mself, are these songs or
chants which he himself composed, and which are sung to him without
being understood except by those who are acquainted with this sort of
language. The consequence is that they sing what they please, war or
peace, praise to the Devil or contempt for Christ, and they cannot in
the least be understood by other men."

Lord Kingsborough says in a note in his voluminous work on the
_Antiquities of Mexico_ that this portion of Sahagun's text was
destroyed by order of the Inquisition, and that there was a memorandum
to that effect in the Spanish original in the noble writer's possession.
This could scarcely have referred to a translation of the hymns, for
none such exists in any MS. I have consulted, or heard of; and Sahagun
intimates in the passage quoted above that he had made none, on account
of the obscurity of the diction. Neither does any appear in the
Florentine MS., where the text of the hymns is given in full, although
the explanatory Gloss is omitted. This last-mentioned fact has prevented
me from correcting the text of the Gloss, which in some passages is
manifestly erroneous; but I have confined myself to reproducing it
strictly according to the original MS., leaving its correction to those
who will make use of it.

The Florentine MS. has five colored illustrations of the divinities, or
their symbols, which are spoken of in the chants. These are probably
copied from the native hieroglyphic books in which, as we learn from
Sahagun, such ancient songs were preserved and transmitted. These
illustrations I had copied with scrupulous fidelity and reproduced by
one of the photographic processes, for the present work.

Such is the history of this curious document, and with this brief
introduction I submit it to those who will have the patience and skill
to unravel its manifold difficulties.

RIG VEDA AMERICANA

I. _Vitzilopochtli icuic._

1. Vitzilopuchi, yaquetlaya, yyaconay, ynohuihuihuia: anenicuic,
tociquemitla, yya, ayya, yya y ya uia, queyanoca, oya tonaqui, yyaya,
yya, yya.

2. Tetzauiztli ya mixtecatl, ce ymocxi pichauaztecatla pomaya,
ouayyeo, ayyayya.

3. Ay tlaxotla tenamitl yuitli macoc mupupuxotiuh, yautlatoa ya,
ayyayyo, noteuh aya tepanquizqui mitoaya.

4. Oya yeua uel mamauia, in tlaxotecatl teuhtla milacatzoaya,
itlaxotecatl teuhtla milacatzoaya.

5. Amanteca toyauan xinechoncentlalizquiuia ycalipan yauhtiua,
xinechoncentlalizqui.

6. Pip