1S94.] 39 [Brinton. 



ancient prophet, Chilan Balara, " whose words cannot fail." In a 

 stirring appeal he urged his fellow-countrymen to attack the 

 Spaniards without fear of consequences. 



" 'Be not afraid,' he exclaimed, 'of their cannons and their forls ; for 

 among the many to whom I have taught the arts of magic (el arte de bru- 

 jeria) there are fifteen chosen ones, marvelous experts, who by their 

 mystic power will enter the fortress, slay the sentinels, and throw open 

 the gates to our warriors. I shall take the leaves of the sacred tree, and 

 folding them into trumpets, I shall call to the four winds of heaven, and 

 a multitude of fighting men will hasten to our aid.' "* 



Saying this, he took a sheet of paper, held it up to show that it 

 was blank, folded it for a moment, and then spread it out covered 

 with writing ! This deft trick convinced his simple-minded 

 hearers of the truth of his claims and they rushed to arms. He 

 led them, clothed in the robe of the Virgin and with her crown 

 on his head. But neither their enthusiasm nor their leader's art 

 magic availed, and soon Jacinto and his followers fell victims to 

 the stake and the gallows. After their death the dance of " the 

 tiger," or of Chac-Mool — the '' ghost dance " of the Mayas — was 

 prohibited ; and the use of the sacred drum — the favorite in- 

 strument of the native priests — w^as forbidden. f 



In fact, wherever we have any full accounts of the revolts 

 against the Spanish domination during the three centuries of its 

 existence in New Spain, we can manifestly trace the guiding 

 fingers of the powerful though hidden hand of Nagualism. An 

 earlier revolt of the Mayas in Yucatan occurred in 1585. It 

 was led by Andres Chi, a full-blood Indian, and a descendant of 

 the ancient royal house of the Cocomes. He also announced 

 himself as a priest of the ancient faith, a prophet and a worker 

 of miracles, sent to instruct his own people in a new religion 

 and to give them an independent political existence. Seized by 



• The mention of the fifteen, 5x3, chosen disciples indicates that the same sj-stem of 

 initiating; by triplets prevailed in Yucatan as in Chiapas (see above, p. 27). The sacred 

 tree is not named, but presumably it was the ceiba to which I refer elsewhere. The ad- 

 dress of Jacinto wns obtained from those present, and is given at length by the Jesuit 

 Martin del Puerto, in his Relacion liceho al Cahildo Eclesiaslico par cl preposito de la Cam- 

 pania dc Jrstis, acerca de la muerte de Jacinto Can-Kk ij socios, Dec. 26, 1701. It is published, 

 with other document^! relating to this revolt, in the Appendix to the Diccionario Univer- 

 sal, edited by Orozco y Berra, Mexico, 1850. On the prophecies of Chilan Balam, see my 

 Essays of an Americanist, pp. 255-273 (Philadelphia, 18'J0). 



t Eligio Ancona, Hist, de Yucatan, Tom. ii, p. 152. 



