despedacandolo, si era de los que avian cogido en guerra, dicen que
guardaban el miembro genital y los testiculos del tal sacrificado,
y se los daban a una vieja que tenian por profeta, para que los
comiese, y le pedian rogasse a su idolo les diesse mas
captivos."[35-*]
When Captain Pedro de Alvarado, in the year 1524, was marching upon
Quetzaltanango, in Guatemala, just such a fearful old witch took her
stand at the summit of the pass, with her familiar in the shape of a
dog, and "by spells and nagualistic incantations" undertook to prevent
his approach.[35-[+]]
As in the earliest, so in the latest accounts. The last revolt of the
Indians of Chiapas occurred among the Zotzils in 1869. The cause of it
was the seizure and imprisonment by the Spanish authorities of a
"mystical woman," known to the whites as Santa Rosa, who, together with
one of their _ahaus_ or chieftains, had been suspected of fomenting
sedition. The natives marched thousands strong against the city of San
Cristobal, where the prisoners were, and secured their liberation; but
their leader, Ignacio Galindo, was entrapped and shot by the Spaniards,
and the mutiny was soon quelled.[35-[++]]
=22.= But perhaps the most striking instance is that recorded in the
history of the insurrection of the Tzentals of Chiapas, in 1713. They
were led by an Indian girl, a native Joan of Arc, fired by like
enthusiasm to drive from her country the hated foreign oppressors, and
to destroy every vestige of their presence. She was scarcely twenty
years old, and was known to the Spaniards as Maria Candelaria. She was
the leader of what most historians call a religious sect, but what
Ordonez y Aguiar, himself a native of Chiapas, recognizes as the
powerful secret association of Nagualism, determined on the extirpation
of the white race. He estimates that in Chiapas alone there were nearly
seventy thousand natives under her orders--doubtless an
exaggeration--and asserts that the conspiracy extended far into the
neighboring tribes, who had been ordered to await the result of the
effort in Chiapas.
Her authority was absolute, and she was merciless in requiring obedience
to it. The disobedient were flayed alive or roasted over a slow fire.
She and all her followers took particular pleasure in manifesting their
hatred and contempt for the religion of their oppressors. They defiled
the sacred vessels of the churches, imitated with buffoonery the
cer
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