Animal Figures in the Maya Codices

by Alfred M. Tozzer; Glover M. Allen

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 tšakmul) 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.