ice of cocoa, while
to still other classes, the shapes of grains of maize taken at random,
the appearance of animal excrement, the forms assumed by the smoke
rising from burning victims, the entrails and viscera of animals, the
course taken by a certain species of spider, the visions seen in
drunkeness,[TN-16] the flights of birds, and the directions in which
fruits would fall, all offered so many separate fields of
prognostication, the professors of which were distinguished by different
ranks and titles.[279-1]

As the intellectual force of the nation was chiefly centred in this
class, they became the acknowledged depositaries of its sacred legends,
the instructors in the art of preserving thought; and from their duty to
regulate festivals, sprang the observation of the motions of the
heavenly bodies, the adjustment of the calendars, and the pseudo-science
of judicial astrology. The latter was carried to as subtle a pitch of
refinement in Mexico as in the old world; and large portions of the
ancient writers are taken up with explaining the method adopted by the
native astrologers to cast the horoscope, and reckon the nativity of the
newly-born infant.

How was this superior power obtained? What were the terms of admission
to this privileged class? In the ruder communities the power was
strictly personal. It was revealed to its possessor by the character of
the visions he perceived at the ordeal he passed through on arriving at
puberty; and by the northern nations was said to be the manifestation of
a more potent personal spirit than ordinary. It was not a faculty, but
an inspiration; not an inborn strength, but a spiritual gift. The
curious theory of the Dakotas, as recorded by the Rev. Mr. Pond, was
that the necromant first wakes to consciousness as a winged seed, wafted
hither and thither by the intelligent action of the Four Winds. In this
form he visits the homes of the different classes of divinities, and
learns the chants, feasts, and dances, which it is proper for the human
race to observe, the art of omnipresence or clairvoyance, the means of
inflicting and healing diseases, and the occult secrets of nature, man,
and divinity. This is called "dreaming of the gods." When this
instruction is completed, the seed enters one about to become a mother,
assumes human form, and in due time manifests his powers. _Four_ such
incarnations await it, each of increasing might, and then the spirit
returns to its original not