The worship of the genesiac principle is as often characterized by an excessive austerity as by indulgence in sexual acts.

Here we have an example.

Nearly all the accounts tell us that Quetzalcoatl was never married, and that he held himself aloof from all women, in absolute chastity.

We are told that on one occasion his subjects urged upon him the propriety of marriage, and to their importunities he returned the dark answer that, Yes, he had determined to take a wife; but that it would be when the oak tree shall cast chestnuts, when the sun shall rise in the west, when one can cross the sea dry-shod, and when nightingales grow beards.[1] [Footnote 1: Duran, in Kingsborough, vol.viii, p.267.I believe Alva Ixtlilxochitl is the only author who specifically assigns a family to Quetzalcoatl.

This author does not mention a wife, but names two sons, one, Xilotzin, who was killed in war, the other, Pochotl, who was educated by his nurse, Toxcueye, and who, after the destruction of Tollan, collected the scattered Toltecs and settled with them around the Lake of Tezcuco (_Relaciones Historicas_, p.