THE GROUr OF THE CROSS. 39 



but to such as were old enough to understand its purport to some extent.* The 

 same author gives a rather disgusting account of the human sacrifices practised 

 by the Mayas, who were, however, far less barbarous in that respect than the 

 Aztecs at the period when Cortes and his followers invaded the vale of Anahuac. 

 " On the occasion of a calamity or of a public necessity, the priests sometimes 

 gave orders to perform human sacrifices, to which all contributed : some by fur- 

 nishing the means for buying slaves, others by giving up their little children {.ms 

 hijitos), which they did for showing their devotion,"! The event of the baptism 

 of a child certainly was not deemed among the Maya nations of sufficient import- 

 ance to be perpetuated in stone or stucco, while the sacrifice of a child, by which, 

 according to their conceptions, some great disaster had been averted, evidently 

 constituted a more powerful motive for transmitting the recollection of the 

 occurrence to coming generations. If, however, as has been suggested, the small 

 figures seen in the hands of persons on the Tablet of the Cross as well as on that 

 in the Temple of the Sun, should not represent children at all, but idols, the bas- 

 reliefs in question, of course, cannot be brought in connection with baptismal or 

 sacrificial rites, but must be considered as illustrative of some other act of 

 worship. 



Here is the proper j^lace for making some observations on the significance 

 of the Palcnquean cross. The eai'ly Spanish writers allude quite frequently to 

 crosses which were seen by the European invaders in ^Mexico, Central America, 

 and other parts of the new continent, and though much might be said on the 

 subject, I could not treat it in an exhaustive manner without being led beyond 

 the proposed limits of this monograj^h. These writers, unable to separate the 

 cross from the Christian religion, ascribed its existence in America to the agency 

 of missionaries, who had preached the Gospel there loag before the advent of the 

 Spaniards. Strangely enough, the Apostle Saint Thomas was supposed to have 

 gone to America for the purpose of spreading the Christian faith, and attempts 

 have been made to identify him with the Mexican god of the air, the deified 

 culture-hero Quctzalcohuatl or " Feathered Serpent." This curious theory of a 

 pre-Columbian propagation of Christianity in iVmerica has been adhered to until 

 within recent times, one of its supporters being Professor Tiedemann, the dis- 

 tinguished anatomist, who thus adds one more to the many proofs that great profi- 

 ciency in one direction does not exempt from error in another.J The theory is 



* Landa: Relation des Choses de Yucatan; Spanish and French text ; edited by the Abbe Brasscur do Bour- 

 bourg; Paris, 18C4, § xxvi. 



t Ibid., § xxvm. — They killed their victims in different ways. One of their methods consisted in throwing 

 them alive into a large pit at Chichen-Itza, from which, Bishop Landa s.\ys, they were supposed to come out again 

 in three days, though none, he humorously adds, ever re-appe.ared {aitnqua nunca mas parceian). 



t Something lilce a par.al!clism may be traced in the tendency of Greek and Roman writers to recognize their 

 own gods and goddesses in the divinities of the barbarous nations of whom they treat. Herodotus in particular 

 furnishes many examples. According to Csesar, the Gauls worshiped Mercury, Apollo, Mars, Jupiter and 

 Minerva ; they considered themselves as descendants of Pluto, etc. 



