Note XI-24 — Chapter XI · GODS, SUPERNATURAL BEINGS, AND WORSHIP.

This seems to confirm the idea that it was worshiped, yet Constantio regards it as a representation of the birth of the sun in the winter solstice, and holds the ruin to which the cross belongs to be a sun temple. Malte-Brun, Précis de la Géog., tom. vi., pp. 464-5; Müller, Amerikanische Urreligionen, p. 498; Stephens' Cent. Amer., vol. i., pp. 345-8. Squier, who denies that the Tonacaquahuitl was intended to represent a cross, thinks that the Palenque cross merely represents one of these trees with the branches placed crosswise. Palacio, Carta, pp. 120-1. Jones, Hist. Anc. Amer., p. 149, et seq., who identifies almost every feature of Central American worship with the Phœnician, asserts that the Palenque cross proves the Tyrian origin of the aborigines.