Among
other memorials of Mayan architecture in this country is the city of
Tuloom on the east coast, fortified with strong walls and square towers.
A more remarkable "find" in the dense forests of Chiapas, in the same
country, is the city recorded by Stephens and other travelers. It is
near the coast, at the place where Cortes and his Spanish soldiers were
moving about for a considerable time, yet they do not appear to have
ever seen the splendid ruins, or to have at all suspected their
existence. Even if the natives knew, the Spaniards might have found the
toil of forcing a passage through such forests too laborious. The name
of the city which had so long been buried under the tropical vegetation
was quite unknown, nor was there any tradition of it; but when found it
was called "Palenque," from the nearest inhabited village. There were
substantial and handsome buildings with excellent masonry, and in many
cases beautiful sculptures and hieroglyphical figures.

[Footnote 13: See Frontispiece.]

Merida, the capital of Yucatan, is on the site of a prehistoric city
whose name had also become unknown. When building the present town, the
Spaniards utilized the ancient buildings as quarries for good stones.

The larger prehistoric structures are frequently on artificial mounds,
being probably intended for religious or ceremonial purposes. The walls
both within and without are elaborately decorated, sometimes with
symbolic figures. Sometimes officials in ceremonial costumes are seen
apparently performing religious rites. These are often accompanied by
inscriptions in low relief, with the peculiar Mayan characters which
some archeologists call "calculiform hieroglyphs" (_v._ p. 82).

On one of the altar-slabs near Palenque there occurs a sculptured group

of several figures in the act of making offerings to a central
object shaped like the Latin cross. "The Latin, the Greek, and the
Egyptian cross or _tau_ (T) were evidently sacred symbols to this
ancient people, bearing some religious meanings derived from their
own cult."[14]

[Footnote 14: D. G. Brinton.]

The cross occurs frequently, not only in the Mayan sculptures, but also
in the ceremonial of the Aztecs. The Spanish followers of Cortes were
astonished to see this symbol used by these "barbarians," as they called
them. Winsor (i, 195) says that the Mayan cross has been explained to
mean "the four cardinal points, the rain-bringers, the symbol o