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98. They could transform themselves into animal shape, influence the hearts of women, inflict wasting diseases upon their enemies (as implied in one of their names, "heart-eaters"), and bring misfortune. 'These arts they were ready to place at the disposal of those who were prepared to pay for their services, and they often combined their trade with that of professional housebreaker. For this purpose their most powerful charm was the arm of a woman who had died in childbirth; by its means they could cast sleep upon the inmates of the house which they desired to rob, or at any rate deprive them of the faculty of speech and movement. This belief bears a strange resemblance to that once held in this country concerning the magical properties attaching to the hand of an executed criminal. They could however be kept at a distance by placing a stone knife in a bowl of water on the threshold, or thistles in the windows. A bolder method of counteracting the machinations of a sorcerer was forcibly to snatch a few hairs from his head. It was believed that if he could not recover them he was destined to die the same night, unless indeed he could steal or borrow something from the house of his assailant. Practitioners of the black art were punished by the Tarascans by blinding.

Various portents were drawn from the animal world; the cries of beasts of prey at night were supposed to forebode disaster to those who heard them, and the voices of certain birds were believed equally unlucky. The owl, so closely associated with Mictlantecutli, was especially regarded as the harbinger of ill-fortune and death, and if one of these birds perched upon the house of a sick man his demise was considered certain. It was held unlucky to encounter a skunk or a weasel, and the entry into the house of a rabbit or a troop of ants foreboded bad luck. If a certain kind of spider was found in the house, the owner traced a cross upon the ground,