ded as god B.

God B is nearly allied to, but in no wise identical with, the deity with
the large ornamented nose, designated by K, who will be discussed farther
on. God K is an independent deity designated by a special hieroglyph, but
like C he stands in an unknown relation to God B (for details see K).

Finally it should be mentioned, that god B never appears with death
symbols. He is clearly a deity of life and creation, in contrast to the
powers of death and destruction.

His day seems to be Ik (aspiration, breath, life). (Compare Foerstemann,
Die Tagegoetter der Mayas, Globus, Vol. 73, No. 10).

C. The God with the Ornamented Face.

[Illustration: Figs. 11-16]

This is one of the most remarkable and most difficult figures of the Maya
manuscripts, and shows, at the same time, how imperfect must be the
information we have received in regard to the Maya mythology, since from
the frequency of his representations he is obviously one of the most
important deities and yet can be identified with none of the
representations of gods handed down to us. His hieroglyph is definitely
determined (Figs. 11, 12). The circular design in front of the forehead
of the hieroglyph head seems, as a variant from the Codex Tro. (Fig. 12)
leads us to suppose, to denote the ideographic representation of pouring
out or emptying a vessel, the contents of which flow into the mouth of
the god. Another variant of this prefix occurs in Tro. 13*b; Fig. 15,
the symbol of the sacrificial knife, and instead of the prefix the
numeral 13 occurs in one instance! (Tro. 12*c). The head alone, without
any accessory symbol whatever, is also found a few times, not in the
text, however, but only in the pictures, for example Cort. 10 (bottom)
and Tro. 13* (bottom). This deity does not occur very often in the
Dresden manuscript, the places where it is depicted are: Dr. 5a, 6c,
13b, 35a, 68a, and as a subordinate figure on 8c, 42a. His
hieroglyph occurs alone a few times, as in Dr. 4; it is more frequent in
the Madrid manuscript. It appears on pp. 15 to 18 of the Paris
manuscript.

In regard to the significance of this deity, he doubtless represents the
personification of a heavenly body of astronomic importance, probably the
polar star. In Codex Cort. 10 (bottom), his head is represented
surrounded by a nimbus of rays, which can only mean a star (see Fig. 13).
On the lower part of the same page, the third picture from the left, we
again see the deity ha