[263] [In reading this chapter we must constantly bear in mind the fact that it is founded almost entirely upon traditions. We must also remember—first, that Ixtlilxochitl is the principal authority for the legends therein chronicled; second, that Ixtlilxochitl possessed a very fertile imagination; third, that Ixtlilxochitl’s “Historia Chichimeca” was not written from an entirely unprejudiced point of view. To use the words of Bandelier (Archæological Tour in Mexico, p. 192): “Ixtlilxochitl is always a very suspicious authority, not because he is more confused than any other Indian writer, but because he wrote for an interested object, and with the view of sustaining tribal claims in the eyes of the Spanish government.”—M.]
[264] For a criticism on this writer, see the Postscript to this chapter.
[265] See Chapter I. of this Introduction, p. 17.
[266] Ixtlilxochitl, Relaciones, MS., No. 9.—Idem, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 19.
[267] The adventures of the former hero are told with his usual spirit by Sismondi (Républiques Italiennes, chap. 79). It is hardly necessary, for the latter, to refer the English reader to Chambers’s “History of the Rebellion of 1745;” a work which proves how thin is the partition in human life which divides romance from reality.
[268] Ixtlilxochitl, Relaciones, MS., No. 10.
[269] Ixtlilxochitl, Relaciones, MS., No. 10.—Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 20-24.
[270] Idem, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 25. The contrivance was effected by means of an extraordinary personal resemblance of the parties; a fruitful source of comic—as every reader of the drama knows—though rarely of tragic interest.
[271] It was customary, on entering the presence of a great lord, to throw aromatics into the censer. “Hecho en el brasero incienso y copal, que era uso y costumbre donde estaban los Reyes y Señores, cada vez que los criados entraban con mucha reverencia y acatamiento echaban sahumerio en el brasero; y así coneste perfume se obscurecia algo la sala.” Ixtlilxochitl, Relaciones, MS., No. 11.
[272] Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 26.—Relaciones, MS., No. 11.—Veytia, Hist. antig., lib. 2, cap. 47.