were in the temple, "typified his father and mother ...
and he ordered that they should be adorned with roots of gold and silver
and with golden fruit. Hence they were called Ccurichachac Collquechachac
Tampu Yracan, which means that the two trees typified his parents, that
the Incas proceeded from them like fruit from the trees, and that the two
trees were as the roots and stems of the Incas. All these things were
executed to record their greatness." This passage is of utmost value, for
it conveys to us not only that the Incas kept a record of their male and
female ancestry and respectively associated the male and female elements
with gold and silver, but also establishes the important point that the
tree was employed as an emblem of the life and growth of a lineage or
race.

This fact is particularly interesting if collated with the Mexican
tree-symbols. In the Fejervary diagram (fig. 52), we find a different kind
of tree and two totemic figures assigned to each quarter, which indicates
that the inhabitants of each of the four provinces were regarded as of a
distinct race. The top of each tree spreads itself into two branches and,
with one exception, each of these bears three blossoms or leaves denoting,
it would seem, the division of a tribe into 2x3=6 parts.

[Illustration.]

Figure 52. Copy of p. 44, Fejervary Codex.

The majority of tree-symbols, however, exhibit a quadruplicate division as
in fig. 53, nos. 1, 4 and 7. At the same time it is impossible not to
recognize that each example renders in a graphic manner the organization
of a tribe. In nos. 2 and 8, for instance, we find that each of the four
branches was again subdivided, yielding eight subdivisions instead of
four. In no. 3, we have quadruple branches, a pair of recurved spikes with
buds and a central bud, the idea of duality repeating itself in the trunk
of the tree, one-half of which above ground is white, whilst the other
below ground is dark. The obvious allusion is to the Above and Below and
this idea is further symbolized by the head of the coatl=serpent or twin.
In this figure there is a hint of the existence of an idea I have found
expressed in other cases, namely, that a mystic line of demarcation
existed at the base of a tree, which separated its upward from its
downward growth. This was the seat of the life of the tree, which sent its
trunk and crown heavenwards and its roots and rootlets ear