Animal Figures in the Maya Codices | Page 7

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 fa?ade 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 cora?ones 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 cora?ones de su encienso, y si los matavan trayanles los cora?ones 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 cabe?a de las mesmas plumas."
[292-[+]] "Y a las ni?as 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. 1) are glyphs representing the same species, but as in fig. 4, the spire is omitted, though the knobs are present. Round spots of color are evidently intended by the markings on the shells shown in figs. 3, 5, 6 (Pl. 1). Fig. 5, shows a further modification of the spire, which here is made like the head of a serpent.
The Mollusca in the codices are not always associated with the water although this is usually the