A few other fragments of Nahuatl poetry, all probably modern, but some
of them the versification of native bards, might be named; but the whole
of it, as now existing, could give us but a faint idea of the perfection
to which the art appears to have attained in the palmy days of the great
Tezcucan poet-prince.
In the literature of the Maya group of dialects, there have been
preserved various sacred chants, some in the _Books of Chilan
Balam_, others in the Kiche _Popol Vuh_. What are known as the
"Maya Prophecies" are, as I have said, evidently the originals, or
echoes of the mystic songs of the priests of Kukulkan and Itzamna,
deities of the Maya pantheon, who were supposed to inspire their
devotees with the power of foretelling the future.
The modern Maya lends itself very readily both to rhyme and rhythm, and
I have in my possession some quite neat specimens of versification in
it, from the pen of the Yucatecan historian, Apolinar Garcia y Garcia.
When we reach Peru we find a race not less poetical in temperament than
the cultured Mexicans. Nothing but their ignorance of an alphabet, and
the indifference or fanatical hatred of the early explorers for the
productions of the native intellect, prevented the perpetuation of a
Qquichua literature, both extensive and noble.
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