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.
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 as a "horse-shoe" mark, is proved to be intimately connected with the ideas of liquid falling from above, and constituting the drink of divinities and symbols associated with the sacred vase, night and darkness, all attributes of the Below. We shall next demonstrate that it was alternately placed, on the Maya Caban glyph, with a curious sign consisting of a pea-shaped black dot, to which a curved and wavy line is attached. This is always figured as issuing from above the dot, then extending downwards and half around it and terminating in a descending, undulating line.
I submit the following to the consideration of Maya specialists: It seems to me that this sign presents an extremely realistic drawing of the seed of a monocotyledonous plant, such as the maize or Indian corn, in its first stage of germination, when the radicle, having issued from the apex, turns downwards in characteristic fashion and penetrates into the earth. Besides the realism of the native drawing there can be no doubt that the image of a sprouting maize-seed is the most expressive and appropriate accompaniment to the symbol of fertilizing rain, on an earth-symbol, and I am unable to understand how Drs. Cyrus Thomas, Seler, Schellhas and Brinton could have overlooked the realism in this image of a sprouting seed, and concluded that it was a portrayal of "fermented liquor trickling downward," a "nose-ornament," or a "twisted lock of hair," "a cork-screw curl." The latter interpretation was made by Dr. Schellhas because he found the sign in connection with female figures in the Codices, which undoubtedly is a fact of extreme interest, as it furnishes a valuable proof that the Mayas associated the earth with the female principle.