The mysterious words have now, indeed, lost much of their ancient significance. In a recent dictionary of the Spanish of Mexico _nagual_ is defined as “a witch; a word used to frighten children and make them behave,”[58-‡] while in Nicaragua, where the former Nahuatl population has left so many traces of its presence in the language of to-day, the word _nagual_ no longer means an actor in the black art, or a knowledge of it, but his or her armamentarium, or the box, jar or case in which are kept the professional apparatus, the talismans and charms, which constitute the stock in trade or outfit of the necromancer.[59-*] Among the Lacandons, of Mayan stock, who inhabit the forests on the upper waters of the Usumacinta river, at the present day the term _naguate_ or _nagutlat_ is said to be applied to any one “who is entitled to respect and obedience by age and merit;”[59-†] but in all probability he is also believed to possess superior and occult knowledge. =39.= All who have any acquaintance with the folk-lore of the world are aware that the notion of men and women having the power to change themselves into beasts is as wide as superstition itself and older than history. It is mentioned in the pages of Herodotus and in the myths of ancient Assyria. It is the property of African negroes, and the peasantry of Europe still hold to their faith in the reality of the were-wolf of Germany, the _loup-garou_ of France and the _lupo mannaro_ of Italy. Dr. Richard Andrée well says in his interesting study of the subject: “He who would explain the origin of this strange superstition must not approach it as a national or local manifestation, but as one universal in its nature; not as the property of one race or family, but of the species and its psychology at large.”[59-‡] Even in such a detail as the direct connection of the name of the person with his power of change do we find extraordinary parallelisms between the superstition of the red man of America and the peasant of Germany. As in Mexico the _nagual_ was assigned to the infant by a form of baptism, so in Europe the peasants of east Prussia hold that if the godparent at the time of naming and baptism thinks of a wolf, the infant will acquire the power of becoming one; and in Hesse to pronounce the name of the person in the presence of the animal into which he has been changed will restore him to human shape.[59-§] =40.= I need not say that the doctrine of personal spirits is not especially Mexican, nor yet American; it belongs to man in general, and can be recognized in most religions and many philosophies. In ancient Greece both the Platonicians and later the Neo-Platonicians thought that each individual has a particular spirit, or _daimōn_, in whom is enshrined his or her moral personality. To this _daimōn_ he should address his prayers, and should listen heedfully to those interior promptings which seem to arise in the mind from some unseen silent monitor.[60-*]