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Brinton.l ^^ [Jan. 5, 



1. The words, a nagnaJ, nagualism, a nagualist, have been 

 current in English prose for more than seventy years; they are 

 found during that time in a variety of books published in Eng- 

 land aud the Uuited States,* yet are not to be discovered in 

 any dictionary of the English language; nor has Nagualism a 

 place in any of the numerous encyclopiiedias or " Conversation 

 Lexicons," in English, French, German or Spanish. 



This is not owing to its lack of importance, since for two 

 hundred years past, as I shall show, it has been recognized as a 

 cult, no less powerful than mysterious, which united many and 

 diverse tribes of Mexico and Central America into organized 

 opposition against the government and the religion which had 

 been introduced from Europe; whose members had acquired 

 and were bound together by strange faculties and an occult 

 learning, which placed them on a par with the famed thaumatur- 

 gists and theodidacts of the Old World ; and which preserved 

 even into our own da3'S the thoughts and forms of a long sup- 

 pressed ritual. 



In several previous publications I have referred briefly to this 

 secret sodality and its aims,f and now believe it worth while to 

 collect my scattered notes and present all that I have found of 

 value about the origin, aims and significance of this Eleusinian 

 Mystery of America. I shall trace its geographical exten- 

 sion and endeavor to discover what its secret influence really 

 was and is. 



2. The earliest description I find of its particular rites is that 

 which the historian Herrera gives, as they prevailed in 1530, in 

 the province of Cerquin, in the mountainous parts of Honduras. 

 It is as follows : 



" The Devil was accustomed to deceive these natives by appearing to 

 them in the form ota lion, tiger, coyote, lizard, snake, bird, or other ani- 

 mal. To these appearances they apply the name Naguales, which is as 

 much as to say, guardians or companions ; and when such an animal 

 dies, so does the Indian to whom it was Assigned. The way such an alli- 

 ance was formed was thus : The Indian repaired to some very retired spot 



* These words occur a number of times in the English translation, published at Lon- 

 don in 1822, of Dr. Paul Felix Cabrera's Tealro Critico Amerimvo. The form nngual in- 

 stead of naliual, or naunl, or naiiat has been generally adopted and should be preferred. 



t For instance, in " The Names of the Gods in the Kiche Myths," pp. 21, 22, in Pro- 

 ceedings of the American Pliilosopliical Society, 1881 ; Annals oj the Cukchiqticis, Introduc- 

 tion, p. 46 ; Esaays of an Americanist, p. 170, etc. 



