LITERARY NOTICES. 



561 



edge of the proper methods of preparing 

 and combining foods, and especially the 

 reasons for these methods. Recipes have 

 their place in the book, but more promi- 

 nence is given to general principles — to ex- 

 planations of the nature and uses of food, 

 of the changes effected by the several modes 

 of cooking — baking, boiling, steaming, and 

 broiling — and to principles for adapting the 

 diet to age, occupation, climate, and means. 

 The practical directions include the care of 

 the fire, and the cleaning of utensils, the 

 names of the cuts of beef, with diagrams, 

 the care of food before and after cooking, 

 and laying and waiting on the table. In- 

 valid cookery also receives attention. Ta- 

 bles of the cost of meats and fish, and 

 charts showing the average composition of 

 some common foods are given. The lan- 

 guage is adapted to the understanding of 

 young girls, and the book is indorsed by 

 the Superintendent of the Boston Public 

 Schools as being the outgrowth of practical 

 teaching in the cooking class-rooms con- 

 nected with the public schools of that city. 



Ancient Nahuatl Poetry. Containing the 

 Nahuatl Text of Twenty-seven Ancient 

 Mexican Poems. With a Translation, 

 Introduction, Notes, and Vocabulary. By 

 Daniel G. Bristo.v. Philadelphia: D. 

 G. Brinton. Pp. 177. Price, §3. 



The Nahuatl tongue is one of the most 

 highly developed of American aboriginal 

 languages, and is represented in a relative- 

 ly rich literature, of which the present vol- 

 ume embodies perhaps, some of the most 

 important specimens. The race who spoke 

 it cultivated song, music, and the dance, 

 with passionate love, and held the profes- 

 sion of poet in the highest honor. The 

 poets' works were recited by themselves or 

 by professional singers at public meetings 

 and on festal occasions, as were those of 

 Homer, the troubadours, and the Welsh 

 bards. The old love of the song and the 

 dance are continued. Dr. Brinton tells us, 

 in the Indian villages to this day, with 

 changed themes, but in fo-ms which have 

 undergone but little alteration. The more 

 important songs were written down by the 

 Nahuas, according to Sahagun, in their 

 books, and from these were tauglit to the 

 youth in the schools. The sound as well 

 you xxiii. — 36 



as the sense of the sentences and verses 

 was also preserved by the method of writ- 

 ing which Dr. Brinton has described in a 

 monograph that has been noticed in the 

 " Monthly " as ikonomatic. By these meth- 

 ods, a large body of poetic chants was in 

 existence when the Nahuatl-speaking tribes 

 were subjugated by the Europeans. Some 

 of them were translated into Spanish by 

 Sahagun, and others were preserved in the 

 original tongue ; and thus they came to the 

 knowledge of European writers. The ques- 

 tion having been raised whether any an- 

 cient Mexican poetry is now extant, Dr. 

 Brinton explains that his text is taken from 

 a copy made by the late Abbe Brasseur de 

 Bourbourg, from a manuscript volume in 

 the library of the University of Mexico, 

 composed of various pieces in different char- 

 acters, which were attributed by the anti- 

 quary, Don Jose F. Ramirez, to the sixteenth 

 and seventeenth centuries. In the editor's 

 view they are from different sources and of 

 different epochs. The collection includes 

 a notice of the LX songs of the royal poet 

 King Nezahualcoyotl, who died in 1472, with 

 translations of four of the poems, and the 

 text and translations of the twenty-seven 

 songs mentioned in the title, which are of 

 various moods. Not a line of these songs, 

 the editor asserts, has ever before been ren- 

 dered into a European tongue. The intro- 

 duction includes notes on the Nahuatl na- 

 tional love of poetry, the status of the Na- 

 huatl poet and his work, the themes and 

 classes, prosody, and vocal delivery of the 

 songs, the instrumental accompaniment, the 

 preservation of the ancient songs, and the 

 history of the present collection. The 

 thanks of all students are owing to Dr. 

 Brinton for the diligence and enthusiasm — 

 with no little self-sacrifice, we judge — which 

 he has displayed in bringing this aboriginal 

 literature series to its present fulness. The 

 publication can not be supposed to be a 

 profitable or paying one, yet he has kept it 

 up without discouragement and without de- 

 preciating the quality of the work. Abun- 

 dant material remains in his hands for a 

 continuation of the series, and other works 

 of a similar character with those that have 

 already appeared will be issued from time 

 to time if sufficient interest is manifested 

 to meet the cost of publishing them. We 



