Chapter Cronian Sea to Cross and Pile of C by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

the god of rain; in Palinque (the Palmyra of America) it is sculptured on the walls with a child held up adoring it.

"The cross is not only a Christian symbol, it was also a Mexican symbol. It was one of the emblems of Quetzalcoatl, as lord of the four cardinal points, and the four winds that blow therefrom." - Fiske: Discovery of America, vol. ii. chap. viii. p. 250.)

Cross (in heraldry). There are twelve crosses in heraldry, called (1) the ordinary cross; (2) the cross humetté, or couped; (3) the cross urdé, or pointed; (4) the cross potent; (5) the cross crosslet; (6) the cross botonné, or treflé; (7) the cross moline; (8) the cross potence; (9) the cross fleury; (10) the cross patê; (11) the Maltese cross (or eight-pointed cross); (12) the cross cleché and fitché. Some heraldic writers enumerate 285 different kinds of crosses.

Cross (a mystic emblem) may be reduced to these four:
   The Greek cross , found on Assyrian tablets, Egyptian and Persian monuments, and on Etruscan pottery.
   The crux decussata , generally called St. Andrew's cross. Quite common in ancient sculpture.
   The Latin cross , or “crux immissa.” This symbol is also found on coins, monuments, and medals, long before the Christian era.
   The tau cross , or “crux commissa.” Very ancient indeed, and supposed to be a phallic emblem.
    The tau cross with a handle is common to several Egyptian deities, as Isis, Osiris, etc.; and is the emblem of immortality and life generally.
   Everyone must bear his own cross. His own burden or troubles. The allusion is to the law that the person condemned to be crucified was to carry his cross to the place of execution.
   Get on the cross. Get into bad ways; not go straight.

“It's hard lines to think a fellow must grow up and get on the cross in spite of himself, and come to the gallow's foot at last,whether he likes it or not.” - Boldrewood: Robbery Under Arms, chap. viii.

   The judgment of the cross. An ordeal instituted in the reign of Charlemagne. The plaintiff and defendant were required to cross their arms upon their breast, and he who could hold out the longest gained the suit.
   On the cross. Not “on the square,” not straightforward. To get anything “on the cross” is to get it unfairly or surreptitiously.
   See Rosicrucians.

Cross (To).
   Cross it off or out. Cancel it by running your pen across it. To cancel (q.v.) means to mark it with lattice lines.

Cross ill-tempered, is the Anglo-Saxon crous.

“Azeyn [against] hem was he kene and crous.”
Cursor Mundi.

Cross Buns (See Buns .)

Cross-grained Patchy, ill-tempered, self-willed. Wood must be worked with the grain; when the grain crosses we get a knot or curling, which is hard to work uniform.

Cross-legged Knights indicate that the person so represented died in the Christian faith. As crusaders were supposed so to do, they were generally represented on their tombs with crossed legs.

“Sometimes the figure on the tomb of a knight has his legs crossed at the ankles, this meant that the knight went one crusade. If the legs are crossed at the knees, he went twice; if at the thighs he went three times. ” - Ditchfield: Our Villages, 1889.

Cross Man (A). Not straightforward; ungain; not honest.

“The storekeepers know who are their best customers, the square people or the cross ones.” - Boldrewood: Robbery Under Arms, chap. xvii.

Cross-patch A disagreeable, ill-tempered person, male or female. Patch means a fool or gossip; so called from his parti-coloured or patched dress. A cross-patch is an ill-tempered fool or gossip. Patch, meaning “fellow,” is common enough; half a dozen examples occur in Shakespeare, as a “scurvy patch,” a “soldier's patch,” “What patch is made our porter?” “a crew of patches,” etc.

“Cross-patch, draw the latch,
Sit by the fire and spin;
Take a cup, and drink it up,
Then call your neighbours in.
Old Nursery Rhyme.

Cross-roads All (except suicides) who were excluded from holy rites were piously buried at the foot of the cross erected on the public road, as the place next in sanctity to consecrated ground. Suicides were ignominiously buried on the highway, with a stake driven through their body.