A Rare Antique Spell Book created by the Otomi Indians of Mexico since pre-Hispanic times. Called "matl" in the Nahuatl language, today it is known by its Hispanicized form as amate paper. Curanderos (healers) and brujos (witches or sorcerers) used the paper to make cutout “magic” figures of benevolent and malevolent spirits and deities for use in rituals such as rain-making, agricultural fertility rites, and for chasing away evil spirits. Amate paper,which is made from the inner bark of wild fig and mulberry trees and which describes songs used in Otomí indian native rituals, such as a ritual for getting rid of sickness by sprinkling the blood of a chicken over paper cutouts, as well as rituals associated with the earth and water. Illustrations are paper cuts using brown Amate paper pasted on leaves. This book is possibly a copy from what is referred to as "The Lopez Manuscripts" which are indigenous copies of the original works by Mexican shaman Alfonso Garci­a Tellez. The books, including this one were conceived in the late 1970s, derive from a centuries-old Mesoamerican tradition of using amate figurines for spells, cures, witchcraft, and other rituals in this case, by the indigenous Otomi­ people, from the villages around San Pablito, Puebla. The Book measures 7x5 inches and has 28 pages. Collected in situ by Paul Hendricks, Museum Curator. Ex Museum of Oddities, Metamora, Indiana.

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