Representation of Deities of the Maya Manuscripts | Page 2

proved, that
the number of deities represented in the Maya manuscripts does not
exceed substantially the limits mentioned above. The principal deities
are determined beyond question.
The way in which this was accomplished is strikingly simple. It
amounts essentially to that which in ordinary life we call "memory of
persons" and follows almost naturally from a careful study of the

manuscripts. For, by frequently looking attentively at the
representations, one learns by degrees to recognize promptly similar
and familiar figures of gods, by the characteristic impression they make
as a whole, or by certain details, even when the pictures are partly
obliterated or exhibit variations, and the same is true of the
accompanying hieroglyphs. A purely inductive, natural science-method
has thus been followed, and hence this pamphlet is devoted simply to
descriptions and to the amassing of material. These figures have been
taken separately out of the manuscripts alone, identified and described
with the studious avoidance of all unreliable, misleading accounts and
of all presumptive analogies with supposedly allied mythologies.
Whatever cannot be derived from the manuscripts themselves has been
wholly ignored. Hypotheses and deductions have been avoided as far as
possible. Only where the interpretation, or the resemblance and the
relations to kindred mythologic domains were obvious, and where the
accounts agreed beyond question, has notice been taken of the fact so
that the imposed limitations of this work should not result in
one-sidedness.
Since, for the most part, the accounts of Spanish authors regarding the
mythology of the Mayas correspond only slightly or not at all with
these figures of gods, and all other conjectures respecting their
significance are very dubious, the alphabetic designation of the deities,
which was tentatively introduced in the first edition of this work, has
been preserved. This designation has proved to be practical. For the
plate at the end of this pamphlet, examples as characteristic as possible
of the individual figures of gods have been selected from the
manuscripts.
It is a well known fact that we possess no definite knowledge either of
the time of the composition or of the local origin of the Maya
manuscripts. The objection might, therefore, be raised that it is a
hazardous proceeding to treat the material derived from these three
manuscripts in common, as if it were homogeneous. But these
researches themselves have proved beyond a doubt, that the mythologic
import of the manuscripts belongs to one and the same sphere of

thought. Essentially the same deities and the same mythologic ideas are,
without question, to be found in all the manuscripts.
The material of the inscriptions has been set entirely at one side,
because the style of representation contained in them, both of the
mythologic forms and of the hieroglyphs, renders comparison
exceedingly difficult. In this field especial credit is due to Förstemann
and Seler, for the work they have done in furtherance of interpretation,
and mention should not be omitted of the generosity with which the
well known promoter of Americanist investigations, the Duke of
Loubat, has presented to the Berlin Museum of Ethnology costly
originals of reliefs and inscriptions for direct study. The representations
on the reliefs from the Maya region, it is true, give evidence of dealing
with kindred mythologic conceptions. Figures and hieroglyphs of gods,
made familiar by the manuscripts, can also be found here and there. But
on the whole so little appears in support of instituting a comparison
with the manuscripts, that it seems expedient to leave the inscriptions
for independent and special study.

I. REPRESENTATIONS OF GODS.
A. The Death-God.
[Illustration: Figs. 1-6]
God A is represented as a figure with an exposed, bony spine, truncated
nose and grinning teeth.[10-1] It is plainly to be seen that the head of
this god represents a skull and that the spine is that of a skeleton. The
pictures of the death-god are so characteristic in the Maya manuscripts
that the deity is always easily recognized. He is almost always
distinguished by the skeleton face and the bony spine. Several times in
the Dresden manuscript the death-god is pictured with large black spots
on his body and in Dr. 19b a woman with closed eyes, whose body also
displays the black spots, is sitting opposite the god. While the Aztecs
had a male and a female death-deity, in the Maya manuscripts we find
the death-deity only once represented as feminine, namely on p. 9c of

the Dresden manuscript. Moreover the Dresden manuscript contains
several different types of the death-god, having invariably the fleshless
skull and (with the exception of Dr. 9c) the visible vertebrae of the
spine. Several times (Dr. 12b and 13b) he is represented apparently
with distended abdomen. A distinguishing article of his costume is the
stiff feather collar, which is worn only by this god, his companion, the
war-god F,