He had carried this character, with his discharge-sheet, back to Polpier, where his old friends and neighbours—who had known him as a brisk upstanding lad, sociable enough, though maybe a trifle shy— edged away from the taciturn man who returned to them.
— from Nicky-Nan, Reservist by Arthur Quiller-Couch

At the same time a terrible and cruel subtlety in the means he employed to accomplish his ends was attributed to him; and the legend about him, which is far less brilliant than that of his brother Uitzilopochtli, led several Europeans to believe that he was simply an ancient magician who had spread terror around him by his sorceries.
— from Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by the Native Religions of Mexico and Peru by Albert Réville