Notes.
Reading edition
There is no Gloss to this hymn, but its signification seems clear. Huitznahuac was a name applied to several edifices in the great temple at Tenochtitlan, as we are informed at length by Sahagun. The word is a locative from huitznahua. This term means “magicians from the south” or “diviners with thorns,” and was applied in the Quetzalcoatl mythical cyclus to the legendary enemies of Huitzilopochtli, whom he is said to have destroyed as soon as he was born. (See my discussion of this myth in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society for 1887.) Apparently to perpetuate the memory of this exploit, the custom was, at the festival of Huitzilopochtli, for the slaves who were to be sacrificed to form two bands, one representing the Huitznahua and the other the partisans of the god, and to slaughter each other until the arrival of the god Paynal put an end to the combat (Sahagun, Historia, Lib. II., cap. 34). The song here given belongs to this portion of the ancient rite.
1. The tlacochcalli, “house of arrows” (tlacochtli, arrow, calli, house), was a large hall in the temple of Huitzilopochtli where arrows, spears and other arms were kept (Sahagun, Lib. VIII., cap. 32).
2. The “adornment from the south” refers to the meaning of the name Huitznahua. (See Glossary.)
3. Sahagun (ubi sup.) informs us that the slaves condemned to die fought against free warriors, and when any of the latter were captured they were promptly put to death by their captors.