[Footnote 1:  Toltecatl, according to Molina, is “oficial de arte mecanica o maestro,” (Vocabulario de la Lengua Mexicana, s.v.).  This is a secondary meaning.  Veitia justly says, “Toltecatl quiere decir artifice, porque en Thollan comenzaron a ensenar, aunque a Thollan llamaron Tula, y por decir Toltecatl dicen Tuloteca” (Historia, cap. xv).]

[Footnote 2:  Their title was Tlanqua cemilhuique, compounded of tlanqua, to set the teeth, as with strong determination, and cemilhuitia, to run during a whole day.  Sahagun, Historia, Lib. iii, cap. iii, and Lib. x, cap. xxix; compare also the myth of Tezcatlipoca disguised as an old woman parching corn, the odor of which instantly attracted the Toltecs, no matter how far off they were.  When they came she killed them.  Id.  Lib. iii, cap. xi.]

In some, and these I consider the original versions of the myth, they do not constitute a nation at all, but are merely the disciples or servants of Quetzalcoatl.[1] They have all the traits of beings of supernatural powers.  They were astrologers and necromancers, marvelous poets and philosophers, painters as were not to be found elsewhere in the world, and such builders that for a thousand leagues the remains of their cities, temples and fortresses strewed the land.  “When it has happened to me,” says Father Duran, “to ask an Indian who cut this pass through the mountains, or who opened that spring of water, or who built that old ruin, the answer was, ‘The Toltecs, the disciples of Papa.’"[2]

[Footnote 1:  “Discipulos,” Duran, Historia, in Kingsborough, vol. vii, p. 260.]

[Footnote 2:  Ibid.]

They were tall in stature, beyond the common race of men, and it was nothing uncommon for them to live hundreds of years.  Such was their energy that they allowed no lazy person to live among them, and like their master they were skilled in every art of life and virtuous beyond the power of mortals.  In complexion they are described as light in hue, as was their leader, and as are usually the personifications of light, and not the less so among the dark races of men.[1]

[Footnote 1:  For the character of the Toltecs as here portrayed, see Ixtlilxochitl, Relaciones Historicas, and Veitia, Historia, passion.]

When Quetzalcoatl left Tollan most of the Toltecs had already perished by the stratagems of Tezcatlipoca, and those that survived were said to have disappeared on his departure.  The city was left desolate, and what became of its remaining inhabitants no one knew.  But this very uncertainty offered a favorable opportunity for various nations, some speaking Nahuatl and some other tongues, to claim descent from this mysterious, ancient and wondrous race.

The question seems, indeed, a difficult one.  When the Light-God disappears from the sky, shorn of his beams and bereft of his glory, where are the bright rays, the darting gleams of light which erewhile bathed the earth in refulgence?  Gone, gone, we know not whither.