Part 8

YUCATAN DEER (Odocoileus yucatanensis; O. thomasi). Several species of small deer (Maya, ke) occur in Mexico and Central America whose relationships are not yet thoroughly understood (Pls. 30-32). The species of Yucatan and southern Mexico have small lyrate antlers with few, short tines, rather different from the broader type of the more northern species with well developed secondary tines. The former type of antlers seems to be indicated by the conventionalized structure shown in Pl. 32, figs. 8-12. These probably represent the Yucatan deer or its ally Thomas's deer of southern Mexico. Two of the figures, both from the Nuttall Codex, show the lower incisor teeth (Pl. 32, figs. 8, 11), though in other cases these are omitted. The larger part of the figures of deer represent the does which have no antlers. For this reason it is impossible to distinguish females of the brocket from those of the other species of deer, if indeed, the Mayas themselves made such a distinction. The characteristics of deer drawings are the long head and ears, the prominently elevated tail with the hair bristling from its posterior side (the characteristic position of the tail when the deer is running), the hoofs, and less often the presence of incisors in the lower jaw only and of a curious oblong mark at each end of the eye, possibly representing the large tear gland.

The deer plays a large part in the Maya ceremonials. It is an important, perhaps the most important animal offering as a sacrifice to the gods. Several pages of the Tro-Cortesianus (38-49) are given over to the hunt and the animal usually represented is the deer, the hunters are shown, the methods of trapping, the return from the chase, and the rites in connection with the animals slain. Tro-Cortesianus 48b (Pl. 30, fig. 1) shows the usual method of trapping where the deer is caught by a cord around one of the fore legs. Tro-Cortesianus 91a pictures the same method and 92a (Pl. 30, figs. 2) shows where the deer is caught on a spike in another type of trap. In Tro-Cortesianus 86a (Pl. 31, fig. 5) the deer appears with a rope around his body held by a god who is not easily identified.

Interesting descriptions of the hunt are given in several of the early accounts.[349-*] It will be noted that the hunt was usually connected with the religious rites and the offering of deer meat and various parts of the body of the deer had a ceremonial importance. Attention is called to similar practices among the Lacandones, the inhabitants of the region of the Usumacinta at the present time (Tozzer, 1907), where the greater part of the food of the people must, first of all, be offered to the gods before it may be eaten by the natives.

The figures of the deer in the codices are clearly associated with god M, and the latter may be considered a god of the hunt as well as a god of war. It is very unusual to find a quadruped used as a head-dress in any way, and yet in several cases we find god M has the head of a deer as a sort of head covering, Tro-Cortesianus 50b (Pl. 31, fig. 6), 51c (Pl. 31, fig. 7) and 68b. In the first two cases, the god seems to be supplied with a bow and arrow. In a passage in Landa (1864, p. 290)[350-*] there is a description of this very scene.

In the month Zip, the hunters each took an arrow and a deer's head which was painted blue; thus adorned they danced. God M is found in one case in the Dresden in connection with the deer. In Dresden 13c the animal is represented as female and is shown in intercourse with god M.

An offering of venison is frequently pictured in the manuscripts. Landa (1864, p. 220)[350-[+]] also furnishes a parallel for this. The haunches of venison arranged as offerings in dishes are realistically seen in a number of representations of religious rites, as in Dresden 28c (Pl. 31, fig. 14) in the last of the rites of the dominical days, 35a (Pl. 31, fig. 12) and in Tro-Cortesianus 5a above the serpent enclosing the body of water, 65a in front of god B or D and 105b (Pl. 31, fig. 13) and 108a (Pl. 31, fig. 15), both of which are in connection with the bee ceremonies.

The head of the deer, rather than the legs, is also shown as an offering, in Tro-Cortesianus 69b with god B and Tro-Cortesianus 78 (Pl. 31, fig. 10) in the line of glyphs. The whole deer may be represented as an offering in Tro-Cortesianus 2b (Pl. 31, fig. 8).[351-*]

There are some examples in the manuscripts where the deer is pictured quite apart from any idea of the hunt or an offering. In Tro-Cortesianus 14b, it is shown on top of the body of one of the large snakes and in Tro-Cortesianus 29c (Pl. 31, fig. 3), it appears seated on the end of a snake-like curve. The deer occurs in Tro-Cortesianus 30b (Pl. 30, fig. 6) in connection with the goddess from whose breasts water is flowing. God B appears in Dresden 41c (Pl. 31, fig. 1) seated on a red deer. The same animal is also to be noted in Dresden 60a (Pl. 30, fig. 5) in connection with the combat of the planets.[351-[+]] A deer is seen in Tro-Cortesianus 92d seated on a mat opposite a female figure in the same manner as the armadillo on the same page and a dog on the preceding page. These, as previously noted, probably refer to cohabitation. On Pl. 32, fig. 9, is a deer from the Peresianus and Pl. 32, fig. 12, shows another from Stela N, east, from Copan.

The Nahua day Maçatl signifies deer and we naturally find a large number of glyphs representing this animal among the day signs in the Mexican manuscripts (Pl. 31, fig. 9; Pl. 32, figs. 8, 10, 11).

YUCATAN PECCARY (Tayassu angulatum yucatanense; T. ringens). Peccaries (Maya, qeqem) of the T. angulatum group are common in Mexico and Yucatan, and a number of local forms have been named. The white-lipped peccaries also occur, but in the figures it is impossible to distinguish the species. These animals are characterized by their prominent snout, curly tail, bristling dorsal crest, and rather formidable tusks, as well as by the possession of hoofs. By these marks most of the figures are readily identifiable (Pl. 32, fig. 1; Pl. 33, figs. 1, 2, 4-6, 9). The tail is, however, often omitted as well as the erect line of bristles down the back. The presence of hoofs and the possession of a truncated pig-like snout are sufficiently characteristic. In the Dresden Codex occur several figures of undoubted peccaries. Two of these are pictured in Pl. 32, figs. 2, 4. In each the hoofs and curly tail appear, and in the latter figure the bristling back is conventionally drawn by a series of serrations. These marks are sufficient to identify the animals. Their heads are further conventionalized, however, by a great exaggeration of the snout beyond that slightly indicated in Pl. 32, fig. 1, and Pl. 33, figs. 6, 9. Other representations of the peccary, are shown in Pl. 32, fig. 5, a man with a peccary's head, and fig. 7 in which the animal's hoofs are replaced by human hands and feet. In both cases the form of the head remains characteristic. A curious combination is shown in Pl. 32, fig. 3, an animal whose head and fore feet are those of a peccary, while the hind feet have five toes, and there is a long tail. The addition of what look like scales is found in a figure from the Dresden (Pl. 32, fig. 6).

The peccary is found in several different connections in the manuscripts. As deer are found associated with the hunt, so, but to a much more limited extent, the peccary. It is represented pictured as being captured in snares of the familiar "jerk-up" type. Similar drawings show this animal caught by the foreleg and held partially suspended, Tro-Cortesianus 49a (Pl. 33, fig. 9),[352-*] 49c (Pl. 33, fig. 1), and 93a (Pl. 33, fig. 4). Tro-Cortesianus 41b also shows the peccary associated with hunting scenes. Another realistic drawing of this animal in Dresden 62 (Pl. 33, fig. 6)[352-[+]] represents him as seated on the open jaws of a serpent connected with a long number series. We are unable to explain the signification of the appearance of the animal in this connection. The peccary is pictured in Tro-Cortesianus 27b (Pl. 33, fig. 5) seated on the left hand of the goddess from whose breasts water is flowing.

The peccary seems to be associated with the sky, as it is seen in a conventionalized form in four instances (Dresden 44b, 45b, (Pl. 32, fig. 4)[TN-9] coming from a band of constellation signs and in Dresden 68a (Pl. 32, fig. 2) coming from a similar band with god E sitting underneath.[353-*] Above each of these conventionalized figures occur the corresponding glyph forms (Pl. 33, figs. 7, 8), which show merely the head with the exaggerated upturned snout. There is a striking resemblance between these snouts and those of the stone mask-like figures so frequently represented as a façade decoration in northern Yucatan. The presence in the mouths of the faces there represented of a recurved tusk in addition to other teeth is a further resemblance to the drawings of peccaries. Stempell (1908, p. 718) has reproduced a photograph of these extraordinary carvings and considers them the heads of mastodons, apparently solely on account of the shape of the upturned snout, whose tip in many of the carvings turns forward. They certainly do not represent the heads of mastodons, but we are not ready to say that the peccary is the prototype of these carvings, although the similarity between the glyphs (Pl. 33, figs. 7, 8) and the masks is worthy of note. One point which does not favor this explanation is the fact that on the eastern façade of the Monjas at Chichen Itza where the mask-like panel is seen at its best, we find a realistic drawing of a peccary (Pl. 33, fig. 2) on the band of glyphs over the doorway, and it in no way suggests the head on the panel and is quite different from the head already noted as the glyph of the peccary in the codices.

BAIRD'S TAPIR (Tapirella bairdi). No undoubted representations of tapirs occur in the manuscripts here considered. Possibly tapirs did not live in the country occupied by the Maya peoples. At the present time they are found only to the south of Yucatan. In Central America Baird's and Dow's tapirs are native, the latter, however, more on the Pacific coast. We have included a drawing of an earthenware vessel (Pl. 28, fig. 1) that represents a tapir, about whose neck is a string of Oliva shells. The short prehensile trunk of the tapir is well made and the hoofs are likewise shown. A greatly elongated nose is found in many of the drawings of the deities, but it does not seem clear that these represent trunks of tapirs, or, as suggested by Stempell, mastodons! Two such heads are shown in Pl. 39, figs. 7, 9. These offer a considerable superficial resemblance to that of a tapir, but as no other drawings that might be considered to represent this animal are found, it seems very questionable if the long noses are other than parts of grotesque masks. The superficial resemblance of the curious nose pieces of the masks on the panel of the Maya façades to elephants' trunks does not seem to us especially significant, as otherwise the carvings are quite unlike elephants. They have no great tusks as an elephant should, but, instead, short recurved teeth similar to those representing peccary tusks, as already pointed out.

RABBIT (Sylvilagus or Lepus). Rabbits and hares from their familiarity, their long ears, and their peculiar method of locomotion, seem always to attract the notice of primitive peoples. Several species occur in Mexico, including the Marsh rabbit (Sylvilagus truei; S. insonus), various races of the Cottontail rabbit (S. floridanus connectens; S. f. chiapensis, S. f. yucatanicus; S. aztecus; S. orizabae, etc.) and several Jack rabbits (Lepus alleni pallitans; L. callotis flavigularis, L. asellus). It is, of course, quite impossible to determine to which of these species belong the few representations found. Several drawings, shown in Pl. 30, figs. 3, 4, 7, 8, are at once identifiable as rabbits from their long ears, round heads, and the presence of the prominent gnawing teeth.[354-*] In two of the figures (Pl. 30, figs. 7, 8), the entire animal is shown, sitting erect on its haunches, the first with one ear in advance of the other, a trait more characteristic of the jack rabbit than of the short-eared rabbits. For convenience of comparison, we have placed beside these two figures one of a deer in much the same position. It is at once distinguished, however, by its long head, longer bushy tail, and by the marks at each end of the eye. What at first sight appear to be two gnawing teeth of the rabbit seem to be the incisors of the lower jaw. This is the animal identified by Stempell as a dog.

The animal shown to be a rabbit in Dresden 61 (Pl. 30, fig. 8) is pictured seated on the open jaws of a serpent in the same way as the peccary on the following page. These two animals, together with two representations of god B and the black god (Dresden 61), are each clearly connected with the serpents on which they are sitting.

The Nahua day Tochtli signifies rabbit and naturally the animal occurs throughout the Mexican manuscripts as representing this day (Pl. 30, figs. 3, 4).

OTHER RODENTS. We have included in Pl. 29, figs. 5, 7, 8, three undetermined mammals. The second of these is characterized by the two prominent gnawing teeth of a rodent and by its long tail. It may represent a pack rat (Neotoma) of which many species are described from Mexico. In its rounded ears and long tail, fig. 5 somewhat resembles fig. 7, but it lacks the gnawing incisors. Still less satisfactory is fig. 8 from Tro-Cortesianus 24d, at whose identity it seems unsafe to hazard a guess. It is shown as eating the corn being sowed by god D.

JAGUAR (Felis hernandezi; F. h. goldmani). Throughout its range, the jaguar (Maya, balam or takmul) is the most dreaded of the carnivorous mammals. It is, therefore, natural that the Mayas held it in great awe and used it as a symbol of strength and courage. A few characteristic figures are shown in Pl. 34, figs. 1-3; Pl. 35, figs. 5-14. The species represented is probably Felis hernandezi, the Mexican race of jaguar, or one or the other of the more or less nominal varieties named from Central America. The distinguishing mark of the jaguar, in addition to the general form with the long tail, short ears and claws, is the presence of the rosette-like spots. These are variously conventionalized as solid black markings, as small circles, or as a central spot ringed by a circle of dots (Pl. 35, fig. 12). Frequently the solid black spots are used, either in a line down the back and tail or scattered over the body. The tip of the tail is characteristically black, and the teeth are often prominent. Such a figure as this (Pl. 35, fig. 10) Stempell considers to be a water opossum (Chironectes), for the reason that it is held by the goddess from whose breast water is flowing. This can hardly be, however, for not only are the markings unlike those of the water opossum, but the large canine tooth indicates a large carnivore. Moreover, the water opossum is a small animal, hardly as big as a rat, of shy and retiring habits, and so is unlikely to figure in the drawings of the Mayas.

As for the significance of the jaguar in the life of the Mayas, it may be said that this animal seems to have played a most prominent part. At Chichen Itza, the building on top of the southern end of the eastern wall of the Ball Court, usually called the Temple of the Tigers, has a line of jaguars carved in stone as frieze around the outside of the building, and in the Lower Chamber of the same structure, the figure of a jaguar (Maudslay, III, Pl. 43) serves as an altar. The front legs and the head of a jaguar often are seen as the support of a seat or altar on which a god is represented as at Palenque in the Palace, House E (Maudslay, IV, Pl. 44) and in the Temple of the Beau Relief (Holmes, 1895-1897, Pl. 20). Altar F at Copan (Pl. 35, fig. 7) shows the same idea. The head of a puma or jaguar (Pl. 34, fig. 6) appears in the bas-relief of the Lower Chamber of the Temple of the Tigers, evidently representing a part of an altar. A realistic carving of a jaguar was found on a stone near the Temple of the Cones at Chichen Itza (Maudslay, III, Pl. 52, fig. a), and another occurs near the present hacienda of Chichen Itza carved in relief on a ledge of rock.

In the Maya manuscripts the jaguar appears in a number of connections. Its mythological character is shown in Dresden 8a (Pl. 35, fig. 5), where it is pictured as the tonalamatl figure. The day reached here in the reckoning is Ix, and this corresponds to the Nahua Oceolotl, which means jaguar. In Dresden 26, in the pages showing the ceremonies of the years, the jaguar is carried on the back of the priest, evidently representing one of the year bearers (Ti cuch haab). Balam, the name of the jaguar, is the title given to the four Bacabs or Chacs, the gods of the four cardinal points. In Tro-Cortesianus 64a, two jaguar heads are noted as the end of curious bands of Caban signs over a flaming pot. The second one is shown as dead. A jaguar head is employed in two places in the Tro-Cortesianus, 34a and 36a, as a head-dress for a god who is in the act of sowing corn. This animal appears very infrequently in the pages of the Tro-Cortesianus given over to the hunting scenes, 41c, 40c, 43b, and, even here, it never appears in the same way as the deer and peccary, as an animal for sacrifice.

The jaguar as a predacious beast is noted in Tro-Cortesianus 28b (Pl. 35, fig. 8), where it is attacking god F in a similar way as the vultures in the preceding picture. The jaguar appears in Tro-Cortesianus 30b (Pl. 35, fig. 10) seated on the right hand of the goddess from whose breasts water is flowing. The figure in Tro-Cortesianus 12b between the various offerings may be a jaguar or a dog, more probably from its connection with an offering, the dog. A curious modification of the jaguar may be shown in Tro-Cortesianus 20a (Pl. 34, fig. 2), where a god is seated on the gaping jaws of some animal whose identity is uncertain. It may be a serpent, although the black-tipped tail from which the head appears to come certainly suggests the jaguar.

There are several carved glyphs in stone that probably represent jaguars. Two of these (Pl. 28, fig. 4; Pl. 35, fig. 9) have the characteristic round spots, but others are unmarked, and suggest the jaguar by their general character only (Pl. 35, fig. 6). This latter may, of course, represent the puma quite as well. A realistic jaguar head appears as a glyph in Tro-Cortesianus 2a (Pl. 35, fig. 13). The more usual glyph for the jaguar is more highly conventionalized, although the spots and the short rounded ear are still characteristic (Pl. 35, fig. 11). A slight modification of this glyph appears in Dresden 8a in connection with the full drawing of the animal below.

The Nahua day Oceolotl, as already noted, means jaguar, and the jaguar glyph is found among the day signs (Pl. 34, fig. 3). Seler (1904, p. 379) associates the jaguar in the Vaticanus and the Bologna with Tezcatlipoca. He notes that the second age of the world, in which the giants lived and in which Tezcatlipoca shone as the sun, is called the "jaguar sun." Tezcatlipoca is supposed to have changed himself into a jaguar.

PUMA (Felis bangsi costaricensis). As shown by Stempell, there can be little doubt that some one of the mainly nominal species of Central American puma is represented in Dresden 47 (Pl. 34, fig. 7). This animal is colored reddish in the original, as is the puma, is without spots, although the tip of the tail, as in the pictures of the jaguar, is black. The animal is represented as being transfixed with a spear.[358-*] Another animal colored red in Dresden 41c seems to represent a puma. God B is shown seated upon him. A crude figure from the Painted Chamber of the Temple of the Tigers (Pl. 34, fig. 5) is probably the same species of puma. The cleverly executed head, shown in profile in Pl. 34, fig. 6, is also perhaps the same animal, although it may possibly represent the jaguar. One or the other of these two cats is also intended, in Pl. 34, fig. 4, a drawing of a piece of pottery.

COYOTE (Canis). Two figures from the Nuttall Codex have been included as possibly representing coyotes (Pl. 35, figs. 1, 2). They are chiefly characterized by their prominent ears and bristling hair, and seem to be engaged in active combat. Coyotes of several species occur in Mexico and though not generally regarded as aggressive animals are of a predacious nature. No drawings of the coyote have been noted in the Maya codices.

DOG (Canis). The dog (Maya, peq) evidently played an important part in the life of the Mayas as it does with other races of men generally. On Pls. 36, 37, we have included certain figures of dogs from several manuscripts. These may represent two breeds, for it is well known that both a hairy and a hairless variety were found by the early discoverers in Mexico.[359-*] Hairiness is more or less clearly indicated in the following figures:--Pl. 36, figs. 1-7, 12; Pl. 37, figs. 4, 5. The figures of dogs usually agree in having a black mark about the eyes that frequently is produced as a downward curved tongue from the posterior canthus. Sometimes, as in Pl. 37, figs. 1-3, 10, this tongue is not blackened. Commonly also black patches are elsewhere distributed on the body, generally on the back. These markings are probably the patches of color separated by white areas that occur frequently in dogs or other animals after long domestication.[359-[+]] We have included among the figures of dogs two in which the eye is differently represented and which are unspotted (Pl. 37, figs. 4, 6). These modifications may have some special significance, but otherwise the animals appear most closely to represent dogs.

We have already suggested that the animal attired in man's clothing, and walking erect in Dresden 25a-28a is likewise a dog, though Stempell believes it to represent the opossum in support of which he calls attention to its prominent vibrissae and slightly curled tail.

The dog played a large part in the religion both of the Mayas and the Mexican peoples. It was connected especially with the idea of death and destruction. The Lacandones of the present time make a small figure of a dog to place on the grave (Tozzer, 1907, p. 47). This is but one of the many survivals of the ancient pre-Columbian religion found among this people. The dog was regarded as the messenger to prepare the way to the other world. Seler (1900-1901, pp. 82-83) gives an interesting parallel of the Nahua idea of the dog and his connection with death. He paraphrases Sahagun as follows: "The native Mexican dogs barked, wagged their tails, in a word, behaved in all respects like our own dogs, were kept by the Mexicans not only as house companions, but above all, for the shambles, and also in Yucatan and on the coast land for sacrifice. The importance that the dog had acquired in the funeral rites may perhaps have originated in the fact that, as the departed of both sexes were accompanied by their effects, the prince by the women and slaves in his service, so the dog was assigned to the grave as his master's associate, friend, and guard, and that the persistence of this custom in course of time created the belief that the dog stood in some special relation to the kingdom of the dead. It may also be that, simply because it was the practice to burn the dead, the dog was looked on as the Fire God's animal and the emblem of fire, the natives got accustomed to speak of him as the messenger to prepare the way in the kingdom of the dead, and thus eventually to regard him as such. At the time when the Spaniards made their acquaintance, it was the constant practice of the Mexicans to commit to the grave with the dead a dog who had to be of a red-yellow color, and had a string of unspun cotton round his neck, and was first killed by the thrust of a dart in his throat. The Mexicans believed that four years after death, when the soul had already passed through many dangers on its way to the underworld, it came at last to the bank of a great river, the Chicunauhapan, which encircled the underworld proper. The souls could get across this river only when they were awaited by their little dog, who, recognizing his master on the opposite side, rushed into the water to bring him over." (Sahagun, 3 Appendix, Chap. 1.)