. Fig. 2.—reproduction of part of a MAYA MS. Above, Gods B and E are seen ; below, a variant of Goddess I. The lesser figures in lines show the Maya hiero-^lyphic system of writing. rebus-writing on which the Maya hieroglyphical system was undoubtedly based. There was, we know from tradition, a god called Xamanek, who represented the pole star, and that God C is identical with this deity scarcely admits of any doubt. In the Codex Cortesianus we see his head surrounded by a nimbus of rays which can symbolise only stellar emanations, and in the same manuscript we find him hanging from the sky in
. Fig. 2.—reproduction of part of a MAYA MS. Above, Gods B and E are seen ; below, a variant of Goddess I. The lesser figures in lines show the Maya hiero-^lyphic system of writing. rebus-writing on which the Maya hieroglyphical system was undoubtedly based. There was, we know from tradition, a god called Xamanek, who represented the pole star, and that God C is identical with this deity scarcely admits of any doubt. In the Codex Cortesianus we see his head surrounded by a nimbus of rays which can symbolise only stellar emanations, and in the same manuscript we find him hanging from the sky in the noose of a rope. Elsewhere he is accom - panied by familiar planetary signs. In D we have a god of night and the moon. He is represented as an aged man with toothless jaws, and is indicated by the hieroglyph akhal, " ; His head, in the reduced cursive writing of the , stands for the sign of the moon, and this is frequently accompanied by the snail, the emblem of birth, over which function the moon had planetary jurisdiction. Among the Maya deities D is the only one who can boast of a beard, a certain sign in the case of the neighbouring Mexican pantheon that a god possesses a planetary significance, and for this reason, no less than because of his venerable appearance, I would collate him with Tonaca tecutli, the Mexican creative deity, father of the gods, the Saturn of their Olympus. This figure was known to the Ma^'a of Guatemala as Xpiyacoc, but can scarcely be collated with Hunab Ku, " The Great Hand," the " god behind the gods," invisible, impalpable, of whom we are assured that he was represented in neither painting nor sculpture. In God E we have such a definite picture of a divinity connected with the maize-plant that we have no diffi- culty in identifying him as Ghanan, the traditional Maya god of the maize, whose other name was Yum Kaax, " Lord of the Harvest ; He bears the maize-plant on his head, and
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