NOTES FOR SONG XXV.

The destruction of the Mexican state was heralded by a series of omens and prodigies which took place at various times during the ten years preceding the arrival of Cortes. They are carefully recorded by Sahagun, in the first chapter of the 12th book of his history. They included a comet, or "smoking star," as these were called in Nahuatl, and a bright flame in the East and Southeast, over the mountains, visible from midnight to daylight, for a year. This latter occurred in 1509. The song before us is a boding chant, referring to such prognostics, and drawing from them the inference that the existence of Mexico was doomed. It was probably from just such songs that Sahagun derived his information.

1. toztliyan, I suppose from tozquitl, the singing voice, in the locative; literally, "the quechol in the place of sweet-singing."

2. iquiapan, from i, possessive prefix, quiauatl, door, entrance, house, pan, in.

5. An obscure verse; tequantepec, appears to be a textual error; tequani, a ravenous beast, from qua to eat; tepec, a mountain; but tequantepehua occurring twice later in the poem induces the belief tequani should be taken in its figurative sense of affliction, destruction, and that tepec is an old verbal form.

7. Xochitecatl, "one who cares for flowers," is said by Sahagun to have been the name applied to a woman doomed to sacrifice to the divinities of the mountains (Hist. Nueva Espaсa, Lib. II, cap. 13).

8. amaxtecatl, or amoxtecatl, as the MS. may read, from amoxtli, a book.

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