mous "Tablet of the Cross" is not a cross, but the conventional
symbol for "tree" of the type I have illustrated in the preceding fig. 53.
As Cross No. 2 unquestionably belongs to the same category, it results
that these two temples would be more correctly designated as "of the Tree"
and that they furnish us with an interesting parallel of the Peruvian
quisuar can-cha, or "place of the tree," where the Inca erected two trees
which typified his father and mother and were "as the root and stems of
the Incas." The Palenque "trees," moreover, closely resemble those on the
Mexican Fejervary chart (fig. 52) inasmuch as, in each case, the tree is
surmounted by a bird and is flanked by two human figures.

It has already been shown in the preceding pages that in ancient America
the tree was generally employed as a symbol for tribe and that the Maya
word for tree=che occurs as an affix signifying tribe or people not only
in Qui-che, Man-che (the latter a tribe inhabiting the region of Menche
and Palenque) etc., but also in the names of tribes inhabiting the
southern regions of North America.

Assuming, therefore, upon convincing and substantial evidence which will
be further corroborated, that the "Tablet of the Cross" represents a tree,
the symbol of tribal life, the next step is to interpret the bird perched
upon it and generally acknowledged to be a quetzal (pronounced kay-tzal)
as the totem of the tribe, which also probably expresses its name. The
tree is represented as associated with serpent symbolism and as growing
from a vase=ho-och placed on a monstrous head=ho-ol, the idea conveyed
being that it flourished in the centre or middle, while the head
signifies, as has been shown, the capital and also the chief. On the vase
is carved a symbol to which I draw special attention, as it recurs on the
right hand end of the carved band below the tree, is met with in Maya
calculiform glyphs and is also frequently employed in ancient Mexico. It
represents the corolla of a four-petalled flower which obviously
symbolized the Four-in-One, which permeated the native civilizations.

The word for "flower" being nic in Maya and xochitl (pronounced hoochitl)
in Nahuatl, it must be admitted that the symbol of a vase with a flower
seems to afford an instance of a bilingual rebus, as the Maya hooch is
identical in sound to the Nahuatl xoch-itl. Even without this, however,
the meaning of the tree and serpent, the bird, the vase, the quadripartit