which represents a flat pyramid from which grows a four-petalled
flower on a stalk with two leaves, the symbolism of which is apparent.

I am inclined to connect another native name translated in the
dictionaries by "cross"=zin-che with zihil=to be born, to commence,
zihnal=original, primitive, and zian=origin, generation, ancestry, and to
interpret it "the tree of ancestral or tribal life." On the other hand,
there is the adjective zinil=mighty, great, and the meaning of zin-che may
merely mean "the mighty tree." In treating of the "cross tablet" of
Palenque in the following pages, reference will be made to Dr. Brinton's
identification of the "cross" as a tree and tree symbolism referred to
again. Although unable to produce here all the data I have collected on
the subject, I think that the foregoing prove that the Peruvians, Mexicans
and Mayas, employed the four-branched tree as an image of the organization
and growth of their communal life, and utilized it in pictography as a
means of recording changes of organization and statistics of increase or
decrease of population. The Maya word for "one generation of men," uinay,
literally meaning "one growth," seems to reveal that each generation was
popularly thought of as one growth of leaves on the tree of state--a simile
which is worthy of note.

One more point remains to be considered in reference to the organization
of the population into four parts, each of which consisted of four minor
parts and so on; namely, the employment of color as a means of
differentiation.

In Peru each person wore on the head a twisted cord, of the color of its
quarter, whilst the Inca alone wore these colors combined, in the band
which encircled his brow, as a sign that, in his person he united the
rulership over the four provinces. Molina records the colors of these as
red, yellow, white and black. In the titles of the Maya Bacabs, or lords
of the provinces, as given by Landa, the words for yellow, red, white and
black, are found to be incorporated and prove to be identical with the
arrangement in Peru. In Mexico, on the other hand, we find red, yellow,
green and blue as the colors of the Four Quarters, white and black being
assigned to the Above and Below. All colors combined are to be found
united in symbols of the Centre and it is known that the use of
centzon-tilmatli and quachtli=mantles of four hundred colors=multicolored
were supplied as tributes to the capital, for the use of a pri