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Maya Codices - Animal Figures
Maya Codices - The Meaning and Occurrence of Animal Forms By: Alfred M. Tozzer and Glover M. Allen
Before taking up the different animals in the Maya codices it may be well to consider some of the more common ways in which the figures occur and their connection with the surrounding figures.
MANNER OF REPRESENTATION.
The entire body of the animal may be
represented realistically or the head alone may be shown. The animal
head is frequently attached to a human body. The animal may appear
conventionalized to a greater or less extent and the head in turn may
change in the same way until only a single characteristic of the animal
remains by which to identify it as, for example, the spots of the jaguar
or the feathering around the eye of the macaw. In the case of the
glyphs, a term employed to designate the regular and usually square
characters appearing in lines or columns throughout the codices and
inscriptions, we find both the realistic drawing and that where
conventionalism has come in.
THE TONALAMATL.
The Maya codices are made up, for the most part, of the
records of the sacred period of two hundred and sixty days, a period
called in Nahuatl, _tonalamatl_, and other numerical calculations. The
_tonalamatl_ was used for purposes of divination in order to find out
whether good or bad fortune was in store for an individual. It is not
necessary at this place to go into the different means taken to record
this period of time or its methods of use. It may be well, however, to
explain the usual distribution of the pictures in the codices, including
those of animals, in connection with the representation of the
_tonalamatl_. A normal period is shown in Dresden 6c-7c. A column of
five day signs occurs in the middle of 6c with a single red dot over it.
To the right of this column stretches a horizontal line of numbers
consisting of alternate groups of black and red lines and dots. Under
each pair of red and black numbers there is usually a human form and
over each pair a group of four glyphs belonging to the figure below.
Schellhas (1904) has classified the various figures of gods appearing in
these vignettes of the _tonalamatl_ and lettered them. References
throughout the paper will be made to the gods by letters and the reader
is referred to Schellhas' paper. Animal figures often take the place of
these gods as in the second picture in Dresden 7c where the screech owl
is shown with human body. The greater number of animal figures in the
codices occur in some connection with these _tonalamatls_.
MYTHOLOGICAL ANIMALS.
Where figures are shown with human body and animal
head standing alone in the place usually occupied by one of the various
deities in the _tonalamatl_, there can be little doubt that they have a
mythological meaning and are to be taken, either as gods themselves, or
as representing certain of the gods. All of the animals are by no means
shown in this position. The screech owl, or Moan bird (as in Dresden
10a) appears most frequently in this way. The king vulture (Dresden 8a),
the dog (Dresden 7a), and the parrot (Dresden 40b) come next in
descending importance. The animals represented as copulating (as in
Dresden 13c) might also be considered as mythological animals as well as
the full drawings of the jaguar (Dresden 8a) and the other animals when
they occur alone in the regular vignette of the _tonalamatl_. The four
priests in Dresden 25a-28a should also be regarded as representing, in
all probability, the dog as a mythological animal. The idea of
worshipping animals as gods in themselves is strengthened by noting the
ease with which the Maya people worshipped the horse which was left
behind by Cortes in his march from Mexico across to Honduras
(Villagutierre, 1701, pp. 100-101).
