Animal Figures in the Maya Codices | Page 7

no room for the latter on
account of the numerical calculations which take up all the space.
There are some animals in the codices which are represented by glyphs
very frequently. Among these are the screech owl (the Moan, the bird
of death), which has several different glyphs by which it is recognized,
the dog which, in addition to its own glyph, may be represented by the
day sign Oc, the king vulture, the turtle, the bee (if we consider the day
sign Cauac stands for this insect), and the centipede. Among the
animals whose glyphs only seldom appear may be mentioned the
macaw, the peccary, the tree-toad (god P), the quetzal, and the jaguar.
The glyph for the black vulture (Tro-Cortesianus 26c), the ape
(Tro-Cortesianus 88c), the deer (Peresianus 10), the eagle
(Tro-Cortesianus 107c), and the serpent (Tro-Cortesianus 106c) seem
to appear but once. It might also be well to mention in this place the
glyphs for various molluscs which are used not to represent the shell
but to give the value of zero to the numerical calculations.
In the inscriptions glyphs frequently occur which represent animals
either showing the whole body or simply the head. In the eastern façade
of the Monjas at Chichen Itza there are glyphs for both the king and the
black vulture and the peccary. The macaw and the turtle seem also to
be represented by glyphs in the inscriptions. The Tun period glyph
shows vulture-like characteristics and the Uinal period glyph certainly
resembles the lizard. The glyphs representing the various animal
offerings have already been discussed under a special heading (p. 289).
FOOTNOTES:
[289-*] p. 162. "Las mugeres no usavan destos derrammamientos,
aunque eran harto santeras; mas de todas las cosas que aver podian que

son aves del cielo, animales de la tierra, o pescados de la agua, siempre
les embadurnavan los rostros al demonio con la sangre dellos."
p. 164. "Y otras cosas que tenian ofrecian; a algunos animales les
sacavan el corazon y lo ofrecian, a otros enteros, unos vivos, otros
muertos, unos crudos, otros guisados.... Que sin las fiestas en las quales,
para la solemnidad de ellas, se secrificavan animales, tambien por
alguna tribulacion o necessidad."
p. 254. "Tenian buscados todos animales y savandijas del campo que
podian aver y en la tierra avia, y con ellos se juntavan en el patio del
templo en el qual se ponian los Chaques.... Sacavan con liberalidad los
coraçones a las aves y animales, y echavanlos a quemar en el fuego; y
sino podian aver los animales grandes como tigres, leones o largartos,
hazian los coraçones de su encienso, y si los matavan trayanles los
coraçones para aquel fuego."
[292-*] "Vestido salia con un jaco de pluma colorado y labrado de otras
plumas de colores, y que le cuelgan de los estremos otras plumas largas
y una como coroza en la cabeça de las mesmas plumas."
[292-[+]] "Y a las niñas se les dava una vieja, vestida de un habito de
plumas, que las traia alli y por esto la llamavan Ixmol, la allegadera....
Aquella devota vieja allegaria con que se emborachava en casa por no
perder la pluma del officio en el camino."
[293-*] "Intoxication was obligatory with the men in many of the
religious rites. This is reported by the early Spanish historians and is
the case at the present time among the Lacandones." (See Tozzer, 1907,
p. 136.)

II
ZOOLOGICAL IDENTIFICATION AND ETHNOLOGICAL
EXPLANATION OF ANIMAL FORMS.
In the descriptions of the animals which follow the general plan will be

to consider first the identification purely from a zoological point of
view, and, secondly, the connection and, wherever possible, the
meaning of the use of the various animal figures wherever they occur.
MOLLUSCA
FASCIOLARIA GIGANTEA. Representations of this marine shell are
found in several places in the codices. It is the only large Fusus-like
species on the western coast of the Gulf of Mexico, and, indeed, is the
largest known American shell. It is therefore not strange that it should
have attracted the attention of the Mayas and found a place in their
writings. Several figures are shown that represent Fasciolaria (Pl. 1,
figs. 1-9). One in the Codex Vaticanus 3773 (Pl. 1, fig. 3) in common
with those shown in Pl. 1, figs. 2, 6, 9, has the spire represented by
segments of successively smaller size. The species of Fasciolaria
occurring on the Yucatan and adjacent coasts is characterized by
numerous prominent bosses or projections on its later whorls, and these,
too, appear in conventionalized form in most of the representations. In
Pl. 1, fig. 2, the second whorl, and in figs. 6, 9, the third whorl is shown
with three stout tubercles in side view, corresponding to those found in
this region of the shell. Figs. 7, 8 (Pl.