_Fourth._--Nothing seems to have surprised the first Spanishadventurers in Mexico and Peru more than the extraordinary similarityto those of the old world, of the religious beliefs, rites, andemblems which they found established in the new. The Spanish priestsregarded this similarity as the work of the devil. The worship of thecross by the natives, and its constant presence in all religiousbuildings and ceremonies, was the principal subject of theiramazement; and indeed nowhere--not even in India and Egypt--was thissymbol held in more profound veneration than amongst the primitivetribes of the American continents, while the meaning underlying itsworship was identical. In the west, as in the east, the cross was thesymbol of life--sometimes of life physical, more often of lifeeternal.