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."[19]
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.[20]
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:
"The
nahual is 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 herself into 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, then stick
into them the thorn of the maguey and place them in some secret place;
you can be sure that the person against whom the conjuration is practiced
will feel pain in the part where the thorn is inserted. There still
exist among them the medicine-men, who treat the sick by means of strange
contortions, call upon the spirits, pronounce magical incantations,
blow upon the part where the pain is, and draw forth from the patient
thorns, worms, or pieces of stone. They know how to prepare drinks which
will bring on sickness, and if the patients are cured by others the
convalescents are particular to throw something of their own away, as
a lock of hair, or a part of their clothing. Those who possess the evil
eye can, by merely looking at children, deprive them of beauty and health,
and even cause their death."[21]
7. As I have said, nowhere in the records of purely Mexican, that is, Aztecan, Nagualism do we find the word nagual employed in the sense given in the passage quoted from Herrera, that is as a personal guardian spirit or tutelary genius. These tribes had indeed a belief in some such protecting power, and held that it was connected with the day on which each person is born. They called it the tonalli a person, a word translated to mean that which is peculiar to him which makes his individuality, his self. The radical from which it is derived is tona, to warm, or to be warm, from which are also derived tonatiuh, the sun. Tonalli, which in composition loses its last syllable, is likewise the word for heat, summer, soul, spirit and day, and also for the share or portion which belongs to one. Thus to-tonal is spirit, or soul in general; no-tonal my spirit; no-tonal in ipan no-tlacat, "the sign under which I was born," i.e., the astrological day-sign. From this came the verb tonalpoa, to count or estimate the signs, that is, to cast the horoscope of a person; and tonalpouhque, the diviners whose business it was to practice this art.[22]
These tonalpouhque are referred to at length by Father Sahagun.[23] He distinguishes them from the naualli, though it is clear that they corresponded in functions to the nagualistic priests of the southern tribes. From the number and name of the day of birth they forecast the destiny of the child, and stated the power or spiritual influence which should govern its career.
The tonal was by no means an indefeasible possession. It was a sort of independent mascotte. So long as it remained with a person he enjoyed health and prosperity; but it could depart, go
[19] "In Mictlan Tetlachihuique, in Nanahualtin, in Tlahuipuchtin." Paredes, Promptuario Manual Mexicano, p.128 (Mexico, 1767). The tiahuipuchtin, "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).
[20] Von Gagern, Charakteristik der Indianischer Bevölkerung Mexikos, s. 125.
[21] Historia Antigua de Mexico, Tom. ii, p. 25. Francisco Pimentel, in his thoughtful work, Memoria sobre las Causas que han originado la Situacíon Actual de la Raza Indigena de Mexico (Mexico, 1861), recognizes how almost impossible it is to extirpate their faith in this nagualism. "Conservan los agueros y supersticiones de la antiguedad, siendo cosa de fe para ellos, los nahuales," etc., p. 200 and comp. p. 145.
[22] On these terms consult the extensive Dictionnaire de la Langue Nahuatl, by Rémi Siméon, published at Paris, 1887. It is not impossible that tona is itself a compound root, including the monosyllabic radical na, which is at the basis of nagual.
[23] Sahagun, Historia de Nueva España, Lib. iv, passim, and Lib. X, cap. 9.
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