numbers in Ecuador, to the vase, fig. 31, no. 3, for
instance. The employment of these symbolical stones as a consecrated
central altar or, possibly, as the throne of the living representative of
the earth-mother, would have harmonized with the native ideas which have
been traced on the preceding pages.

It was also extremely interesting to me to find the identical symbol in
the Maya day-sign Caban, which has been identified by Dr. Schellhas and
Geheimrath Foerstemann as a symbol of the earth and is figured on p. 99 of
Dr. Brinton's Primer of Mayan Hieroglyphics. In the sign Caban, the
horse-shoe mark is accompanied by a series of dots which seem to indicate
liquid trickling from the receptacle and permeating the soil, an idea
which is strictly analogous to the much more elaborate Mexican images of
the vase full of rain or "earth-wine," fig. 1, nos. 1 and 4, which, in
cursive form, was employed as the emblem of the pulque, or octli lords,
the priests of the earth. It is strikingly significant to find that in the
Maya Codices the drops issuing from the horse-shoe are sometimes figured
as trickling into the mouths of "divinities" whose faces also exhibit
images of the sacred vase, analogous to that of the Mexican "octli-lords."

These Maya divinities have been designated by Dr. Schellhas as god L,
whose face is painted black and under whose eye a vase is painted, a
peculiarity termed by Maya authorities "an ornamented eye" and which may
be seen in fig. 33, iv; (2) as god M, "a second black god," whose eye is
likewise enclosed in a vase and whose hieroglyph is a vase on a black
ground; and (3) as god C, of whom I shall subsequently speak in detail.
(See Brinton's Primer, pp. 122 and 124.) In the case of god L, the two
horse-shoe marks from which drops are falling into the mouth of the god,
are surmounted by the glyph imix, to which I shall revert.

[Illustration.]

Figure 33.

The horse-shoe mark with drops likewise occurs in the design resembling
the akbal glyph, which has been interpreted as connected with akab=night.
It also occurs, in Maya Codices, on bands exhibiting cross-symbols,
sometimes in an inverted position and hanging from above and sometimes
standing on two of the three mounds which are a feature of these
interesting glyphs. Postponing a detailed discussion of these, I will but
emphasize here that, in the Maya Codices the vase, cursively drawn