MALLERY.] , MEXICAN SYMBOLS. 613 
seek him, and that he may become possessed of the power to communicate with 
supernatural beings; if successful he meets with a river otter, which is a super- 
natural animal. The otter approaches him and he seizes it, kills it with the blow 
of a club, and takes out the tongue, after which he is able to understand the 
language of all inanimate objects, of Lirds, animals, and other living creatures. 
This ceremony or occurrence happens to every real medicine man. Consecnently 
the otter presenting his tongue is the most universal type of the profession as sueh, 
and is sure to be found somewhere in the paraphernalia of every individual of that 
profession. 
With this account from the Pacifie coast a similar determination of 
emblems by the Indians in the northeastern parts of the United States 
may be compared. The objects seen by them in their fasting visions 
not only were decisive of their names but were held to show the course 
of their lives. If a youth saw an eagle or bear he was destined to be 
a warrior; if a deer he would be a man of peace; and a turkey buzzard 
or serpent was the sign that he would be a medicine man. The figures 
of those animals therefore were respectively the emblems of the quali- 
ties and dispositions implied. See Fig. 159, supra, for a drawing of the 
Sci-Manzi or “ Mescal Woman” of the Kaiowa as it appears on a sacred 
gourd rattle used in the mescal ceremony of that tribe, with description. 
In Kingsborough (h) is the record that ‘in the year of Ten Houses, 
or 1489, a very large comet, which they name Xihuitli, appeared.” 
The comet is represented in the 
plate by the symbol of a caterpillar, 
in allusion, perhaps, to its supposed 
influence in causing blights. This 2 
may be compared with the measuring Fic. 977.—Comet. Mexican. 
worm, symbol of the rainbow, supra. The character is reproduced in 
Fig. 977. 
In the same work and Codex, Pls. 10, 12, and 33, are three charac- 
ters, somewhat differing, representing earthquakes, which, according 
to the text in Vol. v1, p. 137, et seq., occurred in Mexico in the years 
A. D. 1461, 1467, and 1542. The concept appears to be that of the 
disruption and change of the position of the several strata of soil, which 
are indicated by the diverse coloration. These characters are repro- 
duced in the present work in Pl. XLIx as the three on the right hand in 
the lower line. 
Fig. 978 is from the same work (7), Codex Mendoza, 
and is the symbol for robbery, in allusion to the pun- 
ishment of the convicted robber. 
In the same work (k), Codex Vaticanus, is the fol- 
lowing description, in quaint language, of the plate 
now reproduced in Pl. XLIx: 
These are the twenty letters or figures which they employed in py, 978.—Robbery. 
all their calculations, which they supposed ruled over men, as Mexicun. 
the figure shows, and they cured in a corresponding manner those who became ill or 
suffered pains in any part of the body. The sign of the wind was assigned to the 
