intended to represent his companion or wife. In the “Tableau des Bacabs”
of the Codex Cortes., these two alone are represented sitting under the
central “tree of life,” where they are placed back to back (see above,
p. 49); while in the section of the tableau showing the West, they are
placed face to face, she seated under a canopy hung with black and red
dotted lines.
In her, therefore, we have a person of great importance, the consort of
Cuculcan, intimately associated with the quarter of the West to which he
belongs. Dr. Seler has argued that she was the goddess Ix chel, and the
personification of the Earth. With the last supposition I agree, but not
with the name. Ix chel was distinctly by name and myth the goddess of
the rainbow. Much more probably we have in this ancient crone, as I have
already said, the personification of the Evening Star, and the Earth,
Xmucane, the companion of the sun when worn out by his day’s work, whose
home is with him in the West, and whom she soon joins.
_Representation of Ah-Puch, God of Death._—Next to Itzamna, god of Life,
the god of Death, Ah-Puch, is represented most frequently on both
Codices and monuments. In the former his picture is given about eighty
times, usually as a skeleton with tremendous jaws, always with fleshless
skull and backbone,—a true “God Barebones,” as the _Dicc. de Motul_
describes him.
His symbols are unmistakeable,—the head of a corpse and cross-bones, the
ill-omened owl and the ravenous dog,—wonderfully “European” indeed. He
has numerous costumes and head dresses, some quite fanciful, and
occasionally bells are attached to his ankles and clothing. Some of his
delineations seem to reveal a sense of ghastly humor, as we see in the
medieval “dance of death.”
[Illustration: FIG. 24.—The God of Death. (From the Codices.)]
He is associated with the north, because in that direction lay the
mythical home of departed souls; but he is also present in the other
quarters of the compass, for death knows no distinction of places or
persons. Besides the cross-bones, usually shown as in Fig. 25, No. 1, he
often bears the curious design No. 2,[86] which I take to be _a maggot_,
and his head-dress is sometimes as No. 3, decorated with teeth, or
flints, with rays.
[Illustration: FIG. 25.—Symbols of the God of Death.]
[Illustration: FIG. 26.—The God of War.]
_Representation of the God of War._—Frequently associated with the
figure of death is that of a deity with a black line across his face.
This is numbered by Dr. Schellhas the “god F,” and called by him a “god
of death.” Much has been made of the line across his face as identifying
him with the Mexican god Xipe, “the flayer;” but this is not a constant
mark of Xipe, as Father Duran neither mentions it nor portrays it. In
fact, it is nothing more than the line of black paint athwart the face
which meant “war” very generally among the American Indians. An
inspection of the pictures clearly indicates that this is a war god. For
instance, in Cod. Tr., 27*, 28*, 29* _c_, he is shown repeatedly at full
length, armed with a flaming torch in one hand and a flint knife in the
other, firing the canopies of princes, his body striped with war-paint
like his face, following the god of death, who goes before him beating
on a drum and singing a song of war (as shown by the lines issuing from
his mouth). In Cod. Dresden., p. 6 _e_, he wears a war helmet with
nose-piece, and his body is black-striped also.
Which of the gods of war I have named this leading one may have been, I
leave undetermined.
_Representations of Ek Ahau and Other Black Gods._—In the Codices there
are about fifty figures painted black, evidently intended to represent
deities supposed to be thus colored. Forty of them are in the Codex
Troano, which is in parts devoted to a prominent character of this hue.
He is depicted with a truculent expression, a reddish-brown band around
his mouth, and with a large, hanging under-lip. He is generally armed
and often fighting. His figure is sometimes drawn unusually large, of a
ferocious appearance, and carrying a huge spear, a shield, a tomahawk, a
lighted torch, or other fearful sign of war. (See Cod. Tro., pp. 24,
25.)
Previous writers have not been able to assign a name to this deity.
Prof. Thomas suggested that it was Ek Chuah, said by Landa to be the god
of the cacao planters; but to this, Schellhas objects that his warlike
traits exclude such a supposition.[87] So the latter refers to him
merely as “the god M.”
[Illustration: FIG. 27.—Ek Ahau, the Black Captain.]
About his name, however, there can be no doubt. The paintings correspond
precisely with what Nuñez de la Vega tells us of the Tzental divinity
_Ical Ahau_, Maya, _Ek Ahau_, names which he translates, “the black
chief,” or, “the king of the blacks.” He was reported to have been “a
famous warrior and most cruel.” He was depicted “in the figure of a
ferocious blackamoor with the members of a man.”[88] The “blacks” of
whom he was king were seven in number, and were painted in most of the
native calendars which the bishop found among the Tzentals. They were
the signs of seven days, beginning, he adds, with Friday, which may have
been an erroneous explanation of the “masters.”
Among the remainder of the seven were doubtless the god _Ek Chuah_, of
the cacao planters, and the god “L” of Dr. Schellhas’ list. The latter
is found in the Cod. Dresden., pp. 7, 14, 21, 24, 46; but not at all in
the Troanus. It is evident, however, that, as Dr. Schellhas observes,
several minor black gods are depicted, which is explained by the
statement of the Bishop of Chiapas, that there were seven of them.[89]
5. _The Maya Priesthood._
Not all the designs of the inscriptions and Codices are to be considered
deities, however. Doubtless the priests, their representatives, also
appear. These were numerous and of both sexes, called respectively,
_ah-kin_ and _ix-kin_, masters of days and mistresses of days, that is,
having power to predict auspicious and inauspicious days. The chief
priest was variously called _ah-kin mai_ and _ahau can mai_, the word
_mai_, dust, fragrance, vapor, referring to the sacred rite of blowing
substances through a tube in incantation, as we find often represented
in the Codices.[90] _Ahau can_, which at times means “rattlesnake,”
should perhaps here be translated, “master of words,” as another term
for the high priest was _ah-chun can_, which is rendered “one who has
the right of the first speech in business; also, high priest.” (_Dicc.
Motul._)
They were divided into a number of classes exercising special functions;
as the _ah-mac ik_, who conjured the winds; the _ah-uai chac_, who could
bring rains; the _ah-pul_, “fetchers,” who could cause sickness, induce
sleep, etc.; the _ah-uai xibalba_, who made a specialty of interviewing
departed spirits; the _ah-cunal than_, who conjured by magical words;
and others.[91]
[Illustration: FIG. 28.—A Maya Priestess, bearing the _Moan_ Bird. (From
the Dresden Codex.)]
In their rites they were accustomed to appear in masks, _koh_, and
dressed in skins of wild animals, as tigers, etc.[92] Their ceremonies
were often painful, as the old writers report, and as the words to
express them, _kup_, to cut, _ppeta_, to cry out with pain, testify.
This is also abundantly shown by the pictures of scarifying the body and
transfixion of the tongue and ears, on the monuments.
They are said to have worn their hair uncombed and long, often matted
with the blood of the sacrifices. The expression for this was _hunhun
buclah u tzotzel hol_, (el que trae largos revueltos y marañados los
cabellos como los traen los idolatras. _Dicc. Motul_).
6. _Fanciful Analogies._
It were easy in these names, myths, and pictures, to pick out abundant
analogies to the mythologies of Peru and Mexico, of the Pueblos and of
the Old World. It has been done over and over again, usually with a
total oversight of the only point in which such analogies have much
value—the similarity disclosed the world over by independent evolutions
of the religious sentiment. The effort by such resemblances to prove
identity of historical origin is to be deprecated whenever the natural
growth of myths and rites will explain the facts considered. For that
reason I shall say nothing about “Tlaloc deities,” “serpent gods,” etc.,
with which so many pages of other writers have been fruitlessly taken
up. That the adjacent nations of equal culture influenced the people of
Yucatan to some extent, was no doubt a fact. It could not have been
otherwise. But that the Mayan mythology and civilization were distinctly
independent, and were only superficially touched by their neighbors, I
am deeply convinced.
On the other hand, just how far the influence of this potent and
personal culture of the Mayas extended, it is difficult to delimit. I
have found no trace of its peculiar forms in South America, nor anywhere
in North America, beyond the boundaries within which that extraordinary
calendar was accepted, upon which so much of it was based; but this, as
I have shown elsewhere, included not less than seven entirely different
linguistic stocks.[93]
7. _Total Number of Representations._
The actual progress toward an analysis of the pictorial elements of the
Codices which the above identifications indicate, may best be shown by a
few statistics.
I find that the total number of figures of men and women, or of
anthropomorphic deities, which are preserved in the manuscripts, is just
about 950, of which 825 are males and 125 are females.
They are distributed as follows:—
Codex Peresianus, 40 males no females
Codex Cortesianus, 157 males 6 females
Codex Troanus, 345 males 47 females
Codex Dresdensis, 283 males 72 females
——— ———
825 125
Confining our attention to the male deities, the attributes of which
have been above described, we find their pictures are distributed as
follows:—[94]
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
PERESIANUS. CORTESIANUS. TROANUS. DRESDENSIS.
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Itzamna, 4 30 32 130
Cuculcan, 22 54 20
Kin Ich, 4 2 8 22
Xaman Ek, 7 20 20 5
The God of Maize, 16 60 6
Ah Puch, 2 21 25 29
The God of War, 9 3 26 13
The Black Gods, 2 2 39 4
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Total, 28 116 264 229
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
This gives a total of 638 figures which have been recognized; in other
words, more than three-fourths of the whole number.
Of the remainder a considerable portion are unimportant men and persons,
victims of sacrifice, captives, attendants, etc.; others are priests or
officiants in ceremonies; allowing for which, it is certain that no
prominent figure in Mayan mythology under the human form remains to be
discovered in the Codices. This is a satisfactory result, and shows
that, as far as their pictographs go, the contents of these once
mysterious volumes are scarcely an unsolved enigma.
8. _Figures of Quadrupeds._
The pictorial portions of the Codices contain delineations of various
animals, some of which are evidently introduced with symbolical
meanings, and others probably so.
The dog, Maya, _pek_, is one of the most conspicuous. It is the native
breed, with smooth coat and erect ears. In many instances it is
associated with the sign for night, _akbal_, and with the god of death
(Cod. Tro., pp. 2, 3, 32, 33); also with the storm and the lightning.
For that reason Dr. Schellhas and Dr. Seler regard him as a symbol of
lightning.[95] But I am persuaded that while not disconnected with this,
the dog represents primarily some star or constellation. At times he is
dotted with spots to represent stars, Cod. Dres., p. 21; the _akbal_
sign refers to the night. His body is often in human form, carrying a
torch in each hand, Cod. Dres., p. 39. (Compare Cod. Tro., p. 23*.) In
Cod. Dres., p. 40, he falls from the sky; and in ibid., p. 47, he is
slain by the shaft of Itzamna. (Compare id. 2, where Itzamna is sitting
upon him.) He plays on the medicine drum, Cod. Tro., p. 20, and is
associated with the rains, id. pp. 26, 27. He represents the end and
beginning of time-periods, Cod. Cort., p. 32.
The spotted leopard, the jaguar, Maya, _balam_, whose name is attached
to the Chacs, and which appears in the calendar and in many of the myths
of the Mayan stock, is represented in a number of passages of the
Codices, as Cod. Dres., pp. 8, 26; Cod. Tro., pp. 17, 20, 21, 22. In one
part, Cod. Tro., 14, he enters dressed as a warrior with a human body.
The monkey, _maax_, is not often depicted, but is found with astronomic
relations, Cod. Tro., 25*; his sign is distinguishable by the markedly
prognathic jaws.
Deer are numerous, especially in the Cod. Troanus, where the pages 9–12
are occupied with a series of pictures of the animal in snares. On page
14 a large one is shown, sitting on his rump, his organ erect and
prominent. I have little doubt these represent a constellation. In Cod.
Dres., p. 2, a composite figure with deer’s hoofs appears three times,
sailing through the sky on the serpent’s head. (Compare Cod. Cort., p.
14.)
The small edentate, the nine-banded armadillo, _Tatusia novemcincta_, in
Maya, _ibach_, is shown twice in the Cod. Tro., both times caught under
a trap, once, p. 9, under the wind sign, again, p. 22*, under the
_cauac_ sign. What it represents is unknown.
9. _Figures of Birds._
Birds had important symbolical functions, and a number are figured in
the Codices. In their identification I have had the advantage of the
advice of Mr. Witmer Stone, who has pursued his ornithological studies
in Yucatan itself. The following are recognizable:—
1. The red macaw, _Ara macao_, Maya, _moo_ or _ahlo_; the type is shown
in Fig. 29. This was the symbol of Kin ich.
[Illustration: FIG. 29.—Bird Symbols from the Codices.]
2. The horned or eared owl, a large raptorial bird of the genus _Bubo_,
Maya, _coz_.[96] He is usually shown in full face to display his ears or
horns, _e. g._, Cod. Tro., 18*. He appears as an associate of the gods
of death and war, and symbolizes clouds, darkness, and inauspicious
events. His horns frequently appear on the head-dress of Cuculcan to
indicate the departing sun and night, like the _akbal_ sign. (See Cod.
Tro., pp. 19, 29*, 35*.) He is often associated with the number 13, and
may represent in the calendar the 13–day period.
3. Two species of vulture, the king vulture, _Vultus papa_, and the
turkey vulture, _Cathartes aura_, both abundant in Yucatan, Maya, _kuch_
and _ahchom_. The former is the bird seated on the “tree of life,”
tearing out the eyes of the victim, Cod. Dres., p. 3; Cod. Tro., pp. 15,
17, or the entrails, Cod. Tro., p. 15, 17. The naked head and neck of
the vulture on a human body is seen Cod. Dres., pp. 8, 13, 19, 38; Cod.
Cort., p. 10, etc. His head is his monogram, frequent in Cod. Peres.,
pp. 4, 7, 9, etc. (See Fig. 29, No. 2.) Its body is sometimes black, at
others more or less white.
4. The quetzal bird, _Trogon splendens_, is distinctly shown in Cod.
Dres., p. 16, above the middle figure.
5. The crested falcon, _Spizætus tyrannus_, the _moan_ bird, in Maya
_muan_ or _muyan_. This has well-developed tufts of erectile feathers on
the head and resembles in the drawings the horned owl. It is believed by
Förstemann to be the symbol of the Pleiades; by Seler, to be associated
with the clouds and rains. Both are probably correct.[97] (See Fig. 28.)
6. The pelican or cormorant is drawn with a human body and the “fish and
oysters” sign in Cod. Cort., pp. 20, 21.
7. Blackbirds, of which two species live in Yucatan, are portrayed in
Cod. Tro., p. 31.
8. The wild turkey is easily recognized by his head and “wattle” among
the food offerings.
10. _Figures of Reptiles._
Among reptilians, the turtle or tortoise (Maya, _ac_) is one of the most
prominent. By Dr. Schellhas it has also been called a _Blitzthier_, or
animal symbolical of the lightning, basing his opinion especially on
Cod. Dres., p. 40, where a human figure with a tortoise head is seen
holding a torch in each hand. It is distinctly represented as a
celestial body in Cod. Cort., pp. 13, 17, 37, and 38; and when we are
informed that the Mayas called a portion of the constellation Gemini by
the name “the tortoise,” it is quite clear that we are dealing with an
astronomical, not a meteorological, emblem.
Dr. Förstemann has advanced the theory that at least one and an
important function of the tortoise was as a symbol of the summer
solstice, in accordance with which he explains Cod. Dres., p. 40; and
that on the earth-plane it indicated the northeast and northwest
directions. His arguments for this opinion, if not conclusive, certainly
attach to it a high probability.
Between the tortoise and the snail (Maya, _hub_ or _ut_) there is in the
Codices some mythical relation. In the Aztec symbolism the snail is
often an emblem of death; but also of birth. It is likely that the same
holds true of the Maya designs. The animal is associated distinctly with
the beneficent deities, notably with Itzamna and Cuculcan, Cod. Dres., 5
and 37. But it is also visible in close relation with the god of death,
Cod. Dres., pp. 9, 12, 13, 14, 23.
Regarding it as a counterpart of the tortoise, Dr. Förstemann has given
various reasons for holding that it symbolizes the winter solstice and
the directions southwest and southeast, and thinks it probable that it
is found in the hieroglyph of the month _mol_, which occurs about that
season of the year.[98]
The frog, Maya, _much_, _uo_, is a well-known symbol of water and the
rains. It is shown falling from the sky in Cod. Cort., p. 17; and on p.
12, Itzamna, in his character as a rain god, appears with the body of
one.
The scorpion (Maya, _zinaan_) is depicted several times, especially in
Cod. Cort., p. 7, and Tro., pp. 9, 13, where it is of large size. Its
symbolic sense is not clear. The Mayas applied the term _zinaan ek_,
“scorpion stars,” to a certain constellation, but it is possible they
derived it from the Spaniards. Another possibility is that the animal
represents _the earth-plane_. The word _zinaan_ is derived from the
radical _zin_, which means to stretch out, to extend; and the entire
earth, as one extended plane, was called _zinil_.
The rattlesnake appears to be the only serpent which is represented as a
symbol. It was distinctively called, both in Tzental and Maya, “the
Snake King” (Maya, _ahau can_, Tzental, _aghau chan_). Its rattles were
termed _tzab_, and hence its name _ahau tzab can_, also in use.
According to the _Dicc. Motul_, the natives believed there were four
varieties, corresponding to the four sacred colors, white, black, red,
and yellow.
It is shown in the Codices, realistically, biting a man’s foot, Tro., p.
7; astronomically, in the sky among the stars, Cod. Dres., p. 43; Cort.,
pp. 12, 13; as the head-dress of the serpent goddess, already described;
as the companion of Itzamna and Cuculcan, frequently; as the body of
Itzamna, Cod. Cort., 10, in Cod. Dres. and Cod. Tro. It carries the
“constellation band,” and may generally be regarded as one of the
symbols of Time.
11. _Occupations and Ceremonies._
[Illustration: FIG. 30.—A Religious Function. (From the Dresden Codex.)]
Among the illustrations are a number which throw light on the habits and
customs of the ancient Mayas. We see persons engaged in spinning and
weaving, Cod. Tro., pp. 11*, 16*, etc., Cod. Dres., p. 45; others making
idols, Cod. Tro., p. 12*, Dres., p. 6, etc. Various religious ceremonies
are pictured, as piercing the tongue, Cod. Tro., pp. 16*, 17*; baptizing
children, which was performed at the age of four years,[99] Cod. Tro.,
20*; and the important functions at the end of the years, depicted both
in Cod. Tro., pp. 20–24, and Cod. Dres., pp. 25–28.[100]
A curious scene is that Fig. 29, from the Dresden MS., p. 35.
In the center, resting upon an altar of three degrees surmounted by the
sign _caban_, earth, is the head of the god of fertility, his soul
escaping from his nostril. Below, on each side of the altar, are two
figures, one playing on a flute, the second on the medicine drum. Above
are also two, one shaking the sacred rattle, the second squatted before
a flaming altar, in one hand the holy staff, _caluac_, while the other
lifts above his head the “fish and oyster” sign, symbol of the products
of the sea. On the right hand are other offerings, the turkey and the
dog; and below them a ladder, _eb-che_, probably signifying the day
_eb_, on which this ceremony took or should take place. Its successful
result is shown in the picture which follows it in the Codex.
* * * * *
Those who would follow Förstemann’s (and my own) views in understanding
the Codices, must accustom themselves to look upon the animals, plants,
objects, and transactions they depict as largely symbolic, representing
the movements of the celestial bodies, the changes of the seasons, the
meteorological variations, the revolutions of the sun, moon, and
planets, and the like; just as in the ancient zodiacs of the Old World
we find similar uncouth animals and impossible collocations of images
presented. The great snakes which stretch across the pages of the
Codices mean Time; the torches in the hands of figures, often one
downward and one upward, indicate the rising and the setting of
constellations; the tortoise and the snail mark the solstices; the
mummied bodies, the disappearance from the sky at certain seasons of
certain stars, etc. A higher, a more pregnant, and, I believe, the only
correct meaning is thus awarded to these strange memorials.
-----
Footnote 43:
The account of Hernandez is given by Las Casas, _Historia de las
Indias_, cap. CXXIII. The monk says that the principal lords alone
knew the histories of the gods.
Footnote 44:
Lizana’s work, of which only one complete copy is known to exist (in
Madrid), has been partly republished by Brasseur in the Appendix to
Landa, _Cosas de Yucatan_. He says the votaries came from Chiapas and
Tabasco, p. 359.
Footnote 45:
The _Dicc. Motul_ defines _Hunab Ku_ thus: “the one true and living
God; the greatest of all the gods of Yucatan was so named, and he had
no idol, because they said that he could not be represented, seeing
that he was incorporeal.” This dictionary, to which I shall often
refer, is one of the Maya language, composed at the Convent of Motul,
about 1570. A copy is in my possession.
Footnote 46:
In my work, _American Hero-Myths_ (Philadelphia, 1882), Chap. IV, “The
Hero-gods of the Mayas,” I have treated at considerable length the
duplicate traditions relating to Itzamna and Cuculcan.
Footnote 47:
“Todos conforman en que este (Cuculcan) entró por la parte del
poniente.” Herrera, _Historia de las Indias_, Dec. IV, cap. 2. Looking
toward the North, Itzamna was the right-hand god, Cuculcan the
left-hand; hence, the arrival of the former was called _nohnial_,
“right-hand coming,” of the latter, _dzicnial_, “left-hand coming.”
(Cogolludo, _Hist. de Yucatan_, Lib. IV, cap. IV.)
Footnote 48:
“En los Repertorios mas generales tienen pintado el 7 signo en figura
de hombre y de Culebra, que llaman _Cuchul chan_, y han explicado los
Maestros que es culebra de plumas que anda en el agua.” Nuñez de la
Vega, _Constituciones Diocesanas_, Parte II, p. 132.
Footnote 49:
The word _chac_ means “strong; the color red; heat; water.” The _Dicc.
Motul_ says: “Significa agua en algunas maneras de decir; tambien dios
de las aguas, relampago y trueno; _chacal ik_, tempestad de agua,
huracan.”
Footnote 50:
Mr. J. Walter Fewkes is certainly correct in his argument that the
“ceremonial circuit,” of the Mayas,—the direction of movement in their
ceremonies—was sinistral, that is, from right to left, in most
instances. This should be remembered in studying the pictorial portion
of the Codices. See Mr. Fewkes’ article, “A Central-American
Ceremony,” in the _American Anthropologist_, July, 1893.
Footnote 51:
An article by Dr. C. Schultz-Sellack, entitled “Die Amerikanischen
Götter der vier Weltrichtungen,” in the _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_,
Bd. XI, may be profitably read in this connection, though some of its
statements are antiquated.
Footnote 52: