ANIMAL FIGURES IN THE MAYA CODICES 303 



in fig. 6 is colored blue in the original, while the others are of 

 various colors. Possibly the round markings on the wings in 

 figs. 5; 8, represent the ocelli on the wings of certain species of 

 moths. In this connection, too, it is interesting to compare 

 the conventionahzed butterfly with its single eye and pointed 

 antennae from the Aubin manuscript (PL 3, fig. 9) with one 

 drawn on the same plan from the Nuttall Codex (PI. 3, fig. 8). 



MYRIAPODA 



Representations of a centipede (probably a species of 

 Scolopendra) occur in the Dresden Codex and in several 

 others examined. That shown in PL 5, fig. 1, from the Vati- 

 canus 3773, is perhaps the least conventionalized.* This figure 

 appears partly to encircle a temple, behind which the major 

 portion of its length is hidden and hence is not here shown. The 

 bipartite structure coming from the animal's head doubtless 

 represents the mouthparts, and at its base on either side arise 

 antennae. The first pair only of legs is shown with a pinching 

 claw, possibly intended as a conventionahzed hand, while the 

 rest are simple. The plumes decorating the posterior extrem- 

 ity are of course extraneous and represent the tail of the quet- 

 zal or trogon. 



In the Dresden Codex, god D constantly appears in connec- 

 tion with a head-dress from which depends a centipede, greatly 

 reduced and conventionahzed. Two forms of this centipede 

 are shown in PL 3, figs. 15, 18. The body appears to consist of 

 four or five segments each with its pair of ambulatory appen- 

 dages (though there may not always be the same number of 

 each) terminated by a circular segment with a conventionalized 

 three-knobbed structure, apparently corresponding to the por- 

 tion that bears the quetzal plume in PL 5, fig. 1. The outline of 

 the head in PL 3, fig. 15, is shown in dotted line but by solid fine 

 in fig. 18. One of the antennae appears to be omitted from the 

 former figure, also, but both are present in the latter. The 



* Strebel (1899, PL 11) gives several reahstic reproductions of the 

 centipede from pottery fragments. 



