Brinton.] ^'^ [Jan. 5, 



Tota^ Our Fiither. They are said to have represented the gods 

 of woods and waters.* In the ancient mythology we often hear 

 of the " tree of life," represented to have four branches, each 

 sacred to one of the four cardinal points and the divinities asso- 

 ciated therewith. 



The conventionalized form of this tree in the Mexican figura- 

 tive paintings strongly resembles a cross. Examples of it are 

 numerous and unmistakable, as, for instance, the cruciform tree 

 of life rising from a head with a protruding tongue, in the 

 Vienna Codex. f 



33. Thus, the sign of the cross, either the form with equal 

 arms known as the cross of St. Andrew, which is the oldest 

 Christian form, or the Latin cross, with its arms of unequal 

 length, came to be the ideogram for " life " in the Mexican 

 hieroglyphic writing ; and as such, with more or less variants, 

 was employed to signify the tonalli or iiagual, the sign of 

 nativity, the natal day, the personal spirit. | The ancient 

 document called the Mappe Quinatzin offers examples, and its 

 meaning is explained by various early writers. The peculiar 

 character of the Mexican ritual calendar, by which nativities 

 were calculated, favored a plan of representing them in the 

 shape of a cross ; as we see in the singular Codex Cruci- 

 formis of the Boturini-Goupil collection. 



33. But the doctrines of Nagualism had a phase even more 

 detestable to the missionaries than any of these, an esoteric 

 phase, which brought it into relation to the libidinous cults 

 of Babylon and the orgies of the " Witches' Sabbaths " of the 

 Dark Ages. Of these occult practices we of course have no 

 detailed descriptions, but there are hints and half-glances which 

 leave us in no doubt. 



When the mysterious metamorphosis of the individual into 

 his or her nagual was about to take place, the person must 



* Diego Diiran, lUstoria de los Lidios de Nueva Espafin, Tom. ii, p. HO. 



t In Kingsborough, Antiquities of Mexico, Vol. ii, PI. 180. On tlie cross as a form de- 

 rived from a tree .see the observations of W. H. Holmes, in the Second Annual Report of 

 the Bureau of EtJnwIofjy, pp. 270, 271. 



I " All Mcxique, le cadre cr(>is(5, la croix en sautoir, comme celle de St. Andre, avec 

 qnelqiies variantes, representait le signe de nativity, tonalli, la fete, lejoiirnatal " M. 

 Anbin, in Bobaii, Oilalopue Rnisonnie de la Collection Goupil, Tom. i, p. 227. Boih Ciomaia 

 and llerrera may be quoted to this etiect. 



