Fig. 10.—Our First Parents. (From the Cortesian Codex.)
Again it is Life within Space and Time which the artist presents. The earth is not represented; but we readily recognize in conventionalized form the great Tree of Life, across it the celestial Vase, and above it the cloud-masses. On the right sits Cuculcan, on the left Xmucane, the divine pair called in the Popol Vuh “the Creator and the Former, Grandfather and Grandmother of the race, who give Life, who give Reproduction.”[[64]] In his right hand Cuculcan holds three glyphs, each containing the sign of Life, ik. Xmucane has before her one with the sign of union (sexual); above it, one containing the life-sign (product of union); and these are surmounted by the head of a fish, symbolizing the fructifying and motherly waters.
The total extension of the field in these designs resembles the glyph a in Fig. [6]. It is found in both Mayan and Mexican MSS.,[[65]] and expresses the conception these peoples had of the Universe. Hence I give it the name of the “cosmic sign.”
4. Pictorial Representations of Divinities.
Turning to the Codices and the monuments with the above mythological lore in one’s memory, it seems to me there is no difficulty in identifying most of the pictures presented by them. That this has not been accomplished heretofore, I attribute to the neglect of the myths by previous writers, and a persistent desire to discover in the mythology of the Mayas, not the divinities which they themselves worshipped, but those of some other nation, as the Nahuas, Quiches, Zapotecs, or Pueblo dwellers.[[66]] I shall pay small attention to such analogies, as the Mayas had a religion of their own, and it is that which I wish to define. We may turn first to the—
Fig. 11.—Monogram of Itzamna.
Representations of Itzamna.—I have no hesitation in identifying Itzamna with the “god B,” as catalogued by Dr. Schellhas in his excellent study of the divinities of the Codices,[[67]] and which he believes to be Cuculcan, while the Abbé Brasseur, followed by Dr. Seler, argue, that it is a “Tlaloc” or Chac, i. e., a rain god.[[68]] He is extremely prominent in the Codices, being painted in the Dresden Codex alone not less than 130 times, and in the others about 70 times. No other deity has half so many representations, and we may well believe, therefore, that he was the Jove of their Pantheon.
This at once suggests Itzamna; but a phrase of the historian Cogolludo leaves no doubt about it. The “god B” is associated with the signs of the east, and his especial and invariable characteristic are two long, serpent-like teeth, which project from his mouth, one in front, the other to the side and backward.[[69]] These traits enable us to identify “B” with Lakin Chan, “the serpent of the east,” who was portrayed “with strangely deformed teeth,” and this was unquestionably but another name for Itzamna, the god of the east.[[70]]