to the maladies of the country, the skeleton
figures undoubtedly have reference to death, much like the skull and
cross bones in our day. In other places, as Plates XXVII and XXII* of the
Manuscript Troano and Plate 7 of the Cortesian Codex, the parched earth
appears to be intended, but it must be conceded that here also the idea
of death is included. Substantially the same idea, or at least the
relation of this god to the earth, appears to be indicated in Plate 8 of
the Cortesian Codex, where he is represented as beneath and holding up
that upon which another deity, bearing the bread symbol, is seated.

As before stated the two symbols frequently appear in connection,
sometimes where the god is figured and often where he is not. It is,
therefore, unsafe to conclude as yet that either variety indicates a
particular deity known as the god of death.

[Illustration: No. 37.]

Symbol of the god with the banded face; seen chiefly in the Manuscript
Troano; not found in the Dresden Codex (Fig. 385). This is not the
deity which Dr. Schellhas designates as "the god with face crossed
by lines."

[Illustration: FIG. 385. The god with the banded face, from the Codex
Troano.]

This deity evidently pertains to the underworld and is closely allied to
the so-called god of death. The symbol and the figure are found together
in but few instances, yet the peculiar markings are such as to leave no
doubt on the mind, that the symbol is intended to denote what is
represented by the figure, being simply the head of the deity as
invariably figured. They appear together in Plates III_c_, V_a_, and
V_b_, XXVIII*_c_, and XXIX_c_ of the Manuscript Troano, in the first two
as having some relation to the traveling merchants, but in the last two
in a very different role. The dotted lines with which the bodies of these
figures are marked and the peculiar anklets appear to have been
introduced to signify relationship to the god of death. Perhaps the most
direct evidence of this relation is found in Plate 42 of the Cortesian
Codex, where the two deities are brought together at the sacrifice here
indicated. The two appear to be united in one in the lower division of
Plate XXVI* of the Manuscript Troano.

Figures of this god are also found in some of the Mexican codices, as on
Plate 73 of the Borgian manuscript, where the relation to death and to
the underworld is too apparent to be mistaken. On Plate 10, same codex,
the head of de