Shell- Trumpets and their Distribution, 63 



On plate 140 in the same work Picart gives a repre- 

 sentation of the supreme Deity who, according to the 

 Japanese, created the world. The picture (Fig. 4, plate 

 facing p. 62), taken from a group at Miaca, clearly 

 illustrates the second incarnation of Vishnu, viz., Kurma, 

 the tortoise. As described by Picart, the Creator of 

 the Universe, who is black and wears a pointed crown, 

 is seated upon the top of a large tree trunk, which is fixed 

 on the back of a tortoise, as in the Indian picture. He 

 has four arms and hands, with a ring in one, a sceptre in 

 another, a flower in a third, and in the fourth a vessel or 

 little fountain of water. A serpent is coiled twice round 

 the trunk. Two demons, one with the head of a dog, the 

 other with the horns of a stag, are holding the serpent 

 near the head, while the tail portion is held by two Kings 

 of Japan, one of whom has four faces, like Brahma, and a 

 Sin, or demi-god. From the water, on which the tortoise 

 seems to lie, appears a Sun half risen, in the form of a 

 bearded man crowned with rays. With his right hand he 

 seems to goad the tortoise forwards, and holds divers 

 goads in his left. 



The identity of this conception with that of India is 

 patent ; but it is of interest in comparison with the Maya 

 design because the elephant-headed god (Chac) of the 

 latter corresponds to the stag-headed dragon in Japan. 11 " 



One point of peculiar interest is the association of 

 the Sun, which, as we have seen, is one of the chief objects 

 of importance in the Maya picture. 



How and when these distinctly Indian ideas reached 

 Japan is not easy to define. They may have reached there 

 with Buddhism, which, it is stated, 114 entered that country 



lia G. Elliot Smith, "Dragons and Rain Gods," to be published in 

 the Bulletin of the John Rylands Library. 



114 Rein, op. dt., pp. 219 & 448. 



