Nagualism: A Study in Native American Folk-lore and HistoryBrinton, Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison)
Religion
Nagualism: A Study in Native American Folk-lore and History
Brinton, Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison)
Indian mythology -- Mexico; Indians of Mexico -- Religion; Nagualism
=12.= The sparse notices we have of the astrology of the Mixtecs,
neighbors and some think relatives of the Zapotecs, reveal closely
similar rites. The name of their king, who opposed Montezuma the First
some sixty years before the arrival of Cortez, proves that they made use
of the same or a similar calendar in bestowing personal appellations. It
is given as _Tres Micos_, Three Monkeys.
Unfortunately, so far as I know, there has not been published, and
perhaps there does not exist, an authentic copy of the Mixtec calendar.
It was nevertheless reduced to writing in the native tongue after the
conquest, and a copy of it was seen by the historian Burgoa in the
Mixtec town of Yanhuitlan.[16-*] Each day was named from a tree, a plant
or an animal, and from them the individual received his names, as Four
Lions, Five Roses, etc. (examples given by Herrera). This latter writer
adds that the name was assigned by the priests when the child was seven
years old (as among the Tzentals), part of the rite being to conduct it
to the temple and bore its ears. He refers also to their auguries
relating to marriage.[16-†] These appear to have been different from
among the Zapotecs. It was necessary that the youth should have a name
bearing a higher number than that of the maiden, and also “that they
should be related;” probably this applied only to certain formal
marriages of the rulers which were obliged to be within the same _gens_.
=13.= I have referred in some detail to the rites and superstitions
connected with the Calendar because they are all essential parts of
Nagualism, carried on far into Christian times by the priests of this
secret cult, as was fully recognized by the Catholic clergy. Wherever
this calendar was in use, the Freemasonry of Nagualism extended, and its
ritual had constant reference to it. Our fullest information about it
does not come from central Mexico, but further south, in the region
occupied by the various branches of the Mayan stock, by the ancestors of
some one of which, perhaps, this singular calendar, and the symbolism
connected with it, were invented.
One of the most important older authorities on this subject is Francisco
Nuñez de la Vega, a learned Dominican, who was appointed Bishop of
Chiapas and Soconusco in 1687, and who published at Rome, in 1702, a
stately folio entitled “_Constituciones Diœcesanas del Obispado de
Chiappa_,” comprising discussions of the articles of religion and a
series of pastoral letters. The subject of Nagualism is referred to in
many passages, and the ninth Pastoral Letter is devoted to it. As this
book is one of extreme rarity, I shall make rather lengthy extracts from
it, taking the liberty of condensing the scholastic prolixity of the
author, and omitting his professional admonitions to the wicked.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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