Florentine MS. As evidently the older of the two, I have adopted the
readings of the Madrid MS. as my text, and given the variants of the
Florentine MS. at the end of each hymn.

Neither MS. attempts any translation of the hymns. That at Madrid has no
Spanish comment whatever, while that at Florence places opposite the
hymns the following remarks, which are also found in the printed copies,
near the close of the Appendix of the Second Book of the _Historia_:--

"It is an old trick of our enemy the Devil to try to conceal himself in
order the better to compass his ends, in accordance with the words of
the Gospel, 'He whose deeds are evil, shuns the light.' Also on earth
this enemy of ours has provided himself with a dense wood and a ground,
rough and filled with abysses, there to prepare his wiles and to escape
pursuit, as do wild beasts and venomous serpents. This wood and these
abysses are the songs which he has inspired for his service to be sung
in his honor within the temples and outside of them; for they are so
artfully composed that they say what they will, but disclose only what
the Devil commands, not being rightly understood except by those to whom
they are addressed. It is, in fact, well recognized that the cave, wood
or abysses in which this cursed enemy hides himself, are these songs or
chants which he himself composed, and which are sung to him without
being understood except by those who are acquainted with this sort of
language. The consequence is that they sing what they please, war or
peace, praise to the Devil or contempt for Christ, and they cannot in
the least be understood by other men."

Lord Kingsborough says in a note in his voluminous work on the
_Antiquities of Mexico_ that this portion of Sahagun's text was
destroyed by order of the Inquisition, and that there was a memorandum