The latest of the myths concerning Quetzalcoatl are obviously those which regard him as a culture-hero who enters the country as an alien, and, his beneficent work performed, withdraws to the place whence he came, under pressure of malignant opposition. Had the basic outline of his myth been more carefully examined, fewer unsatisfactory hypotheses concerning Quetzalcoatl’s nature might have been ventured upon. The Mexicans themselves recognized Quetzalcoatl as a wind-god, but Dr. Seler has not seen fit to accept their assurance upon this point in toto, and at various times has advanced the hypotheses that Quetzalcoatl represents the wind, the planet Venus, or the moon, latterly confining his personality almost entirely to the lamp of night. [163] In my view the physical phenomena which occur in connection with the courses of the winds typical of the Mexican plateau provide by far the most simple and natural explanation of the nature of the god Quetzalcoatl. From April or May to the beginning of October the trade-wind blows from the east coast over the Plateau of Anahuac, bringing with it abundance of rain, and accelerating vegetable growth, thus actually “sweeping the ways for the rain-gods.” Its advance is comparatively slow, the rains beginning three or four weeks earlier in Vera Cruz than in Puebla and Mexico. At the beginning of October, however, it is invariably modified by the local monsoon, which interrupts it over wide areas, or in certain districts invades it in violent cyclonic storms, dissipating its energies and altering its course. Quetzalcoatl represents the gentle trade-wind, which ushers in the growth-making rains. His reign of peace, plenty, and fertility over, he comes into opposition with Tezcatlipocâ, who represents the monsoon and who chases his rival “from city to city,” ravening at him like a tiger, says Mendieta, and at last hustling him out of the country. That Tezcatlipocâ is also a god of wind is certain, as is proved by one of his names, Yoalli Ehecatl, “Wind of Night,” and that he is the monsoon or hurricane is proved beyond all doubt by the circumstance that he is said to have rushed along the highways at night at extraordinary speed, and that Hurakan, his Quiche name, is still employed for the very wind he represented, and has become a generic name for a tempestuous wind in practically all European languages, which have without question adopted it from the American word. [164] If this simple elucidation of the original myth be accepted, it will be seen how naturally its later modifications arise out of it or adapt themselves to it. But before we examine the manner in which they crystallized around it, it becomes necessary to disentangle from the whole mass that portion of it which alludes to the advent of a civilizing agency upon the Mexican plateau.