seleh] 



THE MAYA BAT GOD 



239 



hiero<j;lyph of the iiinal Zotz, the character akbal, " night ", over the 

 eye, as an eyebrow. Even the bat ears and the wrinkled corner of the 

 mouth seem to be jjresent in the hieroglyph. Instead of the teeth, 

 the hieroglyph of a stone knife is given here. This may indicate the 

 creature's sharp teeth, wdiile it may possibly also have a symbolic 

 meaning. The stone knife symbolizes the power of the sun's beams to 

 inflict injury. In Mexican representations the monster of the night 

 swallows a stone knife. 



The bat is frequently met with on the Copan reliefs. An entire fig- 

 ure of the deity, which I give in «, figure 52, can be recognized on altar 

 T (Maudslay's nomenclature) a huge reptilian figure, with a head 



/Ilia, r 



Fig. 52. Maya hieroglyphs of the bat god. 



resembling an alligator's and with hands, between whose outstretched 

 fore and hind legs various deities or mythologic figures are rep- 

 resented. The bat here begins the series of personages represented on 

 the east side, while on the west side, opposite to it, a bird with speckled 

 feathers and parrot like beak is the first of the series — possibly the 

 cakix, the Arara, worshipped as a deity by the Ah-zotzil clan, " the 

 bat people ", who were allied to the Cakchikels." 



The bat occurs with greatest frecjuency in a hieroglyph ^lOme forms 

 of which I have given in «, figure 58. Besides the hejid of t^e bat, 

 which is sometimes very cliaracteristically reproduced, with its mem- 

 branous nose leaf and hairy ear, the double element ben-ik is also 

 present in this hieroglypli, Avhich perhaps — for it also occurs with 



Xahila's Cakchikel-Annalen, place cited, sec. 10. 



