far as the eye could reach stretched the beautiful valley of anahuac, where the air was sweet with the breath of flowers, and the earth seemed to melt perfectly into the sky.
"oh! that mine eyes should see the splendor of this vision," said mexi, the oldest of the wise men and the most learned, clasping his hands in rapture. "oh! that i have been spared to see the fruition of thy will, great king and brother. now may i go hence in peace."
as he ceased speaking he tottered and would have fallen had not one of the tamanes or porters, seated on mats under the shade of a giant oak, hastily risen, and caught him as his head fell forward on his bosom.
"the elements have undone thee," cried the golden hearted, kneeling hurriedly by his side and supporting the drooping head on his knee. "thou art sadly in need of rest," he continued, alarmed at the pallor overspreading mexi's finely wrinkled face.
the old man pushed the thin white locks of hair off his forehead, let the mantle slip back from his throat, and seemed to breathe easier. 110
"i am come to my final rest," he replied with a feeble smile. "it is not given me to enter the promised land."
the tawny, broad-shouldered, half-clad tamanes, laid down the thin cakes of ground corn they were eating and came near to the stricken old man, while the other wise men took off their hats and listened with bowed heads to what their comrade and leader said. they had stopped to rest and refresh themselves with food under the cool inviting shade of the trees where they could listen to the murmur of waterfalls, and feast, the eyes on the landscape surrounding them.
"there!" said mexi, attracted by the buzzing of tiny wings, "is the green-throated humming-bird thou wert to follow as thy guide to the spot where a city is to be built in honor of the sun."
the golden hearted held up his hand with the forefinger extended and in a moment the little humming-bird lighted on it and looked at him curiously, as though obeying the will of some one. he did not touch it nor attempt to move for a few moments. then he said:
"little brother, spend the remainder of thy days with me. i need thee sorely, and have long waited for thy guidance."
in the meantime the wise men had given mexi a cup of chocolate, not in a thin liquid like we know it, but thick like a cold custard, and with whipped goat's cream on top.
alt
"the humming-bird alighted on his finger"
see opposite page
"thou art kind," he said growing weaker and 112 more faint all the time, "to try to prolong a life already spent." turning his eyes toward the golden hearted he continued: "lying next my heart thou wilt find a bundle of mystery. carry it without opening until the time of thy departure from this strange land is at hand. open then and thou wilt find directions for thy special work."
he did not speak again and when they tried to rouse him there was a smile of infinite peace on his face, but nothing save the lifeless body was before them. the gentle, sweet spirit of the old man had gone back to god.
"we will neither weep nor mourn for him," said the wise men to the golden hearted. "it would not be his wish, and we will show our love by obeying him."
and so they left him sleeping in a dell of ferns and mosses, in sight of anahuac, the land by the side of water, as its name indicates, and continued their journey southward.
on the way the wise men found a little creature, looking like a black currant with neither head, legs nor tail, so far as they could see. it is fat and dark and round, but if you squeeze him his blood is a brighter color than currant juice, and much more valuable because we get cochineal red of one, and currant jelly from the other. it was in the valley of anahuac that the cochineal bug was first found, and it lives on the leaves of the prickly pear, or tuna cactus—the common kind with leaves shaped like a ham, and covered with long sharp needles. 113
the young cochineal bugs are so stupid that they must be tied on the leaves of the prickly pear to keep them from falling off and starving. in this way, too, they keep dry and warm in winter, but as soon as they are grown they are ruthlessly shaken to death and dried in the sun. then the queer, shriveled dead bugs are put up in bags and sold.
"in the hot lands far to the south, the woods are full of rare orchids and other gems of the flower kingdom," said the golden hearted one day after a search for plants by the wayside, "but the vanilla bean is the only one fit for food. it will be well worth our while to study this strange branch of husbandry as soon as possible."
it was a long time before they came to a place near the seashore where a number of women were picking the ripe pods from vanilla vines which overran the trees and shrubs completely. the younger women had on bright-colored petticoats and gay scarfs over their long black hair, and they were storing the bean pods in wide-mouthed baskets strapped across their foreheads.
"what next do you do with these pods?" he asked of a young girl passing him with a full basket.
"we carefully assort them and then plunge the packages into hot water, before laying them out on mats to drain. for a week the beans are exposed to the heat of the sun, laid between woolen blankets. after this we pack them in ollas and keep 114 them warm so as to promote fermentation while drying. this makes them soft, pliable, free from moisture, and of a dark chocolate color thickly frosted with needle-like crystals of acid."
and to this day if you buy vanilla beans they come in packages wrapped in silver foil, and have a delicious odor.
the bean is from six to nine inches long, and must be ground fine before it can be used in making the chocolate we are all so fond of, but it is dried and packed in the same manner as that described to the golden hearted.
it was not many days after leaving the wooded plains, that the travelers came in sight of four beautiful lakes with the frowning cliffs of chapultepec outlined against the sky. always on the alert for a sign the wise men said to each other in awe-stricken whispers:
"we must be near the place."
"do you not see the rock with the flowering cactus!"
"and an eagle circling in the air with a serpent in its claws!"
"oh! thou seen and unseen powers! search our hearts that thou mayst know all our gratitude," cried the golden hearted, falling on his knees and then prostrating himself on the ground, as did all the wise men.
"i am guatamo," said a voice, and when the golden hearted looked up, a man old as mexi stood blessing him. "rise and receive word from thy 115 father, the king from whom i am come. fear me not; these hands have guided thy baby footsteps. now must thou lend ear to my counsel."
the golden hearted was overjoyed to see some one from his father's court, and also glad to know that his wanderings in search of the place to honor the sun was over.
"this is not a promising outlook," said guatamo, "but in the parchment scroll thou wilt find ample instructions to drain and render this a garden spot of exceeding loveliness. hasten thy task since thy father is no longer living, and thy native land longs to see thee again."
acting upon this advice the golden hearted and the wise men set to work at once to build the city, and to teach the willing natives to cultivate the land, and to make handsome mosaics out of the bright-colored feathers of the birds found in the forests in such numbers. of course the birds were not killed to get their feathers, but in the royal gardens there were thousands of them kept during the moulting season, and then the feathers were picked up and assorted for use. not only could they make perfect representations of birds and animals with them, but whole landscape scenes, including mountains, sea and sky. when finished it was necessary to touch them to know that feathers instead of paint had been used.
"the nahuas have come from aztlan, the white country, and must be obeyed," was the word carried from one tribe to the other by the runners, 116 and the wise men could only smile when they heard themselves called nahuas, or wizards. the simple natives thought them capable of performing miracles because they were wise in the arts and knew how to heal the sick. the name of the golden hearted became quetzalcoatl, the plumed serpent in their language, but we must remember that he wore the quetzal plumes in his head-dress, the same as a king wears a gold and jeweled crown, and that a serpent in many of the languages of the ancient people meant a very wise man. in english we would say that the golden hearted was the wise king, which was not only true but a very simple name for him. the wonderful city he built was called tenochtitlan, which signified "in honor of the sun," as his father had commanded him to do, and on the spot where it stood is the city of mexico to-day. we shall hear very interesting things about the teocalli, or temple he built in tenochtitlan, when we come to the story of "montezuma and the paba," for this is one of the most famous places in the new world, and no one can afford to be ignorant of its traditions and history.
