PLATE XX OF THE MANUSCRIPT TROANO (DRESDEN CODEX)

Title: A Study of the Manuscript Troano. Author: Cyrus Thomas. Publisher: Classic Textbooks, 1882. Original from: the University of Michigan. Digitized: Jan 29, 2008. Length: 794 pages. This Image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired. This applies to the United States, where Works published prior to 1978 were copyright protected for a maximum of 75 years. See Circular 1 "COPYRIGHT BASICS" PDF from the U.S. Copyright Office. Works published before 1924 are now in the public domain. This file is also in the public domain in countries that figure copyright from the date of death of the artist (post mortem auctoris in this case the Pre-Columbian era ca.1492, and that most commonly runs for a period of 50 to 70 years from December 31 of that year.

EXPLANATION OF FIGURES AND CHARACTERS ON PLATES XX-XXIII OF THE MANUSCRIPT TROANO AND 25-28 OF THE DRESDEN CODEX.

"It was the custom in all the cities of Yucatan that there should be at each of the four entrances of the place—that is to say, the east, west, north, and south—two heaps of stone facing each other, intended for the celebration of two feasts of unlucky days. These feasts took place in the following manner:

"The year of which the dominical letter was Kan the omen was Hobnil, and, according to the belief of the Yucatecs, they both reigned in the region of the south. This year, therefore, they fabricated a hollow image qr figure of baked earth, of the idol which they called Kan-u-Uayeyab, and carried it to the heap of dry stones which was on the south side. They elected a chief from the citizens, at whose house they celebrated the feasts of these days. At this ceremony they made also the statue of another god, named Bolon-Zacab, which they placed in the house of the chief elect, in a spot where every one could approach.

"This done, the nobles, the priest, and the citizens assembled together. They returned, by a road swept and ornamented with arches and foliage, to the two piles of stone, where they found the statue, around which they gathered with much devotion. The priest then perfumed it with fortynine grains of bruised maize mixed with incense. The nobles placed their incense together in the censer of the idol and perfumed it in their turn. The maize mixed with the priest's incense is called zacah, and that which the nobles present is called chahalte. Having incensed the image, they cut off the head of a fowl and presented to it.

"When this was finished they placed the statue on a litter called Kante, and on its shoulders an 'angel' as an omen of water and the good year which they should have. As to these 'angels,' they were frightful in appearance.

"Then they carried the statue, dancing with much gaiety, to the house of the chief, where he found the other statue of Bolon-Zacab. While they were on the way one of them carried to the nobles and the priest a drink composed of four hundred and twenty-five grains of burnt maize, which they called Picula-Kakla, and all partook of it at the same time. Arrived at the chiefs house, they placed the image which they carried, face to face with the statue which was already there, and made many offerings of drinks and viands, of meat and fish. These offerings were afterwards divided among the strangers who were present, and they gave the priest only a leg of venison.

"Others drew blood from themselves by scarifying their ears, and anointed with it a stone which they had as an idol, called Kanal-Acantun.

They modeled a heart from the dough of their bread, and in the same way another loaf, of gourd seeds, which they presented to the idol Kan-u-Uayeyab. It was thus that they guarded this statue and the other during the unfavorable days, perfuming them with their incense and with incense mixed with grains of bruised maize. They believed that if they neglected these ceremonies they would be subject to the calamities which were the result of this year. The unlucky days having passed, they carried the statue of the god Bolon-Zacdb to the temple, and the image of the other to the eastern entrance of the city, in. order to have it for the next year. They left it there, and returning home each one occupied himself with preparations for the celebration of the new year.

Mayan Vampire Headed Deity

Title: Mexican and Central American antiquities, calendar systems, and history Issue 28 of Bulletin, United States Bureau of American ethnology Issue 28 of Bulletin (Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology). Mexican and Central American Antiquities, Calendar Systems, and History, Charles Pickering Bowditch. Authors: Eduard Seler, Ernst Wilhelm Förstemann, Paul Schellhas, Karl Sapper, Erwin Paul Dieseldorff. Editor: Charles Pickering Bowditch. Translated by: Selma Wesselhoeft, Alberta M. Parker. Publisher: U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1904. Length: 682 pages.

This Image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired. This applies to the United States, where Works published prior to 1978 were copyright protected for a maximum of 75 years. See Circular 1 "COPYRIGHT BASICS" PDF from the U.S. Copyright Office. Works published before 1924 are now in the public domain.

This file is also in the public domain in countries that figure copyright from the date of death of the artist (post mortem auctoris in this case the Pre-Columbian era ca.1492, and that most commonly runs for a period of 50 to 70 years from December 31 of that year.

The accompanying drawing of the vampire god occurs on a clay vessel found buried with a dead person on the summit of a temple mound in Chama, together with an urn.

The pot is cylindric in form, about 55 centimeters in circumference, measured around the outer edge, and 15 centimeters in height. It was broken into many pieces, and the polish and painting are greatly damaged. It is to be noted that reddish black, droplike spots occur all over the pot, as if some resinous fluid had been sprinkled over it with a brush. I have also observed similar spots on pots from the Zacapa region.

In order to form a characteristic image of the vampire god we must direct our attention to his dress and to similar representations on the monuments of ancient Maya civilization.

The first tiling that strikes us is that he wears the collar of the death god, showing the three round balls, which also appear on the cloaklike wings, and which we may, no doubt correctly, assume to be human eyes.

That an ornament of this kind should be given to the death god is entirely in keeping with the fact that the extinction of the eyesight in approaching dissolution is one of the most striking phenomena of death.

In the temple at Copan which bounds the western court on the north, on the east side of the inner entrance, was the representation of a battle between the vampire god and Cukulcan, the god of light, which I am inclined to regard as morning twilight, the struggle between darkness and light. On the basis of this, supported by the fact that the vampire leaves his hiding place at twilight,

Wr regard the streams of breath that shoot from his mouth as a symbol of sunset. It seems to me certain that this does not mean wind, with Which rorce of nature this god has no connection, although I know that his glyph often occurs with Ben-Ik, which combination, however, refers to all birds, beasts, and gods whose life and dwelling is supposed to be in the air.

We may therefore regard the vampire god as the servant of death, the ruler of twilight.

The god Cukulcan, ruler of air and light, and therefore of life, is represented in almost all the temple pictures and on the monoliths of Copan, sometimes with a human body, more frequently as a bird, also as a double snake. I will not at present enter more deeply into the reasons which have led me to this decision localise the subject deserves treatment in a special paper.

The glyphs belonging to the picture on this vessel afford us no solution, since we do not understand them; the central glyphs of plaua probably denotes the vampire god, since the dots appearing on the forehead remind us of the representations at Copan, where they occur in a similar manner. The central glyph of plate b occurs in the Dresden codex, page 151, at the bottom.

I do not think that this clay vessel was prepared especially for burial, as I supposed in regard to the urns with a melon-shaped base. It seems to me rather to have served for religious purposes.