old
women who were prophetesses, to be eaten by her, as a reward for her
supplications for their future success in battle.[45-2] The cutting in
pieces of Tol[c]om, in the narrative of Xahila, has reference to such a
festival.

Sanchez y Leon states that the most usual sacrifice was a child. The
heart was taken out, and the blood was sprinkled toward the four
cardinal points as an act of adoration to the four winds, copal being
burned at the same time, as an incense.[45-3]

A leading feature in their ceremonial worship was the sacred dance, or,
as the Spanish writers call it, _el baile_. The native name for it is
_xahoh_, and it is repeatedly referred to in the _Annals_. The legendary
origin of some of these dances, indeed, constitute a marked feature in
its narratives. They are mentioned by the missionaries as the favorite
pastime of the Indians; and as it was impossible to do away with them
altogether, they contented themselves with suppressing their most
objectionable features, drunkenness and debauchery, and changed them, at
least in name, from ceremonies in honor of some heathen god, to some
saint in the Roman calendar. In some of these, vast numbers of
assistants took part, as is mentioned by Xahila (Sec. 32).

Magic and divination held a very important place in Cakchiquel
superstition, as the numerous words bearing upon them testify. The form
of belief common to them and their neighbors, has received the name
_Nagualism_, from the Maya root _na_, meaning to use the senses. I have
traced its derivation and extension elsewhere,[46-1] and in this
connection will only observe that the narrative of Xahila, in repeated
passages, proves how deeply it was rooted in the Cakchiquel mind. The
expression _ru puz ru naval_, should generally be rendered "his magic
power, his sorcery," though it has a number of allied significations.
_Naval_ as a noun means magician, _naval chee_, _naval abah_, the spirit
of the tree, of the stone, or the divinity embodied in the idols of
these substances.

Another root from which a series of such words were derived, was _hal_,
to change. The power of changing or metamorphosing themselves into
tigers, serpents, birds, globes of fire, etc., was claimed by the
sorcerers, and is several times mentioned in the following texts. Hence
the sorcerer was called _haleb_, the power he possessed to effect such
transformations _halibal_, the change effected _halibeh_, etc.

Their remarkable subjection