730 PICTURE-WRITING OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS. 
Bandelier (@) thinks that the crosses which were frequently used be- 
fore the conquest by the aborigines of Mexico and Central America 
were merely ornaments and were not objects of worship, while the so- 
called crucifixes, like that on the “Palenque tablet,” were only the 
symbol of the “new fire” or close of a period of fifty-two years. He 
believes them to be merely representations of “fire-drilis,” more or less 
ornamented. 
Mr. W. H. Holmes vies shows by a series representing steps in the 
simplification of animal characters that 
so in Chiriqui a symmetrical cross was de- 
veloped from the design of an alligator. 
Carl Bovallius (a) gives an illustra- 
() tion, copied here as Fig. 1234, of picto- 
graphs in the island of Gaus Nica- 
FiG.1234.—Crosses. ie Tagua. 
Zamacois (a) says that “the cross figured in the religion of various 
tribes of the peninsula of Yucatan and that it represented the god of 
rain.” 
Dr. S. Habel (f), describing Fig. 1235, says: 
On it isa person in areclining position, with a single band tied around his forehead, 
forming a knot with two pendent tassels. From his temple rises an ornament resem- 
bling the wing of a bird. The emaciated face, as well as the recumbent position of 
the body, indicates a state of sickness. The hair is interwoven behind with many 
ribbons formiig loops, which are bound together by a clasp, and then spread out in 
the shape of a fan. The ear is ornamented with a circular disk, to the center of 
which are attached a plume and a twisted ornament similar to a queue. On the 
Fic. 1235.—Cross. Guatemala. 
breast is a kind of brooch, which is hollow like a shell, and in which are imbedded ~ 
seven pearls. Around the waist are three rows of a twisted fabric, which is knotted 
in front in a bow, the ends descending between the thighs. Another band, of a dif- 
ferent texture, stretches out horizontally from the region of the above-mentioned 
knot. Attached to this girdle is another fabric, of a scaly texture, which surrounds 
the thighs. The right leg, below the knee, is encircled with a ribbon and arosette. 
