* * * * *
"Here begins a song called a plain song of Huexotzinco as it was
recited by the lords of Huexotzinco. These songs are divided into
three classes, the songs of the nobles or of the eagles, the flower
songs, and the songs of destitution. (Directions follow for beating
the drum in unison with the voices.) This song was sung at the house
of Don Diego de Leon, Governor of Azcapotzalco; he who beat the drum
was Don Francisco Placido; in the year of the resurrection of our
Lord Jesus Christ 1551."
* * * * *
This assigns beyond doubt the song in question to the first half of
the sixteenth century, and we may therefore take its phraseology as a
type of the Nahuatl poetry shortly after the Conquest. It is also
stated to be a native composition, and from its contents, it was
clearly composed by one of the converts to the Christian faith.