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BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bdll. 28 



snail is the symbol of birth among Central American people, and a 

 very appropriate one. Doctor Seler accej^ts this view in the Compte 

 rendu of the Seventh Congress of Americanists (Berlin. 1800), 

 pages 580 and following, where he also proves from Aztec manuscripts 

 the manifold relations of the whelk, the sea snail, to the deities of 

 death, besides whom the snn god also usually appears. Doctor Seler 

 has already discussed these relations in his essay " Der Charakter der 

 Aztekischen und Maya handschriften ". 



t 



G 



9 



Fig. 105. Glyphs of animals and month Mol, from Maya codices. 



If we now turn to the Dresden Maya manuscript we find the connec- 

 tion of the snail with the deities of death here plainly indicated. It 

 appears here on the head of the true death god at least live times 

 (pages 9c, 12b, 13b, 14a, and 23c) . It also occurs elsewhere. The god 

 D (following Doctor Scliellhas's designations, which I hope will be 

 generally adopted) has the snail on his head, page 5c. This god, with 

 the face of an old man, occurs here between two pictures of the death 

 god. On page 9a we see him, again with the snail, between a vulture 

 and a Avoman with bandaged eyes (ci, figure 105). 



