history of the insurrection of the Tzentals of Chiapas, in 1713. They
were led by an Indian girl, a native Joan of Arc, fired by like
enthusiasm to drive from her country the hated foreign oppressors, and
to destroy every vestige of their presence. She was scarcely twenty
years old, and was known to the Spaniards as Maria Candelaria. She was
the leader of what most historians call a religious sect, but what
Ordonez y Aguiar, himself a native of Chiapas, recognizes as the
powerful secret association of Nagualism, determined on the extirpation
of the white race. He estimates that in Chiapas alone there were nearly
seventy thousand natives under her orders--doubtless an
exaggeration--and asserts that the conspiracy extended far into the
neighboring tribes, who had been ordered to await the result of the
effort in Chiapas.
Her authority was absolute, and she was merciless in requiring obedience
to it. The disobedient were flayed alive or roasted over a slow fire.
She and all her followers took particular pleasure in manifesting their
hatred and contempt for the religion of their oppressors. They defiled
the sacred vessels of the churches, imitated with buffoonery the
ceremonies of the mass, which she herself performed, and stoned to death
the priests whom they caught.
Of course, her attempt against the power of Spain was hopeless. It
failed after a bitter and protracted conquest, characterized by the
utmost inhumanity on both sides. But when her followers were scattered
and killed, when the victorious whites had again in their hands all the
power and resources of the country, not their most diligent search, nor
the temptation of any reward, enabled them to capture Maria Candelaria,
the heroine of the bloody drama. With a few trusty followers she escaped
to the forest, and was never again heard of.[36-*]
More unfortunate were her friends and lieutenants, the priestesses of
Guistiupan and Yajalon, who had valiantly seconded Maria in her
patriotic endeavors. Seized by the Spaniards, they met the fate which we
can easily imagine, though the historian has mercifully thrown a veil on
its details.[36-[+]]
=23.= Of just such a youthful prophetess did Mr. E. G. Squier hear during
his travels in Central America, a "_sukia_ woman," as she was called by
the coast Indians, one who lived alone mid the ruins of an old Mayan
temple, a sorceress of twenty years, loved and feared, holding death and
life in her hands.[36-[++]] Perhaps his account is somewhat fanciful;
it is so, indeed; but it is grounded on the unshaken beliefs and ancient
traditions of the natives of those climes, and on customs well known to
those who reside there.
The late distinguished Americanist, the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg,
during his long travels in Mexico and Central America, had occasion more
than once to come in contact with this trait of the ancient faith of the
Nagualists, still alive in their descendants. Among the Zapotecs of the
Isthmus of Tehuantepec he saw one of the queens of the mystic
fraternity, and he describes her with a warmth which proves that he had
not lost his eye for the beautiful.
"She wore a piece of light-green stuff loosely folded around her
form at the hips, and falling to a little distance above the ankle;
a jacket of red silk gauze with short sleeves and embroidered with
gold, clothed the upper part of her person, veiling her bosom, upon
which lay a chain of heavy gold pieces, pierced and strung on a
cord. Her rich black hair was divided on the forehead, and drawn
back in two splendid tresses fastened with blue ribbons, while a
white muslin kerchief encircled her head like the calantica of the
ancient Egyptians. Never in my life have I seen a more striking
figure of an Isis or a Cleopatra.
"There was something strange in her expression. Her eyes were the
blackest and the brightest in the world; but there were moments
when she suddenly paused, leaned against the billiard table or the
wall, and they became fixed and dead like those of a corpse. Then a
fiery glance would shoot from beneath her dark lashes, sending a
chill to the heart of the one to whom it was directed. Was it
madness, or was it, as those around her believed, a momentary
absence of soul, an absorption of her spirit into its _nagual_, a
transportation into an unknown world? Who shall decide?"[37-*]
=24.= It would be a mistake to suppose that Nagualism was an incoherent
medley of superstitions, a mass of jumbled fragments derived from the
ancient paganism. My study of it has led me to a widely different
conclusion. It was a perpetuation of a well-defined portion of the
native cult, whose sources we are able to trace long anterior to the
period of the conquest, and which had no connection with the elaborate
and bloody ritual of the Aztecs. The evidence to this effect is cogent.
Wherever in later days the Catholic priests found out the holy places
and sacred objects of the nagualists, they were in-caves or deep
rock-recesses, not in artificial structures. The myths they gleaned, and
the names of the gods they heard, also point to this as a distinguishing
peculiarity. An early instance is recorded among the Nahuas of Mexico.
In 1537 Father Perea discovered a cavern in a deep ravine at Chalma,
near Mallinalco (a town famous for its magicians), which was the
sanctuary of the deity called _Oztoteotl_, the Cave God (_oztotl_, cave;
_teotl_, god), "venerated throughout the whole empire of
Montezuma."[38-*] He destroyed the image of the god, and converted the
cavern into a chapel.
We cannot err in regarding Oztoteotl as merely another name of the
Nahuatl divinity, Tepeyollotl, the Heart, or Inside, of the Mountain,
who in the Codex Borgia and the Codex Vaticanus is represented seated
upon or in a cavern. His name may equally well be translated "the Heart
of the Place," or "of the Town."
Dr. Eduard Seler has shown beyond reasonable question that this divinity
did not originally belong to the Aztec Pantheon, but was introduced from
the South, either from the Zapotecs, the Mixtecs, or the Mayan tribes,
beyond these.[38-[+]] The Cave God of the Aztecs is identical with the
Votan of the Tzentals of Chiapas, and with the U-q'ux Uleuh of the
Quiches of Guatemala, and probably with the Cozaana of the Zapotecs.
The rites of all of these were conducted in caverns, and there have been
preserved several interesting descriptions of the contents of these
sacred places. That relating to the "dark house of Votan" is given thus
in the work of the Bishop of Chiapas:
"Votan is the third hero who is named in the calendar, and some of
his descendants still reside in the town of Teopisca, where they
are known as Votans. He is sometimes referred to as Lord of the
Sacred Drum, and he is said to have seen the great wall (which must
have been the Tower of Babel), and to have divided this land among
the Indians, and given to each tribe its language.
"They say further that he once dwelt in Huehuetan, a town in the
province of Soconusco. Near there, at the place called Tlazoaloyan,
he constructed, by blowing with his breath, a dark house, and put
tapirs in the river, and in the house a great treasure, and left
all in charge of a noble lady, assisted by guardians (_tlapiane_)
to preserve. This treasure consisted of earthenware vases with
covers of the same material; a stone, on which were inscribed the
figures of the ancient native heroes as found in the calendar;
_chalchiuites_, which are green stones; and other superstitious
objects.
"All of these were taken from the cave, and publicly burned in the
plaza of Huehuetan on the occasion of our first diocesan visit
there in 1691, having been delivered to us by the lady in charge
and the guardians. All the Indians have great respect for this
Votan, and in some places they call him 'the Heart of the
Towns.'"[39-*]
The English priest, Thomas Gage, who was curate of a parish among the
Pokonchi Indians of Guatemala about 1630, relates his discovery of such
a cave, in which the idol was preserved, and gives this description of
it:
"We found the Idol standing upon a low stool covered with a linen
cloth. The substance of it was wood, black shining like jet, as if
it had been painted or smoked; the form was of a man's head unto
the shoulders, without either Beard or Mustachoes; his look was
grim, with a wrinkled forehead, and broad staring eyes.
"They boasted of this their god, saying that he had plainly told
them they should not believe anything I preached of Christ, but
follow the old ways of their forefathers."[39-[+]]
The black color here mentioned was a relic of ancient symbolism,
referring to the night, darkness, and the obscurity of the holy cavern.
Vetancurt informs us that the priests of the ancient paganism were
accustomed to rub their faces and bodies with an ointment of fat and
pine soot when they went to sacrifice in the forests, so that they
looked as black as negroes[TN-3][39-[++]] In the extract from Nunez de
la Vega already given, _Ical Ahau_, the "Black King," is named as one of
the divinities of the nagualists.
In some parts the principal idol found in the caves was the mummied or
exsiccated body of some former distinguished priest or chieftain. One
such is recorded by Bartholome de Pisa, which was found among the
Zapotecs of Coatlan. It bore a name taken from the calendar, that of the
tenth day, and was alleged to be the preserved cadaver of a celebrated
ruler.[40-*] Another interesting example is narrated by Villa Senor y
Sanchez,[40-[+]] who describes it as an eye-witness. It was discovered
in a spacious cave located some distance to the west of the city of
Mexico, in Nahuatl territory, on the side of what was known as "the Sun
mountain"--_la Mesa de Tonati_. He speaks of it as remarkably well
preserved, "both the muscles and the bones."
"It was seated in an armchair which served for a throne, and was
clothed in a mantle, which fell from the shoulders to the feet.
This was richly adorned with precious stones, which, according to
the native custom, were sewed into the texture of the cloth. The
figure also wore shoulder straps, collars, bracelets and fastenings
of silver. From its forehead rose a crown of beautiful feathers of
different colors arranged so that one color should alternate with
another. The left hand was resting on the arm of the chair, while
in the right was a sharp cutlass with silver mountings. At its feet
were several vases of fine stone, as marble and alabaster, in which
were offerings of blood and meat, obtained from the sacrifices."
The same writer refers to other examples of these sacred caves which he
had seen in his journeys. One was near the town of Teremendo, where the
sides and roof had been artificially dressed into the shape of huge
arches. A natural altar had been provided in a similar manner, and on
it, at the time of his visit, were numerous idols in the figures of men
and animals, and before them fresh offerings of copal and food.
Elsewhere he refers to many such caverns still in use as places resorted
to by the natives in _la gran Sierra de Tlascala_.[40-[++]]
These extracts prove the extent of this peculiar worship and the number
of these subterranean temples in recent generations. The fame of some of
the greater ones of the past still survives, as the vast grotto of
Chalcatongo, near Achiutla, which was the sepulchral vault of its
ancient kings; that of Totomachiapa, a solemn scene of sacrifice for
the ancient priests; that of Justlahuaca, near Sola (Oaxaca), which was
a place of worship of the Zapotecs long after the Conquest; and that in
the Cerro de Monopostiac, near San Francisco del Mar.[41-*]
The intimate meaning of this cave-cult was the worship of the Earth. The
Cave God, the Heart of the Hills, really typified the Earth, the Soil,
from whose dark recesses flow the limpid streams and spring the tender
shoots of the food-plants, as well as the great trees. To the native
Mexican, the Earth was the provider of food and drink, the common Father
of All; so that to this day, when he would take a solemn oath, he stoops
to the earth, touches it with his hand, and repeats the solemn formula:
_Cuix amo nechitla in toteotzin?_ "Does not our Great God see me?"
=25.= The identity of the Tepeyollotl of the Nahuas and the Votan of the
Tzentals is shown not only in the oneness of meaning of the names, but
in the fact that both represent the _third_ day in the ritual calendar.
For this reason I take it, we find the number _three_ so generally a
sacred number in the symbolism of the nagualists. We have already
learned in the extract from Nunez de la Vega that the neophytes were
instructed in classes of three. To this day in Soteapan the fasts and
festivals appointed by the native ministrants are three days in
duration.[41-[+]] The semi-Christianized inhabitants of the Sierra of
Nayerit, the Nahuatl-speaking Chotas, continued in the last century to
venerate three divinities, the Dawn, the Stone and the Serpent;[41-[++]]
analogous to a similar "trinity" noted by Father Duran among the ancient
Aztecs.[41-Sec.]
The number _nine_, that is, 3 x 3, recurs so frequently in the
conjuration formulas of the Mexican sorcerers that de la Serna exclaims:
"It was the Devil himself who inculcated into them this superstition
about the number nine."[41-[||]]
The other number sacred to the nagualists was _seven_. I have, in a
former essay, given various reasons for believing that this was not
derived from the seven days of the Christian week, but directly from the
native calendar.[42-*] Nunez de la Vega tells us that the patron of the
seventh day was _Cuculcan_, "the Feathered Serpent," and that many
nagualists chose him as their special protector. As already seen, in
Guatemala the child finally accepted its _naual_ when seven years old;
and among some of the Nahuatl tribes of Mexico the _tonal_ and the
calendar name was formally assigned on the seventh day after
birth.[42-[+]] From similar impressions the Cakchiquels of Guatemala
maintained that when the lightning strikes the earth the "thunder stone"
sinks into the soil, but rises to the surface after seven
years.[42-[++]]
The three and the seven were the ruling numbers in the genealogical
trees of the Pipiles of San Salvador. The "tree" was painted with
_seven_ branches representing degrees of relationship within which
marriage was forbidden unless a man had performed some distinguished
exploit in war, when he could marry beyond the nearest _three_ degrees
of relationship.[42-Sec.] Another combination of 3 and 7, by
multiplication, explains the customs among the Mixes of deserting for 21
days a house in which a death has occurred.[42-[||]]
The indications are that the nagualists derived these numbers from the
third and seventh days of the calendar "month" of twenty days.
Tepeololtec, the Cave God, was patron of the third day and also "Lord of
Animals," the transformation into which was the test of nagualistic
power.[42-[P}] 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, Cuculchan,
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.[43-*]
=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_,[43-[+]] 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.[43-[++]] 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[TN-4][43-Sec.]
The word _yiahuiltoca_ means "the throwing of the _yiauhtli_" (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."[44-*] 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.
Jacinto de la Serna also describes this ceremony, to which he gives the
name _tlecuixtliliztli_, "which means that they pass the infant over the
fire;" and elsewhere he adds: "The worship of fire is the greatest
stumbling-block to these wretched idolaters."[44-[+]]
=27.= Other ceremonies connected with fire worship took place in
connection with the manufacture of the pulque, or _octli_, the fermented
liquor obtained from the sap of the maguey plant. The writer just
quoted, de Vetancurt, states that the natives in his day, when they had
brewed the new pulque and it was ready to be drunk, first built a fire,
walked in procession around it and threw some of the new liquor into the
flames, chanting the while an invocation to the god of inebriation,
Tezcatzoncatl, to descend and be present with them.
This was distinctly a survival of an ancient doctrine which connected
the God of Fire with the Gods of Drunkenness, as we may gather from the
following quotation from the history composed by Father Diego Duran:
"The _octli_ was a favorite offering to the gods, and especially to
the God of Fire. Sometimes it was placed before a fire in vases,
sometimes it was scattered upon the flames with a brush, at other
times it was poured out around the fireplace."[45-*]
=28.= The high importance of the fire ceremonies in the secret rituals of
the modern Mayas is plainly evident from the native Calendars, although
their signification has eluded the researches of students, even of the
laborious Pio Perez, who was so intimately acquainted with their
language and customs. In these Calendars the fire-priest is constantly
referred to as _ah-toc_, literally "the fire-master." The rites he
celebrates recur at regular intervals of twenty days (the length of one
native month) apart. They are four in number. On the first he takes the
fire; on the second he kindles the fire; on the third he gives it free
play, and on the fourth he extinguishes it. A period of five days is
then allowed to elapse, when these ceremonies are recommenced in the
same order. Whatever their meaning, they are so important that in the
_Buk Xoc_, or General Computation of the Calendar, preserved in the
mystic "Books of Chilan Balam," there are special directions for these
fire-masters to reckon the proper periods for the exercise of their
strange functions.[45-[+]]
=29.= What, now, was the sentiment which underlay this worship of fire? I
think that the facts quoted, and especially the words of Father de Leon,
leave no doubt about it. Fire was worshiped as the life-giver, the
active generator, of animate existence. This idea was by no means
peculiar to them. It repeatedly recurs in Sanskrit, in Greek and in
Teutonic mythology, as has been ably pointed out by Dr. Hermann
Cohen.[45-[++]] The fire-god Agni (_ignis_) is in the Vedas the Maker of
men; Prometheus steals the fire from heaven that he may with it animate
the human forms he has moulded of clay; even the connection of the
pulque with the fire is paralleled in Greek mythos, where Dionysos is
called _Pyrigenes_, the "fire-born."
Among the ancient Aztecs the god of fire was called the oldest of gods,
_Huehueteotl_, and also "Our Father," _Tota_, as it was believed from
him all things were derived.[46-*] Both among them and the Mayas, as I
have pointed out in a previous work, he was supposed to govern the
generative proclivities and the sexual relations.[46-[+]] Another of his
names was _Xiuhtecutli_, which can be translated "God of the Green
Leaf," that is, of vegetable fecundity and productiveness.[46-[++]]
To transform themselves into a globe or ball of fire was, as we have
seen (ante, p. 21), a power claimed by expert nagualists, and to handle
it with impunity, or to blow it from the mouth, was one of their
commonest exhibitions. Nothing so much proved their superiority as thus
to master this potent element.
=30.= The same name above referred to, "the Heart of the Town," or "of the
Hills," was that which at a comparatively late date was applied to an
idol of green stone preserved with religious care in a cavern in the
Cerro de Monopostiac, not far from San Francisco del Mar. The spot is
still believed by the natives to be enchanted ground and protected by
superhuman powers.[46-Sec.]
These green stones, called _chalchiuitl_, of jadeite, nephrite, green
quartz, or the like, were accounted of peculiar religious significance
throughout southern Mexico, and probably to this day many are preserved
among the indigenous population as amulets and charms. They were often
carved into images, either in human form or representing a frog, the
latter apparently the symbol of the waters and of fertility. Bartholome
de Alva refers to them in a passage of his Confessionary. The priest
asks the penitent:
"Dost thou possess at this very time little idols of green stone,
or frogs made of it (_in chalchiuh coconeme, chalchiuh
tamazoltin_)?
"Dost thou put them out in the sun to be warmed? Dost thou keep
them wrapped in cotton coverings, with great respect and
veneration?
"Dost thou believe, and hold for very truth, that these green
stones give thee food and drink, even as thy ancestors believed,
who died in their idolatry? Dost thou believe that they give thee
success and prosperity and good things, and all that them hast or
wishest? Because we know very well that many of you so believe at
this very time."[47-*]
Down to quite a recent date, and perhaps still, these green stones are
employed in certain ceremonies in vogue among the Indians of Oaxaca in
order to ensure a plenteous maize harvest. The largest ear of corn in
the field is selected and wrapped up in a cloth with some of these
chalchiuite. At the next corn-planting it is taken to the field and
buried in the soil. This is believed to be a relic of the worship of the
ancient Zapotec divinity, Quiegolani, who presided over cultivated
fields.[47-[+]]
They are still in use among the natives as lucky stones or amulets. In
the Zotzil insurrection of 1869, already referred to, one was found
suspended to the neck of one of the slain Indians. It came into the
possession of M. Maler, who has described and figured it.[47-[++]] It
represents a human head with a curious expression and a singular
headdress.
From specimens of these amulets preserved in museums it is seen that any
greenish stone was selected, preferably those yielding a high, vitreous
polish, as jadeite, turquoise, emerald, chlormelanite or precious
serpentine. The color gave the sacred character, and this, it seems to
me, was distinctly meant to be symbolic of water and its effects, the
green of growing plants, and hence of fertility, abundance and
prosperity.