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 Espana_, Lib. iv, cap. 25.

[43-Sec.] It is mentioned as useful for this purpose by the early
physicians, Francisco Ximenes, _Cuatro Libros de la Naturaleza_, p. 144;
Hernandez, _Hist. Plant. Novae Hispaniae_, 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 Espana_, 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
Espana_, 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).

[45-[++]] See his remarks on "Apperception der Menschenzeugung als
Feuerbereitung," in the _Zeitschrift fuer Voelker