666 BUREAU OP AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 



the bands of breath that shoot from his mouth as a symbol of sunset 

 and dawn. It seems to me certain that this does not mean wind, with 

 Avhich force of nature this god has no connection, although I know 

 that his glyph often occurs with Ben-Ik, which combination, however, 

 refers to all birds, beasts, and gods whose life and dwelling is sup- 

 posed to be the air. 



We may therefore regard the vampire god as the servant of death, 

 the ruler of twilight. 



The god Cukulcan, ruler of air and light, and therefore of life, 

 is represented in almost all the temple pictures and on the monoliths 

 of Copan, sometimes with a human body, more frequently as a bird, 

 also as a double snake. I will not at present enter more deeply into 

 the reasons which have led me to this decision because the subject 

 deserves treatment in a special paper. 



Tlie glyphs belonging to the picture on this vessel aiford us no 

 solution, since we do not understand them; the centi'al glyphs of plat& 

 a probably denotes the vampire god, since the dots appearing on the 

 forehead remind us of the representations at Copan, where they 

 occur in a similar manner. The central glyph of plate h occurs in 

 the Dresden codex, page Gl, at the bottom, 



I do not think that this clay vessel was prepared especially for 

 burial, as I supposed in regard to the urns with a melon-shaped base. 

 It seems to me rather to have served for religious purposes. 



