l8 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 92 



nothing more than streaks or Hues, horizontal and transverse, circular 

 and semicircular, all poorly made without order or arrangement. There 

 they left the boy, forbidding him to leave there until the penance of 

 fasting was concluded (which was wont to last 3 entire days), telling 

 him that should he feel hunger or thirst he must have patience and 

 bear it, for if he ate or drank, though it were alone at night in secret, 

 the evil figure which was painted in front of him would make it known, 

 and that Chinigchinix was looking at him and would punish him, 

 sending diseases upon him so that he would die, and other similar 

 nonsense. And these poor boys believed it all infallibly, and observed 

 it to the very letter. 



I was told of a case that had happened in the time of their gentile con- 

 dition, and it was that a boy being in the Vanquex during the penance 

 of fasting, on the second day found himself with considerable hunger 

 and thirst, and he went in secret to a nearby house at which there were 

 no people home at this time, found something to eat, ate and drank, 

 and immediately returned to his place, without anyone having seen him. 

 And after the period of penance was finished, finding himself one day 

 with his companions, he told them of what he had done at the time of 

 his penance in that he had eaten and drvmk, and having found that the 

 evil figure said nothing, and that nothing happened to him, he stated 

 that everything which the Puplcni, that is, the wizards or soothsayers, 

 told was lies and deceit, for having eaten and drunk and even rubbed 

 out part of the figure with his feet, nothing had happened to him, for 

 which reason one should not believe the Puplem. Rut his companions, 

 instead of opening their eyes and perceiving the error and the deceit, 

 so great was their resentment and fury which they felt against him, 

 because of the disrespect which he had shown the old men, that when 

 the matter was divulged he was shot to death with arrows. 



Note : The drinks Fibat and Toluachc, of which we have spoken above, 

 outside their use for the boys, were also employed by the men, and still are, 

 for the purpose of winning in their games, for obtaining the women whom they 

 covet, and for procuring any evil thing that they may think of. It is to be 

 noted that at the time of their drunkenness they also have to observe a fast, 

 for at least some 3 days, and that when this is over they are said to be cured, 

 and that when they are cured in this manner, they believe, and this without 

 having the slightest doubt enter their minds, that they will be able to attain 

 any evil thing which they crave ; but if they are not successful and their luck 

 is reversed, as frequently happens, they attribute it to being poorly cured, that 

 is, that they did not drink sufficient medicine, or did not keep the fast well ; or 

 to other similar causes. 



After the boys had been put through everything that we have 

 related, they put on them their mark, which is properly speaking a 



