6o S hells as evidence of the Migrations. 



churned the ocean,"' out of which was then produced the 

 amrita, or water of life, and thirteen other gems.''^ A 

 variant of this account is given by Picart {op.cit., p. 415) 

 who says that "using this serpent as a cable, they lifted 

 up the mountain, and afterwards let it fall again, till they 

 at last forc'd this haughty element [the sea] to restore all 

 the wealth which had made it so proud." (See Fig. 2, 

 plate facing p. 62). 



Turning to the Dresden Maya manuscript we find, on 

 P^ge 37a, a representation of the Old Bald-headed God 

 (the Moon God) with the shell of the tortoise on his 

 back'"" — an incarnation, in fact, of the god as a tortoise. 

 But an even more striking picture is seen on p. 19b of 

 the Codex Cortes. The illustration there given"" shows 

 the tortoise on the top of a churn-like structure about 

 which is coiled an object resembling a snake (Seler calls 

 it a rope, but it appears to possess scales). On the left 

 side of the central object are two dark coloured gods or 

 demons holding on to the snake ; on the right side, simi- 

 larly employed, stands the Long-nosed God ( = Chac, 

 the Rain God), and another indefinite personage. Appa- 

 rently seated on the back of the tortoise is another God 

 (? Roman-nosed God) who also holds the snake. In 

 describing this picture, Seler calls attention to the tortoise 

 being marked with a hieroglyphic sign v\hich occurs in 

 the 7a'nal-na.me ydx and yax-kin, and which perhaps 

 signifies "tree " or " wood." He further states: " It [the 



""' C. F. Oldham, " The Sun and the Serpent," London, 1905, p. 58, 

 regards " the churning of tlie ocean," alluded to in the '" Mahabharata" as 

 " an allegorical description of seaborne commerce in its early days " (quoted 

 by Dr. G. Elliot Smith, '-The Migrations of Early Culture," Manchester, 

 1.915, p. 82). 



'"* Bird wood, 0/. <;<>., p. 57; Thomson, " Bhagavad-Gita," p. 147. 



'■°" Seler, Zcit. fiir Elhnol., 42, p. 51, f. 738. 



'"' Seler, Z.fiir E., 42, p. 48, f. 724. 



