ANIMAL FIGURES IN THE MAYA CODICES 327 



not surely identifiable, but probably represent this turkey. 

 Possibly they are the chachalaca {Ortalis vetula palli- 

 diventris), a gallinaceous bird, commonly kept in semi- 

 domestication in Mexico, whose bare eye ring and slightly 

 erectile head feathers may be represented by the drawings. 

 It is probable that this turkey is the bird represented frequently 

 in the Maya codices as a bird of sacrifice. The head alone 

 usually appears in this connection, among other places, in 

 Dresden 34a (PL 16, fig. 10), 41c (fig. 14), 29c (fig. 16), 28c 

 (fig. 17), and in Tro-Cortesianus 12b (PI. 16, fig. 11), 105b 

 (fig. 12), 107b (fig. 15). In several of these places the head 

 is represented as resting on one or more Kan signs, again 

 meaning bread, as well as on the vessel or jar. In Dresden 

 26c (PI. 16, fig. 9), the whole turkey is pictured as an offering, 

 as in the preceding case noted in Dresden 35a (PI. 15, fig. 9). 

 The whole bird as an offering may also appear in Tro-Cor- 

 tesianus 4a (PI. 16, fig. 4) corresponding to the offering of 

 venison and iguana on the following pages. This representa- 

 tion of the entire bird is very rare although the fish, when 

 used as an offering, is always represented as a whole and the 

 iguana is in most cases when used in the same connection. 

 Landa (1864, p. 222)* confirms the offering of the heads of 

 birds with bread. 



It is, however, the sacrifice of a bird, probably a turkey, 

 by decapitating, that is especially interesting, as the opera- 

 tion as shown in the Dresden Codex 25c (PI. 26, fig. 2), 26c, 

 27c, 28c, in the rites of the four years, is described in full by 

 Landa. In the codex, a priest is represented as holding in 

 his hand before an altar, a headless bird. Landa (1864, 

 pp. 212, 218, 224, 228) f tells us that in the Kan, the Muluc, 



*"Y ofrecerle cabe^as de pavos y pan y bevidas de maiz." 

 t(Kan year) "Sahumavan la imagen, degollavan una gallina y se la pre- 

 sentavan o offrecian . . . y assi le hazian muchas offrendas de comidas y 

 bevidas de came y peseado, y estas offrendas repartian a los estrangeros 

 •que alii se hallavan." 



(Muluc year) "Y despues degollavanle la gallina como al passado." 

 (Ix year) "Y degollavan la gallina ... a la estatua de Kac-u-Uayeyah 



