5.The Maya Priesthood.

Fig. 22.—Offerings to the Bee God.

A striking verbal analogy supports this. In the Popol Vuh, the sacred book of the Quiches, the “feathered serpent,” Gukumatz, is positively said to be the bisexual principle of life represented by the male Xpiyacoc and the female Xmucane, ancestor and ancestress of all that is.[83]Here,x-mucaneis most likely the Quiche feminine form ofmuc(ul)canan, which is a Tzental name for the planet Venus, as I have already mentioned.[84]My conclusion is, therefore, that the old woman so frequently associated with Cuculcan is the Evening Star, in her form as the Earth-Goddess. I shall recur to her on a later page.

I think all these representations of the bee should be interpreted as indicating the movements of Venus, and the mythical conceptions with which they were connected in the native mind.

Representation of Ghanan, God of Growth and Fertility.—Bishop Nuñez de la Vega tells us that in the calendar he discovered among the natives of his diocese, the fourth “sign” or day corresponded to the Mexican Centeotl, god of fertility and the maize harvests. This fourth day in the Tzental calendar bore the nameGhanan, and on turning to the Tzental Dictionary prepared by Father Lara, we find thatghanis the general term for the ear of maize;aghan, when the grains are still soft.

His representations in the Codices are moderately frequent and quite peculiar. They all present in a marked degree the flattening of the forehead and prolongation of the occiput upward which is so striking in many of the sculptures.

Fig. 23.—From the Head-dress of the God of Growth.

Dr. Schellhas, indeed (who catalogues him as “God E”), is so impressed by this that he argues that all such forms were imaginary, obtained by the artists through copying the conventional drawings of an ear of maize arranged as a head-dress. This, however, is going too far, as there is evidence, derived from ancient skulls, that certain classes of Maya priests used to have the head artificially flattened in this manner.[85]Perhaps they were those destined for the service of this or similar deities. The officiants on the Palenque “Tablet of the Cross,” presenting offerings to the “tree of life,” are both deformed in this manner.

The maize god is associated with symbols of food, of vegetable growth, and of prosperity. He carries a vase or is drawing forth the contents of one, Cod. Cort., p. 40; he is seen with the loom, Cod. Dres., p. 45, and he generally has about him thekansymbol, that of means and comfort.

Representations of the Serpent Goddess.—One of the most striking pictures in the Codices is the Serpent Goddess, whose familiar is the rattlesnake, which she wears as a head-dress or as a girdle. She is depicted as an old woman, her costume ample and often splendid, decorated with embroidery and bells, with necklace and ear-rings of jade.

In expression she is severe, her lips protrude in anger, and her hands and feet sometimes end in claws. The sinister cross-bones sometimes decorate her skirts. Her business is with water and the rains. She is pouring from a vase (Cod. Dres., pp. 43, 67, 74); or water is flowing from her armpits, hands, and mammæ; or she is ejecting it forcibly from her mouth (Cod. Tro., pp. 25, 27, 34*).

She is, however, not always represented as in old age, or else there was another serpent goddess in the mythology; for in a number of places a similar serpentine head-dress is borne by a young woman who holds a vase containing the rattles of the rattlesnake (Cod. Dres., pp. 15, 18); or (ibid., p. 20), a figure which shows seven black dots. May this be a sign of the constellation of the Pleiades, which in the Maya language bore the same name as the rattles of the rattlesnake,tzab?

As to the signification of the serpent goddess, I think there can be no question of it, from a study of her appearance, signs, and associations. She was thepersonification of the thunderstorm. The vase she empties is the descending torrent of rain, the rattles she carries are the thunderclaps, her severe mien is the terror inspired by the din of the elements. In Maya, the word for “thunder,”pecchac, is derived from the nounpec, which means “a sound like that of a bell or rattle” (Dicc. Motul).

Representations of Xmucane.—A third goddess who can be clearly distinguished is one with features of an old woman, her face wrinkled, her mouth sunken, and but one tooth left in her lower jaw. She usually wears her hair in a peculiar style, two wisps or ends of it twisted above her head.

She does not appear in the Peresianus, and perhaps not in theDresden manuscript, but holds a prominent place in the Troanus and Cortesianus. Her occupations are peaceable; she is weaving on a loom (C. Tro., p. 11), carrying a plate of cakes, etc. (Cod. Cortes., pp. 10, 11).

In appearance she is the female counterpart of Cuculcan, and is plainly 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 theDicc. de Motuldescribes 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 seemto reveal a sense of ghastly humor, as we see in the medieval “dance of death.”

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 bea maggot, and his head-dress is sometimes as No. 3, decorated with teeth, or flints, with rays.

Fig. 25.—Symbols of the God of Death.

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. 6e, 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, saidby 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.”

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 divinityIcal 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 godEk 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 aredepicted, which is explained by the statement of the Bishop of Chiapas, that there were seven of them.[89]

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-kinandix-kin, masters of days and mistresses of days, that is, having power to predict auspicious and inauspicious days. The chief priest was variously calledah-kin maiandahau can mai, the wordmai, 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 wasah-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 theah-mac ik, who conjured the winds; theah-uai chac, who could bring rains; theah-pul, “fetchers,” who could cause sickness, induce sleep, etc.; theah-uai xibalba, who made a specialty of interviewing departed spirits; theah-cunal than, who conjured by magical words; and others.[91]

Fig. 28.—A Maya Priestess, bearing theMoanBird. (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 washunhun buclah u tzotzel hol, (el que trae largos revueltos y marañados los cabellos como los traen los idolatras.Dicc. Motul).

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]

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:—

Confining our attention to the male deities, the attributes of which have been above described, we find their pictures are distributed as follows:—[94]

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.

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 primarilysome star or constellation. At times he is dotted with spots to represent stars, Cod. Dres., p. 21; theakbalsign 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 thecauacsign. What it represents is unknown.

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 pursuedhis ornithological studies in Yucatan itself. The following are recognizable:—

1. The red macaw,Ara macao, Maya,mooorahlo; the type is shown in Fig.29. This was the symbol of Kin ich.

Fig. 29.—Bird Symbols from the Codices.

2. The horned or eared owl, a large raptorial bird of the genusBubo, 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 theakbalsign. (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,kuchandahchom. 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, themoanbird, in Mayamuanormuyan. 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.

Among reptilians, the turtle or tortoise (Maya,ac) is one of the most prominent. By Dr. Schellhas it has also been called aBlitzthier, 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,huborut) 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 monthmol, 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 termzinaan ek, “scorpion stars,” to a certain constellation, but it is possible they derived it from the Spaniards. Another possibility is that the animal representsthe earth-plane. The wordzinaanis derived from the radicalzin, which means to stretch out, to extend; and the entire earth, as one extended plane, was calledzinil.

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 termedtzab, and hence its nameahau tzab can, also in use. According to theDicc. 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.

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 theimportant 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 signcaban, 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 dayeb, 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.

Back to Index Next