440 ANNUAL EEPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 193 3 



Time does not permit a detailed study of this aspect of ancient 

 Mexican life but at least we may take note of certain classifications 

 of the military and civil priesthood. The early Mayas were not given 

 to human sacrifice, and while the eagle, and especially the jaguar, 

 were prominent animals in their religion, there is little or no evidence 

 of their importance in war. Among the Toltecs, however, these 

 animals of prey became the patrons of warrior societies. These 

 societies are much in evidence at Chichen Itza in Yucatan, thanks 

 to the rich sculptural art which the Maya converts lent to the sub- 

 ject, and of course their importance was maintained among the 

 Aztecs down to the termination of native culture. 



In the codices of southern Mexico the Jaguar and Eagle warriors 

 are very common, and much can be deduced concerning the nature 

 of sacrificial ceremonies connected with the cults. In figure 8, I 



FiGDEB 8. — MiUtary and religious offices ; a Jaguar Man, an Eagle Man, and a 



Turtle Man. 



picture a Jaguar Warrior, an Eagle Warrior, and a Turtle Man, the 

 last being an order of the priesthood closely connected with human 

 sacrifice. The Turtle Man is commonly shown as flying through the 

 air bearing the heart of a sacrificed victim. The Turtle Man of our 

 illustration is a certain Three Lizard, by other name Knife Necklace, 

 who is pictured as having just died. Turtle Men with their bodies 

 enclosed as here in a carapace are extremely common in the sculptures 

 of Chichen Itza, 



Many other priests wear the mask of the Kain God — equivalent to 

 the Mexican Tlaloc — and there are others who wear the Sun disk as 

 a priest of the Sun or combine this with the Kain God mask in an 

 office which I designate as that of a Sun-Rain priest, or let us say 

 weather prophet. In figure 9 the funeral of two warriors is pic- 

 tured; one is an Eagle Warrior and a Sun priest and the other a 

 Jaguar Warrior and likewise a Sun priest. It seems that their 

 symbols of office were practically equivalent to name hieroglyphs. 



