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Maya Codices - Animal Figure
Maya Codices - Animal Figures : Animal Sacrifice
ANIMAL SACRIFICES.
Various ceremonials occurring at intervals throughout
the Maya year which included sacrifices to the gods, evidently took up a
large part of the time of the people. Animals composed by far the major
part of the gifts made to the gods. This was especially true in regard
to the ceremonies occurring at the beginning of each year. According to
the Maya calendar there were four days only which could come at the
beginning of the year and these came in succession. Landa (1864, pp.
210-233), the first Bishop of Yucatan, gives a minute description of the
rites of the four years which were named according to the initial day.
He also relates the manner in which the various animals are employed as
offerings in these rites and also in others taking place at the
beginning of the various months.[289-*]
The rites which took place at the beginning and the end of the year are
shown in Dresden 25-28 and in Tro-Cortesianus 34-37. The dog, the deer,
and the turkey are the most important of the animals shown as being
offered to the gods in this connection. It will not be necessary to
consider these animals in detail at this place as they are each taken up
later.
OFFERINGS SHOWN BY GLYPHS.
It is, however, in another connection than
that just considered that the animals are shown as offerings far more
frequently throughout the Maya manuscripts. In the ceremonies of the
four years, the animals and birds are, for the most part, represented
entire and purely as pictures. Offerings are also shown in the form of
glyphs. These may occur in connection with the figures of the gods or in
the lines of hieroglyphs above the pictures. When they are used in the
former relation they are usually shown as resting in a bowl or dish
(Dresden 35a). It frequently happens that when a god is making an
offering represented by the entire animal or a glyph of the animal in
the main picture, there is a corresponding glyph of the offering above
in the line of hieroglyphics (Dresden 23b).
The fish, iguana, turkey, deer and possibly the lizard are the usual
animals shown as glyphs in this connection. The frigate bird occurs once
in the Dresden (35a) and once in the Tro-Cortesianus (34a) as an
offering. The dog, curiously enough, does not seem to be represented by
an offering-glyph although he has a glyph of his own when appearing in
other connections. The iguana and fish are shown entire although drawn
very small; the head is the only part usually shown of the turkey and
the haunch of venison of the deer. The head and feet of the lizard, as
has been noted, may also be shown by a glyph. The turkey and iguana
glyphs are very often found with a _Kan_ sign indicating an offering of
maize and bread as well as that of the animal. In connection with glyphs
showing various offerings of food, there is one which occurs especially
in the Tro-Cortesianus (as in 106a). This shows a row of points
themselves running to a point over a _Kan_ sign. This, as will be
pointed out later (p. 318) may also represent an iguana. The jar
containing a representation of the honey comb (as in Tro-Cortesianus
107b) might come in here in the consideration of the offering-glyphs.
In many instances the common offerings shown by glyphs are found
associated with the signs for the four cardinal points but there does
not seem to be any strict uniformity as to the special offering
associated with each direction. In Dresden 29b, the lizard glyph is
found in the same group with the sign commonly assigned to the east, the
turkey with the south, the iguana with the west, and the fish with the
north while in Dresden 29c, the deer is associated with the east, the
fish with the south, the iguana with the west, and the turkey with the
north. The iguana is usually found with the sign for the west and the
fish with that of the south. The others vary greatly in the assignment
of the various directions.
Schellhas (1904, p. 17) considers that the fish, the lizard, "the
sprouting kernel of maize or (according to Förstemann, parts of a
mammal, game)" and a vulture's head are symbols of the four elements.
The head which Schellhas interprets as that of the vulture is certainly
the head of a turkey. He remarks that these signs of the four elements
appear with god B in the Dresden manuscript. Other gods, as he also
notes, are found with these four offering-glyphs. There seems to be a
fifth glyph, however, (as in Dresden 29b) which we have interpreted as
that of a lizard.
