9Q 



1894.] ^^ [lirinton. 



times, and Uie Tzentals revered it so much that thej^ preserved it innum- 

 erable years painted on a tablet in the above figure. Even after they were 

 converted to the faith, they hung it behind a beam in the church of the 

 town of Oxchuc, accompanied by an image of their god Hicalahau, hav- 

 ing a ferocious black fiice with the members of a man,* along with five 

 owls and vultures. By divine interposition, we discovered these on our 

 second visit tliere in 1687, and had no little difficulty in getting them 

 down, we reciting the creed, and the Indians constantly spitting as they 

 executed our orders. These objects were publicly burned in the plaza. 



" In other parts they reverence the bones of the earlier Nagualists, pre- 

 serving them in caves, where they adorn them with flowers and burn 

 copal before them. We have discovered some of these and burned them, 

 hoping to root out and put a stop to such evil ceremonies of the infernal 

 sect of the Nagualists. 



"At present, all are not so subject to the promptings of the Devil as 

 formerly, but there are still some so closely allied to him that thej"^ trans- 

 form themselves into tigers, lions, bulls, flashes of lightand globes of fire. 

 We can say from the declaration and solemn confession of some penitents 

 that it is proved that the Devil had carnal relations with them, both as in- 

 cubus and succubus, approaching them in the form of their Nagual ; and 

 there was one woman who remained in the forest a week with the demon 

 in the form of her Nagual, acting toward him as does an infatuated 

 woman toward her lover (como pudiera con su proprio amigo una muger 

 amancebada). As a punishment for such horrible crimes our Lord has 

 permitted that they lose their life as soon as their Nagual is killed ; and 

 that they bear on their own bodies the wound or mark of the blow which 

 killed it ; as the curas of Chamula, Copainala and other places have as- 

 sured us. 



"The devilish seed of this Nagualism has rooted itself in the very flesh 

 and blood of these Indians. It perseveres in their hearts through the in- 

 structions of the masters of the sect, and there is scarcely a town in these 

 provinces in which it has not been introduced. It is a superstitious idola- 

 try, full of monstrous incests, sodomies and detestable bestialities." 



Such are the words of the Bishop of Chiapas. We learn 

 from his thoroughly instructed and unimpeachable testimony 

 that at the beginning of the eighteenth century- Nagualism 

 was a widespread and active institution among the Indians of 

 southern Mexico ; that it was taught and practiced by profes- 

 sors who were so much feared and respected that, as he tells us 

 in another passage, they were called " masters of the towns ;"f 

 that they gave systematic instruction to disciples in classes of 



* Ilicalahau, for ical aliau, Black King, one of the Tzental divinities, who will be re- 

 ferrml to on a later page, 

 t " Maestros de los pueblos," Conslitut. Diocesan, i, p. 106. 



