Representation of Deities of the Maya Manuscripts Part 3

Cyrus Thomas (Aids to the Study of the Maya Codices, in the 6th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, 1888, p. 358) thinks he is the G.o.d Ekchuah, who has come down to us as a black deity. G.o.d M seems, however, to correspond to Ekchuah (see the description of M).

M. The Black G.o.d with the Red Lips.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figs. 45-48]

G.o.d M's hieroglyph is Figs. 45, 46; it seems to represent an eye rimmed with black, though the figure of the G.o.d himself displays an entirely different drawing of the eye (see Fig. 47).

The G.o.d is found in the Dresden ma.n.u.script only three times, namely in Dr. 16b (with a bone in his hand) in picture and sign, in Dr. 13c grouped with an animal, without the hieroglyph, and in Dr. 43a (with his sign) while finally his hieroglyph alone appears in Dr. 56 (top, left) in a group and of a somewhat different form.

On the other hand, G.o.d M appears with special frequency in the Madrid ma.n.u.script, which treats of this deity with great fullness of detail.

While he is represented in the Dresden ma.n.u.script (16b) with his body striped black and white, and on p. 43a entirely white, he is always entirely black in the Codex Troano. His other distinguishing marks are the following:

1. The mouth encircled by a red-brown border.

2. The large, drooping under lip. By this he can be recognized with certainty also in Dr. 43a.

3. The two curved lines at the right of the eye.

His significance can be conjectured. He seems to be of a warlike nature, for he is almost always represented armed with the lance and also as engaged in combat and, in some instances, pierced by the lance of his opponent, G.o.d F, for example in Tro. 3c, 7a, 29*a. The peculiar object with parallel stripes, which he wears on his head is a rope from which a package frequently hangs. By means of a rope placed around his head the G.o.d frequently carries a bale of merchandise, as is the custom today among the aborigines in different parts of America. On 4b and 5a in the Cod. Tro. this can plainly be seen. All these pictures lead us to conclude, that we have here to do with a G.o.d of _travelling merchants_. A deity of this character called Ekchuah has been handed down to us, who is designated explicitly as a _black_ G.o.d. In favor of this is also the fact, that he is represented fighting with F and pierced by the latter.

For the travelling merchant must, of course, be armed to ward off hostile attacks and these are admirably symbolized by G.o.d F, for he is the G.o.d of death in war and of the killing of the captured enemy. The G.o.d is found in the Codex Troano in the following places and on many pages two or three times: pp. 2, 3, 4, 5, always with the hieroglyph, then without it on pp. 6, 7, 19, 4*c, 14*b, 17*a, 18*b and again with the hieroglyph on pp. 22*a, 23*a, 25*a; finally it is found again without the hieroglyph on pp. 29*a, 30*a, 31*, 32*, 33*, 34*. In the Codex Cortesia.n.u.s G.o.d M occurs in the following places: p. 15, where he strikes the sky with the axe and thus causes rain, p. 19 (bottom), 28 (bottom, second figure), 34 (bottom) and 36 (top). M is always to be recognized by the encircled mouth and the drooping under-lip; figures without these marks are not identical with M, thus for example in Tro. 23, 24, 25, 21*.

Tro. 34*a shows what is apparently a variant of M with the face of an old man, the scorpion's tail and the vertebrae of the death-G.o.d, a figure which in its turn bears on its breast the plainly recognizable head of M.

G.o.d M is also represented elsewhere many times with the scorpion's tail, thus for example on Tro. 30*a, 31*a.

Besides his hieroglyph mentioned above, Figs. 45 and 46, another sign seems to refer to G.o.d M, namely Fig. 48 (compare for example Tro. 5a and Cort. 28, bottom). The head in this sign has the same curved lines at the corner of the eye as appear on the deity himself. Forstemann mentions this sign in his Commentary on the Paris Ma.n.u.script, p. 15, and in his Commentary on the Dresden Ma.n.u.script, p. 56. He thinks the hieroglyph has relation to the revolution of Venus, which is performed in 584 days. A relation of this kind is, I think, very possible, if we bear in mind that all the G.o.d-figures of the ma.n.u.scripts have more or less of a calendric and chronologic significance in their chief or in their secondary function.

It should be mentioned that G.o.d M is represented as a rule as an old man with toothless jaw or the characteristic solitary tooth. That he is also related to bee-culture is shown by his presence on p. 4*c of the Codex Troano, in the section on bees.

Besides G.o.ds L and M, a few quite isolated black figures occur in the Codex Troano, who, apparently, are identical with neither of these two deities, but are evidently of slight importance and perhaps are only variants of other deities. Similar figures of black deities are found in the Codex Tro. 23, 24 and 25 (perhaps this is a black variant of B as G.o.d of the storm?) and on 21*c we twice see a black form with the aged face and the solitary tooth in the under jaw (perhaps only a variant of M). In the Codex Cortesia.n.u.s and in the Dresden ma.n.u.script no other black deities occur, but in the Paris ma.n.u.script a black deity seems to be pictured once (p. 21, bottom).

According to Brinton (Nagualism, Philadelphia 1894, pp. 21, 39), there is among the Tzendals in addition to Ekchuah, a second black deity called Xicalahua, "black lord".

N. The G.o.d of the End of the Year.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figs. 49-51]

We have here a deity with the features of an old man and wearing a peculiar head ornament reproduced in Fig. 50, which contains the sign for the year of 360 days. The G.o.d's hieroglyph is Fig. 49, which consists of the numeral 5 with the sign of the month Zac. Forstemann has recognized in G.o.d N the G.o.d of the five Uayeyab days, which were added as intercalary days at the end of the original year of 360 days, and were considered unlucky days. N is, therefore, the G.o.d of the end of the year.

Forstemann has discussed him in detail under this t.i.tle in a monograph published in Globus, Vol. 80, No. 12. It is still open to question whether G.o.d N actually occurs in all the places of the Dresden ma.n.u.script, which are mentioned by Forstemann. He can be recognized positively on Dr. 17a, 21c (grouped with a woman) and 37a; also on 12c, but in this latter place with p.r.o.nounced deviations from the usual representations. The figures in Dr. 23c (first group) and 43a (third picture) are doubtful, especially since the hieroglyph of the G.o.d is lacking in both instances. The third group in Dr. 21c is equally dubious. Here a woman is pictured sitting opposite a G.o.d. The latter seems to be G.o.d N, yet in the text we find instead of his sign the hieroglyph given in Fig. 51. It is not impossible that this sign likewise denotes G.o.d N.

G.o.d N is found a few times in the Paris ma.n.u.script, for example on p. 4, where he holds K's head in his hands, and on p. 22.

O. A G.o.ddess with the Features of an Old Woman.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 52]

This G.o.ddess occurs only in the Madrid ma.n.u.script and is distinguished by the solitary tooth in the under jaw, as a sign of age, the invariable characteristic of aged persons in the ma.n.u.scripts. She is pictured in the following places: Tro. 5*c, 6*b, and 11*b, c and d, Cort. 10b, 11a, 38a. In Tro. 11* she is represented working at a loom. She does not appear at all in the Dresden and Paris ma.n.u.scripts. The figures of women mentioned under I with the serpent on their heads, are especially not to be regarded as identical with G.o.ddess O, for she never wears the serpent, but a tuft of hair bound high up on her head and running out in two locks.

Her hieroglyph is Fig. 52; it is distinguished by the wrinkles of age about the eye. Owing to the limited number of her pictures, there is little to be said concerning the significance of this G.o.ddess.

P. The Frog-G.o.d.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 53]

We call him the frog-G.o.d because in the Codex Tro. 31, he is pictured in the first and second lines with the club-shaped fingers of a frog, which occur only on this figure. The blue background, which is his attribute twice in the same pa.s.sage, likewise points to a connection with water, and that the G.o.d also has something to do with agriculture may be deduced from the fact that he is pictured sowing seed and making furrows with the planting-stick. The two black parallel stripes at the corner of the eye seem to be folds of skin or marks on the skin, which may represent a peculiarity of this particular species of frog. His head ornament is very characteristic and contains the sign for the year of 360 days. He therefore bears some unknown relation also to the computation of time. It should be recalled in this connection that one of the Maya months is called Uo, frog. The G.o.d is pictured again in Tro. 30a and b, Tro. 22 (top, scattering seed) and Cort. 5 (at the very bottom, the figure lying down). Finally his neck ornament must be mentioned, which, as a rule, consists of a neck-chain with pointed, oblong or p.r.o.nged objects, probably sh.e.l.ls.

In the Dresden ma.n.u.script he occurs but once, Dr. 4a (first figure), with some variations it is true. The text at this place contains H's hieroglyph. G.o.d P does not occur in the Peresia.n.u.s.

His hieroglyph is Fig. 53. It occurs in Tro. 31 (top) and can be unerringly recognized by the two black parallel stripes at the corner of the eye; which correspond exactly to the same marks on the face of the picture of the G.o.d himself.

This is all that can be said respecting this deity from the pictures in the ma.n.u.scripts. Its meaning is obscure. Seler's a.s.sumption that G.o.d P is Kukulcan (Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, 1898, p. 403) has certainly very slight foundation, and in view of the material from the ma.n.u.scripts described in the preceding pages, it is in the highest degree improbable.

The foregoing is an almost complete enumeration of the G.o.d-figures proper in the Maya ma.n.u.scripts. Whatever other figures of G.o.ds occur in the ma.n.u.scripts are details of slight importance. This is especially true of the Dresden ma.n.u.script, which is well nigh exhausted by the types enumerated here; there may be, I think, a few figures still undescribed in the Madrid ma.n.u.script, the careless drawing of which renders the identification very difficult. An isolated figure of the Dresden ma.n.u.script still remains to be mentioned, concerning which it is doubtful whether it is intended to represent a deity or only a human personage.

This is the figure characterized by a peculiar head ornament in Dr. 20b.

It is designated in the text by two hieroglyphs, which belong together, Figs. 54 and 55, the latter occurring once with K (Dr. 7a). It seems to represent blowing from the mouth, screaming or speaking.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figs. 54-55]

II. MYTHOLOGICAL ANIMALS.

1. THE MOAN BIRD.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figs. 56-59]

This bird[41-1] belongs to the death-G.o.d as his symbol and attendant. Its hieroglyph (Fig. 56) contains the numeral 13; other forms are Figs. 57-59.

It is pictured in Dr. 7c, 10a, 11a, 16c, 18b, and its hieroglyph without the picture is seen in Dr. 8b. A realistic representation of the whole figure of the moan as a bird, occurs on the head of the woman in 16c (1st figure) and 18b. G.o.d B sits on the head of the moan in Dr.

38c; the third hieroglyph of the accompanying text refers to this representation. Just as in Dr. 16 and 18, the moan bird appears in Tro.

18*c on the head of a woman. Its character as an attribute of the death-G.o.d is expressed by the Cimi-sign, which it wears upon its head (_e. g._, Dr. 10a), and also by the regular occurrence of symbols of the death-G.o.d in the written characters, which refer to the moan bird. In the same manner the sign of the owl, Fig. 5, also occurs frequently with it.

[41-1] See plate for representations of the Mythological Animals, 1-6.

The moan confers name and symbol alike on one of the eighteen months of the Maya year, and thus, as Forstemann conjectures (Die Plejaden bei den Mayas, in Globus, 1894), has an astronomic bearing on the constellation of the Pleiades.

According to Brinton the moan is a member of the falcon family and its zoological name is _Spizaetus tyrannus_.

2. THE SERPENT.

This is one of the most common and most important mythological animals, and is closely related to different deities, as has already been more fully discussed in connection with the individual cases. Apparently it has no _independent_ significance as a deity. Its most important personification is that in G.o.d B, Kukulcan, the feathered serpent. Hence a fixed hieroglyph designating the serpent as a deity, as a mythologic form, does not occur, though there are numerous hieroglyphs which refer to serpents or represent individual parts of the serpent, as its coils, its jaws, the rattles of the rattlesnake, etc. The serpent appears in the mythologic conceptions of the Mayas chiefly as the symbol of water and of time. In the great series of numbers of the Dresden ma.n.u.script, certain numbers occur which are introduced in the coils of a large serpent (compare in regard to this, Forstemann, Zur Entzifferung der Mayahandschriften, II, Dresden, 1891). The serpent is very frequently represented in all the ma.n.u.scripts, sometimes realistically and sometimes with the head of a G.o.d, etc. In the Dresden ma.n.u.script it occurs in the following places: 1a, 26, 27, 28c, 35b, 36a, 36b, 37b 40, 42a, 61, 62, 65c 66a and 69. It is prominent also in the Madrid ma.n.u.script, occurring for example in Cort. 4-6, 12-18, Tro. 25, 26, 27 and elsewhere.