"AMORES DE MANANTIAL". UN EPISODIO NAHUA DE CURACIÓN EN LA SIERRA DE TEXCOCO.

"The Fountain Lovers" is a story in Spanish about a young man from the Sierra de Texcoco who was captured by the ahuaques or the chief water spirits. Juan, son of a midwife of Guadalupe Amanalco, was wed within a fountain to Queen Xochitl, the ruler of the ahuaque world. The retrieval of Juan's spirit was a complex episode in which two graniceros (weather specialists) intervened. The story, narrated by his mother, describes how the graniceros delivered offerings to replace the objects which Juan had broken causing the aggression, how they created disagreements in the relations between Juan and the Queen with stinking smells, and how, finally, taking advantage of the breakdown of the marriage, they rescued Juan's spirit and returned it to the body of the invalid. But even when cured, Juan continued to believe that he lived in a luxurious palace under the water. The text offers original information on the nature of the world of the water divinities in the Sierra de Texcoco and the rites of healing. Paradoxically, this information is given in Spanish. The testimony is presented with an introductory text which places it in the linguistic panorama and in the cosmological context of the Nahua mountain dwellers and provides a few keys to reading with the correct understanding. It is meant for ethnologists versed in Mesoamerican cosmologies and those studying Nahua culture, as well as for non-specialized readers curious about these topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]