Atlantis: The Antedeluvian World

il they reached the continent. Columbus found the natives making such voyages in open canoes. If, then, we will suppose that there was no original connec

e between Atlantis and Yucatan, Honduras and Mexico, created colonies along the shores of the Gulf which gradually spread into the interior, and to the high table-lands of Mexico. And, accordingly, we find, as I have already shown, that all the traditions of Central America and M

spent four years ex

gue (the Maya) is pure

rica? or who took to Gr

of the Sanscrit. Is May

evoid of words fr

ed as large, "with a big head and a heavy beard." The same author speaks (page 44) of "the ocean of ruins all around, not inferior in size to those of Egypt." At Teotihuacan he measured one building two thousand feet wide on each side, and fifteen pyramids, each nearly as large in the base as Cheops. "The city is indeed of vast extent ... the whole ground, over a space of five or six miles in diameter, is covered with heaps of ruins-ruins which at first make no impression, so complete is their dilapidation." He asserts the great antiquity of these ruins, because he fou

s used the arch; in both continents we find bricks, glassware, and even porcelain (North American Review, December, 1880, pp. 524, 525), "with blue figures on a whi

nd flowers; they were farmers; they raised and wove cotton; they cultivated fruits; they used the sign of the Cross extensively; they cut and engraved precious stones; among their carvings have been found representations of the elephant and the lion, both animals not known in America. The fo

o, the same resemblan

y the votes of the nobles of the kingdom. There was a royal family, an aristocracy, a privileged priesthood,

f these could muster one hundred thousand vassals from their own estates, or a total of three millions. And we hav

wning feature of European society, the feudal system. The

the king, and held their offices for life. There were supreme judges for the larger divisions of the king

iament, held every eighty days, presided over by the king, consi

itution was held in such reverence that a tribunal was instituted for the sole purpose of determining questions relating

ight, his rights carefully guarded, and his children were

at the Spanish priests declared the devil had given them a bogus imitation of C

they sprinkled their lips and bosoms with water, and "the Lord was implored to permit t

y practised fasts, vigils, flagellations, a

ecifying the various imposts, their mythology, astronomical calendars, and rituals, their political annals and their chronology. They wrote on cotton-cloth, on skins prepared like parchment, on a composi

nd paid much attention to rhetoric. They al

astronomy is thus s

ould fix the true length of the tropical year with a precision unknown to the great philosophers of antiquity, could

with flowers, or, among the richer people, with strings of precious stones and pearls from the Gulf of California. They appear to have been treated with much consideration by their husbands; and pass

ion among the guests as they arrived. Cotton napkins and ewers of water were placed before them as they took their seats at the board. Tobacco was then offered, in pipes, mixed with aromat

still further regaled by confections and pastry, for which their maize-flower and sugar furnished them ample materials. The meats were kept warm with chafing-dishes. The table was ornamented with vases of silver and sometimes gold of deli

at public works, their floating gardens,

OF ARCH, CEN

yramids, all ornamented

REASURE-HOUSE OF

ece. The Palenque arch is made by the gradual overlapping of the strata of the building, as shown in the accompanying cut from Baldwin's

JAS, PALENQUE,

on of the "Treasure-house of Atreus" at Mycen?, on page 354-one of the oldest struc

chitectural Styl

aid horizontally over one another in such a way that each course projects beyond the one below it, till the space at the highest course becomes

d among the ruins of that int

tone, each a little overlapping the other, and carried on until the aperture at the top could be closed by a single superincumbent sl

an rule, or under her own leaders, has never again risen to her f