Notes.
Reading edition
Cihuacoatl was the mythical mother of the human race. Her name, generally translated “serpent woman,” should be rendered “woman of twins” or “bearing twins,” as the myth related that such was her fertility that she always bore two children at one lying-in. (Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana, Lib. VI., cap. 31.) She was also known by the title Tonan or Tonantzin, “our mother,” as in v. 5 and 6. Still another of her appellations was Quilaztli, which is given her in v. 1. (Comp. Sahagun, Historia, Lib. VI., cap. 27.) She was essentially a goddess of fertility and reproduction. The name cihuacoatl was also applied to one of the higher magistrates and war chiefs in the Aztec army (Sahagun). Reference is made to this in v. 6. As a goddess of venerable antiquity, she is spoken of as coming from Colhuacan, “the place of the old men,” or of the ancestors of the tribe. This name is derived from coloa, to bend down, as an aged person, colli, an old man. (See my Ancient Nahuatl Poetry, pp. 172-3).