So will in their own house the enemy be.
This song is probably a chant sung before sacrifice to the god. The line “He had taken a foot from the man out of the cold land” seems to allude to the maiming of one of the gods by Uitzilopochtli, or is symbolic of the punishment of a human enemy by rendering him unfit for war through the [[81]]amputation of one of his feet. Tezcatlipocâ, one of whose names was Yaotzin, “the enemy,” is frequently represented as having but one foot, and the phrase “the man from the cold land,” i.e. the North, applies almost certainly to him. The rest of the song relates to the peoples with whom the Mexicans were frequently at war.
SONG OF THE SHIELD
I
In his shield of the young wife the great warrior chieftain was born.
In his shield of the young wife (or maid) the great warrior chieftain was born.
II
He who gained his heroic title on the serpent mountain
In his (warrior) face-painting, (and with the shield) teueuelli.
No one in truth rises.