SELER] THE MAYA BAT GOD 235 



Such is the scant}^ information to be gleaned from literary records 

 regarding the singular figure of the bat god; but it is enough to 

 show that in this case we have to do only with a form of the deity 

 of mountain caverns, of cave worship, concerning which definite 

 information has been transmitted to us from the regions of the 

 Isthmus and from the tribes living north and south of it. This deity 

 however, apparently belonged only to the Maya races and to the Zapo- 

 tec-Mixtec tribes, who were nearly allied to them in civilization, and 

 possibly also in language, while to the Mexicans this cult was appar- 

 ently foreign. 



Now, when 1 pass to the pictorial representations of this deity, I 

 am at once in a position, strange as it may seem, to refer to such 

 drawings in Mexican picture writing; and this is of special impor- 

 tance, because there we are on more familiar ground. It is true, I 

 am referring to manuscripts Avhich doubtless originated in regions 

 lying somewhat more to the south. The pictures to which I allude 

 are taken from the Borgian, Vatican, and Fejervary codices. 



In each of these picture manuscripts there are a number of pages 

 which invariably have four representations so combined that they 

 form a whole, which, at the outset, leads us to conjecture that they 

 were meant to correspond to the four cardinal points; that is, four 

 periods of time coordinated with the cardinal points. In one of 

 these representations (Borgian codex, pages 66 to 63), we find a per- 

 fect conglomerate of pictures on the four pages. In the others 

 (Codex Vaticanus B, pages 65, 66; Bologna codex, pages 12, 13; 

 Fejervc4ry codex, pages 12, 11 ; Codex Vaticanus B, pages 72 to T5, 

 and Fejervary codex, pages 4, 3) the separate representations seem 

 to be copied to a certain extent from the above-mentioned pages of the 

 Borgian codex. 



Pages 66 to 63 of the Borgian codex have in the center a tree which 

 is growing from the body of a person and on which a bird is sitting. 

 Above this there is a deity offering sacrifice. On the left is a ball- 

 player, a pair in copulation, and a throne, upon which lies the head 

 ornament of a deity, always that of the deity of the succeeding page. 

 To the right, at the top, we have the felling or killing of an animal or 

 of a mythologic figure ; below are Tzitzimime, figures plunging down 

 from heaven, and a god producing fire by friction. Dates of 3^ears 

 and days are also given, the sum total of w^hich is 52 years and 260 

 days, that is, an entire cycle and a tonalamatl, divided into four equal 

 parts. 



The principal deity, the one offering sacrifice, on the first page is 

 the sun god. This page may, therefore, correspond to the east. 

 The god of the second page is the god of the earth, or of stone. 

 He must correspond to the north. The chief deity on the third page 



