Literally—­

Beautiful, beautiful (is) my house
  Zacuan, my house of coral;
My house, I must leave it. 
  Alas, alas, they say.

Zacuan, instead of being a proper name, may mean a rich yellow leather from the bird called zacuantototl.]

As the fumes of the liquor still further disordered his reason, he called his attendants and bade them hasten to his sister Quetzalpetlatl, who dwelt on the Mountain Nonoalco, and bring her, that she too might taste the divine liquor.  The attendants hurried off and said to his sister:—­

“Noble lady, we have come for you.  The high priest Quetzalcoatl awaits you.  It is his wish that you come and live with him.”

She instantly obeyed and went with them.  On her arrival Quetzalcoatl seated her beside him and gave her to drink of the magical pulque.  Immediately she felt its influence, and Quetzalcoatl began to sing, in drunken fashion—­

“Sister mine, beloved mine,
  Quetzal—­petlatl—­tzin,
Come with me, drink with me,
  ’Tis no sin, sin, sin.”

Soon they were so drunken that all reason was forgotten; they said no prayers, they went not to the bath, and they sank asleep on the floor.[1]

[Footnote 1:  It is not clear, at least in the translations, whether the myth intimates an incestuous relation between Quetzalcoatl and his sister.  In the song he calls her “Nohueltiuh,” which means, strictly, “My elder sister;” but Mendoza translates it “Querida esposa mia.” Quetzalpetlatl means “the Beautiful Carpet,” petlatl being the rug or mat used on floors, etc.  This would be a most appropriate figure of speech to describe a rich tropical landscape, “carpeted with flowers,” as we say; and as the earth is, in primitive cosmogony, older than the sun, I suspect that this story of Quetzalcoatl and his sister refers to the sun sinking from heaven, seemingly, into the earth.  “Los Nahoas,” remarks Chavero, “figuraban la tierra en forma de un cuadrilatero dividido en pequenos quatros, lo que semijaba una estera, petlatl” (Anales del Museo Nacional, Tom. ii, p. 248).]

Sad, indeed, was Quetzalcoatl the next morning.

“I have sinned,” he said; “the stain on my name can never be erased.  I am not fit to rule this people.  Let them build for me a habitation deep under ground; let them bury my bright treasures in the earth; let them throw the gleaming gold and shining stones into the holy fountain where I take my daily bath.”

All this was done, and Quetzalcoatl spent four days in his underground tomb.  When he came forth he wept and told his followers that the time had come for him to depart for Tlapallan, the Red Land, Tlillan, the Dark Land, and Tlatlallan, the Fire Land, all names of one locality.

He journeyed eastward until he came to a place where the sky, and land, and water meet together.[1] There his attendants built a funeral pile, and he threw himself into the flames.  As his body burned his heart rose to heaven, and after four days became the planet Venus.[2]