One of the most famous disciples of the lyre was Nezahualcoyotl, himself
sovereign of Tezcuco about the year 1460. He left seventy odes on
philosophical and religious subjects, which were borne in memory and
repeated after the Conquest. Translations of a few of them have come
down to us, but my inquiries as to the whereabouts of the originals, if,
indeed, they exist, have been fruitless.[75] The Jesuit, Horatio Carochi,
published some ancient verses in his grammar of the Nahuatl (Mexico,
1645). Several which appear in later works do not seem to merit the
credit of antiquity. They are more like those which Sahagun wrote and
published, in Nahuatl, at a very early period,[76] Christian songs,
intended to take the place of the ditties of love and chants of war,
which the natives had such a passion for singing.
Under the title _Cantares de los Mexicanos_, there was long
preserved in the library of the University of Mexico a manuscript of the
sixteenth or seventeenth century, with a large number of supposed
ancient Aztec songs; but what has become of it now, nobody knows.[77]
Thus it is that these precious monuments of antiquity are allowed to lie
uncared for, through generations, until, at length, they fall a prey to
ignorance or theft.
Pages:
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65