46 THE GROUP OF THE CROSS. 



foretell how those who come after us will look upon o^^r modes of thinking and 

 living, which no doubt will be greatly modified in the onward march of civiliza- 

 tion. 



The subject to which the character of this publication compelled me to 

 allude has been treated by Mr. Squier in his work entitled " The Serpent 

 Symbol and the Worship of the Reciprocal Principles of Nature in America," 

 and of late quite fully by Mr. Bancroft in his often-quoted " Native Races of the 

 Pacific States." That the views of the last-named author differ fi'om those 

 expressed by Dr. Brinton is shown by the following passage relating to the 

 cross: — " The frequent occurrence of the cross, which has served in so many and 

 such widely separated parts of the earth as the symbol of the life-giving, creative, 

 and fertilizing principle in nature, is, perhaps, one of the most striking evidences 

 of the former recognition of the reciprocal principles of nature by the Ameri- 

 cans ; especially when we remember that the Mexican name for the emblem, 

 tonacaquahuitl, signifies ' tree of one life, or flesh.' "* 



Mr. Squier, it should be stated, considers the Yucatan crosses as differing 

 in significance from the tonacaquahuitl, or tree of life, which he thinks is repre- 

 sented in the cross at Palenque,f and Dr. Valentini, to judge from a passage in 

 a letter addressed to me, likewise regards the Palenquean sculpture as the 

 symbolic tree of life. Until better informed, one might feel inclined to see in 

 the Palenquean bas-relief a monument commemorative of a propitiatory sacri- 

 fice to the rain-god, made perhaps during a period of great suffering arising 

 from want of water. Yet, the meaning it was intended to convey may be quite 

 different, and will not be positively known until the jDurport of the accom- 

 panying characters ceases to be a mystery. 



* Bancroft: Native Races etc.; vol iii, p. 606. 

 f Note 30 to his translation of Palacio (p. 120). 



