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ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 39 



In Europe and northern Asia during the Bronze and Iron Ages 

 the duck, the goose, and the swan were considered birds of the sun 

 because of their seasonal migrations. That is, they seemed to lead 

 the sun northward for the summer and southward for the winter. 

 The combination of these birds with sun symbols is seen in patterns 

 which become so conventionalized that in their later stages only the 

 bird heads are retained to reveal the meaning. In eastern Asia the 

 cock is associated with the sun by reason of his crowing before the 

 dawn, and in the decorative art of tribes living along the Amur River 

 this domestic fowl is the most conspicuous single subject. In America 

 the duck, at least, was characteristically associated with water rather 

 than with the sun, and there was no pre-Columbian equivalent of 

 the cock. 





10 



8 



FiGDHB 3. — The 13-part zodiac of the Mayas as given in the Codex Peresiauus. Each 

 animal is associated with a period of 28 days, 13 of these making a 364-day astrological 

 year. The first five signs are definitely associated with the rainy season, and in agree- 

 ment with this we know that the Pleiades formed the rattles of the Serpent (2) and 

 that the Turtle (3) was in Gemini. 



By far the more important source of bird and animal association 

 with the sun takes place by means of the stars. There is the track 

 of the sun, moon, and planets among the stars which we call the 

 zodiac. To be sure, the sun on rising seems to erase this track, but 

 it can always be caught just before sunrise or just after sunset in 

 the phenomena known as heliacal risings and heliacal settings. Now, 

 all mankind has one thing in common — the lowest peoples join with 

 the highest in constructing out of the stars the creatures and things 

 which they know on earth. Actually, there is nothing more com- 

 plicated about this than giving names to familiar hills and streams. 

 At any rate here is a game of imaginative art at which all peoples 

 can and do play with great diversity in the results. In consequence, 

 those star groups close to the sun lead to association of the animals 



