Another myth represents him as the immediate son of the All-Father Tonaca tecutli, under his title Citlallatonac, the Morning, by an earth-born maiden in Tollan.  In that city dwelt three sisters, one of whom, an unspotted virgin, was named Chimalman.  One day, as they were together, the god appeared to them.  Chimalman’s two sisters were struck to death by fright at his awful presence, but upon her he breathed the breath of life, and straightway she conceived.  The son she bore cost her life, but it was the divine Quetzalcoatl, surnamed Topiltcin, Our Son, and, from the year of his birth, Ce Acatl, One Reed.  As soon as he was born he was possessed of speech and reason and wisdom.  As for his mother, having perished on earth, she was transferred to the heavens, where she was given the honored name Chalchihuitzli, the Precious Stone of Sacrifice.[1]

[Footnote 1:  Codex Vaticanus, Tab. x; Codex Telleriano-Remensis, Pt. ii, Lam. ii.  The name is from chalchihuitl, jade, and vitztli, the thorn used to pierce the tongue, ears and penis, in sacrifice. Chimalman, more correctly, Chimalmatl, is from chimalli, shield, and probably, matlalin, green.]

This, also, is evidently an ancient and simple figure of speech to express that the breath of Morning announces the dawn which brings forth the sun and disappears in the act.

The virgin mother Chimalman, in another legend, is said to have been brought with child by swallowing a jade or precious green stone (chalchihuitl);[1] while another averred that she was not a virgin, but the wife of Camaxtli (Tezcatlipoca);[2] or again, that she was the second wife of that venerable old man who was the father of the seven sons from whom all tribes speaking the Nahuatl language, and several who did not speak it (Otomies, Tarascos), were descended.[3] This latter will repay analysis.

[Footnote 1:  Mendieta, Historia Eclesiastica Indiana, Lib. ii, cap. vi.]

[Footnote 2:  Ibid.]

[Footnote 3:  Motolinia, Historia de los Indios de Nueva Espana, Epistola Proemial, p. 10.  The first wife was Ilancueitl, from ilantli, old woman, and cueitl, skirt.  Gomara, Conquista de Mejico, p. 432.]

All through Mexico and Central America this legend of the Seven Sons, Seven Tribes, the Seven Caves whence they issued, or the Seven Cities where they dwelt, constantly crops out.  To that land the Aztecs referred as their former dwelling place.  It was located at some indefinite distance to the north or northwest—­in the same direction as Tollan.  The name of that land was significant.  It was called the White or Bright Land, Aztlan.[1] In its midst was situated the mountain or hill Colhuacan the Divine, Teoculhuacan.[2] In the base of this hill were the Seven Caverns, Chicomoztoc, whence the seven tribes with their respective gods had issued, those gods including Quetzalcoatl, Huitzilopochtli and the Tezcatlipocas.  There continued to live their mother, awaiting their return.