Part 5 (1/2)

”I the priest, I who speak, I who burn this incense, I who light this candle, I who pray for him, I who take him under my protection, I ask you that he may obtain his subsistence with facility. Thou, G.o.d, canst provide him with money; let him not fall ill of fever; I ask that he shall not become paralytic; that he may not choke with severe coughing; that he be not bitten by a serpent; that he become neither bloated nor asthmatic; that he do not go mad; that he be not bitten by a dog; that he be not struck by lightning; that he be not choked with brandy; that he be not killed with iron, nor by a stick, and that he be not carried off by an eagle; guard him, O clouds; aid him, O lightning; aid him, O thunder; aid him, St. Peter; aid him, St. Paul; aid him, eternal Father.

”And I who up to this time have spoken for him to you, I ask you that sickness may visit his enemies. So order it, that when his enemies go forth from their houses, they may meet sickness; order it, that wherever they go, they may meet troubles; do your offices of injury to them, wheresoever they are met; do this that I pray, O holy souls. G.o.d be with you; G.o.d the Father, G.o.d the Son, G.o.d the Holy Spirit: Amen, Jesus.”

Most of such invocations are expressed in terms far more recondite and symbolic than the above. We have many such preserved in the work of Jacinto de la Serna, which supply ample material to acquaint us with the peculiarities of the sacred and secret language of the nagualists. I shall quote but one, that employed in the curious ceremony of ”calling back the _tonal_,” referred to on a previous page. I append an explanation of its obscure metaphors.

_Invocation for the Rest.i.tution of the Tonal._

”Ho there! Come to my aid, mother mine of the skirt of precious stones![1] What keeps thee away, gray ghost, white ghost?[2] Is the obstacle white, or is it yellow? See, I place here the yellow enchantment and the white enchantment.[3]

”I, the Master of the Masters of enchantments, have come, I, who formed thee and gave thee life.[4] Thou, mother mine of the starry skirt, thou, G.o.ddess of the stars, who givest life, why hast thou turned against this one?[5]

”Adverse spirit and darkened star, I shall sink thee in the breadth and depth of the waters.[6] I, master of spells, speak to thee[TN-5] Ho there! Mother mine, whose skirt is made of gems, come, seek with me the s.h.i.+ning spirit who dwells in the house of light,[7] that we may know what G.o.d or mighty power thus destroys and crushes to earth this unfortunate one. Green and black spirit of sickness, leave him and seek thy prey elsewhere.

”Green and yellow ghost, who art wandering, as if lost, over mountains and plains, I seek thee, I desire thee; return to him whom thou hast abandoned. Thou, the nine times beaten, the nine times smitten, see that thou fail me not.[8] Come hither, mother mine, whose robe is of precious gems; one water, two waters; one rabbit, two rabbits; one deer, two deers; one alligator, two alligators.[9]

”Lo! I myself am here; I am most furious; I make the loudest noise of all; I respect no one; even sticks and stones tremble before me.

What G.o.d or mighty power dare face me, me, a child of G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses?[10] I have come to seek and call back the _tonal_ of this sick one, wherever it is, whithersoever it has wandered, be it nine times wandered, even unto the nine junctures and the nine unions.[11] Wherever it is, I summon it to return, I order it to return, and to heal and clean this heart and this head.”

_Explanations._

1. The appeal is to Water, regarded as the universal Mother. The ”skirt of precious stones” refers to the green of the precious green stones, a color sacred to water.

2. The question is addressed to the _tonal_.

3. The yellow enchantment is tobacco; the white, a cup of water.

4. That is, a.s.signed the form of the nagual belonging to the sick man.

5. This appeal is directed to the Milky Way.

6. The threat is addressed to the _tonal_, to frighten it into returning.

7. The ”s.h.i.+ning spirit” is the Fire-G.o.d.

8. The yellow tobacco, prepared ceremonially in the manner indicated.

9. These are names of days in the native calendar which are invoked.

10. The priest speaks in the person of his G.o.d.

11. Referring to the Nahuatl belief that there are nine upper and nine under worlds.

From the same work of de la Serna I collect the following list of symbolic expressions. It might easily be extended, but these will be sufficient to show the figurative obscurities which they threw around their formulas of conjuration, but which were by no means devoid of coherence and instruction to those who could understand them.

_Symbolic Expressions of the Nagualists._

_Blood._--”The red woman with snakes on her gown” (referring to the veins).

_Copal Gum._--”The white woman” (from the whitish color of the fresh gum).