DANIEL G. BRINTON
AMS PRESS
NEW YORK
Copyright,
D. G. BRINTON.
1883.
LIBRARY
OF
Aboriginal American
Literature.
No. III.
EDITED BY
D. G. BRINTON, M.D.
PHILADELPHIA:
1883.
PREFACE.
The play which is presented in this volume is the only specimen known to me of the native American comedy. It is of comparatively recent origin, and is composed in a mixed dialect, a jargon of low Spanish and corrupt Aztec (Nahuatl); but, both in its history and spirit, it bears so many marks of native composition, and is so characteristic of the sort of humor popular with the tribes from whom it was obtained, that it fairly merits a place in this series of publications.