The Nahua day sign Itzcuintli signifies dog and corresponds to the Maya Oc ([Pl. 36], figs. 9-11). This in turn is considered by many to stand for the dog as the animal of death and signifies the end. The sore, cropped ears of the domesticated dog are supposed to be represented in this sign, Oc. Nahua and other day signs for Itzcuintli (dog) are shown in [Pl. 36], figs. 4, 6, 13.
Bear (Ursus machetes; U. horriaeus). In northern Mexico, in Chihuahua and Sonora, occur a black bear (Ursus machetes) and the Sonoran grizzly (U. horriaeus). It is unlikely that the Mayas had much acquaintance with these animals since they range more to the northward than the area of Maya occupation. Stempell has identified as a bear, a figure in Dresden 37a ([Pl. 35], fig. 3). This represents a creature with the body of a man walking erect but with the head apparently of some carnivorous mammal, as shown by the prominent canine tooth. This appears as a tonalamatl figure. The resemblance to a bear is not very clear. Less doubt attaches to the figure shown in [Pl. 35], fig. 4, which seems almost certainly to depict a bear. The stout body, absence of a tail, the plantigrade hind feet, and stout claws, all seem to proclaim it a bear of one of the two species above mentioned. This picture is found in connection with one of the warriors shown in the bas-relief of the Lower Chamber of the Temple of the Tigers at Chichen Itza. It seems clearly to designate the figure in much the same way as figures are named in the Mexican writings, i.e., by having a glyph showing this nearby. Attention has already been called to the fact that here at Chichen Itza, and, especially on this bas-relief, there is much which shows a strong influence from the north. The two figures in Tro-Cortesianus 43a are probably bears. Förstemann (1902, p. 68) considers that they are men masked as Chacs or Bacabs.
Leaf-nosed Bat (Vampyrus spectrum; Artibeus jamaicensis; or Phyllostomus hastatus panamensis). Several remarkably diabolical representations of bats (Maya, soɔ, usually written zotz) occur among the Maya remains. These all show the prominent nose leaf distinguishing the family Phyllostomatidae and, as the Mayas probably used the largest and most conspicuous of the native species for artistic representation, it is likely that some one of the three species above mentioned is the one here shown.
The bat had a place in the Maya pantheon. One of the months of the Maya year (Zotz) was named after this animal and the glyph for this month shows the characteristic nasal appendage. This is to be seen more clearly in the glyphs selected from the stone inscriptions ([Pl. 38], figs. 1, 2, 4-6) than in those from the codices (text [figs. 11-14]) although the nose leaf is still visible in the latter. The day sign Akbal (night) occurs as the eye in the figures from the manuscripts. A carving showing the whole body of the bat is used as a glyph in Stela D from Copan ([Pl. 38], fig. 3). This may also represent the Bat god who is associated with the underworld, “the god of the caverns.” This god is pictured on the “Vase of Chama” ([Pl. 38], fig. 7) figured by Dieseldorff (1904, pp. 665-666) and by Gordon (1898, Pl. III). Seler (1904a) has discussed the presence of this god among the Mayas, the Zapotecs, and the Nahuas. The bat does not seem to occur in the Maya manuscripts as a god, although there are glyphs which seem to refer to this god (Dresden 17b), as pointed out by Seler, when there is no other representation of this deity.
No doubt in the times of the Maya civilization, these bats haunted the temples by day as they do now, and thus became readily endowed with a religious significance.