The second cycle of legends disclaimed any miraculous parentage for the hero of Tollan.  Las Casas narrates his arrival from the East, from some part of Yucatan, he thinks, with a few followers,[1] a tradition which is also repeated with definitiveness by the native historian, Alva Ixtlilxochitl, but leaving the locality uncertain.[2] The historian, Veytia, on the other hand, describes him as arriving from the North, a full grown man, tall of stature, white of skin, and full-bearded, barefooted and bareheaded, clothed in a long white robe strewn with red crosses, and carrying a staff in his hand.[3]

[Footnote 1:  Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana, Lib. vi, cap. xxiv.  This was apparently the canonical doctrine in Cholula.  Mendieta says:  “El dios o idolo de Cholula, llamado Quetzalcoatl, fue el mas celebrado y tenido por mejor y mas digno sobre los otro dioses, segun la reputacion de todos.  Este, segun sus historias (aunque algunos digan que de Tula) vino de las partes de Yucatan a la ciudad de Cholula.” Historia Eclesiastica Indiana, Lib. ii, cap. x.]

[Footnote 2:  Historia Chichimeca, cap. i.]

[Footnote 3:  Historia, cap. xv.]

Whatever the origin of Quetzalcoatl, whether the child of a miraculous conception, or whether as an adult stranger he came from some far-off land, all accounts agree as to the greatness and purity of his character, and the magnificence of Tollan under his reign.  His temple was divided into four apartments, one toward the East, yellow with gold; one toward the West, blue with turquoise and jade; one toward the South, white with pearls and shells, and one toward the North, red with bloodstones; thus symbolizing the four cardinal points and four quarters of the world over which the light holds sway.[1]

[Footnote 1:  Sahagun, Lib. ix, cap. xxix.]

Through the midst of Tollan flowed a great river, and upon or over this river was the house of Quetzalcoatl.  Every night at midnight he descended into this river to bathe, and the place of his bath was called, In the Painted Vase, or, In the Precious Waters.[1] For the Orb of Light dips nightly into the waters of the World Stream, and the painted clouds of the sun-setting surround the spot of his ablutions.

[Footnote 1:  The name of the bath of Quetzalcoatl is variously given as Xicapoyan, from xicalli, vases made from gourds, and poyan, to paint (Sahagun, Lib. iii, cap. iii); Chalchiuhapan, from atl, water pan, in, and chalchiuitl, precious, brilliant, the jade stone (id., Lib. x, cap. xxix); and Atecpanamochco, from atl, water, tecpan, royal, amochtli, any shining white metal, as tin, and the locative co, hence, In the Shining Royal Water (Anales de Cuauhtitlan, p. 21).  These names are interesting as illustrating the halo of symbolism which surrounded the history of the Light-God.]