It is very clear, that the _Nagualism_ above notified is but a degenerate offshoot of that _serpent_ worship, which is coeval with the _fall_: yet, degenerate as it is, it is equally indisputable, that this good man’s zeal outsteps far his judgment, the exaggerations of his fancy even committing him so far, as to make him imperceptibly contradict himself! Surely, were it a principle of action with those unfortunate beings to make their children, on their entrance upon active life, to _renounce God_, they would not teach them, at the same time, to _reverence_ a brute creature, merely as being a _subordinate servant of that God_! To reconcile the Bishop, therefore, to something like truth, I will suppose him to mean by the word _God_, where it first occurs, _Christ_, which is evident from the context, of “His blessed Mother”: and then the prohibition against the sign of “the cross,” must be understood exclusively as in reference to _him_; a conclusion which is confirmed by an additional reference to that _oath_, which I have before mentioned, as still prevalent amongst the Irish. _By the cross_ is the oath, accompanied by a transverse location of the forefinger of one hand upon that of the other: and the addition alluded to is _of Christ_, which is never volunteered except when equivocation is suspected; and then it is exacted as a matter of _distinction_ between _His_ cross and the _more antecedent_ one! But no further proof is requisite to prove the Bishop’s want of candour than his _withholding_ documents from the public eye, which would appear to illustrate the subject.--“Although in these tracts and papers there are,” says he, “many other things touching primitive paganism, they are not mentioned in this epitome, lest, in being brought into notice, they should be the means of confirming more strongly an idolatrous superstition.” He should have had more confidence in his own cause, and feel that--“If anything, in consequence of this scrutiny, totter and fall, it can only be the _error_ which has attached itself to truth, encumbering and deforming it. _Truth_ itself will remain _unshaken, unsullied, fair, immortal_!” Now, in the description of the ancient city, near Palenque, quoted before, I find some words, which prove an affinity between the worship of the ancient inhabitants of America and those of Ireland, and which rescue both from the imputations of bigotry. “I am _Culebra_,” says _Votan_, one of the early princes, I believe, of Mexico, who wrote an historical tract in the Indian idiom, “because I am Chivim.” The man’s name, you perceive, was _Votan_, but his ambition was to be considered _Culebra_, or the _snake_, that is, the deity so personified: the mode whereby he sought to establish it is foreign from my inquiry.