Shell-Tntmpcls and t ltd r Distributiv, . 6 1 



tortoise] fi<^ure.s there in the centre of a remarkable 

 ceremony in which a number of gods pull a rope up and 

 down to which is fastened the element Kin 'Sun.'" 

 (See /'7<,''. 3, plate facing p. 5S . 



Xo one wlio carefully and conscientiously examines 

 this remarkable picture can have any doubt that it repre- 

 sents the tortoise incarnation of the Hindu god VisJinu. 



In these and other similar designs in the Maya manu- 

 scripts we cannot fail to recognise the results of an infiltra- 

 tion into America of somewhat confused ideas concerning 

 Vishnu, the popular Hindu god, who, as already pointed 

 out, is intimately associated with the conch-shell trumpet 

 (the sacred chank) and the tortoise, among other objects. 

 Jt is inconceivable that ideas of so arbitrary a nature could 

 have arisen independently in India and Central America. 

 That the fundamental conce[)tion of the ]\Ia)-a pictures is 

 the same as the Indian cannot be denied. The}' were 

 certainly inspired by ideas brought from India, which 

 again were probablx- founded upon elements of culture 

 from Western Asia and the Mediterranean. As is well- 

 known, one of the ]>abylonian myths relates how the 

 people of Ancient Chaldaia received their earh' kncnvledgc 

 of sciences and arts of all kinds from the fish-god, Ea or 

 Cannes, who rose from out of the Krj-thritan Sea. WwX. 

 it is to the island of Crete we must turn for the earliest 

 use of the shell-trumpet ; there it was a regular accom- 

 paniment of Minoan temple-worshi[). 



The Maya evidence, onl\' a part of which is dealt with 

 here, thus confirms what has already been said concerning 

 the ideas expressed in the Aztec picture writings, i.e, the 

 use of shell-trumpets in temple-worship and the association 

 of the conch-shell with the god of the moon in India and 

 Central America. 



It is altogether incredible that merel)- by chance the 



