Fig. 335.
SERIES OF FIGURES OF ALLIGATORS SHOWING STAGES OF SIMPLIFICATION.
Chiriqui. Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, fig. 277.
Fig. 336.
SERIES SHOWING STAGES IN THE SIMPLIFICATION OF ANIMAL CHARACTERS,
BEGINNING WITH THE ALLIGATOR AND ENDING WITH THE GREEK CROSS.
Chiriqui. Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, fig. 278.
Professor Holmes’s theory of the evolution of the cross from the alligator and its location in Chiriqui is opposed to that of Professor Goodyear, who, in his “Grammar of the Lotus,” ascribes the origin of the cross to the lotus and locates it in Egypt. I file what in law would be an “interpleader”—I admit my want of knowledge of the subject under discussion, and leave the question to these gentlemen.
INTRODUCTION OF THE CROSS INTO AMERICA.
Professor Holmes is, in the judgment of the author, correct when he insists upon the aboriginal character of the cross in America. We all understand how it is stated that the Spanish missionaries sought to deny this and to connect the apparition of St. Thomas with the appearance of the cross. Professor Holmes[301] says: