Notes.
Reading edition
The brief Gloss to this Hymn states that it is of ancient Chichimec origin and that it cannot well be rendered in Nahuatl. Its language is exceedingly obscure, but it is evidently a dancing song.
Amimitl, “the water-arrow,” or “fish-spear,” was, according to Torquemada, especially worshipped at Cuitlahuac. He was god of fishing, and visited the subjects of his displeasure with diseases of a dropsical or watery character (Monarquia Indiana, Lib. VI., cap. 29). On slender and questionable grounds Clavigero identifies him with Opochtli, the god of net makers and fishers with nets (Storia Antica del Messico, Tom. II., p. 20).
The four noble ones referred to in vv. 3 and 4 probably refer to those characters in the Mexican sacred dances called “the four auroras,” four actors clothed respectively in white, green, yellow and red robes. See Diego Duran, Historia, cap. 87.