Animal Figures in the Maya Codices

by Alfred M. Tozzer; Glover M. Allen

MAMMALIA

Opossum (Didelphis yucatanensis, D. mesamericana). Figures representing opossums are not with certainty identifiable in the Maya writings. We have provisionally identified as a frog the animal shown in [Pl. 29], fig. 6, although at first sight the two median round markings might be taken to represent a marsupial pouch. Stempell considers the animals found in the upper division of Dresden 25-28 as opossums of one of the above species, and this seems very possible. They are shown with long tails, slightly curved at the tips, and with long head and prominent vibrissae. A rather similar figure is found in the Nuttall Codex ([Pl. 34], fig. 7). There is nothing, however, that seems to preclude their being dogs and, in our opinion, they represent this animal.

Nine-banded Armadillo (Tatu novemcinctum). This is the common species of armadillo (Maya, wetš) found throughout the warmer portion of Mexico and Central America, where it is frequently used as an article of food, and its shell-like covering is utilized in various ways. Several representations of it occur in the Tro-Cortesianus ([Pl. 29], figs. 1-4), where it is characterized by its scaly covering, long ears and tail, and the moveable bands about the body.

This animal is associated with the bee culture, as it is represented twice in Tro-Cortesianus 103a ([Pl. 29], figs. 1, 3) seated below a bee under an overhanging roof. The hunting scenes in the Tro-Cortesianus also show the armadillo; in 48a ([Pl. 29], fig. 4) and in 91a it is shown in a pit-fall. In the last case the Cauac signs are clearly seen on top of the trap, whereas in the former case the same signs seem to be indicated by the crosses. Finally, this same animal occurs seated in Tro-Cortesianus 92d ([Pl. 29], fig. 2) facing a female figure. There seems to be no glyph used in connection with this animal.

Yucatan Brocket (Mazama pandora). Among the numerous representations of deer in the Maya writings, there is but one that appears to show the brocket. This occurs in Tro-Cortesianus 92a ([Pl. 30], fig. 2), where a hoofed animal with a single spike-like horn is shown, seemingly impaled on a stake set in the bottom of a pit-fall. As stated by Stempell, this animal from the character of its horns is probably to be identified as a brocket, though there is nothing to preclude its being a young spike buck of some species of Odocoileus.

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.