[Aztlan] The snake of the Itzamnaaj bird

[Karen Bassie]

<>This posting deals with the snake carried by the Itzamnaaj bird. In 
the Popol Vuh, the toad and snake that carried the message for the hero 
twins are called Tamazul and Saqi K'as, respectively. The name of the 
slow moving Tamazul is derived from the Nahuatl word tamasolli (toad), 
and the Florentine Codex indicates that the tamasolli is a Bufo marinus 
(tamacoli). The Florentine Codex describes a lazy messenger as being 
like this toad. While toads are a staple diet for many animals, the 
toxicity of its parotid secretion protects the Bufo marinus from most 
predators. It doesn't have to move fast because it has few enemies. Saqi 
K'as is described as a terrestrial snake that does moves fast. Colonial 
period sources indicate that saqiq'as is a black snake of great size 
that makes a lot of noise in fleeing, and the Drymarchon corais (indigo 
snake) has these characteristics. This fast moving, black snake is the 
third largest in the Maya area. When the indigo is disturbed, it loudly 
hisses, vibrates its tail, flattens its neck, and then takes off. In 
other words, it makes a lot of noise when fleeing. The indigo rushes and 
seizes its prey, and swallows it alive which is what Saqi K'as did, and 
it eats Bufo marinus. Another connection between Saqi K'as and the 
indigo snake may be found in the K'iche' word k'as which means raccoon. 
The Tzotzil use the term me'el chon (old woman snake) for both the 
raccoon and indigo snake.
The indigo snake also has attributes that are similar to the double 
headed serpent held by the Itzamnaaj Bird. While the long, thin form of 
this serpent is more suggestive of a vine snake, there is a passage in 
the Florentine Codex that indicates that the indigo was thought to take 
on this extraordinary appearance. This manuscript describes the 
indigenous belief that the indigo lives in the water, and likes to drown 
people. If it fails at that endeavor, the snake builds a pit beside the 
edge of the water, and deposits fish in it as bait. When a man removes 
the fish, the snake emerges from the water and pursues him. After 
coiling around him, the indigo inserts its forked tail into the nostril 
of the man and squeezes him to death. To outsmart the snake, a man must 
first dig a hole at the foot of tree, and when the serpent pursues him, 
he must run to the tree and hide in the hole. When the indigo arrives at 
the tree, it will coil around the tree: "And this tlilcoatl then wraps 
itself about the tree; it coils itself many times, it stretches itself 
well. It stretches so much that it becomes very thin; its spine is 
broken up. Thus this serpent dies there" The thin, coiled form of the 
doubled-headed serpent is consistent with this description of an indigo 
snake. The indigo snake loves water, and in Miguel Alvarex del Toro's 
Reptiles de Chiapas (1960:157-58), he noted that the indigo is thought 
to be the owner of springs. In some examples of the double-headed 
serpent, the body is marked with water signs.
Landa's descriptions of the New Year ceremonies indicate that these four 
cyclical festivals were designed to ensure agricultural prosperity, and 
the key event for the success of the corn harvest was the timely arrival 
of the rains. In the San Bartolo west mural, the Itzamnaaj bird brings a 
double headed serpent to each of the four New Year trees, and a serpent 
is also illustrated in the three Dresden New Year trees. The San Bartolo 
murals convey very complex creation stories, but an underlying theme is 
certainly the establishment of the agricultural cycle, and the Itzamnaaj 
bird and his water snake played a vital role in this cycle.
Karen Bassie