Notes for Song XI
In a similar strain as in the last poem, the bard bewails the briefness of human life and friendships. He closes with an appeal to the Master of Life, of whom no mortal tongue can speak in worthy and appropriate terms.
6. ihuiti, apparently a form of ihuintia.
tonan; the reference appears to be to Tonantzin, Our Mother, otherwise known as Cihuacoatl, the Serpent Woman. She was the mythical mother of the human race, and dispensed afflictions and adverse fortune. See Sahagun, Hist. de la Nueva España, Lib. I, cap. 6. The name is a proof of the antiquity of the poem, which is throughout in the spirit of the ancient religion.