He is associated with the north, because in that direction lay the mythical home of departed souls; but he is also present in the other quarters of the compass, for death knows no distinction of places or persons. Besides the cross-bones, usually shown as in Fig. [25], No. 1, he often bears the curious design No. 2,[[86]] which I take to be a maggot, and his head-dress is sometimes as No. 3, decorated with teeth, or flints, with rays.
Fig. 25.—Symbols of the God of Death.
Fig. 26.—The God of War.
Representation of the God of War.—Frequently associated with the figure of death is that of a deity with a black line across his face. This is numbered by Dr. Schellhas the “god F,” and called by him a “god of death.” Much has been made of the line across his face as identifying him with the Mexican god Xipe, “the flayer;” but this is not a constant mark of Xipe, as Father Duran neither mentions it nor portrays it. In fact, it is nothing more than the line of black paint athwart the face which meant “war” very generally among the American Indians. An inspection of the pictures clearly indicates that this is a war god. For instance, in Cod. Tr., 27*, 28*, 29* c, he is shown repeatedly at full length, armed with a flaming torch in one hand and a flint knife in the other, firing the canopies of princes, his body striped with war-paint like his face, following the god of death, who goes before him beating on a drum and singing a song of war (as shown by the lines issuing from his mouth). In Cod. Dresden., p. 6 e, he wears a war helmet with nose-piece, and his body is black-striped also.
Which of the gods of war I have named this leading one may have been, I leave undetermined.
Representations of Ek Ahau and Other Black Gods.—In the Codices there are about fifty figures painted black, evidently intended to represent deities supposed to be thus colored. Forty of them are in the Codex Troano, which is in parts devoted to a prominent character of this hue. He is depicted with a truculent expression, a reddish-brown band around his mouth, and with a large, hanging under-lip. He is generally armed and often fighting. His figure is sometimes drawn unusually large, of a ferocious appearance, and carrying a huge spear, a shield, a tomahawk, a lighted torch, or other fearful sign of war. (See Cod. Tro., pp. 24, 25.)
Previous writers have not been able to assign a name to this deity. Prof. Thomas suggested that it was Ek Chuah, said by Landa to be the god of the cacao planters; but to this, Schellhas objects that his warlike traits exclude such a supposition.[[87]] So the latter refers to him merely as “the god M.”
