 The frequent finds of dog skeletons in Classic Maya burials confirms that the belief that dogs guided the souls of the departed on their journey into the underworld already existed at this time.The dog is sometimes depicted carrying a torch in the surviving Maya codices, which may be a reference to the Maya tradition that the dog brought fire to mankind.In the Postclassic Popul Vuh of the K'iche' Maya of highland Guatemala, dogs and turkeys killed the people of the second age in retaliation for the people beating them.