God A is represented as a figure with an exposed, bony spine, truncated nose and grinning teeth.[10-1] It is plainly to be seen that the head of this god represents a skull and that the spine is that of a skeleton. The pictures of the death-god are so characteristic in the Maya manuscripts that the deity is always easily recognized. He is almost always distinguished by the skeleton face and the bony spine. Several times in the Dresden manuscript the death-god is pictured with large black spots on his body and in Dr. 19b a woman with closed eyes, whose body also displays the black spots, is sitting opposite the god. While the Aztecs had a male and a female death-deity, in the Maya manuscripts we find the death-deity only once represented as feminine, namely on p. 9c of the Dresden manuscript. Moreover the Dresden manuscript contains several different types of the death-god, having invariably the fleshless skull and (with the exception of Dr. 9c) the visible vertebrae of the spine. Several times (Dr. 12b and 13b) he is represented apparently with distended abdomen. A distinguishing article of his costume is the stiff feather collar, which is worn only by this god, his companion, the war-god F, and by his animal symbol, the owl, which will both be discussed farther on. His head ornament varies in the Dresden Codex; in the first portion of the manuscript, relating in part to pregnancy and child-birth (see the pictures of women on p. 16, et seq.), he wears on his head several times a figure occurring very frequently just in this part of the Dresden Codex and apparently representing a snail (compare Dr. 12b and 13b), which among the Aztecs is likewise a symbol of parturition. In view of these variations in the pictures of the Dresden Codex, it is very striking that in the Codex Tro.-Cortesianus, there is only one invariable type of the death-god.
A distinguishing ornament of the death-god consists of globular bells or rattles, which he wears on his hands and feet, on his collar and as a head ornament. As can be distinctly seen in Dr. 11a, they are fastened with bands wound around the forearm and around the leg; in Dr. 15c these bells are black.
Among the symbols of the death-god a cross of two bones should be mentioned, which is also found in the Mexican manuscripts. This cross of bones seems to occur once among the written characters as a hieroglyph and then in combination with a number: Tro. 10.* The figure
is also a frequent symbol of the death-god. Its significance is still uncertain, but it also occurs among the hieroglyphs as a death-sign and as a sign for the day Cimi (death).
The hieroglyphs of the death-god have been positively determined (see [Figs. 1 to 4]). [Figs. 1 and 2] are the forms of the Dresden manuscript and [Figs. 3 and 4] are those of the Madrid manuscript. God A is almost always distinguished by two hieroglyphs, namely [Figs. 1 and 2] or [3 and 4]. Moreover the hieroglyphs are always the same, have scarcely any variants. Even in Dr. 9c, where the deity is represented as feminine, there are no variations which might denote the change of sex. The hieroglyphs consist chiefly of the head of a corpse with closed eyes, and of a skull. The design in front of the skull in [Figs. 2 and 4] and under it in [Fig. 3] is a sacrificial knife of flint, which was used in slaying the sacrifices, and is also frequently pictured in the Aztec manuscripts. The dots under [Fig. 1] are probably intended to represent blood.
The death-god is represented with extraordinary frequency in all the Maya manuscripts. Not only does the figure of the god itself occur, but his attributes are found in many places where his picture is missing. Death evidently had an important significance in the mythologic conceptions of the Mayas. It is connected with sacrifice, especially with human sacrifices performed in connection with the captive enemy. Just as we find a personification of death in the manuscripts of the Mayas, we also find it in the picture-writings of the ancient Mexicans, often surprisingly like the pictures of the Maya codices. The Aztec death-god and his myth are known through the accounts of Spanish writers; regarding the death-god of the Mayas we have less accurate information. Some mention occurs in Landa’s Relacion de las cosas de Yucatan, §XXIII, but unfortunately nothing is said of the manner of representing the death-god. He seems to be related to the Aztec Mictlantecutli, of whom Sahagun, Appendix to Book III, “De los que iban al infierno y de sus obsequias,” treats as the god of the dead and of the underworld, Mictlan. When the representations of the latter, for example in the Codex Borgia, and in the Codex Vaticanus No. 3773, are compared with those of the Maya manuscripts, there can be hardly a doubt of the correspondence of the two god figures. In the Codex Borgia, p. 37, he is represented once with the same characteristic head ornament, which the death-god usually wears in the Maya manuscripts, and in the Codex Fejervary, p. 8, the death-god wears a kind of breeches on which cross-bones are depicted, exactly as in Dr. 9 (bottom).
Bishop Landa informs us that the Mayas “had great and immoderate dread of death.” This explains the frequency of the representations of the death-god, from whom, as Landa states, “all evil and especially death” emanated. Among the Aztecs we find a male and a female death-deity, Mictlantecutli and Mictlancihuatl. They were the rulers of the realm of the dead, Mictlan, which, according to the Aztec conception, lay in the north; hence the death-god was at the same time the god of the north.
It agrees with the calendric and astronomic character of the Maya deities in the manuscripts, that a number of the figures of the gods are used in connection with specified cardinal points. Since, according to the Aztec conception, the death-god was the god of the north, we might expect that in the Maya manuscripts also, the death-god would be always considered as the deity of the north. Nevertheless this happens only once, namely in the picture at the end of Codex Cort., pp. 41 and 42. Elsewhere, on the other hand, this god is connected with other cardinal points, thus Dr. 14a with the west or east (the hieroglyph is illegible, but it can be only west or east), and in Dr. 27c with the west. It is interesting to note that once, however, in a series of cardinal points, the hieroglyph of the death-god connected with the numeral 10 stands just in the place of the sign of the north; this is on Tro. 24* (bottom).
In regard to the name of the death-god in the Maya language, Landa tells us that the wicked after death were banished to an underworld, the name of which was “Mitnal”, a word which is defined as “Hell” in the Maya lexicon of Pio Perez and which has a striking resemblance to Mictlan, the Aztec name for the lower regions. The death-god Hunhau reigned in this underworld. According to other accounts (Hernandez), however, the death-god is called Ahpuch. These names can in no wise serve as aids to the explanation of the hieroglyphs of the death-god, since they have no etymologic connection with death or the heads of corpses and skulls, which form the main parts of the hieroglyph. Furthermore, the hieroglyphs of the gods certainly have a purely ideographic significance as already mentioned above, so that any relation between the names of the deities and their hieroglyphs cannot exist from the very nature of the case.