THE GROUP OF THE CROSS. 



33 



It has been previously stated tliat Del Rio and Dupaix saw the Tablet of the 

 Cross in its entireness — a fact shown by the designs accompanying their reports — 

 and, further, that their illustrations are substantially the same, having been 

 copied ft'om Castaiieda's drawing. In the plate accompanying the " Antiquites 

 Mexicaines," however, the whole subject is reversed, the figure of the man 

 holding the child standing on the left side, etc., a mistake which has been avoided 

 in the corresponding plates of Del Rio and Kingsborough.''= 



I introduce, as Fig. 6, a portion of Del Rio's illustration, comprising a part 

 of the middle slab and its continuation intended to represent the right slab. 

 Fig. 7. is a reduction after Waldeck's plate, shoAving the middle slab and a 

 portion of the left one. It has been mentioned on a preceding page that M. 

 Charnay's atlas contains a photographic view of the middle tablet, the sculptures 



Fig. 7. 







PAET OF THE TABLET OF THE CROSS. 



(After Waldeck. — Reduced). 



on which, I will further observe, have been considerably injured by long exposure. 

 This alone would account for the want of distini^tness in the photograph ; but, 

 in addition, Charney admits that, owing to technical difficulties, he was not 

 successful in his attempts to take photographs at Palenque.f However, I had 



* Autiquites Mexicaines ; Troisieme Expedition, pl;inche xxxvi. — Kingsborough, vol. iv, third part, plate 41. 

 The corresponding plate in Del Kio's report bears no number. 



t " Du reste, je I'avoue, mon expedition a Palenque fut un insucccs deplorable." — Cites et liuines etc., p. 430. 



