Briuton.] ^^ [Jan. 5, 



esteem for this purpose. In the Confessionary of Father Bar- 

 tholome de Alva the priest is supposed to inquire and learn as 

 follows : 



"Question. Hast thou loved Gcd above all things? Hast thou loved 

 any created thing, adoring it, looking upon it as God, and worshiping it? 



"Answer. I have loved God with all my heart ; but sometimes I Live 

 believed in dreams, and also I have believed in the sacred herbs, ' le 

 peyotl, and the ololiuhqui ; and in other such things {onicneltocac in temict.i, 

 in xiuhtzintli, in peyotl, in ololiuhqui, yhuan in occequitlamantli) ." * 



The seeds of the ololiuhqui appear to have been employed 

 externally. They were the efficient element in the mysterious 

 unguent known as " the divine remedy " (feopatli), about which 

 we find some information in the works of Father Augustin de 

 Yetancurt, who lived in Mexico in the middle of the seventeenth 

 century. He writes : 



"The pagan priests made use of an ointment composed of insects, such 

 as spiders, scorpions, centipedes and the like, which the neophytes in the 

 temples prepared. They burned these insects in a basin, collected the 

 ashes, and rubbed it up with green tobacco leaves, living worms and in- 

 sects, and the powdered seeds of a plant called ololiuhqui, which has the 

 power of inducing visions, and the effect of which is to destroy the reason- 

 ing powers. Under the influence of this ointment, they conversed with 

 the Devil, and he with them, practicing his deceptions upon them. They 

 also believed that it protected them, so they had no fear of going into the 

 woods at night. 



"This was also employed by them as a remedy in various diseases, and 

 the soothing influence of the tobacco and the ololiuhqui was attributed 

 by them to divine agency^. There are some in our own day who make 

 use of this ointment for sorcery, shutting themselves up, and losing their 

 reason under its influence ; especially some old men and old women, who 

 are prepared to fall an easy prey to the Devil."f 



The botanist Hernandez observes that another name for this 

 plant was coaxihuitl, " serpent plant," and adds that its seeds 

 contain a narcotic poison, and that it is allied to the genus Sola- 

 num, of which the deadly night-shade is a familiar species. He 

 speaks of its use in the sacred rites in these words : 



"Indorum sacrifici. cum videri volebant versari cum superis, ac rc- 

 sponsa accipere ab eis, ea vescebautur planta, ul desipereut, mllieque 

 phantasmata et demonum observatium effigies circumspectarent.'"t 



* Confessionnrio Mayor y Menor en Icngua Mexicana, fol. 8, verso (Mexico, 163-1). 



t Vetimcurt, Teatro Mexicano, Trat. iii, cap. 9. 



X Heruaudez, Uistoria Planlarum Novx lUspunix, Tom. iii, p. 32. 



