seler] 



EXPLANATION OF WALL PAINTINGS 



311 



tion is one which can unqucstioiiahly be compared with the reiDresen- 

 tations of day and niyht aniona- the so-called celestial shields of the 

 Maya manuscripts, and it i)roves that 1 was entirely in the right when 

 1 pronounced this sign of the night in the Maya manuscripts, which is 

 at the same time the hieroglyj^h for the numeral 20, to be a head with 

 empty, bleeding eye sockets." The entire picture in figure 73 appears 

 to be a remarkable parallel to <(, figure 74, fn)m the Dresden manu- 

 script, which was interpreted by Fih'stemann as the descent of Venus. 



Fig. 70. Mexican deity, from the Vienna codex. 



I even feel inclined to recognize the original form of the Maya sign, 

 which Forstemann regards as the hieroglyph of the planet Venus, in 

 the object set with five eyes which is carried on the staff of the 

 descending Quetzalcoatl. If that is the case there is so much the 

 less reason for accepting the theory that the planet Venus was 

 intend(Hl to be represented by the eye surroimded by radiating eyes in 

 fragment 1. A smnming up of the points demonstrated above proves 

 beyond a doubt, I think, that the eye surrounded by radiating eyes is 

 not a '" star eye ", as I myself formerly designated it, but an eye of 

 light, a " sun eye ", kin-ich, as the Mayas called it. Therefore, we 

 may consider this eye of light of fragment 1 without hesitation as 

 homologous to the faces surrounded by radiating eyes in the other 

 fragments of plate xxxvii. For the notions '' ej'e " and " face " are 



"See Zeitsclu-ift fiir Etlinologie, v. 19 (18871, pp. ( J;{7)-(l'4G). 



