1S94.] ^•'- [Brinton. 



native illuminati, bis robe marked with the sign of the cross to 

 show that he was Lord of the Four Winds and of Life. * 



26. The nagualistic rites were highly symbolic, and the sjMn- 

 bols used had clearlj' defined meanings, which enable us to 

 analyze the religious ideas underlj-ing this mj^sterious cult. 



The most important symbol was Fire. It was regarded as 

 the primal element and the immediate source of life. Father 

 Nicolas de Leon has the following suggestive passage in this 

 connection : 



"If any of their old superstitions has remained more deeply rooted 

 than another in the hearts of these Indians, both men and women, it 

 is this about fire and its worslnp, and about making new fire and pre- 

 serving it for a year in secret places. We should be on the watch for 

 this, and when in their confessions they speak of what the Fire said 

 and how the Fire wept, expressions which we are apt to pass by as 

 unintelligible, we must lay our hands on them for reprehension. We 

 should also be on the watch for their baptism by Fire, a ceremony 

 called the yiahuiltocn,\ shortly after the birth of a child when they bestow 

 on it the surnames ; nor must the lying-in women and their assistants 

 be permitted to speak of Fire as the father and mother of all things 

 and the author of nature ; because it is a common saying with them 

 that Fire is present at the birth and death of every creature." 



This curious ceremony derived its name from the yiahuitli, a 

 plant not unlike the absinthe, the powdered leaves of which, 

 according to Father Sahagun, the natives were accustomed to 

 throw into the flames as an offering to the fire.| Long after the 

 conquest, and probably to this day, the same custom prevails in 

 Mexico, the fumes and odor of the burning leaves being con- 

 sidered very salubrious and purifying to the air of the sick 

 room § 



* See Dr. Seler's minute description in the Comptc Rendu of the Eighth Session of the 

 Congres Internalional des Americanistes, pp. 588, 589. In one of the conjuration formu- 

 las given by de la Serna (Manual de Miiiistrn.<, p. 212) the priest says : " Yo soy el sacer- 

 dote, el dios Quet-nlroatl, que sebajarA al infierno, y subir^ & lo superior, y hastalos nueve 

 infiernos." This writer, who was very competent in the Nahuatl, translates the name. 

 Quotzalcoatl by "culebra con cresta" {id., p. 171), an unusual, but perhaps a correct 

 rendering. 



t His words here are somewhat obscure. They are, " El baptism© de fnego, en donde 

 las ponen los sobre nombres que llaman yahuiltoca, quando nacen." This may be trans- 

 lated, "The baptism of fire in which they confer the names which they call i/ahuiltoca." 

 The obscurity is in the Nahuatl, as the word toca may be a plural of tocciiV/, name, as well 

 as the verb toca, to throw upon. The passage is from the (.'amino del Cido, fol. 100, verso. 



J Sahagun, Ilistoria de la Niieva E-sjmm, Lib. iv, cap. '25. 



i It is mentioned as useful for this purpose by the early physicians, Francisco Xime- 

 ncs, Cuatro Libros de la Naturaleza, p. 144 ; Hernandez, Hist. Plant. Novse Hispanise, Tom. 



