if the Nahuas didn’t have a word for “the Devil,” how could they possibly have come to believe in him so immediately? In their proselytizing efforts, the friars were reduced to using the word tlacatecolotl (tla-ka-te-KOL-ot) for a more generic type of “devil.” This term had been used before the conquest to refer to a type of malicious shaman who could take the shape of a horned owl and fly about casting spells and generally wreaking havoc in unsuspecting people’s lives. A tlacatecolotl generally came forth at night and was at all costs to be avoided. These creatures were hardly on par with
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