Page:Mexican Archæology.djvu/285

has an important bearing on the origin of the later buildings at Chichen Itza. The god Itzamna, also called Yaxkokahmut, is again not very easy to fix; he is said to be the son of the creator Hunabku and to have come from the east, but since he is regarded as the inventor of writing, which must have been practised long before the Maya entered Yucatan, this does not necessarily mean that he came by sea, but only from some district lying to the east of the territory occupied by his votaries at the time when they acquired the art of writing. A comparison of the manuscripts with the account of the ceremonies which ushered in the new year given by Landa seems definitely to identify him with Schellhas' "God D," the "God with the Roman nose"' (Fig. 47, d). As such he is a sky-god, similar in many respects to Tonacatecutli, and like him is often represented as an old man with a beard. His head appears constantly upon the monuments, either as a glyph, or issuing from the mouths of the double-headed serpent, of which the body is ornamented with planet-symbols, and which I believe to represent the sky. In later times in Yucatan he bore a very close relation to the sun-god, KinichAhau, and was to a certain extent identified with him, in so far as we hear of an image of Kinich-Ahau-Itzamna being prepared for certain ceremonies. A figure exactly similar to that of Itzamna (identified as God D) is sometimes shown, in manuscripts and reliefs and on pottery, with a shell (Fig. 68; p. 312), and it may be argued from Mexican analogies that this deity was also associated with the moon. How far Itzamna may be identified with Itzamatul, the especial god of Itzamal, is perhaps doubtful, but at any rate it is a coincidence that both were important gods of healing. As regards Itzamatul it is said that his emblem was a hand, and that he was also known as Kabul, the "Strong Hand"; in this connection it is extremely interesting to note that two of the stele at Piedras Negras (Pl. XX), one at Copan,