44 THE GROUP OF THE CROSS. 



as the god of rains when they needed water.' The Aztec goddess of rains * bore 

 one in her hand, and at the feast celebrated to her honor in the early spring 

 victims were nailed to a cross and shot with arrows. Quetzalcoatl, god of the 

 winds, bore as his sign of office ' a mace like the cross of a bishop ;' his robe 

 was covered with them strown like flowers, and its adoration was throughout 

 connected with his worship.-j- When the Muyscas would sacrifice to the goddess 

 of waters, they extended cords across the tranquil depths of some lake, thus 

 forming a gigantic cross, and at their point of intersection threw in their offer- 

 ings of gold, emeralds, and jirecious oils. The arms of the cross were designed 

 to point to the cardinal points and represent the four winds, the rain-bringers." J 

 Dr. Brinton's attempt to interpret the meaning of the Palenquean Group of 

 the Cross is certainly very ingenious, and I transcribe it here in consideration of 

 its direct bearing on the subject treated in this monograph : — 



" As the symbol of the fertilizing summer showers, the lightning serpent 

 was the god of fruitfulness. Born in the atmospheric waters, it was an appro- 

 priate attribute of the ruler of the winds. But we have already seen that the 

 winds were often spoken of as great birds. Hence the union of these two 

 emblems in such names as Quetzalcoatl, Gucumatz, Kukulkan, all titles of the 

 god of the air in the languages of Central America, all signifying the ' Bird- 

 serj^ent.' Here also we see the solution of that monument which has so puzzled 

 American antiquaries, the cross at Palenque. It is a tablet on the wall of an 

 altar representing a cross surmounted by a bird and supported by the head of a 

 serpent. The latter is not well defined in the plate in Mr. Stephens's ' Travels,' 

 but is very distinct in the photographs taken by M. Charnay, which that gentle- 

 man was kind enough to show me. The cross, I have previously shown, was th'e 

 symbol of the four winds, and the bird and serpent are simply the rebus of the 

 air-god, their ruler." § 



This explanation would be plausible enough, were it not for the fact that the 

 figure forming the base of the cross is probably not intended for a serpent's 

 head. I cannot recognize it as such, either in Stephens's illustration or in 

 Charnay's photograph of the middle slab, and the zoologists of the United States 

 National Museum, whom I consulted on the subject, fully corroborate this view. 

 Charnay himself calls it a hideous face of an idol {une hideuse figure cTidole). 

 The Mexicans and Central Americans, moreover, generally imitated, in their 

 sculptures, the serpent, which constituted a prominent element in their myth- 



* Chalchihuitlicue. 



f " Quetzalcoatl fut le premier qui planta ct adora la croix, que I'on norama Tonaca-Quehuitl, ce qui veut 

 dire arbre de la nourriture ou de la vie." — Ixtlilxochitl : Hisioire des Chichimcques ; Paris, 1840, torn, i, p. 5 

 {Ternaux-Compans Collection). 



J Brinton : The Myths of the New World; New York, 1868, p. 95. 



§ Ibid., p. 118. 



