56 Shells as evidence of the Migrations. 
The Dresden Codex also shows the snail associated with 
the gods of birth, and of the moon (the god D, of 
Schellas), of death, and of the sun, and in the month Mol, 
the eighth of the Maya year. It is widely acknowledged 
that the snail is the symbol of birth among the Central 
American people.” 
According to Spinden,” “ the snail, so-called, is repre- 
sented in combination with the human form much more 
often than the tortoise, and occurs not only on the build- 
ings at Chitchen Itza .. but also in the codices and on 
objects of minor art such as pottery. The word “ snail” 
is commonly used, but there are no means of telling 
whether the shell represented belongs to the snail or to 
some other mollusc. According to Tozzer and Allen the 
shell is probably that of Fasctolarta gigantea, which is the 
largest known American shell and is found along the coast 
of Yucatan.” This writer gives a series of representations 
of anthropomorphic figures, consisting of the human form 
combined with a shell, taken both from Aztec and Maya 
manuscripts. One of these, from the Peresianus Codex, 
shows a personage called by Schellas, God N, the God 
of the End of the Year. Another authority, Dr. Seler, 
however, refers to him as the Old Bald-headed God, and 
suggests that he governed the moon, “He is probably 
related,” says Spinden, “to God D, the principal Roman- 
nosed God. Usually, but not always, this God N wears a 
large shell from which the upper part of his body seems 
to emerge.” It will be recalled that 7eccrstecat/, the Moon 
God of the Mexicans, is represented in the Codex Vati- 
canus No. 3,773, with a conch-shell on his brow; in the 
Codex Telleriano Remensis the shell appears at the back 
** Forstemann, of. c¢., pp. 428-429. 
°F **A Study of Maya Art,” Afem. Peabody Museum of Amer. 
Archeol, and Ethnol., vol. vi., 1913) p. 83. 
