ipalnemohuani, literally "the one by whom life exists." The composition is i, possessive pronoun, third person, singular; pal, postposition, by; nemoani, singular of the present in ni of the impersonal form of the verb nemi, to live, with the meaning to do habitually that which the verb expresses. It is an ancient epithet applied to the highest divinity, and is found in the Codex Telleriano-Remensis, Kingsborough's Mexico, Vol. VI, p. 128, note.
tolquatectitlan, from toloa, to lower, to bow; quatequia, to immerse the head; tlan, place ending. In the ancient funeral ceremonies the faces of the assistants were laved with holy water. On this rite see the note of Orozco y Berra to his edition of the Cronica Mexicana of Tezozomoc, p. 435 (Mexico, 1878).
xoyacaltitlan; from xoyaui, to spoil, to decay, whence xoyauhqui, rank, unpleasant, like the odor of decaying substances.
xochicopal tlenamactli, "the incense of sweet copal," which was burned in the funeral chamber (see Tezozomoc's description of the obsequies of Axayaca, Cron. Mex., cap. 55).
2. The translation of this verse offers some special difficulties.
NOTES FOR SONG IV.
A poem of unusually rich metaphors is presented, with the title "A Song of the Mexicans, after the manner of the Otomis." It is a rhapsody, in which the bard sings his "faculty divine," and describes the intoxication of the poetic inspiration. It has every inherent mark of antiquity, and its thought is free from any tincture of European influence.
2. miahuatototl, literally, "the corn-silk bird," miahua being the term applied to the silk or tassel of the maize ear when in the milk. I have not found its scientific designation.
6. poyomatl; the poyomatli is described by Sahagun (Hist. de la Nueva España, Lib. X, cap. 24) as a species of rose, portions of which were used to fill the cane tubes or pipes used for smoking. He names it along with certain fungi employed for the same purpose, and it probably produced a narcotic effect.