and also "Lord of Animals," the transformation into which
was the test of nagualistic power.[101] Tlaloc,
god of the mountains and the rains, to whom the seventh day was hallowed,
was represented by the nagualistic symbol
of a snake doubled and twisted on itself, and was generally portrayed
in connection with the "Feathered Serpent"
(Quetzalcoatl, Cuchulchan, Gukumatz,
all names meaning this), represented as carrying his medicine bag,
xiquipilli, and incensory, the apparatus
of the native illuminati, his robe marked with the sign of the cross
to show that he was Lord of the Four Winds
and of Life.[102]
26. The nagualistic rites were highly symbolic, and the symbols used had clearly defined meanings, which enable us to analyze the religious ideas underlying this mysterious cult.
The most important symbol was Fire. It was regarded as the primal element and the immediate source of life. Father Nicolas de Leon has the following suggestive passage in this connection:
"If any of their old superstitions has remained more deeply rooted than another in the hearts of these Indians, both men and women, it is this about fire and its worship, and about making new fire and preserving it for a year in secret places. We should be on the watch for this, and when in their confessions they speak of what the Fire said and how the Fire wept, expressions which we are apt to pass by as unintelligible, we must lay our hands on them for reprehension. We should also be on the watch for their baptism by Fire, a ceremony called the yiahuiltoca,[103] shortly after the birth of a child when they bestow on it the surnames; nor must the lying-in women and their assistants be permitted to speak of Fire as the father and mother of all things and the author of nature; because it is a common saying with them that Fire is present at the birth and death of every creature."
This curious ceremony derived its name from the yiahuitli, a plant not unlike the absinthe, the powdered leaves of which, according to Father Sahagun, the natives were accustomed to throw into the flames as an offering to the fire.[104] Long after the conquest, and probably to this day, the same custom prevails in Mexico, the fumes and odor of the burning leaves being considered very salubrious and purifying to the air of the sick room.[105]
The word yiahuiltoca means "the throwing of the yiahuitli" (from toca, to throw upon with the hands). Another name for the ceremony, according to Father Vetancurt, who wrote a century later than Leon, was apehualco, which has substantially the same meaning, "a throwing upon" or "a throwing away."[106] He adds the interesting particulars that it was celebrated on the fourth day after the birth of the child, during which time it was deemed essential to keep the fire burning in the house, but not to permit any of it to be carried out, as that would bring bad luck to the child.
[101] "Señor de los Animales." Codez Telleriano-Remensis, Parte ii, Lam. iv.
[102] See Dr. Seler's minute description in the Compte Rendu of the Eighth Session of the Congrés International des Américanistes, pp. 588, 559. In one of the conjuration formulas given by de la Serna (Manual de Ministros, p. 212) the priest says: "Yo soy el sacerdote, el dios Quetzalcoatl, que se bajará al inflerno, y subiré á lo superior, y hastalos nueve inflernos." This writer, who was very competent in the Nahuatl, translates the name Quetzalcoatl by "culebra con cresta" (id., p. 171), an unusual, but perhaps a correct rendering.
[103] His words here are somewhat obscure. They are, "El baptismo de fuego, en donde las ponen los sobre nombres que llaman yahuiltoca, quando nacen." This may be translated, "The baptism of fire in which they confer the names which they call yahuiltoca ." The obscurity is in the Nahuatl, as the word toca may be a plural of tocaitl, name, as well as the verb toca, to throw upon. The passage is from the Camino del Cielo, fol. 100, verso.
[104] Sahagnn, Historia de la Nueva España, Lib. iv, cap. 25.
[105] It is mentioned as useful for this purpose by the early physicians, Francisco Ximener, Cuatro Libros de la Naturaleza, p. 144; Hernandez, Hist. Plant. Novse Hispanise, Tom. ii, p. 200. Capt. Bourke, in his recent article on "The Medicine Men of the Apaches" (in Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 521), suggests that the yiahuitli of the Aztecs is the same as the "hoddentin," the pollen of a variety of cat-tail rush which the Apaches in a similar manner throw into the fire as an offering. Hernandez, however, describes the yiahuitli as a plant with red flowers, growing on mountains and hill-sides—no species of rush, therefore. De la Serna says it is the anise plant, and that with it the natives perform the conjuration of the "yellow spirit" (conjuro de amarillo espiritado), that is, of the Fire (Manual de Ministros, p. 197).
[106] From the verb apeua. Vetancurt's description is in his Teatro Mexicano, Tom. i, pp. 462, 463 (Ed. Mexico, 1870).
Please email us if you are interested
in a PDF of any of the posted books.