resent life. Hence, there were nine heavens,
abodes of the gods, and nine lower regions, abodes of the souls of
the dead. Another school taught that there were not nine but thirteen
of these stages.

The sixty poems by Nezahualcoyotl are mentioned by various writers as
in existence after the Conquest, reduced to writing in the original
tongue, and of several of them we have translations or abstracts.[52]
Of four the translations claim to be complete, and were published
entire for the first time in the original Spanish by Lord
Kingsborough in the ninth volume of his great work on the
_Antiquities of Mexico_. Since then they have received various
renderings in prose and verse into different languages at the hands
of modern writers.

I shall give a literal prose translation from the Spanish, numbering
the poems and their verses, for convenience of reference, in the
order in which they appear in the pages of Lord Kingsborough.

* * * * *

The first is one referred to, and partly translated by Ixtlilxochitl,
in his _Historia Chichimeca_ (cap. 47). He calls it a _xopancuicatl_
(see ante, p. 15), and states that it was composed and sung on the
occasion of the banquet when the king laid the foundations of his
great palace. He gives the first words in the original as follows:--

_Tlaxoconcaguican ani Nezahualcoyotzin;_

And the translation:--

"Hear that which says the King Nezahualcoyotl."

Restoring the much mutilated original to what I should think was its
proper form, the translation should read:--

"Listen attentively to what I, the singer, the noble Nezahualcoyotl,
say:"--

I.

1. Listen with attention to the lamentations which I, the King
Nezahualcoyotl, make upon my power, speaking with myself, and
offering an example to others.

2. O restless and striving king, when the time of thy death shall
come, thy subjects shall be destroyed and driven forth; they shall
sink into dark oblivion. Then in thy hand shall no longer be the
power and the rule, but with the Creator, the All-powerful.

3. He who saw the palaces and court of the old King Tezozomoc, how
flourishing and powerful was his sway, may see them now dry and
withered; it seemed as if they should last forever, but all that the
world offers is illusion and deception, as everything must end and
die.

4. Sad and strange it is to see and reflect on the prosperity and
power of the old and dying King Tezozomoc; watered with