The certainty that the ancient inhabitants of Copan associated the idea of a central ruler with quadruple power is afforded by a remarkable bas-relief which Mr. Maudslay has kindly allowed me to reproduce here (fig. 55), from a drawing made by Miss Annie Hunter.(64)
This carved slab, the size of which is 5' by 4' 6", was found in four pieces in the western court of the main structure of Copan and according to Mr. Maudslay's opinion, "formed part of the exterior ornament of temple 11 or the slope on which it stood." It undoubtedly claims a minute examination, as it strikingly illustrates how the native ideas, I have been setting forth in the preceding pages, were originally suggested by the observation of Polaris. Seated cross-legged, and resting on the centre of the foliated swastika, is the figure of a personage whose titles are clearly discernible.
He is designated as a ruler, not only by his attitude of repose, but by the fact that he wears a breast ornament in the form of a face or head (of the sun) and holds in his hand (_i. e._ governs) a vase or bowl (see p. 72). Those show him to be the chief or head of all and the Cum-ahau, or lord of the sacred vase or bowl (see p. 93). As the latter contains what appears to be a variant of the glyph ik and the word ik signifies breath, air and wind, by extension life, we realize that he is designated as the lord of breath and life. The glyph which covers his face bears a native cross-symbol and this, as well as the cruciform figure, the centre of which he occupies, conveys the idea of quadruplicate power. The double and bent arms of the cross-symbol strikingly resemble the conventionalized puffs of breath or air which are so frequently depicted in Mexican Codices, as issuing from the mouths of speakers. Almost identical representations of curved puffs are figured as issuing from open serpents' jaws in a bas-relief at Palenque, of which more anon.
Mr. Maudslay has pointed out that on stelæ from Copan and Quirigua a profusion of analogous curved signs occurs also in connection with serpents' heads. A special feature of the curved puffs of breath on the Copan "swastika," as it has been named, are small seed-like balls which are distributed in detached groups of threes along their inner and outer edges, and are usually accompanied by what resembles the small calyx of a flower, making four small objects in all. These balls, which also recur in the Palenque symbol, forcibly recall a passage of the Zuñi creation myth recounted by Mr. Cushing.