Water spirits (nanacatl/ahuacueh)

[tom grigsby]

Dear David,
Thanks for you input regarding the “chan.”  I don’t know the term, but it
probably comes from “chantia,” morar en un lugar, according to de Molina.
In Maya country they’re known as “chacs.”
Our water spirits are also conceptualized as “animalitos” but that’s because
they’re transformations of the real critters.  Invisible as they are, they
can only be seen in dreams or in their myriad transformations.  We also have
to take precautions when crossing barrancas, places of water.  We smoke
cigarettes, swallow some alcohol, or carry a branch of jaramilla (?) or some
salt to keep them at bay.  The pepper tree is interesting because, if I'm
not mistaken, it’s an introduced species.

Thanks again,
Tom Grigsby



>From: "David L. Frye" <dfrye at umich.edu>
>Reply-To: nahuat-l at server2.umt.edu
>To: nahuat-l at server2.umt.edu
>Subject: Water spirits (nanacatl/ahuacueh)
>Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2001 14:31:07 -0400 (EDT)
>
>In Mexquitic, SLP (settled by folks from Tlaxcala in 1591 and
>Nahuatl-speaking up to c. 1850, monolingual Spanish since the early 1900s)
>the term for water spirit is "chan" (as in "el chan del agua"). Nowadays
>the chanes are conceptualized as "animalitos," bugs/insects/"germs" that
>are microscopic, not invisible per se; they are said to cause itching,
>numbness, bad luck, etc. in anyone foolish enough to cross a stream
>without the precaution of holding a bunch of perul (pepper-tree) branches
>in his/her hand.
>
>David Frye, U. Michigan
>
>

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