{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_26426/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_26426","id":"gutenberg_26426","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26426","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Archaeology & Anthropology","Category: History - Other","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Indian mythology -- Mexico","Indians of Mexico -- Religion","Nagualism"],"text":"Produced by Curtis Weyant, Julia Miller, and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This\nfile was produced from images generously made available\nby Case Western Reserve University Preservation Department\nDigital Library)\n\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Note:\n\nA number of typographical errors and inconsistencies have been maintained\nin this version of this book. Typographical errors have been marked with\na [TN-#], which refers to a description in the complete list found at the\nend of the text. A list of words that have been inconsistently spelled or\nhyphenated is found at the end of the present text. Oe ligatures have\nbeen expanded.\n\nThe following codes are used for characters that are not present in the\ncharacter set used for this version of the book.\n\n  [=u] u with macron\n  [=o] o with macron\n  [||] double vertical line\n  [+]  Dagger\n  [++] Double dagger\n\n\n\n\n                         NAGUALISM.\n\n                          A STUDY\n\n                             IN\n\n                 Native American Folk-lore\n                        and History.\n\n\n                             BY\n\n        DANIEL G. BRINTON, A.M., M.D., LL.D., D.Sc.,\n\n  Professor of American Archaeology and Linguistics in the\n                University of Pennsylvania.\n\n\n                       PHILADELPHIA:\n      MACCALLA & COMPANY, PRINTERS, 237-9 DOCK STREET.\n                            1894\n\n\n\n\n_Nagualism. A Study in Native American Folk-lore and History._\n\n_By Daniel G. Brinton, M.D._\n\n(_Read before the American Philosophical Society, Jan'y 5, 1894._)\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\n1. The words _Nagual_, _Nagualism_, _Nagualist_. 2. The Earliest\nReference to Nagualism. 3. The _Naualli_ of the Aztecs; their Classes\nand Pretended Powers. 4. The Sacred Intoxicants; the _Peyotl_, the\n_Ololiuhqui_, the _Teopatli_, the _Yax Ha_, etc. 5. Clairvoyance and\nTelepathy during Intoxication. 6. The _Naualli_ of Modern Mexico. 7. The\n_Tonal_ and the _Tonalpouhque_; the Genethliac System of the Nahuas. 8.\nThe Aztec Sodality of \"Master Magicians.\" 9. The Personal Guardian\nSpirit.\n\n10. Folk-lore of the Mixe Indians. 11. Astrological Divination of the\nZapotecs. 12. Similar Arts of the Mixtecs. 13. Nagualism in Chiapas, as\nDescribed by Bishop Nunez de la Vega. 14. Nagualism Among the Quiches,\nCakchiquels and Pokonchis of Guatemala. 15. The Metamorphoses of\nGukumatz. 16. Modern Witchcraft in Yucatan and Central America; the\nZahoris and Padrinos.\n\n17. Fundamental Principles of Nagualism, Hatred of the Whites and of\nChristianity. 18. Its Organization and Extent; its Priesthood. 19. Its\nInfluence in the Native Revolts against the Spanish Power. 20. Exalted\nPosition of Woman in Nagualism. 21. This a Survival from Ancient Times.\n22. A Native Joan of Arc. 23. Modern Queens of Nagualism.\n\n24. The Cave-temples and the Cave-gods; Oztoteotl, Tepeyollotl, Votan,\netc. 25. The Sacred Numbers, 3 and 7. 26. Fire Worship of the\nNagualists. 27. Fire Rights Connected with the Pulque. 28. Fire\nCeremonies of the Modern Mayas. 29. Secret Significance of Fire Worship.\n30. The Chalchiuites, or Sacred Green Stones. 31. The Sacred Tree and\nthe Tree of Life. 32. The Cross and its Symbolic Meaning. 33. The\nLascivious Rites of the Nagualists. 34. Their Relation to the Symbols of\nthe Serpent and the Phallus.\n\n35. Confusion of Christian and Native Religious Ideas; Prayers of Nagual\nPriests. Their Symbolic Language. 36. The Inquisition and Nagualism. 37.\nEtymology of the Word _Nagual_. 38. The Root _Na_ in the Maya, Zapotec\nand Nahuatl Languages. 39. The Doctrine of Animal Transformation in the\nOld World. 40. The Doctrine of Personal Spirits in the Old World. 41.\nScientific Explanations of Nagual Magic. 42. Conclusion.\n\n\n  REPRINTED FEB. 23, 1894, FROM PROC. AMER. PHILOS. SOC., VOL. XXXIII.\n\n\n\n\n=1.= The words, a _nagual_, _nagualism_, a _nagualist_, have been current\nin English prose for more than seventy years; they are found during that\ntime in a variety of books published in England and the United\nStates,[4-*] yet are not to be discovered in any dictionary of the\nEnglish language; nor has _Nagualism_ a place in any of the numerous\nencyclopaedias or \"Conversation Lexicons,\" in English, French, German or\nSpanish.\n\nThis is not owing to its lack of importance, since for two hundred years\npast, as I shall show, it has been recognized as a cult, no less\npowerful than mysterious, which united many and diverse tribes of Mexico\nand Central America into organized opposition against the government and\nthe religion which had been introduced from Europe; whose members had\nacquired and were bound together by strange faculties and an occult\nlearning, which placed them on a par with the famed thaumaturgists and\ntheodidacts of the Old World; and which preserved even into our own days\nthe thoughts and forms of a long suppressed ritual.\n\nIn several previous publications I have referred briefly to this secret\nsodality and its aims,[4-[+]] and now believe it worth while to collect\nmy scattered notes and present all that I have found of value about the\norigin, aims and significance of this Eleusinian Mystery of America. I\nshall trace its geographical extension and endeavor to discover what its\nsecret influence really was and is.\n\n\n=2.= The earliest description I find of its particular rites is that which\nthe historian Herrera gives, as they prevailed in 1530, in the province\nof Cerquin, in the mountainous parts of Honduras. It is as follows:\n\n     \"The Devil was accustomed to deceive these natives by appearing to\n     them in the form of a lion, tiger, coyote, lizard, snake, bird, or\n     other animal. To these appearances they apply the name _Naguales_,\n     which is as much as to say, guardians or companions; and when such\n     an animal dies, so does the Indian to whom it was assigned. The way\n     such an alliance was formed was thus: The Indian repaired to some\n     very retired spot and there appealed to the streams, rocks and\n     trees around him, and weeping, implored for himself the favors they\n     had conferred on his ancestors. He then sacrificed a dog or a fowl,\n     and drew blood from his tongue, or his ears, or other parts of his\n     body, and turned to sleep. Either in his dreams or half awake, he\n     would see some one of those animals or birds above mentioned, who\n     would say to him, 'On such a day go hunting and the first animal or\n     bird you see will be my form, and I shall remain your companion and\n     _Nagual_ for all time.' Thus their friendship became so close that\n     when one died so did the other; and without such a _Nagual_ the\n     natives believe no one can become rich or powerful.\"[5-*]\n\nThis province of Cerquin appears to have been peopled by a tribe which\nbelonged to the great Mayan stock, akin to those which occupied most of\nthe area of what is now Yucatan, Tabasco, Chiapas and Guatemala.[5-[+]]\nI shall say something later about the legendary enchantress whom their\ntraditions recalled as the teacher of their ancestors and the founder of\ntheir nation. What I would now call attention to is the fact that in\nnone of the dialects of the specifically Mexican or Aztecan stock of\nlanguages do we find the word _nagual_ in the sense in which it is\nemployed in the above extract, and this is strong evidence that the\norigin of Nagualism is not to be sought in that stock.\n\n\n=3.= We do find, however, in the Nahuatl language, which is the proper\nname of the Aztecan, a number of derivatives from the same root, _na_,\namong them this very word, _Nahuatl_, all of them containing the idea\n\"to know,\" or \"knowledge.\" The early missionaries to New Spain often\nspeak of the _naualli_ (plural, _nanahualtin_), masters of mystic\nknowledge, dealers in the black art, wizards or sorcerers. They were not\nalways evil-minded persons, though they seem to have been generally\nfeared. The earliest source of information about them is Father Sahagun,\nwho, in his invaluable History, has the following paragraph:\n\n     \"The _naualli_, or magician, is he who frightens men and sucks the\n     blood of children during the night. He is well skilled in the\n     practice of this trade, he knows all the arts of sorcery\n     (_nauallotl_) and employs them with cunning and ability; but for\n     the benefit of men only, not for their injury. Those who have\n     recourse to such arts for evil intents injure the bodies of their\n     victims, cause them to lose their reason and smother them. These\n     are wicked men and necromancers.\"[6-*]\n\nIt is evident on examining the later works of the Roman clergy in Mexico\nthat the Church did not look with any such lenient eye on the possibly\nharmless, or even beneficial, exercise of these magical devices. We find\na further explanation of what they were, preserved in a work of\ninstruction to confessors, published by Father Juan Bautista, at Mexico,\nin the year 1600.\n\n     \"There are magicians who call themselves _teciuhtlazque_,[6-[+]]\n     and also by the term _nanahualtin_, who conjure the clouds when\n     there is danger of hail, so that the crops may not be injured. They\n     can also make a stick look like a serpent, a mat like a centipede,\n     a piece of stone like a scorpion, and similar deceptions. Others of\n     these _nanahualtin_ will transform themselves to all appearances\n     (segun la aparencia), into a tiger, a dog or a weasel. Others again\n     will take the form of an owl, a cock, or a weasel; and when one is\n     preparing to seize them, they will appear now as a cock, now as an\n     owl, and again as a weasel. These call themselves\n     _nanahualtin_.\"[6-[++]]\n\nThere is an evident attempt in this somewhat confused statement to\ndistinguish between an actual transformation, and one which only appears\nsuch to the observer.\n\nIn another work of similar character, published at Mexico a few years\nlater, the \"Road to Heaven,\" of Father Nicolas de Leon, we find a series\nof questions which a confessor should put to any of his flock suspected\nof these necromantic practices. They reveal to us quite clearly what\nthese occult practitioners were believed to do. The passage reads as\nfollows, the questions being put in the mouth of the priest:\n\n     \"Art thou a soothsayer? Dost thou foretell events by reading signs,\n     or by interpreting dreams, or by water, making circles and figures\n     on its surface? Dost thou sweep and ornament with flower garlands\n     the places where idols are preserved? Dost thou know certain words\n     with which to conjure for success in hunting, or to bring rain?\n\n     \"Dost thou suck the blood of others, or dost thou wander about at\n     night, calling upon the Demon to help thee? Hast thou drunk\n     _peyotl_, or hast thou given it to others to drink, in order to\n     find out secrets, or to discover where stolen or lost articles\n     were? Dost thou know how to speak to vipers in such words that they\n     obey thee?\"[6-Sec.]\n\n\n=4.= This interesting passage lets in considerable light on the claims and\npractices of the nagualists. Not the least important item is that of\ntheir use of the intoxicant, _peyotl_, a decoction of which it appears\nplayed a prominent part in their ceremonies. This is the native Nahuatl\nname of a certain plant, having a white, tuberous root, which is the\npart employed. It is mentioned as \"pellote\" or \"peyote\" in the\n_Farmacopea Mexicana_ as a popular remedy, but its botanical name is not\nadded. According to Paso y Troncoso, it is one of the Compositae, a\nspecies of the genus _Cacalia_.[7-*] It is referred to in several\npassages by Father Sahagun, who says that it grows in southern Mexico,\nand that the Aztecs derived their knowledge of it from the older\n\"Chichimecs.\" It was used as an intoxicant.\n\n     \"Those who eat or drink of this _peyotl_ see visions, which are\n     sometimes frightful and sometimes ludicrous. The intoxication it\n     causes lasts several days. The Chichimecs believed that it gave\n     them courage in time of danger and diminished the pangs of hunger\n     and thirst.\"[7-[+]]\n\nIts use was continued until a late date, and very probably has not yet\ndied out. Its composition and method of preparation are given in a list\nof beverages prohibited by the Spanish authorities in the year 1784, as\nfollows:\n\n     \"_Peyote_: Made from a species of vinagrilla, about the size of a\n     billiard ball, which grows in dry and sterile soil. The natives\n     chew it, and throw it into a wooden mortar, where it is left to\n     ferment, some leaves of tobacco being added to give it pungency.\n     They consume it in this form, sometimes with slices of _peyote_\n     itself, in their most solemn festivities, although it dulls the\n     intellect and induces gloomy and hurtful visions (sombras muy\n     funestas).\"[7-[++]]\n\nThe _peyotl_ was not the only herb prized as a means of casting the soul\ninto the condition of hypostatic union with divinity. We have abundant\nevidence that long after the conquest the seeds of the plant called in\nNahuatl the _ololiuhqui_ were in high esteem for this purpose. In the\nConfessionary of Father Bartholome de Alva the priest is supposed to\ninquire and learn as follows:\n\n     \"_Question._ Hast thou loved God above all things? Hast thou loved\n     any created thing, adoring it, looking upon it as God, and\n     worshiping it?\n\n     \"_Answer._ I have loved God with all my heart; but sometimes I have\n     believed in dreams, and also I have believed in the sacred herbs,\n     the _peyotl_, and the _ololiuhqui_; and in other such things\n     (_onicneltocac in temictli, in xiuhtzintli, in peyotl, in\n     ololiuhqui, yhuan in occequitlamantli_).\"[8-*]\n\nThe seeds of the _ololiuhqui_ appear to have been employed externally.\nThey were the efficient element in the mysterious unguent known as \"the\ndivine remedy\" (_teopatli_), about which we find some information in the\nworks of Father Augustin de Vetancurt, who lived in Mexico in the middle\nof the seventeenth century. He writes:\n\n     \"The pagan priests made use of an ointment composed of insects,\n     such as spiders, scorpions, centipedes and the like, which the\n     neophytes in the temples prepared. They burned these insects in a\n     basin, collected the ashes, and rubbed it up with green tobacco\n     leaves, living worms and insects, and the powdered seeds of a plant\n     called _ololiuhqui_, which has the power of inducing visions, and\n     the effect of which is to destroy the reasoning powers. Under the\n     influence of this ointment, they conversed with the Devil, and he\n     with them, practicing his deceptions upon them. They also believed\n     that it protected them, so they had no fear of going into the woods\n     at night.\n\n     \"This was also employed by them as a remedy in various diseases,\n     and the soothing influence of the tobacco and the _ololiuhqui_ was\n     attributed by them to divine agency. There are some in our own day\n     who make use of this ointment for sorcery, shutting themselves up,\n     and losing their reason under its influence; especially some old\n     men and old women, who are prepared to fall an easy prey to the\n     Devil.\"[8-[+]]\n\nThe botanist Hernandez observes that another name for this plant was\n_coaxihuitl_, \"serpent plant,\" and adds that its seeds contain a\nnarcotic poison, and that it is allied to the genus _Solanum_, of which\nthe deadly night-shade is a familiar species. He speaks of its use in\nthe sacred rites in these words:\n\n     \"Indorum sacrifici, cum videri volebant versari cum superis, ac\n     responsa accipere ab eis, ea vescebantur planta, ut desiperent,\n     milleque phantasmata et demonum observatium effigies\n     circumspectarent.\"[8-[++]]\n\nOf the two plants mentioned, the _ololiuhqui_ and the _peyotl_, the\nformer was considered the more potent in spiritual virtues. \"They hold\nit in as much veneration as if it were God,\" says a theologian of the\nseventeenth century.[9-*] One who partook of these herbs was called\n_payni_ (from the verb _pay_, to take medicine); and more especially\n_tlachixqui_, a Seer, referring to the mystic \"second sight,\" hence a\ndiviner or prophet (from the verb _tlachia_, to see).\n\nTobacco also held a prominent, though less important, place in these\nrites. It was employed in two forms, the one the dried leaf, _picietl_,\nwhich for sacred uses must be broken and rubbed up either seven or nine\ntimes; and the green leaf mixed with lime, hence called _tenextlecietl_\n(from _tenextli_, lime).\n\nAllied in effect to these is an intoxicant in use in southern Mexico and\nYucatan, prepared from the bark of a tree called by the Mayas\n_baal-che_. The whites speak of the drink as _pitarilla_. It is quite\npopular among the natives, and they still attribute to it a sacred\ncharacter, calling it _yax ha_, the first water, the primal fluid. They\nsay that it was the first liquid created by God, and when He returned to\nHis heavenly home He left this beverage and its production in charge of\nthe gods of the rains, the four Pah-Ahtuns.[9-[+]]\n\n\n=5.= Intoxication of some kind was an essential part of many of these\nsecret rites. It was regarded as a method of throwing the individual out\nof himself and into relation with the supernal powers. What the old\nhistorian, Father Joseph de Acosta, tells us about the clairvoyants and\ntelepaths of the aborigines might well stand for a description of their\nmodern representatives:\n\n     \"Some of these sorcerers take any shape they choose, and fly\n     through the air with wonderful rapidity and for long distances.\n     They will tell what is taking place in remote localities long\n     before the news could possibly arrive. The Spaniards have known\n     them to report mutinies, battles, revolts and deaths, occurring two\n     hundred or three hundred leagues distant, on the very day they took\n     place, or the day after.\n\n     \"To practice this art the sorcerers, usually old women, shut\n     themselves in a house, and intoxicate themselves to the degree of\n     losing their reason. The next day they are ready to reply to\n     questions.\"[10-*]\n\nPlants possessing similar powers to excite vivid visions and distort the\nimagination, and, therefore, employed in the magical rites, were the\n_thiuimeezque_, in Michoacan, and the _chacuaco_, in lower\nCalifornia.[10-[+]]\n\n\n=6.= In spite of all effort, the various classes of wonder-workers\ncontinued to thrive in Mexico. We find in a book of sermons published by\nthe Jesuit Father, Ignacio de Paredes, in the Nahuatl language, in 1757,\nthat he strenuously warns his hearers against invoking, consulting, or\ncalling upon \"the devilish spell-binders, the nagualists, and those who\nconjure with smoke.\"[10-[++]]\n\nThey have not yet lost their power; we have evidence enough that many\nchildren of a larger growth in that land still listen with respect to\nthe recitals of the mysterious faculties attributed to the\n_nanahualtin_. An observant German traveler, Carlos von Gagern, informs\nus that they are widely believed to be able to cause sicknesses and\nother ills, which must be counteracted by appropriate exorcisms, among\nwhich the reading aloud certain passages of the Bible is deemed to be\none of the most potent.[10-Sec.]\n\nThe learned historian, Orozco y Berra, speaks of the powers attributed\nat the present day to the _nahual_ in Mexico among the lower classes, in\nthese words:\n\n     \"The _nahual_ is generally an old Indian with red eyes, who knows\n     how to turn himself into a dog, woolly, black and ugly. The female\n     witch can convert herself into a ball of fire; she has the power of\n     flight, and at night will enter the windows and suck the blood of\n     little children. These sorcerers will make little images of rags or\n     of clay, then stick into them the thorn of the maguey and place\n     them in some secret place; you can be sure that the person against\n     whom the conjuration is practiced will feel pain in the part where\n     the thorn is inserted. There still exist among them the\n     medicine-men, who treat the sick by means of strange contortions,\n     call upon the spirits, pronounce magical incantations, blow upon\n     the part where the pain is, and draw forth from the patient thorns,\n     worms, or pieces of stone. They know how to prepare drinks which\n     will bring on sickness, and if the patients are cured by others the\n     convalescents are particular to throw something of their own away,\n     as a lock of hair, or a part of their clothing. Those who possess\n     the evil eye can, by merely looking at children, deprive them of\n     beauty and health, and even cause their death.\"[11-*]\n\n\n=7.= As I have said, nowhere in the records of purely Mexican, that is,\nAztecan, Nagualism do we find the word _nagual_ employed in the sense\ngiven in the passage quoted from Herrera, that is as a personal guardian\nspirit or tutelary genius. These tribes had, indeed, a belief in some\nsuch protecting power, and held that it was connected with the day on\nwhich each person is born. They called it the _tonalli_ of a person, a\nword translated to mean that which is peculiar to him, which makes his\nindividuality, his self. The radical from which it is derived is _tona_,\nto warm, or to be warm, from which are also derived _tonatiuh_, the sun.\n_Tonalli_, which in composition loses its last syllable, is likewise the\nword for heat, summer, soul, spirit and day, and also for the share or\nportion which belongs to one. Thus, _to-tonal_ is spirit or soul in\ngeneral; _no-tonal_, my spirit; _no-tonal in ipan no-tlacat_, \"the sign\nunder which I was born,\" _i. e._, the astrological day-sign. From this\ncame the verb _tonalpoa_, to count or estimate the signs, that is, to\ncast the horoscope of a person; and _tonalpouhque_, the diviners whose\nbusiness it was to practice this art.[11-[+]]\n\nThese _tonalpouhque_ are referred to at length by Father\nSahagun.[11-[++]] He distinguishes them from the _naualli_, though it is\nclear that they corresponded in functions to the nagualistic priests of\nthe southern tribes. From the number and name of the day of birth they\nforecast the destiny of the child, and stated the power or spiritual\ninfluence which should govern its career.\n\nThe _tonal_ was by no means an indefeasible possession. It was a sort of\nindependent _mascotte_. So long as it remained with a person he enjoyed\nhealth and prosperity; but it could depart, go astray, become lost; and\nthen sickness and misfortune arrived. This is signified in the Nahuatl\nlanguage by the verbs _tonalcaualtia_, to check, stop or suspend the\n_tonal_, hence, to shock or frighten one; and _tonalitlacoa_, to hurt or\ninjure the _tonal_, hence, to cast a spell on one, to bewitch him.\n\nThis explains the real purpose of the conjuring and incantations which\nwere carried on by the native doctor when visiting the sick. It was to\nrecall the _tonal_, to force or persuade it to return; and, therefore,\nthe ceremony bore the name \"the restitution of the _tonal_,\" and was\nmore than any other deeply imbued with the superstitions of Nagualism.\nThe chief officiant was called the _tetonaltiani_, \"he who concerns\nhimself with the tonal.\" On a later page I shall give the formula\nrecited on such an occasion.\n\n\n=8.= There is some vague mention in the Aztec records of a semi-priestly\norder, who bore the name _naualteteuctin_, which may be translated\n\"master magicians.\" They were also known as _teotlauice_, \"sacred\ncompanions in arms.\" As was the case with most classes of the\n_teteuctin_, or nobles, entrance to the order was by a severe and\nprolonged ceremony of initiation, the object of which was not merely to\ntest the endurance of pain and the powers of self-denial, but especially\nto throw the mind into that subjective state in which it is brought into\ncontact with the divine, in which it can \"see visions and dream dreams.\"\nThe order claimed as its patron and founder Quetzalcoatl, the \"feathered\nserpent,\" who, it will be seen on another page, was also the patron of\nthe later nagualists.[12-*]\n\nThe word _naualli_ also occurs among the ancient Nahuas in composition\nas a part of proper names; always with the signification of \"magician,\"\nas in that of Naualcuauhtla, a chief of the Chalcos, meaning\n\"wizard-stick,\" referring probably to the rod or wand employed by the\nmagi in conjuration.[13-*] So also _Naualac_, the \"wizard water,\" an\nartificial lake not far from the city of Mexico, surrounded by ruined\ntemples, described by M. Charnay.[13-[+]]\n\n\n=9.= The belief in a personal guardian spirit was one of the fundamental\ndoctrines of Nagualism; but this belief by no means connotes the full\nimport of the term (as Mr. H. H. Bancroft has erroneously stated). The\ncalendar system of Mexico and Central America, which I have shown to be\nsubstantially the same throughout many diverse linguistic\nstocks,[13-[++]] had as one of its main objects, astrological\ndivination. By consulting it the appropriate nagual was discovered and\nassigned, and this was certainly a prominent feature in the native cult\nand has never been abandoned.\n\nIn Mexico to-day, in addition to his special personal guardian, the\nnative will often choose another for a limited time or for a particular\npurpose, and this is quite consistent with the form of Christianity he\nhas been taught. For instance, as we are informed by an observant\ntraveler, at New Year or at corn-planting the head of a family will go\nto the parish church and among the various saints there displayed will\nselect one as his guardian for the year. He will address to him his\nprayers for rain and sunshine, for an abundant harvest, health and\nprosperity, and will not neglect to back these supplications by liberal\ngifts. If times are good and harvests ample the Santo is rewarded with\nstill more gifts, and his aid is sought for another term; but if luck\nhas been bad the Indian repairs to the church at the end of the year,\nbestows on his holy patron a sound cursing, calls him all the bad names\nhe can think of, and has nothing more to do with him.[13-Sec.]\n\n\n=10.= A Mexican writer, Andres Iglesias, who enjoyed more than common\nopportunities to study these practices as they exist in the present\ngeneration, describes them as he saw them in the village of Soteapan, a\nremote hamlet in the State of Vera Cruz, the population of which speak\nthe Mixe language. This is not related to the Nahuatl tongue, but the\nterms of their magical rites are drawn from Nahuatl words, showing their\norigin. Every person at birth has assigned to him both a good and a bad\ngenius, the former aiming at his welfare, the latter at his injury. The\ngood genius is known by the Nahuatl term _tonale_, and it is represented\nin the first bird or animal of any kind which is seen in or near the\nhouse immediately after the birth of the infant.\n\nThe most powerful person in the village is the high priest of the native\ncult. One who died about 1850 was called \"the Thunderbolt,\" and whenever\nhe walked abroad he was preceded by a group of chosen disciples, called\nby the Nahuatl name _tlatoques_, speakers or attorneys.[14-*] His\nsuccessor, known as \"the Greater Thunder,\" did not maintain this state,\nbut nevertheless claimed to be able to control the seasons and to send\nor to mitigate destructive storms--claims which, sad to say, brought him\nto the stocks, but did not interfere with the regular payment of tribute\nto him by the villagers. He was also a medicine man and master of\nceremonies in certain \"scandalous orgies, where immodesty shows herself\nwithout a veil.\"[14-[+]][TN-1]\n\n\n=11.= Turning to the neighboring province of Oaxaca and its inhabitants,\nwe are instructed on the astrological use of the calendar of the\nZapotecs by Father Juan de Cordova, whose _Arte_ of their language was\npublished at Mexico in 1578. From what he says its principal, if not its\nonly purpose, was astrological. Each day had its number and was called\nafter some animal, as eagle, snake, deer, rabbit, etc. Every child, male\nor female, received the name of the day, and also its number, as a\nsurname; its personal name being taken from a fixed series, which\ndiffered in the masculine and feminine gender, and which seems to have\nbeen derived from the names of the fingers.\n\nFrom this it appears that among the Zapotecs the personal spirit or\n_nagual_ was fixed by the date of the birth, and not by some later\nceremony, although the latter has been asserted by some writers; who,\nhowever, seem to have applied without certain knowledge the rites of the\nNahuas and other surrounding tribes to the Zapotecs.[15-*]\n\nNext in importance to the assigning of names, according to Father\nCordova, was the employment of the calendar in deciding the propriety of\nmarriages. As the recognized object of marriage was to have sons, the\ncouple appealed to the professional augur to decide this question before\nthe marriage was fixed. He selected as many beans as was the sum of the\nnumbers of the two proponents' names, and, counting them by twos, if one\nremained over, it meant a son; then counting by threes any remainder\nalso meant sons; by fours the remainder meant either sons or daughters;\nand by five and six the same; and if there was no remainder by any of\nthese five divisors the marriage would result in no sons and was\nprohibited.\n\nIt is obvious that this method of fortune-telling was most auspicious\nfor the lovers; for I doubt if there is any combination of two numbers\nbelow fourteen which is divisible by two, three, four, five and six\nwithout remainder in any one instance.[15-[+]]\n\nThe Zapotecs were one of those nations who voluntarily submitted\nthemselves to the Spaniards, not out of love for the Europeans, but\nthrough hatred of the Aztecs, who had conquered them in the preceding\ncentury. Their king, Coyopy, and his subjects accepted Christianity and\nwere generally baptized; but it was the merest formality, and years\nafterwards Coyopy was detected secretly conducting the heathen ritual of\nhis ancestors with all due pomp. He was arrested, sent to the city of\nMexico, deprived of his power and wealth, and soon died; it is\ncharitably supposed, from natural causes. There is no question but that\nhe left successors to the office of pontifex maximus, and that they\ncontinued the native religious ceremonies.\n\n\n=12.= The sparse notices we have of the astrology of the Mixtecs,\nneighbors and some think relatives of the Zapotecs, reveal closely\nsimilar rites. The name of their king, who opposed Montezuma the First\nsome sixty years before the arrival of Cortez, proves that they made use\nof the same or a similar calendar in bestowing personal appellations. It\nis given as _Tres Micos_, Three Monkeys.\n\nUnfortunately, so far as I know, there has not been published, and\nperhaps there does not exist, an authentic copy of the Mixtec calendar.\nIt was nevertheless reduced to writing in the native tongue after the\nconquest, and a copy of it was seen by the historian Burgoa in the\nMixtec town of Yanhuitlan.[16-*] Each day was named from a tree, a plant\nor an animal, and from them the individual received his names, as Four\nLions, Five Roses, etc. (examples given by Herrera). This latter writer\nadds that the name was assigned by the priests when the child was seven\nyears old (as among the Tzentals), part of the rite being to conduct it\nto the temple and bore its ears. He refers also to their auguries\nrelating to marriage.[16-[+]] These appear to have been different from\namong the Zapotecs. It was necessary that the youth should have a name\nbearing a higher number than that of the maiden, and also \"that they\nshould be related;\" probably this applied only to certain formal\nmarriages of the rulers which were obliged to be within the same _gens_.\n\n\n=13.= I have referred in some detail to the rites and superstitions\nconnected with the Calendar because they are all essential parts of\nNagualism, carried on far into Christian times by the priests of this\nsecret cult, as was fully recognized by the Catholic clergy. Wherever\nthis calendar was in use, the Freemasonry of Nagualism extended, and its\nritual had constant reference to it. Our fullest information about it\ndoes not come from central Mexico, but further south, in the region\noccupied by the various branches of the Mayan stock, by the ancestors of\nsome one of which, perhaps, this singular calendar, and the symbolism\nconnected with it, were invented.\n\nOne of the most important older authorities on this subject is Francisco\nNunez de la Vega, a learned Dominican, who was appointed Bishop of\nChiapas and Soconusco in 1687, and who published at Rome, in 1702, a\nstately folio entitled \"_Constituciones Dioecesanas del Obispado de\nChiappa_,\" comprising discussions of the articles of religion and a\nseries of pastoral letters. The subject of Nagualism is referred to in\nmany passages, and the ninth Pastoral Letter is devoted to it. As this\nbook is one of extreme rarity, I shall make rather lengthy extracts from\nit, taking the liberty of condensing the scholastic prolixity of the\nauthor, and omitting his professional admonitions to the wicked.\n\nHe begins his references to it in several passages of his Introduction\nor _Preambulo_, in which he makes some interesting statements as to the\nuse to which the natives put their newly-acquired knowledge of writing,\nwhile at the same time they had evidently not forgotten the ancient\nmethod of recording ideas invented by their ancestors.\n\nThe Bishop writes:\n\n     \"The Indians of New Spain retain all the errors of their time of\n     heathenism preserved in certain writings in their own languages,\n     explaining by abbreviated characters and by figures painted in a\n     secret cypher[17-*] the places, provinces and names of their early\n     rulers, the animals, stars and elements which they worshiped, the\n     ceremonies and sacrifices which they observed, and the years,\n     months and days by which they predicted the fortunes of children at\n     birth, and assign them that which they call the Naguals. These\n     writings are known as Repertories or Calendars, and they are also\n     used to discover articles lost or stolen, and to effect cures of\n     diseases. Some have a wheel painted in them, like that of\n     Pythagoras, described by the Venerable Bede; others portray a lake\n     surrounded by the Naguals in the form of various animals. Some of\n     the Nagualist Masters claim as their patron and ruler Cuchulchan,\n     and they possessed a certain formula of prayer to him, written in\n     the Popoluca tongue (which was called Baha in their time of\n     heathenism), and which has been translated into Mexican.[17-[+]]\n\n     \"Those who are selected to become the masters of these arts are\n     taught from early childhood how to draw and paint these characters,\n     and are obliged to learn by heart the formulas, and the names of\n     the ancient Nagualists, and whatever else is included in these\n     written documents, many of which we have held in our hands, and\n     have heard them explained by such masters whom we had imprisoned\n     for their guilt, and who had afterwards become converted and\n     acknowledged their sins.\"[17-[++]]\n\nThe Bishop made up his mind that extreme measures should be taken to\neradicate these survivals of the ancient paganism in his diocese, and he\ntherefore promulgated the following order in the year 1692:\n\n     \"And because in the provinces of our diocese those Indians who are\n     Nagualists adore their _naguals_, and look upon them as gods, and\n     by their aid believe that they can foretell the future, discover\n     hidden treasures, and fulfill their dishonest desires: we,\n     therefore, prescribe and command that in every town an\n     ecclesiastical prison shall be constructed at the expense of the\n     church, and that it be provided with fetters and stocks (con\n     grillos y cepos), and we confer authority on every priest and\n     curate of a parish to imprison in these gaols whoever is guilty of\n     disrespect toward our Holy Faith, and we enjoin them to treat with\n     especial severity those who teach the doctrines of Nagualism (y con\n     rigor mayor a los dogmatizantes Nagualistas).\"[18-*]\n\nIn spite of these injunctions it is evident that he failed to destroy\nthe seeds of what he esteemed this dangerous heresy in the parishes of\nhis diocese; for his ninth Pastoral Letter, in which he exposes at\nlength the character of Nagualism, is dated from the metropolitan city\nof Ciudad Real, on May 24, 1698. As much of it is germane to my theme, I\ntranslate as follows:\n\n     \"There are certain bad Christians of both sexes who do not hesitate\n     to follow the school of the Devil, and to occupy themselves with\n     evil arts, divinations, sorceries, conjuring, enchantments,\n     fortune-telling, and other means to forecast the future.\n\n     \"These are those who in all the provinces of New Spain are known by\n     the name of _Nagualists_. They pretend that the birth of men is\n     regulated by the course and movements of stars and planets, and by\n     observing the time of day and the months in which a child is born,\n     they prognosticate its condition and the events, prosperous or\n     otherwise, of its life; and the worst is that these perverse men\n     have written down their signs and rules, and thus deceive the\n     erring and ignorant.\n\n     \"These Nagualists practice their arts by means of Repertories and\n     superstitious Calendars, where are represented under their proper\n     names all the Naguals of stars, elements, birds, fishes, brute\n     beasts and dumb animals; with a vain note of days and months, so\n     that they can announce which corresponds to the day of birth of the\n     infant. This is preceded by some diabolical ceremonies, after which\n     they designate the field or other spot, where, after seven years\n     shall have elapsed, the Nagual will appear to ratify the bargain.\n     As the time approaches, they instruct the child to deny God and\n     His Blessed Mother, and warn him to have no fear, and not to make\n     the sign of the cross. He is told to embrace his Nagual tenderly,\n     which, by some diabolical art, presents itself in an affectionate\n     manner even though it be a ferocious beast, like a lion or a tiger.\n     Thus, with infernal cunning they persuade him that this Nagual is\n     an angel of God, who will look after him and protect him in his\n     after life.\n\n     \"To such diabolical masters the intelligent Indians apply, to learn\n     from these superstitious Calendars, dictated by the Devil, their\n     own fortunes, and the Naguals which will be assigned to their\n     children, even before they are baptized. In most of the Calendars,\n     the seventh sign is the figure of a man and a snake, which they\n     call Cuchulchan. The masters have explained it as a snake with\n     feathers which moves in the water. This sign corresponds with\n     Mexzichuaut, which means Cloudy Serpent, or, of the clouds.[19-*]\n     The people also consult them in order to work injury on their\n     enemies, taking the lives of many through such devilish artifices,\n     and committing unspeakable atrocities.\n\n     \"Worse even than these are those who wander about as physicians or\n     healers; who are none such, but magicians, enchanters, and\n     sorcerers, who, while pretending to cure, kill whom they will. They\n     apply their medicines by blowing on the patient, and by the use of\n     infernal words; learned by heart by those who cannot read or write;\n     and received in writing from their masters by those acquainted with\n     letters. The Master never imparts this instruction to a single\n     disciple, but always to three at a time, so that in the practice of\n     the art it may be difficult to decide which one exerts the magical\n     power. They blow on feathers, or sticks, or plants, and place them\n     in the paths where they may be stepped on by those they wish to\n     injure, thus causing chills, fevers, ugly pustules and other\n     diseases; or they introduce into the body by such arts toads,\n     frogs, snakes, centipedes, etc,[TN-2] causing great torments. And\n     by these same breathings and magic words they can burn down houses,\n     destroy the growing crops and induce sickness. No one of the three\n     disciples is permitted to practice any of these arts without\n     previously informing the other two, and also the Master, by whom\n     the three have been taught.\n\n     \"We have learned by the confession of certain guilty parties how\n     the Master begins to instruct his disciple. First he tells him to\n     abjure God, the saints and the Virgin, not to invoke their names,\n     and to have no fear of them. He then conducts him to the wood,\n     glen, cave or field where the pact with the Devil is concluded,\n     which they call 'the agreement' or 'the word given' (in Tzental\n     _quiz_). In some provinces the disciple is laid on an ant-hill, and\n     the Master standing above him calls forth a snake, colored with\n     black, white and red, which is known as 'the ant-mother' (in\n     Tzental _zmezquiz_).[19-[+]] This comes accompanied by the ants\n     and other small snakes of the same kind, which enter at the joints\n     of the fingers, beginning with the left hand, and coming out at the\n     joints of the right hand, and also by the ears and the nose; while\n     the great snake enters the body with a leap and emerges at its\n     posterior vent. Afterwards the disciple meets a dragon vomiting\n     fire, which swallows him entire and ejects him posteriorly. Then\n     the Master declares he may be admitted, and asks him to select the\n     herbs with which he will conjure, the disciple names them, the\n     Master gathers them and delivers them to him, and then teaches him\n     the sacred words.\n\n     \"These words and ceremonies are substantially the same in all the\n     provinces. The healer enters the house of the invalid, asks about\n     the sickness, lays his hand on the suffering part, and then leaves,\n     promising to return on the day following. At the next visit he\n     brings with him some herbs which he chews or mashes with a little\n     water and applies to the part. Then he repeats the _Pater Noster_,\n     the _Ave_, the _Credo_ and the _Salve_ and blows upon the seat of\n     disease, afterwards pronouncing the magical words taught him by his\n     master. He continues blowing in this manner, inhaling and exhaling,\n     repeating under his breath these magical expressions, which are\n     powerful to kill or to cure as he chooses, through the compact he\n     has made with the Devil. Finally, so as to deceive the bystanders,\n     he ends with saying in a loud voice: 'God the Father, God the Son,\n     and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.'\n\n     \"This physician or healer is called in the towns of some of the\n     provinces _poxta vanegs_, and the medicine _gspoxil_; and\n     everything relating to healing among the Indians to which they\n     apply these terms means also to practice sorcery; and all words\n     derived from _pox_ allude to the Nagual; for this in some provinces\n     is called _poxlon_, and in others _patzlan_, and in many\n     _tzihuizin_, which is something very much feared by the Indians. We\n     have ascertained by the confessions of many who have been\n     reconciled that the Devil at times appears to them in the shape of\n     a ball or globe of fire in the air, with a tail like a comet.[20-*]\n\n     \"According to the most ancient traditions of these Indians this\n     idol, _poxlon_, was one of the most important and venerated they\n     had in the old times, and the Tzentals revered it so much that\n     they preserved it innumerable years painted on a tablet in the\n     above figure. Even after they were converted to the faith, they\n     hung it behind a beam in the church of the town of Oxchuc,\n     accompanied by an image of their god Hicalahau, having a ferocious\n     black face with the members of a man,[21-*] along with five owls\n     and vultures. By divine interposition, we discovered these on our\n     second visit there in 1687, and had no little difficulty in getting\n     them down, we reciting the creed, and the Indians constantly\n     spitting as they executed our orders. These objects were publicly\n     burned in the plaza.\n\n     \"In other parts they reverence the bones of the earlier Nagualists,\n     preserving them in caves, where they adorn them with flowers and\n     burn copal before them. We have discovered some of these and burned\n     them, hoping to root out and put a stop to such evil ceremonies of\n     the infernal sect of the Nagualists.\n\n     \"At present, all are not so subject to the promptings of the Devil\n     as formerly, but there are still some so closely allied to him that\n     they transform themselves into tigers, lions, bulls, flashes of\n     light and globes of fire. We can say from the declaration and\n     solemn confession of some penitents that it is proved that the\n     Devil had carnal relations with them, both as incubus and succubus,\n     approaching them in the form of their Nagual; and there was one\n     woman who remained in the forest a week with the demon in the form\n     of her Nagual, acting toward him as does an infatuated woman toward\n     her lover (como pudiera con su proprio amigo una muger amancebada).\n     As a punishment for such horrible crimes our Lord has permitted\n     that they lose their life as soon as their Nagual is killed; and\n     that they bear on their own bodies the wound or mark of the blow\n     which killed it; as the curas of Chamula, Copainala and other\n     places have assured us.\n\n     \"The devilish seed of this Nagualism has rooted itself in the very\n     flesh and blood of these Indians. It perseveres in their hearts\n     through the instructions of the masters of the sect, and there is\n     scarcely a town in these provinces in which it has not been\n     introduced. It is a superstitious idolatry, full of monstrous\n     incests, sodomies and detestable bestialities.\"\n\nSuch are the words of the Bishop of Chiapas. We learn from his\nthoroughly instructed and unimpeachable testimony that at the beginning\nof the eighteenth century Nagualism was a widespread and active\ninstitution among the Indians of southern Mexico; that it was taught and\npracticed by professors who were so much feared and respected that, as\nhe tells us in another passage, they were called \"masters of the\ntowns;\"[21-[+]] that they gave systematic instruction to disciples in\nclasses of three, all of whom were bound together by pledges of mutual\ninformation and assistance; that a fundamental principle of the\norganization and an indispensable step in the initiation into its\nmysteries was the abjuration of the Christian religion, and an undying\nhatred to its teachers and all others of the race of the white\noppressors; and that when they made use of Christian phrases or\nceremonies it was either in derision or out of hypocrisy, the better to\nconceal their real sentiments.\n\nThere are a number of other witnesses from the seventeenth century that\nmay be summoned to strengthen this testimony, if it needs it.\n\n\n=14.= In the _History of Guatemala_, written about 1690 by Francisco\nAntonio Fuentes y Guzman, the author gives some information about a\nsorcerer of this school, who was arrested in Totonicapan, and with whom\nthe historian had something to do as _corregidor_.\n\nThe redoubtable magician was a little old man, _viejezuelo_, and when\ncaught had in his possession a document giving the days of the year\naccording to the European calendar, with the Nagual, which belonged to\neach one. That for January is alone given by our writer, but it is\nprobable that the other months merely repeated the naguals corresponding\nto the numbers. It ran as follows:\n\n  _Nagual Calendar for January._\n\n  1. Lion.\n  2. Snake.\n  3. Stone.\n  4. Alligator.\n  5. Ceiba tree.\n  6. The quetzal (a bird).\n  7. A stick.\n  8. Rabbit.\n  9. A rope.\n  10. Leaf.\n  11. Deer.\n  12. Guacamayo (parrot).\n  13. Flower.\n  14. Toad.\n  15. Caterpillar.\n  16. A chip.\n  17. Arrow.\n  18. Broom.\n  19. Jaguar.\n  20. Corn-husk.\n  21. A flute.\n  22. Green-stone.\n  23. Crow.\n  24. Fire.\n  25. A pheasant.\n  26. A reed.\n  27. Opossum.\n  28. Huracan (the thunder-storm).\n  29. The vulture.\n  30. Hawk.\n  31. Bat.\n\nWhen the sorcerer was examined as to the manner of assigning the proper\nnagual to a child he gave the following account:\n\nHaving been informed of its day of birth, he in due time called at the\nresidence of the parents, and told the mother to bring the child into\nthe field behind the house. Having there invoked the demon, the _nagual_\nof the child would appear under the form of the animal or object set\nopposite its birthday in the calendar, a serpent were it born on the 2d\nof January, a flower were it on the 13th, fire were it on the 24th, and\nso on. The sorcerer then addressed certain prayers to the _nagual_ to\nprotect the little one, and told the mother to take it daily to the same\nspot, where its _nagual_ would appear to it, and would finally accompany\nit through all its life. Some, but not all, obtained the power of\ntransforming themselves into the _nagual_, and the author declares that,\nthough he could not cite such a case from his own experience, his father\nknew of several, and reliable priests, _religiosos de fe_, had told him\nenough examples to fill volumes.[23-*]\n\nThe tribes to which this author refers were the Cakchiquels and Quiches,\nwho spoke practically the same tongue. An examination of some of the old\ndictionaries prepared by the early missionaries furnishes further and\ninteresting information about this obscure subject.\n\nIn the Cakchiquel language of Guatemala, the word _naual_ was applied\nboth to the magician himself, to his necromantic art, and to the demonic\nagency which taught and protected him. This is shown by the following\nexplanation, which I quote from Father Coto's _Vocabulario de la Lengua\nCakchiquel_, 1651, a manuscript in the library of the American\nPhilosophical Society:\n\n     \"_Magic_ or _Necromancy_: _puz_ or _naual_; and they were\n     accustomed to call their magicians or sorcerers by the same terms.\n     It was a kind of magic which they invoked in order to transform\n     themselves into eagles, lions, tigers, etc. Thus, they said, _ru\n     puz_, _ru naual_, _pedro lae cot_, _balam_, 'Peter's power, his\n     _naual_, is a lion, a tiger.' They also applied the words _puz_ and\n     _naual_ to certain trees, rocks and other inanimate objects, whence\n     the Devil used to speak to them, and likewise to the idols which\n     they worshiped, as _gazlic che_, _gazlic abah_, _huyu_, _k'o ru\n     naual_, 'The life of the tree, the life of the stone, of the hill,\n     is its _naual_,' etc.; because they believed there was life in\n     these objects. They used to have armies and soldiery to guard\n     their lands, and the captains, as well as many who were not\n     captains, had their _nauales_. They called the captain _ru g'\n     alache; rohobachi, ti ru gaah, ru pocob, ru gh' amay a ghay ti be\n     chi naualil_ [he works magic with his shield, his lance, and his\n     arrows].\n\n     \"To practice such magical arts: _tin naualih_ ('I practice magic'),\n     an active verb. They use it, for instance, when a man asks his wife\n     for something to eat or drink, and she has nothing, owing to his\n     negligence, she will say: 'Where do you suppose I can get what you\n     want? Do you expect me to perform miracles--_xa pe ri tin\n     naualih_--that they shall come to my hands?' So when one is asked\n     to lend or give something which he has not, he will exclaim: _Tin\n     naualih pe ri puvak_, etc. ('Can I perform miracles,' etc.)\n\n     \"It also signifies to pretend something, concealing the truth, as\n     _xa ru naualim ara neh chu g' ux ri tzih tan tu bijh pedro_, 'Peter\n     is feigning this which he is saying.' They are also accustomed to\n     apply this word to the power which the priests exert (in the\n     sacraments, etc.).\"\n\nA long and foolish account of the witchcraft supposed to be practiced\namong the Pokonchis of Guatemala, also a tribe of Mayan stock, is given\nby the Englishman, Thomas Gage, who was cura of a parish among them\nabout 1630, and afterwards returned to England and Protestantism. He\ndescribed, at wearisome length, the supposed metamorphosis of two chiefs\nof neighboring tribes, the one into a lion, the other into a tiger, and\nthe mortal combat in which they engaged, resulting in the death of one\nto whom Gage administered absolution. No doubt he had been worsted in a\npersonal encounter with his old enemy, and, being a man of eighty years,\nhad not the vigor to recover. The account is of interest only as proving\nthat the same superstitions at that time prevailed among the Pokonchis\nas in other portions of Guatemala.[24-*]\n\n\n=15.= A really mighty nagualist was not confined to a single\ntransformation. He could take on many and varied figures. One such is\ndescribed in the sacred books of the Quiches of Guatemala, that document\nknown by the name of the Popol Vuh, or National Book. The passage is in\nreference to one of their great kings and powerful magicians, Gucumatz\nby name. It says:\n\n     \"Truly he was a wonderful king. Every seven days he ascended to the\n     sky, and every seven days he followed the path to the abode of the\n     dead; every seven days he put on the nature of a serpent, and then\n     he became truly a serpent; every seven days he assumed the nature\n     of an eagle, and then he became truly an eagle; then of a tiger and\n     he became truly a tiger; then of coagulated blood, and he was\n     nothing else than coagulated blood.\"[25-*]\n\nIt may be said that such passages refer metaphorically to the\nversatility of his character, but even if this is so, the metaphors are\ndrawn from the universal belief in Nagualism which then prevailed, and\nthey do not express it too strongly.\n\n\n=16.= Among the Maya tribes of Yucatan and Guatemala we have testimony to\nthe continuance to this day of these beliefs. Father Bartolome de Baeza,\ncura of Yaxcaba in the first half of this century, reports that an old\nman, in his dying confession, declared that by diabolical art he had\ntransformed himself into an animal, doubtless his _nagual_; and a young\ngirl of some twelve years confessed that she had been transformed into a\nbird by the witches, and in one of her nocturnal flights had rested on\nthe roof of the very house in which the good priest resided, which was\nsome two leagues from her home. He wisely suggests that, perhaps,\nlistening to some tale of sorcery, she had had a vivid dream, in which\nshe seemed to take this flight. It is obvious, however, from his\naccount, as well as from other sources, that the belief of the\ntransformation into lower animals was and is one familiar to the\nsuperstitions of the Mayas.[25-[+]] The natives still continue to\npropitiate the ancient gods of the harvest, at the beginning of the\nseason assembling at a ceremony called by the Spaniards the _misa\nmilpera_, or \"field mass,\" and by themselves _ti'ch_, \"the stretching\nout of the hands.\"\n\nThe German traveler, Dr. Scherzer, when he visited, in 1854, the remote\nhamlet of Istlavacan, in Guatemala, peopled by Quiche Indians,\ndiscovered that they had preserved in this respect the usages of their\nancestors almost wholly unaffected by the teachings of their various\nChristian curates. The \"Master\" still assigned the _naguals_ to the\nnew-born infants, copal was burned to their ancient gods in remote\ncaves, and formulas of invocation were taught by the veteran nagualists\nto their neophytes.[26-*]\n\nThese _Zahoris_,[26-[+]] as they are generally called in the Spanish of\nCentral America, possessed many other mysterious arts besides that of\nsuch metamorphoses and of forecasting the future. They could make\nthemselves invisible, and walk unseen among their enemies; they could in\na moment transport themselves to distant places, and, as quickly\nreturning, report what they had witnessed; they could create before the\neyes of the spectator a river, a tree, a house, or an animal, where none\nsuch existed; they could cut open their own stomach, or lop a limb from\nanother person, and immediately heal the wound or restore the severed\nmember to its place; they could pierce themselves with knives and not\nbleed, or handle venomous serpents and not be bitten; they could cause\nmysterious sounds in the air, and fascinate animals and persons by their\nsteady gaze; they could call visible and invisible spirits, and the\nspirits would come.\n\nAmong the native population of the State of Vera Cruz and elsewhere in\nsouthern Mexico these mysterious personages go by the name _padrinos_,\ngodfathers, and are looked upon with a mixture of fear and respect. They\nare believed by the Indians to be able to cause sickness and domestic\ncalamities, and are pronounced by intelligent whites to present \"a\ncombination of rascality, duplicity and trickery.\"[26-[++]]\n\n\n=17.= The details of the ceremonies and doctrines of Nagualism have never\nbeen fully revealed; but from isolated occurrences and partial\nconfessions it is clear that its adherents formed a coherent association\nextending over most of southern Mexico and Guatemala, which everywhere\nwas inspired by two ruling sentiments--detestation of the Spaniards and\nhatred of the Christian religion.\n\nIn their eyes the latter was but a cloak for the exactions, massacres\nand oppressions exerted by the former. To them the sacraments of the\nChurch were the outward signs of their own subjugation and misery. They\nrevolted against these rites in open hatred, or received them with\nsecret repugnance and contempt. In the Mexican figurative manuscripts\ncomposed after the conquest the rite of baptism is constantly depicted\nas the symbol of religious persecution. Says a sympathetic student of\nthis subject:\n\n     \"The act of baptism is always inserted in their records of battles\n     and massacres. Everywhere it conveys the same idea,--making evident\n     to the reader that the pretext for all the military expeditions of\n     the Spaniards was the enforced conversion to Christianity of the\n     natives; a pretext on which the Spaniards seized in order to\n     possess themselves of the land and its treasure, to rob the Indians\n     of their wives and daughters, to enslave them, and to spill their\n     blood without remorse or remission. One of these documents, dated\n     in 1526, adds a trait of savage irony. A Spanish soldier is\n     represented dragging a fugitive Indian from a lake by a lasso\n     around his neck; while on the shore stands a monk ready to baptize\n     the recreant on his arrival!\"[27-*]\n\nNo wonder that the priests of the dark ritual of Nagualism for centuries\nafter the conquest sought to annul the effects of the hated Christian\nsacraments by counteracting ceremonies of their own, as we are told they\ndid by the historian Torquemada, writing from his own point of view in\nthese words:\n\n     \"The Father of Lies had his ministers who aided him, magicians and\n     sorcerers, who went about from town to town, persuading the simple\n     people to that which the Enemy of Light desired. Those who believed\n     their deceits, and had been baptized, were washed on the head and\n     breast by these sorcerers, who assured them that this would remove\n     the effects of the chrism and the holy oils. I myself knew an\n     instance where a person of prominence, who resided not far from the\n     City of Mexico, was dying, and had received extreme unction; and\n     when the priest had departed one of these diabolical ceremonialists\n     entered, and washed all the parts which had been anointed by the\n     holy oil with the intention to destroy its power.\"[27-[+]]\n\nSimilar instances are recorded by Jacinto de la Serna. He adds that not\nonly did the Masters prescribe sacrifices to the Fire in order to annul\nthe effects of extreme unction, but they delighted to caricature the\nEucharist, dividing among their congregation a narcotic yellow mushroom\nfor the bread, and the inebriating pulque for the wine. Sometimes they\nadroitly concealed in the pyx, alongside the holy wafer, some little\nidol of their own, so that they really followed their own superstitions\nwhile seemingly adoring the Host. They assigned a purely pagan sense to\nthe sacred formula, \"Father, Son and Holy Ghost,\" understanding it to be\n\"Fire, Earth and Air,\" or the like.[28-*]\n\nWhoever or whatever was an enemy to that religion so brutally forced upon\nthese miserable creatures was to them an ally and a friend. Nunez de la\nVega tells us that he found written formulas among them reading: \"O\nBrother Antichrist, Brother Antichrist, Brother Antichrist, come to our\naid!\"--pathetic and desperate appeal of a wretched race, ground to earth\nunder the iron heels of a religious and military despotism.[28-[+]]\n\n\n=18.= The association embraced various tribes and its members were\nclassified under different degrees. The initiation into these was by\nsolemn and often painful ceremonies. Local sodalities or brotherhoods\nwere organized after the manner of those usual in the Roman Church; but\ninstead of being named after St. John or the Virgin Mary they were\ndedicated to Judas Iscariot or Pontius Pilate out of derision and hatred\nof the teachings of the priests; or to the Devil or Antichrist, who were\nlooked upon as powerful divinities in opposition to the Church.[28-[++]]\n\nThere were certain recognized centres of the association, near which its\nmost important dignitaries resided, and where their secret councils and\nmost imposing ceremonies were held. One of these was Zamayac, in the\nprovince of Suchiltepec; a second near Huehuetan, Soconusco; a third at\nTotonicapan, Guatemala; a fourth at Cancuc, Chiapas; a fifth at\nTeozapotlan, Oaxaca; and a few others may be surmised.\n\nThe high priest who resided at each of these centres exercised control\nover all the nagualistic teachers and practitioners in an extensive\ndistrict. On the occasion of an official inquiry by the Spanish\nauthorities it was ascertained that the high priest of Zamayac included\nunder his rule nearly one thousand sub-priests,[29-*] and no doubt\nothers of his rank were not less potent.\n\nThe unity between the members of the association over an indefinitely\nwide area was perfectly well known to the Spanish priests and civil\nauthorities. The ceremonies, formulas and methods of procedure were\neverywhere identical or alike. This itself was justly regarded as a\nproof of the secret intelligence which existed among the members of this\ncabalistic guild.[29-[+]]\n\nTo a certain extent, and at least in some localities, as Chiapas and\nGuatemala, the priesthood of Nagualism was hereditary in particular\nfamilies. This is especially stated by the historian Ordonez y Aguiar,\nwho had exceptional opportunities for acquainting himself with the\nfacts.[29-[++]]\n\nA traveler of the first decade of this century, who has left us a number\nof curious details of the superstitions of the Christianized Indians in\nMexico of that day, Benito Maria de Moxo, informs us that he had\ndiscovered the existence of different grades in the native soothsayers\nand medicine men, and that all in a given locality recognized the\nsupremacy of one whom they referred to as \"the little old man,\" _El\nViejito_. But he was unable to ascertain by what superior traits or\nrights he obtained this distinction.[29-Sec.]\n\nAccording to some authorities, the highest grade of these native\nhierophants bore among the Nahuas the symbolic name of \"flower\nweavers,\" _Xochimilca_, probably from the skill they had to deceive the\nsenses by strange and pleasant visions.[30-*] In the south they were\nspoken of as \"guardians,\" which may have been derived from the classes\nof priests so-called in the Zapotec religion.[30-[+]]\n\n\n=19.= It will be seen from the above, that Nagualism, beginning in an\nancient superstition dating back to the time of primitive barbarism,\nbecame after the Conquest a potent factor in the political and social\ndevelopment of the peoples among whom it existed; that it was the source\nfrom which was drawn and the means by which was sustained the\nrace-hatred of the native American towards his foreign conquerors,\nsmouldering for centuries, now and then breaking out in furious revolt\nand civil war.\n\nThere is strong reason to suspect its power where, for obvious reasons,\nit has not been demonstrated. It has always been a mystery and a matter\nof surprise to the historians of Yucatan how rapidly spread the plans of\nthe insurrection which secured lasting independence for the natives,\nafter these plans had been agreed upon by the two chiefs, Antonio Ay and\nCecilio Chi, at the remote rancho of Xihum, in July, 1847. Such\nunanimity of action could only have been possible through the aid of a\npowerful, well-disciplined and widespread secret organization. There can\nscarcely be a doubt they were the chiefs or masters of the redoubtable\norder of Nagualism in the Peninsula.[30-[++]]\n\nThere is no question that such was the case with the brief and bloody\nrevolt of the Mayas in 1761. It suddenly broke out in a number of\nvillages near Valladolid, Yucatan, headed by a full-blood native,\nJacinto Can-Ek; but some of the participants afterwards confessed that\nit was the outcome of a conspiracy which had been preparing for a year.\n\nWhen the appointed day arrived, Jacinto boldly announced himself as the\nhigh priest of the fraternity of sorcerers, a master and teacher of\nmagic, and the lineal successor of the famous ancient prophet, Chilan\nBalam, \"whose words cannot fail.\" In a stirring appeal he urged his\nfellow-countrymen to attack the Spaniards without fear of consequences.\n\n     \"'Be not afraid,' he exclaimed, 'of their cannons and their forts;\n     for among the many to whom I have taught the arts of magic (el arte\n     de brujeria) there are fifteen chosen ones, marvelous experts, who\n     by their mystic power will enter the fortress, slay the sentinels,\n     and throw open the gates to our warriors. I shall take the leaves\n     of the sacred tree, and folding them into trumpets, I shall call to\n     the four winds of heaven, and a multitude of fighting men will\n     hasten to our aid.'\"[31-*]\n\nSaying this, he took a sheet of paper, held it up to show that it was\nblank, folded it for a moment, and then spread it out covered with\nwriting! This deft trick convinced his simple-minded hearers of the\ntruth of his claims and they rushed to arms. He led them, clothed in the\nrobe of the Virgin and with her crown on his head. But neither their\nenthusiasm nor their leader's art magic availed, and soon Jacinto and\nhis followers fell victims to the stake and the gallows. After their\ndeath the dance of \"the tiger,\" or of Chac-Mool--the \"ghost dance\" of\nthe Mayas--was prohibited; and the use of the sacred drum--the favorite\ninstrument of the native priests--was forbidden.[31-[+]]\n\nIn fact, wherever we have any full accounts of the revolts against the\nSpanish domination during the three centuries of its existence in New\nSpain, we can manifestly trace the guiding fingers of the powerful\nthough hidden hand of Nagualism. An earlier revolt of the Mayas in\nYucatan occurred in 1585. It was led by Andres Chi, a full-blood Indian,\nand a descendant of the ancient royal house of the Cocomes. He also\nannounced himself as a priest of the ancient faith, a prophet and a\nworker of miracles, sent to instruct his own people in a new religion\nand to give them an independent political existence. Seized by the\nSpaniards, he was charged with idolatry, sorcery and disturbing the\npeace, and was ignominiously hanged.[32-*]\n\nNot less definitely inspired by the same ideas was the Mixe Indian,\nknown as \"Don Pascual,\" who led the revolt of the Tehuantepec tribes in\n1661. He sent out his summons to the \"thirteen governors of the Zapotecs\nand Chontales\" to come to his aid, and the insurrection threatened to\nassume formidable proportions, prevented only by bringing to bear upon\nthe natives the whole power of the Roman Church through the Bishop of\nOaxaca, Cuevas Davalos.[32-[+]]\n\nNearly the same locality had been the scene of the revolt of the\nZapotecs in 1550, when they were led by a native priest who claimed to\nbe an incarnation of the old god Quetzalcoatl, the patron deity of the\nnagualists.[32-[++]]\n\nIn the city of Mexico itself, in the year 1692, there was a violent\noutbreak of the natives, when they destroyed three million dollars worth\nof property. Doubtless this was partly attributable to the scarcity of\nfood which prevailed; but that the authorities traced it also to some\nsecret ceremonials is evident from the law which was immediately passed\nforbidding the Indians to wear the _piochtli_, or scalp-lock, a portion\nof the hair preserved from birth as part of the genethliac\nrituals,[32-Sec.] and the especial enactments against the _octli_.\n\nAs for the revolt of the Tzentals of Chiapas, in 1712, it was clearly\nand confessedly under the leadership of the nagualistic priesthood, as I\nshall indicate on a later page.\n\nThe history of the native American race under the Spanish power in North\nAmerica has never yet been written with the slightest approach to\nthoroughness. He who properly qualifies himself for that task will\ncertainly reach the conclusion expressed a number of years ago by the\neminent American antiquary and historian, Mr. E. G. Squier, in these\nwords:\n\n     \"Among the ruling and priestly classes of the semi-civilized\n     nations of America, there has always existed a mysterious bond, a\n     secret organization, which all the disasters to which they have\n     been subjected have not destroyed. It is to its present existence\n     that we may attribute those simultaneous movements of the\n     aborigines of Mexico and Central America, which have more than once\n     threatened the complete subversion of the Spanish power.\"[33-*]\n\nThat mysterious bond, that secret organization, is _Nagualism_.\n\n\n=20.= A remarkable feature in this mysterious society was the exalted\nposition it assigned to Women. Not only were they admitted to the most\nesoteric degrees, but in repeated instances they occupied the very\nhighest posts in the organization. According to the traditions of the\nTzentals and Pipils of Chiapas, when their national hero, Votan,\nconstructed by the breath of his mouth his darkened shrine at\nTlazoaloyan, in Soconusco, he deposited in it the sacred books and holy\nrelics, and constituted a college of venerable sages to be its\nguardians; but placed them all in subjection to a high priestess, whose\npowers were absolute.[33-[+]]\n\nThe veracious Pascual de Andagoya asserts from his own knowledge that\nsome of these female adepts had attained the rare and peculiar power of\nbeing in two places at once, as much as a league and a half\napart;[33-[++]] and the repeated references to them in the Spanish\nwritings of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries confirm the dread in\nwhich they were held and the extensive influence they were known to\ncontrol. In the sacraments of Nagualism, Woman was the primate and\nhierophant.\n\n\n=21.= This was a lineal inheritance from pre-Columbian times. In many\nnative American legends, as in others from the old world, some powerful\nenchantress is remembered as the founder of the State, mistress of men\nthrough the potency of her magic powers.\n\nSuch, among the Aztecs, was the sorceress who built the city of\nMallinalco, on the road from Mexico to Michoacan, famous even after the\nconquest for the skill of its magicians, who claimed descent from\nher.[34-*] Such, in Honduras, was Coamizagual, queen of Cerquin, versed\nin all occult science, who died not, but at the close of her earthly\ncareer rose to heaven in the form of a beautiful bird, amid the roll of\nthunder and the flash of lightning.[34-[+]]\n\nAccording to an author intimately familiar with the Mexican nagualists,\nthe art they claimed to possess of transforming themselves into the\nlower animals was taught their predecessors by a woman, a native Circe,\na mighty enchantress, whose usual name was Quilaztli (the etymology of\nwhich is unknown), but who bore also four others, representing her four\nmetamorphoses, Cohuacihuatl, the Serpent Woman; Quauhcihuatl, the Eagle\nWoman; Yaocihuatl, the Warrior Woman; and Tzitzimecihuatl, the Specter\nWoman.[34-[++]]\n\nThe powers of these queens of magic extended widely among their sex. We\nread in the chronicles of ancient Mexico that when Nezahualpilli, the\nking, oppressed the tribes of the coast, the _tierra caliente_, they\nsent against him, not their warriors, but their witches. These cast upon\nhim their fatal spells, so that when he walked forth from his palace,\nblood burst from his mouth, and he fell prone and dead.[34-Sec.]\n\nIn Guatemala, as in ancient Delphos, the gods were believed to speak\nthrough the mouths of these inspired seeresses, and at the celebration\nof victories they enjoyed a privilege so strange and horrible that I\nquote it from the old manuscript before me without venturing a\ntranslation:\n\n     \"... Despues de sacrificar los antiguos algun hombre,\n     despedacandolo, si era de los que avian cogido en guerra, dicen que\n     guardaban el miembro genital y los testiculos del tal sacrificado,\n     y se los daban a una vieja que tenian por profeta, para que los\n     comiese, y le pedian rogasse a su idolo les diesse mas\n     captivos.\"[35-*]\n\nWhen Captain Pedro de Alvarado, in the year 1524, was marching upon\nQuetzaltanango, in Guatemala, just such a fearful old witch took her\nstand at the summit of the pass, with her familiar in the shape of a\ndog, and \"by spells and nagualistic incantations\" undertook to prevent\nhis approach.[35-[+]]\n\nAs in the earliest, so in the latest accounts. The last revolt of the\nIndians of Chiapas occurred among the Zotzils in 1869. The cause of it\nwas the seizure and imprisonment by the Spanish authorities of a\n\"mystical woman,\" known to the whites as Santa Rosa, who, together with\none of their _ahaus_ or chieftains, had been suspected of fomenting\nsedition. The natives marched thousands strong against the city of San\nCristobal, where the prisoners were, and secured their liberation; but\ntheir leader, Ignacio Galindo, was entrapped and shot by the Spaniards,\nand the mutiny was soon quelled.[35-[++]]\n\n\n=22.= But perhaps the most striking instance is that recorded in the\nhistory of the insurrection of the Tzentals of Chiapas, in 1713. They\nwere led by an Indian girl, a native Joan of Arc, fired by like\nenthusiasm to drive from her country the hated foreign oppressors, and\nto destroy every vestige of their presence. She was scarcely twenty\nyears old, and was known to the Spaniards as Maria Candelaria. She was\nthe leader of what most historians call a religious sect, but what\nOrdonez y Aguiar, himself a native of Chiapas, recognizes as the\npowerful secret association of Nagualism, determined on the extirpation\nof the white race. He estimates that in Chiapas alone there were nearly\nseventy thousand natives under her orders--doubtless an\nexaggeration--and asserts that the conspiracy extended far into the\nneighboring tribes, who had been ordered to await the result of the\neffort in Chiapas.\n\nHer authority was absolute, and she was merciless in requiring obedience\nto it. The disobedient were flayed alive or roasted over a slow fire.\nShe and all her followers took particular pleasure in manifesting their\nhatred and contempt for the religion of their oppressors. They defiled\nthe sacred vessels of the churches, imitated with buffoonery the\nceremonies of the mass, which she herself performed, and stoned to death\nthe priests whom they caught.\n\nOf course, her attempt against the power of Spain was hopeless. It\nfailed after a bitter and protracted conquest, characterized by the\nutmost inhumanity on both sides. But when her followers were scattered\nand killed, when the victorious whites had again in their hands all the\npower and resources of the country, not their most diligent search, nor\nthe temptation of any reward, enabled them to capture Maria Candelaria,\nthe heroine of the bloody drama. With a few trusty followers she escaped\nto the forest, and was never again heard of.[36-*]\n\nMore unfortunate were her friends and lieutenants, the priestesses of\nGuistiupan and Yajalon, who had valiantly seconded Maria in her\npatriotic endeavors. Seized by the Spaniards, they met the fate which we\ncan easily imagine, though the historian has mercifully thrown a veil on\nits details.[36-[+]]\n\n\n=23.= Of just such a youthful prophetess did Mr. E. G. Squier hear during\nhis travels in Central America, a \"_sukia_ woman,\" as she was called by\nthe coast Indians, one who lived alone mid the ruins of an old Mayan\ntemple, a sorceress of twenty years, loved and feared, holding death and\nlife in her hands.[36-[++]] Perhaps his account is somewhat fanciful;\nit is so, indeed; but it is grounded on the unshaken beliefs and ancient\ntraditions of the natives of those climes, and on customs well known to\nthose who reside there.\n\nThe late distinguished Americanist, the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg,\nduring his long travels in Mexico and Central America, had occasion more\nthan once to come in contact with this trait of the ancient faith of the\nNagualists, still alive in their descendants. Among the Zapotecs of the\nIsthmus of Tehuantepec he saw one of the queens of the mystic\nfraternity, and he describes her with a warmth which proves that he had\nnot lost his eye for the beautiful.\n\n     \"She wore a piece of light-green stuff loosely folded around her\n     form at the hips, and falling to a little distance above the ankle;\n     a jacket of red silk gauze with short sleeves and embroidered with\n     gold, clothed the upper part of her person, veiling her bosom, upon\n     which lay a chain of heavy gold pieces, pierced and strung on a\n     cord. Her rich black hair was divided on the forehead, and drawn\n     back in two splendid tresses fastened with blue ribbons, while a\n     white muslin kerchief encircled her head like the calantica of the\n     ancient Egyptians. Never in my life have I seen a more striking\n     figure of an Isis or a Cleopatra.\n\n     \"There was something strange in her expression. Her eyes were the\n     blackest and the brightest in the world; but there were moments\n     when she suddenly paused, leaned against the billiard table or the\n     wall, and they became fixed and dead like those of a corpse. Then a\n     fiery glance would shoot from beneath her dark lashes, sending a\n     chill to the heart of the one to whom it was directed. Was it\n     madness, or was it, as those around her believed, a momentary\n     absence of soul, an absorption of her spirit into its _nagual_, a\n     transportation into an unknown world? Who shall decide?\"[37-*]\n\n\n=24.= It would be a mistake to suppose that Nagualism was an incoherent\nmedley of superstitions, a mass of jumbled fragments derived from the\nancient paganism. My study of it has led me to a widely different\nconclusion. It was a perpetuation of a well-defined portion of the\nnative cult, whose sources we are able to trace long anterior to the\nperiod of the conquest, and which had no connection with the elaborate\nand bloody ritual of the Aztecs. The evidence to this effect is cogent.\n\nWherever in later days the Catholic priests found out the holy places\nand sacred objects of the nagualists, they were in-caves or deep\nrock-recesses, not in artificial structures. The myths they gleaned, and\nthe names of the gods they heard, also point to this as a distinguishing\npeculiarity. An early instance is recorded among the Nahuas of Mexico.\nIn 1537 Father Perea discovered a cavern in a deep ravine at Chalma,\nnear Mallinalco (a town famous for its magicians), which was the\nsanctuary of the deity called _Oztoteotl_, the Cave God (_oztotl_, cave;\n_teotl_, god), \"venerated throughout the whole empire of\nMontezuma.\"[38-*] He destroyed the image of the god, and converted the\ncavern into a chapel.\n\nWe cannot err in regarding Oztoteotl as merely another name of the\nNahuatl divinity, Tepeyollotl, the Heart, or Inside, of the Mountain,\nwho in the Codex Borgia and the Codex Vaticanus is represented seated\nupon or in a cavern. His name may equally well be translated \"the Heart\nof the Place,\" or \"of the Town.\"\n\nDr. Eduard Seler has shown beyond reasonable question that this divinity\ndid not originally belong to the Aztec Pantheon, but was introduced from\nthe South, either from the Zapotecs, the Mixtecs, or the Mayan tribes,\nbeyond these.[38-[+]] The Cave God of the Aztecs is identical with the\nVotan of the Tzentals of Chiapas, and with the U-q'ux Uleuh of the\nQuiches of Guatemala, and probably with the Cozaana of the Zapotecs.\n\nThe rites of all of these were conducted in caverns, and there have been\npreserved several interesting descriptions of the contents of these\nsacred places. That relating to the \"dark house of Votan\" is given thus\nin the work of the Bishop of Chiapas:\n\n     \"Votan is the third hero who is named in the calendar, and some of\n     his descendants still reside in the town of Teopisca, where they\n     are known as Votans. He is sometimes referred to as Lord of the\n     Sacred Drum, and he is said to have seen the great wall (which must\n     have been the Tower of Babel), and to have divided this land among\n     the Indians, and given to each tribe its language.\n\n     \"They say further that he once dwelt in Huehuetan, a town in the\n     province of Soconusco. Near there, at the place called Tlazoaloyan,\n     he constructed, by blowing with his breath, a dark house, and put\n     tapirs in the river, and in the house a great treasure, and left\n     all in charge of a noble lady, assisted by guardians (_tlapiane_)\n     to preserve. This treasure consisted of earthenware vases with\n     covers of the same material; a stone, on which were inscribed the\n     figures of the ancient native heroes as found in the calendar;\n     _chalchiuites_, which are green stones; and other superstitious\n     objects.\n\n     \"All of these were taken from the cave, and publicly burned in the\n     plaza of Huehuetan on the occasion of our first diocesan visit\n     there in 1691, having been delivered to us by the lady in charge\n     and the guardians. All the Indians have great respect for this\n     Votan, and in some places they call him 'the Heart of the\n     Towns.'\"[39-*]\n\nThe English priest, Thomas Gage, who was curate of a parish among the\nPokonchi Indians of Guatemala about 1630, relates his discovery of such\na cave, in which the idol was preserved, and gives this description of\nit:\n\n     \"We found the Idol standing upon a low stool covered with a linen\n     cloth. The substance of it was wood, black shining like jet, as if\n     it had been painted or smoked; the form was of a man's head unto\n     the shoulders, without either Beard or Mustachoes; his look was\n     grim, with a wrinkled forehead, and broad staring eyes.\n\n     \"They boasted of this their god, saying that he had plainly told\n     them they should not believe anything I preached of Christ, but\n     follow the old ways of their forefathers.\"[39-[+]]\n\nThe black color here mentioned was a relic of ancient symbolism,\nreferring to the night, darkness, and the obscurity of the holy cavern.\nVetancurt informs us that the priests of the ancient paganism were\naccustomed to rub their faces and bodies with an ointment of fat and\npine soot when they went to sacrifice in the forests, so that they\nlooked as black as negroes[TN-3][39-[++]] In the extract from Nunez de\nla Vega already given, _Ical Ahau_, the \"Black King,\" is named as one of\nthe divinities of the nagualists.\n\nIn some parts the principal idol found in the caves was the mummied or\nexsiccated body of some former distinguished priest or chieftain. One\nsuch is recorded by Bartholome de Pisa, which was found among the\nZapotecs of Coatlan. It bore a name taken from the calendar, that of the\ntenth day, and was alleged to be the preserved cadaver of a celebrated\nruler.[40-*] Another interesting example is narrated by Villa Senor y\nSanchez,[40-[+]] who describes it as an eye-witness. It was discovered\nin a spacious cave located some distance to the west of the city of\nMexico, in Nahuatl territory, on the side of what was known as \"the Sun\nmountain\"--_la Mesa de Tonati_. He speaks of it as remarkably well\npreserved, \"both the muscles and the bones.\"\n\n     \"It was seated in an armchair which served for a throne, and was\n     clothed in a mantle, which fell from the shoulders to the feet.\n     This was richly adorned with precious stones, which, according to\n     the native custom, were sewed into the texture of the cloth. The\n     figure also wore shoulder straps, collars, bracelets and fastenings\n     of silver. From its forehead rose a crown of beautiful feathers of\n     different colors arranged so that one color should alternate with\n     another. The left hand was resting on the arm of the chair, while\n     in the right was a sharp cutlass with silver mountings. At its feet\n     were several vases of fine stone, as marble and alabaster, in which\n     were offerings of blood and meat, obtained from the sacrifices.\"\n\nThe same writer refers to other examples of these sacred caves which he\nhad seen in his journeys. One was near the town of Teremendo, where the\nsides and roof had been artificially dressed into the shape of huge\narches. A natural altar had been provided in a similar manner, and on\nit, at the time of his visit, were numerous idols in the figures of men\nand animals, and before them fresh offerings of copal and food.\nElsewhere he refers to many such caverns still in use as places resorted\nto by the natives in _la gran Sierra de Tlascala_.[40-[++]]\n\nThese extracts prove the extent of this peculiar worship and the number\nof these subterranean temples in recent generations. The fame of some of\nthe greater ones of the past still survives, as the vast grotto of\nChalcatongo, near Achiutla, which was the sepulchral vault of its\nancient kings; that of Totomachiapa, a solemn scene of sacrifice for\nthe ancient priests; that of Justlahuaca, near Sola (Oaxaca), which was\na place of worship of the Zapotecs long after the Conquest; and that in\nthe Cerro de Monopostiac, near San Francisco del Mar.[41-*]\n\nThe intimate meaning of this cave-cult was the worship of the Earth. The\nCave God, the Heart of the Hills, really typified the Earth, the Soil,\nfrom whose dark recesses flow the limpid streams and spring the tender\nshoots of the food-plants, as well as the great trees. To the native\nMexican, the Earth was the provider of food and drink, the common Father\nof All; so that to this day, when he would take a solemn oath, he stoops\nto the earth, touches it with his hand, and repeats the solemn formula:\n_Cuix amo nechitla in toteotzin?_ \"Does not our Great God see me?\"\n\n\n=25.= The identity of the Tepeyollotl of the Nahuas and the Votan of the\nTzentals is shown not only in the oneness of meaning of the names, but\nin the fact that both represent the _third_ day in the ritual calendar.\nFor this reason I take it, we find the number _three_ so generally a\nsacred number in the symbolism of the nagualists. We have already\nlearned in the extract from Nunez de la Vega that the neophytes were\ninstructed in classes of three. To this day in Soteapan the fasts and\nfestivals appointed by the native ministrants are three days in\nduration.[41-[+]] The semi-Christianized inhabitants of the Sierra of\nNayerit, the Nahuatl-speaking Chotas, continued in the last century to\nvenerate three divinities, the Dawn, the Stone and the Serpent;[41-[++]]\nanalogous to a similar \"trinity\" noted by Father Duran among the ancient\nAztecs.[41-Sec.]\n\nThe number _nine_, that is, 3 x 3, recurs so frequently in the\nconjuration formulas of the Mexican sorcerers that de la Serna exclaims:\n\"It was the Devil himself who inculcated into them this superstition\nabout the number nine.\"[41-[||]]\n\nThe other number sacred to the nagualists was _seven_. I have, in a\nformer essay, given various reasons for believing that this was not\nderived from the seven days of the Christian week, but directly from the\nnative calendar.[42-*] Nunez de la Vega tells us that the patron of the\nseventh day was _Cuculcan_, \"the Feathered Serpent,\" and that many\nnagualists chose him as their special protector. As already seen, in\nGuatemala the child finally accepted its _naual_ when seven years old;\nand among some of the Nahuatl tribes of Mexico the _tonal_ and the\ncalendar name was formally assigned on the seventh day after\nbirth.[42-[+]] From similar impressions the Cakchiquels of Guatemala\nmaintained that when the lightning strikes the earth the \"thunder stone\"\nsinks into the soil, but rises to the surface after seven\nyears.[42-[++]]\n\nThe three and the seven were the ruling numbers in the genealogical\ntrees of the Pipiles of San Salvador. The \"tree\" was painted with\n_seven_ branches representing degrees of relationship within which\nmarriage was forbidden unless a man had performed some distinguished\nexploit in war, when he could marry beyond the nearest _three_ degrees\nof relationship.[42-Sec.] Another combination of 3 and 7, by\nmultiplication, explains the customs among the Mixes of deserting for 21\ndays a house in which a death has occurred.[42-[||]]\n\nThe indications are that the nagualists derived these numbers from the\nthird and seventh days of the calendar \"month\" of twenty days.\nTepeololtec, the Cave God, was patron of the third day and also \"Lord of\nAnimals,\" the transformation into which was the test of nagualistic\npower.[42-[P}] Tlaloc, god of the mountains and the rains, to whom the\nseventh day was hallowed, was represented by the nagualistic symbol of a\nsnake doubled and twisted on itself, and was generally portrayed in\nconnection with the \"Feathered Serpent\" (Quetzalcoatl, Cuculchan,\nGukumatz, all names meaning this), represented as carrying his medicine\nbag, _xiquipilli_, and incensory, the apparatus of the native\nilluminati, his robe marked with the sign of the cross to show that he\nwas Lord of the Four Winds and of Life.[43-*]\n\n\n=26.= The nagualistic rites were highly symbolic, and the symbols used had\nclearly defined meanings, which enable us to analyze the religious ideas\nunderlying this mysterious cult.\n\nThe most important symbol was Fire. It was regarded as the primal\nelement and the immediate source of life. Father Nicolas de Leon has the\nfollowing suggestive passage in this connection:\n\n     \"If any of their old superstitions has remained more deeply rooted\n     than another in the hearts of these Indians, both men and women, it\n     is this about fire and its worship, and about making new fire and\n     preserving it for a year in secret places. We should be on the\n     watch for this, and when in their confessions they speak of what\n     the Fire said and how the Fire wept, expressions which we are apt\n     to pass by as unintelligible, we must lay our hands on them for\n     reprehension. We should also be on the watch for their baptism by\n     Fire, a ceremony called the _yiahuiltoca_,[43-[+]] shortly after\n     the birth of a child when they bestow on it the surnames; nor must\n     the lying-in women and their assistants be permitted to speak of\n     Fire as the father and mother of all things and the author of\n     nature; because it is a common saying with them that Fire is\n     present at the birth and death of every creature.\"\n\nThis curious ceremony derived its name from the _yiahuitli_, a plant not\nunlike the absinthe, the powdered leaves of which, according to Father\nSahagun, the natives were accustomed to throw into the flames as an\noffering to the fire.[43-[++]] Long after the conquest, and probably to\nthis day, the same custom prevails in Mexico, the fumes and odor of the\nburning leaves being considered very salubrious and purifying to the air\nof the sick room[TN-4][43-Sec.]\n\nThe word _yiahuiltoca_ means \"the throwing of the _yiauhtli_\" (from\n_toca_, to throw upon with the hands). Another name for the ceremony,\naccording to Father Vetancurt, who wrote a century later than Leon, was\n_apehualco_, which has substantially the same meaning, \"a throwing upon\"\nor \"a throwing away.\"[44-*] He adds the interesting particulars that it\nwas celebrated on the fourth day after the birth of the child, during\nwhich time it was deemed essential to keep the fire burning in the\nhouse, but not to permit any of it to be carried out, as that would\nbring bad luck to the child.\n\nJacinto de la Serna also describes this ceremony, to which he gives the\nname _tlecuixtliliztli_, \"which means that they pass the infant over the\nfire;\" and elsewhere he adds: \"The worship of fire is the greatest\nstumbling-block to these wretched idolaters.\"[44-[+]]\n\n\n=27.= Other ceremonies connected with fire worship took place in\nconnection with the manufacture of the pulque, or _octli_, the fermented\nliquor obtained from the sap of the maguey plant. The writer just\nquoted, de Vetancurt, states that the natives in his day, when they had\nbrewed the new pulque and it was ready to be drunk, first built a fire,\nwalked in procession around it and threw some of the new liquor into the\nflames, chanting the while an invocation to the god of inebriation,\nTezcatzoncatl, to descend and be present with them.\n\nThis was distinctly a survival of an ancient doctrine which connected\nthe God of Fire with the Gods of Drunkenness, as we may gather from the\nfollowing quotation from the history composed by Father Diego Duran:\n\n     \"The _octli_ was a favorite offering to the gods, and especially to\n     the God of Fire. Sometimes it was placed before a fire in vases,\n     sometimes it was scattered upon the flames with a brush, at other\n     times it was poured out around the fireplace.\"[45-*]\n\n\n=28.= The high importance of the fire ceremonies in the secret rituals of\nthe modern Mayas is plainly evident from the native Calendars, although\ntheir signification has eluded the researches of students, even of the\nlaborious Pio Perez, who was so intimately acquainted with their\nlanguage and customs. In these Calendars the fire-priest is constantly\nreferred to as _ah-toc_, literally \"the fire-master.\" The rites he\ncelebrates recur at regular intervals of twenty days (the length of one\nnative month) apart. They are four in number. On the first he takes the\nfire; on the second he kindles the fire; on the third he gives it free\nplay, and on the fourth he extinguishes it. A period of five days is\nthen allowed to elapse, when these ceremonies are recommenced in the\nsame order. Whatever their meaning, they are so important that in the\n_Buk Xoc_, or General Computation of the Calendar, preserved in the\nmystic \"Books of Chilan Balam,\" there are special directions for these\nfire-masters to reckon the proper periods for the exercise of their\nstrange functions.[45-[+]]\n\n\n=29.= What, now, was the sentiment which underlay this worship of fire? I\nthink that the facts quoted, and especially the words of Father de Leon,\nleave no doubt about it. Fire was worshiped as the life-giver, the\nactive generator, of animate existence. This idea was by no means\npeculiar to them. It repeatedly recurs in Sanskrit, in Greek and in\nTeutonic mythology, as has been ably pointed out by Dr. Hermann\nCohen.[45-[++]] The fire-god Agni (_ignis_) is in the Vedas the Maker of\nmen; Prometheus steals the fire from heaven that he may with it animate\nthe human forms he has moulded of clay; even the connection of the\npulque with the fire is paralleled in Greek mythos, where Dionysos is\ncalled _Pyrigenes_, the \"fire-born.\"\n\nAmong the ancient Aztecs the god of fire was called the oldest of gods,\n_Huehueteotl_, and also \"Our Father,\" _Tota_, as it was believed from\nhim all things were derived.[46-*] Both among them and the Mayas, as I\nhave pointed out in a previous work, he was supposed to govern the\ngenerative proclivities and the sexual relations.[46-[+]] Another of his\nnames was _Xiuhtecutli_, which can be translated \"God of the Green\nLeaf,\" that is, of vegetable fecundity and productiveness.[46-[++]]\n\nTo transform themselves into a globe or ball of fire was, as we have\nseen (ante, p. 21), a power claimed by expert nagualists, and to handle\nit with impunity, or to blow it from the mouth, was one of their\ncommonest exhibitions. Nothing so much proved their superiority as thus\nto master this potent element.\n\n\n=30.= The same name above referred to, \"the Heart of the Town,\" or \"of the\nHills,\" was that which at a comparatively late date was applied to an\nidol of green stone preserved with religious care in a cavern in the\nCerro de Monopostiac, not far from San Francisco del Mar. The spot is\nstill believed by the natives to be enchanted ground and protected by\nsuperhuman powers.[46-Sec.]\n\nThese green stones, called _chalchiuitl_, of jadeite, nephrite, green\nquartz, or the like, were accounted of peculiar religious significance\nthroughout southern Mexico, and probably to this day many are preserved\namong the indigenous population as amulets and charms. They were often\ncarved into images, either in human form or representing a frog, the\nlatter apparently the symbol of the waters and of fertility. Bartholome\nde Alva refers to them in a passage of his Confessionary. The priest\nasks the penitent:\n\n     \"Dost thou possess at this very time little idols of green stone,\n     or frogs made of it (_in chalchiuh coconeme, chalchiuh\n     tamazoltin_)?\n\n     \"Dost thou put them out in the sun to be warmed? Dost thou keep\n     them wrapped in cotton coverings, with great respect and\n     veneration?\n\n     \"Dost thou believe, and hold for very truth, that these green\n     stones give thee food and drink, even as thy ancestors believed,\n     who died in their idolatry? Dost thou believe that they give thee\n     success and prosperity and good things, and all that them hast or\n     wishest? Because we know very well that many of you so believe at\n     this very time.\"[47-*]\n\nDown to quite a recent date, and perhaps still, these green stones are\nemployed in certain ceremonies in vogue among the Indians of Oaxaca in\norder to ensure a plenteous maize harvest. The largest ear of corn in\nthe field is selected and wrapped up in a cloth with some of these\nchalchiuite. At the next corn-planting it is taken to the field and\nburied in the soil. This is believed to be a relic of the worship of the\nancient Zapotec divinity, Quiegolani, who presided over cultivated\nfields.[47-[+]]\n\nThey are still in use among the natives as lucky stones or amulets. In\nthe Zotzil insurrection of 1869, already referred to, one was found\nsuspended to the neck of one of the slain Indians. It came into the\npossession of M. Maler, who has described and figured it.[47-[++]] It\nrepresents a human head with a curious expression and a singular\nheaddress.\n\nFrom specimens of these amulets preserved in museums it is seen that any\ngreenish stone was selected, preferably those yielding a high, vitreous\npolish, as jadeite, turquoise, emerald, chlormelanite or precious\nserpentine. The color gave the sacred character, and this, it seems to\nme, was distinctly meant to be symbolic of water and its effects, the\ngreen of growing plants, and hence of fertility, abundance and\nprosperity.\n\n\n=31.= There is another symbol, still venerated among the present\nindigenous population, which belongs to Nagualism, and is a survival\nfrom the ancient cult; this is the Tree. The species held in especial\nrespect is the ceiba, the silk-cotton tree, the _ytzamatl_ (knife-leaved\npaper tree) of the Nahuas, the _yax che_ (green, or first tree) of the\nMayas, the _Bombax ceiba_ of the botanists. It is of great size and\nrapid growth. In Southern Mexico and Central America one is to be seen\nnear many of the native villages, and is regarded as in some way the\nprotecting genius of the town.\n\nSacred trees were familiar to the old Mexican cult, and, what is\ncurious, the same name was applied to such as to the fire, _Tota_, Our\nFather. They are said to have represented the gods of woods and\nwaters.[48-*] In the ancient mythology we often hear of the \"tree of\nlife,\" represented to have four branches, each sacred to one of the four\ncardinal points and the divinities associated therewith.\n\nThe conventionalized form of this tree in the Mexican figurative\npaintings strongly resembles a cross. Examples of it are numerous and\nunmistakable, as, for instance, the cruciform tree of life rising from a\nhead with a protruding tongue, in the Vienna Codex.[48-[+]]\n\n\n=32.= Thus, the sign of the cross, either the form with equal arms known\nas the cross of St. Andrew, which is the oldest Christian form, or the\nLatin cross, with its arms of unequal length, came to be the ideogram\nfor \"life\" in the Mexican hieroglyphic writing; and as such, with more\nor less variants, was employed to signify the _tonalli_ or _nagual_, the\nsign of nativity, the natal day, the personal spirit.[48-[++]] The\nancient document called the Mappe Quinatzin offers examples, and its\nmeaning is explained by various early writers. The peculiar character of\nthe Mexican ritual calendar, by which nativities were calculated,\nfavored a plan of representing them in the shape of a cross; as we see\nin the singular _Codex Cruciformis_ of the Boturini-Goupil collection.\n\n\n=33.= But the doctrines of Nagualism had a phase even more detestable to\nthe missionaries than any of these, an esoteric phase, which brought it\ninto relation to the libidinous cults of Babylon and the orgies of the\n\"Witches' Sabbaths\" of the Dark Ages. Of these occult practices we of\ncourse have no detailed descriptions, but there are hints and\nhalf-glances which leave us in no doubt.\n\nWhen the mysterious metamorphosis of the individual into his or her\n_nagual_ was about to take place, the person must strip to absolute\nnudity;[49-*] and the lascivious fury of bands of naked Nagualists,\nmeeting in remote glades by starlight or in the dark recesses of caves,\ndancing before the statues of the ancient gods, were scenes that stirred\nthe fanaticism of the Spanish missionaries to its highest pitch. Bishop\nLanda informs us that in Yucatan the dance there known as the _naual_\nwas one of the few in which both men and women took part, and that it\n\"was not very decent.\" It was afterwards prohibited by the priests. We\nhave excellent authority that such wild rites continued well into the\npresent century, close to the leading cities of the State,[49-[+]] and\nit is highly likely that they are not unknown to-day.\n\n\n=34.= Moreover, it is certain that among the Nagualists, one of their most\nrevered symbols was the _serpent_; in Chiapas, one of their highest\norders of the initiated was that of the _chanes_, or serpents. Not only\nis this in Christian symbolism the form and sign of the Prince of Evil\nand the enemy of God, but the missionaries were aware that in the\nastrological symbols of ancient Mexico the serpent represented the\n_phallus_; that it was regarded as the most potent of all the\nsigns;[49-[++]] and modern research has shown, contrary to the opinion\nlong held, that there was among these nations an extraordinary and\nextensive worship of the reciprocal principle of nature, associated with\nnumerous phallic emblems.[49-Sec.]\n\nHuge phalli of stone have been discovered, one, for instance, on the\nCerro de las Navajas, not far from the city of Mexico, and another in\nthe State of Hidalgo.[50-*] Probably they were used in some such\nceremonies as Oviedo describes among the Nahuas of Nicaragua, where the\nsame symbol was represented by conical mounds of earth, around which at\ncertain seasons the women danced with libidinous actions. Although as a\ngeneral rule the pottery of ancient Mexico avoids obscenity, Brasseur\nstated that he had seen many specimens of a contrary character from\ncertain regions,[50-[+]] and Dr. Berendt has copied several striking\nexamples, showing curious _yoni_ symbols, which are now in my\npossession.\n\nWe may explain these as in some way connected with the worship of\nPantecatl, the male divinity who presided over profligate love, and of\nTlazolteotl, the _Venus Impudica_ of the Aztec pantheon; and it is not\nwithout significance that the cave-temple of Votan, whose contents were\ndestroyed by the Bishop of Chiapas, in 1691 (see above, p. 39), was\nlocated at _Tlazoaloyan_, both names being derived from a root\nsignifying sexual action.[50-[++]] The other name of the divinity,\ncalled \"the Heart of the Hills,\" is in Quiche, Alom, \"he who begets,\"\nand the Zapotec Cozaana, another analogue of the same deity, is\ntranslated by Seler, \"the Begetter.\" Such facts indicate how intimately\nthe esoteric doctrines of Nagualism were related to the worship of the\nreproductive powers of nature.\n\n\n=35.= It will readily be understood from what has been said that Nagualism\nwas neither a pure descendant of the ancient cults, nor yet a derivative\nfrom Christian doctrines and European superstitions. It was a strange\ncommingling of both, often in grotesque and absurd forms. In fact, the\npretended Christianity of the native population of Mexico to-day is\nlittle more than a figment, according to the testimony of the most\ncompetent observers.[50-Sec.]\n\nThe rituals and prayers of the nagualists bear witness to this. It is\nvery visible in those I have quoted from Nunez de la Vega, and I can\nadd an interesting example of it which has not heretofore been\npublished. I take it from the MSS. of Father Vicente Hernandez Spina,\ncura of Ixtlavacan, in Guatemala, a remote village of the Quiches. He\nwrote it down in the native tongue about forty years ago, as recited by\nan _ah-kih_, \"reader of days,\" a native master of the genethliac art,\nwho had composed it in favor of a client who had asked his intercession.\n\n     _Prayer of an Ah-Kih._\n\n     \"O Jesus Christ my God: thou God the Son, with the Father and the\n     Holy Spirit, art my only God. Today, on this day, at this hour, on\n     this day Tihax, I call upon the holy souls which accompany the\n     sun-rising and the sun-setting of the day: with these holy souls I\n     call upon thee, O chief of the genii, thou who dwellest in this\n     mountain of Siba Raxquin; come, ye holy spirits of Juan Vachiac, of\n     Don Domingo Vachiac, of Juan Ixquiaptap, the holy souls of\n     Francisco Excoquieh, of Diego Soom, of Juan Fay, of Alonzo Tzep; I\n     call the holy souls of Diego Tziquin and of Don Pedro Noh: you, O\n     priests, to whom all things are revealed, and thou, chief of the\n     genii, you, lords of the mountains, lords of the plains, thou, Don\n     Purupeto Martin, come, accept this incense, accept to-day this\n     candle.[51-*]\n\n     \"Come also, my mother Holy Mary, the Lord of Esquipulas, the Lord\n     of Capetagua, the beloved Mary of Chiantla, with her who dwells at\n     San Lorenzo, and also Mary of Sorrows, Mary Saint Anna, Mary\n     Tibureia, Mary of Carmen, with Saint Michael the Archangel, the\n     captain St. James, St. Christoval, St. Sebastian, St. Nicolas, St.\n     Bonaventura, St. Bernardin, St. Andrew, St. Thomas, St.\n     Bartholomew, and thou my beloved mother St. Catherine, thou beloved\n     Mary of the Conception, Mary of the Rosary, thou lord and king\n     Pascual, be here present.\n\n     \"And thou, Frost, and thou, excellent Wind, thou, God of the plain,\n     thou, God of Quiac-Basulup, thou, God of Retal-Uleu, thou, lord of\n     San Gregorio, thou, lord of Chii-Masa. [These are mountains and\n     localities, and in the original there follow the names of more than\n     a hundred others. The prayer concludes as follows:]\n\n     \"... I who appoint myself godfather and godmother, I who ask, I the\n     witness and brother of this man who asks, of this man who makes\n     himself, your son, O holy souls, I ask, do not let any evil happen\n     unto him, nor let him be unhappy for any cause.\n\n     \"I the priest, I who speak, I who burn this incense, I who light\n     this candle, I who pray for him, I who take him under my\n     protection, I ask you that he may obtain his subsistence with\n     facility. Thou, God, canst provide him with money; let him not fall\n     ill of fever; I ask that he shall not become paralytic; that he\n     may not choke with severe coughing; that he be not bitten by a\n     serpent; that he become neither bloated nor asthmatic; that he do\n     not go mad; that he be not bitten by a dog; that he be not struck\n     by lightning; that he be not choked with brandy; that he be not\n     killed with iron, nor by a stick, and that he be not carried off by\n     an eagle; guard him, O clouds; aid him, O lightning; aid him, O\n     thunder; aid him, St. Peter; aid him, St. Paul; aid him, eternal\n     Father.\n\n     \"And I who up to this time have spoken for him to you, I ask you\n     that sickness may visit his enemies. So order it, that when his\n     enemies go forth from their houses, they may meet sickness; order\n     it, that wherever they go, they may meet troubles; do your offices\n     of injury to them, wheresoever they are met; do this that I pray, O\n     holy souls. God be with you; God the Father, God the Son, God the\n     Holy Spirit: Amen, Jesus.\"\n\nMost of such invocations are expressed in terms far more recondite and\nsymbolic than the above. We have many such preserved in the work of\nJacinto de la Serna, which supply ample material to acquaint us with the\npeculiarities of the sacred and secret language of the nagualists. I\nshall quote but one, that employed in the curious ceremony of \"calling\nback the _tonal_,\" referred to on a previous page. I append an\nexplanation of its obscure metaphors.\n\n\n     _Invocation for the Restitution of the Tonal._\n\n     \"Ho there! Come to my aid, mother mine of the skirt of precious\n     stones![1] What keeps thee away, gray ghost, white ghost?[2] Is the\n     obstacle white, or is it yellow? See, I place here the yellow\n     enchantment and the white enchantment.[3]\n\n     \"I, the Master of the Masters of enchantments, have come, I, who\n     formed thee and gave thee life.[4] Thou, mother mine of the starry\n     skirt, thou, goddess of the stars, who givest life, why hast thou\n     turned against this one?[5]\n\n     \"Adverse spirit and darkened star, I shall sink thee in the breadth\n     and depth of the waters.[6] I, master of spells, speak to\n     thee[TN-5] Ho there! Mother mine, whose skirt is made of gems,\n     come, seek with me the shining spirit who dwells in the house of\n     light,[7] that we may know what god or mighty power thus destroys\n     and crushes to earth this unfortunate one. Green and black spirit\n     of sickness, leave him and seek thy prey elsewhere.\n\n     \"Green and yellow ghost, who art wandering, as if lost, over\n     mountains and plains, I seek thee, I desire thee; return to him\n     whom thou hast abandoned. Thou, the nine times beaten, the nine\n     times smitten, see that thou fail me not.[8] Come hither, mother\n     mine, whose robe is of precious gems; one water, two waters; one\n     rabbit, two rabbits; one deer, two deers; one alligator, two\n     alligators.[9]\n\n     \"Lo! I myself am here; I am most furious; I make the loudest noise\n     of all; I respect no one; even sticks and stones tremble before me.\n     What god or mighty power dare face me, me, a child of gods and\n     goddesses?[10] I have come to seek and call back the _tonal_ of\n     this sick one, wherever it is, whithersoever it has wandered, be it\n     nine times wandered, even unto the nine junctures and the nine\n     unions.[11] Wherever it is, I summon it to return, I order it to\n     return, and to heal and clean this heart and this head.\"\n\n\n     _Explanations._\n\n     1. The appeal is to Water, regarded as the universal Mother. The\n     \"skirt of precious stones\" refers to the green of the precious\n     green stones, a color sacred to water.\n\n     2. The question is addressed to the _tonal_.\n\n     3. The yellow enchantment is tobacco; the white, a cup of water.\n\n     4. That is, assigned the form of the nagual belonging to the sick\n     man.\n\n     5. This appeal is directed to the Milky Way.\n\n     6. The threat is addressed to the _tonal_, to frighten it into\n     returning.\n\n     7. The \"shining spirit\" is the Fire-god.\n\n     8. The yellow tobacco, prepared ceremonially in the manner\n     indicated.\n\n     9. These are names of days in the native calendar which are\n     invoked.\n\n     10. The priest speaks in the person of his god.\n\n     11. Referring to the Nahuatl belief that there are nine upper and\n     nine under worlds.\n\nFrom the same work of de la Serna I collect the following list of\nsymbolic expressions. It might easily be extended, but these will be\nsufficient to show the figurative obscurities which they threw around\ntheir formulas of conjuration, but which were by no means devoid of\ncoherence and instruction to those who could understand them.\n\n\n     _Symbolic Expressions of the Nagualists._\n\n     _Blood._--\"The red woman with snakes on her gown\" (referring to the\n     veins).\n\n     _Copal Gum._--\"The white woman\" (from the whitish color of the\n     fresh gum).\n\n     _Cords_ (for carrying burdens).--\"The snake that does woman's work\"\n     (because women sit still to knit, and the cord works while itself\n     is carried).\n\n     _Drunkenness._--\"My resting time,\" or \"when I am getting my\n     breath.\"\n\n     _The Earth._--\"The mirror that smokes\" (because of the mists that\n     rise from it); \"the rabbit with its mouth upward\" (the rabbit, in\n     opposition to the one they see in the moon; with its mouth upward,\n     because of the mists which rise from it like the breath exhaled\n     from the mouth); \"the flower which contains everything\" (as all\n     fruit proceeds from flowers, so does all vegetable life proceed\n     from the earth, which is therefore spoken of as a flower); \"the\n     flower which bites the mouths\" (a flower, for the reason given; it\n     eats the mouths, because all things necessarily return to it, and\n     are swallowed by it).\n\n     _Fingers._--\"The five fates,\" or \"the five works,\" or \"the five\n     fields\" (because by the use of his fingers man works out his own\n     destiny. Hence also the worship of the Hand among the Nahuas as the\n     god Maitl, and among the Mayas as the god Kab, both which words\n     mean \"hand\").\n\n     _Fire._--\"Our Father of the Four Reeds\" (because the ceremony of\n     making the new fire was held on the day Four Reeds, 4 Acatl); \"the\n     shining rose;\" \"the yellow flyer;\" \"the red-haired one;\" \"the\n     yellow spirit.\"\n\n     _A Knife of Copper._--\"The yellow Chichimec\" (because the\n     Chichimecs were alleged to tear out the bowels of their enemies).\n\n     _The Maguey Plant._--\"My sister, the eight in a row\" (because it\n     was planted in this manner).\n\n     _A Road._--\"That which is divided in two, and yet has neither\n     beginning, middle nor end\" (because it always lies in two\n     directions from a person, and yet all roads lead into others and\n     thus never end).\n\n     _Sickness._--\"The red woman;\" \"the breath of the flame;\" \"our\n     mother the comet\" (all referring to the fever); \"the Chichimec\"\n     (because it aims to destroy life, like these savage warriors); \"the\n     spider\" (because of its venomous nature).\n\n     _Smoke._--\"The old wife\" (_i. e._, of the fire).\n\n     _The Sun._--\"Our holy and pockified Uncle\" (referring to the myth\n     of Nanahuatl, who was syphilitic, and leaping into the flames of a\n     fire rose as the sun).\n\n     _Tobacco._--\"The nine (or seven) times beaten\" (because for sacred\n     purposes it was rubbed up this number of times); \"the enchanted\n     gray one\" (from its color and use in conjuring).\n\n     _Water._--\"The Green Woman\" (from the greenness which follows\n     moisture); \"our Mother, whose robe is of precious stones\" (from the\n     green or vegetable life resembling the turquoise, emerald, jade,\n     etc.).\n\n\n=36.= It might be asked how the dark arts and secret ceremonies of the\nNagualists escaped the prying eyes of the officers of the Holy\nInquisition, which was established in Mexico in 1571. The answer is,\nthat the inquisitors were instructed by Cardinal Diego de Espinosa, who\nat that time was Inquisitor General and President of the Council of the\nIndies, \"to abstain from proceedings against Indians, because of their\nstupidity and incapacity, as well as scant instruction in the Holy\nCatholic faith, for the crimes of heresy, apostasy, heretical blasphemy,\nsorcery, incantations, superstitions,\" etc.\n\nEnergetic inquisitors, however, conceded very grudgingly this exemption.\nIn the imposing _auto de fe_ celebrated in the city of Mexico, in 1659,\na half-breed, Bernardo del Carpio by name, son of a full-blood Indian\nmother, accused of blasphemy, etc., endeavored to escape the Holy Office\nby pleading his Indian blood; but his appeal was disallowed, and the\nprecedent established that any admixture whatever of European blood\nbrought the accused within the jurisdiction of the Inquisition.[55-*]\nEven this seems to have been a concession, for we find the record of an\n_auto de fe_ held in 1609, in the province of Tehuantepec, in which\neight full-blood natives were punished for worshiping the goddess\nPinopiaa.[55-[+]] Mr. David Ferguson, however, who has studied\nextensively the records of the inquisition in Mexico, informs me that in\nnone of the trials read by him has he observed any charges of Nagualism,\nalthough many white persons were accused, and some tried, for consulting\nIndian sorcerers.\n\n\n=37.= It will be seen from what I have said, that the rites of Nagualism\nextended as widely as did the term over Mexico and Central America. It\nbecomes, therefore, of importance to discover from what linguistic stock\nthis term and its associated words are derived. From that source it is\nreasonable to suppose the rites of this superstition also had their\norigin.\n\nThe opinions on this subject have been diverse and positive. Most\nwriters have assumed that it is a Nahuatl, or pure Mexican, word; while\nan eminent authority, Dr. Stoll, is not less certain that it is from a\nradical belonging to the neighboring great stock of the Mayan dialects,\nand especially the Quiche, of Guatemala.[55-[++]] Perhaps both these\npositions are erroneous, and we must look elsewhere for the true\netymology of these expressions. Unquestionably they had become\ndomesticated in both Maya and Nahuatl; but there is some reason to think\nthey were loan-words, belonging to another, and perhaps more venerable,\ncivilization than either of these nations could claim.\n\nTo illustrate this I shall subjoin several series of words derived from\nthe same radical which is at the basis of the word nagual, the series,\nthree in number, being taken from the three radically diverse, though\ngeographically contiguous, linguistic stocks, the Maya, the Zapotec and\nthe Nahuatl.\n\n\n     _From the Maya, of Yucatan._\n\n     _Naual_, or _nautal_, a native dance, forbidden by the\n       missionaries.\n\n     _Naatil_, talent, skill, ability.\n\n     _Naat_, intelligence, wisdom.\n\n     _Naatah_, to understand, to divine.\n\n     _Nanaol_, to consider, to contemplate, to meditate, to commune with\n       oneself, to enter into oneself.\n\n     _Noh_, great, skillful; as _noh ahceh_, a skillful hunter.\n\n\n     _From Maya Dialects._\n\n     QUICHE-CAKCHIQUEL.\n\n     _Naual_, a witch or sorcerer.\n\n     _Naualin_, to tell fortunes, to predict the future.\n\n     _Qui naualin_, to sacrifice, to offer sacrifices.\n\n     _Na_, to feel, to suspect, to divine, to think in one's heart.\n\n     _Nao_, to know, to be alert or expert in something.\n\n     _Naol_, a skillful person, a rhetorician.\n\n     _Naotizan_, to make another intelligent or astute.\n\n     _Natal_, the memory.\n\n     _Natub_, the soul or shadow of a man.\n\n     _Noh_, the god of reason (\"Genius der Vernunft,\" Scherzer).\n\n     _Noh_, to fecundate, to impregnate (_Popol Vuh_).\n\n\n     TZENTAL.\n\n     _X-qna_, to know.\n\n     _X-qnaulai_, to know often or thoroughly (frequentative).\n\n     _Naom_, wise, astute (_naom vinic_, hombre sabio).\n\n     _Naoghi_, art, science.\n\n     _Naoghibal_, memory.\n\n     _Ghnaoghel_, a wise man.\n\n     _Alaghom naom_, the Goddess of Wisdom.\n\n\n     _From the Zapotec, of Oaxaca_.\n\n     _Nana_, _gana_, _gona_, to know.\n\n     _Nona_, to know thoroughly, to retain in the memory.\n\n     _Nana ticha_, or _nona lii_, a wise man.\n\n     _Guela nana_, or _guela nona_, wisdom, knowledge.\n\n     _Hue gona_, or _ro gona_, a teacher, a master.\n\n     _Na lii_, truth; _ni na lii_, that which is true.\n\n     _Nacina_, or _naciina_, skill, dexterity.\n\n     _Hui naa_, a medicine man, a \"nagualist.\"\n\n     _Nahaa_, to speak pleasantly or agreeably.\n\n     _Nayaa_, or _nayapi_, to speak easily or fluently.\n\n     _Rigoo gona_, to sacrifice, to offer sacrifice.\n\n     _Ni nana_, the understanding, the intelligence, generally.\n\n     _Nayanii_, the superior reason of man.\n\n     _Nayaa_,  } superiority, a superior man (gentileza, gentil hombre).\n     _Naguii_, }\n\n\n     _From the Nahuatl, of Mexico_.\n\n     _Naua_, to dance, holding each other by the hands.\n\n     _Naualli_, a sorcerer, magician, enchanter.\n\n     _Nauallotl_, magic, enchantment, witchcraft.\n\n     _Nauatl_, or _nahuatl_, skillful, astute, smart; hence, superior;\n       applied to language, clear, well-sounding, whence (perhaps) the\n       name of the tongue.\n\n     _Nauati_, to speak clearly and distinctly.\n\n     _Nauatlato_, an interpreter.\n\n\n=38.= I believe that no one can carefully examine these lists of words,\nall taken from authorities well acquainted with the several tongues, and\nwriting when they still retained their original purity, without\nacknowledging that the same radical or syllable underlies them all; and\nfurther, that from the primitive form and rich development of this\nradical in the Zapotec, it looks as if we must turn to it to recognize\nthe origin of all these expressions, both in the Nahuatl and the Maya\nlinguistic stocks.\n\nThe root _na_, to know, is the primitive monosyllabic stem to which we\ntrace all of them. _Nahual_ means knowledge, especially mystic\nknowledge, the Gnosis, the knowledge of the hidden and secret things of\nnature; easily enough confounded in uncultivated minds with sorcery and\nmagic.[57-*]\n\nIt is very significant that neither the radical _na_ nor any of its\nderivatives are found in the Huasteca dialect of the Mayan tongue, which\nwas spoken about Tampico, far removed from other members of the stock.\nThe inference is that in the southern dialects it was a borrowed stem.\n\nNor in the Nahuatl language--although its very name is derived from\nit[58-*]--does the radical _na_ appear in its simplicity and true\nsignificance. To the Nahuas, also, it must have been a loan.\n\nIt is true that de la Serna derives the Mexican _naualli_, a sorcerer,\nfrom the verb _nahualtia_, to mask or disguise oneself, \"because a\n_naualli_ is one who masks or disguises himself under the form of some\nlower animal, which is his _nagual_;\"[58-[+]] but it is altogether\nlikely that _nahualtia_ derived its meaning from the custom of the\nmedicine men to wear masks during their ceremonies.\n\nTherefore, if the term _nagual_, and many of its associates and\nderivatives, were at first borrowed from the Zapotec language, a\nnecessary corrollary[TN-6] of this conclusion is, that along with these\nterms came most of the superstitions, rites and beliefs to which they\nallude; which thus became grafted on the general tendency to such\nsuperstitions existing everywhere and at all times in the human mind.\n\nAlong with the names of the days and the hieroglyphs which mark them,\nand the complicated arithmetical methods by means of which they were\nemployed, were carried most of the doctrines of the Nagualists, and the\nname by which they in time became known from central Mexico quite to\nNicaragua and beyond.\n\nThe mysterious words have now, indeed, lost much of their ancient\nsignificance. In a recent dictionary of the Spanish of Mexico _nagual_\nis defined as \"a witch; a word used to frighten children and make them\nbehave,\"[58-[++]] while in Nicaragua, where the former Nahuatl\npopulation has left so many traces of its presence in the language of\nto-day, the word _nagual_ no longer means an actor in the black art, or\na knowledge of it, but his or her armamentarium, or the box, jar or\ncase in which are kept the professional apparatus, the talismans and\ncharms, which constitute the stock in trade or outfit of the\nnecromancer.[59-*]\n\nAmong the Lacandons, of Mayan stock, who inhabit the forests on the\nupper waters of the Usumacinta river, at the present day the term\n_naguate_ or _nagutlat_ is said to be applied to any one \"who is\nentitled to respect and obedience by age and merit;\"[59-[+]] but in all\nprobability he is also believed to possess superior and occult\nknowledge.\n\n\n=39.= All who have any acquaintance with the folk-lore of the world are\naware that the notion of men and women having the power to change\nthemselves into beasts is as wide as superstition itself and older than\nhistory. It is mentioned in the pages of Herodotus and in the myths of\nancient Assyria. It is the property of African negroes, and the\npeasantry of Europe still hold to their faith in the reality of the\nwere-wolf of Germany, the _loup-garou_ of France and the _lupo mannaro_\nof Italy. Dr. Richard Andree well says in his interesting study of the\nsubject: \"He who would explain the origin of this strange superstition\nmust not approach it as a national or local manifestation, but as one\nuniversal in its nature; not as the property of one race or family, but\nof the species and its psychology at large.\"[59-[++]]\n\nEven in such a detail as the direct connection of the name of the person\nwith his power of change do we find extraordinary parallelisms between\nthe superstition of the red man of America and the peasant of Germany.\nAs in Mexico the _nagual_ was assigned to the infant by a form of\nbaptism, so in Europe the peasants of east Prussia hold that if the\ngodparent at the time of naming and baptism thinks of a wolf, the infant\nwill acquire the power of becoming one; and in Hesse to pronounce the\nname of the person in the presence of the animal into which he has been\nchanged will restore him to human shape.[59-Sec.]\n\n\n=40.= I need not say that the doctrine of personal spirits is not\nespecially Mexican, nor yet American; it belongs to man in general, and\ncan be recognized in most religions and many philosophies. In ancient\nGreece both the Platonicians and later the Neo-Platonicians thought that\neach individual has a particular spirit, or _daim[=o]n_, in whom is\nenshrined his or her moral personality. To this _daim[=o]n_ he should\naddress his prayers, and should listen heedfully to those interior\npromptings which seem to arise in the mind from some unseen silent\nmonitor.[60-*]\n\nMany a member of the Church of Rome substitutes for the _daim[=o]n_ of\nthe Platonists the patron saint after whom he is named, or whom he has\nchosen from the calendar, the hagiology, of his Church. This analogy did\nnot fail to strike the early missionaries, and they saw in the Indian\npriest selecting the _nagual_ of the child a hideous and diabolical\ncaricature of the holy rites.\n\nBut what was their horror when they found that the similarity proceeded\nso far that the pagan priest also performed a kind of baptismal\nsacrament with water; and that in the Mexican picture-writing the sign\nwhich represents the natal day, the _tonal_, by which the individual\ndemon is denoted, was none other than the sign of the cross, as we have\nseen. This left no doubt as to the devilish origin of the whole\nbusiness, which was further supported by the wondrous thaumaturgic\npowers of its professors.\n\n\n=41.= How are we to explain these marvelous statements? It will not do to\ntake the short and easy road of saying they are all lies and frauds. The\nevidence is too abundant for us to doubt that there was skillful\njugglery among the proficients in the occult arts among those nations.\nThey could rival their colleagues in the East Indies and Europe, if not\nsurpass them.\n\nMoreover, is there anything incredible in the reports of the spectators?\nAre we not familiar with the hypnotic or mesmeric conditions in which\nthe subject sees, hears and feels just what the master tells him to feel\nand see? The tricks of cutting oneself or others, of swallowing broken\nglass, of handling venomous reptiles, are well-known performances of the\nsect of the Aissaoua in northern Africa, and nowadays one does not have\nto go off the boulevards of Paris to see them repeated. The phenomena of\nthought transference, of telepathy, of clairvoyance, of spiritual\nrappings, do but reiterate under the clear light of the close of the\nnineteenth century the mystical thaumaturgy with which these children of\nnature were familiar centuries ago in the New World, and which are\nrecorded of the theosophists and magicians of Egypt, Greece and\nRome.[61-*] So long as many intelligent and sensible people among\nourselves find all explanations of these modern phenomena inadequate and\nunsatisfactory, we may patiently wait for a complete solution of those\nof a greater antiquity.\n\n\n=42.= The conclusion to which this study of Nagualism leads is, that it\nwas not merely the belief in a personal guardian spirit, as some have\nasserted; not merely a survival of fragments of the ancient heathenism,\nmore or less diluted by Christian teachings, as others have maintained;\nbut that above and beyond these, it was a powerful secret organization,\nextending over a wide area, including members of different languages and\nvarying culture, bound together by mystic rites, by necromantic powers\nand occult doctrines; but, more than all, by one intense emotion--hatred\nof the whites--and by one unalterable purpose--that of their\ndestruction, and with them the annihilation of the government and\nreligion which they had introduced.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[4-*] These words occur a number of times in the English translation,\npublished at London in 1822, of Dr. Paul Felix Cabrera's _Teatro Critico\nAmericano_. The form _nagual_ instead of _nahual_, or _naual_, or\n_nawal_ has been generally adopted and should be preferred.\n\n[4-[+]] For instance, in \"The Names of the Gods in the Kiche Myths,\" pp.\n21, 22, in _Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society_, 1881;\n_Annals of the Cakchiquels_, Introduction, p. 46; _Essays of an\nAmericanist_, p. 170, etc.\n\n[5-*] _Historia de las Indias Occidentales_, Dec. iv, Lib. viii, cap. 4.\n\n[5-[+]] More especially it is the territory of the Chorti dialect,\nspoken to this day in the vicinity of the famous ancient city of Copan,\nHonduras. Cerquin lies in the mountains nearly due east of this\ncelebrated site. On the Chorti, see Stoll, _Zur Ethnographie der\nRepublik Guatemala_, pp. 106-9.\n\n[6-*] Bernardino de Sahagun, _Historia de la Nueva Espana_, Lib. x, cap.\n9.\n\n[6-[+]] Derived from _teciuhtlaza_, to conjure against hail, itself from\n_teciuh_, hail. Alonso de Molina, _Vocabulario Mexicano_, sub voce.\n\n[6-[++]] Bautista, _Advertencias para los Confesores_, fol. 112 (Mexico,\n1600).\n\n[6-Sec.] Nicolas de Leon, _Camino del Cielo_, fol. 111 (Mexico, 1611).\n\n[7-*] Paso y Troncoso, in _Anales del Museo Nacional[TN-7] de Mexico_,\nTom. iii, p. 180.\n\n[7-[+]] Sahagun, _Historia de Nueva Espana_, Lib. x, cap. 29, and Lib.\nxi, cap. 7. Hernandez has the following on the mysterious properties of\nthis plant: \"Illud ferunt de hac radice mirabile (si modo fides sit\nvulgatissimae inter eos rei habendae), devorantes illam quodlibet\nprsaesagire praedicereque; velut an sequenti die hostes sint impetum in\neos facturi? Anne illos felicia maneant tempora? Quis supellectilem, aut\naliud quidpiam furto subripruerit? Et ad hunc modum alia, quibus\nChichimecae hujusmodi medicamine cognoscendis.\" Franciscus Hernandus,\n_Historia Plantarum Novae Hispaniae_, Tom. iii, p. 71 (Ed., Madrid, 1790).\n\n[7-[++]] _Diccionario Universal_, Appendice, Tom. i, p. 360 (Mexico,\n1856).\n\n[8-*] _Confessionario Mayor y Menor en lengua Mexicana_, fol. 8, verso\n(Mexico, 1634).\n\n[8-[+]] Vetancurt, _Teatro Mexicano_, Trat. iii, cap. 9.\n\n[8-[++]] Hernandez, _Historia Plantarum Novae Hispaniae_, Tom. iii, p. 32.\n\n[9-*] Dr. Jacinto de la Serna, _Manual de Min stros[TN-8] de Indios para\nel Conocimiento de sus Idolatrias y Extirpacion de Ellas_, p. 163. This\ninteresting work was composed about the middle of the seventeenth\ncentury by a Rector of the University of Mexico, but was first printed\nat Madrid, in 1892, from the MS. furnished by Dr. N. Leon, under the\neditorship of the Marquis de la Fuensanta del Valle.\n\n[9-[+]] MSS. of the Licentiate Zetina, and _Informe_ of Father Baeza in\n_Registro Yucateco_, Tom. i.\n\n[10-*] Acosta, _De la Historia Moral de Indias_, Lib. v, cap. 26.\n\n[10-[+]] Of the _thiuimeezque_ Hernandez writes: \"Aiunt radicis cortice\nunius unciae pondere tuso, atque devorato, multa ante oculos observare\nphantasmata, multiplices imagines ac monstrificas rerum figuras,\ndetegique furem, si quidpiam rei familiaris subreptum sit.\" _Hist.\nPlant. Nov. Hispan._, Tom. iii, p. 272. The _chacuaco_ and its effects\nare described by Father Venegas in his _History of California_, etc.\n\n[10-[++]] \"In Mictlan Tetlachihuique, in Nanahualtin, in Tlahuipuchtin.\"\nParedes, _Promptuario Manual Mexicano_, p. 128 (Mexico, 1757). The\n_tlahuipuchtin_, \"those who work with smoke,\" were probably diviners who\nforetold the future from the forms taken by smoke in rising in the air.\nThis class of augurs were also found in Peru, where they were called\n_Uirapircos_ (Balboa, _Hist. du Perou_, p. 28-30).\n\n[10-Sec.] Von Gagern, _Charakteristik der Indianischer Bevoelkerung\nMexikos_, s. 125.\n\n[11-*] _Historia Antigua de Mexico_, Tom. ii, p. 25. Francisco Pimentel,\nin his thoughtful work, _Memoria sobre las Causas que han originado la\nSituacion Actual de la Raza Indigena de Mexico_ (Mexico, 1864),\nrecognizes how almost impossible it is to extirpate their faith in this\nnagualism. \"Conservan los agueros y supersticiones de la antigueedad,\nsiendo cosa de fe para ellos, los _nahuales_,\" etc., p. 200, and comp.\np. 145.\n\n[11-[+]] On these terms consult the extensive _Dictionnaire de la Langue\nNahuatl_, by Remi Simeon,[TN-9] published at Paris, 1887. It is not\nimpossible that _tona_ is itself a compound root, including the\nmonosyllabic radical _na_, which is at the basis of _nagual_.\n\n[11-[++]] Sahagun, _Historia de Nueva Espana_, Lib. iv, _passim_, and\nLib. x, cap. 9.\n\n[12-*] See Ch. de Labarthe, _Revue Americaine_, Serie ii, Tom. ii, pp.\n222-225. His translation of _naualteteuctin_ by \"Seigneurs du genie\"\nmust be rejected, as there is absolutely no authority for assigning this\nmeaning to _naualli_.\n\n[13-*] _Anales de Cuauhtitlan_, p. 31. The translator renders it \"palo\nbrujo.\"\n\n[13-[+]] _Les Anciennes Villes du Nouveau Monde_, pp. 146-148, figured\non p. 150. On its significance compare Hamy, _Decades Americanae_, pp.\n74-81.\n\n[13-[++]] _The Native Calendar of Central America and Mexico_\n(Philadelphia, 1893).\n\n[13-Sec.] Eduard Muehlenpfordt, _Mexico_, Bd. i, s. 255.\n\n[14-*] The word is derived from _tlatoa_, to speak for another, and its\nusual translation was \"chief,\" as the head man spoke for, and in the\nname of the gens or tribe.\n\n[14-[+]] The interesting account by Iglesias is printed in the Appendix\nto the _Diccionario Universal de Geographia y Historia_ (Mexico, 1856).\nOther writers testify to the tenacity with which the Mixes cling to\ntheir ancient beliefs. Senor Moro says they continue to be \"notorious\nidolaters,\" and their actual religion to be \"an absurd jumble of their\nold superstitions with Christian doctrines\" (in Orozco y Berra,\n_Geografia de las Lenguas de exico[TN-10]_, p. 176).\n\n[15-*] For instance, J. B. Carriedo, in his _Estudios Historicos del\nEstado Oaxaqueno_ (Oaxaca, 1849), p. 15, says the _nahualt_ was a\nceremony performed by the native priest, in which the infant was bled\nfrom a vein behind the ear, assigned a name, that of a certain day, and\na guardian angel or _tona_. These words are pure Nahuatl, and Carriedo,\nwho does not give his authority, probably had none which referred these\nrites to the Zapotecs.\n\n[15-[+]] Juan de Cordova, _Arte en Lengua Zapoteca_, pp. 16, 202, 203,\n213, 216.\n\n[16-*] Quoted in Carriedo, ubi supra, p. 17.\n\n[16-[+]] _Hist. de las Indias Oc._, Dec. iii, Lib. iii, cap. 12.\n\n[17-*] So I understand the phrase, \"figuras pintadas con zifras\nenigmaticas\"[TN-11]\n\n[17-[+]] _Popoluca_ was a term applied to various languages. I suspect\nthe one here referred to was the Mixe. See an article by me, entitled\n\"Chontales and Popolucas; a Study in Mexican Ethnography,\" in the\n_Compte Rendu_ of the Eighth Session of the Congress of Americanists, p.\n566, _seq._\n\n[17-[++]] _Constit. Diocesan_, p. 19.\n\n[18-*] _Constitut. Diocesan_, Titulo vii, pp. 47, 48.\n\n[19-*] Rather with the Quetzalcoatl of the Nahuas, and the Gucumatz of\nthe Quiches, both of which names mean \"Feathered Serpent.\" Mixcohuatl,\nthe Cloud Serpent, in Mexican mythology, referred to the Thunder-storm.\n\n[19-[+]] In his Tzental Vocabulary, Father Lara does not give this exact\nform; but in the neighboring dialect of the Cakchiquel Father Ximenes\nhas _quikeho_, to agree together, to enter into an arrangement; the\nprefix _zme_ is the Tzental word for \"mother.\"\n\n[20-*] Father Lara, in his _Vocabulario Tzendal MS._ (in my possession),\ngives for medical (medico), _ghpoxil_, for medicine (medicinal cosa),\n_pox_, _xpoxtacoghbil_; for physician (medico), _ghpoxta vinic_ (the\nform _vanegh_, person, is also correct). The Tzendal _pox_ (pronounced\n_p[=o]sh_) is another form of the Quiche-Cakchiquel _p[=u]z_, a word\nwhich Father Ximenes, in his _Vocabulario Cakchiquel_ MS (in my\npossession), gives in the compound _puz naual_, with the meaning,\nenchanter, wizard. Both these, I take it, are derived from the Maya\n_puz_, which means to blow the dust, etc., off of something (soplar el\npolvo de la ropa o otra cosa. _Dicc. de la Lengua Maya del Convento de\nMotul_, MS. The dictionary edited by Pio Perez does not give this\nmeaning). The act of blowing was the essential feature in the treatment\nof these medicine men. It symbolized the transfer and exercise of\nspiritual power. When Votan built his underground shrine he did it _a\nsoplos_, by blowing (Nunez de la Vega, _Constitut. Diocesan_, p. 10).\nThe natives did not regard the comet's tail as behind it but in front of\nit, blown from its mouth. The Nahuatl word in the text, _tzihuizin_, is\nthe Pipil form of _xihuitzin_, the reverential of _xihuitl_, which means\na leaf, a season, a year, or a comet. Apparently it refers to the\nNahuatl divinity _Xiuhte cutli_, described by Sahagun, _Historia de\nNueva Espana_, Lib. i, cap. 13, as god of fire, etc.\n\n[21-*] _Hicalahau_, for _ical ahau_, Black King, one of the Tzental\ndivinities, who will be referred to on a later page.\n\n[21-[+]] \"Maestros de los pueblos,\" _Constitut. Diocesan_, i, p. 106.\n\n[23-*] _Historia de Guatemala, o, Recordacion Florida_, Tom. ii, p. 44,\n_seq._\n\n[24-*] Gage, _A New Survey of the West Indies_, p. 388, _seq._ (4th\nEd.).\n\n[25-*] _Le Popol Vuh, ou Livre Sacre des Quiches_, p. 315 (Ed. Brasseur,\nParis, 1861). In the Quiche myths, Gucumatz is the analogue of\nQuetzalcoatl in Aztec legend. Both names mean the same, \"Feathered\nSerpent.\"\n\n[25-[+]] Baeza's article is printed in the _Registro Yucateco_, Vol. i,\np. 165, _seq._\n\n[26-*] \"Wird ein Kind im Dorfe geboren, so erhaelt der heidnische\nGoetzenpriester von diesem Ereignisse viel eher Kunde, als der\nkatholische Pfarrer. Erst wenn dem neuen Weltbuerger durch den Aj-quig\ndas Horoskop gestellt, der Name irgend eines Thieres beigelegt,\nMi-si-sal (das citronengelbe Harz des Rhus copallinum) verbrannt, ein\nLieblingsgoetze angerufen, und noche viele andere aberglauebische\nMysterien verrichtet worden sind, wird das Kind nach dem Pfarrhause zur\nchristlichen Taufe getragen. Das Thier, dessen Name dem Kinde kurz nach\nseiner Geburt vom Sonnenpriester beigelegt wird, gilt gewoehnlich auch\nals sein Schutzgeist (_nagual_) fuers ganze Leben.\" Dr. Karl Scherzer,\n_Die Indianer von Santa Catalina Istlavacan_, p. 11, Wien, 1856.\n\n[26-[+]] The word _zahori_, of Arabic origin, is thus explained in the\nSpanish and English dictionary of Delpino (London, 1763): \"So they call\nin Spain an impostor who pretends to see into the bowels of the earth,\nthrough stone walls, or into a man's body.\" Dr. Stoll says the Guatemala\nIndians speak of their diviners, the _Ah Kih_, as _zahorin_.\n_Guatemala_, s. 229.\n\n[26-[++]] Emetorio Pineda, _Descripcion Geografica de Chiapas y\nSoconusco_, p. 22 (Mexico, 1845).\n\n[27-*] Madier de Montjau, \"Manuscrits Figuratifs de l' Ancien Mexique,\"\nin _Archives de la Societe Americaine[TN-12] de France_, 1875, p. 245.\n\n[27-[+]] Torquemada, _Monarquia Indiana_, Lib. xv, cap. 16.\n\n[28-*] De la Serna, _Manual de Ministros_, pp. 20, 21, 42, 162. The\nmushroom referred to was the _quauhnanacatl_, probably the same as the\n_teyhuinti_ of Hernandez, _Hist. Plant. Nov. Hispan._, Tom. ii, p. 358,\nwho says that it is not dangerous to life, but disturbs the mind,\ninciting to laughter and intoxication.\n\n[28-[+]] Actual slavery of the Indians in Mexico continued as late as\nthe middle of the seventeenth century. See Cavo, _Tres Siglos de\nMexico_, etc., Tom. ii, p. 11.\n\n[28-[++]] Brasseur, _Hist. des Nations Civilisees de Mexique_, Tom. iv,\np. 822.\n\n[29-*] _Informe del teniente general, Don Jacobo de Barba Figueroa,\ncorregidor de la Provincia de Suchitepeque_, quoted by Brasseur.\n\n[29-[+]] Jacinto de la Serna says: \"Los maestros de estas ceremonias son\ntodos unos, y lo que sucede en esta cordillera en todas sucede.\" _Manual\nde Ministros_, p. 52. Speaking of the methods of the nagualists of\nChiapas, Bishop Nunez de la Vega writes: \"Concuerdan los mas modernos\ncon los mas antiguos que se practicaban en Mexico.\" _Constituciones\nDiocesanas_, p. 134.\n\n[29-[++]] He observes that there were \"familias de los tales sabios en\nlas quales en manera de patrimonio se heredaban, succediendo los hijos a\nlos padres, y principalmente su abominable secta de Nagualismo.\"\n_Historia del Cielo y de la Tierra_, MS., p. 7. Ordonez advances various\nerudite reasons for believing that Nagualism is a religious belief whose\ntheory and rites were brought from Carthage by Punic navigators in\nancient times.\n\n[29-Sec.] Maria de Moxo, _Cartas Mejicanas_, p. 270, (Genova, n. d.).\n\n[30-*] \"_Xochimilca_, que asi llamavan a los mui sabios encantadores.\"\nTorquemada, _Monarquia Indiana_, Lib. xv, cap. 16.\n\n[30-[+]] In Nahuatl, _tlapiani_, a guardian or watchman. The Zapotec\npriesthood was divided into the _huijatoos_, \"greater guardians,\" and\ntheir inferiors, the _copavitoos_, \"guardians of the gods.\" Carriedo,\n_Estudios Historicos_,[TN-13] p. 93.\n\n[30-[++]] See Eligio Ancona. _Historia de Yucatan_, Tom. iv, cap. 1\n(Merida, 1880).\n\n[31-*] The mention of the fifteen, 5 x 3, chosen disciples indicates\nthat the same system of initiating by triplets prevailed in Yucatan as\nin Chiapas (see above, p. 19). The sacred tree is not named, but\npresumably it was the ceiba to which I refer elsewhere. The address of\nJacinto was obtained from those present, and is given at length by the\nJesuit Martin del Puerto, in his _Relacion hecho al Cabildo Eclesiastico\npor el preposito de la Compania de Jesus, acerca de la muerte de Jacinto\nCan-Ek y socios_, Dec. 26, 1761. It is published, with other documents\nrelating to this revolt, in the Appendix to the _Diccionario Universal_,\nedited by Orozco y Berra, Mexico, 1856. On the prophecies of Chilan\nBalam, see my _Essays of an Americanist_, pp. 255-273 (Philadelphia,\n1890).\n\n[31-[+]] Eligio Ancona, _Hist. de Yucatan_, Tom. ii, p. 452.\n\n[32-*] See Pedro Sanchez de Aguilar, _Informe contra Idolum Cultores en\nYucathan_ (Madrid, 1639); Eligio Ancona, _Historia de Yucatan_, Tom. ii,\npp. 128, 129.\n\n[32-[+]] The chief authority on this revolt is Juan de Torres Castillo,\n_Relacion de lo Sucedido en las Provincias de Nexapa, Iztepex y Villa\nAlta_ (Mexico, 1662). See also Cavo, _Los Tres Siglos de Mexico durante\nel Gobierno Espanol_, Tom. ii, p. 41, and a pamphlet by Christoval Manso\nde Contreras, _Relacion cierta y verdadera de lo que sucedio en esta\nProvincia de Tehuantepec_, etc. (printed at Mexico, 1661), which I know\nonly through the notes of Dr. Berendt. Mr. H. H. Bancroft, in his very\nmeagre account of this event, mistakingly insists that it took place in\n1660. _History of Mexico_, Vol. iii, p. 164.\n\n[32-[++]] See Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Histoire des Nations Civilisees de\nla Mexique_, Tom. iv, 824.\n\n[32-Sec.] Cavo, _Los Tres Siglos_, etc., Tom. ii, p. 82. On the use and\nsignificance of the _piochtli_ we have some information in Vetancurt,\n_Teatro Mexicano_, Tom. ii, p. 464, and de la Serna, _Manual de\nMinistros_, pp. 166, 167. It was the badge of a certain order of the\nnative priesthood.\n\n[33-*] _Adventures on the Musquito Shore_, by S. A. Ward, pseudonym of\nMr. Squier, p. 258 (New York, 1855).\n\n[33-[+]] Nunez de la Vega, _Constituciones Diocesanas_, p. 10, and comp.\nBrasseur de Bourbourg, _Hist. des Nat. Civ. de Mexique_, Tom. i, p. 74.\n\n[33-[++]] Herrera, _Hist. de las Indias Occidentales_, Dec. ii, Lib.\niii, cap. 5.\n\n[34-*] Acosta, _Hist. Nat. y Moral de las Indias_, Lib. vii, cap. 5.\n\n[34-[+]] The story is given in Herrera, _Hist. de las Indias_, Dec. iv,\nLib. viii, cap. 4. The name Coamizagual is translated in the account as\n\"Flying Tigress.\" I cannot assign it this sense in any dialect.\n\n[34-[++]] Jacinto de la Serna, _Manual de Ministros_. p. 138. Sahagun\nidentifies Quilaztli with Tonantzin, the common mother of mankind and\ngoddess of child-birth (_Hist. de Nueva Espana_, Lib. i, cap. 6, Lib.\nvi, cap. 27). Further particulars of her are related by Torquemada,\n_Monarquia Indiana_, Lib. ii, cap. 2. The _tzitzime_ were mysterious\nelemental powers, who, the Nahuas believed, were destined finally to\ndestroy the present world (Sahagun, l. c., Lib. vi, cap. 8). The word\nmeans \"flying haired\" (Serna).\n\n[34-Sec.] Torquemada, _Monarquia Indiana_, Lib. ii, cap. 62.\n\n[35-*] Fr. Tomas Coto, _Diccionario de la Lengua Cakchiquel_, MS., s. v.\n_Sacrificar_; in the Library of the American Philosophical Society at\nPhiladelphia.\n\n[35-[+]] \"Trataron de valerse del arte de los encantos y _naguales_\" are\nthe words of the author, Fuentes y Guzman, in his _Recordacion Florida_,\nTom. i, p. 50. In the account of Bernal Diaz, it reads as if this witch\nand her dog had both been sacrificed; but Fuentes is clear in his\nstatement, and had other documents at hand.\n\n[35-[++]] Teobert Maler, \"Memoire sur l'Etat de Chiapas,\" in the _Revue\nd' Ethnographie_, Tom. iii, pp. 309-311. This writer also gives some\nvaluable facts about the Indian insurrection in the Sierra de Alicia, in\n1873.\n\n[36-*] The long account given by Mr H. H. Bancroft of this insurrection\nis a travesty of the situation drawn from bitterly prejudiced Spanish\nsources, of course, utterly out of sympathy with the motives which\nprompted the native actors. See his _History of the Pacific States_, Vol\nii, p. 696 _sqq._ Ordonez y Aguiar, who lived on the spot within a\ngeneration of the occurrences recognizes in Maria Candelaria (whose true\nname Bancroft does not give) the real head of the rebellion, \"quien\nordenaba los ardides del motin; .... de lo que principalmente trataban\nlas leyes fundamentales de su secta, era de que no quedase rastro alguno\nde que los Europeos havian pisado este suelo.\" His account is in his\nunpublished work, _Historia del Cielo y de la Tierra_, written at\nGuatemala about 1780. Juarros, speaking of their rites, says of them:\n\"Apostando de la fe, profanando los vasos sagrados, y ofreciendo\nsacrilegos cultos a una indizuela.\" _Historia de la Ciudad de\nGuatemala_, Tom. i, p. 17.\n\n[36-[+]] Bancroft, ubi supra, p. 705, note. One was hanged, whom Garcia\nPelaez calls \"una india bruja.\" _Memorias para la Historia de\nGuatemala_, Tom. ii, p. 153.\n\n[36-[++]] Squier, ubi supra, passim.\n\n[37-*] _Voyage a l' Isthmus de Tehuantepec_, p. 164. He adds a number of\nparticulars of the power she was supposed to exercise.\n\n[38-*] \"Que era venerado en todo el imperio de Montezuma.\" See\n_Diccionario Universal_, Appendice, s. v. (Mexico, 1856).\n\n[38-[+]] \"Dass der Gott Tepeyollotl im Zapotekenlande und weiter\nsuedwaerts seine Wurzeln hat, und dem eigentlichen Aztekischen Olymp fremd\nist, darueber kann kein Zweifel mehr obwalten.\" See Dr. Seler's able\ndiscussion of the subject in the _Compte-Rendu_ of the Seventh\nInternational Congress of Americanists, p. 559, _seq._ The adoption of\nsubterranean temples was peculiarly a Zapotecan trait. \"Notandose\nprincipalmente en muchos adoratorios de los Zapotecos, estan los mas de\nellos cubiertos, o en subterraneos espaciosos y lobregos.\" Carriedo,\n_Estudios Historicos_, Tom. i, p. 26.\n\n[39-*] _Constituciones Diocesanas_, pp. 9, 10.\n\n[39-[+]] Gage, _A New Survey of the West Indies_, pp. 389, 393.\n\n[39-[++]] _Teatro Mexicano_, Tratado iii, cap. 11. Mr. Bandelier has\ncalled attention to the naming of one of the principal chiefs among the\nAztecs, _Tlilancalqui_, \"Man of the Dark House,\" and thinks it related\nto the Votan myth. _Twelfth Annual Report of the Peabody Museum_, p.\n689.\n\n[40-*] Herrera, _Historia de las Indias Occidentales_, Dec. iii, Lib.\niii, cap. 14.\n\n[40-[+]] Villa Senor, _Teatro Americano_, Lib. v, cap. 38 (Mexico,\n1747). Father Cavo adds that there were signs of human sacrifices\npresent, but of this I can find no evidence in the earlier reports.\nComp. Cavo, _Los Tres Siglos de Mexico durante el Gobierno\nEspanal[TN-14]_, Tom. ii, p. 128.\n\n[40-[++]] _Teatro Americano_, Lib. ii, cap. 11; Lib. iii, cap. 13.\n\n[41-*] See Muehlenpfordt, _Mexico_, Bd. ii, pp. 200-266; Brasseur, _Hist.\ndes Nations Civ. de la Mexique_, Vol. iv, p. 821; Herrera, _Historia de\nlas Indias_, Dec. iii, Lib. iii, cap. 12, etc.\n\n[41-[+]] _Diccionario Universal_, Appendice, s. v.\n\n[41-[++]] Their names were Ta Yoapa, Father Dawn; Ta Te, Father Stone;\nCoanamoa, the Serpent which Seizes. _Dicc. Univ._, App., Tom. iii, p.\n11.\n\n[41-Sec.] Duran, _Historia de los Indios_, Tom. ii, p. 140. They were Tota,\nOur Father; Yollometli, the Heart of the Maguey (probably pulque); and\nTopiltzin, Our Noble One (probably Quetzalcoatl, to whom this epithet\nwas often applied).\n\n[41-[||]] \"Fue el Demonio que les dio la supersticion del numero nueve.\"\n_Manual de Ministros_, p. 197.\n\n[42-*] _The Native Calendar of Central America and Mexico_, p. 12.\n\n[42-[+]] Motolinia, _Ritos Antiguos, Sacrificios e Idolatrias de los\nIndios de la Nueva Espana_, p. 340 (in _Coleccion de Documentos ineditos\npara la Historia de Espana_).\n\n[42-[++]] Thomas Coto, _Vocabulario de la lengua Cakchiquel_, MS., sub\nvoce, _Rayo_.\n\n[42-Sec.] Herrera, _Historia de las Indias_, Dec. IV, Lib. viii, cap. 10.\n\n[42-[||]] _Diccionario Universal_, Appendice, ubi supra.\n\n[42-[P]] [TN-15]'Senor de los Animales.\" _Codex Telleriano-Remensis_, Parte\nii, Lam. iv.\n\n[43-*] See Dr. Seler's minute description in the _Compte Rendu_ of the\nEighth Session of the Congres International des Americanistes, pp. 588,\n589. In one of the conjuration formulas given by de la Serna (_Manual de\nMinistros_, p. 212) the priest says: \"Yo soy el sacerdote, el dios\n_Quetzalcoatl_, que se bajara al infierno, y subire a lo superior, y\nhasta los nueve infiernos.\" This writer, who was very competent in the\nNahuatl, translates the name Quetzalcoatl by \"culebra con cresta\"\n(_id._, p. 171), an unusual, but perhaps a correct rendering.\n\n[43-[+]] His words here are somewhat obscure. They are, \"El baptismo de\nfuego, en donde las ponen los sobre nombres que llaman _yahuiltoca_,\nquando nacen.\" This may be translated, \"The baptism of fire in which\nthey confer the names which they call _yahuiltoca_.\" The obscurity is in\nthe Nahuatl, as the word _toca_ may be a plural of _tocaitl_, name, as\nwell as the verb _toca_, to throw upon. The passage is from the _Camino\ndel Cielo_, fol. 100, verso.\n\n[43-[++]] Sahagun, _Historia de la Nueva Espana_, Lib. iv, cap. 25.\n\n[43-Sec.] It is mentioned as useful for this purpose by the early\nphysicians, Francisco Ximenes, _Cuatro Libros de la Naturaleza_, p. 144;\nHernandez, _Hist. Plant. Novae Hispaniae_, Tom. ii, p. 200. Capt. Bourke,\nin his recent article on \"The Medicine Men of the Apaches\" (in _Ninth\nAnnual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_, p. 521), suggests that the\n_yiahuitli_ of the Aztecs is the same as the \"hoddentin,\" the pollen of\na variety of cat-tail rush which the Apaches in a similar manner throw\ninto the fire as an offering. Hernandez, however, describes the\n_yiahuitli_ as a plant with red flowers, growing on mountains and\nhill-sides--no species of rush, therefore. De la Serna says it is the\nanise plant, and that with it the natives perform the conjuration of the\n\"yellow spirit\" (conjuro de amarillo espiritado), that is, of the Fire\n(_Manual de Ministros_, p. 197).\n\n[44-*] From the verb _apeua_. Vetancurt's description is in his _Teatro\nMexicano_, Tom. i, pp. 462, 463 (Ed. Mexico, 1870).\n\n[44-[+]] His frequent references to it show this. See his _Manual de\nMinistros_, pp. 16, 20, 22, 24, 36, 40, 66, 174, 217, etc. The word\n_tlecuixtliliztli_ is compounded of _tlecuilli_, the hearth or\nfireplace, and _ixtliluia_, to darken with smoke.\n\n[45-*] Duran, _Historia de los Indios de la Nueva Espana_, Tom. ii, p.\n240. Sahagun adds that the _octli_ was poured on the hearth at four\nseparate points, doubtless the four cardinal points. _Historia de Nueva\nEspana_, Lib. i, cap. 18. De la Serna describes the same ceremony as\ncurrent in his day, _Manual de Ministros_, p. 35. The invocation\nran:--\"Shining Rose, light-giving Rose, receive and rejoice my heart\nbefore the God.\"\n\n[45-[+]] A copy of these strange \"Books of Chilan Balam\" is in my\npossession. I have described them in my _Essays of an Americanist_\n(Philadelphia, 1890).\n\n[45-[++]] See his remarks on \"Apperception der Menschenzeugung als\nFeuerbereitung,\" in the _Zeitschrift fuer Voelkerpsychologie_, Bd. vi, s.\n113, _seq._\n\n[46-*] Sahagun, _Historia de Nueva Espana_, Lib. i, cap. 13. The Nahuatl\ntext is more definite than the Spanish translation.\n\n[46-[+]] See my _Myths of the New World_, p. 154, _seq._\n\n[46-[++]] In the Nahuatl language the word _xihuitl_ (_xiuitl_) has four\nmeanings: a plant, a turquoise, a year and a comet.\n\n[46-Sec.] J. B. Carriedo, _Estudios Historicos del Estado Oaxaqueno_, Tom.\ni, p. 82, etc.\n\n[47-*] Alva, _Confessionario en Lengua Mexicana_, fol. 9.\n\n[47-[+]] Carriedo, _Estudios Historicos_, pp. 6, 7.\n\n[47-[++]] In the _Revue[TN-16] d' Ethnographie_, Tom. iii, p. 313. Some\nvery fine objects of this class are described by E. G. Squier, in his\n\"Observations on the Chalchihuitl,\" in the _Annals of the Lyceum of\nNatural History_, Vol. i (New York, 1869).\n\n[48-*] Diego Duran, _Historia de los Indios de Nueva Espana_, Tom. ii,\np. 140.\n\n[48-[+]] In Kingsborough, _Antiquities of Mexico_, Vol. ii, Pl. 180. On\nthe cross as a form derived from a tree see the observations of W. H.\nHolmes, in the _Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_, pp.\n270, 271.\n\n[48-[++]] \"Au Mexique, le cadre croise, la croix en sautoir, comme celle\nde St. Andre, avec quelques variantes, representait le signe de\nnativite, _tonalli_, la fete, le jour natal.\" M. Aubin, in Boban,\n_Catalogue Raisonnee de la Collection Goupil_, Tom. i, p. 227. Both\nGomara and Herrera may be quoted to this effect.\n\n[49-*] See a curious story from native sources in my _Essays of an\nAmericanist_, pp. 171, 172. It adds that this change can be prevented by\ncasting salt upon the person.\n\n[49-[+]] Benito Maria de Moxo, _Cartas Mejicanas_, p. 257; Landa, _Cosas\nde Yucatan_, p. 193.\n\n[49-[++]] Pedro de los Rios, in his notes to the Codex Vaticanus,\npublished in Kingsborough's great work, assigns the sign, _cohuatl_, the\nserpent, to \"il membro virile, il maggio augurio di tutti gli altri.\" It\nis distinctly so shown on the 75th plate of the Codex. De la Serna\nstates that in his day some of the Mexican conjurors used a wand, around\nwhich was fastened a living serpent. _Manual de Ministros_, p. 37.\n\n[49-Sec.] There is abundant evidence of this in certain plates of the Codex\nTroano, and there is also alleged to be much in the Codex Mexicanus of\nthe Palais Bourbon. Writing about the latter, M. Aubin said as far back\nas 1841--\"le culte du lingam on du phallus n'etait pas etranger aux\nMexicains, ce qu' etablissent plusieurs documents peu connus et des\nsculptures decouvertes depuis un petit nombre d'annees.\" His letter is\nin Boban, _Catalogue Raisonne la Collection Goupil_, Tom. ii, p. 207. On\nthe frequent identification of the serpent symbol with the phallus in\nclassical art, consult Dr. Anton Nagele's article, \"Der\nSchlangen-Cultus,\" in the _Zeitschrift fuer Voelkerpsychologie_, Band\nxvii, p. 285, _seq._\n\n[50-*] Cf. G. Tarayre, _Exploration Mineralogique des Regions\nMexicaines_, p. 233 (Paris, 1869), and _Bulletin de la Societe\nd'Anthropologie de Paris_, Juin, 1893.\n\n[50-[+]] _Sources de l' Histoire Primitive de Mexique_, p. 81.\n\n[50-[++]] From _zo_, to join together. Compare my _Essays of an\nAmericanist_, p. 417 (Philadelphia, 1890).\n\n[50-Sec.] \"El indio Mexicano es todavia idolatra.\" F. Pimentel, _La\nSituacion actual de la Raza Indigena de Mexico_, p. 197.\n\n[51-*] The \"holy souls\" who are here appealed to by name are those of\ndeceased _ah-kih_, or priests of the native cult.\n\n[55-*] See the _Relation del Auto celebrado en Mexico, ano de 1659_\n(Mexico, En la Imprenta del Santo Officio, 1659).\n\n[55-[+]] J. B. Carriedo, _Estudios Historicos del Estado\nOaxaqueno[TN-17]_, Tom. i, pp. 8, 9 (Oaxaca, 1849). About 1640 a number of\nIndians in the province of Acapulco were put to death for having buried\nenchanted ashes beneath the floor of a chapel! (Serna, _Manual de\nMinistros_, p. 52.)\n\n[55-[++]] \"Nagual ist in seiner correcten Form _naoal_ ein echtes\nQuiche-Wort, ein Substantivum instrumentale, vom Stamme _nao_, wissen,\nerkennen. _Naoal_ ist dasjenige, womit oder woran etwas, in diesem Falle\ndas Schicksal des Kindes, erkannt wird, und hat mit dem mexikanischen\n_nahualli_ (Hexe), mit dem man es vielleicht in Verbindung bringen\nmoechte, nichts zu schaffen.\" _Guatemala_, s. 238.\n\n[57-*] The Abbe Brasseur observes: \"Le mot _nahual_, qui vet dire toute\nscience, ou science de tout, est frequemment employe pour exprimer la\nsorcellerie chez ces populations.\" _Bulletin de la Societe de\nGeographie_, 1857, p. 290. In another passage of his works the\nspeculative Abbe translates _naual_ by the English \"know all,\" and is\nnot averse to believing that the latter is but a slight variant of the\nformer.\n\n[58-*] See an article by me, entitled \"On the Words 'Anahuac' and\n'Nahuatl,'\" in the _American Antiquarian_, for November, 1893.\n\n[58-[+]] _Manual de Ministros_, p. 50.\n\n[58-[++]] Jesus Sanchez, _Glosario de Voces Castellanas derivadas del\nIdioma Nahuatl_, sub voce.\n\n[59-*] \"_Nagual_--el lugar, rincon, cajon, nambira, etc., donde guarda\nsus talismanes y trajes de encanta la bruja.\" Berendt, _La Lengua\nCastellana de Nicaragua_, MS.\n\n[59-[+]] Emetorio Pineda, _Description Geografica de Chiapas y\nSoconusco_, p. 23 (Mexico, 1845).\n\n[59-[++]] See his article \"Wer-wolf,\" in his _Ethnographische Parallelen\nund Vergleiche_, p. 62, _seq._\n\n[59-Sec.] Richard Andree, _ibid._, ss. 63, 64.\n\n[60-*] See Alfred Maury, _La Magie et l' Astrologie_, pp. 88, 89, 267,\netc.\n\n[61-*] In the _Notice Preliminaire_ to the second part of his work, _La\nMagie et l' Astrologie dans l' Antiquite et au Moyen Age_, Mr. Alfred\nMaury admirably sums up the scientific resources at our command for\nexplaining the mystical phenomena of experience, without denying their\nreality as actual occurrences.\n\n\n\n\nINDEX.\n\n\nNative words explained, _in Italics_; names of Authors quoted, in SMALL\nCAPITALS.\n\n  Achiutla, 40\n\n  ACOSTA, J., 9, 34\n\n  AGUILAR, P. S., 32\n\n  _Ahau_, 35\n\n  _Ah Kih_, 26, 51\n\n  _Ah-toc_, 45\n\n  Aissaoua, the, 60\n\n  Alaghom Naom, a goddess, 56\n\n  _Alom_, deity, 50\n\n  ALVA, B. DE, 8, 46, 47\n\n  _Anahuac_, 58\n\n  ANCONA, E., 30, 31\n\n  ANDAGOYA, P. DE, 33\n\n  ANDREE,[TN-18] R., 59\n\n  Antichrist, appealed to, 28\n\n  _Apehualco_, 44\n\n  AUBIN, M., 48, 49\n\n  Ay, Antonio, 30\n\n  Aztecan language, 5, 11\n\n  Aztecs, 7\n\n\n  _Baal-che_, 9\n\n  BAEZA, P., 9, 25\n\n  BALBOA, P., 10\n\n  BANCROFT, H. H., 13, 32, 36\n\n  BANDELIER, A., 39\n\n  Baptism, 27, 43\n\n  Baptism by fire, 37\n\n  BARBA FIGUEROA, 29\n\n  BAUTISTA, J., 6\n\n  BERENDT, C. H., 50, 59\n\n  \"Black King,\" the, 39\n\n  Blowing, as a rite, 19, 20\n\n  BOBAN, M., 48\n\n  \"Books of Chilan Balam\", 45\n\n  BOURKE, Capt., 44\n\n  BRASSEUR (de Bourbourg), 25, 28, 29, 32, 33, 37, 57\n\n  _Buk xoc_, 45\n\n  BURGOA, P., 16\n\n\n  CABRERA, Dr. P. F., 4\n\n  Cakchiquel language, 20, 23\n\n  Calendar, the native, 13-16, 45, 53\n\n  California, 10\n\n  Cancuc, town, 29\n\n  Candelaria, Maria, 35\n\n  Can Ek, Jacinto, 30\n\n  Carpio, Bernardo del, 55\n\n  CARRIEDO, J. B., 15, 30, 38, 46\n\n  Cave God, the, 38, 41\n\n  CAVO, P., 28, 32, 40\n\n  Ceiba tree, 47\n\n  Cerquin, province, 4, 5, 34\n\n  _Chac Mool_, 31\n\n  _Chacuaco_, 10\n\n  Chalcatongo, 40\n\n  _Chalchihuitl_, 39, 46, 47\n\n  Chalcos, 12\n\n  Chalma, place, 38\n\n  _Chanes_, 49\n\n  CHARNAY, D., 13\n\n  Chi, Andres, 31\n\n  Chi, Cecilio, 30\n\n  Chichimecs, 7, 54\n\n  _Chilan Balam_, 31, 45\n\n  Chontales, 17, 32\n\n  Chorti dialect, 5 n.\n\n  Chotas, tribe, 41\n\n  Clairvoyance, 9\n\n  _Coamizagual_, 34\n\n  _Coanamoa_, 41\n\n  Coatlan, 40\n\n  _Coaxihuitl_, 8\n\n  _Cohuacihuatl_, 34\n\n  _Cohuatl_, sign of, 49 n.\n\n  Codex cruciformis, 48\n\n  COHEN, H., 45\n\n  Copan, ruins of, 5 n.\n\n  _Copavitoos_, 30\n\n  CORDOVA, J., 14, 15\n\n  COTO, P., 23, 35, 42\n\n  Coyopy, king, 15\n\n  _Cozaana_, 38, 50\n\n  Cross, as symbol, 42, 43, 48\n\n  Cuculchan, 17, 19, 42\n\n\n  \"Dark House,\" the, 38, 39\n\n  Dawn, as deity, 41\n\n  Dionysos Pyrigenes, 45\n\n  DELPINO, 26\n\n  Drum, the sacred, 31, 38\n\n  Drunkenness, god of, 44\n\n  DURAN, D., 44, 45, 48\n\n\n  Earth, as deity, 41, 53\n\n  \"Essays of an Americanist,\" 4, 31, 45, 49, 50\n\n\n  FERGUSON, DAVID, 55\n\n  \"Field mass,\" the, 25\n\n  Fingers, names for, 54\n\n  Fire worship, 28, 43, 45, 53, 54\n\n  Four Winds, Lord of, 43\n\n  Frog, symbol, 46\n\n  FUENSANTA DEL VALLE, 9\n\n  FUENTES Y GUZMAN, 22, 35\n\n\n  GAGE, THOMAS, 24, 39\n\n  GAGERN, C., 10\n\n  Galindo, Ig., 35\n\n  \"Ghost dance\" of Mayas, 31\n\n  Gnosis, the, 57\n\n  Goupil collection, 48\n\n  Green stones, 46\n\n  _Gspoxil_, 20\n\n  Guatemala, 24, 39\n\n  Gucumatz, king, 24, 42\n\n\n  Hand, as deity, 54\n\n  \"Heart of the Hills\", 41, 46\n\n  \"Heart of the Maguey\", 41\n\n  \"Heart of the Towns\", 38, 39, 47\n\n  HERNANDEZ, F., 7, 10, 28, 43\n\n  HERRERA, A. DE, 4, 5, 11, 16, 33, 34, 40, 42\n\n  _Hicalahau_, 21, 39\n\n  \"Hoddentin\", 44\n\n  HOLMES, W. H., 48\n\n  Honduras, 4, 34\n\n  Huasteca dialect, 58\n\n  Huehuetan, town, 28, 39\n\n  _Huehueteotl_, 46\n\n  _Huijatoos_, 30\n\n\n  _Ical ahau_, 21, 39\n\n  IGLESIAS, A., 13\n\n  Inquisition, the, 54\n\n  Intoxicants, 7, 9\n\n  Istlavacan, town, 25\n\n\n  Jadeite, 46\n\n  JUARROS, P., 36\n\n  Justlahuaca, 41\n\n\n  _Kab_, the hand, 54\n\n  KINGSBOROUGH, Lord, 48\n\n\n  LABARTHE, CH., 12\n\n  Lacandons, tribe, 59\n\n  LANDA, D., 49\n\n  LARA, P., 19, 20\n\n  LEON, Dr. N., 9\n\n  LEON, N. DE, 6, 43, 45\n\n  Life, ideogram of, 48\n\n  Life, tree of, 48\n\n  Lingam, the, 49\n\n\n  Maguey, Heart of the, 41\n\n  _Maitl_, the Hand, as deity, 54\n\n  MALER, T., 35, 47\n\n  Mallinalco, town, 34, 38\n\n  MANSO DE CONTRERAS, 32\n\n  Mappe Quinantzin[TN-19], 48\n\n  MARIA DE MOXO, B., 29, 49\n\n  MAURY, A., 60, 61\n\n  Mayan stock, 5, 16, 24\n\n  Mayas, 9, 20, 25, 45\n\n  Mayas, revolts of, 30, 31\n\n  Mexican language, 5\n\n  Michoacan, 10\n\n  Milky Way, as deity, 53\n\n  _Mixcohuatl_, 19\n\n  Mixes, tribe, 13, 17, 32, 42\n\n  Mixtecs, tribe, 15, 16\n\n  MOLINA, A., 6\n\n  Monopostiac, Cerro de, 41\n\n  MONTJAU, M., 27\n\n  MORO, Sr., 14\n\n  MOTOLINIA, P., 42\n\n  MUeHLENPFORDT, E., 13\n\n  Mushrooms, intoxicating, 28\n\n\n  _Na_, the root, 5, 11 n.[TN-20] 57\n\n  NAGELE, A., 49\n\n  Nagual, 4, 11, 17, 22, 58\n\n  Nagualism, 4, 16\n\n  Nagualist, 4, 17, 18\n\n  _Nahual_. See _Naualli_.\n\n  _Nahualtia_, 58\n\n  Nahuatl language, 5, 12, 14, 41, 46, 57, 58\n\n  _Nana hualtin_, 5, 6, 10\n\n  Nanahuatl, a deity, 54\n\n  _Naualac_, 13\n\n  _Naualcuauhtla_, 12\n\n  _Naualli_, 5, 10, 11, 12, 57, 58\n\n  _Nauallotl_, 5, 57\n\n  _Naualteteuctin_, 12\n\n  Navajas, Cerro de las, 49\n\n  Nayerit, Sierra de, 41\n\n  Nezahualpilli, king, 34\n\n  Nine, sacred number, 41\n\n  Noh, god of reason, 56\n\n  NUNEZ, DE LA VEGA, 16, 28, 29, 33, 42\n\n\n  Oaxaca, province, 14, 32, 47\n\n  _Octli_, 32, 44\n\n  _Ololiuhqui_, 7, 8, 9\n\n  ORDONEZ Y AGUIAR, 29, 36\n\n  OROZCO Y BERRA, 10, 14, 31\n\n  OVIEDO, 50\n\n  Oxchuc, town, 21\n\n  _Oztoteotl_, 38\n\n\n  Padrinos, 26\n\n  Pah-Ahtuns, deities, 9\n\n  Pantecatl, deity, 50\n\n  PAREDES, IG., 10\n\n  Pascual, Don, 32\n\n  PASO Y TRONCOSO, 7\n\n  _Patzlan_, 20\n\n  _Payni_, 9\n\n  PELAEZ, G., 36\n\n  _Pellote_, 7\n\n  PEREZ, P., 45\n\n  Personal spirit, 11, 13\n\n  _Peyotl_, the, 6-10\n\n  Phallus, symbol, 49\n\n  _Picietl_, 9\n\n  PIMENTEL, F., 11\n\n  PINEDA, E., 26, 50, 59\n\n  Pinopiaa, goddess, 55\n\n  _Piochtli_, 32\n\n  Pipils, tribe, 33, 42\n\n  PISA, B. DE, 40\n\n  Pokonchis, tribe, 24\n\n  _Popol Vuh_, the, 24\n\n  Popoluca language, 17\n\n  _Pox_, 20\n\n  _Poxlon_, 20\n\n  _Poxta vanegs_, 20\n\n  PUERTO, M., 31\n\n\n  _Quauhcihuatl_, 34\n\n  _Quauhnanacatl_, 28 n.\n\n  Quetzalcoatl, 12, 19, 26, 32, 41, 42, 43 n.\n\n  Quiche language, 20, 23, 55, 56\n\n  Quiches, tribe, 24, 25\n\n  Quiegolani, deity, 47\n\n  _Quilaztli_, 34\n\n  _Quiz_, 19\n\n\n  Reason, god of, 56\n\n  \"Restitution of the _tonal_\", 12, 52\n\n  RIOS, PEDRO DE LOS, 49\n\n\n  SAHAGUN, B., 5, 6, 7, 11, 34, 43, 46\n\n  SANCHEZ, J., 58\n\n  San Francisco del Mar, 41\n\n  \"Scalp-lock,\" the, 32\n\n  SCHERZER, C., 25\n\n  SELER, E., 38\n\n  SERNA, J., 9, 28, 29, 32, 34, 43, 44, 49, 52\n\n  Serpent of the Clouds, 19\n\n  Serpent, plant, 8\n\n  Serpent, feathered, 12, 19, 42\n\n  Serpent, which seizes, 41 n.\n\n  Serpent, symbol, 49\n\n  Seven, sacred number, 25, 42\n\n  SIMEON, R., 11\n\n  Slavery of Indians, 28 n.\n\n  Smoke, divining by, 10 n.\n\n  Snake, symbol. See Serpent.\n\n  Soteapan, 13, 41\n\n  SPINA, V. H., 51\n\n  SQUIER, E. G., 33, 36, 47\n\n  STOLL, O., 26, 55\n\n  Stone, as deity, 41\n\n  \"_Sukia_ woman\", 36\n\n  \"Sun Mountain\", 40\n\n  Sun, name of, 54\n\n\n  Tapirs, sacred, 39\n\n  TARAYRE, G., 50\n\n  _Ta Te_, 41\n\n  _Ta Yoapa_, 41\n\n  _Teciuhtlazque_, 6\n\n  Telepathy, 9\n\n  _Tenextlecietl_, 9\n\n  _Teopatli_, 8\n\n  _Teotlauice_, 12\n\n  Teozapotlan, 29\n\n  Tepeololtec deity, 42\n\n  _Tepeyollotl_, 38, 41\n\n  Teremendo, town, 40\n\n  _Teteuctin_, 12\n\n  _Tetonaltiani_, 12\n\n  _Teyhuinti_, 28\n\n  Tezcatzoncatl, deity, 44\n\n  _Thiuimeezque_, 10\n\n  Three, sacred number, 41\n\n  \"Thunder stone\", 42\n\n  _T'ich_, 25\n\n  Tiger dance, the, 31\n\n  _Tlachixqui_, Seer, 9\n\n  _Tlahuipuchtin_, 10 n.\n\n  Tlaloc, deity, 42\n\n  _Tlapiani_, 30, 39\n\n  Tlascala, Sierra de, 40\n\n  _Tlatoques_, 14\n\n  Tlazoaloyan, 33, 39\n\n  Tlazolteotl, deity, 50\n\n  _Tlecuixtliliztli_, 44\n\n  _Tlilancalqui_, 39 n.\n\n  Tobacco, 8, 9, 53, 54\n\n  _Tonal, tonalli_, 11, 15 n., 42, 52, 60\n\n  _Tonalcaualtia_, 12\n\n  _Tonalitlacoa_, 12\n\n  _Tonalpouhque_, 11\n\n  _Tonantzin_, 34\n\n  _Topiltzin_, 41\n\n  TORQUEMADA, P., 27, 30, 36\n\n  TORRES CASTILLO, 32\n\n  _To Ta_, 41, 46, 48\n\n  Totomachiapa, 40\n\n  Totonicapan, 22, 28\n\n  Tree, sacred, 31, 47\n\n  Tree of the Cross, 42\n\n  Tree of Life, 48\n\n  Tres Micos, 16\n\n  Trinity, the native, 41\n\n  Triplets, 19, 31\n\n  Tzentals, tribe, 16, 19, 21, 32, 33\n\n  _Tzihuizin_, 20\n\n  _Tzitzime_, the, 34 n.\n\n  _Tzitzimecihuatl_, 34\n\n\n  _Uirapircos_, 10 n.\n\n  _U-q'ux-Uleuh_, 38\n\n\n  VENEGAS, P., 10\n\n  Venus Impudica, 50\n\n  Vera Cruz, 13, 26\n\n  VETANCURT, A., 8, 32, 39, 44\n\n  VILLA SENOR Y SANCHEZ, 40\n\n  Votan, 33, 38, 41\n\n\n  WARD, S. A., 33\n\n  Water, divination by, 6\n\n  Water, as deity, 53, 54\n\n  Were-wolf, 59\n\n  Wisdom, goddess of, 56\n\n  Witches, 10\n\n  \"Witches' Sabbaths\", 48\n\n\n  _Xihuitl_, 46 n.\n\n  _Xihuitzin_, 20\n\n  XIMENES, FRANCISCO, 43\n\n  XIMENES, P., 20\n\n  _Xiquipilli_, 42\n\n  _Xiuhtecutli_, 20, 46\n\n  _Xochimilca_, 30\n\n\n  _Yahuiltoca_, 43\n\n  Yanhuitlan, town, 16\n\n  _Yaocihuatl_, 34\n\n  _Yax che_, 47\n\n  _Yax ha_, 9\n\n  _Yiahuitli_, the, 43\n\n  _Yollometli_, 41\n\n  Yoni symbols, 50\n\n  _Ytzamatl_, 47\n\n  Yucatan, 9, 25, 30\n\n\n  Zahoris, 26\n\n  Zamayac, town, 28, 29\n\n  Zapotecs, tribe, 14, 15, 32, 37, 38, 40, 47\n\n  ZETINA, 9\n\n  _Z me quiz_, 19\n\n  Zotzils, revolt of, 35, 47\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Note\n\nThe following typographical errors and inconsistencies have been\nmaintained in this version of the book.\n\nTypographical errors:\n\n  Page  Error\n  TN-1  Fn. 14-[+]  The footnote marker was missing in the original text.\n                    It has been inserted based on context.\n  TN-2  19   centipedes, etc, should read centipedes, etc.,\n  TN-3  39   black as negroes should read black as negroes.\n  TN-4  43   sick room should read sick room.\n  TN-5  52   speak to thee should read speak to thee.\n  TN-6  58   corrollary should read corollary\n  TN-7  Fn. 7-*     Nacional should read Nacional\n  TN-8  Fn. 9-*     Min stros should read Ministros\n  TN-9  Fn. 11-[+]  Simeon should read Simeon\n  TN-10 Fn. 14-[+]  exico should read Mexico\n  TN-11 Fn. 17-*    enigmaticas\" should read enigmaticas.\"\n  TN-12 Fn. 27-*    Americaine should read Americaine\n  TN-13 Fn. 30-[+]  Historicos should read Historicos\n  TN-14 Fn. 40-[+]  Espanal should read Espanol\n  TN-15 Fn. 42-[P]  'Senor should read \"Senor\n  TN-16 Fn. 47-[++] Revue should read Revue\n  TN-17 Fn. 55-[+]  Oaxaqueno should read Oaxaqueno\n  TN-18  61   Andree should read Andree\n  TN-19 63   Quinantzin should read Quinatzin\n  TN-20 63   11 n. should read 11 n.,\n\nThe following words were inconsistently spelled or hyphenated:\n\n  Bartholome / Bartholome\n  Dioecesanas / Diocesanas / Diocesan\n  Gucumatz / Gukumatz\n  Moxo / Moxo / Moxo\n  Quiche / Quiche\n  Quiches / Quiches\n  supra / supra","title":"Nagualism: A Study in Native American Folk-lore and History","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":27583}