CHERAN : A SIERRA TARASCAN VILLAGE — -BEALS 



161 



breast (in an arrangement the informant did not wish 

 to explain). Now place the doll in a cooking pot with 

 oil for lamps. In front of the figure put a tallow 

 candle and burn it but not down to the point the flame 

 touches the oil. 



In addition to the above methods of bewitch- 

 ment, powders brought from the region of the 

 ocean are extensively used for love potions. 

 The powders are brought by muleteers from the 

 hot country and are said to be made by grinding 

 a tree which grows there. A pinch of these is 

 taken between thumb and forefinger and 

 rubbed on the clothing, face, or hair of the 

 desired person without his knowledge. 



Methods of prevention and cure against 

 witchcraft were also provided by the same in- 

 formant. The following method will immunize 

 a person against witchcraft and also cure cer- 

 tain types of sorcery : 



Materials needed are oil from a certain poisonous 

 snake, grease from a cei'tain species of scorpion, oil of 

 San Ignacio, oil of Vicente, oil of San Aparicio, a little 

 dry marihuana, and small balls of two herbs sold by 

 the herb vendors at Uruapan. The marihuana and the 

 balls are ground and then carefully mixed with the oils 

 and greases. The witch then anoints the patient's 

 body with the mixture. 



A person ill of sores {gi-arios) may be cured 

 by catching certain poisonous snakes, killing 

 them, taking out the oil, and placing the flesh 

 to dry. The flesh, when dry, is reduced to a 

 powder and mixed with the oil. The genital 

 organs of the patient are then anointed with 

 the mixture until he has recovered. 



Marihuana and toloache (Datura, sp."!) made 

 into a powder and dissolved in aguardiente 

 serves to cure witchcraft, taking a little every 

 morning. Marihuana also aids one to "dream 

 beautifully." 



To clean someone who is dying of witchcraft, 

 take fresh toloache, jediondilla (unidentified), 

 an egg, and jara (cistus or rockrose) . Mixing 

 all this together, clean the patient's body, 

 repeating the cure as many times as is neces- 

 sary and not permitting him to go outside in 

 the air. It is also possible to cure without 

 breaking the egg, but passing it entire over the 

 whole body. (Probably there is more to the 

 latter method than was told.) 



A few general points appear from the data 

 on witchcraft. It is interesting to note that in 

 most of the important "recipes" the informant 



refused to tell some part; probably omissions 

 were made in the others as well. It is also clear 

 that with almost no exception, the witchcraft 

 is wholly European in origin. This is true of 

 both the data from Cheran and from Capacuaro. 

 Despite the fragmentary data from Cheran, a 

 number of correspondences with the Capacuaro 

 data are evident. For example, Agustin men- 

 tioned only snake oil for the immunization to 

 witchcraft. Capacuaro data show snake oil as 

 well as other items. While the data are too 

 scanty to afford generalizations, erotic interests 

 and anxieties are suggested much more strongly 

 by the Capacuaro witchcraft data than by data 

 secured from any other source. 



In Mestizo Chilchota exists belief in witches 

 disguised as owls. The owls call for the death 

 of their victim, and death takes the caU of the 

 owl as a signal. Such owls cannot be killed by 

 bullets or rocks, which simply pass through the 

 bird without making it even change its place. 

 The only manner in which such an owl may be 

 driven away is for a woman not wearing under- 

 wear to throw her skirts over her head in front 

 of it; at this the owl flees and never returns 

 to the house. 



MISCELLANEOUS BELIEFS 



Relatively few superstitions and beliefs in 

 the supernatural outside of the various aspects 

 of Christianity and withcraft were encountered 

 in Cheran. Most common, apparently, is the 

 belief in the mirii;gua, a malevolent spirit 

 which, according to some, lives in the barrio of 

 Paricutin. At night, in the fields, woods, or in 

 the town itself, a person will think he is going 

 a certain way and will recognize various places, 

 and then, if the experience is a mild one, he 

 finds suddenly that he is in some place quite 

 different. Or the person may be carried off by 

 the miriv/gua. The most common place about 

 town for the mirir^gua to ambush its victims is 

 in the barranca between Paricutin and the rest 

 of the town. 



One young man of 25 years recounted his 

 experience to Rendon as follows : One dusk he 

 was returning from the fields to his house and 

 thought he was following the proper i-oad but 

 he felt very unusual (in a manner he was unable 

 to explain becau.se of his faulty Spanish). 

 Finally he felt that someone pulled on him 



