A very different student is M. H. de Charencey, long favorably known for his researches into the Basque language, the dialects of Central America, and other critical publications. In the first volume of the _Actes la Société Philologique_ (Paris, 1870) he has an "_Essai de Déchiffrement d'un Fragment d'Inscription Palenquienne_." He takes for his subject the famous "bas-relief of the Cross," found on the back of the great altar at Palenque. It is portrayed in Stephens's Travels in Central America,[TN-4] and more carefully in the work of Cabrera on the ruins of Palenque, from a drawing by M. de Waldeck. It seems to represent the ceremony of baptism, or something analogous to it. The central figures are surrounded by inscriptions. Immediately above the bird which surmounts the cross is found this character:-- [Illustration] This he analyses as follows, commencing at the right: h (variation of No. 13 of the alphabet), o (variation of No. 22 enclosed in a circle), nab (the Maya word for the palm of the hand which supports the middle letter), ku (variation of No. 17),=_honabku_. This, in the orthography _hunabku_, a discrepancy of no great moment, is a familiar Maya name of divinity, and means _the only_, or _the one God_. The course of argument by which he supports this analysis is careful and judicious. The second group which M. de Charencey analyses is this:-- [Illustration] This he resolves, commencing at the right hand upper figure, proceeding from above downward, and from right to left, into the following letters of Landa's alphabet: u, ku, ku, l, ca, nab, meaning "it, or those, of the Kukulcan." Kukulcan, however was the name of the hero god of the Mayas, corresponding to the Quetzalcoatl of the Aztecs. His worship was introduced into Yucatan subsequent to the ninth century of the Christian era, and his name means in Maya precisely what Quetzalcoatl does in Aztec, namely, "the serpent with quetzal feathers," the quetzal being a species of parrot with bright green plumage. This interpretation, therefore, if admitted, fixes an important date in Central American history; for it proves that the erection of the extraordinary monuments of Palenque, which were found in ruins at the conquest, took place subsequent to the ninth century of our era. It is not our object at present to go into the details of these remarkable investigations, still less to criticise them at length, but simply to give their outlines and results. They should excite an earnest interest in this country, and stimulate our scholars to turn their attention to the antiquities of our own continent, which thus acquire an importance quite equal to those on the banks of the Euphrates and the Nile, which have commanded such profound study from European scholars. [Illustration] Transcriber's Note The following typographical errors were maintained in this version of the book.