“Io tocaré cantando El músico instrumento sonoroso, Tú de flores gozando Danza, y festeja á Dios que es poderoso; O gozemos de esta gloria, Porque la humana vida es transitoria.” MS. DE IXTLILXOCHITL. The sentiment, which is common enough, is expressed with uncommon beauty by the English poet Herrick: “Gather the rosebuds while you may; Old Time is still a-flying; The fairest flower that blooms to-day To-morrow may be dying.” And with still greater beauty, perhaps, by Racine: “Rions, chantons, dit cette troupe impie, De fleurs en fleurs, de plaisirs en plaisirs, Promenons nos désirs. Sur l’avenir insensé qui se fie. De nos ans passagers le nombre est incertain. Hâtons-nous aujourd’hui de jouir de la vie; Qui sait si nous serons demain?” ATHALIE, Acte 2. It is interesting to see under what different forms the same sentiment is developed by different races and in different languages. It is an Epicurean sentiment, indeed, but its universality proves its truth to nature. [290] Some of the provinces and places thus conquered were held by the allied powers in common; Tlacopan, however, only receiving one-fifth of the tribute. It was more usual to annex the vanquished territory to that one of the two great states to which it lay nearest. See Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 38.--Zurita, Rapport, p. 11. [291] Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 41. The same writer, in another work, calls the population of Tezcuco, at this period, double of what it was at the Conquest; founding his estimate on the royal registers, and on the numerous remains of edifices still visible in his day, in places now depopulated. “Parece en las historias que en este tiempo, antes que se destruyesen, havia doblado mas gente de la que halló al tiempo que vino Cortés, y los demas Españoles: porque yo hallo en los padrones reales, que el menor pueblo tenía 1100 vecinos, y de allí para arriba, y ahora no tienen 200 vecinos, y aun en algunas partes de todo punto se han acabado.... Como se hecha de ver en las ruinas, hasta los mas altos montes y sierras tenian sus sementeras, y casas principales para vivir y morar.” Relaciones, MS., No. 9. [292] Torquemada has extracted the particulars of the yearly expenditure of the palace from the royal account-book, which came into the historian’s possession. The following are some of the items, namely: 4,900,300 fanegas of maize (the _fanega_ is equal to about one hundred pounds); 2,744,000 fanegas of cacao; 8000 turkeys; 1300 baskets of salt; besides an incredible quantity of game of every kind, vegetables, condiments, etc. (Monarch. Ind., lib. 2, cap. 53.) See, also, Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 35.