[Footnote 1:  The derivation of Aztlan from aztatl, a heron, has been rejected by Buschmann and the best Aztec scholars.  It is from the same root as izlac, white, with the local ending tlan, and means the White or Bright Land.  See the subject discussed in Buschmann, Ueber die Atzekischen Ortsnamen. p. 612, and recently by Senor Orozco y Berra, in Anales del Museo Nacional, Tom. ii, p. 56.]

[Footnote 2:  Colhuacan, is a locative form.  It is usually derived from coloa, to curve, to round.  Father Duran says it is another name for Aztlan:  “Estas cuevas son en Teoculacan, que por otro nombre se llama Aztlan.” Historia de los Indios de Nueva Espana, Lib. i, cap. i.]

Teo is from teotl, god, deity.  The description in the text of the relations of land and water in this mythical land, is also from Duran’s work.

The lord of this land and the father of the seven sons is variously and indistinctly named.  One legend calls him the White Serpent of the Clouds, or the White Cloud Twin, Iztac Mixcoatl.[1] Whoever he was we can hardly mistake the mountain in which or upon which he dwelt. Colhuacan means the bent or curved mountain.  It is none other than the Hill of Heaven, curving down on all sides to the horizon; upon it in all times have dwelt the gods, and from it they have come to aid the men they favor.  Absolutely the same name was applied by the Choctaws to the mythical hill from which they say their ancestors first emerged into the light of day.  They call it Nane Waiyah, the Bent or Curved Hill[2].  Such identity of metaphorical expression leaves little room for discussion.

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

[Footnote 2:  See my work, The Myths of the New World, p. 242.]

If it did, the other myths which surround the mystic mountain would seem to clear up doubt.  Colhuacan, we are informed, continued to be the residence of the great Mother of the Gods.  On it she dwelt, awaiting their return from earth.  No one can entirely climb the mountain, for from its middle distance to the summit it is of fine and slippery sand; but it has this magical virtue, that whoever ascends it, however old he is, grows young again, in proportion as he mounts, and is thus restored to pristine vigor.  The happy dwellers around it have, however, no need of its youth restoring power; for in that land no one grows old, nor knows the outrage of years.[1]

[Footnote 1:  “En esta tierra nunca envejecen los hombres. * * * Este cerro tiene esta virtud, que el que ya viejo se quiere remozar, sube hasta donde le parece, y vuelve de la edad que quiere.”  Duran, in Kingsborough, Vol. viii, p. 201.]

When Quetzalcoatl, therefore, was alleged to be the son of the Lord of the Seven Caves, it was nothing more than a variation of the legend that gave him out as the son of the Lord of the High Heavens.  They both mean the same thing.  Chimalman, who appears in both myths as his mother, binds the two together, and stamps them as identical, while Mixcoatl is only another name for Tezcatlipoca.