ANIMAL FIGURES IN THE MAYA CODICES 313 



possibly the deadly '' bush-master'' {Lachesis lanceolatus) , 

 Other figures (PL 10, figs. 3, 7; PL 11, figs. 1, 2) are intro- 

 duced here as examples of the curious head ornamentation 

 frequently found in the drawings. The two first are merely 

 serpents with the jaws extended to the utmost, and with a 

 characteristic head decoration. The last is provided with an 

 elaborate crest. The size and markings of the two serpents 

 shown in PL 11, as well as their want of rattles suggest that 

 they may represent some species of large Boidae as Loxocemus 

 bicolor or Boa (sp?). 



After having commented upon the various serpents occur- 

 ring in the codices and in several other places, we will 

 now take up the manner and connection in which the 

 various figures occur. We shall pass over completely the use of 

 the '' serpent column " at Chichen Itza, the importance of 

 the serpent motive in the development of the masked panel 

 as worked out by Spinden, and the countless representations 

 of the plumed serpent in the whole field of Maya design and 

 decoration. In the single Temple of the Tigers at Chichen 

 Itza, the feathered serpent occurs in the round as a column 

 decoration supporting the portico, as carved on the wooden 

 lintel at the entrance to the Painted Chamber, again and 

 again on the frescoes of this room,* in the Lower Chamber 

 as dividing the bas-relief into zones or panels, and, finally, 

 as the center of the whole composition of this bas-relief. 

 It will be seen, therefore, that it will be necessary in a short 

 paper, to limit ourselves to the representations of the serpent 

 in the Maya codices. 



The serpent is most frequently associated with god B, 

 Schellhas (1904, p. 17), Fewkes (1894), Forstemann (1906), 

 and Thomas (1882), seem to agree that god B is to be iden- 

 tified as Kukulcan, the most important of the deities of the 

 Mayas and, as pointed out before, appearing in the Nahua 

 mythology, as Quetzalcoail, and in the Quiche myths as 

 Gucumatz. It was also noted that the name means both in 



* PL 9, figs. 5, 9, show drawings of the rattlesnake which occur on the 

 fresco. 



