[American Hero-Myths by Daniel G. Brinton]@TWC D-Link book
American Hero-Myths

CHAPTER III
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248).] Sad, indeed, was Quetzalcoatl the next morning.
"I have sinned," he said; "the stain on my name can never be erased.

I am not fit to rule this people.

Let them build for me a habitation deep under ground; let them bury my bright treasures in the earth; let them throw the gleaming gold and shining stones into the holy fountain where I take my daily bath." All this was done, and Quetzalcoatl spent four days in his underground tomb.

When he came forth he wept and told his followers that the time had come for him to depart for Tlapallan, the Red Land, Tlillan, the Dark Land, and Tlatlallan, the Fire Land, all names of one locality.
He journeyed eastward until he came to a place where the sky, and land, and water meet together.[1] There his attendants built a funeral pile, and he threw himself into the flames.

As his body burned his heart rose to heaven, and after four days became the planet Venus.[2] [Footnote 1: Designated in the Aztec original by the name _Teoapan Ilhuicaatenco_, from _teotl_, divine, _atl_, water, _pan_, in or near, _ilhuicac_, heaven, _atenco_, the waterside: "Near the divine water, where the sky meets the strand."] [Footnote 2: The whole of this account is from the _Anales de Cuauhtitlan_, pp.


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