234 REV. S. D. PEET ON THE TRADITIONS OF 
III. The symbolism of America points to the same truth. 
This symbolism is worthy of study, because it reveals beliefs 
which prevailed among the prehistoric races. A remarkable 
and complicated system of symbolism was spread over the 
continent corresponding to the traditions of the later races, 
showing that there were many religious ideas among the pre- 
historic races which have survived to historic times. We 
trace in the symbols the various forms of religion which 
existed before America was discovered, but in the customs 
and tradition of the natives we recognise the very ideas em- 
bodied in the monuments. The symbols of Central America 
(and the Ohio valley and Mexico also) are most elaborate, 
and these are especially worthy of study. Here animal 
forms, elemental powers, human attributes are all com- 
bined in the idols, showing that the divinities had a very 
complicated character. We see sculptured tigers covering 
human faces; we see also sun-symbols attending serpent 
figures, and in the midst of both are human faces; we see also 
crosses wreathed with serpents, surmounted by birds, and 
before the crosses human forms offering sacrifices; we see 
human figures with animal skins and serpents twisted about 
them, but their faces are distorted, and every part full of a 
strange and mystic significance; we see columns or pillars 
elaborately decorated and sculptured, altars highly ornamented, 
temples with facades wrought into strange symbolic shapes, 
and many other forms of art and architecture all expressive of 
the religious thought of the people. The anthropomorphic 
character of the worship is seen in the human face, as every 
part of the face was made to express a thought and to sym- 
bolise a divinity. The tongue symbolises the sun, the eye 
symbolises the rain, the cheek symbolises the drought and 
famine, the hair and ornamentations on the head symbolise 
the ightning. A wonderful system of nature-worship, which 
combined personal attributes, animal figures, and elemental 
powers all in one, appears to have embodied itself in these 
symbolic shapes. . 
Take, for instance, the bas-reliefs of the Temple of the Cross 
at Palenque, and see how nature-worship expresses itself there. 
Here is the cross with its four points of the compass, or the 
four winds, with its arrow signifying the lightning; the 
thunder-bird surmounting it, and, before the cross, a priest 
offering a child, or the figure of a child, in sacrifice. Before 
the cross, on the facade of the temple, is the statue of a human 
figure finished in the round, but covered with symbols which 
are peculiarly significant and expressive. Take the Temple of 
