
 Tec. Palpan, the palace fortress that a god 
 Founded long since, twice-hallowed now becomes 
 Enshrining her, whose bridehood with a god 
 The Toltecs shall discover and revere, 
 When Tecpancaltzin to his throne returns. 
 (Rising,) 
 
 Qt. Fare-thee-well, Chimalman! Midnight shall 
 bring 
 My image to thy soul; the sunbeams carry 
 Messages from my heavenly height to thee. 
 Whom in the other world I shall await 
 Until thy faithful compact is performed. 
 Chim. Brief is the smile of heavenly regard. 
 
 33 
 
CiT. Earth is no dwelling-place for heaven's king; 
 Joys here abbreviated, shall renew 
 Sweeter for loss, in death's eternity. 
 {He disappears,) 
 
 Tec. Revives my courage as the brightness goes, 
 And heaven's lord to heaven's gate ascends. 
 
 Chim. My childish tongue falters at loneliness 
 Never endured before, nor to be expressed. 
 
 Tec. Madam, your king awaits, your faithful slave. 
 
 Chim. Gone is the moment of unfathomed love, 
 Gone are my sisters. 
 
 Tec. I behold them now. 
 
 Alas ! of feebler mould than you were these ! 
 
 Chim. The snake beside Temictli! Frighten it 
 Away ! The butterfly on Tlilli's hand ! 
 Everything knows them dead except my heart. 
 
 Tec. Madam, the field of sorrow here informs 
 Your recent home with mortuary gloom. 
 Permit me hither to command my slaves. 
 That due regard your sisters may receive 
 From priestly hands. First, shall they be removed 
 Into the chamber lately echoing 
 Their girlish laughter ; and a palanquin 
 For you shall, golden-tasselled, bring two maids 
 Upon you to attend, of noblest grade. 
 Worthy your state as Bride of Heaven's King. 
 
 Chim. Kindness relieves impatient sorrow's thrall; 
 Go, and return as suits your friendly will. 
 Whose courtesies I quietly await 
 34 
 
Alone with my dear Tlilli and Temictli, 
 Whom the far-spreading ceiba shadows now 
 From bright mid-morning. Not an hour away 
 Was their delicious rivalry of words. 
 Tec. Thus be your quality wdthin my state, 
 Guarded till death as Tecpancaltzin's queen. 
 (Exit Tecpancaltzin.) 
 
 Chim. (Wandering up and down.) 
 Hateful the robbery that silence makes, 
 Depriving me of the sweet melody 
 Awakened with their red lips' merry motion! 
 So pale their roses, and so dim their eyes! 
 Oh, grass, cover these forms unsisterlike ! 
 Cold Mictlan's breath I feel, and hear their sighs 
 Acknowledging life's impossibility. 
 Shall I believe the keys of death and birth, 
 Together laid in my so-ignorant hands. 
 Can reunite us three in sisterhood.'' 
 Yet unto heaven they may not follow me ; 
 Then into Mictlan would I gladly go ! 
 How is it possible I am a bride. 
 And that soft floating form, I saw as god. 
 Stirs now within me into human life.? 
 The bride of godhead, with his glory shrouded, 
 The trees our tent, the heavens my home to be. 
 And the bright hope of Quetzalcoatl's birth. 
 Are purpose of my being and its crown. 
 Almost again I feel that wondrous thrill 
 Of deity's illumination, through 
 
 35 
 
My flesh transformed and my uplifted mind; 
 
 Flowers, birds, and trees, and the surrounding hills 
 
 Into one sphere of radiance commingling 
 
 By that soft flood of overflowing light. 
 
 Melt to the sapphire of heaven's perfect hour. 
 
 (Sings,) 
 Whom to regard, my sisters or my spouse? 
 
 Whom to believe, the vows of death or love ? 
 Ah, might the former into life arouse. 
 
 Should I then so regret my lord's remove? 
 
 Unknown to me is love in earthly guise; 
 
 And death indeed is far more tangible. 
 Yet in his presence here I recognize 
 
 Proof of my love's exceeding miracle. 
 
 Beyond the skies ascends love from my heart. 
 
 While thirteen heavens between impose their 
 weight ; 
 
 Will he indeed some dream to me impart. 
 Whereby to find assurance of my fate? 
 
 How bright must shine the distant "Morning-Star," 
 Citlalatonac, for Chimalman's gaze 
 Thereby to glean her promised strength afar. 
 To live the allotted span of lonely days. 
 
 On either hand a phantom shadows me. 
 With lifted vials of sorrow and delight ; 
 36 
 
Alternate showers of joy and misery 
 Clarify eyes for their celestial sight! 
 
 (She bursts into weeping, raising her hands to the clear 
 heaven; while a palanquin appears at the gate, and 
 half-a-dozen male and female slaves enter. A maid 
 wraps a gold-weighted mantle around Chimalman, 
 whom she leads out of the garden to the litter* s side.) 
 
 (New York City, April 3, 1908.) 
 
 m 
 
TECPANCALTZIN 
 
 LlisT OF Characters 
 
 Tecpancaltzin, king of Tulan. 
 
 The Teoteuctli, or High-priest. 
 
 QuETZALcoATL, " Feathered Serpent,*^ foster-son of the 
 
 king. 
 Quetzalpetlatl, " Feathered Carpet " the king's 
 
 daughter, 
 Chalchihuitzl, " the Precious 
 
 Stone of Sacrifice y** known 
 
 once on earth as Chimalman. 
 Tlaloc, " Wine of the Earthy''\ Aztec gods. 
 
 lord of rains. 
 Chalchiutlicue, " The Emer- 
 
 ald-Skirtedy'' Tlaloc's wife. 
 
 (Scene: The garden of the king, upon Palpan.) 
 
 (Enter the Teoteuctli, with the king's two children, 
 
 Quetzalcoatl and Quetzalpetlatl.) 
 Teoteuctu. Frolicest thou enough, Quetzalpetlatl? 
 Rest thou awhile with me, by the ceiba's shade ; 
 While on the baby-god I wait, until 
 His foster-father, Tecpancaltzin, comes. 
 
 38 
 
Qp. Wert thou a butterfly, to play with me 
 
 To the limit of wishing ! Rest wearies my bones ; 
 
 My feet ache to be flying after the squirrels. 
 Teg. Words of a child are the flutter of locust wings, 
 
 Destructive to fruitful sense ; but the words of eld 
 
 Like humming of bees discover the honeycomb. 
 Qp. What is the daylight for but to play in? 
 Teg. Rest! 
 
 Would the flow'ret fade in the bud from excess of 
 heat. 
 
 Ere prime of beauty and pride of conquest come? 
 Qp. Little I understand in the storm of words 
 
 Blown from your cloudy beard ; but I delight 
 
 In the soft laugh that Quetzalcoatl gives, 
 
 Making a period ever as you pause. 
 QuETZ. Smile, too, Quetzalpetlatl ; are you sad? 
 Qp. I would be playing! No. What sadness is, 
 
 I have heard tell of, but I do not know ; 
 
 I am not sad, unless that means, " Keep still " ! 
 QuETZ. How many years have I, oh, Teoteuctli? 
 Teg. Twice must you live to know the Kin-Katun ; 
 
 Imix to Manik has your highness learned. 
 
 (Quetzalcoatl cov/nts on his fingers silently, then 
 speaks. ) 
 QuETZ. My years are seven ; yet I have been sad. 
 Teg. Sorrows of seven years are not so deep ! 
 But the king approaches. Prince, I beg of you 
 Stray not afar, lest Chevinic from the woods 
 Rush to ensnare you! Quetzalpetlatl, heed 
 
 89 
 
Your foster-brother's wish, till I return. 
 On Tecpancaltzin am I waiting called. 
 
 {Exit Teoteuctli.) 
 
 QuETZ. Girls are too ignorant to know of grief. 
 Qp. I have wept my birdie's death, and cried for 
 cakes ; 
 
 On homebound days, I have outwept the rain; 
 
 Is this not grief? 
 
 Qtz. Not such a grief as mine; 
 
 I heard a word dropped by your grandmother 
 Unknown to me before, and knowledge sought 
 From an old gardener who said that I, 
 Being a god and fostered by a king. 
 Was yet the saddest little elf he knew ; 
 Thenceforth a grief has held my seven years, 
 Making me feel more ancient than the priest. 
 
 Qp. Dear Quetzalcoatl, laugh again with me; 
 For the Teoteuctli will berate me so. 
 Seeing your holy dimples filled with tears. 
 
 Qtz. I am not crying; why do you gibe at me? 
 Know you the magic word I learned today? 
 
 Qp. Tell me ! 
 
 Qtz. Two syllables, — 
 
 Qp. And those are, — 
 
 Qtz. " Mother ! " 
 
 Qp. And only now, you learn that simple word? 
 
 Qtz. The priest kept still; I never knew I had one. 
 He only called me son of heaven's king. 
 
 40 
 
Qp. All men have mothers. 
 
 Qtz. I asked the gardener, 
 
 Who said that there are mothers even for gods, 
 And mine in heaven dwells ; he called her fair. 
 Her name was Chimalman, " The Emerald-Shield." 
 
 Qp. A fairy-tale, I am sure ! You are the king's son, 
 My brother. We will ask the Teoteuctli, 
 If you and Tecpanpilli, gone a-hunting, 
 Are not my father's son in equal grade. 
 
 Qtz. a fairy tale? I wonder. 
 
 Qp. Let us look for fairies. 
 
 Qtz. For fairies? 
 
 Qp. Like the lily's chime. 
 
 Your laughter rings ; already find you one ? 
 
 Qtz. Fairies are felt, not seen. 
 
 (Enter Tecpancaltzin and Teoteuctli.) 
 Qtz. Father, what joy ! 
 Tecp. My darling child, run to the palace shade ; 
 
 These sunny garden paths are not for you. 
 
 Where the golden lance of Iztli may transfix 
 
 Your rash intrusion to his hot domain. 
 
 Alas ! my daughter ! (He sighs.) 
 Qp. Father, the day is sweet; 
 
 Yet everywhere I stumble upon grief. 
 
 You weep, and Quetzalcoatl — 
 Teg. But not I ! 
 
 Gray-headed eld discards unworthy tears ; 
 
 Wrong things through water look still more awry. 
 Tecp. Play with your brother, child. 
 
 41 
 
Qp. Is he my brother? 
 
 Tecp. Your only brother ! Golden as the corn 
 
 Before the sun has singed its silken curls, 
 
 He is the pearl and wonder of Tulan; 
 
 Its only hope among black-headed churls. 
 
 Slave to his godship, he must satisfy 
 
 Your spirit's need henceforth. Inquire not why, 
 
 Tears stain my aged cheeks to speak of him; 
 
 Play as you will, while we discourse apart. 
 Qp. Think you Chevinic hide within the hedge. 
 
 Striped and wild as chipmunks.'^ Come, Quetzal- 
 coatl. 
 (The children wander through the garden.) 
 
 Teg. a rumor reached me, lord, grievous for you. 
 Tecp. For once, my friend, truth touched the lips of 
 
 rumor. 
 Teg. Your son is dead? 
 Tecp. With Tecpanpilli dies 
 
 All my ambition. 
 Teg. To be born anew 
 
 Bright-winged from the pale circle of despair; 
 
 My king is manlier than his speech appears. 
 Tecp. No! Like a cloud driven by the winds of 
 fate, 
 
 I feel and know some other grief awaits; 
 
 The spotted serpent, feeling its slow way. 
 
 Hisses a portent in the tangled grass. 
 
 My death means Tulan's fall. 
 Teg. Nay, but the girl? 
 
Tecp. Is but a girl, and softer than the most, 
 Made but for swans'down and the joys of life; 
 My only hope is the son of Chimalman, 
 Strong for his years, and intellectual 
 Beyond belief. He argues with me now 
 Quite manlike. Until Tecpanpilli died. 
 Jealousy bit my soul, that must perceive 
 Him thus superior to my real son; 
 When Tecpanpilli died, pride fell to ground, 
 With him, my only son! 
 
 Teg. No less admired, 
 
 Your royal son was, born of earth, than he 
 Called child of godhead, Quetzalcoatl, here. 
 
 Tecp. The golden breastplate of my hope he was, 
 Crown of my conquest, and a second realm 
 Wherein I ruled far more en joy ably 
 Than in Tulan. My son had only fault 
 Of being human ; otherwise I saw 
 No speck nor spot in his industrious mind. 
 That found out mischief ere it wisdom craved; 
 Though Quetzalcoatl be a paragon, 
 My joy and Tulan's hope were in my son. 
 These half-tamed tribesmen loved the boisterous 
 
 lad; 
 And their assault on Quetzalcoatl threatens. 
 Deeming his advent luckless omen for 
 Prince Tecpanpilli and Tulan's estate. 
 Guard him, good priest, although my hopes be dead ; 
 For grisly death sits beside Tulan's throne. 
 
 Teg. What stirs among the feathered pampas-grass 
 Like emanation of desires to fly.? 
 
 43 
 
Tecp. The spotted serpent shivers last year's skin 
 Upon their roots, and crawls to vivid sheathe. 
 
 Teg. Have I again mistakenly discerned 
 The road by fortune most serenely trod? 
 These many days ago, a noble lord 
 Entreated that the feast of Tlaloc be 
 More highly honored with the sacrifice. 
 Not only of a thousand village babes, 
 But one more exquisite of form and mind 
 Than ever Aztec infant was revealed. 
 Could my refusal thus have drawn rebuke 
 From heaven and Tlaloc, stealing in the place 
 Of Quetzalcoatl immature, thy son 
 Prince Tecpanpilli ? Might I choose again ! 
 
 Tecp. No, it is fate. Nor is the deed recalled ; 
 The fatal spear, by other hand discharged. 
 That slew my son, was heaven's thunderbolt 
 Drawn to some misdeed of my own, not yours. 
 
 Teg. The children's sport disturbs my grieving king. 
 
 Tecp. No, no ! grief would drive mad in solitude ; 
 The children may divert me. Bring them hither. 
 
 Teg. The townsfolk call our Quetzalcoatl god. 
 Forgetting Chimalman's inconsequence. 
 
 Tecp. God in a man made visible, who knows ? 
 Stranger than this is fate. 
 
 Teg. a godhead, he? 
 
 He is no better than a village brat, 
 Whom the kind hand of Tecpancaltzin decks 
 In shining garments like his royal son ; 
 Dreadful his horoscope. 
 
 4«4< 
 
Tecp. Tell it again. 
 
 Teo. Fame has discovered that his grandfather 
 
 First drained the maguey's juices, and his fate 
 
 Is thus foretold by the holy oracle : — 
 
 " Son of the maguey shall be Tulan's king ; 
 
 Soul of the maguey shall be Tulan's fall." 
 Tecp. Drunkenness is disgrace, the riddle reads ; 
 
 Strait be his path, and Tulan is unshaken. 
 
 Look where my daughter and he play together ! 
 
 What is it that he sees? 
 ( The two children run towards King Tecpancaltzin, ) 
 
 Qtz. a spirit comes ! — 
 
 Qp. I see it not. 
 
 Qtz. Or goddess more divine. 
 
 Qp. Where is she? 
 
 (Enter Chalchihuitzl, floating,) 
 Qtz. Tremulous as a bird's wing beats 
 
 My heart, and I pant to run into her arms. 
 
 Oh, magical warmth! Oh, wonder! Who is she? 
 Qp. Humanity dims my sight. Where is she seen? 
 Ch. Child! 
 
 Qtz. Where is the meaning? 
 
 Ch. Son ! 
 
 Qtz. Oh, no ! 
 
 Is it my mother thus that I behold? 
 Qp. Father, he raves ! The sun deludes his eyes. 
 Tecp. Be silent and observe. 
 
 Teo. His eyes are stars. 
 
 45 
 
{The two men kneel to the right and Quetzalpetlatl 
 kneels to the left of Quetzalcoatl; Chalchihmtzl bends 
 above the boy^ having been once his ntvother, " Chim- 
 almanJ'^) 
 
 Ch. The precious stone of sacrifice, am I, 
 Encircled by the kindly care of heaven 
 For that soft deed which consecrated me, 
 My body being a doorway unto earth 
 For him, a god, who is now a little child: 
 Son ! Does there linger in your ignorant heart 
 One trembling fibre to proclaim you mine? 
 
 Qtz. Mother ! Why, it seems, I had always known 
 my mother! 
 
 Qp. Out of the sunshine come, dear Quetzalcoatl. 
 
 Qtz. My mother shields me from his evil rays. 
 
 Tecp. My son, your mother is not here today. 
 
 Qtz. Assuredly she smiles upon me now. 
 
 Teo. Children who contradict are worse than 
 wasps. 
 
 Qtz. There is no question, for her hand is laid 
 Upon mine own. Silence! she speaks to me! 
 
 Tecp. Shelter your fear within the palace walls, 
 Quetzalpetlatl! You are all I have. 
 
 Qp. Can he perceive what I do not? I run. 
 {Exit Quetzalpetlatl.) 
 
 Teo. This grove of cypress and entangled vines 
 May shelter us. 
 
 (The men rise and retire to left background.) 
 46 
 
Tecp. a shiver in the grass 
 
 Murmurs a fear sepulchral. Sit here beside your 
 
 king; 
 Oh, kindly guard of wisdom's treasury, 
 My peer in kingdom of long years are you ! 
 Listen to the little god ! I look in vain. 
 Her to behold whom he as mother calls. 
 
 Teo. It is hallucination of the heat ; 
 Or we mistake, from gross mortality, 
 This apperception of diviner things. 
 
 Tecp. Were it but true, and Chimalman alive ; 
 Might Tecpanpilli, too, return and speak! 
 
 Qtz. My mother! 
 
 Ch. Little son ! 
 
 Qtz. a plain old man 
 
 Taught me that word today, — only today ! 
 
 Ch. It called me from beyond the gates of death ; 
 Your lisping voice was heard by all the gods. 
 For a child's heart can rise through thirteen heavens, 
 Above omnipotence in tender power. 
 
 Qtz. Suppose I had not called? 
 
 Ch. You had not seen! 
 
 Often have I observed you, like the moon 
 O'erhanging your small meadowland of life 
 At intervals ; but like a slumbering flower. 
 You took no notice of the caressing face. 
 Until, today, some fortunate breeze shook off 
 The dews of sleep, and the flower saw the moon. 
 
 Qtz. The more I know, the more I then shall see.'' 
 
 Ch. Deeper the world appears to the widening mind. 
 
 47 
 
Qtz. Is heaven fair? 
 
 Ch. a solitude of peace. 
 
 Where he who wed me is a god eterne ; 
 My sisters two gaze upward from Mictlan 
 And often woo me to that dark abode, 
 In sisterhood renewing earthly joys; 
 But loneliness invades the realm of heaven, 
 And loneliness abides in calm Mictlan: 
 Eternal life, eternal death, I know ; 
 But not the embraces of my little boy. 
 
 Qtz. Ah! Return hither! 
 
 Ch. Sacrifices may 
 
 Never be offered twice, nor be recalled. 
 
 Qtz. See, I am lonely, too. I learned today 
 Of sadness and my mother. I attain 
 Manhood and dare to ask with you to go. 
 
 Ch. My little man of seven years ! There spreads 
 A labyrinth of fortune at your feet, 
 To make mankind more happy and more wise! 
 Heaven is ever open to your sight; 
 The gods await your beckoning command; 
 Here is a sacrifice for you to make. 
 Still to abide among base-thinking men 
 And lead them nearer heaven ere you go. 
 
 Qtz. My thoughts are weary, climbing up to yours. 
 
 Ch. Arise in arms ethereal ! Lay your head 
 Shining so godlike through its case of clay 
 Upon my insubstantial breast, and strain 
 Warm thrilling hands around my formless arm. 
 {Chalchihuitzl lifts her son to her bosom.) 
 48 
 
Tecp. He rises like a moth into the air. 
 
 Teg. Tremble to worship in his presence dread. 
 
 Qtz. There always seemed a lack, — I knew not what, 
 
 Until this precious moment brought you here. 
 Ch. My bird has reached the nest he never knew. 
 
 And hungry were my arms him to enfold. 
 Qtz. Today I learned of sadness. Now, I know 
 
 What happiness may veritably be. 
 Tecp. The naked sun a cloak of cloud puts on. 
 Teg. Shall we retreat before the rising storm .f^ 
 Tecp. Deserting thus a child? I tarry here. 
 Qtz. Who comes .'^ 
 
 Ch. Two friendly gods. 
 
 Qtz. And jewels of rain. 
 
 (Descend from heavy clouds above, Tlaloc and 
 Chalchiutlicue. ) 
 Ch. Their treasury is limitless ; for, see. 
 First enters Tlaloc in his trailing robes 
 Of filmy gray, and feet with lightning shod; 
 Followed by her who rules the waters, binds 
 Her emerald skirts beneath a rainbow, zone. 
 And leaping diamonds star them like the skies. 
 They sing a lullaby for you and me. 
 And every tree sends pattering echo up 
 For little man who sways in mother's arms. 
 
 Chalchiutlicue. (Sings.) 
 Comest thou, brother! 
 
 From the palace foursquare.'' 
 49 
 
From the tumult and smother 
 
 Of courtiers, and glare 
 Of their torches, among the amazing 
 Dark mist of their armament hurriedly raising? 
 
 Tlaloc. (Sings.) 
 
 Comest thou, sister! 
 
 From Tlalocan paced 
 Beside me? Whom lustre 
 
 Of spirit has placed 
 Co-monarch of clouds, in your shining 
 Convoy of subtle green serpents entwining? 
 
 Chue. 
 
 Thou comest! To follow 
 
 Where, in the deep azure 
 A goddess has traversed the hollow 
 
 Abyss, there to trace her 
 Soft presence, and warm the dull air 
 Lest she die of an earthly despair! 
 
 Tl. 
 
 Thou comest! To warn her 
 
 No goddess abides ! 
 Heavenflung is the cry of the mourner; 
 
 Where godhead resides 
 In the heavens above sorrow and cloud, 
 Nor remembers how death weaves a shroud. 
 
 Both. 
 
 Shadowy courts of the Rain-King! 
 Shattered are vases four, 
 50 
 
And showers of pearls are breaking 
 
 Among oceanic uproar 
 Where the serpents of lightning wallow 
 Along each riverbed shallow. 
 
 Chue. Tlaloc ! The valleys smoke unto thy praise ! 
 Tl. Chalchiutlicue ! Rivers reflect thy serpents' 
 
 ways! 
 Chue. Our crashing cymbals re-echo along the clifts! 
 Tl. Each slave of ours his rainy vase again uplifts ! 
 
 Chue. (Sings.) 
 
 Upon earth's ancient altar-stone, 
 
 The daylight's sacrificial fire 
 Relumes each heart, that would atone 
 
 With prayer as all its hopes expire ; 
 The hand of fortune lifts a blade 
 Whose purpose have no tears gainsaid. 
 
 Tl. Oh, fonder mother of thy child. 
 
 Whom she in nursing has not lost ! 
 
 Chimalman is the victor mild 
 
 Though death from motherhood divorced; 
 
 Oh, heaven itself resigns to her 
 
 The key to entrance everywhere! 
 
 Chue. We are passing with the clouds, Chimalman! 
 Hasten thou! The daylight of gods only shines 
 Momentarily, lest the earth dissolve in its glory. 
 
 Ch. I must return. Boy, I adore! As a storm 
 
 51 
 
In the mountains beats thy heart! 
 
 As the depth of heaven, my love for thee 
 
 Surrounds, imbreathes, eternally beyond 
 
 Storm-stress or heart-yearn, thee awaiting, son! 
 Tl. Incense of earth, the grateful land is sending 
 
 Bird-song and cattle-cry of thankfulness ; 
 
 Chimalman, god-wed, thou art claimed afar! 
 Ch. Grateful am I, that he who wedded me, 
 
 God though he be, forbids not to remember ! 
 
 Chue. (Sings.) 
 
 Iztli has rent the sacred veil 
 
 By Tlaloc grayly woven. 
 And freshly warm his darts assail 
 
 Though the heart of earth be cloven : 
 His sharpened lights for sorrow poise; 
 
 Too bright for death's behooving 
 Is that open breast, whose tender joys 
 
 He may not smite for loving! 
 
 Tl. (Sings.) 
 
 Tlillan enthrals the murky crew. 
 
 Whom Tlaloc summoned hither ; 
 Serpents of Chalchiutlicue 
 
 To purple cloudland gather ; 
 Oh, ancient altar-stone of fate! 
 
 Whereon forever trembles 
 Some victim ! Bolts of Zuiven wait, 
 'Neath which the altar crumbles ! 
 (Exeunt upwards, Tlaloc and Chalchiutlicue.) 
 52 
 
Ch. As they withdraw along the brightening hills, 
 
 I must desert my smiling son awhile. 
 Qtz. Mother ! 
 Ch. But not forever ! For, today, 
 
 The sceptre of a king I give to you ; 
 
 The priest and king approach. Slip to the grass, 
 
 Dear baby, and confront them as a god. 
 
 (Tec pane alt zin and Teoteuctli come towards therriy as 
 Quetzalcoatl reaches the ground.) 
 
 Teg. My lord, the shining grasses steam with death: 
 Let me assist you to the palace gate. 
 Now for the first time, I know you divine. 
 
 Tecp. Child! Is the mother gone, you dreamed 
 about ? 
 
 Qtz. No, she approaches you. 
 
 Tecp. I see her not. 
 
 Ch. The King of Tulan drained his cup of pride 
 While slipped two katuns through time's fingertips ; 
 Children and wife, and slave and man-at-arms. 
 Have kept his sovereignty inviolate: 
 But the pale clutches of impatient chance 
 Upset the beaker! Wife and promising son 
 Have entered Mictlan's sacred land of death. 
 Oh, Tecpancaltzin, greedy of a crown! 
 Are you to govern a deserted home.f^ 
 Think of the son whom Mictlan shelters now! 
 
 Tecp. Ah, Tecpanpilli! Why does all desire 
 Die when remembering your departed youth.'' 
 
 Qtz. My mother speaks to you. 
 
 53 
 
Tecp. Ah, was it she? 
 
 Death would I far prefer to lonely state. 
 
 Ch. As Chimalman laid merry youth aside 
 To bring Lord Quetzalcoatl into life, 
 So shall you lay aside an earthly crown 
 For him and Chimalman, to follow forth 
 Your heart's desire, your son, into Mictlan. 
 
 Tecp. Dreary is death; but Tecpanpilli died. 
 
 Teg. My lord! Regard your health! For circum- 
 stance 
 Of royalty forbids denying life; 
 Desertion, no vicissitudes excuse! 
 
 Ch. (Floating nearer.) 
 
 My chilly palm caresses from your brow 
 
 The furrows that a crown has there impressed. 
 
 Tecp. Weariness like a shroud envelopes me. 
 {Tec pane alt zin sinks to the ground, and dies.) 
 
 Teg. My king! 
 
 Qtz. Oh, mother ! Cure my fathers' ill ! 
 
 Ch. Your heavenly father has proclaimed you king. 
 Teg, Furious serpent, sliding through the grass, 
 
 A jewel hast thou sheltered in thy fangs! 
 
 Insidious death! Tulan so poor appears! 
 
 The king is sleeping surely ! I run for aid ! 
 
 Lord Quetzalcoatl, leap into my arms. 
 
 That I may shelter you and help the king. 
 Qtz. Father ? 
 
 Teg. He hears not. 
 
 Qtz. Mother ! 
 
 54 
 
Ch. He is blessed. 
 
 Qtz. He sleeps? 
 
 Teo. And wakens to his murdered son. 
 
 Qtz. He wakens not! 
 
 Teo. Alas! You are the king; 
 
 For Tecpancaltzin mourns his son no more, 
 And I must hide you, ere the Toltecs know 
 Their mutinous land is governed by a babe. 
 
 Ch. Farewell, sweet son ! In kingly pride, remember 
 Your mother still she is, in heaven who dwells! 
 {Eocit Chalchihuitzl.) 
 
 Qtz. How sweetly he is smiling. 
 
 Teo. Little god ! 
 
 Such smiling rises to us from a depth 
 No living man can penetrate and know. 
 
 (Enter Quetzalpetlatl.) 
 Qp. Have spirit-visitors gone, Quetzalcoatl ? — 
 
 Father! 
 Teo. Silence, dear children, and together kneel 
 
 As I entone a prayer to bless his sleep ! 
 Then must our fugitive selves escape, before 
 The brutal rage of sudden-wakened men. 
 Alas, the oracle who spoke of you ; — 
 " Son of the maguey shall be Tulan's king ! " 
 Besides the reverend and tender man 
 Whose fostering hand uplifted Quetzalcoatl 
 From the unmothered infant's pitiful bed 
 To couch as kings do, — promise, little man! 
 
 55 
 
That as he lived, you will desire to be! 
 
 Lest that unhappy oracle prevail, 
 
 And " Soul of the Maguey shall be Tulan's fall." 
 Qtz. I love my father, and his will is mine. 
 Teg. Repeat : I promise ! 
 
 Qtz. Such I promise too. 
 
 (The children, at the old mart's imperative gesture, 
 
 kneel, ) 
 
 Teo. (Chants,) 
 
 Great Tonaca-tecutli, who has used 
 
 Weapon so weak to lower upstart men, 
 We prayed to keep a well-loved king. Refused, 
 
 A spotted serpent draws him to Zuiven. 
 
 Proud fangs of death ! Spurning the monarch's crown, 
 Soften thy clutch upon his human soul; 
 
 Lest errant fact, by practice overthrown. 
 Deform its promise of celestial goal. 
 
 And he, whose winged childhood climbs the height 
 
 Of empire, by a moment's wizardry! 
 Be he confirmed in wisdom and in light. 
 
 Securely faithful to the divine decree ! 
 {He rises, takes a child by each hand, and walks de- 
 jectedly away,) 
 
 (New York City, May 21, 1908.) 
 
 56 
 
.Aztec gods. 
 
 TEOTEUCTti 
 
 List of Charactees 
 
 QuETZALCOATL, " Feathered Serpent" 
 
 king of Tulan, 
 
 Tezcatlipoca, " Smoking Mirror,'* his 
 
 heavenly brother, 
 
 Teoteuctu, " Divine Lord,** pontiff. 
 
 HuEiTEOPrxQui, " High-priest,**^ ^^, 
 
 ^ « . . » i- Hts attendants, 
 
 Teopixciui, priest, J 
 
 Naca, " Flesh,** the victim. 
 
 Quetzalpetlatl, " Feathered Carpet,** foster-sister of 
 
 the king. 
 
 Ilantli, " Old Woman,** her grandmother, 
 
 Ome, " Second,** 1 Toltec girls, attending Quetzal- 
 
 Yey, " Third,** | petlatl. 
 
 {Scene: — Interior of a small temple, placed on top of 
 the pyramidal Teocalli, in the outskirts of the royal 
 city,) 
 
 {Priests and People seen passing before door, arovmd 
 sacred terrace, bringing statue of idol, newly-dressed 
 for the spring festival in its honor.) 
 
 57 
 
Priests and People. {Outside chanting.) 
 
 Scarlet was the robe he wore, the great Tezcatlipoca ! 
 
 Shield and arrows in one hand; in the other, a lance 
 of justice! 
 
 Terrible his frown, beneath a crown of partridge 
 feathers ! 
 
 Now is the earth renewed! Now are the rains de- 
 scending ! 
 
 Like earth to continual showers, his heart grows soft 
 to our pleading! 
 
 Aside he flings the bloody mantle of justice, standing 
 
 Midnight-black, and wound with gold as the clouds 
 with lightning! 
 
 Divinely black, as the marble image which we wor- 
 ship, 
 
 Decking with golden bracelets, breastplate, ear-rings, 
 hair-cord ! 
 
 Precious things, bestowed in the treasury of his 
 power. 
 
 Emeralds swing from the lip and shine over its dark 
 body; 
 
 Glass in the sockets resembles twinkling eyes of 
 heaven ; 
 
 The mirror of truth, adorned with golden feathers, 
 
 Waves in its shapely left, outholding the right hand 
 to mercy ! 
 
 (Quetzalcoatl enters the temple, with TeoteuctU and 
 two priests who carry idol to its shrine behind the 
 altar. They step aside, while TeoteuctU speaks: — ) 
 
 58 
 
Teo. Fortress of justice, in garden of mercy, thoul 
 
 Tower of strength, Tezcatlipoca, thou! 
 
 He will answer your supplications, oh people ! 
 
 Fearful as squirrels? Never Tezcatlipoca! 
 
 Harelike timorous? Never Tezcatlipoca! 
 
 Like squirrels his foes, and run like the hares to 
 cover ; 
 
 Fear is unknown, and peaceable thoughts are flouted, 
 
 When he observes the foes of the Toltec nation, 
 
 Abiding in Tezcatzontli to answer worship. 
 Priests. The long processional returns his image 
 
 Hung with new jewels, robes, and the wreath 
 Toxcatl ! 
 
 Five were our days of fasting, ten of preparation; 
 
 Bring we hither the year-long feasted victim. 
 
 Treated more kingly than kings in the name of god- 
 head. 
 
 Blackened our bodies, aping Tezcatlipoca ! 
 
 Sweet is our faith, as that recalls him hither ! 
 
 Slaves, rejoice for a day, recovering freedom! 
 
 Maidens smile, as permitted to bring the off'erings; 
 
 Youths delight, racing to win the maidens ! 
 Teo. Turn now, Hueiteopixqui, who attends me, 
 
 Taking your brother priest to bring the victim ; 
 
 So may he bear our sins, and cleanse the people ! 
 
 So may Tezcatlipoca bless our battles ! 
 
 Return, attendants, to the shouting highways 
 
 That festival here may attain completion 
 
 In sacrifice. Remain, Lord Quetzalcoatl. 
 (Exeunt the two priests.) 
 59 
 
Qtz. Ten weary days have assailed my ears, with 
 pipings 
 Of your pernicious flute. From the singing birds 
 I heard in the god-loved fields, am I recalled 
 Merely to praise your minstrelsy, my friend? 
 
 Teg. Hastiness of your ignorant youth, my son, 
 Compels the senseless word. My flute appeals 
 To listening deities momentously, 
 Winging on pleasant tones to their abode 
 And bidding their attendance here, as we 
 Shall celebrate Tezcatlipoca's feast; 
 Your presence, too, my magic flute demands. 
 By man's estate becoming Tulan's king, 
 To learn the rites and worship at the shrine. 
 
 Qtz. Why to a brother, in an idol, bow? 
 
 Teg. Tut ! tut ! The festival is for a god. 
 
 Qtz. Son of a god, am I ! 
 
 Teg. a pretty tale! 
 
 Yes, I remember how your mother died. 
 Branding your birth with murder of herself 
 By the innocent struggling child. Nevertheless, 
 Her dreams of heaven, and the words of him 
 Who lately ruled us, Tecpancaltzin, rouse 
 Nought of belief in one who knows the world. 
 Save as a simple tale of a maid beguiled. 
 
 Qtz. Like Chimalman, of heaven have I dreamed ; 
 On Chimalman, my mother, gazed in sleep ; 
 Although my birth brought her release from life. 
 And her clayborn ensheathement saw I never. 
 
 Teg. Clayborn are you, though heavenly was your 
 sire, 
 
 60 
 
And clayborn man is he, that is Tulan's king; 
 More reverently hold your tongue in leash. 
 
 Qtz. As king and dreamer of the gods, I dare 
 Command your flute for breathing by my lips. 
 
 Teg. Sacrilege ! 
 
 Qtz. I am a priest. 
 
 Teg. Novitiate 
 
 Of seven years is yours ; and at fifteen 
 
 You are a priest indeed, with a godlike look, 
 
 And heaven within your eyes, where the spirit peers 
 
 Into a world beyond its earthly frame ; 
 
 Shall spirit purge your carnal lips enough 
 
 To sound a flute, that summons up the gods? 
 
 Age has attempted my humanity. 
 
 Sorrow has purged me, though no god am I ; 
 
 You, Quetzalcoatl, are afire with youth. 
 
 And all the pride of monarchy attained! 
 
 Qtz. My throne is Tecpancaltzin's memory ; 
 My sceptre is the counsel that he gave ; 
 My godhead spells a mother's tenderness. 
 Of kingliness or spiritual power. 
 Occasion shall approve me the possessor ; 
 Untried by sorrow or experience, 
 All the warm fires of youth that you behold 
 Burn but for worship, and this clayborn frame 
 Only an altar is, that shall decay ! 
 Such sacred flame, as life is, grows more bright 
 Aspiring towards heaven's brilliancy. 
 And youth, in music finding fuel renewed. 
 Beams purer exaltation towards the gods, 
 
 61 
 
Lend me the flute, oh, Teoteuctli grave ! 
 The song within my heart must be expressed. 
 
 Teg. Take it. Such music should dehght the god; 
 You move my heart. I love you like a son. 
 Falls like a cloak my age, when I behold 
 Your wondrous youth, that half rejuvens me. 
 (Gives the flute to QuetzalcoatL) 
 
 Qtz. a double voice I crave, to pipe and sing! 
 (He plays on the flute.) 
 
 Teo. Ah, but a chime of bells you must have hidden 
 Under your arm! 
 
 Qtz. None have I. 
 
 Teo. Surely 'tis so. 
 
 How can my flute of clay such melody find? 
 
 Qtz. Tezcatlipoca, as a brother scowled 
 
 Across my childish thoughts ; but not of him, 
 My visions are. For roses overflow 
 To eastward and to westward, from a tree 
 Immense and wonderful, that once I saw, — 
 Where ? Ah, but where ? Such roses ! More divine 
 Of scent and hue than fancy might achieve 
 Or barren reality discover here. 
 Ah! Where, I say, do roses such as these 
 Reveal themselves.? Music shows the flowers. 
 Unrealized comes sorrow. Could I steal them? 
 I feel a taint of sin debasing me 
 From some imperious crime, unknown before. 
 Prenatal, and a mystery clouds my sense, — 
 Of what? How came I here ? When did I know 
 That paradise? Oh, hideous blank of birth, 
 What curtainest thou from my bewildered mind? 
 
 62 
 
Teo. Give me the flute, my son; before jour fingers 
 Break it, in heedless groping after truth. 
 It is the god who holds converse with you. 
 (Forcibly takes flute out of QuetzalcoatVs hand,) 
 
 Qtz. No, not Tezcatlipoca ! But I see 
 My father ! And he does not storm at all. 
 Only his eyes, his terrible shining eyes. 
 Look down from heaven's uttermost pinnacle 
 On me ; though nothing do I read therein 
 Save love, so great, so wonderful, I reel 
 Beneath it. Strengthen thou my earthly mind, 
 Eternal father, Tonaca-tecutli, 
 Citlalatonac, distant Morning-Star! 
 For now I stand revealed, even to myself. 
 Thy son ! Memory crowns me ! Reason speaks 
 That earth should know my godhead; 
 Love discerns what love alone reveals, 
 The truths of spirit. All this world of hate 
 I fear not, nor doubts of ignorant men. 
 The perfect love of the pellucid soul 
 Is more than life or death or memory, 
 And recreates the etherial atmosphere 
 Of heaven around that soul in clay encased, 
 Until it understands its destiny 
 And the forgotten facts of other worlds. 
 
 Teo. My son, control your raptures ; or retire 
 From out this teocalli's holy height. 
 Where my superlative position makes 
 Necessitous the decking of its shrine 
 And offering sacrifice. A moment comes, 
 That holds no place for song. 
 
Qtz. Forbid me not 
 
 To exercise such offices as king 
 
 As should beseem me. Quiet locks my lips ; 
 
 But ignorance profound delays my hands. 
 
 Teg. Enlightenment shall come. Hark! where ap- 
 proaches 
 The long processional around the hill, 
 Along the teocalli's rectangle, 
 
 And up the sevenfold stairway towards this door; 
 While the reluctant victim treads between 
 Worshipping ranks of people, who have blessed 
 With every granted wish his vanished year 
 Of happiness, that now must culminate 
 Godward, with the libation of his blood. 
 
 Qtz. Death for a human being, must I witness ? 
 
 Teo. Such is Tezcatlipoca's hallowed law. 
 
 Qtz. Can you the " Heart of Heaven " contemplate 
 Believing such to be? No, if my brother 
 Be terrible, the God of Gods is kind ; 
 Knowing this murder, I should interfere. 
 
 Teo. Not yours, but mine, the teocalli's power; 
 Avoid displeasing me. Lord Quetzalcoatl ! 
 For not your godhead, nor your sovereignty, 
 Defend you from the punishment I mete. 
 
 Qtz. They come. 
 
 Teo. Silence ! Nor dare to interfere ! 
 
 It is the royal grandmother, Ilantli, 
 With whom Quetzalpetlatl, too, appears. 
 The princess who, some claim, should rule Tulan. 
 (Enter Ilantli, Quetzalpetlatl, Ome and Yey.) 
 64 
 
Ilan. Hail to you, arch-priest, and to shades of 
 kings, 
 Although no king here guards a queen dethroned. 
 
 Qp. Grandmother, quiet you ! No queen is here ; 
 Even as my father willed, no rank have I ! 
 
 Ilan. (To Quetzalcoatl.) 
 
 Sir, you have bidden us from the convent's close 
 
 Hither, to wait your will as prisoners 
 
 Whom these eight years have weakened and subdued 
 
 Into obedience. Think you, I forget 
 
 Years of my queenship in Palpan? and later 
 
 Years of queen-motherhood, when early died 
 
 The pretty wifeling of my son the king? 
 
 So Tecpancaltzin turned to me for aid. 
 
 Until that hapless morning when, — deserted 
 
 By whom, who knows ? — village-bred Chimalman 
 
 Prated some tale into the kindly ear 
 
 Of Tecpancaltzin. She one year forsooth 
 
 Kept him at arm's length, till the baby came 
 
 Who crowded our fertility of joy 
 
 With strange and hopeless thistles of deceit, 
 
 Till punishment was dealt her by the gods ; 
 
 Passed Chimalman, whose sky-spun veil of dreams 
 
 Lifted her bodily to heaven's hill. 
 
 Teo. Madam, the iterance of the copper bell 
 Upon your bracelet likens well these facts. 
 
 Ilan. First I respected her, pitied the babe. 
 She dying with his entry into life ; 
 And threescore years forgetting, I became 
 Mother again in feeling, offering you. 
 
Lord Quetzalcoatl, equal place with those 
 
 Half -orphans, Tecpanpilli and the girl 
 
 Quetzalpetlatl, — having then no hint 
 
 Of the ingratitude which would appear 
 
 Callous in manhood. Malice of the gods 
 
 Slew Tecpanpilli, while you were a child ; 
 
 Tore from Quetzalpetlatl every armor 
 
 Against your proud ambition? Have you brought 
 
 Shackles to symbolize our captive state. 
 
 Or may we still walk fetterless before you? 
 
 QtZv Mother, I have in tutelage been myself, 
 Seven years, upon Mount Coatepec, secluded 
 In a calemac as rigid as the tomb; 
 Barely a day, received great Tulan's crown. 
 Meseems but yesterday, I did entreat 
 Your presence here, but absence chilled regard. 
 
 II. Tyrant, as stepping-stones use not our necks, 
 Easing the ascent to Tecpancaltzin's throne. 
 
 Qtz. In deed or thought, has friendship been be- 
 trayed ? 
 
 II. Why did your childhood not make evident 
 Its malice silencing our tongues in death? 
 
 Qtz. I strove to right such injuries when noticed. 
 Opening your prison with my sovereign key. 
 
 Ii>. Insolent priest, whose robber-hands bestowed 
 Her crown upon Quetzalpetlatl's slave! (Starts to 
 box his ears.) 
 
 Teg. Ilantli, pride to madness quickly ghdes ; 
 Your shrilling tongue ill becomes such a place : 
 Tezcatlipoca frowns ! Be silent, woman ! • 
 
 m 
 
(Ilantli and Quetzalpetlatl withdraw towards the 
 entrance at left.) 
 Swing now your golden censer, Quetzalcoatl, 
 Whose savors of SAveet herbs appease his ire ! 
 And, maidens, bring your offerings to the gods 
 While priests approach with the human sacrifice. 
 (Ome and Yey approach the altar.) 
 
 Ome. (Sings.) 
 
 Fairer than ivory carven with human fingers 
 
 These grains of rice appear; 
 Richer than weave of women, the color lingers 
 
 On high-piled blossoms here. 
 
 Yey. (Sings.) 
 
 Sheaves of maguey blossoms, like the cold 
 
 Flowers of frost, I found 
 In the mountain, overseen by the heavenly fold 
 
 Where blossoms of stars abound. 
 
 Ome. 
 
 Urns, whose lips run over with pearls of grain, 
 
 Whose ample hearts are full 
 With blood of the pulque, I offer. Nor disdain, 
 
 Oh, god, the gifts I cull ! 
 
 Yey. 
 
 The garland Toxcatl adorns thy blackened breast ; 
 
 Oh, frightful one ! Perceive 
 Us humble ! Let the month Toxcatl attest. 
 
 Our gifts thou wilt receive! 
 67 
 
Teo. Maidens ! In heart and gift, the god delights ! 
 Received are prayer and portion; and I bless 
 As proxy for the god your tender years : 
 Retire, that further worship may ensue. 
 
 (Ome and Yey withdraw into background; Teoteuctli 
 busies himself at altar; other women remain silent; 
 Quetzalcoatl paces before the altar swinging his cen- 
 ser,) 
 
 Ii>. {Aside.) Years that have fled, where are you? 
 since I stood 
 A maiden at Tezcatlipoca's shrine. 
 Offering gifts like these, and turning found 
 The king beside me smiling beneath his crown? 
 
 Qp. Ay ! ah ! Grandmother, that was long ago ; 
 Perchance the gods walked earth at that great day. 
 
 II. They say, one walks here now. 
 
 Qp. Is it readily seen? 
 
 II. His lordship, Quetzalcoatl is received 
 By some, — who is not I ! — as veritable 
 Son of unearthly Tonaca-tecutli, 
 And god himself. 
 
 Qp. Some one laughed in his sleeve. 
 
 Qtz. Godly my nature, sister! Fear you not; 
 One day my powers will be known to you. 
 
 Qp. Pardon, my lord ; I meant not to offend. 
 But the golden god is oversmeared with clay. 
 
 Qtz. You are my sister; should I be enangered? 
 Where is not godlihead by friends despised? 
 
 Teo. Impose dark silence on your parrot-chatter! 
 Stint not your converse at the proper time, 
 
 68 
 
But here be reverent to our ceremony, 
 
 The people's shout arises ; the victim comes ; 
 
 Retire, Ilantli, and you maidens three 
 
 Into the background. Quetzalcoatl, kneel 
 
 Before Tezcatlipoca, and entreat 
 
 Lest your forgetfulness have made him wroth. 
 
 Qtz. Kneel must I, to my brother? No, unto 
 The distant gods of heaven, I will kneel, 
 Entreating seals of their approval for 
 A better era, when an innocent smile 
 Shall be their worship, and not death nor fear ! 
 
 (Teoteuctli walks to door m background, as Quetzal- 
 coatl bows before the altar.) 
 
 Qtz. (Prays.) A wisp of spirit to my body clings. 
 That would be flying heavenward by its choice ! 
 Of god it is, and if a god it be. 
 Grant me, Eternal Father, past the stars 
 To draw my inspiration pure and cold. 
 That every deed may be instinct with good 
 And every thought lift heavenward my soul. 
 Life is a fog, wherein one light must guide 
 Of perfect reason and unswerving truth ; 
 And the immoderate hands of murder raise 
 A horrid cloud around the trembling flame; 
 Not in the name of god, can murder thrive. 
 Oh, Powers beyond the Stars, make potent him 
 Who fain would shrive this temple of its crimes. 
 (He rises.) 
 
 (Enter Priests, carrying Naca vn a crude cage.) 
 
Priests. ( Chant, ) 
 
 Tezcatlipoca ! Of this mighty land 
 
 Of Tulan, mightiest god! Now, by thy grace. 
 
 Life and the means of living are my own ; 
 
 Mercy impart for my laborious hours. 
 
 And fill me with thy bounty. Pity me ! 
 
 So sad, so poor, neglected and alone ! 
 
 I sweep thy temple ; take my griefs from me ! 
 Teg. Before the god, throw every care aside ; 
 
 Thorns to the brazier, griefs to heaven givel 
 
 Ye come, my two attendant priests, with him 
 
 Whom the bright earth delivers in her stead 
 
 To the devouring vengeance of a god. 
 
 Alas ! that so our sins must be atoned ; 
 
 But earth has fed, ere she destroys, her son. 
 
 Before the idol, bind him on the cirque 
 
 Of mystically-carven altar-stone. 
 
 {Priests bind Naca, half -naked and prone, upon 
 the altar.) 
 
 Art thou prepared, oh, Naca! for thy fate.? 
 
 Hast thou been happy in this passing year.? 
 Hu. The ninefold lords of midnight wait for thee ! 
 Teopix. Bid thirteenfold farewell to the lords of 
 
 day! 
 Naca. Where is my straw-roofed cottage? Where 
 the eyes 
 
 Of her, who mourns me by Lake Tezcuco ? 
 Hu. Has not the maguey blossomed less beauteously 
 
 Than the fragrant robes, your peasant self put on, 
 
 Rendering sweet the produce of the soil, 
 
 70 
 
Ere given to Tezcatlipoca's hand? 
 Teopix. Happiness paints your countenance, that so 
 
 Your blessed death reprieves a sinful land. 
 Naca. Happiness ? Yes ! From enemies to flee ; 
 
 But Tezcuco unseen my longing draws. 
 Tec. Hither ! The god is hungered. 
 Hu. Remove his robe! 
 
 Teopix. Mictlan receives the monarch of a year ! 
 Naca. Ah, but one year of bliss ! How many years 
 
 Laborious in bitterness, I mourned 
 
 For comforts ! Might I but again put on 
 
 Life with distress, I should not so complain ! 
 Hu. Upon the altar thrown — 
 
 Teopix. With limbs bound tightly — 
 
 Teo. (Taking knife, and suiting action to word,) 
 
 Lifted is the sacred flint, and the scarlet flower 
 
 Blossoms upon his breast, and the hidden jewel 
 
 Lies at the glaring idol's cruel foot. 
 (Naca dies, as the Teoteuctli, severing with a dark- 
 
 hladed knife of obsidian the victiTrCs breast, tears out 
 
 the human heart.) 
 
 Spirit to Mictlan, heart unto the god ; 
 
 Such sacredness as to his corpse may cling. 
 
 Deliver to the people, that they may 
 
 Thereby a portion of his fortune know. 
 (Two priests carry out the still- palpitating corpse,) 
 QuETZ. Horrible moment! 
 Teo. Silence, till they go, 
 
 My two attendants, and the victim move; 
 
 The god has feasted, and is satisfied. 
 
 71 
 
Ilan. Lift up your head, my trembling grand- 
 daughter 1 
 His body consecrated to the sun 
 A year-long willing sacrifice awaited. 
 
 Qp. I had not looked on death — 
 
 Qtz. Torture her not! 
 
 Between your palms, hide your soft gaze. 
 Sweet sister ; like you, I cannot abide 
 A brutal murder as a virtue praised. 
 
 Teg. Keen critics are the young; but for advice 
 Turn to a graybeard. What fair offering 
 Instead, Lord Quetzalcoatl, shall you find? 
 
 Qtz. Flowers like the stars of midnight, and sweet 
 thoughts 
 Reflecting heaven, and acts of charity 
 Wherein the gods may find an earthly sphere. 
 
 (A hwtterjly alights on QuetzalpetlatVs shoulder.) 
 
 Teg. Puerile gifts that any child may bring; 
 To those who give life, life we should return. 
 
 Qtz. Life of less costliness than human then: — 
 {He catches the hutterjly.) 
 It takes too many precious years of growth 
 And lessoning to make a perfect man ; 
 But would you sacrifice a life indeed? 
 Behold, this butterfly at fingertip. 
 Barred with the colors of the rainbow ! See 
 How in my fingers break his delicate wings, 
 That leaflike fall upon the terrible feet 
 Of black Tezcatlipoca ! Now, the keen 
 Point of a golden pin shall prick its heart: 
 Such is the sacrifice I bring alone. 
 
 72- 
 
Qp. Death! Is there nothing less a god desires? 
 
 Qtz. a butterfly might ransom thus a man ! 
 
 Teg. Peace! Is this place for fooling? Duties call 
 Lord Quetzalcoatl from profaner jests. 
 
 Qtz. Wearisome grows my crown ! Yet, tell me them? 
 
 Teo. This day from the seminaries come in train 
 Maidens and youths, from childish chains released 
 Of ignorance and feebleness, by touch 
 Of the sacred years. This day gives liberty 
 From heart to heart, its perfect will to speak. 
 Tezcatlipoca's month, lovely Toxcatl, 
 Permits the flower of love to find perfection, 
 Before the heat and storms of summer come. 
 The nation's marriage month ! The height of spring ! 
 And the sacrificed heart of him, that lately died 
 Before this statue of our dusky god, 
 Is merely symbol of the sacrifice 
 Of a nation's heart, upon the altar-stone 
 Of the world, doing his mighty will in all. 
 Now, might Lord Quetzalcoatl do a deed 
 Worthy his gracious power, having by will 
 Of the almighty gods an earthly throne 
 That was another's by the right of birth. 
 Withheld from him by death's untimely hand ; 
 The realm of Tecpancaltzin was the right 
 Of Tecpancaltzin's son, who died so young. 
 Leaving as heirs, his aged grandmother 
 And the one lovely sister who survives: 
 So near to you in years, Lord Quetzalcoatl, 
 Quetzalpetlatl is, — your very names 
 73 
 
Were by that dead king's single thought conferred! 
 Well might " The Feathered Serpent " find repose 
 Upon " The Feathered Carpet." Beautiful 
 To other eyes is she; what guise to yours? 
 
 Qtz. Marriage is a duty laid upon mankind, 
 Keeping its passion in accord with heaven; 
 But, to a god, is mating possible? 
 What spiritual bride awaits in heaven, 
 Whom might I here displease by lower loves? 
 
 Teg. Then shall Quetzalpetlatl pass unhonored 
 Into the convent's shadow; while the joys 
 Of her father's court, in the accustomed past, 
 Make melancholy all the years to come? 
 
 Qtz. Sweet was her countenance to infancy; 
 Her childish fingers guided me a child 
 Almost as large along the palace halls ; 
 My comrade and my sister ! Do I seem 
 To disregard your honor? Nay, indeed, 
 Remain as Quetzalcoatl's queen, and rule 
 The female half of the kingdom ; and if not 
 As wife, console yourself, for in my heart 
 No other earthly form usurps your place. 
 
 Qp. I am content. I feared you had forgotten 
 Her, whose own brother dying, now regards 
 You doubly brother, and like father, too. 
 
 Qtz. Shadow may come across your guileless brow 
 Of some enchanting figure now unknown. 
 And your untroubled heart new throbbing learn ; 
 If such thing be, make known your thoughts to me, 
 And the bond that is no marriage shall dissolve; 
 Your happiness I look for, not my own. 
 
 74s 
 
Qp. The gods of love have overlooked my heart. 
 Qtz. Yet fear not in the future if they strike ; 
 
 Confiding speech shall cure the hidden pain. 
 Teg. Your words are not so wise, Lord Quetzalcoatl ; 
 
 But time has altered things for many a man. 
 Qtz. Then you would have me marry.? 
 Teg. As the state 
 
 And your own happiness demands it, — Yes ! 
 Qtz. Marry I will, when these four omens come: 
 
 When on the oaktree, chestnut burrs appear; 
 
 When in the west, the sun appears to rise ; 
 
 When over ocean's tide, men walk dryshod; 
 
 When singing nightingales shall raise a beard: 
 
 Then shall I know the time indeed is ripe, 
 
 For Quetzalcoatl to find marriage-yoke. 
 Teg. His words are foolish ; but my lord is young. 
 Qtz. Only Quetzalpetlatl shall receive 
 
 Protection, such as sisterhood demands. 
 Ilan. Small redress this to gain for a stolen crown. 
 Qp. Could I rule alone ? Kingship is not my role : 
 
 I thank you, foster-brother, and retire 
 
 Whither you will. 
 Qtz. Palpan is wholly yours. 
 
 Fortress and palace, and the lovely land 
 
 Of Tulan shall no wish of yours withhold. 
 Qp. Grandmother, scowl not! My delight is yours; 
 
 Queen-mother still you are. Ome and Yey, 
 
 Attend me as your custom was at school : 
 
 Brother, I will at Palpan wait your will. 
 Ome. Way for the princess ! 
 
 75 
 
Yey. Quetzalpetlatl comes! 
 
 (Exeunt four women,) 
 
 Teo. Delay you here? 
 
 Qtz. a moment with the god. 
 
 Teo. Anger no further, for the lightning-bolt 
 Of his disfavor might, with you, enthral 
 My faithful self. I leave you to your prayers. 
 (Exit Teoteuctli.) 
 
 Qtz. Brother, how comes it, that a god enchained 
 Should, as a human creature, kneel before 
 Your senseless image with unshaken faith? 
 Brother, if genuflections must be mine. 
 Not to the idol but the god I kneel. 
 And claim an answer from a brother there. 
 How trod we heaven, what games together played, 
 Forgetfulness still cheats me of. Alone 
 In dreaming of the gods, discover I 
 Godhead myself and claim your brotherhood. 
 By Zuiven's height, and Mictlan's deep abyss. 
 By Tonaca-tecutli's mutual love. 
 From marshalled hosts of heaven, I summon you : 
 Tezcatlipoca, as a god appear! 
 A shadow clouds the teocalli's height, 
 A brilliancy invades the inmost shrine, 
 A voice of thunder, and a breeze assails ; 
 And, brother to a god, I face him here ! 
 
 (Enter Tezcatlipoca.) 
 Tez. Son of the heavens, forbear to use your powers ! 
 
 76 
 
Qtz. Wherefore? In dread of comrades of the past? 
 
 Tez. You feared return to heaven. 
 
 Qtz. Did I so? 
 
 Tez. The baby loses what the spirit knew. 
 
 Qtz. Frighted of heaven's roses, was I then? 
 
 Oh, blessed memory, lift high the veil ! 
 Tez. Thief out of heaven, how dare you to assail 
 
 Unsullied brothers with your fallen plea? 
 Qtz. Humanity has stolen heaven from me ; 
 
 Return I shall, if thence I truly came ; 
 
 But fearful am I not, of gods or heaven. 
 Tez. Forbear ! 
 Qtz. Discern you not a warning, too, 
 
 Whom I nor fear nor worship, and have called 
 
 Hither most honorably to inform. 
 
 Henceforth no bloody mimes of murder shall 
 
 Ascend from Tulan's worship at your shrine? 
 Tez. Forbear ! 
 Qtz. Between my heavenly father and my soul 
 
 Such ties of love remain, — no guilty act 
 
 Of sacrifice shall intervene to gods 
 
 Less worthy worship and less amiable. 
 Tez. Forbear! A brother's anger in a god's, 
 
 Innumerably strikes on earthly scenes! 
 Qtz. Fear is unknown to me; teach me its guise. 
 Tez. To heaven, I go ; to earth, I shall return ; 
 
 A god's revenge will poison your delight. 
 (Eivit Tezcatlipoca.) 
 
 77 
 
Qtz. (Smgs.) 
 
 The wind of east, the wind of west, 
 
 The winds of south and north may blow ; 
 Of body bruised, but spirit blest. 
 
 The son of man on earth must go t 
 
 The great wind-voices call to me. 
 
 Earth-bound as man ; and now my soul 
 
 Arises like the great winds free. 
 
 To spheres beyond their rude control. 
 
 I touch the Universe's brim; 
 
 The secret of the stars I read; 
 And past all heavens I climb to Him, 
 
 Who is the Lord of Life indeed. 
 
 With men, I taste of pain and care. 
 While battling with dull nature's hate ; 
 
 With gods, a sturdy soul I bear 
 To foil the fourfold winds of fate. 
 {Ea:it Qiietzalcoatl.) 
 
 (New York City, June 14, 1908.) 
 
 78 
 
XTACUNBIL XUNAN 
 (The Hidden Lady) 
 
 The Hidden Lady's eyes are chalices 
 
 Wide-open, drinking in the honeyed views 
 Of temple corridors, all white with peace 
 
 Save where are scattered, through the still purlieus, 
 Statues like retributions, hard and strange, 
 
 With faces of grave spirits militant. 
 And carven glyphs along the walls to range 
 
 The painted visages of god and saint. 
 
 The Hidden Lady opens with each flower. 
 
 To the first glimmerings of morning light 
 Seething across the forest, like a shower 
 
 Of feathers from Kukulcan's wings in flight. 
 As the tremendous godhead cleaves the tides 
 
 Of darkness, and the lesser tribes look up 
 From wattled huts, where human weakness hides, 
 
 For one long draught at his reviving cup. 
 
 How frames the Hidden Lady, all day long. 
 Those glowing hours into her life serene? 
 
 She kneels beside her loom, and times a song 
 To the rapt weaving of her shuttle clean ; 
 
 79 
 
She moulds fresh biscuits from the shredded grain, 
 Whose tithed flakes oblation are designed 
 
 For Kukulcan, whose altar stands within, 
 Ever attended by her suppliant mind. 
 
 The Hidden Lady passes to the porch. 
 
 Whose cloistered pillars mark her kingdom small. 
 While her still spirit, like a faithful torch, 
 
 Fills the dim sanctum of the oracle; 
 She sits and broods beneath a ceiba tree. 
 
 Where doves may coo a word into her ear 
 Of the surprising thoughts of deity 
 
 Working its will above this mundane sphere. 
 
 Sometimes a roll of maguey scrip unrolled 
 
 Shows the fantastic outline of a god. 
 Not as she dreamed of him, a cloud of gold 
 
 Ethereally illumined, lightning-shod; 
 But the pale tracery of some brother-priest, 
 
 Knowing a deeper mystery than she, 
 Who sees Kukulcan like a man, released 
 
 From frailties of our mortal misery. 
 
 (July 14, 1914^.) 
 
 80 
 
ZUBAK 
 
 (The Flute) 
 
 While my untutored fingers strive to range 
 The flageolet's intricate labyrinth 
 Of holes and keys, pitfalls to clumsiness, 
 But ceaseless wells of melody for skill, — 
 Remembrance brings the blackbird's fluting near 
 On Mosholu, when Mavtime meadows bloom, — 
 Or summer's yellow-warbler, perched a-peak 
 The Jersey -pine's new bud in Central Park! 
 
 How many generations of the birds, 
 Red-winged and golden-breasted, have made sweet 
 The jocund May! How many buried seeds 
 Have shaken cone and tassel to the spring ! 
 How many paradises of the year 
 Bloomed to the sun's touch, ere I footed earth 
 And untaught fingering of my flageolet 
 Endeavored to repeat the piping bird! 
 
 Bright heaven above inspires to minstrelsy; 
 Indian and white man, who before me came, 
 Loved the same hills and almost the same trees ; 
 And the soft flute of poesy takes up 
 
 81 
 
The strain a flageolet cannot achieve! 
 Bright heaven above is like a crystal bell, 
 Repeating all the chimes of history 
 Rung out by hardy hands departed long ! 
 
 (May 7, 1908.) 
 
 82 
 
TO WILLIAM H. HOLMES 
 
 (Master of Archeology) 
 
 Proud Uxmal's height is crowned with towers 
 
 Uprising from a forest-net 
 
 Gigantic, that brings wondrous freight 
 Of architecture's primal powers ; 
 Who strove with rod of patience here, 
 
 To measure ruined slopes of doom, 
 
 Balance the records of the tomb. 
 Reveal the ancient atmosphere? 
 The dovecote's crumbling solitude. 
 
 The altar trenched for sacrifices, 
 
 And art's most heathenish devices. 
 Were prizes of solicitude 
 
 To William Holmes, who thus could write 
 
 Prose epics, precious, erudite! 
 
 (June 26, 1916.) 
 
 83 
 
TO EDWARD H. THOMPSON 
 
 (Cacique of Chichen-Itza. ) 
 
 " Lord of the Wells of Itza " ! Inspiration 
 You bring my poet-soul for fresh creation 
 In skyey mirage, where the bubble blue 
 Re-stages oldtime dreams in bright review: 
 You took a city, ruined, desolate, 
 A graven gem of undeciphered date. 
 
 Lost in the jungle's tropic isolation; 
 
 You raised an empire from oblivion's fate, 
 
 Revivified its shattered history's clue ! 
 
 Token of chieftaincy, the jaguar's claw 
 
 Of horrid ivory, came to overawe 
 
 Tame spirits with the wild's imperial breath, 
 
 Borne from the jaws of full-fleshed furry death; 
 
 You brought it to the halls of Washington, 
 
 Sweeping the past into our ken, reknown 
 
 Its mystery-webs of fate in old-time law, — 
 Ix-chel's design of rainbow radiance spun 
 
 For the compelling cry of Mayan faith. 
 
 From Chichen-Itza's stone arises Pop; 
 Brown Uo, declining Zip and Zodz mount up 
 
 84 
 
The thrones of twenty days. Beaked Zee and Xul, 
 Fresh-flavored Yaxkin, and re-instinct Mol, 
 Follow the year's aphelion. Ch'en replies; 
 New-feathered Yax, white Zac, and Ceh arise; 
 Mac, yellow Kan-kin, crested Muan, slope 
 
 To brightening summer. The drum of Pax replies 
 To Kayab's turtle-roll, and Cum-ku's rustling maize. 
 
 The Bacabs four lift into turquoise skies. 
 Golden processional of time's device ; 
 The Lord of the Ascendant leaps to prime! 
 Ik, Akbel, Kan and Chicchan bring a chime 
 Of day-bells. Cimi comes, and Manik then 
 Sets Lamat upright. Muluc, Oc, Chuen, 
 
 Eb, Been, Ix, Men, Cib, Caban, Ez'nab, time 
 Cauac, Ahau, Imix, Xma-kaba-kin, 
 
 Into the Brazier's open orifice! 
 
 Conquest destroyed the year-count ; but restrained 
 From damage, frail clay-objects ruin-stained, 
 Dug from the dewy earth. See, the symbolic pipe 
 Of springtime here displays life's fountain, ripe 
 With onward progress, borne by unseen hands 
 Where the enthroned disc of light commands 
 
 Futurity upon the wind-cross, pillar-chained. 
 Upon the slavish head of earth! The type 
 
 Of tribal hope in resurrection stands ! 
 
 Whom Maya wasted, Chichen-Itza brings 
 To hail a milder day, cenote springs 
 
 85 
 
Of purer drainage, from the toiling hands 
 
 Of your swart laborers. Your thought commands 
 
 A better era on that ancient field 
 
 Of idol-worship, whose carven relics yield 
 
 Thompson-Ahau, their best cacique ! The wings 
 Of quetzal hover, as the jaguar's shield, 
 Slaying the serpent-thought of heathen lands! 
 
 (May 9, 1916.) 
 
 86 
 
TO PROFESSOR MARSHALL H. SAVILLE 
 
 New England's son! Marshall Howard Saville! 
 You, my friend! Ardent delver in fields of the past! 
 Who drags from the forgetful dust such cleverly-carven 
 
 work, 
 Tools of the artisan, hewn marbles, moulded potsherds, 
 Tracing by the lamp of genius that wonderful defaced 
 
 scroll 
 Of the ages, hidden by civilization to render itself im- 
 mortal ! 
 From the cross-fashioned chapels of Mitla, " City of 
 
 Death," 
 To the " tolas " of the Scyri of Quitu, th^ jewels of 
 
 beauty, 
 Truth and love, expressed by the self-devotion of 
 
 peoples 
 On natural earth, sentient to God in her orbital passage 
 
 through time. 
 You have collected, inscribed, ticketed, properly placed 
 
 in museums. 
 Interpreted, and described for the wonder of lesser 
 
 minds ! 
 
 87 
 
sturdy toils and patient wonder-work of science 
 Preserve from the past all but the fugitive soul ! — 
 Where goes that soul? Does it live in the maguey 
 
 records, 
 Traced in daring linear fantasy, by Aztec scribes? 
 Lives it in the exquisite bas-relief of Itza kings. 
 Lofty-crowned, adorned with many-tasselled garments, 
 Calm of countenance, whom the dreamy worshipful 
 
 design 
 Of the Itzapalapan sculptor framed in columns 
 Of stone-craft, with hieroglyphs of the noble ruling 
 
 race ? 
 Lives it in the altar overthrown by jungle-growth. 
 Or the sculptured heads of Izamal teocalli? 
 The voice of thought fills not those lips of stone ! 
 
 But a dream, a mist of hope, an unimaginable spirit 
 Influences the glyph-strewn panels in the temples of 
 
 Palenque, 
 And the totemic macaw or cockerel scatters, 
 Throughout the future, spirit-seed for the forest of life ! 
 The fugitive soul, rebound in the shackles of faith, 
 Returns to its ancient home, to its reverenced altar, 
 Returns to its one-time ways, and renews its oaths ; 
 Forgetful of hope to be saved in Christ, our Saviour ! 
 
 Jewel, dark of eye, purple with the utmost heavens, 
 Overlimned with crescentic corruscations, 
 Comes into my wondering thought, a gift from the dust, 
 Buried by obstinate love of life in a tyrant monarch; 
 
A thought of kings, dark with their own libation of 
 crimson drops 
 
 Upon that jewel called life! Buried in the dust! Re- 
 vived 
 
 With the " Sheaf of Ages " ! Bound by immortal souls, 
 
 Themselves the harvest sown again by death! 
 
 Ensheafed at the cycle's end, by Mexico's turbulent 
 
 ruler, 
 Bound up were all the nation's spirits of purpose, 
 Enscrolled for the vision of truth in clarification; 
 So at Tulan's fall, the curbed and brutal people 
 Led by the Lord of Hell, Tezcatlipoca, 
 Burst from the merciful leash of Quetzcalcoatl, 
 And changed from insubstantial tribute of fading 
 
 flowers 
 Again to the magnificent festival of death. 
 Pyramided in suff'ering human flesh ; 
 Twelve centuries ago! 
 
 The wandering tribesmen 
 
 Placed stone on stone, laid pedestal, named the years: 
 
 Tochtli, for the leaping rabbits of time; 
 
 Acatl, for the cane-grove of fertile earth; 
 
 Tecpatl, for the obsidian, needle-edged knife of death; 
 
 Calli, for " the house above " preserved by the Father 
 
 of All 
 To his uplifted faithful-hearted children. 
 
 A thousand years passed not, before the deliverer 
 Sped like a golden wedge from the eastern dawn-gate, 
 
 89 
 
Leading the Christian-manned caravels of wider hopes, 
 And militant angels protected from gray-rushing 
 
 waters 
 The stems of its innocent ships. Warned by prophetic 
 
 dreams, 
 Arose the trembling cacique, uptwirling his fan of 
 
 feathers. 
 From prayers intoned within Chapultepec's palace 
 Overlooking the lakeland surrounding Mexitl's city, 
 And called the faithful souls of his feudal tribesmen 
 Into the god's embrace ; amalgamating the cities 
 Into one empire, upborne in stately oneness 
 Tenochtitlan, with Tezcucan and Tlascalan sisters. 
 Garnering tribute from Oaxaca to Chihuahua. 
 
 " At the end of the thirteenth age," so came simul- 
 taneous 
 Prophetic forewarning from lips of many priesthoods, 
 North and south, from Cholula's hill, from Mayapan, 
 And all unknown to them far south another one sang 
 Before the courts of Incas from Pachacamac's altar : — 
 "So will the white men come out from the eastern 
 
 brightness, 
 Born of the dawnlit foam, breasted above the billows 
 Of utmost space, in glory of gold and ships onrushing." 
 
 Montezumatzin strove then, with utmost rite 
 Of twisting wizardry, to spin out a weft 
 Of immortal war, breathing its bitter purport 
 Upon the Mexican winds. Where soon his faithful 
 subjects 
 
 90 
 
Festered away in mine-damp for Spanish lust, 
 Fell Montezumatzin, fell his gilded court, 
 Fell the exquisite flower of intellect 
 Which prophetically pierced the depths of coming doom. 
 But their " sheaf of years " forever bears to future 
 A woeful tale of bitterness in resolve, 
 Their fury of worship before the low, obsolete, 
 And repulsive idols, supposed symbols of lofty ideals. 
 Hallowed by a spiritual mirage of vain, deluding 
 dreams. 
 
 Ignorant these, of the perfect and loving Godhead, 
 Whose erring children stumble on towards truth. 
 Bred in the whiteness of His holy love, 
 Whose Image anew in the leaven of Jesus' words 
 Should recreate sweetness of life in the soul humane! 
 
 Beyond them the centuries rolled; the world grew 
 
 lovely. 
 Cherub- cheeked, whirling joy ward in blue abysses of 
 
 heaven : 
 But evermore the tightening scrolls entwisted; 
 Ever the " sheaf of years " drew near to its day of 
 
 doom! 
 Can it be true that theoretic reincarnation 
 Self-explains the mysterious ways of men? 
 
 Viceroy and slave, Aztec captive and Spaniard, 
 Long have reposed in the fraternity of death; 
 Five hundred and twenty years from premonition of 
 conquest, 
 
 91 
 
In the year of Our Lord, one thousand nine hundred 
 
 and fourteen, 
 Re-wakens the blast of death, like the opening door of 
 
 a furnace, 
 Sweeps through the mountainous borders of Mexican 
 
 statehoods ; 
 Popocatepetl, Jalapa, Uxmal, Tehuantepec, Tulan, 
 Like a human volcano, arouse to onswept revolution. 
 Torn from the silver chains of civilization. 
 
 On Torreon's field a pyramid of human bodies. 
 Heaped by the hundredfold, commemorate return of 
 
 passion ; 
 Brother fights brother, till the tale of death be told ! 
 Diaz gone, the master of the white man's rule, — 
 Madero comes, — murdered by the tools of Huerta, — 
 Villa drives out Huerta, — Carranza outlaws Villa, — 
 Zapata overawes the southern country. 
 Relinks their trap betraying friends of valor; 
 A thousand battle-fields yield up their record 
 Of brave lives idly thrown to the dogs of hell! 
 
 Are they soldiers of today, who thus brutalize them- 
 selves ? 
 Are they not rather the men of Montezumatzin, 
 Building again that mighty " sheaf of the years "? 
 Unconsciously re-obeying commands of primeval idols, 
 Dimly returning to the code of life, lived long before 
 And forgot, reborn to a gentler dispensation? 
 Be there troubles ahead in another half -millennium? 
 
 92 
 
Can they ever remember, and break these oaths of evil? 
 Must ignorant souls be slaves of eternal error? 
 For these, such as these, came Jesus, the Living 
 Saviour ! 
 
 Upon earth's other hemisphere, what tale runs loud 
 
 Of Assyrian oaths re-lived? Egyptian bondage 
 
 Renewed, in the unremembering souls of reborn vassals ? 
 
 Think they of human loves? By these, were they 
 bound in old time! 
 
 Think they of worship? By faiths, are they long for- 
 sworn ! 
 
 By their primal, instinctive emotions, was the ancient 
 bond 
 
 Woven, to preserve tyrannical status in tribal law! 
 
 By these, were they to remember, being reborn ! By 
 these. 
 
 Sin comes again, reborn unrestricted instinct ! 
 
 What is a man, but — man ? Highest of animals, 
 
 If he control not his soul, humanity fades ! 
 
 Reborn as a beast would be, in the unchanged mould, 
 Primitive mind is untaught, in spite of the schools ; 
 Cro-Magnon of instinct, shame-hid in trammels of 
 
 speech ; 
 Hindu in symbols, their debased meaning forgotten ; 
 Assyrian of culture, by absolute worship of self ; 
 Egyptian in luxury, desiring all physical joys; 
 Greek in perfervid life, yet fearful of dreams ; 
 Roman, the slave of resurrected gods of passion : — 
 
 93 
 
Forgetful are such, of Jesus Christ, the Pure White 
 Doorway, 
 
 Giving the Star to Truth, opening Life to wisdom, 
 
 Saving all men in Him, destroying the gyves of knowl- 
 edge. 
 
 For " One who ruleth His own soul is greater than 
 takers of cities " ! 
 
 (May 5, 1916.) 
 
 94 
 
STORM ECHOES 
 
 The storm of souls crowd up the sky, 
 To beat at heaven's gate their wings ; 
 
 Nor ever stops one heart to sigh 
 
 For vanished homes and passionings. 
 
 Where are their pulses of desire? 
 
 Where the dim beauty of their youth, 
 One moment crowned with battle-fire, 
 
 Distorted to the ghost of truth? 
 
 The battle-rage is blown to dust, 
 The carnage dead like memory ; 
 
 And, colder than the snowdrift's crust, 
 A storm of souls crowd up the sky! 
 
 (March, 1916.) 
 
 95 
 
THE MAN OF SORROWS 
 
 The shadows of the great gods rise, 
 Tearing the gates of Paradise 
 
 With passions great and strange ; 
 Bewildering on earth and sky, 
 They struggle with humanity 
 
 And mighty hopes derange. 
 
 Amid the din of trampling feet, 
 A voice too pitiful and sweet, — 
 
 For archangel devised, — 
 Comes like a bird from utmost heaven 
 Amid the storm of passions driven, 
 
 The little weeping Christ ! 
 
 One man ! — One God of tenderness ! 
 To break the terrible duress 
 
 Of ancient evil's chain : 
 How clean have men those temples dressed 
 Wherein the Living Lord is blessed, 
 
 When Christ shall come again? 
 
 He overtrod the glistening stars. 
 In days like these of hideous wars. 
 
 To plant a golden leaven; 
 Thou, mighty, loving, tender Christ, 
 Who makes with every heart a tryst 
 
 In the vestibule of heaven ! 
 
 (February, 1916.) 
 
 96 
 
iiliiini!ili)IMIi!!l| 
 
 UBRARY OF,CONGRESS 
 
 018 4820481