60 Shells as evidence of the Migrations. 



churned the ocean, 107 out of which was then produced the 

 atnrita^ or water of life, and thirteen other gems. 108 A 

 variant of this account is given by Picart (pp.cit., p. 415) 

 who says that " using this serpent as a cable, they lifted 

 up the mountain, and afterwards let it fall again, till they 

 at last forc'd this haughty element [the sea] to restore all 

 the wealth which had made it so proud." (See Fig. 2, 

 plate facing p. 62). 



Turning to the Dresden Maya manuscript we find, on 

 page 373, a representation of the Old Bald-headed God 

 (the Moon God) with the shell of the tortoise on his 

 back 100 an incarnation, in fact, of the god as a tortoise. 

 But an even more striking picture is seen on p. igb of 

 the Codex Cortes. The illustration there given 110 shows 

 the tortoise on the top of a churn-like structure about 

 which is coiled an object resembling a snake (Seler calls 

 it a rope, but it appears to possess scales). On the left 

 side of the central object are two dark coloured gods or 

 demons holding on to the snake ; on the right side, simi- 

 larly employed, stands the Long-nosed God (= Chac, 

 the Rain God), and another indefinite personage. Appa- 

 rently seated on the back of the tortoise is another God 

 (? Roman-nosed God) who also holds the snake. In 

 describing this picture, Seler calls attention to the tortoise 

 being marked with a hieroglyphic sign which occurs in 

 the 7fl/-name ;vir and yax-kin, and which perhaps 

 signifies " tree " or " wood." He further states : " It [the 



107 C. F. Oklham, "The Sun and the Serpent," London, 1905, p. 58, 

 regards " the churning of the ocean," alluded to in the '* Mahabharata" as 

 " an allegorical description of sea borne commerce in its early days " (quoted 

 by Dr. G. Elliot Smith, ''The Migrations of Early Culture," Manchester, 

 1915, p. 82). 



108 Birdwood, op. cit., p. 57; Thomson, " Bhagavad-Gita," p. 147. 

 100 Seler, Zcit. fiir EthnoL, 42, p. 51, f. 738. 



llu Seler, Z.fiirE., 42, p. 48, f- 724- 



