Chapter II: Part 2

=16.= Among the Maya tribes of Yucatan and Guatemala we have testimony to the continuance to this day of these beliefs. Father Bartolome de Baeza, cura of Yaxcaba in the first half of this century, reports that an old man, in his dying confession, declared that by diabolical art he had transformed himself into an animal, doubtless his _nagual_; and a young girl of some twelve years confessed that she had been transformed into a bird by the witches, and in one of her nocturnal flights had rested on the roof of the very house in which the good priest resided, which was some two leagues from her home. He wisely suggests that, perhaps, listening to some tale of sorcery, she had had a vivid dream, in which she seemed to take this flight. It is obvious, however, from his account, as well as from other sources, that the belief of the transformation into lower animals was and is one familiar to the superstitions of the Mayas.[25-[+]] The natives still continue to propitiate the ancient gods of the harvest, at the beginning of the season assembling at a ceremony called by the Spaniards the _misa milpera_, or "field mass," and by themselves _ti'ch_, "the stretching out of the hands."

The German traveler, Dr. Scherzer, when he visited, in 1854, the remote hamlet of Istlavacan, in Guatemala, peopled by Quiche Indians, discovered that they had preserved in this respect the usages of their ancestors almost wholly unaffected by the teachings of their various Christian curates. The "Master" still assigned the _naguals_ to the new-born infants, copal was burned to their ancient gods in remote caves, and formulas of invocation were taught by the veteran nagualists to their neophytes.[26-*]

These _Zahoris_,[26-[+]] as they are generally called in the Spanish of Central America, possessed many other mysterious arts besides that of such metamorphoses and of forecasting the future. They could make themselves invisible, and walk unseen among their enemies; they could in a moment transport themselves to distant places, and, as quickly returning, report what they had witnessed; they could create before the eyes of the spectator a river, a tree, a house, or an animal, where none such existed; they could cut open their own stomach, or lop a limb from another person, and immediately heal the wound or restore the severed member to its place; they could pierce themselves with knives and not bleed, or handle venomous serpents and not be bitten; they could cause mysterious sounds in the air, and fascinate animals and persons by their steady gaze; they could call visible and invisible spirits, and the spirits would come.

Among the native population of the State of Vera Cruz and elsewhere in southern Mexico these mysterious personages go by the name _padrinos_, godfathers, and are looked upon with a mixture of fear and respect. They are believed by the Indians to be able to cause sickness and domestic calamities, and are pronounced by intelligent whites to present "a combination of rascality, duplicity and trickery."[26-[++]]

=17.= The details of the ceremonies and doctrines of Nagualism have never been fully revealed; but from isolated occurrences and partial confessions it is clear that its adherents formed a coherent association extending over most of southern Mexico and Guatemala, which everywhere was inspired by two ruling sentiments--detestation of the Spaniards and hatred of the Christian religion.

In their eyes the latter was but a cloak for the exactions, massacres and oppressions exerted by the former. To them the sacraments of the Church were the outward signs of their own subjugation and misery. They revolted against these rites in open hatred, or received them with secret repugnance and contempt. In the Mexican figurative manuscripts composed after the conquest the rite of baptism is constantly depicted as the symbol of religious persecution. Says a sympathetic student of this subject:

"The act of baptism is always inserted in their records of battles
and massacres. Everywhere it conveys the same idea,--making evident
to the reader that the pretext for all the military expeditions of
the Spaniards was the enforced conversion to Christianity of the
natives; a pretext on which the Spaniards seized in order to
possess themselves of the land and its treasure, to rob the Indians
of their wives and daughters, to enslave them, and to spill their
blood without remorse or remission. One of these documents, dated
in 1526, adds a trait of savage irony. A Spanish soldier is
represented dragging a fugitive Indian from a lake by a lasso
around his neck; while on the shore stands a monk ready to baptize
the recreant on his arrival!"[27-*]

No wonder that the priests of the dark ritual of Nagualism for centuries after the conquest sought to annul the effects of the hated Christian sacraments by counteracting ceremonies of their own, as we are told they did by the historian Torquemada, writing from his own point of view in these words:

"The Father of Lies had his ministers who aided him, magicians and
sorcerers, who went about from town to town, persuading the simple
people to that which the Enemy of Light desired. Those who believed
their deceits, and had been baptized, were washed on the head and
breast by these sorcerers, who assured them that this would remove
the effects of the chrism and the holy oils. I myself knew an
instance where a person of prominence, who resided not far from the
City of Mexico, was dying, and had received extreme unction; and
when the priest had departed one of these diabolical ceremonialists
entered, and washed all the parts which had been anointed by the
holy oil with the intention to destroy its power."[27-[+]]

Similar instances are recorded by Jacinto de la Serna. He adds that not only did the Masters prescribe sacrifices to the Fire in order to annul the effects of extreme unction, but they delighted to caricature the Eucharist, dividing among their congregation a narcotic yellow mushroom for the bread, and the inebriating pulque for the wine. Sometimes they adroitly concealed in the pyx, alongside the holy wafer, some little idol of their own, so that they really followed their own superstitions while seemingly adoring the Host. They assigned a purely pagan sense to the sacred formula, "Father, Son and Holy Ghost," understanding it to be "Fire, Earth and Air," or the like.[28-*]

Whoever or whatever was an enemy to that religion so brutally forced upon these miserable creatures was to them an ally and a friend. Nunez de la Vega tells us that he found written formulas among them reading: "O Brother Antichrist, Brother Antichrist, Brother Antichrist, come to our aid!"--pathetic and desperate appeal of a wretched race, ground to earth under the iron heels of a religious and military despotism.[28-[+]]

=18.= The association embraced various tribes and its members were classified under different degrees. The initiation into these was by solemn and often painful ceremonies. Local sodalities or brotherhoods were organized after the manner of those usual in the Roman Church; but instead of being named after St. John or the Virgin Mary they were dedicated to Judas Iscariot or Pontius Pilate out of derision and hatred of the teachings of the priests; or to the Devil or Antichrist, who were looked upon as powerful divinities in opposition to the Church.[28-[++]]

There were certain recognized centres of the association, near which its most important dignitaries resided, and where their secret councils and most imposing ceremonies were held. One of these was Zamayac, in the province of Suchiltepec; a second near Huehuetan, Soconusco; a third at Totonicapan, Guatemala; a fourth at Cancuc, Chiapas; a fifth at Teozapotlan, Oaxaca; and a few others may be surmised.

The high priest who resided at each of these centres exercised control over all the nagualistic teachers and practitioners in an extensive district. On the occasion of an official inquiry by the Spanish authorities it was ascertained that the high priest of Zamayac included under his rule nearly one thousand sub-priests,[29-*] and no doubt others of his rank were not less potent.

The unity between the members of the association over an indefinitely wide area was perfectly well known to the Spanish priests and civil authorities. The ceremonies, formulas and methods of procedure were everywhere identical or alike. This itself was justly regarded as a proof of the secret intelligence which existed among the members of this cabalistic guild.[29-[+]]

To a certain extent, and at least in some localities, as Chiapas and Guatemala, the priesthood of Nagualism was hereditary in particular families. This is especially stated by the historian Ordonez y Aguiar, who had exceptional opportunities for acquainting himself with the facts.[29-[++]]

A traveler of the first decade of this century, who has left us a number of curious details of the superstitions of the Christianized Indians in Mexico of that day, Benito Maria de Moxo, informs us that he had discovered the existence of different grades in the native soothsayers and medicine men, and that all in a given locality recognized the supremacy of one whom they referred to as "the little old man," _El Viejito_. But he was unable to ascertain by what superior traits or rights he obtained this distinction.[29-Sec.]

According to some authorities, the highest grade of these native hierophants bore among the Nahuas the symbolic name of "flower weavers," _Xochimilca_, probably from the skill they had to deceive the senses by strange and pleasant visions.[30-*] In the south they were spoken of as "guardians," which may have been derived from the classes of priests so-called in the Zapotec religion.[30-[+]]

=19.= It will be seen from the above, that Nagualism, beginning in an ancient superstition dating back to the time of primitive barbarism, became after the Conquest a potent factor in the political and social development of the peoples among whom it existed; that it was the source from which was drawn and the means by which was sustained the race-hatred of the native American towards his foreign conquerors, smouldering for centuries, now and then breaking out in furious revolt and civil war.

There is strong reason to suspect its power where, for obvious reasons, it has not been demonstrated. It has always been a mystery and a matter of surprise to the historians of Yucatan how rapidly spread the plans of the insurrection which secured lasting independence for the natives, after these plans had been agreed upon by the two chiefs, Antonio Ay and Cecilio Chi, at the remote rancho of Xihum, in July, 1847. Such unanimity of action could only have been possible through the aid of a powerful, well-disciplined and widespread secret organization. There can scarcely be a doubt they were the chiefs or masters of the redoubtable order of Nagualism in the Peninsula.[30-[++]]

There is no question that such was the case with the brief and bloody revolt of the Mayas in 1761. It suddenly broke out in a number of villages near Valladolid, Yucatan, headed by a full-blood native, Jacinto Can-Ek; but some of the participants afterwards confessed that it was the outcome of a conspiracy which had been preparing for a year.

When the appointed day arrived, Jacinto boldly announced himself as the high priest of the fraternity of sorcerers, a master and teacher of magic, and the lineal successor of the famous ancient prophet, Chilan Balam, "whose words cannot fail." In a stirring appeal he urged his fellow-countrymen to attack the Spaniards without fear of consequences.

"'Be not afraid,' he exclaimed, 'of their cannons and their forts;
for among the many to whom I have taught the arts of magic (el arte
de brujeria) there are fifteen chosen ones, marvelous experts, who
by their mystic power will enter the fortress, slay the sentinels,
and throw open the gates to our warriors. I shall take the leaves
of the sacred tree, and folding them into trumpets, I shall call to
the four winds of heaven, and a multitude of fighting men will
hasten to our aid.'"[31-*]

Saying this, he took a sheet of paper, held it up to show that it was blank, folded it for a moment, and then spread it out covered with writing! This deft trick convinced his simple-minded hearers of the truth of his claims and they rushed to arms. He led them, clothed in the robe of the Virgin and with her crown on his head. But neither their enthusiasm nor their leader's art magic availed, and soon Jacinto and his followers fell victims to the stake and the gallows. After their death the dance of "the tiger," or of Chac-Mool--the "ghost dance" of the Mayas--was prohibited; and the use of the sacred drum--the favorite instrument of the native priests--was forbidden.[31-[+]]

In fact, wherever we have any full accounts of the revolts against the Spanish domination during the three centuries of its existence in New Spain, we can manifestly trace the guiding fingers of the powerful though hidden hand of Nagualism. An earlier revolt of the Mayas in Yucatan occurred in 1585. It was led by Andres Chi, a full-blood Indian, and a descendant of the ancient royal house of the Cocomes. He also announced himself as a priest of the ancient faith, a prophet and a worker of miracles, sent to instruct his own people in a new religion and to give them an independent political existence. Seized by the Spaniards, he was charged with idolatry, sorcery and disturbing the peace, and was ignominiously hanged.[32-*]

Not less definitely inspired by the same ideas was the Mixe Indian, known as "Don Pascual," who led the revolt of the Tehuantepec tribes in 1661. He sent out his summons to the "thirteen governors of the Zapotecs and Chontales" to come to his aid, and the insurrection threatened to assume formidable proportions, prevented only by bringing to bear upon the natives the whole power of the Roman Church through the Bishop of Oaxaca, Cuevas Davalos.[32-[+]]

Nearly the same locality had been the scene of the revolt of the Zapotecs in 1550, when they were led by a native priest who claimed to be an incarnation of the old god Quetzalcoatl, the patron deity of the nagualists.[32-[++]]

In the city of Mexico itself, in the year 1692, there was a violent outbreak of the natives, when they destroyed three million dollars worth of property. Doubtless this was partly attributable to the scarcity of food which prevailed; but that the authorities traced it also to some secret ceremonials is evident from the law which was immediately passed forbidding the Indians to wear the _piochtli_, or scalp-lock, a portion of the hair preserved from birth as part of the genethliac rituals,[32-Sec.] and the especial enactments against the _octli_.

As for the revolt of the Tzentals of Chiapas, in 1712, it was clearly and confessedly under the leadership of the nagualistic priesthood, as I shall indicate on a later page.

The history of the native American race under the Spanish power in North America has never yet been written with the slightest approach to thoroughness. He who properly qualifies himself for that task will certainly reach the conclusion expressed a number of years ago by the eminent American antiquary and historian, Mr. E. G. Squier, in these words:

"Among the ruling and priestly classes of the semi-civilized
nations of America, there has always existed a mysterious bond, a
secret organization, which all the disasters to which they have
been subjected have not destroyed. It is to its present existence
that we may attribute those simultaneous movements of the
aborigines of Mexico and Central America, which have more than once
threatened the complete subversion of the Spanish power."[33-*]

That mysterious bond, that secret organization, is _Nagualism_.

=20.= A remarkable feature in this mysterious society was the exalted position it assigned to Women. Not only were they admitted to the most esoteric degrees, but in repeated instances they occupied the very highest posts in the organization. According to the traditions of the Tzentals and Pipils of Chiapas, when their national hero, Votan, constructed by the breath of his mouth his darkened shrine at Tlazoaloyan, in Soconusco, he deposited in it the sacred books and holy relics, and constituted a college of venerable sages to be its guardians; but placed them all in subjection to a high priestess, whose powers were absolute.[33-[+]]

The veracious Pascual de Andagoya asserts from his own knowledge that some of these female adepts had attained the rare and peculiar power of being in two places at once, as much as a league and a half apart;[33-[++]] and the repeated references to them in the Spanish writings of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries confirm the dread in which they were held and the extensive influence they were known to control. In the sacraments of Nagualism, Woman was the primate and hierophant.

=21.= This was a lineal inheritance from pre-Columbian times. In many native American legends, as in others from the old world, some powerful enchantress is remembered as the founder of the State, mistress of men through the potency of her magic powers.

Such, among the Aztecs, was the sorceress who built the city of Mallinalco, on the road from Mexico to Michoacan, famous even after the conquest for the skill of its magicians, who claimed descent from her.[34-*] Such, in Honduras, was Coamizagual, queen of Cerquin, versed in all occult science, who died not, but at the close of her earthly career rose to heaven in the form of a beautiful bird, amid the roll of thunder and the flash of lightning.[34-[+]]

According to an author intimately familiar with the Mexican nagualists, the art they claimed to possess of transforming themselves into the lower animals was taught their predecessors by a woman, a native Circe, a mighty enchantress, whose usual name was Quilaztli (the etymology of which is unknown), but who bore also four others, representing her four metamorphoses, Cohuacihuatl, the Serpent Woman; Quauhcihuatl, the Eagle Woman; Yaocihuatl, the Warrior Woman; and Tzitzimecihuatl, the Specter Woman.[34-[++]]

The powers of these queens of magic extended widely among their sex. We read in the chronicles of ancient Mexico that when Nezahualpilli, the king, oppressed the tribes of the coast, the _tierra caliente_, they sent against him, not their warriors, but their witches. These cast upon him their fatal spells, so that when he walked forth from his palace, blood burst from his mouth, and he fell prone and dead.[34-Sec.]

In Guatemala, as in ancient Delphos, the gods were believed to speak through the mouths of these inspired seeresses, and at the celebration of victories they enjoyed a privilege so strange and horrible that I quote it from the old manuscript before me without venturing a translation:

"... Despues de sacrificar los antiguos algun hombre,
despedacandolo, si era de los que avian cogido en guerra, dicen que
guardaban el miembro genital y los testiculos del tal sacrificado,
y se los daban a una vieja que tenian por profeta, para que los
comiese, y le pedian rogasse a su idolo les diesse mas
captivos."[35-*]

When Captain Pedro de Alvarado, in the year 1524, was marching upon Quetzaltanango, in Guatemala, just such a fearful old witch took her stand at the summit of the pass, with her familiar in the shape of a dog, and "by spells and nagualistic incantations" undertook to prevent his approach.[35-[+]]

As in the earliest, so in the latest accounts. The last revolt of the Indians of Chiapas occurred among the Zotzils in 1869. The cause of it was the seizure and imprisonment by the Spanish authorities of a "mystical woman," known to the whites as Santa Rosa, who, together with one of their _ahaus_ or chieftains, had been suspected of fomenting sedition. The natives marched thousands strong against the city of San Cristobal, where the prisoners were, and secured their liberation; but their leader, Ignacio Galindo, was entrapped and shot by the Spaniards, and the mutiny was soon quelled.[35-[++]]

=22.= But perhaps the most striking instance is that recorded in the history of the insurrection of the Tzentals of Chiapas, in 1713. They were led by an Indian girl, a native Joan of Arc, fired by like enthusiasm to drive from her country the hated foreign oppressors, and to destroy every vestige of their presence. She was scarcely twenty years old, and was known to the Spaniards as Maria Candelaria. She was the leader of what most historians call a religious sect, but what Ordonez y Aguiar, himself a native of Chiapas, recognizes as the powerful secret association of Nagualism, determined on the extirpation of the white race. He estimates that in Chiapas alone there were nearly seventy thousand natives under her orders--doubtless an exaggeration--and asserts that the conspiracy extended far into the neighboring tribes, who had been ordered to await the result of the effort in Chiapas.

Her authority was absolute, and she was merciless in requiring obedience to it. The disobedient were flayed alive or roasted over a slow fire. She and all her followers took particular pleasure in manifesting their hatred and contempt for the religion of their oppressors. They defiled the sacred vessels of the churches, imitated with buffoonery the ceremonies of the mass, which she herself performed, and stoned to death the priests whom they caught.

Of course, her attempt against the power of Spain was hopeless. It failed after a bitter and protracted conquest, characterized by the utmost inhumanity on both sides. But when her followers were scattered and killed, when the victorious whites had again in their hands all the power and resources of the country, not their most diligent search, nor the temptation of any reward, enabled them to capture Maria Candelaria, the heroine of the bloody drama. With a few trusty followers she escaped to the forest, and was never again heard of.[36-*]

More unfortunate were her friends and lieutenants, the priestesses of Guistiupan and Yajalon, who had valiantly seconded Maria in her patriotic endeavors. Seized by the Spaniards, they met the fate which we can easily imagine, though the historian has mercifully thrown a veil on its details.[36-[+]]

=23.= Of just such a youthful prophetess did Mr. E. G. Squier hear during his travels in Central America, a "_sukia_ woman," as she was called by the coast Indians, one who lived alone mid the ruins of an old Mayan temple, a sorceress of twenty years, loved and feared, holding death and life in her hands.[36-[++]] Perhaps his account is somewhat fanciful; it is so, indeed; but it is grounded on the unshaken beliefs and ancient traditions of the natives of those climes, and on customs well known to those who reside there.

The late distinguished Americanist, the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg, during his long travels in Mexico and Central America, had occasion more than once to come in contact with this trait of the ancient faith of the Nagualists, still alive in their descendants. Among the Zapotecs of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec he saw one of the queens of the mystic fraternity, and he describes her with a warmth which proves that he had not lost his eye for the beautiful.

"She wore a piece of light-green stuff loosely folded around her
form at the hips, and falling to a little distance above the ankle;
a jacket of red silk gauze with short sleeves and embroidered with
gold, clothed the upper part of her person, veiling her bosom, upon
which lay a chain of heavy gold pieces, pierced and strung on a
cord. Her rich black hair was divided on the forehead, and drawn
back in two splendid tresses fastened with blue ribbons, while a
white muslin kerchief encircled her head like the calantica of the
ancient Egyptians. Never in my life have I seen a more striking
figure of an Isis or a Cleopatra.

"There was something strange in her expression. Her eyes were the
blackest and the brightest in the world; but there were moments
when she suddenly paused, leaned against the billiard table or the
wall, and they became fixed and dead like those of a corpse. Then a
fiery glance would shoot from beneath her dark lashes, sending a
chill to the heart of the one to whom it was directed. Was it
madness, or was it, as those around her believed, a momentary
absence of soul, an absorption of her spirit into its _nagual_, a
transportation into an unknown world? Who shall decide?"[37-*]

=24.= It would be a mistake to suppose that Nagualism was an incoherent medley of superstitions, a mass of jumbled fragments derived from the ancient paganism. My study of it has led me to a widely different conclusion. It was a perpetuation of a well-defined portion of the native cult, whose sources we are able to trace long anterior to the period of the conquest, and which had no connection with the elaborate and bloody ritual of the Aztecs. The evidence to this effect is cogent.

Wherever in later days the Catholic priests found out the holy places and sacred objects of the nagualists, they were in-caves or deep rock-recesses, not in artificial structures. The myths they gleaned, and the names of the gods they heard, also point to this as a distinguishing peculiarity. An early instance is recorded among the Nahuas of Mexico. In 1537 Father Perea discovered a cavern in a deep ravine at Chalma, near Mallinalco (a town famous for its magicians), which was the sanctuary of the deity called _Oztoteotl_, the Cave God (_oztotl_, cave; _teotl_, god), "venerated throughout the whole empire of Montezuma."[38-*] He destroyed the image of the god, and converted the cavern into a chapel.

We cannot err in regarding Oztoteotl as merely another name of the Nahuatl divinity, Tepeyollotl, the Heart, or Inside, of the Mountain, who in the Codex Borgia and the Codex Vaticanus is represented seated upon or in a cavern. His name may equally well be translated "the Heart of the Place," or "of the Town."

Dr. Eduard Seler has shown beyond reasonable question that this divinity did not originally belong to the Aztec Pantheon, but was introduced from the South, either from the Zapotecs, the Mixtecs, or the Mayan tribes, beyond these.[38-[+]] The Cave God of the Aztecs is identical with the Votan of the Tzentals of Chiapas, and with the U-q'ux Uleuh of the Quiches of Guatemala, and probably with the Cozaana of the Zapotecs.

The rites of all of these were conducted in caverns, and there have been preserved several interesting descriptions of the contents of these sacred places. That relating to the "dark house of Votan" is given thus in the work of the Bishop of Chiapas:

"Votan is the third hero who is named in the calendar, and some of
his descendants still reside in the town of Teopisca, where they
are known as Votans. He is sometimes referred to as Lord of the
Sacred Drum, and he is said to have seen the great wall (which must
have been the Tower of Babel), and to have divided this land among
the Indians, and given to each tribe its language.

"They say further that he once dwelt in Huehuetan, a town in the
province of Soconusco. Near there, at the place called Tlazoaloyan,
he constructed, by blowing with his breath, a dark house, and put
tapirs in the river, and in the house a great treasure, and left
all in charge of a noble lady, assisted by guardians (_tlapiane_)
to preserve. This treasure consisted of earthenware vases with
covers of the same material; a stone, on which were inscribed the
figures of the ancient native heroes as found in the calendar;
_chalchiuites_, which are green stones; and other superstitious
objects.

"All of these were taken from the cave, and publicly burned in the
plaza of Huehuetan on the occasion of our first diocesan visit
there in 1691, having been delivered to us by the lady in charge
and the guardians. All the Indians have great respect for this
Votan, and in some places they call him 'the Heart of the
Towns.'"[39-*]

The English priest, Thomas Gage, who was curate of a parish among the Pokonchi Indians of Guatemala about 1630, relates his discovery of such a cave, in which the idol was preserved, and gives this description of it:

"We found the Idol standing upon a low stool covered with a linen
cloth. The substance of it was wood, black shining like jet, as if
it had been painted or smoked; the form was of a man's head unto
the shoulders, without either Beard or Mustachoes; his look was
grim, with a wrinkled forehead, and broad staring eyes.

"They boasted of this their god, saying that he had plainly told
them they should not believe anything I preached of Christ, but
follow the old ways of their forefathers."[39-[+]]

The black color here mentioned was a relic of ancient symbolism, referring to the night, darkness, and the obscurity of the holy cavern. Vetancurt informs us that the priests of the ancient paganism were accustomed to rub their faces and bodies with an ointment of fat and pine soot when they went to sacrifice in the forests, so that they looked as black as negroes[TN-3][39-[++]] In the extract from Nunez de la Vega already given, _Ical Ahau_, the "Black King," is named as one of the divinities of the nagualists.

In some parts the principal idol found in the caves was the mummied or exsiccated body of some former distinguished priest or chieftain. One such is recorded by Bartholome de Pisa, which was found among the Zapotecs of Coatlan. It bore a name taken from the calendar, that of the tenth day, and was alleged to be the preserved cadaver of a celebrated ruler.[40-*] Another interesting example is narrated by Villa Senor y Sanchez,[40-[+]] who describes it as an eye-witness. It was discovered in a spacious cave located some distance to the west of the city of Mexico, in Nahuatl territory, on the side of what was known as "the Sun mountain"--_la Mesa de Tonati_. He speaks of it as remarkably well preserved, "both the muscles and the bones."

"It was seated in an armchair which served for a throne, and was
clothed in a mantle, which fell from the shoulders to the feet.
This was richly adorned with precious stones, which, according to
the native custom, were sewed into the texture of the cloth. The
figure also wore shoulder straps, collars, bracelets and fastenings
of silver. From its forehead rose a crown of beautiful feathers of
different colors arranged so that one color should alternate with
another. The left hand was resting on the arm of the chair, while
in the right was a sharp cutlass with silver mountings. At its feet
were several vases of fine stone, as marble and alabaster, in which
were offerings of blood and meat, obtained from the sacrifices."

The same writer refers to other examples of these sacred caves which he had seen in his journeys. One was near the town of Teremendo, where the sides and roof had been artificially dressed into the shape of huge arches. A natural altar had been provided in a similar manner, and on it, at the time of his visit, were numerous idols in the figures of men and animals, and before them fresh offerings of copal and food. Elsewhere he refers to many such caverns still in use as places resorted to by the natives in _la gran Sierra de Tlascala_.[40-[++]]

These extracts prove the extent of this peculiar worship and the number of these subterranean temples in recent generations. The fame of some of the greater ones of the past still survives, as the vast grotto of Chalcatongo, near Achiutla, which was the sepulchral vault of its ancient kings; that of Totomachiapa, a solemn scene of sacrifice for the ancient priests; that of Justlahuaca, near Sola (Oaxaca), which was a place of worship of the Zapotecs long after the Conquest; and that in the Cerro de Monopostiac, near San Francisco del Mar.[41-*]

The intimate meaning of this cave-cult was the worship of the Earth. The Cave God, the Heart of the Hills, really typified the Earth, the Soil, from whose dark recesses flow the limpid streams and spring the tender shoots of the food-plants, as well as the great trees. To the native Mexican, the Earth was the provider of food and drink, the common Father of All; so that to this day, when he would take a solemn oath, he stoops to the earth, touches it with his hand, and repeats the solemn formula: _Cuix amo nechitla in toteotzin?_ "Does not our Great God see me?"

=25.= The identity of the Tepeyollotl of the Nahuas and the Votan of the Tzentals is shown not only in the oneness of meaning of the names, but in the fact that both represent the _third_ day in the ritual calendar. For this reason I take it, we find the number _three_ so generally a sacred number in the symbolism of the nagualists. We have already learned in the extract from Nunez de la Vega that the neophytes were instructed in classes of three. To this day in Soteapan the fasts and festivals appointed by the native ministrants are three days in duration.[41-[+]] The semi-Christianized inhabitants of the Sierra of Nayerit, the Nahuatl-speaking Chotas, continued in the last century to venerate three divinities, the Dawn, the Stone and the Serpent;[41-[++]] analogous to a similar "trinity" noted by Father Duran among the ancient Aztecs.[41-Sec.]

The number _nine_, that is, 3 x 3, recurs so frequently in the conjuration formulas of the Mexican sorcerers that de la Serna exclaims: "It was the Devil himself who inculcated into them this superstition about the number nine."[41-[||]]

The other number sacred to the nagualists was _seven_. I have, in a former essay, given various reasons for believing that this was not derived from the seven days of the Christian week, but directly from the native calendar.[42-*] Nunez de la Vega tells us that the patron of the seventh day was _Cuculcan_, "the Feathered Serpent," and that many nagualists chose him as their special protector. As already seen, in Guatemala the child finally accepted its _naual_ when seven years old; and among some of the Nahuatl tribes of Mexico the _tonal_ and the calendar name was formally assigned on the seventh day after birth.[42-[+]] From similar impressions the Cakchiquels of Guatemala maintained that when the lightning strikes the earth the "thunder stone" sinks into the soil, but rises to the surface after seven years.[42-[++]]

The three and the seven were the ruling numbers in the genealogical trees of the Pipiles of San Salvador. The "tree" was painted with _seven_ branches representing degrees of relationship within which marriage was forbidden unless a man had performed some distinguished exploit in war, when he could marry beyond the nearest _three_ degrees of relationship.[42-Sec.] Another combination of 3 and 7, by multiplication, explains the customs among the Mixes of deserting for 21 days a house in which a death has occurred.[42-[||]]

The indications are that the nagualists derived these numbers from the third and seventh days of the calendar "month" of twenty days. Tepeololtec, the Cave God, was patron of the third day and also "Lord of Animals," the transformation into which was the test of nagualistic power.[42-[P}] Tlaloc, god of the mountains and the rains, to whom the seventh day was hallowed, was represented by the nagualistic symbol of a snake doubled and twisted on itself, and was generally portrayed in connection with the "Feathered Serpent" (Quetzalcoatl, Cuculchan, Gukumatz, all names meaning this), represented as carrying his medicine bag, _xiquipilli_, and incensory, the apparatus of the native illuminati, his robe marked with the sign of the cross to show that he was Lord of the Four Winds and of Life.[43-*]

=26.= The nagualistic rites were highly symbolic, and the symbols used had clearly defined meanings, which enable us to analyze the religious ideas underlying this mysterious cult.

The most important symbol was Fire. It was regarded as the primal element and the immediate source of life. Father Nicolas de Leon has the following suggestive passage in this connection:

"If any of their old superstitions has remained more deeply rooted
than another in the hearts of these Indians, both men and women, it
is this about fire and its worship, and about making new fire and
preserving it for a year in secret places. We should be on the
watch for this, and when in their confessions they speak of what
the Fire said and how the Fire wept, expressions which we are apt
to pass by as unintelligible, we must lay our hands on them for
reprehension. We should also be on the watch for their baptism by
Fire, a ceremony called the _yiahuiltoca_,[43-[+]] shortly after
the birth of a child when they bestow on it the surnames; nor must
the lying-in women and their assistants be permitted to speak of
Fire as the father and mother of all things and the author of
nature; because it is a common saying with them that Fire is
present at the birth and death of every creature."

This curious ceremony derived its name from the _yiahuitli_, a plant not unlike the absinthe, the powdered leaves of which, according to Father Sahagun, the natives were accustomed to throw into the flames as an offering to the fire.[43-[++]] Long after the conquest, and probably to this day, the same custom prevails in Mexico, the fumes and odor of the burning leaves being considered very salubrious and purifying to the air of the sick room[TN-4][43-Sec.]

The word _yiahuiltoca_ means "the throwing of the _yiauhtli_" (from _toca_, to throw upon with the hands). Another name for the ceremony, according to Father Vetancurt, who wrote a century later than Leon, was _apehualco_, which has substantially the same meaning, "a throwing upon" or "a throwing away."[44-*] He adds the interesting particulars that it was celebrated on the fourth day after the birth of the child, during which time it was deemed essential to keep the fire burning in the house, but not to permit any of it to be carried out, as that would bring bad luck to the child.

Jacinto de la Serna also describes this ceremony, to which he gives the name _tlecuixtliliztli_, "which means that they pass the infant over the fire;" and elsewhere he adds: "The worship of fire is the greatest stumbling-block to these wretched idolaters."[44-[+]]

=27.= Other ceremonies connected with fire worship took place in connection with the manufacture of the pulque, or _octli_, the fermented liquor obtained from the sap of the maguey plant. The writer just quoted, de Vetancurt, states that the natives in his day, when they had brewed the new pulque and it was ready to be drunk, first built a fire, walked in procession around it and threw some of the new liquor into the flames, chanting the while an invocation to the god of inebriation, Tezcatzoncatl, to descend and be present with them.

This was distinctly a survival of an ancient doctrine which connected the God of Fire with the Gods of Drunkenness, as we may gather from the following quotation from the history composed by Father Diego Duran:

"The _octli_ was a favorite offering to the gods, and especially to
the God of Fire. Sometimes it was placed before a fire in vases,
sometimes it was scattered upon the flames with a brush, at other
times it was poured out around the fireplace."[45-*]

=28.= The high importance of the fire ceremonies in the secret rituals of the modern Mayas is plainly evident from the native Calendars, although their signification has eluded the researches of students, even of the laborious Pio Perez, who was so intimately acquainted with their language and customs. In these Calendars the fire-priest is constantly referred to as _ah-toc_, literally "the fire-master." The rites he celebrates recur at regular intervals of twenty days (the length of one native month) apart. They are four in number. On the first he takes the fire; on the second he kindles the fire; on the third he gives it free play, and on the fourth he extinguishes it. A period of five days is then allowed to elapse, when these ceremonies are recommenced in the same order. Whatever their meaning, they are so important that in the _Buk Xoc_, or General Computation of the Calendar, preserved in the mystic "Books of Chilan Balam," there are special directions for these fire-masters to reckon the proper periods for the exercise of their strange functions.[45-[+]]

=29.= What, now, was the sentiment which underlay this worship of fire? I think that the facts quoted, and especially the words of Father de Leon, leave no doubt about it. Fire was worshiped as the life-giver, the active generator, of animate existence. This idea was by no means peculiar to them. It repeatedly recurs in Sanskrit, in Greek and in Teutonic mythology, as has been ably pointed out by Dr. Hermann Cohen.[45-[++]] The fire-god Agni (_ignis_) is in the Vedas the Maker of men; Prometheus steals the fire from heaven that he may with it animate the human forms he has moulded of clay; even the connection of the pulque with the fire is paralleled in Greek mythos, where Dionysos is called _Pyrigenes_, the "fire-born."

Among the ancient Aztecs the god of fire was called the oldest of gods, _Huehueteotl_, and also "Our Father," _Tota_, as it was believed from him all things were derived.[46-*] Both among them and the Mayas, as I have pointed out in a previous work, he was supposed to govern the generative proclivities and the sexual relations.[46-[+]] Another of his names was _Xiuhtecutli_, which can be translated "God of the Green Leaf," that is, of vegetable fecundity and productiveness.[46-[++]]

To transform themselves into a globe or ball of fire was, as we have seen (ante, p. 21), a power claimed by expert nagualists, and to handle it with impunity, or to blow it from the mouth, was one of their commonest exhibitions. Nothing so much proved their superiority as thus to master this potent element.

=30.= The same name above referred to, "the Heart of the Town," or "of the Hills," was that which at a comparatively late date was applied to an idol of green stone preserved with religious care in a cavern in the Cerro de Monopostiac, not far from San Francisco del Mar. The spot is still believed by the natives to be enchanted ground and protected by superhuman powers.[46-Sec.]

These green stones, called _chalchiuitl_, of jadeite, nephrite, green quartz, or the like, were accounted of peculiar religious significance throughout southern Mexico, and probably to this day many are preserved among the indigenous population as amulets and charms. They were often carved into images, either in human form or representing a frog, the latter apparently the symbol of the waters and of fertility. Bartholome de Alva refers to them in a passage of his Confessionary. The priest asks the penitent:

"Dost thou possess at this very time little idols of green stone,
or frogs made of it (_in chalchiuh coconeme, chalchiuh
tamazoltin_)?

"Dost thou put them out in the sun to be warmed? Dost thou keep
them wrapped in cotton coverings, with great respect and
veneration?

"Dost thou believe, and hold for very truth, that these green
stones give thee food and drink, even as thy ancestors believed,
who died in their idolatry? Dost thou believe that they give thee
success and prosperity and good things, and all that them hast or
wishest? Because we know very well that many of you so believe at
this very time."[47-*]

Down to quite a recent date, and perhaps still, these green stones are employed in certain ceremonies in vogue among the Indians of Oaxaca in order to ensure a plenteous maize harvest. The largest ear of corn in the field is selected and wrapped up in a cloth with some of these chalchiuite. At the next corn-planting it is taken to the field and buried in the soil. This is believed to be a relic of the worship of the ancient Zapotec divinity, Quiegolani, who presided over cultivated fields.[47-[+]]

They are still in use among the natives as lucky stones or amulets. In the Zotzil insurrection of 1869, already referred to, one was found suspended to the neck of one of the slain Indians. It came into the possession of M. Maler, who has described and figured it.[47-[++]] It represents a human head with a curious expression and a singular headdress.

From specimens of these amulets preserved in museums it is seen that any greenish stone was selected, preferably those yielding a high, vitreous polish, as jadeite, turquoise, emerald, chlormelanite or precious serpentine. The color gave the sacred character, and this, it seems to me, was distinctly meant to be symbolic of water and its effects, the green of growing plants, and hence of fertility, abundance and prosperity.

=31.= There is another symbol, still venerated among the present indigenous population, which belongs to Nagualism, and is a survival from the ancient cult; this is the Tree. The species held in especial respect is the ceiba, the silk-cotton tree, the _ytzamatl_ (knife-leaved paper tree) of the Nahuas, the _yax che_ (green, or first tree) of the Mayas, the _Bombax ceiba_ of the botanists. It is of great size and rapid growth. In Southern Mexico and Central America one is to be seen near many of the native villages, and is regarded as in some way the protecting genius of the town.

Sacred trees were familiar to the old Mexican cult, and, what is curious, the same name was applied to such as to the fire, _Tota_, Our Father. They are said to have represented the gods of woods and waters.[48-*] In the ancient mythology we often hear of the "tree of life," represented to have four branches, each sacred to one of the four cardinal points and the divinities associated therewith.

The conventionalized form of this tree in the Mexican figurative paintings strongly resembles a cross. Examples of it are numerous and unmistakable, as, for instance, the cruciform tree of life rising from a head with a protruding tongue, in the Vienna Codex.[48-[+]]

=32.= Thus, the sign of the cross, either the form with equal arms known as the cross of St. Andrew, which is the oldest Christian form, or the Latin cross, with its arms of unequal length, came to be the ideogram for "life" in the Mexican hieroglyphic writing; and as such, with more or less variants, was employed to signify the _tonalli_ or _nagual_, the sign of nativity, the natal day, the personal spirit.[48-[++]] The ancient document called the Mappe Quinatzin offers examples, and its meaning is explained by various early writers. The peculiar character of the Mexican ritual calendar, by which nativities were calculated, favored a plan of representing them in the shape of a cross; as we see in the singular _Codex Cruciformis_ of the Boturini-Goupil collection.

=33.= But the doctrines of Nagualism had a phase even more detestable to the missionaries than any of these, an esoteric phase, which brought it into relation to the libidinous cults of Babylon and the orgies of the "Witches' Sabbaths" of the Dark Ages. Of these occult practices we of course have no detailed descriptions, but there are hints and half-glances which leave us in no doubt.

When the mysterious metamorphosis of the individual into his or her _nagual_ was about to take place, the person must strip to absolute nudity;[49-*] and the lascivious fury of bands of naked Nagualists, meeting in remote glades by starlight or in the dark recesses of caves, dancing before the statues of the ancient gods, were scenes that stirred the fanaticism of the Spanish missionaries to its highest pitch. Bishop Landa informs us that in Yucatan the dance there known as the _naual_ was one of the few in which both men and women took part, and that it "was not very decent." It was afterwards prohibited by the priests. We have excellent authority that such wild rites continued well into the present century, close to the leading cities of the State,[49-[+]] and it is highly likely that they are not unknown to-day.

=34.= Moreover, it is certain that among the Nagualists, one of their most revered symbols was the _serpent_; in Chiapas, one of their highest orders of the initiated was that of the _chanes_, or serpents. Not only is this in Christian symbolism the form and sign of the Prince of Evil and the enemy of God, but the missionaries were aware that in the astrological symbols of ancient Mexico the serpent represented the _phallus_; that it was regarded as the most potent of all the signs;[49-[++]] and modern research has shown, contrary to the opinion long held, that there was among these nations an extraordinary and extensive worship of the reciprocal principle of nature, associated with numerous phallic emblems.[49-Sec.]

Huge phalli of stone have been discovered, one, for instance, on the Cerro de las Navajas, not far from the city of Mexico, and another in the State of Hidalgo.[50-*] Probably they were used in some such ceremonies as Oviedo describes among the Nahuas of Nicaragua, where the same symbol was represented by conical mounds of earth, around which at certain seasons the women danced with libidinous actions. Although as a general rule the pottery of ancient Mexico avoids obscenity, Brasseur stated that he had seen many specimens of a contrary character from certain regions,[50-[+]] and Dr. Berendt has copied several striking examples, showing curious _yoni_ symbols, which are now in my possession.

We may explain these as in some way connected with the worship of Pantecatl, the male divinity who presided over profligate love, and of Tlazolteotl, the _Venus Impudica_ of the Aztec pantheon; and it is not without significance that the cave-temple of Votan, whose contents were destroyed by the Bishop of Chiapas, in 1691 (see above, p. 39), was located at _Tlazoaloyan_, both names being derived from a root signifying sexual action.[50-[++]] The other name of the divinity, called "the Heart of the Hills," is in Quiche, Alom, "he who begets," and the Zapotec Cozaana, another analogue of the same deity, is translated by Seler, "the Begetter." Such facts indicate how intimately the esoteric doctrines of Nagualism were related to the worship of the reproductive powers of nature.

=35.= It will readily be understood from what has been said that Nagualism was neither a pure descendant of the ancient cults, nor yet a derivative from Christian doctrines and European superstitions. It was a strange commingling of both, often in grotesque and absurd forms. In fact, the pretended Christianity of the native population of Mexico to-day is little more than a figment, according to the testimony of the most competent observers.[50-Sec.]

The rituals and prayers of the nagualists bear witness to this. It is very visible in those I have quoted from Nunez de la Vega, and I can add an interesting example of it which has not heretofore been published. I take it from the MSS. of Father Vicente Hernandez Spina, cura of Ixtlavacan, in Guatemala, a remote village of the Quiches. He wrote it down in the native tongue about forty years ago, as recited by an _ah-kih_, "reader of days," a native master of the genethliac art, who had composed it in favor of a client who had asked his intercession.

_Prayer of an Ah-Kih._

"O Jesus Christ my God: thou God the Son, with the Father and the
Holy Spirit, art my only God. Today, on this day, at this hour, on
this day Tihax, I call upon the holy souls which accompany the
sun-rising and the sun-setting of the day: with these holy souls I
call upon thee, O chief of the genii, thou who dwellest in this
mountain of Siba Raxquin; come, ye holy spirits of Juan Vachiac, of
Don Domingo Vachiac, of Juan Ixquiaptap, the holy souls of
Francisco Excoquieh, of Diego Soom, of Juan Fay, of Alonzo Tzep; I
call the holy souls of Diego Tziquin and of Don Pedro Noh: you, O
priests, to whom all things are revealed, and thou, chief of the
genii, you, lords of the mountains, lords of the plains, thou, Don
Purupeto Martin, come, accept this incense, accept to-day this
candle.[51-*]

"Come also, my mother Holy Mary, the Lord of Esquipulas, the Lord
of Capetagua, the beloved Mary of Chiantla, with her who dwells at
San Lorenzo, and also Mary of Sorrows, Mary Saint Anna, Mary
Tibureia, Mary of Carmen, with Saint Michael the Archangel, the
captain St. James, St. Christoval, St. Sebastian, St. Nicolas, St.
Bonaventura, St. Bernardin, St. Andrew, St. Thomas, St.
Bartholomew, and thou my beloved mother St. Catherine, thou beloved
Mary of the Conception, Mary of the Rosary, thou lord and king
Pascual, be here present.

"And thou, Frost, and thou, excellent Wind, thou, God of the plain,
thou, God of Quiac-Basulup, thou, God of Retal-Uleu, thou, lord of
San Gregorio, thou, lord of Chii-Masa. [These are mountains and
localities, and in the original there follow the names of more than
a hundred others. The prayer concludes as follows:]

"... I who appoint myself godfather and godmother, I who ask, I the
witness and brother of this man who asks, of this man who makes
himself, your son, O holy souls, I ask, do not let any evil happen
unto him, nor let him be unhappy for any cause.