This relation of the tree, the serpent and the country in the middle of the World, is confirmed by the Chinese writers, commentators on theChou-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 tenKan,and to the twelve Tchi, in order to determine the place of the year; andYuen-leao-fan, another writer, says thatKanmeans the trunk of a tree, and thatTchiare the branches, reason why they are calledChe-cull-tse,the twelve children. It is well to remark here that the children of kingCanwere calledCan-chi, which is still a family name among the aborigines.
Ti-huang, king of the Earth, is also calledHoang-kiun, that is, he who reigns sovereignly in the middle of the earth, and alsoTse-yuen, or the son principle, the engendered, theBrahmaof the Hindoos,theKnephof the Egyptians, theMehenof 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.
Among the earliest type known on the Eastern continents is the "Cruz Ansata," called the "Key of the Nile." It was the "symbol of symbols" among the Egyptians, the Phœnicians and the Chaldees, being the emblem of thelife to come. It was placed on the breast of the deceased, sometimes as a simpleT crosson the fulcrumof a cone; sometimes represented as supported on a heart. It is also seen adorning the breasts of statues and statuettes in Palenque, Copan, and other ancient cities of Guatemala, Nicaragua, and various localities of Central America. Everywhere it was associated withwater. In Babylon it was the emblem ofwater deities. In Egypt, Assyria, and Britain, it was emblematical ofcreative power and eternity. In India, China, andScandinavia ofheaven and immortality. In Mayax ofrejuvenescence and freedom from physical suffering. The cross, as a symbol, was placed on the breast of the initiate after his new birth was accomplished in the Bacchic and Eleusinian mysteries.
Remesal and Torquemada assert, in their respective works, that when in 1519, the Spaniards, under Hernan Cortez, landed at the island of Cozumel, they found crosses which the natives worshiped as gods in their temples. After them many writers, on their authority, have affirmed the same thing. This, however, seems to have been a mistake. Bernal Diaz del Castillo, who accompanied Cortez, does not mention the existence of such symbols in Cozumel, but emphatically says that Cortez, having ordered the destruction of the idols that were in the sanctuaries, caused an image of the Virgin Mary to be placed in their stead, and near it a wooden cross, made by two of his carpenters, to be erected, recommending the natives to take great care of them when he left. Dr. Pedro Sanchez de Aguilar, another of the early writers, maintains that the stone crosses found afterward in the island were made in imitation of that of Cortez; and Bishop Landa, although a most zealous missionary, intent on converting the aborigines to the Catholic faith, does not mention the existence of crosses in Cozumel before the advent of the Spaniards; a fact he wouldcertainly have taken advantage of in his predication of the gospel, and would not have failed to mention in his work, had he been satisfied that the symbol really existed.
There can be no doubt that in Mayax, in very remote ages, the cross was an emblem pertaining to the sacred mysteries. No external vestiges of the symbol are to be found among the remains of the temples and palaces of the Mayas, such as those seen at Palenque and other places of Central America. Only one image of a perfect cross have I ever met with in the ancient edifices of Yucatan besides the ground plan of the sanctuary at Uxmal. (See page35.) It forms part of the inscription carved on the lintel of the doorway of the east façade of the palace at Chichen. Still tradition tells us that the cross was symbolical of the "God of Rain." If so, they made no image of it, nor did they celebrate any festival in honor of it at the time of the conquest, but held it simply as a notion of their forefathers.
The ancient Maya astronomers had observed that at a certain period of the year, at the beginning of our month of May, that owes its name to the goddessMaya,the good dame, mother of the gods, the "Southern Cross," appears perfectly perpendicular above the line of the southern horizon. This is why the Catholic church celebrates the feast of theexaltation of the holy crosson the third day of that month, which it has consecrated particularly to theMother of God, theGood Lady, the virginMa-R-ia, or the goddess Isis anthropomorphised by Bishop Cyril of Alexandria.
In all localities situated within the 12th and 23d degree of latitude north, about the beginning of January, the dry season sets in and no more rain falls during several months. In May and April in the countries like Yucatan, where there is no water on the surface of the ground, all things become parched; the trees and shrubs lose their leaves, nature looks desolate, all living beings thirst for a drop of moisture, the birds and other wild creatures, mad with thirst, lose their characteristic shyness and venture near the haunts of man, imperiling their lives in search of water; death, for want of it, seems to threaten all creation.
But four bright stars appear in the south. A shining cross stands erect above the southern horizon. It is the heavenly messenger that brings good tidings to all, for it announces that the flood-gates of heaven soon shall be open; that the so longed for rain will shortly descend from on high, and with it joy and happiness, new life to all creatures. Man hails with thankful heart, welcomes with songs of gladness, this brilliant harbinger of thelife to come, for indeed it is a god for him, theGod ofRainthatrejuvenates nature, frees man and all other creatures from physical sufferings, brings felicity to them—heaven therefore—and, with renewed life,immortality. Is it not the creative power that is eternally renovating and revivifying all things on the surface of the earth? Is it then strange that all nations, in every age, should have worshiped the cross as symbol of thelife to comeandimmortality, and held it in so great veneration? It must be remembered that all the civilized nations in the "Lands of the West" and in the "Eastern Continent," dwelt in latitudes where the constellation known as "the Southern Cross" is visible during the month of May, and that the first showers soon follow its apparition above the horizon. From these of course it was transmitted to the others further north, that accepted the symbol, without understanding its meaning, and in aftertimes many speculations have been indulged in concerning its origin: but the unsophisticated natives, in the midst of their forests to-day, rejoice at the sight of the "Southern Cross" and prepare to sow their fields.
Building with donkey-carts - not mentioned in the List of Illustrations
The origin and meaning of the mysticalT cross, that symbol of "hidden wisdom" as it has been denominated by scholars of our days, found on all Egyptian monuments, in the temples, in the hands of the gods, in the tombs on the breast of the mummies, also met with in the ancient edifices of Mayax, and on the statues and altars in the temples at Palenque, has given rise to many speculations on the part of modern savants. They have not reached yet any conclusion, although its name TAU says plainly, that it is nothing more or less than a representation of the "God of Rain" the "Southern Cross." Effectivelytauis a Maya word composed of the three primitivesti, here,aforha, water, andumonth, which translated freely means "This is the month for water;" hence for the resurrection of nature—for the new life to come.
The complex form of the mysticalT crosswhich is formed of a cone with two arms extending, one each side, and an oval placed immediately above them, has been denominated by the Egyptologistscruz-ansata. It is not of Egyptian origin. It has its prototype in the conoidal pillar, surmounted by a sphere, used by the Babylonians as symbol of life and death; death being but the beginning or nursery of life. This emblem was only a reminiscence of theyaxche, the sacred tree of the Mayas, under the roots of which, the natives assert, is always to be found a source of pure cold water. The trunk of the yaxche, from the foot to the top, forms a perfect cone from which the main branches shoot in an horizontal direction. Its leafy top, seen from a distance, presents the appearance of a half sphere of verdure. Thecone, thetauand thecruz-ansatawere for those initiated to the mysteries the same symbol, emblematical of Deity, of the life to come, of the dual powers, of fertility. The Mayas and other peoples of Central America, in the sculptures or paintings, always represented their sacred trees with two branches shooting horizontally from the top of the trunk, thus presenting the appearance of a cross or tau.
Worship of sacred Papaya treeFrom a Mexican MS. in British Museum. (Add. MS. b. m. 9789.)
From a Mexican MS. in British Museum. (Add. MS. b. m. 9789.)
From a Mexican MS. in British Museum. (Add. MS. b. m. 9789.)
In straying apparently so far from the main object of these pages, and tracing to their true origin the primitive traditions of mankind and many of the religious symbols common to all the civilized nations of antiquity, by dispelling the mists that have accumulated around them in the long vistaof ages, my aim has been to show that they all emanated from one and the same source, and that this source was the country of Mayax, in the "Lands of the West." Ancient sacred mysteries, have been celebrated in the temples of Egypt, Chaldea, and India, from ages so remote that it is no longer known by whom or where they were first instituted. Herodotus tells us that the daughters of Danaus instituted the Thesmophoria in honor of the goddess Ceres, in imitation of the mysteries celebrated in Egypt in honor of Isis, and taught them to the Pelasgic women. That Eumolpus, king of Eleusis, instituted in his own country the Eleusinian mysteries on his return from Egypt, where he had been initiated by the priests as Orpheus who founded in Thracia those that bear his name; but who taught the rites of initiation, the use of the symbols and their meaning, to the Hierophants of Egypt, to the magi of Chaldea, to the Gymnosophists of India?
The mode of initiation, the use of the same symbols, with an identical signification ascribed to them, by peoples living so far apart whose customs and manners were so unlike, whose religion, so far at least as external practices were concerned, differed so widely, show that these mysteries originated with one people, and were carried to and promulgated among the others. As we do not findit mentioned anywhere that they originated either with the Egyptians, Chaldees, or Hindoos, and we have seen that their primitive traditions have been derived from the history of the early rulers of Mayax, is it not natural that we should look for the institution of the mysteries among the Mayas, since we find the same mysterious symbols, used by the initiates in all the other countries, carved on the walls of the temples of their gods, and the palaces of their kings? Their history may afford the clue to the original meaning of said symbols, as their language has given us the true signification of the words used by the celebrating priest to dismiss the initiates in the Eleusinian mysteries, or by the Brahmins at the end of their religious ceremonies, and as it has revealed the so long hidden mystery of the mysticalTau.
That sacred mysteries were celebrated from times immemorial in the temples of Mayax, Xibalba, Nachan (Palenque of to-day), Copan and other places of Central America there can be no doubt, since besides the symbols sculptured on the walls of the temples and palaces, in two distinct instances, we see the rites and the trials of initiation described in the Popol-Vuh; and as these rites and trials were identical with those to which the applicants to initiation in the mysteries of Egypt, Greece, Chaldea and India were subjected, we are justified inseeking in Mayax for the causes that may have induced the founders of the sacred mysteries to select the odd numbers 3, 5, and 7, instead of the even 2, 4, and 6 for mystic numbers.
The symbolization of number 3 may possibly be accounted for in two different ways. One is suggested by the sceptre of Poseidon, that Plato says was the first king of Atlantis, and is represented by the Greek mythologists as being a son of Kronos; his three-pronged trident being an allusion to thethreegreat islands that formed his kingdom, North and South America and Atlan, that now lies buried under the waves of the Atlantic ocean. The emblemtrident with wiggly prongsplaced in the hands ofVulthe god of the atmosphere in the Chaldean mythology, found also in those of the Hindoo gods, may likewise represent the three worlds or great regions that the Egyptian and Maya hierogrammatists designed by the characterthree-pointed crownin the hieroglyph for the name of the "Lands of the West," which the latter also figured as the sacred tree with three branches,[4]a simile of which we find in Scandinavia, in thethree rootsof the sacred ash Yggdrasil, mystic-world tree, and thethreeheavens, and the three worlds whose destruction, by water, was prophesied by Vishnu.
Plate XXIV., part I., Troano M.S.
The deification of the "World" composed of three parts forming a great whole, may have been the origin of the Trimourti, or Triune god, so prevalent among the ancient nations of antiquity, and probably led to the mystification of number 3. We find it symbolized all over the earth, in every nation. We see it in Mayax in the three platforms on which are raised the most ancient edifices; in the three rooms that formed the temple where the mysteries were performed; in the three steps that led to the first or lower platform in all sacred edifices; in the 21 metres (3 × 7) of all the principal pyramids in Yucatan; in the three concentric circles of the Zodiac. We meet with it constantly in India, in thevyahritisor three sacred words; the three ornaments orsaranas; the three principal classes; the three ways of salvation; the three fetters of the soulorgunas; the three eyes in Siva's forehead; the three strands of the sacred cord worn by the initiates of the three principal classes; the three letters of the sacred word A.u.m. In Egypt the three thonged flagelum of Osiris; the triple phallus carried in procession at the festival of the Paamylia in honor of the birth of Osiris, and also the triads, as likewise in Chaldea.
Another way of accounting for the mystification of number 3, is by taking heed of the indications of Orpheus, Plato, Proclus, and the other Greek philosophers who had been admitted to the participation of the secrets communicated in the mysteries to those worthy of being entrusted with them. They tell us that thethreeintellects of the Demiurgos, of the triple deity, were "three kings."
Sons of King Can represented under the symbol of deer-heads[5]
[5]
[5]
The author of the Troano MS., relates at some length the history of the three sons of kingCan; and of the troubles that arose among them when, after the death of their father, the reins of the government fell into their hands. Of that fact a faint tradition, very much distorted, seems to have still existed among the aborigines of CentralAmerica at the time of the Spanish conquest; for Bishop Landa states: "That it was said that once upon a time three lords, brothers, governed the country together." Those three brothers, sons of kingCan, are realities, personages who have certainly lived a mundane existence, since we not only have their portraits, their weapons, and their ornaments, but also their mortal remains. They recall vividly the three sons of Adam, the three sons of Seb, and the three sons of Kronos. The author of the Troano MS., informs us that the members of the family of kingCanwere deified after their death, and worshiped in temples, the ruins of which still exist buried in the depths of the forests of Yucatan under a shroud of verdure. It is not at all improbable thatCay, the elder brother and high-pontiff having instituted with his father the sacred mysteries, took as symbol of the various degrees into which they divided them, the number of the members of their family, in order to perpetuate their name and history through the coming ages. This explanation seems the more plausible, if we remember that Eusebius tells us that the Egyptians represented the supreme Deity under the shape of a serpent (Canhel) that was as superior to the triads, as the father is to his children in whom he rejoices. "Numero Deus impare gaudet." In this connection thethree Hoang-ti, of Chinese mythological times, mightalso be mentioned. They too had the shape of serpents.
Among the ancient civilized nations of the eastern continents number 5 was also considered mystic. Frequent mention is made of it in their sacred books. In China it occupies a conspicuous place among the celestial or perfect numbers, as 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, are called in they-king, or Canonical book of Changes; a very ancient work, so highly esteemed by the wise philosopher Confucius (Kong-fou-tse) that he was seldom seen without it. There we read of the five elements, water, fire, wood, metal, and earth; of the five kinds of grain; of the five colors, black, red, green or blue, yellow and white; of the five tastes, salt, bitter, sour, acid, and sweet; of the five tones in music; of the five relations of life between men; those between a king and its ministers, a father and his children, a husband and his wife, elder and younger brothers, and between friends; of the five virtues, philanthropy, uprightness, decorum, prudence, fidelity; of the five organs of the body, kidneys, heart, liver, lungs, and spleen; of the five Chang-ti, or elementary generations; of the five parts that form the heavens; of the five seasons of the year; of the five genii that govern the five elements; of the five principal mountains of the empire; of the five tutelary mountains.
In India number 5 is also very prevalent in thingspertaining particularly to psychological conceptions or religious observances; so they speak of the five organs of intelligence, by means of which the external objects are perceived; of the five organs of action; the five elements, the five great oblations; of the five great sacrifices; the five great fires, etc. In Mayax it was likewise a mystic number, since we find this simbolfive dotscarved at each end of the southern apartment in the edifice consecrated to the celebration of the sacred mysteries. It appears in the number of steps leading from the courtyards or terraces to the principal apartments in the "House of the Governor," "the palace of kingCan" and other edifices at Uxmal, and in other buildings. It is the number particularly set apart for the second of the three platforms that compose the base on which all the ancient temples and palaces of the Mayas are raised. In the rites of modern Freemasonry, it is still the sacred number related to the second degree. In the Troano MS., the legends of all the compartments into which the work is divided, as in chapters, are composed of five characters, to indicate that said legends are the headings, that isho-ol, the beginning, the head.
This number may have become sacred, in the mysteries, among the Mayas, in remembrance of the number of the children of kingCan; for besides his three sonsCay,Aac, andCoh, he had, by hiswifeZoo, two daughters,MooandNicte, whose names bear a striking resemblance toT-Mau, one of the names of Isis andNikeher sister. So kingCanby his wifeZoↄ, had five children, just asSebhad by his wifeNutin Egypt; these beingAroeris,Set,Osiris,Isis, andNike. Strange coincidence, that may, however, give us a knowledge of the origin of the mystification of number five.
Sevenseems to have been the sacred numberpar excellenceamong all civilized nations of antiquity. Why? This query has never been satisfactorily answered. Each separate people has given a different explanation, according to the peculiar tenets of their religion. That it was the number of numbers for those initiated to the sacred mysteries there can be no doubt. Pythagoras, who had borrowed his ideas on numbers from the Egyptians, calls it the "Vehicle of life," containing body and soul, since it is formed of a quartenary, that is:Wisdom and Intellect; and atrinityoractionandmatter. Emperor Julian, inMatremand inOratio, expresses himself thus: "Were I to touch upon the initiation into our secret mysteries, which the Chaldees bacchised, respecting theseven-rayedgod, lighting up the soul through him, I should say things unknown to the rabble, very unknown, but well known to the blessed Theurgists."
Whatever that knowledge may have been, andtheir esoteric explanation of the cause of the mystification of number seven, can only be surmised to-day; but it is not improbable that it was to be found in some event in the early history of the race whose traditions we find scattered broadcast over the Earth. We have seen that the family of kingCanwas composed ofseven members, who became rulers of thesevencities that bear their names, the ruins of which still exist in the forests of Yucatan, and by the beauty and richness of the ornamentation, the massiveness and finish of the walls of their temples and palaces, excite the admiration of the beholder. These personages, deified after their death, have been worshiped in various countries, and are yet in some, under different names. May not the remembrance of the existence of thesesevenancient rulers of Mayax, have been the origin of the tradition of thesevendivine rulers of Egypt; of theseven Manousthat according to the Brahmins, governed the world in the night of times; of theseven Richisor holy personages who assisted them; of theseven princesof the Persian court; and theseven councillorsof the king; of theseven Ameshaspantsor first angels; of theseven great godsof the Assyrians; or theseven primitive godsregarded by the Japanese as their ancestors and said by them to have governed the world during an incalculable number of years; of theseven Cabiri, worshipedby the Pelasgians at Lemnos and Samothracia; thesevengreat gods in theogony of the Nahuatls? Do we not see a simile of theAh Ac chapatorseven-headedserpent of the Mayas, totem of theirseven primitive Rulers, that is of theseven membersof kingCan'sfamily, in theseven-headed heavenly Serpenton which rests Vishnu, the Indian creator, that corresponds to the EgyptianKnephor theMehen(Canhel) of the Mayas; or in thesevenserpents that form the crown ofSiva; or again in theSeven-rayed god Heptaktis, of which the emperor Julian was so reluctant to speak?
It would seem that the duration of certain religious festivals was fixed to commemorate the existence on Earth of thesesevenprimitive gods or rulers, the tradition of which we find in all countries where we meet with vestiges of the Mayas. So we see theseven daysof the festival of the Eleusinian mysteries; theseven daysof the festival in honor of the bull Apis, a symbol of Osiris; theseven daysof the feast of the tabernacles. The septenary system was also adopted for the same purpose no doubt, in Mayax, since we find thesevencities dedicated to each of the members of king Can's family; thesevenpyramids that adorned the city of Uxmal; theseventurrets that ornamented the south façade of the north wing of king Can's palace at Uxmal, each turret inscribed with the name of one of the membersof his family; those dedicated to the females being on the east end of the wing. Theseven gradientsinto which is divided the third or uppermost of the three platforms that serve as a substructure to the temples and palaces; theseven superposed gradients, forming all the pyramids calling to mind theseven terracesof the temple of thesevenlights at Borsippa, the most perfect form of Chaldee "temple tower," and the "pyramid degrees" at Sakkara, although in this Egyptian pyramid the gradients are more numerous. Theseven roomsbuilt on the west side of the conical mound that supports the temple in which the mysteries were performed at Uxmal: each room again being dedicated to one of the members of king Can's family; the bust of the person to whom it was consecrated being affixed over the doorway. Theseven coursesof the stones used in the construction of the walls and of the triangular arches that form the ceilings of the rooms. The same system prevails in the arrangement of the grand gallery in the centre of the great pyramid at Ghizzeh in Egypt. In that monument as in all the antique edifices of Mayax, the proportional scale followed by the architects in the drawing of their plans is in accordance with the numbers 3, 5, 7, and their multiples.
The predilection of the nations of antiquity in which the sacred mysteries were celebrated, fornumbersevenappears in many ways. Theseven daysthat the rainfall that produced the deluge lasted, according to the Chaldeans, is reproduced in theseven daysof the prophesy of the deluge by Vishnu to Satyravata, as we read of it in theBhagavata purana; and theseven daysof the prophesy of the same event, made by the Lord to Noah, according to Genesis; on account of theseven daysof rainfall the Babylonian priests usedseven vasesin the sacrifices; and in the hierarchy of Mazdeism, theseven Maroutsor genii of the winds; theseven roundsof the ladder in the cave of Mithra. The Aryans had theseven horsesthat drew the chariot of the sun; theseven Aprisor shapes of the flame; theseven rays of Agni; theseven stepsof Buddha at his birth. The Egyptians had divided their nation intoseven classes; the week intoseven days: according to them the creation was completed inseven days. Among the Hebrews, we find theseven lampsof the ark, and of Zacharias vision; theseven branchesof the golden candlestick; theseven daysof the feast of the dedication of the temple; theseven years of plenty; and the seven years of famine. In the Christian dispensation, theseven churcheswith theseven angelsat their head; theseven golden candlesticks; theseven headsof the beast that rose from the sea; theseven sealsof the book; theseven trumpetsof the angels; theseven vialsfull of the wrath of God; theseven last plaguesof Apocalypse. In Greek mythology, theseven headsof the hydra killed by Hercules, theseven islandssacred to Proserpine mentioned by Proclus.
The prevalence ofsevenas a mystic number among the inhabitants of the "Western Continent" is not less remarkable. It frequently occurs in thePopol-Vuh. We find it besides in theseven familiessaid by Sahagun and Clavigero to have accompanied the mystical personage namedVotan, the reputed founder of the great city of Nachan, identified by some with Palenque. In theseven cavesfrom which the ancestors of the Nahualts are reported to have emerged. In theseven citiesof Cibola, described by Coronado and Niza, the site of which has been accurately fixed by Mr. Frank Cushing in the immediate neighborhood of the village of Zuñi. In theseven Antilles; in theSeven heroeswho, we are told, escaped the deluge.
Can it be maintained that this acceptation ofsevenas a mystic number by nations so heterogeneous and living so far apart, and from the remotest ages, is purely accidental? The origin of its mystification has never been explained. It has been transmitted to us by our predecessors, who themselves had accepted it from theirs, without knowing why it was made the sacred number of the thirddegree in the rites of initiation into Freemasonry. True, in receiving the degree the initiated are told the esoteric meaning attached to it in modern times; but this meaning does not give the origin of its mystification. In fact, it is an invention of our days.
That it was the sacred number of the highest degree of the sacred mysteries in Mayax is evident. We have seen that 3 was the number of the male children of king Can; 5 that of his sons and daughters; 7 was consequently that of the members of the whole family. It is not therefore improbable that to commemorate that fact, 7 was made the sacred number of the third degree of their sacred mysteries, and that this was the origin of its mystification.
In these pages I have presented, without commentaries, a few of the facts that twelve years researches among the ruins of the antique temples and palaces of the Mayas, a knowledge of their language (still spoken by their descendants, and in some places, as in the vicinity of Peten, in all its pristine purity); the deciphering of certain mural inscriptions; the study of the sacred book of the Quiches, and the interpretation of passages in the Troano MS., have disclosed to me concerning the history, civilization, cosmogonical conceptions, religious tenets and practices of the ancient inhabitants of Yucatan.
It is for you, reader, to judge if such facts are worthy your consideration, and of the truthfulness of my assertion that a knowledge of the history of the primitive dwellers in these "Lands of the West" will help to raise the veil that has covered during so many centuries the origin of the first traditions of mankind. Although in the first annual report of the executive committee of the "Archæological institute of America," we read that: "The study of American archæology relates indeed to the monuments of a race that never attained to a high degree of civilization and that has left no trustworthy records of continuous history. It was a race whose intelligence was for the most part of a low order, whose sentiments and emotions were confined within a narrow range, and whose imagination was never quickened to find expression of itself in poetic or artistic forms of beauty. From what it was or what it did, nothing is to be learned that has any direct bearing on the progress of civilization." With all due respect for the learning of the gentlemen who have attached their names to so astounding an assertion, I beg to differ from their opinion expressed so emphatically. I differ because I have seen and photographed the constructions left by the mighty races that have preceded us on this continent. They have not. Because I have studied for years,in situ, these monuments that attest to thehigh civilization of their builders. They have not. Because I have learned the language in which they have consigned part at least of their history in inscriptions carved on stones, and read some of said inscriptions. They have not. Indeed, on this continent, not far from New Orleans, exist the relics of past generations which are as interesting, if not more so, as those of Egypt, Babylonia, Greece, and Italy; as deserving the attention of all students of archæology, of history, of ethnology, and philology. It is time yet to save from utter destruction the last records of ancient American history, that are crumbling every day more and more, and are being destroyed by the hand of ignorance and cupidity. A few years more, and all intelligible traces of them will have disappeared. Will nothing be done in this country to preserve what remains of the ancient American civilization? of that civilization which seems to have been the fountain-head at which the philosophers of all nations, in the remotest antiquity, have come to acquire knowledge and drink inspiration from the learning and wisdom of the Maya sages.
Americans have established in Athens schools for the study of Greek Archæology; in Alexandria, for the decipherment of the inscriptions carved on the walls of the temples, on the obelisks, and in the papyri found in the tombs in Egypt; is it not timethat students in United States should direct their attention to the ancient history of the continent on which they live? It is not altogether lost, and the tongue in which it is written is not a dead language. Maya is one of the oldest forms of speech, cöeval, if not anterior to Sanscrit. The names Alpha, Beta, Gamma, etc., etc., of the letters of the Greek alphabet, form a curious epic poem in that language. There are many interesting inscriptions in it that only await decipherment to illumine the past records of the race in America. Many of these precious documents exist in the City of New York. They will reveal the history of the mighty nations that have dwelt on this "Western Continent;" they will tell us of the origin of many of our primitive traditions. Why then not found in Yucatan, in the midst of the ruins of the temples and colleges of the learned priesthood of Mayax, a school where students of American archæology can learn with their language, what the Maya sages knew of man's origin, of his intellectual development, of the past of their people, of the colonists they sent to other parts of the world, where they carried the arts, sciences, and religion of the mother country and its civilization from which our own is descended?
After twelve years of incessant labors and great hardships, unaided by any government or scientific society, having to encounter opposition, andsurmount countless difficulties placed maliciously in our way by those whose duty it should have been to afford us all protection, robbed of our finds by the Mexican government which has even refused to indemnify us for the money expended in making these discoveries, Mrs. Le Plongeon and myself, after saving from destruction many important documents and relics, have at last found a key that will unlock the door of that chamber of mysteries. Shall it be allowed to remain closed much longer? We have lifted, in part at least, the veil that has hung so long over the history of mankind in America in remote ages. Shall it be allowed to fall again? Will no efforts be made by American students, by men of wealth and leisure in the United States, to remove it altogether?
INDEX.