38 THE GROUP OF THE CROSS. 



deserves jDarticular consideration. First, however, I will say that I am inclined to 

 ascribe the buildings of Palenque to the Tzendals or some other branch of the 

 great Maya family, my reasons for adopting that view being based on the char- 

 acter of the glyphs there exhibited, to which I shall refer in the following chap- 

 ter. The group evidently represents a religious ceremony performed close to 

 a cross with a base in the shape of a hideous head, and surmounted by a bird, 

 doubtless intended for the quetzal {Trogon resplendens, Grould ; Pharomacrus 

 Mocinno, De la Llave), a species much valued by the ancient inhabitants of these 

 regions on account of its long tail-feathers of a golden-green hue, which served 

 to adorn the head-dress of persons of high rank.=^= The figure to the right of the 

 cross I take to be that of a priest; that on the left, judging from the size, rep- 

 resents a youth. Both exhibit somewhat retreating foreheads, a feature indica- 

 tive of artificial flattening of the head.f 



The small figure held up to the bird by the priest is believed to be intended 

 for a child, though it requires some imagination to recognize it as such. As stated 

 in a note on page 23, the figures of the priest and the young man also occur, to 

 all appearance, on the tablet in the Temple of the Sun, and here each of the two 

 holds up a child with a grotesque face, but on the whole much better defined 

 than that shown on the Tablet of the Cross.J Moreover, several of the now 

 much mutilated Palenquean bas-reliefs in stucco represent persons with children 

 in their arms. 



Though the Group of the Cross has been thought to record some sort of 

 baptismal ceremony, the probability is much stronger that it was intended to 

 commemorate a far less innocent action — the sacrifice of a child. Bishop Diego 

 de Landa, who resided in Yucatan during the second half of the sixteenth century, 

 devotes a chapter to the somewhat complicated baptismal rite among the Mayas, 

 which they designated by a word meaning " to be born again," like renasci in 

 Latin. Yet it appears that this ceremony was not applied to new-born children, 



*"The plumage of the quetzal is most brilliant in the month of March, and it is then that the hunters enter 

 the forest in its pursuit. The hunting is kept up until the season of pairing, when tlie male bird loses the plumes 

 of its tail. Every year from two to three hundred skins are sent from Cohan, where they are worth about half a 

 dollar, to Guatemala, where they bring three dollars. For the most part, those find their way to Europe, where 

 they are badly stuffed and set up as representatives of the species. The ancient inhabitants, if history may be 

 credited, caught these birds in snares, and after having plucked out their beautiful tails, set them at libortj' again. 

 To kill them was a crime punishable by law. At this early period it is said the plumes of the quetzal constituted 

 the only article of export from Vera Paz — a poor country, covered with forests and difficult of access. Much 

 sought after by artists, they served to set oiT the curious and splendid feather-mosaics which so greatly excited the 

 admiration of the conquerors."— il/oj-c/ci:.- Travels etc., p. 335.— Qwci'iaWJ, according to Clavigero, signifies "green 

 feather." 



t According to some of the early Spanish historians (Landa, Herrera), this practice prevailed among the 

 Mayas at the time of the conquest. 



X In Del Puo's plate, as will be seen, the child is quite distinctly figured ; but its outlines appear much moro 

 fantastical in the illustrations of Waldeck and Catherwood, and, above all, in Charnay's photograph. 



