The American ethnologist traces the nagual, the guardian spirit or animal double of Mexican and Central American belief, and the naualli or sorcerers who claimed power through it. Drawing on Spanish missionary records and trial reports, he describes their classes and pretended powers, the sacred intoxicants peyotl and ololiuhqui, claims of clairvoyance, and the secret cult he believed persisted under colonial rule.
A classic 1894 study for anyone curious about Mesoamerican religion and its survival after the conquest. Download the free EPUB.