invariably evilly disposed, but as a class they were feared and disliked. Our earliest information regarding them is to be found in the History of New Spain of Father Sahagun, which says of them—
"The naualli, or magician, is he who frightens men and sucks the blood of children during the night. He is well skilled in the practice of this trade, he knows all the arts of sorcery (nauallotl), and employs them with cunning and ability; but for the benefit of men only, not for their injury. Those who have to recourse to such arts for evil intents injure the bodies of their victims, cause them to lose their reason, and smother them. These are wicked men and necromancers”.
Father Juan Bautista, in a work of instruction to confessors, printed at Mexico in the year 1600, says—
"There are magicians who call themselves teciuhtlazque, and also by the term nanahualtin, who conjure the clouds when there is danger of hail, so that the crops may not be injured. They can also make a stick look like a serpent, a mat like a centipede, a piece of stone like a scorpion, and similar deceptions. Others of these nanahualtin will transform themselves to all appearance (segun la aparencia) into a tiger, a dog, or a weasel. Others, again, will take the form of an owl, a cock, or a weasel; and, when one is preparing to seize them, they will appear now as a cock, now as an owl, and again as a weasel. These call themselves nanahualtin.'
This passage recalls to us the contest between the magician and the princess in the Arabian Nights. Some of the leading questions which the clergy put to members of their flock whom they suspected of sorcery throw light upon the nature of the magical rites indulged. For example, Nicolas de Leon puts into the mouth of the priest such questions as the following—
"Art thou a soothsayer? Dost thou foretell events by reading signs, or by interpreting dreams, or by water, making circles and figures on its surface? Dost thou sweep and ornament with flower garlands the place where idols are
