, we see that they led to a
conception of the Cosmos as divided into seven parts, _i. e._, the fixed
Centre, the pivot, primarily suggested by Polaris who was regarded as the
creative, generative and ruling power of the universe; the Four Quarters,
seemingly ruled by the central force and associated with the elements; the
Above and the Below, suggested by the rising and setting of celestial
bodies and associated with light and darkness, sky and earth, etc., etc.

Many of my readers will doubtless recognize at once that the above
organization of the Cosmos into the Centre or Middle, the Above and the
Below, and the Four Quarters, is precisely that which the Zuni priests
taught Mr. Frank Cushing, when they initiated him into their secret
beliefs. Other explorers have recorded the same conception amongst
different native American tribes and with these proofs that this set of
ideas is still held on our Continent at the present time, I point out the
fact that the Maya figures (fig. 18, VII and VIII, from the Dresden Codex)
become perfectly intelligible only when interpreted as representing the
Centre, the Four Quarters, the Above and the Below, the latter figured by
the dark and light halves of the dual sign. Furthermore, I can demonstrate
that this fundamental set of elementary, abstract ideas, furnishing the
first principles of organization, is plainly visible under the surface of
the ancient Mexican civilization and can be traced not only in Yucatan and
Central America, but also in Peru. In these countries, as I shall show, it
assumed an absolute dominion over the minds of the native sages, directly
suggesting the forms of government and social organization existing at the
time of the Conquest and faintly surviving to the present day. It entirely
controlled the development of aboriginal religious cult and philosophical
speculations and pervaded not only the native architecture and decorative
art, but also all superstitious rites and ceremonies, and entered into the
very games and pastimes of the people.

The following table presents the bare outline of the scheme of
organization exposed in the preceding text. In making it I have, after due
consideration, definitely adopted the assignment of the Mexican symbols
and colors to the cardinal points given by Friar Duran in the
Calendar-swastika contained in his atlas and reproduced (pl. II, _g_).

Each of these is North; West; South; then East.
Symbols: Tecpatl, Flin