They were tall in stature, beyond the common race of men, and it was nothing uncommon for them to live hundreds of years. Such was their energy that they allowed no lazy person to live among them, and like their master they were skilled in every art of life and virtuous beyond the power of mortals. In complexion they are described as light in hue, as was their leader, and as are usually the personifications of light, and not the less so among the dark races of men.[1] [Footnote 1: For the character of the Toltecs as here portrayed, see Ixtlilxochitl, _Relaciones Historicas_, and Veitia, _Historia, passion_.] When Quetzalcoatl left Tollan most of the Toltecs had already perished by the stratagems of Tezcatlipoca, and those that survived were said to have disappeared on his departure. The city was left desolate, and what became of its remaining inhabitants no one knew. But this very uncertainty offered a favorable opportunity for various nations, some speaking Nahuatl and some other tongues, to claim descent from this mysterious, ancient and wondrous race. The question seems, indeed, a difficult one. When the Light-God disappears from the sky, shorn of his beams and bereft of his glory, where are the bright rays, the darting gleams of light which erewhile bathed the earth in refulgence? Gone, gone, we know not whither. The original home of the Toltecs was said to have been in Tlapallan--the very same Red Land to which Quetzalcoatl was fabled to have returned; only the former was distinguished as Old Tlapallan--Hue Tlapallan--as being that from which he and they had emerged. Other myths called it the Place of Sand, Xalac, an evident reference to the sandy sea strand, the same spot where it was said that Quetzalcoatl was last seen, beyond which the sun rises and below which he sinks. Thither he returned when driven from Tollan, and reigned over his vassals many years in peace.[1] [Footnote 1: "Se metió (Quetzalcoatl) la tierra adentro hasta Tlapallan ó segun otros Huey Xalac, antigua patria de sus antepasados, en donde vivió muchos años." Ixtlilxochitl, _Relaciones Historicas_, p. 394, in Kingsborough, vol. ix. Xalac, is from _xalli_, sand, with the locative termination. In Nahuatl _xalli aquia_, to enter the sand, means to die.] We cannot mistake this Tlapallan, new or old. Whether it is bathed in the purple and gold of the rising sun or in the crimson and carnation of his setting, it always was, as Sahagun tells us, with all needed distinctness, "the city of the Sun," the home of light and color, whence their leader, Quetzalcoatl had come, and whither he was summoned to return.[1] [Footnote 1: "Dicen que caminó acia el Oriente, y que se fué á la ciudad del Sol, llamada Tlapallan, y fué llamado del sol." Libro. viii, Prologo.]