Referring the reader to Mr. Maudslay's Biologia, and to Mr. Holmes' Archæological Studies, Pt. II, and other well-known works on the ruins of Palenque, I shall confine myself to a cursory examination of the four principal isolated pyramid-temples, known, respectively, as the temples of the Inscriptions, of the Sun, of the Cross and of the Cross No. 2. Although the orientation of these edifices is not accurate they may be roughly said to face the cardinal points as follows:--
The temple "of the Inscriptions" faces the north, that "of the Sun" the east, whilst the temple "of the Cross" faces the south and that "of Cross 2," the west. Dr. Brinton has already shown that the well-known symbol on the famous "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 Féjérvary 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=ché occurs as an affix signifying tribe or people not only in Qui-ché, Man-ché (the latter a tribe inhabiting the region of Menché 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.