nce of the accuracy of
Marina's translation of Montezuma's words, and the fidelity of Cortes'
memory.]

Such was the extraordinary address with which the Spaniard, with his
handful of men, was received by the most powerful war chief of the
American continent. It confessed complete submission, without a struggle.
But it was the expression of a general sentiment. When the Spanish ships
for the first time reached the Mexican shores the natives kissed their
sides and hailed the white and bearded strangers from the east as gods,
sons and brothers of Quetzalcoatl, come back from their celestial home to
claim their own on earth and bring again the days of Paradise; [1] a hope,
dryly observes Father Mendieta, which the poor Indians soon gave up when
they came to feel the acts of their visitors.[2]

[Footnote 1: Sahagun, _Historia_, Lib. xii, cap. ii.]

[Footnote 2: "Los Indios siempre esperaron que se habia de cumplir aquella
profecia y cuando vieron venir a los cristianos luego los llamaron dioses,
hijos, y hermanos de Quetzalcoatl, aunque despues que conocieron y
experimentaron sus obras, no los tuvieron por celestiales." _Historia
Eclesiastica Indiana_, Lib. ii, cap. x.]

Such presentiments were found scattered through America. They have excited
the suspicion of historians and puzzled antiquaries to explain. But their
interpretation is simple enough. The primitive myth of the sun which had
sunk but should rise again, had in the lapse of time lost its peculiarly
religious sense, and had been in part taken to refer to past historical
events. The Light-God had become merged in the divine culture hero. He it
was who was believed to have gone away, not to die, for he was immortal,
but to dwell in the distant east, whence in the fullness of time he would
return.

This was why Montezuma and his subjects received the whites as expected
guests, and quoted to them prophecies of their coming. The Mayas of
Yucatan, the Muyscas of Bogota, the Qquichuas of Peru, all did the same,
and all on the same grounds--the confident hope of the return of the
Light-God from the under world.

This hope is an integral part of this great Myth of Light, in whatever
part of the world we find it. Osiris, though murdered, and his body cast
into "the unclean sea," will come again from the eastern shores. Balder,
slain by the wiles of Loki, is not dead forever, but at the appointed time
will appear again in nobler majesty. So in her divine fury sings th