IV. The claws of the Mexican statue may be symbolized by the spikes on the back of the birds in [Fig. 52], but these latter appear to me to relate rather to the fangs and teeth of the various crotalus heads of the statues.
V. The mask, with tusks, of [Fig. 52], is the same as that at the top of [Fig. 55], where we see that they represent the teeth of a serpent, and not the tusks of an animal. This is shown by the forked tongue beneath. The three groups of four dots each on Huitzilopochtli’s statue are references to his relationship with Tlaloc.
With these main and striking duplications, and with other minor and corroborative resemblances, which the reader can see for himself, there is no doubt but that the two figures, Mexican and Yucatec, relate to the same personage. The Yucatec figure combines several of the attributes of the various members of the Mexican trinity named above, but we should not be surprised at this, for, as has been said, some writers consider that this trinity was one only of attributes and not of persons.
What has been given above is sufficient to show that the personage represented in [Fig. 52] is the Yucatec equivalent of Huitzilopochtli, and has relations to his trinity named at the head of this section, and also to the family of Tlaloc. I am not aware that the relationship of the Yucatec and Aztec gods has been so directly shown, on evidence almost purely pictorial, and therefore free from a certain kind of bias.
If the conclusions above stated are true, there will be many corroborations of them, and the most prominent of these I proceed to give, as it involves the explanation of one of the most important tablets of Palenque, parts of which are shown in Plates XXIV, LX, LXI, and LXII, vol. ii, of Stephens.
Plate LXII, [Fig. 57], represents the “Adoratorio or Alta Casa, No. 3” of Palenque. This is nothing else than the temple of the god Huitzilopochtli and of his equal, Tlaloc. The god of war is shown on a larger scale in Plate LXI, [Fig. 58], while Tlaloc is given in Plate LX, [Fig. 59], and the tablet inside the temple in Plate XXIV, [Fig. 60]. The resemblances of Plate XXIV and of the Palenque cross tablet and their meanings will be considered farther on.
Returning to Plate LXII, the symbols of the roof and cornice refer to these two divinities. The faces at the ends of the cornice, with the double lines for eye and mouth, are unmistakable Tlaloc signs. The association of the two gods in one temple, as at Mexico, is a strong corroboration.
Let us now take Plate LXI, [Fig. 58], which represents Huitzilopochtli, or rather, the Yucatec equivalent of this Aztec god. I shall refer to him by the Aztec appelation, but I shall in future write it in italics; and in general the Yucatec equivalents of Aztec personages in italics, and the Aztec names in small capitals.
Compare [Fig. 52] and the Plate LXI ([Fig. 58]). As the two plates are before the reader, I need only point out the main resemblances, and, what is more important, the differences.
The sandals, the belt, its front pendant, the bracelets, the neck ornament, the helmet, should be examined. The four hands of [Fig. 52] are not in LXI, nor the parrots; but if we refer to Kingsborough, Vol. II, Plates 6 and 7 of the Laud manuscript, we shall find figures of Huitzilopochtli with a parrot, and of Tlaloc with the stork with a fish in its mouth, as in the head-dress here. The prostrate figure of [Fig. 52] is here led by a chain. At Labphak (Bancroft, Vol. iv., p. 251), he is held aloft in the air, and he is on what may be a sacrificial yoke. The Tlaloc eagle is in the head of the staff carried in the hand. This eagle is found in the second line from the bottom of [Fig. 52], we may remark in passing. Notice also the crescent moon in the ornament back of the shoulders of the personage of [Fig. 58]. The twisted cords which form the bottom of this ornament are in the hieroglyph No. 37, Plate XXIV ([Fig. 60]).