[270] Idem, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 25. The contrivance was effected by means of an extraordinary personal resemblance of the parties; a fruitful source of comic--as every reader of the drama knows--though rarely of tragic interest. [271] It was customary, on entering the presence of a great lord, to throw aromatics into the censer. “Hecho en el brasero incienso y copal, que era uso y costumbre donde estaban los Reyes y Señores, cada vez que los criados entraban con mucha reverencia y acatamiento echaban sahumerio en el brasero; y así coneste perfume se obscurecia algo la sala.” Ixtlilxochitl, Relaciones, MS., No. 11. [272] Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 26.--Relaciones, MS., No. 11.--Veytia, Hist. antig., lib. 2, cap. 47. [273] “Nezahualcoiotzin le dixo, que si viese á quien buscaban, si lo iría á denunciar? respondió, que no; tornándole á replicar diciéndole, que haria mui mal en perder una muger hermosa y lo demas que el rey Maxtla prometia, el mancebo se rió de todo, no haciendo caso ni de lo uno ni de lo otro.” Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 27. [274] Ibid., MS., cap. 26, 27.--Relaciones, MS., No. 11.--Veytia, Hist. antig., lib. 2, cap. 47, 48. [275] Ixtlilxochitl, MSS., ubi supra.--Veytia, ubi supra. [276] Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 28-31.--Relaciones, MS., No. 11.--Veytia, Hist. antig., lib. 2, cap. 51-54. [277] See page 21 of this volume. [278] “Que venganza no es justo la procuren los Reyes, sino castigar al que lo mereciere.” MS. de Ixtlilxochitl. [279] See Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom. i. p. 247.--Nezahualcoyotl’s code consisted of eighty laws, of which thirty-four only have come down to us, according to Veytia. (Hist. antig., tom. iii. p. 224, nota.) Ixtlilxochitl enumerates several of them. Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 38, and Relaciones, MS., Ordenanzas. [280] Nowhere are these principles kept more steadily in view than in the various writings of our adopted countryman Dr. Lieber, having more or less to do with the theory of legislation. Such works could not have been produced before the nineteenth century. [281] Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 36.--Veytia, Hist. antig., lib. 3, cap. 7.--According to Zurita, the principal judges, at their general meetings every four months, constituted also a sort of parliament or córtes, for advising the king on matters of state. See his Rapport, p. 106; also _ante_, p. 33.