as a wall surrounding an
artificial rockery planted with these bushes. Sahagun, who mentions
this fact, adds that the name of this edifice was _Teotlalpan_, which
literally means "on holy ground." (_Hist. de la Nueva Espana_, Lib.
II, App.) The _mizquitl_ is the common _Mimosa circinalis_.

_Chicomoztoc_; "at the Seven Caves," a famous locality in Mexican
legend, and the supposed birthplace of their race.

2. _Colhuacan_ is probably for Acolhuacan; the early rulers of the
latter were of the blood of the Chichimec chiefs of the Tepanecas.

4. _Hueytlalpan_, "at the ancient land," perhaps for Huetlapallan, a
1ocality often referred to in the migration myths of the Nahuas.

5. _Atloyan_; see note to XIII, 6.

9. The ceiba and cypress trees were employed figuratively to indicate
protection and safeguard. See Olmos, _Gram. de la Langue Nahuatl_, p.
211.

12. On _tlailotlaqui_, see note to XIII, 8. The interjectional
appendages to this and the following verse are increased.

15. Tepeyacan was the name of a mountain on which before the Conquest
was a temple dedicated to the "Mother of our Life," Tonantzin.

16. _tlapalcayocan_, "the place of shards," of broken pieces, i.e.,
the field of battle.

19. The word _totomihuacan_, which has already occurred in vv. 3 and
7, I have translated as referring to the war captains of the Mexican
armies, called _otomi_ (see Bandelier, _On the Art of War of the
Ancient Mexicans_, p. 117). I am quite open for correction however.

27. _in ipetl icpal_; in a translation of an ancient song,
Ixtlilxochitl renders the expression _in ipetl icpal in teotl_, "en
el trono y tribunal de Dios," _Historia Chichimeca_, cap. 32.

29. _Mictlan_; the place of departed souls in Aztec mythology.

NOTES FOR SONG XVI.

In this stirring war-song, the poet reproaches his friends for their
lukewarmness in the love of battle. He reminds them that life is
transitory, and the dead rise not again, and that the greatest joy of
the brave is on the ringing field of fray where warriors win renown.
It is in the spirit of the Scotch harper:--

"'Twere worth ten years of peaceful life,

One hour of such a day."

1. Each verse terminates with an interjectional refrain. The frequent
introduction of the particle _on_ is intended to add strength and
gravity to the oration.

2. _oppan piltihua_. Compare this expression with that in v. 22, p.
44.

3. _xochimicohuayan_, should perhaps be translated, "where the