# Mexico of the Mexicans/Chapter XII

CHAPTER XII
ABORIGINAL AND SAVAGE MEXICO
The question of the origin of the natives of Mexico is one which has vexed the minds of antiquaries for generations; but it is now generally conceded that, in dim and distant prehistoric times, the native American races must have entered the continent they now inhabit from Asia. But this statement must not be taken as meaning that they drew their culture in any degree from the East. Entering America as barbarous and, perhaps, speechless savages, they had perforce to evolve a civilisation of their own; and the best proof that that civilisation is not in any way Asiatic is the absence of Old World animals, food-stuffs, and plants on the American continent. A study, too, of the American native languages completes the evidence that these must have evolved under entirely American conditions.
BURNING ASPHALT FLOWING INTO A RIVER
​Mexican native tongue. The letter x is invariably pronounced as "sh,"; j as "h"; c is hard except before "e," "i"; ch is sounded like the "ch" in "child"; and z, as in English and not with its Spanish pronunciation of "th" soft. It is strange to think that no Nahua grammar has been written in the English language; and that, although the British and Foreign Bible Society publishes the Scriptures in the Nahua tongue, that English scholars have no aid to assist them in learning the language. The numerous Spanish grammars, most of them written in the century subsequent to the Conquest of Mexico, are cumbrous and ill-adapted to the uses of English-speaking people. Moreover, the high prices they bring places them beyond the reach of the general public. The best grammar for the Briton who can also read Spanish is that by M. Remi Siméon. It is a translation, with notes, of the Nahuatl grammar of Fray Andrés de Olmos, and is now rather difficult to procure. The Nahuatl language is difficult of acquirement, and a residence in the country is essential if fluency in it is desired. It is, of course, necessary to have a sound knowledge of its vocabulary and structure before commencing the study of Mexican antiquity.
We shall glance briefly at the present condition of the several tribes who now inhabit the Mexican territory. There is, however, a considerable diversity of feature and physiological character among the different races, which, though not detected by the European stranger, is not less fundamental than the difference between, say, the Hindu and the Persian. Thus the Indians of Tlascala differ widely in their appearance from those of the Northern provinces. It is remarkable that the natives of Mexico have a more swarthy complexion than the inhabitants of the warmer climates of South America. The Mexicans, particularly those of the Aztec and Otomi races, have more beard than any of the Southern tribes, and almost all the Indians in the neighbourhood of the capital wear small moustaches. The natives are ​rarely subject to any deformity. In Mexico, they generally attain an advanced age, especially the women, who frequently reach a century, and preserve their muscular strength to the last. Their hair scarcely ever turns grey, and it is far more rare to find an Indian than a negro with grey hair. In Mexico, drunkenness is most common amongst the Indians who inhabit the valley of Anahuac and the environs of Puebla and Tlascala, wherever, indeed, the maguey is cultivated on a large scale. The Mexican Indian is grave, melancholic, and silent so long as he is not under the influence of pulque. He loves to throw a mysterious air over the most casual actions. He passes all at once from a state of absolute stolidity to violent and ungovernable agitation. This is especially the case with the inhabitants of Tlascala, who are still distinguished by a certain haughtiness which seems to speak of a remembrance of the independence of their ancestors. The Mexican Indians display a great aptitude in the arts of imitation, and a much greater skill in those which are purely mechanical. Humboldt was astonished at what they were able to execute in carving, with a bad knife, on the hardest wood. They are fond of painting, but have been servilely imitating for 400 years the models which the Europeans imported with them at the Conquest. Their music and dancing partake of the want of gaiety which characterises them. Their songs are melancholy. They have preserved their fondness for flowers which was noticed by Cortés. In the great market-places the Indian fruiterer appears seated behind an entrenchment of fresh herbs. Garlands of flowers and nosegays are suspended round his shop or stall, and these are renewed every day. The stranger cannot fail to be struck with the care and elegance which the natives display in distributing the fruits, which they sell in small baskets of very light wood, ornamented with flowers.
NATIVE INDIAN MARKET
​until the noble efforts of Las Casas drew the attention of the Court of Spain to their sufferings. Commissioners were then dispatched to inquire into these abuses, but the measures which were adopted with a view to alleviating the conditions of the Indians were perverted by the avarice and cunning of the conquerors to their disadvantage. The system of encomiendas was introduced, by which the remains of the conquered population were shared out among the conquistadores, and placed under the superintendence and protection of certain masters. The encomiendero was bound to live in the district which contained the Indians of his encomienda, to watch over their conduct, instruct and civilise them, and protect them from persecution or imposition. In return for these services, they received a tribute in labour or in produce. But, in consequence of this attempt at amelioration, slavery only assumed a more systematic and legalised form; and the abuse of the protecting regulations followed close upon their institution. A great number of the finest encomiendas were distributed among the monks, and religion became degraded by its participation in the servitude of the people. These conditions attached the Indians to the soil, and the slave frequently took the family name of his master; hence, many Indian families bear Spanish names, although their blood has never been mingled with that of Europeans. Such was the state of the Mexican peasantry in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In the eighteenth, their situation was somewhat improved by the abolition of the encomiendas; and King Charles III of Spain prohibited at the same time the repartimientos, by which the corregidors arbitrarily constituted themselves the creditors, and virtually the masters of the natives, by furnishing them, at extravagant prices, with horses, mules, and clothes, in consideration of which they became entitled to the profits of their labour. The establishment of intendencies during the ministry of the Count de Galvez was an important benefit conferred on the Indian population. Under the superintendence of these governors, ​the vexations to which the peon was exposed from the lesser Spanish and Indian magistracy were greatly diminished. A previous regulation in their favour had given them magistrates of their own choice; but it was found necessary to appoint over these a corregidor, to prevent the Indian alcaldes from abusing their authority. The Indians were exempted from every sort of indirect impost; they paid no taxes, and the law allowed them full liberty in the sale of their productions. The impost of the tributos, which was a direct capitation tax, paid by all male Indians between the ages of 10 and 50, had also been considerably reduced in several of the intendencies. Besides this, they were liable only to the payment of parochial dues and offerings. Such was the state of things prior to the first Revolution.
But while the Legislature appeared thus to favour the Indians with regards to imposts, it deprived them of the most important civil rights, and, affecting to treat them as perpetual minors, declared null and void every act signed by a native, and every obligation which he might contract beyond the value of 15 francs. It is possible that the intention of the Legislature was to protect them against being held in bondage on the plea of debt by those who had constituted themselves their creditors for this purpose, but the effect was to render thousands incapable of entering into any binding contract, and to place an insurmountable barrier between the Indians and other castes.
"In fact," says the Bishop of Michoacan, in a memoir presented to the Spanish monarch in 1799, "he Indians and the races of mixed blood are in a state of extreme humiliation. The colour peculiar to the Indians, their ignorance, and especially their poverty, remove them to an infinite distance from the whites. The privileges which the laws seem to concede to the Indians are of small advantage to them; perhaps they are rather hurtful. Shut up within the narrow boundaries (the radius of which is only 542 yards) assigned by an ancient law to the Indian villages, the natives ​may be said to have no individual property; and they are bound to cultivate the common property, without the hope of ever reaping the fruit of their labours. The new regulations of the intendancias direct that the natives shall no longer receive assistance from the general funds (caxas de communidades) without special permission of the Board of Finances of Mexico. The common property has been farmed out by the intendants, and the produce of the labour of the natives is poured into the royal treasury."
The chief preserve of the Aztec race is still in the territory immediately surrounding the capital—the valley of Anahuac. They swarm in Mexico city itself, and make Prsent-day Aztecs. a living as vendors of water, mats, tortillas, and minor articles of domestic usefulness. Some of them are engaged in the manufacture of false antiquities; and although it is easy for the specialist to expose these spurious antiques, hundreds of unsuspecting visitors are annually victimised by their purchase. Some of the more superior Aztecs, however, deal in genuine pieces, and even these find it hard enough to overcome the distrust of the natives, even in the Federal District, who will conceal the fact that they possess any muñecas, or puppets, as they call antiquities, until the patience of the dealer is well-nigh exhausted.
The unhappy remnants of the Aztec race are prone to the consumption of large quantities of pulque and brandy, especially on Sundays, and this has probably much to do with the seeming poverty of their physique and low stature. In reality they are, however, exceedingly strong, and can carry burdens, which would crush a European labourer, for long distances. The Aztecs are proud of their language, and highly respect any foreigner who understands it. They are affectionate, in their domestic relations at least; and the parents evince great pride in their children, whom they pet and caress, as all Indians do. Stories reach one from time to time, based on good authority, to the effect that the ​Aztecs still sacrifice their children to the rain-god Tlaloc by throwing them into the Lake of Tezcuco, and it is to be hoped that these tales have no real foundation in fact.
Nowhere, perhaps, can the Aztec race be better studied in its primitive condition than in the vicinity of the town of Tuxpam, in the State of Jalisco and its surrounding district. The people in this vicinity are of medium height, but scarcely of true Aztec physiognomy, and it is possible that there is some racial admixture. They are scrupulously clean in their habits, truthful, and, as a rule, honest, but extremely shy of strangers. They are, however, extremely poor, as the earning capacity of the males is only about 23 cents Mexican per diem. Their inordinate extravagance in the habit of giving feasts—a habit to which all Indians are prone—seems to make it impossible for them to save. The men, too, are sad drunkards, and it is nothing uncommon for them to fritter away their week's wages on a Sunday after having laboured strenuously throughout the week. Their favourite liquor is mescal, a peculiarly deadly compound, which often drives its victims into a frenzy. Indeed, were it not for the patience and industry of their womenkind, it would be difficult to say to what native humanity among the Aztecs of Tuxpam would be reduced. Frequently these wretched women have to toil to clothe both husband and children, and strict supervision and legislation is urgently necessary to lighten their burden. Vegetable gardening is one of the industries in which the Aztec excels. A great deal has been written about the floating gardens or chinampas of the ancient race at the time of the Conquest, and there is every reason to believe that the natives had brought gardening to a high pitch of perfection before the advent of the Spaniard. Indeed, the descriptions given by the conquerors of the wonderful gardens of Montecuhzoma repeatedly state that Spain could boast no such botanical display. The Aztecs, we know, had also a passion for flowers, a taste which is strongly shared by their modern representatives. The flower ​and fruit market to-day in Mexico is one of the sights of the city, and the native taste displayed in arrangement of both fruit and blossoms is quite remarkable. The Mexican Indian is, like most people with an ancient civilisation behind them, a good trader, but he is by no means insatiable. Strangely enough, however, he is extremely given to litigation, and it is by no means uncommon for the members of a family to wage furious legal warfare with one another as to the division of an inheritance until not one fraction of their birthright remains.
Some Aztec Indians live on the most approved lines of civilisation, having their houses furnished in the European manner and wearing the garments of fashion. But it has to be recorded that when a favourable opportunity presents itself, they vacate their cushioned seats and squat upon the floor!
The marriage relation between the sexes is a peculiar one. The Aztecs are often inordinately jealous of their wives and, if their suspicions are in any way aroused, beat them mercilessly. But to this the women do not seem to object. Indeed, if a husband ceases to beat his wife, she usually makes it a matter for complaint, and argues therefrom that he has grown careless and has ceased to love her. The Aztecs, like the ancient Hebrews, must by custom labour for at least a year with their prospective fathers-in-law before earning the right to wed their brides. On the day of the wedding, the groom presents the lady of his choice with a sum of money, about a sovereign, with which she purchases dress material or provisions. These articles are not supposed to be worn or eaten, but sold by her at the local market in order that she may make a profit upon them and thus lay the nucleus of savings for a rainy day.
There is a strange belief among the Aztecs that, as the country once belonged to them, they have a perfect right to all within its borders. Thus no one can draw from them admission that they have stolen anything. Racial feeling ​is strong among these poor people, and rightly so. They are proud in their own way of the great past of their race; and if the Spanish element in the country contemns them and speaks slightingly of them as naturales and gentes sin razon, is it to be marvelled at that the Indians for their part hate and despise the descendants of their Castilian conquerors? Notwithstanding that the majority of the Indians can speak Spanish, they very frequently refuse to do so; their religious confessions are made in Nahuatl; and even Indian boys at school refuse to have any relations with their white fellow-pupils. Mexicans are never welcome at Indian entertainments; and should they interfere in internecine squabbles, the Indians of both conflicting parties will join forces against the intruders.
But it must be recorded that the Aztecs are by no means liberal save in their feasts. They have to labour too strenuously to allow themselves the luxury of generosity, and in this they resemble most peasantries chained to the soil. Indeed, it is difficult to get them to render a service, even if ample remuneration is tendered them, so thorough is their distrust of the whites, by whom they have been continuously exploited for nearly 400 years.
The Tarascan Indians, most of whom are situated in the North-western portion of the State of Michoacan, are the descendants of a people who at one time The Tarascans. rivalled in civilisation and culture the Aztecs themselves. They were celebrated for their excellence in the jeweller's art and in pottery. Their present-day representatives are small and agile in build and movements, and usually succeed, unlike some other native tribes, in growing respectable beards and moustaches. Their attire is by no means scanty, and they frequently wear Mexican clothing. Their women are clever at the loom, and produce excellent blankets and zarapes, both cotton and woollen. The scenery of their country is pastoral and, for the most part they have it all to themselves, or it is in the hands of ​half-castes, but seldom in those of the pure Mexicanos, of whom they are suspicious, not without good reason. They are conservative to a degree, and isolation has rendered them illiberal and somewhat fanatical, so that the Mexican Government has always regarded them with some distrust.
The dwellings of the Tarascan Indians recall those of the Japanese peasant. They are built of heavy pine logs and roofed by shingle-covered boards which overlap one another. They consist of one room and are built without windows. The chief industry of the country is the textile work before alluded to. Such agriculture as exists is on a feeble scale, and consists for the most part of individual efforts to raise corn and beans for private consumption. As in some other native quarters of Mexico, the women are the salvation of the community, and were it not for their bravery and unselfishness it would go hard with the men, many of whom are quite content to allow their wives to labour day in, day out, for them whilst they loaf and liquor. May the writer suggest to the charitable that a better sphere for their bounty and usefulness could not be found than in the amelioration of the lot of these poor native women of Mexico, many of whom possess not even the common liberties of humanity, but are forced to exist in an environment compared to which a well-nourished slavery would be a paradise.
The Tarascans are, however, gifted with a keen commercial sense, and peddle their wares over an extensive tract of country, their stocks comprising pottery, home-made musical instruments (they are musical to a degree), blankets, maguey rope, and so forth. They make the entire journey on foot and return with necessaries purchased in the towns they have visited, these articles being, of course, of such a kind as cannot be procured in their own villages. They can make a profit of 300 per cent, on their pottery alone, and on their return usually succeed on doubling their gains by the sale of the articles they have brought back. Their turnover ​is entirely limited to their carrying capacity, which is, indeed, considerable.
The Tarascan women are cleanly and tidy, but the men wash only once a year, and are generally unkempt and shaggy. Their principal food is corn and cooked herbs, and they infuse a kind of tea from the leaf of a bush called murite, which aids digestion and acts as a nerve-tonic. The people are blessed with wonderful health for the most part, but the climate induces pulmonary complaints, and jaundice is prevalent. They are very superstitious regarding illness, and frequently placate its various manifestations by soothing language and the burning of incense, addressing it as "Father." But should it prove fatal, they abuse it foully, and beat the air of their houses in order to expel it. This practice is, of course, a remnant of old magico-religious practice. The Tarascans were, until recently, rather given to robbery and brigandage, but the bands of plunderers who infested their country have been wiped out. As a race, they are possessed of wild and ungovernable tempers, but are kind and hospitable among themselves. They are born orators, and many of the distinguished priests which Mexico has produced originated among this people.
Some of the aboriginal tribes of Mexico still exist in a savage or semi-barbarous condition. The Coras, resident in the Pacific State of Tepic, are, many of them, pagans or semi-pagans, suspicious through isolation and difficult to understand. They are a comparatively pure stock, and discountenance intermarriage with Mexicans or even with other Indians. However, they dress like Mexicans, but there the resemblance ends. They are typically Indian in physiognomy, and their chief industry is making ornamental pouches of cotton and wool, which in pattern recall the bead-work of the North American Indians. With them, provisions are plentiful, and life is easy and tranquil. Their houses are built of stone. Their religion takes the form of ritualistic dances, the worship of the morning star, and frequent fasts.
​The Huichol Indians, the immediate neighbours of the Cora, are extremely primitive people. Their clothing is, indeed, their most elaborate mark of civilization, The Huichols. and is lavishly decorated with embroidery. The men wear a shirt which has invariably a small pouch in front of it, which gives the dress somewhat the appearance of a kilt and sporran, and both sexes wear heavy necklaces of beads. These people are pagans, and in their methods of worship the remains of the old aboriginal faith can be traced. They keep their idols in sacred caves in the mountains. Nearly one-fourth of the male population are shamans or witch-doctors, and from this circumstance they take their name of Vishalika, corrupted by the Mexicans into Huicholes (pronounced "Veetcholes"), and which means "doctors" or "healers." They are racially related to the Aztecs, whom they resemble physically, but they have never adopted civilisation; and such churches as have been built within their territory are now in ruins. The country they inhabit is mountainous and difficult of access. They are clever and intelligent, but cunning and of thievish propensity, and notorious pervertors of the truth. They are, however, kind-hearted and hospitable, if inordinately proud of their nationality. They are by no means courageous, and their morals are rather loose. The Huichols have a remarkable talent for music, and are deeply and sincerely religious in their own way. Their houses are circular for the most part (an early type of dwelling), built roughly of stone and covered with thatched roofs. They never consist of more than a single apartment. Expert hunters, the Huichols snare wild animals by means of traps of cunning construction, and sometimes pursue the "chase" in large companies, these hunts having a religious significance. Excitable to a degree, these people grow almost hysterical under stress of anger or emotion, especially if under the influence of the native brandy.
The Tarahumare Indians of the Northern State of ​Chihuahua either dwell in caves or in stone houses with thatched roofs. They seem to prefer the former kind of dwelling which they regard as sheltered, The Tarahumares.safe and substantial. in the larger caverns, they build small stone storehouses for the reception of grain and other foods, and occasionally construct mud walls to partition off the cave into rooms. Domestic animals are frequently housed in wooden enclosures within the cave-shelter. The Indians are not gregarious, each family preferring to live by itself; and this fact seems to differentiate them from the ancient cliff-dwellers of that territory, who appear to have lived together in bands. These Indians suffer much from lack of provisions, and are usually poorly nourished. They grow a certain amount of corn, but their agricultural activities are rude and perfunctory, and are carried out upon a very small scale and on communal lines. The people are of medium height and are among the more muscular of the Indian tribes. They are beardless, and regard hirsute adornments on the face as unbecoming. Corpulence is uncommon among the men, but the women are more inclined to it. They are dull in appearance, but this is merely a superficial aspect, and in reality they are intelligent and fairly acute. Their carrying capacity is wonderful, and some of them travel for miles, bearing enormous burdens.
The Otomi, a hardy race, inhabit that part of the country immediately The Otomi.to the North of the Valley of Anahuac. They speak a monosyllabic language, which, solely because of its structure, has been likened to Chinese! Most of them are now agricultural labourers.
The Zapotecs and Mixtecs of Oaxaca are comparatively civilised people indeed, they have made greater progress in the arts of civilisation than any other of the native races, thanks, probably, to their own ancient culture. They furnish Mexico with numerous clerks and schoolmasters, and are ​in demand wherever patriotic and intelligent work is required.
Since the downfall and dismemberment of the State of Central America in 1841, Yucatan has been incorporated with the Mexican Republic, but the comparatively The Yucatecs. enlightened administration enjoyed by the Mexican people has by no means passed to the wholly alien races which have come under their rule. This was due not so much to the maladministration of the Central Government as to the absolutely feudal nature of the local régime of Yucatan, a policy which has arisen out of the physical peculiarities of the country and climate.
The general conditions of life in Yucatan are extremely healthy, although the atmosphere is somewhat humid in consequence of the rains which are prevalent nearly nine months in the year, but neither heat nor rain renders the climate at all sickly. The peninsula of Yucatan—which juts out in much the same manner as the “heel” of Italy runs out from the mainland—is a vast plain, the soil of which is extremely dry owing to the absence of rivers. From Cape Catoche to Campeachy there is not a single stream of fresh water, and the interior is equally destitute of rivers, all of which lie far to the South. To ensure a sufficient supply of water, artificial means have to be resorted to, and vast irrigation works are a conspicuous feature of every hacienda and plantation. To store as much water as possible during the rainy season is one of the great problems of life to the owners of haciendas in Yucatan; and for this purpose each of these establishments possesses enormous tanks and reservoirs constructed and maintained at great expense, to supply water for six months to all who are engaged in labour on the estate. As may well be imagined, such a condition of affairs gives the owners of these haciendas a substantial hold upon the services of the Indians. A native of Yucatan is usually of a thriftless and improvident disposition, and were it not for the foresight of his employer would assuredly perish for ​want of water. In fact, the greatest part of his remuneration consists of water—a circumstance which makes it a monopoly in the hands of the employers of labour, and reduces the Indians to the condition of serfs. The owners of haciendas have taken full opportunity of the conditions of the country, and their estates are usually managed upon a system closely approximating to that of feudalism. The Indian is at liberty to leave the haciendas of his master should he so desire, but he is certain, should he do so, to perish of thirst. Revolts of the Maya Indians have, indeed, given the white population of Yucatan good cause to dread the immoderate violence of these usually placid but revengeful and crafty people. Under Spanish dominion, the excesses of the Indians were so much feared, that for nearly a generation the entire peninsula was abandoned by the white population to them. The terrible nature of the Indian reprisals has never been paralleled even in the annals of the Indian Mutiny. They swept through the land sacrificing children on the altars of the churches and at the foot of the crosses, tearing out their hearts, and besmearing with blood the images of the saints, the statues of which they replaced with those of their own idols, and perpetrated other nameless horrors impossible of description. The Maya Indians who inhabit Yucatan are of a race totally distinct from the Nahua or Indian peoples of Mexico, and are the direct descendants of these civilised races who built the wonderful ruined cities of Chichen-Itza and Uxmal, the marvellous carved hieroglyphs of which still baffle the attempts of scientists to interpret them. Although nominally Roman Catholics and under the guidance of Catholic priests, they certainly still cling to their ancient superstitions, or the degraded portions of them which still survive, and secret cults are in vogue among them. In general, of a mild and retiring disposition, they are still naturally cruel and vindictive, and their secretiveness makes it difficult for a European to gauge their immediate attitude towards the white population of the ​country. At the same time, they have been abominably sweated in many instances, and their treatment by their Spanish masters in the hennequen plantations has frequently aroused the indignation of the civilised world.
Perhaps it may not be out of place here briefly to describe the superstitions and occult beliefs of the Mexican Indians, a subject upon which practically nothing Superstitions. has been written, and which possesses a fascinating interest all its own. But little regarding the occult is to be gleaned from native sources, and the belief that the ancient Mexican and Maya hieroglyphic paintings possess any magical meaning may here be disposed of once and for ever. These are mostly calendric in their significance, and their only connection with occultism is that they may have been employed for astrological purposes. Of occult secrets they hold none, and for the records of sorcery in the land of the Aztecs we have to fall back upon the writings of Spanish priests, who were naturally unfriendly to the science they discussed and to its practitioners.
Therefore we have to search among anathemas for notices of the Black Art in Anahuac. An intensive examination of the subject points to resemblances and affinities between the occultism of the peoples of Mexico and the Red Man of North America. For it is necessary to remember that the Aztec and Chichimec inhabitants of the Mexican Valley were closely related to the Indians of British Columbia and the Zuñi of New Mexico; and that, although they had fallen heirs to an ancient and complex civilisation, they received the rudiments of this when in a condition of savagery.
The early settlers in New Spain, as Mexico was designated under Castilian rule, frequently allude to the naualli, or magician caste. The name is derived from a root na, which contains the germ of a group of words meaning "to know." These men were masters of mystic knowledge, practitioners in the Black Art, sorcerers or wizards. They were not ​invariably evilly disposed, but as a class they were feared and disliked. Our earliest information regarding them is to be found in the History of New Spain of Father Sahagun, which says of them—
"The naualli, or magician, is he who frightens men and sucks the blood of children during the night. He is well skilled in the practice of this trade, he knows all the arts of sorcery (nauallotl), and employs them with cunning and ability; but for the benefit of men only, not for their injury. Those who have to recourse to such arts for evil intents injure the bodies of their victims, cause them to lose their reason, and smother them. These are wicked men and necromancers”.
Father Juan Bautista, in a work of instruction to confessors, printed at Mexico in the year 1600, says—
"There are magicians who call themselves teciuhtlazque, and also by the term nanahualtin, who conjure the clouds when there is danger of hail, so that the crops may not be injured. They can also make a stick look like a serpent, a mat like a centipede, a piece of stone like a scorpion, and similar deceptions. Others of these nanahualtin will transform themselves to all appearance (segun la aparencia) into a tiger, a dog, or a weasel. Others, again, will take the form of an owl, a cock, or a weasel; and, when one is preparing to seize them, they will appear now as a cock, now as an owl, and again as a weasel. These call themselves nanahualtin.'
This passage recalls to us the contest between the magician and the princess in the Arabian Nights. Some of the leading questions which the clergy put to members of their flock whom they suspected of sorcery throw light upon the nature of the magical rites indulged. For example, Nicolas de Leon puts into the mouth of the priest such questions as the following—
"Art thou a soothsayer? Dost thou foretell events by reading signs, or by interpreting dreams, or by water, making circles and figures on its surface? Dost thou sweep and ornament with flower garlands the place where idols are ​preserved? Dost thou know certain words with which to conjure for success in hunting, or to bring rain?
"Dost thou suck the blood of others, or dost thou wander about at night, calling upon the Demon to help thee? Hast thou drunk peyotl, or hast thou given it to others to drink, in order to find out secrets, or to discover where stolen or lost articles were? Dost thou know how to speak to vipers in such words that they obey thee?"
It is interesting to observe that, as under similar primitive social conditions elsewhere, the Mexican sorcerer is suspect of vampirism. The intoxicant peyotl which they are here said to employ is a species of the genus cocolia, having a white tuberous root, which is the part made use of. The Aztecs were said to have derived their knowledge of it from an older race which preceded them in the land and Sahagun states, that those who eat or drink of it see visions, sometimes horrible, sometimes merely ludicrous. The intoxication it causes lasts several days. In a list of beverages prohibited by the Spanish in 1784, it is described as "made from a species of vinagrilla, about the size of a billiard ball." The natives were wont to masticate it, and then place it in a wooden mortar, where it was left to ferment, after which it was eaten. Another plant employed by the naualli for the purpose of inducing ecstatic vision was the ololiuhqui, the seeds of which were made use of externally. They were one of the elements in a mysterious unguent known as teopatli, or "the divine remedy," into the composition of which they entered along with the ashes of spiders, scorpions, and other noxious insects. This ointment was smeared over the body, and was believed to constitute an efficient protection against evil agencies.
Just as the witches of mediaeval Europe were in the habit of taking drugs to assist levitation, rubbing themselves with the ointment known as "witches' butter," preparatory to setting forth on the ride to the Sabbath, so did the sorcerers of ancient Mexico intoxicate themselves by the use of some ​potent drug, or apply unguents to their bodies when they desired to travel afield. Says Acosta—
"Some of these sorcerers take any shape they choose, and fly through the air with wonderful rapidity and for long distances. They will tell what is taking place in remote localities long before the news could possibly arrive. The Spaniards have known them to report mutinies, battles, revolts, and deaths, occurring two hundred or three hundred leagues distant, on the very day they took place, or the day after.
"To practise 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."
But all the terrors of Spanish ecclesiasticism could not put an end to the practice of magic among the Mexicans. The minor feats of sorcery flourished in every Mexican town and village. Sahagun tells us how a class of professional conjurers existed who could roast maize on a cloth without fire; produce a spring or well filled with fishes from nowhere; and after setting fire to and burning huts, restore them to their original condition. The conjurer, asserts the chronicler, might on occasion dismember himself and then achieve the miracle of self-resurrection!
Perhaps a higher caste of the naualli were the naualteteuctin, or "master magicians” who were also known as teotlauice, or "sacred companions in arms." Entrance to this very select order might only be attained after severe and prolonged tests of initiation. The head and patron of the society was the god Quetzalcoatl, or "Feathered Serpent,” a deity of that mysterious elder race, the Toltecs, who had been forced from the soil of Mexico by the inroads of the less cultured Aztecs and allied tribes.
Divination and the kindred arts were professed by the tonalpouhque, or diviners, whose principal instrument was the tonalamatl, the "book of days,” or calendar. When a child was born, one of these priest-seers was called in and requested ​to cast its horoscope. But, as a general rule, no enterprise of any kind was engaged in without taking the advice of this brotherhood.
The awful barbarities practised upon the wretched Yaqui and Yucatec Indians by the fiendish tools of the Diaz régime are fully dealt with in the chapter on "The Revolution," Modern Barbarities. in which they were, perhaps, one of the prime causes, and in connection with which they naturally fall to be treated.