Fig. 69.—A Sacrifice at the Close of the Year. (From the Dresden Codex.)
In Fig. [69] is another scene from the same ceremonies. The person on the right is the celebrant, holding a beheaded fowl in his right hand, while his left strews grain. Before him is a haunch of venison and a turkey. Above the latter is the moon symbol with the number 15. To the left of these stands the statue of Mam, the Grandfather, a log folded in a robe and surmounted by the leaves of the Tree of Life.[[148]] In front are seen the serpent’s head, the sign of Time; below this are footprints, to indicate that time is gone; and beneath the form of the god is the sign pax, with the meaning, “it is ended.”
Fig. 70.—Symbolic Representation of the Close of one Time-Period and the Beginning of another. (From the Cortesian Codex.)
In interesting contrast to these two is Fig. [70], showing the beginning of a time-period. On the left, two dogs, back to back beneath the same canopy, indicate the closing of one period and the beginning of another. On the right, the serpent of time, resting on the earth, brings to the heavens the new sun. The youthful god between the serpent’s jaws carries the world-sign for an eye, and holds in his hand the symbol yax kin, “new sun.” Above are appropriate hieroglyphs, the tenor of which the diligent student of my previous pages will have little difficulty in catching.
In Fig. [71] the God of Growth and Fertility holds an elaborate caluac surmounted by a bird, its apertures filled with shells. Behind him is seated the God of Death, his caluac tipped with a formidable spear-head. The God of Growth has not his own monogram, but that of the old Cuculcan.
When we recall that the shell is the sign for “nought,” the indication seems that the God of Death with his spear will bring to nought the efforts of the God of Fertility.
We see in Fig. [72] the North Star in a series of relations to other celestial bodies or divinities. Beginning at the left, he is seated on his own sign which is surrounded by rays; next, he is upon the sign of the four winds and four quarters of the earth; in the third he is suspended in a sling from the “constellation band” between the sun and a planet; and fourth, he is above the clouds, which rest upon a canopy protecting a pile of kans, money or food emblems.
The three figures in Fig. [73] present the beneficent deities, each bearing in the hand the food symbol, kan.
The group copied in Fig. [74], show the God of Death followed by Kin ich, who seems remonstrating with him, who in turn is followed by the God of War with a wrathful visage. The positions of the hands are especially noteworthy. The sign mol leads each of the cartouches.