356 ANIMAL FIGURES IN THE MAYA CODICES 



race of jaguar, or one or the other of the more or less nominal 

 varieties named from Central America. The distinguishing 

 mark of the jaguar, in addition to the general form with the 

 long tail, short ears and claws, is the presence of the rosette- 

 like spots. These are variously conventionalized as solid 

 black markings, as small circles, or as a central spot ringed 

 by a circle of dots (PL 35, fig. 12). Frequently the solid 

 black spots are used, either in a line down the back and tail 

 or scattered over the body. The tip of the tail is character- 

 istically black, and the teeth are often prominent. Such a 

 figure as this (PL 35, fig. 10) Stempell considers to be a water 

 opossum (Chironectes) , for the reason that it is held by the 

 goddess from whose breast water is flowing. This can hardly 

 be, however, for not only are the markings unlike those of 

 the water opossum, but the large canine tooth indicates a 

 large carnivore. Moreover, the water opossum is a small 

 animal, hardly as big as a rat, of shy and retiring habits, 

 and so is unlikely to figure in the drawings of the Mayas. 



As for the significance of the jaguar in the life of the 

 Mayas, it may be said that this animal seems to have played 

 a most prominent part. At Chichen Itza, the building on 

 top of the southern end of the eastern wall of the Ball Court, 

 usually called the Temple of the Tigers, has a line of jaguars 

 carved in stone as frieze around the outside of the building, 

 and in the Lower Chamber of the same structure, the figure 

 of a jaguar (Maudslay, III, PL 43) serves as an altar. The 

 front legs and the head of a jaguar often are seen as the sup- 

 port of a seat or altar on which a god is represented as at 

 Palenque in the Palace, House E (Maudslay, IV, PL 44) 

 and in the Temple of the Beau Relief (Holmes, 1895-1897, 

 PL 20). Altar F at Copan (PL 35, fig. 7) shows the same idea. 

 The head of a puma or jaguar (PL 34, fig. 6) appears in the 

 bas-relief of the Lower Chamber of the Temple of the Tigers 

 evidently representing a part of an altar. A realistic carving 

 of a jaguar was found on a stone near the Temple of the 

 Cones at Chichen Itza (Maudslay, III, PL 52, fig. a), and an- 

 other occurs near the present hacienda of Chichen Itza carved 

 in relief on a ledge of rock. 



