can sorcerers that de la Serna exclaims:
"It was the Devil himself who inculcated into them this superstition
about the number nine."[41-[||]]

The other number sacred to the nagualists was _seven_. I have, in a
former essay, given various reasons for believing that this was not
derived from the seven days of the Christian week, but directly from the
native calendar.[42-*] Nunez de la Vega tells us that the patron of the
seventh day was _Cuculcan_, "the Feathered Serpent," and that many
nagualists chose him as their special protector. As already seen, in
Guatemala the child finally accepted its _naual_ when seven years old;
and among some of the Nahuatl tribes of Mexico the _tonal_ and the
calendar name was formally assigned on the seventh day after
birth.[42-[+]] From similar impressions the Cakchiquels of Guatemala
maintained that when the lightning strikes the earth the "thunder stone"
sinks into the soil, but rises to the surface after seven
years.[42-[++]]

The three and the seven were the ruling numbers in the genealogical
trees of the Pipiles of San Salvador. The "tree" was painted with
_seven_ branches representing degrees of relationship within which
marriage was forbidden unless a man had performed some distinguished
exploit in war, when he could marry beyond the nearest _three_ degrees
of relationship.[42-Sec.] Another combination of 3 and 7, by
multiplication, explains the customs among the Mixes of deserting for 21
days a house in which a death has occurred.[42-[||]]

The indications are that the nagualists derived these numbers from the
third and seventh days of the calendar "month" of twenty days.
Tepeololtec, the Cave God, was patron of the third day and also "Lord of
Animals," the transformation into which was the test of nagualistic
power.[42-[P}] Tlaloc, god of the mountains and the rains, to whom the
seventh day was hallowed, was represented by the nagualistic symbol of a
snake doubled and twisted on itself, and was generally portrayed in
connection with the "Feathered Serpent" (Quetzalcoatl, Cuculchan,
Gukumatz, all names meaning this), represented as carrying his medicine
bag, _xiquipilli_, and incensory, the apparatus of the native
illuminati, his robe marked with the sign of the cross to show that he
was Lord of the Four Winds and of Life.[43-*]

=26.= The nagualistic rites were highly symbolic, and the symbols used had
clearly defined meanings, which enable us to analyze the religious idea