Biinton.] ^^ [Jan. 5, 



Such, among the Aztecs, was the sorceress who built the city 

 of Mallinalco, on the road from Mexico to Michoacan, famous 

 even after the conquest for the skill of its magicians, who 

 claimed descent from her.* Such, in Honduras, was Coami- 

 zagual, queen of Cerquin, versed in all occult science, who died 

 not, but at the close of her earthly career rose to heaven in the 

 form of a beautiful bird, amid the roll of thunder and the flash 

 of lightning.f 



According to an autlior intimately familiar with the Mexican 

 nagualists, the art they claimed to possess of transforming 

 themselves into the lower animals was taught their predecessors 

 by a woman, a native Circe, a mighty enchantress, whose usual 

 name was Quilaztli (the etymology of which is unknown), but 

 who bore also four others, representing her four metamorphoses, 

 Cohuacihuatl, the Serpent Woman; Quauhcihuatl, the Eagle 

 Woman ; Yaocihuatl, the Warrior Woman ; and Tzitzimecihuatl, 

 the Specter Woman. | 



The powers of these queens of magic extended widel}^ among 

 their sex. We read in the chronicles of ancient Mexico that 

 when Nezahualpilli, the king, oppressed the tribes of the coast, 

 the tierra caliente, they sent against him, not their warriors, but 

 their witches. These cast upon him their fatal spells, so that 

 when he walked forth from his palace, blood burst from his 

 mouth, and he fell prone and dead. § 



In Guatemala, as in ancient Delphos, the gods were believed 

 to speak through the mouths of these inspired seeresses, and at 

 the celebration of victories they enjoyed a privilege so strange 

 and horrible that I quote it from the old manuscript before me 

 without venturing a translation : 



" . . . . Despues de sncrificar los antiguos algua hombre, despedaQan- 

 dolo, si era de los que avian cogido en guerra, dicen que guardabaa el 



* Acosta, Hist. Nat. y Moral de las TiuUas, Lib. vii, cap. 5. 



t The .story is given in Herrera, Hist, dc Ins Iiidias, Dec. iv, Lib. viii, cap. 4. The name 

 Coamizagual is translated iu the account as " Flying Tigress." I cannot assign it this 

 sense in any dialect. 



t Jacinto dc la Serna, Manual de Ministros. p. 138. Sahagun identifies Quilaztli with 

 Tonantzin, the common mother of mankind and goddess of child-birth (///.s7. dc Nueva 

 Expiuia, Lib. i, cap. 6, Lib. vi, cap. 27). Further particulars of her arc related by Tor- 

 quemada, Monarquia Indiana, Lib. ii, cap. 2. The tzitsime were mysterious elemental 

 powers, who, the Nahuas believed, were destined finally to destroy the present world 

 (Sahagun, 1. c, Lib. vi, cap. 8). The word means " flying haired" (Serna). 



i Torquemnda, Monarqtiia Indiana, Lib. ii, cap. 62. 



