The Maya empire was of old, according to the author of the Troano MS., figured as a tree, planted in the continent known to-day as South America, its principal branch being formed by the Yucatecan peninsula. (See map, page 120.) Here we have the key to the origin of the tree worship, and its intimate relation to the winged serpent and the king. It is again the worship of the country symbolized by a tree, as it also was by a serpent, or by the Ruler. Thus we find a natural explanation of the tradition current among the ancient nations, that the TREE _par excellence_, the tree of life, that is of civilization, of knowledge, was placed in the middle of the land, of the garden, of the primitive country (_Mayax_) of the race; the empire of the Mayas being placed between the two great continents, North and South America, forming the "Lands of the West."[3] This relation of the tree, the serpent and the country in the middle of the World, is confirmed by the Chinese writers, commentators on the _Chou-king_, one of the most ancient literary monuments of China. Speaking of the Tien-Hoang or kings of heaven, Yong-chi says: _Tien-hoang had the body of a serpent. He was the origin of letters._ _He gave names to the ten_ KAN, _and to the twelve Tchi, in order to determine the place of the year_; and _Yuen-leao-fan_, another writer, says that KAN _means the trunk of a tree, and that_ TCHI _are the branches, reason why they are called_ CHE-CULL-TSE, _the twelve children_. It is well to remark here that the children of king _Can_ were called CAN-CHI, which is still a family name among the aborigines. TI-HUANG, king of the Earth, is also called _Hoang-kiun_, that is, he who reigns sovereignly in the middle of the earth, and also TSE-YUEN, or the son principle, the engendered, the _Brahma_ of the Hindoos, the _Kneph_ of the Egyptians, the _Mehen_ of the Mayas. The cross is another sacred symbol much reverenced by all nations, civilized and semi-civilized, ages before the establishment of Christianity: and although we find representations of it in almost every part of the world, from its mere delineation scratched on the rock, to the stately temples and admirably hewn caves of Elephanta in India, still nowhere do we learn of its origin. There are several varieties of crosses, but all may be traced back to the primitive form which resembles the Latin cross.