Note VI-37 — Chapter VI · ANTIQUITIES OF TABASCO AND CHIAPAS, RUINS OF PALENQUE.
Reading edition
Dupaix, pp. 25-6, pl. xxxvi., fig. 40; Waldeck, p. vii., pl. xxi.-ii.; Stephens, vol. ii., pp. 345-7; Charnay, p. 419, phot. xxi., showing only the central stone. 'Upon the top of the cross is seated a sacred bird, which has two strings of beads around its neck, from which is suspended something in the shape of a hand, probably intended to denote the manitas. This curious flower was the production of the tree called by the Mexicans macphalxochitl, or "flower of the hand."' Bradford's Amer. Antiq., p. 89. 'Une grande croix latine, surmontée d'un coq, et portant au milieu une croix plus petite, dont les trois branches supérieures sont ornées d'une fleur de lotus.' Baril, Mex., pp. 28-9. 'Un examen approfondi de cette question m'a conduit à penser avec certitude que la croix n'était, chez les Palenquéens, qu'un signe astronomique.' Waldeck, Voy. Pitt., p. 24.