It is with some hesitation that I offer this volume to the scientificpublic. The text of the ancient songs which it contains offersextreme and peculiar difficulties to the translator, and I have beenobliged to pursue the task without assistance of any kind. Not a lineof them has ever before been rendered into an European tongue, and myendeavors to obtain aid from some of the Nahuatl scholars of Mexicohave, for various reasons, proved ineffectual. I am therefore aloneresponsible for errors and misunderstandings.
Nevertheless, I have felt that these monuments of ancient nativeliterature are so interesting in themselves, and so worthy ofpublication, that they should be placed at the disposition ofscholars in their original form with the best rendering that I couldgive them at present, rather than to await the uncertain event ofyears for a better.
The text itself may be improved by comparison with the original MS.and with the copy previously made by the Licentiate Chimalpopoca,referred to on page 48. My own efforts in this direction have beenconfined to a faithful reproduction in print of the MS. copy of theAbbé Brasseur de Bourbourg.
The Notes, which might easily have been extended, I have confinedwithin moderate compass, so as not to enlarge unduly the bulk of thevolume.
To some, the Vocabulary may seem inadequate. I assume that thosepersons who wish to make a critical study of the original text willprovide themselves with the Nahuatl Dictionaries of Molina or Siméon,both of which are now easily obtainable, thanks to Mr. JuliusPlatzmann for the reprint of Molina. I also assume that such studentswill acquaint themselves with the rules of grammar and laws ofword-building of the tongue, and that they will use the vocabularymerely as a labor-saving means of reaching the themes of compoundsand unusual forms of words. Employed in this manner, it will, I hope,be found adequate.
In conclusion, I would mention that there is a large body of Nahuatlliterature yet unpublished, both prose and poetry, modern andancient, and as the Nahuatl tongue is one of the most highlydeveloped on the American continent, it is greatly to be desired thatall this material should be at the command of students. The Nahuatl,moreover, is not a difficult tongue; for an Englishman or aFrenchman, I should say it is easier to acquire than German, itsgrammar being simple and regular, and its sounds soft and sonorous.It has special recommendations, therefore, to one who would acquainthimself with an American language.