Part 9 (2/2)
[40-] _Teatro Americano_, Lib. ii, cap. 11; Lib. iii, cap. 13.
[41-*] See Muhlenpfordt, _Mexico_, Bd. ii, pp. 200-266; Bra.s.seur, _Hist.
des Nations Civ. de la Mexique_, Vol. iv, p. 821; Herrera, _Historia de las Indias_, Dec. iii, Lib. iii, cap. 12, etc.
[41-] _Diccionario Universal_, Appendice, s. v.
[41-] Their names were Ta Yoapa, Father Dawn; Ta Te, Father Stone; Coanamoa, the Serpent which Seizes. _Dicc. Univ._, App., Tom. iii, p.
11.
[41--] Duran, _Historia de los Indios_, Tom. ii, p. 140. They were Tota, Our Father; Yollometli, the Heart of the Maguey (probably pulque); and Topiltzin, Our n.o.ble One (probably Quetzalcoatl, to whom this epithet was often applied).
[41-?] ”Fue el Demonio que les dio la supersticion del numero nueve.”
_Manual de Ministros_, p. 197.
[42-*] _The Native Calendar of Central America and Mexico_, p. 12.
[42-] Motolinia, _Ritos Antiguos, Sacrificios e Idolatrias de los Indios de la Nueva Espana_, p. 340 (in _Coleccion de Doc.u.mentos ineditos para la Historia de Espana_).
[42-] Thomas Coto, _Vocabulario de la lengua Cakchiquel_, MS., sub voce, _Rayo_.
[42--] Herrera, _Historia de las Indias_, Dec. IV, Lib. viii, cap. 10.
[42-?] _Diccionario Universal_, Appendice, ubi supra.
[42---] [TN-15]'Senor de los Animales.” _Codex Telleriano-Remensis_, Parte ii, Lam. iv.
[43-*] See Dr. Seler's minute description in the _Compte Rendu_ of the Eighth Session of the Congres International des Americanistes, pp. 588, 589. 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 bajara al infierno, y subire a lo superior, y hasta los nueve infiernos.” 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.
[43-] 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 pa.s.sage is from the _Camino del Cielo_, fol. 100, verso.
[43-] Sahagun, _Historia de la Nueva Espana_, Lib. iv, cap. 25.
[43--] It is mentioned as useful for this purpose by the early physicians, Francisco Ximenes, _Cuatro Libros de la Naturaleza_, p. 144; Hernandez, _Hist. Plant. Novae Hispaniae_, 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).
[44-*] From the verb _apeua_. Vetancurt's description is in his _Teatro Mexicano_, Tom. i, pp. 462, 463 (Ed. Mexico, 1870).
[44-] His frequent references to it show this. See his _Manual de Ministros_, pp. 16, 20, 22, 24, 36, 40, 66, 174, 217, etc. The word _tlecuixtliliztli_ is compounded of _tlecuilli_, the hearth or fireplace, and _ixtliluia_, to darken with smoke.
[45-*] Duran, _Historia de los Indios de la Nueva Espana_, Tom. ii, p.
240. Sahagun adds that the _octli_ was poured on the hearth at four separate points, doubtless the four cardinal points. _Historia de Nueva Espana_, Lib. i, cap. 18. De la Serna describes the same ceremony as current in his day, _Manual de Ministros_, p. 35. The invocation ran:--”s.h.i.+ning Rose, light-giving Rose, receive and rejoice my heart before the G.o.d.”
[45-] A copy of these strange ”Books of Chilan Balam” is in my possession. I have described them in my _Essays of an Americanist_ (Philadelphia, 1890).
[45-] See his remarks on ”Apperception der Menschenzeugung als Feuerbereitung,” in the _Zeitschrift fur Volkerpsychologie_, Bd. vi, s.
113, _seq._
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