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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY— PUBLICATION NO. 3 



streets Iiave been stirred by the explosions of numerous 

 rockets. The bystanders carpet the pathway of God with 

 flowers they throw from their hands. In front of the 

 temple, the image of Christ Triumphant is lowered from the 

 saddle and carried in the arms of the mayordomos to the 

 main altar of the church. After a few words by the priest, 

 the religious fiesta is terminated. 



It is 7 o'clock in the evening and almost the entire crowd 

 which took part in the procession begins to dance again. 

 Merriment reigns supreme and there are no sad faces. 

 People dance, they drink, they enjoy themselves and forget 

 their troubles. This dance continues until late in the night. 

 The omnibuses are working overtime until the next dawn 

 carrying home the visitors from other towns, while other 

 visitors accept hospitality in local houses. 



Silence begins to enter the town with the beginning of 

 Holy Monday. The village will again sink back into the 

 peacefulness of other days. The streets will be empty and 

 one will no longer meet the strange face. Once again con- 

 versation will return to the gossiping of the comadrcs and 

 compadres. The gossip will rotate about the events of the 

 fiesta. Palm Sunday and its merriment will not return for 

 another year. Holy Week with its mantle of grief will cover 

 the town with an aching pain, silence, and sadness. 



PACTS WITH THE DEVIL 



There is a well-developed belief that mortals can 

 and sometimes do make pacts with the Devil or his 

 erhissaries. The Devil and his minions are in general 

 considered to be the arch enemies of Christianity. It 

 is said that the Devil or his deputy usually appears 

 in the form of a man to a person who is in difficulties 

 of a worldly sort, needs money, is in trouble with 

 the law, etc. In return for the worldly aid required 

 by the individual, the Devil demands the deliver}^ of 

 the person's soul, and sometimes the souls of other 

 persons under the orders of the individual in ques- 

 tion. The Devil is simply called "El Diablo" or "El 

 Principe dc Mai." If one wishes to make a pact of 

 this kind, he invokes the Prince of Evil, by con- 

 centrating his mind on it and calling out in private 

 or inaudibly. It is believed that the Devil or one 

 of his minions is always hanging about, waiting for 

 such a call, so that one does not have to shout very 

 loudly. Once one has sold himself to the Devil, there 

 is no way he can renounce his pact nor is there any 

 help which the church can give. The souls of such 

 persons, of course, are believed to reside permanently 

 and inexorably in hell. The case of a certain man 

 is told who repented of his pact with the Devil. He 

 confessed and even went to Spain where he took 

 Holy Orders and later became a missionary father 

 in Peru. However, the Devil kept after him, tor- 

 menting him, until he died. 



Such beliefs seem to be clearly derived froin Euro- 

 pean sources. The shapingos, familiar spirits of evil 

 brujos, are the native analogy of these beliefs, and 

 some individuals tend to confuse the Devil and the 

 shapingos in their thinking, but most persons are 

 quite explicit that the Devil is something entirely 

 different. The evil witches and their spirits are not 

 thought to be in competition with God, whereas the 

 Devil is considered to be a competitor of God and 

 the church. Following are some incidents illustra- 

 tive of the belief in the Devil and his nefarious 

 schemes. 



T., the woman of J. A., disappeared from her coiSn. The 

 priest, who had been called to say responses over the cofiin, 

 surprised the family filling the box with adobes in order to 

 simulate the "weight of a Christian." A few days later the 

 woman's son found the naked body of his mother in the 

 chacra. It was buried there secretly so that people would 

 not know. The disappearance of a body from its coffin is, 

 of course, irrefutable proof that the individual had formerly 

 made a pact with the Devil, who has come to foreclose on 

 it ; for once a person is buried in hallowed ground, he is 

 beyond the power of the Devil. 



Another case is said to be that of \. S. On his death 

 bed a person came to him, in the presence of his family. 

 This person was clothed in white and rode to the house 

 mounted on a white horse. The person said, "Come with 

 me," and disappeared. The moribund man tried to get up 

 and follow him. It was almost iinpossible to keep him in 

 the bed. He raved and shouted and his tongue swelled up 

 so that he could not talk coherently. He had to be restrained 

 by force. Finally he died. During the night following his 

 death, his body disappeared. It was never found and a coffin 

 filled with adobes had to be buried to avert suspicion. Of 

 course, the mysterious visitor was the Devil, come to claim 

 his own. 



M. R. S. had a startling experience with what he takes to . 

 be the Devil. Behind the mountain to the east is a valley | 

 where, in wintertime, men sometimes take their animals to 

 graze off the short-lived grass. One day }vl. happened to be 

 in this region and came upon a rock which looked much like | 

 a dining table. More surprising was the fact that it was set 

 with a complete silver service, which also included silver 

 plates and cups. M. picked up the silver and took it home 

 with him. He estimates that it was easily worth 5,000 soles. 

 That night, as he was sleeping in his house, he was awakened 

 by a stern voice which commanded him immediately to get up 

 and to return the silver service to the place where he had 

 found it. He lay awake frightened all night, and the first 

 thing in the morning he took the silver back to the table 

 rock. It is supposed that it was a table set by the Devil 

 for the entertainment of someone who was invited to make 1 

 a pact with him. 



The I. house in Trujillo, a large old colonial mansion, is 

 said to have a long subterranean passage in it, connecting the 

 house with the same spot (mentioned above) behind the 

 mountain. Through this passage peons in the old days dis- 

 appeared, so goes the story, never to be seen again. They 



