54 Shells as evidence of the Mtgmtions. 



alread)- stated in previous pages, chank-trumpets are 

 employed in connection with harvest rites. 



In the above prayer, and in the harvest rites, are 

 thus embodied the very elements which make up the 

 moon-cult of the Aztecs. .Associated with the chank we 

 have {(i), the God of the Moon, and {lA, Varuna, the Hindu 

 god of the waters and of the west quarter, wiio is 

 worshipped as one of the guardian deities of the earth, 

 and in times of drought and famine. He is represented 

 in paintings as a white man seated on Makara, a mythical 

 crocodile. This god recalls Tlaloc, the Mexican Rain 

 God, who is sometimes associated with the crocodile, and, 

 as previousl}' mentioned, is depicted as emerging from 

 the conch-shell, (c), Prajapati, " the father of all creatures," 

 a personification of the sun, is emblematical of creation 

 and birth. The snail or conch-shell, as we have seen, 

 was also associated with conception and birth by the 

 Mexicans. 



The offerings made to the chank of the fruits of the 

 earth ; the harvest rites accompanied by conch-shell 

 music ; and the use of shell-trumpets in Hindu temple 

 worship, have their counterparts in Mexican manuscripts 

 in the figure of the God of Flowers and Food Supplies 

 being carried in procession preceded by a priest blowing 

 a conch-shell trumpet, and in references to the blowing 

 of conchs in the temples at midnight as a signal for the 

 priests to arise and mortify themselves, to sing, and then 

 to go in procession to the bath. 



In India both the ordinary and the rare and highly 

 prized sinistral forms of the chank are employed in 

 temple-worship, and it is not a little curious to find that 

 in the Mexican pictures both forms are also shown. It is 

 quite possible that here, as in India, the sinistral form 

 may have had a special significance. 



