When the illness has been judged, the remedy remains to be
dealt with. Although they use various methods for it, I am reducing them to one
chapter, since they coincide in their purpose and manner, and almost all of
that is reduced by means of words and spells. It is assumed that the water
always enters as principal agent and sine qua non; they might join to this fire
and perhaps tobacco or tobacco-with-lime.
They cast a spell on all of this, and always begin the invocation by
speaking to the water and perhaps to the earth, because they attribute the main
role in the child's birth to the water, by being the first thing that he
touches (in their opinion) on being born, and to the earth, because on birth he
falls upon it. The invocation and spell then begin, as follows:
Well
now, please come forth,
My
mother Jade-skirted One,
White
Woman;
Dark
Sign,
White
Sign,
White
Emotion,
Yellow
Emotion.
For
now I have come to set up here
The
Yellow Priest,
The
White Priest.
I, I
have come,
I
the Priest,
I
the Lord of Enchantments.
Already
I have fashioned you,
I
have quickened you.
My
mother Dewdrop-skirted One,
You
who have made him,
You who have quickened
him,
Even you are rising against him,
You
are turning against him.
Dark Sign,
In the greatness of the waters,
In
the expanse of the waters,
I
shall leave you.
I
myself,
I am
the Priest,
I am
the Lord of Enchantments.
Please
come forth,
My
mother Jade-skirted One;
Please
go,
Please
go to look for,
Please
go to see
The
Priest Light,
There
in the House of Light.
What
deity,
What
marvel
Is
already covering him with siftings,
Is
already covering him with dust?
Blue-green
Sickness,
Dark
Sickness:
Wherever
you go,
Wherever
you disappear,
You
will cleanse,
You
will improve
The
Priest Light.
Please
come forth,
Blue-green
Sign,
Dark
Sign;
Throughout
the mountains,
Throughout
the plains
You
have been wandering.
Here
I seek you,
Here
I entreat you,
O
Master of Signs.
Please
come forth,
Nine
Pounded,
Nine
Struck;
May
you not shame yourself.
Please
come forth,
My
mother Jade-skirted One;
1
Water;
2
Reed;
1
Rabbit,
2
Rabbit;
1
Deer,
2
Deer;
1
Flint,
2
Flint;
1
Lizard,
2
Lizard.
My
mother Jade-skirted One,
What
will you do?
Go
and cleanse my vassal;
In
some whirlpool,
In
some circle of water,
In
some flow of water,
Please
put the Lord of Tlalocan.
I
have come,
I
the Page,
I
the Crackler.
Do I
think anything of it?
The
stone is intoxicated,
The
wood is intoxicated;
They
walk here,
And
you also,
And
I also.
What
deity,
What
marvel
Now
seeks to destroy
The
infant of the gods
The
child of the gods?
I
have come to take up
The
Blue-green Sign,
The
White Sign.
Wherever
has it gone?
Wherever
has it gone to rest?
Wherever
in the Nine Beyonds,
In
the Nine Junctures.
Has
it gone to rest?
I
have come to take it up,
I
have come to cry out to it:
You
will make good,
You
will make right
The
heart,
The head!
After this charm and spell have been completed, they brag
that they have discovered the tonal, and try to restore it to the child. They
usually do this by taking the conjured water in the mouth and putting it on the
crown of the child's head; or, having placed themselves face to face with the
infant, they spray him with it, startling him with the shower. Others also put
the water between his shoulder blades. With these vain ceremonies, they say
that they have restored his tonal and, fate to him, and that he is already well. Next they prove
it, some placing his face over a vessel of water in which they look at it, and
say that the bright face, the maize kernels, and the hand measurement come out
favorably-all being manifest frauds, but sufficient to dazzle such simple
people, since they still have not taken notice that the outcome of such divinations
is always at the volition of the one who makes them.
After judging the
sickness and casting the preceding spell or one like it, others differ in the
manner of the cure, which they make by censing. For this, they cast a spell, on
the fire, on the smoke, and on the copal with which the censing is carried out,
as follows:
Please
come forth,
You
the Old Man,
You
the Old Woman.
Please
go to soften
The
jewel,
The
plume.
What
is happening?
Already
it wants to shatter. Please
come forth,
White
Woman;
Please
soften
The
jewel,
The
plume.
Please
come forth,
Blue-green
Jaws of Sleep,
Dark
Jaws of Sleep.
Francisca Juana, wife of Juan Bautista, of the settlement of
Mescaltepec, used this among others. After this spell has
been said, they cense the child with the conjured copal and fire, upon which
they assert that his tonal and genius have returned to him and that he is
perfectly healthy.
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