Most of the poems in this collection are not assigned to any author,
but this, and apparently the one following, are recorded as the
compositions of Tetlapan Quetzanitzin. He is evidently the personage
spoken of by Sahagun as "King of Tlacopan," as present with Montezuma
on the occasion of his first interview with Cortez. Later in the
struggle Tetlapan appears as the associate of Quauhtemoctzin, the
"King of Mexico." (See Sahagun, _Hist. de la Nueva España_, Lib. XII,
cap. 16 and 40.) M. Rémi Simeon explains the name to mean "he who
deceives the people by magic;" deriving it from _quetza_, he places;
_te_, the people, _tlepan_, on the fire. A simpler derivation seems
to me possible from _tetlapanqui_, miner, or quarryman (literally,
stone-breaker), and _quetzalli_, red; _quetzatzin_, the lord or
master of the miners.
Both this and the following are war songs, and have marked similarity
in thought and wording. The introduction of the Spanish _Dios_ was
doubtless substituted by the scribe, for the name of some native god
of war, perhaps Huitzilopochtli.
1. _Aua_; this word I take to be a form of the interjection _yahue_,
or, as Olmos gives it in his _Grammar, aa_.
2. _nepohualoyan_; "the place of counting or reckoning," from
_pohua_, to count. The reference is not clear, and the translation
uncertain. In some parts of ancient Mexico they used in their
accounting knotted cords of various colors, like the Peruvian
_quipus_. These were called _nepohualtzitzin_.
4. This verse is remarkable for its sonorous phrases and the archaic
forms of the words. Its translation offers considerable difficulty.
_xontlachayan_, I take to be an imperative form from _tlachia_, to
look, with the euphonic _on_.
_teoatl tlachinolli_, literally "the divine water (i.e. blood), the
burning," and the expression means war, battle. In one of his sermons
Fray Juan Bautista describes the fall of Jericho in the words,
_otlaltitechya in altepetl teuatl tlachinolli ye opoliuh_, and
explains it, "the town was destroyed with fire and blood" (_Sermones
en Lengua Mexicana_, p. 122). The word _tlachinolli_ is from
_chinoa_, to burn.
_quetzalalpilo_; a compound of _quetzalli_, a beautiful feather, and
_tlalpiloni_, the band which passed around the head to keep the hair
in place.
5. _melchiquiuhticaya_; "he who presented his breast," an imperfect,
reflexive form. Molina gives _melchiquiuh petlauhqui_, with the
translation _despechugado_. _Vocabulario Mexicana, s.v._