pOrstemaxn] tortoise AND SNAIL IN MAYA LITERATURE 429 



The sea snail apj^ears A^ery curioush^ on ])age ;^)TI). Here it lies iu 

 the water and appears to be in the act of giving birth to a tiny per- 

 jr=on (female?). 



I can not discover a genuine hieroglyph of the snail in all these 

 passages. Doctor Schellhas expresses the opinion, which is worthy 

 of consideration, that the very frequent hieroglyph in which the day 

 sign Oc is combined with the numeral 3 is connected with the snail, 

 and that the suffix attached to this sign strongly suggests the snail and 

 the foot on which it creeps (h, figure 105, from the Dresden codex, 

 page 43c). 



Still another passage, perhaps of special imporiance. remains to 

 be discussed. I refer to pages 10c to lie of the Dresden manuscript. 

 Here we find twenty-four hieroglyphs in tv/o rows, six groups of four 

 each, but each group begins here with the sign of the above-mentioned 

 month Mol, Avhich is the case nowhere else. But to these six Mols 

 belong six pictures of gods, namely. A, D, F, E, G, and B. 



The series begins with the death god A; then comes D with ihe 

 face of an old man (according to Doctor Schellhas the god of birth 

 and of the moon) ; then F, who, as Doctor Schellhas shows, is in a 

 way a second death god. Next comes the grain god, E, bearing on his 

 head the snail, together with the ears of maize; then the sun god; 

 lastly the deity wdio is the most important one in this manuscript. 

 The snail, therefore, occurs here among the gods of birth, of death, 

 and of the sun in a section in which the month Mol seems to be of 

 chief importance. 



The question now arises whether the sign for the month Mol is in 

 any wa}^ connected with birth or death or with the sun or the snail. 

 The sign consists of two parallel lines of dots, forming an ellipse. In 

 the lower part of this ellipse is a small circle, whose center is indi- 

 cated, and to the upper part of which two little hooks or loops are 

 attached. In almost the same way in which it occurs in the manu- 

 scripts the sign Mol occurs in the inscriptions, which in every otlier 

 respect differ so Avidely from the manuscripts. Unfortunately, there 

 is no convincing theory to explain this figure, although there are three 

 possible ones. In the first place, the ellipse might stand for the snail 

 shell, and that which is drawn within it may be a cursive indication 

 of a snail ; in the second place, we might regard it as an egg and its 

 yolk as an emblem of birth, and, thirdly, it would be possible to regard 

 it as the imj^risoned, and hence po.verless, sun. "Wlio shall decide be- 

 tween these possibilities? The second is supported by the fact that Mr 

 Dieseldorff writes me from Coban, in Guatemala, that in the language 

 of that part of the country (the Kekchi) IMol means egg. I can not 

 find the snail in Codex Troano-Cortesianus, but this may be due to 

 the hasty and rude drawing of that manuscript. I am prepared 

 to deny positively that it does occur. 



