342 ANIMAL FIGURES IN THE MAYA CODICES 



on the tablet of the Temple of the Foliated Cross from the 

 same ruined city. In the Codex Fejervary-Mayer, there 

 are four trees in each of which there is a bird. A quetzal 

 is perched in the one corresponding to the east, which is 

 regarded as the region of opulence and moisture. Seler 

 (1901, p. 17) suggests that the quetzal in the tree on the two 

 bas-reliefs at Palenque may represent a similar idea and that 

 temples which would show the other three trees and their 

 respective birds had not been built in that center. 



The representation of the quetzal as an entire bird is, 

 after all, comparatively rare. The most realistic drawing 

 is seen on a jar from Copan in the collections of the Peabody 

 Museum. The whole body of the bird is shown as a head- 

 dress in a few places in the codices where birth and the naming 

 of children are pictured. In Dresden 16c (PI. 24, fig. 3) 

 and Tro-Cortesianus 94c (PL 24,. fig. 6), the quetzal is the 

 head-dress of women. In Dresden 13b (PI. 24, fig. 2), a 

 partial drawing of the bird is shown as a part of the head- 

 dress of god E, in Dresden 7c (PI. 24, fig. 1) of god H, and in 

 Tro-Cortesianus 110c of god F. The feathers alone appear 

 as a female head decoration in Dresden 20c (PL 24, fig. 8). 

 It occurs as a sacrifice among the rites of the four years in 

 Tro-Cortesianus 36b (PL 24, fig. 12). In Tro-Cortesianus 

 70a (PL 24, fig. 5), it is found in the act of eating fruit growing 

 over the ''young god." In Tro-Cortesianus 100b (PL 24, 

 fig. 4), the bird is perched over the encased head of god C. 



There seems to be a glyph used for the quetzal. In those 

 drawn in PL 24, figs. 10, 17, it is noticeable that the anterior 

 part only of the head is shown. The first is a glyph from the 

 tablet of the Temple of the Sun at Palenque, and at least 

 suggests the quetzal by the feathers on the top of the head, as 

 also PL 24, fig. 13, a glyph from Copan, Stela 10, where the 

 entire head appears in a much conventionaUzed form. Other 

 glyphs are shown in PL 24, figs. 14-16, in which there is a 

 single prominent recurved feather shown over the eye, suc- 

 ceeded by a few conventionalized feathers, then one or more 

 directed posteriorly. It is to be noted that whereas in many 



