In this first chapter we transcribe the náhuatl
version prepared by doctor Garibay, of texts of indigenous informants of
Sahagún contained at the beginning of book XII of the Florentino Codex,
as well as a brief section taken from the History of Tlaxcala by Diego
Muñoz Camargo, who as it was indicated in the General Introduction,
related to the indigenous nobility of this Lordship, and it reflects the
opinion of the Tlaxcalteca Indians, allies of Cortez. Both documents,
that have a close similarity, narrate a series of ill prodigies and
omens that the Mexicas, and especially Moctezuma, affirmed to see about
ten years before the arrival of the Spaniards. The first text of the
informants of Sahagún is transcribed, according to the Florentino Codex
and next is the testimony of the author of the History of Tlaxcala.
Second bad omen that happened here in Mexico: by its own it burst
in flames, it catched fire: nobody perhaps set in on fire,
spontaneously the house of Huitzilopochtli burned. His divine site, the
temple was called "Tlacateccan" ("House of control").
The columns already burn. From inside come the fire flames, the fire
tongues, the fire blazes.
Extremely fast the fire finished all the woodwork of the house.
Immediately there was uproarious shouting; they said: " Mexican, you
come quickly: it must be extinguished! You bring your cántaros! (water
pots)... " But when they threw water to it, when they tried to
extinguish it, they only enraged it, flaming more. It could not be
extinguished: completely it burned down.
Third bad omen: A temple was hit by
lightning. Only of straw it was made: in the place called "Tzummulco".
The temple of Xiuhtecuhtli. It was not raining hard, just drizzled
slightly. Thus, it was taken as an omen; they said: " it was not
sunstroke. No thunderclap was heard either."
Fourth bad omen: When the Sun was still up, a
fire fell. In three parts divided: it started where the Sun sets: it
went straight to where the Sun rises: as if it was a burning coal, it
was falling in a rain of sparks. Long was its tail; far its tail
reached. And when it was seen, there was great uproar: as if someone
were playing bells.
Fifth bad omen: The water boiled: the wind
made it start boiling. As if it boiled in fury, as if in pieces it broke
when shaking. Its impulse reached very far, I rose very high. It
reached at the foundations of the houses: and destroyed the houses, they
sank in water. That was in the lagoon that is next to us.
Sixth bad omen: often it was heard: an unseen
woman wept; she wandered shouting at night; she went giving great
shouts:
- Little sons of mine, because we already must go far!
And sometimes it said:
- Little sons of mine, where will I take you?
Seventh bad omen: Often something was caught,
something was trapped in the nets. Those that worked in the water
caught certain ashy bird like a stork. Quickly they took it to show to
Moctezuma, in the House of the Black (house of magical study).
The Sun had arrived at its apogee: it was noon. There was something like
a mirror on the head of the bird like a complicated spiral: it was as
if its head was perforated in its middle.
There they could see the sky: the stars, the constellations. And
Moctezuma had it as an omen, when he saw stars and constellations.
But when he saw for the second time the head of the bird, again he saw
afar; as if some people came quickly; standing and shoving each other.
They made war on each other and they were riding some deer like animals.
Immediately he called to his magicians, to his wise people. He said to
them:
"Do you do not know: what is what I have seen? Like people who are
standing and shaken... "
But they, wanting to give the answer, started to see: it disappeared
(everything): nothing they saw.
Eighth bad omen:Often deformed men showed
themselves to people, monstrous men, with two heads and a single body.
They took them to the House of the Black; they showed them to Moctezuma.
When he had seen them they immediately disappeared.
Testimony of Muñoz Camargo (Historia de Tlaxcala, written in Spanish by its author)
The second prodigy, signal or omen that the natives
of Mexico had, was that the temple of the demon was burnt and burned,
without anyone setting it on fire, the one which was called the temple
to one Huitzilopuchtli, that is in the district of Tlacateco. It was so
great this fire and so sudden, that fire blazes came out the doors of
this temple and seemed to reach at the sky and in a moment everything
was burnt and burned, without anyone being able to remedy it. "It was
destroyed", when it happened, it was not without great uproar and
shouting, calling and saying to the people: " Ea Mexican! Come in great
haste with pitchers of water to extinguish the fire ", and thus all the
people who could come to the aid came. And when they approached to throw
the water and to try to extinguish the fire, as to this a multitude of
people arrived, then the flames ignited with greater force, and thus,
the fire burned everything.
The third prodigy and signal was that a lightning
fell on an idolatrous temple which had a straw roof, that the natural
ones called Xacal, and the temple the natural ones called Tzonmolco, and
was dedicated to the idol Xiuhtecuhtli, it was raining a slight drizzle
from the sky, without thunder nor lightning on this temple. Which also
they took as great omen and prodigy of very bad signal, and it burnt
everything.
The fourth prodigy was, that being daytime and
having sun, comets came from the sky and three by three ran through the
air, "starting at the West and ran towards the East", with all force and
violence, and that they were dropping and leaving fire coals or flashes
asthey ran to the East, and had such great tails, that their length and
greatness spanned a very great distance; and when these signals were
seen, there was uproar, and also very great noise and shouting and
howling of people.
The fifth prodigy and signal was that the Mexican
lagoon was altered without wind, it boiled and boiled and foamed in such
a way that it rose to a high altitude, in such a way, that the water
got to shower over more than half of the houses of Mexico, and many of
them fell and sank; and it covered them and they completely drowned and
disappeared.
The sixth prodigy and signal was that often and many
nights, they heard a woman's voice who in loud voices cried and said,
drowning with much weaping and great sobs and sighs:
Oh children of mine! we are going to be absolutely lost
... and other times it said:
Oh children of mine, to where could I take you and hide you?
The seventh prodigy was that the 'lagooners' of the
Mexican lagoon, sailors and pirates or hunting canoists, hunted a brown
bird similar to a stork, which was immediately taken to Moctezuma so
that he saw it, who was in the Palaces of the black room, and it was a
clear day. That bird was so strange and so admirable, that their great
surprise cannot be imagined, it had on its head a round ornament with
the form of a very diaphanous round mirror, clear and transparent,
through which he saw the sky and the constellation of Geminis; and when
Moctezuma saw this, he had as great omen, prodigy and bad signal to see
through the ornament of that bird the stars of the sky.
And wanting a second time Motecuhzoma to see and to admire through the
ornament and head of the bird he saw great number of people, who came
marching scattered and in very orderly squadrons, very decorated and
warlike, and battling with other and riding on figures of deer and other
animals, and then, as he saw so many and so shapeless visions, he
commanded to call his fortunetellers who were considered wise people.
Having come to his presence, he told them the cause of its admiration:
"You have to know my wise beloved friends, how I have seen great and
strange things through an ornament of a strange bird that was brought to
me as a new and strange thing and that never another one as she has
been seen nor hunted, and through this ornament that is transparent like
a mirror, I have seen a sort of people who come in squadrons, and so
you can see them, look yourselves and you will see the very thing that I
have seen."
And wishing to respond to their Lord that which had seemed to them such
an outrageous thing, to realize their judgments, riddles and conjectures
or prognoses, they tried to look at the bird, which suddenly
disappeared, and thus they could not give no judgment nor true
prognosis.
The eighth prodigy and signal of Mexico, was that
often two men united in a body appeared and and were seen, those that
the natives call Tlacantzolli. And others saw bodies, with two heads
coming from a single body, which were taken to the palace of the black
room of the great Motecuhzoma. In arriving there they disappeared became
invisible all these signals and others that to the natives foretold
their end and finish. Because they said that there was to come the end
and that the world was to finish and be consumed, that other new people
were to be created and other new inhabitants for the world were to come.
And thus they were so sad and frightened that they did not know what to
make of this rare, strange, so new and never seen or heard things.
Besides these signals, there were others in this
province of Tlaxcala before the coming of the Spaniards, very shortly
before.
The first signal was that each morning a clarity was seen that came from
the East, three hours before the sun rose, and it was like very clear
white fog, which raised to the sky, and not knowing what it could be
caused great fright and admiration.
Also another wonderful signal was seen, and was that
a column of dust rose like a tube, it rose from the Mountain range
"Matlalcueye" which they call now the Mountain range of Tlaxcalla. The
column raised to such height, that it seemed to reach the sky. This
signal was seen many and diverse times more during a whole year, it
caused fright and admiration, so strange was it in this nation.
They understood but that they were the Gods that had come from the sky,
and thus with so strange new development, the news flew around the land.
At the end it was known of the arrival of so strange and new people,
specially in Mexico, since it was the head of this empire.
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