CHERAN: a sierra TARASCAN village — BEALS 



157 



hurried us away, obviously much shaken bj' the 

 experience and firmly convinced the woman 

 was a witch. 



Despite the fact that several persons stated 

 all witches are women, a story was collected 

 that witchcraft was started in Cheran by a man 

 who found a book. Most power, though, is 

 said to be obtained by a witch who goes alone 

 to the summit of Kukundikata, a volcanic cone 

 a mile or two southeast of town and about a 

 thousand feet in height. Here the witch calls 

 the devil, "Sir devil, I ask a favor." A strong 

 wind is felt or the sound of a strong wind is 

 heard and the devil appears before the peti- 

 tioner. The would-be witch then makes a con- 

 tract for 20 years, at the end of which time he 

 loses his life. In the meantime the witch may 

 teach others, however, who do not have a con- 

 tract unless the witch makes a subsidiary 

 agreement with them. In any case they are 

 not as powerful as the witch who secures power 

 directly from the devil. (Note again in this 

 account the implication that the witches are 

 male.) 



Witches operate in several ways. The most 

 common is to secure some very personal object, 

 a copib, piece of hair, piece of clothing, or even 

 sweat from a coin (which is why Agustin 

 refused to let me give a coin, as mentioned 

 above) . A doll of wax or clay is made to 

 resemble the person and dressed in similar 

 clothes. The article obtained is used in making 

 or clothing the doll. If hair of the victim has 

 been obtained, for example, it is placed on the 

 head of the doll. Pins are then stuck in the 

 joints and, if it is desired to kill the victim, in 

 each temple. The doll is then taken to one of 

 several places, things are recited in Tarascan, 

 candles are burned, and each time the pins are 

 pushed in a little farther. 



The places visited are a spot in the barranca 

 separating Paricutin from the other barrios 

 or two caves on the slope of Kukundikata. 

 It was undesirable to attempt to locate the 

 spot in the barranca, but the two caves were 

 visited. Neither showed signs of much use. 

 In one candles had evidently been burned. The 

 second had been visited fairly recently. Far in 

 the back of the cave a small trench crossed the 

 steeply sloping floor and the rocks about it had 

 been well swept. In a corner were twigs from 



an oak tree and at one side two crossed branches 

 of oak. A cigarette butt and some fragments 

 of pitch pine, apparently dropped casually, 

 were the only other evidence of use. 



It was reported that a good deal ot witch- 

 craft had been stamped out and that the muni- 

 cipal government, acting on orders from 

 Morelia, had posted two armed guards at night 

 in the barranca and one on Kukundikata with 

 orders' to shoot to kill anyone they found prac- 

 ticing witchcraft. It is necessary to kill the 

 witch, because if the witch escapes the magic 

 will turn against the person interfering. Any 

 attempt at verification of this report from the 

 municipal officials met with such skillful evasive 

 action that there may be a modicum of truth 

 in it. 



Another way of bewitching is to carry objects 

 at night to the house of the victim. Bones of 

 dead persons were mentioned as one of the 

 objects. Pedro Chavez had also seen a candle 

 with many holes in it and cut in many places 

 which was hidden close to the house of an 

 intended victim. Candles are used because 

 they are associated with the dead. Earth from 

 the floor of the jail is also very useful in such 

 matters, and certain flowers may also be 

 deposited. 



One of the ways of leaving things or of 

 obtaining a personal object is for the witch to 

 change into some animal. Witches may change 

 into cats, owls, dogs, roosters, or burros. In 

 this guise they may hide something by the 

 house of the victim or may steal some personal 

 object. If a strange cat, or even a neighbor's 

 cat which has never come around before, should 

 come into the kitchen and play and try to 

 snatch personal things it is probably a witch in 

 disguise. If such a cat is caught by the tail 

 and held in the smoke of an oak fire it will soon 

 talk and answer any question asked, such as 

 the name of the witch, the person sending the 

 witch, and so on. A friend of Agustin R. 

 caught a witch cat in this way. He threatened 

 to kill it if he saw it again. When he released 

 the animal, it simply vanished. 



The animals may also talk softly to the victim 

 at night. A woman heard a voice outside say- 

 ing, "Sleep, Dona , sleep." She went to 



a good witch and after a period of treatment 

 was not bothered again. Owls will get in trees 



