blood native, Jacinto Can-Ek; but some of the participants afterwards confessed that it was the outcome of a conspiracy which had been preparing for a year.
When the appointed day arrived, Jacinto boldly announced himself as the high priest of the fraternity of sorcerers, a master and teacher of magic, and the lineal successor of the famous ancient prophet, Chilan Balam, "whose words cannot fail." In a stirring appeal he urged his fellow-countrymen to attack the Spaniards without fear of consequences.
"'Be not afraid,' he exclaimed, 'of their cannons and their forts; for among the many to whom I have taught the arts of magic (el arte de burjeria) there are fifteen chosen ones, marvelous experts, who by their mystic power will enter the fortress, slay the sentinels, and throw open the gates to our warriors. I shall take the leaves of the sacred tree, and folding them into trumpets, I shall call to the four winds of heaven, and a multitude of fighting men will hasten to our aid.'"[63]
Saying this, he took a sheet of paper, held it up to show that it was blank, folded it for a moment, and then spread it out covered with writing! This deft trick convinced his simple-minded hearers of the truth of his claims and they rushed to arms. He led them, clothed in the robe of the Virgin and with her crown on his head. But neither their enthusiasm nor their leader's art magic availed, and soon Jacinto and his followers fell victims to the stake and the gallows. After their death the dance of "the tiger," or of Chac Mool—the "ghost dance" of the Mayas—was prohibited; and the use of the sacred drum—the favorite instrument of the native priests—was forbidden.[64]
In fact, wherever we have any full accounts of the revolts against the Spanish domination during the three centuries of its existence in New Spain, we can manifestly trace the guiding fingers of the powerful though hidden hand of Nagualism. An earlier revolt of the Mayas in Yucatan occurred in 1585. It was led by Andres Chi, a full-blood Indian, and a descendant of the ancient royal house of the Cocomes. He also announced himself as a priest of the ancient faith, a prophet and a worker of miracles, sent to instruct his own people in a new religion and to give them an independent political existence. Seized by the Spaniards, he was charged with idolatry, sorcery and disturbing the peace, and was ignominiously hanged.[65]
Not less definitely inspired by the same ideas was the Mixe Indian, known as "Don Pascual," who led the revolt of the Tehuantepec tribes in 1661. He sent out his summons to the "thirteen governors of the Zapotecs and Chontales" to come to his aid, and the insurrection threatened to assume formidable proportions, prevented only by bringing to bear upon the natives the whole power of the Roman Church through the Bishop of Oaxaca, Cuevas Davalos.[66]
Nearly the same locality had been the scene of the revolt of the Zapotecs in 1550, when they were led by a native priest who claimed to be an incarnation of the old god Quetzalcoatl, the patron deity of the nagualists.[67]
[63] The mention of the fifteen, 5 x 3, chosen disciples indicates that the same system of initiating by triplets prevailed in Yucatan as in Chiapas (see above, p. 89). The sacred tree is not named, but presumably it was the ceiba to which I refer elsewhere. The address of Jacinto was obtained from those present, and is given at length by the Jesuit Martin del Puerto, in his Relacion hecho al Cabildo Eciesiastico por el preposito de la Compañia de Jesus, acerca de la muerte de Jacinto Can-Ek y socios, Dec. 26, 1761. It is published, with other documents relating to this revolt, in the Appendix to the Diccionario Universal, edited by Orozco y Berm, Mexico, 1856. On the prophecies of Chilan Balm, see my Essays of an Americanist, pp. 255–278 (Philadelphia, 1890).
[64] Eligio Ancona, Hist. de Yucatan, Tom ii, p. 152.
[65] See Pedro Sanchez de Aguilar, Informe contra Idolum Cultores en Yucatan (Madrid, 1639); Eligio Ancona, Historia de Yucatan, Tom. ii, pp. 128, 129.
[66] The chief authority on this revolt is Juan de Torres Castillo, Relacion de lo Sucedido en las Provincias de Nexapa, Iztepex y Villa Alta (Mexico, 1662). See also Cavo, Los Tres Siglos de Mexico durante el Gobierno Español. Tom. ii, p. 41, and a pamphlet by Christoval Manso de Contreras, Relacion cierta y verdadera de lo que sucedio en esta Provincia de Tehuantepec, etc. (printed at Mexico, 1661), which I know only through the notes of Dr. Berendt. Mr. H. H. Bancroft, in his very meager account of this event; mistakenly insists that it took place in 1660. History of Mexico, Vol. iii, p. 161.
[67] See Brasseur de Bourbourg, Histoire des Nations Civilisées de la Mexique, Tom iv, 824.
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