Chapter Seven

TRIUMPH and TRAGEDY

ON THE DAY 11 DEATH, THE SUN GOD (OR HIS HIGH PRIEST) GRANTED Lord 4 Jaguar and Lord 8 Deer a vision.¹ They climbed the impressive and beautifully decorated pyramid that reached into the heavens—it is easy to visualize here the older phase of the Castillo in Chichén Itzá. There the Heaven, place of sacrifice and ecstasy, opened, and they saw three temples or houses. This image probably referred to the idea of a Triple Alliance. Indeed, the first house was that of the Plumed Serpent at Tollan-Cholollan. But facing it were not—as one would have expected—the Heaven Temples of Ñuu Tnoo and Yucu Dzaa. There was no reference to the realm of Lord 8 Deer whatsoever. The second house was that of a Town of Flint, an insignificant place at the time. The third was that of Town of the Pointed Objects, the place we suggest might be Yucu Ndeque (Huauclilla). Was this going to be the Triple Alliance of the future? The idea came as a blow to the two Lords, and they began to lament.

7.1. Lord 1 Death, the Sun God, allows Lord 8 Deer and Lord 4 Jaguar to have a vision on top of the celestial pyramid and gives them precious gifts (Codex Tonindeye, 79).

Then Lord 8 Deer saw his elder half-brother approaching from behind Lord 4 Jaguar ‘Nacxitl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl.’ For some unknown reason Lord 12 Movement came toward them dressed as a warrior, perhaps alarmed because he saw them lamenting, certainly not with the idea of doing any harm; he had been a consistently loyal and unselfish helper to his younger half-brother. But his appearance, fully armed, likely disturbed Lord 8 Deer as a new omen: Was this man going to take over his position by force of arms, was he the impediment to the alliance between Ñuu Tnoo and Tollan-Cholollan? From that moment on, Lord 8 Deer’s feelings for his elder half-brother were poisoned by distrust, envy, and fear.

This vision, then, is the dramatic turning point in our story. In a tense atmosphere, Lord 8 Deer and Lord 4 Jaguar ‘Nacxitl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl’ finished the rituals. On the days 2 Dog and 3 Monkey they received precious gifts from the Sun God. On the day 6 Jaguar they sat in the great ball court and confirmed their alliance by laying down their weapons and exchanging gifts of jade and gold. Finally, on the day 9 Movement, the last day of the year 9 Reed, they began their return over the sea. Thirty-eight days later, on the day 8 Eagle of the year 10 Flint (1100), they were back at the place where their campaign had started. Thirteen days after that a huge explosion of a volcano occurred in the area they had conquered.²

Fray Diego de Landa confirms that Quetzalcoatl lived for a number of years in Yucatan and then went back to his capital in Central Mexico: “This Kukulkan lived with the lords in that city [Mayapan] for several years; and leaving them in great peace and friendship, he returned by the same way to Mexico, and on the way he stopped at Champoton and, in memory of him and of his departure, he erected a fine building in the sea, like that of Chichen Itza, a long stone’s throw from the shore” (Tozzer 1941: 26). Mendieta also documents that Quetzalcoatl arrived in Cholula, coming from Yucatan, and states that he then ruled his capital for twenty years, after which he went back where he came from.³

According to the Ñuu Dzaui sources, the two protagonists went their separate ways. Lord 4 Jaguar went to consult with other Toltec lords, whereas Lord 8 Deer dedicated himself to complementary conquests, presumably in the Ñuu Dzaui region. After returning, he tried to locate the place he had seen in his vision and visited a Town of the Pointed Objects, close to Town of the Eagle. Nothing in particular was found there, however.⁴

MURDER in the STEAM BATH

On the day 11 Death of the year 10 Flint (1100), Lord 12 Movement was going to take a sweat bath. This was likely a preliminary ritual in preparation for his “birthday,” which was exactly half a tonalpohualli (130 days) away. He reached age fifty-five that year. At the same time, the ceremony may have been a commemoration of the events one cycle of 260 days (tonalpohualli) earlier, when Lord 8 Deer and the Toltec king had experienced their disturbing vision on the Altar that Rises into Heaven (the Castillo of Chichén Itzá), a vision that had strained the relationship between the two half-brothers. Above the sweat bath a sun is depicted, reinforcing this association with the visit to the Sun God. At the same time, it may be a reference to a feast such as the Panquetzaliztli of the Mexica.⁵

The sweat bath had been prepared, probably at a special secluded location, away from the noise and bustle of the capital of the village-state. Lord 12 Movement, off guard, entered with a trusted healer who was going to bathe him and stimulate his life force by hitting him with branches of the temazcal tree. This individual, whose name we do not know, was corrupt and was involved in a dark conspiracy to kill his client. A knife had been hidden in the leaves of branches, and once the anonymous healer was alone with Lord 12 Movement in the dark and steamy interior of the temazcal, he assassinated him. They had been alone for this ceremony, so the murderer could easily escape. The body was probably not found until the next day, 12 Deer.⁶

7.2. The killing of Lord 12 Movement in the sweat bath (Codex Tonindeye, 81).

The image of the Sun above the sweat bath connotes the phrase “the Sun was watching,” indicating that divine justice would punish this sacrilegious crime.

A funerary ceremony was initiated on the day 1 Water (three days after 11 Death). The corpse was placed on a scaffold, burned or dried over a low fire, and made into a mummy bundle. Lord 8 Deer was present and helped kindle the fire.⁷ The funeral lasted nine days, until 9 Movement (the day before the recurrence of the day that was the year bearer, 10 Flint, now in the position of the 261st day). Several commemoration rituals were celebrated.

On the day 7 Flower, sixty-three days after the nine-day funerary ritual had ended, nobles arrived with offerings. Lord 8 Deer supervised the ritual for the bones and skull of the deceased, together with his brother Lord 9 Flower. Codex Iya Nacuaa stresses the presence of Lord 5 Rain ‘Smoking Mountain.’ Earth was eaten as a sign of respect; the dark beat of the drum mixed with the delicate singing of sacred hymns. A procession was held, in which Lord 8 Deer, Lord 9 Flower, and Lord 5 Rain all participated.

On the day 7 Flower, still in the year 10 Flint, Lord 8 Deer sat down in front of a temple of the Xipe Bundle.⁸ The scene in Codex Iya Nacuaa is damaged, but no indication of the local rulers is given. In Codex Tonindeye, the same date is connected to a plain on which two Xipe Bundles are standing. It is not clear whether these scenes actually refer to the Town of the Xipe Bundle, although, in view of later events, this is highly probable. In that case, it is ominous that Lord 8 Deer was not welcomed by Lord 11 Wind and Lady 6 Monkey, who ruled that place. No communication seems to have taken place at all. In any case, Lord 8 Deer probably sought permission from the sacred object to conquer the town that bore its name and was consecrated to it.

A war ritual was organized, apparently in commemoration of Lord 12 Movement, with a large orchestra playing music; a two-toned drum, qhu (teponaztli in Nahuatl), and the standing drum ñuu (huehuetl in Nahuatl), as well as gourd trumpets and gourd rattles were used, and one musician beat a tortoise shell with an antler. One orchestra member was Lord 5 Rain, so important in the tradition that produced Codex Iya Nacuaa. Of the other participants, we can only identify Lady 9 Movement ‘Jewel Flower,’ daughter of the rulers of Ñuu Sitoho (Juquila). Later she would marry one of Lord 8 Deer’s sons. Here she must still have been very young.

Lord 9 Flower, Lord 8 Deer’s younger brother, was an active participant in these events, but Lord 8 Flower, Lord 8 Deer’s maternal half-brother, is conspicuously absent. Perhaps he had died.

Offerings were made to the Sacred Bundle, situated in a large and precious temple. This was likely the sanctuary where Lord 12 Movement was buried. Three toponyms that follow situate the Place where the Faceless Ñuhu Emerges—which we take as a reference to the tomb—between the Mountain of the Moon and the Mountain of the Fire Serpent, which may represent the ceremonial center of Monte Albán; the Yucu Yoo or Mountain of the Moon (Acatepec) was its northern point, and the Mountain of the Fire Serpent seems to have been a name for the southern part.⁹ It was the same Yucu Yoo—here painted as a place of songs, a famous place—that Lord 12 Movement had helped conquer three years before.

Day 7 Flower seems to have been the actual burial date. As a ritual day, it connects the death of Lord 12 Movement symbolically with the death of the ancestral figure Lord 7 Flower.¹⁰

Who was responsible for the murder of Lord 12 Movement? The codices do not tell us. They explicitly leave the matter open for speculation. Consideration of the circumstantial evidence—basically interest and motive—points to Lord 8 Deer, not as the actual killer but as the intellectual author behind the conspiracy.

This is a tragic twist in the events. Lord 12 Movement had always been loyal to his younger half-brother, always respectful and supportive, but because of his genealogical position, he posed a long-term threat to Lord 8 Deer. As the firstborn son, he was the main inheritor of their father’s power and status, the head of their noble house, and also the head of the faction their father had formed in Ñuu Tnoo. Lord 12 Movement was a structural competitor for Lord 8 Deer’s power, although nothing indicates that he ever tried to make use of that position. In fact, we do not fully understand his position; no marriage is mentioned, and no social function is indicated. We can speculate that he was not married because of a priestly office, that of guardian of the Sacred Arrow, similar in importance to the function of his father, Lord 5 Alligator. In that case he would only become a dynastic competitor if he left that celibate office and prepared for matrimony. The temazcal ritual may have been indicative of such a transition, but we have no way to be certain.

The pointing toward Lord 8 Deer as the intellectual author behind the murder of his half-brother fits the overall interpretation of his biography as the literary drama of a tragic hero, in which this would be a second turning point. On the other hand, admirers and followers of this great ruler would oppose such a suggestion without proof. To please both factions and not offend anybody, the painters chose to leave the question open and in a state of suspense.

The DEATH of LADY 6 MONKEY

Lord 8 Deer was eager to avoid accusations of complicity by playing a prominent role in the funerary ceremony, which was performed with great pomp and circumstance. Priests observed the nine days of vigil and mourning, beheading quails, throwing powdered tobacco (piciete) into the air, and drying the corpse over a fire. Other important priests, dressed in xicollis and crowned with flowers, arrived with chocolate, pulque, and flower garlands. Rich spoils from the wars were deposited with the dead body. Jewels in the form of butterflies, which symbolized rebirth in eternal life, were consecrated to the four directions.¹¹ But Lord 8 Deer went further: so nobody would doubt his innocence, a culprit had to be found and severely punished. Ironically, among the ceremonial attendants were “men with bloody hands,” that is, those who had carried out the assassination; they would now assist him in executing the scapegoats.

The temazcal where Lord 12 Movement had been killed was probably located in the area of Town of the Xipe Bundle. That would explain the references to this town in the funerary ceremonies. Lord 11 Wind and Lady 6 Monkey ruled this important ancient village-state. In the year 10 House (1061), Lord 11 Wind had married Lord 8 Deer’s elder half-sister, Lady 6 Lizard, a younger sister of Lord 12 Movement. With her, he had fathered three children: Lord 10 Dog ‘Sacred Eagle,’ Lord 6 House ‘Rope, Flints,’ and Lady 13 Serpent ‘Flowered Serpent.’ Later, in the year 13 Rabbit (1090), recall that he had married again, this time Lady 6 Monkey, seven years after she had gone to the Huahi Cahi with Lord 8 Deer. They had two children: Lord 4 Wind ‘Fire Serpent’ and Lord 1 Alligator ‘Eagle of the Ball Court,’ born in the years 2 Flint (1092) and 4 Rabbit (1094) or 5 Reed (1095), respectively.¹²

In 1100, when the murder of Lord 12 Movement occurred, the children of the first marriage were adults. Lady 13 Serpent had married a Lord 8 Wind ‘Fire Serpent’ in Place of the Owl, with whom she had a small child, Lord 1 Alligator.¹³

Through their father, these three children were descendants of a Monte Albán princess, sister of the Founding Mother of the first Ñuu Tnoo dynasty. Through their mother, they were descended from the first marriage of Lord 5 Alligator and a princess from Zaachila. Their stepmother, Lady 6 Monkey, was the princess of Añute, also a descendant of the first Ñuu Tnoo dynasty, the woman Lord 8 Deer had once planned to marry. Obviously, these children were important political figures with high prestige and, as such, possible future competitors for power in Ñuu Dzaui.

It seems that Lord 8 Deer blamed Lord 10 Dog ‘Sacred Eagle’ and Lord 6 House ‘Rope, Flints’ for the murder of Lord 12 Movement. On the day 12 Monkey of the year 11 House (1101), exactly 365 days after the murder in the temazcal, he attacked and quickly conquered the Town of the Xipe Bundle, taking its royal family prisoner. There the triumphant warrior, affected by ambition, distrust, and the corruption of power, reencountered for the first time in eighteen years the woman he had once intended to marry, Lady 6 Monkey. The codices do not speak explicitly about the protagonists’ feelings, but the fact that Lord 8 Deer had never married in all his years as a ruler of Yucu Dzaa and Ñuu Tnoo suggests that he had not given up his young man’s dream. Now he had become a calculating, power-thirsty monarch, in whose heart jealousy had overcome love. In full armor he made her, her husband, and children march with white banners as a sign that they were going to be killed. Immediately thereafter, Lady 6 Monkey, at age twenty-eight or a few years older, was sacrificed, along with her husband.¹⁴

7.3. Lord 8 Deer takes Lord 4 Wind prisoner and executes Lord 10 Dog (Codex Tonindeye, 83).

Here, then, the prophecy the old priests of Zaachila had shouted to her from their high sanctuary on Monte Albán years before, yuchi yuchi, “knife, knife, thou wilt be killed by a knife,” was fulfilled. Far from a curse or a threat, it had been a warning the young princess had been unable to understand—in a case of tragic irony, she had killed those who tried to save her.

Lord 4 Wind, a young boy of seven, was crying when he was taken prisoner by Lord 8 Deer, but he soon managed to escape and hide in a cave. In Dzaha Dzaui a hideout was called yavui yuhu, “cave to hide,” which might produce a word play with yahui, “fire serpent.” If the toponym was actually Cave of the Fire Serpent, it would suggest that this was a place of nahual activity, probably known for that intimate reason by Lord 4 Wind, as his given name, ‘Fire Serpent,’ suggests that his nahual was that ball of lightning. At the same time, the toponym Rock of the Fire Serpent can be identified with the southern part of Monte Albán.¹⁵ From this place young Lord 4 Wind had to watch as Lord 8 Deer led away his elder half-brothers, Lord 10 Dog ‘Sacred Eagle’ and Lord 6 House ‘Rope, Flints,’ as prisoners.

Four days later, on the day 3 Eagle, he went to consult Lady 9 Grass, not at the Huahi Cahi in Ñuu Ndaya (Chalcatongo) but in another oracle place. Many days later, as the commemoration of the burial of Lord 12 Movement on the day 7 Flower approached, Lord 4 Wind consulted with the Ancestral Spirit Lord 7 Flower, still in the year 11 House (1101) on the day 4 Movement (also the name of an Ancestral Spirit, companion to Lord 7 Flower). But all this was of no avail.

On the day 7 Flower of the year 12 Rabbit (1102), Lord 8 Deer visited Place of the Pointed Objects. He had likely chosen that place because of his vision in Chichén Itzá. First, he appointed himself the new ruler there, celebrating the ritual of drinking the new pulque as the foundation of a prosperous reign. His trusted noble, Lord 13 Jaguar ‘War Eagle,’ was there to salute him, perhaps so he could become the acting governor of the place.¹⁶

Lord 8 Deer deposited the Sacred Bundle in front of Mountain of the Eagle and waited twenty-five days for his special day, 6 Serpent in the year 12 Rabbit (1102). That was the day he had chosen for the ritual execution of his two half-nephews—only six days before the tonalpohualli commemoration of the conquest of Town of the Xipe Bundle. Appropriately in view of their dynastic background, a Xipe festival was organized to kill both princes. One was tied to a round stone (temalacatl) and had to defend himself with sticks against fully armed jaguar warriors. On the ninth day of the Xipe ritual, 1 Reed, the other prince was tied to a rack and shot with darts, thrown by experienced warriors dedicated to the Venus God. His blood flew onto the round blue stone that had been given to Lord 8 Deer in the Huahi Cahi. Both princes died weeping. The executioners’ faces were concealed behind terrifying masks in the form of jaguar heads and skulls. Lord 8 Deer participated in the killing.¹⁷

It was exactly nineteen years after Lord 8 Deer and Lady 6 Monkey had gone to the Huahi Cahi (on the day 6 Serpent of the year 6 Reed). Perhaps the now omnipotent king thought the blood of all these killings, consecrated in sacrifice to commemorate that ominous visit, would in some way redeem him from the grip of Death, personified in Lady 9 Grass. Of course, that was an illusion.

The SURVIVORS

After the attack on Town of the Xipe Bundle, Lord 4 Wind, who had been living there with his parents, became a fugitive. The second son of Lady 6 Monkey was Lord 1 Alligator ‘Eagle of the Ball Court,’ now six or seven years old. Apparently, he was in Añute at the time of the attack and was not persecuted. He was the appropriate age to enter into temple service, and we see him performing rituals for the Sacred Bundle in his mother’s town in the year 12 Rabbit on the day 6 Dog, that is, sixty-five days after the execution of his half-brothers. At the same time, this ritual was the preparation for his becoming ruler of Añute as his mother’s heir and successor.

Lord 8 Deer did not oppose this development but concentrated on his own affairs in Ñuu Tnoo. After additional rituals, on the days 9 Wind and 2 Vulture, he walked the sacred road and sat down in a large temple to drink pulque—commemorating again the burial of Lord 12 Movement—on the day 7 Flower of the year 13 Reed (1103).¹⁸ Among those present—all clad in ceremonial tunics (xicolli)—were several men “with blood on their hands,” that is, participants in the killing of Lord 12 Movement and his kin. The scene shows the ruler’s cynical disregard of ritual purity and family values.

Soon afterward, forty-five days later, he married Lady 13 Serpent, his half-niece, the sister of the two princes of Town of the Xipe Bundle whom he had just executed. She became his first official wife. Her earlier marriage to Lord 8 Wind of Owl Place was apparently dissolved. The day chosen for the marriage was her name day, 13 Serpent in the year 13 Reed (1103).¹⁹

This marital alliance was prescribed by political considerations. Lord 8 Deer had taken an enormous risk by attacking the prestigious descendants of his father’s first marriage. By eliminating them as possible competitors for power, he had at the same time offended their political faction, allies, and related lineages. To soothe the protests and resentments, he now married the woman who was the only descendant of this family. In this way his huge realm and political power would pass on to their son, who would unite the descent and heritage from both the first and second marriages of high priest Lord 5 Alligator.

For Lady 13 Serpent this must have been quite an ordeal: she became the queen of an important realm, a vassal province of the prestigious Toltec empire, and the wife of the man who had killed her innocent brothers, father, and stepmother. Heavily traumatized, she did not bear children in the period that followed.

In the meantime, Lord 4 Wind tried to accommodate himself to the new reality. First, in the year 2 House (1105), on the appropriate day 1 Death, he laid down his weapons for the Sun God on Mountain of the Sun—likely a general reference to a sanctuary in the mountains, dedicated to the solar deity. Through the intervention of this deity, the next day, 2 Deer, again a day of symbolic importance, Lord 4 Wind, thirteen years old, could establish himself at Large Stone of the Fire Serpent.²⁰ Apparently, this was a place under Toltec control because two Nahuatl-speaking priests—Lord 5 Flower and Lord 5 Vulture—received him and offered him a bow and a xicolli, that is, took it upon themselves to educate him in the art of hunting and the ritual obligations of priesthood.²¹

Lord 8 Deer did not oppose this arrangement; in fact, he held no grudge against Lord 4 Wind, who was a child at the time, a son of Lady 6 Monkey of Añute, and irrelevant to his dynastic schemes.

INTRIGUES at the COURT

As things were settling down, but as he was still childless, Lord 8 Deer decided to enter into other marriages. Thus, on the day 3 Deer of the year 2 House (1105) he wed his niece Lady 6 Eagle ‘Jaguar Spiderweb,’ the daughter of his sister, Lady 9 Monkey, who had married Lord 8 Alligator, the ruler of Ñuu Ndaya (Chalcatongo). We saw earlier that Lady 6 Eagle had been married before to the ruler of Yuu Usa and had given birth to a son, who was probably killed by Lord 8 Deer when he entered the Other World.²² If our suspicions are right, this marriage validated a relationship that had been going on for some time.

Then, in the same year 2 House (1105), Lord 8 Deer married Lady 10 Vulture ‘Brilliant Quechquemitl,’ that is, ‘Beauty of Jade.’ Again, this was an important dynastic event. She was the daughter of Lady 7 Reed ‘Flower-Jewel,’ the sister of Lord 12 Lizard of Ñuu Tnoo, who had married Lord 13 Death of Head Town.²³ Because of this ancestry, Lady 10 Vulture was now one of the few inheritors of the first dynasty of Ñuu Tnoo. Logically, the chosen date was the favorite marriage day of Ñuu Tnoo rulers: 7 Eagle.

The marriage had been arranged in a peculiar way. Thirteen days earlier, on 6 Alligator, Lady 10 Vulture had come from the village-state of her parents to River of Flames—probably the river of the ceremonial center Ñuu Ndecu (Achiutla). There she had made a human sacrifice and received a vision. In that vision Lord 9 Flower ‘Sacred Arrow,’ Lord 8 Deer’s younger brother, manifested himself as a serpent. This indicates that Lord 9 Flower (born thirty-eight years earlier) had died. Speaking from the Other World, he instructed Lady 10 Vulture to marry his brother. The guidance by this vision strengthened the importance of this marital alliance, which united Lord 8 Deer directly with the first dynasty of Ñuu Tnoo.

These three marriages were carefully calculated and brought Lord 8 Deer the loyalty of three important factions with which he had to deal. His first wife (Lady 13 Serpent) linked him to the faction around the descendants of the first marriage of his father, Lord 5 Alligator, and to those who favored the alliance with Town of the Xipe Bundle. His second wife (Lady 6 Eagle) satisfied his own faction, as she was also a descendant of his father’s second marriage. At the same time, the bond with the village-state where the Huahi Cahi was located was reaffirmed. His third wife (Lady 10 Vulture) connected him to the first dynasty of Ñuu Tnoo, that is, the original legitimate ruling lineage founded by Lord 9 Wind ‘Stone Skull’ and the princess from Monte Albán.

Ironically, each of the three wives had her own reasons to despise Lord 8 Deer: Lady 13 Serpent because of the killing of her brothers, father, and stepmother; Lady 6 Eagle because of the killing of her baby son (at least if our interpretation is right); and Lady 10 Vulture because her house had lost control over Ñuu Tnoo and because of the unclear circumstances under which its latest prince, her grandnephew Lord 2 Rain ‘Ocoñaña,’ had lost his life (circumstances that could implicate Lord 8 Deer).

The contradictory emotions of resentment against the powerful husband and the wives’ ambition to obtain a major piece of his heritage for their children created, we imagine, an atmosphere of tension and intrigue at the royal court of Ñuu Tnoo. Insecurity must also have existed about the political future of Ñuu Dzaui as a whole. In the past the region had been divided into distinct village-states, with some, like Chiyo Yuhu, more powerful than others. Now the alliance with the Toltecs had introduced the notion of centralized rule. Ñuu Dzaui, at least the Mixteca Alta, was becoming a vassal province, with Ñuu Tnoo as its regional center and Cholula as the empire’s capital. The different noble houses and factions speculated on what would happen after Lord 8 Deer died: Were they to keep or get back their local tribute rights and other privileges?

Thus, ironically, while Lord 8 Deer had arrived at the zenith of his power and had unified the Ñuu Dzaui lands, his realm was already falling apart under him because of the intrigues of his court and family. The crucial issue, of course, would be the installation of his own lineage, the appointment of a strong heir to the throne. No children had yet been born, however, so Lord 8 Deer married again. His fourth wife was Lady 11 Serpent ‘White Flower (Oceloxochitl), Teeth Inlaid with Turquoise.’ She was from a noble Toltec house, as is spelled out in Codex Ñuu Tnoo–Ndisi Nuu. Her parents were Lord 5 Eagle and Lady 9 Serpent, rulers of Place of Bird with Arrow–Pointed Beak, probably Totomihuacan near Cholula.²⁴ This Lady 9 Serpent, in turn, was the daughter of a couple who had ruled in the great Tollan, that is, Cholula: Lady 11 Serpent ‘Jewel Mouth’ and Lord 1 Lizard ‘Serpent–Decorated Shield.’ The latter was the son of Lord 5 Dog ‘Plumed Jaguar Serpent’ and Lady 2 Death ‘Quetzal Feather of Royal Blood,’ from Red Temazcal, that is, Ñuu Niñe (Tonalá). This marriage brought a connection—although somewhat indirectly—with the Toltec nobility and the house of Ñuu Niñe, the place under the patronage of Lady 9 Reed and also the place from where one of the first Lords of Ñuu Dzaui history had originally come.

Lord 8 Deer’s fifth wife was Lady 6 Wind ‘Quetzal Feather of Royal Blood’ from Ñuu Ñaña (Cuyotepeji). She must have been related to Lord 1 Deer ‘Coanacoch,’ who had founded the dynasty in that place and had functioned as an ambassador of Lord 4 Jaguar ‘Nacxitl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl’ to Lord 8 Deer. This marriage provided another link with an important vassal lineage of the Toltec influence sphere.

The first child to be born was a son by the second wife, Lady 6 Eagle: Lord 6 House ‘Jaguar that came down from Heaven.’ His birth in the year 6 House (1109) created a dynastic problem. Lord 8 Deer had married Lady 13 Serpent as his first wife, with the idea that her son would inherit his realm and reunite the descent lines of both the first and second marriages of Lord 5 Alligator, thereby pacifying both factions. But Lady 13 Serpent did not have a son, and the second wife could now claim the inheritance for her child, the firstborn. To solve this predicament, Lord 8 Deer resorted to a trick. He asked the couple Lady 1 Grass ‘Flower’ and Lord 9 Rabbit ‘Plumed Sun,’ assisted by the priest Lord 4 Water, to take care of the boy. Only eight days later, on 1 Monkey, they had hidden him safely in the Sun Cave, where Lady 1 Grass attended him as a mother. It was not until three years later, in the year 9 Flint (1112), that his birth was made publicly known.²⁵ The place where he was kept in secret during those years must have been somewhat remote. Lord 9 Rabbit ‘Plumed Sun’ may be identical with a nobleman of that name who was present at Lord 8 Deer’s enthronement and came from Rock with Death Mouth, which, as suggested earlier, could represent Ayuu in the Mixteca Baja.

In the meantime, Lord 8 Deer tried to find a remedy for his first wife’s sterility. The ritually important day 4 Movement of the year 6 House was chosen for a pilgrimage: the ruler and Lady 13 Serpent went to a temple in Valley of the River with a Tree to make offerings of copal and piciete. There they had a vision; a huge dark serpent with an alligator head manifested himself to them. The vision cured Lady 13 Serpent; she became pregnant, and 273 days later, in the year 7 Rabbit (1110), she gave birth to a son: Lord 4 Dog ‘Coyote Catcher.’

In the following years several other children were born to Lady 13 Serpent: (1) Lady 10 Flower ‘Spiderweb of the Rain God’ in the year 8 Reed (1111); (2) Lord 4 Alligator ‘Sacred Serpent’ in the year 9 Flint (1112), the same year Lord 6 House’s birth was made public; (3) Lady 6 Wind ‘Quetzal Feather of Royal Blood’; and (4) Lady 6 Flint ‘Precious Fire Serpent.’²⁶

During these years the third wife, Lady 10 Vulture, also gave birth to a son, Lord 12 Dog ‘Knife,’ and a daughter, Lady 5 Wind ‘Ornament of Fur and Jade.’ The fourth wife, Lady 11 Serpent, bore two children: Lord 10 Movement ‘Quetzal Owl’ and Lady 2 Grass ‘Sacred Jade.’ They were taken to Cholula at an early age to be instructed in the temple cult; there they married each other and had two daughters: Lady 13 Rain ‘War Jewel of Tollan,’ who married Lord 7 Flint ‘Cloud Serpent,’ and Lady 1 Flower ‘Quetzal, Jewel of Tollan,’ who married a prince from Temazcal (Ñuu Niñe, Tonalá), Lord 8 Deer ‘Plumed Serpent.’²⁷

FINAL CURTAIN

In the year 10 House (1113), the great ruler of Ñuu Tnoo, Lord 8 Deer ‘Jaguar Claw,’ realized various conquests and visited, among other places, Mountain of Spikes and Dark Speckled Mountain. It was probably on this occasion that he brought his two children by his fourth wife to Town of the Pointed Objects to have them carried from there to Cholula, where they were to be married.²⁸ By taking possession of that town and sending his children from there to Cholula, Lord 8 Deer may have tried to make reality fit the vision he had seen in Heaven (Chichén Itzá), which had announced an alliance between Town of the Pointed Objects and the Toltec capital.

It was at that time that Lord 4 Wind, now twenty-one years old, began to plot against Lord 8 Deer. We imagine that he felt the blood of the ancient royal family of Monte Albán flowing through his veins and was motivated by the wish to take revenge for the death of his father, mother, and half-brothers and to regain the important position that was his legacy as the son of a king of Town of Xipe Bundle and a queen of Añute, related to the original Ñuu Tnoo dynasty. Thus on the day 5 House of the year 12 Reed (1115), he met with a few trusted men in a spot called Place of Flints, situated between Añute and Ñuu Tnoo. Lord 10 Jaguar ‘Plant Carrier with Twisted Hair’ and another Lord (of whose name only five dots are still visible) both recommended Lord 5 Flint as an apt “hand holding a knife,” that is, someone prepared to kill as a service.²⁹

Now it was only a question of finding an opportunity. We suspect that Lord 4 Wind pretended to be loyal and friendly to Lord 8 Deer, recognizing him as the ruler of Ñuu Dzaui. The latter, in turn, had never disliked Lord 4 Wind; he might have even felt a paternal sympathy for the boy raised by Toltecs, who was the son of the woman he had once planned to marry. In the year 12 Reed (1115), Lord 8 Deer would turn fifty-two, but his own children were still very young. Lord 4 Wind was the age and had the education a king would wish for his son and heir. The births of all Lord Deer’s children after a long wait must have given him some comfort and directed his attention toward the future. He had to make decisions about the structure of the kingdom. Supported by the great Nacxitl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl, he could work to consolidate his power and create a unified realm. He also had to decide which inheritance would be given to which child.

Lady 6 Eagle, on the other hand, must have felt great concern. Only recently, in the year 9 Flint (1112), had the birth of her son, Lord 6 House, been recognized. She wanted him to receive his share as the firstborn prince, that is, to inherit the core of the realm, the village-state of Ñuu Tnoo, but she saw her ambition obstructed by the children of the other wives. First, preference was given to young Lord 4 Dog, the son of Lord 8 Deer’s first wife. Then, the fact that Lord 8 Deer had sent his fourth wife’s two children to be raised and educated in Ñuu Ndiyo (Cholula) must have been a strong indication that those children were going to be the future rulers of Ñuu Dzaui as a Toltec vassal state. How could this be stopped, and how could the succession in Ñuu Tnoo be secured for her son? The answer was obvious: the traditional situation of different noble houses having specific rights to tributes and succession in separate village-states would continue only if Lord 8 Deer were to die soon, before he could consolidate a centralized rule for all of Ñuu Dzaui and appoint the son of a Toltec woman as his universal heir and successor. According to Toltec custom, a ruler indicated his successor when he reached age fifty-two, so the protagonists felt an increasing sense of urgency.³⁰

7.4. The killing of Lord 8 Deer (Codex Iya Nacuaa I, 16).

We do not know if any contact occurred between Lord 4 Wind and Lady 6 Eagle—the codices are absolutely silent on this point—but we suspect the two started plotting at the same time. Having common interests, they may have formed a secret pact. It may have been Lady 6 Eagle, then, who provided the circumstances for an attempt on her husband’s life, by suggesting to Lord 8 Deer that he take a leave from the heavy obligations of the court, go to the countryside, and shoot some precious birds for her in the trees along the river. Why not invite Lord 4 Wind to come along? The Toltecs had trained the young man as a hunter, and he had behaved very well lately, so it was time to show him some goodwill.³¹

Thus it happened that Lord 8 Deer, accompanied by Lord 4 Wind, Lord 5 Flint, and probably several others, started out to hunt birds on the day 1 Grass in the year 12 Reed (1115), 115 days before his birthday. They reached the Plain of the Magueyes, a frontier area at the foot of a mountain that belonged to the tributary region of Zaachila.³² An ambush had been planned. During the night, Lord 8 Deer was sleeping under a blanket when suddenly a man emerged and stabbed him to death with his knife. Codex Iya Nacuaa does not give the assailant’s name, although the context suggests that the killer was Lord 5 Flint. But he did not operate alone. Lord 4 Wind and Lord 10 Jaguar were standing close by, the first raising “stick and stone” and the second a macana (club), probably as a signal to their accomplice to kill the king and as a sign of their own active involvement. “Stick and stone” is a sign for “punishment”; here it makes it explicit that Lord 4 Wind was taking revenge.³³ It was the night of 12 House, which followed the day 11 Wind: obviously, the murder was planned as vengeance for the killing of Lord 4 Wind’s father, Lord 11 Wind of Town of the Xipe Bundle.

This was the end of the ambitious project Lord 8 Deer had started long ago with his visit to the Huahi Cahi. The invocation of the powers of death had frustrated his plan to marry Lady 6 Monkey and had brought him great glory, but in the end he could not resist the corruption of power and ultimately was forced to kill the woman who had accompanied him to the cave of doom. As a consequence, he called upon himself the revenge of her son.

The original story, which we can now reconstruct from the different codices, portrays Lord 8 Deer as a complex and tragic personality. Starting out as an unprivileged young warrior in a time of crisis, he sacrificed himself for his ambitions. As a result, he indeed achieved great success but at the same time remained unfulfilled. In the center of the kingdom he had constructed, even surrounded by kinsmen, courtiers, and flatterers, he was lonely. The wish to unify his country led him to kill his loyal half-brother and the “girl of his youth.” To foster alliances and pacify the different factions, he married many wives whom he did not love and who did not love him. As his children were born, new intrigues arose over their heritage. No real successor was in sight. The one young man who did have the capacity to succeed him was the son of his original female companion, who hated him for killing his parents.

The body of Lord 8 Deer was made into a mortuary bundle and decorated with an apanecayotl, a large feather crown, a sign of his status as a Toltec ruler. The bundle was placed in a tomb, a dark sanctuary, with flowers to honor the deceased. Lord 8 Alligator ‘Blood Coyote,’ the father of Lady 6 Eagle and ruler of Ñuu Ndaya (Chalcatongo), supervised the burial rites.³⁴ His presence suggests that the ruler’s burial place was the collective sepulcher of the Ñuu Dzaui kings, the large Huahi Cahi cave on the Cerro de los Cervatillos in Ñuu Ndaya. There the soul of Lord 8 Deer would serve eternally as the slave of Lady 9 Grass, to fulfill the promises he had made to her at his first visit.

The presence of Lord 8 Alligator also had a political implication: by making the funerary arrangements, he manifested himself as the deceased ruler’s closest kin and paved the way for his daughter, Lady 6 Eagle, to obtain a leading position in the realm as regent for her son, Lord 6 House.

This dramatic denouement probably contributed to the fact that the cave of Ñuu Ndaya became the central sepulcher for the Ñuu Dzaui kings, most of whom were descendants of Lord 8 Deer. That custom, in turn, lent actuality to the story told and reenacted during royal rituals. Although the colonizers destroyed that cave and many other shrines, documents, and traditions, the memory of the ancient sovereigns, the Ndodzo and the Ñuhu, has been kept alive in many localities.

In the border zone between the hot lowlands of the Mixteca Baja and the impressive scenery of the high, cloud-covered mountains of Ñuu Dzaui Ñuhu, following the lead of a local elder we descend a narrow path, zigzagging down along a steep cliff. Suddenly, we find ourselves entering a huge cavern, a natural dome. Torches have blackened the rock ceiling above us; bones, feathers, and the remnants of sacrificed chickens lie dispersed on the ground. It is the delicate resting place of Ancestors. In a niche stands an ancient statue with arms crossed as if in eternal respect, looking out toward the Mountain of Ribs right in front of the cave. His head has been cut off, but his power is undiminished. On the wall behind him a black cloth is painted, covered with the white crosses of the Temple of Death. All kinds of offerings, money, and cigars cover the image. People still come here today to say the prayer handed down through the generations. The past and present of Ñuu Dzaui take hold of our hearts, silence our voices. We burn tobacco to honor the dead and to purify our relations.

The TOLTEC REACTION

After having seen his parents’ murderer killed, Lord 4 Wind went immediately to Town of the Pointed Objects to perform bloodletting before the Sacred Bundle in the temple there. In return, he was recognized as a person of high prestige. Then he went to Blue Mountain of the Fire Serpent, where he installed his throne.³⁵ This may be the same place as Stone of the Fire Serpent, where he had been ruling under Toltec protection. Invested with this new status, Lord 4 Wind conversed with Lady 6 Wind ‘Quetzal Feather of Royal Blood,’ the fifth and probably the youngest wife of the late Lord 8 Deer. She had not borne any children; consequently, she had little to gain in the power struggle raging in the court at Ñuu Tnoo. She likely had no allies. Her interest was to find a new husband and some safety within the changing political arena. Perhaps it was with this in mind that she contacted Lord 4 Wind. He was not interested in her as a marriage partner, as she had no link to the noble houses in power, but he did appreciate her position. He did not need her as an ally in the royal court at Ñuu Tnoo because she had little influence there and he may already have had contact with Lady 6 Eagle, but Lady 6 Wind was useful as an intermediary with the Toltecs. She came from Jaguar Town, Ñuu Ñaña (Cuyotepeji), in the Mixteca Baja, home to one of the principal ambassadors—Lord 1 Deer ‘Coanacoch’—who had established the contact between Lord 8 Deer and Lord 4 Jaguar ‘Nacxitl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl.’

7.5. The Sun God mediating between Lord 4 Wind and Lord 4 Jaguar (Codex Ñuu Tnoo–Ndisi Nuu, 33-II).

Later, Lady 6 Wind ‘Quetzal Feather of Royal Blood’ married a Lord 5 Dog ‘Coyote.’ Their daughter later became the wife of Lord 4 Dog, Lord 8 Deer’s son with his first wife.³⁶ Lord 5 Dog ‘Coyote’ was a noninheriting (second?) son of the king (Lord 12 Wind) who had been put on the throne of Jaguar Town (Ñuu Ñaña) by Lord 1 Deer ‘Coanacoch.’ So both Lady 6 Wind and her husband came from Jaguar Town (Ñuu Ñaña), but apparently she was not a daughter of the first ruling couple. We do not know the names of her parents, but we speculate that she was the daughter of Lord 1 Deer ‘Coanacoch,’ who seems to have been the Toltec governor of Ñuu Ñaña and the one who later installed a local dynasty. This hypothesis would explain both why she was an eligible marriage partner for Lord 8 Deer (as the daughter of an ambassador to whom he owed his contact with the Toltec rulership) and why she could intervene on behalf of Lord 4 Wind.

7.6. Lord 4 Wind goes to Tollan-Cholollan and receives the nose ornament (Codex Ñuu Tnoo–Ndisi Nuu, 34-II/I).

As the outcome of their meeting, an ambassador went to Ñuu Ndiyo (Cholula) to talk to Lord 4 Jaguar Nacxitl and ask him to support Lord 4 Wind. This did not have the desired effect, however. Lord 4 Jaguar ‘Nacxitl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl’ organized a large punitive expedition to the area where Lord 4 Wind had established himself.³⁷ The expedition arrived in Ñuu Dzaui on the day 6 Monkey of the year 2 Rabbit (1118).

Lord 4 Jaguar, as Lord of the Banners, that is, supreme military commander, immediately captured several persons—including, it seems, the main culprits, Lord 5 Flint and Lord 10 Jaguar. He also persecuted Lord 4 Wind, who escaped by hiding first in a temazcal, then behind Black Rock, land of the Ancestor Lord 4 Reed ‘Rain.’ There he hid, like a lizard, difficult to catch, making fun of his persecutors.³⁸ According to Codex Iya Nacuaa (II, 16), it was here that Lord 4 Jaguar paid his respects to the Ñuhu of the place and invoked the Sun God. Consequently, he was able to catch the fugitive. But during the next days, 7 Grass and 8 Reed, Lord 4 Wind escaped again, either by climbing a tree as a lizard would, again making fun of his persecutors, or simply by going into hiding amid the bushes and palm leaves. This game of hide-and-seek went on until the Sun God, Lord 1 Death, decided to stop it. He (i.e., a priest of the Sun God) arranged a meeting at which Lord 4 Jaguar arrived without arms as an ambassador, with a fan in his hand. The God took both adversaries by the hand and made them reconcile.

Apparently, a reference to this scene was contained in a now lost pictorial manuscript with sixteenth-century glosses, of which only a reading by Mariano López Ruiz has come to us.³⁹ At that time the knowledge of how to analyze such manuscripts was still very limited, so today it is difficult guesswork to try to reconstruct the images López Ruiz transcribed and interpreted. Still, there is a clear indication that the original codex contained a scene in which Lady 6 Wind spoke to the Sun Deity on behalf of Lord 4 Wind. The text mentions a Lord Ñucumé, “born in”—that is, associated with—Heaven: he may be Ñuhu Camaa, God 1 Death, that is, the Sun Deity or his impersonator. López Ruiz then speaks of a marriage scene: apparently, God 1 Death was seated in front of “Januchi in the Valley of Blood,” that is, Lady 6 Wind (iya Ñuchi) ‘Quetzal Feather of Royal Blood.’ A third individual is named as their son: Yaqchi coyavuiy (iya Qhchi Coo Yahui), Lord 4 Wind ‘Fire Serpent.’ We take this to mean that he appeared immediately after Lady 6 Wind as the beneficiary of the meeting. A date is given, “year Cquecui, day Cunoo,” which we can interpret as year 3 Reed (cohuiyo) day 2 Monkey (coñuu).

Lord 4 Jaguar had become tired of chasing Lord 4 Wind and had seen that a dangerous power vacuum was developing in the Ñuu Dzaui area; nobody actually had the influence or capacity to take Lord 8 Deer’s place. Although at first he had been offended by the murder of his ally, he now saw another solution: simply to accept the murderer as the new strongman in the region. We understand that Lord 4 Jaguar’s politics were moved not by any personal sympathy toward Lord 8 Deer but entirely by political considerations. To explain and sanction this Machiavellian change of attitude, a representative of the Sun God—whom Lord 4 Jaguar and Lord 8 Deer had visited in the East—was invoked.⁴⁰

On the day 10 Rain of the year 3 Reed (1119), Lord 4 Wind, accompanied by a Toltec ambassador, set out for Cholula. The next day, 11 Flower, has been added. Leaving the Ñuu Dzaui region, Lord 4 Wind paid homage to the memory of Lord 5 Alligator, whose ritual acts had initiated the historical period in which he now found himself a protagonist.

Thirteen days later, on 11 Reed, he crossed the Yuta Ndeyoho or Huitzilapan, the river that gave its name to Puebla, and arrived in the Toltec capital. There he underwent the nose piercing ritual, seated on the jaguar throne in Tollan-Cholollan, on the first day of the next trecena, 1 Vulture. Lord 4 Jaguar himself directed the ceremony and placed the turquoise ornament.⁴¹ The power Lord 4 Wind received was expressed in a series of titles:

• He who received shield and lance, symbols of military prowess and valor

• He who holds the sacrificial knife⁴²

• He who holds the Tnucucua staff, that is, the staff of authority, an emblem of rulership over Ñuu Tnoo

• Lord of the Feathered Banner, that is, supreme war commander

• Head of sticks and stones, that is, the one in charge of punishment

• Jaguar head, that is, head of the jaguars, leader of the jaguar warriors

• He in charge of the bag with piciete powder for fasting and visionary rituals

• Keeper of the flowered arrow, possibly the one who held the power to declare flower war and realize arrow sacrifice⁴³

• He who has access to the white flower, probably the hallucinogenic datura

• Eagle head, that is, head of the eagle warriors

• Keeper of the eagle feathers for warrior rituals

• He who carries the lizard bag, which contains the eagle down for sacrifice

• He who controls the black ointment for priestly functions

• He in charge of the war brazier

• He in charge of the round stone altar (temalacatl) to execute prisoners of war⁴⁴

Three days later, on the day 4 Rain of the year 3 Reed (1119), Lord 4 Wind, carrying the Tnucucua staff of authority, began his return journey. A priest went ahead announcing his arrival by blowing a conch and sanctifying the air with incense and guiding him to a cave of water, the entrance to Ñuu Dzaui.⁴⁵

The new ruler was accompanied by a long procession. In front walked five Toltec ambassadors with fans and staffs. They were important warlords: the first carried a rattle, the second carried a flute and had a parrot in his hand, the third carried a piciete bag and was whistling, the fourth carried the drum (huehuetl), and the fifth carried a banner.⁴⁶

Immediately after these fierce captains came Lord 10 Jaguar ‘Plant Carrier with Twisted Hair,’ with a knife in his hand. This latter attribute identifies him as one of the main participants in the killing of Lord 8 Deer. It must have been a provocative act to have him march in the procession in such a place of honor. He was followed directly by Lord 10 Flower ‘Dark Mouth, Bow Tail’ from Dark Speckled Mountain. It is interesting to find this man here as one of the major allies of Lord 4 Wind. He was the one who, together with his wife, Lady 4 Rabbit (who belonged to the first Ñuu Tnoo dynasty), had received Lord 8 Deer in their land thirty-nine years earlier, when he was just starting out on his ambitious road to power. Through this prominent actuation in the enthronement, Lord 10 Flower now manifested himself as one of Lord 4 Wind’s closest allies, walking next to the murderer of Lord 8 Deer. We saw that the Place of the Pointed Objects was probably located in his territory, so here is the fulfillment of the vision Lord 8 Deer and Lord 4 Jaguar had seen in Heaven: Place of the Pointed Objects was part of a new Triple Alliance that was coming into existence, sharing power with Cholula and, as we will see, Town of Flints, the new capital of Lord 4 Wind.

The other participants in the enthronement rituals constituted a diverse group. Among them we see several kinds of priests:

• a carrier of the bundle of grass for sacrifice (zacatapayolli)

• a carrier of the smoking brazier

• a carrier of the Sacred Bundle, with a precious vessel

• a priest who swayed zacate or acxoyatl branches, preparing the sacrificial rites⁴⁷

Others seem to have been participants in a ritual performance that recalled the story of origin of the Ñuu Dzaui royal families:

• a dancer with gourd rattles

• Jaguar Serpent and Coyote Serpent from Heaven, Ñuhu Serpent, and another Lord Serpent, probably representing the ancient nahual lords⁴⁸

• Stone Man and Rock Man, weeping, representing the original population of the region, which had been overcome by the Yuta Tnoho alliance

• To Ina (Xolotl), the jade carrier, the God of wealth, and Monkey Man, the jewel carrier, emblem of richness and art⁴⁹

• a priest of Death

• the Rain God in a death aspect, possibly a priest in charge of the rites of devotion to the ancient Ñuu Dzaui Lords and Ladies from whom Lord 4 Wind descended

Logical participants were men whose names or titles suggest important military functions: War Lord and Double-Headed Eagle.⁵⁰

7.7. Lord 4 Wind becomes ruler of Ñuu Yuchi (Codex Ñuu Tnoo–Ndisi Nuu, 31- III).

In accordance with the provocative tone set by the prominent presence of Lord 10 Jaguar, we find in this noble company two Owl Men (teñumi ñaha), demonical magicians, one of them amid streams of blood, that is, involved in murder. These fear-inspiring characters demonstrate that evil powers had helped Lord 4 Wind kill Lord 8 Deer. Still another man with a bloody knife is identified: Lord 8 Vulture. The procession closed with a man with blood on his hands and another with a knife, flanking a jaguar characterized by a skull. Given the context, we suspect these three were performing a theatrical representation of the dead Lord 8 Deer ‘Jaguar Claw’ and his assassins.

Making these explicit references to murder (blood, knives) and evil magicians (Owl Men) in his enthronement ritual, Lord 4 Wind followed the example of Lord 8 Deer, who had also included men with blood on their hands in the pulque ritual in which he manifested his total power over Ñuu Dzaui. By doing so on a large scale, Lord 4 Wind not only proclaimed openly the killing of his predecessor as one of the bases of his power, but also made all participants in the extensive ritual manifest publicly their acceptance of this fact.

On the day 2 House (twenty-four days after 4 Rain) in the year 3 Reed (1119), Lord 4 Wind put down the Sacred Bundle in Large Stone of the Fire Serpent as a sign of taking power and acceding to the throne. This was a ritual date for the Añute dynasty, the lineage of Lord 4 Wind’s mother.⁵¹ The place was the town where Toltec priests had raised him.

On the day 9 Grass of the year 3 Reed (1119), Lord 4 Wind honored Lady 9 Grass in the Huahi Cahi, offering her xicollis and flowers that represented the jaguar and the eagle, that is, he consecrated to her the lives of his warriors.

A NEW RULE

After these ritual preparations, on the day 1 Serpent of the year 4 Flint (1120), Lord 4 Wind performed the Bundle ritual in Flint Town, Ñuu Yuchi, a place of serpents and old huts—the sign of a house (huahi) with a digging stick (yata) in it is to be read huahi yata, “old house” in Dzaha Dzaui. This would mean that at the time it was not a town but a barely inhabited, forgotten place, located between Añute and Ñuu Tnoo. It was here that Lord 4 Wind had stayed before and conspired to kill Lord 8 Deer, so here he would build his own new capital. Perhaps he had even made a vow to do so. In that case the name “Town of Flints” or “Town of Knives” has the connotation of “place where the knife to kill Lord 8 Deer was prepared.” The founding of a “disem-bedded capital” also shows that he wanted to escape from the tragic and bloody Ñuu Tnoo–Xipe Bundle conflict and make a fresh start. Flint Town only appears in the codices as a capital during the reign of Lord 4 Wind, but it was long remembered as “Place of the Toltec Ruler.” Now it is an important archaeological site, known as Mogote del Cacique.⁵²

In Flint Town, Lord 4 Wind was saluted by the priests Lord 12 Serpent ‘Bowl of Blood’ and Lord 5 Rabbit ‘Guacamaya Serpent.’⁵³

The version in Codex Iya Nacuaa is more detailed than the short statement in Codex Ñuu Tnoo–Ndisi Nuu. Lord 4 Wind, accompanied by a Toltec ambassador, arrived in a temple, presumably in Flint Town. There he sat as a ruler and was saluted by three yahui priests. The first was Lord 12 [Serpent] ‘Bowl [of Blood],’ who offered him a quail. The name of the second priest, holding a torch, is beyond recognition; he may have been Lord 5 Rabbit ‘Guacamaya Serpent.’ The third man in this group is Lord White Venus, who was blowing a conch. The latter’s name and activity are the same as those of a priest who welcomed Lord 5 Alligator when he went to serve in the Heaven Temple of Ñuu Tnoo. We take this as a priestly title and therefore, by extension, think these individuals who salute Lord 4 Wind are again members of the Supreme Council. They may have been the priests of Ñuu Tnoo who now recognized and confirmed his rule.⁵⁴

In all of this we see, then, the fulfillment of Lord 8 Deer’s vision: the alliance between Tollan-Cholollan and Town of Flint, supported by Place of the Pointed Objects (represented by Lord 10 Flower ‘Dark Mouth, Bow Tail’).

The choice of the new capital by Lord 4 Wind overshadowed the nearby traditional center of Ñuu Tnoo. Clearly, Ñuu Yuchi overtook the role of Ñuu Tnoo, not only as a regional capital but also as the center of a specific village-state. This was contrary to the interests of Lady 6 Eagle and her son, Lord 6 House. If indeed Lady 6 Eagle had plotted with Lord 4 Wind against her husband, she now saw that he followed his own agenda. Honoring the main part of the “deal” between them, if indeed there had been one, he let her and her son keep their prestigious estate in Ñuu Tnoo, but in practice the power of that house was soon severely diminished. Lord 4 Wind’s loyalty, in fact, was not to Lady 6 Eagle but to her original rival, Lady 13 Serpent, Lord 8 Deer’s first wife and his own half-sister.

Toward RECONCILIATION

Through his nose piercing ceremony in Cholula, Lord 4 Wind had become Lord 8 Deer’s official successor in the Ñuu Dzaui region, with the status of a vassal king of the Toltec empire, exercising enormous regional power. His first challenge, however, was to deal with the different noble houses and factions that had to accept him. That was difficult because it was generally known that he had been involved in the murder of his predecessor, Lord 8 Deer, who, although all factions may not have loved him equally, still had a large group of loyal supporters.

In confronting this predicament, Lord 4 Wind imitated Lord 8 Deer’s policies by arranging a marital alliance that would win him the support of his opponents. He slowly and carefully began a series of ritual preparations in that direction, right after the enthronement in his new capital, Ñuu Yuchi.

Still in the year 4 Flint (1120) on the day 7 Flower, Lord 4 Wind went to pay his respects to Lord 7 Flower, a deified Ancestor and a solar deity, in Mountain of the Turkey.⁵⁵ He offered cacao, xicollis, and flowered ornaments to the deity.

The next year, 5 House (1121), on the day 13 Movement, Lord 4 Wind made offerings to Lord 13 Movement, probably another deified Founding Father.

In the year 6 Rabbit (1122) on the day 9 Reed, Lord 4 Wind presented cacao, xicollis, quetzal feathers, and flowered ornaments to Lady 9 Reed, the Goddess who had helped Lord 8 Deer establish his alliance with the Toltecs. She resided in the Cacao-Blood temple of Ndisi Nuu (Tlaxiaco), not yet the important mat and throne it was to become, but still a sanctuary.⁵⁶

On the days 2 Flower and 3 Alligator of the same year, Lord 4 Wind made offerings at the Temple of Flowers and celebrated the ritual of new pulque, putting a flower crown on his head. He was assisted by two priests, both with the calendar name 6 Death (probably twins), and Lord 10 Rain, who was in charge of the rites for the Sacred Bundle in the Temple of the Fallen Bird in Ñuu Yuchi.⁵⁷

These rituals and festivities were probably conducted in preparation for the marriages that were to follow. As a tryout, Lord 4 Wind arranged the marriage of his brother, Lord 1 Alligator ‘Eagle of the Ball Court,’ to Lady 6 Wind ‘Quetzal Fan, Jade Hair’ and Lady 6 Flint ‘Precious Fire Serpent,’ who must have been girls seven to nine years old. They were the two youngest daughters of Lord 8 Deer ‘Jaguar Claw’ and his first wife, Lady 13 Serpent ‘Flowered Serpent.’⁵⁸ The ceremony took place on the day 5 Deer of the year 6 Rabbit (1122).

Actually, the codices only mention this marriage without referring to Lord 4 Wind’s mediation. But given his great power and the political importance of this matrimonial alliance, it is safe to assume that he played a crucial role in its planning and arrangement. With it he also confirmed his younger brother as a ruler of Añute. At the same time, the marriage shows the political alertness of Lady 13 Serpent, the widowed queen who was Lord 4 Wind’s elder half-sister. She had likely observed his rise to power with great satisfaction and was now trying to secure her position.

Having made this successful first connection between his own lineage and that of his great predecessor, Lord 4 Wind went a decisive step further. In the year 7 Reed (1123) on the day 9 Reed, dedicated to Goddess 9 Reed, Lord 4 Wind again had a conversation with Lord 10 Rain, after which he performed the bloodletting ceremony—presumably to honor and invoke Lady 9 Reed—in the temple of Ndisi Nuu (Tlaxiaco).

In the following year, 8 Flint (1124), Lord 4 Wind ‘Fire Serpent’ married Lady 10 Flower ‘Spiderweb of the Rain God’ (iyadzehe Sihuaco ‘Dzinduhua Dzavui’), the oldest daughter of Lady 13 Serpent ‘Flowered Serpent’ and Lord 8 Deer ‘Jaguar Claw.’ The day chosen for the ceremony was 7 Eagle, the favorite day for marriages in the Ñuu Tnoo dynasty. Lord 4 Wind was thirty-two years old and Lady 10 Flower only thirteen, having been born in the year 8 Reed (A.D. 1111).⁵⁹ She was an extremely important bride because she united the descent lines of both marriages of the high priest Lord 5 Alligator, with the added prestige of the great conqueror and Toltec-made-king Lord 8 Deer. This union at the same time reconciled Lord 8 Deer’s faction and the usurpation of his legacy.

The DISAPPEARANCE of QUETZALCOATL

Lord 4 Wind was now officially in control of the huge realm Lord 8 Deer had constructed, and he could start thinking about its future. After his nose piercing ritual, no further mention is made of Lord 4 Jaguar; contacts with the Toltecs seem to have become less important. The Lienzo of Tlapiltepec indicates that Lord 4 Jaguar ‘Nacxitl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl’ had been active as a mature war leader at least ten years before his alliance with Lord 8 Deer, that is, since ±1087. Therefore, we suppose that his death occurred a few years after 1119.

Mendieta dates his fatal last journey to Tlapallan twenty years after he had arrived (according to our analysis, returned) from that place (Tlapallan) in Cholula.⁶⁰ On that journey he died and became immortal. As a God and a star, his abode is Heaven: “Quetzalcoatl, they say, arrived walking at the Red Sea, painted here, called Tlapallan by them; he entered in it and was not seen again, they do not know what happened to him, but say that when he entered, he told them to be strong and to await his return, which would be in due time, and so they are waiting till now. . . . [T]hey were convinced that he ascended to heaven and is the star which is seen at sunset and daybreak, i.e. the planet Venus, and so they depicted him” (Codex Vaticanus A, 9v).

The dramatic and mysterious end of his life is told in more detail in the Annals of Cuauhtitlan. Quetzalcoatl is said to have arrived at the seashore in Tlillan Tlapallan; there he prepared himself and arranged his precious attributes, his apanecayotl headdress and turquoise mask (xiuhxayacatl). Then he entered the fire in Tlatlayan, the Place of Burning. His ashes blew into the air, and many precious birds appeared. Then, it is said, the heart of the quetzal bird went into Heaven and became the “star in the house of dawn.” Thus Quetzalcoatl became known as the Morning Star. This apotheosis and entering the Heavens as a manifestation of Venus can be understood as a description of the same “road to Heaven” that characterized the death of Lord 2 Rain Ocoñaña. We take it to mean that the ancient ruler died in a state of shamanic trance. The references to whirling ashes and precious birds recall the description of the visionary experience at opening the Sacred Bundle.⁶¹

LORD 4 WIND’S POLICIES

As becomes clear in the Central Mexican sources, Quetzalcoatl’s death contributed to a fatal crisis for the Toltec empire, which had started earlier with internal conflicts and Chichimec invasions from the North. This crisis was probably not a momentary event but rather a process spread out over several decades. In the record of marital alliances we see that the Toltecs still played a role during the remainder of Lord 4 Wind’s life. The son and daughter of Lord 8 Deer and his fourth wife, the Toltec Lady 11 Serpent, had been sent to Cholollan, where they married each other and had two daughters, Lady 13 Rain and Lady 1 Flower, who in turn married Toltec noblemen. One daughter of Lady 1 Flower married into the Ñuu Tnoo dynasty and had a son in the year 8 Rabbit (1150). More Toltec–Ñuu Dzaui dynastic intermarriage took place in subsequent years.⁶²

Lord 4 Wind did not die until the year 9 Flint (1164), which means he did not have to face the total collapse of friendly power. But we can assume that as time progressed, he had to reconsider his status as ruler of a Toltec vassal state. The invasions that raged over the Central Mexican valleys did not reach into the mountainous lands of Ñuu Dzaui, but the process of fission and lineage conflicts that finally destroyed Nacxitl’s legacy was a serious threat that must have caused unrest in the Ñuu Dzaui region as well.

Slowly but surely, Lord 4 Wind had to redefine his power on a more regional basis and therefore had to resort to the old policy of lineage alliances. The clearest example is his political arrangement with the factions around Lord 8 Deer’s first and third wives, whose allegiance he gained by marrying their daughters. In recognizing the prominent political position of Lady 10 Flower ‘Spiderweb of the Rain God,’ the daughter of his own half-sister and Lord 8 Deer, Lord 4 Wind cleverly promoted a general reconciliation with those loyal to his great predecessor. Two years after that marriage, in the year 10 Rabbit (1126), a daughter was born: Lady 13 Flower ‘Precious Bird.’ The mother was fifteen years old at the time.

Before this child was born, Lord 4 Wind had married a second wife, Lady 5 Lizard ‘Zacate–Pulque Vessel.’ She came from Town in the Deep Valley and was the daughter of its rulers, Lord 12 Dog ‘Eagle’ and Lady 5 Lizard ‘Zacate–Pulque Vessel.’⁶³ The date of this marriage, so soon after the first, was the day 3 Deer of the year 9 House (A.D. 1125).

Then Lord 4 Wind established a marital alliance with the faction of Lord 8 Deer’s third wife, Lady 10 Vulture ‘Brilliant Quechquemitl,’ by marrying her daughter, Lady 5 Wind ‘Ornament of Fur and Jade.’⁶⁴ We do not hear of any descendants.

Lord 8 Deer’s second wife, Lady 6 Eagle, who, we suspect, plotted with Lord 4 Wind against Lord 8 Deer, obtained what she had been hoping for: her son, Lord 6 House, was to be the successor in Ñuu Tnoo. To avoid jealous opposition from the camp of Lord 8 Deer’s first and official wife, a special kingdom was created for Lady 13 Serpent’s son, Prince 4 Dog: he would become the ruler of Chiyo Cahnu—a decision clearly stated in the Map of Chiyo Cahnu (Teozacualco).

We can follow Lord 4 Wind’s careful lineage politics by looking at the marital arrangements he made for his children and grandchildren, meant to create a complex web of relationships all over the Mixteca Alta. At the same time, he exploited his status as a Toltec king. Local nobles came to him to ask for legitimation of their position in specific village-states. Two cases are relatively well documented.

The first is the Lienzo of Yucu Satuta (Zacatepec), which starts with a reference to the enthronement of Lord 4 Wind in the year 4 Flint (1120) day 1 Serpent. Several elements are combined in that image. The kingdom is represented by the glyphs of the capital, Ñuu Yuchi, with two important shrines: the Temple of Ndisi Nuu (Tlaxiaco) and the Temple of the Fallen Bird.⁶⁵ Lord 4 Wind was seated together with Lady 10 Flower. According to Codex Ñuu Tnoo–Ndisi Nuu, she became his lawful wife four years later, in the year 8 Flint (1124). Her presence at the enthronement scene in the Lienzo of Yucu Satuta can be interpreted as a projection backward; at the same time, it indicates that she was a crucial figure in the legitimation of Lord 4 Wind’s power.

The royal couple was visited by Lord 11 Jaguar ‘Fire of Ñuu Dzaui’ (iya Sihuidzu ‘Ñuhu Ñuu Dzaui’), who had laid down his weapons, that is, was offering himself as a vassal, and listened to the instructions of the royal pair.⁶⁶ He was accompanied by several men, four of whom receive special attention. The first two are characterized by the carrying frame (sito) that can be read as “noble” or “principal” (sitoho, toho), and the second pair is seated on the yodzo sign, a mat of large feathers, which may also indicate nobility. This group probably represents his assistants, organized as a Council of Four. Also present at the occasion were four men from Ñuu Yuchi: Lord 4 Serpent, Lord 1 Reed, Lord 5 Dog, and Lord 10 Alligator, perhaps members of the Supreme Council or other officials of the new realm. More calendar names are mentioned in a separate list: they belong to men and women who accompanied Lord 11 Jaguar and later became local nobles of Yucu Satuta.

After having assisted at the enthronement ceremony of Lord 4 Wind, Lord 11 Jaguar ‘Fire of Ñuu Dzaui’ traveled to different communities. The first is Mountain of Fire-Wood and Moon (Yucu Iti–Nuu Yoo). This sign is situated next to Town of Death, Ñuu Ndaya (Chalcatongo), the northern neighbor of Yucu Satuta. Lord 11 Jaguar appears seated on a throne of jaguar skin, backed by a temple dedicated to the Sacred Bundles of two Founding Ancestors, Lord 7 Deer and Lord 9 Movement.⁶⁷ The throne and his position indicate that he was ruling Mountain of Fire-Wood and Moon (Yucu Iti–Nuu Yoo). The associated year is 5 House (1121). After this scene he passed to a second town in the year 9 House (1125) and to a third one in the year 2 Reed (1131). In the following year, 3 Flint (1132), he participated in a voladores ritual there, probably in preparation for his accession to the throne.⁶⁸

In the year 2 Flint (1144) he entered the lands that later became the village-state of Yucu Satuta (Zacatepec). Shortly thereafter, in the year 4 Rabbit (1146), he was seated in River of 11 Wind, a place connected to Ndisi Nuu, where he spoke to a group of nobles.⁶⁹ Lord 4 Serpent and Lord 1 Reed, who, as we have seen, were officials of the governing body of Ñuu Yuchi, accompanied him on this occasion, holding a torch and an incense burner. Apparently, this was the ceremony of bestowing royal status on Lord 11 Jaguar. Thus Lord 11 Jaguar could establish himself at a place called Seven Pines, where he married Lady 11 Monkey ‘Jewel Heart’ (iyadzehe Siñuu ‘Ini Yusi’). The year has been corrected and therefore is now difficult to interpret. There are two signs, House and Flint, with a row of five dots and a row of two dots. In view of the sequence, we think the painter vacillated between the year 6 Flint (1148) and 7 House (1149). Later, Lord 11 Jaguar’s son moved to Yucu Satuta, making it the capital of the village-state. In both settlements the Ndisi Nuu temple, with its rites for the Sacred Bundles of the Ancestral Lords 9 Movement and 7 Deer, was reproduced.⁷⁰

Before establishing himself in Seven Pines, Lord 11 Jaguar was seated as ruler in different places, associated with different years. This suggests that before being acclaimed as king, he occupied temporal functions as “governor” in service of the central power in Ñuu Yuchi. Possibly, Lord 4 Wind employed a system of subaltern office holders to govern for some years the distinct village-states that formed part of his realm. It is not unlikely that this structure tried to imitate the political administration of the Toltec empire. With the disintegration of central power, many local nobles may have tried to obtain independence as Iya toniñe and found their own village-states, referring back to the fact that originally the great central ruler had appointed them and given them legitimacy. Thus the dynastic history of Yucu Satuta started with the instructions of Lord 4 Wind. From this we can conclude that Lord 4 Wind, at least in the beginning of his reign, was well in control of the southern part of the Mixteca Alta (the Ndisi Nuu region) and of the adjacent coast, where Yucu Satuta (Zacatepec) is located.

A second example of the extension of Lord 4 Wind’s power is found in the Lienzo of Tlapiltepec. Lord 2 Flower was the second generation after Lord 7 Water (Atonal I), who had been put on the throne of Coixtlahuaca by Lord 4 Jaguar ‘Nacxitl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl.’ Lord 2 Flower went to see Lord 4 Wind in the years 7 House and 8 Rabbit (1149 and 1150).⁷¹ The year 8 Rabbit (1150) is also given in the Lienzo Coixtlahuaca II (Seler II) as the year of Lord 2 Flower’s enthronement as a Toltec ruler—he is defined as such by the prominent nose ornament. This makes us conclude that Lord 2 Flower received Toltec status from Lord 4 Wind at a time when Cholula’s brilliance and power were already waning.

A DISEMBEDDED CAPITAL

Dissident voices were silenced with military power. In the year 11 Reed (1127) on the day 7 Deer, Lord 4 Wind captured Lord 4 Serpent ‘Blood Serpent,’ who seems to have headed an alliance composed of Spiderweb Town, Bent Red Mountain, Valley of the Mouth, the River of Xolotl, Mountain of the Conch, and Mountain of the Standing Flowers. All these places were conquered and subdued. We are not sure about their identification, as they may have been situated far apart. Spiderweb Town may be Andua, an important town in the Valley of Yanhuitlan; Bent Red Mountain may be Cahua Cuaha in the region of Chiyo Cahnu (Teozacualco), and Mountain of the Conch may be Tequixtepec. If these identifications are correct, it would have been a widespread uprising, a dangerous threat to Lord 4 Wind’s rule. But he seems to have survived the conflict with little difficulty. It remained the only case in which Lord 4 Wind resorted to war to secure his power as king.⁷²

In the following years, most of the Postclassic residence at Ñuu Yuchi must have been built. The site, now known as Mogote del Cacique, forms part of the Agencia San José Tres Lagunas of Ñuu Tnoo (Tilantongo) and is located on a ridge of reddish earth with gray rocky outcrops above an impressive gorge.⁷³ In the center of a large area of scattered ceramics and other archaeological remains, which indicates a dense population in former times, a few mounds rise, ancient temple pyramids overlooking plazas, low platforms, and terraces. They offer an impressive view. Standing in the plaza in front of the main pyramid, we see somewhat to the left (northwest) the town of Ñuu Tnoo (Tilantongo), where a church dedicated to Santiago has replaced the ancient Temple of Heaven, with the dark slopes of the huge primordial Yucu Tnoo (Monte Negro) in the background. Farther to the right (northeast) we see the characteristic solitary sacred Mountain of Añute. It is as if Lord 4 Wind deliberately chose to construct his new capital so he would have a commanding view over the two main locales of his personal history: the village-state of his predecessor, Lord 8 Deer, and the hometown of his mother, Lady 6 Monkey. Nearby were three lakes; today, only one is left. The quiet extensions of water, with their cattail reeds, herons, and other water-birds, may have seemed like small replicas of the emblematic Ñuu Cohyo, Tollan.

The site had been occupied during the Classic period, but Ñuu Yuchi does not seem to have been an important center until Lord 4 Wind established his residence there. After Lord 4 Wind’s reign, it quickly fell into oblivion. This circumstance provides a solid historical context and dating for the construction or renovation of the main buildings.

At the end of the 1970s, a precious stone slab with relief carving was found on the main pyramid. It contains a pictorial statement that begins on the day 4 Vulture of the year sign 13 Owl. The year sign is given an anthropomorphic form, with a face and a hand that points toward a figurative scene of a yahui priest diving into Flint Mountain. The year 13 Owl, as we saw when we discussed the priestly activities of Lord 8 Deer’s father, is an archaic equivalent of the year 13 House. Its position suggests that it commemorates an important founding event of the temple. Supposing that the slab was carved during the florescence of Ñuu Yuchi, we can identify the year as 1129. This date inspired and required a specific ritual action: a nahual priest entered a cave in search of a vision.⁷⁴ The protagonist may have been Lord 4 Wind, whose given name was Yahui, ‘Fire Serpent.’ This would explain why the monument was carved: to mark an inauguration ritual done by the ruler in the construction phase of his new ceremonial center after having subdued the last resistance to his rule. Four rosette-like circles, which surround the yahui priest, may represent four periods of twenty days each.⁷⁵ Counting them from the day 4 Vulture forward would bring us to the day 7 Movement. In other words, the relief marks a ritual period (of trance and vision) of eighty days before the recurrence of the date 13 Owl 7 Movement, the day on which, 104 years before, Lord 5 Alligator had entered the Temple of Heaven in Ñuu Tnoo. In fact, we think this stone slab in Lord 4 Wind’s main temple refers back to that act as the beginning of the dramatic history of Lord 8 Deer and Lady 6 Monkey.

7.8. The carved stone of Ñuu Yuchi (Jansen & Winter 1980).

In Dzaha Dzaui we read the pictographic scene as follows:

An era had ended and would now become a theme of epic literature, reflexive commemoration, and narrative identity.