322 ANIMAL FIGURES IN THE MAYA CODICES 



that might be considered distinctive about these turtles^ 

 although one (PI. 14, fig. 5) has the anterior paddles much 

 larger than the posterior, indicating a sea turtle. What is 

 doubtless the same turtle is pictured in several places in the 

 Nuttall Codex. In one of the figures in the latter manuscript,, 

 the shell is shown apparently in use as a shield (PI. 14, fig. 4) . 

 This would indicate one of the large sea turtles, and thera 

 is not much doubt that either the Loggerhead turtle {Thalas- 

 sochelys cephalo) or the^Hawksbill (Chelone imhricata) is 

 here intended. 



Quite another species is that shown in PI. 14, fig. 6. That 

 this is a freshwater turtle is plainly indicated by the parasitic- 

 leeches that are noted fastened by their round sucking-discs 

 to the sides of its body. The long neck, pointed snout, and 

 apparent limitation of the dorsal spinous scutes to the central 

 area of the back may indicate the snapping turtle (Chelydra 

 serpentina) or possibly -a species of the genus Cinosternum 

 (probably C. leucostomum) . It is hardly likely that it is one 

 of the true soft-shelled turtles (Trionyx), as the range of that 

 genus is not known to include Mexico. The turtle from 

 Nuttall 43 (PI. 14, fig. 11) may belong to the same species as 

 its scutes seem rather few, or it may be that the view shown 

 here is of the ventral side and that the scales indicate the^ 

 small plastron of one of the sea turtles. 



The turtle appears alone as one of the figures in the 

 tonalamatl in several cases in the Tro-Cortesianus, 13a, 17a 

 (PL 14, fig. 3), 72b (PL 14, fig. 6). It is found associated 

 with the toad appearing in the rain in Tro-Cortesianus 17b 

 (PL 14, fig. 2) and alone in the rain in 13a. In Tro-Cortesia- 

 nus 81c (PL 14, fig. 5), it appears in front of an unidentifiable 

 god. 



Schellhas has called the turtle an animal symbolical of 

 the lightning basing his opinion, as Brinton (1895, p. 74) tells 

 us, on Dresden 40b where a human figure with animal head 

 is holding two torches in his hands. This figure does not 

 seem to us to represent a turtle, as is commonly supposed, 

 but a parrot ,^as will be pointed out later (p. 343). Forste- 



