Produced by David Starner, Ben Beasley and the PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team. LIBRARY OF ABORIGINAL AMERICAN LITERATURE. No. VIII. EDITED BY D.G. BRINTON [Illustration: XIPPE TOTEC, GOD OF SILVERSMITHS, IN FULL COSTUME. HYMN XV.] BRINTON'S LIBRARY OF ABORIGINAL AMERICAN LITERATURE. NUMBER VIII. RIG VEDA AMERICANUS. SACRED SONGS OF THE ANCIENT MEXICANS, WITH A GLOSS IN NAHUATL. EDITED, WITH A PARAPHRASE, NOTES AND VOCABULARY, BY DANIEL G. BRINTON 1890 PREFACE. In accordance with the general object of this series of volumes--which is to furnish materials for study rather than to offer completed studies--I have prepared for this number the text of the most ancient authentic record of American religious lore. From its antiquity and character, I have ventured to call this little collection the RIG VEDA AMERICANUS, after the similar cyclus of sacred hymns, which are the most venerable product of the Aryan mind. As for my attempted translation of these mystic chants I offer it with the utmost reserve. It would be the height of temerity in me to pretend to have overcome difficulties which one so familiar with the ancient Nahuatl as Father Sahagun intimated were beyond his powers. All that I hope to have achieved is, by the aid of the Gloss--and not always in conformity to its suggestions--to give a general idea of the sense and purport of the originals. The desirability of preserving and publishing these texts seems to me to be manifest. They reveal to us the undoubtedly authentic spirit of the ancient religion; they show us the language in its most archaic form; they preserve references to various mythical cycli of importance to the historian; and they illustrate the alterations in the spoken tongue adopted in the esoteric dialect of the priesthood. Such considerations will, I trust, attract the attention of scholars to these fragments of a lost literature. In the appended Vocabulary I have inserted only those words and expressions for which I can suggest correct--or, at least, probable--renderings. Others will have to be left to future investigators. CONTENTS. Preface Introduction I. Hymn of Huitzilopochtli II. War Song of the Huitznahuac III. Hymn of Tlaloc IV. Hymn to the All-Mother V. Hymn to the Virgin Mother VI. Hymn to the God of Fire VII. Hymn of Mixcoatl VIII. Hymn to the God of Flowers IX. Hymn to the Goddess of Artists X. Hymn to the God of Fishing XI. Hymn of the Otomi Leader XII. Hymn to the Goddess of Childbirth XIII. Hymn to the Mother of Mortals XIV. Hymn Sung at a Fast every Eight Years XV. Hymn to a Night God XVI. Hymn to the Goddess of Food XVII. Hymn to the Gods of Wine XVIII. Hymn to the Master of Waters XIX. Hymn to the God of Flowers XX. Hymn to the God of Merchants Glossary Index LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Xippe Totec, God of Silversmiths, in Full Costume, Frontispiece