Brinton.] ■'■^ [Jan. 5. 



"To practice this art the sorcerers, usually old women, shut themselves 

 in a house, and intoxicate themselves to the degree of losing their reason. 

 The next day they are ready to reply to questions."* 



Plants possessing similar powers to excite vivid visions and 

 distort the imagination, and, therefore, employed in the magical 

 rites, were the thiuimeezque, in Michoacaa, and the chacuaco, in 

 lower California."}" 



6. In spite of all effort, the various classes of wonder-workers 

 continued to thrive in Mexico. We find in a book of sermons 

 published by the Jesuit Father, Ignacio de Paredes, in the 

 Nahuatl language, in 1757, that he strenuously warns his hearers 

 against invoking, consulting, or calling upon " the devilish 

 spell-binders, the nagualists, and those who conjure with 

 smoke."! 



They have not yet lost their power ; we have evidence enough 

 that many children of a larger growth in that land still listen with 

 respect to the recitals of the mysterious faculties attributed to 

 the nanahualtin. An observant German traveler, Carlos von 

 Gagern, informs us that they are widely believed to be able to 

 cause sicknesses and other ills, which must be counteracted by 

 appropriate exorcisms, among which the reading aloud certain 

 passages of the Bible is deemed to be one of the most potent. § 



The learned historian, Orozco y Berra, speaks of the powers 

 attributed at the present day to the nahual in Mexico among the 

 lower classes, in these words : 



"Thenrt/maZis generally an old Indian with red eyes, who knows 

 how to turn himself into a dog, woolly, black and ugly. The female witch 

 can convert herselflnto a ball of fire ; she has the power of flight, and at 

 night will enter the windows and suck the blood of little children. These 

 sorcerers will make little images of rags or of clay, ihen stick into them 

 the thorn of the maguey and place them in some secret place ; you can 



* Acosta, De la Hintoria Moral de Indias, Lib. v, cap. 26. 



t Of the tiduimcezque Hernandez writes : " Aunit radicis cortice unius uncise pondere 

 tiiso, fttciue devorato, multa ante oculos observare phantasmata, nniltipliccs imagines ac 

 moustrilicas reriim figuras, detegiqne furem, si quidpiam rei familiaris subrcptum sit." 

 Hist. Plant. Nov. llispan., Tom. iii, p. 272. The chaciiaco and its effects are described by 

 Father Venegas in his History of CaUfornia, etc. 



J " In Mictlim Tethichihuique, in Nanahualtin, in Tlahuipuchtln." Paredes, Promptu- 

 ario Manual Mexicano, p. 128 (Mexico, 1757). The tlahuijmchtin, " those who work with 

 smoke," were probably diviners who foretold the future from the forms taken by smoke 

 in rising in the air. This class of augurs were also found in Peru, where they were called 

 Uirapircos (Balboa, Hist, du Perou, p. 28-30) . 



§ Von Gagern, Charakteristik der Indlanischer Bewlkerung Mexikos, s. 125. 



