red. They burned these insects in a
basin, collected the ashes, and rubbed it up with green tobacco
leaves, living worms and insects, and the powdered seeds of a plant
called _ololiuhqui_, which has the power of inducing visions, and
the effect of which is to destroy the reasoning powers. Under the
influence of this ointment, they conversed with the Devil, and he
with them, practicing his deceptions upon them. They also believed
that it protected them, so they had no fear of going into the woods
at night.

"This was also employed by them as a remedy in various diseases,
and the soothing influence of the tobacco and the _ololiuhqui_ was
attributed by them to divine agency. There are some in our own day
who make use of this ointment for sorcery, shutting themselves up,
and losing their reason under its influence; especially some old
men and old women, who are prepared to fall an easy prey to the
Devil."[8-[+]]

The botanist Hernandez observes that another name for this plant was
_coaxihuitl_, "serpent plant," and adds that its seeds contain a
narcotic poison, and that it is allied to the genus _Solanum_, of which
the deadly night-shade is a familiar species. He speaks of its use in
the sacred rites in these words:

"Indorum sacrifici, cum videri volebant versari cum superis, ac
responsa accipere ab eis, ea vescebantur planta, ut desiperent,
milleque phantasmata et demonum observatium effigies
circumspectarent."[8-[++]]

Of the two plants mentioned, the _ololiuhqui_ and the _peyotl_, the
former was considered the more potent in spiritual virtues. "They hold
it in as much veneration as if it were God," says a theologian of the
seventeenth century.[9-*] One who partook of these herbs was called
_payni_ (from the verb _pay_, to take medicine); and more especially
_tlachixqui_, a Seer, referring to the mystic "second sight," hence a
diviner or prophet (from the verb _tlachia_, to see).

Tobacco also held a prominent, though less important, place in these
rites. It was employed in two forms, the one the dried leaf, _picietl_,
which for sacred uses must be broken and rubbed up either seven or nine
times; and the green leaf mixed with lime, hence called _tenextlecietl_
(from _tenextli_, lime).

Allied in effect to these is an intoxicant in use in southern Mexico and
Yucatan, prepared from the bark of a tree called by the Mayas
_