Atlantis, The Antediluvian World

AT MITLA

tlanteans possessed architecture; that

e, as well as in Peru, Mexico, and Central America. Among both the Peruvians and Egyptian

rship. "The usual symbol of the Phallus was an erect stone, often in its rough state, sometimes sculptured." (Squier, "Serpent Symbol," p. 49; Bancroft's "Native

g to make it as tall as possible." "It must be confessed," says Foster ("Prehistoric Races," p. 193), "that these Scythic burial rites have a strong resemblance to those of the Mound Builders." Homer describes the erection of a great symmetrical mound over Achilles, also one

BUDDHIST TOWER,

re enclosing wooden coffins, precisely as in the mounds of the Mississippi Valley. (Ibid., p. 185.) The articles associated with the dead are the same in both continents: arms, trinkets, food, clothes, and funeral u

nown alike to the Europ

was known on both si

cks was known in both

as much the same on both hemispheres, as sho

worked in metals; they used copper, tin,

he working of metals probably originated in America, or in some region to which it was tributary. The Mexicans manufactured bronze, and the Incas mined iron near Lake Titicaca; and the civ

ns possessed this art;

ranean

ders, so as to protect the back of the head and the neck. This particular appendage vividly calls to mind the same feature in the symbolic adornments of Egyptian and Hindoo priests, and even those of the Hebrew hierarchy." Dr.

The paintings upon the walls of some of the temples of Centr

ved upon pillars. The American nations also had thi

ut his hand to the plough at an annual festival, thus dignifying and consecrating the occupation of husbandry. In Peru precisely the same custom prevailed. In

vellers. Humboldt pronounced these Peruvian roads "among the most useful and stupendous works ever executed by man." They built aqueducts for purposes of irrigation some of which were five hundred miles long. They constructed magnificent bridges of stone, and had even invented suspension bridges thousands of years before they were intro

lumbus met, in 1502, at an island near Honduras, a party of the Mayas in a large vess

H VASE OF TH

gypt; they manufactured glass; they engraved gems and precious stones. The Peruvians had such immense numbers of vessels a

between the five-toned music of the Highland Scotch and that of

; and both peoples used shields or bucklers, and casques of wood or hide covered with metal. If these weapons had been derived from separate sources of invention, one country or

ls us, was pure and simple; they made no regular sacri

t that of fruits and flowers. The first religion of Egypt was pure and simple; its sacrifices were fruits and flowers; temples were erected to the sun, Ra, throughout Egypt. In P

bodies of the dead by embalming them. The Peruvians believed in the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body, and they too preserved the bodies of their dead by embalming them. "A few mummies in remarkable preservation have been found among the Chinooks and Flatheads." (Schoolcraft, vol. v., p. 693.) The embalmment

of land and ocean, uniting in the same beliefs, and in th

nies of some of the American nations. Baptism was a religious cerem

y, and devoted to death if they violated their vows. In both hemispheres the recreant were destroyed by being buried alive.

alled Cupay. The Peruvians burnt incense in their temples. The Peruvians, when they

ll these nations pres

f them possessed

lls us that the third era of the world, or "third sun," is called, Quia Tonatiuh, or sun of rain, "because in this age there fell a rain of fire, all which existed burned, and there fell a rain of gravel;" the rocks "boiled with tumult, and there also arose the rocks of vermilion color." In other words, the traditions of these people go back to a great cataclysm of fire, when the earth possibly encountered, as in the Egyptian story, o

ound, upon their entrance into Mexico, superb temples and images of Pan. (Brasseur's Introduction in Landa's "Relacion.") The names of both Pan and Maya enter extensively into the Maya vocabulary, Maia being the same as Maya, the principal name of the

asted; and on the evening of the last night they formed a great procession to a neighboring mountain. A human being was sacrificed exactly at midnight; a block of wood was laid at once on the body, and fire was then produced by rapidly revolving another piece of wood upon it; a spark was carried to a funeral pile, whose rising flame proclaimed to the anxious p

tick; the Romans renewed their sacred fire in the same way; and in Sweden even now a "need-fire is

lly to mortals. The story of Tantalus is found among the Chippewayans, who believed that bad souls stand up to their chins in water in sight of the spirit-land, which they can never enter. The dead passed to heaven across a stream of water by means of a narrow and slippery bridge, from which many were lost. The Zu?is set apart a day in each ye

the transmigration of

uls of men passed into

. 33.) The souls of the

(Dorman, "Prim. S

mbia the men-wolves have often been seen seated around a fire, with their wolf-hides hung upon sticks to dry! The Irish legend of hunt

l the hares they found on May-day among their cattle, believing them to be witches. C?sar gives an account of the horror in which this animal was held by the Britons. Th

fter death became a god. The white doe of European legend had its representative in the white deer of the Housatonic Valley, whose death brought mise

ica. A Cree sorcerer sold three days of fair weather for one pound of tobacco! The Indian sorce

tering into the sick person. (Eastman's "Sioux.") The spirits of animals are much feared, and their departure out of the body of the invalid is a cause of thanksgiving. Thus an Omaha, after an

l organs of the man or animal sacrificed. (Ibid., pp. 214, 226.) In both continents the future was revealed by the flight of birds and by dreams. I

in Central America and o

., p.

minous of ill. (Ibid., p. 225). The peasantry of Wester

when they lost them the impudent fox sent every morning to ask how their tails were, and the bear shook his fat sides at the joke." (Ibid., p. 232.) Among the n

bolts in his hand, is d

, who is represented hol

, and scattered the lig

t.," p

the Mexican god Texcatzoncatl, the god

e world on his shoulders, and when be shifts the burden from one shou

e perished race. This, sprinkled with blood, grew into a youth, the father of the present race. The Quiche hero-gods, Hunaphu and Xblanque, died; their bodies were burnt,

ican tribes, as they were of the European races. (Ibid., p. 79.) The mermaid of

dusa are represented

ient culture-hero

is part of the mythology of the Hindoos and the American races. Hiawatha, we are told, rose to

oracles of Egypt and G

the valley of Rimac,

became famous as an o

t.," p

hat men were sometimes m

stone, as the Greeks from the sto

ve a mind to shorten, and which they stab to the heart," whereupon the person represented is expected to die. (Charlevoix, vol. ii., p. 166.) The witche

outh and the myths and stories of certain tribes of Indians in South America, as revealed by Mr. Herbert Smith's "Brazil, the Amazons, and the Coast." (New York: Scribner, 1879.) Mr

. Palacio relates that at Azori, in Honduras, the natives circumcised boys before an idol called Icelca. ("Carta," p. 84.) Lord Kingsborough tells us the Central Americans used the same rite, and McKenzie (quoted by Retzius) says he saw the ceremony performed by the Chippeways. Both had bards and minstrels, who on great festivals sung the deeds of kings and heroes. Both the Egyptians and the Peruvians held agricultural fairs; both took a census of the people. Among both the land was divided per capita among the people; in Judea a new division was made every fifty years. The Peruvians renewed every year all the fires of the kingdom from the Temple of the Sun, the new fire being kindled from concave

inese, Japanese, Calmucks, Mongols, Mantchou, and other hordes of Tartars have cycles of sixty years' duration, divided into five brief periods of twelve years each. The method of citing a date by means of signs and numbers is quite

opting the view of several writers that the Mexican year began on the 26th of F

in four great primeval ages, a

mis. The tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides paint to me almost literally the sentiments of the red men respecting ne

on; and the Hindoos have precisely the same figure; and both nations continued to

k, or touch the fire with a knife, they will "cut the top off the fire." The Sioux Indians will no

ad were burnt, and their ashes collected and placed in vases

Mississippi Valley; it demands "that, when a child is born, the father must take to his bed, while the mother at

w tells

es thus

n their lad

ts." The same custom was found in France, and is said to exist to this day in some cantons of Béarn. Diodorus Siculus tells us that among the Corsicans the wife was neglected, and the husband put to bed and treated as the patient. Apollonius Rhodius says that among the Tibereni, at the south of the Black Sea, "when a child was born the father lay groaning, with his head tied up, while the mother tended him with food and prepared his baths." The same absurd custom extends throughout the tribes of North and South America. Among the Caribs in the West Indies (and the Caribs, Brasseur de Bourbourg says, were the same as the ancient Carians of the Mediterranean Sea) the man takes to his bed as soon as a child is born, and kills no animals. And herein we find an explanation of a custom otherwise inexplicable. Amon

the American races. A practice so absurd could scarcely have originated separately in the two continents; its existence is a very strong proof of unity of origin of the races on the opposite sides of the At

illages nowadays a needle and thread is placed in the coffin for the dead to mend their torn clothes with; "while

ls of his forefathers creep in and out and eat them. At the cemetery of Père-la-Chaise, Paris, on All-souls-day, they "still put cakes and sweetmeats on the graves; an

n is largely "ancestor-worship;" and the rites paid to the dead ancesto

g of the wandering tribes of Northern Africa, says, "They bury their dead according to the fashion of the Greeks.... They bury them sit

a river and making the grave in its bed, and then letting the stream return to its natural course. Al

ife of his own surname. ("Anthropology," p. 403.) "Throughout India the hill-tribes are divided into septs or clans, and a man may not marry a woman belonging to his own clan. The Calmucks of Tartary are divided into hordes, and a man may not marry a gi

ice of sacrificing warriors, servants, and animals at the funeral of a great chief (Dorman, pp. 210-211.) Beautiful girls were sacrificed to appease the anger

e. Odysseus went to Ephyra for the man-slaying drug with which to

ur Indians and the Esquimaux were found on the shores of the Thames and the Euphrates. In Peru and on the

de; and Linn?us found the Both land people brewing beer in this way-"and to this da

bet, the priests dance the demons out, or the new year in, arrayed in animal masks (Ibid., p. 297 ); and the "mummers" at Yule-tide, in England, are a survival of the same custom. (Ibid.,

urope and America preserve to this day a custom which was once universal among the ancient races. Banners, flags, and armorial bearings are supposed to be survivals of the old totemic tattooing. The Arab woman still tattoos her face, arms, and ankle

over the dead., (Dorman, "Prim. Superst.," p. 178.) Says Prudentius

possession of the dead was found among the Mosquito

e who offend them. The Dakotas also believe in fairies. The Otoes located the "little people" in a mound at the mouth of Whitestone River; they were eighteen inches high, with very large heads; they were armed with bows and arrows, and killed those who approached their residence. (See Dorman's "Origin of Primitive Superstitions," p. 23.) "The Shoshone legends people the mounta

e temples, generally in groups of threes; they were tended with great care, and received offerings of incense a

n offering of cakes, which is recorded by the prophet Jeremiah as part of the worship of the Babylonian godd

of the social scale lived upon floating islands of ree

iages were made but once a

da the singular custom prevails of lifting the bride over the door-step

be traced back to the old Roman form of marriage by 'conferreatio,' or eating together. So, also, among the Iroquois the b

few generations the same old habit was kept up in Wales, where the bridegroom and his friends, mounted and armed as for war, carried off the bride; and in Ireland they used even to hurl spears at the bride's people, th

the man's mantle to the dress of the woman; he perfumed them, and placed on each a shawl on which was painted a sk

ventual discipline, but were allowed to marry; they practised flagellation and fasting, and prayed at regular hours. There were great preachers and exhorters among them. There were also convents into which females were admitted. The novice had her hair cut off and took vows of celibacy; they lived holy and pious lives. (Ibid., pp. 375, 376.) The king was the high-priest of the religious orders. A new king ascended the temple naked, except his girdle; he was sprinkled four times with water which had been blessed; he was then clothed in a mantle, and on his knees took an

which afflicted him would come away with the blood. In Europe phlebotomy only continued to a late peri

f another; men were first bled to withdraw the evil spirit, then to cure the disease; and a practice whose origin is lost in the night of ages is continued into the midst of civilizati

India, Greece, and Italy; but these very stories, these 'M?hrchen' which nurses still tell, with almost the same words, in the Thuringian forest and in the Norwegian villages, and to which crowds of children listen under the Pippal-trees o

the folk-lore or fairy tales of America and those of the Old World

ey are alive or dead. Exactly the same conception occurs in Grimm's "M?hrchen," when the two gold-children wish to see the world and to leave their father; and when their father is sad, and asks them how he shall bear news of them, they tell him, "We leave you the two golden lilies; from

print in parallel columns, one from the

do but hop up and perch himself | | when the gray linnet, a very | unbeknown on the eagle's tail. So | | small bird, flew from the | they flew and flew ever so high, | | eagle's back, where it had | till the eagle was miles above | | perched unperceived, and, being | all the rest, and could not fly | | fresh and unexhausted, | another stroke, he was so tired. | | succeeded in going the highest. | "Then," says he, "I'm king of the | | When the birds came down and | birds." "You lie!" says the wren, | | met in council to award the | darting up a perch and a half | | prize it was gi

e followin

si back in heaven, contrived | reaching the earth, forthwith | | to steal the rams; and, as the | set themselves to dance. He | | king pursued the robbers with his | tried to catch the youngest, | | sword in the dark, the lightning | but in vain; ultimately he | | revealed his person, the compact | succeeded by assuming the | | was broken, and Urvasi | disguise of a mouse. He was | | disappeared. This same story is | very attentive to his new wife, | | found in different forms among | who was really a daughter of | | many people of Aryan and Turanian | one of the stars, but she | | descent, the central ide

in North America to the effect that a man once had a beautiful daughter, 'whom he forbade to leave the lodge lest she should be carried off by the king of the buffaloes; and that as she sat, notwithstanding, outside the house combing her hair, "all of a sudden the king of

with the throwing of dice, the dice determining the number of moves; when the Spaniards entered Mexico they found the Aztecs playing a game called patolli, identical with the Hindoo pachisi, on a similar cross-shaped b

herein do these peoples differ? It is absurd to pretend that all the

continents, went to bed and left his wife to do the honors of the household; they tattooed and painted themselves in the same fashion; they became intoxicated on kindred drinks; their dresses were alike; they cooked in the same manner; they used the same metals; they employed the same exorcisms and bleedings for disease; they believed alike in ghosts, demons, and fairies; they listened to the same stories; they

from which both peoples derived their arts, sciences, customs, and opinions. It will be seen that in every case where Plato gives us any information in this respect as to Atlantis, we find this agreement to exist. It existed in architecture, sculpture, na