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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924020427542 
 
NAQUALISM. 
 
 A STUDY 
 
 Native American Folk-lore 
 and History. 
 
 DANIEL G. BRINTON, A.H., H.D., LL.D., D.Sc, 
 
 Professor of American A.rotiasology and Linguistics In the 
 University of F*ennsylvania. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 MacCalla & Company, Puinteus, 237-9 Dock Street. 
 
 ...1894... 
 
Nagualism. A Study in Native American Folk-lore and 
 
 History. 
 
 By Daniel G. Brinton, M.D. 
 {Read hefore the American Philosophical Society, Jan''y 5,1804.) 
 
 Contents. 
 
 1. The words ycigual, Nagualism, Nagualist. 2. The Earliest Refer- 
 ence to ZSTagualism. 3. The Xaualli of the Aztecs ; Iheir Classes and 
 Pretended Powers. 4. The Sacred Intoxicants ; the Peyotl. the Ololiuh- 
 qui, the Teopatli, the Tax Ba, etc. 5. Clairvoyance and Telepathy dur- 
 ing Intoxication. 6. The XaualU of Modern Mexico. 7. The Tonal 
 and the Tonalpouhque ; the Genethliac System of the Xahuas. S. The 
 Aztec Sodality of " ilasler Magicians." _9. The Personal Guardian 
 Spirit. 
 
 10. Folk-lore of the ilixe Indians. 11. Astrological Divination of 
 the Zapotecs. 12. Similar Arts of the Mixtecs. 13. Jsngualism in Chi- 
 apas, as Described by Bishop Nunez de la Vega. 1-t. 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 rS^agualism, Hatred of the Whites and of 
 Christianity. 18. Its Organization and Extent; its Priesthood. 19. lis 
 Influence in the Native Revolts against the Spanish Power. 20. Ex- 
 alted Position of Woman in Nagualism. ^. This a Survival from An- 
 cient Times. 22. A Xative Joan of Arc. 23. Modern Queens of 
 Nagualism. 
 
 24. The Cave-temples and the Cave-gods ; Oztoteotl, TepeyoUotl, 
 Yotan, 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 Majas. 29. Secret Significance of Fire 
 Worship. 30. The Chalchiuites, or Sacred Green Stones. 31. The 
 Sacred Tree and the Tree of Life. 33. The Cross and its Symbolic 
 Meaning. 33. The Lascivious Rites of the Nagualists. 84. Their Re- 
 lation 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 yagual. 38, The Root Xa in 
 the Maya, Zapotec and Nahuatl Languages. 39. The Doctrine of Ani- 
 mal Transformation in the Old World. 40. The Doctrine of Personal 
 Spirits in the Old World. 41. Scientific Explanations of Nagual Magic. 
 42. Conclusion. 
 
 BEPKINTED FEB. 23, 1894, FROM PROC. AMEE. PHILOS. SOC, VOL. XXXIII. 
 
1. The words, a nagital, 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 Eng- 
 land and the United States,* 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 thaumatur- 
 gists and theodidacts of the Old World ; and which preserved 
 even into our own days the thoughts and forms of a long sup- 
 pressed ritual. 
 
 In several previous publications I have referred briefly to this 
 secret sodality and its aims,f 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 exten- 
 sion 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 thej' 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 ot a lion, tiger, coyote, lizard, snake, hird, or other ani- 
 mal. To these appearances they apply the name NaguaUs, which is as 
 much as to say, guardians or cumpanions ; and when such an animal 
 dies, so does the Indian to whom it was assigned. The way such an alli- 
 ance was tormed was thus : The Indian repaired to some very retired spot 
 
 * Tiiese words occur a number of times in the English translation, published at Lon- 
 don in 1822, of Dr. Paul Felix Cabrera's Teatro Critico Americano. The form imgual in- 
 stead of nahual, or iiavxd, or nawal has been generally adopted and should be preferred. 
 
 t For iustance, in " The Names of the Gods in the Klche Myths," pp. 21, 22, in Pro- 
 ceedings of the American PMlosoplncal Society, ISSl ; Annah of the Cakchiguels, Introduc- 
 tion, p. 46 ; Eiaays of an Americanist, p. 170, etc. 
 
and there appealed to the streams, rocks and trees around him, and weep- 
 ing, 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 tome 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 &ni Naguai (ot M 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."* 
 
 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.f 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 lan- 
 guages 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 XahuatI 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 follow- 
 ing 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 
 
 • HMoria de lot Indiax Occuientalet, Dec. iv, Lib. Tlii, cap. 4. 
 
 t M.^re 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 erist of this celebrated site. On the Chorti, .see Stoll, Zur EUmograpMe der Be- 
 pvbUk Guatemala, pp. 106-9. 
 
6 
 
 injury. Those who have recourse to such arts for evil intents injure the 
 bodies of their victims, cause them to lose iheir reason and smother them. 
 Tliese are wicked men and necromancers."* 
 
 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,^ and also by 
 \he iermnanahuaUin, who conjure the clouds when there is danger of 
 hail, BO that the crops may not be injured. They can also make a stick 
 look like a serpent, a mat like a centipede, apiece of stone like a scorpion, 
 and similar deceptions. Others of these nanaliuallin will transform them- 
 selves to all appearances (segun laaparencia), 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." X 
 
 There is an evident attempt in this somewhat confused state- 
 ment 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 dis- 
 cover where stolen or lost articles were? Dost thou know how to speak 
 to vipers in such words that they obey thee ? " § 
 
 * Bernardino de Sahagun, Historia de la Nueva Espafia, Lib. x, cap. 9. 
 t Derived from UciuhUaza, to conjure against liail, itself from teciuh, hail. Alonso de 
 Molina, Vocabulario Mcxicano, sub voce. 
 X Bautista, Advertencias para los Con/esores, fol. 112 (Mexico, 1600). 
 g Nicolas de Leon, Camino del Oielo, fol. Ill (Mexico, 1611). 
 
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, j)ej/o<Z, 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 men- 
 tioned as " pellote " or " peyote " in the Farmacopea Mexicana 
 as a popular remedy, but its botanical name is not added. Ac- 
 cording to Paso y Troncoso, it is one of the CompositiB, a 
 species of the genus Gacalia* It is referred to in several pas- 
 sages 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 peyoil see visions, which are some- 
 times 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 lhirst."f 
 
 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 author- 
 ities 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, some- 
 times with slices of peyote itself, in their most solemn festivities, although 
 it dulls the intellect and induces gloomy and hurtful visions (sombras 
 muy funes'as)."J 
 
 The peyoil 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 
 
 * Paso y Troncoso, in AnaJes del Museo Naciondl de Mexico, Tom. iii, p. 180. 
 
 t Sahapin, Bistoria 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 
 mirablle (si modo fides sit vulgatissimas inter eos rei hahendse), devorantes illara quodli- 
 het prsesagire praedicereque ; velut an sequenti die hostes sint impetum in eosfacturi? 
 Anne illos felicla maneant tempora? Quis supellectilem, ant aliud quidpiam furto sub- 
 ripruerit? Et ad hunc modum alia, quibus Chichimecffi hnjusmodi medicamine cogno- 
 scendis." Franciscus Hemandus, Historia Plantarum Novse Hispanise, Tom. iii, p. 71 
 (Ed., Madrid, 1790). 
 
 i Diccimario Universal, Appendioe, Tom. i, p. 360 (Mexico, 1856). 
 
8 
 
 esteem for this purpose. In the Confessionary of Father Bar- 
 tholom^ cle Alva the priest is supposed to inquire and learn as 
 follows : 
 
 •• QuesUon. Hast thou loved Gcd 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 
 peyoil, and the oloHuhqui ; and in other such things (onieneltocac in temictli, 
 in xiuhtzintU, inpeyotl, in oloUuhqui, yhuan in occeguitlamanili)."* 
 
 The seeds of the oloUuhqui 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 
 Vetaneurt, 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, wliich 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 in- 
 sects, and the powdered seeds of a plant called oloUuhqui, which has the 
 power of inducing visions, and the effectof which is to destroy the reason- 
 ing 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 oloUuhqui 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. "f 
 
 The botanist Hernandez observes that anotlier 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 Sola- 
 rium., 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 re- 
 sponsa accipere ab eis, ea vescebantur planta, ul desiperent, milleque 
 phantasmata et demonum observatium efSgies circumspectarent.'"J 
 
 * Confemonario Mayor y Manor en lenr/ua Mexicana, fol. 8, verso (Mexico, 1634). 
 
 f Vetaneurt, Teatro Mexicano, Trat. iii, cap. 9. 
 
 J Hernandez, Historia Flantarum Nmiee Hispanise, Tom. iii, p. 32. 
 
Of the two plants mentioned, the ololiuhqui and ihe, 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.* 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 haal-che. The whites speak of tlie 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.-j- 
 
 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 tlirough 
 the air with wonderful rapidity and lor long distances. They will tell 
 what is taking place in reiiiote loculities long before the news could pos- 
 sibly arrive. The Spaniards have known them to report mutinies, bat- 
 tles, revolts and deaths, occurring two hundied or three hundred leagues 
 distant, on the very day they took place, or the day after. 
 
 * Dr. Jacinto de la Senia, Manual de Minalros de Indiospara el Conocimiento de sus Idot- 
 atrias y Extirpacion de Ellas, p. 163. Tliis interesting work was composed about tlie mid- 
 dle of the seventeenth century by a Rector of the University ot Mexico, but was first 
 printed at Madrid, in 1892, from the MS. furnished by Dr. N. Leon, under the editorslnp 
 of the Marquis de la Fuensanta del Valle. 
 
 t MSS. of the Licentiate Zetina, and I-nfmme of Father Baeza in Begistro Yucateco, 
 Tom. i. 
 
10 
 
 "To practice this art the sorcerers, usually old women, shut themselves 
 in a bouse, and intoxicate themselves to the degree of losing their reason. 
 The next day they are ready to reply to questions."* 
 
 Plants possessing similar powers to excite vivid visions and 
 distort the imagination, and, therefore, employed in the magical 
 rites, were the thiuimeezque, in Miehoacan, and the chacuaco, in 
 lower California.f 
 
 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. "J 
 
 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. § 
 
 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 : 
 
 [yThe naliualh geaerally an old Indian with red eyes, who knows 
 how to turn himsell 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 childrenT] 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 
 
 * Acosta, De la HistoHa Moral de Indias, Lib. v, cap. 26. 
 
 t Of the thiuimeezque Hernandez writes : " Aiimt radlcis cortioe unius unciEe pondere 
 tuso, atque devorato, miilta ante oculos observare phantasm ata, multipUces imagines ac 
 moDBtrilicas rerum figuras, detegiqne furem, si quidpiam rei familiaris subreptum sit." 
 Hist. Plant. Nov. Bispan., Tom. iii, p. 272. The chacuaco and its effects are described by 
 Father Venegas in his History of California, etc. 
 
 X "In Mictlan Tetlachihuique, in Nanahualtin, inTlahuipuehtin." Paredes, Promptu- 
 ario Manual Mexieano, p. 128 (Mexico, 1767J. The ttahuipuchtin, " those who worlc 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) . 
 
 § Von Gagern, CliarakterisUk der Indianischer JSevolkerung Mexikoa, a. 125. 
 
11 
 
 be sure that the person against whom the conjuration h practiced will 
 feel pain in the part where the thorn is inserted. There still exist among 
 them the medicinemen, who treat the sick by means of strange contor- 
 tions, 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 sicltness, and if the patients are cured by others the cnnvalesconts 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."* 
 
 7. As I have said, nowhere in the records of purely Mexican, 
 that is, Aztecan, Nagualism do we find the word na^/waZ 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.f 
 
 These tonalpouhque are referred to at length by Father Saha- 
 gun.J 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 
 
 • HistoHa Antigua de Mexico, Tom.ii, p. 25. Francisco Pimentel, in his thoughtful work, 
 Memoria snhre las Causas que han origtnado la Situaclon Actual de la Haza Indigena de 
 Mexico (Mexico, 1861), recogaizes liow almost impossible it is to extirpate their faith in 
 this nagualism. " Conservan los agueros y supersticiones de la antigUedad, siendo cosa 
 do fe para ellos, los nahuales," etc., p. 200, and eomp. p. 145. 
 
 t On these terms consult the extensive Dictionnaire de la Langue Nahuatl, by Rimi 
 Simeon, published at Paris, 1887. It is not impossible that (ona is itself a compound root, 
 including the monosyllabic radical no, which is at the basis of nagual. 
 
 t Sahagun, Histona de Nueva Ei^afia, Lib. Iv, passim, and Lib. x, cap. 9. 
 
12 
 
 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 mascoZ/e. 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 incanta- 
 tions 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 resti- 
 tution of the tonal," and was more than any other deeply im- 
 bued 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 naualteieuctin, which 
 may be translated "master magicians." They were also known 
 as teo^Zawice, " sacred companions in arms." As was the case 
 with most classes of the ieteuctin, 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 con- 
 tact with the divine, in which it can '' see visions and dream 
 dreams." The order claimed as its patron and founder Quetzal- 
 coatl, the " feathered serpent," who, it will be seen on another 
 page, was also the patron of the later nagualists.* 
 
 The word naualli also occurs among the ancient Nahuas in 
 composition as a part of proper names ; always with the signifi- 
 cation of "magician," as in that of Naualcuaubtla, a chief of 
 the Chalcos, meaning " wizard-stick," referring probably to the 
 
 * See Oh. de Labarthe, Rivue Amtricaine, Bene ii, Tom. ii, pp. 222-225. His translation of 
 naualleteuctiii by " Seigneurs du gSuie" must be rejected, as there Is absolutely no au- 
 thority for assigning this meaning to naualli. 
 
13 
 
 rod or wand employed by the magi in conjuration.* So also 
 Naualac, the " wizard water," an artificial lake not far from the 
 city of Mexico, surrounded by ruined temples, described by M. 
 Charnay.'j' 
 
 9. The belief in a personal gnardian 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. 11. Ban- 
 croft has erroneously stated). The calendar sjstem of Mexico 
 and Central America, which T have shown to be substantially 
 the same throughout many diverse linguistic stocks,Jhad as one 
 of its main objects, astrological divination. By consulting it the 
 appropriate nagual was discovered and assigned, and this was cer- 
 tainly a prominent feature in the native cult and has never been 
 
 fabandoned. 
 
 In Mexico today, 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 in- 
 formed 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 praj-ers for 
 rain and sunshine, for an abundant harvest, health and pros- 
 perity, and will not neglect to back these supplications by lib- 
 eral 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 tlie church 
 at the end of the year, bestows on his holy patron a sound curs- 
 ing, calls him all the bad names he can think of, and has nothing 
 more to do with him.§ 
 
 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 
 
 * Anales de Cuauhtittan, p. 31. The translator renders it " palo brujo." 
 t Lee Aaeiennes VWea dii Nomeau Monde, pp. 116-143, figured on p. 150. On its signifi- 
 cance compare Hamy, Decades Americanm, pp. 74-Sl. 
 J The Native Calendar 0/ Central America and MeMco (Philadelphia, 1893) . 
 2 Eduard Miihlenpfordt, Mexico, B.I. i, s. 265. 
 
14 
 
 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.* 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 miti- 
 gate destructive storms — claims which, sad to say, brought him 
 to the stocks, but did not interfere with the regular pa3ment 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." 
 
 11. Turning to the neighboring province of Oaxaca and its 
 inhabitants, we are instructed on the astrological use of the cal- 
 endar 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 alter some animal, as 
 eagle, snake, deer, rabbit, etc. Every child, male or female, re- 
 ceived 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 
 
 • The word is derived from tlaloa, to speak for aaother, and its usual translation was 
 " chief," as the head man spoke for, and in the name of the gens or trihe. 
 
 t The interesting account by Iglesias is printed in the Appendix to the Dicdonnrio 
 Vniversnl de (Jeograpliia y Hisloria (Mexico, 1S66). Other writers testify to the tenacity 
 with which the Mixes cling to their ancient beliefs. Sefior Moro says they contiuue to 
 be " notorious idolaters," and their actual religion to be " an absurd jumble of their old 
 superstitions with Christian doctrines" (in Orozoo y Berra, GeografiadelasLenguasde 
 
 exico, p. 176). 
 
15 
 
 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.* 
 
 Next in importance to the assigning of names, according to 
 Father Cordova, was the employment of the calendar in decid- 
 ing the propriety of marriages. As the recognized object of 
 marriage was to have sons, the couple appealed to the profes- 
 sional augur to decide this question before the marriage was 
 fixed. He selected as many beans as was the sum of the num- 
 bers 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 ; bj' 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 combina- 
 tion of two numbers below fourteen which is divisible by two, 
 three, four, five and six without remainder in any one instance. f 
 
 The Zapotecs were one of those nations who voluntarily sub- 
 mitted themselves to the Spaniards, not out of love for the 
 Europeans, but through hatred of the Aztecs, who had con- 
 quered them in the preceding centur3'. Their king, Coyopj', 
 and his subjects accepted Christianitj'. and were generally bap- 
 tized ; but it was the merest formality, and years afterwards 
 Coj'opy 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 cere- 
 monies. 
 
 13. The sparse notices we have of the astrology of the Mix- 
 tecs, neighbors and some think relatives of the Zapotecs, reveal 
 
 * For instance, J. B. Carriedo, in his EstuMos Historicos del Estado Oaxaqueflo (Oaxaca, 
 I'UQ), p. 15, says the nahuait was a ceremony performed hy 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 ttma. These words are pure Nahuatl, and Carriedo, who does not 
 give his authority, probably had none which referred these rites to the Zapotecs. 
 
 t Juan de Cordova, Arte en Lengxta Zapoieca, pp. 16, 202, 203, 213, 216. 
 
16 
 
 closely similar rites. Tlie name of tlieir 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 cal- 
 endar 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 Mix- 
 tec 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.* 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 con- 
 duct it to the temple and bore its ears. He refers also to their 
 auguries relating to marriage. f These appear to have been dif- 
 ferent 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 ;'' probablj' 
 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 supersti- 
 tions 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 Catho- 
 lic clergy. Wherever this calendar was in use, the Freemasonry 
 of Nagualism extended, and its ritual had constant reference to 
 it. Oar fullest information about it does not come from cen- 
 tral 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 sjmbolism 
 connected with it, were Invented. 
 
 One of the most important older authorities on this subject 
 is Francisco Nuiiez de la Vega, a learned Dominican, who was 
 appointed Bishop of Chiapas and Soconusco in 1687, and who 
 published at Rome, in 1102, a stately folio entitled " ConstUu- 
 
 * Quoted in CarriecJo, ubi fupr4, p. 17. 
 
 t Hist, de las Inclias Oc, Deo. iii, Lib. iii, cap. 12. 
 
17 
 
 Clones Dioecesanas del Obispado de CAm/jpa," comprising discus- 
 sions 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 rarit3', I shall make rather lengthy extracts from it, 
 taking the liberty of condensing the scholastic prolixitj^ of the 
 author, and omitting his professional admonitions to the wicked. 
 
 He begins his references to it in several passages of his Intro- 
 duction or Preavibulo, in which he makes some interesting state- 
 ments 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 lime of lieath- 
 enism preserved in certain writings in their own languages, explaining 
 by abbreviated characters and by figures painted in a secret cypher* the 
 places, provinces and names of their early rulers, the animals, stars and 
 elements which they worshiped, tlie 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 wliicli Ihey call 
 the ISTaguals. Tliese writings are known as Repertories or Calendars, 
 and tliey are also used to discover articles lost or stolen, and to effect 
 cures of diseases. Some have a wheel painted in ihem, like that of Pyth- 
 agoras, described by the Venerable Bede ; others portray a lake sur- 
 rounded 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 tlie Popoluca 
 tongue (which was called Baha in their time of heathenism), and which 
 has been translated into Jlexican.f 
 
 "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 ot 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 ex- 
 plained by such masters whom we l)ad imprisoned for their guilt, and 
 who had afterwards become converted and acknowledged their sins."t 
 
 * So I understand the phrase, " flguras pintadas con zifras enigmatioas." 
 t Piypolura was a term applied to various languages. I suspect the one here referred 
 to WHS the Mixe. See an article by me, entitled " Ohontalea and Popolncas ; a Study in 
 Mexican Ethnography," In the Comfjfe iJendii of the Eighth Session of the Congress of 
 Americanists, p. 656, seq. 
 X Constit. Diocesan, p. 19. 
 
18 
 
 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 naguaU, and look upon them as gods, and by their 
 aid believe that they can foretell the future, discover hidden treasures, 
 and fumu their dishonest desires : we, therefore, prescribe and command 
 that in every town an ecclesiastical prison shall be constructed at the ex- 
 pense 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 dogma- 
 tizantes ISTagualistas).".* 
 
 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 Nagiialism, 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 Devi], 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 
 
 • Constititt. Diocesan, Titulo vii, pp. 47, 48. 
 
19 
 
 deny God and His Blessed Mother, and warn liim to have no fear, and 
 not to make the sign of the cross. He is told to embrace his Nagual ten- 
 derly, 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 tlie intelligentlndians 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 fig- 
 ure of a man and a snake, which they call Cucliulchan. 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* 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 tlian 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 wliom 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 diflEicult to decide whigh 
 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 , 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 per- 
 mitted 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 parlies 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 ' tile 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).\ This comes accompanied by the ants 
 
 » Eather 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. 
 
 t In his Tzental Vocabulary, Father Lara does not give this exact form ; but in the 
 neighboring dialect of the Caljchiquel Father Ximenes has quikeho, to agree together, to 
 enter into an arrangement ; the prefix zme is the Tzental word for " mother." 
 
V 
 
 20 
 
 and other small snakea 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. After- 
 wards the disciple meets a dragon vomiting fire, which swallows him en- 
 tire and ejects him posteriorly! Then the Master declares he may be ad- 
 mitted, 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 poito Baraeffs, and the medicine gspoxil ; and everything relat- 
 ing 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 tzihuizia, which is something very much feared by the In- 
 dians. 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.* 
 
 "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 
 
 • Father Lara, in his Vocabiilario Tzendal MS. (in my possession!, gives for medical 
 (medico), ghpoxU; for medicine (medicinal cosai, pox, xpoxtacnglibU ; for physician 
 (medico\ ghpoxta vinic (the form vancgh, person, is also correct). The Tzendal pox (pro- 
 nounced posh) is another form of the Quiche-Cakchiquel puz, a word which Father 
 Ximenes, in his Vocabidario Cakcliiqud 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 6 otra cosa. Dice, de la Lengua Maya del Convento de Motul, MS. The dictionary 
 edited by Pio Perez does not give this meaniug). The act of blowing was the essential 
 feature in the treatment of these medicine men. It symbolized the transfer and exer- 
 cise of spiritual power. When Votan built his underground shrine he did it A soplos, by 
 blowing (Nunez de la Vega, ConslUut. Diocesan, j>. 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, tzihuid,n, is the Pipil form oi xihuUzin, the reverential of xihuitl, which means a 
 li'af, a season, a year, or a comet. Apparently it refers to the Nahuatl divinity Xiuhti- 
 euUi, described by Sahagun, Histona de If item Espana, Lib. i, cap. 13, as god of Are etc 
 
21 
 
 times, and the Tzentals revered it so much that they preserved it innum- 
 erable 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, hav- 
 ing a ferocious blacls; face with the members of a man,* 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, wc reciiing 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, pre- „■ . 
 serving them in caves, where they adorn them with flowers and burn /i , '^ 
 copal before them. We have discovered some of these and burned them, f^ ^ 
 hoping to root out and put a stop to such evil ceremonies of the infernal ' "fti^./ 
 
 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 trans- / 
 form themselves into tigers, lions, bulls, flashes of lightand 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 in- 
 cubus and sucoubus, approaching them in the form of their ISTagual ; and 
 there was one woman who remained in the forest a weeli with the demon 
 in the form of lier Nagual, acting toward him as does an infatuated 
 woman toward her lover (como pudiera con su proprio amigo una muger 
 amaucebada). 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 marli of the blow which 
 killed it ; as the curas of Chamula, Copainala and other places have as- 
 sured 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 in- 
 structions 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 idola- 
 try, full of monstrous incests, sodomies and detestable bestialities." 
 
 Sucli 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 profes- 
 sors who were so much feared and respected that, as he tells us 
 in another passage, they were called " masters of the towns ;"f 
 that they gave systematic instruction to disciples in classes of 
 
 * Sicalaliau, for ical ahau, Black King, one of the Tzental divinities, wtio will be re- 
 ferred to on a later page, 
 t " Msestros de los pueblos," ConslUut, Diocesan, i, p. 106. 
 

 three, all of whom were bound together hy 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 hypoc- 
 risy, 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 Quatemala, 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 j'ear 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. 
 
 
 17. 
 
 Arrow. 
 
 2. Snake. 
 
 
 18. 
 
 Broom. 
 
 3. Stone. 
 
 
 19. 
 
 Jaguar. 
 
 4. Alligator. 
 
 
 30. 
 
 Corn-husk. 
 
 5. Ceiba tree. 
 
 
 21. 
 
 A flute. 
 
 6. The quetzal (a 
 
 bird). 
 
 22. 
 
 Green-stone. 
 
 7. A stick. 
 
 
 23. 
 
 Crow. 
 
 8. Rabbit. 
 
 
 34. 
 
 Fire. 
 
 9. A rope. 
 
 
 35. 
 
 A pheasant. 
 
 10. Leaf. 
 
 
 26. 
 
 A reed. 
 
 11. Deer. 
 
 
 27. 
 
 Opossum. 
 
 13. Guacamayo (parrot). 
 
 28. 
 
 Huracan (the thunder-storm) 
 
 13. Flower. 
 
 
 39. 
 
 The vulture. 
 
 14. Toad. 
 
 
 30. 
 
 Hawk. 
 
 13. Caterpillar. 
 
 
 31. 
 
 Bat. 
 
 16. A chip. 
 
 
 
 
23 
 
 When the sorcerer was examined as to the manner of assign- 
 ing 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 
 iavoked 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 ac- 
 company 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.* 
 
 The tribes to which this author refers were the Cakchiquels 
 and Quiches, who spoke practically the same tongue. An ex- 
 amination 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 So- 
 ciety : 
 
 " Magie 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 Im 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, liuyu, k'o ru naual, ' The life of 
 the tree, the life of the stone, of the hill, is its naual,' etc. ; because thty 
 believed there was life in these objects. They used to have armies and 
 
 * Historia de Guatemala, d, Recordacion Florida, Tom. ii, p. 44, seq. 
 
24 
 
 soldiery to guard Iheir lands, and Ihe captains, as well as many who were 
 not captains, had their nauales. They called the captain rug' alache ; 
 roliobachi, ti ru gaah, ru poeob, ru gh' amay a ghay ti be cM naualil [he 
 works magic with his shield, his lance, and his arrows]. 
 
 "To practice such magical arts : «m raaMaJsA (' 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— aia pc ri tinnaualih—Xh&i they shall come 
 to my hands ?' So when one is asked to lend or give something which he 
 has not, he will exclaim : Tin naualik pe ri puva/c, 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 ilso 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 re- 
 turned to England and Protestantism. He described, at weari- 
 some length, the supposed metamorphosisof two chiefs of neigh- 
 boring 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 enem}', and, 
 being a man of eighty years, had not the vigor to recover. The 
 account is of interest only as proving that the same supersti- 
 tions at that time prevailed among the Pokonchis as in other 
 portions of Guatemala.* 
 
 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 lollowed the path to the abode of the 
 
 * Gage, A Ifew Survey of the West Indies, p. 388, seq. (Ith Ed.). 
 
25 
 
 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."* 
 
 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 Bartolom^ 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 sug- 
 gests 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.f The 
 natives still continue to propitiate the ancient gods of the har- 
 vest, 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 18.54, 
 the remote hamlet of Istlavacan, in Guatemala, peopled by 
 Quiche Indians, discovered that they had preserved in this re- 
 spect the usages of their ancestors almost wholly unatTected 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 
 
 * Le Popol Vuh, ou Livre Sacrf: des Quichis, p. 315 (E.1. Brasseur, Paris, 1861). In the 
 Quiche myths, Gucumatz is the analogue of Quetzalcoatl in Aztec legeud. Both names 
 mean the same, "Feathered Serpent." 
 
 t Baeza's article is printed in the Eeglstro Yucateco, Vol. i, p. 165, seq. 
 
26 
 
 invocation were taught by the veteran nagualists to their neo- 
 phytes.* 
 
 These Zahoris,f 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 fas- 
 cinate 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. The3'^ 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 find Irickerj'."! 
 
 17. The details of the ceremonies and doctrines of Nagual- 
 ism have never been fully revealed ; but from isolated occur- 
 rences and partial confessions it is clear that its adherents 
 formed a coherent association extending over most of southern 
 
 * " Wird ein Kind im Dorfe geboren, so erhalt der heidnische Gotzenpriester von die- 
 sem Ereignisse viel eher Kunde, als der katholische Piarrer. Erst weim deni neuen 
 WeltbUrger durch den Aj-quig das Homskop gestellt, der Name irgend eines Thieres 
 beigelegt, Mi-si-sal (das citronengelbe Harz des Rhus copallinum) Terbrannt, ein Lieb- 
 liiigsgotze angerufen, und noche vit-le andere aberglaiibische Myslerien verriehtet wor- 
 ilen sind, wird das Kind nach dem Pfarrhause zur christlieheu Taufe getiagen. Das 
 Thier, de^sen Name dem Kinde kurz nach seiner Geburt vom Sonnenpriester beigelegt 
 wird, gilt genohnlich auch als sein Schutzgeist {nagual) fUrs gauze Leben." Dr. Karl 
 Reherzer, Die Indian fr von Santa Catalina htlavacan, p. 11, Wien, 1856. 
 
 t The word zaiiori, of Arabic origin, is thus explained in the Spanish and English dic- 
 tionary of Delpino (London, 1768) : " So they call in Spain an impostor who pretends to 
 Fee into the bowels of the earth, thtough stone walls, or into a man's body" Dr 
 Stoll says the Guatemala Indians speak of their divineis, the Ah Eih, as zahorin Guate- 
 mala, s. 229. 
 
 t Emetorio Pineda, Descripcion Geografica de Chiapas y Soconusco, p. 22 (Mexico 1815) 
 
27 
 
 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 con- 
 tempt. In the Mexican figurative manuscripts composed after 
 the conquest the rite of baptism is constantly depicted as the 
 symbol of religious persecution. Saj-s 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'Christiiinity 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, 1o enslave 
 them, and to spill their blood without remorse or remission. One of these 
 documents, dated in 1536, adds a trait of savage irony. A Spanish sol- 
 dier 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 ! "* 
 
 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 thej"- 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 wentaboul from town to town, persuading the simple people 
 to that which the Enemy of Light desired. Those who believed theirdeceits, 
 and had been baptized, \vere washed on the head and breast by these sor- 
 cerers, 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 promi- 
 nence, who resided not far from the City of Mexico, was dying, and had 
 received extreme unction ; and when the priest had depfirted 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. "l- 
 
 * Madier de Montjau, " Manuwrits Figuratifs de 1' Ancien Mexique," in Archives de la 
 Sociiti Americaine de France, 1875, p. 245. 
 t Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana, Lib. xv, cap. 16. 
 
28 
 
 Similar instances are recorded by Jacinto de la Serna. He 
 adds that not only did the Masters prescribe sacrifices to the 
 Tire in order to annnl the effects of extreme unction, but they 
 delighted to caricature the Eucharist, dividing among their con- 
 gregation a narcotic yellow mushroom for the bread, and the 
 inebriating pulque for the wine. Sometimes they adroitly con- 
 cealed 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.* 
 
 Whoever or whatever was an enemy to that religion so brutally 
 forced upon these miserable creatures was to them an ally 
 and a friend. Nuiiez de la Vega tells us that he found written 
 formulas among them reading: " 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.f 
 
 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 Yirgin 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. J 
 
 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 Zamaji-ac, in the province of Suchiltepee ; a second 
 near Huehuetan, Soconusco ; a third at Totonicapan," Guate- 
 
 * De la Serna, Manual de Ministros, pp. 20, 21, 42, lfi2. The mushroom referred to was 
 the quauhnaimcaU, probably the s^me as the tetjhuinti of Hernandez, Hist Plant. Nov. 
 Hispan., Tom. il, p. 358, who says that it is not dangerous to life, but disturbs the mind 
 incitiog to laughter and intoxication. 
 
 t Actual slavery of the Indians in Mexico continued as late as the middle of the seven- 
 teenth century. See Cavo, TresSiglos de Mexico, etc., Tom. ii, p. 11. 
 
 J Brasseur, Hist, des Nations CivUis^es de Mexique, Tom. iv, p. 822. 
 
29 
 
 mala; 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 * and no doubt others of his rank were not less potent. 
 
 The unity between the members of the association over an in- 
 definitely 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 j ustly regarded as a proof of the secret intelligence 
 which existed among the members of this cabalistic guild.f 
 
 To a certain extent, and at least ia 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 ac- 
 quainting himself with the facts.J 
 
 A traveler of the first decade of this century, who has left us 
 a number of curious details of the superstitions of the Chris- 
 tianized 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 supi-emacy of one whom they 
 referred to as "the little old man," El Viejito. But he was un- 
 able to ascertain by what superior traits or rights he obtained 
 this distinction. § 
 
 According to some authorities, the highest grade of these 
 native hierophants bore among the Nahuas the symbolic name 
 
 * Tn/orme del teniente general, Don Jacobo de Baiba Figueroa, corregldor de la Provineia 
 de Suchitepeque. quoted by Brasseiir. 
 
 f Jaeinlo de la Serna says : " Los mgestros 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 naguallsts of Chiapas, Bishop Nufiez de la Vi'ga writes: "Concuerdan 
 Ids mas modernos con los mas anliguos que se praeticaban en Mexico." Constituciones 
 Dwcesanas, p. W4. 
 
 X He observes that there were " familias de los tales J^abios en las quales en manera de 
 patrimonio se heredaban, sucredieudo los hijos 4 los padres, y principalmente su abom- 
 inable secta de Nagualismo." Hintoria del Cielo y dela Tierra, MS., p. 7. Ordoiiez ad- 
 vances 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. 
 
 § Maria de Mox6, Cartas Mejicanas, p. 270 jOenova, n. d.). 
 
30 
 
 of " flower weavers," Xochimilca, probably from the skill they 
 had to deceive the senses by strange and pleasant visions.* 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. j" 
 
 19, It will be seen from the above, that Nagualism, beginning in 
 an ancient superstition dating back to the time of primitive bar- 
 barism, became after the Conquest a potent factor in the politi- 
 cal and social development of the peoples among whom it ex- 
 isted ; 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 cen- 
 turies, 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.^ 
 
 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 
 
 * " Xocto'TOtea, que asi Uamavan 4 los mui sabios encantadores." Torquemada Mon- 
 arqvia Indiana, Lib. xv, cap. 16. 
 
 ■f In Nahuatl, tlapiani, a guardian or watchman. The Zapotec priesthood was divided 
 into the fiuijatoos, "greater guardians," and their inferiors, the copaviloos, "guardians 
 of the gods." CdrrLedo, Estudlos Histori-cos, p. 93. 
 
 X See Eligio Ancoua, Historia de yucatan, Tom. iv, cap. 1 (MiSrida, 1880). 
 
31 
 
 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 hru- 
 jeria) 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 sliall 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.' "* 
 
 Saj'ing 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 1 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 in- 
 strument of the native priests — was forbidden.")" 
 
 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 mention of the fifteen, 5x3, chosen disciples indicates that the same system of 
 initiating by triplets prevailed in Yucatan as in Ciiiapas (see above, p. 19). The sacred 
 tree is not named, but presumably it was the ceiba to which I refer elsewhere. The ad- 
 dress of Jacinto was obtained from those present, and is given at length by the Jesuit 
 Martin del Puerto, in his Relacion liecho at Cabildo EclesiasHro por el preposito de la Com- 
 pafUa de Jems, acerca de la muerte de Jaeinto Can-Ek y socios, Dec. 26, 1761. It is published, 
 with other documents relating to this revolt, in the Appendix to the Diecionario Univer- 
 sal, edited by Orozco y Berra, Mexico, 1856. On the prophecies of Chilan Balam, see my 
 Essays of an AmericanM, pp. 255-273 (Philadelphia, 1890). 
 
 t Eligio Anoona, Hist, de Yucatan, Tom. ii, p. 152. 
 
32 
 
 the Spaniards, he was charged with idolatry, sorcery and dis- 
 turbing the peace, and was ignominiously hanged.* 
 
 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.f 
 
 Nearly the same locality had been the scene of the revolt of 
 the Zapotecs iu 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.J 
 
 In the city of Mexico itself, in the year 1692, there was a vio- 
 lent outbreak of the natives, when they destroyed three million 
 dollars worth of property. Doubtless this was partly attribut- 
 able to the scarcity of food which prevailed ; but that the au- 
 thorities traced it also to some secret ceremonials is evident 
 from the law which was immediately passed forbidding the In- 
 dians to wear the piochtli, or scalp-lock, a portion of the hair 
 preserved from birth as part of the genethliac rituals, § 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 
 
 * See Pedro Sanchez de Ag-uilar, Iiiforme contra Idolum. Cultores en Yucatimn (Madrid, 
 1639) ; Eligio Ancona, Hisloria de Yucatan, Tom. ii, pp. !&■(, 129. 
 
 t The chief authority on this revolt is Juan de ToiTe.s Castillo, Rdaclon de lo Sucedido 
 en las Provincins de Nejcapa, Mepei y Villa Alta (Mexico, 1662). See also Cavo, Los Tres 
 Slglos de Mexico durante el Qobierno Espaftol, Tom. ii, p. 4 1, and a pamphlet by Christoval 
 Manso de Contreras, Eelncion cierta y verdadera de lo que sucedio en esta Provincia de Tehu- 
 antepec, etc. (printed at Mexico, 1661), which I know only through the notes of Dr. Be- 
 rendt. 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. 
 
 X See Brasseur de Bourbourg, Histoiredes Nations Cimlisies dela Mexigue, Tom iv 824. 
 
 ? Cavo, Los Tres Siglos, etc., Tom. ii, p. R2. 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 
 
 himself for that task will certainly reach the conclusion ex- 
 pressed a number of years ago by the eminent American anti- 
 quary 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 organiza- 
 tion, 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 Ajner- 
 ica, which have more than ouce threatened the complete subversion of 
 the Spanish power."* 
 
 That mysterious bond, that secret organization, is Nagualism. 
 
 30. A remarkable feature in this mysterious society was the 
 exalted position it assigned to Women. Not only were they ad- 
 mitted to the most esoteric degrees, but in repeated instances 
 they occupied the very highest posts in the organization. Ac- 
 cording 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 abso- 
 lute.f 
 
 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 ; J 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 ex- 
 tensive influence they were known to control. In the sacra- 
 ments of Nagualism, Woman was the primate and hierophant. 
 
 31. 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. 
 
 * Adventures on the Musquilo Shore, by S. A. Ward, pseudonym of Mr. Squier, p. 268 
 (New York, 1855). 
 
 t Nunez de la Vega, Cbnstitueiones Dioceaanas, p. 10, and comp. Brasseur de Bour- 
 bourg, Hist, des Nat. Civ. de Mexique, Tom. i, p. 74. 
 
 X Herrera, Hist, de las Indias Oacidentales, Dec. ii, Lib. iii, cap. 5. 
 
34 
 
 Such, among the Aztecs, was the sorceress who built the city 
 of Mallinalco, on tlie road from Mexico to Michoacan, famous 
 even after the conquest for the skill of its magicians, who 
 claimed descent from her. * Such, in Honduras, was Coami- 
 zagual, 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. f 
 
 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. J 
 
 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. § 
 
 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, despedaQin- 
 dolo, si era de los que avian cogido en guerra, dicen que guardaban el 
 
 * Acosta, Hisl. Nat. y Moral de las Indias, Lib. vii, cap. 5. 
 
 f The story is given in Herrera, Hist, de Ins Indtas, 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. 
 
 t Jacinto de la Serna, Manual de Ministros, p. 138. Sahagun identifies Quilaztli with 
 Tonantzin, the coramou mother of mankind and goddess of child-birth (Hist, de Nueva 
 Espaila, Lib. i, cap. 6, Lib. vi, cap. 27). Further particulars of her are related by Tor- 
 quemada, Monarguia Indiana, Lib. 11, cap- 2. The tzitzime were mysterious elemental 
 powers, who, the Nahuas believed, were destined finally to destroy the present world 
 (Sahagun, 1. c.. Lib. vi, cap. 8). The word means "flying haired" (Serna). 
 
 g Torquemada, M&narguia Indiana, Lib. ii, cap. 62. 
 
35 
 
 miembro genital y los testiculos del tal sacrificado, j se los daban a una 
 vieja que tenian pur profeta, para que los comiese, y le pedian rogasse a 
 su idolo les diesse mas captivos." * 
 
 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. f 
 
 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. J 
 
 33. 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 pres- 
 ence. 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 
 
 * Fr. Tomas Goto, Diccionario de In Lengim CdkcMquel, MS., 8. v. Sacrificar; in the 
 Library of the American Phllosophicai Society at Philadelphia. 
 
 f " Trataron de valerse del arte de los encantos y nagucUes " 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. 
 
 t Teobert Maler, "MSmoire sur I'Etat de Chiapas," in the Bevue d' EthnotjrnpMe, 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 neighboring tribes, who had been ordered to await the result 
 of the effort in Chiapas. 
 
 Her authority was absolute, and she was merciless in requir- 
 ing obedience to it. The disobedient were flayed alive or 
 roasted over a slow Are. She and all her followers took particu- 
 lar 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 hope- 
 less. It failed after a bitter and protracted conquest, character- 
 ized 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.* 
 
 More unfortunate were her friends and lieutenants, the priest- 
 esses 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 mercifullj' thrown a veil on its details."!" 
 
 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 bj' the coast Indians, one who lived alone mid 
 the ruins of an old Maya temple, a sorceress of twenty years, 
 loved and feared, holding death and life in her hands. J Per- 
 
 * 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 sym- 
 pathy with the motives which prompted the native actors. See his History of the PanHc 
 States, Vol. ii, p. 696, sqg. Ordnnez 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 ordenabalos ardides del motin ; . . . . delo 
 que principalmente trataban las leyes lundamentales de su secta, era de que no quedase 
 ra-tro alguno de que los Europeos havian pisado este suelo." His account is in his un- 
 published work, Historia del Oielo y de la Tierra, written at Guatemala about 1780. Juarros, 
 speaking of their rites, says of them : "Apostando de la f(5, profanando los vasos sagra- 
 dos, y ofreciendo sacrileges oultos & una indizuela." Historia de la Ciudad de Guatemala 
 Tom. i, p. 17. 
 
 t Bancroft, ubi supr4, p. 705, note. One was hanged, whom Garcia Pelaez calls " una 
 India bruja." Memorias para la Historia de Guatemala, Tom. ii, p. 153, 
 
 I Squier, ubi suprA, passim. 
 
37 
 
 baps 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 Abbd 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 lillle 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 bosora, upon which lay a chain of 
 heavy gold pieces, pierced and strung on a cord. Herrich 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?"* 
 
 34. 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 
 
 • Voyage d VIslhmus de Tehuantepec, p. 164. He adds a number of particulars of the 
 power slie was supposed to exercise. 
 
38 
 
 holy places and sacred objects of the nagualists, they were in- 
 caves or deep rock-recesses, not in artilicial 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 Mal- 
 linalco (a town famous for its magicians), which was the sanc- 
 tuary of the deity called Oztoleoil, the Cave God (oztotl, cave ; 
 teotl, god), " venerated throughout the whole empire of Monte- 
 zuma."* 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 1 he Aztec Pantheon, 
 but was introduced from the South, either from the Zapotecs, 
 the Mixtecs, or the Mayan tribes, beyond these.f 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 Guate- 
 mala, 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 con- 
 tents 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 (whicli must have been the Tower 
 of Babel), and to liavo divided this land among the Indians, and given to 
 each tribe its language. 
 
 * "Que era venerado en toclo el Imperiode Montezuma." Sea Dlccionario Vniversat, A^- 
 pendlce, », v. (Mexico, 185G). 
 
 t " Daas der Gott Tepeyollotl Im Zapotekenlande und welter Hiidwiirta seine Wurzeln 
 hat, uijd dem elgenUlcheu Azieulscheii Olymp i'romd 1st, darUber kann kein Zwelfel 
 mehr obwalten." See Dr. Seler's able discussion of Uie suljject In the Cmiiptc- Rendu of 
 the Seventh International Congress of Amerleanlsls, |i. 65U, eex). Tlie udoptlOQ of 
 subterranean temples was peculiarly a Zaputecan troU. " Notandose prlnclpnlniente en 
 muchos adoratorlos de los Zapotecos, estau los mas de ellos oubiortos, en subterraneos 
 espaolosos y lobregos." Currledo, Eetudioa BistoHcos, Tom. 1, p. liO. 
 
39 
 
 "They saj' further that he once dwelt in Huehuetan, a town in the pro- 
 vince of Soconusco. Near there, at the place called Tlazoaloyan, he 
 constructed, hy 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 Qlapiime) to preserve. This treasure 
 consisted of earthenware vases with covers of the same material; a stone, 
 on which were inscribed the fluures of the ancient native heroes as found 
 in the calendar ; chalchiuites, which are green stones ; and other super- 
 stitious 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 tliere in 
 1691, having been delivered to us by the lady in charge and the guar- 
 dians. All the Indians have great respect for tliis Votan, and in some 
 places they call him 'the Heart of the Towns.' "* 
 
 The English priest, Thomas Gage, who was curate of a parish 
 among the I'okonchi 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 shoul- 
 ders, 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. "f 
 
 The black color here mentioned vras a relic of ancient symbol- 
 ism, referring to the night, darkness, and the obscuritj- 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 sacri- 
 fice in the forests, so that they looked as black as negroes J In 
 the extract from Nuiiez de la Vega already given, leal 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 
 
 * Constituciones Diocesanas, pp. 9, 10, 
 
 t Gage, A New Survey of the West Indies, pp. 389, 393. 
 
 X Teatro Mexicano, Tratado iii, cap. 11. Mr. BaDdelier hns called attention tottie nam- 
 ing of one of the principal chiefs among the Aztecs, Tlilancalqui, "Man of the Dark 
 House," and thinks it related lo the Votun myth. Twel/th Annual Report of the Peabody 
 Museum, p. B89. 
 
40 
 
 mummied or exsiccated body of some former distinguished 
 priest or cliieftain. 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.* An- 
 other interesting example is narrated bj- Yilla Senor y Sanchez.f 
 who describes it as an eye-witness. It was discovered in a spa- 
 cious cave located some distance to the west of the citj' of 
 Mexico, in Xahuatl territory, on the side of what was known as 
 " the Sun mountain " — la Mesa de Tonati. He speaks of it as 
 remarkablj' 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 cus- 
 tom, 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 diflFerent colors arranged 
 so that one color should alternate with another. The left hand was rest- 
 ing on the arm ot 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 artifi- 
 cially 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.\ 
 
 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 
 
 * Herrera, Hisioria de las Indias OcnderUales, Dec. iii, Lib. iii, cap. 14. 
 
 t Vaia Senor, Team Americano, Lib. v, cap. 38 (ileiieo, 1747). Father Cavo adds that 
 there were signs of humau sacrilices pre-^ent, but of this I can find no evidence in the 
 earlier reports. Comp. CaTO, Los Tres Siglos de Mexico durante el Qdbiemo EspaOcU, Tom. 
 ii, p. 123. 
 
 J Teatro Americano, Lib. ii, cap. 11 ; Lib. iii, cap. 13. 
 
41 
 
 solemn scene of sacrifice for the ancient priests ; that of Just- 
 lahuaca, 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. * 
 
 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 I'epeats the solemn 
 formula : Guix amo nechitla in toteotzin ? " Does not our Great 
 God see me ? " 
 
 35. The identity of theTepeyollotlof 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 num- 
 ber three so generally a sacred number in tlie symbolism of the 
 nagualists. We have already learned in the extract from Nuiiez 
 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. f The 
 semi-Christianized inhabitants of the Sierra of Naj'erit, the 
 Nahuatl-speaking Chotas, continued in the last century to ven- 
 erate three divinities, the Dawn, the Stone and the Serpent ;J 
 analogous to a similar "trinity " noted by Father Duran among 
 the ancient Aztecs.§ 
 
 The number nine, that is, 3x3, 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."|| 
 
 • See Miihlenpfordt, Mexico, Bd. li, pp. 200-266 ; Brasseur, Hist, des Nations Civ. de la 
 Mexique, Vol. iv, p. 821 ; Herrura, Hislorla de lae Indias, Deo. iii, Lib. iii, cap. 12, etc. 
 
 t IKccionario Universal; Appendice, s. v. 
 
 { Their nanieB were Ta Yoapa, Father Dawn ; Ta Te, Father Stone ; Coanamoa, the 
 Serpent which Seize.s. Dice. L'niti., App., Tom. iii, p. 11. 
 
 g 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). 
 
 I " Fue el Demonlo que les dl6 la superstici6n del numero nueve." Manual de Minis- 
 tros, p. 197. 
 
42 
 
 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. * 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 ac- 
 cepted 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. f 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. J 
 
 The three and the seven were the ruling numbers in the genea- 
 logical 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 relation8hip.§ 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. || 
 
 The indications are that the nagualists derived these numbers 
 from the third and seventh days of the calendar " month " of 
 twenty days. Tepeololtee, the Cave God, was patron of the 
 third day and also " Lord of Animals," the transformation into 
 which was the test of nagualistic power. ][ 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, Guku- 
 matz, all names meaning this), represented as carrying his 
 medicine bag, xiquipilli, and incensory, the apparatus of the 
 
 * The Native Calendar of Central America and Mexico, p. 12. 
 
 t Motolinia, Sites Antiguos, Samjtcios e Idolatrtas de las Indioa de la Nueva Espafla, p. 
 340 (in Coleccion de Vocumentos ineditos para la Historia de Espafia). 
 t Thomas Goto, Vorabularto de la lengtia Cakchiguet, MS., sub voce, Mayo. 
 g Herrera, Historia de taa Indias, Dee. iv, Lib. vili, cap. 10. 
 B DiccloTiario Universal, Appendice, ubi supr^L. 
 K ' Senor de los Animales." Codex Telleriano-Remensta, Parte il, Lam. iv. 
 
43 
 
 native illuminati, his robe marked witli the sign of the cross to 
 show that he was Lord of the Pour Winds and of Life. * 
 
 26. The nagualistic rites were highly symbolic, and the sym- 
 bols used had clearly defined meanings, which enable us to 
 analyze the religious ideas underlying this mj'sterious 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, botli men and women, it 
 is this about fire and its worship, and about maliing new fire and pre- 
 serving 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 wliich 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 bnptism by Fire, a ceremony 
 called the yiahuiltoea,\ 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 unlilie 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.| Long after the 
 conquest, and probably to this day, the same custom prevails in 
 Mexico, the fumes and odor of the burning leaves being con- 
 sidered very salubrious and purifying to the air of the sick 
 room § 
 
 * See Dr. Seler's minute description in the Oompte Rendu of the Eighth Session of the 
 CongrSs International des Am^ricanistes, pp. 588, 539. In one of the conjuration formu- 
 las given hy de la Serna (Manual de Ministros, p. 212) the priest says : " Yo soy el saeer- 
 dote, el dios Quetzalroati, que se bajar4 al inflerno, y subir4 4 lo superior, y hastalos nueve 
 Inflernos." This writer, who was very competent in the Nahuatl, translates the name 
 Quetzaleoatl by "culebra con cresta" (id., p. 171), an unusual, but perhaps a correct 
 rendering. 
 
 t 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 trans- 
 lated, " The baptism of Are In which they confer the names which they call yahuUloca." 
 The onscurity is in the Nahuatl, as the word torn may be a plural of tocaitt, name, as « ell 
 as the verb toca, to throw upon. The passage is from the Camirw del Cido, fol. 100, verso. 
 
 J Sahagun, Historia de la Nueva Espaha, Lib. iv, cap. 'iR. 
 
 I It i» mentioned as useful for this purpose by the early physicians, Francisco Xime- 
 nes, OuMro Lzbros de la NaturaZeza, p. 144 ; Hernandez, Htst Plant. Novse Hispaniie, Tom. 
 
44 
 
 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 cen- 
 tury later than Leon, was apehualco, which has substantially the 
 same meaning, '' a throwing upon " or " a throwing away." * 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.""}- 
 
 37. Other ceremonies connected with fire worship took place 
 in connection with the manufacture of the pulque, or ocili, 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 de- 
 scend 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. Humetimes it was placed before a fire in vases, sometimes 
 
 ii, p. 200. Capt. Bouike, in bis recent article on "The Medicine Men of tlie Apaches" (in 
 JVin(A Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 521), suggests that the yiahuiili of the 
 Aztecs is tne same as the "hoddentin," the pollen of a variety of cat-tail rush which the 
 Apaches in a similar manner throw into the lire as an offering. Beriiandez, however, 
 describes the yiahuitli as a plant with red flowers, growing on mountains and hill-sides — 
 no species of rush, therefore. De la Seriia 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). 
 
 * From the verb apeua. Vetancurt's description is in his Teatro Mexicano, Tom. i, pp. 
 462, 463 (Ed. Mexico, 1870). 
 
 f His frequent references to it show this. See his ManuM de Ministros, pp. 16, 20, 22, 24, 
 36, 40, 66, 174, 217, etc. The word ttecuixUili-iai is compounded of tleeuitti, the hearth or 
 fireplace, and ixtlUuia, to darken with smoke. 
 
45 
 
 it was scattered upon the flames with a brush, at other times it was poured 
 out around the fireplace."* 
 
 38. 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 inti- 
 mately acquainted with their language and customs. In these 
 Calendars the fire-priest is constantly referred to as ah-toc, liter- 
 ally " the fl re-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 pla_v, 
 and on the fourth he extinguishes it. A period of five days is 
 then allowed to elapse, when these ceremonies are recom- 
 menced 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 ChilanBalam," 
 there are special directions for these fire-masters to reckon the 
 proper periods for the exercise of their strange functions. f 
 
 39. What, now, was the sentiment which underlay this wor- 
 ship 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 ex- 
 istence. This idea was by no means peculiar to them. It re- 
 peatedly recurs in Sanskrit, in Greek and in Teutonic mythology, 
 as has been ably pointed out b}- Dr. Hermann Cohen. J The 
 fire-god Agni (ignis) is in the Vedas the Maker of men; Pro- 
 metheus steals the fire from heaven that he ma^' 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 
 
 • Duran, Historia de los Tndios de la Nueva Espafia, Tom. il, p. 2)0. Sahagun adds that 
 the ortti was poured on the hearth at four separate points, doubtless the four cardinal 
 points. Bistm-ia de Nueva Esiiana, Lib. i, cap. 13. De la Serna describes the same f-ere- 
 mony as current in his day, Manual de Hinistros, p. 35. The invocation ran :— " Shining 
 Hose, light-giving Eose, receive and rejoice my heart before the God." 
 
 t A copy of these strange " Books of Chilan Balam " is in my possession. I have de- 
 scribed them in my Essays of an Americanut (Philadelphia, 18S)0). 
 
 X See his remarks on " Apperception der Menschenzeuguug als Feuerbereitung," in the 
 Zeitscliriftfur Vijlkerpsychologie, Bd. vi, s. 113, seq. 
 
46 
 
 oldest of gods, Huehuefeotl, and also " Oar Father," Tota, as it 
 was believed from him all things were derived.* 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, f Another of his names was Xiuhtecutli, which 
 can be translated " God of the Green Leaf," that is, of vegetable 
 fecundity and productiveness. J 
 
 To transform themselves into a globe or ball of fire was, as we 
 have seen (antfe, 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. § 
 
 'I'hese 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 fertilitj'. Bartholomfe de Alva re- 
 fers to them in a passage of his Confessionary. The priest asks 
 the penitent : 
 
 "Dost thou possess at this very time lillle idols of green stone, or 
 frogs made of it (in, ohalehiuh coconeme, clialehiuh tamazoUiri) 1 
 
 "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 trulh, that these green stones 
 give thee food and drink, even as thy ancestors believed, who died iu their 
 idolatry ? Dost thou believe tliat Ihey give thee success and prosperity 
 
 * Sahagun, Historia de Nueva Espafia, Lib. i, cap. 13. The Nahuatl text is more definite 
 than the Spanish translation. 
 
 t See my Myths of the New World, p. 154, seq. 
 
 X In the Nahuatl language the word xihuitl (xiuilt) has four meanings : a plant, a tur- 
 quoise, a year and a comet. 
 
 g J. B. Carriedo, Estudios Ilisloricos del Estado Oaxaqueno, Tom. i, p. 82, etc. 
 
47 
 
 and good things, and all that thou hast or wishest? Because we know very- 
 well that many of you so believe at this very time." * 
 
 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. f 
 
 They are still in use among the natives as lucky stones or 
 amulets. In the Zolzil insurrection of 1869, already referred to, 
 one was found suspended to the neck of one of the slain In- 
 dians. It came into the possession of M. Maler, who has de- 
 scribed and figured it.J It represents a human head with a curi- 
 ous expression and a singular headdress. 
 
 From specimens of these amulets preserved in museums it is 
 seen that any greenish stone was selected, preferably those yield- 
 ing a high, vitreous polish, as jadeite, turquoise, emerald, chlor- 
 melanite 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 pres- 
 ent 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 Bomhax 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, 
 
 * Alva, Confessionario en Lenffua Mexicana, fol. 9. 
 
 t Carriedo, Estudios Hisloricos, pp. 6, 7. 
 
 1 In the Semte d' Ellmographie, 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 
 
 Tota, Our Father. They are said to have represented the gods 
 of woods and waters.* In the ancient mythology we often hear 
 of the " tree of life," represented to have four branches, each 
 sacred to oue of the four cardinal points and the divinities asso- 
 ciated therewith. 
 
 The conventionalized form of this tree in the Mexican figura- 
 tive paintings strongly resembles a cross. Examples of it are 
 numerous and unmistalcable, as, for instance, the cruciform tree 
 of life rising from a head with a protruding tongue, in the 
 Vienna Codex.f 
 
 33. 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. | 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 Cruci- 
 formis 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 
 
 * Difigo Duran, Historia de los Indios de Nueva Espana, Tom. ii, p. 140. 
 
 ■f In Kingsborough, Antiquities of Mexico, Vol. ii, PI. 180. On the cross as a form de- 
 rived from a tree see the observations of W. H. Holmes, in the Second Annual Seport of 
 the Bureau of Etknology, pp. 270, 271. 
 
 X " Au Mexiqne, le cadre crois6, la eroix en sautoir, comme oelle de St. Andr^, aveo 
 quelques varlantes, represenlait le signe de nativity, tonalli, la ffite, le jour natal." M. 
 Aubin, in Boban, CatalOQue Raisonnte de la Collection GoupU, Tom, i, p. 227. Both Gomaia 
 and Herrera may be quoted to this effect. 
 
49 
 
 strip to absolute nudity ;* and the lascivious fury of bands of 
 naked Nagualists, meeting in remote glades by starlight or in 
 the dark recesses of eaves, dancing before the statues of the 
 ancient gods, were scenes that stirred the fanaticism of the 
 Spanish missionaries to its highest pitch. Bishop Landa in- 
 forms 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 pro- 
 hibited 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,f 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 sym- 
 bols of ancient Mexico the serpent represented the phallus ; 
 that it was regarded as the most potent of all the signs ; J and 
 modern research has shown, contrary to the opinion long held, 
 that there was among these nations an extraordinary and ex- 
 tensive worship of the reciprocal principle of nature, associated 
 with numerous phallic emblems.§ 
 
 Huge phalli of stone have been discovered, one, for instance, 
 on the Cerro de las Navajas, not far from the city of Mexico, 
 
 * See a curious story from native pouroes in my Essays of an Awerimnist, pp. 171, 172. 
 It adds that this change can be prevented by casting salt upon the person. 
 
 t Benito Maria de Moxo, Cartas Mejicanas, p. 257 ; Landa, Cosasde Yuralan, p. 193. 
 
 X Pedro de los Rios, in his notes to the Codex Vaticanus, published in Kingsborough's 
 great work, assigns the sign, coliuaU, the serpent, to "il membro virile, il maggio augurio 
 di tutti gU altri." It is distinctly so shown on the 75th plate of the Codex. De la Sera a 
 states that in his day some of the Mexican conjuroiB used a wand, around which was 
 fastened a living serpent. Manual de Ministros, p. 37. 
 
 g 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 lat er, M. Aubin said as far back as 1811—" le culte du Jinaam on du phallus n'etait 
 pas etranger aux Mexicaina, ce qu'etablissent plusieurs documents pen connus et des 
 sculptures dScouvertes depuis un petit iiombre d'ann^es." His letter is in Boban, Cata- 
 logue Raisonnide la Cottection Goupil, Tom. ii, p. 207. On the frequent identification of 
 the serpent symbol with the phallus in classical art, consult Dr. Anton Xagele's article, 
 " Der Schlaugen-Cultus," in the Zeltschrift fiir Volkerpsychologie, Band xvii, p. 285, seq. 
 
50 
 
 and another in the State of Hidalgo. * Probablj^ 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,")" and Dr. Berendt has copied several strik- 
 ing 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 pro- 
 fligate 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 Chi- 
 apas, in 1691 (see above, p. 39), was located at Tlazoaloyan, both 
 names being derived from a root signifying sexual action. J The 
 other name of the divinity, called " the Heart of the Hills," is 
 in Quiche, Alom, " he who begets,"' and the Zapotec Cozaana, an- 
 other 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 re- 
 productive 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 Euro- 
 pean superstitions. It was a strange commingling of both, often 
 in grotesque and absurd forms. In fact, the pretended Christi- 
 anity of the native population of Mexico to-day is little more 
 than a figment, according to the testimony of the most competent 
 observers. § 
 
 The rituals and prayers of the nagualists bear witness to 
 this. It is very visible in those I have quoted from Nunez de 
 
 • Cf. G. Tarayre, Eirploration Mineraloaiqtte des Regions Mexicaines, p. 233 (Paris, 1869', and 
 HuUetin de la Soditi d' Anthropologic de Paris, Juin, 1S93. 
 
 t Sources de I'Hlstolre Primitive de Mexlque, p. 81. 
 
 X From 20, to join togetlier. Compare my Essays of an Americanist, p. 417 (Philadel- 
 phia, 1890). 
 
 it " El indio Mexioano es todaviaidolatw." F. Pimentel, La Sltuacion actual de la Rasa 
 Indigena de Mexico, p. 197. 
 
51 
 
 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, ciira of Ixtlavacan, in Guate- 
 mala, 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 genethliae 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 tny 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 Silia 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 Koh : 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.* 
 
 "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. Bonavenlura, St. 
 Bernardin, St. Andrew, St. Thomas, St. Bartholomew, and thou my be- 
 loved 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 Cliii-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 
 
 * The " holy souls" who are here appealed to by name are those of deceased ah-kih, or 
 priests of the native cult. 
 
52 
 
 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 asth- 
 matic ; 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, nnr 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 llieir houses, they may meet sickness ; order it, that wherever 
 they go, they may meet troubles ; do your offices of injury to them, where- 
 soever 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 re- 
 condite 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 I^ What keeps thee away, gray ghost, white ghost?'' Is the ob- 
 stacle while, or is it yellow ? See, I place here the yellow enchantment 
 and the wliite enchantment.' 
 
 " I, the Master of the Masters of enchantments, have come, I, who 
 formed thee and gave thee life.* Thou, mother mine of the starry skirt, thou, 
 goddess of the stars, who givest life, why hast thou turned against this 
 one V ' 
 
 " Adverse spirit and darkened star, I shall sink thee in the breadth and 
 depth of the waters.* I, master of spells, speak to thee Ho there ! 
 Mother mine, whose skirt is made of gems, come, seek witli me the shin- 
 ing spirit who dwells in the house of light,' 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 else- 
 where. 
 
 "Green and yellow ghost, who art wandering, as if lost, over moun- 
 tains 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 lail me not.^ Come hither, mother mine, whose robe is of precious 
 
53 
 
 gems ; one water, two waters ; one rabbit, two rabbits ; one deer, two 
 deers ; one alligator, two alligators.' 
 
 "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 ? i" 
 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." 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 Irighten 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 Nagualisls. 
 
 Blood. — " The red woman with snakes on her gown " (referring to the 
 veins). 
 
 Oopal Oum.—" 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 wiiile itself is car- 
 ried). 
 
 Drunkenness. — "My resting time, " or "when I am getting my breath." 
 
 The Earth.— '"Vhe mirror that smokes " (because of the mists that rise 
 
54 
 
 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 lilie 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 moutlis, because all tilings 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 worsliip of the Hand among the Nahuas as the god Maitl, and 
 among the Mayas as the god Kab, both whicli words mean "liand " ). 
 
 Fire. — "Our Father of the Four Reeds" (because tlie ceremony of 
 making the new fire was held on the day Four Heeds, 4 Acall) ; "the 
 shining rose ;" " the yellow flyer ;" " the red-haired one ;" "the yellow 
 spirit." 
 
 A Knife of Copper. — "The yellow Chichimec" (because the Chichi- 
 mecs were alleged to tear out the bowels of their enemies). 
 
 Tlie Maguey Plant. — " My sister, the eight in a row" (because it was 
 planted in this manner). 
 
 A Head. — " That which is divided in two, and yet has neither begin- 
 ning, 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 flume;" "our 
 mother the comet" (all referring to the lever) ; "the Chicliimec " (be- 
 cause it aims to destroj' life, like these savage warriors) ; " the spider " 
 (because ot its venomous nature). 
 
 Smoke. — "The old wife" (j. e., of the fire). 
 
 The Sun. — " Our holy and pockified Uucle" (referring to the myth of 
 NanahuatI, 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 pur- 
 poses 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 cere- 
 monies 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 
 
55 
 
 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 dn 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 Ofl3ce by pleading his Indian 
 blood ; but his appeal was disallowed, and the precedent estab- 
 lished that any admixture whatever of European blood brought 
 the accused within the jurisdiction of the Inquisition.* 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.f Mr. David Ferguson, however, who has 
 studied extensively the records of the inquisition in Mexico, in- 
 forms 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 dis- 
 cover from what linguistic stock this term and its associated 
 words are derived. From that source it is reasonable to sup- 
 pose 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 Mexi- 
 can, word ; while an eminent authority. Dr. Stoll, is not less cer- 
 tain that it is from a radical belonging to the neighboring great 
 stock of the Mayan dialects, and especially the Quiche, of Gua- 
 temala.J Perhaps both these positions are erroneous, and we 
 
 * See the Edaoion del Auto cekbrado en Mexico, afio de 1G59 (Mexico, En la Imprenta del 
 Santo Officio, 1659). 
 
 t J. 11. Carriedo, Estudios Hislorkos del Esiado Oaxaqueno, Tom. i, pp 8, 9 (Oaxaca, 1849). 
 About 1610 a nnmber of Indians in the province of Acapulco were put to death for hav- 
 ing buried enchanted ashes beneath the floor of a chapel I (Serua, Manual de Ministros, 
 p. 52.) 
 
 t " Nagnal ist in seiner correcten Form naoal ein echtes Quich(5-Wort, em Substanti- 
 vum instrumentale, vom Stamme nod, vpissen, erkennen. Kaoal ist dasjeiilge, womit 
 Oder woran efwas, in diesem Falle das Schieksal des Kindes, erkannt wird, und hat mit 
 dem mexikanischen nahualli (Hexe), mit dem man es vielleicht in Verbindung bringen 
 mochte, nichts zu sohaffen." Ouatemala, s. 238. 
 
56 
 
 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 de- 
 rived 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 one- 
 self, to enter into oneself. 
 Noh, great, skillful ; as noh ahceh, a skillful hunter. 
 
 From Maya Dialects. 
 
 Quiche-Cakchiqubl. 
 
 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). 
 
 TZEHTAL. 
 
 Xqna, to know. 
 
 X-gnaulai, to know often or thoroughly (frequentative). 
 
 Naom, wise, astute (jiaom vinie, hombre sabio). 
 
 Naoghi, art, science. 
 
 Naoghibal, memory. 
 
 Ohnaoghel, a Wiseman. 
 
 Alaghom naom, the Goddess of "Wisdom. 
 
57 
 
 From the Zapotec, of Oaxaca. 
 Nana, gana, gona, to know. 
 
 Nona, to know thoroughly, to retain in the memory. 
 Nana ticfia, or nana lii, a wise man. 
 Gvela nana, or guela nana, wisdom, knowledge. 
 Hue gona, or ro gona, a teacher, a master. 
 Na lii, truth ; nina lii, that whicli is true. 
 Nncina, or naciina, skill, dexterity. 
 Iluinaa, a medicine man, a "niigualist." 
 NaJiaa, to speak pleasantly or agreeably. 
 Nayaa, or nayapi, to speak easily or fluently. 
 Rigoo gona, to sacrifice, to offer sacrifice. 
 Ninana, the understanding, the intelligence, generally. 
 Nayardi, the superior reason of man. 
 Nayaa, -i 
 Naguii, | superiority, a superior man (gentileza, gentil homhre). 
 
 From the Nahuatl, of Mexico. 
 Nana, fo dance, holding each other by the hands. 
 Naualli, n 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. 
 Nauatlaio, an interpreter. 
 
 38. I believe that no one can carefully examine these lists of 
 words, all taken from authorities well acquainted with the sev- 
 eral 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 expres- 
 sions, 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, es- 
 pecially mystic knowledge, the Gnosis, the knowledge of the 
 hidden and secret things of nature ; easily enough confounded 
 in uncultivated minds with sorcery and magic* 
 
 • The Abb6 Brasaeur observes : " Le mot nahuaZ, qui yet dire toute science, ou science 
 de tout, est fr6quemment employ^ pour exprimer la sorcellerie chez ces populations." 
 Bulletin de la Social de Giographie, 1857, p. 290. In another passage of his worlcs the specu- 
 lative Abb6 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 
 
 It is very significant that neither the radical na nor any of its 
 derivatives are found in the Huasteca dialect of the Mayan 
 tongne, which -was spoken about Tatnpico, far removed from 
 other members of the stock. The inference is that in the south- 
 ern dialects it was a borrowed stem. 
 
 Hov in the Nahuatl language — although its very name is de- 
 rived from it * — 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;"-^ but it is 
 altogether likely that nahualtia derived its meaning from the 
 custom of the medicine men to wear masks during their cere- 
 monies. 
 
 Therefore, if the term nagual, and many of its associates 
 and derivatives, were at first borrowed from the Zapotec lan- 
 guage, a necessary corrollary 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 doc- 
 trines 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 dictionarj- of the Spanish of 
 Mexico nagual is defined as " a witch ; a word used to frighten 
 children and make them behave, "J while in Nicaragua, where the 
 former Nahuatl population has left so many traces of its pres- 
 ence 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 
 
 * See an article by me, entitled " On the Words * Anahuac ' and ' Nahuatl,' ' ' in the 
 American Aiitiquarian, for November, 1893. 
 t Manual de Ministros, p. 50. 
 X Jesus Sanchez, Glosario de Voces Castellanas derivadas del Idwma Nahuatl, sub voce. 
 
59 
 
 armamentarium, or the box, jar or case in which are kept the 
 professional apparatus, the talismans and charms, which consti- 
 tute the stock in trade or outfit of the necromancer.* 
 
 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 nagullat is said to be applied to 
 any one '' who is entitled to respect and obedience b^' age and 
 merit ;" f 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 tlie 
 world are aware that the notion of men and women having tlie 
 power to change themselves into beasts is as wide as supersti- 
 tion 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 Uermany, 
 the loup-garou of France and the lupo mannaro of Italy. Dr. 
 Richard Andr^e 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." | 
 
 Even in such a detail as the direct connection of the name of 
 the person with his power of change do we And extraordinary 
 parallelisms between the superstition of the red man of America 
 and the peasant of Germany. As in Mexico the nagual was as- 
 signed 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 pronouncethenameofthe 
 person in the presence of the animal into which he has been 
 changed will restore him to human shape. § 
 
 40. I need not say that the doctrine of personal spirits is 
 not especially Mexican, nor yet American ; it belongs to man in 
 
 *" Nagual— e\ lugar, rincon, cajon, ramMra, etc., donde giiarda sus talLsmanes y 
 trajes de encanta la bnija." Berendt, La Lengua Castdlana de Nicaragua, MS. 
 f Emetorio Pineda, Deseripdon Qeografl'-a de Chiapas y Soconusco, p. 23 (Mexico, lS4o). 
 J See his article " Wer-wolf," In his Etiinographiache Parallelm uiid Vergleiehe, p. 62, seq. 
 8 Richard Andr^e, ibid., ss. 63, 64. 
 
60 
 
 general, and can be recognized in most religions and many phil- 
 osophies. In ancient Greece both the Platonicians and later the 
 Neo-PIatonicians thought that each individual has a particular 
 spirit, or daimon, in whom is enshrined his or her moral person- 
 alit3\ To this daimon 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.* 
 
 Many a member of the Church of Rome substitutes for the 
 daimon 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 thej' 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 tliey 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, b}"^ 
 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 sup- 
 ported 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. The^' could rival their col- 
 leagues 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 one- 
 self or others, of swallowing broken glass, of handling venom- 
 ous 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 
 plienomena of thought transference, of telepathy, of clairvoy- 
 
 * See Alfred Maury, La Magie el VAstrologie, pp. 88, 89, 267, etc. 
 
61 
 
 ance, 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.* So long as many 
 intelligent and sensible people among ourselves find all explana- 
 tions of these modern phenomena inadequate and unsatisfactory, 
 we may patiently wait for a complete solution of those of a 
 greater antiquity. 
 
 ■43. 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 teach- 
 ings, as others have maintained ; but that above and be}'ond 
 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, bj' one intense emo- 
 tion — hatred of the whites — and hy one unalterable purpose — 
 that of their destruction, and with them the annihilation of the 
 government and religion which they had introduced. 
 
 Index. 
 
 Native words explained, in Italics; names of Authors quoted, in small capitals. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Achiulla 40 
 
 AcosTA, J 9, 34 
 
 Aguilar, P. S 33 
 
 A7i.au 35 
 
 AliKih 26, 51 
 
 A7i-toc 4.1 
 
 Aissaoua, the 60 
 
 Alaghom Naom, a goddess 56 
 
 Atom, deily 50 
 
 Alva, B. de 8, 46, 47 
 
 Anahuac 58 
 
 Ancona, E 30, 31 
 
 Andaqoya, p. db 33 
 
 Andkbb, R 59 
 
 Antichrist, appealed to 28 
 
 Apelmalco 44 
 
 * In theJVoiic«Pr*minaireto the second part of his work. La Magie etVAstrologi^dans 
 I'Antiquiti et au Moym Age, Mr. Alfred Maury admirably sums up the scientific resources 
 at our command for explaining the mystical phenomena of experience, without deny- 
 ing their reality as actual occurrences. 
 
62 
 
 Page. 
 
 AuBiN, M 48,49 
 
 Ay, Antonio 30 
 
 Aztecan language 5, 11 
 
 Aztecs 7 
 
 Baal-che, 9 
 
 Baezv, P 9, 25 
 
 Balboa. P 10 
 
 Bancroft, H. H 13, 33, 86 
 
 Bandeliek, a 39 
 
 Baptism 27, 43 
 
 Baptism by fire 37 
 
 BaKBA FiOJUEKOA 29 
 
 b atiti8ta, j 6 
 
 Beresdt, C. H 50, 59 
 
 " Black King," the 39 
 
 Blowing, as a rite 19, 20 
 
 BoBAN. M 48 
 
 "Books of Chilan. Balam "... 4i 
 
 BocRKE. Capt 44 
 
 Bbassedb (de Bourbourg), 25, 28. 
 29, 32, 33, 37, 57 
 
 Bak xoe 45 
 
 BURGOA, P 16 
 
 Cabrera, Dr. P. F 4 
 
 Oakcbiquel language 20, 23 
 
 Calendar, the native. .1:}-16, 4.5, 53 
 
 California 10 
 
 Cancnc, town 29 
 
 Candelaria, Maria 35 
 
 Can Ek, Jacinio 30 
 
 Carpio, Bernardo del 55 | 
 
 Carriedo, J. B 15, 30, 38, 46 ; 
 
 Cave God, the 38, 41 j 
 
 Cavo, P 28, 32, 40 ' 
 
 Ceiba tree 47 
 
 Cerquin. province 4, 5, 34 I 
 
 Chnc Mool 31 
 
 Chaeuaeo 10 
 
 Chalcatongo 40 
 
 Chalchihuitl 39,46,47 
 
 Cbalcos 1..... 12 
 
 Chalma, placp 33 \ 
 
 Chnnes 49 
 
 Chabxat, D 13 I 
 
 Paqe. 
 
 Cbi, Andres 31 
 
 Chi, Cecilio 30 
 
 Chichimecs 7, 54 
 
 Chilan Balam 31, 45 
 
 Chontales 17. 32 
 
 Chorti dialect 5 n. 
 
 Chotas, tribe 41 
 
 Clairvoyance 9 
 
 Coamisagual 34 
 
 Coanamoa 41 
 
 Coatlan 40 
 
 Coaxihuitl 8 
 
 Cohuacihuatl 31 
 
 Cohuail, sign of. 49 n. 
 
 Codex crueiformis 48 
 
 COHEX, H 45 
 
 Copan, ruins of. 5 n. 
 
 Copavituos 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 
 
 DcRAX, D 44,45,48 
 
 Earth, asdeity 41,53 
 
 "Essays of an Americanist," 4. 
 31, 45, 49, 50 
 
 Fergtjsok, Datid 55 
 
 "Field mass," the 25 
 
 Fingers, names for 54 
 
 Fire worship 28, 48, 45, 53, 54 
 
 Four Winds, Lord of 43 
 
 Frog, symbol 46 
 
 Fuensasta del \'Ai,Le 9 
 
 FUESTES T (jCZilAN 22, 35 
 
 Gage, Thomas 21, 39 
 
 Gagerx, C 10 
 
63 
 
 rage. 
 
 Galindo, Ig 35 
 
 "Ghost dance" of Mayas 31 
 
 Gnosis, the 57 
 
 Goupil collection 48 
 
 Green stones 46 
 
 Ospoxil 30 
 
 Guatemala 24, ii9 
 
 Gucumatz, king 24, 43 
 
 Hand, as deity 54 
 
 " Heart of the Hills " 41, 46 
 
 "Heart of the Maguey " 41 
 
 " Heart of the Towns " . 38, 39, 47 
 
 Heunandkz, F 7, 10, 28, 43 
 
 Hekukra, a. dk, . . 4, 5, 11, 16, 33, 
 34, 40, 43 
 
 niealahau 21, 39 
 
 "Hoddentin" 44 
 
 Holmes, W. H 48 
 
 Honduras 4, 34 
 
 Huasteca dialect 58 
 
 Huehuetan, town 28, 39 
 
 Muehueteotl 46 
 
 Uuijatoos 30 
 
 leal ahau 31, 39 
 
 Iglesias, a 13 
 
 Inquisition, the 54 
 
 Intoxicants 7, 9 
 
 Istlavacan, town 25 
 
 Jadeile 46 
 
 JUABBOS, P 36 
 
 Justlahuaca 41 
 
 Eah, the hand 54 
 
 KiNGSBOnouGH, Lotd 48 
 
 Labaethe, Ch 12 
 
 Lacandons, tribe 59 
 
 Landa, D 49 
 
 Laba, P 19, 20 
 
 Leon, Dr. N 9 
 
 LhON, N. DB 6, 43, 45 
 
 Lile, ideogram of. 48 
 
 Life, tree of 48 
 
 Lingam, the 49 
 
 Maguey, Heart of the 41 
 
 Maitl, the Hand, as deity 54 
 
 Malbe, T 35, 47 
 
 Mallinalco, town 34, 38 
 
 Manso db Contbbbas 33 
 
 Mappe Quinanlzin 48 
 
 Mabia de Moxo, B 29, 49 
 
 Mauby, a 60, 61 
 
 Mayan stock 5, 16, 24 
 
 Mayas 9, 20, 35, 45 
 
 Mayas, revolts of 30, 31 
 
 Mexican language 5 
 
 Michoacan 10 
 
 Milky Way, as deity 53 
 
 MixcohuaU 19 
 
 Mixes, tribe 13, 17, 33, 43 
 
 Mixtecs, tribe 15, 16 
 
 Molina, A 6 
 
 Monopostiac, Cerro de 41 
 
 MONTJAU, M 27 
 
 MoRO, Sr 14 
 
 MOTOLINIA, P 43 
 
 MiJHLBNPPOBDT, E 13 
 
 Mushrooms, intoxicating 28 
 
 Na, the root 5, 11 n. 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, 13, 14, 41, 
 46, 57, 58 
 
 Nana Iiualtin 5, 6,10 
 
 Nanahuatl, a deity 54 
 
 Naualae 13 
 
 NaualcuauMla 13 
 
 Naualli 5, 10, 11, 13,57, 58 
 
 Nauallotl 5, ol' 
 
 NaualteieucUn 13 
 
 Navajas, Cerro de las 49 
 
 Nayerit, Siterra de 41 
 
 Nezahualpilli, king 34 
 
 Nine, sacred number 41 
 
 Noh, god of reason 56 
 
64 
 
 Nunez, de la Vbga, 16, 28, 29, 33, 
 
 42 
 
 Oaxaca, province 14, 32, 47 
 
 Octli 32, 44 
 
 Olohuhqui 7, 8, 9 
 
 Ordonez t Aguiar 29, 36 
 
 Orozco y Bbrra 10, 14, 31 
 
 OVIBDO 50 
 
 Oxchuc, town 21 
 
 Oztoteotl 38 
 
 Padrinos 26 
 
 Pah-Alituns, deities 9 
 
 Pantecatl, deily 50 
 
 Parkdbs, Ig 10 
 
 Pascual, Don 33 
 
 Paso y Tboncoso 7 
 
 Patzlan 20 
 
 Piiyni. 9 
 
 Pblaez, Gr 36 
 
 Pellote 7 
 
 Pbrez, P 45 
 
 Personal spirit 11, 13 
 
 Peyotl,t\xe 6-10 
 
 Phallus, symbol 49 
 
 Picietl .9 
 
 PiMBNTEL, F 11 
 
 Pined*, B 26, 50, 59 
 
 Pinopiaa, goddess 55 
 
 Pioclali 32 
 
 Pipils, tribe 33, 42 
 
 Pisa, B. de 40 
 
 Pokoncliis, tribe 24 
 
 Popol Vuh, the 24 
 
 Popoluca language 17 
 
 Pox 20 
 
 Poxlon 20 
 
 Poxta vanegs 20 
 
 Puerto, M 31 
 
 Quauhcihuatl 34 
 
 Quav/manaeatl 28 n. 
 
 Quetzalcoatl, 12, 19, 26, 32, 41, 42, 
 
 48 n. 
 Quiche language 20, 23, 55, 56 
 
 Page. 
 
 Quiches, tribe 24, 25 
 
 Quiegolani, deity 47 
 
 QuilaztH 34 
 
 Quiz 19 
 
 Reason, god of 56 
 
 "Restitution of the tonal ". .12, 52 
 Rigs, Pedro de los 49 
 
 Sahagun, B., 5, 6, 7, 11, 34, 43, 
 
 46 
 
 Sakchez, J 58 
 
 San Francisco del Mar 41 
 
 "Scalp-lock," the 33 
 
 SCHBKZER, 25 
 
 SbLBR, E 38 
 
 Serna, J., 9, 28, 29, 33, 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 
 
 Sqdier, 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 
 
 Teciiihllazque 6 
 
 Telepathy 9 
 
 Tenexileaeil 9 
 
 TeopatU 8 
 
 Teotlauice 12 
 
65 
 
 Page. 
 
 Teozapotlan 2!) 
 
 Tepeololtec deity 42 
 
 Tepeyollotl 38, 41 
 
 Teremendo, town 40 
 
 Teteuctin 13 
 
 Tetonaltiani 12 
 
 Teylminti 28 
 
 TezcatzoncatI, deity 44 
 
 T/mtimeezque 10 
 
 Three, sacred number 41 
 
 "Thunder stone " 42 
 
 T'ie?t 33 
 
 Tiger dance, tlie 31 
 
 1'lachi.vqui, Seer 9 
 
 TlahuipucJUin 10 n. 
 
 Tlaloc, deity 43 
 
 Tlapiani 30, 39 
 
 Tlascaln, Sierra de 40 
 
 Tlatoquea 14 
 
 TIazoaloynn 33, 39 
 
 Tlazolteotl, deity 50 
 
 TlccuixtUUztU 44 
 
 TUlancalqui 89 n. 
 
 Tobacco 8, 9, 53, 54 
 
 Tonal, tonalli . .11, 15 n., 43, .52, 60 
 
 Tonalcanaltia 12 
 
 Tonalitlacoa 13 
 
 Tonalpouhque 11 
 
 Tonantziii 34 
 
 Topilhin 41 
 
 TORQOEMADA, P 27, 30, 30 
 
 TouuEs Castillo 32 
 
 To Ta 41, 46, 48 
 
 Totomachlapa 40 
 
 Totonicapan 33, 28 
 
 Tree, sacred 31, 47 
 
 Tree of tlie Cross 43 
 
 Tree of Life 48 
 
 TresJIioos 16 
 
 Trinity, tlie native 41 
 
 Triplets 19, 31 
 
 Tzentals, tribe. . . .16, 19, 21, 32, 33 
 
 Tzili II inn 20 
 
 Tzitzime, the 34 n. 
 
 I'zitzimecihuatl 34 
 
 Uirapircos lo n. 
 
 U-q' ux- Ulmh 33 
 
 Vbnkoas, P 10 
 
 Venus Impudica 50 
 
 Vera Cruz 13, 26 
 
 Vetancurt, a 8, 32, 39, 44 
 
 Villa SeS-qii y Sanchez 40 
 
 Votan 33, 38, 41 
 
 "Ward, S. A 33 
 
 Water, divination by 6 
 
 Water, as deity 53, 54 
 
 Wero-wolf 59 
 
 Wisdom, goddess of 56 
 
 Wilclies 10 
 
 " Witches' Sabbaths " 48 
 
 XihuUl 46 n. 
 
 Xihuitzin 30 
 
 XiMBNE.', Francisco 43 
 
 XlMENES, P 20 
 
 Xiquipilli 42 
 
 Xiuhtecutli 30, 46 
 
 Xochimilca 30 
 
 Yahuiltoca ■ 43 
 
 Yanhultlan, town 16 
 
 Yaocihuatl 34 
 
 Tax che 47 
 
 Tax ha 9 
 
 Tialudtli, the 43 
 
 TollometU. 41 
 
 Yoni symbols 50 
 
 Ttzamatl 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 
 
-f^^. 
 
 \ -i I- ,