In the Dresden manuscript the figure of an old woman, with the body
stained brown and claws in place of feet, occurs repeatedly. She wears on
her head a knotted serpent and with her hands pours water from a vessel.
Evidently we have here a personification of water in its quality of
destroyer, a goddess of floods and cloud-bursts, which, as we know, play
an important part in Central America. Page 27, of the Codex Troano
contains a picture, in which this character of goddess I may be
distinctly recognized. In accordance with this character, also on Dr. 74,
where something resembling a flood is represented, she wears the
cross-bones of the death-god.

The goddess is pictured in the manner described in the following places:
Dr. 39b, 43b, 67a and 74. The figure corresponding to her in the
Madrid manuscript, in Tro. 27 and 34*c, displays some variations, in
particular the tiger claws on the feet and the red-brown color of the
body are lacking. But the agreement cannot be questioned, I think, when
we recall that the Maya manuscripts doubtless originated in different
ages and different areas of civilization, circumstances which readily
explain such variations. The goddess distinguished in the Madrid
manuscript by symbols of flood and water is doubtless the same as goddess
I of the Dresden manuscript described above; her unmistakable character
of water-goddess in both manuscripts is in favor of this. In both
manuscripts she is invariably distinguished by the serpent on her head,
which, as we know, is a symbol of the water flowing along and forming
waves.

Strange to say, a fixed hieroglyph of this goddess cannot be proved with
certainty. There is some probability in favor of the sign given in Fig.
41. The well-known oblong signs, which Förstemann (Drei Mayahieroglyphen,