Animal Figures in the Maya CodicesTozzer, Alfred M. (Alfred Marston)
History
Animal Figures in the Maya Codices
Tozzer, Alfred M. (Alfred Marston)
Mayan languages -- Writing; Mayas -- Antiquities
Quite another species is that shown in Pl. 14, fig. 6. That this is a
freshwater turtle is plainly indicated by the parasitic leeches that are
noted fastened by their round sucking-discs to the sides of its body.
The long neck, pointed snout, and apparent limitation of the dorsal
spinous scutes to the central area of the back may indicate the snapping
turtle (_Chelydra serpentina_) or possibly a species of the genus
_Cinosternum_ (probably _C. leucostomum_). It is hardly likely that it
is one of the true soft-shelled turtles (_Trionyx_), as the range of
that genus is not known to include Mexico. The turtle from Nuttall 43
(Pl. 14, fig. 11) may belong to the same species as its scutes seem
rather few, or it may be that the view shown here is of the ventral side
and that the scales indicate the small plastron of one of the sea
turtles.
The turtle appears alone as one of the figures in the _tonalamatl_ in
several cases in the Tro-Cortesianus, 13a, 17a (Pl. 14, fig. 3), 72b
(Pl. 14, fig. 6). It is found associated with the toad appearing in the
rain in Tro-Cortesianus 17b (Pl. 14, fig. 2) and alone in the rain in
13a. In Tro-Cortesianus 81c (Pl. 14, fig. 5), it appears in front of an
unidentifiable god.
Schellhas has called the turtle an animal symbolical of the lightning
basing his opinion, as Brinton (1895, p. 74) tells us, on Dresden 40b
where a human figure with animal head is holding two torches in his
hands. This figure does not seem to us to represent a turtle, as is
commonly supposed, but a parrot, as will be pointed out later (p. 343).
Förstemann (1902, p. 27) identifies the turtle with the summer
solstice, as has been noted before, explaining that the animal is slow
of motion, and is taken to represent the time when the sun seems to
stand still. He bases his theory (1904, p. 423) in part on the fact that
the sign for the Maya month _Kayab_, which is the month in which the
summer solstice occurs, shows the face of the turtle (Pl. 14, fig. 10).
This undoubtedly is correct, but he seems to us wrong in classing as
turtles the figure in Dresden 40b (Pl. 25, fig. 1) with its accompanying
glyph (Pl. 25, fig. 6).
The turtle is found in connection with two sun (_kin_) signs beneath a
constellation band in Tro-Cortesianus 71a. Resting upon his body are
three _Cauac_ signs. The single representation of the turtle in the
Dresden Codex is on page 49 (Pl. 14, fig. 12) where a god is pictured
with a turtle's head. The heavy sharp beak indicates that he represents
one of the sea turtles previously mentioned. He is shown transfixed by a
spear and corresponds to the other figures in the lower parts of pp.
46-50. These all have some connection with the Venus period which is
considered in these pages.[323-*]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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