call Cuchulchan. The masters have explained it as a snake with
feathers which moves in the water. This sign corresponds with
Mexzichuaut, which means Cloudy Serpent, or, of the clouds.[19-*]
The people also consult them in order to work injury on their
enemies, taking the lives of many through such devilish artifices,
and committing unspeakable atrocities.

"Worse even than these are those who wander about as physicians or
healers; who are none such, but magicians, enchanters, and
sorcerers, who, while pretending to cure, kill whom they will. They
apply their medicines by blowing on the patient, and by the use of
infernal words; learned by heart by those who cannot read or write;
and received in writing from their masters by those acquainted with
letters. The Master never imparts this instruction to a single
disciple, but always to three at a time, so that in the practice of
the art it may be difficult to decide which one exerts the magical
power. They blow on feathers, or sticks, or plants, and place them
in the paths where they may be stepped on by those they wish to
injure, thus causing chills, fevers, ugly pustules and other
diseases; or they introduce into the body by such arts toads,
frogs, snakes, centipedes, etc,[TN-2] causing great torments. And
by these same breathings and magic words they can burn down houses,
destroy the growing crops and induce sickness. No one of the three
disciples is permitted to practice any of these arts without
previously informing the other two, and also the Master, by whom
the three have been taught.

"We have learned by the confession of certain guilty parties how
the Master begins to instruct his disciple. First he tells him to
abjure God, the saints and the Virgin, not to invoke their names,
and to have no fear of them. He then conducts him to the wood,
glen, cave or field where the pact with the Devil is concluded,
which they call 'the agreement' or 'the word given' (in Tzental
_quiz_). In some provinces the disciple is laid on an ant-hill, and
the Master standing above him calls forth a snake, colored with
black, white and red, which is known as 'the ant-mother' (in
Tzental _zmezquiz_).[19-[+]] This comes accompanied by the ants
and other small snakes of the same kind, which enter at the joints
of t