From this point we may go on. I must again remark that great familiarity with the literature of the Aztecs and Yucatecs is needed--a familiarity to which I personally cannot pertend[TN-10]--and that it is clear that the method to reach its full success must be applied by a true scholar in this special field. IX. TLALOC, OR HIS MAYA REPRESENTATIVE. Although there is no personage of all the Maya pantheon more easy to recognize in the form of a _statue_ than _Tlaloc_, there is great difficulty in being certain of _all_ the hieroglyphs which relate to him. There is every reason to believe that in Yucatan, as in Mexico, there was a family of rain-gods, _Tlalocs_, and the distinguishing signs of the several members are almost impossible of separation, so long as we know so little of the special functions of each member of this family. In Yucatan, as in Mexico, _Tlaloc's_ main sign was a double line about the eye or mouth, or about both; and further, some of the _Tlalocs_, at least, were bearded.[237-*] CUKULCAN was also bearded, but we have separated out in the next section the _chiffres_, or certainly most of them, that relate to him. Those that are left remain to be distributed among the family of rain-gods; and this, as I have said, can only be done imperfectly, on account of our slight knowledge of the character of these gods. If we examine the plates given by STEPHENS, we shall find many pictorial allusions to _Tlaloc_. These are often used as mere ornaments or embellishments, as in borders, etc., and probably served only to notify, in a general way, the fact of the relationship of the personage represented, to this family, and probably not to convey any specific meaning. Thus, in Plate XXXV of STEPHENS' work the upper left-hand ornament of the border is a head of _Tlaloc_ with double lines about eye and mouth, and this ornament is repeated in a different form at the lower right-hand corner of the border just back of the right hand of the sitting figure, and also in the base of the border below the feet of the principal figure. Plate XLVIII (of STEPHENS') is probably CHALCHIHUITLICUE (that is, the Yucatec equivalent of that goddess), who was the sister of _Tlaloc_. His sign occurs in the upper left-hand corner of the border, and in Plate XLIX the same sign occurs in a corresponding position. Plate XXIV (our Fig. 60) is full of _Tlaloc_ signs. The bottom of the tablet has a hieroglyph, 93 (_Huitzilopochtli_), at one end and 185 (_Tlaloc_) at the other. The leopard skin, eagle, and the crouching tiger (?) under the feet of the priest of _Tlaloc_ (the right-hand figure) are all given. The infant (?) offered by this priest has two locks of curled hair at its forehead, as was prescribed for children offered to this god.