92 



MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 



that also has reptilian characters ; still others appear as 

 headdresses and masks on human figures. Strange to 

 say, the gods are supplementary to the human figures on 

 all the early sculptures. In the codices, 

 however, they are represented apart 

 from man, as engaged in various activi- 

 ties and contests. Mayan religion was 

 clearly organized on a dualistic basis. 

 The powers for good are in a constant 

 struggle with the powers for evil and 

 most of the benevolent divinities have 

 malevolent duplicates. In actual form 

 the gods are partly human, but ordinarily 

 the determining features are grotesque 

 variations from the human face and fig- 

 ure. While beast associations are some- 

 times discernible, they are rarely con- 

 Fig. 32. The trolling. Sometimes, however, beast 

 Manikin Seep- gods are represented in unmistakable 

 ter, a Grotesque fashion, good examples being the jaguar, 



Figure with one the bat? and the mQan bird A11 Q f thege 

 Leg modified in- r -i u j* J * 1 t~ j 



, have human bodies and animal heads. 



to a Serpent. 



Fig. 33. The Two-Headed Dragon, a Monster that passes through 

 many Forms in Mayan Sculpture. Copan. 



The head position in the Mayan pantheon may with 

 some assurance be given to a god who has been called 

 the Roman-nosed god and who is probably to be identi- 



