Ancient Nahuatl Poetry eBook

Daniel Garrison Brinton
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 143 pages of information about Ancient Nahuatl Poetry.

Ancient Nahuatl Poetry eBook

Daniel Garrison Brinton
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 143 pages of information about Ancient Nahuatl Poetry.

mocehcemelquixtia; mo is the reflexive pronoun, 3d sing., often used impersonally; cehcemel, is a reduplicated form of the numeral ce, one; it conveys the sense of entire, whole, perfect, and is thus an interesting illustration of the tendency of the untutored mind to associate the idea of unity with the notion of perfection; quixtia is the compulsive form of quiza, to go forth.

onechittitique; 3d person plural, preterit, of the causative form of itta, to see; ittitia, to cause to see, to show; nech, me, accusative form of the pronoun.

nocuexanco; from cuexantli, the loose gown worn by the natives, extending from the waist to the knees.  Articles were carried in it as in an apron; no-cuexan-co, my-gown-in, the terminal tli being dropped on suffixing the postposition.

tepilhuan; from pilli, boy, girl, child, young person, with the relative, indefinite, pronominal prefix te, and the pronominal plural termination huan, to take which, pilli drops its last syllable, li; hence, te-pil-huan, somebody’s children, or in general, the young people.  This word is of constant occurrence in the songs.

teteuctin, plural with reduplication of teuctli, a noble, a ruler, a lord.  The singer addresses his audience by this respectful title.

2. ixochicuicatzini; i, poss. pron. 3d sing.; xochitl, flower; cuicatl, song; tzin, termination signifying reverence or affection; “their dear flower-songs.”

yuhqui tepetl, etc.  The echo in the Nahuatl tongue is called tepeyolotl, the heart or soul of the mountain (not in Simeon’s Dictionnaire, but given by Tezozomoc, Cronica Mexicana, p. 202).

meyaquetzalatl; from meya, to flow slowly, to trickle; quetzalli, beautiful; atl, water.

xiuhtotoameyalli; the root xiuh meant originally green (or blue, as they were not distinguished apart); hence xiuitl, a leaf or plant, the green herbage; as where the Nahuas then were this was renewed annually, xiuitl came to mean a year; as a comet seems to have a bunch of fiery flames growing from it, this too was xiuitl, and a turquoise was called by the same term; in the present compound, it is employed adjectively; xiuh-totol, turquoise-bird, is the Guiaca cerulea, Linn.; ameyalli, from atl, water, meya, to trickle, and the noun ending.

mo-motla; to throw one’s self, to dash one’s self against something, etc.

centzontlatolli; literally,” four hundred speeches.”  The numeral four hundred was employed, like the Greek “myriad,” to express vaguely any extraordinary number.  The term may be rendered “the myriad-voiced,” and was the common name of the mocking-bird, called by ornithologists Turdus polyglottus, Calandria polyglotta, and Mimus polyglotta.

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Ancient Nahuatl Poetry from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.