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diff --git a/26426.txt b/26426.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0497e40 --- /dev/null +++ b/26426.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4242 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Nagualism, by Daniel G. Brinton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Nagualism + A Study in Native American Folk-lore and History + +Author: Daniel G. Brinton + +Release Date: August 24, 2008 [EBook #26426] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NAGUALISM *** + + + + +Produced by Curtis Weyant, Julia Miller, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by Case Western Reserve University Preservation Department +Digital Library) + + + + + +Transcriber's Note: + +A number of typographical errors and inconsistencies have been maintained +in this version of this book. Typographical errors have been marked with +a [TN-#], which refers to a description in the complete list found at the +end of the text. A list of words that have been inconsistently spelled or +hyphenated is found at the end of the present text. Oe ligatures have +been expanded. + +The following codes are used for characters that are not present in the +character set used for this version of the book. + + [=u] u with macron + [=o] o with macron + [||] double vertical line + [+] Dagger + [++] Double dagger + + + + + NAGUALISM. + + A STUDY + + IN + + Native American Folk-lore + and History. + + + BY + + DANIEL G. BRINTON, A.M., M.D., LL.D., D.Sc., + + Professor of American Archaeology and Linguistics in the + University of Pennsylvania. + + + PHILADELPHIA: + MACCALLA & COMPANY, PRINTERS, 237-9 DOCK STREET. + 1894 + + + + +_Nagualism. A Study in Native American Folk-lore and History._ + +_By Daniel G. Brinton, M.D._ + +(_Read before the American Philosophical Society, Jan'y 5, 1894._) + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +1. The words _Nagual_, _Nagualism_, _Nagualist_. 2. The Earliest +Reference to Nagualism. 3. The _Naualli_ of the Aztecs; their Classes +and Pretended Powers. 4. The Sacred Intoxicants; the _Peyotl_, the +_Ololiuhqui_, the _Teopatli_, the _Yax Ha_, etc. 5. Clairvoyance and +Telepathy during Intoxication. 6. The _Naualli_ of Modern Mexico. 7. The +_Tonal_ and the _Tonalpouhque_; the Genethliac System of the Nahuas. 8. +The Aztec Sodality of "Master Magicians." 9. The Personal Guardian +Spirit. + +10. Folk-lore of the Mixe Indians. 11. Astrological Divination of the +Zapotecs. 12. Similar Arts of the Mixtecs. 13. Nagualism in Chiapas, as +Described by Bishop Nunez de la Vega. 14. Nagualism Among the Quiches, +Cakchiquels and Pokonchis of Guatemala. 15. The Metamorphoses of +Gukumatz. 16. Modern Witchcraft in Yucatan and Central America; the +Zahoris and Padrinos. + +17. Fundamental Principles of Nagualism, Hatred of the Whites and of +Christianity. 18. Its Organization and Extent; its Priesthood. 19. Its +Influence in the Native Revolts against the Spanish Power. 20. Exalted +Position of Woman in Nagualism. 21. This a Survival from Ancient Times. +22. A Native Joan of Arc. 23. Modern Queens of Nagualism. + +24. The Cave-temples and the Cave-gods; Oztoteotl, Tepeyollotl, Votan, +etc. 25. The Sacred Numbers, 3 and 7. 26. Fire Worship of the +Nagualists. 27. Fire Rights Connected with the Pulque. 28. Fire +Ceremonies of the Modern Mayas. 29. Secret Significance of Fire Worship. +30. The Chalchiuites, or Sacred Green Stones. 31. The Sacred Tree and +the Tree of Life. 32. The Cross and its Symbolic Meaning. 33. The +Lascivious Rites of the Nagualists. 34. Their Relation to the Symbols of +the Serpent and the Phallus. + +35. Confusion of Christian and Native Religious Ideas; Prayers of Nagual +Priests. Their Symbolic Language. 36. The Inquisition and Nagualism. 37. +Etymology of the Word _Nagual_. 38. The Root _Na_ in the Maya, Zapotec +and Nahuatl Languages. 39. The Doctrine of Animal Transformation in the +Old World. 40. The Doctrine of Personal Spirits in the Old World. 41. +Scientific Explanations of Nagual Magic. 42. Conclusion. + + + REPRINTED FEB. 23, 1894, FROM PROC. AMER. PHILOS. SOC., VOL. XXXIII. + + + + +=1.= The words, a _nagual_, _nagualism_, a _nagualist_, have been current +in English prose for more than seventy years; they are found during that +time in a variety of books published in England and the United +States,[4-*] yet are not to be discovered in any dictionary of the +English language; nor has _Nagualism_ a place in any of the numerous +encyclopaedias or "Conversation Lexicons," in English, French, German or +Spanish. + +This is not owing to its lack of importance, since for two hundred years +past, as I shall show, it has been recognized as a cult, no less +powerful than mysterious, which united many and diverse tribes of Mexico +and Central America into organized opposition against the government and +the religion which had been introduced from Europe; whose members had +acquired and were bound together by strange faculties and an occult +learning, which placed them on a par with the famed thaumaturgists and +theodidacts of the Old World; and which preserved even into our own days +the thoughts and forms of a long suppressed ritual. + +In several previous publications I have referred briefly to this secret +sodality and its aims,[4-[+]] and now believe it worth while to collect +my scattered notes and present all that I have found of value about the +origin, aims and significance of this Eleusinian Mystery of America. I +shall trace its geographical extension and endeavor to discover what its +secret influence really was and is. + + +=2.= The earliest description I find of its particular rites is that which +the historian Herrera gives, as they prevailed in 1530, in the province +of Cerquin, in the mountainous parts of Honduras. It is as follows: + + "The Devil was accustomed to deceive these natives by appearing to + them in the form of a lion, tiger, coyote, lizard, snake, bird, or + other animal. To these appearances they apply the name _Naguales_, + which is as much as to say, guardians or companions; and when such + an animal dies, so does the Indian to whom it was assigned. The way + such an alliance was formed was thus: The Indian repaired to some + very retired spot and there appealed to the streams, rocks and + trees around him, and weeping, implored for himself the favors they + had conferred on his ancestors. He then sacrificed a dog or a fowl, + and drew blood from his tongue, or his ears, or other parts of his + body, and turned to sleep. Either in his dreams or half awake, he + would see some one of those animals or birds above mentioned, who + would say to him, 'On such a day go hunting and the first animal or + bird you see will be my form, and I shall remain your companion and + _Nagual_ for all time.' Thus their friendship became so close that + when one died so did the other; and without such a _Nagual_ the + natives believe no one can become rich or powerful."[5-*] + +This province of Cerquin appears to have been peopled by a tribe which +belonged to the great Mayan stock, akin to those which occupied most of +the area of what is now Yucatan, Tabasco, Chiapas and Guatemala.[5-[+]] +I shall say something later about the legendary enchantress whom their +traditions recalled as the teacher of their ancestors and the founder of +their nation. What I would now call attention to is the fact that in +none of the dialects of the specifically Mexican or Aztecan stock of +languages do we find the word _nagual_ in the sense in which it is +employed in the above extract, and this is strong evidence that the +origin of Nagualism is not to be sought in that stock. + + +=3.= We do find, however, in the Nahuatl language, which is the proper +name of the Aztecan, a number of derivatives from the same root, _na_, +among them this very word, _Nahuatl_, all of them containing the idea +"to know," or "knowledge." The early missionaries to New Spain often +speak of the _naualli_ (plural, _nanahualtin_), masters of mystic +knowledge, dealers in the black art, wizards or sorcerers. They were not +always evil-minded persons, though they seem to have been generally +feared. The earliest source of information about them is Father Sahagun, +who, in his invaluable History, has the following paragraph: + + "The _naualli_, or magician, is he who frightens men and sucks the + blood of children during the night. He is well skilled in the + practice of this trade, he knows all the arts of sorcery + (_nauallotl_) and employs them with cunning and ability; but for + the benefit of men only, not for their injury. Those who have + recourse to such arts for evil intents injure the bodies of their + victims, cause them to lose their reason and smother them. These + are wicked men and necromancers."[6-*] + +It is evident on examining the later works of the Roman clergy in Mexico +that the Church did not look with any such lenient eye on the possibly +harmless, or even beneficial, exercise of these magical devices. We find +a further explanation of what they were, preserved in a work of +instruction to confessors, published by Father Juan Bautista, at Mexico, +in the year 1600. + + "There are magicians who call themselves _teciuhtlazque_,[6-[+]] + and also by the term _nanahualtin_, who conjure the clouds when + there is danger of hail, so that the crops may not be injured. They + can also make a stick look like a serpent, a mat like a centipede, + a piece of stone like a scorpion, and similar deceptions. Others of + these _nanahualtin_ will transform themselves to all appearances + (segun la aparencia), into a tiger, a dog or a weasel. Others again + will take the form of an owl, a cock, or a weasel; and when one is + preparing to seize them, they will appear now as a cock, now as an + owl, and again as a weasel. These call themselves + _nanahualtin_."[6-[++]] + +There is an evident attempt in this somewhat confused statement to +distinguish between an actual transformation, and one which only appears +such to the observer. + +In another work of similar character, published at Mexico a few years +later, the "Road to Heaven," of Father Nicolas de Leon, we find a series +of questions which a confessor should put to any of his flock suspected +of these necromantic practices. They reveal to us quite clearly what +these occult practitioners were believed to do. The passage reads as +follows, the questions being put in the mouth of the priest: + + "Art thou a soothsayer? Dost thou foretell events by reading signs, + or by interpreting dreams, or by water, making circles and figures + on its surface? Dost thou sweep and ornament with flower garlands + the places where idols are preserved? Dost thou know certain words + with which to conjure for success in hunting, or to bring rain? + + "Dost thou suck the blood of others, or dost thou wander about at + night, calling upon the Demon to help thee? Hast thou drunk + _peyotl_, or hast thou given it to others to drink, in order to + find out secrets, or to discover where stolen or lost articles + were? Dost thou know how to speak to vipers in such words that they + obey thee?"[6-Sec.] + + +=4.= This interesting passage lets in considerable light on the claims and +practices of the nagualists. Not the least important item is that of +their use of the intoxicant, _peyotl_, a decoction of which it appears +played a prominent part in their ceremonies. This is the native Nahuatl +name of a certain plant, having a white, tuberous root, which is the +part employed. It is mentioned as "pellote" or "peyote" in the +_Farmacopea Mexicana_ as a popular remedy, but its botanical name is not +added. According to Paso y Troncoso, it is one of the Compositae, a +species of the genus _Cacalia_.[7-*] It is referred to in several +passages by Father Sahagun, who says that it grows in southern Mexico, +and that the Aztecs derived their knowledge of it from the older +"Chichimecs." It was used as an intoxicant. + + "Those who eat or drink of this _peyotl_ see visions, which are + sometimes frightful and sometimes ludicrous. The intoxication it + causes lasts several days. The Chichimecs believed that it gave + them courage in time of danger and diminished the pangs of hunger + and thirst."[7-[+]] + +Its use was continued until a late date, and very probably has not yet +died out. Its composition and method of preparation are given in a list +of beverages prohibited by the Spanish authorities in the year 1784, as +follows: + + "_Peyote_: Made from a species of vinagrilla, about the size of a + billiard ball, which grows in dry and sterile soil. The natives + chew it, and throw it into a wooden mortar, where it is left to + ferment, some leaves of tobacco being added to give it pungency. + They consume it in this form, sometimes with slices of _peyote_ + itself, in their most solemn festivities, although it dulls the + intellect and induces gloomy and hurtful visions (sombras muy + funestas)."[7-[++]] + +The _peyotl_ was not the only herb prized as a means of casting the soul +into the condition of hypostatic union with divinity. We have abundant +evidence that long after the conquest the seeds of the plant called in +Nahuatl the _ololiuhqui_ were in high esteem for this purpose. In the +Confessionary of Father Bartholome de Alva the priest is supposed to +inquire and learn as follows: + + "_Question._ Hast thou loved God above all things? Hast thou loved + any created thing, adoring it, looking upon it as God, and + worshiping it? + + "_Answer._ I have loved God with all my heart; but sometimes I have + believed in dreams, and also I have believed in the sacred herbs, + the _peyotl_, and the _ololiuhqui_; and in other such things + (_onicneltocac in temictli, in xiuhtzintli, in peyotl, in + ololiuhqui, yhuan in occequitlamantli_)."[8-*] + +The seeds of the _ololiuhqui_ appear to have been employed externally. +They were the efficient element in the mysterious unguent known as "the +divine remedy" (_teopatli_), about which we find some information in the +works of Father Augustin de Vetancurt, who lived in Mexico in the middle +of the seventeenth century. He writes: + + "The pagan priests made use of an ointment composed of insects, + such as spiders, scorpions, centipedes and the like, which the + neophytes in the temples prepared. They burned these insects in a + basin, collected the ashes, and rubbed it up with green tobacco + leaves, living worms and insects, and the powdered seeds of a plant + called _ololiuhqui_, which has the power of inducing visions, and + the effect of which is to destroy the reasoning powers. Under the + influence of this ointment, they conversed with the Devil, and he + with them, practicing his deceptions upon them. They also believed + that it protected them, so they had no fear of going into the woods + at night. + + "This was also employed by them as a remedy in various diseases, + and the soothing influence of the tobacco and the _ololiuhqui_ was + attributed by them to divine agency. There are some in our own day + who make use of this ointment for sorcery, shutting themselves up, + and losing their reason under its influence; especially some old + men and old women, who are prepared to fall an easy prey to the + Devil."[8-[+]] + +The botanist Hernandez observes that another name for this plant was +_coaxihuitl_, "serpent plant," and adds that its seeds contain a +narcotic poison, and that it is allied to the genus _Solanum_, of which +the deadly night-shade is a familiar species. He speaks of its use in +the sacred rites in these words: + + "Indorum sacrifici, cum videri volebant versari cum superis, ac + responsa accipere ab eis, ea vescebantur planta, ut desiperent, + milleque phantasmata et demonum observatium effigies + circumspectarent."[8-[++]] + +Of the two plants mentioned, the _ololiuhqui_ and the _peyotl_, the +former was considered the more potent in spiritual virtues. "They hold +it in as much veneration as if it were God," says a theologian of the +seventeenth century.[9-*] One who partook of these herbs was called +_payni_ (from the verb _pay_, to take medicine); and more especially +_tlachixqui_, a Seer, referring to the mystic "second sight," hence a +diviner or prophet (from the verb _tlachia_, to see). + +Tobacco also held a prominent, though less important, place in these +rites. It was employed in two forms, the one the dried leaf, _picietl_, +which for sacred uses must be broken and rubbed up either seven or nine +times; and the green leaf mixed with lime, hence called _tenextlecietl_ +(from _tenextli_, lime). + +Allied in effect to these is an intoxicant in use in southern Mexico and +Yucatan, prepared from the bark of a tree called by the Mayas +_baal-che_. The whites speak of the drink as _pitarilla_. It is quite +popular among the natives, and they still attribute to it a sacred +character, calling it _yax ha_, the first water, the primal fluid. They +say that it was the first liquid created by God, and when He returned to +His heavenly home He left this beverage and its production in charge of +the gods of the rains, the four Pah-Ahtuns.[9-[+]] + + +=5.= Intoxication of some kind was an essential part of many of these +secret rites. It was regarded as a method of throwing the individual out +of himself and into relation with the supernal powers. What the old +historian, Father Joseph de Acosta, tells us about the clairvoyants and +telepaths of the aborigines might well stand for a description of their +modern representatives: + + "Some of these sorcerers take any shape they choose, and fly + through the air with wonderful rapidity and for long distances. + They will tell what is taking place in remote localities long + before the news could possibly arrive. The Spaniards have known + them to report mutinies, battles, revolts and deaths, occurring two + hundred or three hundred leagues distant, on the very day they took + place, or the day after. + + "To practice this art the sorcerers, usually old women, shut + themselves in a house, and intoxicate themselves to the degree of + losing their reason. The next day they are ready to reply to + questions."[10-*] + +Plants possessing similar powers to excite vivid visions and distort the +imagination, and, therefore, employed in the magical rites, were the +_thiuimeezque_, in Michoacan, and the _chacuaco_, in lower +California.[10-[+]] + + +=6.= In spite of all effort, the various classes of wonder-workers +continued to thrive in Mexico. We find in a book of sermons published by +the Jesuit Father, Ignacio de Paredes, in the Nahuatl language, in 1757, +that he strenuously warns his hearers against invoking, consulting, or +calling upon "the devilish spell-binders, the nagualists, and those who +conjure with smoke."[10-[++]] + +They have not yet lost their power; we have evidence enough that many +children of a larger growth in that land still listen with respect to +the recitals of the mysterious faculties attributed to the +_nanahualtin_. An observant German traveler, Carlos von Gagern, informs +us that they are widely believed to be able to cause sicknesses and +other ills, which must be counteracted by appropriate exorcisms, among +which the reading aloud certain passages of the Bible is deemed to be +one of the most potent.[10-Sec.] + +The learned historian, Orozco y Berra, speaks of the powers attributed +at the present day to the _nahual_ in Mexico among the lower classes, in +these words: + + "The _nahual_ is generally an old Indian with red eyes, who knows + how to turn himself into a dog, woolly, black and ugly. The female + witch can convert herself into a ball of fire; she has the power of + flight, and at night will enter the windows and suck the blood of + little children. These sorcerers will make little images of rags or + of clay, then stick into them the thorn of the maguey and place + them in some secret place; you can be sure that the person against + whom the conjuration is practiced will feel pain in the part where + the thorn is inserted. There still exist among them the + medicine-men, who treat the sick by means of strange contortions, + call upon the spirits, pronounce magical incantations, blow upon + the part where the pain is, and draw forth from the patient thorns, + worms, or pieces of stone. They know how to prepare drinks which + will bring on sickness, and if the patients are cured by others the + convalescents are particular to throw something of their own away, + as a lock of hair, or a part of their clothing. Those who possess + the evil eye can, by merely looking at children, deprive them of + beauty and health, and even cause their death."[11-*] + + +=7.= As I have said, nowhere in the records of purely Mexican, that is, +Aztecan, Nagualism do we find the word _nagual_ employed in the sense +given in the passage quoted from Herrera, that is as a personal guardian +spirit or tutelary genius. These tribes had, indeed, a belief in some +such protecting power, and held that it was connected with the day on +which each person is born. They called it the _tonalli_ of a person, a +word translated to mean that which is peculiar to him, which makes his +individuality, his self. The radical from which it is derived is _tona_, +to warm, or to be warm, from which are also derived _tonatiuh_, the sun. +_Tonalli_, which in composition loses its last syllable, is likewise the +word for heat, summer, soul, spirit and day, and also for the share or +portion which belongs to one. Thus, _to-tonal_ is spirit or soul in +general; _no-tonal_, my spirit; _no-tonal in ipan no-tlacat_, "the sign +under which I was born," _i. e._, the astrological day-sign. From this +came the verb _tonalpoa_, to count or estimate the signs, that is, to +cast the horoscope of a person; and _tonalpouhque_, the diviners whose +business it was to practice this art.[11-[+]] + +These _tonalpouhque_ are referred to at length by Father +Sahagun.[11-[++]] He distinguishes them from the _naualli_, though it is +clear that they corresponded in functions to the nagualistic priests of +the southern tribes. From the number and name of the day of birth they +forecast the destiny of the child, and stated the power or spiritual +influence which should govern its career. + +The _tonal_ was by no means an indefeasible possession. It was a sort of +independent _mascotte_. So long as it remained with a person he enjoyed +health and prosperity; but it could depart, go astray, become lost; and +then sickness and misfortune arrived. This is signified in the Nahuatl +language by the verbs _tonalcaualtia_, to check, stop or suspend the +_tonal_, hence, to shock or frighten one; and _tonalitlacoa_, to hurt or +injure the _tonal_, hence, to cast a spell on one, to bewitch him. + +This explains the real purpose of the conjuring and incantations which +were carried on by the native doctor when visiting the sick. It was to +recall the _tonal_, to force or persuade it to return; and, therefore, +the ceremony bore the name "the restitution of the _tonal_," and was +more than any other deeply imbued with the superstitions of Nagualism. +The chief officiant was called the _tetonaltiani_, "he who concerns +himself with the tonal." On a later page I shall give the formula +recited on such an occasion. + + +=8.= There is some vague mention in the Aztec records of a semi-priestly +order, who bore the name _naualteteuctin_, which may be translated +"master magicians." They were also known as _teotlauice_, "sacred +companions in arms." As was the case with most classes of the +_teteuctin_, or nobles, entrance to the order was by a severe and +prolonged ceremony of initiation, the object of which was not merely to +test the endurance of pain and the powers of self-denial, but especially +to throw the mind into that subjective state in which it is brought into +contact with the divine, in which it can "see visions and dream dreams." +The order claimed as its patron and founder Quetzalcoatl, the "feathered +serpent," who, it will be seen on another page, was also the patron of +the later nagualists.[12-*] + +The word _naualli_ also occurs among the ancient Nahuas in composition +as a part of proper names; always with the signification of "magician," +as in that of Naualcuauhtla, a chief of the Chalcos, meaning +"wizard-stick," referring probably to the rod or wand employed by the +magi in conjuration.[13-*] So also _Naualac_, the "wizard water," an +artificial lake not far from the city of Mexico, surrounded by ruined +temples, described by M. Charnay.[13-[+]] + + +=9.= The belief in a personal guardian spirit was one of the fundamental +doctrines of Nagualism; but this belief by no means connotes the full +import of the term (as Mr. H. H. Bancroft has erroneously stated). The +calendar system of Mexico and Central America, which I have shown to be +substantially the same throughout many diverse linguistic +stocks,[13-[++]] had as one of its main objects, astrological +divination. By consulting it the appropriate nagual was discovered and +assigned, and this was certainly a prominent feature in the native cult +and has never been abandoned. + +In Mexico to-day, in addition to his special personal guardian, the +native will often choose another for a limited time or for a particular +purpose, and this is quite consistent with the form of Christianity he +has been taught. For instance, as we are informed by an observant +traveler, at New Year or at corn-planting the head of a family will go +to the parish church and among the various saints there displayed will +select one as his guardian for the year. He will address to him his +prayers for rain and sunshine, for an abundant harvest, health and +prosperity, and will not neglect to back these supplications by liberal +gifts. If times are good and harvests ample the Santo is rewarded with +still more gifts, and his aid is sought for another term; but if luck +has been bad the Indian repairs to the church at the end of the year, +bestows on his holy patron a sound cursing, calls him all the bad names +he can think of, and has nothing more to do with him.[13-Sec.] + + +=10.= A Mexican writer, Andres Iglesias, who enjoyed more than common +opportunities to study these practices as they exist in the present +generation, describes them as he saw them in the village of Soteapan, a +remote hamlet in the State of Vera Cruz, the population of which speak +the Mixe language. This is not related to the Nahuatl tongue, but the +terms of their magical rites are drawn from Nahuatl words, showing their +origin. Every person at birth has assigned to him both a good and a bad +genius, the former aiming at his welfare, the latter at his injury. The +good genius is known by the Nahuatl term _tonale_, and it is represented +in the first bird or animal of any kind which is seen in or near the +house immediately after the birth of the infant. + +The most powerful person in the village is the high priest of the native +cult. One who died about 1850 was called "the Thunderbolt," and whenever +he walked abroad he was preceded by a group of chosen disciples, called +by the Nahuatl name _tlatoques_, speakers or attorneys.[14-*] His +successor, known as "the Greater Thunder," did not maintain this state, +but nevertheless claimed to be able to control the seasons and to send +or to mitigate destructive storms--claims which, sad to say, brought him +to the stocks, but did not interfere with the regular payment of tribute +to him by the villagers. He was also a medicine man and master of +ceremonies in certain "scandalous orgies, where immodesty shows herself +without a veil."[14-[+]][TN-1] + + +=11.= Turning to the neighboring province of Oaxaca and its inhabitants, +we are instructed on the astrological use of the calendar of the +Zapotecs by Father Juan de Cordova, whose _Arte_ of their language was +published at Mexico in 1578. From what he says its principal, if not its +only purpose, was astrological. Each day had its number and was called +after some animal, as eagle, snake, deer, rabbit, etc. Every child, male +or female, received the name of the day, and also its number, as a +surname; its personal name being taken from a fixed series, which +differed in the masculine and feminine gender, and which seems to have +been derived from the names of the fingers. + +From this it appears that among the Zapotecs the personal spirit or +_nagual_ was fixed by the date of the birth, and not by some later +ceremony, although the latter has been asserted by some writers; who, +however, seem to have applied without certain knowledge the rites of the +Nahuas and other surrounding tribes to the Zapotecs.[15-*] + +Next in importance to the assigning of names, according to Father +Cordova, was the employment of the calendar in deciding the propriety of +marriages. As the recognized object of marriage was to have sons, the +couple appealed to the professional augur to decide this question before +the marriage was fixed. He selected as many beans as was the sum of the +numbers of the two proponents' names, and, counting them by twos, if one +remained over, it meant a son; then counting by threes any remainder +also meant sons; by fours the remainder meant either sons or daughters; +and by five and six the same; and if there was no remainder by any of +these five divisors the marriage would result in no sons and was +prohibited. + +It is obvious that this method of fortune-telling was most auspicious +for the lovers; for I doubt if there is any combination of two numbers +below fourteen which is divisible by two, three, four, five and six +without remainder in any one instance.[15-[+]] + +The Zapotecs were one of those nations who voluntarily submitted +themselves to the Spaniards, not out of love for the Europeans, but +through hatred of the Aztecs, who had conquered them in the preceding +century. Their king, Coyopy, and his subjects accepted Christianity and +were generally baptized; but it was the merest formality, and years +afterwards Coyopy was detected secretly conducting the heathen ritual of +his ancestors with all due pomp. He was arrested, sent to the city of +Mexico, deprived of his power and wealth, and soon died; it is +charitably supposed, from natural causes. There is no question but that +he left successors to the office of pontifex maximus, and that they +continued the native religious ceremonies. + + +=12.= The sparse notices we have of the astrology of the Mixtecs, +neighbors and some think relatives of the Zapotecs, reveal closely +similar rites. The name of their king, who opposed Montezuma the First +some sixty years before the arrival of Cortez, proves that they made use +of the same or a similar calendar in bestowing personal appellations. It +is given as _Tres Micos_, Three Monkeys. + +Unfortunately, so far as I know, there has not been published, and +perhaps there does not exist, an authentic copy of the Mixtec calendar. +It was nevertheless reduced to writing in the native tongue after the +conquest, and a copy of it was seen by the historian Burgoa in the +Mixtec town of Yanhuitlan.[16-*] Each day was named from a tree, a plant +or an animal, and from them the individual received his names, as Four +Lions, Five Roses, etc. (examples given by Herrera). This latter writer +adds that the name was assigned by the priests when the child was seven +years old (as among the Tzentals), part of the rite being to conduct it +to the temple and bore its ears. He refers also to their auguries +relating to marriage.[16-[+]] These appear to have been different from +among the Zapotecs. It was necessary that the youth should have a name +bearing a higher number than that of the maiden, and also "that they +should be related;" probably this applied only to certain formal +marriages of the rulers which were obliged to be within the same _gens_. + + +=13.= I have referred in some detail to the rites and superstitions +connected with the Calendar because they are all essential parts of +Nagualism, carried on far into Christian times by the priests of this +secret cult, as was fully recognized by the Catholic clergy. Wherever +this calendar was in use, the Freemasonry of Nagualism extended, and its +ritual had constant reference to it. Our fullest information about it +does not come from central Mexico, but further south, in the region +occupied by the various branches of the Mayan stock, by the ancestors of +some one of which, perhaps, this singular calendar, and the symbolism +connected with it, were invented. + +One of the most important older authorities on this subject is Francisco +Nunez de la Vega, a learned Dominican, who was appointed Bishop of +Chiapas and Soconusco in 1687, and who published at Rome, in 1702, a +stately folio entitled "_Constituciones Dioecesanas del Obispado de +Chiappa_," comprising discussions of the articles of religion and a +series of pastoral letters. The subject of Nagualism is referred to in +many passages, and the ninth Pastoral Letter is devoted to it. As this +book is one of extreme rarity, I shall make rather lengthy extracts from +it, taking the liberty of condensing the scholastic prolixity of the +author, and omitting his professional admonitions to the wicked. + +He begins his references to it in several passages of his Introduction +or _Preambulo_, in which he makes some interesting statements as to the +use to which the natives put their newly-acquired knowledge of writing, +while at the same time they had evidently not forgotten the ancient +method of recording ideas invented by their ancestors. + +The Bishop writes: + + "The Indians of New Spain retain all the errors of their time of + heathenism preserved in certain writings in their own languages, + explaining by abbreviated characters and by figures painted in a + secret cypher[17-*] the places, provinces and names of their early + rulers, the animals, stars and elements which they worshiped, the + ceremonies and sacrifices which they observed, and the years, + months and days by which they predicted the fortunes of children at + birth, and assign them that which they call the Naguals. These + writings are known as Repertories or Calendars, and they are also + used to discover articles lost or stolen, and to effect cures of + diseases. Some have a wheel painted in them, like that of + Pythagoras, described by the Venerable Bede; others portray a lake + surrounded by the Naguals in the form of various animals. Some of + the Nagualist Masters claim as their patron and ruler Cuchulchan, + and they possessed a certain formula of prayer to him, written in + the Popoluca tongue (which was called Baha in their time of + heathenism), and which has been translated into Mexican.[17-[+]] + + "Those who are selected to become the masters of these arts are + taught from early childhood how to draw and paint these characters, + and are obliged to learn by heart the formulas, and the names of + the ancient Nagualists, and whatever else is included in these + written documents, many of which we have held in our hands, and + have heard them explained by such masters whom we had imprisoned + for their guilt, and who had afterwards become converted and + acknowledged their sins."[17-[++]] + +The Bishop made up his mind that extreme measures should be taken to +eradicate these survivals of the ancient paganism in his diocese, and he +therefore promulgated the following order in the year 1692: + + "And because in the provinces of our diocese those Indians who are + Nagualists adore their _naguals_, and look upon them as gods, and + by their aid believe that they can foretell the future, discover + hidden treasures, and fulfill their dishonest desires: we, + therefore, prescribe and command that in every town an + ecclesiastical prison shall be constructed at the expense of the + church, and that it be provided with fetters and stocks (con + grillos y cepos), and we confer authority on every priest and + curate of a parish to imprison in these gaols whoever is guilty of + disrespect toward our Holy Faith, and we enjoin them to treat with + especial severity those who teach the doctrines of Nagualism (y con + rigor mayor a los dogmatizantes Nagualistas)."[18-*] + +In spite of these injunctions it is evident that he failed to destroy +the seeds of what he esteemed this dangerous heresy in the parishes of +his diocese; for his ninth Pastoral Letter, in which he exposes at +length the character of Nagualism, is dated from the metropolitan city +of Ciudad Real, on May 24, 1698. As much of it is germane to my theme, I +translate as follows: + + "There are certain bad Christians of both sexes who do not hesitate + to follow the school of the Devil, and to occupy themselves with + evil arts, divinations, sorceries, conjuring, enchantments, + fortune-telling, and other means to forecast the future. + + "These are those who in all the provinces of New Spain are known by + the name of _Nagualists_. They pretend that the birth of men is + regulated by the course and movements of stars and planets, and by + observing the time of day and the months in which a child is born, + they prognosticate its condition and the events, prosperous or + otherwise, of its life; and the worst is that these perverse men + have written down their signs and rules, and thus deceive the + erring and ignorant. + + "These Nagualists practice their arts by means of Repertories and + superstitious Calendars, where are represented under their proper + names all the Naguals of stars, elements, birds, fishes, brute + beasts and dumb animals; with a vain note of days and months, so + that they can announce which corresponds to the day of birth of the + infant. This is preceded by some diabolical ceremonies, after which + they designate the field or other spot, where, after seven years + shall have elapsed, the Nagual will appear to ratify the bargain. + As the time approaches, they instruct the child to deny God and + His Blessed Mother, and warn him to have no fear, and not to make + the sign of the cross. He is told to embrace his Nagual tenderly, + which, by some diabolical art, presents itself in an affectionate + manner even though it be a ferocious beast, like a lion or a tiger. + Thus, with infernal cunning they persuade him that this Nagual is + an angel of God, who will look after him and protect him in his + after life. + + "To such diabolical masters the intelligent Indians apply, to learn + from these superstitious Calendars, dictated by the Devil, their + own fortunes, and the Naguals which will be assigned to their + children, even before they are baptized. In most of the Calendars, + the seventh sign is the figure of a man and a snake, which they + call Cuchulchan. The masters have explained it as a snake with + feathers which moves in the water. This sign corresponds with + Mexzichuaut, which means Cloudy Serpent, or, of the clouds.[19-*] + The people also consult them in order to work injury on their + enemies, taking the lives of many through such devilish artifices, + and committing unspeakable atrocities. + + "Worse even than these are those who wander about as physicians or + healers; who are none such, but magicians, enchanters, and + sorcerers, who, while pretending to cure, kill whom they will. They + apply their medicines by blowing on the patient, and by the use of + infernal words; learned by heart by those who cannot read or write; + and received in writing from their masters by those acquainted with + letters. The Master never imparts this instruction to a single + disciple, but always to three at a time, so that in the practice of + the art it may be difficult to decide which one exerts the magical + power. They blow on feathers, or sticks, or plants, and place them + in the paths where they may be stepped on by those they wish to + injure, thus causing chills, fevers, ugly pustules and other + diseases; or they introduce into the body by such arts toads, + frogs, snakes, centipedes, etc,[TN-2] causing great torments. And + by these same breathings and magic words they can burn down houses, + destroy the growing crops and induce sickness. No one of the three + disciples is permitted to practice any of these arts without + previously informing the other two, and also the Master, by whom + the three have been taught. + + "We have learned by the confession of certain guilty parties how + the Master begins to instruct his disciple. First he tells him to + abjure God, the saints and the Virgin, not to invoke their names, + and to have no fear of them. He then conducts him to the wood, + glen, cave or field where the pact with the Devil is concluded, + which they call 'the agreement' or 'the word given' (in Tzental + _quiz_). In some provinces the disciple is laid on an ant-hill, and + the Master standing above him calls forth a snake, colored with + black, white and red, which is known as 'the ant-mother' (in + Tzental _zmezquiz_).[19-[+]] This comes accompanied by the ants + and other small snakes of the same kind, which enter at the joints + of the fingers, beginning with the left hand, and coming out at the + joints of the right hand, and also by the ears and the nose; while + the great snake enters the body with a leap and emerges at its + posterior vent. Afterwards the disciple meets a dragon vomiting + fire, which swallows him entire and ejects him posteriorly. Then + the Master declares he may be admitted, and asks him to select the + herbs with which he will conjure, the disciple names them, the + Master gathers them and delivers them to him, and then teaches him + the sacred words. + + "These words and ceremonies are substantially the same in all the + provinces. The healer enters the house of the invalid, asks about + the sickness, lays his hand on the suffering part, and then leaves, + promising to return on the day following. At the next visit he + brings with him some herbs which he chews or mashes with a little + water and applies to the part. Then he repeats the _Pater Noster_, + the _Ave_, the _Credo_ and the _Salve_ and blows upon the seat of + disease, afterwards pronouncing the magical words taught him by his + master. He continues blowing in this manner, inhaling and exhaling, + repeating under his breath these magical expressions, which are + powerful to kill or to cure as he chooses, through the compact he + has made with the Devil. Finally, so as to deceive the bystanders, + he ends with saying in a loud voice: 'God the Father, God the Son, + and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.' + + "This physician or healer is called in the towns of some of the + provinces _poxta vanegs_, and the medicine _gspoxil_; and + everything relating to healing among the Indians to which they + apply these terms means also to practice sorcery; and all words + derived from _pox_ allude to the Nagual; for this in some provinces + is called _poxlon_, and in others _patzlan_, and in many + _tzihuizin_, which is something very much feared by the Indians. We + have ascertained by the confessions of many who have been + reconciled that the Devil at times appears to them in the shape of + a ball or globe of fire in the air, with a tail like a comet.[20-*] + + "According to the most ancient traditions of these Indians this + idol, _poxlon_, was one of the most important and venerated they + had in the old times, and the Tzentals revered it so much that + they preserved it innumerable years painted on a tablet in the + above figure. Even after they were converted to the faith, they + hung it behind a beam in the church of the town of Oxchuc, + accompanied by an image of their god Hicalahau, having a ferocious + black face with the members of a man,[21-*] along with five owls + and vultures. By divine interposition, we discovered these on our + second visit there in 1687, and had no little difficulty in getting + them down, we reciting the creed, and the Indians constantly + spitting as they executed our orders. These objects were publicly + burned in the plaza. + + "In other parts they reverence the bones of the earlier Nagualists, + preserving them in caves, where they adorn them with flowers and + burn copal before them. We have discovered some of these and burned + them, hoping to root out and put a stop to such evil ceremonies of + the infernal sect of the Nagualists. + + "At present, all are not so subject to the promptings of the Devil + as formerly, but there are still some so closely allied to him that + they transform themselves into tigers, lions, bulls, flashes of + light and globes of fire. We can say from the declaration and + solemn confession of some penitents that it is proved that the + Devil had carnal relations with them, both as incubus and succubus, + approaching them in the form of their Nagual; and there was one + woman who remained in the forest a week with the demon in the form + of her Nagual, acting toward him as does an infatuated woman toward + her lover (como pudiera con su proprio amigo una muger amancebada). + As a punishment for such horrible crimes our Lord has permitted + that they lose their life as soon as their Nagual is killed; and + that they bear on their own bodies the wound or mark of the blow + which killed it; as the curas of Chamula, Copainala and other + places have assured us. + + "The devilish seed of this Nagualism has rooted itself in the very + flesh and blood of these Indians. It perseveres in their hearts + through the instructions of the masters of the sect, and there is + scarcely a town in these provinces in which it has not been + introduced. It is a superstitious idolatry, full of monstrous + incests, sodomies and detestable bestialities." + +Such are the words of the Bishop of Chiapas. We learn from his +thoroughly instructed and unimpeachable testimony that at the beginning +of the eighteenth century Nagualism was a widespread and active +institution among the Indians of southern Mexico; that it was taught and +practiced by professors who were so much feared and respected that, as +he tells us in another passage, they were called "masters of the +towns;"[21-[+]] that they gave systematic instruction to disciples in +classes of three, all of whom were bound together by pledges of mutual +information and assistance; that a fundamental principle of the +organization and an indispensable step in the initiation into its +mysteries was the abjuration of the Christian religion, and an undying +hatred to its teachers and all others of the race of the white +oppressors; and that when they made use of Christian phrases or +ceremonies it was either in derision or out of hypocrisy, the better to +conceal their real sentiments. + +There are a number of other witnesses from the seventeenth century that +may be summoned to strengthen this testimony, if it needs it. + + +=14.= In the _History of Guatemala_, written about 1690 by Francisco +Antonio Fuentes y Guzman, the author gives some information about a +sorcerer of this school, who was arrested in Totonicapan, and with whom +the historian had something to do as _corregidor_. + +The redoubtable magician was a little old man, _viejezuelo_, and when +caught had in his possession a document giving the days of the year +according to the European calendar, with the Nagual, which belonged to +each one. That for January is alone given by our writer, but it is +probable that the other months merely repeated the naguals corresponding +to the numbers. It ran as follows: + + _Nagual Calendar for January._ + + 1. Lion. + 2. Snake. + 3. Stone. + 4. Alligator. + 5. Ceiba tree. + 6. The quetzal (a bird). + 7. A stick. + 8. Rabbit. + 9. A rope. + 10. Leaf. + 11. Deer. + 12. Guacamayo (parrot). + 13. Flower. + 14. Toad. + 15. Caterpillar. + 16. A chip. + 17. Arrow. + 18. Broom. + 19. Jaguar. + 20. Corn-husk. + 21. A flute. + 22. Green-stone. + 23. Crow. + 24. Fire. + 25. A pheasant. + 26. A reed. + 27. Opossum. + 28. Huracan (the thunder-storm). + 29. The vulture. + 30. Hawk. + 31. Bat. + +When the sorcerer was examined as to the manner of assigning the proper +nagual to a child he gave the following account: + +Having been informed of its day of birth, he in due time called at the +residence of the parents, and told the mother to bring the child into +the field behind the house. Having there invoked the demon, the _nagual_ +of the child would appear under the form of the animal or object set +opposite its birthday in the calendar, a serpent were it born on the 2d +of January, a flower were it on the 13th, fire were it on the 24th, and +so on. The sorcerer then addressed certain prayers to the _nagual_ to +protect the little one, and told the mother to take it daily to the same +spot, where its _nagual_ would appear to it, and would finally accompany +it through all its life. Some, but not all, obtained the power of +transforming themselves into the _nagual_, and the author declares that, +though he could not cite such a case from his own experience, his father +knew of several, and reliable priests, _religiosos de fe_, had told him +enough examples to fill volumes.[23-*] + +The tribes to which this author refers were the Cakchiquels and Quiches, +who spoke practically the same tongue. An examination of some of the old +dictionaries prepared by the early missionaries furnishes further and +interesting information about this obscure subject. + +In the Cakchiquel language of Guatemala, the word _naual_ was applied +both to the magician himself, to his necromantic art, and to the demonic +agency which taught and protected him. This is shown by the following +explanation, which I quote from Father Coto's _Vocabulario de la Lengua +Cakchiquel_, 1651, a manuscript in the library of the American +Philosophical Society: + + "_Magic_ or _Necromancy_: _puz_ or _naual_; and they were + accustomed to call their magicians or sorcerers by the same terms. + It was a kind of magic which they invoked in order to transform + themselves into eagles, lions, tigers, etc. Thus, they said, _ru + puz_, _ru naual_, _pedro lae cot_, _balam_, 'Peter's power, his + _naual_, is a lion, a tiger.' They also applied the words _puz_ and + _naual_ to certain trees, rocks and other inanimate objects, whence + the Devil used to speak to them, and likewise to the idols which + they worshiped, as _gazlic che_, _gazlic abah_, _huyu_, _k'o ru + naual_, 'The life of the tree, the life of the stone, of the hill, + is its _naual_,' etc.; because they believed there was life in + these objects. They used to have armies and soldiery to guard + their lands, and the captains, as well as many who were not + captains, had their _nauales_. They called the captain _ru g' + alache; rohobachi, ti ru gaah, ru pocob, ru gh' amay a ghay ti be + chi naualil_ [he works magic with his shield, his lance, and his + arrows]. + + "To practice such magical arts: _tin naualih_ ('I practice magic'), + an active verb. They use it, for instance, when a man asks his wife + for something to eat or drink, and she has nothing, owing to his + negligence, she will say: 'Where do you suppose I can get what you + want? Do you expect me to perform miracles--_xa pe ri tin + naualih_--that they shall come to my hands?' So when one is asked + to lend or give something which he has not, he will exclaim: _Tin + naualih pe ri puvak_, etc. ('Can I perform miracles,' etc.) + + "It also signifies to pretend something, concealing the truth, as + _xa ru naualim ara neh chu g' ux ri tzih tan tu bijh pedro_, 'Peter + is feigning this which he is saying.' They are also accustomed to + apply this word to the power which the priests exert (in the + sacraments, etc.)." + +A long and foolish account of the witchcraft supposed to be practiced +among the Pokonchis of Guatemala, also a tribe of Mayan stock, is given +by the Englishman, Thomas Gage, who was cura of a parish among them +about 1630, and afterwards returned to England and Protestantism. He +described, at wearisome length, the supposed metamorphosis of two chiefs +of neighboring tribes, the one into a lion, the other into a tiger, and +the mortal combat in which they engaged, resulting in the death of one +to whom Gage administered absolution. No doubt he had been worsted in a +personal encounter with his old enemy, and, being a man of eighty years, +had not the vigor to recover. The account is of interest only as proving +that the same superstitions at that time prevailed among the Pokonchis +as in other portions of Guatemala.[24-*] + + +=15.= A really mighty nagualist was not confined to a single +transformation. He could take on many and varied figures. One such is +described in the sacred books of the Quiches of Guatemala, that document +known by the name of the Popol Vuh, or National Book. The passage is in +reference to one of their great kings and powerful magicians, Gucumatz +by name. It says: + + "Truly he was a wonderful king. Every seven days he ascended to the + sky, and every seven days he followed the path to the abode of the + dead; every seven days he put on the nature of a serpent, and then + he became truly a serpent; every seven days he assumed the nature + of an eagle, and then he became truly an eagle; then of a tiger and + he became truly a tiger; then of coagulated blood, and he was + nothing else than coagulated blood."[25-*] + +It may be said that such passages refer metaphorically to the +versatility of his character, but even if this is so, the metaphors are +drawn from the universal belief in Nagualism which then prevailed, and +they do not express it too strongly. + + +=16.= Among the Maya tribes of Yucatan and Guatemala we have testimony to +the continuance to this day of these beliefs. Father Bartolome de Baeza, +cura of Yaxcaba in the first half of this century, reports that an old +man, in his dying confession, declared that by diabolical art he had +transformed himself into an animal, doubtless his _nagual_; and a young +girl of some twelve years confessed that she had been transformed into a +bird by the witches, and in one of her nocturnal flights had rested on +the roof of the very house in which the good priest resided, which was +some two leagues from her home. He wisely suggests that, perhaps, +listening to some tale of sorcery, she had had a vivid dream, in which +she seemed to take this flight. It is obvious, however, from his +account, as well as from other sources, that the belief of the +transformation into lower animals was and is one familiar to the +superstitions of the Mayas.[25-[+]] The natives still continue to +propitiate the ancient gods of the harvest, at the beginning of the +season assembling at a ceremony called by the Spaniards the _misa +milpera_, or "field mass," and by themselves _ti'ch_, "the stretching +out of the hands." + +The German traveler, Dr. Scherzer, when he visited, in 1854, the remote +hamlet of Istlavacan, in Guatemala, peopled by Quiche Indians, +discovered that they had preserved in this respect the usages of their +ancestors almost wholly unaffected by the teachings of their various +Christian curates. The "Master" still assigned the _naguals_ to the +new-born infants, copal was burned to their ancient gods in remote +caves, and formulas of invocation were taught by the veteran nagualists +to their neophytes.[26-*] + +These _Zahoris_,[26-[+]] as they are generally called in the Spanish of +Central America, possessed many other mysterious arts besides that of +such metamorphoses and of forecasting the future. They could make +themselves invisible, and walk unseen among their enemies; they could in +a moment transport themselves to distant places, and, as quickly +returning, report what they had witnessed; they could create before the +eyes of the spectator a river, a tree, a house, or an animal, where none +such existed; they could cut open their own stomach, or lop a limb from +another person, and immediately heal the wound or restore the severed +member to its place; they could pierce themselves with knives and not +bleed, or handle venomous serpents and not be bitten; they could cause +mysterious sounds in the air, and fascinate animals and persons by their +steady gaze; they could call visible and invisible spirits, and the +spirits would come. + +Among the native population of the State of Vera Cruz and elsewhere in +southern Mexico these mysterious personages go by the name _padrinos_, +godfathers, and are looked upon with a mixture of fear and respect. They +are believed by the Indians to be able to cause sickness and domestic +calamities, and are pronounced by intelligent whites to present "a +combination of rascality, duplicity and trickery."[26-[++]] + + +=17.= The details of the ceremonies and doctrines of Nagualism have never +been fully revealed; but from isolated occurrences and partial +confessions it is clear that its adherents formed a coherent association +extending over most of southern Mexico and Guatemala, which everywhere +was inspired by two ruling sentiments--detestation of the Spaniards and +hatred of the Christian religion. + +In their eyes the latter was but a cloak for the exactions, massacres +and oppressions exerted by the former. To them the sacraments of the +Church were the outward signs of their own subjugation and misery. They +revolted against these rites in open hatred, or received them with +secret repugnance and contempt. In the Mexican figurative manuscripts +composed after the conquest the rite of baptism is constantly depicted +as the symbol of religious persecution. Says a sympathetic student of +this subject: + + "The act of baptism is always inserted in their records of battles + and massacres. Everywhere it conveys the same idea,--making evident + to the reader that the pretext for all the military expeditions of + the Spaniards was the enforced conversion to Christianity of the + natives; a pretext on which the Spaniards seized in order to + possess themselves of the land and its treasure, to rob the Indians + of their wives and daughters, to enslave them, and to spill their + blood without remorse or remission. One of these documents, dated + in 1526, adds a trait of savage irony. A Spanish soldier is + represented dragging a fugitive Indian from a lake by a lasso + around his neck; while on the shore stands a monk ready to baptize + the recreant on his arrival!"[27-*] + +No wonder that the priests of the dark ritual of Nagualism for centuries +after the conquest sought to annul the effects of the hated Christian +sacraments by counteracting ceremonies of their own, as we are told they +did by the historian Torquemada, writing from his own point of view in +these words: + + "The Father of Lies had his ministers who aided him, magicians and + sorcerers, who went about from town to town, persuading the simple + people to that which the Enemy of Light desired. Those who believed + their deceits, and had been baptized, were washed on the head and + breast by these sorcerers, who assured them that this would remove + the effects of the chrism and the holy oils. I myself knew an + instance where a person of prominence, who resided not far from the + City of Mexico, was dying, and had received extreme unction; and + when the priest had departed one of these diabolical ceremonialists + entered, and washed all the parts which had been anointed by the + holy oil with the intention to destroy its power."[27-[+]] + +Similar instances are recorded by Jacinto de la Serna. He adds that not +only did the Masters prescribe sacrifices to the Fire in order to annul +the effects of extreme unction, but they delighted to caricature the +Eucharist, dividing among their congregation a narcotic yellow mushroom +for the bread, and the inebriating pulque for the wine. Sometimes they +adroitly concealed in the pyx, alongside the holy wafer, some little +idol of their own, so that they really followed their own superstitions +while seemingly adoring the Host. They assigned a purely pagan sense to +the sacred formula, "Father, Son and Holy Ghost," understanding it to be +"Fire, Earth and Air," or the like.[28-*] + +Whoever or whatever was an enemy to that religion so brutally forced upon +these miserable creatures was to them an ally and a friend. Nunez de la +Vega tells us that he found written formulas among them reading: "O +Brother Antichrist, Brother Antichrist, Brother Antichrist, come to our +aid!"--pathetic and desperate appeal of a wretched race, ground to earth +under the iron heels of a religious and military despotism.[28-[+]] + + +=18.= The association embraced various tribes and its members were +classified under different degrees. The initiation into these was by +solemn and often painful ceremonies. Local sodalities or brotherhoods +were organized after the manner of those usual in the Roman Church; but +instead of being named after St. John or the Virgin Mary they were +dedicated to Judas Iscariot or Pontius Pilate out of derision and hatred +of the teachings of the priests; or to the Devil or Antichrist, who were +looked upon as powerful divinities in opposition to the Church.[28-[++]] + +There were certain recognized centres of the association, near which its +most important dignitaries resided, and where their secret councils and +most imposing ceremonies were held. One of these was Zamayac, in the +province of Suchiltepec; a second near Huehuetan, Soconusco; a third at +Totonicapan, Guatemala; a fourth at Cancuc, Chiapas; a fifth at +Teozapotlan, Oaxaca; and a few others may be surmised. + +The high priest who resided at each of these centres exercised control +over all the nagualistic teachers and practitioners in an extensive +district. On the occasion of an official inquiry by the Spanish +authorities it was ascertained that the high priest of Zamayac included +under his rule nearly one thousand sub-priests,[29-*] and no doubt +others of his rank were not less potent. + +The unity between the members of the association over an indefinitely +wide area was perfectly well known to the Spanish priests and civil +authorities. The ceremonies, formulas and methods of procedure were +everywhere identical or alike. This itself was justly regarded as a +proof of the secret intelligence which existed among the members of this +cabalistic guild.[29-[+]] + +To a certain extent, and at least in some localities, as Chiapas and +Guatemala, the priesthood of Nagualism was hereditary in particular +families. This is especially stated by the historian Ordonez y Aguiar, +who had exceptional opportunities for acquainting himself with the +facts.[29-[++]] + +A traveler of the first decade of this century, who has left us a number +of curious details of the superstitions of the Christianized Indians in +Mexico of that day, Benito Maria de Moxo, informs us that he had +discovered the existence of different grades in the native soothsayers +and medicine men, and that all in a given locality recognized the +supremacy of one whom they referred to as "the little old man," _El +Viejito_. But he was unable to ascertain by what superior traits or +rights he obtained this distinction.[29-Sec.] + +According to some authorities, the highest grade of these native +hierophants bore among the Nahuas the symbolic name of "flower +weavers," _Xochimilca_, probably from the skill they had to deceive the +senses by strange and pleasant visions.[30-*] In the south they were +spoken of as "guardians," which may have been derived from the classes +of priests so-called in the Zapotec religion.[30-[+]] + + +=19.= It will be seen from the above, that Nagualism, beginning in an +ancient superstition dating back to the time of primitive barbarism, +became after the Conquest a potent factor in the political and social +development of the peoples among whom it existed; that it was the source +from which was drawn and the means by which was sustained the +race-hatred of the native American towards his foreign conquerors, +smouldering for centuries, now and then breaking out in furious revolt +and civil war. + +There is strong reason to suspect its power where, for obvious reasons, +it has not been demonstrated. It has always been a mystery and a matter +of surprise to the historians of Yucatan how rapidly spread the plans of +the insurrection which secured lasting independence for the natives, +after these plans had been agreed upon by the two chiefs, Antonio Ay and +Cecilio Chi, at the remote rancho of Xihum, in July, 1847. Such +unanimity of action could only have been possible through the aid of a +powerful, well-disciplined and widespread secret organization. There can +scarcely be a doubt they were the chiefs or masters of the redoubtable +order of Nagualism in the Peninsula.[30-[++]] + +There is no question that such was the case with the brief and bloody +revolt of the Mayas in 1761. It suddenly broke out in a number of +villages near Valladolid, Yucatan, headed by a full-blood native, +Jacinto Can-Ek; but some of the participants afterwards confessed that +it was the outcome of a conspiracy which had been preparing for a year. + +When the appointed day arrived, Jacinto boldly announced himself as the +high priest of the fraternity of sorcerers, a master and teacher of +magic, and the lineal successor of the famous ancient prophet, Chilan +Balam, "whose words cannot fail." In a stirring appeal he urged his +fellow-countrymen to attack the Spaniards without fear of consequences. + + "'Be not afraid,' he exclaimed, 'of their cannons and their forts; + for among the many to whom I have taught the arts of magic (el arte + de brujeria) there are fifteen chosen ones, marvelous experts, who + by their mystic power will enter the fortress, slay the sentinels, + and throw open the gates to our warriors. I shall take the leaves + of the sacred tree, and folding them into trumpets, I shall call to + the four winds of heaven, and a multitude of fighting men will + hasten to our aid.'"[31-*] + +Saying this, he took a sheet of paper, held it up to show that it was +blank, folded it for a moment, and then spread it out covered with +writing! This deft trick convinced his simple-minded hearers of the +truth of his claims and they rushed to arms. He led them, clothed in the +robe of the Virgin and with her crown on his head. But neither their +enthusiasm nor their leader's art magic availed, and soon Jacinto and +his followers fell victims to the stake and the gallows. After their +death the dance of "the tiger," or of Chac-Mool--the "ghost dance" of +the Mayas--was prohibited; and the use of the sacred drum--the favorite +instrument of the native priests--was forbidden.[31-[+]] + +In fact, wherever we have any full accounts of the revolts against the +Spanish domination during the three centuries of its existence in New +Spain, we can manifestly trace the guiding fingers of the powerful +though hidden hand of Nagualism. An earlier revolt of the Mayas in +Yucatan occurred in 1585. It was led by Andres Chi, a full-blood Indian, +and a descendant of the ancient royal house of the Cocomes. He also +announced himself as a priest of the ancient faith, a prophet and a +worker of miracles, sent to instruct his own people in a new religion +and to give them an independent political existence. Seized by the +Spaniards, he was charged with idolatry, sorcery and disturbing the +peace, and was ignominiously hanged.[32-*] + +Not less definitely inspired by the same ideas was the Mixe Indian, +known as "Don Pascual," who led the revolt of the Tehuantepec tribes in +1661. He sent out his summons to the "thirteen governors of the Zapotecs +and Chontales" to come to his aid, and the insurrection threatened to +assume formidable proportions, prevented only by bringing to bear upon +the natives the whole power of the Roman Church through the Bishop of +Oaxaca, Cuevas Davalos.[32-[+]] + +Nearly the same locality had been the scene of the revolt of the +Zapotecs in 1550, when they were led by a native priest who claimed to +be an incarnation of the old god Quetzalcoatl, the patron deity of the +nagualists.[32-[++]] + +In the city of Mexico itself, in the year 1692, there was a violent +outbreak of the natives, when they destroyed three million dollars worth +of property. Doubtless this was partly attributable to the scarcity of +food which prevailed; but that the authorities traced it also to some +secret ceremonials is evident from the law which was immediately passed +forbidding the Indians to wear the _piochtli_, or scalp-lock, a portion +of the hair preserved from birth as part of the genethliac +rituals,[32-Sec.] and the especial enactments against the _octli_. + +As for the revolt of the Tzentals of Chiapas, in 1712, it was clearly +and confessedly under the leadership of the nagualistic priesthood, as I +shall indicate on a later page. + +The history of the native American race under the Spanish power in North +America has never yet been written with the slightest approach to +thoroughness. He who properly qualifies himself for that task will +certainly reach the conclusion expressed a number of years ago by the +eminent American antiquary and historian, Mr. E. G. Squier, in these +words: + + "Among the ruling and priestly classes of the semi-civilized + nations of America, there has always existed a mysterious bond, a + secret organization, which all the disasters to which they have + been subjected have not destroyed. It is to its present existence + that we may attribute those simultaneous movements of the + aborigines of Mexico and Central America, which have more than once + threatened the complete subversion of the Spanish power."[33-*] + +That mysterious bond, that secret organization, is _Nagualism_. + + +=20.= A remarkable feature in this mysterious society was the exalted +position it assigned to Women. Not only were they admitted to the most +esoteric degrees, but in repeated instances they occupied the very +highest posts in the organization. According to the traditions of the +Tzentals and Pipils of Chiapas, when their national hero, Votan, +constructed by the breath of his mouth his darkened shrine at +Tlazoaloyan, in Soconusco, he deposited in it the sacred books and holy +relics, and constituted a college of venerable sages to be its +guardians; but placed them all in subjection to a high priestess, whose +powers were absolute.[33-[+]] + +The veracious Pascual de Andagoya asserts from his own knowledge that +some of these female adepts had attained the rare and peculiar power of +being in two places at once, as much as a league and a half +apart;[33-[++]] and the repeated references to them in the Spanish +writings of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries confirm the dread in +which they were held and the extensive influence they were known to +control. In the sacraments of Nagualism, Woman was the primate and +hierophant. + + +=21.= This was a lineal inheritance from pre-Columbian times. In many +native American legends, as in others from the old world, some powerful +enchantress is remembered as the founder of the State, mistress of men +through the potency of her magic powers. + +Such, among the Aztecs, was the sorceress who built the city of +Mallinalco, on the road from Mexico to Michoacan, famous even after the +conquest for the skill of its magicians, who claimed descent from +her.[34-*] Such, in Honduras, was Coamizagual, queen of Cerquin, versed +in all occult science, who died not, but at the close of her earthly +career rose to heaven in the form of a beautiful bird, amid the roll of +thunder and the flash of lightning.[34-[+]] + +According to an author intimately familiar with the Mexican nagualists, +the art they claimed to possess of transforming themselves into the +lower animals was taught their predecessors by a woman, a native Circe, +a mighty enchantress, whose usual name was Quilaztli (the etymology of +which is unknown), but who bore also four others, representing her four +metamorphoses, Cohuacihuatl, the Serpent Woman; Quauhcihuatl, the Eagle +Woman; Yaocihuatl, the Warrior Woman; and Tzitzimecihuatl, the Specter +Woman.[34-[++]] + +The powers of these queens of magic extended widely among their sex. We +read in the chronicles of ancient Mexico that when Nezahualpilli, the +king, oppressed the tribes of the coast, the _tierra caliente_, they +sent against him, not their warriors, but their witches. These cast upon +him their fatal spells, so that when he walked forth from his palace, +blood burst from his mouth, and he fell prone and dead.[34-Sec.] + +In Guatemala, as in ancient Delphos, the gods were believed to speak +through the mouths of these inspired seeresses, and at the celebration +of victories they enjoyed a privilege so strange and horrible that I +quote it from the old manuscript before me without venturing a +translation: + + "... Despues de sacrificar los antiguos algun hombre, + despedacandolo, si era de los que avian cogido en guerra, dicen que + guardaban el miembro genital y los testiculos del tal sacrificado, + y se los daban a una vieja que tenian por profeta, para que los + comiese, y le pedian rogasse a su idolo les diesse mas + captivos."[35-*] + +When Captain Pedro de Alvarado, in the year 1524, was marching upon +Quetzaltanango, in Guatemala, just such a fearful old witch took her +stand at the summit of the pass, with her familiar in the shape of a +dog, and "by spells and nagualistic incantations" undertook to prevent +his approach.[35-[+]] + +As in the earliest, so in the latest accounts. The last revolt of the +Indians of Chiapas occurred among the Zotzils in 1869. The cause of it +was the seizure and imprisonment by the Spanish authorities of a +"mystical woman," known to the whites as Santa Rosa, who, together with +one of their _ahaus_ or chieftains, had been suspected of fomenting +sedition. The natives marched thousands strong against the city of San +Cristobal, where the prisoners were, and secured their liberation; but +their leader, Ignacio Galindo, was entrapped and shot by the Spaniards, +and the mutiny was soon quelled.[35-[++]] + + +=22.= But perhaps the most striking instance is that recorded in the +history of the insurrection of the Tzentals of Chiapas, in 1713. They +were led by an Indian girl, a native Joan of Arc, fired by like +enthusiasm to drive from her country the hated foreign oppressors, and +to destroy every vestige of their presence. She was scarcely twenty +years old, and was known to the Spaniards as Maria Candelaria. She was +the leader of what most historians call a religious sect, but what +Ordonez y Aguiar, himself a native of Chiapas, recognizes as the +powerful secret association of Nagualism, determined on the extirpation +of the white race. He estimates that in Chiapas alone there were nearly +seventy thousand natives under her orders--doubtless an +exaggeration--and asserts that the conspiracy extended far into the +neighboring tribes, who had been ordered to await the result of the +effort in Chiapas. + +Her authority was absolute, and she was merciless in requiring obedience +to it. The disobedient were flayed alive or roasted over a slow fire. +She and all her followers took particular pleasure in manifesting their +hatred and contempt for the religion of their oppressors. They defiled +the sacred vessels of the churches, imitated with buffoonery the +ceremonies of the mass, which she herself performed, and stoned to death +the priests whom they caught. + +Of course, her attempt against the power of Spain was hopeless. It +failed after a bitter and protracted conquest, characterized by the +utmost inhumanity on both sides. But when her followers were scattered +and killed, when the victorious whites had again in their hands all the +power and resources of the country, not their most diligent search, nor +the temptation of any reward, enabled them to capture Maria Candelaria, +the heroine of the bloody drama. With a few trusty followers she escaped +to the forest, and was never again heard of.[36-*] + +More unfortunate were her friends and lieutenants, the priestesses of +Guistiupan and Yajalon, who had valiantly seconded Maria in her +patriotic endeavors. Seized by the Spaniards, they met the fate which we +can easily imagine, though the historian has mercifully thrown a veil on +its details.[36-[+]] + + +=23.= Of just such a youthful prophetess did Mr. E. G. Squier hear during +his travels in Central America, a "_sukia_ woman," as she was called by +the coast Indians, one who lived alone mid the ruins of an old Mayan +temple, a sorceress of twenty years, loved and feared, holding death and +life in her hands.[36-[++]] Perhaps his account is somewhat fanciful; +it is so, indeed; but it is grounded on the unshaken beliefs and ancient +traditions of the natives of those climes, and on customs well known to +those who reside there. + +The late distinguished Americanist, the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg, +during his long travels in Mexico and Central America, had occasion more +than once to come in contact with this trait of the ancient faith of the +Nagualists, still alive in their descendants. Among the Zapotecs of the +Isthmus of Tehuantepec he saw one of the queens of the mystic +fraternity, and he describes her with a warmth which proves that he had +not lost his eye for the beautiful. + + "She wore a piece of light-green stuff loosely folded around her + form at the hips, and falling to a little distance above the ankle; + a jacket of red silk gauze with short sleeves and embroidered with + gold, clothed the upper part of her person, veiling her bosom, upon + which lay a chain of heavy gold pieces, pierced and strung on a + cord. Her rich black hair was divided on the forehead, and drawn + back in two splendid tresses fastened with blue ribbons, while a + white muslin kerchief encircled her head like the calantica of the + ancient Egyptians. Never in my life have I seen a more striking + figure of an Isis or a Cleopatra. + + "There was something strange in her expression. Her eyes were the + blackest and the brightest in the world; but there were moments + when she suddenly paused, leaned against the billiard table or the + wall, and they became fixed and dead like those of a corpse. Then a + fiery glance would shoot from beneath her dark lashes, sending a + chill to the heart of the one to whom it was directed. Was it + madness, or was it, as those around her believed, a momentary + absence of soul, an absorption of her spirit into its _nagual_, a + transportation into an unknown world? Who shall decide?"[37-*] + + +=24.= It would be a mistake to suppose that Nagualism was an incoherent +medley of superstitions, a mass of jumbled fragments derived from the +ancient paganism. My study of it has led me to a widely different +conclusion. It was a perpetuation of a well-defined portion of the +native cult, whose sources we are able to trace long anterior to the +period of the conquest, and which had no connection with the elaborate +and bloody ritual of the Aztecs. The evidence to this effect is cogent. + +Wherever in later days the Catholic priests found out the holy places +and sacred objects of the nagualists, they were in-caves or deep +rock-recesses, not in artificial structures. The myths they gleaned, and +the names of the gods they heard, also point to this as a distinguishing +peculiarity. An early instance is recorded among the Nahuas of Mexico. +In 1537 Father Perea discovered a cavern in a deep ravine at Chalma, +near Mallinalco (a town famous for its magicians), which was the +sanctuary of the deity called _Oztoteotl_, the Cave God (_oztotl_, cave; +_teotl_, god), "venerated throughout the whole empire of +Montezuma."[38-*] He destroyed the image of the god, and converted the +cavern into a chapel. + +We cannot err in regarding Oztoteotl as merely another name of the +Nahuatl divinity, Tepeyollotl, the Heart, or Inside, of the Mountain, +who in the Codex Borgia and the Codex Vaticanus is represented seated +upon or in a cavern. His name may equally well be translated "the Heart +of the Place," or "of the Town." + +Dr. Eduard Seler has shown beyond reasonable question that this divinity +did not originally belong to the Aztec Pantheon, but was introduced from +the South, either from the Zapotecs, the Mixtecs, or the Mayan tribes, +beyond these.[38-[+]] The Cave God of the Aztecs is identical with the +Votan of the Tzentals of Chiapas, and with the U-q'ux Uleuh of the +Quiches of Guatemala, and probably with the Cozaana of the Zapotecs. + +The rites of all of these were conducted in caverns, and there have been +preserved several interesting descriptions of the contents of these +sacred places. That relating to the "dark house of Votan" is given thus +in the work of the Bishop of Chiapas: + + "Votan is the third hero who is named in the calendar, and some of + his descendants still reside in the town of Teopisca, where they + are known as Votans. He is sometimes referred to as Lord of the + Sacred Drum, and he is said to have seen the great wall (which must + have been the Tower of Babel), and to have divided this land among + the Indians, and given to each tribe its language. + + "They say further that he once dwelt in Huehuetan, a town in the + province of Soconusco. Near there, at the place called Tlazoaloyan, + he constructed, by blowing with his breath, a dark house, and put + tapirs in the river, and in the house a great treasure, and left + all in charge of a noble lady, assisted by guardians (_tlapiane_) + to preserve. This treasure consisted of earthenware vases with + covers of the same material; a stone, on which were inscribed the + figures of the ancient native heroes as found in the calendar; + _chalchiuites_, which are green stones; and other superstitious + objects. + + "All of these were taken from the cave, and publicly burned in the + plaza of Huehuetan on the occasion of our first diocesan visit + there in 1691, having been delivered to us by the lady in charge + and the guardians. All the Indians have great respect for this + Votan, and in some places they call him 'the Heart of the + Towns.'"[39-*] + +The English priest, Thomas Gage, who was curate of a parish among the +Pokonchi Indians of Guatemala about 1630, relates his discovery of such +a cave, in which the idol was preserved, and gives this description of +it: + + "We found the Idol standing upon a low stool covered with a linen + cloth. The substance of it was wood, black shining like jet, as if + it had been painted or smoked; the form was of a man's head unto + the shoulders, without either Beard or Mustachoes; his look was + grim, with a wrinkled forehead, and broad staring eyes. + + "They boasted of this their god, saying that he had plainly told + them they should not believe anything I preached of Christ, but + follow the old ways of their forefathers."[39-[+]] + +The black color here mentioned was a relic of ancient symbolism, +referring to the night, darkness, and the obscurity of the holy cavern. +Vetancurt informs us that the priests of the ancient paganism were +accustomed to rub their faces and bodies with an ointment of fat and +pine soot when they went to sacrifice in the forests, so that they +looked as black as negroes[TN-3][39-[++]] In the extract from Nunez de +la Vega already given, _Ical Ahau_, the "Black King," is named as one of +the divinities of the nagualists. + +In some parts the principal idol found in the caves was the mummied or +exsiccated body of some former distinguished priest or chieftain. One +such is recorded by Bartholome de Pisa, which was found among the +Zapotecs of Coatlan. It bore a name taken from the calendar, that of the +tenth day, and was alleged to be the preserved cadaver of a celebrated +ruler.[40-*] Another interesting example is narrated by Villa Senor y +Sanchez,[40-[+]] who describes it as an eye-witness. It was discovered +in a spacious cave located some distance to the west of the city of +Mexico, in Nahuatl territory, on the side of what was known as "the Sun +mountain"--_la Mesa de Tonati_. He speaks of it as remarkably well +preserved, "both the muscles and the bones." + + "It was seated in an armchair which served for a throne, and was + clothed in a mantle, which fell from the shoulders to the feet. + This was richly adorned with precious stones, which, according to + the native custom, were sewed into the texture of the cloth. The + figure also wore shoulder straps, collars, bracelets and fastenings + of silver. From its forehead rose a crown of beautiful feathers of + different colors arranged so that one color should alternate with + another. The left hand was resting on the arm of the chair, while + in the right was a sharp cutlass with silver mountings. At its feet + were several vases of fine stone, as marble and alabaster, in which + were offerings of blood and meat, obtained from the sacrifices." + +The same writer refers to other examples of these sacred caves which he +had seen in his journeys. One was near the town of Teremendo, where the +sides and roof had been artificially dressed into the shape of huge +arches. A natural altar had been provided in a similar manner, and on +it, at the time of his visit, were numerous idols in the figures of men +and animals, and before them fresh offerings of copal and food. +Elsewhere he refers to many such caverns still in use as places resorted +to by the natives in _la gran Sierra de Tlascala_.[40-[++]] + +These extracts prove the extent of this peculiar worship and the number +of these subterranean temples in recent generations. The fame of some of +the greater ones of the past still survives, as the vast grotto of +Chalcatongo, near Achiutla, which was the sepulchral vault of its +ancient kings; that of Totomachiapa, a solemn scene of sacrifice for +the ancient priests; that of Justlahuaca, near Sola (Oaxaca), which was +a place of worship of the Zapotecs long after the Conquest; and that in +the Cerro de Monopostiac, near San Francisco del Mar.[41-*] + +The intimate meaning of this cave-cult was the worship of the Earth. The +Cave God, the Heart of the Hills, really typified the Earth, the Soil, +from whose dark recesses flow the limpid streams and spring the tender +shoots of the food-plants, as well as the great trees. To the native +Mexican, the Earth was the provider of food and drink, the common Father +of All; so that to this day, when he would take a solemn oath, he stoops +to the earth, touches it with his hand, and repeats the solemn formula: +_Cuix amo nechitla in toteotzin?_ "Does not our Great God see me?" + + +=25.= The identity of the Tepeyollotl of the Nahuas and the Votan of the +Tzentals is shown not only in the oneness of meaning of the names, but +in the fact that both represent the _third_ day in the ritual calendar. +For this reason I take it, we find the number _three_ so generally a +sacred number in the symbolism of the nagualists. We have already +learned in the extract from Nunez de la Vega that the neophytes were +instructed in classes of three. To this day in Soteapan the fasts and +festivals appointed by the native ministrants are three days in +duration.[41-[+]] The semi-Christianized inhabitants of the Sierra of +Nayerit, the Nahuatl-speaking Chotas, continued in the last century to +venerate three divinities, the Dawn, the Stone and the Serpent;[41-[++]] +analogous to a similar "trinity" noted by Father Duran among the ancient +Aztecs.[41-Sec.] + +The number _nine_, that is, 3 x 3, recurs so frequently in the +conjuration formulas of the Mexican sorcerers that de la Serna exclaims: +"It was the Devil himself who inculcated into them this superstition +about the number nine."[41-[||]] + +The other number sacred to the nagualists was _seven_. I have, in a +former essay, given various reasons for believing that this was not +derived from the seven days of the Christian week, but directly from the +native calendar.[42-*] Nunez de la Vega tells us that the patron of the +seventh day was _Cuculcan_, "the Feathered Serpent," and that many +nagualists chose him as their special protector. As already seen, in +Guatemala the child finally accepted its _naual_ when seven years old; +and among some of the Nahuatl tribes of Mexico the _tonal_ and the +calendar name was formally assigned on the seventh day after +birth.[42-[+]] From similar impressions the Cakchiquels of Guatemala +maintained that when the lightning strikes the earth the "thunder stone" +sinks into the soil, but rises to the surface after seven +years.[42-[++]] + +The three and the seven were the ruling numbers in the genealogical +trees of the Pipiles of San Salvador. The "tree" was painted with +_seven_ branches representing degrees of relationship within which +marriage was forbidden unless a man had performed some distinguished +exploit in war, when he could marry beyond the nearest _three_ degrees +of relationship.[42-Sec.] Another combination of 3 and 7, by +multiplication, explains the customs among the Mixes of deserting for 21 +days a house in which a death has occurred.[42-[||]] + +The indications are that the nagualists derived these numbers from the +third and seventh days of the calendar "month" of twenty days. +Tepeololtec, the Cave God, was patron of the third day and also "Lord of +Animals," the transformation into which was the test of nagualistic +power.[42-[P}] Tlaloc, god of the mountains and the rains, to whom the +seventh day was hallowed, was represented by the nagualistic symbol of a +snake doubled and twisted on itself, and was generally portrayed in +connection with the "Feathered Serpent" (Quetzalcoatl, Cuculchan, +Gukumatz, all names meaning this), represented as carrying his medicine +bag, _xiquipilli_, and incensory, the apparatus of the native +illuminati, his robe marked with the sign of the cross to show that he +was Lord of the Four Winds and of Life.[43-*] + + +=26.= The nagualistic rites were highly symbolic, and the symbols used had +clearly defined meanings, which enable us to analyze the religious ideas +underlying this mysterious cult. + +The most important symbol was Fire. It was regarded as the primal +element and the immediate source of life. Father Nicolas de Leon has the +following suggestive passage in this connection: + + "If any of their old superstitions has remained more deeply rooted + than another in the hearts of these Indians, both men and women, it + is this about fire and its worship, and about making new fire and + preserving it for a year in secret places. We should be on the + watch for this, and when in their confessions they speak of what + the Fire said and how the Fire wept, expressions which we are apt + to pass by as unintelligible, we must lay our hands on them for + reprehension. We should also be on the watch for their baptism by + Fire, a ceremony called the _yiahuiltoca_,[43-[+]] shortly after + the birth of a child when they bestow on it the surnames; nor must + the lying-in women and their assistants be permitted to speak of + Fire as the father and mother of all things and the author of + nature; because it is a common saying with them that Fire is + present at the birth and death of every creature." + +This curious ceremony derived its name from the _yiahuitli_, a plant not +unlike the absinthe, the powdered leaves of which, according to Father +Sahagun, the natives were accustomed to throw into the flames as an +offering to the fire.[43-[++]] Long after the conquest, and probably to +this day, the same custom prevails in Mexico, the fumes and odor of the +burning leaves being considered very salubrious and purifying to the air +of the sick room[TN-4][43-Sec.] + +The word _yiahuiltoca_ means "the throwing of the _yiauhtli_" (from +_toca_, to throw upon with the hands). Another name for the ceremony, +according to Father Vetancurt, who wrote a century later than Leon, was +_apehualco_, which has substantially the same meaning, "a throwing upon" +or "a throwing away."[44-*] He adds the interesting particulars that it +was celebrated on the fourth day after the birth of the child, during +which time it was deemed essential to keep the fire burning in the +house, but not to permit any of it to be carried out, as that would +bring bad luck to the child. + +Jacinto de la Serna also describes this ceremony, to which he gives the +name _tlecuixtliliztli_, "which means that they pass the infant over the +fire;" and elsewhere he adds: "The worship of fire is the greatest +stumbling-block to these wretched idolaters."[44-[+]] + + +=27.= Other ceremonies connected with fire worship took place in +connection with the manufacture of the pulque, or _octli_, the fermented +liquor obtained from the sap of the maguey plant. The writer just +quoted, de Vetancurt, states that the natives in his day, when they had +brewed the new pulque and it was ready to be drunk, first built a fire, +walked in procession around it and threw some of the new liquor into the +flames, chanting the while an invocation to the god of inebriation, +Tezcatzoncatl, to descend and be present with them. + +This was distinctly a survival of an ancient doctrine which connected +the God of Fire with the Gods of Drunkenness, as we may gather from the +following quotation from the history composed by Father Diego Duran: + + "The _octli_ was a favorite offering to the gods, and especially to + the God of Fire. Sometimes it was placed before a fire in vases, + sometimes it was scattered upon the flames with a brush, at other + times it was poured out around the fireplace."[45-*] + + +=28.= The high importance of the fire ceremonies in the secret rituals of +the modern Mayas is plainly evident from the native Calendars, although +their signification has eluded the researches of students, even of the +laborious Pio Perez, who was so intimately acquainted with their +language and customs. In these Calendars the fire-priest is constantly +referred to as _ah-toc_, literally "the fire-master." The rites he +celebrates recur at regular intervals of twenty days (the length of one +native month) apart. They are four in number. On the first he takes the +fire; on the second he kindles the fire; on the third he gives it free +play, and on the fourth he extinguishes it. A period of five days is +then allowed to elapse, when these ceremonies are recommenced in the +same order. Whatever their meaning, they are so important that in the +_Buk Xoc_, or General Computation of the Calendar, preserved in the +mystic "Books of Chilan Balam," there are special directions for these +fire-masters to reckon the proper periods for the exercise of their +strange functions.[45-[+]] + + +=29.= What, now, was the sentiment which underlay this worship of fire? I +think that the facts quoted, and especially the words of Father de Leon, +leave no doubt about it. Fire was worshiped as the life-giver, the +active generator, of animate existence. This idea was by no means +peculiar to them. It repeatedly recurs in Sanskrit, in Greek and in +Teutonic mythology, as has been ably pointed out by Dr. Hermann +Cohen.[45-[++]] The fire-god Agni (_ignis_) is in the Vedas the Maker of +men; Prometheus steals the fire from heaven that he may with it animate +the human forms he has moulded of clay; even the connection of the +pulque with the fire is paralleled in Greek mythos, where Dionysos is +called _Pyrigenes_, the "fire-born." + +Among the ancient Aztecs the god of fire was called the oldest of gods, +_Huehueteotl_, and also "Our Father," _Tota_, as it was believed from +him all things were derived.[46-*] Both among them and the Mayas, as I +have pointed out in a previous work, he was supposed to govern the +generative proclivities and the sexual relations.[46-[+]] Another of his +names was _Xiuhtecutli_, which can be translated "God of the Green +Leaf," that is, of vegetable fecundity and productiveness.[46-[++]] + +To transform themselves into a globe or ball of fire was, as we have +seen (ante, p. 21), a power claimed by expert nagualists, and to handle +it with impunity, or to blow it from the mouth, was one of their +commonest exhibitions. Nothing so much proved their superiority as thus +to master this potent element. + + +=30.= The same name above referred to, "the Heart of the Town," or "of the +Hills," was that which at a comparatively late date was applied to an +idol of green stone preserved with religious care in a cavern in the +Cerro de Monopostiac, not far from San Francisco del Mar. The spot is +still believed by the natives to be enchanted ground and protected by +superhuman powers.[46-Sec.] + +These green stones, called _chalchiuitl_, of jadeite, nephrite, green +quartz, or the like, were accounted of peculiar religious significance +throughout southern Mexico, and probably to this day many are preserved +among the indigenous population as amulets and charms. They were often +carved into images, either in human form or representing a frog, the +latter apparently the symbol of the waters and of fertility. Bartholome +de Alva refers to them in a passage of his Confessionary. The priest +asks the penitent: + + "Dost thou possess at this very time little idols of green stone, + or frogs made of it (_in chalchiuh coconeme, chalchiuh + tamazoltin_)? + + "Dost thou put them out in the sun to be warmed? Dost thou keep + them wrapped in cotton coverings, with great respect and + veneration? + + "Dost thou believe, and hold for very truth, that these green + stones give thee food and drink, even as thy ancestors believed, + who died in their idolatry? Dost thou believe that they give thee + success and prosperity and good things, and all that them hast or + wishest? Because we know very well that many of you so believe at + this very time."[47-*] + +Down to quite a recent date, and perhaps still, these green stones are +employed in certain ceremonies in vogue among the Indians of Oaxaca in +order to ensure a plenteous maize harvest. The largest ear of corn in +the field is selected and wrapped up in a cloth with some of these +chalchiuite. At the next corn-planting it is taken to the field and +buried in the soil. This is believed to be a relic of the worship of the +ancient Zapotec divinity, Quiegolani, who presided over cultivated +fields.[47-[+]] + +They are still in use among the natives as lucky stones or amulets. In +the Zotzil insurrection of 1869, already referred to, one was found +suspended to the neck of one of the slain Indians. It came into the +possession of M. Maler, who has described and figured it.[47-[++]] It +represents a human head with a curious expression and a singular +headdress. + +From specimens of these amulets preserved in museums it is seen that any +greenish stone was selected, preferably those yielding a high, vitreous +polish, as jadeite, turquoise, emerald, chlormelanite or precious +serpentine. The color gave the sacred character, and this, it seems to +me, was distinctly meant to be symbolic of water and its effects, the +green of growing plants, and hence of fertility, abundance and +prosperity. + + +=31.= There is another symbol, still venerated among the present +indigenous population, which belongs to Nagualism, and is a survival +from the ancient cult; this is the Tree. The species held in especial +respect is the ceiba, the silk-cotton tree, the _ytzamatl_ (knife-leaved +paper tree) of the Nahuas, the _yax che_ (green, or first tree) of the +Mayas, the _Bombax ceiba_ of the botanists. It is of great size and +rapid growth. In Southern Mexico and Central America one is to be seen +near many of the native villages, and is regarded as in some way the +protecting genius of the town. + +Sacred trees were familiar to the old Mexican cult, and, what is +curious, the same name was applied to such as to the fire, _Tota_, Our +Father. They are said to have represented the gods of woods and +waters.[48-*] In the ancient mythology we often hear of the "tree of +life," represented to have four branches, each sacred to one of the four +cardinal points and the divinities associated therewith. + +The conventionalized form of this tree in the Mexican figurative +paintings strongly resembles a cross. Examples of it are numerous and +unmistakable, as, for instance, the cruciform tree of life rising from a +head with a protruding tongue, in the Vienna Codex.[48-[+]] + + +=32.= Thus, the sign of the cross, either the form with equal arms known +as the cross of St. Andrew, which is the oldest Christian form, or the +Latin cross, with its arms of unequal length, came to be the ideogram +for "life" in the Mexican hieroglyphic writing; and as such, with more +or less variants, was employed to signify the _tonalli_ or _nagual_, the +sign of nativity, the natal day, the personal spirit.[48-[++]] The +ancient document called the Mappe Quinatzin offers examples, and its +meaning is explained by various early writers. The peculiar character of +the Mexican ritual calendar, by which nativities were calculated, +favored a plan of representing them in the shape of a cross; as we see +in the singular _Codex Cruciformis_ of the Boturini-Goupil collection. + + +=33.= But the doctrines of Nagualism had a phase even more detestable to +the missionaries than any of these, an esoteric phase, which brought it +into relation to the libidinous cults of Babylon and the orgies of the +"Witches' Sabbaths" of the Dark Ages. Of these occult practices we of +course have no detailed descriptions, but there are hints and +half-glances which leave us in no doubt. + +When the mysterious metamorphosis of the individual into his or her +_nagual_ was about to take place, the person must strip to absolute +nudity;[49-*] and the lascivious fury of bands of naked Nagualists, +meeting in remote glades by starlight or in the dark recesses of caves, +dancing before the statues of the ancient gods, were scenes that stirred +the fanaticism of the Spanish missionaries to its highest pitch. Bishop +Landa informs us that in Yucatan the dance there known as the _naual_ +was one of the few in which both men and women took part, and that it +"was not very decent." It was afterwards prohibited by the priests. We +have excellent authority that such wild rites continued well into the +present century, close to the leading cities of the State,[49-[+]] and +it is highly likely that they are not unknown to-day. + + +=34.= Moreover, it is certain that among the Nagualists, one of their most +revered symbols was the _serpent_; in Chiapas, one of their highest +orders of the initiated was that of the _chanes_, or serpents. Not only +is this in Christian symbolism the form and sign of the Prince of Evil +and the enemy of God, but the missionaries were aware that in the +astrological symbols of ancient Mexico the serpent represented the +_phallus_; that it was regarded as the most potent of all the +signs;[49-[++]] and modern research has shown, contrary to the opinion +long held, that there was among these nations an extraordinary and +extensive worship of the reciprocal principle of nature, associated with +numerous phallic emblems.[49-Sec.] + +Huge phalli of stone have been discovered, one, for instance, on the +Cerro de las Navajas, not far from the city of Mexico, and another in +the State of Hidalgo.[50-*] Probably they were used in some such +ceremonies as Oviedo describes among the Nahuas of Nicaragua, where the +same symbol was represented by conical mounds of earth, around which at +certain seasons the women danced with libidinous actions. Although as a +general rule the pottery of ancient Mexico avoids obscenity, Brasseur +stated that he had seen many specimens of a contrary character from +certain regions,[50-[+]] and Dr. Berendt has copied several striking +examples, showing curious _yoni_ symbols, which are now in my +possession. + +We may explain these as in some way connected with the worship of +Pantecatl, the male divinity who presided over profligate love, and of +Tlazolteotl, the _Venus Impudica_ of the Aztec pantheon; and it is not +without significance that the cave-temple of Votan, whose contents were +destroyed by the Bishop of Chiapas, in 1691 (see above, p. 39), was +located at _Tlazoaloyan_, both names being derived from a root +signifying sexual action.[50-[++]] The other name of the divinity, +called "the Heart of the Hills," is in Quiche, Alom, "he who begets," +and the Zapotec Cozaana, another analogue of the same deity, is +translated by Seler, "the Begetter." Such facts indicate how intimately +the esoteric doctrines of Nagualism were related to the worship of the +reproductive powers of nature. + + +=35.= It will readily be understood from what has been said that Nagualism +was neither a pure descendant of the ancient cults, nor yet a derivative +from Christian doctrines and European superstitions. It was a strange +commingling of both, often in grotesque and absurd forms. In fact, the +pretended Christianity of the native population of Mexico to-day is +little more than a figment, according to the testimony of the most +competent observers.[50-Sec.] + +The rituals and prayers of the nagualists bear witness to this. It is +very visible in those I have quoted from Nunez de la Vega, and I can +add an interesting example of it which has not heretofore been +published. I take it from the MSS. of Father Vicente Hernandez Spina, +cura of Ixtlavacan, in Guatemala, a remote village of the Quiches. He +wrote it down in the native tongue about forty years ago, as recited by +an _ah-kih_, "reader of days," a native master of the genethliac art, +who had composed it in favor of a client who had asked his intercession. + + _Prayer of an Ah-Kih._ + + "O Jesus Christ my God: thou God the Son, with the Father and the + Holy Spirit, art my only God. Today, on this day, at this hour, on + this day Tihax, I call upon the holy souls which accompany the + sun-rising and the sun-setting of the day: with these holy souls I + call upon thee, O chief of the genii, thou who dwellest in this + mountain of Siba Raxquin; come, ye holy spirits of Juan Vachiac, of + Don Domingo Vachiac, of Juan Ixquiaptap, the holy souls of + Francisco Excoquieh, of Diego Soom, of Juan Fay, of Alonzo Tzep; I + call the holy souls of Diego Tziquin and of Don Pedro Noh: you, O + priests, to whom all things are revealed, and thou, chief of the + genii, you, lords of the mountains, lords of the plains, thou, Don + Purupeto Martin, come, accept this incense, accept to-day this + candle.[51-*] + + "Come also, my mother Holy Mary, the Lord of Esquipulas, the Lord + of Capetagua, the beloved Mary of Chiantla, with her who dwells at + San Lorenzo, and also Mary of Sorrows, Mary Saint Anna, Mary + Tibureia, Mary of Carmen, with Saint Michael the Archangel, the + captain St. James, St. Christoval, St. Sebastian, St. Nicolas, St. + Bonaventura, St. Bernardin, St. Andrew, St. Thomas, St. + Bartholomew, and thou my beloved mother St. Catherine, thou beloved + Mary of the Conception, Mary of the Rosary, thou lord and king + Pascual, be here present. + + "And thou, Frost, and thou, excellent Wind, thou, God of the plain, + thou, God of Quiac-Basulup, thou, God of Retal-Uleu, thou, lord of + San Gregorio, thou, lord of Chii-Masa. [These are mountains and + localities, and in the original there follow the names of more than + a hundred others. The prayer concludes as follows:] + + "... I who appoint myself godfather and godmother, I who ask, I the + witness and brother of this man who asks, of this man who makes + himself, your son, O holy souls, I ask, do not let any evil happen + unto him, nor let him be unhappy for any cause. + + "I the priest, I who speak, I who burn this incense, I who light + this candle, I who pray for him, I who take him under my + protection, I ask you that he may obtain his subsistence with + facility. Thou, God, canst provide him with money; let him not fall + ill of fever; I ask that he shall not become paralytic; that he + may not choke with severe coughing; that he be not bitten by a + serpent; that he become neither bloated nor asthmatic; that he do + not go mad; that he be not bitten by a dog; that he be not struck + by lightning; that he be not choked with brandy; that he be not + killed with iron, nor by a stick, and that he be not carried off by + an eagle; guard him, O clouds; aid him, O lightning; aid him, O + thunder; aid him, St. Peter; aid him, St. Paul; aid him, eternal + Father. + + "And I who up to this time have spoken for him to you, I ask you + that sickness may visit his enemies. So order it, that when his + enemies go forth from their houses, they may meet sickness; order + it, that wherever they go, they may meet troubles; do your offices + of injury to them, wheresoever they are met; do this that I pray, O + holy souls. God be with you; God the Father, God the Son, God the + Holy Spirit: Amen, Jesus." + +Most of such invocations are expressed in terms far more recondite and +symbolic than the above. We have many such preserved in the work of +Jacinto de la Serna, which supply ample material to acquaint us with the +peculiarities of the sacred and secret language of the nagualists. I +shall quote but one, that employed in the curious ceremony of "calling +back the _tonal_," referred to on a previous page. I append an +explanation of its obscure metaphors. + + + _Invocation for the Restitution of the Tonal._ + + "Ho there! Come to my aid, mother mine of the skirt of precious + stones![1] What keeps thee away, gray ghost, white ghost?[2] Is the + obstacle white, or is it yellow? See, I place here the yellow + enchantment and the white enchantment.[3] + + "I, the Master of the Masters of enchantments, have come, I, who + formed thee and gave thee life.[4] Thou, mother mine of the starry + skirt, thou, goddess of the stars, who givest life, why hast thou + turned against this one?[5] + + "Adverse spirit and darkened star, I shall sink thee in the breadth + and depth of the waters.[6] I, master of spells, speak to + thee[TN-5] Ho there! Mother mine, whose skirt is made of gems, + come, seek with me the shining spirit who dwells in the house of + light,[7] that we may know what god or mighty power thus destroys + and crushes to earth this unfortunate one. Green and black spirit + of sickness, leave him and seek thy prey elsewhere. + + "Green and yellow ghost, who art wandering, as if lost, over + mountains and plains, I seek thee, I desire thee; return to him + whom thou hast abandoned. Thou, the nine times beaten, the nine + times smitten, see that thou fail me not.[8] Come hither, mother + mine, whose robe is of precious gems; one water, two waters; one + rabbit, two rabbits; one deer, two deers; one alligator, two + alligators.[9] + + "Lo! I myself am here; I am most furious; I make the loudest noise + of all; I respect no one; even sticks and stones tremble before me. + What god or mighty power dare face me, me, a child of gods and + goddesses?[10] I have come to seek and call back the _tonal_ of + this sick one, wherever it is, whithersoever it has wandered, be it + nine times wandered, even unto the nine junctures and the nine + unions.[11] Wherever it is, I summon it to return, I order it to + return, and to heal and clean this heart and this head." + + + _Explanations._ + + 1. The appeal is to Water, regarded as the universal Mother. The + "skirt of precious stones" refers to the green of the precious + green stones, a color sacred to water. + + 2. The question is addressed to the _tonal_. + + 3. The yellow enchantment is tobacco; the white, a cup of water. + + 4. That is, assigned the form of the nagual belonging to the sick + man. + + 5. This appeal is directed to the Milky Way. + + 6. The threat is addressed to the _tonal_, to frighten it into + returning. + + 7. The "shining spirit" is the Fire-god. + + 8. The yellow tobacco, prepared ceremonially in the manner + indicated. + + 9. These are names of days in the native calendar which are + invoked. + + 10. The priest speaks in the person of his god. + + 11. Referring to the Nahuatl belief that there are nine upper and + nine under worlds. + +From the same work of de la Serna I collect the following list of +symbolic expressions. It might easily be extended, but these will be +sufficient to show the figurative obscurities which they threw around +their formulas of conjuration, but which were by no means devoid of +coherence and instruction to those who could understand them. + + + _Symbolic Expressions of the Nagualists._ + + _Blood._--"The red woman with snakes on her gown" (referring to the + veins). + + _Copal Gum._--"The white woman" (from the whitish color of the + fresh gum). + + _Cords_ (for carrying burdens).--"The snake that does woman's work" + (because women sit still to knit, and the cord works while itself + is carried). + + _Drunkenness._--"My resting time," or "when I am getting my + breath." + + _The Earth._--"The mirror that smokes" (because of the mists that + rise from it); "the rabbit with its mouth upward" (the rabbit, in + opposition to the one they see in the moon; with its mouth upward, + because of the mists which rise from it like the breath exhaled + from the mouth); "the flower which contains everything" (as all + fruit proceeds from flowers, so does all vegetable life proceed + from the earth, which is therefore spoken of as a flower); "the + flower which bites the mouths" (a flower, for the reason given; it + eats the mouths, because all things necessarily return to it, and + are swallowed by it). + + _Fingers._--"The five fates," or "the five works," or "the five + fields" (because by the use of his fingers man works out his own + destiny. Hence also the worship of the Hand among the Nahuas as the + god Maitl, and among the Mayas as the god Kab, both which words + mean "hand"). + + _Fire._--"Our Father of the Four Reeds" (because the ceremony of + making the new fire was held on the day Four Reeds, 4 Acatl); "the + shining rose;" "the yellow flyer;" "the red-haired one;" "the + yellow spirit." + + _A Knife of Copper._--"The yellow Chichimec" (because the + Chichimecs were alleged to tear out the bowels of their enemies). + + _The Maguey Plant._--"My sister, the eight in a row" (because it + was planted in this manner). + + _A Road._--"That which is divided in two, and yet has neither + beginning, middle nor end" (because it always lies in two + directions from a person, and yet all roads lead into others and + thus never end). + + _Sickness._--"The red woman;" "the breath of the flame;" "our + mother the comet" (all referring to the fever); "the Chichimec" + (because it aims to destroy life, like these savage warriors); "the + spider" (because of its venomous nature). + + _Smoke._--"The old wife" (_i. e._, of the fire). + + _The Sun._--"Our holy and pockified Uncle" (referring to the myth + of Nanahuatl, who was syphilitic, and leaping into the flames of a + fire rose as the sun). + + _Tobacco._--"The nine (or seven) times beaten" (because for sacred + purposes it was rubbed up this number of times); "the enchanted + gray one" (from its color and use in conjuring). + + _Water._--"The Green Woman" (from the greenness which follows + moisture); "our Mother, whose robe is of precious stones" (from the + green or vegetable life resembling the turquoise, emerald, jade, + etc.). + + +=36.= It might be asked how the dark arts and secret ceremonies of the +Nagualists escaped the prying eyes of the officers of the Holy +Inquisition, which was established in Mexico in 1571. The answer is, +that the inquisitors were instructed by Cardinal Diego de Espinosa, who +at that time was Inquisitor General and President of the Council of the +Indies, "to abstain from proceedings against Indians, because of their +stupidity and incapacity, as well as scant instruction in the Holy +Catholic faith, for the crimes of heresy, apostasy, heretical blasphemy, +sorcery, incantations, superstitions," etc. + +Energetic inquisitors, however, conceded very grudgingly this exemption. +In the imposing _auto de fe_ celebrated in the city of Mexico, in 1659, +a half-breed, Bernardo del Carpio by name, son of a full-blood Indian +mother, accused of blasphemy, etc., endeavored to escape the Holy Office +by pleading his Indian blood; but his appeal was disallowed, and the +precedent established that any admixture whatever of European blood +brought the accused within the jurisdiction of the Inquisition.[55-*] +Even this seems to have been a concession, for we find the record of an +_auto de fe_ held in 1609, in the province of Tehuantepec, in which +eight full-blood natives were punished for worshiping the goddess +Pinopiaa.[55-[+]] Mr. David Ferguson, however, who has studied +extensively the records of the inquisition in Mexico, informs me that in +none of the trials read by him has he observed any charges of Nagualism, +although many white persons were accused, and some tried, for consulting +Indian sorcerers. + + +=37.= It will be seen from what I have said, that the rites of Nagualism +extended as widely as did the term over Mexico and Central America. It +becomes, therefore, of importance to discover from what linguistic stock +this term and its associated words are derived. From that source it is +reasonable to suppose the rites of this superstition also had their +origin. + +The opinions on this subject have been diverse and positive. Most +writers have assumed that it is a Nahuatl, or pure Mexican, word; while +an eminent authority, Dr. Stoll, is not less certain that it is from a +radical belonging to the neighboring great stock of the Mayan dialects, +and especially the Quiche, of Guatemala.[55-[++]] Perhaps both these +positions are erroneous, and we must look elsewhere for the true +etymology of these expressions. Unquestionably they had become +domesticated in both Maya and Nahuatl; but there is some reason to think +they were loan-words, belonging to another, and perhaps more venerable, +civilization than either of these nations could claim. + +To illustrate this I shall subjoin several series of words derived from +the same radical which is at the basis of the word nagual, the series, +three in number, being taken from the three radically diverse, though +geographically contiguous, linguistic stocks, the Maya, the Zapotec and +the Nahuatl. + + + _From the Maya, of Yucatan._ + + _Naual_, or _nautal_, a native dance, forbidden by the + missionaries. + + _Naatil_, talent, skill, ability. + + _Naat_, intelligence, wisdom. + + _Naatah_, to understand, to divine. + + _Nanaol_, to consider, to contemplate, to meditate, to commune with + oneself, to enter into oneself. + + _Noh_, great, skillful; as _noh ahceh_, a skillful hunter. + + + _From Maya Dialects._ + + QUICHE-CAKCHIQUEL. + + _Naual_, a witch or sorcerer. + + _Naualin_, to tell fortunes, to predict the future. + + _Qui naualin_, to sacrifice, to offer sacrifices. + + _Na_, to feel, to suspect, to divine, to think in one's heart. + + _Nao_, to know, to be alert or expert in something. + + _Naol_, a skillful person, a rhetorician. + + _Naotizan_, to make another intelligent or astute. + + _Natal_, the memory. + + _Natub_, the soul or shadow of a man. + + _Noh_, the god of reason ("Genius der Vernunft," Scherzer). + + _Noh_, to fecundate, to impregnate (_Popol Vuh_). + + + TZENTAL. + + _X-qna_, to know. + + _X-qnaulai_, to know often or thoroughly (frequentative). + + _Naom_, wise, astute (_naom vinic_, hombre sabio). + + _Naoghi_, art, science. + + _Naoghibal_, memory. + + _Ghnaoghel_, a wise man. + + _Alaghom naom_, the Goddess of Wisdom. + + + _From the Zapotec, of Oaxaca_. + + _Nana_, _gana_, _gona_, to know. + + _Nona_, to know thoroughly, to retain in the memory. + + _Nana ticha_, or _nona lii_, a wise man. + + _Guela nana_, or _guela nona_, wisdom, knowledge. + + _Hue gona_, or _ro gona_, a teacher, a master. + + _Na lii_, truth; _ni na lii_, that which is true. + + _Nacina_, or _naciina_, skill, dexterity. + + _Hui naa_, a medicine man, a "nagualist." + + _Nahaa_, to speak pleasantly or agreeably. + + _Nayaa_, or _nayapi_, to speak easily or fluently. + + _Rigoo gona_, to sacrifice, to offer sacrifice. + + _Ni nana_, the understanding, the intelligence, generally. + + _Nayanii_, the superior reason of man. + + _Nayaa_, } superiority, a superior man (gentileza, gentil hombre). + _Naguii_, } + + + _From the Nahuatl, of Mexico_. + + _Naua_, to dance, holding each other by the hands. + + _Naualli_, a sorcerer, magician, enchanter. + + _Nauallotl_, magic, enchantment, witchcraft. + + _Nauatl_, or _nahuatl_, skillful, astute, smart; hence, superior; + applied to language, clear, well-sounding, whence (perhaps) the + name of the tongue. + + _Nauati_, to speak clearly and distinctly. + + _Nauatlato_, an interpreter. + + +=38.= I believe that no one can carefully examine these lists of words, +all taken from authorities well acquainted with the several tongues, and +writing when they still retained their original purity, without +acknowledging that the same radical or syllable underlies them all; and +further, that from the primitive form and rich development of this +radical in the Zapotec, it looks as if we must turn to it to recognize +the origin of all these expressions, both in the Nahuatl and the Maya +linguistic stocks. + +The root _na_, to know, is the primitive monosyllabic stem to which we +trace all of them. _Nahual_ means knowledge, especially mystic +knowledge, the Gnosis, the knowledge of the hidden and secret things of +nature; easily enough confounded in uncultivated minds with sorcery and +magic.[57-*] + +It is very significant that neither the radical _na_ nor any of its +derivatives are found in the Huasteca dialect of the Mayan tongue, which +was spoken about Tampico, far removed from other members of the stock. +The inference is that in the southern dialects it was a borrowed stem. + +Nor in the Nahuatl language--although its very name is derived from +it[58-*]--does the radical _na_ appear in its simplicity and true +significance. To the Nahuas, also, it must have been a loan. + +It is true that de la Serna derives the Mexican _naualli_, a sorcerer, +from the verb _nahualtia_, to mask or disguise oneself, "because a +_naualli_ is one who masks or disguises himself under the form of some +lower animal, which is his _nagual_;"[58-[+]] but it is altogether +likely that _nahualtia_ derived its meaning from the custom of the +medicine men to wear masks during their ceremonies. + +Therefore, if the term _nagual_, and many of its associates and +derivatives, were at first borrowed from the Zapotec language, a +necessary corrollary[TN-6] of this conclusion is, that along with these +terms came most of the superstitions, rites and beliefs to which they +allude; which thus became grafted on the general tendency to such +superstitions existing everywhere and at all times in the human mind. + +Along with the names of the days and the hieroglyphs which mark them, +and the complicated arithmetical methods by means of which they were +employed, were carried most of the doctrines of the Nagualists, and the +name by which they in time became known from central Mexico quite to +Nicaragua and beyond. + +The mysterious words have now, indeed, lost much of their ancient +significance. In a recent dictionary of the Spanish of Mexico _nagual_ +is defined as "a witch; a word used to frighten children and make them +behave,"[58-[++]] while in Nicaragua, where the former Nahuatl +population has left so many traces of its presence in the language of +to-day, the word _nagual_ no longer means an actor in the black art, or +a knowledge of it, but his or her armamentarium, or the box, jar or +case in which are kept the professional apparatus, the talismans and +charms, which constitute the stock in trade or outfit of the +necromancer.[59-*] + +Among the Lacandons, of Mayan stock, who inhabit the forests on the +upper waters of the Usumacinta river, at the present day the term +_naguate_ or _nagutlat_ is said to be applied to any one "who is +entitled to respect and obedience by age and merit;"[59-[+]] but in all +probability he is also believed to possess superior and occult +knowledge. + + +=39.= All who have any acquaintance with the folk-lore of the world are +aware that the notion of men and women having the power to change +themselves into beasts is as wide as superstition itself and older than +history. It is mentioned in the pages of Herodotus and in the myths of +ancient Assyria. It is the property of African negroes, and the +peasantry of Europe still hold to their faith in the reality of the +were-wolf of Germany, the _loup-garou_ of France and the _lupo mannaro_ +of Italy. Dr. Richard Andree well says in his interesting study of the +subject: "He who would explain the origin of this strange superstition +must not approach it as a national or local manifestation, but as one +universal in its nature; not as the property of one race or family, but +of the species and its psychology at large."[59-[++]] + +Even in such a detail as the direct connection of the name of the person +with his power of change do we find extraordinary parallelisms between +the superstition of the red man of America and the peasant of Germany. +As in Mexico the _nagual_ was assigned to the infant by a form of +baptism, so in Europe the peasants of east Prussia hold that if the +godparent at the time of naming and baptism thinks of a wolf, the infant +will acquire the power of becoming one; and in Hesse to pronounce the +name of the person in the presence of the animal into which he has been +changed will restore him to human shape.[59-Sec.] + + +=40.= I need not say that the doctrine of personal spirits is not +especially Mexican, nor yet American; it belongs to man in general, and +can be recognized in most religions and many philosophies. In ancient +Greece both the Platonicians and later the Neo-Platonicians thought that +each individual has a particular spirit, or _daim[=o]n_, in whom is +enshrined his or her moral personality. To this _daim[=o]n_ he should +address his prayers, and should listen heedfully to those interior +promptings which seem to arise in the mind from some unseen silent +monitor.[60-*] + +Many a member of the Church of Rome substitutes for the _daim[=o]n_ of +the Platonists the patron saint after whom he is named, or whom he has +chosen from the calendar, the hagiology, of his Church. This analogy did +not fail to strike the early missionaries, and they saw in the Indian +priest selecting the _nagual_ of the child a hideous and diabolical +caricature of the holy rites. + +But what was their horror when they found that the similarity proceeded +so far that the pagan priest also performed a kind of baptismal +sacrament with water; and that in the Mexican picture-writing the sign +which represents the natal day, the _tonal_, by which the individual +demon is denoted, was none other than the sign of the cross, as we have +seen. This left no doubt as to the devilish origin of the whole +business, which was further supported by the wondrous thaumaturgic +powers of its professors. + + +=41.= How are we to explain these marvelous statements? It will not do to +take the short and easy road of saying they are all lies and frauds. The +evidence is too abundant for us to doubt that there was skillful +jugglery among the proficients in the occult arts among those nations. +They could rival their colleagues in the East Indies and Europe, if not +surpass them. + +Moreover, is there anything incredible in the reports of the spectators? +Are we not familiar with the hypnotic or mesmeric conditions in which +the subject sees, hears and feels just what the master tells him to feel +and see? The tricks of cutting oneself or others, of swallowing broken +glass, of handling venomous reptiles, are well-known performances of the +sect of the Aissaoua in northern Africa, and nowadays one does not have +to go off the boulevards of Paris to see them repeated. The phenomena of +thought transference, of telepathy, of clairvoyance, of spiritual +rappings, do but reiterate under the clear light of the close of the +nineteenth century the mystical thaumaturgy with which these children of +nature were familiar centuries ago in the New World, and which are +recorded of the theosophists and magicians of Egypt, Greece and +Rome.[61-*] So long as many intelligent and sensible people among +ourselves find all explanations of these modern phenomena inadequate and +unsatisfactory, we may patiently wait for a complete solution of those +of a greater antiquity. + + +=42.= The conclusion to which this study of Nagualism leads is, that it +was not merely the belief in a personal guardian spirit, as some have +asserted; not merely a survival of fragments of the ancient heathenism, +more or less diluted by Christian teachings, as others have maintained; +but that above and beyond these, it was a powerful secret organization, +extending over a wide area, including members of different languages and +varying culture, bound together by mystic rites, by necromantic powers +and occult doctrines; but, more than all, by one intense emotion--hatred +of the whites--and by one unalterable purpose--that of their +destruction, and with them the annihilation of the government and +religion which they had introduced. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4-*] These words occur a number of times in the English translation, +published at London in 1822, of Dr. Paul Felix Cabrera's _Teatro Critico +Americano_. The form _nagual_ instead of _nahual_, or _naual_, or +_nawal_ has been generally adopted and should be preferred. + +[4-[+]] For instance, in "The Names of the Gods in the Kiche Myths," pp. +21, 22, in _Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society_, 1881; +_Annals of the Cakchiquels_, Introduction, p. 46; _Essays of an +Americanist_, p. 170, etc. + +[5-*] _Historia de las Indias Occidentales_, Dec. iv, Lib. viii, cap. 4. + +[5-[+]] More especially it is the territory of the Chorti dialect, +spoken to this day in the vicinity of the famous ancient city of Copan, +Honduras. Cerquin lies in the mountains nearly due east of this +celebrated site. On the Chorti, see Stoll, _Zur Ethnographie der +Republik Guatemala_, pp. 106-9. + +[6-*] Bernardino de Sahagun, _Historia de la Nueva Espana_, Lib. x, cap. +9. + +[6-[+]] Derived from _teciuhtlaza_, to conjure against hail, itself from +_teciuh_, hail. Alonso de Molina, _Vocabulario Mexicano_, sub voce. + +[6-[++]] Bautista, _Advertencias para los Confesores_, fol. 112 (Mexico, +1600). + +[6-Sec.] Nicolas de Leon, _Camino del Cielo_, fol. 111 (Mexico, 1611). + +[7-*] Paso y Troncoso, in _Anales del Museo Nacional[TN-7] de Mexico_, +Tom. iii, p. 180. + +[7-[+]] Sahagun, _Historia de Nueva Espana_, Lib. x, cap. 29, and Lib. +xi, cap. 7. Hernandez has the following on the mysterious properties of +this plant: "Illud ferunt de hac radice mirabile (si modo fides sit +vulgatissimae inter eos rei habendae), devorantes illam quodlibet +prsaesagire praedicereque; velut an sequenti die hostes sint impetum in +eos facturi? Anne illos felicia maneant tempora? Quis supellectilem, aut +aliud quidpiam furto subripruerit? Et ad hunc modum alia, quibus +Chichimecae hujusmodi medicamine cognoscendis." Franciscus Hernandus, +_Historia Plantarum Novae Hispaniae_, Tom. iii, p. 71 (Ed., Madrid, 1790). + +[7-[++]] _Diccionario Universal_, Appendice, Tom. i, p. 360 (Mexico, +1856). + +[8-*] _Confessionario Mayor y Menor en lengua Mexicana_, fol. 8, verso +(Mexico, 1634). + +[8-[+]] Vetancurt, _Teatro Mexicano_, Trat. iii, cap. 9. + +[8-[++]] Hernandez, _Historia Plantarum Novae Hispaniae_, Tom. iii, p. 32. + +[9-*] Dr. Jacinto de la Serna, _Manual de Min stros[TN-8] de Indios para +el Conocimiento de sus Idolatrias y Extirpacion de Ellas_, p. 163. This +interesting work was composed about the middle of the seventeenth +century by a Rector of the University of Mexico, but was first printed +at Madrid, in 1892, from the MS. furnished by Dr. N. Leon, under the +editorship of the Marquis de la Fuensanta del Valle. + +[9-[+]] MSS. of the Licentiate Zetina, and _Informe_ of Father Baeza in +_Registro Yucateco_, Tom. i. + +[10-*] Acosta, _De la Historia Moral de Indias_, Lib. v, cap. 26. + +[10-[+]] Of the _thiuimeezque_ Hernandez writes: "Aiunt radicis cortice +unius unciae pondere tuso, atque devorato, multa ante oculos observare +phantasmata, multiplices imagines ac monstrificas rerum figuras, +detegique furem, si quidpiam rei familiaris subreptum sit." _Hist. +Plant. Nov. Hispan._, Tom. iii, p. 272. The _chacuaco_ and its effects +are described by Father Venegas in his _History of California_, etc. + +[10-[++]] "In Mictlan Tetlachihuique, in Nanahualtin, in Tlahuipuchtin." +Paredes, _Promptuario Manual Mexicano_, p. 128 (Mexico, 1757). The +_tlahuipuchtin_, "those who work with smoke," were probably diviners who +foretold the future from the forms taken by smoke in rising in the air. +This class of augurs were also found in Peru, where they were called +_Uirapircos_ (Balboa, _Hist. du Perou_, p. 28-30). + +[10-Sec.] Von Gagern, _Charakteristik der Indianischer Bevoelkerung +Mexikos_, s. 125. + +[11-*] _Historia Antigua de Mexico_, Tom. ii, p. 25. Francisco Pimentel, +in his thoughtful work, _Memoria sobre las Causas que han originado la +Situacion Actual de la Raza Indigena de Mexico_ (Mexico, 1864), +recognizes how almost impossible it is to extirpate their faith in this +nagualism. "Conservan los agueros y supersticiones de la antigueedad, +siendo cosa de fe para ellos, los _nahuales_," etc., p. 200, and comp. +p. 145. + +[11-[+]] On these terms consult the extensive _Dictionnaire de la Langue +Nahuatl_, by Remi Simeon,[TN-9] published at Paris, 1887. It is not +impossible that _tona_ is itself a compound root, including the +monosyllabic radical _na_, which is at the basis of _nagual_. + +[11-[++]] Sahagun, _Historia de Nueva Espana_, Lib. iv, _passim_, and +Lib. x, cap. 9. + +[12-*] See Ch. de Labarthe, _Revue Americaine_, Serie ii, Tom. ii, pp. +222-225. His translation of _naualteteuctin_ by "Seigneurs du genie" +must be rejected, as there is absolutely no authority for assigning this +meaning to _naualli_. + +[13-*] _Anales de Cuauhtitlan_, p. 31. The translator renders it "palo +brujo." + +[13-[+]] _Les Anciennes Villes du Nouveau Monde_, pp. 146-148, figured +on p. 150. On its significance compare Hamy, _Decades Americanae_, pp. +74-81. + +[13-[++]] _The Native Calendar of Central America and Mexico_ +(Philadelphia, 1893). + +[13-Sec.] Eduard Muehlenpfordt, _Mexico_, Bd. i, s. 255. + +[14-*] The word is derived from _tlatoa_, to speak for another, and its +usual translation was "chief," as the head man spoke for, and in the +name of the gens or tribe. + +[14-[+]] The interesting account by Iglesias is printed in the Appendix +to the _Diccionario Universal de Geographia y Historia_ (Mexico, 1856). +Other writers testify to the tenacity with which the Mixes cling to +their ancient beliefs. Senor Moro says they continue to be "notorious +idolaters," and their actual religion to be "an absurd jumble of their +old superstitions with Christian doctrines" (in Orozco y Berra, +_Geografia de las Lenguas de exico[TN-10]_, p. 176). + +[15-*] For instance, J. B. Carriedo, in his _Estudios Historicos del +Estado Oaxaqueno_ (Oaxaca, 1849), p. 15, says the _nahualt_ was a +ceremony performed by the native priest, in which the infant was bled +from a vein behind the ear, assigned a name, that of a certain day, and +a guardian angel or _tona_. These words are pure Nahuatl, and Carriedo, +who does not give his authority, probably had none which referred these +rites to the Zapotecs. + +[15-[+]] Juan de Cordova, _Arte en Lengua Zapoteca_, pp. 16, 202, 203, +213, 216. + +[16-*] Quoted in Carriedo, ubi supra, p. 17. + +[16-[+]] _Hist. de las Indias Oc._, Dec. iii, Lib. iii, cap. 12. + +[17-*] So I understand the phrase, "figuras pintadas con zifras +enigmaticas"[TN-11] + +[17-[+]] _Popoluca_ was a term applied to various languages. I suspect +the one here referred to was the Mixe. See an article by me, entitled +"Chontales and Popolucas; a Study in Mexican Ethnography," in the +_Compte Rendu_ of the Eighth Session of the Congress of Americanists, p. +566, _seq._ + +[17-[++]] _Constit. Diocesan_, p. 19. + +[18-*] _Constitut. Diocesan_, Titulo vii, pp. 47, 48. + +[19-*] Rather with the Quetzalcoatl of the Nahuas, and the Gucumatz of +the Quiches, both of which names mean "Feathered Serpent." Mixcohuatl, +the Cloud Serpent, in Mexican mythology, referred to the Thunder-storm. + +[19-[+]] In his Tzental Vocabulary, Father Lara does not give this exact +form; but in the neighboring dialect of the Cakchiquel Father Ximenes +has _quikeho_, to agree together, to enter into an arrangement; the +prefix _zme_ is the Tzental word for "mother." + +[20-*] Father Lara, in his _Vocabulario Tzendal MS._ (in my possession), +gives for medical (medico), _ghpoxil_, for medicine (medicinal cosa), +_pox_, _xpoxtacoghbil_; for physician (medico), _ghpoxta vinic_ (the +form _vanegh_, person, is also correct). The Tzendal _pox_ (pronounced +_p[=o]sh_) is another form of the Quiche-Cakchiquel _p[=u]z_, a word +which Father Ximenes, in his _Vocabulario Cakchiquel_ MS (in my +possession), gives in the compound _puz naual_, with the meaning, +enchanter, wizard. Both these, I take it, are derived from the Maya +_puz_, which means to blow the dust, etc., off of something (soplar el +polvo de la ropa o otra cosa. _Dicc. de la Lengua Maya del Convento de +Motul_, MS. The dictionary edited by Pio Perez does not give this +meaning). The act of blowing was the essential feature in the treatment +of these medicine men. It symbolized the transfer and exercise of +spiritual power. When Votan built his underground shrine he did it _a +soplos_, by blowing (Nunez de la Vega, _Constitut. Diocesan_, p. 10). +The natives did not regard the comet's tail as behind it but in front of +it, blown from its mouth. The Nahuatl word in the text, _tzihuizin_, is +the Pipil form of _xihuitzin_, the reverential of _xihuitl_, which means +a leaf, a season, a year, or a comet. Apparently it refers to the +Nahuatl divinity _Xiuhte cutli_, described by Sahagun, _Historia de +Nueva Espana_, Lib. i, cap. 13, as god of fire, etc. + +[21-*] _Hicalahau_, for _ical ahau_, Black King, one of the Tzental +divinities, who will be referred to on a later page. + +[21-[+]] "Maestros de los pueblos," _Constitut. Diocesan_, i, p. 106. + +[23-*] _Historia de Guatemala, o, Recordacion Florida_, Tom. ii, p. 44, +_seq._ + +[24-*] Gage, _A New Survey of the West Indies_, p. 388, _seq._ (4th +Ed.). + +[25-*] _Le Popol Vuh, ou Livre Sacre des Quiches_, p. 315 (Ed. Brasseur, +Paris, 1861). In the Quiche myths, Gucumatz is the analogue of +Quetzalcoatl in Aztec legend. Both names mean the same, "Feathered +Serpent." + +[25-[+]] Baeza's article is printed in the _Registro Yucateco_, Vol. i, +p. 165, _seq._ + +[26-*] "Wird ein Kind im Dorfe geboren, so erhaelt der heidnische +Goetzenpriester von diesem Ereignisse viel eher Kunde, als der +katholische Pfarrer. Erst wenn dem neuen Weltbuerger durch den Aj-quig +das Horoskop gestellt, der Name irgend eines Thieres beigelegt, +Mi-si-sal (das citronengelbe Harz des Rhus copallinum) verbrannt, ein +Lieblingsgoetze angerufen, und noche viele andere aberglauebische +Mysterien verrichtet worden sind, wird das Kind nach dem Pfarrhause zur +christlichen Taufe getragen. Das Thier, dessen Name dem Kinde kurz nach +seiner Geburt vom Sonnenpriester beigelegt wird, gilt gewoehnlich auch +als sein Schutzgeist (_nagual_) fuers ganze Leben." Dr. Karl Scherzer, +_Die Indianer von Santa Catalina Istlavacan_, p. 11, Wien, 1856. + +[26-[+]] The word _zahori_, of Arabic origin, is thus explained in the +Spanish and English dictionary of Delpino (London, 1763): "So they call +in Spain an impostor who pretends to see into the bowels of the earth, +through stone walls, or into a man's body." Dr. Stoll says the Guatemala +Indians speak of their diviners, the _Ah Kih_, as _zahorin_. +_Guatemala_, s. 229. + +[26-[++]] Emetorio Pineda, _Descripcion Geografica de Chiapas y +Soconusco_, p. 22 (Mexico, 1845). + +[27-*] Madier de Montjau, "Manuscrits Figuratifs de l' Ancien Mexique," +in _Archives de la Societe Americaine[TN-12] de France_, 1875, p. 245. + +[27-[+]] Torquemada, _Monarquia Indiana_, Lib. xv, cap. 16. + +[28-*] De la Serna, _Manual de Ministros_, pp. 20, 21, 42, 162. The +mushroom referred to was the _quauhnanacatl_, probably the same as the +_teyhuinti_ of Hernandez, _Hist. Plant. Nov. Hispan._, Tom. ii, p. 358, +who says that it is not dangerous to life, but disturbs the mind, +inciting to laughter and intoxication. + +[28-[+]] Actual slavery of the Indians in Mexico continued as late as +the middle of the seventeenth century. See Cavo, _Tres Siglos de +Mexico_, etc., Tom. ii, p. 11. + +[28-[++]] Brasseur, _Hist. des Nations Civilisees de Mexique_, Tom. iv, +p. 822. + +[29-*] _Informe del teniente general, Don Jacobo de Barba Figueroa, +corregidor de la Provincia de Suchitepeque_, quoted by Brasseur. + +[29-[+]] Jacinto de la Serna says: "Los maestros de estas ceremonias son +todos unos, y lo que sucede en esta cordillera en todas sucede." _Manual +de Ministros_, p. 52. Speaking of the methods of the nagualists of +Chiapas, Bishop Nunez de la Vega writes: "Concuerdan los mas modernos +con los mas antiguos que se practicaban en Mexico." _Constituciones +Diocesanas_, p. 134. + +[29-[++]] He observes that there were "familias de los tales sabios en +las quales en manera de patrimonio se heredaban, succediendo los hijos a +los padres, y principalmente su abominable secta de Nagualismo." +_Historia del Cielo y de la Tierra_, MS., p. 7. Ordonez advances various +erudite reasons for believing that Nagualism is a religious belief whose +theory and rites were brought from Carthage by Punic navigators in +ancient times. + +[29-Sec.] Maria de Moxo, _Cartas Mejicanas_, p. 270, (Genova, n. d.). + +[30-*] "_Xochimilca_, que asi llamavan a los mui sabios encantadores." +Torquemada, _Monarquia Indiana_, Lib. xv, cap. 16. + +[30-[+]] In Nahuatl, _tlapiani_, a guardian or watchman. The Zapotec +priesthood was divided into the _huijatoos_, "greater guardians," and +their inferiors, the _copavitoos_, "guardians of the gods." Carriedo, +_Estudios Historicos_,[TN-13] p. 93. + +[30-[++]] See Eligio Ancona. _Historia de Yucatan_, Tom. iv, cap. 1 +(Merida, 1880). + +[31-*] The mention of the fifteen, 5 x 3, chosen disciples indicates +that the same system of initiating by triplets prevailed in Yucatan as +in Chiapas (see above, p. 19). The sacred tree is not named, but +presumably it was the ceiba to which I refer elsewhere. The address of +Jacinto was obtained from those present, and is given at length by the +Jesuit Martin del Puerto, in his _Relacion hecho al Cabildo Eclesiastico +por el preposito de la Compania de Jesus, acerca de la muerte de Jacinto +Can-Ek y socios_, Dec. 26, 1761. It is published, with other documents +relating to this revolt, in the Appendix to the _Diccionario Universal_, +edited by Orozco y Berra, Mexico, 1856. On the prophecies of Chilan +Balam, see my _Essays of an Americanist_, pp. 255-273 (Philadelphia, +1890). + +[31-[+]] Eligio Ancona, _Hist. de Yucatan_, Tom. ii, p. 452. + +[32-*] See Pedro Sanchez de Aguilar, _Informe contra Idolum Cultores en +Yucathan_ (Madrid, 1639); Eligio Ancona, _Historia de Yucatan_, Tom. ii, +pp. 128, 129. + +[32-[+]] The chief authority on this revolt is Juan de Torres Castillo, +_Relacion de lo Sucedido en las Provincias de Nexapa, Iztepex y Villa +Alta_ (Mexico, 1662). See also Cavo, _Los Tres Siglos de Mexico durante +el Gobierno Espanol_, Tom. ii, p. 41, and a pamphlet by Christoval Manso +de Contreras, _Relacion cierta y verdadera de lo que sucedio en esta +Provincia de Tehuantepec_, etc. (printed at Mexico, 1661), which I know +only through the notes of Dr. Berendt. Mr. H. H. Bancroft, in his very +meagre account of this event, mistakingly insists that it took place in +1660. _History of Mexico_, Vol. iii, p. 164. + +[32-[++]] See Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Histoire des Nations Civilisees de +la Mexique_, Tom. iv, 824. + +[32-Sec.] Cavo, _Los Tres Siglos_, etc., Tom. ii, p. 82. On the use and +significance of the _piochtli_ we have some information in Vetancurt, +_Teatro Mexicano_, Tom. ii, p. 464, and de la Serna, _Manual de +Ministros_, pp. 166, 167. It was the badge of a certain order of the +native priesthood. + +[33-*] _Adventures on the Musquito Shore_, by S. A. Ward, pseudonym of +Mr. Squier, p. 258 (New York, 1855). + +[33-[+]] Nunez de la Vega, _Constituciones Diocesanas_, p. 10, and comp. +Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Hist. des Nat. Civ. de Mexique_, Tom. i, p. 74. + +[33-[++]] Herrera, _Hist. de las Indias Occidentales_, Dec. ii, Lib. +iii, cap. 5. + +[34-*] Acosta, _Hist. Nat. y Moral de las Indias_, Lib. vii, cap. 5. + +[34-[+]] The story is given in Herrera, _Hist. de las Indias_, Dec. iv, +Lib. viii, cap. 4. The name Coamizagual is translated in the account as +"Flying Tigress." I cannot assign it this sense in any dialect. + +[34-[++]] Jacinto de la Serna, _Manual de Ministros_. p. 138. Sahagun +identifies Quilaztli with Tonantzin, the common mother of mankind and +goddess of child-birth (_Hist. de Nueva Espana_, Lib. i, cap. 6, Lib. +vi, cap. 27). Further particulars of her are related by Torquemada, +_Monarquia Indiana_, Lib. ii, cap. 2. The _tzitzime_ were mysterious +elemental powers, who, the Nahuas believed, were destined finally to +destroy the present world (Sahagun, l. c., Lib. vi, cap. 8). The word +means "flying haired" (Serna). + +[34-Sec.] Torquemada, _Monarquia Indiana_, Lib. ii, cap. 62. + +[35-*] Fr. Tomas Coto, _Diccionario de la Lengua Cakchiquel_, MS., s. v. +_Sacrificar_; in the Library of the American Philosophical Society at +Philadelphia. + +[35-[+]] "Trataron de valerse del arte de los encantos y _naguales_" are +the words of the author, Fuentes y Guzman, in his _Recordacion Florida_, +Tom. i, p. 50. In the account of Bernal Diaz, it reads as if this witch +and her dog had both been sacrificed; but Fuentes is clear in his +statement, and had other documents at hand. + +[35-[++]] Teobert Maler, "Memoire sur l'Etat de Chiapas," in the _Revue +d' Ethnographie_, Tom. iii, pp. 309-311. This writer also gives some +valuable facts about the Indian insurrection in the Sierra de Alicia, in +1873. + +[36-*] The long account given by Mr H. H. Bancroft of this insurrection +is a travesty of the situation drawn from bitterly prejudiced Spanish +sources, of course, utterly out of sympathy with the motives which +prompted the native actors. See his _History of the Pacific States_, Vol +ii, p. 696 _sqq._ Ordonez y Aguiar, who lived on the spot within a +generation of the occurrences recognizes in Maria Candelaria (whose true +name Bancroft does not give) the real head of the rebellion, "quien +ordenaba los ardides del motin; .... de lo que principalmente trataban +las leyes fundamentales de su secta, era de que no quedase rastro alguno +de que los Europeos havian pisado este suelo." His account is in his +unpublished work, _Historia del Cielo y de la Tierra_, written at +Guatemala about 1780. Juarros, speaking of their rites, says of them: +"Apostando de la fe, profanando los vasos sagrados, y ofreciendo +sacrilegos cultos a una indizuela." _Historia de la Ciudad de +Guatemala_, Tom. i, p. 17. + +[36-[+]] Bancroft, ubi supra, p. 705, note. One was hanged, whom Garcia +Pelaez calls "una india bruja." _Memorias para la Historia de +Guatemala_, Tom. ii, p. 153. + +[36-[++]] Squier, ubi supra, passim. + +[37-*] _Voyage a l' Isthmus de Tehuantepec_, p. 164. He adds a number of +particulars of the power she was supposed to exercise. + +[38-*] "Que era venerado en todo el imperio de Montezuma." See +_Diccionario Universal_, Appendice, s. v. (Mexico, 1856). + +[38-[+]] "Dass der Gott Tepeyollotl im Zapotekenlande und weiter +suedwaerts seine Wurzeln hat, und dem eigentlichen Aztekischen Olymp fremd +ist, darueber kann kein Zweifel mehr obwalten." See Dr. Seler's able +discussion of the subject in the _Compte-Rendu_ of the Seventh +International Congress of Americanists, p. 559, _seq._ The adoption of +subterranean temples was peculiarly a Zapotecan trait. "Notandose +principalmente en muchos adoratorios de los Zapotecos, estan los mas de +ellos cubiertos, o en subterraneos espaciosos y lobregos." Carriedo, +_Estudios Historicos_, Tom. i, p. 26. + +[39-*] _Constituciones Diocesanas_, pp. 9, 10. + +[39-[+]] Gage, _A New Survey of the West Indies_, pp. 389, 393. + +[39-[++]] _Teatro Mexicano_, Tratado iii, cap. 11. Mr. Bandelier has +called attention to the naming of one of the principal chiefs among the +Aztecs, _Tlilancalqui_, "Man of the Dark House," and thinks it related +to the Votan myth. _Twelfth Annual Report of the Peabody Museum_, p. +689. + +[40-*] Herrera, _Historia de las Indias Occidentales_, Dec. iii, Lib. +iii, cap. 14. + +[40-[+]] Villa Senor, _Teatro Americano_, Lib. v, cap. 38 (Mexico, +1747). Father Cavo adds that there were signs of human sacrifices +present, but of this I can find no evidence in the earlier reports. +Comp. Cavo, _Los Tres Siglos de Mexico durante el Gobierno +Espanal[TN-14]_, Tom. ii, p. 128. + +[40-[++]] _Teatro Americano_, Lib. ii, cap. 11; Lib. iii, cap. 13. + +[41-*] See Muehlenpfordt, _Mexico_, Bd. ii, pp. 200-266; Brasseur, _Hist. +des Nations Civ. de la Mexique_, Vol. iv, p. 821; Herrera, _Historia de +las Indias_, Dec. iii, Lib. iii, cap. 12, etc. + +[41-[+]] _Diccionario Universal_, Appendice, s. v. + +[41-[++]] Their names were Ta Yoapa, Father Dawn; Ta Te, Father Stone; +Coanamoa, the Serpent which Seizes. _Dicc. Univ._, App., Tom. iii, p. +11. + +[41-Sec.] Duran, _Historia de los Indios_, Tom. ii, p. 140. They were Tota, +Our Father; Yollometli, the Heart of the Maguey (probably pulque); and +Topiltzin, Our Noble One (probably Quetzalcoatl, to whom this epithet +was often applied). + +[41-[||]] "Fue el Demonio que les dio la supersticion del numero nueve." +_Manual de Ministros_, p. 197. + +[42-*] _The Native Calendar of Central America and Mexico_, p. 12. + +[42-[+]] Motolinia, _Ritos Antiguos, Sacrificios e Idolatrias de los +Indios de la Nueva Espana_, p. 340 (in _Coleccion de Documentos ineditos +para la Historia de Espana_). + +[42-[++]] Thomas Coto, _Vocabulario de la lengua Cakchiquel_, MS., sub +voce, _Rayo_. + +[42-Sec.] Herrera, _Historia de las Indias_, Dec. IV, Lib. viii, cap. 10. + +[42-[||]] _Diccionario Universal_, Appendice, ubi supra. + +[42-[P]] [TN-15]'Senor de los Animales." _Codex Telleriano-Remensis_, Parte +ii, Lam. iv. + +[43-*] See Dr. Seler's minute description in the _Compte Rendu_ of the +Eighth Session of the Congres International des Americanistes, pp. 588, +589. In one of the conjuration formulas given by de la Serna (_Manual de +Ministros_, p. 212) the priest says: "Yo soy el sacerdote, el dios +_Quetzalcoatl_, que se bajara al infierno, y subire a lo superior, y +hasta los nueve infiernos." This writer, who was very competent in the +Nahuatl, translates the name Quetzalcoatl by "culebra con cresta" +(_id._, p. 171), an unusual, but perhaps a correct rendering. + +[43-[+]] His words here are somewhat obscure. They are, "El baptismo de +fuego, en donde las ponen los sobre nombres que llaman _yahuiltoca_, +quando nacen." This may be translated, "The baptism of fire in which +they confer the names which they call _yahuiltoca_." The obscurity is in +the Nahuatl, as the word _toca_ may be a plural of _tocaitl_, name, as +well as the verb _toca_, to throw upon. The passage is from the _Camino +del Cielo_, fol. 100, verso. + +[43-[++]] Sahagun, _Historia de la Nueva Espana_, Lib. iv, cap. 25. + +[43-Sec.] It is mentioned as useful for this purpose by the early +physicians, Francisco Ximenes, _Cuatro Libros de la Naturaleza_, p. 144; +Hernandez, _Hist. Plant. Novae Hispaniae_, Tom. ii, p. 200. Capt. Bourke, +in his recent article on "The Medicine Men of the Apaches" (in _Ninth +Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_, p. 521), suggests that the +_yiahuitli_ of the Aztecs is the same as the "hoddentin," the pollen of +a variety of cat-tail rush which the Apaches in a similar manner throw +into the fire as an offering. Hernandez, however, describes the +_yiahuitli_ as a plant with red flowers, growing on mountains and +hill-sides--no species of rush, therefore. De la Serna says it is the +anise plant, and that with it the natives perform the conjuration of the +"yellow spirit" (conjuro de amarillo espiritado), that is, of the Fire +(_Manual de Ministros_, p. 197). + +[44-*] From the verb _apeua_. Vetancurt's description is in his _Teatro +Mexicano_, Tom. i, pp. 462, 463 (Ed. Mexico, 1870). + +[44-[+]] His frequent references to it show this. See his _Manual de +Ministros_, pp. 16, 20, 22, 24, 36, 40, 66, 174, 217, etc. The word +_tlecuixtliliztli_ is compounded of _tlecuilli_, the hearth or +fireplace, and _ixtliluia_, to darken with smoke. + +[45-*] Duran, _Historia de los Indios de la Nueva Espana_, Tom. ii, p. +240. Sahagun adds that the _octli_ was poured on the hearth at four +separate points, doubtless the four cardinal points. _Historia de Nueva +Espana_, Lib. i, cap. 18. De la Serna describes the same ceremony as +current in his day, _Manual de Ministros_, p. 35. The invocation +ran:--"Shining Rose, light-giving Rose, receive and rejoice my heart +before the God." + +[45-[+]] A copy of these strange "Books of Chilan Balam" is in my +possession. I have described them in my _Essays of an Americanist_ +(Philadelphia, 1890). + +[45-[++]] See his remarks on "Apperception der Menschenzeugung als +Feuerbereitung," in the _Zeitschrift fuer Voelkerpsychologie_, Bd. vi, s. +113, _seq._ + +[46-*] Sahagun, _Historia de Nueva Espana_, Lib. i, cap. 13. The Nahuatl +text is more definite than the Spanish translation. + +[46-[+]] See my _Myths of the New World_, p. 154, _seq._ + +[46-[++]] In the Nahuatl language the word _xihuitl_ (_xiuitl_) has four +meanings: a plant, a turquoise, a year and a comet. + +[46-Sec.] J. B. Carriedo, _Estudios Historicos del Estado Oaxaqueno_, Tom. +i, p. 82, etc. + +[47-*] Alva, _Confessionario en Lengua Mexicana_, fol. 9. + +[47-[+]] Carriedo, _Estudios Historicos_, pp. 6, 7. + +[47-[++]] In the _Revue[TN-16] d' Ethnographie_, Tom. iii, p. 313. Some +very fine objects of this class are described by E. G. Squier, in his +"Observations on the Chalchihuitl," in the _Annals of the Lyceum of +Natural History_, Vol. i (New York, 1869). + +[48-*] Diego Duran, _Historia de los Indios de Nueva Espana_, Tom. ii, +p. 140. + +[48-[+]] In Kingsborough, _Antiquities of Mexico_, Vol. ii, Pl. 180. On +the cross as a form derived from a tree see the observations of W. H. +Holmes, in the _Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_, pp. +270, 271. + +[48-[++]] "Au Mexique, le cadre croise, la croix en sautoir, comme celle +de St. Andre, avec quelques variantes, representait le signe de +nativite, _tonalli_, la fete, le jour natal." M. Aubin, in Boban, +_Catalogue Raisonnee de la Collection Goupil_, Tom. i, p. 227. Both +Gomara and Herrera may be quoted to this effect. + +[49-*] See a curious story from native sources in my _Essays of an +Americanist_, pp. 171, 172. It adds that this change can be prevented by +casting salt upon the person. + +[49-[+]] Benito Maria de Moxo, _Cartas Mejicanas_, p. 257; Landa, _Cosas +de Yucatan_, p. 193. + +[49-[++]] Pedro de los Rios, in his notes to the Codex Vaticanus, +published in Kingsborough's great work, assigns the sign, _cohuatl_, the +serpent, to "il membro virile, il maggio augurio di tutti gli altri." It +is distinctly so shown on the 75th plate of the Codex. De la Serna +states that in his day some of the Mexican conjurors used a wand, around +which was fastened a living serpent. _Manual de Ministros_, p. 37. + +[49-Sec.] There is abundant evidence of this in certain plates of the Codex +Troano, and there is also alleged to be much in the Codex Mexicanus of +the Palais Bourbon. Writing about the latter, M. Aubin said as far back +as 1841--"le culte du lingam on du phallus n'etait pas etranger aux +Mexicains, ce qu' etablissent plusieurs documents peu connus et des +sculptures decouvertes depuis un petit nombre d'annees." His letter is +in Boban, _Catalogue Raisonne la Collection Goupil_, Tom. ii, p. 207. On +the frequent identification of the serpent symbol with the phallus in +classical art, consult Dr. Anton Nagele's article, "Der +Schlangen-Cultus," in the _Zeitschrift fuer Voelkerpsychologie_, Band +xvii, p. 285, _seq._ + +[50-*] Cf. G. Tarayre, _Exploration Mineralogique des Regions +Mexicaines_, p. 233 (Paris, 1869), and _Bulletin de la Societe +d'Anthropologie de Paris_, Juin, 1893. + +[50-[+]] _Sources de l' Histoire Primitive de Mexique_, p. 81. + +[50-[++]] From _zo_, to join together. Compare my _Essays of an +Americanist_, p. 417 (Philadelphia, 1890). + +[50-Sec.] "El indio Mexicano es todavia idolatra." F. Pimentel, _La +Situacion actual de la Raza Indigena de Mexico_, p. 197. + +[51-*] The "holy souls" who are here appealed to by name are those of +deceased _ah-kih_, or priests of the native cult. + +[55-*] See the _Relation del Auto celebrado en Mexico, ano de 1659_ +(Mexico, En la Imprenta del Santo Officio, 1659). + +[55-[+]] J. B. Carriedo, _Estudios Historicos del Estado +Oaxaqueno[TN-17]_, Tom. i, pp. 8, 9 (Oaxaca, 1849). About 1640 a number of +Indians in the province of Acapulco were put to death for having buried +enchanted ashes beneath the floor of a chapel! (Serna, _Manual de +Ministros_, p. 52.) + +[55-[++]] "Nagual ist in seiner correcten Form _naoal_ ein echtes +Quiche-Wort, ein Substantivum instrumentale, vom Stamme _nao_, wissen, +erkennen. _Naoal_ ist dasjenige, womit oder woran etwas, in diesem Falle +das Schicksal des Kindes, erkannt wird, und hat mit dem mexikanischen +_nahualli_ (Hexe), mit dem man es vielleicht in Verbindung bringen +moechte, nichts zu schaffen." _Guatemala_, s. 238. + +[57-*] The Abbe Brasseur observes: "Le mot _nahual_, qui vet dire toute +science, ou science de tout, est frequemment employe pour exprimer la +sorcellerie chez ces populations." _Bulletin de la Societe de +Geographie_, 1857, p. 290. In another passage of his works the +speculative Abbe translates _naual_ by the English "know all," and is +not averse to believing that the latter is but a slight variant of the +former. + +[58-*] See an article by me, entitled "On the Words 'Anahuac' and +'Nahuatl,'" in the _American Antiquarian_, for November, 1893. + +[58-[+]] _Manual de Ministros_, p. 50. + +[58-[++]] Jesus Sanchez, _Glosario de Voces Castellanas derivadas del +Idioma Nahuatl_, sub voce. + +[59-*] "_Nagual_--el lugar, rincon, cajon, nambira, etc., donde guarda +sus talismanes y trajes de encanta la bruja." Berendt, _La Lengua +Castellana de Nicaragua_, MS. + +[59-[+]] Emetorio Pineda, _Description Geografica de Chiapas y +Soconusco_, p. 23 (Mexico, 1845). + +[59-[++]] See his article "Wer-wolf," in his _Ethnographische Parallelen +und Vergleiche_, p. 62, _seq._ + +[59-Sec.] Richard Andree, _ibid._, ss. 63, 64. + +[60-*] See Alfred Maury, _La Magie et l' Astrologie_, pp. 88, 89, 267, +etc. + +[61-*] In the _Notice Preliminaire_ to the second part of his work, _La +Magie et l' Astrologie dans l' Antiquite et au Moyen Age_, Mr. Alfred +Maury admirably sums up the scientific resources at our command for +explaining the mystical phenomena of experience, without denying their +reality as actual occurrences. + + + + +INDEX. + + +Native words explained, _in Italics_; names of Authors quoted, in SMALL +CAPITALS. + + Achiutla, 40 + + ACOSTA, J., 9, 34 + + AGUILAR, P. S., 32 + + _Ahau_, 35 + + _Ah Kih_, 26, 51 + + _Ah-toc_, 45 + + Aissaoua, the, 60 + + Alaghom Naom, a goddess, 56 + + _Alom_, deity, 50 + + ALVA, B. DE, 8, 46, 47 + + _Anahuac_, 58 + + ANCONA, E., 30, 31 + + ANDAGOYA, P. DE, 33 + + ANDREE,[TN-18] R., 59 + + Antichrist, appealed to, 28 + + _Apehualco_, 44 + + AUBIN, M., 48, 49 + + Ay, Antonio, 30 + + Aztecan language, 5, 11 + + Aztecs, 7 + + + _Baal-che_, 9 + + BAEZA, P., 9, 25 + + BALBOA, P., 10 + + BANCROFT, H. H., 13, 32, 36 + + BANDELIER, A., 39 + + Baptism, 27, 43 + + Baptism by fire, 37 + + BARBA FIGUEROA, 29 + + BAUTISTA, J., 6 + + BERENDT, C. H., 50, 59 + + "Black King," the, 39 + + Blowing, as a rite, 19, 20 + + BOBAN, M., 48 + + "Books of Chilan Balam", 45 + + BOURKE, Capt., 44 + + BRASSEUR (de Bourbourg), 25, 28, 29, 32, 33, 37, 57 + + _Buk xoc_, 45 + + BURGOA, P., 16 + + + CABRERA, Dr. P. F., 4 + + Cakchiquel language, 20, 23 + + Calendar, the native, 13-16, 45, 53 + + California, 10 + + Cancuc, town, 29 + + Candelaria, Maria, 35 + + Can Ek, Jacinto, 30 + + Carpio, Bernardo del, 55 + + CARRIEDO, J. B., 15, 30, 38, 46 + + Cave God, the, 38, 41 + + CAVO, P., 28, 32, 40 + + Ceiba tree, 47 + + Cerquin, province, 4, 5, 34 + + _Chac Mool_, 31 + + _Chacuaco_, 10 + + Chalcatongo, 40 + + _Chalchihuitl_, 39, 46, 47 + + Chalcos, 12 + + Chalma, place, 38 + + _Chanes_, 49 + + CHARNAY, D., 13 + + Chi, Andres, 31 + + Chi, Cecilio, 30 + + Chichimecs, 7, 54 + + _Chilan Balam_, 31, 45 + + Chontales, 17, 32 + + Chorti dialect, 5 n. + + Chotas, tribe, 41 + + Clairvoyance, 9 + + _Coamizagual_, 34 + + _Coanamoa_, 41 + + Coatlan, 40 + + _Coaxihuitl_, 8 + + _Cohuacihuatl_, 34 + + _Cohuatl_, sign of, 49 n. + + Codex cruciformis, 48 + + COHEN, H., 45 + + Copan, ruins of, 5 n. + + _Copavitoos_, 30 + + CORDOVA, J., 14, 15 + + COTO, P., 23, 35, 42 + + Coyopy, king, 15 + + _Cozaana_, 38, 50 + + Cross, as symbol, 42, 43, 48 + + Cuculchan, 17, 19, 42 + + + "Dark House," the, 38, 39 + + Dawn, as deity, 41 + + Dionysos Pyrigenes, 45 + + DELPINO, 26 + + Drum, the sacred, 31, 38 + + Drunkenness, god of, 44 + + DURAN, D., 44, 45, 48 + + + Earth, as deity, 41, 53 + + "Essays of an Americanist," 4, 31, 45, 49, 50 + + + FERGUSON, DAVID, 55 + + "Field mass," the, 25 + + Fingers, names for, 54 + + Fire worship, 28, 43, 45, 53, 54 + + Four Winds, Lord of, 43 + + Frog, symbol, 46 + + FUENSANTA DEL VALLE, 9 + + FUENTES Y GUZMAN, 22, 35 + + + GAGE, THOMAS, 24, 39 + + GAGERN, C., 10 + + Galindo, Ig., 35 + + "Ghost dance" of Mayas, 31 + + Gnosis, the, 57 + + Goupil collection, 48 + + Green stones, 46 + + _Gspoxil_, 20 + + Guatemala, 24, 39 + + Gucumatz, king, 24, 42 + + + Hand, as deity, 54 + + "Heart of the Hills", 41, 46 + + "Heart of the Maguey", 41 + + "Heart of the Towns", 38, 39, 47 + + HERNANDEZ, F., 7, 10, 28, 43 + + HERRERA, A. DE, 4, 5, 11, 16, 33, 34, 40, 42 + + _Hicalahau_, 21, 39 + + "Hoddentin", 44 + + HOLMES, W. H., 48 + + Honduras, 4, 34 + + Huasteca dialect, 58 + + Huehuetan, town, 28, 39 + + _Huehueteotl_, 46 + + _Huijatoos_, 30 + + + _Ical ahau_, 21, 39 + + IGLESIAS, A., 13 + + Inquisition, the, 54 + + Intoxicants, 7, 9 + + Istlavacan, town, 25 + + + Jadeite, 46 + + JUARROS, P., 36 + + Justlahuaca, 41 + + + _Kab_, the hand, 54 + + KINGSBOROUGH, Lord, 48 + + + LABARTHE, CH., 12 + + Lacandons, tribe, 59 + + LANDA, D., 49 + + LARA, P., 19, 20 + + LEON, Dr. N., 9 + + LEON, N. DE, 6, 43, 45 + + Life, ideogram of, 48 + + Life, tree of, 48 + + Lingam, the, 49 + + + Maguey, Heart of the, 41 + + _Maitl_, the Hand, as deity, 54 + + MALER, T., 35, 47 + + Mallinalco, town, 34, 38 + + MANSO DE CONTRERAS, 32 + + Mappe Quinantzin[TN-19], 48 + + MARIA DE MOXO, B., 29, 49 + + MAURY, A., 60, 61 + + Mayan stock, 5, 16, 24 + + Mayas, 9, 20, 25, 45 + + Mayas, revolts of, 30, 31 + + Mexican language, 5 + + Michoacan, 10 + + Milky Way, as deity, 53 + + _Mixcohuatl_, 19 + + Mixes, tribe, 13, 17, 32, 42 + + Mixtecs, tribe, 15, 16 + + MOLINA, A., 6 + + Monopostiac, Cerro de, 41 + + MONTJAU, M., 27 + + MORO, Sr., 14 + + MOTOLINIA, P., 42 + + MUeHLENPFORDT, E., 13 + + Mushrooms, intoxicating, 28 + + + _Na_, the root, 5, 11 n.[TN-20] 57 + + NAGELE, A., 49 + + Nagual, 4, 11, 17, 22, 58 + + Nagualism, 4, 16 + + Nagualist, 4, 17, 18 + + _Nahual_. See _Naualli_. + + _Nahualtia_, 58 + + Nahuatl language, 5, 12, 14, 41, 46, 57, 58 + + _Nana hualtin_, 5, 6, 10 + + Nanahuatl, a deity, 54 + + _Naualac_, 13 + + _Naualcuauhtla_, 12 + + _Naualli_, 5, 10, 11, 12, 57, 58 + + _Nauallotl_, 5, 57 + + _Naualteteuctin_, 12 + + Navajas, Cerro de las, 49 + + Nayerit, Sierra de, 41 + + Nezahualpilli, king, 34 + + Nine, sacred number, 41 + + Noh, god of reason, 56 + + NUNEZ, DE LA VEGA, 16, 28, 29, 33, 42 + + + Oaxaca, province, 14, 32, 47 + + _Octli_, 32, 44 + + _Ololiuhqui_, 7, 8, 9 + + ORDONEZ Y AGUIAR, 29, 36 + + OROZCO Y BERRA, 10, 14, 31 + + OVIEDO, 50 + + Oxchuc, town, 21 + + _Oztoteotl_, 38 + + + Padrinos, 26 + + Pah-Ahtuns, deities, 9 + + Pantecatl, deity, 50 + + PAREDES, IG., 10 + + Pascual, Don, 32 + + PASO Y TRONCOSO, 7 + + _Patzlan_, 20 + + _Payni_, 9 + + PELAEZ, G., 36 + + _Pellote_, 7 + + PEREZ, P., 45 + + Personal spirit, 11, 13 + + _Peyotl_, the, 6-10 + + Phallus, symbol, 49 + + _Picietl_, 9 + + PIMENTEL, F., 11 + + PINEDA, E., 26, 50, 59 + + Pinopiaa, goddess, 55 + + _Piochtli_, 32 + + Pipils, tribe, 33, 42 + + PISA, B. DE, 40 + + Pokonchis, tribe, 24 + + _Popol Vuh_, the, 24 + + Popoluca language, 17 + + _Pox_, 20 + + _Poxlon_, 20 + + _Poxta vanegs_, 20 + + PUERTO, M., 31 + + + _Quauhcihuatl_, 34 + + _Quauhnanacatl_, 28 n. + + Quetzalcoatl, 12, 19, 26, 32, 41, 42, 43 n. + + Quiche language, 20, 23, 55, 56 + + Quiches, tribe, 24, 25 + + Quiegolani, deity, 47 + + _Quilaztli_, 34 + + _Quiz_, 19 + + + Reason, god of, 56 + + "Restitution of the _tonal_", 12, 52 + + RIOS, PEDRO DE LOS, 49 + + + SAHAGUN, B., 5, 6, 7, 11, 34, 43, 46 + + SANCHEZ, J., 58 + + San Francisco del Mar, 41 + + "Scalp-lock," the, 32 + + SCHERZER, C., 25 + + SELER, E., 38 + + SERNA, J., 9, 28, 29, 32, 34, 43, 44, 49, 52 + + Serpent of the Clouds, 19 + + Serpent, plant, 8 + + Serpent, feathered, 12, 19, 42 + + Serpent, which seizes, 41 n. + + Serpent, symbol, 49 + + Seven, sacred number, 25, 42 + + SIMEON, R., 11 + + Slavery of Indians, 28 n. + + Smoke, divining by, 10 n. + + Snake, symbol. See Serpent. + + Soteapan, 13, 41 + + SPINA, V. H., 51 + + SQUIER, E. G., 33, 36, 47 + + STOLL, O., 26, 55 + + Stone, as deity, 41 + + "_Sukia_ woman", 36 + + "Sun Mountain", 40 + + Sun, name of, 54 + + + Tapirs, sacred, 39 + + TARAYRE, G., 50 + + _Ta Te_, 41 + + _Ta Yoapa_, 41 + + _Teciuhtlazque_, 6 + + Telepathy, 9 + + _Tenextlecietl_, 9 + + _Teopatli_, 8 + + _Teotlauice_, 12 + + Teozapotlan, 29 + + Tepeololtec deity, 42 + + _Tepeyollotl_, 38, 41 + + Teremendo, town, 40 + + _Teteuctin_, 12 + + _Tetonaltiani_, 12 + + _Teyhuinti_, 28 + + Tezcatzoncatl, deity, 44 + + _Thiuimeezque_, 10 + + Three, sacred number, 41 + + "Thunder stone", 42 + + _T'ich_, 25 + + Tiger dance, the, 31 + + _Tlachixqui_, Seer, 9 + + _Tlahuipuchtin_, 10 n. + + Tlaloc, deity, 42 + + _Tlapiani_, 30, 39 + + Tlascala, Sierra de, 40 + + _Tlatoques_, 14 + + Tlazoaloyan, 33, 39 + + Tlazolteotl, deity, 50 + + _Tlecuixtliliztli_, 44 + + _Tlilancalqui_, 39 n. + + Tobacco, 8, 9, 53, 54 + + _Tonal, tonalli_, 11, 15 n., 42, 52, 60 + + _Tonalcaualtia_, 12 + + _Tonalitlacoa_, 12 + + _Tonalpouhque_, 11 + + _Tonantzin_, 34 + + _Topiltzin_, 41 + + TORQUEMADA, P., 27, 30, 36 + + TORRES CASTILLO, 32 + + _To Ta_, 41, 46, 48 + + Totomachiapa, 40 + + Totonicapan, 22, 28 + + Tree, sacred, 31, 47 + + Tree of the Cross, 42 + + Tree of Life, 48 + + Tres Micos, 16 + + Trinity, the native, 41 + + Triplets, 19, 31 + + Tzentals, tribe, 16, 19, 21, 32, 33 + + _Tzihuizin_, 20 + + _Tzitzime_, the, 34 n. + + _Tzitzimecihuatl_, 34 + + + _Uirapircos_, 10 n. + + _U-q'ux-Uleuh_, 38 + + + VENEGAS, P., 10 + + Venus Impudica, 50 + + Vera Cruz, 13, 26 + + VETANCURT, A., 8, 32, 39, 44 + + VILLA SENOR Y SANCHEZ, 40 + + Votan, 33, 38, 41 + + + WARD, S. A., 33 + + Water, divination by, 6 + + Water, as deity, 53, 54 + + Were-wolf, 59 + + Wisdom, goddess of, 56 + + Witches, 10 + + "Witches' Sabbaths", 48 + + + _Xihuitl_, 46 n. + + _Xihuitzin_, 20 + + XIMENES, FRANCISCO, 43 + + XIMENES, P., 20 + + _Xiquipilli_, 42 + + _Xiuhtecutli_, 20, 46 + + _Xochimilca_, 30 + + + _Yahuiltoca_, 43 + + Yanhuitlan, town, 16 + + _Yaocihuatl_, 34 + + _Yax che_, 47 + + _Yax ha_, 9 + + _Yiahuitli_, the, 43 + + _Yollometli_, 41 + + Yoni symbols, 50 + + _Ytzamatl_, 47 + + Yucatan, 9, 25, 30 + + + Zahoris, 26 + + Zamayac, town, 28, 29 + + Zapotecs, tribe, 14, 15, 32, 37, 38, 40, 47 + + ZETINA, 9 + + _Z me quiz_, 19 + + Zotzils, revolt of, 35, 47 + + + +Transcriber's Note + +The following typographical errors and inconsistencies have been +maintained in this version of the book. + +Typographical errors: + + Page Error + TN-1 Fn. 14-[+] The footnote marker was missing in the original text. + It has been inserted based on context. + TN-2 19 centipedes, etc, should read centipedes, etc., + TN-3 39 black as negroes should read black as negroes. + TN-4 43 sick room should read sick room. + TN-5 52 speak to thee should read speak to thee. + TN-6 58 corrollary should read corollary + TN-7 Fn. 7-* Nacional should read Nacional + TN-8 Fn. 9-* Min stros should read Ministros + TN-9 Fn. 11-[+] Simeon should read Simeon + TN-10 Fn. 14-[+] exico should read Mexico + TN-11 Fn. 17-* enigmaticas" should read enigmaticas." + TN-12 Fn. 27-* Americaine should read Americaine + TN-13 Fn. 30-[+] Historicos should read Historicos + TN-14 Fn. 40-[+] Espanal should read Espanol + TN-15 Fn. 42-[P] 'Senor should read "Senor + TN-16 Fn. 47-[++] Revue should read Revue + TN-17 Fn. 55-[+] Oaxaqueno should read Oaxaqueno + TN-18 61 Andree should read Andree + TN-19 63 Quinantzin should read Quinatzin + TN-20 63 11 n. should read 11 n., + +The following words were inconsistently spelled or hyphenated: + + Bartholome / Bartholome + Dioecesanas / Diocesanas / Diocesan + Gucumatz / Gukumatz + Moxo / Moxo / Moxo + Quiche / Quiche + Quiches / Quiches + supra / supra + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Nagualism, by Daniel G. 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