e
flower, and the head, would have been generally and equally intelligible
to native tribes, being familiar symbols constantly employed in
metaphorical speech.

Mr. Maudslay has pointed out and illustrated in his work (Biologia, pl.
92, pt. X) that the side branches of the "cross" simulate bearded
serpents' heads, whilst their recurved upper jaws are covered with what
resemble buds of flowers, seeds or beads. The Palenque "cross" is indeed
characterized by being profusely decorated with "bead or seed-like
ornaments and appendages" some of which resemble beads or seeds, figured
in some instances, like those on the Copan swastika, the meaning of which
seems supplied by the previously cited Zuni text. It does not appear to be
a mere matter of chance that the following Maya words, culled from the
dictionaries, are so closely connected: yax-che=a sort of ceiba tree, the
emblem of celestial life of the Mayas; yax-chumil and
yax-pa-ibe=adjectives primitive, original; adverb firstly, at the
beginning; yaxil, verb=to make something new, to commence, begin;
yaxil-tun=bead or pearl; yax-mehen-tzil=eldest son.

According to this incontrovertible evidence we find that the sacred tree
of life of the Mayas was designated by the word yax, signifying first,
original, new, etc.; that the same root enters into the composition of the
word for eldest son and finally for "bead." The latter curious agreement
is accentuated by the well-known fact that the Mexicans employed in
metaphorical speech the word cuzcatl=bead made of some precious stone, to
designate "father, mother, lord, captain, governor; those who are like a
sheltering tree to the people" (Olmos, cap. VIII). A term of particular
endearment for a son was "gold-bead" (teocuitla-cuzcatl). Olmos moreover
records no less than eight metaphorical designations for a "Tree, or first
father, origin of generation, lord or governor," and appellations for
twenty-nine "Relatives who issue from one stem or trunk."

Collectively, the evidence set forth in the preceding pages identifies the
image on the famous "Tablet of the Cross," as a symbolical representation
of the "Tree of Life of the Eldest Sons," chiefs or nobility of a tribe,
whose totemic bird was the quetzal.(67) Before completing the description
of this tablet, the analogous representation of a tree on the "Temple of
the Cross 2" should be examined. This is generally known as the foliated
Cross and like its counterpart it issues from