[43-*] See Dr. Seler’s minute description in the _Compte Rendu_ of the Eighth Session of the Congrés International des Américanistes, 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 bajará al infierno, y subiré á 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 passage is from the _Camino del Cielo_, fol. 100, verso. [43-‡] Sahagun, _Historia de la Nueva España_, 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. Novæ Hispaniæ_, 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 España_, 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 España_, Lib. i, cap. 18. De la Serna describes the same ceremony as current in his day, _Manual de Ministros_, p. 35. The invocation ran:--“Shining Rose, light-giving Rose, receive and rejoice my heart before the God.” [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).