rigin. Every person at birth has assigned to him both a good and a bad
genius, the former aiming at his welfare, the latter at his injury. The
good genius is known by the Nahuatl term _tonale_, and it is represented
in the first bird or animal of any kind which is seen in or near the
house immediately after the birth of the infant.

The most powerful person in the village is the high priest of the native
cult. One who died about 1850 was called "the Thunderbolt," and whenever
he walked abroad he was preceded by a group of chosen disciples, called
by the Nahuatl name _tlatoques_, speakers or attorneys.[14-*] His
successor, known as "the Greater Thunder," did not maintain this state,
but nevertheless claimed to be able to control the seasons and to send
or to mitigate destructive storms--claims which, sad to say, brought him
to the stocks, but did not interfere with the regular payment of tribute
to him by the villagers. He was also a medicine man and master of
ceremonies in certain "scandalous orgies, where immodesty shows herself
without a veil."[14-[+]][TN-1]

=11.= Turning to the neighboring province of Oaxaca and its inhabitants,
we are instructed on the astrological use of the calendar of the
Zapotecs by Father Juan de Cordova, whose _Arte_ of their language was
published at Mexico in 1578. From what he says its principal, if not its
only purpose, was astrological. Each day had its number and was called
after some animal, as eagle, snake, deer, rabbit, etc. Every child, male
or female, received the name of the day, and also its number, as a
surname; its personal name being taken from a fixed series, which
differed in the masculine and feminine gender, and which seems to have
been derived from the names of the fingers.

From this it appears that among the Zapotecs the personal spirit or
_nagual_ was fixed by the date of the birth, and not by some later
ceremony, although the latter has been asserted by some writers; who,
however, seem to have applied without certain knowledge the rites of the
Nahuas and other surrounding tribes to the Zapotecs.[15-*]

Next in importance to the assigning of names, according to Father
Cordova, was the employment of the calendar in deciding the propriety of
marriages. As the recognized object of marriage was to have sons, the
couple appealed to the professional augur to decide this question before
the marriage was fixed. He selected as many beans as was the sum of the
numbers of th