[tam]bién un árbol que se llama póchutl, y atravesóle con la dicha saeta, y así está hecha una cruz. Y más dicen, que el dicho Quetzalcóatl hizo y edificó unas casas debaxo de la tierra, que se llaman Mictlancalco. Y más, hizo poner una piedra grande que se mueve con el dedo menor, y dicen que cuando hay muchos hombres que quieren mover y menear la piedra, que no se mueve aunque sean muy muchos. Y más, hay otras cosas notables que hizo el Quetzalcóatl en muchos pueblos, y dio todos los nombres a las sierras y montes y lugares, y ansí, en llegando a la ribera del mar, mandó hacer una balsa hecha de culebras, que se llama coatlapechtli, y en ella entró y asentóse como en una canoa, y ansí se fue por la mar navegando, y no se sabe cómo y de qué manera llegó al dicho Tlapalla.
\na tree called pochotl. And he pierced it through with this arrow, and so [now] there is a cross [there]. They say, moreover, that this Quetzalcoatl built and constructed some houses underground, which are called mictlancalco. And furthermore, he had a boulder placed [there], which can be moved with the pinky finger. And they say that, whenever many men try to move the boulder and make it roll, it will not budge, even if there are a lot [of men]. And furthermore, there are other remarkable things that Quetzalcoatl did in many towns. And he gave all the sierras, hills, and places their names. And so, when he arrived at the seashore, he ordered a raft to be made out of snakes, which is called coatlapechtli. And he boarded it and sat down as if on a canoe; and this is how he went away, sailing over the sea. And it is not known how and in what way he reached this [place of] Tlapallan.
\nauh cecni quiquetz calli çan tlallan, itocaiocan mjctlan,
\nauh oc no cecni quitlali centetl vejtepol tetl, quil yn aca colinia yca imapil xocoioton, vel molinia hauic onquiquiça: auh quil in iquac miequjntin colinja, çan njman avel olinj, in manel cenca qujmjeccavia coliniznequj, avel colinia.
\nauh oc mjec tlamantli in qujchiuh in novian ipan altepetl: yoan quilmach much qujntotocaioti in tetepe. yoan noviã novian tlatotocaiotitia yn njcan
\nauh in ie iuhquj yn oacito atēco, njman ie ic quichioa coatlapechtli yn oquicencauhque vncan motlali, iuhqujnma yiacal ipan pouh, njman ie ic iatiuh atocotiuh aocac ontlamati in quenjn acito in vmpa tlapallan.
\nAnd elsewhere he built a house all underground at a place called Mictlan.1
\nAnd also still elsewhere he set in place a huge rock.2 It is said that one moved it with his little finger. It could move; from side to side it teetered. But it is said that when many pushed it, in no way could it move, even though many put themselves to it who wished to move it. They could not move it.
\nAnd still many other things he did everywhere in the cities. And it is said that he gave names to all the mountains. And everywhere he gave names here.
\nAnd when this was done, when he went to reach the sea coast, thereupon he made a raft of serpents. When he had arranged [the raft], there he sat as if it were his boat. Thereupon he went off; he went swept off by the water. No one knoweth how he went to arrive there at Tlapallan.3
\nCorresponding Spanish text: “hizo, y edifico vnas casas, debaxo de la tierra, que se llaman mictlancalco.”↩
Corresponding passage in Seler, Einige Kapitel, p. 291, translates vejtepol tetl as phallus rock. Cf. Molina, Vocabulario de la lengua maxicana, fol. 103v: Tepulli. miembro de varon.↩
There is great variation in legends and interpretations of the disappearance of Quetzalcoatl. In the Anales de Cuauhtitlan (Lehmann, Geschichte der Königreiche, pp. 79, 90–2), he went to the east to die and burned himself; his heart survived, arose to the heavens, and became the morning star. He and the star vanished for four days, while Quetzalcoatl was in the underworld; after eight days the star reappeared. The version in Torquemada, Segunda parte, p. 79, has Tezcatlipoca rout Quetzalcoatl from Cholula to Tiçapan, or Tlilapan, where Quetzalcoatl died; his body was burned, and he became a star or a comet. Diego Durán, in Historia de las Indias de Nueva España y islas de Tierra Firme, 2 vols. and atlas (Mexico: Editora Nacional, S.A. 1951), Vol. II, pp. 75 sq., relates that, on reaching the sea coast, Quetzalcoatl, at a single word, rent a mountain and entered it; cast a cape over the sea, made a sign with his hand, and sailed off; dried the sea with a blow of his staff and marched through with his people—the sea then engulfing the pursuers. In “La leyenda de los soles” (Velásquez, Códice Chimalpopoca, p. 125), Quetzalcoatl (Ce acatl) is said to have undertaken a series of conquests (Ayotlan, Chalco, Cuixco, Çacanco, Maçatzinco, Tzapotlan, Acalan), and to have sickened, died, and been burned or hidden at Tlapallan. (The passage cited is incomplete because of a lacuna in the original text.)↩