"O people of the hot lands, wandering across the earth like fallen leaves in the wind, drifting toward an unknown home. O Feathered Serpent, you lit the bright road ahead, yet the long path of migration is strewn with rocks and thorns."
Priest Pap told them of the terrors of the north, and Chief Chuchut made his decision. The Snake Lake tribe immediately began to migrate. This migration was so hurried, yet there was not much hesitation—just like their ancestors. In the epics handed down through the generations, the tribe's forebears had come from the farthest north, journeying all the way from the desolate Gobi. And now, this was another migration toward the hot lands of the south.
In fact, the meaning of "Totonac" was "hot lands." The "Totonac" were the "people of the hot lands."
Time was tight. Shouts and haste filled every corner. The young and strong wore loincloths, bare to the waist, and shouldered basket after basket of grain. The women wore covering robe-skirts, heads lowered, and carried cloth and pottery on their backs. Chief Chuchut personally directed several strong men as they lifted the wood carvings that symbolized the tribe's inheritance.
As for the old people the tribe left behind, they remained in the soon-to-be-empty village, gazing at the lush green fields and waiting for a brief and unknown fate. They sat cross-legged on an earthen altar outside the village, beating ancient hide drums and singing songs of the gods, seeing off those who would never return.
"O high Sun God, guiding the road south, toward His blazing light, seeking fertile soil to sow corn. O old thunder god, master of the endless Eastern Sea, remember to walk along the coast, and there will be food and water. O new Rain God, whipping up terrible hurricanes,