This gives a total of 638 figures which have been recognized; in other words, more than three-fourths of the whole number.
Of the remainder a considerable portion are unimportant men and persons, victims of sacrifice, captives, attendants, etc.; others are priests or officiants in ceremonies; allowing for which, it is certain that no prominent figure in Mayan mythology under the human form remains to be discovered in the Codices. This is a satisfactory result, and shows that, as far as their pictographs go, the contents of these once mysterious volumes are scarcely an unsolved enigma.
8. Figures of Quadrupeds.
The pictorial portions of the Codices contain delineations of various animals, some of which are evidently introduced with symbolical meanings, and others probably so.
The dog, Maya, pek, is one of the most conspicuous. It is the native breed, with smooth coat and erect ears. In many instances it is associated with the sign for night, akbal, and with the god of death (Cod. Tro., pp. 2, 3, 32, 33); also with the storm and the lightning. For that reason Dr. Schellhas and Dr. Seler regard him as a symbol of lightning.[[95]] But I am persuaded that while not disconnected with this, the dog represents primarily some star or constellation. At times he is dotted with spots to represent stars, Cod. Dres., p. 21; the akbal sign refers to the night. His body is often in human form, carrying a torch in each hand, Cod. Dres., p. 39. (Compare Cod. Tro., p. 23*.) In Cod. Dres., p. 40, he falls from the sky; and in ibid., p. 47, he is slain by the shaft of Itzamna. (Compare id. 2, where Itzamna is sitting upon him.) He plays on the medicine drum, Cod. Tro., p. 20, and is associated with the rains, id. pp. 26, 27. He represents the end and beginning of time-periods, Cod. Cort., p. 32.
The spotted leopard, the jaguar, Maya, balam, whose name is attached to the Chacs, and which appears in the calendar and in many of the myths of the Mayan stock, is represented in a number of passages of the Codices, as Cod. Dres., pp. 8, 26; Cod. Tro., pp. 17, 20, 21, 22. In one part, Cod. Tro., 14, he enters dressed as a warrior with a human body.
The monkey, maax, is not often depicted, but is found with astronomic relations, Cod. Tro., 25*; his sign is distinguishable by the markedly prognathic jaws.
Deer are numerous, especially in the Cod. Troanus, where the pages 9–12 are occupied with a series of pictures of the animal in snares. On page 14 a large one is shown, sitting on his rump, his organ erect and prominent. I have little doubt these represent a constellation. In Cod. Dres., p. 2, a composite figure with deer’s hoofs appears three times, sailing through the sky on the serpent’s head. (Compare Cod. Cort., p. 14.)
The small edentate, the nine-banded armadillo, Tatusia novemcincta, in Maya, ibach, is shown twice in the Cod. Tro., both times caught under a trap, once, p. 9, under the wind sign, again, p. 22*, under the cauac sign. What it represents is unknown.