Note 12 — INTRODUCTION.

His remarks were probably a generalization from a chapter in Torquemada's Monarquia Indiana, in which that writer states that the songs at the sacred festivals differed in subject with the different months and seasons. Thus, in the second month of their calendar, at its stated festival, the people sang the greatness of their rulers; in the seventh month all the songs were of love, of women, or of hunting; in the eighth the chants recalled the noble deeds of their ancestors and their divine origin; while in the ninth month nothing was heard but verses fraught with lamentation for the dead.12 With less minuteness, Father Duran gives almost the same information. He himself had often heard the songs which Montezuma of Tenochtitlan, and Nezahualpizintli of Tezcuco, had ordered to be composed in their own honor, describing their noble lineage, their riches, their grandeur and their victories. These songs were in his day still sung at the public dances of the natives, and he adds, "although they were filled with laudation of their ancient rulers, it gave me much pleasure to hear the praises of such grandeur." There were other poets, he observes, who lived in the temples and composed songs exclusively in honor of the gods.13