The serpent was everywhere considered an emblem of the vernal shower, and was thought to be in some way instrumental in bringing it, together with its refreshing and fructifying influences. So here, in the name of Quetzalcoatl, we find a progressive step indicated in the workings of the mind, an advance from the lower figure of the serpent alone to that of an aërial combination, which, while it contained all the virtues of the serpent, is lifted to a higher element—that from which the shower falls. The feathery vapor-clouds of summer are but the plumes or wings of the shower which the serpent symbolized. At last when a teacher of agriculture and the mechanic arts, so conducive of prosperity and plenty, appeared—an individual who discovers maize and directs the process of its reproduction and guards an improvident people against want and famine, the attributes of the god are recognized as dwelling in him, the ideal vaguely represented by the vernal shower is concreted, is become incarnate, is presented in a shape more comprehensible to the untaught mind, and at once the name, reverence and worship of the god are attached to the man, the culture-hero. This we believe to be the simplest interpretation of the origin of the worship of Quetzalcoatl. A priesthood appears to have been founded who perpetuated the doctrines of this deified man. That part of the legend which relates to Tulla (Tollan) with the expulsion of the king and that which followed, properly belongs to Ceacatl, surnamed Quetzalcoatl, Toltec king of Tollan, who ascended the throne about 873.[437] The father of this monarch had been cruelly murdered, and in his early boyhood Ceacatl is said to have wreaked a terrible vengeance on the murderer of his father, after which he concealed himself for about twenty years. At about the above-named date he reappeared, and established his claims to the throne. He espoused the religion of Quetzalcoatl, and the peace which followed brought great prosperity. Human sacrifices were forbidden, and a golden age seemed to dawn in which Tollan exceeded all the cities of the Mexican valley in importance and wealth. But a rivalry at once sprang up between the priests of the bloody god Tezcatlipoca, worshipped in Culhuacan and at Teotihuacan, and those of the peaceful and humane Quetzalcoatl, which resulted in the voluntary departure of the Pontiff king, to whom the name of his god was attached. The contest between the two sects is symbolized in the legend by the tricks of Tezcatlipoca. Quetzalcoatl was received at Cholula, where he remained some years, but was at last driven away before the leader of the Tezcatlipoca faction, namely, King Huemac, who advanced upon the peaceful king with a strong army. Quetzalcoatl again voluntarily withdrew, rather than occasion the bloodshed of his subjects. It is probable that he ultimately reached Yucatan and figured there in his old character under the name of Cukulcan.[438]