(Dresden MS.)

Fig. 48.—The serpent-bird, from a carved wooden panel at Tikal.

(After Maudslay)

We come now to the elemental gods, who seem for the most part to have been rather vague personalities, crystallized here and there (and rather robbed of dignity in the process) into more sharply defined tribal protectors. These are the deities whom, I believe, the builders of the monuments chiefly worshipped, and whose portraits or symbols may be identified among the carvings which decorate the ruins. Among these, the most difficult to treat satisfactorily is Kukulkan, the Quiché Gukumatz. The name, as stated before in connection with Quetzalcoatl, means “Feathered serpent,” and the conception of such a divinity is not peculiar to the Maya region, since a feathered snake, the “Mother of waters,” is worshipped by the Pueblo Indians far to the north. But Gukumatz-Kukulkan is not a mere water-god, and I think that his real nature is apparent from the Tzental description of Kukulkan, “the feathered snake that goes in the waters.” It is difficult to see what else this can typify than the ripple, born both of wind and water, the aspect of which suggests feathers, and the motion a serpent. Both as representing motion, i.e. primordial motion, and as typifying wind, i.e. breath, the god represents life, and so in his highest aspect becomes a creator-god. In his snake and water aspect he is closely connected with the rain-gods, while in his bird and wind manifestation he is lord of the sky and world-directions, for the winds blow from all points of the compass. As this great and vague deity he appears in the early part of the Popol Vuh, and also, I believe, on the monuments, where his symbol, the serpent-bird, is not uncommon (e.g. Figs. [48] and [49]). But he is not directly represented, for the very reason that primitive peoples (and civilized too for that matter) shrink from expressing their high gods in definite form. It is only when he becomes a tribal protector, as among the Toltec and the rulers of Mayapan, that his attributes become fixed and a definite conception of him is transferred to wood or stone. But once the definite conception is formed, the majesty of mystery is to a large extent lost, and we see in Mexico the god of life and breath becoming Eecatl, the god of the material wind, who sweeps the path of the gods of rain. It is this relation, I believe, that Kukulkan-Gukumatz bears to the Maya god of the material wind, God K. No one who has studied the beliefs of the American tribes will think that such a conception is beyond their psychology. Francisco Hernandez states that the Yucatec chiefs, that is the more highly educated class, worshipped gods which were unknown to the populace, and we know that the religious ideas of the Peruvian rulers were on a very high plane. These higher beliefs, where they occurred, were usually veiled in symbolism to guard them from the vulgar; symbolism thrived in America, and the tendency to esoteric doctrines, evolved by professional priesthoods, adds to the difficulty of interpreting the remains of the earlier civilizations. The degeneration of Gukumatz is seen in the later portion of the Popol Vuh, where he is definitely associated with the Toltec in the additional name “Ah Toltekat,” while reminiscences of his former exalted status are apparent in later Mexican beliefs concerning him. His association with the planet Venus, which is not apparent on the monuments, belongs to the later stage, and, together with his portraiture in carvings (e.g. Fig. [87]; p. 367), apart from his symbolic representation as a serpent-bird, has an important bearing on the origin of the later buildings at Chichen Itza. The god Itzamna, also called Yaxkokahmut, is again not very easy to fix; he is said to be the son of the creator Hunabku and to have come from the east, but since he is regarded as the inventor of writing, which must have been practised long before the Maya entered Yucatan, this does not necessarily mean that he came by sea, but only from some district lying to the east of the territory occupied by his votaries at the time when they acquired the art of writing. A comparison of the manuscripts with the account of the ceremonies which ushered in the new year given by Landa seems definitely to identify him with Schellhas’ “God D,” the “God with the Roman nose” (Fig. [47, d]). As such he is a sky-god, similar in many respects to Tonacatecutli, and like him is often represented as an old man with a beard. His head appears constantly upon the monuments, either as a glyph, or issuing from the mouths of the double-headed serpent, of which the body is ornamented with planet-symbols, and which I believe to represent the sky. In later times in Yucatan he bore a very close relation to the sun-god, Kinich-Ahau, and was to a certain extent identified with him, in so far as we hear of an image of Kinich-Ahau-Itzamna being prepared for certain ceremonies. A figure exactly similar to that of Itzamna (identified as God D) is sometimes shown, in manuscripts and reliefs and on pottery, with a shell (Fig. [68]; p. 312), and it may be argued from Mexican analogies that this deity was also associated with the moon. How far Itzamna may be identified with Itzamatul, the especial god of Itzamal, is perhaps doubtful, but at any rate it is a coincidence that both were important gods of healing. As regards Itzamatul it is said that his emblem was a hand, and that he was also known as Kabul, the “Strong Hand”; in this connection it is extremely interesting to note that two of the stelæ at Piedras Negras (Pl. [XX]), one at Copan, a relief at Palenque, and a fresco at Santa Rita in British Honduras, show a figure with a head-dress in which a hand appears as the central feature. It is stated further that his name implies association with the dew and clouds, and that pilgrimages were made to his oracular shrine from Tabasco, Chiapas and Guatemala.

PLATE XX

By permission of the Peabody Museum

MAYA