Quetzal, quetzal, no calli,
Zacuan, no callin tapach
No callin nic yacahuaz
An ya, an ya, an quilmach.
Literally--
Beautiful, beautiful (is) my house
Zacuan, my house of coral;
My house, I must leave it.
Alas, alas, they say.
Zacuan, instead of being a proper name, may mean a rich yellow leather from the bird called zacuantototl.]
[[Footnote 66]: It is not clear, at least in the translations, whether the myth intimates an incestuous relation between Quetzalcoatl and his sister. In the song he calls her "Nohueltiuh," which means, strictly, "My elder sister;" but Mendoza translates it "Querida esposa mia." Quetzalpetlatl means "the Beautiful Carpet," petlatl being the rug or mat used on floors, etc. This would be a most appropriate figure of speech to describe a rich tropical landscape, "carpeted with flowers," as we say; and as the earth is, in primitive cosmogony, older than the sun, I suspect that this story of Quetzalcoatl and his sister refers to the sun sinking from heaven, seemingly, into the earth. "Los Nahoas," remarks Chavero, "figuraban la tierra en forma de un cuadrilátero dividido en pequeños quatros, lo que semijaba una estera, petlatl" (Anales del Museo Nacional, Tom. ii, p. 248).]
[[Footnote 67]: Designated in the Aztec original by the name Teoapan Ilhuicaatenco, from teotl, divine, atl, water, pan, in or near, ilhuicac, heaven, atenco, the waterside: "Near the divine water, where the sky meets the strand.">[
[[Footnote 68]: The whole of this account is from the Anales de Cuauhtitlan, pp. 16-22.]
[[Footnote 69]: Ramirez de Fuen-leal, Historia, cap. xx, p. 102.]
[[Footnote 70]: Sir George A. Cox, The Science of Mythology and Folk Lore, p. 96.]
[[Footnote 71]: Gabriel de Chaves, Relacion de la Provincia de Meztitlan, 1556, in the Colecion de Documentos Ineditos del Archivo de Indias, Tom. iv, p. 536.]