Chapter 2

Furthermore the following four well-known symbols of sacrificial gifts appear in connection with god B in the Dresden manuscript; a sprouting kernel of maize (or, according to Förstemann, parts of a mammal, game), a fish, a lizard and a vulture's head, as symbols of the four elements. They seem to occur, however, in relation also to other deities and evidently are general symbols of sacrificial gifts. Thus they occur on the two companion initial pages of the Codex Tro.-Cortesianus, on which the hieroglyphs of gods C and K are repeated in rows (Tro. 36-Cort. 22. Compare Förstemann, Kommentar zur Madrider Handschrift, pp. 102, 103). God B is also connected with the four colors--yellow, red, white and black--which, according to the conception of the Mayas, correspond to the cardinal points (yellow, air; red, fire; white, water; black, earth) and the god himself is occasionally represented with a black body, for example on Dr. 29c, 31c and 69. This is expressed in the hieroglyphs by the sign, Fig. 9, which signifies black and is one of the four signs of the symbolic colors for the cardinal points.

God B is represented with all the _four cardinal points_, a characteristic, which he shares only with god C, god K, and, in one instance, with god F (see Tro. 29*c); he appears as ruler of all the points of the compass; north, south, east and west as well as air, fire, water and earth are subject to him.

Opinions concerning the significance of this deity are much divided. It is most probable that he is Kukulcan, a figure occurring repeatedly in the mythology of the Central American peoples and whose name, like that of the kindred deity Quetzalcoatl among the Aztecs and Gucumatz among the Quiches, means the "feathered serpent", "the bird serpent". Kukulcan and Gucumatz are those figures of Central American mythology, to which belong the legends of the creation of the world and of mankind. Furthermore Kukulcan is considered as the founder of civilization, as the builder of cities, as hero-god, and appears in another conception as the rain-deity, and--since the serpent has a mythologic relation to water--as serpent deity. J. Walter Fewkes, who has made this god-figure of the Maya manuscripts the subject of a monograph (A Study of Certain Figures in a Maya Codex, in American Anthropologist, Vol. VII, No. 3, Washington, 1894), also inclines to the belief that B is the god Kukulcan, whom he conceives of as a serpent-and rain-deity. This view has been accepted by Förstemann (Die Tagegötter der Mayas, Globus, Vol. 73, No. 10) and also by Cyrus Thomas (Aids to the Study of the Maya Codices, Washington, 1888). The same opinion is held also by E. P. Dieseldorff, who, a resident of Guatemala, the region of the ancient Maya civilization, has instituted excavations which have been successful in furnishing most satisfactory material for these researches (see Dieseldorff: Kukulcan, Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1895, p. 780). Others have considered god B as the first parent and lord of the heavens, Itzamná who has a mythologic importance analogous to that of Kukulcan. Itzamná is also held to be the god of creation and founder of civilization and accordingly seems to be not very remotely allied to the god Kukulcan. Others again, for example Brasseur de Bourbourg and Seler, have interpreted the figure of god B to represent the fourfold god of the cardinal points and rain-god Chac, a counterpart of the Aztec rain-god Tlaloc. The fact that this god-figure is so frequently connected with the serpent and the bird is strongly in favor of the correctness of the supposition, that we should see in god B a figure corresponding to the Kukulcan of tradition. Thus we see the god represented once with the body of a serpent and with a bird near by (Cort. 10b), while B's hieroglyph appears both times in the text. God B is also pictured elsewhere repeatedly with a serpent body, thus for example on Dr. 35b, 36a. On pages 4-6 of the Codex Cortesianus he is pictured six times and each time in connection with a serpent.

The accounts we have received concerning the mythology of the Maya peoples are very meagre and owing to the uncertainty respecting the origin of the Maya manuscripts, it cannot even be determined which of these accounts are applicable to the Maya manuscripts, or, indeed, whether they are applicable at all. For it is by no means positively proved that these manuscripts did not originate in regions of Maya culture, regarding which we have received no accounts at all. As our present purpose is purely that of description and determination, it remains quite unimportant which of these recorded figures of gods shall be regarded as god B.

God B is nearly allied to, but in no wise identical with, the deity with the large ornamented nose, designated by K, who will be discussed farther on. God K is an independent deity designated by a special hieroglyph, but like C he stands in an unknown relation to God B (for details see K).

Finally it should be mentioned, that god B never appears with death symbols. He is clearly a deity of life and creation, in contrast to the powers of death and destruction.

His day seems to be Ik (aspiration, breath, life). (Compare Förstemann, Die Tagegötter der Mayas, Globus, Vol. 73, No. 10).

C. The God with the Ornamented Face.

This is one of the most remarkable and most difficult figures of the Maya manuscripts, and shows, at the same time, how imperfect must be the information we have received in regard to the Maya mythology, since from the frequency of his representations he is obviously one of the most important deities and yet can be identified with none of the representations of gods handed down to us. His hieroglyph is definitely determined (Figs. 11, 12). The circular design in front of the forehead of the hieroglyph head seems, as a variant from the Codex Tro. (Fig. 12) leads us to suppose, to denote the ideographic representation of pouring out or emptying a vessel, the contents of which flow into the mouth of the god. Another variant of this prefix occurs in Tro. 13*b; Fig. 15, the symbol of the sacrificial knife, and instead of the prefix the numeral 13 occurs in one instance! (Tro. 12*c). The head alone, without any accessory symbol whatever, is also found a few times, not in the text, however, but only in the pictures, for example Cort. 10 (bottom) and Tro. 13* (bottom). This deity does not occur very often in the Dresden manuscript, the places where it is depicted are: Dr. 5a, 6c, 13b, 35a, 68a, and as a subordinate figure on 8c, 42a. His hieroglyph occurs alone a few times, as in Dr. 4; it is more frequent in the Madrid manuscript. It appears on pp. 15 to 18 of the Paris manuscript.

In regard to the significance of this deity, he doubtless represents the personification of a heavenly body of astronomic importance, probably the polar star. In Codex Cort. 10 (bottom), his head is represented surrounded by a nimbus of rays, which can only mean a star (see Fig. 13). On the lower part of the same page, the third picture from the left, we again see the deity hanging from the sky in a kind of rope. Furthermore it appears in Codex Tro. 20, 22 and 23 (centre) Fig. 14, in the familiar rectangular planet signs. Tro. 17* (at the top) the head surmounts the cross-shaped tree of god B, which denotes the lofty, celestial abode. Indeed, these passages prove positively that a heavenly body underlies the idea of this deity.

Furthermore, the head of this god recurs in entire rows in the calendric group of tabular form on the so-called initial page of the Codex Tro. 36, with its continuation in the Cort. p. 22, and in exactly the same manner in the allied passage of Tro. 14 (middle and bottom). In addition, his head is contained in the symbol for the north (Fig. 16); the head contained in this sign is in fact nothing else than the head of god C.

Brinton also accepts this interpretation of god C. According to Förstemann (Die Mayahieroglyphen, Globus, Vol. 71, No. 5), the fact that the figure of god C in the Tonalamatl in Dr. 4a-10a occurs on the day Chuen of the Maya calendar, which corresponds to the day Ozomatli, the ape, in the Aztec calendar, seems to indicate that the singular head of C is that of an _ape_, whose lateral nasal cavity (peculiar to the American ape or monkey) is occasionally represented plainly in the hieroglyph picture. Hence it might further be assumed that god C symbolizes not the polar star alone, but rather the entire _constellation of the Little Bear_. And, in fact, the figure of a long-tailed ape is quite appropriate to the constellation, at any rate decidedly more so than the Bear; indeed, it suggests the prehensile tail by means of which the ape could attach himself to the pole and in the form of the constellation swing around the pole as around a fixed point.

These astronomical surmises seem to be contradicted by the fact that god C, as already stated, is represented with all the four cardinal points (compare for example Cort. 10 and 11, bottom), which would certainly seem to harmonize ill with his personification of the north star, unless we assume, that in a different conception of the polar star he is ruler of the cardinal points, which are determined from him as a centre.

It has already been remarked of B, that the deity C appears to stand in some sort of relation to him. In fact, we find on those pages of the Dresden manuscript, where B is represented with the four cardinal points, that the hieroglyph of C almost always occurs in the text also (for example Dr. 29, et seq., especially Dr. 32c). Indeed, C's hieroglyph is connected even with the signs of the symbolic colors of the cardinal points, already mentioned in connection with B.

Finally, it should be borne in mind, that god C also seems to be connected in some way with the serpent (compare Dr. 36b, 1st and 3d pictures).

According to Förstemann, the day ruled by C seems to be Chuen.

D. The Moon- and Night-God.

This is a deity who is pictured in the form of an old man with an aged face and sunken, toothless mouth. He is frequently characterized by a long, pendent head ornament, in which is the sign Akbal, darkness, night, which also appears in his hieroglyph before the forehead of the deity, surrounded by dots as an indication of the starry sky. His name-hieroglyph is Fig. 17, and a second sign almost always follows (Fig. 18) which evidently serves likewise as a designation of the god, just as god A also is always designated by _two_ hieroglyphs. The second sign consists of two sacrificial knives and the sign of the day Ahau, which is equivalent to "king".

The head of this deity appears in reduced, cursive form as the sign of the moon (Fig. 20). This character also has the significance of 20 as a number sign in the calendar. The association of these ideas probably rests upon the ancient conceptions, according to which the moon appearing, waxing, waning and again disappearing, was compared to man, and man in primeval ages was the most primitive calculating machine, being equivalent, from the sum of his fingers and toes, to the number 20. Twenty days is also the duration of that period during which the moon (aside from the new moon) is really _alive_. Moreover the sign (Fig. 20) appears in many places as a counterpart of the sign for the sun.

God D occurs once as feminine in the same passage mentioned above, in which the death-deity is also pictured as feminine (Dr. 9c). In a few other places the god is, curiously enough, depicted with a short beard, as Dr. 4c, 7a, 27b. He seems to stand in an unknown relation to the water-goddess I (see this deity) with the serpent as a head ornament, compare Dr. 9c, where apparently this goddess is represented, though the text has D's sign; still it is possible that god D is pictured here with the attributes of goddess I.

God D is not connected with the grim powers of destruction; he never appears with death symbols. In Dr. 5c and 9a he wears the snail on his head. He seems, therefore, like god A to be connected with birth. In Dr. 8c he is connected with god C, and this is quite appropriate, if we look upon these gods as heavenly bodies. The aged face, the sunken, toothless mouth are his distinguishing marks. In the Madrid manuscript, where god D occurs with special frequency, his chief characteristic, by which he is always easily recognized, is the single tooth in his under-jaw (see Fig. 19), compare too Dr. 8c, where the solitary tooth is also to be seen. In Dr. 9a (1st figure) the god holds in his hand a kind of sprinkler with the rattles of the rattlesnake, as Landa (Cap. 26) describes the god in connection with the rite of infant baptism (see also Cort. 26, Tro. 7*a and 13*c)

A very remarkable passage is Tro. 15*; there a figure is pictured carving with a hatchet a head, which it holds in its hand. Above it are four hieroglyphs. The first shows a hatchet and the moon; the second probably represents simply a head, while the third and fourth are those of god D, the moon-god. This passage, the meaning of which is unfortunately still obscure seems to contain a definite explanation of god D.

J. Walter Fewkes has made god D the subject of a special, very detailed monograph (The God "D" in the Codex Cortesianus, Washington, 1895) in which he has treated also of gods B and G, whom he considers allied to D. He believes D to be the god Itzamná, as do also Förstemann, Cyrus Thomas and Seler, and sees sun-gods in all three of these deities. Whether god D is to be separated from G and B as an independent deity, Fewkes thinks is doubtful. Brinton again holds that god D is Kukulcan. These different opinions show, at all events, on what uncertain grounds such attempts at interpretation stand, and that it is best to be satisfied with designating the deities by letters and collecting material for their purely descriptive designation.

According to Förstemann the calendar day devoted to D is Ahau.

E. The Maize-God.

This god bears on his head the Kan-sign and above it the ear of maize with leaves (Fig. 23); compare Dr. 9b (left figure), 11b, 12a, etc. The hieroglyph is definitely determined (Fig. 21). The god is identical with the figures recurring with especial frequency in the Madrid manuscript, the heads of which are prolonged upward and curved backward in a peculiar manner; compare Cort. 15a, 20c, 40 (bottom), Tro. 32*b (Figs. 25-27) and especially the representation in Dr. 50a (Fig. 24), which is very distinct. This head was evolved out of the conventional drawing of the ear of maize; compare the pictures of the maize plant in the Codex Tro., p. 29b (Fig. 22) with the head ornament of the god in Dr. 9b (Fig. 23), 9a, 12a; what was originally a head ornament finally passed into the form of the head itself, so that the latter appears now as an ear of maize surrounded by leaves. Compare the pictures, Figs. 25-27. That these gods with elongated heads are, in point of fact, identical with E is plainly seen from the passage in Dr. 2 (45)c (first figure). There the figure represented, which is exactly like the pictures in the Madrid manuscript, is designated explicitly as god E by the third hieroglyph in the accompanying writing.

The hieroglyph of this deity is thus explained; it is the head of the god merged into the conventionalized form of the ear of maize surrounded by leaves. When we remember that the Maya nations practised the custom of artificially deforming the skull, as is seen in particular on the reliefs at Palenque, we may also regard the heads of these deities as representations of such artificially flattened skulls.

God E occurs frequently as the god of husbandry, especially in the Madrid manuscript, which devotes much attention to agriculture. He seems to be a counterpart of the Mexican maize-god Centeotl. The passages in the Madrid manuscript (Tro. 29a and Cort. 39a, 40a) are very remarkable, where the deity E is represented in the position of a woman in labor with numerals on the abdomen; perhaps the underlying idea is that of fruitfulness.

In the Codex Cort., p. 40, this grain-deity is pictured with a tall and slender vessel before him, which he holds in his hands. It is possible that this is meant to suggest a grain receptacle; to be sure, in the same place, other figures of gods likewise have such vessels in their hands. At any rate, it is interesting to note that in the passage already mentioned (Dr. 50a) god E also holds a similar tall and slender vessel in his hands.

According to all appearances the scene pictured in Dr. 50a has reference to the conflict of the grain-god with a death-deity. The latter, the figure sitting on the right, is characterized by a skull as a head ornament (see Fig. 6) and seems to address threats or commands to god E, who stands before him in the attitude of a terrified and cowed individual.

Furthermore god E has nothing to do with the powers of the underworld; he is a god of life, of prosperity and fruitfulness; symbols of death are never found in connection with him. Brinton calls this god Ghanan, equivalent to Kan; it is possible, too, that he is identical with a deity Yum Kaax who has been handed down to us and whose name means "Lord of the harvest fields".

According to Förstemann the day dedicated to this god is Kan.

F. The God of War and of Human Sacrifices.

This is a deity closely related to the death-god A, resembling the Aztec Xipe, and may, I think, without hesitation be regarded simply as the god of human sacrifice, perhaps, even more generally, as the god of death by violence. His hieroglyph is Figs. 28-30; it contains the number 11. A variant of this occurs on Dr. 7b, where instead of the 11 there is the following sign: [Hieroglyph]

The characteristic mark of god F is a single black line usually running perpendicularly down the face in the vicinity of the eye. This line should be distinguished from the parallel lines of C's face and from the line, which, as a continuation of god E's head resembling an ear of maize, frequently appears on his face, especially as in the variants of the Madrid manuscript (compare Figs. 25-27). These pictures of E can always be unfailingly recognized by the peculiar shape of the head and should be distinguished from those representing F. The black face-line is the distinguishing mark of god F, just as it is of the Aztec Xipe. It sometimes runs in a curve over the cheek as a thick, black stripe, as Cort. 42. Sometimes it encircles the eye only (Dr. 6a) and again it is a dotted double line (Dr. 6b). The hieroglyph of god F likewise exhibits this line and with the very same variants as the god himself. See the hieroglyphs of the god belonging to the pictures in Dr. 6a, 1st and 3d figures, in which the line likewise differs from the other forms (Figs. 30-34).

In a few places god F is pictured with the same black lines _on his entire body_, which elsewhere he has only on his face, the lines being like those in Fig. 31, namely Tro. 27*c. Indeed, in Tro. 28*c, the death-god A likewise has these black lines on his body and also F's line on his face; a clear proof of the close relationship of the two deities. These lines probably signify gaping death-wounds and the accompanying rows of dots are intended to represent the blood.

Since god F is a death-deity the familiar sign (Fig. 5), which occurs so frequently with the hieroglyphs of A, also belongs to his symbols. F is pictured in company with the death-god in connection with human sacrifice (Cort. 42); an exactly similar picture of the two gods of human sacrifice is given in Codex Tro. 30d; here, too, they sit opposite one another. The identity of this attendant of death with the deity, designated by the hieroglyph with the numeral 11, is proved by the following passages: Tro. 19, bottom (on the extreme right hand without picture, only hieroglyph, see Fig. 29), Dr. 5b, 6a, b, and c and many others. In some of the passages cited (Dr. 5a and b) he is distinguished by an unusually large ear-peg. His hieroglyph occurs with the hieroglyph of the death-god in Dr. 6c, where he is himself not pictured.

As war-god, god F occurs combined with the death-god in the passages mentioned above (Tro. 27*-29*c), where he sets the houses on fire with his torch and demolishes them with his spear.

God F occurs quite frequently in the manuscripts and must therefore be considered as one of the more important deities.

According to Förstemann his day is Manik, the seizing, grasping hand, symbolizing the capturing of an enemy in war for sacrificial purposes.

F's sign occurs once, as mentioned above, in fourfold repetition with all the four cardinal points, namely in Tro. 29*c. In ancient Central America the captured enemy was sacrificed and thus the conceptions of the war-god and of the god of death by violence and by human sacrifice are united in the figure of god F. In this character god F occurs several times in the Madrid manuscript in combat with M, the god of travelling merchants (see page 35). Spanish writers do not mention a deity of the kind described here as belonging to the Maya pantheon.

G. The Sun-God.

God G's hieroglyph (Fig. 35) contains as its chief factor the sun-sign Kin. It is one of the signs (of which there are about 12 in the manuscripts), which has the Ben-ik prefix and doubtless denotes a month dedicated to the sun. There is, I think, no difference of opinion regarding the significance of this deity, although Fewkes, as already stated, is inclined to identify G with B, whom, it is true, the former resembles. It is surprising that a deity who from his nature must be considered as very important, is represented with such comparative infrequency. He occurs only a few times in the Dresden manuscript, for example 22b, 11c, and in the Codex Tro.-Cortesianus none can be found among the figures which could be safely regarded as the sun-god; in no manuscript except the Dresden does a deity occur wearing the sun-sign Kin on his body. But once in the Codex Cort. the figure of D appears with the sun-sign on his head, as pointed out by Fewkes in his article entitled "The God 'D' in the Codex Cortesianus". G's hieroglyph, to be sure, is found repeatedly in the Madrid manuscript, for example Codex Tro. 31c.

God G seems to be not wholly without relation to the powers of death; the owl-sign (Fig. 5) occurs once in connection with him (Dr. 11c). Besides the sun-sign Kin, which the god bears on his body, his representations are distinguished by a peculiar nose ornament (Fig. 36) which, as may be seen by comparison with other similar pictures in the Dresden manuscript, is nothing but a large and especially elaborate nose-peg. Similar ornaments are rather common just here in the carefully drawn first part of the Dresden manuscript. Compare Dr. 22b (middle figure), 21 (centre), 17b, 14a, b; occasionally they also have the shape of a flower, for example 12b (centre), 11c (left), 19a. Lastly it is worthy of note, that god G is sometimes represented with a snake-like tongue protruding from his mouth, as in Dr. 11b and c.

H. The Chicchan-God.

The figure of a deity of frequent occurrence in the Dresden manuscript is a god, who is characterized by a skin-spot or a scale of a serpent on his temple of the same shape as the hieroglyph of the day Chicchan (serpent). Moreover the representations of the god himself differ very much, so that there are almost no other positive, unvarying characteristic marks to be specified. His picture is plainly recognizable and has the Chicchan-mark on the temple in Dr. 11a, 12b and 20b.