Page:Mexican Archæology.djvu/291

Rh usually associated with the serpent in Maya art. The mouth is invariably shown wide open, with the head of a god, usually the sun-god (though sometimes God B), emerging. The reverse head, often shown upside-down, is portrayed with a fleshless jaw and other symbols of death, but is also associated with the sun in so far as it bears upon the forehead the kin-glyph, over which are certain ornaments, notably a flame-like "plume," which are attributes of the sun. Now the head proper, with the elongated upper jaw, bears a distinct resemblance to the Mexican cipactli animal, from which the earth was created, and in a very

confused creation-myth given in one of the books of Chilan Balam we find a monster, Itzamkab-ain, who at the creation is impregnated by a god of fecundity, Ah-uuk-chek-nale. Further the earth in Mexican symbolic art is invariably represented by a monster with gaping jaws, which is often shown as swallowing Tonatiuh or Tlaloc. I think that it is perfectly just to conclude that the so-called "double-headed dragon" of Maya art is the earth-monster. As we have seen, the god who is usually shown in his jaws is the sun-god, and the occasional substitution of God B is paralleled in the Mexican manuscripts which sometimes show Tlaloc in the jaws of the earth-monster. The head with the attributes of death and the sun combined, which appears at the other end of the animal (sometimes, as I have said, upside-down), is, on this explanation, the sun