01-19-2014, 12:00 AM
From the Maya, of Yucatan.
Quiche-Cakchiquel.
From the Zapotec, of Oaxaca.
The root na, to know, is the primitive monosyllabic stem to which we trace all of them. Nahual means knowledge, especially mystic knowledge, the Gnosis, the knowledge of the hidden and secret things of nature; easily enough confounded in uncultivated minds with sorcery and magic.57-*
[58]It is very significant that neither the radical na nor any of its derivatives are found in the Huasteca dialect of the Mayan tongue, which was spoken about Tampico, far removed from other members of the stock. The inference is that in the southern dialects it was a borrowed stem.
Nor in the Nahuatl language—although its very name is derived from it58-*—does the radical na appear in its simplicity and true significance. To the Nahuas, also, it must have been a loan.
It is true that de la Serna derives the Mexican naualli, a sorcerer, from the verb nahualtia, to mask or disguise oneself, “because a naualli is one who masks or disguises himself under the form of some lower animal, which is his nagual;”58-† but it is altogether likely that nahualtia derived its meaning from the custom of the medicine men to wear masks during their ceremonies.
Therefore, if the term nagual, and many of its associates and derivatives, were at first borrowed from the Zapotec language, a necessary corrollary of this conclusion is, that along with these terms came most of the superstitions, rites and beliefs to which they allude; which thus became grafted on the general tendency to such superstitions existing everywhere and at all times in the human mind.
Along with the names of the days and the hieroglyphs which mark them, and the complicated arithmetical methods by means of which they were employed, were carried most of the doctrines of the Nagualists, and the name by which they in time became known from central Mexico quite to Nicaragua and beyond.
The mysterious words have now, indeed, lost much of their ancient significance. In a recent dictionary of the Spanish of Mexico nagual is defined as “a witch; a word used to frighten children and make them behave,”58-‡ while in Nicaragua, where the former Nahuatl population has left so many traces of its presence in the language of to-day, the word nagual no longer means an actor in the black art, or a knowledge of it, but his or her[59] armamentarium, or the box, jar or case in which are kept the professional apparatus, the talismans and charms, which constitute the stock in trade or outfit of the necromancer.59-*
Among the Lacandons, of Mayan stock, who inhabit the forests on the upper waters of the Usumacinta river, at the present day the term naguate ornagutlat is said to be applied to any one “who is entitled to respect and obedience by age and merit;”59-† but in all probability he is also believed to possess superior and occult knowledge.
39. All who have any acquaintance with the folk-lore of the world are aware that the notion of men and women having the power to change themselves into beasts is as wide as superstition itself and older than history. It is mentioned in the pages of Herodotus and in the myths of ancient Assyria. It is the property of African negroes, and the peasantry of Europe still hold to their faith in the reality of the were-wolf of Germany, the loup-garou of France and the lupo mannaro of Italy. Dr. Richard Andrée well says in his interesting study of the subject: “He who would explain the origin of this strange superstition must not approach it as a national or local manifestation, but as one universal in its nature; not as the property of one race or family, but of the species and its psychology at large.”59-‡
Even in such a detail as the direct connection of the name of the person with his power of change do we find extraordinary parallelisms between the superstition of the red man of America and the peasant of Germany. As in Mexico the nagual was assigned to the infant by a form of baptism, so in Europe the peasants of east Prussia hold that if the godparent at the time of naming and baptism thinks of a wolf, the infant will acquire the power of becoming one; and in Hesse to pronounce the name of the person in the presence of the animal into which he has been changed will restore him to human shape.59-§
40. I need not say that the doctrine of personal spirits is not especially Mexican, nor yet American; it belongs to man in[60] general, and can be recognized in most religions and many philosophies. In ancient Greece both the Platonicians and later the Neo-Platonicians thought that each individual has a particular spirit, or daimōn, in whom is enshrined his or her moral personality. To this daimōn he should address his prayers, and should listen heedfully to those interior promptings which seem to arise in the mind from some unseen silent monitor.60-*
Many a member of the Church of Rome substitutes for the daimōn of the Platonists the patron saint after whom he is named, or whom he has chosen from the calendar, the hagiology, of his Church. This analogy did not fail to strike the early missionaries, and they saw in the Indian priest selecting the nagual of the child a hideous and diabolical caricature of the holy rites.
But what was their horror when they found that the similarity proceeded so far that the pagan priest also performed a kind of baptismal sacrament with water; and that in the Mexican picture-writing the sign which represents the natal day, the tonal, by which the individual demon is denoted, was none other than the sign of the cross, as we have seen. This left no doubt as to the devilish origin of the whole business, which was further supported by the wondrous thaumaturgic powers of its professors.
41. How are we to explain these marvelous statements? It will not do to take the short and easy road of saying they are all lies and frauds. The evidence is too abundant for us to doubt that there was skillful jugglery among the proficients in the occult arts among those nations. They could rival their colleagues in the East Indies and Europe, if not surpass them.
Moreover, is there anything incredible in the reports of the spectators? Are we not familiar with the hypnotic or mesmeric conditions in which the subject sees, hears and feels just what the master tells him to feel and see? The tricks of cutting oneself or others, of swallowing broken glass, of handling venomous reptiles, are well-known performances of the sect of the Aissaoua in northern Africa, and nowadays one does not have to go off the boulevards of Paris to see them repeated. The phenomena of thought transference, of telepathy, of clairvoy[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.61-* So long as many intelligent and sensible people among ourselves find all explanations of these modern phenomena inadequate and unsatisfactory, we may patiently wait for a complete solution of those of a greater antiquity.
42. The conclusion to which this study of Nagualism leads is, that it was not merely the belief in a personal guardian spirit, as some have asserted; not merely a survival of fragments of the ancient heathenism, more or less diluted by Christian teachings, as others have maintained; but that above and beyond these, it was a powerful secret organization, extending over a wide area, including members of different languages and varying culture, bound together by mystic rites, by necromantic powers and occult doctrines; but, more than all, by one intense emotion—hatred of the whites—and by one unalterable purpose—that of their destruction, and with them the annihilation of the government and religion which they had introduced.
4-* These words occur a number of times in the English translation, published at London in 1822, of Dr. Paul Felix Cabrera’s Teatro Critico Americano. The formnagual instead of nahual, or naual, or nawal has been generally adopted and should be preferred.
4-† For instance, in “The Names of the Gods in the Kiche Myths,” pp. 21, 22, in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 1881; Annals of the Cakchiquels, Introduction, p. 46; Essays of an Americanist, p. 170, etc.
5-* Historia de las Indias Occidentales, Dec. iv, Lib. viii, cap. 4.
5-† More especially it is the territory of the Chorti dialect, spoken to this day in the vicinity of the famous ancient city of Copan, Honduras. Cerquin lies in the mountains nearly due east of this celebrated site. On the Chorti, see Stoll, Zur Ethnographie der Republik Guatemala, pp. 106-9.
6-* Bernardino de Sahagun, Historia de la Nueva España, Lib. x, cap. 9.
6-† Derived from teciuhtlaza, to conjure against hail, itself from teciuh, hail. Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario Mexicano, sub voce.
6-‡ Bautista, Advertencias para los Confesores, fol. 112 (Mexico, 1600).
6-§ Nicolas de Leon, Camino del Cielo, fol. 111 (Mexico, 1611).
7-* Paso y Troncoso, in Anales del Museo Nacionàl de Mexico, Tom. iii, p. 180.
7-† Sahagun, Historia de Nueva España, Lib. x, cap. 29, and Lib. xi, cap. 7. Hernandez has the following on the mysterious properties of this plant: “Illud ferunt de hac radice mirabile (si modo fides sit vulgatissimæ inter eos rei habendæ), devorantes illam quodlibet prsæsagire prædicereque; velut an sequenti die hostes sint impetum in eos facturi? Anne illos felicia maneant tempora? Quis supellectilem, aut aliud quidpiam furto subripruerit? Et ad hunc modum alia, quibus Chichimecæ hujusmodi medicamine cognoscendis.” Franciscus Hernandus, Historia Plantarum Novæ Hispaniæ, Tom. iii, p. 71 (Ed., Madrid, 1790).
7-‡ Diccionario Universal, Appendice, Tom. i, p. 360 (Mexico, 1856).
8-* Confessionario Mayor y Menor en lengua Mexicana, fol. 8, verso (Mexico, 1634).
8-† Vetancurt, Teatro Mexicano, Trat. iii, cap. 9.
8-‡ Hernandez, Historia Plantarum Novæ Hispaniæ, Tom. iii, p. 32.
9-* Dr. Jacinto de la Serna, Manual de Min stros de Indios para el Conocimiento de sus Idolatrias y Extirpacion de Ellas, p. 163. This interesting work was composed about the middle of the seventeenth century by a Rector of the University of Mexico, but was first printed at Madrid, in 1892, from the MS. furnished by Dr. N. Leon, under the editorship of the Marquis de la Fuensanta del Valle.
9-† MSS. of the Licentiate Zetina, and Informe of Father Baeza in Registro Yucateco, Tom. i.
10-* Acosta, De la Historia Moral de Indias, Lib. v, cap. 26.
10-† Of the thiuimeezque Hernandez writes: “Aiunt radicis cortice unius unciæ pondere tuso, atque devorato, multa ante oculos observare phantasmata, multiplices imagines ac monstrificas rerum figuras, detegique furem, si quidpiam rei familiaris subreptum sit.” Hist. Plant. Nov. Hispan., Tom. iii, p. 272. The chacuaco and its effects are described by Father Venegas in his History of California, etc.
10-‡ “In Mictlan Tetlachihuique, in Nanahualtin, in Tlahuipuchtin.” Paredes, Promptuario Manual Mexicano, p. 128 (Mexico, 1757). The tlahuipuchtin, “those who work with smoke,” were probably diviners who foretold the future from the forms taken by smoke in rising in the air. This class of augurs were also found in Peru, where they were called Uirapircos (Balboa, Hist. du Perou, p. 28-30).
10-§ Von Gagern, Charakteristik der Indianischer Bevölkerung Mexikos, s. 125.
11-* Historia Antigua de Mexico, Tom. ii, p. 25. Francisco Pimentel, in his thoughtful work, Memoria sobre las Causas que han originado la Situacion Actual de la Raza Indigena de Mexico (Mexico, 1864), recognizes how almost impossible it is to extirpate their faith in this nagualism. “Conservan los agueros y supersticiones de la antigüedad, siendo cosa de fe para ellos, los nahuales,” etc., p. 200, and comp. p. 145.
11-† On these terms consult the extensive Dictionnaire de la Langue Nahuatl, by Rémi Simeon, published at Paris, 1887. It is not impossible that tona is itself a compound root, including the monosyllabic radical na, which is at the basis of nagual.
11-‡ Sahagun, Historia de Nueva España, Lib. iv, passim, and Lib. x, cap. 9.
12-* See Ch. de Labarthe, Révue Américaine, Serie ii, Tom. ii, pp. 222-225. His translation of naualteteuctin by “Seigneurs du gènie” must be rejected, as there is absolutely no authority for assigning this meaning to naualli.
13-* Anales de Cuauhtitlan, p. 31. The translator renders it “palo brujo.”
13-† Les Anciennes Villes du Nouveau Monde, pp. 146-148, figured on p. 150. On its significance compare Hamy, Decades Americanæ, pp. 74-81.
13-‡ The Native Calendar of Central America and Mexico (Philadelphia, 1893).
13-§ Eduard Mühlenpfordt, Mexico, Bd. i, s. 255.
14-* The word is derived from tlatoa, to speak for another, and its usual translation was “chief,” as the head man spoke for, and in the name of the gens or tribe.
14-† The interesting account by Iglesias is printed in the Appendix to the Diccionario Universal de Geographia y Historia (Mexico, 1856). Other writers testify to the tenacity with which the Mixes cling to their ancient beliefs. Señor Moro says they continue to be “notorious idolaters,” and their actual religion to be “an absurd jumble of their old superstitions with Christian doctrines” (in Orozco y Berra, Geografia de las Lenguas de exico, p. 176).
15-* For instance, J. B. Carriedo, in his Estudios Historicos del Estado Oaxaqueño (Oaxaca, 1849), p. 15, says the nahualt was a ceremony performed by the native priest, in which the infant was bled from a vein behind the ear, assigned a name, that of a certain day, and a guardian angel or tona. These words are pure Nahuatl, and Carriedo, who does not give his authority, probably had none which referred these rites to the Zapotecs.
15-† Juan de Cordova, Arte en Lengua Zapoteca, pp. 16, 202, 203, 213, 216.
16-* Quoted in Carriedo, ubi suprá, p. 17.
16-† Hist. de las Indias Oc., Dec. iii, Lib. iii, cap. 12.
17-* So I understand the phrase, “figuras pintadas con zifras enigmaticas”
17-† Popoluca was a term applied to various languages. I suspect the one here referred to was the Mixe. See an article by me, entitled “Chontales and Popolucas; a Study in Mexican Ethnography,” in the Compte Rendu of the Eighth Session of the Congress of Americanists, p. 566, seq.
17-‡ Constit. Diocesan, p. 19.
18-* Constitut. Diocesan, Titulo vii, pp. 47, 48.
19-* Rather with the Quetzalcoatl of the Nahuas, and the Gucumatz of the Quiches, both of which names mean “Feathered Serpent.” Mixcohuatl, the Cloud Serpent, in Mexican mythology, referred to the Thunder-storm.
19-† In his Tzental Vocabulary, Father Lara does not give this exact form; but in the neighboring dialect of the Cakchiquel Father Ximenes has quikeho, to agree together, to enter into an arrangement; the prefix zme is the Tzental word for “mother.”
20-* Father Lara, in his Vocabulario Tzendal MS. (in my possession), gives for medical (medico), ghpoxil, for medicine (medicinal cosa), pox, xpoxtacoghbil; for physician (medico), ghpoxta vinic (the form vanegh, person, is also correct). The Tzendal pox (pronounced pōsh) is another form of the Quiche-Cakchiquel pūz, a word which Father Ximenes, in his Vocabulario Cakchiquel MS (in my possession), gives in the compound puz naual, with the meaning, enchanter, wizard. Both these, I take it, are derived from the Maya puz, which means to blow the dust, etc., off of something (soplar el polvo de la ropa ó otra cosa. Dicc. de la Lengua Maya del Convento de Motul, MS. The dictionary edited by Pio Perez does not give this meaning). The act of blowing was the essential feature in the treatment of these medicine men. It symbolized the transfer and exercise of spiritual power. When Votan built his underground shrine he did it à soplos, by blowing (Nuñez de la Vega,Constitut. Diocesan, p. 10). The natives did not regard the comet’s tail as behind it but in front of it, blown from its mouth. The Nahuatl word in the text, tzihuizin, is the Pipil form of xihuitzin, the reverential of xihuitl, which means a leaf, a season, a year, or a comet. Apparently it refers to the Nahuatl divinity Xiuhté cutli, described by Sahagun, Historia de Nueva España, Lib. i, cap. 13, as god of fire, etc.
21-* Hicalahau, for ical ahau, Black King, one of the Tzental divinities, who will be referred to on a later page.
21-† “Mæstros de los pueblos,” Constitut. Diocesan, i, p. 106.
23-* Historia de Guatemala, ò, Recordacion Florida, Tom. ii, p. 44, seq.
24-* Gage, A New Survey of the West Indies, p. 388, seq. (4th Ed.).
25-* Le Popol Vuh, ou Livre Sacré des Quichés, p. 315 (Ed. Brasseur, Paris, 1861). In the Quiche myths, Gucumatz is the analogue of Quetzalcoatl in Aztec legend. Both names mean the same, “Feathered Serpent.”
25-† Baeza’s article is printed in the Registro Yucateco, Vol. i, p. 165, seq.
26-* “Wird ein Kind im Dorfe geboren, so erhält der heidnische Götzenpriester von diesem Ereignisse viel eher Kunde, als der katholische Pfarrer. Erst wenn dem neuen Weltbürger durch den Aj-quig das Horoskop gestellt, der Name irgend eines Thieres beigelegt, Mi-si-sal (das citronengelbe Harz des Rhus copallinum) verbrannt, ein Lieblingsgötze angerufen, und noche viele andere aberglaübische Mysterien verrichtet worden sind, wird das Kind nach dem Pfarrhause zur christlichen Taufe getragen. Das Thier, dessen Name dem Kinde kurz nach seiner Geburt vom Sonnenpriester beigelegt wird, gilt gewöhnlich auch als sein Schutzgeist (nagual) fürs ganze Leben.” Dr. Karl Scherzer, Die Indianer von Santa Catalina Istlavacan, p. 11, Wien, 1856.
26-† The word zahori, of Arabic origin, is thus explained in the Spanish and English dictionary of Delpino (London, 1763): “So they call in Spain an impostor who pretends to see into the bowels of the earth, through stone walls, or into a man’s body.” Dr. Stoll says the Guatemala Indians speak of their diviners, the Ah Kih, aszahorin. Guatemala, s. 229.
26-‡ Emetorio Pineda, Descripcion Geografica de Chiapas y Soconusco, p. 22 (Mexico, 1845).
27-* Madier de Montjau, “Manuscrits Figuratifs de l’ Ancien Mexique,” in Archives de la Sociétè Americaine de France, 1875, p. 245.
27-† Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana, Lib. xv, cap. 16.
28-* De la Serna, Manual de Ministros, pp. 20, 21, 42, 162. The mushroom referred to was the quauhnanacatl, probably the same as the teyhuinti of Hernandez,Hist. Plant. Nov. Hispan., Tom. ii, p. 358, who says that it is not dangerous to life, but disturbs the mind, inciting to laughter and intoxication.
28-† Actual slavery of the Indians in Mexico continued as late as the middle of the seventeenth century. See Cavo, Tres Siglos de Mexico, etc., Tom. ii, p. 11.
28-‡ Brasseur, Hist. des Nations Civilisées de Mexique, Tom. iv, p. 822.
29-* Informe del teniente general, Don Jacobo de Barba Figueroa, corregidor de la Provincia de Suchitepeque, quoted by Brasseur.
29-† Jacinto de la Serna says: “Los mæstros de estas ceremonias son todos unos, y lo que sucede en esta cordillera en todas sucede.” Manual de Ministros, p. 52. Speaking of the methods of the nagualists of Chiapas, Bishop Nuñez de la Vega writes: “Concuerdan los mas modernos con los mas antiguos que se practicaban en Mexico.” Constituciones Diocesanas, p. 134.
29-‡ He observes that there were “familias de los tales sabios en las quales en manera de patrimonio se heredaban, succediendo los hijos á los padres, y principalmente su abominable secta de Nagualismo.” Historia del Cielo y de la Tierra, MS., p. 7. Ordoñez advances various erudite reasons for believing that Nagualism is a religious belief whose theory and rites were brought from Carthage by Punic navigators in ancient times.
29-§ Maria de Moxó, Cartas Mejicanas, p. 270, (Genova, n. d.).
30-* “Xochimilca, que asi llamavan à los mui sabios encantadores.” Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana, Lib. xv, cap. 16.
30-† In Nahuatl, tlapiani, a guardian or watchman. The Zapotec priesthood was divided into the huijatoos, “greater guardians,” and their inferiors, the copavitoos, “guardians of the gods.” Carriedo, Estudios Historicòs, p. 93.
30-‡ See Eligio Ancona. Historia de Yucatan, Tom. iv, cap. 1 (Mérida, 1880).
31-* The mention of the fifteen, 5 x 3, chosen disciples indicates that the same system of initiating by triplets prevailed in Yucatan as in Chiapas (see above, p. 19). The sacred tree is not named, but presumably it was the ceiba to which I refer elsewhere. The address of Jacinto was obtained from those present, and is given at length by the Jesuit Martin del Puerto, in his Relacion hecho al Cabildo Eclesiastico por el preposito de la Compañia de Jesus, acerca de la muerte de Jacinto Can-Ek y socios, Dec. 26, 1761. It is published, with other documents relating to this revolt, in the Appendix to the Diccionario Universal, edited by Orozco y Berra, Mexico, 1856. On the prophecies of Chilan Balam, see my Essays of an Americanist, pp. 255-273 (Philadelphia, 1890).
31-† Eligio Ancona, Hist. de Yucatan, Tom. ii, p. 452.
32-* See Pedro Sanchez de Aguilar, Informe contra Idolum Cultores en Yucathan (Madrid, 1639); Eligio Ancona, Historia de Yucatan, Tom. ii, pp. 128, 129.
32-† The chief authority on this revolt is Juan de Torres Castillo, Relacion de lo Sucedido en las Provincias de Nexapa, Iztepex y Villa Alta (Mexico, 1662). See also Cavo, Los Tres Siglos de Mexico durante el Gobierno Español, Tom. ii, p. 41, and a pamphlet by Christoval Manso de Contreras, Relacion cierta y verdadera de lo que sucedio en esta Provincia de Tehuantepec, etc. (printed at Mexico, 1661), which I know only through the notes of Dr. Berendt. Mr. H. H. Bancroft, in his very meagre account of this event, mistakingly insists that it took place in 1660. History of Mexico, Vol. iii, p. 164.
32-‡ See Brasseur de Bourbourg, Histoire des Nations Civilisées de la Mexique, Tom. iv, 824.
32-§ Cavo, Los Tres Siglos, etc., Tom. ii, p. 82. On the use and significance of the piochtli we have some information in Vetancurt, Teatro Mexicano, Tom. ii, p. 464, and de la Serna, Manual de Ministros, pp. 166, 167. It was the badge of a certain order of the native priesthood.
33-* Adventures on the Musquito Shore, by S. A. Ward, pseudonym of Mr. Squier, p. 258 (New York, 1855).
33-† Nuñez de la Vega, Constituciones Diocesanas, p. 10, and comp. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. des Nat. Civ. de Mexique, Tom. i, p. 74.
33-‡ Herrera, Hist. de las Indias Occidentales, Dec. ii, Lib. iii, cap. 5.
34-* Acosta, Hist. Nat. y Moral de las Indias, Lib. vii, cap. 5.
34-† The story is given in Herrera, Hist. de las Indias, Dec. iv, Lib. viii, cap. 4. The name Coamizagual is translated in the account as “Flying Tigress.” I cannot assign it this sense in any dialect.
34-‡ Jacinto de la Serna, Manual de Ministros. p. 138. Sahagun identifies Quilaztli with Tonantzin, the common mother of mankind and goddess of child-birth (Hist. de Nueva España, Lib. i, cap. 6, Lib. vi, cap. 27). Further particulars of her are related by Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana, Lib. ii, cap. 2. The tzitzime were mysterious elemental powers, who, the Nahuas believed, were destined finally to destroy the present world (Sahagun, l. c., Lib. vi, cap. 8). The word means “flying haired” (Serna).
34-§ Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana, Lib. ii, cap. 62.
35-* Fr. Tomas Coto, Diccionario de la Lengua Cakchiquel, MS., s. v. Sacrificar; in the Library of the American Philosophical Society at Philadelphia.
35-† “Trataron de valerse del arte de los encantos y naguales” are the words of the author, Fuentes y Guzman, in his Recordacion Florida, Tom. i, p. 50. In the account of Bernal Diaz, it reads as if this witch and her dog had both been sacrificed; but Fuentes is clear in his statement, and had other documents at hand.
35-‡ Teobert Maler, “Mémoire sur l’Etat de Chiapas,” in the Révue d’ Ethnographie, Tom. iii, pp. 309-311. This writer also gives some valuable facts about the Indian insurrection in the Sierra de Alicia, in 1873.
36-* The long account given by Mr H. H. Bancroft of this insurrection is a travesty of the situation drawn from bitterly prejudiced Spanish sources, of course, utterly out of sympathy with the motives which prompted the native actors. See his History of the Pacific States, Vol ii, p. 696 sqq. Ordoñez y Aguiar, who lived on the spot within a generation of the occurrences recognizes in Maria Candelaria (whose true name Bancroft does not give) the real head of the rebellion, “quien ordenaba los ardides del motin; .... de lo que principalmente trataban las leyes fundamentales de su secta, era de que no quedase rastro alguno de que los Europeos havian pisado este suelo.” His account is in his unpublished work, Historia del Cielo y de la Tierra, written at Guatemala about 1780. Juarros, speaking of their rites, says of them: “Apostando de la fé, profanando los vasos sagrados, y ofreciendo sacrilegos cultos á una indizuela.” Historia de la Ciudad de Guatemala, Tom. i, p. 17.
36-† Bancroft, ubi suprà, p. 705, note. One was hanged, whom Garcia Pelaez calls “una india bruja.” Memorias para la Historia de Guatemala, Tom. ii, p. 153.
36-‡ Squier, ubi suprà, passim.
37-* Voyage á l’ Isthmus de Tehuantepec, p. 164. He adds a number of particulars of the power she was supposed to exercise.
38-* “Que era venerado en todo el imperio de Montezuma.” See Diccionario Universal, Appendice, s. v. (Mexico, 1856).
38-† “Dass der Gott Tepeyollotl im Zapotekenlande und weiter südwärts seine Wurzeln hat, und dem eigentlichen Aztekischen Olymp fremd ist, darüber kann kein Zweifel mehr obwalten.” See Dr. Seler’s able discussion of the subject in the Compte-Rendu of the Seventh International Congress of Americanists, p. 559, seq. The adoption of subterranean temples was peculiarly a Zapotecan trait. “Notandose principalmente en muchos adoratorios de los Zapotecos, estan los mas de ellos cubiertos, ò en subterraneos espaciosos y lòbregos.” Carriedo, Estudios Historicos, Tom. i, p. 26.
39-* Constituciones Diocesanas, pp. 9, 10.
39-† Gage, A New Survey of the West Indies, pp. 389, 393.
39-‡ Teatro Mexicano, Tratado iii, cap. 11. Mr. Bandelier has called attention to the naming of one of the principal chiefs among the Aztecs, Tlilancalqui, “Man of the Dark House,” and thinks it related to the Votan myth. Twelfth Annual Report of the Peabody Museum, p. 689.
40-* Herrera, Historia de las Indias Occidentales, Dec. iii, Lib. iii, cap. 14.
40-† Villa Señor, Teatro Americano, Lib. v, cap. 38 (Mexico, 1747). Father Cavo adds that there were signs of human sacrifices present, but of this I can find no evidence in the earlier reports. Comp. Cavo, Los Tres Siglos de Mexico durante el Gobierno Españal, Tom. ii, p. 128.
40-‡ Teatro Americano, Lib. ii, cap. 11; Lib. iii, cap. 13.
41-* See Mühlenpfordt, Mexico, Bd. ii, pp. 200-266; Brasseur, Hist. des Nations Civ. de la Mexique, Vol. iv, p. 821; Herrera, Historia de las Indias, Dec. iii, Lib. iii, cap. 12, etc.
41-† Diccionario Universal, Appendice, s. v.
41-‡ Their names were Ta Yoapa, Father Dawn; Ta Te, Father Stone; Coanamoa, the Serpent which Seizes. Dicc. Univ., App., Tom. iii, p. 11.
41-§ Duran, Historia de los Indios, Tom. ii, p. 140. They were Tota, Our Father; Yollometli, the Heart of the Maguey (probably pulque); and Topiltzin, Our Noble One (probably Quetzalcoatl, to whom this epithet was often applied).
41-‖ “Fue el Demonio que les dió la superstición del numero nueve.” Manual de Ministros, p. 197.
42-* The Native Calendar of Central America and Mexico, p. 12.
42-† Motolinia, Ritos Antiguos, Sacrificios e Idolatrias de los Indios de la Nueva España, p. 340 (in Coleccion de Documentos ineditos para la Historia de España).
42-‡ Thomas Coto, Vocabulario de la lengua Cakchiquel, MS., sub voce, Rayo.
42-§ Herrera, Historia de las Indias, Dec. IV, Lib. viii, cap. 10.
42-‖ Diccionario Universal, Appendice, ubi suprá.
42-¶ ‘Señor de los Animales.” Codex Telleriano-Remensis, Parte ii, Lam. iv.
43-* See Dr. Seler’s minute description in the Compte Rendu of the Eighth Session of the Congrés International des Américanistes, pp. 588, 589. In one of the conjuration formulas given by de la Serna (Manual de Ministros, p. 212) the priest says: “Yo soy el sacerdote, el dios Quetzalcoatl, que se bajará al infierno, y subiré á lo superior, y hasta los nueve infiernos.” This writer, who was very competent in the Nahuatl, translates the name Quetzalcoatl by “culebra con cresta” (id., p. 171), an unusual, but perhaps a correct rendering.
43-† His words here are somewhat obscure. They are, “El baptismo de fuego, en donde las ponen los sobre nombres que llaman yahuiltoca, quando nacen.” This may be translated, “The baptism of fire in which they confer the names which they call yahuiltoca.” The obscurity is in the Nahuatl, as the word toca may be a plural of tocaitl, name, as well as the verb toca, to throw upon. The passage is from the Camino del Cielo, fol. 100, verso.
43-‡ Sahagun, Historia de la Nueva España, Lib. iv, cap. 25.
43-§ It is mentioned as useful for this purpose by the early physicians, Francisco Ximenes, Cuatro Libros de la Naturaleza, p. 144; Hernandez, Hist. Plant. Novæ Hispaniæ, Tom. ii, p. 200. Capt. Bourke, in his recent article on “The Medicine Men of the Apaches” (in Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 521), suggests that the yiahuitli of the Aztecs is the same as the “hoddentin,” the pollen of a variety of cat-tail rush which the Apaches in a similar manner throw into the fire as an offering. Hernandez, however, describes the yiahuitli as a plant with red flowers, growing on mountains and hill-sides—no species of rush, therefore. De la Serna says it is the anise plant, and that with it the natives perform the conjuration of the “yellow spirit” (conjuro de amarillo espiritado), that is, of the Fire (Manual de Ministros, p. 197).
44-* From the verb apeua. Vetancurt’s description is in his Teatro Mexicano, Tom. i, pp. 462, 463 (Ed. Mexico, 1870).
44-† His frequent references to it show this. See his Manual de Ministros, pp. 16, 20, 22, 24, 36, 40, 66, 174, 217, etc. The word tlecuixtliliztli is compounded oftlecuilli, the hearth or fireplace, and ixtliluia, to darken with smoke.
45-* Duran, Historia de los Indios de la Nueva España, Tom. ii, p. 240. Sahagun adds that the octli was poured on the hearth at four separate points, doubtless the four cardinal points. Historia de Nueva España, Lib. i, cap. 18. De la Serna describes the same ceremony as current in his day, Manual de Ministros, p. 35. The invocation ran:—“Shining Rose, light-giving Rose, receive and rejoice my heart before the God.”
45-† A copy of these strange “Books of Chilan Balam” is in my possession. I have described them in my Essays of an Americanist (Philadelphia, 1890).
45-‡ See his remarks on “Apperception der Menschenzeugung als Feuerbereitung,” in the Zeitschrift für Völkerpsychologie, Bd. vi, s. 113, seq.
46-* Sahagun, Historia de Nueva España, Lib. i, cap. 13. The Nahuatl text is more definite than the Spanish translation.
46-† See my Myths of the New World, p. 154, seq.
46-‡ In the Nahuatl language the word xihuitl (xiuitl) has four meanings: a plant, a turquoise, a year and a comet.
46-§ J. B. Carriedo, Estudios Historicos del Estado Oaxaqueño, Tom. i, p. 82, etc.
47-* Alva, Confessionario en Lengua Mexicana, fol. 9.
47-† Carriedo, Estudios Historicos, pp. 6, 7.
47-‡ In the Revue d’ Ethnographie, Tom. iii, p. 313. Some very fine objects of this class are described by E. G. Squier, in his “Observations on the Chalchihuitl,” in the Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History, Vol. i (New York, 1869).
48-* Diego Duran, Historia de los Indios de Nueva España, Tom. ii, p. 140.
48-† In Kingsborough, Antiquities of Mexico, Vol. ii, Pl. 180. On the cross as a form derived from a tree see the observations of W. H. Holmes, in the Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 270, 271.
48-‡ “Au Mexique, le cadre croisé, la croix en sautoir, comme celle de St. André, avec quelques variantes, representait le signe de nativité, tonalli, la fête, le jour natal.” M. Aubin, in Boban, Catalogue Raisonnée de la Collection Goupil, Tom. i, p. 227. Both Gomara and Herrera may be quoted to this effect.
49-* See a curious story from native sources in my Essays of an Americanist, pp. 171, 172. It adds that this change can be prevented by casting salt upon the person.
49-† Benito Maria de Moxo, Cartas Mejicanas, p. 257; Landa, Cosas de Yucatan, p. 193.
49-‡ Pedro de los Rios, in his notes to the Codex Vaticanus, published in Kingsborough’s great work, assigns the sign, cohuatl, the serpent, to “il membro virile, il maggio augurio di tutti gli altri.” It is distinctly so shown on the 75th plate of the Codex. De la Serna states that in his day some of the Mexican conjurors used a wand, around which was fastened a living serpent. Manual de Ministros, p. 37.
49-§ There is abundant evidence of this in certain plates of the Codex Troano, and there is also alleged to be much in the Codex Mexicanus of the Palais Bourbon. Writing about the latter, M. Aubin said as far back as 1841—“le culte du lingam on du phallus n’etait pas etranger aux Mexicains, ce qu’ etablissent plusieurs documents peu connus et des sculptures découvertes depuis un petit nombre d’années.” His letter is in Boban, Catalogue Raisonné la Collection Goupil, Tom. ii, p. 207. On the frequent identification of the serpent symbol with the phallus in classical art, consult Dr. Anton Nagele’s article, “Der Schlangen-Cultus,” in the Zeitschrift für Völkerpsychologie, Band xvii, p. 285, seq.
50-* Cf. G. Tarayre, Exploration Mineralogique des Regions Mexicaines, p. 233 (Paris, 1869), and Bulletin de la Sociétè d’Anthropologie de Paris, Juin, 1893.
50-† Sources de l’ Histoire Primitive de Mexique, p. 81.
50-‡ From zo, to join together. Compare my Essays of an Americanist, p. 417 (Philadelphia, 1890).
50-§ “El indio Mexicano es todavia idolatra.” F. Pimentel, La Situacion actual de la Raza Indigena de Mexico, p. 197.
51-* The “holy souls” who are here appealed to by name are those of deceased ah-kih, or priests of the native cult.
55-* See the Relation del Auto celebrado en Mexico, año de 1659 (Mexico, En la Imprenta del Santo Officio, 1659).
55-† J. B. Carriedo, Estudios Historicos del Estado Oaxaqueno, Tom. i, pp. 8, 9 (Oaxaca, 1849). About 1640 a number of Indians in the province of Acapulco were put to death for having buried enchanted ashes beneath the floor of a chapel! (Serna, Manual de Ministros, p. 52.)
55-‡ “Nagual ist in seiner correcten Form naoal ein echtes Quiché-Wort, ein Substantivum instrumentale, vom Stamme naó, wissen, erkennen. Naoal ist dasjenige, womit oder woran etwas, in diesem Falle das Schicksal des Kindes, erkannt wird, und hat mit dem mexikanischen nahualli (Hexe), mit dem man es vielleicht in Verbindung bringen möchte, nichts zu schaffen.” Guatemala, s. 238.
57-* The Abbé Brasseur observes: “Le mot nahual, qui vet dire toute science, ou science de tout, est fréquemment employé pour exprimer la sorcellerie chez ces populations.” Bulletin de la Sociétè de Géographie, 1857, p. 290. In another passage of his works the speculative Abbé translates naual by the English “know all,” and is not averse to believing that the latter is but a slight variant of the former.
58-* See an article by me, entitled “On the Words ‘Anahuac’ and ‘Nahuatl,’” in the American Antiquarian, for November, 1893.
58-† Manual de Ministros, p. 50.
58-‡ Jesus Sanchez, Glosario de Voces Castellanas derivadas del Idioma Nahuatl, sub voce.
59-* “Nagual—el lugar, rincon, cajon, nambira, etc., donde guarda sus talismanes y trajes de encanta la bruja.” Berendt, La Lengua Castellana de Nicaragua, MS.
59-† Emetorio Pineda, Description Geografica de Chiapas y Soconusco, p. 23 (Mexico, 1845).
59-‡ See his article “Wer-wolf,” in his Ethnographische Parallelen und Vergleiche, p. 62, seq.
59-§ Richard Andrée, ibid., ss. 63, 64.
60-* See Alfred Maury, La Magie et l’ Astrologie, pp. 88, 89, 267, etc.
61-* In the Notice Preliminaire to the second part of his work, La Magie et l’ Astrologie dans l’ Antiquité et au Moyen Age, Mr. Alfred Maury admirably sums up the scientific resources at our command for explaining the mystical phenomena of experience, without denying their reality as actual occurrences.
Index.Native words explained, in Italics; names of Authors quoted, in SMALL CAPITALS.
- Naual, or nautal, a native dance, forbidden by the missionaries.
- Naatil, talent, skill, ability.
- Naat, intelligence, wisdom.
- Naatah, to understand, to divine.
- Nanaol, to consider, to contemplate, to meditate, to commune with oneself, to enter into oneself.
- Noh, great, skillful; as noh ahceh, a skillful hunter.
Quiche-Cakchiquel.
- Naual, a witch or sorcerer.
- Naualin, to tell fortunes, to predict the future.
- Qui naualin, to sacrifice, to offer sacrifices.
- Na, to feel, to suspect, to divine, to think in one’s heart.
- Nao, to know, to be alert or expert in something.
- Naol, a skillful person, a rhetorician.
- Naotizan, to make another intelligent or astute.
- Natal, the memory.
- Natub, the soul or shadow of a man.
- Noh, the god of reason (“Genius der Vernunft,” Scherzer).
- Noh, to fecundate, to impregnate (Popol Vuh).
- X-qna, to know.
- X-qnaulai, to know often or thoroughly (frequentative).
- Naom, wise, astute (naom vinic, hombre sabio).
- Naoghi, art, science.
- Naoghibal, memory.
- Ghnaoghel, a wise man.
- Alaghom naom, the Goddess of Wisdom.
From the Zapotec, of Oaxaca.
- Nana, gana, gona, to know.
- Nona, to know thoroughly, to retain in the memory.
- Nana ticha, or nona lii, a wise man.
- Guela nana, or guela nona, wisdom, knowledge.
- Hue gona, or ro gona, a teacher, a master.
- Na lii, truth; ni na lii, that which is true.
- Naciña, or naciina, skill, dexterity.
- Hui naa, a medicine man, a “nagualist.”
- Nahaa, to speak pleasantly or agreeably.
- Nayaa, or nayapi, to speak easily or fluently.
- Rigoo gona, to sacrifice, to offer sacrifice.
- Ni nana, the understanding, the intelligence, generally.
- Nayanii, the superior reason of man.
- [table][tr][td]Nayaa,Naguii,[/td][td]}[/td][td]superiority, a superior man (gentileza, gentil hombre).[/td][/tr][/table]
- Naua, to dance, holding each other by the hands.
- Naualli, a sorcerer, magician, enchanter.
- Nauallotl, magic, enchantment, witchcraft.
- Nauatl, or nahuatl, skillful, astute, smart; hence, superior; applied to language, clear, well-sounding, whence (perhaps) the name of the tongue.
- Nauati, to speak clearly and distinctly.
- Nauatlato, an interpreter.
The root na, to know, is the primitive monosyllabic stem to which we trace all of them. Nahual means knowledge, especially mystic knowledge, the Gnosis, the knowledge of the hidden and secret things of nature; easily enough confounded in uncultivated minds with sorcery and magic.57-*
[58]It is very significant that neither the radical na nor any of its derivatives are found in the Huasteca dialect of the Mayan tongue, which was spoken about Tampico, far removed from other members of the stock. The inference is that in the southern dialects it was a borrowed stem.
Nor in the Nahuatl language—although its very name is derived from it58-*—does the radical na appear in its simplicity and true significance. To the Nahuas, also, it must have been a loan.
It is true that de la Serna derives the Mexican naualli, a sorcerer, from the verb nahualtia, to mask or disguise oneself, “because a naualli is one who masks or disguises himself under the form of some lower animal, which is his nagual;”58-† but it is altogether likely that nahualtia derived its meaning from the custom of the medicine men to wear masks during their ceremonies.
Therefore, if the term nagual, and many of its associates and derivatives, were at first borrowed from the Zapotec language, a necessary corrollary of this conclusion is, that along with these terms came most of the superstitions, rites and beliefs to which they allude; which thus became grafted on the general tendency to such superstitions existing everywhere and at all times in the human mind.
Along with the names of the days and the hieroglyphs which mark them, and the complicated arithmetical methods by means of which they were employed, were carried most of the doctrines of the Nagualists, and the name by which they in time became known from central Mexico quite to Nicaragua and beyond.
The mysterious words have now, indeed, lost much of their ancient significance. In a recent dictionary of the Spanish of Mexico nagual is defined as “a witch; a word used to frighten children and make them behave,”58-‡ while in Nicaragua, where the former Nahuatl population has left so many traces of its presence in the language of to-day, the word nagual no longer means an actor in the black art, or a knowledge of it, but his or her[59] armamentarium, or the box, jar or case in which are kept the professional apparatus, the talismans and charms, which constitute the stock in trade or outfit of the necromancer.59-*
Among the Lacandons, of Mayan stock, who inhabit the forests on the upper waters of the Usumacinta river, at the present day the term naguate ornagutlat is said to be applied to any one “who is entitled to respect and obedience by age and merit;”59-† but in all probability he is also believed to possess superior and occult knowledge.
39. All who have any acquaintance with the folk-lore of the world are aware that the notion of men and women having the power to change themselves into beasts is as wide as superstition itself and older than history. It is mentioned in the pages of Herodotus and in the myths of ancient Assyria. It is the property of African negroes, and the peasantry of Europe still hold to their faith in the reality of the were-wolf of Germany, the loup-garou of France and the lupo mannaro of Italy. Dr. Richard Andrée well says in his interesting study of the subject: “He who would explain the origin of this strange superstition must not approach it as a national or local manifestation, but as one universal in its nature; not as the property of one race or family, but of the species and its psychology at large.”59-‡
Even in such a detail as the direct connection of the name of the person with his power of change do we find extraordinary parallelisms between the superstition of the red man of America and the peasant of Germany. As in Mexico the nagual was assigned to the infant by a form of baptism, so in Europe the peasants of east Prussia hold that if the godparent at the time of naming and baptism thinks of a wolf, the infant will acquire the power of becoming one; and in Hesse to pronounce the name of the person in the presence of the animal into which he has been changed will restore him to human shape.59-§
40. I need not say that the doctrine of personal spirits is not especially Mexican, nor yet American; it belongs to man in[60] general, and can be recognized in most religions and many philosophies. In ancient Greece both the Platonicians and later the Neo-Platonicians thought that each individual has a particular spirit, or daimōn, in whom is enshrined his or her moral personality. To this daimōn he should address his prayers, and should listen heedfully to those interior promptings which seem to arise in the mind from some unseen silent monitor.60-*
Many a member of the Church of Rome substitutes for the daimōn of the Platonists the patron saint after whom he is named, or whom he has chosen from the calendar, the hagiology, of his Church. This analogy did not fail to strike the early missionaries, and they saw in the Indian priest selecting the nagual of the child a hideous and diabolical caricature of the holy rites.
But what was their horror when they found that the similarity proceeded so far that the pagan priest also performed a kind of baptismal sacrament with water; and that in the Mexican picture-writing the sign which represents the natal day, the tonal, by which the individual demon is denoted, was none other than the sign of the cross, as we have seen. This left no doubt as to the devilish origin of the whole business, which was further supported by the wondrous thaumaturgic powers of its professors.
41. How are we to explain these marvelous statements? It will not do to take the short and easy road of saying they are all lies and frauds. The evidence is too abundant for us to doubt that there was skillful jugglery among the proficients in the occult arts among those nations. They could rival their colleagues in the East Indies and Europe, if not surpass them.
Moreover, is there anything incredible in the reports of the spectators? Are we not familiar with the hypnotic or mesmeric conditions in which the subject sees, hears and feels just what the master tells him to feel and see? The tricks of cutting oneself or others, of swallowing broken glass, of handling venomous reptiles, are well-known performances of the sect of the Aissaoua in northern Africa, and nowadays one does not have to go off the boulevards of Paris to see them repeated. The phenomena of thought transference, of telepathy, of clairvoy[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.61-* So long as many intelligent and sensible people among ourselves find all explanations of these modern phenomena inadequate and unsatisfactory, we may patiently wait for a complete solution of those of a greater antiquity.
42. The conclusion to which this study of Nagualism leads is, that it was not merely the belief in a personal guardian spirit, as some have asserted; not merely a survival of fragments of the ancient heathenism, more or less diluted by Christian teachings, as others have maintained; but that above and beyond these, it was a powerful secret organization, extending over a wide area, including members of different languages and varying culture, bound together by mystic rites, by necromantic powers and occult doctrines; but, more than all, by one intense emotion—hatred of the whites—and by one unalterable purpose—that of their destruction, and with them the annihilation of the government and religion which they had introduced.
4-* These words occur a number of times in the English translation, published at London in 1822, of Dr. Paul Felix Cabrera’s Teatro Critico Americano. The formnagual instead of nahual, or naual, or nawal has been generally adopted and should be preferred.
4-† For instance, in “The Names of the Gods in the Kiche Myths,” pp. 21, 22, in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 1881; Annals of the Cakchiquels, Introduction, p. 46; Essays of an Americanist, p. 170, etc.
5-* Historia de las Indias Occidentales, Dec. iv, Lib. viii, cap. 4.
5-† More especially it is the territory of the Chorti dialect, spoken to this day in the vicinity of the famous ancient city of Copan, Honduras. Cerquin lies in the mountains nearly due east of this celebrated site. On the Chorti, see Stoll, Zur Ethnographie der Republik Guatemala, pp. 106-9.
6-* Bernardino de Sahagun, Historia de la Nueva España, Lib. x, cap. 9.
6-† Derived from teciuhtlaza, to conjure against hail, itself from teciuh, hail. Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario Mexicano, sub voce.
6-‡ Bautista, Advertencias para los Confesores, fol. 112 (Mexico, 1600).
6-§ Nicolas de Leon, Camino del Cielo, fol. 111 (Mexico, 1611).
7-* Paso y Troncoso, in Anales del Museo Nacionàl de Mexico, Tom. iii, p. 180.
7-† Sahagun, Historia de Nueva España, Lib. x, cap. 29, and Lib. xi, cap. 7. Hernandez has the following on the mysterious properties of this plant: “Illud ferunt de hac radice mirabile (si modo fides sit vulgatissimæ inter eos rei habendæ), devorantes illam quodlibet prsæsagire prædicereque; velut an sequenti die hostes sint impetum in eos facturi? Anne illos felicia maneant tempora? Quis supellectilem, aut aliud quidpiam furto subripruerit? Et ad hunc modum alia, quibus Chichimecæ hujusmodi medicamine cognoscendis.” Franciscus Hernandus, Historia Plantarum Novæ Hispaniæ, Tom. iii, p. 71 (Ed., Madrid, 1790).
7-‡ Diccionario Universal, Appendice, Tom. i, p. 360 (Mexico, 1856).
8-* Confessionario Mayor y Menor en lengua Mexicana, fol. 8, verso (Mexico, 1634).
8-† Vetancurt, Teatro Mexicano, Trat. iii, cap. 9.
8-‡ Hernandez, Historia Plantarum Novæ Hispaniæ, Tom. iii, p. 32.
9-* Dr. Jacinto de la Serna, Manual de Min stros de Indios para el Conocimiento de sus Idolatrias y Extirpacion de Ellas, p. 163. This interesting work was composed about the middle of the seventeenth century by a Rector of the University of Mexico, but was first printed at Madrid, in 1892, from the MS. furnished by Dr. N. Leon, under the editorship of the Marquis de la Fuensanta del Valle.
9-† MSS. of the Licentiate Zetina, and Informe of Father Baeza in Registro Yucateco, Tom. i.
10-* Acosta, De la Historia Moral de Indias, Lib. v, cap. 26.
10-† Of the thiuimeezque Hernandez writes: “Aiunt radicis cortice unius unciæ pondere tuso, atque devorato, multa ante oculos observare phantasmata, multiplices imagines ac monstrificas rerum figuras, detegique furem, si quidpiam rei familiaris subreptum sit.” Hist. Plant. Nov. Hispan., Tom. iii, p. 272. The chacuaco and its effects are described by Father Venegas in his History of California, etc.
10-‡ “In Mictlan Tetlachihuique, in Nanahualtin, in Tlahuipuchtin.” Paredes, Promptuario Manual Mexicano, p. 128 (Mexico, 1757). The tlahuipuchtin, “those who work with smoke,” were probably diviners who foretold the future from the forms taken by smoke in rising in the air. This class of augurs were also found in Peru, where they were called Uirapircos (Balboa, Hist. du Perou, p. 28-30).
10-§ Von Gagern, Charakteristik der Indianischer Bevölkerung Mexikos, s. 125.
11-* Historia Antigua de Mexico, Tom. ii, p. 25. Francisco Pimentel, in his thoughtful work, Memoria sobre las Causas que han originado la Situacion Actual de la Raza Indigena de Mexico (Mexico, 1864), recognizes how almost impossible it is to extirpate their faith in this nagualism. “Conservan los agueros y supersticiones de la antigüedad, siendo cosa de fe para ellos, los nahuales,” etc., p. 200, and comp. p. 145.
11-† On these terms consult the extensive Dictionnaire de la Langue Nahuatl, by Rémi Simeon, published at Paris, 1887. It is not impossible that tona is itself a compound root, including the monosyllabic radical na, which is at the basis of nagual.
11-‡ Sahagun, Historia de Nueva España, Lib. iv, passim, and Lib. x, cap. 9.
12-* See Ch. de Labarthe, Révue Américaine, Serie ii, Tom. ii, pp. 222-225. His translation of naualteteuctin by “Seigneurs du gènie” must be rejected, as there is absolutely no authority for assigning this meaning to naualli.
13-* Anales de Cuauhtitlan, p. 31. The translator renders it “palo brujo.”
13-† Les Anciennes Villes du Nouveau Monde, pp. 146-148, figured on p. 150. On its significance compare Hamy, Decades Americanæ, pp. 74-81.
13-‡ The Native Calendar of Central America and Mexico (Philadelphia, 1893).
13-§ Eduard Mühlenpfordt, Mexico, Bd. i, s. 255.
14-* The word is derived from tlatoa, to speak for another, and its usual translation was “chief,” as the head man spoke for, and in the name of the gens or tribe.
14-† The interesting account by Iglesias is printed in the Appendix to the Diccionario Universal de Geographia y Historia (Mexico, 1856). Other writers testify to the tenacity with which the Mixes cling to their ancient beliefs. Señor Moro says they continue to be “notorious idolaters,” and their actual religion to be “an absurd jumble of their old superstitions with Christian doctrines” (in Orozco y Berra, Geografia de las Lenguas de exico, p. 176).
15-* For instance, J. B. Carriedo, in his Estudios Historicos del Estado Oaxaqueño (Oaxaca, 1849), p. 15, says the nahualt was a ceremony performed by the native priest, in which the infant was bled from a vein behind the ear, assigned a name, that of a certain day, and a guardian angel or tona. These words are pure Nahuatl, and Carriedo, who does not give his authority, probably had none which referred these rites to the Zapotecs.
15-† Juan de Cordova, Arte en Lengua Zapoteca, pp. 16, 202, 203, 213, 216.
16-* Quoted in Carriedo, ubi suprá, p. 17.
16-† Hist. de las Indias Oc., Dec. iii, Lib. iii, cap. 12.
17-* So I understand the phrase, “figuras pintadas con zifras enigmaticas”
17-† Popoluca was a term applied to various languages. I suspect the one here referred to was the Mixe. See an article by me, entitled “Chontales and Popolucas; a Study in Mexican Ethnography,” in the Compte Rendu of the Eighth Session of the Congress of Americanists, p. 566, seq.
17-‡ Constit. Diocesan, p. 19.
18-* Constitut. Diocesan, Titulo vii, pp. 47, 48.
19-* Rather with the Quetzalcoatl of the Nahuas, and the Gucumatz of the Quiches, both of which names mean “Feathered Serpent.” Mixcohuatl, the Cloud Serpent, in Mexican mythology, referred to the Thunder-storm.
19-† In his Tzental Vocabulary, Father Lara does not give this exact form; but in the neighboring dialect of the Cakchiquel Father Ximenes has quikeho, to agree together, to enter into an arrangement; the prefix zme is the Tzental word for “mother.”
20-* Father Lara, in his Vocabulario Tzendal MS. (in my possession), gives for medical (medico), ghpoxil, for medicine (medicinal cosa), pox, xpoxtacoghbil; for physician (medico), ghpoxta vinic (the form vanegh, person, is also correct). The Tzendal pox (pronounced pōsh) is another form of the Quiche-Cakchiquel pūz, a word which Father Ximenes, in his Vocabulario Cakchiquel MS (in my possession), gives in the compound puz naual, with the meaning, enchanter, wizard. Both these, I take it, are derived from the Maya puz, which means to blow the dust, etc., off of something (soplar el polvo de la ropa ó otra cosa. Dicc. de la Lengua Maya del Convento de Motul, MS. The dictionary edited by Pio Perez does not give this meaning). The act of blowing was the essential feature in the treatment of these medicine men. It symbolized the transfer and exercise of spiritual power. When Votan built his underground shrine he did it à soplos, by blowing (Nuñez de la Vega,Constitut. Diocesan, p. 10). The natives did not regard the comet’s tail as behind it but in front of it, blown from its mouth. The Nahuatl word in the text, tzihuizin, is the Pipil form of xihuitzin, the reverential of xihuitl, which means a leaf, a season, a year, or a comet. Apparently it refers to the Nahuatl divinity Xiuhté cutli, described by Sahagun, Historia de Nueva España, Lib. i, cap. 13, as god of fire, etc.
21-* Hicalahau, for ical ahau, Black King, one of the Tzental divinities, who will be referred to on a later page.
21-† “Mæstros de los pueblos,” Constitut. Diocesan, i, p. 106.
23-* Historia de Guatemala, ò, Recordacion Florida, Tom. ii, p. 44, seq.
24-* Gage, A New Survey of the West Indies, p. 388, seq. (4th Ed.).
25-* Le Popol Vuh, ou Livre Sacré des Quichés, p. 315 (Ed. Brasseur, Paris, 1861). In the Quiche myths, Gucumatz is the analogue of Quetzalcoatl in Aztec legend. Both names mean the same, “Feathered Serpent.”
25-† Baeza’s article is printed in the Registro Yucateco, Vol. i, p. 165, seq.
26-* “Wird ein Kind im Dorfe geboren, so erhält der heidnische Götzenpriester von diesem Ereignisse viel eher Kunde, als der katholische Pfarrer. Erst wenn dem neuen Weltbürger durch den Aj-quig das Horoskop gestellt, der Name irgend eines Thieres beigelegt, Mi-si-sal (das citronengelbe Harz des Rhus copallinum) verbrannt, ein Lieblingsgötze angerufen, und noche viele andere aberglaübische Mysterien verrichtet worden sind, wird das Kind nach dem Pfarrhause zur christlichen Taufe getragen. Das Thier, dessen Name dem Kinde kurz nach seiner Geburt vom Sonnenpriester beigelegt wird, gilt gewöhnlich auch als sein Schutzgeist (nagual) fürs ganze Leben.” Dr. Karl Scherzer, Die Indianer von Santa Catalina Istlavacan, p. 11, Wien, 1856.
26-† The word zahori, of Arabic origin, is thus explained in the Spanish and English dictionary of Delpino (London, 1763): “So they call in Spain an impostor who pretends to see into the bowels of the earth, through stone walls, or into a man’s body.” Dr. Stoll says the Guatemala Indians speak of their diviners, the Ah Kih, aszahorin. Guatemala, s. 229.
26-‡ Emetorio Pineda, Descripcion Geografica de Chiapas y Soconusco, p. 22 (Mexico, 1845).
27-* Madier de Montjau, “Manuscrits Figuratifs de l’ Ancien Mexique,” in Archives de la Sociétè Americaine de France, 1875, p. 245.
27-† Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana, Lib. xv, cap. 16.
28-* De la Serna, Manual de Ministros, pp. 20, 21, 42, 162. The mushroom referred to was the quauhnanacatl, probably the same as the teyhuinti of Hernandez,Hist. Plant. Nov. Hispan., Tom. ii, p. 358, who says that it is not dangerous to life, but disturbs the mind, inciting to laughter and intoxication.
28-† Actual slavery of the Indians in Mexico continued as late as the middle of the seventeenth century. See Cavo, Tres Siglos de Mexico, etc., Tom. ii, p. 11.
28-‡ Brasseur, Hist. des Nations Civilisées de Mexique, Tom. iv, p. 822.
29-* Informe del teniente general, Don Jacobo de Barba Figueroa, corregidor de la Provincia de Suchitepeque, quoted by Brasseur.
29-† Jacinto de la Serna says: “Los mæstros de estas ceremonias son todos unos, y lo que sucede en esta cordillera en todas sucede.” Manual de Ministros, p. 52. Speaking of the methods of the nagualists of Chiapas, Bishop Nuñez de la Vega writes: “Concuerdan los mas modernos con los mas antiguos que se practicaban en Mexico.” Constituciones Diocesanas, p. 134.
29-‡ He observes that there were “familias de los tales sabios en las quales en manera de patrimonio se heredaban, succediendo los hijos á los padres, y principalmente su abominable secta de Nagualismo.” Historia del Cielo y de la Tierra, MS., p. 7. Ordoñez advances various erudite reasons for believing that Nagualism is a religious belief whose theory and rites were brought from Carthage by Punic navigators in ancient times.
29-§ Maria de Moxó, Cartas Mejicanas, p. 270, (Genova, n. d.).
30-* “Xochimilca, que asi llamavan à los mui sabios encantadores.” Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana, Lib. xv, cap. 16.
30-† In Nahuatl, tlapiani, a guardian or watchman. The Zapotec priesthood was divided into the huijatoos, “greater guardians,” and their inferiors, the copavitoos, “guardians of the gods.” Carriedo, Estudios Historicòs, p. 93.
30-‡ See Eligio Ancona. Historia de Yucatan, Tom. iv, cap. 1 (Mérida, 1880).
31-* The mention of the fifteen, 5 x 3, chosen disciples indicates that the same system of initiating by triplets prevailed in Yucatan as in Chiapas (see above, p. 19). The sacred tree is not named, but presumably it was the ceiba to which I refer elsewhere. The address of Jacinto was obtained from those present, and is given at length by the Jesuit Martin del Puerto, in his Relacion hecho al Cabildo Eclesiastico por el preposito de la Compañia de Jesus, acerca de la muerte de Jacinto Can-Ek y socios, Dec. 26, 1761. It is published, with other documents relating to this revolt, in the Appendix to the Diccionario Universal, edited by Orozco y Berra, Mexico, 1856. On the prophecies of Chilan Balam, see my Essays of an Americanist, pp. 255-273 (Philadelphia, 1890).
31-† Eligio Ancona, Hist. de Yucatan, Tom. ii, p. 452.
32-* See Pedro Sanchez de Aguilar, Informe contra Idolum Cultores en Yucathan (Madrid, 1639); Eligio Ancona, Historia de Yucatan, Tom. ii, pp. 128, 129.
32-† The chief authority on this revolt is Juan de Torres Castillo, Relacion de lo Sucedido en las Provincias de Nexapa, Iztepex y Villa Alta (Mexico, 1662). See also Cavo, Los Tres Siglos de Mexico durante el Gobierno Español, Tom. ii, p. 41, and a pamphlet by Christoval Manso de Contreras, Relacion cierta y verdadera de lo que sucedio en esta Provincia de Tehuantepec, etc. (printed at Mexico, 1661), which I know only through the notes of Dr. Berendt. Mr. H. H. Bancroft, in his very meagre account of this event, mistakingly insists that it took place in 1660. History of Mexico, Vol. iii, p. 164.
32-‡ See Brasseur de Bourbourg, Histoire des Nations Civilisées de la Mexique, Tom. iv, 824.
32-§ Cavo, Los Tres Siglos, etc., Tom. ii, p. 82. On the use and significance of the piochtli we have some information in Vetancurt, Teatro Mexicano, Tom. ii, p. 464, and de la Serna, Manual de Ministros, pp. 166, 167. It was the badge of a certain order of the native priesthood.
33-* Adventures on the Musquito Shore, by S. A. Ward, pseudonym of Mr. Squier, p. 258 (New York, 1855).
33-† Nuñez de la Vega, Constituciones Diocesanas, p. 10, and comp. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. des Nat. Civ. de Mexique, Tom. i, p. 74.
33-‡ Herrera, Hist. de las Indias Occidentales, Dec. ii, Lib. iii, cap. 5.
34-* Acosta, Hist. Nat. y Moral de las Indias, Lib. vii, cap. 5.
34-† The story is given in Herrera, Hist. de las Indias, Dec. iv, Lib. viii, cap. 4. The name Coamizagual is translated in the account as “Flying Tigress.” I cannot assign it this sense in any dialect.
34-‡ Jacinto de la Serna, Manual de Ministros. p. 138. Sahagun identifies Quilaztli with Tonantzin, the common mother of mankind and goddess of child-birth (Hist. de Nueva España, Lib. i, cap. 6, Lib. vi, cap. 27). Further particulars of her are related by Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana, Lib. ii, cap. 2. The tzitzime were mysterious elemental powers, who, the Nahuas believed, were destined finally to destroy the present world (Sahagun, l. c., Lib. vi, cap. 8). The word means “flying haired” (Serna).
34-§ Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana, Lib. ii, cap. 62.
35-* Fr. Tomas Coto, Diccionario de la Lengua Cakchiquel, MS., s. v. Sacrificar; in the Library of the American Philosophical Society at Philadelphia.
35-† “Trataron de valerse del arte de los encantos y naguales” are the words of the author, Fuentes y Guzman, in his Recordacion Florida, Tom. i, p. 50. In the account of Bernal Diaz, it reads as if this witch and her dog had both been sacrificed; but Fuentes is clear in his statement, and had other documents at hand.
35-‡ Teobert Maler, “Mémoire sur l’Etat de Chiapas,” in the Révue d’ Ethnographie, Tom. iii, pp. 309-311. This writer also gives some valuable facts about the Indian insurrection in the Sierra de Alicia, in 1873.
36-* The long account given by Mr H. H. Bancroft of this insurrection is a travesty of the situation drawn from bitterly prejudiced Spanish sources, of course, utterly out of sympathy with the motives which prompted the native actors. See his History of the Pacific States, Vol ii, p. 696 sqq. Ordoñez y Aguiar, who lived on the spot within a generation of the occurrences recognizes in Maria Candelaria (whose true name Bancroft does not give) the real head of the rebellion, “quien ordenaba los ardides del motin; .... de lo que principalmente trataban las leyes fundamentales de su secta, era de que no quedase rastro alguno de que los Europeos havian pisado este suelo.” His account is in his unpublished work, Historia del Cielo y de la Tierra, written at Guatemala about 1780. Juarros, speaking of their rites, says of them: “Apostando de la fé, profanando los vasos sagrados, y ofreciendo sacrilegos cultos á una indizuela.” Historia de la Ciudad de Guatemala, Tom. i, p. 17.
36-† Bancroft, ubi suprà, p. 705, note. One was hanged, whom Garcia Pelaez calls “una india bruja.” Memorias para la Historia de Guatemala, Tom. ii, p. 153.
36-‡ Squier, ubi suprà, passim.
37-* Voyage á l’ Isthmus de Tehuantepec, p. 164. He adds a number of particulars of the power she was supposed to exercise.
38-* “Que era venerado en todo el imperio de Montezuma.” See Diccionario Universal, Appendice, s. v. (Mexico, 1856).
38-† “Dass der Gott Tepeyollotl im Zapotekenlande und weiter südwärts seine Wurzeln hat, und dem eigentlichen Aztekischen Olymp fremd ist, darüber kann kein Zweifel mehr obwalten.” See Dr. Seler’s able discussion of the subject in the Compte-Rendu of the Seventh International Congress of Americanists, p. 559, seq. The adoption of subterranean temples was peculiarly a Zapotecan trait. “Notandose principalmente en muchos adoratorios de los Zapotecos, estan los mas de ellos cubiertos, ò en subterraneos espaciosos y lòbregos.” Carriedo, Estudios Historicos, Tom. i, p. 26.
39-* Constituciones Diocesanas, pp. 9, 10.
39-† Gage, A New Survey of the West Indies, pp. 389, 393.
39-‡ Teatro Mexicano, Tratado iii, cap. 11. Mr. Bandelier has called attention to the naming of one of the principal chiefs among the Aztecs, Tlilancalqui, “Man of the Dark House,” and thinks it related to the Votan myth. Twelfth Annual Report of the Peabody Museum, p. 689.
40-* Herrera, Historia de las Indias Occidentales, Dec. iii, Lib. iii, cap. 14.
40-† Villa Señor, Teatro Americano, Lib. v, cap. 38 (Mexico, 1747). Father Cavo adds that there were signs of human sacrifices present, but of this I can find no evidence in the earlier reports. Comp. Cavo, Los Tres Siglos de Mexico durante el Gobierno Españal, Tom. ii, p. 128.
40-‡ Teatro Americano, Lib. ii, cap. 11; Lib. iii, cap. 13.
41-* See Mühlenpfordt, Mexico, Bd. ii, pp. 200-266; Brasseur, Hist. des Nations Civ. de la Mexique, Vol. iv, p. 821; Herrera, Historia de las Indias, Dec. iii, Lib. iii, cap. 12, etc.
41-† Diccionario Universal, Appendice, s. v.
41-‡ Their names were Ta Yoapa, Father Dawn; Ta Te, Father Stone; Coanamoa, the Serpent which Seizes. Dicc. Univ., App., Tom. iii, p. 11.
41-§ Duran, Historia de los Indios, Tom. ii, p. 140. They were Tota, Our Father; Yollometli, the Heart of the Maguey (probably pulque); and Topiltzin, Our Noble One (probably Quetzalcoatl, to whom this epithet was often applied).
41-‖ “Fue el Demonio que les dió la superstición del numero nueve.” Manual de Ministros, p. 197.
42-* The Native Calendar of Central America and Mexico, p. 12.
42-† Motolinia, Ritos Antiguos, Sacrificios e Idolatrias de los Indios de la Nueva España, p. 340 (in Coleccion de Documentos ineditos para la Historia de España).
42-‡ Thomas Coto, Vocabulario de la lengua Cakchiquel, MS., sub voce, Rayo.
42-§ Herrera, Historia de las Indias, Dec. IV, Lib. viii, cap. 10.
42-‖ Diccionario Universal, Appendice, ubi suprá.
42-¶ ‘Señor de los Animales.” Codex Telleriano-Remensis, Parte ii, Lam. iv.
43-* See Dr. Seler’s minute description in the Compte Rendu of the Eighth Session of the Congrés International des Américanistes, pp. 588, 589. In one of the conjuration formulas given by de la Serna (Manual de Ministros, p. 212) the priest says: “Yo soy el sacerdote, el dios Quetzalcoatl, que se bajará al infierno, y subiré á lo superior, y hasta los nueve infiernos.” This writer, who was very competent in the Nahuatl, translates the name Quetzalcoatl by “culebra con cresta” (id., p. 171), an unusual, but perhaps a correct rendering.
43-† His words here are somewhat obscure. They are, “El baptismo de fuego, en donde las ponen los sobre nombres que llaman yahuiltoca, quando nacen.” This may be translated, “The baptism of fire in which they confer the names which they call yahuiltoca.” The obscurity is in the Nahuatl, as the word toca may be a plural of tocaitl, name, as well as the verb toca, to throw upon. The passage is from the Camino del Cielo, fol. 100, verso.
43-‡ Sahagun, Historia de la Nueva España, Lib. iv, cap. 25.
43-§ It is mentioned as useful for this purpose by the early physicians, Francisco Ximenes, Cuatro Libros de la Naturaleza, p. 144; Hernandez, Hist. Plant. Novæ Hispaniæ, Tom. ii, p. 200. Capt. Bourke, in his recent article on “The Medicine Men of the Apaches” (in Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 521), suggests that the yiahuitli of the Aztecs is the same as the “hoddentin,” the pollen of a variety of cat-tail rush which the Apaches in a similar manner throw into the fire as an offering. Hernandez, however, describes the yiahuitli as a plant with red flowers, growing on mountains and hill-sides—no species of rush, therefore. De la Serna says it is the anise plant, and that with it the natives perform the conjuration of the “yellow spirit” (conjuro de amarillo espiritado), that is, of the Fire (Manual de Ministros, p. 197).
44-* From the verb apeua. Vetancurt’s description is in his Teatro Mexicano, Tom. i, pp. 462, 463 (Ed. Mexico, 1870).
44-† His frequent references to it show this. See his Manual de Ministros, pp. 16, 20, 22, 24, 36, 40, 66, 174, 217, etc. The word tlecuixtliliztli is compounded oftlecuilli, the hearth or fireplace, and ixtliluia, to darken with smoke.
45-* Duran, Historia de los Indios de la Nueva España, Tom. ii, p. 240. Sahagun adds that the octli was poured on the hearth at four separate points, doubtless the four cardinal points. Historia de Nueva España, Lib. i, cap. 18. De la Serna describes the same ceremony as current in his day, Manual de Ministros, p. 35. The invocation ran:—“Shining Rose, light-giving Rose, receive and rejoice my heart before the God.”
45-† A copy of these strange “Books of Chilan Balam” is in my possession. I have described them in my Essays of an Americanist (Philadelphia, 1890).
45-‡ See his remarks on “Apperception der Menschenzeugung als Feuerbereitung,” in the Zeitschrift für Völkerpsychologie, Bd. vi, s. 113, seq.
46-* Sahagun, Historia de Nueva España, Lib. i, cap. 13. The Nahuatl text is more definite than the Spanish translation.
46-† See my Myths of the New World, p. 154, seq.
46-‡ In the Nahuatl language the word xihuitl (xiuitl) has four meanings: a plant, a turquoise, a year and a comet.
46-§ J. B. Carriedo, Estudios Historicos del Estado Oaxaqueño, Tom. i, p. 82, etc.
47-* Alva, Confessionario en Lengua Mexicana, fol. 9.
47-† Carriedo, Estudios Historicos, pp. 6, 7.
47-‡ In the Revue d’ Ethnographie, Tom. iii, p. 313. Some very fine objects of this class are described by E. G. Squier, in his “Observations on the Chalchihuitl,” in the Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History, Vol. i (New York, 1869).
48-* Diego Duran, Historia de los Indios de Nueva España, Tom. ii, p. 140.
48-† In Kingsborough, Antiquities of Mexico, Vol. ii, Pl. 180. On the cross as a form derived from a tree see the observations of W. H. Holmes, in the Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 270, 271.
48-‡ “Au Mexique, le cadre croisé, la croix en sautoir, comme celle de St. André, avec quelques variantes, representait le signe de nativité, tonalli, la fête, le jour natal.” M. Aubin, in Boban, Catalogue Raisonnée de la Collection Goupil, Tom. i, p. 227. Both Gomara and Herrera may be quoted to this effect.
49-* See a curious story from native sources in my Essays of an Americanist, pp. 171, 172. It adds that this change can be prevented by casting salt upon the person.
49-† Benito Maria de Moxo, Cartas Mejicanas, p. 257; Landa, Cosas de Yucatan, p. 193.
49-‡ Pedro de los Rios, in his notes to the Codex Vaticanus, published in Kingsborough’s great work, assigns the sign, cohuatl, the serpent, to “il membro virile, il maggio augurio di tutti gli altri.” It is distinctly so shown on the 75th plate of the Codex. De la Serna states that in his day some of the Mexican conjurors used a wand, around which was fastened a living serpent. Manual de Ministros, p. 37.
49-§ There is abundant evidence of this in certain plates of the Codex Troano, and there is also alleged to be much in the Codex Mexicanus of the Palais Bourbon. Writing about the latter, M. Aubin said as far back as 1841—“le culte du lingam on du phallus n’etait pas etranger aux Mexicains, ce qu’ etablissent plusieurs documents peu connus et des sculptures découvertes depuis un petit nombre d’années.” His letter is in Boban, Catalogue Raisonné la Collection Goupil, Tom. ii, p. 207. On the frequent identification of the serpent symbol with the phallus in classical art, consult Dr. Anton Nagele’s article, “Der Schlangen-Cultus,” in the Zeitschrift für Völkerpsychologie, Band xvii, p. 285, seq.
50-* Cf. G. Tarayre, Exploration Mineralogique des Regions Mexicaines, p. 233 (Paris, 1869), and Bulletin de la Sociétè d’Anthropologie de Paris, Juin, 1893.
50-† Sources de l’ Histoire Primitive de Mexique, p. 81.
50-‡ From zo, to join together. Compare my Essays of an Americanist, p. 417 (Philadelphia, 1890).
50-§ “El indio Mexicano es todavia idolatra.” F. Pimentel, La Situacion actual de la Raza Indigena de Mexico, p. 197.
51-* The “holy souls” who are here appealed to by name are those of deceased ah-kih, or priests of the native cult.
55-* See the Relation del Auto celebrado en Mexico, año de 1659 (Mexico, En la Imprenta del Santo Officio, 1659).
55-† J. B. Carriedo, Estudios Historicos del Estado Oaxaqueno, Tom. i, pp. 8, 9 (Oaxaca, 1849). About 1640 a number of Indians in the province of Acapulco were put to death for having buried enchanted ashes beneath the floor of a chapel! (Serna, Manual de Ministros, p. 52.)
55-‡ “Nagual ist in seiner correcten Form naoal ein echtes Quiché-Wort, ein Substantivum instrumentale, vom Stamme naó, wissen, erkennen. Naoal ist dasjenige, womit oder woran etwas, in diesem Falle das Schicksal des Kindes, erkannt wird, und hat mit dem mexikanischen nahualli (Hexe), mit dem man es vielleicht in Verbindung bringen möchte, nichts zu schaffen.” Guatemala, s. 238.
57-* The Abbé Brasseur observes: “Le mot nahual, qui vet dire toute science, ou science de tout, est fréquemment employé pour exprimer la sorcellerie chez ces populations.” Bulletin de la Sociétè de Géographie, 1857, p. 290. In another passage of his works the speculative Abbé translates naual by the English “know all,” and is not averse to believing that the latter is but a slight variant of the former.
58-* See an article by me, entitled “On the Words ‘Anahuac’ and ‘Nahuatl,’” in the American Antiquarian, for November, 1893.
58-† Manual de Ministros, p. 50.
58-‡ Jesus Sanchez, Glosario de Voces Castellanas derivadas del Idioma Nahuatl, sub voce.
59-* “Nagual—el lugar, rincon, cajon, nambira, etc., donde guarda sus talismanes y trajes de encanta la bruja.” Berendt, La Lengua Castellana de Nicaragua, MS.
59-† Emetorio Pineda, Description Geografica de Chiapas y Soconusco, p. 23 (Mexico, 1845).
59-‡ See his article “Wer-wolf,” in his Ethnographische Parallelen und Vergleiche, p. 62, seq.
59-§ Richard Andrée, ibid., ss. 63, 64.
60-* See Alfred Maury, La Magie et l’ Astrologie, pp. 88, 89, 267, etc.
61-* In the Notice Preliminaire to the second part of his work, La Magie et l’ Astrologie dans l’ Antiquité et au Moyen Age, Mr. Alfred Maury admirably sums up the scientific resources at our command for explaining the mystical phenomena of experience, without denying their reality as actual occurrences.
Index.Native words explained, in Italics; names of Authors quoted, in SMALL CAPITALS.
- Achiutla, 40
- Acosta, J., 9, 34
- Aguilar, P. S., 32
- Ahau, 35
- Ah Kih, 26, 51
- Ah-toc, 45
- Aissaoua, the, 60
- Alaghom Naom, a goddess, 56
- Alom, deity, 50
- Alva, B. De, 8, 46, 47
- Anahuac, 58
- Ancona, E., 30, 31
- Andagoya, P. De, 33
- Andree, R., 59
- Antichrist, appealed to, 28
- Apehualco, 44
- [62]Aubin, M., 48, 49
- Ay, Antonio, 30
- Aztecan language, 5, 11
- Aztecs, 7
- Baal-che, 9
- Baeza, P., 9, 25
- Balboa, P., 10
- Bancroft, H. H., 13, 32, 36
- Bandelier, A., 39
- Baptism, 27, 43
- Baptism by fire, 37
- Barba Figueroa, 29
- Bautista, J., 6
- Berendt, C. H., 50, 59
- “Black King,” the, 39
- Blowing, as a rite, 19, 20
- Boban, M., 48
- “Books of Chilan Balam”, 45
- Bourke, Capt., 44
- Brasseur (de Bourbourg), 25, 28, 29, 32, 33, 37, 57
- Buk xoc, 45
- Burgoa, P., 16
- Cabrera, Dr. P. F., 4
- Cakchiquel language, 20, 23
- Calendar, the native, 13-16, 45, 53
- California, 10
- Cancuc, town, 29
- Candelaria, Maria, 35
- Can Ek, Jacinto, 30
- Carpio, Bernardo del, 55
- Carriedo, J. B., 15, 30, 38, 46
- Cave God, the, 38, 41
- Cavo, P., 28, 32, 40
- Ceiba tree, 47
- Cerquin, province, 4, 5, 34
- Chac Mool, 31
- Chacuaco, 10
- Chalcatongo, 40
- Chalchihuitl, 39, 46, 47
- Chalcos, 12
- Chalma, place, 38
- Chanes, 49
- Charnay, D., 13
- Chi, Andres, 31
- Chi, Cecilio, 30
- Chichimecs, 7, 54
- Chilan Balam, 31, 45
- Chontales, 17, 32
- Chorti dialect, 5 n.
- Chotas, tribe, 41
- Clairvoyance, 9
- Coamizagual, 34
- Coanamoa, 41
- Coatlan, [url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/26426/26426-h/26