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diff --git a/4032-0.txt b/4032-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9dfb4ce --- /dev/null +++ b/4032-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14583 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 4032 *** + + + + +ATLANTIS + +THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD. + +BY + +IGNATIUS DONNELLY. + + The world has made such comet-like advance + Lately on science, we may almost hope, + Before we die of sheer decay, to learn + Something about our infancy; when lived + That great, original, broad-eyed, sunken race, + Whose knowledge, like the sea-sustaining rocks, + Hath formed the base of this world's fluctuous lore + FESTUS. + + Frontpiece: The Profile of Atlantis + +CONTENTS. + +PART I. + +THE HISTORY OF ATLANTIS. + +I. THE PURPOSE OF THE BOOK + +II. PLATO'S HISTORY OF ATLANTIS + +III. THE PROBABILITIES OF PLATO'S STORY + +IV. WAS SUCH A CATASTROPHE POSSIBLE? + +V. THE TESTIMONY OF THE SEA + +VI. THE TESTIMONY OF THE FLORA AND FAUNA + +PART II. + +THE DELUGE. + +I. THE DESTRUCTION OF ATLANTIS DESCRIBED IN THE DELUGE LEGENDS + +II. THE DELUGE OF THE BIBLE + +III. THE DELUGE OF THE CHALDEANS + +IV. THE DELUGE LEGENDS OF OTHER NATIONS + +V. THE DELUGE LEGENDS OF AMERICA + +VI. SOME CONSIDERATION OF THE DELUGE LEGENDS + +PART III + +THE CIVILIZATION OF THE OLD WORLD AND NEW COMPARED. + +I. CIVILIZATION AN INHERITANCE + +II. THE IDENTITY OF THE CIVILIZATIONS OF THE OLD WORLD AND THE NEW + +III. AMERICAN EVIDENCES OF INTERCOURSE WITH EUROPE OR ATLANTIS + +IV. CORROBORATING CIRCUMSTANCES + +V. THE QUESTION OF COMPLEXION + +VI. GENESIS CONTAINS A HISTORY OF ATLANTIS + +VII. THE: ORIGIN OF OUR ALPHABET + +VIII. THE BRONZE AGE IN EUROPE + +IX. ARTIFICIAL DEFORMATION OF THE SKULL + +PART IV. + +THE MYTHOLOGIES OF THE OLD WORLD A RECOLLECTION OF ATLANTIS. + +I. TRADITIONS OF ATLANTIS + +II. THE KINGS OF ATLANTIS BECOME THE GODS OF THE GREEKS + +III. THE GODS OF THE PHOENICIANS ALSO KINGS OF ATLANTIS + +IV. THE GOD ODIN, WODEN, OR WOTAN + +V. THE PYRAMID, THE CROSS, AND THE GARDEN OF EDEN + +VI. GOLD AND SILVER THE SACRED METALS OF ATLANTIS + +PART V. + +THE COLONIES OF ATLANTIS. + +I. THE CENTRAL AMERICAN AND MEXICAN COLONIES + +II. THE EGYPTIAN COLONY + +III. THE COLONIES OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY + +IV. THE IBERIAN COLONIES OF ATLANTIS + +V. THE PERUVIAN COLONY + +VI. THE AFRICAN COLONIES + +VII. THE IRISH COLONIES FROM ATLANTIS + +VIII. THE OLDEST SON OF NOAH + +IX. THE ANTIQUITY OF SOME OF OUR GREAT INVENTIONS + +X. THE ARYAN COLONIES FROM ATLANTIS + +XI. ATLANTIS RECONSTRUCTED + +ATLANTIS: + +THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD. + +PART I. THE HISTORY OF ATLANTIS. + +CHAPTER I. + +THE PURPOSE OF THE BOOK. + +This book is an attempt to demonstrate several distinct and novel +propositions. These are: + +1. That there once existed in the Atlantic Ocean, opposite the mouth of +the Mediterranean Sea, a large island, which was the remnant of an +Atlantic continent, and known to the ancient world as Atlantis. + +2. That the description of this island given by Plato is not, as has +been long supposed, fable, but veritable history. + +3. That Atlantis was the region where man first rose from a state of +barbarism to civilization. + +4. That it became, in the course of ages, a populous and mighty nation, +from whose overflowings the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, the +Mississippi River, the Amazon, the Pacific coast of South America, the +Mediterranean, the west coast of Europe and Africa, the Baltic, the +Black Sea, and the Caspian were populated by civilized nations. + +5. That it was the true Antediluvian world; the Garden of Eden; the +Gardens of the Hesperides; the Elysian Fields; the Gardens of Alcinous; +the Mesomphalos; the Olympos; the Asgard of the traditions of the +ancient nations; representing a universal memory of a great land, where +early mankind dwelt for ages in peace and happiness. + +6. That the gods and goddesses of the ancient Greeks, the Phoenicians, +the Hindoos, and the Scandinavians were simply the kings, queens, and +heroes of Atlantis; and the acts attributed to them in mythology are a +confused recollection of real historical events. + +7. That the mythology of Egypt and Peru represented the original +religion of Atlantis, which was sun-worship. + +8. That the oldest colony formed by the Atlanteans was probably in +Egypt, whose civilization was a reproduction of that of the Atlantic +island. + +9. That the implements of the "Bronze Age" of Europe were derived from +Atlantis. The Atlanteans were also the first manufacturers of iron. + +10. That the Phoenician alphabet, parent of all the European alphabets, +was derived from an Atlantis alphabet, which was also conveyed from +Atlantis to the Mayas of Central America. + +11. That Atlantis was the original seat of the Aryan or Indo-European +family of nations, as well as of the Semitic peoples, and possibly also +of the Turanian races. + +12. That Atlantis perished in a terrible convulsion of nature, in which +the whole island sunk into the ocean, with nearly all its inhabitants. + +13. That a few persons escaped in ships and on rafts, and, carried to +the nations east and west the tidings of the appalling catastrophe, +which has survived to our own time in the Flood and Deluge legends of +the different nations of the old and new worlds. + +If these propositions can be proved, they will solve many problems which +now perplex mankind; they will confirm in many respects the statements +in the opening chapters of Genesis; they will widen the area of human +history; they will explain the remarkable resemblances which exist +between the ancient civilizations found upon the opposite shores of the +Atlantic Ocean, in the old and new worlds; and they will aid us to +rehabilitate the fathers of our civilization, our blood, and our +fundamental ideas-the men who lived, loved, and labored ages before the +Aryans descended upon India, or the Phoenician had settled in Syria, or +the Goth had reached the shores of the Baltic. + +The fact that the story of Atlantis was for thousands of years regarded +as a fable proves nothing. There is an unbelief which grows out of +ignorance, as well as a scepticism which is born of intelligence. The +people nearest to the past are not always those who are best informed +concerning the past. + +For a thousand years it was believed that the legends of the buried +cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were myths: they were spoken of as +"the fabulous cities." For a thousand years the educated world did not +credit the accounts given by Herodotus of the wonders of the ancient +civilizations of the Nile and of Chaldea. He was called "the father of +liars." Even Plutarch sneered at him. Now, in the language of Frederick +Schlegel, "the deeper and more comprehensive the researches of the +moderns have been, the more their regard and esteem for Herodotus has +increased." Buckle says, "His minute information about Egypt and Asia +Minor is admitted by all geographers." + +There was a time when the expedition sent out by Pharaoh Necho to +circumnavigate Africa was doubted, because the explorers stated that +after they had progressed a certain distance the sun was north of them; +this circumstance, which then aroused suspicion, now proves to us that +the Egyptian navigators had really passed the equator, and anticipated +by 2100 years Vasquez de Gama in his discovery of the Cape of Good Hope. + +If I succeed in demonstrating the truth of the somewhat startling +propositions with which I commenced this chapter, it will only be by +bringing to bear upon the question of Atlantis a thousand converging +lines of light from a multitude of researches made by scholars in +different fields of modern thought. Further investigations and +discoveries will, I trust, confirm the correctness of the conclusions at +which I have arrived. + +CHAPTER II. + +PLATO'S HISTORY OF ATLANTIS. + +Plato has preserved for us the history of Atlantis. If our views are +correct, it is one of the most valuable records which have come down to +us from antiquity. + +Plato lived 400 years before the birth of Christ. His ancestor, Solon, +was the great law-giver of Athens 600 years before the Christian era. +Solon visited Egypt. Plutarch says, "Solon attempted in verse a large +description, or rather fabulous account of the Atlantic Island, which he +had learned from the wise men of Sais, and which particularly concerned +the Athenians; but by reason of his age, not want of leisure (as Plato +would have it), he was apprehensive the work would be too much for him, +and therefore did not go through with it. These verses are a proof that +business was not the hinderance: + + "'I grow in learning as I grow in age.' + +And again: + + "'Wine, wit, and beauty still their charms bestow, + Light all the shades of life, and cheer us as we go.' + +"Plato, ambitious to cultivate and adorn the subject of the Atlantic +Island, as a delightful spot in some fair field unoccupied, to which +also he had some claim by reason of his being related to Solon, laid out +magnificent courts and enclosures, and erected a grand entrance to it, +such as no other story, fable, or Poem ever had. But, as he began it +late, he ended his life before the work, so that the more the reader is +delighted with the part that is written, the more regret he has to find +it unfinished." + +There can be no question that Solon visited Egypt. The causes of his +departure from Athens, for a period of ten years, are fully explained by +Plutarch. He dwelt, he tells us, + + "On the Canopian shore, by Nile's deep mouth." + +There he conversed upon points of philosophy and history with the most +learned of the Egyptian priests. He was a man of extraordinary force and +penetration of mind, as his laws and his sayings, which have been +preserved to us, testify. There is no improbability in the statement +that he commenced in verse a history and description of Atlantis, which +he left unfinished at his death; and it requires no great stretch of the +imagination to believe that this manuscript reached the hands of his +successor and descendant, Plato; a scholar, thinker, and historian like +himself, and, like himself, one of the profoundest minds of the ancient +world. The Egyptian priest had said to Solon, "You have no antiquity of +history, and no history of antiquity;" and Solon doubtless realized +fully the vast importance of a record which carried human history back, +not only thousands of years before the era of Greek civilization, but +many thousands of years before even the establishment of the kingdom of +Egypt; and he was anxious to preserve for his half-civilized countrymen +this inestimable record of the past. + +We know of no better way to commence a book about Atlantis than by +giving in full the record preserved by Plato. It is as follows: + +Critias. Then listen, Socrates, to a strange tale, which is, however, +certainly true, as Solon, who was the wisest of the seven sages, +declared. He was a relative and great friend of my great-grandfather, +Dropidas, as he himself says in several of his poems; and Dropidas told +Critias, my grandfather, who remembered, and told us, that there were of +old great and marvellous actions of the Athenians, which have passed +into oblivion through time and the destruction of the human race and one +in particular, which was the greatest of them all, the recital of which +will be a suitable testimony of our gratitude to you.... + +Socrates. Very good; and what is this ancient famous action of which +Critias spoke, not as a mere legend, but as a veritable action of the +Athenian State, which Solon recounted! + +Critias. I will tell an old-world story which I heard from an aged man; +for Critias was, as he said, at that time nearly ninety years of age, +and I was about ten years of age. Now the day was that day of the +Apaturia which is called the registration of youth; at which, according +to custom, our parents gave prizes for recitations, and the poems of +several poets were recited by us boys, and many of us sung the poems of +Solon, which were new at the time. One of our tribe, either because this +was his real opinion, or because he thought that he would please +Critias, said that, in his judgment, Solon was not only the wisest of +men but the noblest of poets. The old man, I well remember, brightened +up at this, and said, smiling: "Yes, Amynander, if Solon had only, like +other poets, made poetry the business of his life, and had completed the +tale which he brought with him from Egypt, and had not been compelled, +by reason of the factions and troubles which he found stirring in this +country when he came home, to attend to other matters, in my opinion he +would have been as famous as Homer, or Hesiod, or any poet." + +"And what was that poem about, Critias?" said the person who addressed +him. + +"About the greatest action which the Athenians ever did, and which ought +to have been most famous, but which, through the lapse of time and the +destruction of the actors, has not come down to us." + +"Tell us," said the other, "the whole story, and how and from whom Solon +heard this veritable tradition." + +He replied: "At the head of the Egyptian Delta, where the river Nile +divides, there is a certain district which is called the district of +Sais, and the great city of the district is also called Sais, and is the +city from which Amasis the king was sprung. And the citizens have a +deity who is their foundress: she is called in the Egyptian tongue +Neith, which is asserted by them to be the same whom the Hellenes called +Athene. Now, the citizens of this city are great lovers of the +Athenians, and say that they are in some way related to them. Thither +came Solon, who was received by them with great honor; and he asked the +priests, who were most skilful in such matters, about antiquity, and +made the discovery that neither he nor any other Hellene knew anything +worth mentioning about the times of old. On one occasion, when he was +drawing them on to speak of antiquity, he began to tell about the most +ancient things in our part of the world--about Phoroneus, who is called +'the first,' and about Niobe; and, after the Deluge, to tell of the +lives of Deucalion and Pyrrha; and he traced the genealogy of their +descendants, and attempted to reckon how many years old were the events +of which he was speaking, and to give the dates. Thereupon, one of the +priests, who was of very great age; said, 'O Solon, Solon, you Hellenes +are but children, and there is never an old man who is an Hellene.' +Solon, bearing this, said, 'What do you mean?' 'I mean to say,' he +replied, 'that in mind you are all young; there is no old opinion handed +down among you by ancient tradition, nor any science which is hoary with +age. And I will tell you the reason of this: there have been, and there +will be again, many destructions of mankind arising out of many causes. +There is a story which even you have preserved, that once upon a time +Phaëthon, the son of Helios, having yoked the steeds in his father's +chariot, because he was not able to drive them in the path of his +father, burnt up all that was upon the earth, and was himself destroyed +by a thunderbolt. Now, this has the form of a myth, but really signifies +a declination of the bodies moving around the earth and in the heavens, +and a great conflagration of things upon the earth recurring at long +intervals of time: when this happens, those who live upon the mountains +and in dry and lofty places are more liable to destruction than those +who dwell by rivers or on the sea-shore; and from this calamity the +Nile, who is our never-failing savior, saves and delivers us. When, on +the other hand, the gods purge the earth with a deluge of water, among +you herdsmen and shepherds on the mountains are the survivors, whereas +those of you who live in cities are carried by the rivers into the sea; +but in this country neither at that time nor at any other does the water +come from above on the fields, having always a tendency to come up from +below, for which reason the things preserved here are said to be the +oldest. The fact is, that wherever the extremity of winter frost or of +summer sun does not prevent, the human race is always increasing at +times, and at other times diminishing in numbers. And whatever happened +either in your country or in ours, or in any other region of which we +are informed--if any action which is noble or great, or in any other way +remarkable has taken place, all that has been written down of old, and +is preserved in our temples; whereas you and other nations are just +being provided with letters and the other things which States require; +and then, at the usual period, the stream from heaven descends like a +pestilence, and leaves only those of you who are destitute of letters +and education; and thus you have to begin all over again as children, +and know nothing of what happened in ancient times, either among us or +among yourselves. As for those genealogies of yours which you have +recounted to us, Solon, they are no better than the tales of children; +for, in the first place, you remember one deluge only, whereas there +were many of them; and, in the next place, you do not know that there +dwelt in your land the fairest and noblest race of men which ever lived, +of whom you and your whole city are but a seed or remnant. And this was +unknown to you, because for many generations the survivors of that +destruction died and made no sign. For there was a time, Solon, before +that great deluge of all, when the city which now is Athens was first in +war, and was preeminent for the excellence of her laws, and is said to +have performed the noblest deeds, and to have had the fairest +constitution of any of which tradition tells, under the face of heaven.' +Solon marvelled at this, and earnestly requested the priest to inform +him exactly and in order about these former citizens. 'You are welcome +to hear about them, Solon,' said the priest, 'both for your own sake and +for that of the city; and, above all, for the sake of the goddess who is +the common patron and protector and educator of both our cities. She +founded your city a thousand years before ours, receiving from the Earth +and Hephæstus the seed of your race, and then she founded ours, the +constitution of which is set down in our sacred registers as 8000 years +old. As touching the citizens of 9000 years ago, I will briefly inform +you of their laws and of the noblest of their actions; and the exact +particulars of the whole we will hereafter go through at our leisure, in +the sacred registers themselves. If you compare these very laws with +your own, you will find that many of ours are the counterpart of yours, +as they were in the olden time. In the first place, there is the caste +of priests, which is separated from all the others; next there are the +artificers, who exercise their several crafts by themselves, and without +admixture of any other; and also there is the class of shepherds and +that of hunters, as well as that of husbandmen; and you will observe, +too, that the warriors in Egypt are separated from all the other +classes, and are commanded by the law only to engage in war; moreover, +the weapons with which they are equipped are shields and spears, and +this the goddess taught first among you, and then in Asiatic countries, +and we among the Asiatics first adopted. + +"'Then, as to wisdom, do you observe what care the law took from the +very first, searching out and comprehending the whole order of things +down to prophecy and medicine (the latter with a view to health); and +out of these divine elements drawing what was needful for human life, +and adding every sort of knowledge which was connected with them. All +this order and arrangement the goddess first imparted to you when +establishing your city; and she chose the spot of earth in which you +were born, because she saw that the happy temperament of the seasons in +that land would produce the wisest of men. Wherefore the goddess, who +was a lover both of war and of wisdom, selected, and first of all +settled that spot which was the most likely to produce men likest +herself. And there you dwelt, having such laws as these and still better +ones, and excelled all mankind in all virtue, as became the children and +disciples of the gods. Many great and wonderful deeds are recorded of +your State in our histories; but one of them exceeds all the rest in +greatness and valor; for these histories tell of a mighty power which +was aggressing wantonly against the whole of Europe and Asia, and to +which your city put an end. This power came forth out of the Atlantic +Ocean, for in those days the Atlantic was navigable; and there was an +island situated in front of the straits which you call the Columns of +Heracles: the island was larger than Libya and Asia put together, and +was the way to other islands, and from the islands you might pass +through the whole of the opposite continent which surrounded the true +ocean; for this sea which is within the Straits of Heracles is only a +harbor, having a narrow entrance, but that other is a real sea, and the +surrounding land may be most truly called a continent. Now, in the +island of Atlantis there was a great and wonderful empire, which had +rule over the whole island and several others, as well as over parts of +the continent; and, besides these, they subjected the parts of Libya +within the Columns of Heracles as far as Egypt, and of Europe as far as +Tyrrhenia. The vast power thus gathered into one, endeavored to subdue +at one blow our country and yours, and the whole of the land which was +within the straits; and then, Solon, your country shone forth, in the +excellence of her virtue and strength, among all mankind; for she was +the first in courage and military skill, and was the leader of the +Hellenes. And when the rest fell off from her, being compelled to stand +alone, after having undergone the very extremity of danger, she defeated +and triumphed over the invaders, and preserved from slavery those who +were not yet subjected, and freely liberated all the others who dwelt +within the limits of Heracles. But afterward there occurred violent +earthquakes and floods, and in a single day and night of rain all your +warlike men in a body sunk into the earth, and the island of Atlantis in +like manner disappeared, and was sunk beneath the sea. And that is the +reason why the sea in those parts is impassable and impenetrable, +because there is such a quantity of shallow mud in the way; and this was +caused by the subsidence of the island.' ("Plato's Dialogues," ii., 617, +Timæus.)... + +"But in addition to the gods whom you have mentioned, I would specially +invoke Mnemosyne; for all the important part of what I have to tell is +dependent on her favor, and if I can recollect and recite enough of what +was said by the priests, and brought hither by Solon, I doubt not that I +shall satisfy the requirements of this theatre. To that task, then, I +will at once address myself. + +"Let me begin by observing, first of all, that nine thousand was the sum +of years which had elapsed since the war which was said to have taken +place between all those who dwelt outside the Pillars of Heracles and +those who dwelt within them: this war I am now to describe. Of the +combatants on the one side the city of Athens was reported to have been +the ruler, and to have directed the contest; the combatants on the other +side were led by the kings of the islands of Atlantis, which, as I was +saying, once had an extent greater than that of Libya and Asia; and, +when afterward sunk by an earthquake, became an impassable barrier of +mud to voyagers sailing from hence to the ocean. The progress of the +history will unfold the various tribes of barbarians and Hellenes which +then existed, as they successively appear on the scene; but I must begin +by describing, first of all, the Athenians as they were in that day, and +their enemies who fought with them; and I shall have to tell of the +power and form of government of both of them. Let us give the precedence +to Athens.... + +"Many great deluges have taken place during the nine thousand years, for +that is the number of years which have elapsed since the time of which I +am speaking; and in all the ages and changes of things there has never +been any settlement of the earth flowing down from the mountains, as in +other places, which is worth speaking of; it has always been carried +round in a circle, and disappeared in the depths below. The consequence +is that, in comparison of what then was, there are remaining in small +islets only the bones of the wasted body, as they may be called, all the +richer and softer parts of the soil having fallen away, and the mere +skeleton of the country being left.... + +"And next, if I have not forgotten what I heard when I was a child, I +will impart to you the character and origin of their adversaries; for +friends should not keep their stories to themselves, but have them in +common. Yet, before proceeding farther in the narrative, I ought to warn +you that you must not be surprised if you should bear Hellenic names +given to foreigners. I will tell you the reason of this: Solon, who was +intending to use the tale for his poem, made an investigation into the +meaning of the names, and found that the early Egyptians, in writing +them down, had translated them into their own language, and he recovered +the meaning of the several names and retranslated them, and copied them +out again in our language. My great-grandfather, Dropidas, had the +original writing, which is still in my possession, and was carefully +studied by me when I was a child. Therefore, if you bear names such as +are used in this country, you must not be surprised, for I have told you +the reason of them. + +"The tale, which was of great length, began as follows: I have before +remarked, in speaking of the allotments of the gods, that they +distributed the whole earth into portions differing in extent, and made +themselves temples and sacrifices. And Poseidon, receiving for his lot +the island of Atlantis, begat children by a mortal woman, and settled +them in a part of the island which I will proceed to describe. On the +side toward the sea, and in the centre of the whole island, there was a +plain which is said to have been the fairest of all plains, and very +fertile. Near the plain again, and also in the centre of the island, at +a distance of about fifty stadia, there was a mountain, not very high on +any side. In this mountain there dwelt one of the earth-born primeval +men of that country, whose name was Evenor, and he had a wife named +Leucippe, and they had an only daughter, who was named Cleito. The +maiden was growing up to womanhood when her father and mother died; +Poseidon fell in love with her, and had intercourse with her; and, +breaking the ground, enclosed the hill in which she dwelt all round, +making alternate zones of sea and land, larger and smaller, encircling +one another; there were two of land and three of water, which he turned +as with a lathe out of the centre of the island, equidistant every way, +so that no man could get to the island, for ships and voyages were not +yet heard of. He himself, as he was a god, found no difficulty in making +special arrangements for the centre island, bringing two streams of +water under the earth, which he caused to ascend as springs, one of warm +water and the other of cold, and making every variety of food to spring +up abundantly in the earth. He also begat and brought up five pairs of +male children, dividing the island of Atlantis into ten portions: he +gave to the first-born of the eldest pair his mother's dwelling and the +surrounding allotment, which was the largest and best, and made him king +over the rest; the others he made princes, and gave them rule over many +men and a large territory. And he named them all: the eldest, who was +king, he named Atlas, and from him the whole island and the ocean +received the name of Atlantic. To his twin-brother, who was born after +him, and obtained as his lot the extremity of the island toward the +Pillars of Heracles, as far as the country which is still called the +region of Gades in that part of the world, he gave the name which in the +Hellenic language is Eumelus, in the language of the country which is +named after him, Gadeirus. Of the second pair of twins, he called one +Ampheres and the other Evæmon. To the third pair of twins he gave the +name Mneseus to the elder, and Autochthon to the one who followed him. +Of the fourth pair of twins he called the elder Elasippus and the +younger Mestor. And of the fifth pair he gave to the elder the name of +Azaes, and to the younger Diaprepes. All these and their descendants +were the inhabitants and rulers of divers islands in the open sea; and +also, as has been already said, they held sway in the other direction +over the country within the Pillars as far as Egypt and Tyrrhenia. Now +Atlas had a numerous and honorable family, and his eldest branch always +retained the kingdom, which the eldest son handed on to his eldest for +many generations; and they had such an amount of wealth as was never +before possessed by kings and potentates, and is not likely ever to be +again, and they were furnished with everything which they could have, +both in city and country. For, because of the greatness of their empire, +many things were brought to them from foreign countries, and the island +itself provided much of what was required by them for the uses of life. +In the first place, they dug out of the earth whatever was to be found +there, mineral as well as metal, and that which is now only a name, and +was then something more than a name--orichalcum--was dug out of the +earth in many parts of the island, and, with the exception of gold, was +esteemed the most precious of metals among the men of those days. There +was an abundance of wood for carpenters' work, and sufficient +maintenance for tame and wild animals. Moreover, there were a great +number of elephants in the island, and there was provision for animals +of every kind, both for those which live in lakes and marshes and +rivers, and also for those which live in mountains and on plains, and +therefore for the animal which is the largest and most voracious of +them. Also, whatever fragrant things there are in the earth, whether +roots, or herbage, or woods, or distilling drops of flowers or fruits, +grew and thrived in that land; and again, the cultivated fruit of the +earth, both the dry edible fruit and other species of food, which we +call by the general name of legumes, and the fruits having a hard rind, +affording drinks, and meats, and ointments, and good store of chestnuts +and the like, which may be used to play with, and are fruits which spoil +with keeping--and the pleasant kinds of dessert which console us after +dinner, when we are full and tired of eating--all these that sacred +island lying beneath the sun brought forth fair and wondrous in infinite +abundance. All these things they received from the earth, and they +employed themselves in constructing their temples, and palaces, and +harbors, and docks; and they arranged the whole country in the following +manner: First of all they bridged over the zones of sea which surrounded +the ancient metropolis, and made a passage into and out of they began to +build the palace in the royal palace; and then the habitation of the god +and of their ancestors. This they continued to ornament in successive +generations, every king surpassing the one who came before him to the +utmost of his power, until they made the building a marvel to behold for +size and for beauty. And, beginning from the sea, they dug a canal three +hundred feet in width and one hundred feet in depth, and fifty stadia in +length, which they carried through to the outermost zone, making a +passage from the sea up to this, which became a harbor, and leaving an +opening sufficient to enable the largest vessels to find ingress. +Moreover, they divided the zones of land which parted the zones of sea, +constructing bridges of such a width as would leave a passage for a +single trireme to pass out of one into another, and roofed them over; +and there was a way underneath for the ships, for the banks of the zones +were raised considerably above the water. Now the largest of the zones +into which a passage was cut from the sea was three stadia in breadth, +and the zone of land which came next of equal breadth; but the next two, +as well the zone of water as of land, were two stadia, and the one which +surrounded the central island was a stadium only in width. The island in +which the palace was situated had a diameter of five stadia. This, and +the zones and the bridge, which was the sixth part of a stadium in +width, they surrounded by a stone wall, on either side placing towers, +and gates on the bridges where the sea passed in. The stone which was +used in the work they quarried from underneath the centre island and +from underneath the zones, on the outer as well as the inner side. One +kind of stone was white, another black, and a third red; and, as they +quarried, they at the same time hollowed out docks double within, having +roofs formed out of the native rock. Some of their buildings were +simple, but in others they put together different stones, which they +intermingled for the sake of ornament, to be a natural source of +delight. The entire circuit of the wall which went round the outermost +one they covered with a coating of brass, and the circuit of the next +wall they coated with tin, and the third, which encompassed the citadel +flashed with the red light of orichalcum. The palaces in the interior of +the citadel were constructed in this wise: In the centre was a holy +temple dedicated to Cleito and Poseidon, which remained inaccessible, +and was surrounded by an enclosure of gold; this was the spot in which +they originally begat the race of the ten princes, and thither they +annually brought the fruits of the earth in their season from all the +ten portions, and performed sacrifices to each of them. Here, too, was +Poiseidon's own temple, of a stadium in length and half a stadium in +width, and of a proportionate height, having a sort of barbaric +splendor. All the outside of the temple, with the exception of the +pinnacles, they covered with silver, and the pinnacles with gold. In the +interior of the temple the roof was of ivory, adorned everywhere with +gold and silver and orichalcum; all the other parts of the walls and +pillars and floor they lined with orichalcum. In the temple they placed +statues of gold: there was the god himself standing in a chariot--the +charioteer of six winged horses--and of such a size that he touched the +roof of the building with his head; around him there were a hundred +Nereids riding on dolphins, for such was thought to be the number of +them in that day. There were also in the interior of the temple other +images which had been dedicated by private individuals. And around the +temple on the outside were placed statues of gold of all the ten kings +and of their wives; and there were many other great offerings, both of +kings and of private individuals, coming both from the city itself and +the foreign cities over which they held sway. There was an altar, too, +which in size and workmanship corresponded to the rest of the work, and +there were palaces in like manner which answered to the greatness of the +kingdom and the glory of the temple. + +"In the next place, they used fountains both of cold and hot springs; +these were very abundant, and both kinds wonderfully adapted to use by +reason of the sweetness and excellence of their waters. They constructed +buildings about them, and planted suitable trees; also cisterns, some +open to the heaven, other which they roofed over, to be used in winter +as warm baths, there were the king's baths, and the baths of private +persons, which were kept apart; also separate baths for women, and +others again for horses and cattle, and to them they gave as much +adornment as was suitable for them. The water which ran off they +carried, some to the grove of Poseidon, where were growing all manner of +trees of wonderful height and beauty, owing to the excellence of the +soil; the remainder was conveyed by aqueducts which passed over the +bridges to the outer circles: and there were many temples built and +dedicated to many gods; also gardens and places of exercise, some for +men, and some set apart for horses, in both of the two islands formed by +the zones; and in the centre of the larger of the two there was a +race-course of a stadium in width, and in length allowed to extend all +round the island, for horses to race in. Also there were guard-houses at +intervals for the body-guard, the more trusted of whom had their duties +appointed to them in the lesser zone, which was nearer the Acropolis; +while the most trusted of all had houses given them within the citadel, +and about the persons of the kings. The docks were full of triremes and +naval stores, and all things were quite ready for use. Enough of the +plan of the royal palace. Crossing the outer harbors, which were three +in number, you would come to a wall which began at the sea and went all +round: this was everywhere distant fifty stadia from the largest zone +and harbor, and enclosed the whole, meeting at the mouth of the channel +toward the sea. The entire area was densely crowded with habitations; +and the canal and the largest of the harbors were full of vessels and +merchants coming from all parts, who, from their numbers, kept up a +multitudinous sound of human voices and din of all sorts night and day. +I have repeated his descriptions of the city and the parts about the +ancient palace nearly as he gave them, and now I must endeavor to +describe the nature and arrangement of the rest of the country. The +whole country was described as being very lofty and precipitous on the +side of the sea, but the country immediately about and surrounding the +city was a level plain, itself surrounded by mountains which descended +toward the sea; it was smooth and even, but of an oblong shape, +extending in one direction three thousand stadia, and going up the +country from the sea through the centre of the island two thousand +stadia; the whole region of the island lies toward the south, and is +sheltered from the north. The surrounding mountains he celebrated for +their number and size and beauty, in which they exceeded all that are +now to be seen anywhere; having in them also many wealthy inhabited +villages, and rivers and lakes, and meadows supplying food enough for +every animal, wild or tame, and wood of various sorts, abundant for +every kind of work. I will now describe the plain, which had been +cultivated during many ages by many generations of kings. It was +rectangular, and for the most part straight and oblong; and what it +wanted of the straight line followed the line of the circular ditch. The +depth and width and length of this ditch were incredible and gave the +impression that such a work, in addition to so many other works, could +hardly have been wrought by the hand of man. But I must say what I have +heard. It was excavated to the depth of a hundred feet, and its breadth +was a stadium everywhere; it was carried round the whole of the plain, +and was ten thousand stadia in length. It received the streams which +came down from the mountains, and winding round the plain, and touching +the city at various points, was there let off into the sea. From above, +likewise, straight canals of a hundred feet in width were cut in the +plain, and again let off into the ditch, toward the sea; these canals +were at intervals of a hundred stadia, and by them they brought, down +the wood from the mountains to the city, and conveyed the fruits of the +earth in ships, cutting transverse passages from one canal into another, +and to the city. Twice in the year they gathered the fruits of the +earth--in winter having the benefit of the rains, and in summer +introducing the water of the canals. As to the population, each of the +lots in the plain had an appointed chief of men who were fit for +military service, and the size of the lot was to be a square of ten +stadia each way, and the total number of all the lots was sixty thousand. + +"And of the inhabitants of the mountains and of the rest of the country +there was also a vast multitude having leaders, to whom they were +assigned according to their dwellings and villages. The leader was +required to furnish for the war the sixth portion of a war-chariot, so +as to make up a total of ten thousand chariots; also two horses and +riders upon them, and a light chariot without a seat, accompanied by a +fighting man on foot carrying a small shield, and having a charioteer +mounted to guide the horses; also, he was bound to furnish two +heavy-armed men, two archers, two slingers, three stone-shooters, and +three javelin men, who were skirmishers, and four sailors to make up a +complement of twelve hundred ships. Such was the order of war in the +royal city--that of the other nine governments was different in each of +them, and would be wearisome to narrate. As to offices and honors, the +following was the arrangement from the first: Each of the ten kings, in +his own division and in his own city, had the absolute control of the +citizens, and in many cases of the laws, punishing and slaying +whomsoever he would. + +"Now the relations of their governments to one another were regulated by +the injunctions of Poseidon as the law had handed them down. These were +inscribed by the first men on a column of orichalcum, which was situated +in the middle of the island, at the temple of Poseidon, whither the +people were gathered together every fifth and sixth years alternately, +thus giving equal honor to the odd and to the even number. And when they +were gathered together they consulted about public affairs, and inquired +if any one had transgressed in anything, and passed judgment on him +accordingly--and before they passed judgment they gave their pledges to +one another in this wise: There were bulls who had the range of the +temple of Poseidon; and the ten who were left alone in the temple, after +they had offered prayers to the gods that they might take the sacrifices +which were acceptable to them, hunted the bulls without weapons, but +with staves and nooses; and the bull which they caught they led up to +the column; the victim was then struck on the head by them, and slain +over the sacred inscription. Now on the column, besides the law, there +was inscribed an oath invoking mighty curses on the disobedient. When, +therefore, after offering sacrifice according to their customs, they had +burnt the limbs of the bull, they mingled a cup and cast in a clot of +blood for each of them; the rest of the victim they took to the fire, +after having made a purification of the column all round. Then they drew +from the cup in golden vessels, and, pouring a libation on the fire, +they swore that they would judge according to the laws on the column, +and would punish any one who had previously transgressed, and that for +the future they would not, if they could help, transgress any of the +inscriptions, and would not command or obey any ruler who commanded them +to act otherwise than according to the laws of their father Poseidon. +This was the prayer which each of them offered up for himself and for +his family, at the same time drinking, and dedicating the vessel in the +temple of the god; and, after spending some necessary time at supper, +when darkness came on and the fire about the sacrifice was cool, all of +them put on most beautiful azure robes, and, sitting on the ground at +night near the embers of the sacrifices on which they had sworn, and +extinguishing all the fire about the temple, they received and gave +judgement, if any of them had any accusation to bring against any one; +and, when they had given judgment, at daybreak they wrote down their +sentences on a golden tablet, and deposited them as memorials with their +robes. There were many special laws which the several kings had +inscribed about the temples, but the most important was the following: +That they were not to take up arms against one another, and they were +all to come to the rescue if any one in any city attempted to over-throw +the royal house. Like their ancestors, they were to deliberate in +common about war and other matters, giving the supremacy to the family +of Atlas; and the king was not to have the power of life and death over +any of his kinsmen, unless he had the assent of the majority of the ten +kings. + +"Such was the vast power which the god settled in the lost island of +Atlantis; and this he afterward directed against our land on the +following pretext, as traditions tell: For many generations, as long as +the divine nature lasted in them, they were obedient to the laws, and +well-affectioned toward the gods, who were their kinsmen; for they +possessed true and in every way great spirits, practising gentleness and +wisdom in the various chances of life, and in their intercourse with one +another. They despised everything but virtue, not caring for their +present state of life, and thinking lightly on the possession of gold +and other property, which seemed only a burden to them; neither were +they intoxicated by luxury; nor did wealth deprive them of their +self-control; but they were sober, and saw clearly that all these goods +are increased by virtuous friendship with one another, and that by +excessive zeal for them, and honor of them, the good of them is lost, +and friendship perishes with them. + +"By such reflections, and by the continuance in them of a divine nature, +all that which we have described waxed and increased in them; but when +this divine portion began to fade away in them, and became diluted too +often, and with too much of the mortal admixture, and the human nature +got the upper-hand, then, they being unable to bear their fortune, +became unseemly, and to him who had an eye to see, they began to appear +base, and had lost the fairest of their precious gifts; but to those who +had no eye to see the true happiness, they still appeared glorious and +blessed at the very time when they were filled with unrighteous avarice +and power. Zeus, the god of gods, who rules with law, and is able to see +into such things, perceiving that an honorable race was in a most +wretched state, and wanting to inflict punishment on them, that they +might be chastened and improved, collected all the gods into his most +holy habitation, which, being placed in the centre of the world, sees +all things that partake of generation. And when he had called them +together he spake as follows:" + +[Here Plato's story abruptly ends.] + +CHAPTER III. + +THE PROBABILITIES OF PLATO'S STORY. + +There is nothing improbable in this narrative, so far as it describes a +great, rich, cultured, and educated people. Almost every part of Plato's +story can be paralleled by descriptions of the people of Egypt or Peru; +in fact, in some respects Plato's account of Atlantis falls short of +Herodotus's description of the grandeur of Egypt, or Prescott's picture +of the wealth and civilization of Peru. For instance, Prescott, in his +"Conquest of Peru" (vol. i., p. 95), says: + +"The most renowned of the Peruvian temples, the pride of the capital and +the wonder of the empire, was at Cuzco, where, under the munificence of +successive sovereigns, it had become so enriched that it received the +name of Coricancha, or 'the Place of Gold.'... The interior of the +temple was literally a mine of gold. On the western wall was emblazoned +a representation of the Deity, consisting of a human countenance looking +forth from amid innumerable rays of light, which emanated from it in +every direction, in the same manner as the sun is often personified with +us. The figure was engraved on a massive plate of gold, of enormous +dimensions, thickly powdered with emeralds and precious stones.... +The walls and ceilings were everywhere incrusted with golden ornaments; +every part of the interior of the temple glowed with burnished plates +and studs of the precious metal; the cornices were of the same material." + +There are in Plato's narrative no marvels; no myths; no tales of gods, +gorgons, hobgoblins, or giants. It is a plain and reasonable history of +a people who built temples, ships, and canals; who lived by agriculture +and commerce: who in pursuit of trade, reached out to all the countries +around them. The early history of most nations begins with gods and +demons, while here we have nothing of the kind; we see an immigrant +enter the country, marry one of the native women, and settle down; in +time a great nation grows up around him. It reminds one of the +information given by the Egyptian priests to Herodotus. "During the +space of eleven thousand three hundred and forty years they assert," says +Herodotus, "that no divinity has appeared in human shape, ... they +absolutely denied the possibility of a human being's descent from a +god." If Plato had sought to draw from his imagination a wonderful and +pleasing story, we should not have had so plain and reasonable a +narrative. He would have given us a history like the legends of Greek +mythology, full of the adventures of gods and goddesses, nymphs, fauns, +and satyrs. + +Neither is there any evidence on the face of this history that Plato +sought to convey in it a moral or political lesson, in the guise of a +fable, as did Bacon in the "New Atlantis," and More in the "Kingdom of +Nowhere." There is no ideal republic delineated here. It is a +straightforward, reasonable history of a people ruled over by their +kings, living and progressing as other nations have lived and progressed +since their day. + +Plato says that in Atlantis there was "a great and wonderful empire," +which "aggressed wantonly against the whole of Europe and Asia," thus +testifying to the extent of its dominion. It not only subjugated Africa +as far as Egypt, and Europe as far as Italy, but it ruled "as well over +parts of the continent," to wit, "the opposite continent" of America, +"which surrounded the true ocean." Those parts of America over which it +ruled were, as we will show hereafter, Central America, Peru, and the +Valley of the Mississippi, occupied by the "Mound Builders." + +Moreover, he tells us that "this vast power was gathered into one;" that +is to say, from Egypt to Peru it was one consolidated empire. We will +see hereafter that the legends of the Hindoos as to Deva Nahusha +distinctly refer to this vast empire, which covered the whole of the +known world. + +Another corroboration of the truth of Plato's narrative is found in the +fact that upon the Azores black lava rocks, and rocks red and white in +color, are now found. He says they built with white, red, and black +stone. Sir C. Wyville Thomson describes a narrow neck of land between +Fayal and Monte da Guia, called "Monte Queimada" (the burnt mountain), +as follows: "It is formed partly of stratified tufa of a dark chocolate +color, and partly of lumps of black lava, porous, and each with a large +cavity in the centre, which must have been ejected as volcanic bombs in +a glorious display of fireworks at some period beyond the records of +Acorean history, but late in the geological annals of the island." +("Voyage of the Challenger," vol. ii., p. 24). He also describes immense +walls of black volcanic rock in the island. + +The plain of Atlantis, Plato tells us, "had been cultivated during many +ages by many generations of kings." If, as we believe, agriculture, the +domestication of the horse, ox, sheep, goat, and hog, and the discovery +or development of wheat, oats, rye, and barley originated in this +region, then this language of Plato in reference to "the many ages, and +the successive generations of kings," accords with the great periods of +time which were necessary to bring man from a savage to a civilized +condition. + +In the great ditch surrounding the whole land like a circle, and into +which streams flowed down from the mountains, we probably see the +original of the four rivers of Paradise, and the emblem of the cross +surrounded by a circle, which, as we will show hereafter, was, from the +earliest pre-Christian ages, accepted as the emblem of the Garden of +Eden. + +We know that Plato did not invent the name of Poseidon, for the worship +of Poseidon was universal in the earliest ages of Europe; +"Poseidon-worship seems to have been a peculiarity of all the colonies +previous to the time of Sidon." ("Prehistoric Nations," p. 148.) This +worship "was carried to Spain, and to Northern Africa, but most +abundantly to Italy, to many of the islands, and to the regions around +the Ægean Sea; also to Thrace." (Ibid., p. 155.) + +Poseidon, or Neptune, is represented in Greek mythology as a sea-god; +but he is figured as standing in a war-chariot drawn by horses. The +association of the horse (a land animal) with a sea-god is inexplicable, +except with the light given by Plato. Poseidon was a sea-god because he +ruled over a great land in the sea, and was the national god of a +maritime people; he is associated with horses, because in Atlantis the +horse was first domesticated; and, as Plato shows, the Atlanteans had +great race-courses for the development of speed in horses; and Poseidon +is represented as standing in a war-chariot, because doubtless wheeled +vehicles were first invented by the same people who tamed the horse; and +they transmitted these war-chariots to their descendants from Egypt to +Britain. We know that horses were the favorite objects chosen for +sacrifice to Poseidon by the nations of antiquity within the Historical +Period; they were killed, and cast into the sea from high precipices. +The religious horse-feasts of the pagan Scandinavians were a survival of +this Poseidon-worship, which once prevailed along all the coasts of +Europe; they continued until the conversion of the people to +Christianity, and were then suppressed by the Church with great +difficulty. + +We find in Plato's narrative the names of some of the Phoenician deities +among the kings of Atlantis. Where did the Greek, Plato, get these names +if the story is a fable? + +Does Plato, in speaking of "the fruits having a hard rind, affording +drinks and meats and ointments," refer to the cocoa nut? + +Again: Plato tells us that Atlantis abounded in both cold and hot +springs. How did he come to hit upon the hot springs if he was drawing a +picture from his imagination? It is a singular confirmation of his story +that hot springs abound in the Azores, which are the surviving fragments +of Atlantis; and an experience wider than that possessed by Plato has +taught scientific men that hot springs are a common feature of regions +subject to volcanic convulsions. + +Plato tells us, "The whole country was very lofty and precipitous on the +side of the sea, but the country immediately about and surrounding the +city was a level plain, itself surrounded by mountains which descended +toward the sea." One has but to look at the profile of the "Dolphin's +Ridge," as revealed by the deep-sea soundings of the Challenger, given +as the frontispiece to this volume, to see that this is a faithful +description of that precipitous elevation. "The surrounding mountains," +which sheltered the plain from the north, are represented in the present +towering peaks of the Azores. + +Plato tells us that the destruction of Atlantis filled the sea with mud, +and interfered with navigation. For thousands of years the ancients +believed the Atlantic Ocean to be "a muddy, shallow, dark, and misty +sea, Mare tenebrosum." ("Cosmos," vol. ii., p. 151.) + +The three-pronged sceptre or trident of Poseidon reappears constantly in +ancient history. We find it in the hands of Hindoo gods, and at the base +of all the religious beliefs of antiquity. + +"Among the numerals the sacred three has ever been considered the mark +of perfection, and was therefore exclusively ascribed to the Supreme +Deity, or to its earthly representative--a king, emperor, or any +sovereign. For this reason triple emblems of various shapes are found on +the belts, neckties, or any encircling fixture, as can be seen on the +works of ancient art in Yucatan, Guatemala, Chiapas, Mexico, etc., +whenever the object has reference to divine supremacy." (Dr. Arthur +Schott, "Smith. Rep.," 1869, p. 391.) + +We are reminded of the "tiara," and the "triple round of sovereignty." + +In the same manner the ten kingdoms of Atlantis are perpetuated in all +the ancient traditions. + +"In the number given by the Bible for the Antediluvian patriarchs we +have the first instance of a striking agreement with the traditions of +various nations. Ten are mentioned in the Book of Genesis. Other +nations, to whatever epoch they carry back their ancestors, whether +before or after the Deluge, whether the mythical or historical character +prevail, they are constant to this sacred number ten, which some have +vainly attempted to connect with the speculations of later religious +philosophers on the mystical value of numbers. In Chaldea, Berosus +enumerates ten Antediluvian kings whose fabulous reign extended to +thousands of years. The legends of the Iranian race commence with the +reign of ten Peisdadien (Poseidon?) kings, 'men of the ancient law, who +lived on pure Homa (water of life)' (nectar?), 'and who preserved their +sanctity.' In India we meet with the nine Brahmadikas, who, with Brahma, +their founder, make ten, and who are called the Ten Petris, or Fathers. +The Chinese count ten emperors, partakers of the divine nature, before +the dawn of historical times. The Germans believed in the ten ancestors +of Odin, and the Arabs in the ten mythical kings of the Adites." +(Lenormant and Chevallier, "Anc. Hist. of the East," vol. i., p. 13.) + +The story of Plato finds confirmation from other sources. + +An extract preserved in Proclus, taken from a work now lost, which is +quoted by Boeckh in his commentary on Plato, mentions islands in the +exterior sea, beyond the Pillars of Hercules, and says it was known that +in one of these islands "the inhabitants preserved from their ancestors +a remembrance of Atlantis, an extremely large island, which for a long +time held dominion over all the islands of the Atlantic Ocean." + +Ælian, in his "Varia Historia" (book iii., chap. xviii.), tells us that +Theopompus (400 B.C.) related the particulars of an interview between +Midas, King of Phrygia, and Silenus, in which Silenus reported the +existence of a great continent beyond the Atlantic, "larger than Asia, +Europe, and Libya together." He stated that a race of men called Meropes +dwelt there, and had extensive cities. They were persuaded that their +country alone was a continent. Out of curiosity some of them crossed the +ocean and visited the Hyperboreans. + +"The Gauls possessed traditions upon the subject of Atlantis which were +collected by the Roman historian Timagenes, who lived in the first +century before Christ. He represents that three distinct people dwelt in +Gaul: 1. The indigenous population, which I suppose to be Mongoloids, +who had long dwelt in Europe; 2. The invaders from a distant island, +which I understand to be Atlantis; 3. The Aryan Gauls." ("Preadamites," +p. 380.) + +Marcellus, in a work on the Ethiopians, speaks of seven islands lying in +the Atlantic Ocean--probably the Canaries--and the inhabitants of these +islands, he says, preserve the memory of a much greater island, +Atlantis, "which had for a long time exercised dominion over the smaller +ones." (Didot Müller, "Fragmenta Historicorum Græcorum," vol. iv., p. +443.) + +Diodorus Siculus relates that the Phoenicians discovered "a large island +in the Atlantic Ocean, beyond the Pillars of Hercules, several days' +sail from the coast of Africa. This island abounded in all manner of +riches. The soil was exceedingly fertile; the scenery was diversified by +rivers, mountains, and forests. It was the custom of the inhabitants to +retire during the summer to magnificent country-houses, which stood in +the midst of beautiful gardens. Fish and game were found in great +abundance; the climate was delicious, and the trees bore fruit at all +seasons of the year." Homer, Plutarch, and other ancient writers mention +islands situated in the Atlantic, "several thousand stadia from the +Pillars of Hercules." Silenus tells Midas that there was another +continent besides Europe, Asia, and Africa--"a country where gold and +silver are so plentiful that they are esteemed no more than we esteem +iron." St. Clement, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, says that there +were other worlds beyond the ocean. + +Attention may here be called to the extraordinary number of instances in +which allusion is made in the Old Testament to the "islands of the sea," +especially in Isaiah and Ezekiel. What had an inland people, like the +Jews, to do with seas and islands? Did these references grow out of +vague traditions linking their race with "islands in the sea?" + +The Orphic Argonaut sings of the division of the ancient Lyktonia into +separate islands. He says, "When the dark-haired Poseidon, in anger with +Father Kronion, struck Lyktonia with the golden trident." + +Plato states that the Egyptians told Solon that the destruction of +Atlantis occurred 9000 years before that date, to wit, about 9600 years +before the Christian era. This looks like an extraordinarily long period +of time, but it must be remembered that geologists claim that the +remains of man found in the caves of Europe date back 500,000 years; and +the fossil Calaveras skull was found deep under the base of Table +Mountain, California, the whole mountain having been formed since the +man to whom it belonged lived and died. + +"M. Oppert read an essay at the Brussels Congress to show, from the +astronomical observations of the Egyptians and Assyrians, that 11,542 +years before our era man existed on the earth at such a stage of +civilization as to be able to take note of astronomical phenomena, and +to calculate with considerable accuracy the length of the year. The +Egyptians, says he, calculated by cycles of 1460 years--zodiacal cycles, +as they were called. Their year consisted of 365 days, which caused them +to lose one day in every four solar years, and, consequently, they would +attain their original starting-point again only after 1460 years (365 x +4). Therefore, the zodiacal cycle ending in the year 139 of our era +commenced in the year 1322 B.C. On the other hand, the Assyrian cycle +was 1805 years, or 22,325 lunations. An Assyrian cycle began 712 B.C. +The Chaldeans state that between the Deluge and their first historic +dynasty there was a period of 39,180 years. Now, what means, this +number? It stands for 12 Egyptian zodiacal cycles plus 12 Assyrian lunar +cycles. + + +--------------------+----------+ + | 12 X 1460 = 17,520 | | + +--------------------+----------+ + | | = 39,180 | + +--------------------+----------+ + | 12 X 1805 = 21,660 | | + +--------------------+----------+ + +"These two modes of calculating time are in agreement with each other, +and were known simultaneously to one people, the Chaldeans. Let us now +build up the series of both cycles, starting from our era, and the +result will be as follows: + + +-----------------+--------------+ + | Zodiacal Cycle. | Lunar Cycle. | + +-----------------+--------------+ + | 1,460 | 1,805 | + +-----------------+--------------+ + | 1,822 | 712 | + +-----------------+--------------+ + | _____ | _____ | + +-----------------+--------------+ + | 2,782 | 2,517 | + +-----------------+--------------+ + | 4,242 | 4,322 | + +-----------------+--------------+ + | 5,702 | 6,127 | + +-----------------+--------------+ + | 7,162 | 7,932 | + +-----------------+--------------+ + | 8,622 | 9,737 | + +-----------------+--------------+ + | 10,082 | 11,542 | + +-----------------+--------------+ + | 11,542 | | + +-----------------+--------------+ + +"At the year 11,542 B.C. the two cycles came together, and consequently +they had on that year their common origin in one and the same +astronomical observation." + +That observation was probably made in Atlantis. + +The wide divergence of languages which is found to exist among the +Atlanteans at the beginning of the Historical Period implies a vast +lapse of time. The fact that the nations of the Old World remembered so +little of Atlantis, except the colossal fact of its sudden and +overwhelming destruction, would also seem to remove that event into a +remote past. + +Herodotus tells us that he learned from the Egyptians that Hercules was +one of their most ancient deities, and that he was one of the twelve +produced from the eight gods, 17,000 years before the reign of Amasis. + +In short, I fail to see why this story of Plato, told as history, +derived from the Egyptians, a people who, it is known, preserved most +ancient records, and who were able to trace their existence back to a +vast antiquity, should have been contemptuously set aside as a fable by +Greeks, Romans, and the modern world. It can only be because our +predecessors, with their limited knowledge of the geological history of +the world, did not believe it possible that any large part of the +earth's surface could have been thus suddenly swallowed up by the sea. + +Let us then first address ourselves to that question. + +CHAPTER IV. + +WAS SUCH A CATASTROPHE POSSIBLE? + +All that is needed to answer this question is to briefly refer to some +of the facts revealed by the study of geology. + +In the first place, the earth's surface is a record of successive +risings and fallings of the land. The accompanying picture represents a +section of the anthracite coal-measures of Pennsylvania. Each of the +coal deposits here shown, indicated by the black lines, was created when +the land had risen sufficiently above the sea to maintain vegetation; +each of the strata of rock, many of them hundreds of feet in thickness, +was deposited under water. Here we have twenty-three different changes +of the level of the land during the formation of 2000 feet of rock and +coal; and these changes took place over vast areas, embracing thousands +of square miles. + +All the continents which now exist were, it is well understood, once, +under water, and the rocks of which they are composed were deposited +beneath the water; more than this, most of the rocks so deposited were +the detritus or washings of other continents, which then stood where the +oceans now roll, and whose mountains and plains were ground down by the +action of volcanoes and earthquakes, and frost, ice, wind, and rain, and +washed into the sea, to form the rocks upon which the nations now dwell; +so that we have changed the conditions of land and water: that which is +now continent was once sea, and that which is now sea was formerly +continent. There can be no question that the Australian Archipelago is +simply the mountain-tops of a drowned continent, which once reached from +India to South America. Science has gone so far as to even give it a +name; it is called "Lemuria," and here, it is claimed, the human race +originated. An examination of the geological formation of our Atlantic +States proves beyond a doubt, from the manner in which the sedimentary +rocks, the sand, gravel, and mud--aggregating a thickness of 45,000 +feet--are deposited, that they came from the north and east. "They +represent the detritus of pre-existing lands, the washings of rain, +rivers, coast-currents, and other agencies of erosion; and since the +areas supplying the waste could scarcely have been of less extent than +the new strata it formed, it is reasonably inferred that land masses of +continental magnitude must have occupied the region now covered by the +North Atlantic before America began to be, and onward at least through +the palæozoic ages of American history. The proof of this fact is that +the great strata of rocks are thicker the nearer we approach their +source in the east: the maximum thickness of the palæozoic rocks of the +Appalachian formation is 25,000 to 35,000 feet in Pennsylvania and +Virginia, while their minimum thickness in Illinois and Missouri is from +3000 to 4000 feet; the rougher and grosser-textured rocks predominate in +the east, while the farther west we go the finer the deposits were of +which the rocks are composed; the finer materials were carried farther +west by the water." ("New Amer. Cyclop.," art. Coal.) + + DESTRUCTION OF POMPEII + +The history of the growth of the European Continent, as recounted by +Professor Geikie, gives an instructive illustration of the relations of +geology to geography. The earliest European land, he says, appears to +have existed in the north and north-west, comprising Scandinavia, +Finland, and the northwest of the British area, and to have extended +thence through boreal and arctic latitudes into North America. Of the +height and mass of this primeval land some idea may be formed by +considering the enormous bulk of the material derived from its +disintegration. In the Silurian formations of the British Islands alone +there is a mass of rock, worn from the land, which would form a +mountain-chain extending from Marseilles to the North Cape (1800 miles), +with a mean breadth of over thirty-three miles, and an average height of +16,000 feet. + +As the great continent which stood where the Atlantic Ocean now is wore +away, the continents of America and Europe were formed; and there seems +to have been from remote times a continuous rising, still going on, of +the new lands, and a sinking of the old ones. Within five thousand +years, or since the age of the "polished stone," the shores of Sweden, +Denmark, and Norway have risen from 200 to 600 feet. + +Professor Winchell says ("The Preadamites," p. 437): + +"We are in the midst of great changes, and are scarcely conscious of +it. We have seen worlds in flames, and have felt a comet strike the +earth. We have seen the whole coast of South America lifted up bodily +ten or fifteen feet and let down again in an hour. We have seen the +Andes sink 220 feet in seventy years.... Vast transpositions have taken +place in the coast-line of China. The ancient capital, located, in all +probability, in an accessible position near the centre of the empire, +has now become nearly surrounded by water, and its site is on the +peninsula of Corea.... There was a time when the rocky barriers of +the Thracian Bosphorus gave way and the Black Sea subsided. It had +covered a vast area in the north and east. Now this area became drained, +and was known as the ancient Lectonia: it is now the prairie region of +Russia, and the granary of Europe." + +There is ample geological evidence that at one time the entire area of +Great Britain was submerged to the depth of at least seventeen hundred +feet. Over the face of the submerged land was strewn thick beds of sand, +gravel, and clay, termed by geologists "the Northern Drift." The British +Islands rose again from the sea, bearing these water-deposits on their +bosom. What is now Sicily once lay deep beneath the sea: It subsequently +rose 3000 feet above the sea-level. The Desert of Sahara was once under +water, and its now burning sands are a deposit of the sea. + +Geologically speaking, the submergence of Atlantis, within the +historical period, was simply the last of a number of vast changes, by +which the continent which once occupied the greater part of the Atlantic +had gradually sunk under the ocean, while the new lands were rising on +both sides of it. + +We come now to the second question, Is it possible that Atlantis could +have been suddenly destroyed by such a convulsion of nature as is +described by Plato? The ancients regarded this part of his story as a +fable. With the wider knowledge which scientific research has afforded +the modern world, we can affirm that such an event is not only possible, +but that the history of even the last two centuries has furnished us +with striking parallels for it. We now possess the record of numerous +islands lifted above the waters, and others sunk beneath the waves, +accompanied by storms and earthquakes similar to those which marked the +destruction of Atlantis. + +In 1783 Iceland was visited by convulsions more tremendous than any +recorded in the modern annals of that country. About a month previous to +the eruption on the main-land a submarine volcano burst forth in the +sea, at a distance of thirty miles from the shore. It ejected so much +pumice that the sea was covered with it for a distance of 150 miles, and +ships were considerably impeded in their course. A new island was thrown +up, consisting of high cliffs, which was claimed by his Danish Majesty, +and named "Nyöe," or the New Island; but before a year had elapsed it +sunk beneath the sea, leaving a reef of rocks thirty fathoms under water. + +The earthquake of 1783 in Iceland destroyed 9000 people out of a +population of 50,000; twenty villages were consumed by fire or inundated +by water, and a mass of lava thrown out "greater than the entire bulk of +Mont Blanc." + +On the 8th of October, 1822, a great earthquake occurred on the island +of Java, near the mountain of Galung Gung. "A loud explosion was heard, +the earth shook, and immense columns of hot water and boiling mud, mixed +with burning brimstone, ashes, and lapilli, of the size of nuts, were +projected from the mountain like a water-spout, with such prodigious +violence that large quantities fell beyond the river Tandoi, which is +forty miles distant.... The first eruption lasted nearly five hours; +and on the following days the rain fell in torrents, and the rivers, +densely charged with mud, deluged the country far and wide. At the end +of four days (October 12th), a second eruption occurred, more violent +than the first, in which hot water and mud were again vomited, and great +blocks of basalt were thrown to the distance of seven miles from the +volcano. There was at the same time a violent earthquake, the face of +the mountain was utterly changed, its summits broken down, and one side, +which had been covered with trees, became an enormous gulf in the form +of a semicircle. Over 4000 persons were killed and 114 villages +destroyed." (Lyell's "Principles of Geology," p. 430.) + +In 1831 a new island was born in the Mediterranean, near the coast of +Sicily. It was called Graham's Island. It came up with an earthquake, +and "a water-spout sixty feet high and eight hundred yards in +circumference rising from the sea." In about a month the island was two +hundred feet high and three miles in circumference; it soon, however, +sank beneath the sea. + +The Canary Islands were probably a part of the original empire of +Atlantis. On the 1st of September, 1730, the earth split open near Yaiza, +in the island of Lancerota. In one night a considerable hill of ejected +matter was thrown up; in a few days another vent opened and gave out a +lava stream which overran several villages. It flowed at first rapidly, +like water, but became afterward heavy and slow, like honey. On the 11th +of September more lava flowed out, covering up a village, and +precipitating itself with a horrible roar into the sea. Dead fish +floated on the waters in indescribable multitudes, or were thrown dying +on the shore; the cattle throughout the country dropped lifeless to the +ground, suffocated by putrid vapors, which condensed and fell down in +drops. These manifestations were accompanied by a storm such as the +people of the country had never known before. These dreadful commotions +lasted for five years. The lavas thrown out covered one-third of the +whole island of Lancerota. + + CALABRIAN PEASANTS INGULFED BY CREVASSES (1783). + +The Gulf of Santorin, in the Grecian Archipelago, has been for two +thousand years a scene of active volcanic operations. Pliny informs us +that in the year 186 B.C. the island of "Old Kaimeni," or the Sacred +Isle, was lifted up from the sea; and in A.D. 19 the island of "Thia" +(the Divine) made its appearance. In A.D. 1573 another island was +created, called "the small sunburnt island." In 1848 a volcanic +convulsion of three months' duration created a great shoal; an +earthquake destroyed many houses in Thera, and the sulphur and hydrogen +issuing from the sea killed 50 persons and 1000 domestic animals. A +recent examination of these islands shows that the whole mass of +Santorin has sunk, since its projection from the sea, over 1200 feet. + +The fort and village of Sindree, on the eastern arm of the Indus, above +Luckput, was submerged in 1819 by an earthquake, together with a tract +of country 2000 square miles in extent. + +"In 1828 Sir A. Burnes went in a boat to the ruins of Sindree, where a +single remaining tower was seen in the midst of a wide expanse of sea. +The tops of the ruined walls still rose two or three feet above the +level of the water; and, standing on one of these, he could behold +nothing in the horizon but water, except in one direction, where a blue +streak of land to the north indicated the Ullah Bund. This scene," says +Lyell ("Principles of Geology," p. 462), "presents to the imagination a +lively picture of the revolutions now in progress on the earth--a waste +of waters where a few years before all was land, and the only land +visible consisting of ground uplifted by a recent earthquake." + +We give from Lyell's great work the following curious pictures of the +appearance of the Fort of Sindree before and after the inundation. + + FORT OF SINDEE, ON THE EASTERN BRANCH OF THE INDUS, BEFORE IT WAS + SUBMERGED BY THE EARTHQUAKE OF 1819. + +In April, 1815, one of the most frightful eruptions recorded in history +occurred in the province of Tomboro, in the island of Sumbawa, about two +hundred miles from the eastern extremity of Java. It lasted from April +5th to July of that year; but was most violent on the 11th and 12th of +July. The sound of the explosions was heard for nearly one thousand +miles. Out of a population of 12,000, in the province of Tombora, only +twenty-six individuals escaped. "Violent whirlwinds carried up men, +horses, and cattle into the air, tore up the largest trees by the +roots, and covered the whole sea with floating timber." (Raffles's +"History of Java," vol. i., p. 28.) The ashes darkened the air; "the +floating cinders to the westward of Sumatra formed, on the 12th of +April, a mass two feet thick and several miles in extent, through which +ships with difficulty forced their way." The darkness in daytime was +more profound than the blackest night. "The town called Tomboro, on the +west side of Sumbawa, was overflowed by the sea, which encroached upon +the shore, so that the water remained permanently eighteen feet deep in +places where there was land before." The area covered by the convulsion +was 1000 English miles in circumference. "In the island of Amboyna, in +the same month and year, the ground opened, threw out water and then +closed again." (Raffles's "History of Java," vol. i., p. 25.) + + VIEW OF THE FORT OF SINDREE FROM THE WEST IN MARCH, 1839. + +But it is at that point of the European coast nearest to the site of +Atlantis at Lisbon that the most tremendous earthquake of modern times +has occurred. On the 1st of November, 1775, a sound of thunder was heard +underground, and immediately afterward a violent shock threw down the +greater part of the city. In six minutes 60,000 persons perished. A +great concourse of people had collected for safety upon a new quay, +built entirely of marble; but suddenly it sunk down with all the people +on it, and not one of the dead bodies ever floated to the surface. A +great number of small boats and vessels anchored near it, and, full of +people, were swallowed up as in a whirlpool. No fragments of these +wrecks ever rose again to the surface; the water where the quay went +down is now 600 feet deep. The area covered by this earthquake was very +great. Humboldt says that a portion of the earth's surface, four times +as great as the size of Europe, was simultaneously shaken. It extended +from the Baltic to the West Indies, and from Canada to Algiers. At eight +leagues from Morocco the ground opened and swallowed a village of 10,000 +inhabitants, and closed again over them. + +It is very probable that the centre of the convulsion was in the bed of +the Atlantic, at or near the buried island of Atlantis, and that it was +a successor of the great earth throe which, thousands of years before, +had brought destruction upon that land. + + ERUPTION OF VESUVIUS IN 1737. + +Ireland also lies near the axis of this great volcanic area, reaching +from the Canaries to Iceland, and it has been many times in the past the +seat of disturbance. The ancient annals contain numerous accounts of +eruptions, preceded by volcanic action. In 1490, at the Ox Mountains, +Sligo, one occurred by which one hundred persons and numbers of cattle +were destroyed; and a volcanic eruption in May, 1788, on the hill of +Knocklade, Antrim, poured a stream of lava sixty yards wide for +thirty-nine hours, and destroyed the village of Ballyowen and all the +inhabitants, save a man and his wife and two children. ("Amer. Cyclop.," +art. Ireland.) + +While we find Lisbon and Ireland, east of Atlantis, subjected to these +great earthquake shocks, the West India Islands, west of the same +centre, have been repeatedly visited in a similar manner. In 1692 +Jamaica suffered from a violent earthquake. The earth opened, and great +quantities of water were cast out; many people were swallowed up in +these rents; the earth caught some of them by the middle and squeezed +them to death; the heads of others only appeared above-ground. A tract +of land near the town of Port Royal, about a thousand acres in extent, +sunk down in less than one minute, and the sea immediately rolled in. + +The Azore Islands are undoubtedly the peaks of the mountains of +Atlantis. They are even yet the centre of great volcanic activity. They +have suffered severely from eruptions and earthquakes. In 1808 a volcano +rose suddenly in San Jorge to the height of 3500 feet, and burnt for six +days, desolating the entire island. In 1811 a volcano rose from the sea, +near San Miguel, creating an island 300 feet high, which was named +Sambrina, but which soon sunk beneath the sea. Similar volcanic +eruptions occurred in the Azores in 1691 and 1720. + +Along a great line, a mighty fracture in the surface of the globe, +stretching north and south through the Atlantic, we find a continuous +series of active or extinct volcanoes. In Iceland we have Oerafa, Hecla, +and Rauda Kamba; another in Pico, in the Azores; the peak of Teneriffe; +Fogo, in one of the Cape de Verde Islands: while of extinct volcanoes we +have several in Iceland, and two in Madeira; while Fernando de Noronha, +the island of Ascension, St. Helena, and Tristan d'Acunha are all of +volcanic origin. ("Cosmos," vol. v., p. 331.) + +The following singular passage we quote entire from Lyell's "Principles +of Geology," p. 436: + +"In the Nautical Magazine for 1835, p. 642, and for 1838, p. 361, and in +the Comptes Rendus, April, 1838, accounts are given of a series of +volcanic phenomena, earthquakes, troubled water, floating scoria, and +columns of smoke, which have been observed at intervals since the middle +of the last century, in a space of open sea between longitudes 20° and +22' W., about half a degree south of the equator. These facts, says Mr. +Darwin, seem to show that an island or archipelago is in process of +formation in the middle of the Atlantic. A line joining St. Helena and +Ascension would, if prolonged, intersect this slowly nascent focus of +volcanic action. Should land be eventually formed here, it will not be +the first that has been produced by igneous action in this ocean since +it was inhabited by the existing species of testacea. At Porto Praya, in +St. Jago, one of the Azores, a horizontal, calcareous stratum occurs, +containing shells of recent marine species, covered by a great sheet of +basalt eighty feet thick. It would be difficult to estimate too highly +the commercial and political importance which a group of islands might +acquire if, in the next two or three thousand years, they should rise in +mid-ocean between St. Helena and Ascension." + +These facts would seem to show that the great fires which destroyed +Atlantis are still smouldering in the depths of the ocean; that the vast +oscillations which carried Plato's continent beneath the sea may again +bring it, with all its buried treasures, to the light; and that even the +wild imagination of Jules Verne, when he described Captain Nemo, in his +diving armor, looking down upon the temples and towers of the lost +island, lit by the fires of submarine volcanoes, had some groundwork of +possibility to build upon. + +But who will say, in the presence of all the facts here enumerated, that +the submergence of Atlantis, in some great world-shaking cataclysm, is +either impossible or improbable? As will be shown hereafter, when we +come to discuss the Flood legends, every particular which has come down +to us of the destruction of Atlantis has been duplicated in some of the +accounts just given. + +We conclude, therefore: 1. That it is proven beyond question, by +geological evidence, that vast masses of land once existed in the region +where Atlantis is located by Plato, and that therefore such an island +must have existed; 2. That there is nothing improbable or impossible in +the statement that it was destroyed suddenly by an earthquake "in one +dreadful night and day." + +CHAPTER. V. + +THE TESTIMONY OF THE SEA. + +Suppose we were to find in mid-Atlantic, in front of the Mediterranean, +in the neighborhood of the Azores, the remains of an immense island, +sunk beneath the sea--one thousand miles in width, and two or three +thousand miles long--would it not go far to confirm the statement of +Plato that, "beyond the strait where you place the Pillars of Hercules, +there was an island larger than Asia (Minor) and Libya combined," called +Atlantis? And suppose we found that the Azores were the mountain peaks +of this drowned island, and were torn and rent by tremendous volcanic +convulsions; while around them, descending into the sea, were found +great strata of lava; and the whole face of the sunken land was covered +for thousands of miles with volcanic débris, would we not be obliged to +confess that these facts furnished strong corroborative proofs of the +truth of Plato's statement, that "in one day and one fatal night there +came mighty earthquakes and inundations which ingulfed that mighty +people? Atlantis disappeared beneath the sea; and then that sea became +inaccessible on account of the quantity of mud which the ingulfed island +left in its place." + + MAP OF ATLANTIS, WITH ITS ISLANDS AND CONNECTING RIDGES, FROM DEEP-SEA + SOUNDINGS + +And all these things recent investigation has proved conclusively. +Deep-sea soundings have been made by ships of different nations; the +United States ship Dolphin, the German frigate Gazelle, and the British +ships Hydra, Porcupine, and Challenger have mapped out the bottom of the +Atlantic, and the result is the revelation of a great elevation, +reaching from a point on the coast of the British Islands southwardly to +the coast of South America, at Cape Orange, thence south-eastwardly to +the coast of Africa, and thence southwardly to Tristan d'Acunha. I give +one map showing the profile of this elevation in the frontispiece, and +another map, showing the outlines of the submerged land, on page 47. It +rises about 9000 feet above the great Atlantic depths around it, and in +the Azores, St. Paul's Rocks, Ascension, and Tristan d'Acunha it reaches +the surface of the ocean. + +Evidence that this elevation was once dry land is found in the fact that +"the inequalities, the mountains and valleys of its surface, could never +have been produced in accordance with any laws for the deposition of +sediment, nor by submarine elevation; but, on the contrary, must have +been carved by agencies acting above the water level." (Scientific +American, July 28th, 1877.) + +Mr. J. Starke Gardner, the eminent English geologist, is of the opinion +that in the Eocene Period a great extension of land existed to the west +of Cornwall. Referring to the location of the "Dolphin" and "Challenger" +ridges, he asserts that "a great tract of land formerly existed where +the sea now is, and that Cornwall, the Scilly and Channel Islands, +Ireland and Brittany, are the remains of its highest summits." (Popular +Science Review, July, 1878.) + +Here, then, we have the backbone of the ancient continent which once +occupied the whole of the Atlantic Ocean, and from whose washings Europe +and America were constructed; the deepest parts of the ocean, 3500 +fathoms deep, represent those portions which sunk first, to wit, the +plains to the east and west of the central mountain range; some of the +loftiest peaks of this range--the Azores, St. Paul's, Ascension, Tristan +d'Acunba--are still above the ocean level; while the great body of +Atlantis lies a few hundred fathoms beneath the sea. In these +"connecting ridges" we see the pathway which once extended between the +New World and the Old, and by means of which the plants and animals of +one continent travelled to the other; and by the same avenues black men +found their way, as we will show hereafter, from Africa to America, and +red men from America to Africa. + +And, as I have shown, the same great law which gradually depressed the +Atlantic continent, and raised the lands east and west of it, is still +at work: the coast of Greenland, which may be regarded as the northern +extremity of the Atlantic continent, is still sinking "so rapidly that +ancient buildings on low rock-islands are now submerged, and the +Greenlander has learned by experience never to build near the water's +edge," ("North Amer. of Antiq.," p. 504.) The same subsidence is going +on along the shore of South Carolina and Georgia, while the north of +Europe and the Atlantic coast of South America are rising rapidly. Along +the latter raised beaches, 1180 miles long and from 100 to 1300 feet +high, have been traced. + +When these connecting ridges extended from America to Europe and Africa, +they shut off the flow of the tropical waters of the ocean to the north: +there was then no "Gulf Stream;" the land-locked ocean that laved the +shores of Northern Europe was then intensely cold; and the result was +the Glacial Period. When the barriers of Atlantis sunk sufficiently to +permit the natural expansion of the heated water of the tropics to the +north, the ice and snow which covered Europe gradually disappeared; the +Gulf Stream flowed around Atlantis, and it still retains the circular +motion first imparted to it by the presence of that island. + +The officers of the Challenger found the entire ridge of Atlantis +covered with volcanic deposits; these are the subsided mud which, as +Plato tells us, rendered the sea impassable after the destruction of the +island. + +It does not follow that, at the time Atlantis was finally ingulfed, the +ridges connecting it with America and Africa rose above the water-level; +these may have gradually subsided into the sea, or have gone down in +cataclysms such as are described in the Central American books. The +Atlantis of Plato may have been confined to the "Dolphin Ridge" of our +map. + + ANCIENT ISLANDS BETWEEN ATLANTIS AND THE MEDITERRANEAN, FROM DEEP-SEA + SOUNDINGS + +The United States sloop Gettysburg has also made some remarkable +discoveries in a neighboring field. I quote from John James Wild (in +Nature, March 1st, 1877, p. 377): + +"The recently announced discovery by Commander Gorringe, of the United +States sloop Gettysburg, of a bank of soundings bearing N. 85° W., and +distant 130 miles from Cape St. Vincent, during the last voyage of the +vessel across the Atlantic, taken in connection with previous soundings +obtained in the same region of the North Atlantic, suggests the probable +existence of a submarine ridge or plateau connecting the island of +Madeira with the coast of Portugal, and the probable subaerial +connection in prehistoric times of that island with the south-western +extremity of Europe."... "These soundings reveal the existence of a +channel of an average depth of from 2000 to 3000 fathoms, extending in a +northeasterly direction from its entrance between Madeira and the Canary +Islands toward Cape St. Vincent.... Commander Gorringe, when about +150 miles from the Strait of Gibraltar, found that the soundings +decreased from 2700 fathoms to 1600 fathoms in the distance of a few +miles. The subsequent soundings (five miles apart) gave 900, 500, 400, +and 100 fathoms; and eventually a depth of 32 fathoms was obtained, in +which the vessel anchored. The bottom was found to consist of live pink +coral, and the position of the bank in lat. 36° 29' N., long. 11° 33' W." + +The map on page 51 shows the position of these elevations. They must +have been originally islands;--stepping-stones, as it were, between +Atlantis and the coast of Europe. + +Sir C. Wyville Thomson found that the specimens of the fauna of the +coast of Brazil, brought up in his dredging-machine, are similar to +those of the western coast of Southern Europe. This is accounted for by +the connecting ridges reaching from Europe to South America. + +A member of the Challenger staff, in a lecture delivered in London, soon +after the termination of the expedition, gave it as his opinion that the +great submarine plateau is the remains of "the lost Atlantis." + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE TESTIMONY OF THE FLORA AND FAUNA. + +Proofs are abundant that there must have been at one time uninterrupted +land communication between Europe and America. In the words of a writer +upon this subject, + +"When the animals and plants of the Old and New World are compared, one +cannot but be struck with their identity; all or nearly all belong to +the same genera, while many, even of the species, are common to both +continents. This is most important in its bearing on our theory, as +indicating that they radiated from a common centre after the Glacial +Period.... The hairy mammoth, woolly-haired rhinoceros, the Irish +elk, the musk-ox, the reindeer, the glutton, the lemming, etc., more or +less accompanied this flora, and their remains are always found in the +post-glacial deposits of Europe as low down as the South of France. In +the New World beds of the same age contain similar remains, indicating +that they came from a common centre, and were spread out over both +continents alike." (Westminster Review, January, 1872, p. 19.) + +Recent discoveries in the fossil beds of the Bad Lands of Nebraska prove +that the horse originated in America. Professor Marsh, of Yale College, +has identified the several preceding forms from which it was developed, +rising, in the course of ages, from a creature not larger than a fox +until, by successive steps, it developed into the true horse. How did +the wild horse pass from America to Europe and Asia if there was not +continuous land communication between the two continents? He seems to +have existed in Europe in a wild state prior to his domestication by man. + +The fossil remains of the camel are found in India, Africa, South +America, and in Kansas. The existing alpacas and llamas of South America +are but varieties of the camel family. + +The cave bear, whose remains are found associated with the bones of the +mammoth and the bones and works of man in the caves of Europe, was +identical with the grizzly bear of our Rocky Mountains. The musk-ox, +whose relics are found in the same deposits, now roams the wilds of +Arctic America. The glutton of Northern Europe, in the Stone Age, is +identical with the wolverine of the United States. According to +Rutimeyer, the ancient bison (Bos priscus) of Europe was identical with +the existing American buffalo. "Every stage between the ancient cave +bison and the European aurochs can be traced." The Norway elk, now +nearly extinct, is identical with the American moose. The Cervus +Americanus found in Kentucky was as large as the Irish elk, which it +greatly resembled. The lagomys, or tailless hare, of the European caves, +is now found in the colder regions of North America. The reindeer, which +once occupied Europe as far down as France, was the same as the reindeer +of America. Remains of the cave lion of Europe (Felix speloæ), a larger +beast than the largest of the existing species, have been found at +Natchez, Mississippi. The European cave wolf was identical with the +American wolf. + +Cattle were domesticated among the people of Switzerland during the +earliest part of the Stone Period (Darwin's "Animals Under +Domestication," vol. i., p. 103), that is to say, before the Bronze Age +and the Age of Iron. Even at that remote period they had already, by +long-continued selection, been developed out of wild forms akin to the +American buffalo. M. Gervais ("Hist. Nat. des Mammifores," vol. xi., p. +191) concludes that the wild race from which our domestic sheep was +derived is now extinct. The remains of domestic sheep are found in the +debris of the Swiss lake-dwellings during the Stone Age. The domestic +horse, ass, lion, and goat also date back to a like great antiquity. We +have historical records 7000 years old, and during that time no similar +domestication of a wild animal has been made. This fact speaks volumes +as to the vast period, of time during which man must have lived in a +civilized state to effect the domestication of so many and such useful +animals. + +And when we turn from the fauna to the flora, we find the same state of +things. + +An examination of the fossil beds of Switzerland of the Miocene Age +reveals the remains of more than eight hundred different species of +flower-bearing plants, besides mosses, ferns, etc. The total number of +fossil plants catalogued from those beds, cryptogamous as well as +phænogamous, is upward of three thousand. The majority of these species +have migrated to America. There were others that passed into Asia, +Africa, and even to Australia. The American types are, however, in the +largest proportion. The analogues of the flora of the Miocene Age of +Europe now grow in the forests of Virginia, North and South Carolina, +and Florida; they include such familiar examples as magnolias, +tulip-trees, evergreen oaks, maples, plane-trees, robinas, sequoias, +etc. It would seem to be impossible that these trees could have migrated +from Switzerland to America unless there was unbroken land communication +between the two continents. + +It is a still more remarkable fact that a comparison of the flora of the +Old World and New goes to show that not only was there communication by +land, over which the plants of one continent could extend to another, +but that man must have existed, and have helped this transmigration, in +the case of certain plants that were incapable of making the journey +unaided. + +Otto Kuntze, a distinguished German botanist, who has spent many years +in the tropics, announces his conclusion that "In America and in Asia +the principal domesticated tropical plants are represented by the same +species." He instances the Manihot utilissima, whose roots yield a fine +flour; the tarro (Colocasia esculenta), the Spanish or red pepper, the +tomato, the bamboo, the guava, the mango-fruit, and especially the +banana. He denies that the American origin of tobacco, maize, and the +cocoa-nut is proved. He refers to the Paritium tiliaceum, a malvaceous +plant, hardly noticed by Europeans, but very highly prized by the +natives of the tropics, and cultivated everywhere in the East and West +Indies; it supplies to the natives of these regions so far apart their +ropes and cordage. It is always seedless in a cultivated state. It +existed in America before the arrival of Columbus. + +But Professor Kuntze pays especial attention to the banana, or plantain. +The banana is seedless. It is found throughout tropical Asia and Africa. +Professor Kuntze asks, "In what way was this plant, which cannot stand a +voyage through the temperate zone, carried to America?" And yet it was +generally cultivated in America before 1492. Says Professor Kuntze, "It +must be remembered that the plantain is a tree-like, herbaceous plant, +possessing no easily transportable bulbs, like the potato or the dahlia, +nor propagable by cuttings, like the willow or the poplar. It has only a +perennial root, which, once planted, needs hardly any care, and yet +produces the most abundant crop of any known tropical plant." He then +proceeds to discuss how it could have passed from Asia to America. He +admits that the roots must have been transported from one country to the +other by civilized man. He argues that it could not have crossed the +Pacific from Asia to America, because the Pacific is nearly thrice or +four times as wide as the Atlantic. The only way he can account for the +plantain reaching America is to suppose that it was carried there when +the North Pole had a tropical climate! Is there any proof that civilized +man existed at the North Pole when it possessed the climate of Africa? + +Is it not more reasonable to suppose that the plantain, or banana, was +cultivated by the people of Atlantis, and carried by their civilized +agricultural colonies to the east and the west? Do we not find a +confirmation of this view in the fact alluded to by Professor Kuntze in +these words: "A cultivated plant which does not possess seeds must have +been under culture for a very long period--we have not in Europe a +single exclusively seedless, berry-bearing, cultivated plant--and hence +it is perhaps fair to infer that these plants were cultivated as early +as the beginning of the middle of the Diluvial Period." + +Is it possible that a plant of this kind could have been cultivated for +this immense period of time in both Asia and America? Where are the two +nations, agricultural and highly civilized, on those continents by whom +it was so cultivated? What has become of them? Where are the traces of +their civilization? All the civilizations of Europe, Asia, and Africa +radiated from the Mediterranean; the Hindoo-Aryans advanced from the +north-west; they were kindred to the Persians, who were next-door +neighbors to the Arabians (cousins of the Phoenicians), and who lived +along-side of the Egyptians, who had in turn derived their civilization +from the Phoenicians. + +It would be a marvel of marvels if one nation, on one continent, had +cultivated the banana for such a vast period of time until it became +seedless; the nation retaining a peaceful, continuous, agricultural +civilization during all that time. But to suppose that two nations could +have cultivated the same plant, under the same circumstances, on two +different continents, for the same unparalleled lapse of time, is +supposing an impossibility. + +We find just such a civilization as was necessary, according to Plato, +and under just such a climate, in Atlantis and nowhere else. We have +found it reaching, by its contiguous islands, within one hundred and +fifty miles of the coast of Europe on the one side, and almost touching +the West India Islands on the other, while, by its connecting ridges, it +bound together Brazil and Africa. + +But it may be said these animals and plants may have passed from Asia to +America across the Pacific by the continent of Lemuria; or there may +have been continuous land communication at one time at Behring's Strait. +True; but an examination of the flora of the Pacific States shows that +very many of the trees and plants common to Europe and the Atlantic +States are not to be seen west of the Rocky Mountains. The magnificent +magnolias, the tulip-trees, the plane-trees, etc., which were found +existing in the Miocene Age in Switzerland, and are found at the present +day in the United States, are altogether lacking on the Pacific coast. +The sources of supply of that region seem to have been far inferior to +the sources of supply of the Atlantic States. Professor Asa Gray tells +us that, out of sixty-six genera and one hundred and fifty-five species +found in the forests cast of the Rocky Mountains, only thirty-one genera +and seventy-eight species are found west of the mountains. The Pacific +coast possesses no papaw, no linden or basswood, no locust-trees, no +cherry-tree large enough for a timber tree, no gum-trees, no +sorrel-tree, nor kalmia; no persimmon-trees, not a holly, only one ash +that may be called a timber tree, no catalpa or sassafras, not a single +elm or hackberry, not a mulberry, not a hickory, or a beech, or a true +chestnut. These facts would seem to indicate that the forest flora of +North America entered it from the east, and that the Pacific States +possess only those fragments of it that were able to struggle over or +around the great dividing mountain-chain. + +We thus see that the flora and fauna of America and Europe testify not +only to the existence of Atlantis, but to the fact that in an earlier +age it must have extended from the shores of one continent to those of +the other; and by this bridge of land the plants and animals of one +region passed to the other. + +The cultivation of the cotton-plant and the manufacture of its product +was known to both the Old and New World. Herodotus describes it (450 +B.C.) as the tree of India that bears a fleece more beautiful than that +of the sheep. Columbus found the natives of the West Indies using cotton +cloth. It was also found in Mexico and Peru. It is a significant fact +that the cotton-plant has been found growing wild in many parts of +America, but never in the Old World. This would seem to indicate that +the plant was a native of America; and this is confirmed by the +superiority of American cotton, and the further fact that the plants +taken from America to India constantly degenerate, while those taken +from India to America as constantly improve. + +There is a question whether the potato, maize, and tobacco were not +cultivated in China ages before Columbus discovered America. A recent +traveller says, "The interior of China, along the course of the +Yang-tse-Kiang, is a land full of wonders. In one place piscicultural +nurseries line the banks for nearly fifty miles. All sorts of +inventions, the cotton-gin included, claimed by Europeans and Americans, +are to be found there forty centuries old. Plants, yielding drugs of +great value, without number, the familiar tobacco and potato, maize, +white and yellow corn, and other plants believed to be indigenous to +America, have been cultivated there from time immemorial." + +Bonafous ("Histoire Naturelle du Mais," Paris, 1826) attributes a +European or Asiatic origin to maize. The word maize, (Indian corn) is +derived from mahiz or mahis, the name of the plant in the language of +the Island of Hayti. And yet, strange to say, in the Lettish and +Livonian languages, in the north of Europe, mayse signifies bread; in +Irish, maise is food, and in the Old High German, maz is meat. May not +likewise the Spanish maiz have antedated the time of Columbus, and borne +testimony to early intercommunication between the people of the Old and +New Worlds? + +It is to Atlantis we must look for the origin of nearly all our valuable +plants. Darwin says ("Animals and Plants under Domestication," vol. i., +p. 374), "It has often been remarked that we do not owe a single useful +plant to Australia, or the Cape of Good Hope--countries abounding to an +unparalleled degree with endemic species--or to New Zealand, or to +America south of the Plata; and, according to some authors, not to +America north of Mexico." In other words, the domesticated plants are +only found within the limits of what I shall show hereafter was the +Empire of Atlantis and its colonies; for only here was to be found an +ancient, long-continuing civilization, capable of developing from a wild +state those plants which were valuable to man, including all the cereals +on which to-day civilized man depends for subsistence. M. Alphonse de +Candolle tells us that we owe 33 useful plants to Mexico, Peru, and +Chili. According to the same high authority, of 157 valuable cultivated +plants 85 can be traced back to their wild state; as to 40, there is +doubt as to their origin; while 32 are utterly unknown in their +aboriginal condition. ("Geograph. Botan. Raisonnée," 1855, pp. 810-991.) +Certain roses--the imperial lily, the tuberose and the lilac--are said +to have been cultivated from such a vast antiquity that they are not +known in their wild state. (Darwin, "Animals and Plants," vol. i., p. +370.) And these facts are the more remarkable because, as De Candolle +has shown, all the plants historically known to have been first +cultivated in Europe still exist there in the wild state. (Ibid.) The +inference is strong that the great cereals--wheat, oats, barley, rye, +and maize--must have been first domesticated in a vast antiquity, or in +some continent which has since disappeared, carrying the original wild +plants with it. + + CEREALS OF THE AGE OF STONE IN EUROPE + +Darwin quotes approvingly the opinion of Mr. Bentham ("Hist. Notes Cult. +Plants"), "as the result of all the most reliable evidence that none of +the Ceralia--wheat, rye, barley, and oats--exist or have existed truly +wild in their present state." In the Stone Age of Europe five varieties +of wheat and three of barley were cultivated. (Darwin, "Animals and +Plants," vol. i., p. 382.) He says that it may be inferred, from the +presence in the lake habitations of Switzerland of a variety of wheat +known as the Egyptian wheat, and from the nature of the weeds that grew +among their crops, "that the lake inhabitants either still kept up +commercial intercourse with some southern people, or had originally +proceeded as colonists from the south." I should argue that they were +colonists from the land where wheat and barley were first domesticated, +to wit, Atlantis. And when the Bronze Age came, we find oats and rye +making their appearance with the weapons of bronze, together with a +peculiar kind of pea. Darwin concludes (Ibid., vol. i., p. 385) that +wheat, barley, rye, and oats were either descended from ten or fifteen +distinct species, "most of which are now unknown or extinct," or from +four or eight species closely resembling our present forms, or so +"widely different as to escape identification;" in which latter case, he +says, "man must have cultivated the cereals at an enormously remote +period," and at that time practised "some degree of selection." + +Rawlinson ("Ancient Monarchies," vol. i., p. 578) expresses the opinion +that the ancient Assyrians possessed the pineapple. "The representation +on the monuments is so exact that I can scarcely doubt the pineapple +being intended." (See Layard's "Nineveh and Babylon," p. 338.) The +pineapple (Bromelia ananassa) is supposed to be of American origin, and +unknown to Europe before the time of Columbus; and yet, apart from the +revelations of the Assyrian monuments, there has been some dispute upon +this point. ("Amer. Cyclop.," vol. xiii., p. 528.) + + ANCIENT IRISH PIPES + +It is not even certain that the use of tobacco was not known to the +colonists from Atlantis settled in Ireland in an age long prior to Sir +Walter Raleigh. Great numbers of pipes have been found in the raths and +tumuli of Ireland, which, there is every reason to believe, were placed +there by men of the Prehistoric Period. The illustration on p. 63 +represents some of the so-called "Danes' pipes" now in the collection of +the Royal Irish Academy. The Danes entered Ireland many centuries before +the time of Columbus, and if the pipes are theirs, they must have used +tobacco, or some substitute for it, at that early period. It is +probable, however, that the tumuli of Ireland antedate the Danes +thousands of years. + + ANCIENT INDIAN PIPE, NEW JERSEY + +Compare these pipes from the ancient mounds of Ireland with the +accompanying picture of an Indian pipe of the Stone Age of New Jersey. +("Smithsonian Rep.," 1875, p. 342.) + +Recent Portuguese travellers have found the most remote tribes of savage +negroes in Africa, holding no commercial intercourse with Europeans, +using strangely shaped pipes, in which they smoked a plant of the +country. Investigations in America lead to the conclusion that tobacco +was first burnt as an incense to the gods, the priest alone using the +pipe; and from this beginning the extraordinary practice spread to the +people, and thence over all the world. It may have crossed the Atlantic +in a remote age, and have subsequently disappeared with the failure of +retrograding colonists to raise the tobacco-plant. + +PART II. THE DELUGE. + +CHAPTER I. + +THE DESTRUCTION OF ATLANTIS DESCRIBED IN THE DELUGE LEGENDS. + +Having demonstrated, as we think successfully, that there is no +improbability in the statement of Plato that a large island, almost a +continent, existed in the past in the Atlantic Ocean, nay, more, that it +is a geological certainty that it did exist; and having further shown +that it is not improbable but very possible that it may have sunk +beneath the sea in the manner described by Plato, we come now to the +next question, Is the memory of this gigantic catastrophe preserved +among the traditions of mankind? We think there can be no doubt that an +affirmative answer must be given to this question. + +An event, which in a few hours destroyed, amid horrible convulsions, an +entire country, with all its vast population--that Population the +ancestors of the great races of both continents, and they themselves the +custodians of the civilization of their age--could not fail to impress +with terrible force the minds of men, and to project its gloomy shadow +over all human history. And hence, whether we turn to the Hebrews, the +Aryans, the Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Cushites, or the inhabitants of +America, we find everywhere traditions of the Deluge; and we shall see +that all these traditions point unmistakably to the destruction of +Atlantis. + +François Lenormant says (Contemp. Rev., Nov., 1879): + +"The result authorizes us to affirm the story of the Deluge to be a +universal tradition among all branches of the human race, with the one +exception, however, of the black. Now, a recollection thus precise and +concordant cannot be a myth voluntarily invented. No religious or +cosmogonic myth presents this character of universality. It must arise +from the reminiscence of a real and terrible event, so powerfully +impressing the imagination of the first ancestors of our race as never +to have been forgotten by their descendants. This cataclysm must have +occurred near the first cradle of mankind, and before the dispersion of +the families from which the principal races were to spring; for it would +be at once improbable and uncritical to admit that, at as many different +points of the globe as we should have to assume in order to explain the +wide spread of these traditions, local phenomena so exactly alike should +have occurred, their memory having assumed an identical form, and +presenting circumstances that need not necessarily have occurred to the +mind in such cases. + +"Let us observe, however, that probably the diluvian tradition is not +primitive, but imported in America; that it undoubtedly wears the aspect +of an importation among the rare populations of the yellow race where it +is found; and lastly, that it is doubtful among the Polynesians of +Oceania. There will still remain three great races to which it is +undoubtedly peculiar, who have not borrowed it from each other, but +among whom the tradition is primitive, and goes back to the most ancient +times, and these three races are precisely the only ones of which the +Bible speaks as being descended from Noah--those of which it gives the +ethnic filiation in the tenth chapter of Genesis. This observation, +which I hold to be undeniable, attaches a singularly historic and exact +value to the tradition as recorded by the Sacred Book, even if, on the +other hand, it may lead to giving it a more limited geographical and +ethnological significance.... + +"But, as the case now stands, we do not hesitate to declare that, far +from being a myth, the Biblical Deluge is a real and historical fact, +having, to say the least, left its impress on the ancestors of three +races--Aryan, or Indo-European, Semitic, or Syro-Arabian, Chamitic, or +Cushite--that is to say, on the three great civilized races of the +ancient world, those which constitute the higher humanity--before the +ancestors of those races had as yet separated, and in the part of Asia +they together inhabited." + +Such profound scholars and sincere Christians as M. Schoebel (Paris, +1858), and M. Omalius d'Halloy (Bruxelles, 1866), deny the universality +of the Deluge, and claim that "it extended only to the principal centre +of humanity, to those who remained near its primitive cradle, without +reaching the scattered tribes who had already spread themselves far away +in almost desert regions. It is certain that the Bible narrative +commences by relating facts common to the whole human species, confining +itself subsequently to the annals of the race peculiarly chosen by the +designs of Providence." (Lenormant and Chevallier, "Anc. Hist. of the +East," p. 44.) This theory is supported by that eminent authority on +anthropology, M. de Quatrefages, as well as by Cuvier; the Rev. R. p. +Bellynck, S.J., admits that it has nothing expressly opposed to +orthodoxy. + +Plato identifies "the great deluge of all" with the destruction of +Atlantis. The priest of Sais told Solon that before "the great deluge of +all" Athens possessed a noble race, who performed many noble deeds, the +last and greatest of which was resisting the attempts of Atlantis to +subjugate them; and after this came the destruction of Atlantis, and the +same great convulsion which overwhelmed that island destroyed a number +of the Greeks. So that the Egyptians, who possessed the memory of many +partial deluges, regarded this as "the great deluge of all." + +CHAPTER II. + +THE DELUGE OF THE BIBLE + +We give first the Bible history of the Deluge, as found in Genesis +(chap. vi. to chap. viii.): + +"And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the +earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the +daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all +which they chose. + +"And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that +he also is flesh: yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years. + +"There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when +the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare +children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of +renown. + +"And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that +every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil +continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, +and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man +whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and +the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I +have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. + +["These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in +his generations, and Noah walked with God. And Noah begat three sons, +Shem, Ham, and Japheth.] + +"The earth also was corrupt before God; and the earth was filled with +violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; +for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto +Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled +with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the +earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the +ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. And this is the +fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be +three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of +it thirty cubits. A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit +shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in +the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make +it. And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, +to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; +and everything that is in the earth shall die. But with thee will I +establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy +sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee. And of every living +thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to +keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. Of fowls after +their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of +the earth after his kind; two of every sort shall come unto thee, to +keep them alive. And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and +thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for +them. + +"Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he. + +"And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; +for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. Of every +clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: +and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. Of +fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed +alive upon the face of all the earth. For yet seven days, and I will +cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every +living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of +the earth. + +"And Noah did according unto all that the Lord commanded him. And Noah +was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth. + +"And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with +him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. Of clean beasts, +and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of everything that +creepeth upon the earth, there went in two and two unto Noah into the +ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah. + +"And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were +upon the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second +month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the +fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were +opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. In +the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons +of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, +into the ark; they, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle +after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth +after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort. +And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, +wherein is the breath of life. And they that went in, went in male and +female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the Lord shut him in. + +"And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, +and bare up the ark, and it was lifted up above the earth. And the +waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark +went upon the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly +upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole +heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and +the mountains were covered. And all flesh died that moved upon the +earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping +thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: all in whose nostrils +was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every +living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, +both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the +heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained +alive, and they that were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed +upon the earth a hundred and fifty days. + +"And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle +that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the +earth, and the waters assuaged. The fountains also of the deep and the +windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained. +And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the +end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated. And the ark +rested in the seventh mouth, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon +the mountains of Ararat. And the waters decreased continually until the +tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the mouth, were the +tops of the mountains seen. + +"And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the +window of the ark which he had made: and he sent forth a raven, which +went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the +earth. Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were +abated from off the face of the ground. But the dove found no rest for +the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark; for the +waters were on the face of the whole earth. Then he put forth his hand, +and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark. And he stayed yet +other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. And +the dove came in to him in the evening, and, lo, in her mouth was an +olive leaf plucked off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from +off the earth. And he stayed yet other seven days, and sent forth the +dove, which returned not again unto him any more. + +"And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first +month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the +earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, +behold, the face of the ground was dry. And in the second month, on the +seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried. + +"And God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy +wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee. Bring forth with thee +every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl and of +cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that +they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply +upon the earth. + +"And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives +with him: every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and +whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of +the ark. + +"And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, +and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And +the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will +not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination +of man's heart is evil from his youth: neither will I again smite any +more every thing living, as I have done. While the earth remaineth, +seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day +and night shall not cease." + +Let us briefly consider this record. + +It shows, taken in connection with the opening chapters of Genesis: + +1. That the land destroyed by water was the country in which the +civilization of the human race originated. Adam was at first naked +(Gen., chap. iii., 7); then he clothed himself in leaves; then in the +skins of animals (chap. iii., 21): he was the first that tilled the +earth, having emerged from a more primitive condition in which he lived +upon the fruits of the forest (chap. ii., 16); his son Abel was the +first of those that kept flocks of sheep (chap. iv., 2); his son Cain +was the builder of the first city (chap. iv., 17); his descendant, +Tubal-cain, was the first metallurgist (chap. iv., 22); Jabal was the +first that erected tents and kept cattle (chap. iv., 20); Jubal was the +first that made musical instruments. We have here the successive steps +by which a savage race advances to civilization. We will see hereafter +that the Atlanteans passed through precisely similar stages of +development. + +2. The Bible agrees with Plato in the statement that these Antediluvians +had reached great populousness and wickedness, and that it was on +account of their wickedness God resolved to destroy them. + +3. In both cases the inhabitants of the doomed land were destroyed in a +great catastrophe by the agency of water; they were drowned. + +4. The Bible tells us that in an earlier age, before their destruction, +mankind had dwelt in a happy, peaceful, sinless condition in a Garden of +Eden. Plato tells us the same thing of the earlier ages of the +Atlanteans. + +6. In both the Bible history and Plato's story the destruction of the +people was largely caused by the intermarriage of the superior or divine +race, "the sons of God," with an inferior stock, "the children of men," +whereby they were degraded and rendered wicked. + +We will see hereafter that the Hebrews and their Flood legend are +closely connected with the Phoenicians, whose connection with Atlantis is +established in many ways. + +It is now conceded by scholars that the genealogical table given in the +Bible (Gen., chap. x.) is not intended to include the true negro races, +or the Chinese, the Japanese, the Finns or Lapps, the Australians, or +the American red men. It refers altogether to the Mediterranean races, +the Aryans, the Cushites, the Phoenicians, the Hebrews, and the +Egyptians. "The sons of Ham" were not true negroes, but the dark-brown +races. (See Winchell's "Preadamites," chap. vii.) + +If these races (the Chinese, Australians, Americans, etc.) are not +descended from Noah they could not have been included in the Deluge. If +neither China, Japan, America, Northern Europe, nor Australia were +depopulated by the Deluge, the Deluge could not have been universal. But +as it is alleged that it did destroy a country, and drowned all the +people thereof except Noah and his family, the country so destroyed +could not have been Europe, Asia, Africa, America, or Australia, for +there has been no universal destruction of the people of those regions; +or, if there had been, how can we account for the existence to-day of +people on all of those continents whose descent Genesis does not trace +back to Noah, and, in fact, about whom the writer of Genesis seems to +have known nothing? + +We are thus driven to one of two alternative conclusions: either the +Deluge record of the Bible is altogether fabulous, or it relates to some +land other than Europe, Asia, Africa, or Australia, some land that was +destroyed by water. It is not fabulous; and the land it refers to is not +Europe, Asia, Africa, or Australia--but Atlantis. No other land is known +to history or tradition that was overthrown in a great catastrophe by +the agency of water; that was civilized, populous, powerful, and given +over to wickedness. + +That high and orthodox authority, François Lenormant, says ("Ancient +Hist. of the East," vol. i., p. 64), "The descendants of Shem, Ham, and +Japhet, so admirably catalogued by Moses, include one only of the races +of humanity, the white race, whose three chief divisions he gives us as +now recognized by anthropologists. The other three races--yellow, black, +and red--have no place in the Bible list of nations sprung from Noah." +As, therefore, the Deluge of the Bible destroyed only the land and +people of Noah, it could not have been universal. The religious world +does not pretend to fix the location of the Garden of Eden. The Rev. +George Leo Haydock says, "The precise situation cannot be ascertained; +how great might be its extent we do not know;" and we will see hereafter +that the unwritten traditions of the Church pointed to a region in the +west, beyond the ocean which bounds Europe in that direction, as the +locality in which "mankind dwelt before the Deluge." + +It will be more and more evident, as we proceed in the consideration of +the Flood legends of other nations, that the Antediluvian World was none +other than Atlantis. + +CHAPTER III. + +THE DELUGE OF THE CHALDEANS. + +We have two versions of the Chaldean story--unequally developed, indeed, +but exhibiting a remarkable agreement. The one most anciently known, and +also the shorter, is that which Berosus took from the sacred books of +Babylon, and introduced into the history that he wrote for the use of +the Greeks. After speaking of the last nine antediluvian kings, the +Chaldean priest continues thus. + +"Obartès Elbaratutu being dead, his son Xisuthros (Khasisatra) reigned +eighteen sares (64,800 years). It was under him that the Great Deluge +took place, the history of which is told in the sacred documents as +follows: Cronos (Ea) appeared to him in his sleep, and announced that on +the fifteenth of the month of Daisios (the Assyrian month Sivan--a +little before the summer solstice) all men should perish by a flood. He +therefore commanded him to take the beginning, the middle, and the end +of whatever was consigned to writing, and to bury it in the City of the +Sun, at Sippara; then to build a vessel, and to enter it with his family +and dearest friends; to place in this vessel provisions to eat and +drink, and to cause animals, birds, and quadrupeds to enter it; lastly, +to prepare everything for navigation. And when Xisuthros inquired in +what direction he should steer his bark, he was answered, 'toward the +gods,' and enjoined to pray that good might come of it for men. + +"Xisuthros obeyed, and constructed a vessel five stadia long and five +broad; he collected all that had been prescribed to him, and embarked +his wife, his children, and his intimate friends. + +"The Deluge having come, and soon going down, Xisuthros loosed some of +the birds. These, finding no food nor place to alight on, returned to +the ship. A few days later Xisuthros again let them free, but they +returned again to the vessel, their feet full of mud. Finally, loosed +the third time, the birds came no more back. Then Xisuthros understood +that the earth was bare. He made an opening in the roof of the ship, and +saw that it had grounded on the top of a mountain. He then descended +with his wife, his daughter, and his pilot, who worshipped the earth, +raised an altar, and there sacrificed to the gods; at the same moment he +vanished with those who accompanied him. + +"Meanwhile those who had remained in the vessel, not seeing Xisutbros +return, descended too, and began to seek him, calling him by his name. +They saw Xisuthros no more; but a voice from heaven was heard commanding +them piety toward the gods; that he, indeed, was receiving the reward of +his piety in being carried away to dwell thenceforth in the midst of the +gods, and that his wife, his daughter, and the pilot of the ship shared +the same honor. The voice further said that they were to return to +Babylon, and, conformably to the decrees of fate, disinter the writings +buried at Sippara in order to transmit them to men. It added that the +country in which they found themselves was Armenia. These, then, having +heard the voice, sacrificed to the gods and returned on foot to Babylon. +Of the vessel of Xisuthros, which had finally landed in Armenia, a +portion is still to be found in the Gordyan Mountains in Armenia, and +pilgrims bring thence asphalte that they have scraped from its +fragments. It is used to keep off the influence of witchcraft. As to the +companions of Xisuthros, they came to Babylon, disinterred the writings +left at Sippara, founded numerous cities, built temples, and restored +Babylon." + +"By the side of this version," says Lenormant, "which, interesting +though it be, is, after all, second-hand, we are now able to place an +original Chaldeo-Babylonian edition, which the lamented George Smith was +the first to decipher on the cuneiform tablets exhumed at Nineveh, and +now in the British Museum. Here the narrative of the Deluge appears as +an episode in the eleventh tablet, or eleventh chant of the great epic +of the town of Uruk. The hero of this poem, a kind of Hercules, whose +name has not as yet been made out with certainty, being attacked by +disease (a kind of leprosy), goes, with a view to its cure, to consult +the patriarch saved from the Deluge, Khasisatra, in the distant land to +which the gods have transported him, there to enjoy eternal felicity. He +asks Khasisatra to reveal the secret of the events which led to his +obtaining the privilege of immortality, and thus the patriarch is +induced to relate the cataclysm. + +"By a comparison of the three copies of the poem that the library of the +palace of Nineveh contained, it has been possible to restore the +narrative with hardly any breaks. These three copies were, by order of +the King of Assyria, Asshurbanabal, made in the eighth century B.C., +from a very ancient specimen in the sacerdotal library of the town of +Uruk, founded by the monarchs of the first Chaldean empire. It is +difficult precisely to fix the date of the original, copied by Assyrian +scribes, but it certainly goes back to the ancient empire, seventeen +centuries at least before our era, and even probably beyond; it was +therefore much anterior to Moses, and nearly contemporaneous with +Abraham. The variations presented by the three existing copies prove +that the original was in the primitive mode of writing called the +hieratic, a character which must have already become difficult to +decipher in the eighth century B.C., as the copyists have differed as to +the interpretation to be given to certain signs, and in other cases have +simply reproduced exactly the forms of such as they did not understand. +Finally, it results from a comparison of these variations, that the +original, transcribed by order of Asshurbanabal, must itself have been a +copy of some still more ancient manuscript, it, which the original text +had already received interlinear comments. Some of the copyists have +introduced these into their text, others have omitted them. With these +preliminary observations, I proceed to give integrally the narrative +ascribed in the poem to Khasisatra: + +"'I will reveal to thee, O Izdhubar, the history of my preservation--and +tell to thee the decision of the gods. + +"'The town of Shurippak, a town which thou knowest, is situated on the +Euphrates--it was ancient, and in it [men did not honor] the gods. [I +alone, I was] their servant, to the great gods--[The gods took counsel +on the appeal of] Ann--[a deluge was proposed by] Bel--[and approved by +Nabon, Nergal and] Adar. + +"'And the god [Ea], the immutable lord, repeated this command in a +dream.--I listened to the decree of fate that he announced, and he said +to me:--" Man of Shurippak, son of Ubaratutu--thou, build a vessel and +finish it [quickly].--[By a deluge] I will destroy substance and +life.--Cause thou to go up into the vessel the substance of all that has +life.--The vessel thou shall build--600 cubits shall be the measure of +its length--and 60 cubits the amount of its breadth and of its height. +[Launch it] thus on the ocean, and cover it with a roof."--I understood, +and I said to Ea, my lord:--"[The vessel] that thou commandest me to +build thus--[when] I shall do it,--young and old [shall laugh at +me.]"--[Ea opened his mouth and] spoke.--He said to me, his +servant:--"[If they laugh at thee] thou shalt say to them:--[shall be +punished] he who has insulted me, [for the protection of the gods] is +over me.-- ... like to caverns ... -- ... I will exercise my +judgment on that which is on high and that which is below ... -- ... +Close the vessel ... -- ... At a given moment that I shall cause +thee to know,--enter into it, and draw the door of the ship toward +thee.--Within it, thy grains, thy furniture, thy provisions, thy riches, +thy men-servants, and thy maid-servants, and thy young people--the +cattle of the field, and the wild beasts of the plain that I will +assemble--and that I will send thee, shall be kept behind thy +door."--Khasisatra opened his mouth and spoke;--he said to Ea, his +lord:--"No one has made [such a] ship.--On the prow I will fix ... --I +shall see ... and the vessel ... --the vessel thou commandest me to +build [thus] which in...." + +"'On the fifth day [the two sides of the bark] were raised.--In its +covering fourteen in all were its rafters--fourteen in all did it count +above.--I placed its roof, and I covered it.--I embarked in it on the +sixth day; I divided its floors on the seventh;--I divided the interior +compartments on the eighth. I stopped up the chinks through which the +water entered in;--I visited the chinks, and added what was wanting.--I +poured on the exterior three times 3600 measures of asphalte,--and three +times 3600 measures of asphalte within.--Three times 3600 men, porters, +brought on their heads the chests of provisions.--I kept 3600 chests for +the nourishment of my family,--and the mariners divided among themselves +twice 3600 chests.--For [provisioning] I had oxen slain;--I instituted +[rations] for each day.--In [anticipation of the need of] drinks, of +barrels, and of wine--[I collected in quantity] like to the waters of a +river, [of provisions] in quantity like to the dust of the earth.--[To +arrange them in] the chests I set my hand to.-- ... of the sun ... +the vessel was completed.-- ... strong and--I had carried above and +below the furniture of the ship.--[This lading filled the two-thirds.] + +"'All that I possessed I gathered together; all I possessed of silver I +gathered together; all that I possessed of gold I gathered--all that I +possessed of the substance of life of every kind I gathered together.--I +made all ascend into the vessel; my servants, male and female,--the +cattle of the fields, the wild beasts of the plains, and the sons of the +people, I made them all ascend. + +"'Shamash (the sun) made the moment determined, and he announced it in +these terms:--"In the evening I will cause it to rain abundantly from +heaven; enter into the vessel and close the door."--The fixed moment had +arrived, which he announced in these terms:--"In the evening I will +cause it to rain abundantly from heaven."--When the evening of that day +arrived, I was afraid,--I entered into the vessel and shut my door.--In +shutting the vessel, to Buzur-shadi-rabi, the pilot,--I confided this +dwelling, with all that it contained. + +"'Mu-sheri-ina-namari--rose from the foundations of heaven in a black +cloud;--Ramman thundered in the midst of the cloud,--and Nabon and +Sharru marched before;--they marched, devastating the mountain and the +plain;--Nergal the powerful dragged chastisements after him;--Adar +advanced, overthrowing;--before him;--the archangels of the abyss +brought destruction,--in their terrors they agitated the earth.--The +inundation of Ramman swelled up to the sky,--and [the earth] became +without lustre, was changed into a desert. + +"'They broke ... of the surface of the earth like...;--[they +destroyed] the living beings of the surface of the earth.--The terrible +[Deluge] on men swelled up to [heaven]. The brother no longer saw his +brother; men no longer knew each other. In heaven--the gods became +afraid of the water-spout, and--sought a refuge; they mounted up to the +heaven of Anu.--The gods were stretched out motionless, pressing one +against another like dogs.--Ishtar wailed like a child, the great +goddess pronounced her discourse:--"Here is humanity returned into mud, +and--this is the misfortune that I have announced in the presence of the +gods.--So I announced the misfortune in the presence of the gods,--for +the evil I announced the terrible [chastisement] of men who are mine.--I +am the mother who gave birth to men, and--like to the race of fishes, +there they are filling the sea;--and the gods, by reason of that--which +the archangels of the abyss are doing, weep with me."--The gods on their +seats were seated in tears,--and they held their lips closed, +[revolving] future things. + +"'Six days and as many nights passed; the wind, the water-spout, and the +diluvian rain were in all their strength. At the approach of the seventh +day the diluvian rain grew weaker, the terrible water-spout--which had +assailed after the fashion of an earthquake--grew calm, the sea inclined +to dry up, and the wind and the water-spout came to an end. I looked at +the sea, attentively observing--and the whole of humanity had returned +to mud; like unto sea-weeds the corpses floated. I opened the window, +and the light smote on my face. I was seized with sadness; I sat down +and I wept;-and my tears came over my face. + +"'I looked at the regions bounding the sea: toward the twelve points of +the horizon; not any continent.--The vessel was borne above the land of +Nizir,--the mountain of Nizir arrested the vessel, and did not permit it +to pass over.--A day and a second day the mountain of Nizir arrested the +vessel, and did not permit it to pass over;--the third and fourth day +the mountain of Nizir arrested the vessel, and did not permit it to pass +over;--the fifth and sixth day the mountain of Nizir arrested the +vessel, and did not permit it to pass over. At the approach of the +seventh day, I sent out and loosed a dove. The dove went, turned, +and--found no place to light on, and it came back. I sent out and loosed +a swallow; the swallow went, turned, and--found no place to light on, +and it came back. I sent out and loosed a raven; the raven went and saw +the corpses on the waters; it ate, rested, turned, and came not back. + +"'I then sent out (what was in the vessel) toward the four winds, and I +offered a sacrifice. I raised the pile of my burnt-offering on the peak +of the mountain; seven by seven I disposed the measured vases,--and +beneath I spread rushes, cedar, and juniper-wood. The gods were seized +with the desire of it--the gods were seized with a benevolent desire of +it;--and the gods assembled like flies above the master of the +sacrifice. From afar, in approaching, the great goddess raised the great +zones that Anu has made for their glory (the gods). These gods, luminous +crystal before me, I will never leave them; in that day I prayed that I +might never leave them. "Let the gods come to my sacrificial pile!--but +never may Bel come to my sacrificial pile! for he did not master +himself, and he has made the water-spout for the Deluge, and he has +numbered my men for the pit." + +"'From far, in drawing near, Bel--saw the vessel, and Bel stopped;--he +was filled with anger against the gods and the celestial archangels:-- + +"'"No one shall come out alive! No man shall be preserved from the +abyss!"--Adar opened his mouth and said; he said to the warrior +Bel:--"What other than Ea should have formed this resolution?--for Ea +possesses knowledge, and [he foresees] all."--Ea opened his mouth and +spake; he said to the warrior Bel:--"O thou, herald of the gods, +warrior,--as thou didst not master thyself, thou hast made the +water-spout of the Deluge.--Let the sinner carry the weight of his sins, +the blasphemer the weight of his blasphemy.--Please thyself with this +good pleasure, and it shall never be infringed; faith in it never [shall +be violated].--Instead of thy making a new deluge, let lions appear and +reduce the number of men;--instead of thy making a new deluge, let +hyenas appear and reduce the number of men;--instead of thy making a new +deluge, let there be famine, and let the earth be [devastated];--instead +of thy making a new deluge, let Dibbara appear, and let men be [mown +down]. I have not revealed the decision of the great gods;--it is +Khasisatra who interpreted a dream and comprehended what the gods had +decided." + +"'Then, when his resolve was arrested, Bel entered into the vessel.--He +took my hand and made me rise.--He made my wife rise, and made her place +herself at my side--He turned around us and stopped short; he +approached our group.--"Until now Khasisatra has made part of perishable +humanity;--but lo, now Khasisatra and his wife are going to be carried +away to live like the gods,--and Khasisatra will reside afar at the +mouth of the rivers."--They carried me away, and established me in a +remote place at the mouth of the streams.'" + +"This narrative," says Lenormant, "follows with great exactness the same +course as that, or, rather, as those of Genesis; and the analogies are, +on both sides, striking." + +When we consider these two forms of the same legend, we see many points +wherein the story points directly to Atlantis. + +1. In the first place, Berosus tells us that the god who gave warning of +the coming of the Deluge was Chronos. Chronos, it is well known, was the +same as Saturn. Saturn was an ancient king of Italy, who, far anterior +to the founding of Rome, introduced civilization from some other country +to the Italians. He established industry and social order, filled the +land with plenty, and created the golden age of Italy. He was suddenly +removed to the abodes of the gods. His name is connected, in the +mythological legends, with "a great Saturnian continent" in the Atlantic +Ocean, and a great kingdom which, in the remote ages, embraced Northern +Africa and the European coast of the Mediterranean as far as the +peninsula of Italy, and "certain islands in the sea;" agreeing, in this +respect, with the story of Plato as to the dominions of Atlantis. The +Romans called the Atlantic Ocean "Chronium Mare," the Sea of Chronos, +thus identifying Chronos with that ocean. The pillars of Hercules were +also called by the ancients "the pillars of Chronos." + +Here, then, we have convincing testimony that the country referred to in +the Chaldean legends was the land of Chronos, or Saturn--the ocean +world, the dominion of Atlantis. + +2. Hea or Ea, the god of the Nineveh tablets, was a fish-god: he was +represented in the Chaldean monuments as half man and half fish; he was +described as the god, not of the rivers and seas, but of "the abyss"--to +wit, the ocean. He it was who was said to have brought civilization and +letters to the ancestors of the Assyrians. He clearly represented an +ancient, maritime, civilized nation; he came from the ocean, and was +associated with some land and people that had been destroyed by rain and +inundations. The fact that the scene of the Deluge is located on the +Euphrates proves nothing, for we will see hereafter that almost every +nation had its especial mountain on which, according to its traditions, +the ark rested; just as every Greek tribe had its own particular +mountain of Olympos. The god Bel of the legend was the Baal of the +Phoenicians, who, as we shall show, were of Atlantean origin. Bel, or +Baal, was worshipped on the western and northern coasts of Europe, and +gave his name to the Baltic, the Great and Little Belt, Balesbaugen, +Balestranden, etc.; and to many localities, in the British Islands, as, +for instance, Belan and the Baal hills in Yorkshire. + +3. In those respects wherein the Chaldean legend, evidently the older +form of the tradition, differs from the Biblical record, we see that in +each instance we approach nearer to Atlantis. The account given in +Genesis is the form of the tradition that would be natural to an inland +people. Although there is an allusion to "the breaking up of the +fountains of the great deep" (about which I shall speak more fully +hereafter), the principal destruction seems to have been accomplished by +rain; hence the greater period allowed for the Deluge, to give time +enough for the rain to fall, and subsequently drain off from the land. A +people dwelling in the midst of a continent could not conceive the +possibility of a whole world sinking beneath the sea; they therefore +supposed the destruction to have been caused by a continuous down-pour +of rain for forty days and forty nights. + +In the Chaldean legend, on the contrary, the rain lasted but seven days; +and we see that the writer had a glimpse of the fact that the +destruction occurred in the midst of or near the sea. The ark of Genesis +(têbâh) was simply a chest, a coffer, a big box, such as might be +imagined by an inland people. The ark of the Chaldeans was a veritable +ship; it had a prow, a helm, and a pilot, and men to manage it; and it +navigated "the sea." + +4. The Chaldean legend represents not a mere rain-storm, but a +tremendous cataclysm. There was rain, it is true, but there was also +thunder, lightning, earthquakes, wind, a water-spout, and a devastation +of mountain and land by the war of the elements. All the dreadful forces +of nature were fighting together over the doomed land: "the archangel of +the abyss brought destruction," "the water rose to the sky," "the +brother no longer saw his brother; men no longer knew each other;" the +men "filled the sea like fishes;" the sea was filled with mud, and "the +corpses floated like sea-weed." When the storm abated the land had +totally disappeared-there was no longer "any continent." Does not all +this accord with "that dreadful day and night" described by Plato? + +5. In the original it appears that Izdhubar, when he started to find the +deified Khasisatra, travelled first, for nine days' journey, to the sea; +then secured the services of a boatman, and, entering a ship, sailed for +fifteen days before finding the Chaldean Noah. This would show that +Khasisatra dwelt in a far country, one only attainable by crossing the +water; and this, too, seems like a reminiscence of the real site of +Atlantis. The sea which a sailing-vessel required fifteen days to cross +must have been a very large body of water; in fact, an ocean. + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE DELUGE LEGENDS OF OTHER NATIONS. + +A collection of the Deluge legends of other nations will throw light +upon the Biblical and Chaldean records of that great event. + +The author of the treatise "On the Syrian Goddess" acquaints us with the +diluvian tradition of the Arameans, directly derived from that of +Chaldea, as it was narrated in the celebrated Sanctuary of Hierapolis, +or Bambyce. + +"The generality of people," he says, "tells us that the founder of the +temple was Deucalion Sisythes--that Deucalion in whose time the great +inundation occurred. I have also heard the account given by the Greeks +themselves of Deucalion; the myth runs thus: The actual race of men is +not the first, for there was a previous one, all the members of which +perished. We belong to a second race, descended from Deucalion, and +multiplied in the course of time. As to the former men, they are said to +have been full of insolence and pride, committing many crimes, +disregarding their oath, neglecting the rights of hospitality, unsparing +to suppliants; accordingly, they were punished by an immense disaster. +All on a sudden enormous volumes of water issued from the earth, and +rains of extraordinary abundance began to fall; the rivers left their +beds, and the sea overflowed its shores; the whole earth was covered +with water, and all men perished. Deucalion alone, because of his virtue +and piety, was preserved alive to give birth to a new race. This is how +he was saved: He placed himself, his children, and his wives in a great +coffer that he had, in which pigs, horses, lions, serpents, and all +other terrestrial animals came to seek refuge with him. He received them +all; and while they were in the coffer Zeus inspired them with +reciprocal amity, which prevented their devouring one another. In this +manner, shut up within one single coffer, they floated as long as the +waters remained in force. Such is the account given by the Greeks of +Deucalion. + +"But to this, which they equally tell, the people of Hierapolis add a +marvellous narrative: That in their country a great chasm opened, into +which all the waters of the Deluge poured. Then Deucalion raised an +altar, and dedicated a temple to Hera (Atargatis) close to this very +chasm. I have seen it; it is very narrow, and situated under the temple. +Whether it was once large, and has now shrunk, I do not know; but I have +seen it, and it is quite small. In memory of the event the following is +the rite accomplished: Twice a year sea-water is brought to the temple. +This is not only done by the priests, but numerous pilgrims come from +the whole of Syria and Arabia, and even from beyond the Euphrates, +bringing water. It is poured out in the temple and goes into the cleft, +which, narrow as it is, swallows up a considerable quantity. This is +said to be in virtue of a religious law instituted by Deucalion to +preserve the memory of the catastrophe, and of the benefits that he +received from the gods. Such is the ancient tradition of the temple." + +"It appears to me difficult," says Lenormant, "not to recognize an echo +of fables popular in all Semitic countries about this chasm of +Hierapolis, and the part it played in the Deluge, in the enigmatic +expressions of the Koran respecting the oven (tannur) which began to +bubble and disgorge water all around at the commencement of the Deluge. +We know that this tannur has been the occasion of most grotesque +imaginings of Mussulman commentators, who had lost the tradition of the +story to which Mohammed made allusion. And, moreover, the Koran formally +states that the waters of the Deluge were absorbed in the bosom of the +earth." + +Here the Xisuthros of Berosus becomes Deucalion-Sisythes. The animals +are not collected together by Deucalion, as in the case of Noah and +Khasisatra, but they crowded into the vessel of their own accord, driven +by the terror with which the storm had inspired them; as in great +calamities the creatures of the forest have been known to seek refuge in +the houses of men. + +India affords us an account of the Deluge which, by its poverty, +strikingly contrasts with that of the Bible and the Chaldeans. Its most +simple and ancient form is found in the Çatapatha Brâhmana of the +Rig-Veda. It has been translated for the first time by Max Müller. + +"One morning water for washing was brought to Mann, and when he had +washed himself a fish remained in his hands, and it addressed these +words to him: 'Protect me, and I will save thee.' 'From what wilt thou +save me?' 'A deluge will sweep all creatures away; it is from that I +will save thee.' 'How shall I protect thee?' The fish replied, 'While we +are small we run great dangers, for fish swallow fish. Keep me at first +in a vase; when I become too large for it, dig a basin to put me into. +When I shall have grown still more, throw me into the ocean; then I +shall be preserved from destruction.' Soon it grew a large fish. It said +to Mann, 'The very year I shall have reached my full growth the Deluge +will happen. Then build a vessel and worship me. When the waters rise, +enter the vessel, and I will save thee.' + +"After keeping him thus, Mann carried the fish to the sea. In the year +indicated Mann built a vessel and worshipped the fish. And when the +Deluge came he entered the vessel. Then the fish came swimming up to +him, and Mann fastened the cable of the ship to the horn of the fish, by +which means the latter made it pass over the Mountain of the North. The +fish said, 'I have saved thee; fasten the vessel to a tree, that the +water may not sweep it away while thou art on the mountain; and in +proportion as the waters decrease thou shalt descend.' Mann descended +with the waters, and this is what is called the descent of Mann on the +Mountain of the North. The Deluge had carried away all creatures, and +Mann remained alone." + +There is another form of the Hindoo legend in the Purânas. Lenormant +says: + +"We must also remark that in the Purânas it is no longer Mann Vaivasata +that the divine fish saves from the Deluge, but a different personage, +the King of the Dâstas--i. e., fisher--Satyravata, 'the man who loves +justice and truth,' strikingly corresponding to the Chaldean Khasisatra. +Nor is the Puranic version of the Legend of the Deluge to be despised, +though it be of recent date, and full of fantastic and often puerile +details. In certain aspects it is less Aryanized than that of Brâhmana +or than the Mahâbhârata; and, above all, it gives some circumstances +omitted in these earlier versions, which must yet have belonged to the +original foundation, since they appear in the Babylonian legend; a +circumstance preserved, no doubt, by the oral tradition--popular, and +not Brahmanic--with which the Purânas are so deeply imbued. This has +already been observed by Pictet, who lays due stress on the following +passage of the Bhâgavata-Purâna: 'In seven days,' said Vishnu to +Satyravata, 'the three worlds shall be submerged.' There is nothing like +this in the Brâhmana nor the Mahâbhârata, but in Genesis the Lord says +to Noah, 'Yet seven days and I will cause it to rain upon the earth;' +and a little farther we read, 'After seven days the waters of the flood +were upon the earth.'... Nor must we pay less attention to the +directions given by the fish-god to Satyravata for the placing of the +sacred Scriptures in a safe place, in order to preserve them from +Hayagriva, a marine horse dwelling in the abyss.... We recognize in +it, under an Indian garb, the very tradition of the interment of the +sacred writings at Sippara by Khasisatra, such as we have seen it in the +fragment of Berosus." + +The references to "the three worlds" and the "fish-god" in these legends +point to Atlantis. The "three worlds" probably refers to the great +empire of Atlantis, described by Plato, to wit, the western continent, +America, the eastern continent, Europe and Africa, considered as one, +and the island of Atlantis. As we have seen, Poseidon, the founder of +the civilization of Atlantis, is identical with Neptune, who is always +represented riding a dolphin, bearing a trident, or three-pronged +symbol, in his hand, emblematical probably of the triple kingdom. He is +thus a sea-god, or fish-god, and he comes to save the representative of +his country. + +And we have also a new and singular form of the legend in the following. +Lenormant says: + +"Among the Iranians, in the sacred books containing the fundamental +Zoroastrian doctrines, and dating very far back, we meet with a +tradition which must assuredly be looked upon as a variety of that of +the Deluge, though possessing a special character, and diverging in some +essential particulars from those we have been examining. It relates how +Yima, who, in the original and primitive conception, was the father of +the human race, was warned by Ahuramazda, the good deity, of the earth +being about to be devastated by a flood. The god ordered Yima to +construct a refuge, a square garden, vara, protected by an enclosure, +and to cause the germs of men, beasts, and plants to enter it, in order +to escape annihilation. Accordingly, when the inundation occurred, the +garden of Yima, with all that it contained, was alone spared, and the +message of safety was brought thither by the bird Karshipta, the envoy +of Ahuramazda." ("Vendûdid," vol. ii., p. 46.) + +This clearly signifies that, prior to the destruction of Atlantis, a +colony had been sent out to some neighboring country. These emigrants +built a walled town, and brought to it the grains and domestic animals +of the mother country; and when the island of Atlantis sunk in the +ocean, a messenger brought the terrible tidings to them in a ship. + +"The Greeks had two principal legends as to the cataclysm by which +primitive humanity was destroyed. The first was connected with the name +of Ogyges, the most ancient of the kings of Boeotia or Attica--a quite +mythical personage, lost in the night of ages, his very name seemingly +derived from one signifying deluge in Aryan idioms, in Sanscrit Angha. +It is said that in his time the whole land was covered by a flood, whose +waters reached the sky, and from which he, together with some +companions, escaped in a vessel. + +"The second tradition is the Thessalian legend of Deucalion. Zeus having +worked to destroy the men of the age of bronze, with whose crimes he was +wroth, Deucalion, by the advice of Prometheus, his father, constructed a +coffer, in which he took refuge with his wife, Pyrrha. The Deluge came; +the chest, or coffer, floated at the mercy of the waves for nine days +and nine nights, and was finally stranded on Mount Parnassus. Deucalion +and Pyrrha leave it, offer sacrifice, and, according to the command of +Zeus, repeople the world by throwing behind them 'the bones of the +earth'--namely, stones, which change into men. This Deluge of Deucalion +is, in Grecian tradition, what most resembles a universal deluge. Many +authors affirm that it extended to the whole earth, and that the whole +human race perished. At Athens, in memory of the event, and to appease +the manes of its victims, a ceremony called Hydrophoria was observed, +having so close a resemblance to that in use at Hierapolis, in Syria, +that we can hardly fail to look upon it as a Syro-Phoenician importation, +and the result of an assimilation established in remote antiquity +between the Deluge of Deucalion and that of Khasisatra, as described by +the author of the treatise 'On the Syrian Goddess.' Close to the temple +of the Olympian Zeus a fissure in the soil was shown, in length but one +cubit, through which it was said the waters of the Deluge had been +swallowed up. Thus, every year, on the third day of the festival of the +Anthestéria, a day of mourning consecrated to the dead--that is, on the +thirteenth of the month of Anthestérion, toward the beginning of +March--it was customary, as at Bambyce, to pour water into the fissure, +together with flour mixed with honey, poured also into the trench dug to +the west of the tomb, in the funeral sacrifices of the Athenians." + +In this legend, also, there are passages which point to Atlantis. We +will see hereafter that the Greek god Zeus was one of the kings of +Atlantis. "The men of the age of bronze" indicates the civilization of +the doomed people; they were the great metallurgists of their day, who, +as we will see, were probably the source of the great number of +implements and weapons of bronze found all over Europe. Here, also, +while no length of time is assigned to the duration of the storm, we +find that the ark floated but nine days and nights. Noah was one year +and ten days in the ark, Khasisatra was not half that time, while +Deucalion was afloat only nine days. + +At Megara, in Greece, it was the eponym of the city, Megaros, son of +Zeus and one of the nymphs, Sithnides, who, warned by the cry of cranes +of the imminence of the danger of the coming flood, took refuge on Mount +Geranien. Again, there was the Thessalian Cerambos, who was said to have +escaped the flood by rising into the air on wings given him by the +nymphs; and it was Perirrhoos, son of Eolus, that Zeus Naios had +preserved at Dodona. For the inhabitants of the Isle of Cos the hero of +the Deluge was Merops, son of Hyas, who there assembled under his rule +the remnant of humanity preserved with him. The traditions of Rhodes +only supposed the Telchines, those of Crete Sasion, to have escaped the +cataclysm. In Samothracia the same character was attributed to Saon, +said to be the son of Zeus or of Hermes. + +It will be observed that in all these legends the name of Zeus, King of +Atlantis, reappears. It would appear probable that many parties had +escaped from the catastrophe, and had landed at the different points +named in the traditions; or else that colonies had already been +established by the Atlanteans at those places. It would appear +impossible that a maritime people could be totally destroyed; doubtless +many were on shipboard in the harbors, and others going and coming on +distant voyages. + +"The invasion of the East," says Baldwin ('Prehistoric Nations,' p. +396), "to which the story of Atlantis refers, seems to have given rise +to the Panathenæ, the oldest, greatest, and most splendid festivals in +honor of Athena celebrated in Attica. These festivals are said to have +been established by Erichthonis in the most ancient times remembered by +the historical traditions of Athens. Boeckh says of them, in his +'Commentary on Plato:' + +"'In the greater Panathenæ there was carried in procession a peplum of +Minerva, representing the war with the giants and the victory of the +gods of Olympus. In the lesser Panathenæ they carried another peplum +(covered with symbolic devices), which showed how the Athenians, +supported by Minerva, had the advantage in the war with the Atlantes.' A +scholia quoted from Proclus by Humboldt and Boeckh says: 'The historians +who speak of the islands of the exterior sea tell us that in their time +there were seven islands consecrated to Proserpine, and three others of +immense extent, of which the first was consecrated to Pluto, the second +to Ammon, and the third to Neptune. The inhabitants of the latter had +preserved a recollection (transmitted to them by their ancestors) of the +island of Atlantis, which was extremely large, and for a long time held +sway over all the islands of the Atlantic Ocean. Atlantis was also +consecrated to Neptune."' (See Humboldt's "Histoire de la Géographie du +Nouveau Continent," vol. i.) + +No one can read these legends and doubt that the Flood was an +historical reality. It is impossible that in two different places in the +Old World, remote from each other, religious ceremonies should have been +established and perpetuated from age to age in memory of an event which +never occurred. We have seen that at Athens and at Hierapolis, in Syria, +pilgrims came from a distance to appease the god of the earthquake, by +pouring offerings into fissures of the earth said to have been made at +the time Atlantis was destroyed. + +More than this, we know from Plato's history that the Athenians long +preserved in their books the memory of a victory won over the Atlanteans +in the early ages, and celebrated it by national festivals, with +processions and religious ceremonies. + +It is too much to ask us to believe that Biblical history, Chaldean, +Iranian, and Greek legends signify nothing, and that even religious +pilgrimages and national festivities were based upon a myth. + +I would call attention to the farther fact that in the Deluge legend of +the Isle of Cos the hero of the affair was Merops. Now we have seen +that, according to Theopompus, one of the names of the people of +Atlantis was "Meropes." + +But we have not reached the end of our Flood legends. The Persian Magi +possessed a tradition in which the waters issued from the oven of an old +woman. Mohammed borrowed this story, and in the Koran he refers to the +Deluge as coming from an oven. "All men were drowned save Noah and his +family; and then God said, 'O earth, swallow up thy waters; and thou, O +heaven, withhold thy rain;' and immediately the waters abated." + +In the bardic poems of Wales we have a tradition of the Deluge which, +although recent, under the concise forms of the triads, is still +deserving of attention. As usual, the legend is localized in the +country, and the Deluge counts among three terrible catastrophes of the +island of Prydian, or Britain, the other two consisting of devastation +by fire and by drought. + +"The first of these events," it is said, "was the eruption of +Llyn-llion, or 'the lake of waves,' and the inundation (bawdd) of the +whole country, by which all mankind was drowned with the exception of +Dwyfam and Dwyfach, who saved themselves in a vessel without rigging, +and it was by them that the island of Prydian was repeopled." + +Pictet here observes: + +"Although the triads in their actual form hardly date farther than the +thirteenth or fourteenth century, some of them are undoubtedly connected +with very ancient traditions, and nothing here points to a borrowing +from Genesis. + +"But it is not so, perhaps, with another triad, speaking of the vessel +Nefyddnaf-Neifion, which at the time of the overflow of Llyon-llion, +bore a pair of all living creatures, and rather too much resembles the +ark of Noah. The very name of the patriarch may have suggested this +triple epithet, obscure as to its meaning, but evidently formed on the +principle of Cymric alliteration. In the same triad we have the +enigmatic story of the horned oxen (ychain banog) of Hu the mighty, who +drew out of Llyon-llion the avanc (beaver or crocodile?), in order that +the lake should not overflow. The meaning of these enigmas could only be +hoped from deciphering the chaos of barbaric monuments of the Welsh +middle age; but meanwhile we cannot doubt that the Cymri possessed an +indigenous tradition of the Deluge." + +We also find a vestige of the same tradition in the Scandinavian Edda. +Here the story is combined with a cosmogonic myth. The three sons of +Borr--Othin, Wili, and We--grandsons of Buri, the first man, slay Ymir, +the father of the Hrimthursar, or ice giants, and his body serves them +for the construction of the world. Blood flows from his wounds in such +abundance that all the race of giants is drowned in it except Bergelmir, +who saves himself, with his wife, in a boat, and reproduces the race. + +In the Edda of Soemund, "The Vala's Prophecy" (stz. 48-56, p. 9), we seem +to catch traditional glimpses of a terrible catastrophe, which reminds +us of the Chaldean legend: + +"Then trembles Yggdrasil's ash yet standing, groans that ancient tree, +and the Jötun Loki is loosed. The shadows groan on the ways of Hel (the +goddess of death), until the fire of Surt has consumed the tree. Hyrm +steers from the east, the waters rise, the mundane snake is coiled in +jötun-rage. The worm beats the water and the eagle screams; the pale of +beak tears carcasses; (the ship) Naglfar is loosed. Surt from the south +comes with flickering flame; shines from his sword the Valgod's sun. The +stony hills are dashed together, the giantesses totter; men tread the +path of Hel, and heaven is cloven. The sun darkens, earth in ocean +sinks, fall from heaven the bright stars, fire's breath assails the +all-nourishing, towering fire plays against heaven itself." + +Egypt does not contain a single allusion to the Flood. Lenormant says: + +"While the tradition of the Deluge holds so considerable a place in the +legendary memories of all branches of the Aryan race, the monuments and +original texts of Egypt, with their many cosmogonic speculations, have +not afforded one, even distant, allusion to this cataclysm. When the +Greeks told the Egyptian priests of the Deluge of Deucalion, their reply +was that they had been preserved from it as well as from the +conflagration produced by Phaëthon; they even added that the Hellenes +were childish in attaching so much importance to that event, as there +had been several other local catastrophes resembling it. According to a +passage in Manetho, much suspected, however, of being an interpolation, +Thoth, or Hermes Trismegistus, had himself, before the cataclysm, +inscribed on stelæ, in hieroglyphical and sacred language, the +principles of all knowledge. After it the second Thoth translated into +the vulgar tongue the contents of these stelæ. This would be the only +Egyptian mention of the Deluge, the same Manetho not speaking of it in +what remains to us of his 'Dynasties,' his only complete authentic work. +The silence of all other myths of the Pharaonic religion on this head +render it very likely that the above is merely a foreign tradition, +recently introduced, and no doubt of Asiatic and Chaldean origin." + +To my mind the explanation of this singular omission is very plain. The +Egyptians had preserved in their annals the precise history of the +destruction of Atlantis, out of which the Flood legends grew; and, as +they told the Greeks, there had been no universal flood, but only local +catastrophes. Possessing the real history of the local catastrophe which +destroyed Atlantis, they did not indulge in any myths about a universal +deluge covering the mountain-tops of all the world. They had no Ararat +in their neighborhood. + +The traditions of the early Christian ages touching the Deluge pointed +to the quarter of the world in which Atlantis was situated. + +There was a quaint old monk named Cosmos, who, about one thousand years +ago, published a book, "Topographia Christiana," accompanied by a map, +in which he gives his view of the world as it was then understood. It +was a body surrounded by water, and resting on nothing. "The earth," +says Cosmos, "presses downward, but the igneous parts tend upward," and +between the conflicting forces the earth hangs suspended, like +Mohammed's coffin in the old story. The accompanying illustration (page +95) represents the earth surrounded by the ocean, and beyond this ocean +was "the land where men dwelt before the Deluge." + +He then gives us a more accurate map, in detail, of the known world of +his day. + +I copy this map, not to show how much more we know than poor Cosmos, but +because he taught that all around this habitable world there was yet +another world, adhering closely on all sides to the circumscribing walls +of heaven. "Upon the eastern side of this transmarine land he judges man +was created; and that there the paradise of gladness was located, such +as here on the eastern edge is described, where it received our first +parents, driven out of Paradise to that extreme point of land on the +sea-shore. Hence, upon the coming of the Deluge, Noah and his sons were +borne by the ark to the earth we now inhabit. The four rivers he +supposes to be gushing up the spouts of Paradise." They are depicted on +the above map: O is the Mediterranean Sea; P, the Arabian Gulf; L, the +Caspian Sea; Q, the Tigris; M, the river Pison; "and J, the land where +men dwelt before the Flood." + +It will be observed that, while he locates Paradise in the east, he +places the scene of the Deluge in the west; and he supposes that Noah +came from the scene of the Deluge to Europe. + +This shows that the traditions in the time of Cosmos looked to the west +as the place of the Deluge, and that after the Deluge Noah came to the +shores of the Mediterranean. The fact, too, that there was land in the +west beyond the ocean is recognized by Cosmos, and is probably a dim +echo from Atlantean times. + + MAP OF EUROPE, AFTER COSMOS + +The following rude cut, from Cosmos, represents the high mountain in the +north behind which the sun hid himself at night, thus producing the +alternations of day and night. His solar majesty is just getting behind +the mountain, while Luna looks calmly on at the operation. The mountain +is as crooked as Culhuacan, the crooked mountain of Atzlan described by +the Aztecs. + + THE MOUNTAIN THE SUN GOES BEHIND AT NIGHT + +CHAPTER V + +THE DELUGE LEGENDS OF AMERICA. + +"It is a very remarkable fact," says Alfred Maury, "that we find in +America traditions of the Deluge coming infinitely nearer to that of the +Bible and the Chaldean religion than among any people of the Old World. +It is difficult to suppose that the emigration that certainly took place +from Asia into North America by the Kourile and Aleutian Islands, and +still does so in our day, should have brought in these memories, since +no trace is found of them among those Mongol or Siberian populations +which were fused with the natives of the New World.... The attempts +that have been made to trace the origin of Mexican civilization to Asia +have not as yet led to any sufficiently conclusive facts. Besides, had +Buddhism, which we doubt, made its way into America, it could not have +introduced a myth not found in its own scriptures. The cause of these +similarities between the diluvian traditions of the nations of the New +World and that of the Bible remains therefore unexplained." + +The cause of these similarities can be easily explained: the legends of +the Flood did not pass into America by way of the Aleutian Islands, or +through the Buddhists of Asia, but were derived from an actual knowledge +of Atlantis possessed by the people of America. + +Atlantis and the western continent had from an immemorial age held +intercourse with each other: the great nations of America were simply +colonies from Atlantis, sharing in its civilization, language, religion, +and blood. From Mexico to the peninsula of Yucatan, from the shores of +Brazil to the heights of Bolivia and Peru, from the Gulf of Mexico to +the head-waters of the Mississippi River, the colonies of Atlantis +extended; and therefore it is not strange to find, as Alfred Maury says, +American traditions of the Deluge coming nearer to that of the Bible and +the Chaldean record than those of any people of the Old World. + +"The most important among the American traditions are the Mexican, for +they appear to have been definitively fixed by symbolic and mnemonic +paintings before any contact with Europeans. According to these +documents, the Noah of the Mexican cataclysm was Coxcox, called by +certain peoples Teocipactli or Tezpi. He had saved himself, together +with his wife Xochiquetzal, in a bark, or, according to other +traditions, on a raft made of cypress-wood (Cupressus disticha). +Paintings retracing the deluge of Coxcox have been discovered among the +Aztecs, Miztecs, Zapotecs, Tlascaltecs, and Mechoacaneses. The tradition +of the latter is still more strikingly in conformity with the story as +we have it in Genesis, and in Chaldean sources. It tells how Tezpi +embarked in a spacious vessel with his wife, his children, and several +animals, and grain, whose preservation was essential to the subsistence +of the human race. When the great god Tezcatlipoca decreed that the +waters should retire, Tezpi sent a vulture from the bark. The bird, +feeding on the carcasses with which the earth was laden, did not return. +Tezpi sent out other birds, of which the humming-bird only came back +with a leafy branch in its beak. Then Tezpi, seeing that the country +began to vegetate, left his bark on the mountain of Colhuacan. + +"The document, however, that gives the most valuable information," says +Lenormant, "as to the cosmogony of the Mexicans is one known as 'Codex +Vaticanus,' from the library where it is preserved. It consists of four +symbolic pictures, representing the four ages of the world preceding the +actual one. They were copied at Chobula from a manuscript anterior to +the conquest, and accompanied by the explanatory commentary of Pedro de +los Rios, a Dominican monk, who, in 1566, less than fifty years after +the arrival of Cortez, devoted himself to the research of indigenous +traditions as being necessary to his missionary work." + +There were, according to this document, four ages of the world. The +first was an age of giants (the great mammalia?) who were destroyed by +famine; the second age ended in a conflagration; the third age was an +age of monkeys. + +"Then comes the fourth age, Atonatiuh, 'Sun of Water,' whose number is +10 X 400 + 8, or 4008. It ends by a great inundation, a veritable +deluge. All mankind are changed into fish, with the exception of one man +and his wife, who save themselves in a bark made of the trunk of a +cypress-tree. The picture represents Matlalcueye, goddess of waters, and +consort of Tlaloc, god of rain, as darting down toward earth. Coxcox and +Xochiquetzal, the two human beings preserved, are seen seated on a +tree-trunk and floating in the midst of the waters. This flood is +represented as the last cataclysm that devastates the earth." + +The learned Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg translates from the Aztec +language of the "Codex Chimalpopoca" the following Flood legend: + +"This is the sun called Nahui-atl, '4 water.' Now the water was tranquil +for forty years, plus twelve, and men lived for the third and fourth +times. When the sun Nahui-atl came there had passed away four hundred +years, plus two ages, plus seventy-six years. Then all mankind was lost +and drowned, and found themselves changed into fish. The sky came nearer +the water. In a single day all was lost, and the day Nahui-xochitl, '4 +flower,' destroyed all our flesh. + +"And that year was that of cé-calli, '1 house,' and the day Nahui-atl +all was lost. Even the mountains sunk into the water, and the water +remained tranquil for fifty-two springs. + +"Now at the end of the year the god Titlacahuan had warned Nata and his +spouse Nena, saying, 'Make no more wine of Agave, but begin to hollow +out a great cypress, and you will enter into it when in the month +Tozontli the water approaches the sky.' + +"Then they entered in, and when the god had closed the door, he said, +'Thou shalt eat but one ear of maize, and thy wife one also.' + +"But as soon as they had finished they went out, and the water remained +calm, for the wood no longer moved, and, on opening it, they began to +see fish. + +"Then they lit a fire, by rubbing together pieces of wood, and they +roasted fish. + +"The gods Citlallinicué and Citlalatonac, instantly looking down said: +'Divine Lord, what is that fire that is making there? Why do they thus +smoke the sky?' At once Titlacahuan-Tezcatlipoca descended. He began to +chide, saying, 'Who has made this fire here?' And, seizing hold of the +fish, he shaped their loins and heads, and they were transformed into +dogs (chichime)." + +Here we note a remarkable approximation to Plato's account of the +destruction of Atlantis. "In one day and one fatal night," says Plato, +"there came mighty earthquakes and inundations that ingulfed that +warlike people." "In a single day all was lost," says the Aztec legend. +And, instead of a rainfall of forty days and forty nights, as +represented in the Bible, here we see "in a single day ... even the +mountains sunk into the water;" not only the land on which the people +dwelt who were turned into fish, but the very mountains of that land +sunk into the water. Does not this describe the fate of Atlantis? In the +Chaldean legend "the great goddess Ishtar wailed like a child," saying, +"I am the mother who gave birth to men, and, like to the race of fishes, +they are filling the sea." + +In the account in Genesis, Noah "builded an altar unto the Lord, and +took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt +offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savor; and the Lord +said in his heart, 'I will not again curse the ground any more for man's +sake.'" In the Chaldean legend we are told that Khasisatra also offered +a sacrifice, a burnt offering, "and the gods assembled like flies above +the master of the sacrifice." But Bel came in a high state of +indignation, just as the Aztec god did, and was about to finish the work +of the Deluge, when the great god Ea took pity in his heart and +interfered to save the remnant of mankind. + +These resemblances cannot be accidental; neither can they be the +interpolations of Christian missionaries, for it will be observed the +Aztec legends differ from the Bible in points where they resemble on the +one hand Plato's record, and on the other the Chaldean legend. + +The name of the hero of the Aztec story, Nata, pronounced with the broad +sound of the a, is not far from the name of Noah or Noe. The Deluge of +Genesis is a Phoenician, Semitic, or Hebraic legend, and yet, strange to +say, the name of Noah, which occurs in it, bears no appropriate meaning +in those tongues, but is derived from Aryan sources; its fundamental +root is Na, to which in all the Aryan language is attached the meaning +of water--{Greek} na'ein, to flow; {Greek} na~ma, water; Nympha, +Neptunus, water deities. (Lenormant and Chevallier, "Anc. Hist. of the +East," vol. i., p. 15.) We find the root Na repeated in the name of this +Central American Noah, Na-ta, and probably in the word "Na-hui-atl"--the +age of water. + +But still more striking analogies exist between the Chaldean legend and +the story of the Deluge as told in the "Popul Vuh" (the Sacred Book) of +the Central Americans: + +"Then the waters were agitated by the will of the Heart of Heaven +(Hurakan), and a great inundation came upon the heads of these +creatures.... They were ingulfed, and a resinous thickness descended +from heaven; ... the face of the earth was obscured, and a heavy +darkening rain commenced--rain by day and rain by night.... There was +heard a great noise above their heads, as if produced by fire. Then were +men seen running, pushing each other, filled with despair; they wished +to climb upon their houses, and the houses, tumbling down, fell to the +ground; they wished to climb upon the trees, and the trees shook them +off; they wished to enter into the grottoes (caves), and the grottoes +closed themselves before them.... Water and fire contributed to the +universal ruin at the time of the last great cataclysm which preceded +the fourth creation." + +Observe the similarities here to the Chaldean legend. There is the same +graphic description of a terrible event. The "black cloud" is referred +to in both instances; also the dreadful noises, the rising water, the +earthquake rocking the trees, overthrowing the houses, and crushing even +the mountain caverns; "the men running and pushing each other, filled +with despair," says the "Popul Vuh;" "the brother no longer saw his +brother," says the Assyrian legend. + +And here I may note that this word hurakan--the spirit of the abyss, the +god of storm, the hurricane--is very suggestive, and testifies to an +early intercourse between the opposite shores of the Atlantic. We find +in Spanish the word huracan; in Portuguese, furacan; in French, ouragan; +in German, Danish, and Swedish, orcan--all of them signifying a storm; +while in Latin furo, or furio, means to rage. And are not the old +Swedish hurra, to be driven along; our own word hurried; the Icelandic +word hurra, to be rattled over frozen ground, all derived from the same +root from which the god of the abyss, Hurakan, obtained his name? The +last thing a people forgets is the name of their god; we retain to this +day, in the names of the days of the week, the designations of four +Scandinavian gods and one Roman deity. + +It seems to me certain the above are simply two versions of the same +event; that while ships from Atlantis carried terrified passengers to +tell the story of the dreadful catastrophe to the people of the +Mediterranean shores, other ships, flying from the tempest, bore similar +awful tidings to the civilized races around the Gulf of Mexico. + +The native Mexican historian, Ixtlilxochitl, gave this as the Toltec +legend of the Flood: + +It is found in the histories of the Toltecs that this age and first +world, as they call it, lasted 1716 years; that men were destroyed by +tremendous rains and lightning from the sky, and even all the land, +without the exception of anything, and the highest mountains, were +covered up and submerged in water fifteen cubits (caxtolmolatli); and +here they added other fables of how men came to multiply from the few +who escaped from this destruction in a "toptlipetlocali;" that this word +nearly signifies a close chest; and how, after men had multiplied, they +erected a very high "zacuali," which is to-day a tower of great height, +in order to take refuge in it should the second world (age) be +destroyed. Presently their languages were confused, and, not being able +to understand each other, they went to different parts of the earth. + +"The Toltecs, consisting of seven friends, with their wives, who +understood the same language, came to these parts, having first passed +great land and seas, having lived in caves, and having endured great +hardships in order to reach this land; ... they wandered 104 years +through different parts of the world before they reached Hue Hue +Tlapalan, which was in Ce Tecpatl, 520 years after the Flood." +("Ixtlilxochitl Relaciones," in Kingsborough's "Mex. Ant.," vol. ix., +pp. 321, 322.) + +It will of course be said that this account, in those particulars where +it agrees with the Bible, was derived from the teachings of the Spanish +priests; but it must be remembered that Ixtlilxochitl was an Indian, a +native of Tezeuco, a son of the queen, and that his "Relaciones" were +drawn from the archives of his family and the ancient writings of his +nation: he had no motive to falsify documents that were probably in the +hands of hundreds at that time. + +Here we see that the depth of the water over the earth, "fifteen +cubits," given in the Toltec legend, is precisely the same as that named +in the Bible: "fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail." (Gen., +chap. vii., 20.) + +In the two curious picture-histories of the Aztecs preserved in the +Boturini collection, and published by Gamelli Careri and others, there +is a record of their migrations from their original location through +various parts of the North American continent until their arrival in +Mexico. In both cases their starting-point is an island, from which they +pass in a boat; and the island contains in one case a mountain, and in +the other a high temple in the midst thereof. These things seem to be +reminiscences of their origin in Atlantis. + +In each case we see the crooked mountain of the Aztec legends, the +Calhuacan, looking not unlike the bent mountain of the monk, Cosmos. + +In the legends of the Chibchas of Bogota we seem to have distinct +reminiscences of Atlantis. Bochica was their leading divinity. During +two thousand years he employed himself in elevating his subjects. He +lived in the sun, while his wife Chia occupied the moon. This would +appear to be an allusion to the worship of the sun and moon. Beneath +Bochica in their mythology was Chibchacum. In an angry mood he brought a +deluge on the people of the table-land. Bochica punished him for this +act, and obliged him ever after, like Atlas, to bear the burden of the +earth on his back. Occasionally be shifts the earth from one shoulder to +another, and this causes earthquakes! + +Here we have allusions to an ancient people who, during thousands of +years, were elevated in the scale of civilization, and were destroyed by +a deluge; and with this is associated an Atlantean god bearing the world +on his back. We find even the rainbow appearing in connection with this +legend. When Bochica appeared in answer to prayer to quell the deluge he +is seated on a rainbow. He opened a breach in the earth at Tequendama, +through which the waters of the flood escaped, precisely as we have seen +them disappearing through the crevice in the earth near Bambyce, in +Greece. + +The Toltecs traced their migrations back to a starting-point called +"Aztlan," or "Atlan." This could be no other than, Atlantis. (Bancroft's +"Native Races," vol. v., p. 221.) "The original home of the Nahuatlacas +was Aztlan, the location of which has been the subject of much +discussion. The causes that led to their exodus from that country can +only be conjectured; but they may be supposed to have been driven out by +their enemies, for Aztlan is described as a land too fair and beautiful +to be left willingly in the mere hope of finding a better." (Bancroft's +"Native Races," vol. v., p. 306.) The Aztecs also claimed to have come +originally from Aztlan. (Ibid., p. 321.) Their very name, Aztecs, was +derived from Aztlan. (Ibid., vol. ii., p. 125). They were Atlanteans. + +The "Popul Vuh" tells us that after the migration from Aztlan three sons +of the King of the Quiches, upon the death of their father, "determined +to go as their fathers had ordered to the East, on the shores of the sea +whence their fathers had come, to receive the royalty, 'bidding adieu to +their brothers and friends, and promising to return.' Doubtless they +passed over the sea when they went to the East to receive the royalty. +Now this is the name of the lord, of the monarch of the people of the +East where they went. And when they arrived before the lord Nacxit, the +name of the great lord, the only judge, whose power was without limit, +behold he granted them the sign of royalty and all that represents +it ... and the insignia of royalty ... all the things, in fact, +which they brought on their return, and which they went to receive +from the other side of the sea--the art of painting from Tulan, a +system of writing, they said, for the things recorded in their +histories." (Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. v., p. 553 "Popul +Vuh," p. 294.) + +This legend not only points to the East as the place of origin of these +races, but also proves that this land of the East, this Aztlan, this +Atlantis, exercised dominion over the colonies in Central America, and +furnished them with the essentials of civilization. How completely does +this agree with the statement of Plato that the kings of Atlantis held +dominion over parts of "the great opposite continent!" + +Professor Valentini ("Maya Archæol.," p. 23) describes an Aztec picture +in the work of Gemelli ("Il giro del mondo," vol. vi.) of the migration +of the Aztecs from Aztlan: + +"Out of a sheet of water there projects the peak of a mountain; on it +stands a tree, and on the tree a bird spreads its wings. At the foot of +the mountain-peak there comes out of the water the heads of a man and a +woman. The one wears on his head the symbol of his name, Coxcox, a +pheasant. The other head bears that of a hand with a bouquet (xochitl, a +flower, and quetzal, shining in green gold). In the foreground is a +boat, out of which a naked man stretches out his hand imploringly to +heaven. Now turn to the sculpture in the Flood tablet (on the great +Calendar stone). There you will find represented the Flood, and with +great emphasis, by the accumulation of all those symbols with which the +ancient Mexicans conveyed the idea of water: a tub of standing water, +drops springing out--not two, as heretofore in the symbol for Atl, +water--but four drops; the picture for moisture, a snail; above, a +crocodile, the king of the rivers. In the midst of these symbols you +notice the profile of a man with a fillet, and a smaller one of a woman. +There can be no doubt these are the Mexican Noah, Coxcox, and his wife, +Xochiquetzal; and at the same time it is evident (the Calendar stone, we +know, was made in A.D., 1478) that the story of them, and the pictures +representing the story, have not been invented by the Catholic clergy, +but really existed among these nations long before the Conquest." + +The above figure represents the Flood tablet on the great Calendar stone. + +When we turn to the uncivilized Indians of America, while we still find +legends referring to the Deluge, they are, with one exception, in such +garbled and uncouth forms that we can only see glimpses of the truth +shining through a mass of fable. + +The following tradition was current among the Indians of the Great Lakes: + +"In former times the father of the Indian tribes dwelt toward the rising +sun. Having been warned in a dream that a deluge was coming upon the +earth, he built a raft, on which he saved himself, with his family and +all the animals. He floated thus for several months. The animals, who at +that time spoke, loudly complained and murmured against him. At last a +new earth appeared, on which he landed with all the animals, who from +that time lost the power of speech, as a punishment for their murmurs +against their deliverer." + +According to Father Charlevoix, the tribes of Canada and the valley of +the Mississippi relate in their rude legends that all mankind was +destroyed by a flood, and that the Good Spirit, to repeople the earth, +had changed animals into men. It is to J. S. Kohl we owe our +acquaintance with the version of the Chippeways--full of grotesque and +perplexing touches--in which the man saved from the Deluge is called +Menaboshu. To know if the earth be drying, he sends a bird, the diver, +out of his bark; then becomes the restorer of the human race and the +founder of existing society. + +A clergyman who visited the Indians north-west of the Ohio in 1764 met, +at a treaty, a party of Indians from the west of the Mississippi. + +"They informed him that one of their most ancient traditions was that, a +great while ago, they had a common father, who lived toward the rising +of the sun, and governed the whole world; that all the white people's +heads were under his feet; that he had twelve sons, by whom he +administered the government; that the twelve sons behaved very bad, and +tyrannized over the people, abusing their power; that the Great Spirit, +being thus angry with them, suffered the white people to introduce +spirituous liquors among them, made them drunk, stole the special gift +of the Great Spirit from them, and by this means usurped power over +them; and ever since the Indians' heads were under the white people's +feet." (Boudinot's "Star in the West," p. 111.) + +Here we note that they looked "toward the rising sun"--toward +Atlantis--for the original home of their race; that this region governed +"the whole world;" that it contained white people, who were at first a +subject race, but who subsequently rebelled, and acquired dominion over +the darker races. We will see reason hereafter to conclude that Atlantis +had a composite population, and that the rebellion of the Titans in +Greek mythology was the rising up of a subject population. + +In 1836 C. S. Rafinesque published in Philadelphia, Pa., a work called +"The American Nations," in which he gives the historical songs or chants +of the Lenni-Lenapi, or Delaware Indians, the tribe that originally +dwelt along the Delaware River. After describing a time "when there was +nothing but sea-water on top of the land," and the creation of sun, +moon, stars, earth, and man, the legend depicts the Golden Age and the +Fall in these words: "All were willingly pleased, all were +easy-thinking, and all were well-happified. But after a while a +snake-priest, Powako, brings on earth secretly the snake-worship +(Initako) of the god of the snakes, Wakon. And there came wickedness, +crime, and unhappiness. And bad weather was coming, distemper was +coming, with death was coming. All this happened very long ago, at the +first land, Netamaki, beyond the great ocean Kitahikau." Then follows +the Song of the Flood: + +"There was, long ago, a powerful snake, Maskanako, when the men had +become bad beings, Makowini. This strong snake had become the foe of the +Jins, and they became troubled, hating each other. Both were fighting, +both were spoiling, both were never peaceful. And they were fighting, +least man Mattapewi with dead-keeper Nihaulowit. And the strong snake +readily resolved to destroy or fight the beings or the men. The dark +snake he brought, the monster (Amanyam) he brought, snake-rushing water +he brought (it). Much water is rushing, much go to hills, much +penetrate, much destroying. Meanwhile at Tula (this is the same Tula +referred to in the Central American legends), at THAT ISLAND, Nana-Bush +(the great hare Nana) becomes the ancestor of beings and men. Being born +creeping, he is ready to move and dwell at Tula. The beings and men all +go forth from the flood creeping in shallow water or swimming afloat, +asking which is the way to the turtle-back, Tula-pin. But there are many +monsters in the way, and some men were devoured by them. But the +daughter of a spirit helped them in a boat, saying, 'Come, come;' they +were coming and were helped. The name of the boat or raft is Mokol.... +Water running off, it is drying; in the plains and the mountains, at +the path of the cave, elsewhere went the powerful action or motion." +Then follows Song 3, describing the condition of mankind after the +Flood. Like the Aryans, they moved into a cold country: "It freezes was +there; it snows was there; it is cold was there." They move to a milder +region to hunt cattle; they divided their forces into tillers and +hunters. "The good and the holy were the hunters; they spread +themselves north, south, east, and west." Meantime all the snakes were +afraid in their huts, and the Snake-priest Nakopowa said to all, 'Let us +go.' Eastwardly they go forth at Snakeland (Akhokink), and they went +away earnestly grieving." Afterward the fathers of the Delawares, who +"were always boating and navigating," find that the Snake-people have +taken possession of a fine country; and they collect together the people +from north, south, east, and west, and attempt "to pass over the waters +of the frozen sea to possess that land." They seem to travel in the dark +of an Arctic winter until they come to a gap of open sea. They can go no +farther; but some tarry at Firland, while the rest return to where they +started from, "the old turtle land." + +Here we find that the land that was destroyed was the "first land;" that +it was an island "beyond the great ocean." In an early age the people +were happy and peaceful; they became wicked; "snake worship" was +introduced, and was associated, as in Genesis, with the "fall of man;" +Nana-Bush became the ancestor of the new race; his name reminds us of +the Toltec Nata and the Hebrew Noah. After the flood came a dispersing +of the people, and a separation into hunters and tillers of the soil. + +Among the Mandan Indians we not only find flood legends, but, more +remarkable still, we find an image of the ark preserved from generation +to generation, and a religious ceremony performed which refers plainly +to the destruction of Atlantis, and to the arrival of one of those who +escaped from the Flood, bringing the dreadful tidings of the disaster. +It must be remembered, as we will show hereafter, that many of these +Mandan Indians were white men, with hazel, gray, and blue eyes, and all +shades of color of the hair from black to pure white; that they dwelt in +houses in fortified towns, and manufactured earthen-ware pots in which +they could boil water--an art unknown to the ordinary Indians, who +boiled water by putting heated stones into it. + +I quote the very interesting account of George Catlin, who visited the +Mandans nearly fifty years ago, lately republished in London in the +"North American Indians," a very curious and valuable work. He says +(vol. i., p. 88): + +"In the centre of the village is an open space, or public square, 150 +feet in diameter and circular in form, which is used for all public +games and festivals, shows and exhibitions. The lodges around this open +space front in, with their doors toward the centre; and in the middle +of this stands an object of great religious veneration, on account of +the importance it has in connection with the annual religious +ceremonies. This object is in the form of a large hogshead, some eight +or ten feet high, made of planks and hoops, containing within it some of +their choicest mysteries or medicines. They call it the 'Big Canoe.'" + +This is a representation of the ark; the ancient Jews venerated a +similar image, and some of the ancient Greek States followed in +processions a model of the ark of Deucalion. But it is indeed surprising +to find this practice perpetuated, even to our own times, by a race of +Indians in the heart of America. On page 158 of the first volume of the +same work Catlin describes the great annual mysteries and religious +ceremonials of which this image of the ark was the centre. He says: + +"On the day set apart for the commencement of the ceremonies a solitary +figure is seen approaching the village. + +"During the deafening din and confusion within the pickets of the +village the figure discovered on the prairie continued to approach with +a dignified step, and in a right line toward the village; all eyes were +upon him, and he at length made his appearance within the pickets, and +proceeded toward the centre of the village, where all the chiefs and +braves stood ready to receive him, which they did in a cordial manner by +shaking hands, recognizing him as an old acquaintance, and pronouncing +his name, Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah (the first or only man). The body of this +strange personage, which was chiefly naked, was painted with white clay, +so as to resemble at a distance a white man. He enters the medicine +lodge, and goes through certain mysterious ceremonies. + +"During the whole of this day Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah (the first or only man) +travelled through the village, stopping in front of each man's lodge, +and crying until the owner of the lodge came out and asked who he was, +and what was the matter? To which he replied by narrating the sad +catastrophe which had happened on the earth's surface by the overflowing +of the waters, saying that 'he was the only person saved from the +universal calamity; that he landed his big canoe on a high mountain in +the west, where he now resides; that he has come to open the medicine +lodge, which must needs receive a present of an edged tool from the +owner of every wigwam, that it may be sacrificed to the water; for,' he +says, 'if this is not done there will be another flood, and no one will +be saved, as it was with such tools that the big canoe was made.' + +"Having visited every lodge in the village during the day, and having +received such a present from each as a hatchet, a knife, etc. (which is +undoubtedly always prepared ready for the occasion), be places them in +the medicine lodge; and, on the last day of the ceremony, they are +thrown into a deep place in the river--'sacrificed to the Spirit of the +Waters."' + +Among the sacred articles kept in the great medicine lodge are four +sacks of water, called Eeh-teeh-ka, sewed together, each of them in the +form of a tortoise lying on its back, with a bunch of eagle feathers +attached to its tail. "These four tortoises," they told me, "contained +the waters from the four quarters of the world--that those waters had +been contained therein ever since the settling down of the waters," "I +did not," says Catlin, who knew nothing of an Atlantis theory, "think it +best to advance anything against such a ridiculous belief." Catlin tried +to purchase one of these water-sacks, but could not obtain it for any +price; he was told they were "a society property." + +He then describes a dance by twelve men around the ark: "They arrange +themselves according to the four cardinal points; two are painted +perfectly black, two are vermilion color, some were painted partially +white. They dance a dance called Bel-lohck-na-pie,'" with horns on their +heads, like those used in Europe as symbolical of Bel, or Baal. + +Could anything be more evident than the connection of these ceremonies +with the destruction of Atlantis? Here we have the image of the ark; +here we have a white man coming with the news that "the waters had +overflowed the land," and that all the people were destroyed except +himself; here we have the sacrifice to appease the spirit that caused +the Flood, just as we find the Flood terminating, in the Hebrew, +Chaldean, and Central American legends, with a sacrifice. Here, too, we +have the image of the tortoise, which we find in other flood legends of +the Indians, and which is a very natural symbol for an island. As one of +our own poets has expressed it, + + "Very fair and full of promise + Lay the island of St. Thomas; + Like a great green turtle slumbered + On the sea which it encumbered." + +Here we have, too, the four quarters of Atlantis, divided by its four +rivers, as we shall see a little farther on, represented in a dance, +where the dancers arrange themselves according to the four cardinal +points of the compass; the dancers are painted to represent the black +and red races, while "the first and only man" represents the white race; +and the name of the dance is a reminiscence of Baal, the ancient god of +the races derived from Atlantis. + +But this is not all. The Mandans were evidently of the race of Atlantis. +They have another singular legend, which we find in the account of Lewis +and Clarke: + +"Their belief in a future state is connected with this theory of their +origin: The whole nation resided in one large village, underground, near +a subterranean lake. A grape-vine extended its roots down to their +habitation, and gave them a view of the light. Some of the most +adventurous climbed up the vine, and were delighted with the sight of +the earth, which they found covered with buffalo, and rich with every +kind of fruit. Returning with the grapes they had gathered, their +countrymen were so pleased with the taste of them that the whole nation +resolved to leave their dull residence for the charms of the upper +region. Men, women, and children ascended by means of the vine, but, +when about half the nation had reached the surface of the earth, a +corpulent woman, who was clambering up the vine, broke it with her +weight, and closed upon herself and the rest of the nation the light of +the sun." + +This curious tradition means that the present nation dwelt in a large +settlement underground, that is, beyond the land, in the sea; the sea +being represented by "the subterranean lake." At one time the people had +free intercourse between this "large village" and the American +continent, and they founded extensive colonies on this continent; +whereupon some mishap cut them off from the mother country. This +explanation is confirmed by the fact that in the legends of the Iowa +Indians, who were a branch of the Dakotas, or Sioux Indians, and +relatives of the Mandans (according to Major James W. Lynd), "all the +tribes of Indians were formerly one, and all dwelt together on an +island, or at least across a large water toward the east or sunrise. +They crossed this water in skin canoes, or by swimming; but they know +not how long they were in crossing, or whether the water was salt or +fresh." While the Dakotas, according to Major Lynd, who lived among them +for nine years, possessed legends of "huge skiffs, in which the Dakotas +of old floated for weeks, finally gaining dry land"--a reminiscence of +ships and long sea-voyages. + +The Mandans celebrated their great religious festival above described in +the season when the willow is first in leaf, and a dove is mixed up in +the ceremonies; and they further relate a legend that "the world was +once a great tortoise, borne on the waters, and covered with earth, and +that when one day, in digging the soil, a tribe of white men, who had +made holes in the earth to a great depth digging for badgers, at length +pierced the shell of the tortoise, it sank, and the water covering it +drowned all men with the exception of one, who saved himself in a boat; +and when the earth re-emerged, sent out a dove, who returned with a +branch of willow in its beak." + +The holes dug to find badgers were a savage's recollection of mining +operations; and when the great disaster came, and the island sunk in the +sea amid volcanic convulsions, doubtless men said it was due to the deep +mines, which had opened the way to the central fires. But the recurrence +of "white men" as the miners, and of a white man as "the last and only +man," and the presence of white blood in the veins of the people, all +point to the same conclusion--that the Mandans were colonists from +Atlantis. + +And here I might add that Catlin found the following singular +resemblances between the Mandan tongue and the Welsh: + + +----------------------+--------------+------------+-------------+ + | English. | Mandan. | Welsh. | Pronounced. | + +----------------------+--------------+------------+-------------+ + | I | Me. | Mi. | Me. | + +----------------------+--------------+------------+-------------+ + | You. | Ne. | Chwi. | Chwe. | + +----------------------+--------------+------------+-------------+ + | He. | E. | A. | A. | + +----------------------+--------------+------------+-------------+ + | She. | Ea. | E. | A. | + +----------------------+--------------+------------+-------------+ + | It. | Ount. | Hwynt. | Hooynt. | + +----------------------+--------------+------------+-------------+ + | We. | Noo. | Ni. | Ne. | + +----------------------+--------------+------------+-------------+ + | They. | Eonah. | Hona, fem. | Hona. | + +----------------------+--------------+------------+-------------+ + | No; or there is not. | Megosh. | Nagoes. | Nagosh. | + +----------------------+--------------+------------+-------------+ + | No. | | Na. | | + +----------------------+--------------+------------+-------------+ + | Head. | Pan. | Pen. | Pan. | + +----------------------+--------------+------------+-------------+ + | The Great Spirit. | Maho Peneta. | Mawr | Mosoor | + | | | Penæthir. | Panæther. | + +----------------------+--------------+------------+-------------+ + +Major Lynd found the following resemblances between the Dakota tongue +and the languages of the Old World: + +COMPARISON OF DAKOTA, OR SIOUX, WITH OTHER LANGUAGES. + ++--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ +| Latin. | English. | Saxon | Sanscrit. | German. | Danish. | Sioux. | Other | Primary | +| | | | | | | | Languages. | Signification. | ++--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ +| | See, | Seon | | Sehen | Sigt | Sin | | Appearing, | +| | seen | | | | | | | visible. | ++--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ +| Pinso | Pound | Punian | | | | Pau | W., | Beating | +| | | | | | | | Pwynian | | ++--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ +| Vado | Went | Wendan | | | | Winta | | Passage. | +| | Wend | | | | | | | | ++--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ +| | Town | Tun | | Zaun | Tun | Tonwe | Gaelic, | | +| | | | | | | | Dun | | ++--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ +| Qui | Who | Hwa | Kwas | Wir | | Tuwe | | | ++--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ +| | Weapon | Wepn | | Wapen | Vaapen | Wipe | | Sioux dimin. | +| | | | | | | | | Wipena | ++--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ +| Ego | I | Ic | Agam | Ich | Jeg | Mish | | | ++--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ +| Cor | Core | | | | | Co | Gr., Kear | Centre, heart | ++--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ +| | Eight | Achta | Aute | Acht | Otte | Shaktogan | Gr., Okto | | ++--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ +| Canna | Cane | | | | | Can | Heb., Can | Reed, weed, | +| | | | | | | | W., Cawn | wood. | ++--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ +| Pock | Pock | Poc | | Pocke | Pukkel | Poka | Dutch, | Swelling. | +| | | | | | | | Poca | | ++--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ +| | With | With | | Wider | | Wita | Goth., | | +| | | | | | | | Gewithan. | | ++--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ +| | Doughty | Dohtig | | Taugen | Digtig | Dita | | Hot, brave, | +| | | | | | | Ditaya | | daring. | ++--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ +| | Tight | Tian | | Dicht | Digt | Titan | | Strain. | ++--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ +| Tango | Touch | Taecan | | Ticken | Tekkan | Tan | | Touch, take. | +| Tactus | Take | | | | | Htaka | | | ++--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ +| | Child | Cild | | Kind | Kuld | Cin | | Progeny. | ++--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ +| | Work | Wercan | | | | Woccas | Dutch, | Labor, motion. | +| | | | | | | Hecon | Werk | | +| | | | | | | | Span., | | +| | | | | | | | Hecho | | ++--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ +| | Shackle | Seoacul | | | | Shka | Ar., | to bind (a | +| | | | | | | | Schakala, | link). | +| | | | | | | | Dutch, | | +| | | | | | | | Schakel | | +| | | | | | | | Teton, | | +| | | | | | | | Shakalan | | ++--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ +| Query | | | | | | Kuiva | | | ++--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ +| Shabby | | | | Schabig | Schabbig | Shabya | | | ++--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ + +According to Major Lynd, the Dakotas, or Sioux, belonged to the same +race as the Mandans; hence the interest which attaches to these verbal +similarities. + +"Among the Iroquois there is a tradition that the sea and waters +infringed upon the land, so that all human life was destroyed. The +Chickasaws assert that the world was once destroyed by water, but that +one family was saved, and two animals of every kind. The Sioux say there +was a time when there was no dry land, and all men had disappeared from +existence." (See Lynd's "MS. History of the Dakotas," Library of +Historical Society of Minnesota.) + +"The Okanagaus have a god, Skyappe, and also one called Chacha, who +appear to be endowed with omniscience; but their principal divinity is +their great mythical ruler and heroine, Scomalt. Long ago, when the sun +was no bigger than a star, this strong medicine-woman ruled over what +appears to have now become a lost island. At last the peace of the +island was destroyed by war, and the noise of battle was heard, with +which Scomalt was exceeding wroth, whereupon she rose up in her might +and drove her rebellious subjects to one end of the island, and broke +off the piece of land on which they were huddled and pushed it out to +sea, to drift whither it would. This floating island was tossed to and +fro and buffeted by the winds till all but two died. A man and woman +escaped in a canoe, and arrived on the main-land; and from these the +Okanagaus are descended." (Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iii., p. 149.) + +Here we have the Flood legend clearly connected with a lost island. + +The Nicaraguans believed "that ages ago the world was destroyed by a +flood, in which the most part of mankind perished. Afterward the teotes, +or gods, restored the earth as at the beginning." (Ibid., p. 75.) The +wild Apaches, "wild from their natal hour," have a legend that "the +first days of the world were happy and peaceful days;" then came a great +flood, from which Montezuma and the coyote alone escaped. Montezuma +became then very wicked, and attempted to build a house that would reach +to heaven, but the Great Spirit destroyed it with thunderbolts. +(Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iii., p. 76.) + +The Pimas, an Indian tribe allied to the Papagos, have a peculiar flood +legend. The son of the Creator was called Szeu-kha (Ze-us?). An eagle +prophesied the deluge to the prophet of the people three times in +succession, but his warning was despised; "then in the twinkling of an +eye there came a peal of thunder and an awful crash, and a green mound +of water reared itself over the plain. It seemed to stand upright for a +second, then, cut incessantly by the lightning, goaded on like a great +beast, it flung itself upon the prophet's hut. When the morning broke +there was nothing to be seen alive but one man--if indeed he were a man; +Szeu-kha, the son of the Creator, had saved himself by floating on a +ball of gum or resin." This instantaneous catastrophe reminds one +forcibly of the destruction of Atlantis. Szeu-kha killed the eagle, +restored its victims to life, and repeopled the earth with them, as +Deucalion repeopled the earth with the stones. + +CHAPTER VI. + +SOME CONSIDERATION OF THE DELUGE LEGENDS. + +The Fountains of the Great Deep.--As Atlantis perished in a volcanic +convulsion, it must have possessed volcanoes. This is rendered the more +probable when we remember that the ridge of land of which it was a part, +stretching from north to south, from Iceland to St. Helena, contains +even now great volcanoes--as in Iceland, the Azores, the Canaries, +etc.--and that the very sea-bed along the line of its original axis is, +to this day, as we have shown, the scene of great volcanic disturbances. + +If, then, the mountains of Atlantis contained volcanoes, of which the +peaks of the Azores are the surviving representatives, it is not +improbable that the convulsion which drowned it in the sea was +accompanied by great discharges of water. We have seen that such +discharges occurred in the island of Java, when four thousand people +perished. "Immense columns of hot water and boiling mud were thrown out" +of the volcano of Galung Gung; the water was projected from the mountain +"like a water-spout." When a volcanic island was created near Sicily in +1831, it was accompanied by "a waterspout sixty feet high." + +In the island of Dominica, one of the islands constituting the Leeward +group of the West Indies, and nearest to the site of Atlantis, on the +4th of January, 1880, occurred a series of convulsions which reminds us +forcibly of the destruction of Plato's island; and the similarity +extends to another particular: Dominica contains, like Atlantis, we are +told, numerous hot and sulphur springs. I abridge the account given by +the New York Herald of January 28th, 1880: + +"A little after 11 o'clock A.M., soon after high-mass in the Roman +Catholic cathedral, and while divine service was still going on in the +Anglican and Wesleyan chapels, all the indications of an approaching +thunder-storm suddenly showed themselves; the atmosphere, which just +previously had been cool and pleasant--slight showers falling since +early morning--became at once nearly stifling hot; the rumbling of +distant thunder was heard, and the light-blue and fleecy white of the +sky turned into a heavy and lowering black. Soon the thunder-peals came +near and loud, the lightning flashes, of a blue and red color, more +frequent and vivid; and the rain, first with a few heavy drops, +commenced to pour as if the floodgates of heaven were open. In a moment +it darkened, as if night had come; a strong, nearly overpowering smell +of sulphur announced itself; and people who happened to be out in the +streets felt the rain-drops falling on their heads, backs, and shoulders +like showers of hailstones. The cause of this was to be noted by looking +at the spouts, from which the water was rushing like so many cataracts +of molten lead, while the gutters below ran swollen streams of thick +gray mud, looking like nothing ever seen in them before. In the mean +time the Roseau River had worked itself into a state of mad fury, +overflowing its banks, carrying down rocks and large trees, and +threatening destruction to the bridges over it and the houses in its +neighborhood. When the storm ceased--it lasted till twelve, mid-day--the +roofs and walls of the buildings in town, the street pavement, the +door-steps and back-yards were found covered with a deposit of volcanic +débris, holding together like clay, dark-gray in color, and in some +places more than an inch thick, with small, shining metallic particles +on the surface, which could be easily identified as iron pyrites. +Scraping up some of the stuff, it required only a slight examination to +determine its main constituents--sandstone and magnesia, the pyrites +being slightly mixed, and silver showing itself in even smaller +quantity. This is, in fact, the composition of the volcanic mud thrown +up by the soufrières at Watton Waven and in the Boiling Lake country, +and it is found in solution as well in the lake water. The Devil's +Billiard-table, within half a mile of the Boiling Lake, is composed +wholly of this substance, which there assumes the character of stone in +formation. Inquiries instituted on Monday morning revealed the fact +that, except on the south-east, the mud shower had not extended beyond +the limits of the town. On the north-west, in the direction of Fond Colo +and Morne Daniel, nothing but pure rain-water had fallen, and neither +Loubière nor Pointe Michel had seen any signs of volcanic disturbance.... + +"But what happened at Pointe Mulâtre enables us to spot the locale of +the eruption. Pointe Mulâtre lies at the foot of the range of mountains +on the top of which the Boiling Lake frets and seethes. The only outlet +of the lake is a cascade which falls into one of the branches of the +Pointe Mulâtre River, the color and temperature of which, at one time +and another, shows the existence or otherwise of volcanic activity in +the lake-country. We may observe, en passant, that the fall of the water +from the lake is similar in appearance to the falls on the sides of +Roairama, in the interior of British Guiana; there, is no continuous +stream, but the water overleaps its basin like a kettle boiling over, +and comes down in detached cascades from the top. May there not be a +boiling lake on the unapproachable summit of Roairama? The phenomena +noted at Pointe Mulâtre on Sunday were similar to what we witnessed in +Roseau, but with every feature more strongly marked. The fall of mud was +heavier, covering all the fields; the atmospheric disturbance was +greater, and the change in the appearance of the running water about the +place more surprising. The Pointe Mulâtre River suddenly began to run +volcanic mud and water; then the mud predominated, and almost buried the +stream under its weight, and the odor of sulphur in the air became +positively oppressive. Soon the fish in the water--brochet, camoo, meye, +crocro, mullet, down to the eel, the crawfish, the loche, the tétar, and +the dormer--died, and were thrown on the banks. The mud carried down by +the river has formed a bank at the month which nearly dams up the +stream, and threatens to throw it back over the low-lying lands of the +Pointe Mulâtre estate. The reports from the Laudat section of the +Boiling Lake district are curious. The Bachelor and Admiral rivers, and +the numerous mineral springs which arise in that part of the island, are +all running a thick white flood, like cream milk. The face of the entire +country, from the Admiral River to the Solfatera Plain, has undergone +some portentous change, which the frightened peasants who bring the news +to Roseau seem unable clearly and connectedly to describe, and the +volcanic activity still continues." + +From this account it appears that the rain of water and mud came from a +boiling lake on the mountains; it must have risen to a great height, +"like a water-spout," and then fallen in showers over the face of the +country. We are reminded, in this Boiling Lake of Dominica, of the Welsh +legend of the eruption of the Llyn-llion, "the Lake of Waves," which +"inundated the whole country." On the top of a mountain in the county of +Kerry, Ireland, called Mangerton, there is a deep lake known as +Poulle-i-feron, which signifies Hell-hole; it frequently overflows, and +rolls down the mountain in frightful torrents. On Slieve-donart, in the +territory of Mourne, in the county of Down, Ireland, a lake occupies the +mountain-top, and its overflowings help to form rivers. + +If we suppose the destruction of Atlantis to have been, in like manner, +accompanied by a tremendous outpour of water from one or more of its +volcanoes, thrown to a great height, and deluging the land, we can +understand the description in the Chaldean legend of "the terrible +water-spout," which even "the gods grew afraid of," and which "rose to +the sky," and which seems to have been one of the chief causes, together +with the earthquake, of the destruction of the country. And in this view +we are confirmed by the Aramæan legend of the Deluge, probably derived +at an earlier age from the Chaldean tradition. In it we are told, "All +on a sudden enormous volumes of water issued from the earth, and rains +of extraordinary abundance began to fall; the rivers left their beds, +and the ocean overflowed its banks." The disturbance in Dominica +duplicates this description exactly: "In a moment" the water and mud +burst from the mountains, "the floodgates of heaven were opened," and +"the river overflowed its banks." + +And here, again, we are reminded of the expression in Genesis, "the same +day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up" (chap. vii., +11). That this does not refer to the rain is clear from the manner in +which it is stated: "The same day were all the fountains of the great +deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was +upon the earth," etc. And when the work of destruction is finished, we +are told "the fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were +stopped." This is a reminiscence by an inland people, living where such +tremendous volcanic disturbances were nearly unknown, of the terrible +water-spout which "rose to the sky," of the Chaldean legend, and of "the +enormous volumes of water issuing from the earth" of the Aramæan +tradition. The Hindoo legend of the Flood speaks of "the marine god +Hayagriva, who dwelt in the abyss," who produced the cataclysm. This is +doubtless "the archangel of the abyss" spoken of in the Chaldean +tradition. + +The Mountains of the North.--We have in Plato the following reference to +the mountains of Atlantis: + +"The whole country was described as being very lofty and precipitous on +the side of the sea.... The whole region of the island lies toward +the south, and is sheltered from the north.... The surrounding +mountains exceeded all that are to be seen now anywhere." + +These mountains were the present Azores. One has but to contemplate +their present elevation, and remember the depth to which they descend in +the ocean, to realize their tremendous altitude and the correctness of +the description given by Plato. + +In the Hindoo legend we find the fish-god, who represents Poseidon, +father of Atlantis, helping Mann over "the Mountain of the North." In +the Chaldean legend Khasisatra's vessel is stopped by "the Mountain of +Nizir" until the sea goes down. + +The Mud which Stopped Navigation.--We are told by Plato, "Atlantis +disappeared beneath the sea, and then that sea became inaccessible, so +that navigation on it ceased, on account of the quantity of mud which +the ingulfed island left in its place." This is one of the points of +Plato's story which provoked the incredulity and ridicule of the +ancient, and even of the modern, world. We find in the Chaldean legend +something of the same kind: Khasisatra says, "I looked at the sea +attentively, observing, and the whole of humanity had returned to mud." +In the "Popol Vuh" we are told that a "resinous thickness descended from +heaven," even as in Dominica the rain was full of "thick gray mud," +accompanied by an "overpowering smell of sulphur." + +The explorations of the ship Challenger show that the whole of the +submerged ridge of which Atlantis is a part is to this day thickly +covered with volcanic débris. + +We have but to remember the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, which +were covered with such a mass of volcanic ashes from the eruption of +A.D. 79 that for seventeen centuries they remained buried at a depth of +from fifteen to thirty feet; a new population lived and labored above +them; an aqueduct was constructed over their heads; and it was only when +a farmer, in digging for a well, penetrated the roof of a house, that +they were once more brought to the light of day and the knowledge of +mankind. + +We have seen that, in 1783, the volcanic eruption in Iceland covered the +sea with pumice for a distance of one hundred and fifty miles, "and +ships were considerably impeded in their course." + +The eruption in the island of Sumbawa, in April, 1815, threw out such +masses of ashes as to darken the air. "The floating cinders to the west +of Sumatra formed, on the 12th of April, a mass two feet thick and +several miles in extent, through which ships with difficulty forced +their way." + +It thus appears that the very statement of Plato which has provoked the +ridicule of scholars is in itself one of the corroborating features of +his story. It is probable that the ships of the Atlanteans, when they +returned after the tempest to look for their country, found the sea +impassable from the masses of volcanic ashes and pumice. They returned +terrified to the shores of Europe; and the shock inflicted by the +destruction of Atlantis upon the civilization of the world probably led +to one of those retrograde periods in the history of our race in which +they lost all intercourse with the Western continent. + +The Preservation of a Record.--There is a singular coincidence in the +stories of the Deluge in another particular. + +The legends of the Phoenicians, preserved by Sanchoniathon, tell us that +Taautos, or Taut, was the inventor of the alphabet and of the art of +writing. + +Now, we find in the Egyptian legends a passage of Manetho, in which +Thoth (or Hermes Trismegistus), before the Deluge, inscribed on stelæ, +or tablets, in hieroglyphics, or sacred characters, the principles of +all knowledge. After the Deluge the second Thoth translated the contents +of these stelæ into the vulgar tongue. + +Josephus tells us that "The patriarch Seth, in order that wisdom and +astronomical knowledge should not perish, erected, in prevision of the +double destruction by fire and water predicted by Adam, two columns, one +of brick, the other of stone, on which this knowledge was engraved, and +which existed in the Siriadic country." + +In the Chaldean legends the god Ea ordered Khasisatra to inscribe the +divine learning, and the principles of all sciences, on tables of +terra-cotta, and bury them, before the Deluge, "in the City of the Sun +at Sippara." + +Berosus, in his version of the Chaldean flood, says: + +"The deity, Chronos, appeared to him (Xisuthros) in a vision, and warned +him that, upon the 15th day of the month Doesius, there would be a flood +by which mankind would be destroyed. He therefore enjoined him to write +a history of the beginning, procedure, and conclusion of all things, and +to bury it in the City of the Sun at Sippara, and to build a vessel," +etc. + +The Hindoo Bhâgavata-Purâna tells us that the fish-god, who warned +Satyravata of the coming of the Flood, directed him to place the sacred +Scriptures in a safe place, "in order to preserve them from Hayagriva, a +marine horse dwelling in the abyss." + +Are we to find the original of these legends in the following passage +from Plato's history of Atlantis? + +"Now, the relations of their governments to one another were regulated +by the injunctions of Poseidon, as the law had handed them down. These +were inscribed by the first then on a column of orichalcum, which was +situated in the middle of the island, at the Temple of Poseidon, whither +the people were gathered together.... They received and gave +judgments, and at daybreak they wrote down their sentences on a golden +tablet, and deposited them as memorials with their robes. There were +many special laws which the several kings had inscribed about the +temples." (Critias, p. 120.) + +A Succession of Disasters.--The Central American books, translated by De +Bourbourg, state that originally a part of the American continent +extended far into the Atlantic Ocean. This tradition is strikingly +confirmed by the explorations of the ship Challenger, which show that +the "Dolphin's Ridge" was connected with the shore of South America +north of the mouth of the Amazon. The Central American books tell us +that this region of the continent was destroyed by a succession of +frightful convulsions, probably at long intervals apart; three of these +catastrophes are constantly mentioned, and sometimes there is reference +to one or two more. + +"The land," in these convulsions, "was shaken by frightful earthquakes, +and the waves of the sea combined with volcanic fires to overwhelm and +ingulf it.... Each convulsion swept away portions of the land until +the whole disappeared, leaving the line of coast as it now is. Most of +the inhabitants, overtaken amid their regular employments, were +destroyed; but some escaped in ships, and some fled for safety to the +summits of high mountains, or to portions of the land which for a time +escaped immediate destruction." (Baldwin's "Ancient America," p. 176.) + +This accords precisely with the teachings of geology. We know that the +land from which America and Europe were formed once covered nearly or +quite the whole space now occupied by the Atlantic between the +continents; and it is reasonable to believe that it went down piecemeal, +and that Atlantis was but the stump of the ancient continent, which at +last perished from the same causes and in the same way. + +The fact that this tradition existed among the inhabitants of America is +proven by the existence of festivals, "especially one in the month +Izcalli, which were instituted to commemorate this frightful destruction +of land and people, and in which, say the sacred books, 'princes and +people humbled themselves before the divinity, and besought him to +withhold a return of such terrible calamities.'" + +Can we doubt the reality of events which we thus find confirmed by +religious ceremonies at Athens, in Syria, and on the shores of Central +America? + +And we find this succession of great destructions of the Atlantic +continent in the triads of Wales, where traditions are preserved of +"three terrible catastrophes." We are told by the explorations of the +ship Challenger that the higher lands reach in the direction of the +British Islands; and the Celts had traditions that a part of their +country once extended far out into the Atlantic, and was subsequently +destroyed. + +And the same succession of destructions is referred to in the Greek +legends, where a deluge of Ogyges--"the most ancient of the kings of +Boeotia or Attica, a quite mythical person, lost in the night of +ages"--preceded that of Deucalion. + +We will find hereafter the most ancient hymns of the Aryans praying God +to hold the land firm. The people of Atlantis, having seen their country +thus destroyed, section by section, and judging that their own time must +inevitably come, must have lived under a great and perpetual terror, +which will go far to explain the origin of primeval religion, and the +hold which it took upon the minds of men; and this condition of things +may furnish us a solution of the legends which have come down to us of +their efforts to perpetuate their learning on pillars, and also an +explanation of that other legend of the Tower of Babel, which, as I will +show hereafter, was common to both continents, and in which they sought +to build a tower high enough to escape the Deluge. + +All the legends of the preservation of a record prove that the united +voice of antiquity taught that the antediluvians had advanced so far in +civilization as to possess an alphabet and a system of writing; a +conclusion which, as we will see hereafter, finds confirmation in the +original identity of the alphabetical signs used in the old world and +the new. + +PART III + +THE CIVILIZATION OF THE OLD WORLD AND NEW COMPARED. + +CHAPTER I. + +CIVILIZATION AN INHERITANCE. + +Material civilization might be defined to be the result of a series of +inventions and discoveries, whereby man improves his condition, and +controls the forces of nature for his own advantage. + +The savage man is a pitiable creature; as Menabosbu says, in the +Chippeway legends, he is pursued by a "perpetual hunger;" he is exposed +unprotected to the blasts of winter and the heats of summer. A great +terror sits upon his soul; for every manifestation of nature--the storm, +the wind, the thunder, the lightning, the cold, the heat--all are +threatening and dangerous demons. The seasons bring him neither +seed-time nor harvest; pinched with hunger, appeasing in part the +everlasting craving of his stomach with seeds, berries, and creeping +things, he sees the animals of the forest dash by him, and he has no +means to arrest their flight. He is powerless and miserable in the midst +of plenty. Every step toward civilization is a step of conquest over +nature. The invention of the bow and arrow was, in its time, a far +greater stride forward for the human race than the steam-engine or the +telegraph. The savage could now reach his game--his insatiable hunger +could be satisfied; the very eagle, "towering in its pride of place," +was not beyond the reach of this new and wonderful weapon. The discovery +of fire and the art of cooking was another immense step forward. The +savage, having nothing but wooden vessels in which to cook, covered the +wood with clay; the day hardened in the fire. The savage gradually +learned that he could dispense with the wood, and thus pottery was +invented. Then some one (if we are to believe the Chippeway legends, on +the shores of Lake Superior) found fragments of the pure copper of that +region, beat them into shape, and the art of metallurgy was begun; iron +was first worked in the same way by shaping meteoric iron into +spear-heads. + +But it must not be supposed that these inventions followed one another +in rapid succession. Thousands, and perhaps tens of thousands, of years +intervened between each step; many savage races have not to this day +achieved some of these steps. Prof. Richard Owen says, "Unprepossessed +and sober experience teaches that arts, language, literature are of slow +growth, the results of gradual development." + +I shall undertake to show hereafter that nearly all the arts essential +to civilization which we possess date back to the time of +Atlantis--certainly to that ancient Egyptian civilization which was +coeval with, and an outgrowth from, Atlantis. + +In six thousand years the world made no advance on the civilization +which it received from Atlantis. + +Phoenicia, Egypt, Chaldea, India, Greece, and Rome passed the torch of +civilization from one to the other; but in all that lapse of time they +added nothing to the arts which existed at the earliest period of +Egyptian history. In architecture, sculpture, painting, engraving, +mining, metallurgy, navigation, pottery, glass-ware, the construction of +canals, roads, and aqueducts, the arts of Phoenicia and Egypt extended, +without material change or improvement, to a period but two or three +hundred years ago. The present age has entered upon a new era; it has +added a series of wonderful inventions to the Atlantean list; it has +subjugated steam and electricity to the uses of man. And its work has +but commenced: it will continue until it lifts man to a plane as much +higher than the present as the present is above the barbaric condition; +and in the future it will be said that between the birth of civilization +in Atlantis and the new civilization there stretches a period of many +thousands of years, during which mankind did not invent, but simply +perpetuated. + +Herodotus tells us ("Euterpe," cxlii.) that, according to the +information he received from the Egyptian priests, their written history +dated back 11,340 years before his era, or nearly 14,000 years prior to +this time. They introduced him into a spacious temple, and showed him +the statues of 341 high-priests who had in turn succeeded each other; +and yet the age of Columbus possessed no arts, except that of printing +(which was ancient in China), which was not known to the Egyptians; and +the civilization of Egypt at its first appearance was of a higher order +than at any subsequent period of its history, thus testifying that it +drew its greatness from a fountain higher than itself. It was in its +early days that Egypt worshipped one only God; in the later ages this +simple and sublime belief was buried under the corruptions of +polytheism. The greatest pyramids were built by the Fourth Dynasty, and +so universal was education at that time among the people that the stones +with which they were built retain to this day the writing of the +workmen. The first king was Menes. + +"At the epoch of Menes," says Winchell, "the Egyptians were already a +civilized and numerous people. Manetho tells us that Athotis, the son of +this first king, Menes, built the palace at Memphis; that he was a +physician, and left anatomical books. All these statements imply that +even at this early period the Egyptians were in a high state of +civilization." (Winchell's "Preadamites," p. 120.) "In the time of Menes +the Egyptians had long been architects, sculptors, painters, +mythologists, and theologians." Professor Richard Owen says, "Egypt is +recorded to have been a civilized and governed community before the time +of Menes. The pastoral community of a group of nomad families, as +portrayed in the Pentateuch, may be admitted as an early step in +civilization. But how far in advance of this stage is a nation +administered by a kingly government, consisting of grades of society, +with divisions of labor, of which one kind, assigned to the priesthood, +was to record or chronicle the names and dynasties of the kings, the +duration and chief events of their reigns!" Ernest Renan points out that +"Egypt at the beginning appears mature, old, and entirely without +mythical and heroic ages, as if the country had never known youth. Its +civilization has no infancy, and its art no archaic period. The +civilization of the Old Monarchy did not begin with infancy. It was +already mature." + +We shall attempt to show that it matured in Atlantis, and that the +Egyptian people were unable to maintain it at the high standard at which +they had received it, as depicted in the pages of Plato. What king of +Assyria, or Greece, or Rome, or even of these modern nations, has ever +devoted himself to the study of medicine and the writing of medical +books for the benefit of mankind? Their mission has been to kill, not to +heal the people; yet here, at the very dawn of Mediterranean history, we +find the son of the first king of Egypt recorded "as a physician, and as +having left anatomical books." + +I hold it to be incontestable that, in some region of the earth, +primitive mankind must have existed during vast spaces of time, and +under most favorable circumstances, to create, invent, and discover +those arts and things which constitute civilization. When we have it +before our eyes that for six thousand years mankind in Europe, Asia, and +Africa, even when led by great nations, and illuminated by marvellous +minds, did not advance one inch beyond the arts of Egypt, we may +conceive what lapses, what aeons, of time it must have required to bring +savage man to that condition of refinement and civilization possessed by +Egypt when it first comes within the purview of history. + +That illustrious Frenchman, H. A. Taine ("History of English +Literature," p. 23), sees the unity of the Indo-European races manifest +in their languages, literature, and philosophies, and argues that these +pre-eminent traits are "the great marks of an original model," and that +when we meet with them "fifteen, twenty, thirty centuries before our +era, in an Aryan, an Egyptian, a Chinese, they represent the work of a +great many ages, perhaps of several myriads of centuries.... Such is +the first and richest source of these master faculties from which +historical events take their rise; and one sees that if it be powerful +it is because this is no simple spring, but a kind of lake, a deep +reservoir, wherein other springs have, for a multitude of centuries, +discharged their several streams." In other words, the capacity of the +Egyptian, Aryan, Chaldean, Chinese, Saxon, and Celt to maintain +civilization is simply the result of civilized training during "myriads +of centuries" in some original home of the race. + +I cannot believe that the great inventions were duplicated +spontaneously, as some would have us believe, in different countries; +there is no truth in the theory that men pressed by necessity will +always hit upon the same invention to relieve their wants. If this were +so, all savages would have invented the boomerang; all savages would +possess pottery, bows and arrows, slings, tents, and canoes; in short, +all races would have risen to civilization, for certainly the comforts +of life are as agreeable to one people as another. + +Civilization is not communicable to all; many savage tribes are +incapable of it. There are two great divisions of mankind, the civilized +and the savage; and, as we shall show, every civilized race in the world +has had something of civilization from the earliest ages; and as "all +roads lead to Rome," so all the converging lines of civilization lead to +Atlantis. The abyss between the civilized man and the savage is simply +incalculable; it represents not alone a difference in arts and methods +of life, but in the mental constitution, the instincts, and the +predispositions of the soul. The child of the civilized races in his +sports manufactures water-wheels, wagons, and houses of cobs; the savage +boy amuses himself with bows and arrows: the one belongs to a building +and creating race; the other to a wild, hunting stock. This abyss +between savagery and civilization has never been passed by any nation +through its own original force, and without external influences, during +the Historic Period; those who were savages at the dawn of history are +savages still; barbarian slaves may have been taught something of the +arts of their masters, and conquered races have shared some of the +advantages possessed by their conquerors; but we will seek in vain for +any example of a savage people developing civilization of and among +themselves. I may be reminded of the Gauls, Goths, and Britons; but +these were not savages, they possessed written languages, poetry, +oratory, and history; they were controlled by religious ideas; they +believed in God and the immortality of the soul, and in a state of +rewards and punishments after death. Wherever the Romans came in contact +with Gauls, or Britons, or German tribes, they found them armed with +weapons of iron. The Scots, according to Tacitus, used chariots and iron +swords in the battle of the Grampians--"enormes gladii sine mucrone." +The Celts of Gaul are stated by Diodorus Siculus to have used +iron-headed spears and coats-of-mail, and the Gauls who encountered the +Roman arms in B.C. 222 were armed with soft iron swords, as well as at +the time when Cæsar conquered their country. Among the Gauls men would +lend money to be repaid in the next world, and, we need not add, that no +Christian people has yet reached that sublime height of faith; they +cultivated the ground, built houses and walled towns, wove cloth, and +employed wheeled vehicles; they possessed nearly all the cereals and +domestic animals we have, and they wrought in iron, bronze, and steel. +The Gauls had even invented a machine on wheels to cut their grain, thus +anticipating our reapers and mowers by two thousand years. The +difference between the civilization of the Romans under Julius Cæsar +and the Gauls under Vercingetorix was a difference in degree and not in +kind. The Roman civilization was simply a development and perfection of +the civilization possessed by all the European populations; it was drawn +from the common fountain of Atlantis. + +If we find on both sides of the Atlantic precisely the same arts, +sciences, religious beliefs, habits, customs, and traditions, it is +absurd to say that the peoples of the two continents arrived separately, +by precisely the same steps, at precisely the same ends. When we +consider the resemblance of the civilizations of the Mediterranean +nations to one another, no man is silly enough to pretend that Rome, +Greece, Egypt, Assyria, Phoenicia, each spontaneously and separately +invented the arts, sciences, habits, and opinions in which they agreed; +but we proceed to trace out the thread of descent or connection from one +to another. Why should a rule of interpretation prevail, as between the +two sides of the Atlantic, different from that which holds good as to +the two sides of the Mediterranean Sea? If, in the one case, similarity +of origin has unquestionably produced similarity of arts, customs, and +condition, why, in the other, should not similarity of arts, customs, +and condition prove similarity of origin? Is there any instance in the +world of two peoples, without knowledge of or intercourse with each +other, happening upon the same invention, whether that invention be an +arrow-head or a steam-engine? If it required of mankind a lapse of at +least six thousand years before it began anew the work of invention, and +took up the thread of original thought where Atlantis dropped it, what +probability is there of three or four separate nations all advancing at +the same speed to precisely the same arts and opinions? The proposition +is untenable. + +If, then, we prove that, on both sides of the Atlantic, civilizations +were found substantially identical, we have demonstrated that they must +have descended one from the other, or have radiated from some common +source. + +CHAPTER II + +THE IDENTITY OF THE CIVILIZATIONS OF THE OLD WORLD AND THE NEW + + MOSAICS AT MITLA, MEXICO + +Architecture.--Plato tells us that the Atlanteans possessed +architecture; that they built walls, temples, and palaces. + +We need not add that this art was found in Egypt and all the civilized +countries of Europe, as well as in Peru, Mexico, and Central America. +Among both the Peruvians and Egyptians the walls receded inward, and the +doors were narrower at the top than at the threshold. + +The obelisks of Egypt, covered with hieroglyphics, are paralleled by the +round columns of Central America, and both are supposed to have +originated in Phallus-worship. "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 Races," vol. iii., p. 504.) +The worship of Priapus was found in Asia, Egypt, along the European +shore of the Mediterranean, and in the forests of Central America. + +The mounds of Europe and Asia were made in the same way and for the same +purposes as those of America. Herodotus describes the burial of a +Scythian king; he says, "After this they set to work to raise a vast +mound above the grave, all of them vying with each other, and seeking 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 over +Hector. Alexander the Great raised a great mound over his friend +Hephæstion, at a cost of more than a million dollars; and Semiramis +raised a similar mound over her husband. The pyramids of Egypt, Assyria, +and Phoenicia had their duplicates in Mexico and Central America. + + CARVING ON THE BUDDHIST TOWER, SARNATH, INDIA + +The grave-cists made of stone of the American mounds are exactly like +the stone chests, or kistvaen for the dead, found in the British mounds. +(Fosters "Prehistoric Races," p. 109.) Tumuli have been found in +Yorkshire 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 urns. In both the Mississippi Valley and among the Chaldeans +vases were constructed around the bones, the neck of the vase being too +small to permit the extraction of the skull. (Foster's "Prehistoric +Races," p. 200.) + +The use of cement was known alike to the European and American nations. + +The use of the arch was known on both sides of the Atlantic. + +The manufacture of bricks was known in both the Old and New Worlds. + +The style of ornamentation in architecture was much the same on both +hemispheres, as shown in the preceding designs, pages 137, 139. + +Metallurgy.--The Atlanteans mined ores, and worked in metals; they used +copper, tin, bronze, gold, and silver, and probably iron. + +The American nations possessed all these metals. The age of bronze, or +of copper combined with tin, was preceded in America, and nowhere else, +by a simpler age of copper; and, therefore, the 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 civilization of this latter region, as we +will show, probably dated back to Atlantean times. The Peruvians called +gold the tears of the sun: it was sacred to the sun, as silver was to +the moon. + +Sculpture.--The Atlanteans possessed this art; so did the American and +Mediterranean nations. + +Dr. Arthur Schott ("Smith. Rep.," 1869, p. 391), in describing the "Cara +Gigantesca," or gigantic face, a monument of Yzamal, in Yucatan, says, +"Behind and on both sides, from under the mitre, a short veil falls upon +the shoulders, 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. Schott sees in the orbicular wheel-like +plates of this statue the wheel symbol of Kronos and Saturn; and, in +turn, it may be supposed that the wheel of Kronos was simply the cross +of Atlantis, surrounded by its encircling ring. + +Painting.--This art was known on both sides of the Atlantic. The +paintings upon the walls of some of the temples of Central America +reveal a state of the art as high as that of Egypt. + +Engraving.--Plato tells us that the Atlanteans engraved upon pillars. +The American nations also had this art in common with Egypt, Phoenicia, +and Assyria. + +Agriculture.--The people of Atlantis were pre-eminently an agricultural +people; so were the civilized nations of America and the Egyptians. In +Egypt the king put 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 both the plough was known; in +Egypt it was drawn by oxen, and in Peru by men. It was drawn by men in +the North of Europe down to a comparatively recent period. + +Public Works.--The American nations built public works as great as or +greater than any known in Europe. The Peruvians had public roads, one +thousand five hundred to two thousand miles long, made so thoroughly as +to elicit the astonishment of the Spaniards. At every few miles taverns +or hotels were established for the accommodation of travellers. 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 introduced into Europe. They had, +both in Peru and Mexico, a system of posts, by means of which news was +transmitted hundreds of miles in a day, precisely like those known among +the Persians in the time of Herodotus, and subsequently among the +Romans. Stones similar to mile-stones were placed along the roads in +Peru. (See Prescott's "Peru,") + +Navigation.--Sailing vessels were known to the Peruvians and the Central +Americans. Columbus met, in 1502, at an island near Honduras, a party of +the Mayas in a large vessel, equipped with sails, and loaded with a +variety of textile fabrics of divers colors. + + ANCIENT IRISH VASE OF THE BRONZE AGE + +Mannfactures.--The American nations manufactured woollen and cotton +goods; they made pottery as beautiful as the wares of Egypt; they +manufactured glass; they engraved gems and precious stones. The +Peruvians had such immense numbers of vessels and ornaments of gold that +the Inca paid with them a ransom for himself to Pizarro of the value of +fifteen million dollars. + +Music.--It has been pointed out that there is great resemblance between +the five-toned music of the Highland Scotch and that of the Chinese and +other Eastern nations. ("Anthropology," p. 292.) + +Weapons.--The weapons of the New World were identically the same as +those of the Old World; they consisted of bows and arrows, spears, +darts, short swords, battle-axes, and slings; 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 the other would have possessed implements not known to the +other, like the blow-pipe, the boomerang, etc. Absolute identity in so +many weapons strongly argues identity of origin. + +Religion.--The religion of the Atlanteans, as Plato tells us, was pure +and simple; they made no regular sacrifices but fruits and flowers; they +worshipped the sun. + +In Peru a single deity was worshipped, and the sun, his most glorious +work, was honored as his representative. Quetzalcoatl, the founder of +the Aztecs, condemned all sacrifice but 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 +Peru the great festival of the sun was called Ra-mi. The Phoenicians +worshipped Baal and Moloch; the one represented the beneficent, and the +other the injurious powers of the sun. + +Religious Beliefs.--The Guanches of the Canary Islands, who were +probably a fragment of the old Atlantean population, believed in the +immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body, and preserved +their dead as mummies. The Egyptians believed in the immortality of the +soul and the resurrection of the body, and preserved the 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 the body was also +practised in Central America and among the Aztecs. The Aztecs, like the +Egyptians, mummified their dead by taking out the bowels and replacing +them with aromatic substances. (Dorman, "Origin Prim. Superst.," p. +173.) The bodies of the kings of the Virginia Indians were preserved by +embalming. (Beverly, p. 47.) + +Here are different races, separated by immense distances of land and +ocean, uniting in the same beliefs, and in the same practical and +logical application of those beliefs. + +The use of confession and penance was known in the religious ceremonies +of some of the American nations. Baptism was a religious ceremony with +them, and the bodies of the dead were sprinkled with water. + +Vestal virgins were found in organized communities on both sides of the +Atlantic; they were in each case pledged to celibacy, and devoted to +death if they violated their vows. In both hemispheres the recreant were +destroyed by being buried alive. The Peruvians, Mexicans, Central +Americans, Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Hebrews each had a powerful +hereditary priesthood. + +The Phoenicians believed in an evil spirit called Zebub; the Peruvians +had a devil called Cupay. The Peruvians burnt incense in their temples. +The Peruvians, when they sacrificed animals, examined their entrails, +and from these prognosticated the future. + +I need not add that all these nations preserved traditions of the +Deluge; and all of them possessed systems of writing. + +The Egyptian priest of Sais told Solon that the myth of Phaëthon, the +son of Helios, having attempted to drive the chariot of the sun, and +thereby burning up the earth, referred to "a declination of the bodies +moving round the earth and in the heavens" (comets), which caused a +"great conflagration upon the earth," from which those only escaped who +lived near rivers and seas. The "Codex Chimalpopoca"--a Nahua, Central +American record--tells 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, one of "the bodies moving round +the earth and in the heavens;" they had also memories of "the Drift +Period," and of the outburst of Plutonic rocks. If man has existed on +the earth as long as science asserts, he must have passed through many +of the great catastrophes which are written upon the face of the planet; +and it is very natural that in myths and legends he should preserve some +recollection of events so appalling and destructive. + +Among the early Greeks Pan was the ancient god; his wife was Maia. The +Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg calls attention to the fact that Pan was +adored in all parts of Mexico and Central America; and at Panuco, or +Panca, literally Panopolis, the Spaniards found, 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 peninsula; and pan, added to Maya, makes the name of the +ancient capital Mayapan. In the Nahua language pan, or pani, signifies +"equality to that which is above," and Pentecatl was the progenitor of +all beings. ("North Americans of Antiquity," p. 467.) + +The ancient Mexicans believed that the sun-god would destroy the world +in the last night of the fifty-second year, and that he would never come +back. They offered sacrifices to him at that time to propitiate him; +they extinguished all the fires in the kingdom; they broke all their +household furniture; they hung black masks before their faces; they +prayed and fasted; 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 people the promise of the god not to destroy the world +for another fifty-two years. Precisely the same custom obtained among +the nations of Asia Minor and other parts of the continent of Asia, +wherever sun-worship prevailed, at the periodical reproduction of the +sacred fire, but not with the same bloody rites as in Mexico. +(Valentini, "Maya Archaeology," p. 21.) + +To this day the Brahman of India "churns" his sacred fire out of a board +by boring into it with a stick; the Romans renewed their sacred fire in +the same way; and in Sweden even now a "need-fire is kindled in this +manner when cholera or other pestilence is about." (Tylor's +"Anthropology," p. 262.) + +A belief in ghosts is found on both continents. The American Indians +think that the spirits of the dead retain the form and features which +they wore while living; that there is a hell and a heaven; that hell is +below the earth, and heaven above the clouds; that the souls of the +wicked sometimes wander the face of the earth, appearing occasionally 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 Zuñis set apart a day in each year which they +spent among the graves of their dead, communing with their spirits, and +bringing them presents--a kind of All-souls-day. (Dorman, "Prim. +Superst.," p. 35.) The Stygian flood, and Scylla and Charybdis, are +found among the legends of the Caribs. (Ibid., p. 37.) Even the boat of +Charon reappears in the traditions of the Chippewayans. + +The Oriental belief in the transmigration of souls is found in every +American tribe. The souls of men passed into animals or other men. +(Schoolcraft, vol. i., p. 33.) The souls of the wicked passed into toads +and wild beasts. (Dorman, "Prim. Superst.," p. 50.) + +Among both the Germans and the American Indians lycanthropy, or the +metamorphosis of men into wolves, was believed in. In British Columbia +the men-wolves have often been seen seated around a fire, with their +wolf-hides hung upon sticks to dry! The Irish legend of hunters pursuing +an animal which suddenly disappears, whereupon a human being appears in +its place is found among all the American tribes. + +That timid and harmless animal, the hare, was, singularly enough, an +object of superstitious reverence and fear in Europe, Asia, and America. +The ancient Irish killed all the hares they found on May-day among their +cattle, believing them to be witches. Cæsar gives an account of the +horror in which this animal was held by the Britons. The Calmucks +regarded the rabbit with fear and reverence. Divine honors were paid to +the hare in Mexico. Wabasso was changed into a white rabbit, and +canonized in that form. + +The white bull, Apis, of the Egyptians, reappears in the Sacred white +buffalo of the Dakotas, which was supposed to possess supernatural +power, and after death became a god. The white doe of European legend +had its representative in the white deer of the Housatonic Valley, whose +death brought misery to the tribe. The transmission of spirits by the +laying on of hands, and the exorcism of demons, were part of the +religion of the American tribes. + +The witches of Scandinavia, who produced tempests by their incantations, +are duplicated in America. A Cree sorcerer sold three days of fair +weather for one pound of tobacco! The Indian sorcerers around Freshwater +Bay kept the winds in leather bags, and disposed of them as they pleased. + +Among the American Indians it is believed that those who are insane or +epileptic are "possessed of devils." (Tylor, "Prim. Cult.," vol. ii., +pp. 123-126.) Sickness is caused by evil spirits entering 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 eructation, says, "Thank you, +animal." (Dorman, "Prim. Superst.," p. 55.) The confession of their sins +was with a view to satisfy the evil spirit and induce him to leave them. +(Ibid., p. 57.) + +In both continents burnt-offerings were sacrificed to the gods. In both +continents the priests divined the future from the condition of the +internal 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. In Peru and Mexico there were colleges of augurs, as in Rome, +who practised divination by watching the movements and songs of birds. +(Ibid., p. 261.) + +Animals were worshipped in Central America and on the banks of the Nile. +(Ibid., p. 259.) + +The Ojibbeways believed that the barking of a fox was ominous of ill. +(Ibid., p. 225). The peasantry of Western Europe have the same belief as +to the howling of a dog. + +The belief in satyrs, and other creatures half man and half animal, +survived in America. The Kickapoos are Darwinians. "They think their +ancestors had tails, and 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 natives of Brazil the father cut a +stick at the wedding of his daughter; "this was done to cut off the +tails of any future grandchildren." (Tylor, vol. i., p. 384.) + +Jove, with the thunder-bolts in his hand, is duplicated in the Mexican +god of thunder, Mixcoatl, who is represented holding a bundle of arrows. +"He rode upon a tornado, and scattered the lightnings." (Dorman, "Prim. +Superst.," p. 98.) + +Dionysus, or Bacchus, is represented by the Mexican god Texcatzoncatl, +the god of wine. (Bancroft, vol. iii., p. 418.) + +Atlas reappears in Chibchacum, the deity of the Chibchas; he bears the +world on his shoulders, and when be shifts the burden from one shoulder +to another severe earthquakes are produced. (Bollært, pp. 12, 13.) + +Deucalion repeopling the world is repeated in Xololt, who, after the +destruction of the world, descended to Mictlan, the realm of the dead, +and brought thence a bone of the 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, their +bones ground to powder and thrown into the waters, whereupon they +changed into handsome youths, with the same features as before. (Dorman, +"Prim. Superst.," p. 193.) + +Witches and warlocks, mermaids and mermen, are part of the mythology of +the American tribes, as they were of the European races. (Ibid., p. 79.) +The mermaid of the Ottawas was "woman to the waist and fair;" thence +fish-like. (Ibid., p. 278.) + +The snake-locks of Medusa are represented in the snake-locks of +At-otarho, an ancient culture-hero of the Iroquois. + +A belief in the incarnation of gods in men, and the physical translation +of heroes to heaven, is part of the mythology of the Hindoos and the +American races. Hiawatha, we are told, rose to heaven in the presence of +the multitude, and vanished from sight in the midst of sweet music. + +The vocal statues and oracles of Egypt and Greece were duplicated in +America. In Peru, in the valley of Rimac, there was an idol which +answered questions and became famous as an oracle. (Dorman, "Prim. +Superst.," p. 124.) + +The Peruvians believed that men were sometimes metamorphosed into stones. + +The Oneidas claimed descent from a stone, as the Greeks from the stones +of Deucalion. (Ibid., p. 132.) + +Witchcraft is an article of faith among all the American races. Among +the Illinois Indians "they made small images to represent those whose +days they have 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 witches of Europe made figures of wax of their +enemies, and gradually melted them at the fire, and as they diminished +the victim was supposed to sicken and die. + +A writer in the Popular Science Monthly (April, 1881, p. 828) points out +the fact that there is an absolute identity between the folk-lore of the +negroes on the plantations of the South 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. Harris, the author of a work on the folk-lore of the negroes, +asks this question, "When did the negro or the North American Indian +come in contact with the tribes of South America?" + +Customs.--Both peoples manufactured a fermented, intoxicating drink, the +one deriving it from barley, the other from maize. Both drank toasts. +Both had the institution of marriage, an important part of the ceremony +consisting in the joining of hands; both recognized divorce, and the +Peruvians and Mexicans established special courts to decide cases of +this kind. Both the Americans and Europeans erected arches, and had +triumphal processions for their victorious kings, and both strewed the +ground before them with leaves and flowers. Both celebrated important +events with bonfires and illuminations; both used banners, both invoked +blessings. The Phoenicians, Hebrews, and Egyptians practised +circumcision. 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 mirrors by the sun's rays. The Romans under Numa +had precisely the same custom. The Peruvians had theatrical plays. They +chewed the leaves of the coca mixed with lime, as the Hindoo to-day +chews the leaves of the betel mixed with lime. Both the American and +European nations were divided into castes; both practised +planet-worship; both used scales and weights and mirrors. The Peruvians, +Egyptians, and Chaldeans divided the year into twelve months, and the +months into lesser divisions of weeks. Both inserted additional days, so +as to give the year three hundred and sixty-five days. The Mexicans +added five intercalary days; and the Egyptians, in the time of Amunoph +I., had already the same practice. + +Humboldt, whose high authority cannot be questioned, by an elaborate +discussion ("Vues des Cordilleras," p. 148 et. seq., ed. 1870), has +shown the relative likeness of the Nahua calendar to that of Asia. He +cites the fact that the Chinese, 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 similar with +Asiatics and Mexicans. He further shows satisfactorily that the majority +of the names of the twenty days employed by the Aztecs are those of a +zodiac used since the most remote antiquity among the peoples of Eastern +Asia. + +Cabera thinks he finds analogies between the Mexican and Egyptian +calendars. Adopting the view of several writers that the Mexican year +began on the 26th of February, he finds the date to correspond with the +beginning of the Egyptian year. + +The American nations believed in four great primeval ages, as the Hindoo +does to this day. + +"In the Greeks of Homer," says Volney, "I find the customs, discourse, +and manners of the Iroquois, Delawares, and Miamis. The tragedies of +Sophocles and Euripides paint to me almost literally the sentiments of +the red men respecting necessity, fatality, the miseries of human life, +and the rigor of blind destiny." (Volney's "View of the United States.") + +The Mexicans represent an eclipse of the moon as the moon being devoured +by a dragon; and the Hindoos have precisely the same figure; and both +nations continued to use this expression long after they had discovered +the real meaning of an eclipse. + +The Tartars believe that if they cut with an axe near a fire, or stick a +knife into a burning stick, or touch the fire with a knife, they will +"cut the top off the fire." The Sioux Indians will not stick an awl or a +needle into a stick of wood on the fire, or chop on it with an axe or a +knife. + +Cremation was extensively practised in the New World. The dead were +burnt, and their ashes collected and placed in vases and urns, as in +Europe. Wooden statues of the dead were made. + +There is a very curious and apparently inexplicable custom, called the +"Couvade," which extends from China to the Mississippi Valley; it +demands "that, when a child is born, the father must take to his bed, +while the mother attends to all the duties of the household." Marco Polo +found the custom among the Chinese in the thirteenth century. + +The widow tells Hudibras-- + + "Chineses thus are said + To lie-in in their ladies' stead." + +The practice remarked by Marco Polo continues to this day among the +hill-tribes of China. "The father of a new-born child, as soon as the +mother has become strong enough to leave her couch, gets into bed +himself, and there receives the congratulations of his acquaintances." +(Max Müller's "Chips from a German Workshop," vol. ii., p. 272.) Strabo +(vol. iii., pp. 4, 17) mentions that, among the Iberians of the North of +Spain, the women, after the birth of a child, tend their husbands, +putting them to bed instead of going themselves. The same custom existed +among the Basques only a few years ago. "In Biscay," says M. F. Michel, +"the women rise immediately after childbirth and attend to the duties of +the household, while the husband goes to bed, taking the baby with him, +and thus receives the neighbors' compliments." 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. Among the American Indians it is believed that, +if the father kills an animal during the infancy of the child, the +spirit of the animal will revenge itself by inflicting some disease upon +the helpless little one. "For six months the Carib father must not eat +birds or fish, for what ever animals he eats will impress their likeness +on the child, or produce disease by entering its body." (Dorman, "Prim. +Superst.," p. 58.) Among the Abipones the husband goes to bed, fasts a +number of days, "and you would think," says Dobrizboffer, "that it was +he that had had the child." The Brazilian father takes to his hammock +during and after the birth of the child, and for fifteen days eats no +meat and hunts no game. Among the Esquimaux the husbands forbear hunting +during the lying-in of their wives and for some time thereafter. + +Here, then, we have a very extraordinary and unnatural custom, existing +to this day on both sides of the Atlantic, reaching back to a vast +antiquity, and finding its explanation only in the superstition of 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 Atlantic; +and the fact that the custom and the reason for it are both found in +America, while the custom remains in Europe without the reason, would +imply that the American population was the older of the two. + +The Indian practice of depositing weapons and food with the dead was +universal in ancient Europe, and in German villages nowadays a needle +and thread is placed in the coffin for the dead to mend their torn +clothes with; "while all over Europe the dead man had a piece of money +put in his hand to pay his way with." ("Anthropology," p. 347.) + +The American Indian leaves food with the dead; the Russian peasant puts +crumbs of bread behind the saints' pictures on the little iron shelf, +and believes that the souls 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; and in Brittany the +peasants that night do not forget to make up the fire and leave the +fragments of the supper on the table for the souls of the dead." (Ibid., +p. 351.) + +The Indian prays to the spirits of his forefathers; the Chinese religion +is largely "ancestor-worship;" and the rites paid to the dead ancestors, +or lares, held the Roman family together." ("Anthropology," p. 351.) + +We find the Indian practice of burying the dead in a sitting posture in +use among the Nasamonians, tribe of Libyans. Herodotus, speaking of the +wandering tribes of Northern Africa, says, "They bury their dead +according to the fashion of the Greeks.... They bury them sitting, +and are right careful, when the sick man is at the point of giving up +the ghost, to make him sit, and not let him die lying down." + +The dead bodies of the caciques of Bogota were protected from +desecration by diverting the course of a river and making the grave in +its bed, and then letting the stream return to its natural course. +Alaric, the leader of the Goths, was secretly buried in the same way. +(Dorman, "Prim. Superst.," p. 195.) + +Among the American tribes no man is permitted to marry a wife of the +same clan-name or totem as himself. In India a Brahman is not allowed to +marry a wife whose clan-name (her "cow-stall," as they say) is the same +as his own; nor may a Chinaman take a wife 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 girl of his own horde. The same custom prevails among the +Circassians and the Samoyeds of Siberia. The Ostyaks and Yakuts regard +it as a crime to marry a woman of the same family, or even of the same +name." (Sir John Lubbock, "Smith. Rep.," p. 347, 1869.) + +Sutteeism--the burning of the widow upon the funeral-pile of the +husband--was extensively practised in America (West's "Journal," p. +141); as was also the practice 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 of the gods, as among the +Mediterranean races. (Bancroft, vol. iii., p. 471.) Fathers offered up +their children for a like purpose, as among the Carthaginians. + +The poisoned arrows of America had their representatives in Europe. +Odysseus went to Ephyra for the man-slaying drug with which to smear his +bronze-tipped arrows. (Tylor's "Anthropology," p. 237.) + +"The bark canoe of America was not unknown in Asia and Africa" (Ibid., +p. 254), while the skin canoes of our Indians and the Esquimaux were +found on the shores of the Thames and the Euphrates. In Peru and on the +Euphrates commerce was carried on upon rafts supported by inflated +skins. They are still used on the Tigris. + +The Indian boils his meat by dropping red-hot stones into a water-vessel +made of hide; and Linnæus found the Both land people brewing beer in +this way--"and to this day the rude Carinthian boor drinks such +stone-beer, as it is called." (Ibid., p. 266.) + +In the buffalo dance of the Mandan Indians the dancers covered their +heads with a mask made of the head and horns of the buffalo. To-day in +the temples of India, or among the lamas of Thibet, 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., p. 298.) The North American dog and bear dances, +wherein the dancers acted the part of those animals, had their prototype +in the Greek dances at the festivals of Dionysia. (Ibid., p. 298.) + +Tattooing was practised in both continents. Among the Indians it was +fetichistic in its origin; "every Indian had the image of an animal +tattooed on his breast or arm, to charm away evil spirits." (Dorman, +"Prim. Superst.," p. 156.) The sailors of Europe 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 ankles. The war-paint of the American savage reappeared in the woad +with which the ancient Briton stained his body; and Tylor suggests that +the painted stripes on the circus clown are a survival of a custom once +universal. (Tylor's "Anthropology," p. 327.) + +In America, as in the Old World, the temples of worship were built over +the dead., (Dorman, "Prim. Superst.," p. 178.) Says Prudentius, the +Roman bard, "there were as many temples of gods as sepulchres." + +The Etruscan belief that evil spirits strove for the possession of the +dead was found among the Mosquito Indians. (Bancroft, "Native Races," +vol. i., p. 744.) + +The belief in fairies, which forms so large a part of the folklore of +Western Europe, is found among the American races. The Ojibbeways see +thousands of fairies dancing in a sunbeam; during a rain myriads of them +bide in the flowers. When disturbed they disappear underground. They +have their dances, like the Irish fairies; and, like them, they kill the +domestic animals of those 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 mountains of +Montana with little imps, called Nirumbees, two feet long, naked, and +with a tail." They stole the children of the Indians, and left in their +stead the young of their own baneful race, who resembled the stolen +children so much that the mothers were deceived and suckled them, +whereupon they died. This greatly resembles the European belief in +"changelings." (Ibid., p. 24.) + +In both continents we find tree-worship. In Mexico and Central America +cypresses and palms were planted near the temples, generally in groups +of threes; they were tended with great care, and received offerings of +incense and gifts. The same custom prevailed among the Romans--the +cypress was dedicated to Pluto, and the palm to Victory. + +Not only infant baptism by water was found both in the old Babylonian +religion and among the Mexicans, but an offering of cakes, which is +recorded by the prophet Jeremiah as part of the worship of the +Babylonian goddess-mother, "the Queen of Heaven," was also found in the +ritual of the Aztecs. ("Builders of Babel," p. 78.) + +In Babylonia, China, and Mexico the caste at the bottom of the social +scale lived upon floating islands of reeds or rafts, covered with earth, +on the lakes and rivers. + +In Peru and Babylonia marriages were made but once a year, at a public +festival. + +Among the Romans, the Chinese, the Abyssinians, and the Indians of +Canada the singular custom prevails of lifting the bride over the +door-step of her husband's home. (Sir John Lubbock, "Smith. Rep.," 1869, +p. 352.) + +"The bride-cake which so invariably accompanies a wedding among +ourselves, and which must always be cut by the bride, may be traced back +to the old Roman form of marriage by 'conferreatio,' or eating together. +So, also, among the Iroquois the bride and bridegroom used to partake +together of a cake of sagamite, which the bride always offered to her +husband." (Ibid.) + +Among many American tribes, notably in Brazil, the husband captured the +wife by main force, as the men of Benjamin carried off the daughters of +Shiloh at the feast, and as the Romans captured the Sabine women. +"Within a 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, though at such a distance that no one was hurt, except +now and then by accident--as happened when one Lord Hoath lost an eye, +which mischance put an end to this curious relic of antiquity." (Tylor's +"Anthropology," p. 409.) + +Marriage in Mexico was performed by the priest. He exhorted them to +maintain peace and harmony, and tied the end of the man's mantle to the +dress of the woman; he perfumed them, and placed on each a shawl on +which was painted a skeleton, "as a symbol that only death could now +separate them from one another." (Dorman, "Prim. Superst.," p. 379.) + +The priesthood was thoroughly organized in Mexico and Peru. They were +prophets as well as priests. "They brought the newly-born infant into +the religious society; they directed their training and education; they +determined the entrance of the young men into the service of the state; +they consecrated marriage by their blessing; they comforted the sick and +assisted the dying." (Ibid., p. 374.) There were five thousand priests +in the temples of Mexico. They confessed and absolved the sinners, +arranged the festivals, and managed the choirs in the churches. They +lived in conventual 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 oath to maintain the ancient religion. +The priests then instructed him in his royal duties. (Ibid., p. 378.) +Besides the regular priesthood there were monks who were confined in +cloisters. (Ibid., p. 390.) Cortes says the Mexican priests were very +strict in the practice of honesty and chastity, and any deviation was +punished with death. They wore long white robes and burned incense. +(Dorman, "Prim. Superst.," p. 379.) The first fruits of the earth were +devoted to the support of the priesthood. (Ibid., p. 383.) The priests +of the Isthmus were sworn to perpetual chastity. + +The American doctors practised phlebotomy. They bled the sick man +because they believed the evil spirit which afflicted him would come +away with the blood. In Europe phlebotomy only continued to a late +period, but the original superstition out of which it arose, in this +case as in many others, was forgotten. + +There is opportunity here for the philosopher to meditate upon the +perversity of human nature and the persistence of hereditary error. The +superstition of one age becomes the science of 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 civilization, and only overthrown after it has sent millions of +human beings to untimely graves. Dr. Sangrado could have found the +explanation of his profession only among the red men of America. + +Folk-lore.--Says Max Müller: "Not only do we find the same words and the +same terminations in Sanscrit and Gothic; not only do we find the same +name for Zeus in Sanscrit, Latin, and German; not only is the abstract +name for God the same in India, Greece, and Italy; but these very +stories, these 'Mährchen' 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 of India--these +stories, too, belonged to the common heirloom of the Indo-European race, +and their origin carries us back to the same distant past, when no Greek +had set foot in Europe, no Hindoo had bathed in the sacred waters of the +Ganges." + +And we find that an identity of origin can be established between the +folk-lore or fairy tales of America and those of the Old World, +precisely such as exists between the, legends of Norway and India. + +Mr. Tylor tells us the story of the two brothers in Central America who, +starting on their dangerous journey to the land of Xibalba, where their +father had perished, plant each a cane in the middle of their +grandmother's house, that she may know by its flourishing or withering +whether they are alive or dead. Exactly the same conception occurs in +Grimm's "Mährchen," 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 these you can see how we fare. If they are fresh, we are +well; if they fade, we are ill; if they fall, we are dead." Grimm traces +the same idea in Hindoo stories. "Now this," says Max Müller, "is +strange enough, and its occurrence in India, Germany, and Central +America is stranger still." + +Compare the following stories, which we print in parallel columns, one +from the Ojibbeway Indians, the other from Ireland: + ++----------------------------------+------------------------------------+ +| THE OJIBBEWAY STORY. | THE IRISH STORY. | +| | | +| The birds met together one day | The birds all met together one | +| to try which could fly the | day, and settled among themselves | +| highest. Some flew up very | that whichever of them could fly | +| swift, but soon got tired, and | highest was to be the king of | +| were passed by others of | all. Well, just as they were on | +| stronger wing. But the eagle | the hinges of being off, what | +| went up beyond them all, and | does the little rogue of a wren | +| was ready to claim the victory, | 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 given to the | above the big fellow. Well, the | +| eagle, because that bird had | eagle was so mad to think how he | +| not only gone up nearer to the | was done, that when the wren was | +| sun than any of the larger | coming down he gave him a stroke | +| birds, but it had carried the | of his wing, and from that day to | +| linnet on its back. | this the wren was never able to | +| | fly farther than a hawthorn-bush. | +| For this reason the eagle's | | +| feathers became the most | | +| honorable marks of distinction | | +| a warrior could bear. | | ++----------------------------------+------------------------------------+ + +Compare the following stories: + ++------------------------------------+----------------------------------+ +| THE ASIATIC STORY. | THE AMERICAN STORY. | +| | | +| In Hindoo mythology Urvasi came | Wampee, a great hunter, once | +| down from heaven and became the | came to a strange prairie, | +| wife of the son of Buddha only on | where he heard faint sounds of | +| condition that two pet rams | music, and looking up saw a | +| should never be taken from her | speck in the sky, which proved | +| bedside, and that she should | itself to be a basket | +| never behold her lord undressed. | containing twelve most | +| The immortals, however, wishing | beautiful maidens, who, on | +| Urvasi 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 idea being | wished to return home, so she | +| that of a man marrying some one | made a wicker basket secretly, | +| of an aerial or aquatic origin, | and, by help of a charm she | +| and living happily with her till | remembered, ascended to her | +| he breaks the condition on which | father. | +| her residence with him depends, | | +| stories exactly parallel to that | | +| of Raymond of Toulouse, who | | +| chances in the hunt upon the | | +| beautiful Melusina at a fountain, | | +| and lives with her happily until | | +| he discovers her fish-nature and | | +| she vanishes. | | ++------------------------------------+----------------------------------+ + +If the legend of Cadmus recovering Europa, after she has been carried +away by the white bull, the spotless cloud, means that "the sun must +journey westward until he sees again the beautiful tints which greeted +his eyes in the morning," it is curious to find a story current 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 the buffaloes came +dashing on, with his herd of followers, and, taking her between his +horns, away be cantered over plains, plunged into a river which bounded +his land, and carried her safely to his lodge on the other side," whence +she was finally recovered by her father. + +Games.--The same games and sports extended from India to the shores of +Lake Superior. The game of the Hindoos, called pachisi, is played upon a +cross-shaped board or cloth; it is a combination of checkers and +draughts, 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 board. The game of ball, which the Indians of America were +in the habit of playing at the time of the discovery of the country, +from California to the Atlantic, was identical with the European chueca, +crosse, or hockey. + +One may well pause, after reading this catalogue, and ask himself, +wherein do these peoples differ? It is absurd to pretend that all these +similarities could have been the result of accidental coincidences. + +These two peoples, separated by the great ocean, were baptized alike in +infancy with blessed water; they prayed alike to the gods; they +worshipped together the sun, moon, and stars; they confessed their sins +alike; they were instructed alike by an established priesthood; they +were married in the same way and by the joining of hands; they armed +themselves with the same weapons; when children came, the man, on both +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 +played the same games; they used the same musical instruments; they +danced the same dances, and when they died they were embalmed in the +same way and buried sitting; while over them were erected, on both +continents, the same mounds, pyramids, obelisks, and temples. And yet we +are asked to believe that there was no relationship between them, and +that they had never had any ante-Columbian intercourse with each other. + +If our knowledge of Atlantis was more thorough, it would no doubt appear +that, in every instance wherein the people of Europe accord with the +people of America, they were both in accord with the people of Atlantis; +and that Atlantis was the common centre 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, navigation, engraving, writing, an established priesthood, +the mode of worship, agriculture, the construction of roads and canals; +and it is reasonable to suppose that the same correspondence extended +down to all the minor details treated of in this chapter. + +CHAPTER III. + +AMERICAN EVIDENCES OF INTERCOURSE WITH EUROPE OR ATLANTIS. + +1. ON the monuments of Central America there are representations of +bearded men. How could the beardless American Indians have imagined a +bearded race? + +2. All the traditions of the civilized races of Central America point to +an Eastern origin. + +The leader and civilizer of the Nahua family was Quetzalcoatl. This is +the legend respecting him: + +"From the distant East, from the fabulous Hue Hue Tlapalan, this +mysterious person came to Tula, and became the patron god and +high-priest of the ancestors of the Toltecs. He is described as having +been a white man, with strong formation of body, broad forehead, large +eyes, and flowing beard. He wore a mitre on his head, and was dressed in +a long white robe reaching to his feet, and covered with red crosses. In +his hand he held a sickle. His habits were ascetic, he never married, +was most chaste and pure in life, and is said to have endured penance in +a neighboring mountain, not for its effects upon himself, but as a +warning to others. He condemned sacrifices, except of fruits and +flowers, and was known as the god of peace; for, when addressed on the +subject of war, he is reported to have stopped his ears with his +fingers." ("North Amer. of Antiq.," p. 268.) + +"He was skilled in many arts: he invented" (that is, imported) +"gem-cutting and metal-casting; he originated letters, and invented the +Mexican calendar. He finally returned to the land in the East from which +he came: leaving the American coast at Vera Cruz, he embarked in a canoe +made of serpent-skins, and 'sailed away into the east.'" (Ibid., p. 271.) + +Dr. Le Plongeon says of the columns at Chichen: + +"The base is formed by the head of Cukulcan, the shaft of the body of +the serpent, with its feathers beautifully carved to the very chapiter. +On the chapiters of the columns that support the portico, at the +entrance of the castle in Chichen Itza, may be seen the carved figures +of long-bearded men, with upraised hands, in the act of worshipping +sacred trees. They forcibly recall to mind the same worship in Assyria." + +In the accompanying cut of an ancient vase from Tula, we see a bearded +figure grasping a beardless man. + +In the cut given below we see a face that might be duplicated among the +old men of any part of Europe. + +The Cakchiquel MS. says: "Four persons came from Tulan, from the +direction of the rising sun--that is one Tulan. There is another Tulan +in Xibalbay, and another where the sun sets, and it is there that we +came; and in the direction of the setting sun there is another, where is +the god; so that there are four Tulans; and it is where the sun sets +that we came to Tulan, from the other side of the sea, where this Tulan +is; and it is there that we were conceived and begotten by our mothers +and fathers." + +That is to say, the birthplace of the race was in the East, across the +sea, at a place called Tulan and when they emigrated they called their +first stopping-place on the American continent Tulan also; and besides +this there were two other Tulans. + +"Of the Nahua predecessors of the Toltecs in Mexico the Olmecs and +Xicalaucans were the most important. They were the forerunners of the +great races that followed. According to Ixtlilxochitl, these +people--which are conceded to be the ones who occupied the world in the third age; +they came from the East in ships or barks to the land of Potonchan, +which they commenced to populate." + +3. The Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, in one of the notes of the +Introduction of the "Popol Vuh," presents a very remarkable analogy +between the kingdom of Xibalba, described in that work, and Atlantis. He +says: + +"Both countries are magnificent, exceedingly fertile, and abound in the +precious metals. The empire of Atlantis was divided into ten kingdoms, +governed by five couples of twin sons of Poseidon, the eldest being +supreme over the others; and the ten constituted a tribunal that managed +the affairs of the empire. Their descendants governed after them. The +ten kings of Xibalba, who reigned (in couples) under Hun-Came and +Vukub-Came (and who together constituted a grand council of the +kingdom), certainly furnish curious points of comparison. And there is +wanting neither a catastrophe--for Xibalba had a terrific +inundation--nor the name of Atlas, of which the etymology is found only +in the Nahuatl tongue: it comes from atl, water; and we know that a city +of Atlan (near the water) still existed on the Atlantic side of the +Isthmus of Panama at the time of the Conquest." + +"In Yucatan the traditions all point to an Eastern and foreign origin +for the race. The early writers report that the natives believe their +ancestors to have crossed the sea by a passage which was opened for +them." (Landa's "Relacion," p. 28.) + +"It was also believed that part of the population came into the country +from the West. Lizana says that the smaller portion, 'the little +descent,' came from the East, while the greater portion, 'the great +descent,' came from the West. Cogolluda considers the Eastern colony to +have been the larger.... The culture-hero Zamna, the author of all +civilization in Yucatan, is described as the teacher of letters, and the +leader of the people from their ancient home.... He was the leader of +a colony from the East." ("North Amer. of Antiq.," p. 229.) + +The ancient Mexican legends say that, after the Flood, Coxcox and his +wife, after wandering one hundred and four years, landed at Antlan, and +passed thence to Capultepec, and thence to Culhuacan, and lastly to +Mexico. + +Coming from Atlantis, they named their first landing-place Antlan. + +All the races that settled Mexico, we are told, traced their origin back +to an Aztlan (Atlan-tis). Duran describes Aztlan as "a most attractive +land." ("North Amer. of Antiq.," p. 257.) + +Samé, the great name of Brazilian legend, came across the ocean from the +rising sun. He had power over the elements and tempests; the trees of +the forests would recede to make room for him (cutting down the trees); +the animals used to crouch before him (domesticated animals); lakes and +rivers became solid for him (boats and bridges); and he taught the use +of agriculture and magic. Like him, Bochica, the great law-giver of the +Muyscas, and son of the sun--he who invented for them the calendar and +regulated their festivals--had a white beard, a detail in which all the +American culture-heroes agree. The "Samé" of Brazil was probably the +"Zamna" of Yucatan. + + ELEPHANT MOUND, WISCONSIN. + +4. We find in America numerous representations of the elephant. We are +forced to one of two conclusions: either the monuments date back to the +time of the mammoth in North America, or these people held intercourse +at some time in the past with races who possessed the elephant, and from +whom they obtained pictures of that singular animal. Plato tells us that +the Atlanteans possessed great numbers of elephants. + +There are in Wisconsin a number of mounds of earth representing +different animals--men, birds, and quadrupeds. + + ELEPHANT PIPE, LOISA COUNTY, IOWA. + +Among the latter is a mound representing an elephant, "so perfect in its +proportions, and complete in its representation of an elephant, that its +builders must have been well acquainted with all the physical +characteristics of the animal which they delineated." We copy the +representation of this mound on page 168. + +On a farm in Louisa County, Iowa, a pipe was ploughed up which also +represents an elephant. We are indebted to the valuable work of John T. +Short ("The North Americans of Antiquity," p. 530) for a picture of this +singular object. It was found in a section where the ancient mounds were +very abundant and rich in relics. The pipe is of sandstone, of the +ordinary Mound-Builder's type, and has every appearance of age and +usage. There can be no doubt of its genuineness. The finder had no +conception of its archæological value. + +In the ruined city of Palenque we find, in one of the palaces, a stucco +bass-relief of a priest. His elaborate head-dress or helmet represents +very faithfully the head of an elephant. The cut on page 169 is from a +drawing made by Waldeck. + +The decoration known as "elephant-trunks" is found in many parts of the +ancient ruins of Central America, projecting from above the door-ways of +the buildings. + +In Tylor's "Researches into the Early History of Mankind," p. 313, I +find a remarkable representation of an elephant, taken from an ancient +Mexican manuscript. It is as follows: + + MEXICAN REPRESENTATION OF ELEPHANT. + +CHAPTER IV. + +CORROBORATING CIRCUMSTANCES. + +1. Lenormant insists that the human race issued from Ups Merou, and adds +that some Greek traditions point to "this locality--particularly the +expression me'ropes a?'nðwpoi, which can only mean 'the men sprung from +Merou.'" ("Mannal," p. 21.) + +Theopompus tells us that the people who inhabited Atlantis were the +Meropes, the people of Merou. + +2. Whence comes the word Atlantic? The dictionaries tell us that the +ocean is named after the mountains of Atlas; but whence did the Atlas +mountains get their name? + +"The words Atlas and Atlantic have no satisfactory etymology in any +language known to Europe. They are not Greek, and cannot be referred to +any known language of the Old World. But in the Nahuatl language we find +immediately the radical a, atl, which signifies water, war, and the top +of the head. (Molina, "Vocab. en lengua Mexicana y Castellana.") From +this comes a series of words, such as atlan--on the border of or amid +the water--from which we have the adjective Atlantic. We have also +atlaça, to combat, or be in agony; it means likewise to hurl or dart +from the water, and in the preterit makes Atlaz. A city named Atlan +existed when the continent was discovered by Columbus, at the entrance +of the Gulf of Uraba, in Darien. With a good harbor, it is now reduced +to an unimportant pueblo named Acla." (Baldwin's "Ancient America," p. +179.) + +Plato tells us that Atlantis and the Atlantic Ocean were named after +Atlas, the eldest son of Poseidon, the founder of the kingdom. + +3. Upon that part of the African continent nearest to the site of +Atlantis we find a chain of mountains, known from the most ancient times +as the Atlas Mountains. Whence this name Atlas, if it be not from the +name of the great king of Atlantis? And if this be not its origin, how +comes it that we find it in the most north-western corner of Africa? And +how does it happen that in the time of Herodotus there dwelt near this +mountain-chain a people called the Atlantes, probably a remnant of a +colony from Solon's island? How comes it that the people of the Barbary +States were known to the Greeks, Romans, and Carthaginians as the +"Atlantes," this name being especially applied to the inhabitants of +Fezzan and Bilma? Where did they get the name from? There is no +etymology for it east of the Atlantic Ocean. (Lenormants "Anc. Hist. of +the East," p. 253.) + +Look at it! An "Atlas" mountain on the shore of Africa; an "Atlan" town +on the shore of America; the "Atlantes" living along the north and west +coast of Africa; an Aztec people from Aztlan, in Central America; an +ocean rolling between the two worlds called the "Atlantic;" a +mythological deity called "Atlas" holding the world on his shoulders; +and an immemorial tradition of an island of Atlantis. Can all these +things be the result of accident? + +4. Plato says that there was a "passage west from Atlantis to the rest +of the islands, as well as from these islands to the whole opposite +continent that surrounds that real sea." He calls it a real sea, as +contradistinguished from the Mediterranean, which, as he says, is not a +real sea (or ocean) but a landlocked body of water, like a harbor. + +Now, Plato might have created Atlantis out of his imagination; but how +could he have invented the islands beyond (the West India Islands), and +the whole continent (America) enclosing that real sea? If we look at the +map, we see that the continent of America does "surround" the ocean in a +great half-circle. Could Plato have guessed all this? If there had been +no Atlantis, and no series of voyages from it that revealed the +half-circle of the continent from Newfoundland to Cape St. Roche, how +could Plato have guessed it? And how could he have known that the +Mediterranean was only a harbor compared with the magnitude of the great +ocean surrounding Atlantis? Long sea-voyages were necessary to establish +that fact, and the Greeks, who kept close to the shores in their short +journeys, did not make such voyages. + +5. How can we, without Atlantis, explain the presence of the Basques in +Europe, who have no lingual affinities with any other race on the +continent of Europe, but whose language is similar to the languages of +America? + +Plato tells us that the dominion of Gadeirus, one of the kings of +Atlantis, extended "toward the pillars of Heracles (Hercules) as far as +the country which is still called the region of Gades in that part of +the world." Gades is the Cadiz of today, and the dominion of Gadeirus +embraced the land of the Iberians or Basques, their chief city taking +its name from a king of Atlantis, and they themselves being Atlanteans. + +Dr. Farrar, referring to the Basque language, says: + +"What is certain about it is, that its structure is polysynthetic, like +the languages of America. Like them, it forms its compounds by the +elimination of certain radicals in the simple words; so that ilhun, the +twilight, is contracted from hill, dead, and egun, day; and belhaur, the +knee, from belhar, front, and oin, leg.... The fact is indisputable, +and is eminently noteworthy, that while the affinities of the Basque +roots have never been conclusively elucidated, there has never been any +doubt that this isolated language, preserving its identity in a western +corner of Europe, between two mighty kingdoms, resembles, in its +grammatical structure, the aboriginal languages of the vast opposite +continent (America), and those alone." ("Families of Speech," p. 132.) + +If there was an Atlantis, forming, with its connecting ridges, a +continuous bridge of land from America to Africa, we can understand how +the Basques could have passed from one continent to another; but if the +wide Atlantic rolled at all times unbroken between the two continents, +it is difficult to conceive of such an emigration by an uncivilized +people. + +6. Without Atlantis, how can we explain the fact that the early +Egyptians were depicted by themselves as red men on their own monuments? +And, on the other hand, how can we account for the representations of +negroes on the monuments of Central America? + +Dêsirè Charnay, now engaged in exploring those monuments, has published +in the North American Review for December, 1880, photographs of a number +of idols exhumed at San Juan de Teotihuacan, from which I select the +following strikingly negroid faces: + + NEGRO IDOLS FOUND IN MEXICO. + +Dr. Le Plongeon says: + +"Besides the sculptures of long-bearded men seen by the explorer at +Chichen Itza, there were tall figures of people with small heads, thick +lips, and curly short hair or wool, regarded as negroes. 'We always see +them as standard or parasol bearers, but never engaged in actual +warfare.'" ("Maya Archæology," p. 62.) + +The following cut is from the court of the Palace of Palenque, figured +by Stephens. The face is strongly Ethiopian. + +The figure below represents a gigantic granite head, found near the +volcano of Tuxtla, in the Mexican State of Vera Cruz, at Caxapa. The +features are unmistakably negroid. + +As the negroes have never been a sea-going race, the presence of these +faces among the antiquities of Central America proves one of two things, +either the existence of a land connection between America and Africa via +Atlantis, as revealed by the deep-sea soundings of the Challenger, or +commercial relations between America and Africa through the ships of the +Atlanteans or some other civilized race, whereby the negroes were +brought to America as slaves at a very remote epoch. + +And we find some corroboration of the latter theory in that singular +book of the Quiches, the "Popol Vuh," in which, after describing the +creation of the first men "in the region of the rising sun" (Bancroft's +"Native Races," vol. v., p. 548), and enumerating their first +generations, we are told, "All seem to have spoken one language, and to +have lived in great peace, black men and white together. Here they +awaited the rising of the sun, and prayed to the Heart of Heaven." +(Bancroft's "Native Races," p. 547.) How did the red men of Central +America know anything about "black men and white men?" The conclusion +seems inevitable that these legends of a primitive, peaceful, and happy +land, an Aztlan in the East, inhabited by black and white men, to which +all the civilized nations of America traced their origin, could only +refer to Atlantis--that bridge of land where the white, dark, and red +races met. The "Popol Vuh" proceeds to tell how this first home of the +race became over-populous, and how the people under Balam-Quitze +migrated; how their language became "confounded," in other words, broken +up into dialects, in consequence of separation; and how some of the +people "went to the East, and many came hither to Guatemala." (Ibid., p. +547.) + +M. A. de Quatrefages ("Human Species," p. 200) says, "Black populations +have been found in America in very small numbers only, as isolated +tribes in the midst of very different populations. Such are the +Charruas, of Brazil, the Black Carribees of Saint Vincent, in the Gulf +of Mexico; the Jamassi of Florida, and the dark-complexioned +Californians.... Such, again, is the tribe that Balboa saw some +representatives of in his passage of the Isthmus of Darien in 1513; ... +they were true negroes." + +7. How comes it that all the civilizations of the Old World radiate from +the shores of the Mediterranean? The Mediterranean is a cul de sac, with +Atlantis opposite its mouth. Every civilization on its shores possesses +traditions that point to Atlantis. We hear of no civilization coming to +the Mediterranean from Asia, Africa, or Europe--from north, south, or +west; but north, south, east, and west we find civilization radiating +from the Mediterranean to other lands. We see the Aryans descending upon +Hindostan from the direction of the Mediterranean; and we find the +Chinese borrowing inventions from Hindostan, and claiming descent from a +region not far from the Mediterranean. + +The Mediterranean has been the centre of the modern world, because it +lay in the path of the extension of an older civilization, whose ships +colonized its shores, as they did also the shores of America. Plato +says, "the nations are gathered around the shores of the Mediterranean +like frogs around a marsh." + +Dr. McCausland says: + +"The obvious conclusion from these facts is, that at some time previous +to these migrations a people speaking a language of a superior and +complicated structure broke up their society, and, under some strong +impulse, poured out in different directions, and gradually established +themselves in all the lands now inhabited by the Caucasian race. Their +territories extend from the Atlantic to the Ganges, and from Iceland to +Ceylon, and are bordered on the north and east by the Asiatic Mongols, +and on the south by the negro tribes of Central Africa. They present all +the appearances of a later race, expanding itself between and into the +territories of two pre-existing neighboring races, and forcibly +appropriating the room required for its increasing population." +(McCausland's "Adam and the Adamites," p. 280.) + +Modern civilization is Atlantean. Without the thousands of years of +development which were had in Atlantis modern civilization could not +have existed. The inventive faculty of the present age is taking up the +great delegated work of creation where Atlantis left it thousands of +years ago. + +8. How are we to explain the existence of the Semitic race in Europe +without Atlantis? It is an intrusive race; a race colonized on +sea-coasts. Where are its Old World affinities? + +9. Why is it that the origin of wheat, barley, oats, maize, and rye--the +essential plants of civilization--is totally lost in the mists of a vast +antiquity? We have in the Greek mythology legends of the introduction of +most of these by Atlantean kings or gods into Europe; but no European +nation claims to have discovered or developed them, and it has been +impossible to trace them to their wild originals. Out of the whole flora +of the world mankind in the last seven thousand years has not developed +a single food-plant to compare in importance to the human family with +these. If a wise and scientific nation should propose nowadays to add to +this list, it would have to form great botanical gardens, and, by +systematic and long-continued experiments, develop useful plants from +the humble productions of the field and forest. Was this done in the +past on the island of Atlantis? + +10. Why is it that we find in Ptolemy's "Geography of Asia Minor," in a +list of cities in Armenia Major in A.D. 140, the names of five cities +which have their counterparts in the names of localities in Central +America? + + +------------------+------------------------------+ + | Armenian Cities. | Central American Localities. | + +------------------+------------------------------+ + | Chol. | Chol-ula | + +------------------+------------------------------+ + | Colua. | Colua-can. | + +------------------+------------------------------+ + | Zuivana. | Zuivan. | + +------------------+------------------------------+ + | Cholima. | Colima. | + +------------------+------------------------------+ + | Zalissa. | Xalisco. | + +------------------+------------------------------+ + +(Short's "North Americans of Antiquity," p. 497.) + +11. How comes it that the sandals upon the feet of the statue of +Chacmol, discovered at Chichen Itza, are "exact representations of those +found on the feet of the Guanches, the early inhabitants of the Canary +Islands, whose mummies are occasionally discovered in the caves of +Teneriffe?" Dr. Merritt deems the axe or chisel heads dug up at +Chiriqui, Central America, "almost identical in form as well as material +with specimens found in Suffolk County, England." (Bancroft's Native +Races," vol. iv., p. 20.) The rock-carvings of Chiriqui are pronounced +by Mr. Seemann to have a striking resemblance to the ancient incised +characters found on the rocks of Northumberland, England. (Ibid.) + +"Some stones have recently been discovered in Hierro and Las Palmas +(Canary Islands), bearing sculptured symbols similar to those found on +the shores of Lake Superior; and this has led M. Bertholet, the +historiographer of the Canary Islands, to conclude that the first +inhabitants of the Canaries and those of the great West were one in +race." (Benjamin, "The Atlantic Islands," p. 130.) + +12. How comes it that that very high authority, Professor Retzius +("Smithsonian Report," 1859, p. 266), declares, "With regard to the +primitive dolichocephalæ of America I entertain a hypothesis still more +bold, namely, that they are nearly related to the Guanches in the Canary +Islands, and to the Atlantic populations of Africa, the Moors, Tuaricks, +Copts, etc., which Latham comprises under the name of +Egyptian-Atlantidæ. We find one and the same form of skull in the Canary +Islands, in front of the African coast, and in the Carib Islands, on the +opposite coast, which faces Africa. The color of the skin on both sides +of the Atlantic is represented in these populations as being of a +reddish-brown." + +13. The Barbarians who are alluded to by Homer and Thucydides were a +race of ancient navigators and pirates called Cares, or Carians, who +occupied the isles of Greece before the Pelasgi, and antedated the +Phoenicians in the control of the sea. The Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg +claims that these Carians were identical with the Caribs of the West +Indies, the Caras of Honduras, and the Gurani of South America. (Landa's +"Relacion," pp. 52-65.) + +14. When we consider it closely, one of the most extraordinary customs +ever known to mankind is that to which I have already alluded in a +preceding chapter, to wit, the embalming of the body of the dead man, +with a purpose that the body itself may live again in a future state. To +arrive at this practice several things must coexist: + +a. The people must be highly religious, and possessed of an organized +and influential priesthood, to perpetuate so troublesome a custom from +age to age. + +b. They must believe implicitly in the immortality of the soul; and this +implies a belief in rewards and punishments after death; in a heaven and +a hell. + +c. They must believe in the immortality of the body, and its +resurrection from the grave on some day of judgment in the distant +future. + +d. But a belief in the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of +the body is not enough, for all Christian nations hold to these beliefs; +they must supplement these with a determination that the body shall not +perish; that the very flesh and blood in which the man died shall rise +with him on the last day, and not a merely spiritual body. + +Now all these four things must coexist before a people proceed to embalm +their dead for religious purposes. The probability that all these four +things should coexist by accident in several widely separated races is +slight indeed. The doctrine of chances is all against it. There is here +no common necessity driving men to the same expedient, with which so +many resemblances have been explained; the practice is a religious +ceremony, growing out of religious beliefs by no means common or +universal, to wit, that the man who is dead shall live again, and live +again in the very body in which he died. Not even all the Jews believed +in these things. + +If, then, it should appear that among the races which we claim were +descended from Atlantis this practice of embalming the dead is found, +and nowhere else, we have certainly furnished evidence which can only be +explained by admitting the existence of Atlantis, and of some great +religious race dwelling on Atlantis, who believed in the immortality of +soul and body, and who embalmed their dead. We find, as I have shown: + +First. That the Guanches of the Canary Islands, supposed to be a remnant +of the Atlantean population, preserved their dead as mummies. + +Second. That the Egyptians, the oldest colony of Atlantis, embalmed +their dead in such vast multitudes that they are now exported by the ton +to England, and ground up into manures to grow English turnips. + +Third. That the Assyrians, the Ethiopians, the Persians, the Greeks, and +even the Romans embalmed their dead. + +Fourth. On the American continents we find that the Peruvians, the +Central Americans, the Mexicans, and some of the Indian tribes, followed +the same practice. + +Is it possible to account for this singular custom, reaching through a +belt of nations, and completely around the habitable world, without +Atlantis? + +15. All the traditions of the Mediterranean races look to the ocean as +the source of men and gods. Homer sings of + + "Ocean, the origin of gods and Mother Tethys." + +Orpheus says, "The fair river of Ocean was the first to marry, and he +espoused his sister Tethys, who was his mothers daughter." (Plato's +"Dialogues," Cratylus, p. 402.) The ancients always alluded to the ocean +as a river encircling the earth, as in the map of Cosmos (see page 95 +ante); probably a reminiscence of the great canal described by Plato +which surrounded the plain of Atlantis. Homer (Iliad, book xviii.) +describes Tethys, "the mother goddess," coming to Achilles "from the +deep abysses of the main:" + + "The circling Nereids with their mistress weep, + And all the sea-green sisters of the deep." + +Plato surrounds the great statue of Poseidon in Atlantis with the images +of one hundred Nereids. + +16. In the Deluge legends of the Hindoos (as given on page 87 ante), we +have seen Mann saving a small fish, which subsequently grew to a great +size, and warned him of the coming of the Flood. In this legend all the +indications point to an ocean as the scene of the catastrophe. It says: +"At the close of the last calpa there was a general destruction, caused +by the sleep of Brahma, whence his creatures, in different worlds, were +drowned in a vast ocean.... A holy king, named Satyavrata, then +reigned, a servant of the spirit which moved on the waves" (Poseidon?), +"and so devout that water was his only sustenance.... In seven days +the three worlds" (remember Poseidon's trident) "shall be plunged in an +ocean of death."... "'Thou shalt enter the spacious ark, and continue +in it secure from the Flood on one immense ocean.'... The sea +overwhelmed its shores, deluged the whole earth, augmented by showers +from immense clouds." ("Asiatic Researches," vol. i., p. 230.) + +All this reminds us of "the fountains of the great deep and the +flood-gates of heaven," and seems to repeat precisely the story of Plato +as to the sinking of Atlantis in the ocean. + +17. While I do not attach much weight to verbal similarities in the +languages of the two continents, nevertheless there are some that are +very remarkable. We have seen the Pan and Maia of the Greeks reappearing +in the Pan and Maya of the Mayas of Central America. The god of the +Welsh triads, "Hu the mighty," is found in the Hu-nap-bu, the hero-god +of the Quiches; in Hu-napu, a hero-god; and in Hu-hu-nap-hu, in Hu-ncam, +in Hu-nbatz, semi-divine heroes of the Quiches. The Phoenician deity El +"was subdivided into a number of hypostases called the Baalim, secondary +divinities, emanating from the substance of the deity" ("Anc. Hist. +East," vol. ii., p. 219); and this word Baalim we find appearing in the +mythology of the Central Americans, applied to the semi-divine +progenitors of the human race, Balam-Quitze, Balam-Agab, and Iqui-Balam. + +CHAPTER V. + +THE QUESTION OF COMPLEXION. + +The tendency of scientific thought in ethnology is in the direction of +giving more and more importance to the race characteristics, such as +height, color of the hair, eyes and skin, and the formation of the skull +and body generally, than to language. The language possessed by a people +may be merely the result of conquest or migration. For instance, in the +United States to-day, white, black, and red men, the descendants of +French, Spanish, Italians, Mexicans, Irish, Germans, Scandinavians, +Africans, all speak the English language, and by the test of language +they are all Englishmen; and yet none of them are connected by birth or +descent with the country where that language was developed. + +There is a general misconception as to the color of the European and +American races. Europe is supposed to be peopled exclusively by white +men; but in reality every shade of color is represented on that +continent, from the fair complexion of the fairest of the Swedes to the +dark-skinned inhabitants of the Mediterranean coast, only a shade +lighter than the Berbers, or Moors, on the opposite side of that sea. +Tacitus spoke of the "Black Celts," and the term, so far as complexion +goes, might not inappropriately be applied to some of the Italians, +Spaniards, and Portuguese, while the Basques are represented as of a +still darker hue. Tylor says ("Anthropology," p. 67), "On the whole, it +seems that the distinction of color, from the fairest Englishman to the +darkest African, has no hard and fast lines, but varies gradually from +one tint to another." + +And when we turn to America we find that the popular opinion that all +Indians are "red men," and of the same hue from Patagonia to Hudson's +Bay, is a gross error. + +Prichard says ("Researches into the Physical History of Mankind," vol. +i., p. 269, 4th ed., 1841): + +"It will be easy to show that the American races show nearly as great a +variety in this respect as the nations of the old continent; there are +among them white races with a florid complexion, and tribes black or of +a very dark hue; that their stature, figure, and countenance are almost +equally diversified." + +John T. Short says ("North Americans of Antiquity," p. 189): + +"The Menominees, sometimes called the 'White Indians,' formerly occupied +the region bordering on Lake Michigan, around Green Bay. The whiteness +of these Indians, which is compared to that of white mulattoes, early +attracted the attention of the Jesuit missionaries, and has often been +commented on by travellers. While it is true that hybridy has done much +to lighten the color of many of the tribes, still the peculiarity of the +complexion of this people has been marked since the first time a +European encountered them. Almost every shade, from the ash-color of the +Menominees through the cinnamon-red, copper, and bronze tints, may be +found among the tribes formerly occupying the territory east of the +Mississippi, until we reach the dark-skinned Kaws of Kansas, who are +nearly as black as the negro. The variety of complexion is as great in +South America as among the tribes of the northern part of the continent." + +In foot-note of p. 107 of vol. iii. of "U. S. Explorations for a +Railroad Route to the Pacific Ocean," we are told, + +"Many of the Indians of Zuni (New Mexico) are white. They have a fair +skin, blue eyes, chestnut or auburn hair, and are quite good-looking. +They claim to be full-blooded Zunians, and have no tradition of +intermarriage with any foreign race. The circumstance creates no +surprise among this people, for from time immemorial a similar class of +people has existed among the tribe." + +Winchell says: + +"The ancient Indians of California, in the latitude of forty-two +degrees, were as black as the negroes of Guinea, while in Mexico were +tribes of an olive or reddish complexion, relatively light. Among the +black races of tropical regions we find, generally, some light-colored +tribes interspersed. These sometimes have light hair and blue eyes. This +is the case with the Tuareg of the Sahara, the Afghans of India, and the +aborigines of the banks of the Oronoco and the Amazon." (Winchell's +"Preadamites," p. 185.) + +William Penn said of the Indians of Pennsylvania, in his letter of +August, 1683: + +"The natives ... are generally tall, straight, well-built, and of +singular proportion; they tread strong and clever, and mostly walk with +a lofty chin.... Their eye is little and black, not unlike a +straight-looked Jew.... I have seen among them as comely +European-like faces of both sexes as on your side of the sea; and truly +an Italian complexion hath not much more of the white, and the noses of +several of them have as much of the Roman.... For their original, I +am ready to believe them to be of the Jewish race--I mean of the stock +of the ten tribes--and that for the following reasons: first, in the +next place, I find them to be of the like countenance, and their +children of so lively a resemblance that a man would think himself in +Duke's Place or Berry Street in London when he seeth them. But this is +not all: they agree in rites, they reckon by moons, they offer their +first-fruits, they have a kind of feast of tabernacles, they are said to +lay their altars upon twelve stones, their mourning a year, customs of +women, with many other things that do not now occur." + +Upon this question of complexion Catlin, in his "Indians of North +America," vol. i., p. 95, etc., gives us some curious information. We +have already seen that the Mandans preserved an image of the ark, and +possessed legends of a clearly Atlantean character. Catlin says: + +"A stranger in the Mandan village is first struck with the different +shades of complexion and various colors of hair which he sees in a crowd +about him, and is at once disposed to exclaim, 'These are not Indians.' +There are a great many of these people whose complexions appear as light +as half-breeds; and among the women particularly there are many whose +skins are almost white, with the most pleasing symmetry and proportion +of feature; with hazel, with gray, and with blue eyes; with mildness and +sweetness of expression and excessive modesty of demeanor, which render +them exceedingly pleasing and beautiful. Why this diversity of +complexion I cannot tell, nor can they themselves account for it. Their +traditions, so far as I can learn them, afford us no information of +their having had any knowledge of white men before the visit of Lewis +and Clarke, made to their village thirty-three years ago. Since that +time until now (1835) there have been very few visits of white men to +this place, and surely not enough to have changed the complexions and +customs of a nation. And I recollect perfectly well that Governor Clarke +told me, before I started for this place, that I would find the Mandans +a strange people and half white. + +"Among the females may be seen every shade and color of hair that can be +seen in our own country except red or auburn, which is not to be found.... +There are very many of both sexes, and of every age, from infancy +to manhood and old age, with hair of a bright silvery-gray, and in some +instances almost perfectly white. This unaccountable phenomenon is not +the result of disease or habit, but it is unquestionably an hereditary +characteristic which runs in families, and indicates no inequality in +disposition or intellect. And by passing this hair through my hands I +have found it uniformly to be as coarse and harsh as a horse's mane, +differing materially from the hair of other colors, which, among the +Mandans, is generally as fine and soft as silk. + +"The stature of the Mandans is rather below the ordinary size of man, +with beautiful symmetry of form and proportion, and wonderful suppleness +and elasticity." + +Catlin gives a group (54) showing this great diversity in complexion: +one of the figures is painted almost pure white, and with light hair. +The faces are European. + + GOVERNOR AND OTHER INDIANS OF THE PUEBLO OF SAN DOMINGO, NEW MEXICO. + +Major James W. Lynd, who lived among the Dakota Indians for nine years, +and was killed by them in the great outbreak of 1862, says (MS. "Hist. +of Dakotas," Library, Historical Society, Minnesota, p. 47), after +calling attention to the fact that the different tribes of the Sioux +nation represent several different degrees of darkness of color: + +"The Dakota child is of lighter complexion than the young brave; this +one lighter than the middle-aged man, and the middle-aged man lighter +than the superannuated homo, who, by smoke, paint, dirt, and a drying up +of the vital juices, appears to be the true copper-colored Dakota. The +color of the Dakotas varies with the nation, and also with the age and +condition of the individual. It may be set down, however, as a shade +lighter than olive; yet it becomes still lighter by change of condition +or mode of life, and nearly vanishes, even in the child, under constant +ablutions and avoiding of exposure. Those children in the Mission at +Hazlewood, who are taken very young, and not allowed to expose +themselves, lose almost entirely the olive shade, and become quite as +white as the American child. The Mandans are as light as the peasants of +Spain, while their brothers, the Crows, are as dark as the Arabs. Dr. +Goodrich, in the 'Universal Traveller,' p. 154, says that the modern +Peruvians, in the warmer regions of Peru, are as fair as the people of +the south of Europe." + +The Aymaras, the ancient inhabitants of the mountains of Peru and +Bolivia, are described as having an olive-brown complexion, with regular +features, large heads, and a thoughtful and melancholy cast of +countenance. They practised in early times the deformation of the skull. + +Professor Wilson describes the hair of the ancient Peruvians, as found +upon their mummies, as "a lightish brown, and of a fineness of texture +which equals that of the Anglo-Saxon race." "The ancient Peruvians," +says Short ("North Americans of Antiquity," p. 187), "appear, from +numerous examples of hair found in their tombs, to have been an +auburn-haired race." Garcilasso, who had an opportunity of seeing the +body of the king, Viracocha, describes the hair of that monarch as +snow-white. Haywood tells us of the discovery, at the beginning of this +century, of three mummies in a cave on the south side of the Cumberland +River (Tennessee), who were buried in baskets, as the Peruvians were +occasionally buried, and whose skin was fair and white, and their hair +auburn, and of a fine texture. ("Natural and Aboriginal History of +Tennessee," p. 191.) + + CHOCTAW. + +Neither is the common opinion correct which asserts all the American +Indians to be of the same type of features. The portraits on this page +and on pages 187 and 191, taken from the "Report of the U. S. Survey for +a Route for a Pacific Railroad," present features very much like those +of Europeans; in fact, every face here could be precisely matched among +the inhabitants of the southern part of the old continent. + + SHAWNEES. + +On the other hand, look at the portrait of the great Italian orator and +reformer, Savonarola, on page 193. It looks more like the hunting +Indians of North-western America than any of the preceding faces. In +fact, if it was dressed with a scalp-lock it would pass muster anywhere +as a portrait of the "Man-afraid-of-his-horses," or "Sitting Bull." + + SAVONAROLA. + +Adam was, it appears, a red man. Winchell tells us that Adam is derived +from the red earth. The radical letters ÂDâM are found in ADaMaH, +"something out of which vegetation was made to germinate," to wit, the +earth. ÂDôM and ÂDOM signifies red, ruddy, bay-colored, as of a horse, +the color of a red heifer. "ÂDâM, a man, a human being, male or female, +red, ruddy." ("Preadamites," p. 161.) + +"The Arabs distinguished mankind into two races, one red, ruddy, the +other black." (Ibid.) They classed themselves among the red men. + +Not only was Adam a red man, but there is evidence that, from the +highest antiquity, red was a sacred color; the gods of the ancients were +always painted red. The Wisdom of Solomon refers to this custom: "The +carpenter carved it elegantly, and formed it by the skill of his +understanding, and fashioned it to the shape of a man, or made it like +some vile beast, laying it over with vermilion, and with paint, coloring +it red, and covering every spot therein." + +The idols of the Indians were also painted red, and red was the +religious color. (Lynd's MS. "Hist. of Dakotas," Library, Hist. Society, +Minn.) + +The Cushites and Ethiopians, early branches of the Atlantean stock, took +their name from their "sunburnt" complexion; they were red men. + +The name of the Phoenicians signified red. Himyar, the prefix of the +Himyaritic Arabians, also means red, and the Arabs were painted red on +the Egyptian monuments. + +The ancient Egyptians were red men. They recognized four races of +men--the red, yellow, black, and white men. They themselves belonged to +the "Rot," or red men; the yellow men they called "Namu"--it included +the Asiatic races; the black men were called "Nahsu," and the white men +"Tamhu." The following figures are copied from Nott and Gliddon's "Types +of Mankind," p. 85, and were taken by them from the great works of +Belzoni, Champollion, and Lepsius. + +In later ages so desirous were the Egyptians of preserving the +aristocratic distinction of the color of their skin, that they +represented themselves on the monuments as of a crimson hue--an +exaggeration of their original race complexion. + +In the same way we find that the ancient Aryan writings divided mankind +into four races--the white, red, yellow, and black: the four castes of +India were founded upon these distinctions in color; in fact, the word +for color in Sanscrit (varna) means caste. The red men, according to the +Mahâbhârata, were the Kshatriyas--the warrior caste-who were afterward +engaged in a fierce contest with the whites--the Brahmans--and were +nearly exterminated, although some of them survived, and from their +stock Buddha was born. So that not only the Mohammedan and Christian but +the Buddhistic religion seem to be derived from branches of the Hamitic +or red stock. The great Mann was also of the red race. + + THE RACES OF MEN ACCORDING TO THE EGYPTIANS. + +The Egyptians, while they painted themselves red-brown, represented the +nations of Palestine as yellow-brown, and the Libyans yellow-white. The +present inhabitants of Egypt range from a yellow color in the north +parts to a deep bronze. Tylor is of opinion ("Anthropology," p. 95) that +the ancient Egyptians belonged to a brown race, which embraced the +Nubian tribes and, to some extent, the Berbers of Algiers and Tunis. He +groups the Assyrians, Phoenicians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Andalusians, +Bretons, dark Welshmen, and people of the Caucasus into one body, and +designates them as "dark whites." The Himyarite Arabs, as I have shown, +derived their name originally from their red color, and they were +constantly depicted on the Egyptian monuments as red or light brown. +Herodotus tells us that there was a nation of Libyans, called the +Maxyans, who claimed descent from the people of Troy (the walls of Troy, +we shall see, were built by Poseidon; that is to say, Troy was an +Atlantean colony). These Maxyans painted their whole bodies red. The +Zavecians, the ancestors of the Zuavas of Algiers (the tribe that gave +their name to the French Zouaves), also painted themselves red. Some of +the Ethiopians were "copper-colored." ("'Amer. Cyclop.," art. Egypt, p. +464.) Tylor says ("Anthropology," p. 160): "The language of the ancient +Egyptians, though it cannot be classed in the Semitic family with +Hebrew, has important points of correspondence, whether due to the long +intercourse between the two races in Egypt or to some deeper ancestral +connection; and such analogies also appear in the Berber languages of +North Africa." + +These last were called by the ancients the Atlanteans. + +"If a congregation of twelve representatives from Malacca, China, Japan, +Mongolia, Sandwich Islands, Chili, Peru, Brazil, Chickasaws, Comanches, +etc., were dressed alike, or undressed and unshaven, the most skilful +anatomist could not, from their appearance, separate them." (Fontaine's +"How the World was Peopled," pp. 147, 244.) + +Ferdinand Columbus, in his relation of his father's voyages, compares +the inhabitants of Guanaani to the Canary Islanders (an Atlantean race), +and describes the inhabitants of San Domingo as still more beautiful and +fair. In Peru the Charanzanis, studied by M. Angraud, also resemble the +Canary Islanders. L'Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg imagined himself +surrounded by Arabs when all his Indians of Rabinal were around him; for +they had, he said, their complexion, features, and beard. Pierre Martyr +speaks of the Indians of the Parian Gulf as having fair hair. ("The +Human Species," p. 201.) The same author believes that tribes belonging +to the Semitic type are also found in America. He refers to "certain +traditions of Guiana, and the use in the country of a weapon entirely +characteristic of the ancient Canary Islanders." + +When science is able to disabuse itself of the Mortonian theory that the +aborigines of America are all red men, and all belong to one race, we +may hope that the confluence upon the continent of widely different +races from different countries may come to be recognized and +intelligently studied. There can be no doubt that red, white, black, and +yellow men have united to form the original population of America. And +there can be as little doubt that the entire population of Europe and +the south shore of the Mediterranean is a mongrel race--a combination, +in varying proportions, of a dark-brown or red race with a white race; +the characteristics of the different nations depending upon the +proportions in which the dark and light races are mingled, for peculiar +mental and moral characteristics go with these complexions. The +red-haired people are a distinct variety of the white stock; there were +once whole tribes and nations with this color of hair; their blood is +now intermingled with all the races of men, from Palestine to Iceland. +Everything in Europe speaks of vast periods of time and long, continued +and constant interfusion of bloods, until there is not a fair-skinned +man on the Continent that has not the blood of the dark-haired race in +his veins; nor scarcely a dark-skinned man that is not lighter in hue +from intermixture with the white stock. + +CHAPTER VI. + +GENESIS CONTAINS A HISTORY OF ATLANTIS + +The Hebrews are a branch of the great family of which that powerful +commercial race, the Phoenicians, who were the merchants of the world +fifteen hundred years before the time of Christ, were a part. The +Hebrews carried out from the common storehouse of their race a mass of +traditions, many of which have come down to us in that oldest and most +venerable of human compositions, the Book of Genesis. I have shown that +the story of the Deluge plainly refers to the destruction of Atlantis, +and that it agrees in many important particulars with the account given +by Plato. The people destroyed were, in both instances, the ancient race +that had created civilization; they had formerly been in a happy and +sinless condition; they had become great and wicked; they were destroyed +for their sins--they were destroyed by water. + +But we can go farther, and it can be asserted that there is scarcely a +prominent fact in the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis that +cannot be duplicated from the legends of the American nations, and +scarcely a custom known to the Jews that does not find its counterpart +among the people of the New World. + +Even in the history of the Creation we find these similarities: + +The Bible tells us (Gen. i., 2) that in the beginning the earth was +without form and void, and covered with water. In the Quiche legends we +are told, "at first all was sea--no man, animal, bird, or green +herb--there was nothing to be seen but the sea and the heavens." + +The Bible says (Gen. i., 2), "And the Spirit of God moved upon the face +of the waters." The Quiche legend says, "The Creator--the Former, the +Dominator--the feathered serpent--those that give life, moved upon the +waters like a glowing light." + +The Bible says (Gen. i., 9), "And God said, Let the waters under the +heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: +and it was so." The Quiche legend says, "The creative spirits cried out +'Earth!' and in an instant it was formed, and rose like a vapor-cloud; +immediately the plains and the mountains arose, and the cypress and pine +appeared." + +The Bible tells us, "And God saw that it was good." The Quiche legend +says, "Then Gucumatz was filled with joy, and cried out, 'Blessed be thy +coming, O Heart of Heaven, Hurakan, thunder-bolt.'" + +The order in which the vegetables, animals, and man were formed is the +same in both records. + +In Genesis (chap. ii., 7) we are told, "And the Lord God formed man of +the dust of the ground." The Quiche legend says. "The first man was made +of clay; but he had no intelligence, and was consumed in the water." + +In Genesis the first man is represented as naked. The Aztec legend says, +"The sun was much nearer the earth then than now, and his grateful +warmth rendered clothing unnecessary." + +Even the temptation of Eve reappears in the American legends. Lord +Kingsborough says: "The Toltecs had paintings of a garden, with a single +tree standing in the midst; round the root of the tree is entwined a +serpent, whose head appearing above the foliage displays the face of a +woman. Torquemada admits the existence of this tradition among them, and +agrees with the Indian historians, who affirm that this was the first +woman in the world, who bore children, and from whom all mankind are +descended." ("Mexican Antiquities," vol. viii., p. 19.) There is also a +legend of Suchiquecal, who disobediently gathered roses from a tree, and +thereby disgraced and injured herself and all her posterity. ("Mexican +Antiquities," vol. vi., p. 401.) + +The legends of the Old World which underlie Genesis, and were used by +Milton in the "Paradise Lost," appear in the Mexican legends of a war of +angels in heaven, and the fall of Zou-tem-que (Soutem, Satan--Arabic, +Shatana?) and the other rebellious spirits. + +We have seen that the Central Americans possessed striking parallels to +the account of the Deluge in Genesis. + +There is also a clearly established legend which singularly resembles +the Bible record of the Tower of Babel. + +Father Duran, in his MS. "Historia Antiqua de la Nueva Espana," A.D. +1585, quotes from the lips of a native of Cholula, over one hundred +years old, a version of the legend as to the building of the great +pyramid of Cholula. It is as follows: + +"In the beginning, before the light of the sun had been created, this +land (Cholula) was in obscurity and darkness, and void of any created +thing; all was a plain, without hill or elevation, encircled in every +part by water, without tree or created thing; and immediately after the +light and the sun arose in the east there appeared gigantic men of +deformed stature and possessed the land, and desiring to see the +nativity of the sun, as well as his occident, proposed to go and seek +them. Dividing themselves into two parties, some journeyed to the west +and others toward the east; these travelled; until the sea cut off their +road, whereupon they determined to return to the place from which they +started, and arriving at this place (Cholula), not finding the means of +reaching the sun, enamored of his light and beauty, they determined to +build a tower so high that its summit should reach the sky. Having +collected materials for the purpose, they found a very adhesive clay and +bitumen, with which they speedily commenced to build the tower; and +having reared it to the greatest possible altitude, so that they say it +reached to the sky, the Lord of the Heavens, enraged, said to the +inhabitants of the sky, 'Have you observed how they of the earth have +built a high and haughty tower to mount hither, being enamored of the +light of the sun and his beauty? Come and confound them, because it is +not right that they of the earth, living in the flesh, should mingle +with us.' Immediately the inhabitants of the sky sallied forth like +flashes of lightning; they destroyed the edifice, and divided and +scattered its builders to all parts of the earth." + + RUINS OF THE TEMPLE OF CHOLULA. + +One can recognize in this legend the recollection, by a ruder race, of a +highly civilized people; for only a highly civilized people would have +attempted such a vast work. Their mental superiority and command of the +arts gave them the character of giants who arrived from the East; who +had divided into two great emigrations, one moving eastward (toward +Europe), the other westward (toward America). They were sun-worshippers; +for we are told "they were enamored of the light and beauty of the sun," +and they built a high place for his worship. + +The pyramid of Cholula is one of the greatest constructions ever erected +by human hands. It is even now, in its ruined condition, 160 feet high, +1400 feet square at the base, and covers forty-five acres; we have only +to remember that the greatest pyramid of Egypt, Cheops, covers but +twelve or thirteen acres, to form some conception of the magnitude of +this American structure. + +It must not be forgotten that this legend was taken down by a Catholic +priest, shortly after the conquest of Mexico, from the lips of an old +Indian who was born before Columbus sailed from Spain. + +Observe the resemblances between this legend and the Bible account of +the building of the Tower of Babel: + +"All was a plain without hill or elevation," says the Indian legend. +"They found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there," says +the Bible. They built of brick in both cases. "Let us build us a tower +whose top may reach unto heaven," says the Bible. "They determined to +build a tower so high that its summit should reach the sky," says the +Indian legend. "And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower +which the children of men had builded. And the Lord said, Behold ... +nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do. Go +to, let us go down and confound them," says the Bible record. "The Lord +of the Heavens, enraged, said to the inhabitants of the sky, 'Have you +observed,' etc. Come and confound them," says the Indian record. "And +the Lord scattered them abroad from thence on all the face of the +earth," says the Bible. "They scattered its builders to all parts of the +earth," says the Mexican legend. + +Can any one doubt that these two legends must have sprung in some way +from one another, or from some common source? There are enough points of +difference to show that the American is not a servile copy of the Hebrew +legend. In the former the story comes from a native of Cholula: it is +told under the shadow of the mighty pyramid it commemorates; it is a +local legend which he repeats. The men who built it, according to his +account, were foreigners. They built it to reach the sun--that is to +say, as a sun-temple; while in the Bible record Babel was built to +perpetuate the glory of its architects. In the Indian legend the gods +stop the work by a great storm, in the Bible account by confounding the +speech of the people. + +Both legends were probably derived from Atlantis, and referred to some +gigantic structure of great height built by that people; and when the +story emigrated to the east and west, it was in the one case affixed to +the tower of the Chaldeans, and in the other to the pyramid of Cholula, +precisely as we find the ark of the Deluge resting upon separate +mountain-chains all the way from Greece to Armenia. In one form of the +Tower of Babel legend, that of the Toltecs, we are told that the pyramid +of Cholula was erected "as a means of escape from a second flood, should +another occur." + +But the resemblances between Genesis and the American legends do not +stop here. + +We are told (Gen. ii., 21) that "the Lord God caused a deep sleep to +fall upon Adam," and while he slept God made Eve out of one of his ribs. +According to the Quiche tradition, there were four men from whom the +races of the world descended (probably a recollection of the red, black, +yellow, and white races); and these men were without wives, and the +Creator made wives for them "while they slept." + +Some wicked misanthrope referred to these traditions when he said, "And +man's first sleep became his last repose." + +In Genesis (chap. iii., 22), "And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is +become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth +his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever:" +therefore God drove him out of the garden. In the Quiche legends we are +told, "The gods feared that they had made men too perfect, and they +breathed a cloud of mist over their vision." + +When the ancestors of the Quiches migrated to America the Divinity +parted the sea for their passage, as the Red Sea was parted for the +Israelites. + +The story of Samson is paralleled in the history of a hero named +Zipanca, told of in the "Popol Vuh," who, being captured by his enemies +and placed in a pit, pulled down the building in which his captors had +assembled, and killed four hundred of them. + +"There were giants in those days," says the Bible. A great deal of the +Central American history is taken up with the doings of an ancient race +of giants called Quinames. + +This parallelism runs through a hundred particulars: + +Both the Jews and Mexicans worshipped toward the east. + +Both called the south "the right hand of the world." + +Both burnt incense toward the four corners of the earth. + +Confession of sin and sacrifice of atonement were common to both peoples. + +Both were punctilious about washings and ablutions. + +Both believed in devils, and both were afflicted with leprosy. + +Both considered women who died in childbirth as worthy of honor as +soldiers who fell in battle. + +Both punished adultery with stoning to death. + +As David leaped and danced before the ark of the Lord, so did the +Mexican monarchs before their idols. + +Both had an ark, the abiding-place of an invisible god. + +Both had a species of serpent-worship. + + GREAT SERPENT MOUND, OHIO. + +Compare our representation of the great serpent-mound in Adams County, +Ohio, with the following description of a great serpent-mound in +Scotland: + +"Serpent-worship in the West.--Some additional light appears to have +been thrown upon ancient serpent-worship in the West by the recent +archæological explorations of Mr. John S. Phené, F.G.S., F.R.G.S., in +Scotland. Mr. Phené has just investigated a curious earthen mound in +Glen Feechan, Argyleshire, referred to by him, at the late meeting of +the British Association in Edinburgh, as being in the form of a serpent +or saurian. The mound, says the Scotsman, is a most perfect one. The +head is a large cairn, and the body of the earthen reptile 300 feet +long; and in the centre of the head there were evidences, when Mr. Phené +first visited it, of an altar having been placed there. The position +with regard to Ben Cruachan is most remarkable. The three peaks are seen +over the length of the reptile when a person is standing on the head, or +cairn. The shape can only be seen so as to be understood when looked +down upon from an elevation, as the outline cannot be understood unless +the whole of it can be seen. This is most perfect when the spectator is +on the head of the animal form, or on the lofty rock to the west of it. +This mound corresponds almost entirely with one 700 feet long in +America, an account of which was lately published, after careful survey, +by Mr. Squier. The altar toward the head in each case agrees. In the +American mound three rivers (also objects of worship with the ancients) +were evidently identified. The number three was a sacred number in all +ancient mythologies. The sinuous winding and articulations of the +vertebral spinal arrangement are anatomically perfect in the Argyleshire +mound. The gentlemen present with Mr. Phené during his investigation +state that beneath the cairn forming the head of the animal was found a +megalithic chamber, in which was a quantity of charcoal and burnt earth +and charred nutshells, a flint instrument, beautifully and minutely +serrated at the edge, and burnt bones. The back or spine of the serpent, +which, as already stated, is 300 feet long, was found, beneath the peat +moss, to be formed by a careful adjustment of stones, the formation of +which probably prevented the structure from being obliterated by time +and weather." (Pall Mall Gazette.) + + STONE IMPLEMENTS OF EUROPE AND AMERICA + +We find a striking likeness between the works of the Stone Age in +America and Europe, as shown in the figures here given. + +The same singular custom which is found among the Jews and the Hindoos, +for "a man to raise up seed for his deceased brother by marrying his +widow," was found among the Central American nations. (Las Casas, MS. +"Hist. Apoloq.," cap. ccxiii., ccxv. Torquemada, "Monarq. Ind.," tom. +ii., 377-8.) + +No one but the Jewish high-priest might enter the Holy of Holies. A +similar custom obtained in Peru. Both ate the flesh of the sacrifices of +atonement; both poured the blood of the sacrifice on the earth; they +sprinkled it, they marked persons with it, they smeared it upon walls +and stones. The Mexican temple, like the Jewish, faced the east. "As +among the Jews the ark was a sort of portable temple, in which the Deity +was supposed to be continually present, so among the Mexicans, the +Cherokees, and the Indians of Michoacan and Honduras, an ark was held in +the highest veneration, and was considered an object too sacred to be +touched by any but the priests." (Kingsborough, "Mex. Antiq., "vol. +viii., p. 258.) + +The Peruvians believed that the rainbow was a sign that the earth would +not be again destroyed by a deluge. (Ibid., p. 25.) + +The Jewish custom of laying the sins of the people upon the head of an +animal, and turning him out into the wilderness, had its counterpart +among the Mexicans, who, to cure a fever, formed a dog of maize paste +and left it by the roadside, saying the first passer-by would carry away +the illness. (Dorman, "Prim. Super.," p. 59.) Jacob's ladder had its +duplicate in the vine or tree of the Ojibbeways, which led from the +earth to heaven, up and down which the spirits passed. (Ibid., p. 67.) + +Both Jews and Mexicans offered water to a stranger that he might wash +his feet; both ate dust in token of humility; both anointed with oil; +both sacrificed prisoners; both periodically separated the women, and +both agreed in the strong and universal idea of uncleanness connected +with that period. + +Both believed in the occult power of water, and both practised baptism. + +"Then the Mexican midwife gave the child to taste of the water, putting +her moistened fingers in its mouth, and said, 'Take this; by this thou +hast to live on the earth, to grow and to flourish; through this we get +all things that support existence on the earth; receive it.' Then with +moistened fingers she touched the breast of the child, and said, 'Behold +the pure water that washes and cleanses thy heart, that removes all +filthiness; receive it: may the goddess see good to purify and cleanse +thine heart.' Then the midwife poured water upon the head of the child, +saying, 'O my grandson--my son--take this water of the Lord of the +world, which is thy life, invigorating and refreshing, washing and +cleansing. I pray that this celestial water, blue and light blue, may +enter into thy body, and there live; I pray that it may destroy in thee +and put away from thee all the things evil and adverse that were given +thee before the beginning of the world.... Wheresoever thou art in +this child, O thou hurtful thing, begone! leave it, put thyself apart; +for now does it live anew, and anew is it born; now again is it purified +and cleansed; now again is it shaped and engendered by our mother, the +goddess of water." (Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iii., p. 372.) + +Here we find many resemblances to the Christian ordinance of baptism: +the pouring of the water on the head, the putting of the fingers in the +mouth, the touching of the breast, the new birth, and the washing away +of the original sin. The Christian rite, we know, was not a Christian +invention, but was borrowed from ancient times, from the great +storehouse of Asiatic traditions and beliefs. + +The Mexicans hung up the heads of their sacrificed enemies; this was +also a Jewish custom: + +"And the Lord said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people, and +hang them up before the Lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of +the Lord may be turned away from Israel. And Moses said unto the judges +of Israel, Slay ye every one his men that were joined unto Baal-peor." +(Numb., xxv., 4, 5.) + +The Scythians, Herodotus tells us, scalped their enemies, and carried +the scalp at the pommel of their saddles; the Jews probably scalped +their enemies: + +"But God shall wound the head of his enemies, and the hairy scalp of +such a one as goeth on still in his trespasses." (Psa., lxviii., 21.) + +The ancient Scandinavians practised scalping. When Harold Harefoot +seized his rival, Alfred, with six hundred followers, he "had them +maimed, blinded, hamstrung, scalped, or embowelled." (Taine's "Hist. +Eng. Lit.," p. 35.) + +Herodotus describes the Scythian mode of taking the scalp: "He makes a +cut round the head near the ears, and shakes the skull out." This is +precisely the Indian custom. "The more scalps a man has," says +Herodotus, "the more highly he is esteemed among them." + +The Indian scalp-lock is found on the Egyptian monuments as one of the +characteristics of the Japhetic Libyans, who shaved all the head except +one lock in the middle. + +The Mantchoos of Tartary wear a scalp-lock, as do the modern Chinese. + +Byron describes the heads of the dead Tartars under the walls of +Corinth, devoured by the wild dogs: + + "Crimson and green were the shawls of their wear, + And each scalp had a single long tuft of hair, + All the rest was shaven and bare." + +These resemblances are so striking and so numerous that repeated +attempts have been made to prove that the inhabitants of America are the +descendants of the Jews; some have claimed that they represented "the +lost tribes" of that people. But the Jews were never a maritime or +emigrating people; they formed no colonies; and it is impossible to +believe (as has been asserted) that they left their flocks and herds, +marched across the whole face of Asia, took ships and sailed across the +greatest of the oceans to a continent of the existence of which they had +no knowledge. + +If we seek the origin of these extraordinary coincidences in opinions +and habits, we must go far back to the time of the lost tribes. We must +seek it in the relationship of the Jews to the family of Noah, and in +the identity of the Noachic race destroyed in the Deluge with the people +of the drowned Atlantis. + +Nor need it surprise us to find traditions perpetuated for thousands +upon thousands of years, especially among a people having a religious +priesthood. + +The essence of religion is conservatism; little is invented; nothing +perishes; change comes from without; and even when one religion is +supplanted by another its gods live on as the demons of the new faith, +or they pass into the folk-lore and fairy stories of the people. We see +Votan, a hero in America, become the god Odin or Woden in Scandinavia; +and when his worship as a god dies out Odin survives (as Dr. Dasent has +proved) in the Wild Huntsman of the Hartz, and in the Robin Hood (Oodin) +of popular legend. The Hellequin of France becomes the Harlequin of our +pantomimes. William Tell never existed; he is a myth; a survival of the +sun-god Apollo, Indra, who was worshipped on the altars of Atlantis. + + "Nothing here but it doth change into something rich and + strange." + +The rite of circumcision dates back to the first days of Phoenicia, +Egypt, and the Cushites. It, too, was probably an Atlantean custom, +invented in the Stone Age. Tens of thousands of years have passed since +the Stone Age; the ages of copper, bronze, and iron have intervened; and +yet to this day the Hebrew rabbi performs the ceremony of circumcision +with a stone knife. + +Frothingham says, speaking of St. Peter's Cathedral, in Rome: + +"Into what depths of antiquity the ceremonies carried me back! To the +mysteries of Eleusis; to the sacrificial rites of Phoenicia. The boys +swung the censors as censors had been swung in the adoration of Bacchus. +The girdle and cassock of the priests came from Persia; the veil and +tonsure were from Egypt; the alb and chasuble were prescribed by Numa +Pompilius; the stole was borrowed from the official who used to throw it +on the back of the victim that was to be sacrificed; the white surplice +was the same as described by Juvenal and Ovid." + +Although it is evident that many thousands of years must have passed +since the men who wrote in Sanscrit, in Northwestern India, could have +dwelt in Europe, yet to this day they preserve among their ancient books +maps and descriptions of the western coast of Europe, and even of +England and Ireland; and we find among them a fuller knowledge of the +vexed question of the sources of the Nile than was possessed by any +nation in the world twenty-five years ago. + +This perpetuation of forms and beliefs is illustrated in the fact that +the formulas used in the Middle Ages in Europe to exorcise evil spirits +were Assyrian words, imported probably thousands of years before from +the magicians of Chaldea. When the European conjurer cried out to the +demon, "Hilka, hilka, besha, besha," he had no idea that he was +repeating the very words of a people who had perished ages before, and +that they signified Go away, go away, evil one, evil one. (Lenormant, +"Anc. Hist. East," vol. i., p. 448.) + +Our circle of 360 degrees; the division of a chord of the circle equal +to the radius into 60 equal parts, called degrees: the division of these +into 60 minutes, of the minute into 60 seconds, and the second into 60 +thirds; the division of the day into 24 hours, each hour into 60 +minutes, each minute into 60 seconds; the division of the week into +seven days, and the very order of the days--all have come down to us +from the Chaldeo-Assyrians; and these things will probably be +perpetuated among our posterity "to the last syllable of recorded time." + +We need not be surprised, therefore, to find the same legends and +beliefs cropping out among the nations of Central America and the people +of Israel. Nay, it should teach us to regard the Book of Genesis with +increased veneration, as a relic dating from the most ancient days of +man's history on earth; its roots cross the great ocean; every line is +valuable; a word, a letter, an accent may throw light upon the gravest +problems of the birth of civilization. + +The vital conviction which, during thousands of years, at all times +pressed home upon the Israelites, was that they were a "chosen people," +selected out of all the multitude of the earth, to perpetuate the great +truth that there was but one God--an illimitable, omnipotent, paternal +spirit, who rewarded the good and punished the wicked--in +contradistinction from the multifarious, subordinate, animal and bestial +demi-gods of the other nations of the earth. This sublime monotheism +could only have been the outgrowth of a high civilization, for man's +first religion is necessarily a worship of "stocks and stones," and +history teaches us that the gods decrease in number as man increases in +intelligence. It was probably in Atlantis that monotheism was first +preached. The proverbs of "Ptah-hotep," the oldest book of the +Egyptians, show that this most ancient colony from Atlantis received the +pure faith from the mother-land at the very dawn of history: this book +preached the doctrine of one God, "the rewarder of the good and the +punisher of the wicked." (Reginald S. Poole, Contemporary Rev., Aug., +1881, p. 38.) "In the early days the Egyptians worshipped one only God, +the maker of all things, without beginning and without end. To the last +the priests preserved this doctrine and taught it privately to a select +few." ("Amer. Encycl.," vol. vi., p. 463.) The Jews took up this great +truth where the Egyptians dropped it, and over the heads and over the +ruins of Egypt, Chaldea, Phoenicia, Greece, Rome, and India this handful +of poor shepherds--ignorant, debased, and despised--have carried down to +our own times a conception which could only have originated in the +highest possible state of human society. + +And even skepticism must pause before the miracle of the continued +existence of this strange people, wading through the ages, bearing on +their shoulders the burden of their great trust, and pressing forward +under the force of a perpetual and irresistible impulse. The speech that +may be heard to-day in the synagogues of Chicago and Melbourne resounded +two thousand years ago in the streets of Rome; and, at a still earlier +period, it could be heard in the palaces of Babylon and the shops of +Thebes--in Tyre, in Sidon, in Gades, in Palmyra, in Nineveh. How many +nations have perished, how many languages have ceased to exist, how many +splendid civilizations have crumbled into ruin, how many temples and +towers and towns have gone down to dust since the sublime frenzy of +monotheism first seized this extraordinary people! All their kindred +nomadic tribes are gone; their land of promise is in the hands of +strangers; but Judaism, with its offspring, Christianity, is taking +possession of the habitable world; and the continuous life of one +people--one poor, obscure, and wretched people--spans the tremendous +gulf between "Ptah-hotep" and this nineteenth century. + +If the Spirit of which the universe is but an expression--of whose frame +the stars are the infinite molecules--can be supposed ever to interfere +with the laws of matter and reach down into the doings of men, would it +not be to save from the wreck and waste of time the most sublime fruit +of the civilization of the drowned Atlantis--a belief in the one, only, +just God, the father of all life, the imposer of all moral obligations? + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE ORIGIN OF OUR ALPHABET + +One of the most marvellous inventions for the advancement of mankind is +the phonetic alphabet, or a system of signs representing the sounds of +human speech. Without it our present civilization could scarcely have +been possible. + +No solution of the origin of our European alphabet has yet been +obtained: we can trace it back from nation to nation, and form to form, +until we reach the Egyptians, and the archaic forms of the Phoenicians, +Hebrews, and Cushites, but beyond this the light fails us. + +The Egyptians spoke of their hieroglyphic system of writing not as their +own invention, but as "the language of the gods." (Lenormant and Cheval, +"Anc. Hist. of the East," vol. ii., p. 208.) "The gods" were, doubtless, +their highly civilized ancestors--the people of Atlantis--who, as we +shall hereafter see, became the gods of many of the Mediterranean races. + +"According to the Phoenicians, the art of writing was invented by +Taautus, or Taut, 'whom the Egyptians call Thouth,' and the Egyptians +said it was invented by Thouth, or Thoth, otherwise called 'the first +Hermes,' in which we clearly see that both the Phoenicians and Egyptians +referred the invention to a period older than their own separate +political existence, and to an older nation, from which both peoples +received it." (Baldwin's "Prehistoric Nations," p. 91.) + +The "first Hermes," here referred to (afterward called Mercury by the +Romans), was a son of Zeus and Maia, a daughter of Atlas. This is the +same Maia whom the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg identifies with the Maya +of Central America. + +Sir William Drummond, in his "Origines," said: + +"There seems to be no way of accounting either for the early use of +letters among so many different nations, or for the resemblance which +existed between some of the graphic systems employed by those nations, +than by supposing hieroglyphical writing, if I may be allowed the term, +to have been in use among the Tsabaists in the first ages after the +Flood, when Tsabaisin (planet-worship) was the religion of almost every +country that was yet inhabited." + +Sir Henry Rawlinson says: + +"So great is the analogy between the first principles of the Science of +writing, as it appears to have been pursued in Chaldea, and as we can +actually trace its progress in Egypt, that we can hardly hesitate to +assign the original invention to a period before the Hamitic race had +broken up and divided." + +It is not to be believed that such an extraordinary system of +sound-signs could have been the invention of any one man or even of any +one age. Like all our other acquisitions, it must have been the slow +growth and accretion of ages; it must have risen step by step from +picture-writing through an intermediate condition like that of the +Chinese, where each word or thing was represented by a separate sign. +The fact that so old and enlightened a people as the Chinese have never +reached a phonetic alphabet, gives us some indication of the greatness +of the people among whom it was invented, and the lapse of time before +they attained to it. + +Humboldt says: + +"According to the views which, since Champollion's great discovery, have +been gradually adopted regarding the earlier condition of the +development of alphabetical writing, the Phoenician as well as the +Semitic characters are to be regarded as a phonetic alphabet that has +originated from pictorial writing; as one in which the ideal +signification of the symbols is wholly disregarded, and the characters +are regarded as mere signs for sounds." ("Cosmos," vol. ii., p. 129.) + +Baldwin says ("Prehistoric Nations," p. 93): + +"The nation that became mistress of the seas, established communication +with every shore, and monopolized the commerce of the known world, must +have substituted a phonetic alphabet for the hieroglyphics as it +gradually grew to this eminence; while isolated Egypt, less affected by +the practical wants and tendencies of commercial enterprise, retained +the hieroglyphic system, and carried it to a marvellous height of +perfection." + +It must be remembered that some of the letters of our alphabet are +inventions of the later nations. In the oldest alphabets there was no c, +the g taking its place. The Romans converted the g into c; and then, +finding the necessity for a g Sign, made one by adding a tail-piece to +the c (C, G). The Greeks added to the ancient alphabet the upsilon, +shaped like our V or Y, the two forms being used at first indifferently: +they added the X sign; they converted the t of the Phoenicians into th, +or theta; z and s into signs for double consonants; they turned the +Phoenician y (yod) into i (iota). The Greeks converted the Phoenician +alphabet, which was partly consonantal, into one purely phonetic--"a +perfect instrument for the expression of spoken language." The w was +also added to the Phoenician alphabet. The Romans added the y. At first i +and j were both indicated by the same sound; a sign for j was afterward +added. We have also, in common with other European languages, added a +double U, that is, VV, or W, to represent the w sound. + +The letters, then, which we owe to the Phoenicians, are A, B, C, D, E, H, +I, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, Z. If we are to trace out resemblances +with the alphabet of any other country, it must be with these signs. + +Is there any other country to which we can turn which possessed a +phonetic alphabet in any respect kindred to this Phoenician alphabet? It +cannot be the Chinese alphabet, which has more signs than words; it +cannot be the cuneiform alphabet of Assyria, with its seven hundred +arrow-shaped characters, none of which bear the slightest affinity to +the Phoenician letters. + +It is a surprising fact that we find in Central America a phonetic +alphabet. This is in the alphabet of the Mayas, the ancient people of +the peninsula of Yucatan, who claim that their civilization came to them +across the sea in ships from the east, that is, from the direction of +Atlantis. The Mayas succeeded to the Colhuas, whose era terminated one +thousand years before the time of Christ; from them they received their +alphabet. It has come to us through Bishop Landa, one of the early +missionary bishops, who confesses to having burnt a great number of Maya +books because they contained nothing but the works of the devil. He +fortunately, however, preserved for posterity the alphabet of this +people. We present it herewith. + + ### + + LANDA'S ALPHABET (From "North Amer. of Antiquity," p. 434.) + +Diego de Landa was the first bishop of Yucatan. He wrote a history of +the Mayas and their country, which was preserved in manuscript at Madrid +in the library of the Royal Academy of History.... It contains a +description and explanation of the phonetic alphabet of the Mayas. +Landa's manuscript seems to have lain neglected in the library, for +little or nothing was heard of it until it was discovered by the French +priest Brasseur de Bourbourg, who, by means of it, has deciphered some +of the old American writings. He says, 'the alphabet and signs explained +by Landa have been to me a Rosetta stone.' (Baldwin's "Ancient +America," p. 191.) + +When we observe, in the table of alphabets of different European nations +which I give herewith, how greatly the forms of the Phoenician letters +have been modified, it would surprise us to find any resemblance between +the Maya alphabet of two or three centuries since and the ancient +European forms. It must, however, be remembered that the Mayas are one +of the most conservative peoples in the world. They still adhere with +striking pertinacity to the language they spoke when Columbus landed on +San Salvador; and it is believed that that language is the same as the +one inscribed on the most ancient monuments of their country. Señor +Pimental says of them, "The Indians have preserved this idiom with such +tenacity that they will speak no other; it is necessary for the whites +to address them in their own language to communicate with them." It is +therefore probable, as their alphabet did not pass from nation to +nation, as did the Phoenician, that it has not departed so widely from +the original forms received from the Colhuas. + + ### + + The Alphabet + +But when we consider the vast extent of time which has elapsed, and the +fact that we are probably without the intermediate stages of the +alphabet which preceded the archaic Phoenician, it will be astonishing if +we find resemblances between any of the Maya letters and the European +forms, even though we concede that they are related. If we find decided +affinities between two or three letters, we may reasonably presume that +similar coincidences existed as to many others which have disappeared +under the attrition of centuries. + +The first thought that occurs to us on examining the Landa alphabet is +the complex and ornate character of the letters. Instead of the two or +three strokes with which we indicate a sign for a sound, we have here +rude pictures of objects. And we find that these are themselves +simplifications of older forms of a still more complex character. Take, +for instance, the letter pp in Landa's alphabet, ### : here are +evidently the traces of a face. The same appear, but not so plainly, in +the sign for x, which is ### . Now, if we turn to the ancient +hieroglyphics upon the monuments of Central America, we will find the +human face appearing in a great many of them, as in the following, which +we copy from the Tablet of the Cross at Palenque. We take the +hieroglyphs from the left-hand side of the inscription. Here it will be +seen that, out of seven hieroglyphical figures, six contain human faces. +And we find that in the whole inscription of the Tablet of the Cross +there are 33 figures out of 108 that are made up in part of the human +countenance. + +### + +We can see, therefore, in the Landa alphabet a tendency to +simplification. And this is what we would naturally expect. When the +emblems--which were probably first intended for religious inscriptions, +where they could be slowly and carefully elaborated--were placed in the +hands of a busy, active, commercial people, such as were the Atlanteans, +and afterward the Phoenicians, men with whom time was valuable, the +natural tendency would be to simplify and condense them; and when the +original meaning of the picture was lost, they would naturally slur it, +as we find in the letters pp and x of the Maya alphabet, where the +figure of the human face remains only in rude lines. + +The same tendency is plainly shown in the two forms of the letter h, as +given in Landa's alphabet; the original form is more elaborate than the +variation of it. The original form is ### The variation is given as ### +. Now let us suppose this simplification to be carried a step farther: +we have seen the upper and lower parts of the first form shrink into a +smaller and less elaborate shape; let us imagine that the same tendency +does away with them altogether; we would then have the letter H of the +Maya alphabet represented by this figure, ### ; now, as it takes less +time to make a single stroke than a double one, this would become in +time ### . We turn now to the archaic Greek and the old Hebrew, and we +find the letter h indicated by this sign, ### , precisely the Maya +letter h simplified. We turn to the archaic Hebrew, and we find ### . +Now it is known that the Phoenicians wrote from right to left, and just +as we in writing from left to right slope our letters to the right, so +did the Phoenicians slope their letters to the left. Hence the Maya sign +becomes in the archaic Phoenician this, ### . In some of the Phoenician +alphabets we even find the letter h made with the double strokes above +and below, as in the Maya h. The Egyptian hieroglyph for h is ### while +ch is ### . In time the Greeks carried the work of simplification still +farther, and eliminated the top lines, as we have supposed the +Atlanteans to have eliminated the double strokes, and they left the +letter as it has come down to us, H. + +Now it may be said that all this is coincidence. If it is, it is +certainly remarkable. But let us go a step farther: + +We have seen in Landa's alphabet that there are two forms of the letter +m. The first is ### . But we find also an m combined with the letter o, +a, or e, says Landa, in this form, ### . The m here is certainly +indicated by the central part of this combination, the figure ### ; +where does that come from? It is clearly taken from the heart of the +original figure wherein it appears. What does this prove? That the +Atlanteans, or Mayas, when they sought to simplify their letters and +combine them with others, took from the centre of the ornate +hieroglyphical figure some characteristic mark with which they +represented the whole figure. Now let us apply this rule: + +We have seen in the table of alphabets that in every language, from our +own day to the time of the Phoenicians, o has been represented by a +circle or a circle within a circle. Now where did the Phoenicians get it? +Clearly from the Mayas. There are two figures for o in the Maya +alphabet; they are ### and ### ; now, if we apply the rule which we have +seen to exist in the case of the Maya m to these figures, the essential +characteristic found in each is the circle, in the first case pendant +from the hieroglyph; in the other, in the centre of the lower part of +it. And that this circle was withdrawn from the hieroglyph, and used +alone, as in the case of the m, is proved by the very sign used at the +foot of Landa's alphabet, which is, ### Landa calls this ma, me, or mo; +it is probably the latter, and in it we have the circle detached from +the hieroglyph. + +We find the precise Maya o a circle in a circle, or a dot within a +circle, repeated in the Phoenician forms for o, thus, ### and ### , and +by exactly the same forms in the Egyptian hieroglyphics; in the Runic we +have the circle in the circle; in one form of the Greek o the dot was +placed along-side of the circle instead of below it, as in the Maya. + +Are these another set of coincidences? + +Take another letter: + +The letter n of the Maya alphabet is represented by this sign, itself +probably a simplification of some more ornate form, ### . This is +something like our letter S, but quite unlike our N. But let us examine +into the pedigree of our n. We find in the archaic Ethiopian, a language +as old as the Egyptian, and which represents the Cushite branch of the +Atlantean stock, the sign for n (na) is ### ; in archaic Phoenician it +comes still closer to the S shape, thus, ### , or in this form, ### ; we +have but to curve these angles to approximate it very closely to the +Maya n; in Troy this form was found, ### . The Samaritan makes it ### ; +the old Hebrew ### ; the Moab stone inscription gives it ### ; the later +Phoenicians simplified the archaic form still further, until it became +### ; then it passed into ### : the archaic Greek form is ### ; the +later Greeks made ### , from which it passed into the present form, N. +All these forms seem to be representations of a serpent; we turn to the +valley of the Nile, and we find that the Egyptian hieroglyphic for n was +the serpent, ### ; the Pelasgian n was ### ; the Arcadian, ### ; the +Etruscan, ### . + +Can anything be more significant than to find the serpent the sign for n +in Central America, and in all these Old World languages? + +Now turn to the letter k. The Maya sign for k is ### . This does not +look much like our letter K; but let us examine it. Following the +precedent established for us by the Mayas in the case of the letter m, +let us see what is the distinguishing feature here; it is clearly the +figure of a serpent standing erect, with its tail doubled around its +middle, forming a circle. It has already been remarked by Savolini that +this erect serpent is very much like the Egyptian Uræus, an erect +serpent with an enlarged body--a sacred emblem found in the hair of +their deities. We turn again to the valley of the Nile, and we find that +the Egyptian hieroglyphic for k was a serpent with a convolution or +protuberance in the middle, precisely as in the Maya, thus, ### ; this +was transformed into the Egyptian letter ### ; the serpent and the +protuberance reappear in one of the Phoenician forms of k, to wit, ### ; +while in the Punic we have these forms, ### and ### . Now suppose a busy +people trying to give this sign: instead of drawing the serpent in all +its details they would abbreviate it into something like this, ### ; now +we turn to the ancient Ethiopian sign for k (ka), and we have ### , or +the Himyaritic Arabian ### ; while in the Phoenician it becomes ### ; in +the archaic Greek, ### ; and in the later Greek, when they changed the +writing from left to right, ### . So that the two lines projecting from +the upright stroke of our English K are a reminiscence of the +convolution of the serpent in the Maya original and the Egyptian copy. + +Turn now to the Maya sign for t: it is ### , . What is the distinctive +mark about this figure? It is the cross composed of two curved lines, +thus, ### . It is probable that in the Maya sign the cross is united at +the bottom, like a figure 8. Here again we turn to the valley of the +Nile, and we find that the Egyptian hieroglyph for t is ### and ### ; +and in the Syriac t it is ### . We even find the curved lines of the +Maya t which give it something of the appearance of the numeral 8, +repeated accurately in the Mediterranean alphabets; thus the Punic t +repeats the Maya form almost exactly as ### and ### . Now suppose a busy +people compelled to make this mark every day for a thousand years, and +generally in a hurry, and the cross would soon be made without curving +the lines; it would become X. But before it reached even that simplified +form it had crossed the Atlantic, and appeared in the archaic Ethiopian +sign for tsa, thus, ### . In the archaic Phoenician the sign for ### is +### and ### ; the oldest Greek form is ### or ### and the later Greeks +gave it to the Romans ### , and modified this into ### ; the old Hebrew +gave it as ### and ### ; the Moab stone as ### ; this became in time ### +and ### . + +Take the letter a. In the Maya there are three forms given for this +letter. The first is ### ; the third is ### . The first looks very much +like the foot of a lion or tiger; the third is plainly a foot or boot. +If one were required to give hurriedly a rude outline of either of +these, would he not represent it thus, ### ; and can we not conceive +that this could have been in time modified into the Phoenician a, which +was ### ? The hieratic Egyptian a was ### ; the ancient Hebrew, which +was ### or ### ; the ancient Greek was the foot reversed, ### ; the +later Greek became our A. + +Turn next to the Maya sign for q (ku): it is ### . Now what is the +peculiarity of this hieroglyph? The circle below is not significant, for +there are many circular figures in the Maya alphabet. Clearly, if one +was called upon to simplify this, he would retain the two small circles +joined side by side at the top, and would indicate the lower circle with +a line or dash. And when we turn to the Egyptian q we find it in this +shape, ### ; we turn to the Ethiopian q (khua), and we find it ### , as +qua, ### ; while the Phoenician comes still nearer the supposed Maya form +in ### ; the Moab stone was ### ; the Himyaritic Arabian form became ### ; +the Greek form was ### , which graduated into the Roman Q. But a still +more striking proof of the descent of the Phoenician alphabet from the +Maya is found in the other form of the q, the Maya cu, which is ### . +Now, if we apply the Maya rule to this, and discard the outside circle, +we have this left, ### . In time the curved line would be made straight, +and the figure would assume this form, ### ; the next step would be to +make the cross on the straight line, thus, ### . One of the ancient +Phoenician forms is ### . Can all this be accident? + +The letter c or g (for the two probably gave the same sound as in the +Phoenician) is given in the Maya alphabet as follows, ### . This would in +time be simplified into a figure representing the two sides of a +triangle with the apex upward, thus, ### . This is precisely the form +found by Dr. Schliemann in the ruins of Troy, ### . What is the +Phoenician form for g as found on the Moab stone? It is ### . The +Carthaginian Phoenicians gave it more of a rounded form, thus, ### . The +hieratic Egyptian figure for g was ### ; in the earlier Greek form the +left limb of the figure was shortened, thus, ### ; the later Greeks +reversed it, and wrote it ### ; the Romans, changed this into ### and it +finally became C. + +In the Maya we have one sign for p, and another for pp. The first +contains a curious figure, precisely like our r laid on its back ### . +There is, apparently, no r in the Maya alphabet; and the Roman r grew +out of the later Phoenician r formed thus, ### ; it would appear that the +earliest Phoenician alphabet did not contain the letter r. But if we now +turn to the Phoenician alphabet, we will find one of the curious forms of +the p given thus, ### , a very fair representation of an r lying upon +its face. Is it not another remarkable coincidence that the p, in both +Maya and Phoenician, should contain this singular sign? + +The form of pp in the Maya alphabet is this, ### . If we are asked, on +the principle already indicated, to reduce this to its elements, we +would use a figure like this, ### ; in time the tendency would be to +shorten one of these perpendicular lines, thus, and this we find is very +much like the Phoenician p, ### . The Greek ph is ### . + +The letter l in the Maya is in two forms; one of these is ### , the +other is ### . Now, if we again apply the rule which we observed to hold +good with the letter m--that is, draw from the inside of the hieroglyph +some symbol that will briefly indicate the whole letter--we will have +one of two forms, either a right-angled figure formed thus, ### , or an +acute angle formed by joining the two lines which are unconnected, thus, +### ; and either of these forms brings us quite close to the letter l of +the Old World. We find l on the Moab stone thus formed, ### . The +archaic Phoenician form of l was ### , or ### ; the archaic Hebrew was +### and ### ; the hieratic Egyptian was ### ; the Greek form was ### +--the Roman L. + +The Maya letter b is shaped thus, ### . Now, if we turn to the +Phoenician, we find that b is represented by the same crescent-like +figure which we find in the middle of this hieroglyph, but reversed in +the direction of the writing, thus, ### ; while in the archaic Hebrew we +have the same crescent figure as in the Maya, turned in the same +direction, but accompanied by a line drawn downward, and to the left, +thus, ### ; a similar form is also found in the Phoenician ### , and this +in the earliest Greek changed into ### , and in the later Greek into B. +One of the Etruscan signs for b was ### , while the Pelasgian b was +represented thus, ### ; the Chaldaic b was ### ; the Syriac sign for b +was ### ; the Illyrian b was ### . + +The Maya e is ### ; this became in time ### ; then ### (we see this form +on the Maya monuments); the dots in time were indicated by strokes, and +we reach the hieratic Egyptian form, ### : we even find in some of the +ancient Phoenician inscriptions the original Maya circles preserved in +making the letter e, thus, ### ; then we find the old Greek form, ### ; +the old Hebrew, ### ; and the later Phoenician, ### : when the direction +of the writing was changed this became ### . Dr. Schliemann found a form +like this on inscriptions deep in the ruins of Troy, ### . This is +exactly the form found on the American monuments. + +The Maya i is ### ; this became in time ### ; this developed into a +still simpler form, ### ; and this passed into the Phoenician form, ### . +The Samaritan i was formed thus, ### ; the Egyptian letter i is ### : +gradually in all these the left-hand line was dropped, and we come to +the figure used on the stone of Moab, ### and ### ; this in time became +the old Hebrew ### , or ### ; and this developed into the Greek ### . + +We have seen the complicated symbol for m reduced by the Mayas +themselves into this figure, ### : if we attempt to write this rapidly, +we find it very difficult to always keep the base lines horizontal; +naturally we form something like this, ### : the distinctive figure +within the sign for m in the Maya is ### or ### . We see this repeated +in the Egyptian hieroglyphics for m, ### , and ### , and ### ; and in +the Chaldaic m, ### ; and in the Ethiopic ### . We find one form of the +Phoenician where the m is made thus, ### ; and in the Punic it appears +thus, ### ; and this is not unlike the m on the stone of Moab, ### , or +the ancient Phoenician forms ### , ### , and the old Greek ### , or the +ancient Hebrew ### , ### . + +The ### , x, of the Maya alphabet is a hand pointing downward ### , +this, reduced to its elements, would be expressed some thing like this, +### or ### ; and this is very much like the x of the archaic Phoenician, +### ; or the Moab stone, ### ; or the later Phoenician ### or the Hebrew +### , ### , or the old Greek, ### : the later Greek form was ### . + +The Maya alphabet contains no sign for the letter s; there is, however, +a symbol called ca immediately above the letter k; it is probable that +the sign ca stands for the soft sound of c, as, in our words citron, +circle, civil, circus, etc. As it is written in the Maya alphabet ca, +and not k, it evidently represents a different sound. The sign ca is +this, ### . A somewhat similar sign is found in the body of the symbol +for k, thus, ### , this would appear to be a simplification of ca, but +turned downward. If now we turn to the Egyptian letters we find the sign +k represented by this figure ### , simplified again into ### ; while the +sign for k in the Phoenician inscription on the stone of Moab is ### . If +now we turn to the s sound, indicated by the Maya sign ca, ### , we find +the resemblance still more striking to kindred European letters. The +Phoenician s is ### ; in the Greek this becomes ### ### ; the Hebrew is +### ### ; the Samaritan, ### . The Egyptian hieroglyph for s is ### ; +the Egyptian letter s is ### ; the Ethiopic, ### ; the Chaldaic, ### ; +and the Illyrian s c is ### . + +We have thus traced back the forms of eighteen of the ancient letters to +the Maya alphabet. In some cases the pedigree, is so plain as to be +indisputable. + +For instance, take the h: + +Maya, ### ; old Greek, ### ; old Hebrew, ### ; Phoenician, ### . + +Or take the letter o: + +Maya, ### ; old Greek, ### ; old Hebrew, ### ; Phoenician, ### . + +Or take the letter t: + +Maya, ### ; old Greek, ### ; old Phoenician, ### and ### . + +Or take the letter q: + +Maya, ### ; old Phoenician, ### and ### ; Greek, ### . + +Or take the letter k: + +Maya, ### ; Egyptian, ### ; Ethiopian, ### ; Phoenician, ### . + +Or take the letter n: + +Maya, ### ; Egyptian, ### ; Pelasgian ### , Arcadian, ### ; Phoenician, +### . + +Surely all this cannot be accident! + +But we find another singular proof of the truth of this theory: It will +be seen that the Maya alphabet lacks the letter d and the letter r. The +Mexican alphabet possessed a d. The sounds d and t were probably +indicated in the Maya tongue by the same sign, called t in the Landa +alphabet. The Finns and Lapps do not distinguish between these two +sounds. In the oldest known form of the Phoenician alphabet, that found +on the Moab stone, we find in the same way but one sign to express the d +and t. D does not occur on the Etruscan monuments, t being used in its +place. It would, therefore, appear that after the Maya alphabet passed +to the Phoenicians they added two new signs for the letters d and r; and +it is a singular fact that their poverty of invention seems to have been +such that they used to express both d and r, the same sign, with very +little modification, which they had already obtained from the Maya +alphabet as the symbol for b. To illustrate this we place the signs side +by side: + + ### + +It thus appears that the very signs d and r, in the Phoenician, early +Greek, and ancient Hebrew, which are lacking in the Maya, were supplied +by imitating the Maya sign for b; and it is a curious fact that while +the Phoenician legends claim that Taaut invented the art of writing, yet +they tell us that Taaut made records, and "delivered them to his +successors and to foreigners, of whom one was Isiris (Osiris, the +Egyptian god), the inventor of the three letters." Did these three +letters include the d and r, which they did not receive from the +Atlantean alphabet, as represented to us by the Maya alphabet? + +In the alphabetical table which we herewith append we have represented +the sign V, or vau, or f, by the Maya sign for U. "In the present +so-called Hebrew, as in the Syriac, Sabæic, Palmyrenic, and some other +kindred writings, the vau takes the place of F, and indicates the sounds +of v and u. F occurs in the same place also on the Idalian tablet of +Cyprus, in Lycian, also in Tuarik (Berber), and some other writings." +("American Cyclopædia," art. F.) + +Since writing the above, I find in the "Proceedings of the American +Philosophical Society" for December, 1880, p. 154, an interesting +article pointing out other resemblances between the Maya alphabet and +the Egyptian. I quote: + +It is astonishing to notice that while Landa's first B is, according to +Valentini, represented by a footprint, and that path and footprint are +pronounced Be in the Maya dictionary, the Egyptian sign for B was the +human leg. + +"Still more surprising is it that the H of Landa's alphabet is a tie of +cord, while the Egyptian H is a twisted cord.... But the most +striking coincidence of all occurs in the coiled or curled line +representing Landa's U; for it is absolutely identical with the Egyptian +curled U. The Mayan word for to wind or bend is Uuc; but why should +Egyptians, confined as they were to the valley of the Nile, and +abhorring as they did the sea and sailors, write their U precisely like +Landa's alphabet U in Central America? There is one other remarkable +coincidence between Landa's and the Egyptian alphabets; and, by-the-way, +the English and other Teutonic dialects have a curious share in it. +Landa's D (T) is a disk with lines inside the four quarters, the allowed +Mexican symbol for a day or sun. So far as sound is concerned, the +English day represents it; so far as the form is concerned, the Egyptian +'cake,' ideograph for (1) country and (2) the sun's orbit is essentially +the same." + +It would appear as if both the Phoenicians and Egyptians drew their +alphabet from a common source, of which the Maya is a survival, but did +not borrow from one another. They followed out different characteristics +in the same original hieroglyph, as, for instance, in the letter b. And +yet I have shown that the closest resemblances exist between the Maya +alphabet and the Egyptian signs--in the c, h, t, i, k, m, n, o, q, and +s--eleven letters in all; in some cases, as in the n and k, the signs +are identical; the k, in both alphabets, is not only a serpent, but a +serpent with a protuberance or convolution in the middle! If we add to +the above the b and u, referred to in the "Proceedings of the American +Philosophical Society," we have thirteen letters out of sixteen in the +Maya and Egyptian related to each other. Can any theory of accidental +coincidences account for all this? And it must be remembered that these +resemblances are found between the only two phonetic systems of alphabet +in the world. + +Let us suppose that two men agree that each shall construct apart from +the other a phonetic alphabet of sixteen letters; that they shall employ +only simple forms--combinations of straight or curved lines--and that +their signs shall not in anywise resemble the letters now in use. They +go to work apart; they have a multitudinous array of forms to draw from +the thousand possible combinations of lines, angles, circles, and +curves; when they have finished, they bring their alphabets together for +comparison. Under such circumstances it is possible that out of the +sixteen signs one sign might appear in both alphabets; there is one +chance in one hundred that such might be the case; but there is not one +chance in five hundred that this sign should in both cases represent the +same sound. It is barely possible that two men working thus apart should +hit upon two or three identical forms, but altogether impossible that +these forms should have the same significance; and by no stretch of the +imagination can it be supposed that in these alphabets so created, +without correspondence, thirteen out of sixteen signs should be the same +in form and the same in meaning. + +It is probable that a full study of the Central American monuments may +throw stronger light upon the connection between the Maya and the +European alphabets, and that further discoveries of inscriptions in +Europe may approximate the alphabets of the New and Old World still more +closely by supplying intermediate forms. + +We find in the American hieroglyphs peculiar signs which take the place +of pictures, and which probably, like the hieratic symbols mingled with +the hieroglyphics of Egypt, represent alphabetical sounds. For instance, +we find this sign on the walls of the palace of Palenque, ### ; this is +not unlike the form of the Phoenician t used in writing, ### and ### ; we +find also upon these monuments the letter o represented by a small +circle, and entering into many of the hieroglyphs; we also find the tau +sign (thus ### ) often repeated; also the sign which we have supposed to +represent b, ### ; also this sign, ### , which we think is the +simplification of the letter k; also this sign, which we suppose to +represent e, ### ; also this figure, ### ; and this ### . There is an +evident tendency to reduce the complex figures to simple signs whenever +the writers proceed to form words. + +Although it has so far been found difficult, if not impossible, to +translate the compound words formed from the Maya alphabet, yet we can +go far enough to see that they used the system of simpler sounds for the +whole hieroglyph to which we have referred. + +Bishop Landa gives us, in addition to the alphabet, the signs which +represent the days and months, and which are evidently compounds of the +Maya letters. For instance, we have this figure as the representative of +the month Mol ### . Here we see very plainly the letter ### for m, the +sign ### for o; and we will possibly find the sign for l in the right +angle to the right of the m sign, and which is derived from the figure +in the second sign for l in the Maya alphabet. + +One of the most ancient races of Central America is the Chiapenec, a +branch of the Mayas. They claim to be the first settlers of the country. +They came, their legends tell us, from the East, from beyond the sea. + +And even after the lapse of so many thousand years most remarkable +resemblances have been found to exist between the Chiapenec language and +the Hebrew, the living representative of the Phoenician tongue. + +The Mexican scholar, Señor Melgar ("North Americans of Antiquity," p. +475) gives the following list of words taken from the Chiapenec and the +Hebrew: + + +----------------------+------------+-----------+ + | English. | Chiapenec. | Hebrew. | + +----------------------+------------+-----------+ + | Son | Been | Ben. | + +----------------------+------------+-----------+ + | Daughter | Batz | Bath. | + +----------------------+------------+-----------+ + | Father | Abagh | Abba. | + +----------------------+------------+-----------+ + | Star in Zodiac | Chimax | Chimah. | + +----------------------+------------+-----------+ + | King | Molo | Maloc. | + +----------------------+------------+-----------+ + | Name applied to Adam | Abagh | Abah. | + +----------------------+------------+-----------+ + | Afflicted | Chanam | Chanan. | + +----------------------+------------+-----------+ + | God | Elab | Elab. | + +----------------------+------------+-----------+ + | September | Tsiquin | Tischiri. | + +----------------------+------------+-----------+ + | More | Chic | Chi. | + +----------------------+------------+-----------+ + | Rich | Chabin | Chabic. | + +----------------------+------------+-----------+ + | Son of Seth | Enot | Enos. | + +----------------------+------------+-----------+ + | To give | Votan | Votan. | + +----------------------+------------+-----------+ + +Thus, while we find such extraordinary resemblances between the Maya +alphabet and the Phoenician alphabet, we find equally surprising +coincidences between the Chiapenec tongue, a branch of the Mayas, and +the Hebrew, a branch of the Phoenician. + +Attempts have been repeatedly made by European scholars to trace the +letters of the Phoenician alphabet back to the elaborate hieroglyphics +from which all authorities agree they must have been developed, but all +such attempts have been failures. But here, in the Maya alphabet, we are +not only able to extract from the heart of the hieroglyphic the typical +sign for the sound, but we are able to go a step farther, and, by means +of the inscriptions upon the monuments of Copan and Palenque, deduce the +alphabetical hieroglyph itself from an older and more ornate figure; we +thus not only discover the relationship of the European alphabet to the +American, but we trace its descent in the very mode in which reason +tells us it must have been developed. All this proves that the +similarities in question did not come from Phoenicians having +accidentally visited the shores of America, but that we have before us +the origin, the source, the very matrix in which the Phoenician alphabet +was formed. In the light of such a discovery the inscriptions upon the +monuments of Central America assume incalculable importance; they take +us back to a civilization far anterior to the oldest known in Europe; +they represent the language of antediluvian times. + +It may be said that it is improbable that the use of an alphabet could +have ascended to antediluvian times, or to that prehistoric age when +intercourse existed between ancient Europe and America; but it must be +remembered that if the Flood legends of Europe and Asia are worth +anything they prove that the art of writing existed at the date of the +Deluge, and that records of antediluvian learning were preserved by +those who escaped the Flood; while Plato tells us that the people of +Atlantis engraved their laws upon columns of bronze and plates of gold. + +There was a general belief among the ancient nations that the art of +writing was known to the antediluvians. The Druids believed in books +more ancient than the Flood. They styled them "the books of Pheryllt," +and "the writings of Pridian or Hu." "Ceridwen consults them before she +prepares the mysterious caldron which shadows out the awful catastrophe +of the Deluge." (Faber's "Pagan Idolatry," vol. ii., pp. 150, 151.) In +the first Avatar of Vishnu we are told that "the divine ordinances were +stolen by the demon Haya-Griva. Vishnu became a fish; and after the +Deluge, when the waters had subsided, he recovered the holy books from +the bottom of the ocean." Berosus, speaking of the time before the +Deluge, says: "Oannes wrote concerning the generations of mankind and +their civil polity." The Hebrew commentators on Genesis say, "Our +rabbins assert that Adam, our father of blessed memory, composed a book +of precepts, which were delivered to him by God in Paradise." (Smith's +"Sacred Annals," p. 49.) That is to say, the Hebrews preserved a +tradition that the Ad-ami, the people of Ad, or Adlantis, possessed, +while yet dwelling in Paradise, the art of writing. It has been +suggested that without the use of letters it would have been impossible +to preserve the many details as to dates, ages, and measurements, as of +the ark, handed down to us in Genesis. Josephus, quoting Jewish +traditions, says, "The births and deaths of illustrious men, between +Adam and Noah, were noted down at the time with great accuracy." (Ant., +lib. 1, cap. iii., see. 3.) Suidas, a Greek lexicographer of the +eleventh century, expresses tradition when he says, "Adam was the author +of arts and letters." The Egyptians said that their god Anubis was an +antediluvian, and it "wrote annals before the Flood." The Chinese have +traditions that the earliest race of their nation, prior to history, +"taught all the arts of life and wrote books." "The Goths always had the +use of letters;" and Le Grand affirms that before or soon after the +Flood "there were found the acts of great men engraved in letters on +large stones." (Fosbroke's "Encyclopædia of Antiquity," vol. i., p. +355.) Pliny says, "Letters were always in use." Strabo says, "The +inhabitants of Spain possessed records written before the Deluge." +(Jackson's "Chronicles of Antiquity," vol. iii., p. 85.) Mitford +("History of Greece," vol. i, p. 121) says, "Nothing appears to us so +probable as that it (the alphabet) was derived from the antediluvian +world." + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE BRONZE AGE IN EUROPE. + +There exist in Europe the evidences of three different ages of human +development: + +1. The Stone Age, which dates back to a vast antiquity. It is subdivided +into two periods: an age of rough stone implements; and a later age, +when these implements were ground smooth and made in improved forms. + +2. The Bronze Age, when the great mass of implements were manufactured +of a compound metal, consisting of about nine parts of copper and one +part of tin. + +3. An age when iron superseded bronze for weapons and cutting tools, +although bronze still remained in use for ornaments. This age continued +down to what we call the Historical Period, and embraces our present +civilization; its more ancient remains are mixed with coins of the +Gauls, Greeks, and Romans. + +The Bronze Period has been one of the perplexing problems of European +scientists. Articles of bronze are found over nearly all that continent, +but in especial abundance in Ireland and Scandinavia. They indicate very +considerable refinement and civilization upon the part of the people who +made them; and a wide diversity of opinion has prevailed as to who that +people were and where they dwelt. + +In the first place, it was observed that the age of bronze (a compound +of copper and tin) must, in the natural order of things, have been +preceded by an age when copper and tin were used separately, before the +ancient metallurgists had discovered the art of combining them, and yet +in Europe the remains of no such age have been found. Sir John Lubbock +says ("Prehistoric Times," p. 59), "The absence of implements made +either of copper or tin seems to me to indicate that the art of making +bronze was introduced into, not invented in, Europe." The absence of +articles of copper is especially marked, nearly all the European +specimens of copper implements have been found in Ireland; and yet out +of twelve hundred and eighty-three articles of the Bronze Age, in the +great museum at Dublin, only thirty celts and one sword-blade are said +to be made of pure copper; and even as to some of these there seems to +be a question. + +Where on the face of the earth are we to find a Copper Age? Is it in the +barbaric depths of that Asia out of whose uncivilized tribes all +civilization is said to have issued? By no means. Again we are compelled +to turn to the West. In America, from Bolivia to Lake Superior, we find +everywhere the traces of a long-enduring Copper Age; bronze existed, it +is true, in Mexico, but it held the same relation to the copper as the +copper held to the bronze in Europe--it was the exception as against the +rule. And among the Chippeways of the shores of Lake Superior, and among +them alone, we find any traditions of the origin of the manufacture of +copper implements; and on the shores of that lake we find pure copper, +out of which the first metal tools were probably hammered before man had +learned to reduce the ore or run the metal into moulds. And on the +shores of this same American lake we find the ancient mines from which +some people, thousands of years ago, derived their supplies of copper. + + IMPLEMENTS AND ORNAMENTS OF THE BRONZE AGE + +Sir W. R. Wilde says, "It is remarkable that so few antique copper +implements have been found (in Europe), although a knowledge of that +metal must have been the preliminary stage in the manufacture of +bronze." He thinks that this may be accounted for by supposing that "but +a short time elapsed between the knowledge of smelting and casting +copper ore and the introduction of tin, and the subsequent manufacture +and use of bronze." + +But here we have in America the evidence that thousands of years must +have elapsed during which copper was used alone, before it was +discovered that by adding one-tenth part of tin it gave a harder edge, +and produced a superior metal. + +The Bronze Age cannot be attributed to the Roman civilization. Sir John +Lubbock shows ("Prehistoric Times," p. 21) that bronze weapons have +never been found associated with Roman coins or pottery, or other +remains of the Roman Period; that bronze articles have been found in the +greatest abundance in countries like Ireland and Denmark, which were +never invaded by Roman armies; and that the character of the +ornamentation of the works of bronze is not Roman in character, and that +the Roman bronze contained a large proportion of lead, which is never +the case in that of the Bronze Age. + +It has been customary to assume that the Bronze Age was due to the +Phoenicians, but of late the highest authorities have taken issue with +this opinion. Sir John Lubbock (Ibid., p. 73) gives the following +reasons why the Phoenicians could not have been the authors of the Bronze +Age: First, the ornamentation is different. In the Bronze Age "this +always consists of geometrical figures, and we rarely, if ever, find +upon them representations of animals and plants, while on the ornamented +shields, etc., described by Homer, as well as in the decoration of +Solomon's Temple, animals and plants were abundantly represented." The +cuts on p. 242 will show the character of the ornamentation of the +Bronze Age. In the next place, the form of burial is different in the +Bronze Age from that of the Phoenicians. "In the third place, the +Phoenicians, so far as we know them, were well acquainted with the use of +iron; in Homer we find the warriors already armed with iron weapons, and +the tools used in preparing the materials for Solomon's Temple were of +this metal." + +This view is also held by M. de Fallenberg, in the "Bulletin de la +Société des Sciences" of Berne. (See "Smithsonian Rep.," 1865-66, p. +383.) He says, + + ORNAMENTS OF THE BRONZE AGE + +"It seems surprising that the nearest neighbors of the Phoenicians--the +Greeks, the Egyptians, the Etruscans, and the Romans--should have +manufactured plumbiferous bronzes, while the Phoenicians carried to the +people of the North only pure bronzes without the alloy of lead. If the +civilized people of the Mediterranean added lead to their bronzes, it +can scarcely be doubted that the calculating Phoenicians would have done +as much, and, at least, with distant and half-civilized tribes, have +replaced the more costly tin by the cheaper metal.... On the whole, +then, I consider that the first knowledge of bronze may have been +conveyed to the populations of the period under review not only by the +Phoenicians, but by other civilized people dwelling more to the +south-east." + +Professor E. Desor, in his work on the "Lacustrian Constructions of the +Lake of Neuchatel," says, + +"The Phoenicians certainly knew the use of iron, and it can scarcely be +conceived why they should have excluded it from their commerce on the +Scandinavian coasts.... The Etruscans, moreover, were acquainted with +the use of iron as well as the Phoenicians, and it has already been seen +that the composition of their bronzes is different, since it contains +lead, which is entirely a stranger to our bronze epoch.... We must +look, then, beyond both the Etruscans and Phoenicians in attempting to +identify the commerce of the Bronze Age of our palafittes. It will be +the province of the historian to inquire whether, exclusive of +Phoenicians and Carthaginians, there may not have been some maritime and +commercial people who carried on a traffic through the ports of Liguria +with the populations of the age of bronze of the lakes of Italy before +the discovery of iron. We may remark, in passing, that there is nothing +to prove that the Phoenicians were the first navigators. History, on the +contrary, positively mentions prisoners, under the name of Tokhari, who +were vanquished in a naval battle fought by Rhamses III. in the +thirteenth century before our era, and whose physiognomy, according to +Morton, would indicate the Celtic type. Now there is room to suppose +that if these Tokhari were energetic enough to measure their strength on +the sea with one of the powerful kings of Egypt, they must, with +stronger reason, have been in a condition to carry on a commerce along +the coasts of the Mediterranean, and perhaps of the Atlantic. If such a +commerce really existed before the time of the Phoenicians, it would not +be limited to the southern slope of the Alps; it would have extended +also to the people of the age of bronze in Switzerland. The introduction +of bronze would thus ascend to a very high antiquity, doubtless beyond +the limits of the most ancient European races." + +For the merchants of the Bronze Age we must look beyond even the +Tokhari, who were contemporaries of the Phoenicians. + +The Tokhari, we have seen, are represented as taken prisoners, in a +sea-fight with Rhamses III., of the twentieth dynasty, about the +thirteenth century B.C. They are probably the Tochari of Strabo. The +accompanying figure represents one of these people as they appear upon +the Egyptian monuments. (See Nott and Gliddon's "Types of Mankind," p. +108.) Here we have, not an inhabitant of Atlantis, but probably a +representative of one of the mixed races that sprung from its colonies. + +Dr. Morton thinks these people, as painted on the Egyptian monuments, to +have "strong Celtic features. Those familiar with the Scotch Highlanders +may recognize a speaking likeness." + +It is at least interesting to have a portrait of one of the daring race +who more than three thousand years ago left the west of Europe in their +ships to attack the mighty power of Egypt. + +They were troublesome to the nations of the East for many centuries; for +in 700 B.C. we find them depicted on the Assyrian monuments. This figure +represents one of the Tokhari of the time of Sennacherib. It will be +observed that the headdress (apparently of feathers) is the same in both +portraits, al, though separated by a period of six hundred years. + +It is more reasonable to suppose that the authors of the Bronze Age of +Europe were the people described by Plato, who were workers in metal, +who were highly civilized, who preceded in time all the nations which we +call ancient. It was this people who passed through an age of copper +before they reached the age of bronze, and whose colonies in America +represented this older form of metallurgy as it existed for many +generations. + +Professor Desor says: + +"We are asked if the preparation of bronze was not an indigenous +invention which had originated on the slopes of the Alps?... In this +idea we acquiesced for a moment. But we are met by the objection that, +if this were so, the natives, like the ancient tribes of America, would +have commenced by manufacturing utensils of copper; yet thus far no +utensils of this metal have been found except a few in the strand of +Lake Garda. The great majority of metallic objects is of bronze, which +necessitated the employment of tin, and this could not be obtained +except by commerce, inasmuch as it is a stranger to the Alps. It would +appear, therefore, more natural to admit that the art of combining tin +with copper--in other words, that the manufacture of bronze--was of +foreign importation." He then shows that, although copper ores are found +in the Alps, the probability is that even "the copper also was of +foreign importation. Now, in view of the prodigious quantity of bronze +manufactured at that epoch, this single branch of commerce must itself +have necessitated the most incessant commercial communications." + +And as this commerce could not, as we have seen, have been carried on by +the Romans, Greeks, Etruscans, or Phoenicians, because their +civilizations flourished during the Iron Age, to which this age of +bronze was anterior, where then are we to look for a great maritime and +commercial people, who carried vast quantities of copper, tin, and +bronze (unalloyed by the lead of the south of Europe) to Denmark, +Norway, Sweden, Ireland, England, France, Spain, Switzerland, and Italy? +Where can we find them save in that people of Atlantis, whose ships, +docks, canals, and commerce provoked the astonishment of the ancient +Egyptians, as recorded by Plato. The Toltec root for water is Atl; the +Peruvian word for copper is Anti (from which, probably, the Andes +derived their name, as there was a province of Anti on their slopes): +may it not be that the name of Atlantis is derived from these originals, +and signified the copper island, or the copper mountains in the sea? And +from these came the thousands of tons of copper and tin that must, +during the Bronze Age, have been introduced into Europe? There are no +ancient works to indicate that the tin mines of Cornwall were worked for +any length of time in the early days (see "Prehistoric Times," p. 74). +Morlot has pointed out that the bronze implements of Hallstadt, in +Austria, were of foreign origin, because they contain no lead or silver. + +Or, if we are to seek for the source of the vast amount of copper +brought into Europe somewhere else than in Atlantis, may it not be that +these supplies were drawn in large part from the shores of Lake Superior +in America? The mining operations of some ancient people were there +carried on upon a gigantic scale, not only along the shores of the lake +but even far out upon its islands. At Isle Royale vast works were found, +reaching to a depth of sixty feet; great intelligence was shown in +following up the richest veins even when interrupted; the excavations +were drained by underground drains. On three sections of land on this +island the amount of mining exceeded that mined in twenty years in one +of our largest mines, with a numerous force constantly employed. In one +place the excavations extended in a nearly continuous line for two +miles. No remains of the dead and no mounds are found near these mines: +it would seem, therefore, that the miners came from a distance, and +carried their dead back with them. Henry Gillman ("Smithsonian Rep.," +1873, p. 387) supposes that the curious so-called "Garden Beds" of +Michigan were the fields from which they drew their supplies of food. He +adds, + +"The discoveries in Isle Royale throw a new light on the character of +the 'Mound Builders,' giving us a totally distinct conception of them, +and dignifying them with something of the prowess and spirit of +adventure which we associate with the higher races. The copper, the +result of their mining, to be available, must, in all probability, have +been conveyed in vessels, great or small, across a treacherous and +stormy sea, whose dangers are formidable to us now, being dreaded even +by our largest craft, and often proving their destruction. Leaving their +homes, those men dared to face the unknown, to brave the hardships and +perils of the deep and of the wilderness, actuated by an ambition which +we to-day would not be ashamed to acknowledge." + +Such vast works in so remote a land must have been inspired by the +commercial necessities of some great civilization; and why not by that +ancient and mighty people who covered Europe, Asia, and Africa with +their manufactures of bronze--and who possessed, as Plato tells us, +enormous fleets trading to all parts of the inhabited world--whose cities +roared with the continual tumult of traffic, whose dominion extended to +Italy and Egypt, and who held parts of "the great opposite continent" of +America under their control? A continuous water-way led, from the island +of Atlantis to the Gulf of Mexico, and thence up the Mississippi River +and its tributaries almost to these very mines of Lake Superior. + +Arthur Mitchell says ("The Past in the Present," p. 132), + +"The discovery of bronze, and the knowledge of how to make it, may, as a +mere intellectual effort, be regarded as rather above than below the +effort which is involved in the discovery and use of iron. As regards +bronze, there is first the discovery of copper, and the way of getting +it from its ore; then the discovery of tin, and the way to get it from +its ore; and then the further discovery that, by an admixture of tin +with copper in proper proportions, an alloy with the qualities of a hard +metal can be produced. It is surely no mistake to say that there goes +quite as much thinking to this as to the getting of iron from its ore, +and the conversion of that iron into steel. There is a considerable leap +from stone to bronze, but the leap from bronze to iron is comparatively +small.... It seems highly improbable, if not altogether absurd, that +the human mind, at some particular stage of its development, should +here, there, and everywhere--independently, and as the result of +reaching that stage--discover that an alloy of copper and tin yields a +hard metal useful in the manufacture of tools and weapons. There is +nothing analogous to such an occurrence in the known history of human +progress. It is infinitely more probable that bronze was discovered in +one or more centres by one or more men, and that its first use was +solely in such centre or centres. That the invention should then be +perfected, and its various applications found out, and that it should +thereafter spread more or less broadly over the face of the earth, is a +thing easily understood." + +We will find the knowledge of bronze wherever the colonies of Atlantis +extended, and nowhere else; and Plato tells us that the people of +Atlantis possessed and used that metal. + +The indications are that the Bronze Age represents the coming in of a +new people--a civilized people. With that era, it is believed, appears +in Europe for the first time the domesticated animals--the horse, the ox, +the sheep, the goat, and the hog. (Morlot, "Smithsonian Rep.," 1860, p. +311.) It was a small race, with very small hands; this is shown in the +size of the sword-hilts: they are not large enough to be used by the +present races of Europe. They were a race with long skulls, as +contradistinguished from the round heads of the Stone Period. The +drawings on the following page represent the types of the two races. + + SKULLS OF THE AGE OF STONE, DENMARK + +This people must have sent out colonies to the shores of France, Spain, +Italy, Ireland, Denmark, and Norway, who bore with them the arts and +implements of civilized life. They raised crops of grain, as is proved +by the bronze sickles found in different parts of Europe. + +It is not even certain that their explorations did not reach to Iceland. +Says Humboldt, + +"When the Northmen first landed in Iceland (A.D. 875), although the +country was uninhabited, they found there Irish books, mass-bells, and +other objects which had been left behind by earlier visitors, called +Papar; these papæ (fathers) were the clerici of Dicuil. If, then, as we +may suppose from the testimony here referred to, these objects belonged +to Irish monks (papar), who had come from the Faroe Islands, why should +they have been termed in the native sagas 'West men' (Vestmen), 'who had +come over the sea from the westward' (kommer til vestan um haf)?" +(Humboldt's "Cosmos," vol. ii., 238.) + +If they came "from the West" they could not have come from Ireland; and +the Scandinavians may easily have mistaken Atlantean books and bells for +Irish books and mass-bells. They do not say that there were any +evidences that these relics belonged to a people who had recently +visited the island; and, as they found the island uninhabited, it would +be impossible for them to tell how many years or centuries had elapsed +since the books and bells were left there. + +The fact that the implements of the Bronze Age came from some common +centre, and did not originate independently in different countries, is +proved by the striking similarity which exists between the bronze +implements of regions as widely separated as Switzerland, Ireland, +Denmark, and Africa. It is not to be supposed that any overland +communication existed in that early age between these countries; and the +coincidence of design which we find to exist can only be accounted for +by the fact that the articles of bronze were obtained from some +sea-going people, who carried on a commerce at the same time with all +these regions. + + CELTS + +Compare, for instance, these two decorated bronze celts, the first from +Ireland, the second from Denmark; and then compare both these with a +stone celt found in a mound in Tennessee, given below. Here we have the +same form precisely. + + LEAF SHAPED BRONZE SWORDS + +Compare the bronze swords in the four preceding illustrations--from +Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, and Denmark-and then observe the same very +peculiar shape--the leaf-shape, as it is called--in the stone sword from +Big Harpeth River, Tennessee. + +We shall find, as we proceed, that the Phoenicians were unquestionably +identified with Atlantis, and that it was probably from Atlantis they +derived their god Baal, or Bel, or El, whose name crops out in the Bel +of the Babylonians, the Elohim, and the Beelzebub of the Jews, and the +Allah of the Arabians. And we find that this great deity, whose worship +extended so widely among the Mediterranean races, was known and adored +also upon the northern and western coasts of Europe. Professor Nilsson +finds traces of Baal worship in Scandinavia; he tells us that the +festival of Baal, or Balder, was celebrated on midsummer's night in +Scania, and far up into Norway, almost to the Loffoden Islands, until +within the last fifty years. The feast of Baal, or Beltinne, was +celebrated in Ireland to a late period. I argue from these facts, not +that the worship of Baal came to Ireland and Norway from Assyria or +Arabia, but that the same great parent-race which carried the knowledge +of Baal to the Mediterranean brought it also to the western coasts of +Europe, and with the adoration of Baal they imported also the implements +of bronze now found in such abundance in those regions. + +The same similarity of form exists in the bronze knives from Denmark and +Switzerland, as represented in the illustrations on p. 254. + +In the central figure we have a representation of an Egyptian-looking +man holding a cup before him. We shall see, as we proceed, that the +magnetic needle, or "mariner's compass," dates back to the days of +Hercules, and that it consisted of a bar of magnetized iron floating +upon a piece of wood in a cup. It is possible that in this ancient relic +of the Bronze Age we have a representation of the magnetic cup. The +magnetic needle must certainly have been an object of great interest to +a people who, through its agency, were able to carry on commerce on all +the shores of Europe, from the Mediterranean to the Baltic. The second +knife represented above has upon its handle a wheel, or cross surrounded +by a ring, which, we shall see here after, was pre-eminently the symbol +of Atlantis. + +If we are satisfied that these implements of bronze were the work of the +artisans of Atlantis--of the antediluvians--they must acquire additional +and extraordinary interest in our eyes, and we turn to them to learn +something of the habits and customs of "that great, original, +broad-eyed, sunken race." + +We find among the relics of the Bronze Age an urn, which probably gives +us some idea of the houses of the Atlanteans: it is evidently made to +represent a house, and shows us even the rude fashion in which they +fastened their doors. The Mandan Indians built round houses very much of +this appearance. + +The museum at Munich contains a very interesting piece of pottery, which +is supposed to represent one of the lake villages or hamlets of the era +when the people of Switzerland dwelt in houses erected on piles driven +into the bottom of the lakes of that country. The accompanying +illustration represents it. The double spiral ornament upon it shows +that it belongs to the Bronze Age. + +Among the curious relics of the Bronze Age are a number of razor-like +knives; from which we may conclude that the habit of shaving the whole +or some part of the face or head dates back to a great antiquity. The +illustrations below represent them. + +These knives were found in Denmark. The figures upon them represent +ships, and it is not impossible that their curious appendages may have +been a primitive kind of sails. + + BRONZE RAZOR-KNIVES. + +An examination of the second of these bronze knives reveals a singular +feature: Upon the handle of the razor there are ten series of lines; the +stars in the sky are ten in number; and there were probably ten rings at +the left-hand side of the figure, two being obliterated. There were, we +are told, ten sub-kingdoms in Atlantis; and precisely as the thirteen +stripes on the American flag symbolize the thirteen original States of +the Union, so the recurrence of the figure ten in the emblems upon this +bronze implement may have reference to the ten subdivisions of Atlantis. +The large object in the middle of this ship may be intended to represent +a palm-tree--the symbol, as we shall see, in America, of Aztlan, or +Atlantis. We have but to compare the pictures of the ships upon these +ancient razor-knives with the accompanying representations of a Roman +galley and a ship of William the Conqueror's time, to see that there can +be no question that they represented the galleys of that remote age. +They are doubtless faithful portraits of the great vessels which Plato +described as filling the harbors of Atlantis. + + SHIP OF WILLIAM THE CONQUERER. + +We give on page 258 a representation of a bronze dagger found in +Ireland, a strongly-made weapon. The cut below it represents the only +implement of the Bronze Age yet found containing an inscription. It has +been impossible to decipher it, or even to tell to what group of +languages its alphabet belongs. + +It is proper to note, in connection with a discussion of the Bronze Age, +that our word bronze is derived from the Basque, or Iberian broncea, +from which the Spanish derive bronce, and the Italians bronzo. The +copper mines of the Basques were extensively worked at a very early age +of the world, either by the people of Atlantis or by the Basques +themselves, a colony from Atlantis. The probabilities are that the name +for bronze, as well as the metal itself, dates back to Plato's island. + +I give some illustrations on pages 239 and 242 of ornaments and +implements of the Bronze Age, which may serve to throw light upon the +habits of the ancient people. It will be seen that they had reached a +considerable degree of civilization; that they raised crops of grain, +and cut them with sickles; that their women ornamented themselves with +bracelets, armlets, earrings, finger-rings, hair-pins, and amulets; that +their mechanics used hammers, adzes, and chisels; and that they +possessed very fair specimens of pottery. Sir John Lubbock argues +("Prehistoric Times," pp. 14, 16, etc.): + +"A new civilization is indicated not only by the mere presence of bronze +but by the beauty and variety of the articles made from it. We find not +only, as before, during the Stone Age, axes, arrows, and knives, but, in +addition, swords, lances, sickles, fish-hooks, ear-rings, bracelets, +pins, rings, and a variety of other articles." + +If the bronze implements of Europe had been derived from the Phoenicians, +Greeks, Etruscans, or Romans, the nearer we approached the site of those +nations the greater should be the number of bronze weapons we would +find; but the reverse is the case. Sir John Lubbock ("Prehistoric +Times," p. 20) shows that more than three hundred and fifty bronze +swords have been found in Denmark, and that the Dublin Museum contains +twelve hundred and eighty-three bronze weapons found in Ireland; +"while," he says, "I have only been able to hear of six bronze swords in +all Italy." This state of things is inexplicable unless we suppose that +Ireland and Denmark received their bronze implements directly from some +maritime nation whose site was practically as near their shores as it +was to the shores of the Mediterranean. We have but to look at our map +on page 43, ante, to see that Atlantis was considerably nearer to +Ireland than it was to Italy. + +The striking resemblance between the bronze implements found in the +different portions of Europe is another proof that they were derived +from one and the same source--from some great mercantile people who +carried on their commerce at the same time with Denmark, Norway, +Ireland, Spain, Greece, Italy, Egypt, Switzerland, and Hungary. Mr. +Wright ("Essays on Archæology," p. 120) says, "Whenever we find the +bronze swords or celts, + + VASES FROM MOUNDS IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. + +whether in Ireland, in the far west, in Scotland, in distant +Scandinavia, in Germany, or still farther east, in the Sclavonic +countries, they are the same--not similar in character, but identical." +Says Sir John Lubbock ("Prehistoric Times," p. 59), "Not only are the +several varieties of celts found throughout Europe alike, but some of +the swords, knives, daggers, etc., are so similar that they seem as if +they must have been cast by the same maker." + +What race was there, other than the people of Atlantis, that existed +before the Iron Age--before the Greek, Roman, Etruscan, and +Phoenician--that was civilized, that worked in metals, that carried on a +commerce with all parts of Europe? Does history or tradition make +mention of any such? + +We find a great resemblance between the pottery of the Bronze Age in +Europe and the pottery of the ancient inhabitants of America. The two +figures on page 260 represent vases from one of the mounds of the +Mississippi Valley. Compare them with the following from the lake +dwellings of Switzerland: + + VASES FROM SWITZERLAND. + +It will be seen that these vases could scarcely stand upright +unsupported; and we find that the ancient inhabitants of Switzerland had +circles or rings of baked earth in which they placed them when in use, +as in the annexed figure. The Mound Builders used the same contrivance. + +The illustrations of discoidal stones on page 263 are from the "North +Americans of Antiquity," p. 77. The objects represented were taken from +an ancient mound in Illinois. It would be indeed surprising if two +distinct peoples, living in two different continents, thousands of miles +apart, should, without any intercourse with each other, not only form +their vases in the same inconvenient form, but should hit upon the same +expedient as a remedy. + +We observe, in the American spear-head and the Swiss hatchets, on the +opposite page, the same overlapping of the metal around the staff, or +handle--a very peculiar mode of uniting them together, which has now +passed out of use. + +A favorite design of the men of the Bronze Age in Europe is the spiral +or double-spiral form. It appears on the face of the urn in the shape of +a lake dwelling, which is given on p. 255; it also appears in the rock +sculptures of Argyleshire, Scotland, here shown. + +We find the same figure in an ancient fragment of pottery from the +Little Colorado, as given in the "United States Pacific Railroad Survey +Report," vol. iii., p. 49, art. Pottery. It was part of a large vessel. +The annexed illustration represents this. + + DISCOIDAL STONES, ILLINOIS. + + COPPER SPEAR-HEAD, LAKE SUPERIOR. + + BRONZE HATCHETS, SWITZERLAND. + +The same design is also found in ancient rock etchings of the Zuñis of +New Mexico, of which the cut on p. 265 is an illustration. + +We also find this figure repeated upon vase from a Mississippi Valley +mound, which we give elsewhere. (See p. 260.) + +It is found upon many of the monuments of Central America. In the +Treasure House of Atreus, at Mycenæ, Greece, a fragment of a pillar was +found which is literally covered with this double spiral design. (See +"Rosengarten's Architectural Styles," p. 59.) + +This Treasure House of Atreus is one of the oldest buildings in Greece. + +We find the double-spiral figure upon a shell ornament found on the +breast of a skeleton, in a carefully constructed stone coffin, in a +mound near Nashville, Tennessee. + +Lenormant remarks ("Anc. Civil.," vol. ii., p. 158) that the bronze +implements found in Egypt, near Memphis, had been buried for six +thousand years; and that at that time, as the Egyptians had a horror of +the sea, some commercial nation must have brought the tin, of which the +bronze was in part composed, from India, the Caucasus, or Spain, the +nearest points to Egypt in which tin is found. + +Heer has shown that the civilized plants of the lake dwellings are not +of Asiatic, but of African, and, to a great extent, of Egyptian origin. +Their stone axes are made largely of jade or nephrite, "a mineral which, +strange to say, geologists have not found in place on the continent of +Europe." (Foster's "Prehistoric Races," p. 44.) + +Compare this picture of a copper axe from a mound near Laporte, Indiana, +with this representation of a copper axe of the Bronze Age, found near +Waterford, Ireland. Professor Foster pronounces them almost identical. + +Compare this specimen of pottery from the lake dwellings of Switzerland +with the following specimen from San José, Mexico. Professor Foster +calls attention to the striking resemblance in the designs of these two +widely separated works of art, one belonging to the Bronze Age of +Europe, the other to the Copper Age of America. + ++-------------------------------------+---------------------------------+ +| FRAGMENT OF POTTERY, LAKE | FRAGMENT OF POTTERY, SAN JOSÉ, | +| NEUFCHATEL, SWITZERLAND. | MEXICO. | ++-------------------------------------+---------------------------------+ + +These, then, in conclusion, are our reasons for believing that the +Bronze Age of Europe has relation to Atlantis: + +1. The admitted fact that it is anterior in time to the Iron Age +relegates it to a great antiquity. + +2. The fact that it is anterior in time to the Iron Age is conclusive +that it is not due to any of the known European or Asiatic nations, all +of which belong to the Iron Age. + +3. The fact that there was in Europe, Asia, or Africa no copper or tin +age prior to the Bronze Age, is conclusive testimony that the +manufacture of bronze was an importation into those continents from some +foreign country. + +4. The fact that in America alone of all the world is found the Copper +Age, which must necessarily have preceded the Bronze Age, teaches us to +look to the westward of Europe and beyond the sea for that foreign +country. + +5. We find many similarities in forms of implements between the Bronze +Age of Europe and the Copper Age of America. + +6. if Plato told the truth, the Atlanteans were a great commercial +nation, trading to America and Europe, and, at the same time, they +possessed bronze, and were great workers in the other metals. + +7. We shall see hereafter that the mythological traditions of Greece +referred to a Bronze Age which preceded an Iron Age, and placed this in +the land of the gods, which was an island in the Atlantic Ocean, beyond +the Pillars of Hercules; and this land was, as we shall see, clearly +Atlantis. + +8. As we find but a small development of the Bronze Age in America, it +is reasonable to suppose that there must have been some intermediate +station between America and Europe, where, during a long period of time, +the Bronze Age was developed out of the Copper Age, and immense +quantities of bronze implements were manufactured and carried to Europe. + +CHAPTER IX. + +ARTIFICIAL DEFORMATION OF THE SKULL. + +An examination of the American monuments shows (see figure on page 269) +that the people represented were in the habit of flattening the skull by +artificial means. The Greek and Roman writers had mentioned this +practice, but it was long totally forgotten by the civilized world, +until it was discovered, as an unheard-of wonder, to be the usage among +the Carib Islanders, and several Indian tribes in North America. It was +afterward found that the ancient Peruvians and Mexicans practised this +art: several flattened Peruvian skulls are depicted in Morton's "Crania +Americana." It is still in use among the Flat-head Indians of the +north-western part of the United States. + +In 1849 a remarkable memoir appeared from the pen of M. Rathke, showing +that similar skulls had been found near Kertsch, in the Crimea, and +calling attention to the book of Hippocrates, "De Aeris, Aquis et Locu," +lib. iv., and a passage of Strabo, which speaks of the practice among +the Scythians. In 1854 Dr. Fitzinger published a learned memoir on the +skulls of the Avars, a branch of the Uralian race of Turks. He shows +that the practice of flattening the head had existed from an early date +throughout the East, and described an ancient skull, greatly distorted +by artificial means, which had lately been found in Lower Austria. +Skulls similarly flattened have been found in Switzerland and Savoy. The +Huns under Attila had the same practice of flattening the heads. +Professor Anders Retzius proved (see "Smithsonian Report," 1859) that +the custom still exists in the south of France, and in parts of Turkey. +"Not long since a French physician surprised the world by the fact that +nurses in Normandy were still giving the children's heads a sugar-loaf +shape by bandages and a tight cap, + + STUCCO BAS-RELIEF IN THE PALACE OF PALENQUE. + +while in Brittany they preferred to press it round. No doubt they are +doing so to this day." (Tylor's "Anthropology," p. 241.) + +Professor Wilson remarks: + +"Trifling as it may appear, it is not without interest to have the fact +brought under our notice, by the disclosures of ancient barrows and +cysts, that the same practice of nursing the child and carrying it +about, bound to a flat cradle-board, prevailed in Britain and the north +of Europe long before the first notices of written history reveal the +presence of man beyond the Baltic or the English Channel, and that in +all probability the same custom prevailed continuously from the shores +of the German Ocean to Behring's Strait." ("Smithsonian Report," 1862, +p. 286.) + +Dr. L. A. Gosse testifies to the prevalence of the same custom among the +Caledonians and Scandinavians in the earliest times; and Dr. Thurman has +treated of the same peculiarity among the Anglo-Saxons. ("Crania +Britannica," chap. iv., p. 38.) + + PERUVIAN SKULL. + + CHINOOK (FLAT-HEAD), AFTER CATLIN. + +Here, then, is an extraordinary and unnatural practice which has existed +from the highest antiquity, over vast regions of country, on both sides +of the Atlantic, and which is perpetuated unto this day in races as +widely separated as the Turks, the French, and the Flat-head Indians. Is +it possible to explain this except by supposing that it originated from +some common centre? + +The annexed cut represents an ancient Swiss skull, from a cemetery near +Lausanne, from a drawing of Frederick Troyon. Compare this with the +illustration given on page 271, which represents a Peruvian flat-head, +copied from Morton's "Ethnography and Archæology of the American +Aborigines," 1846. This skull is shockingly distorted. The dotted lines +indicate the course of the bandages by which the skull was deformed. + +The following heads are from Del Rio's "Account of Palenque," copied +into Nott and Gliddon's "Types of Mankind," p. 440. They show that the +receding forehead was a natural characteristic of the ancient people of +Central America. The same form of head has been found even in fossil +skulls. We may therefore conclude that the skull-flattening, which we +find to have been practised in both the Old and New Worlds, was an +attempt of other races to imitate the form of skull of a people whose +likenesses are found on the monuments of Egypt and of America. It has +been shown that this peculiar form of the head was present even in the +foetus of the Peruvian mummies. + +Hippocrates tells us that the practice among the Scythians was for the +purpose of giving a certain aristocratic distinction. + + HEADS FROM PALENQUE. + +Amedée Thierry, in his "History of Attila," says the Huns used it for +the same reason; and the same purpose influences the Indians of Oregon. + +Dr. Lund, a Swedish naturalist, found in the bone caves of Minas-Geraes, +Brazil, ancient human bones associated with the remains of extinct +quadrupeds. "These skulls," says Lund, "show not only the peculiarity of +the American race but in an excessive degree, even to the entire +disappearance of the forehead." Sir Robert Schomburgh found on some of +the affluents of the Orinoco a tribe known as Frog Indians, whose heads +were flattened by Nature, as shown in newly-born children. + +In the accompanying plate we show the difference in the conformation of +the forehead in various races. The upper dotted line, A, represents the +shape of the European forehead; the next line, B, that of the +Australian; the next, C, that of the Mound Builder of the United States; +the next, D, that of the Guanche of the Canary Islands; and the next, E, +that of a skull from the Inca cemetery of Peru. We have but to compare +these lines with the skulls of the Egyptians, Kurds, and the heroic type +of heads in the statues of the gods of Greece, to see that there was +formerly an ancient race marked by a receding forehead; and that the +practice of flattening the skull was probably an attempt to approximate +the shape of the head to this standard of an early civilized and +dominant people. + +Not only do we find the same receding forehead in the skulls of the +ancient races of Europe and America, and the same attempt to imitate +this natural and peculiar conformation by artificial flattening of the +head, but it has been found (see Henry Gillman's "Ancient Man in +Michigan," "Smithsonian Report," 1875, p. 242) that the Mound Builders +and Peruvians of America, and the Neolithic people of France and the +Canary Islands, had alike an extraordinary custom of boring a circular +bole in the top of the skulls of their dead, so that the soul might +readily pass in and out. More than this, it has been found that in all +these ancient populations the skeletons exhibit a remarkable degree of +platicnemism, or flattening of the tibiæ or leg bones. (Ibid., 1873, +p. 367.) In this respect the Mound Builders of Michigan were identical +with the man of Cro Magnon and the ancient inhabitants of Wales. + +The annexed ancient Egyptian heads, copied from the monuments, indicate +either that the people of the Nile deformed their heads by pressure upon +the front of the skull, or that + + EGYPTIAN HEADS. + +there was some race characteristic which gave this appearance to their +heads. These heads are all the heads of priests, and therefore +represented the aristocratic class. + +The first illustration below is taken from a stucco relief found in a +temple at Palenque, Central America. The second is from an Egyptian +monument of the time of Rameses IV. + +The outline drawing on the following page shows the form of the skull of +the royal Inca line: the receding forehead here seems to be natural, and +not the result of artificial compression. + +Both illustrations at the bottom of the preceding page show the same +receding form of the forehead, due to either artificial deformation of +the skull or to a common race characteristic. + +We must add the fact that the extraordinary practice of deforming the +skull was found all over Europe and America to the catalogue of other +proofs that the people of both continents were originally united in +blood and race. With the couvade, the practice of circumcision, unity of +religious beliefs and customs, folk-lore, and alphabetical signs, +language and flood legends, we array together a mass of unanswerable +proofs of prehistoric identity of race. + +PART IV. + +THE MYTHOLOGIES OF THE OLD WORLD A RECOLLECTION OF ATLANTIS. + +CHAPTER I. TRADITIONS OF ATLANTIS. + +We find allusions to the Atlanteans in the most ancient traditions of +many different races. + +The great antediluvian king of the Mussulman was Shedd-Ad-Ben-Ad, or +Shed-Ad, the son of Ad, or Atlantis. + +Among the Arabians the first inhabitants of that country are known as +the Adites, from their progenitor, who is called Ad, the grandson of +Ham. These Adites were probably the people of Atlantis or Ad-lantis. +"They are personified by a monarch to whom everything is ascribed, and +to whom is assigned several centuries of life." ("Ancient History of the +East," Lenormant and Chevallier, vol. ii., p. 295.), Ad came from the +northeast. "He married a thousand wives, had four thousand sons, and +lived twelve hundred years. His descendants multiplied considerably. +After his death his sons Shadid and Shedad reigned in succession over +the Adites. In the time of the latter the people of Ad were a thousand +tribes, each composed of several thousands of men. Great conquests are +attributed to Shedad; he subdued, it is said, all Arabia and Irak. The +migration of the Canaanites, their establishment in Syria, and the +Shepherd invasion of Egypt are, by many Arab writers, attributed to an +expedition of Shedad." (Ibid., p. 296.) + +Shedad built a palace ornamented with superb columns, and surrounded by +a magnificent garden. It was called Irem. "It was a paradise that Shedad +had built in imitation of the celestial Paradise, of whose delights he +had heard." ("Ancient History of the East," p. 296.) In other words, an +ancient, sun-worshipping, powerful, and conquering race overran Arabia +at the very dawn of history; they were the sons of Adlantis: their king +tried to create a palace and garden of Eden like that of Atlantis. + +The Adites are remembered by the Arabians as a great and civilized race. +"They are depicted as men of gigantic stature; their strength was equal +to their size, and they easily moved enormous blocks of stone." (Ibid.) +They were architects and builders. They raised many monuments of their +power; and hence, among the Arabs, arose the custom of calling great +ruins "buildings of the Adites." To this day the Arabs say "as old as +Ad." In the Koran allusion is made to the edifices they built on "high +places for vain uses;" expressions proving that their "idolatry was +considered to have been tainted with Sabæism or star-worship." (Ibid.) +"In these legends," says Lenormant, "we find traces of a wealthy nation, +constructors of great buildings, with an advanced civilization, +analogous to that of Chaldea, professing a religion similar to the +Babylonian; a nation, in short, with whom material progress was allied +to great moral depravity and obscene rites. These facts must be true and +strictly historical, for they are everywhere met with among the +Cushites, as among the Canaanites, their brothers by origin." + +Nor is there wanting a great catastrophe which destroys the whole Adite +nation, except a very few who escape because they had renounced +idolatry. A black cloud assails their country, from which proceeds a +terrible hurricane (the water-spout?) which sweeps away everything. + +The first Adites were followed by a second Adite race; probably the +colonists who had escaped the Deluge. The centre of its power was the +country of Sheba proper. This empire endured for a thousand years. The +Adites are represented upon the Egyptian monuments as very much like the +Egyptians themselves; in other words, they were a red or sunburnt race: +their great temples were pyramidal, surmounted by buildings. ("Ancient +History of the East," p. 321.) "The Sabæans," says Agatharchides ("De +Mari Erythræo," p. 102), "have in their houses an incredible number of +vases, and utensils of all sorts, of gold and silver, beds and tripods +of silver, and all the furniture of astonishing richness. Their +buildings have porticos with columns sheathed with gold, or surmounted +by capitals of silver. On the friezes, ornaments, and the framework of +the doors they place plates of gold incrusted with precious stones." + +All this reminds one of the descriptions given by the Spaniards of the +temples of the sun in Peru. + +The Adites worshipped the gods of the Phoenicians under names but +slightly changed; "their religion was especially solar... It was +originally a religion without images, without idolatry, and without a +priesthood." (Ibid., p. 325.) They "worshipped the sun from the tops of +pyramids." (Ibid.) They believed in the immortality of the soul. + +In all these things we see resemblances to the Atlanteans. + +The great Ethiopian or Cushite Empire, which in the earliest ages +prevailed, as Mr. Rawlinson says, "from the Caucasus to the Indian +Ocean, from the shores of the Mediterranean to the mouth of the Ganges," +was the empire of Dionysos, the empire of "Ad," the empire of Atlantis. +El Eldrisi called the language spoken to this day by the Arabs of +Mahrah, in Eastern Arabia, "the language of the people of Ad," and Dr. +J. H. Carter, in the Bombay Journal of July, 1847, says, "It is the +softest and sweetest language I have ever heard." It would be +interesting to compare this primitive tongue with the languages of +Central America. + +The god Thoth of the Egyptians, who was the god of a foreign country, +and who invented letters, was called At-hothes. + +We turn now to another ancient race, the Indo-European family--the Aryan +race. + +In Sanscrit Adim, means first. Among the Hindoos the first man was +Ad-ima, his wife was Heva. They dwelt upon an island, said to be Ceylon; +they left the island and reached the main-land, when, by a great +convulsion of nature, their communication with the parent land was +forever cut off. (See "Bible in India.") + +Here we seem to have a recollection of the destruction of Atlantis. + +Mr. Bryant says, "Ad and Ada signify the first." The Persians called the +first man "Ad-amah." "Adon" was one of the names of the Supreme God of +the Phoenicians; from it was derived the name of the Greek god "Ad-onis." +The Arv-ad of Genesis was the Ar-Ad of the Cushites; it is now known as +Ru-Ad. It is a series of connected cities twelve miles in length, along +the coast, full of the most massive and gigantic ruins. + +Sir William Jones gives the tradition of the Persians as to the earliest +ages. He says: "Moshan assures us that in the opinion of the best +informed Persians the first monarch of Iran, and of the whole earth, was +Mashab-Ad; that he received from the Creator, and promulgated among men +a sacred book, in a heavenly language, to which the Mussulman author +gives the Arabic title of 'Desatir,' or 'Regulations.' Mashab-Ad was, in +the opinion of the ancient Persians, the person left at the end of the +last great cycle, and consequently the father of the present world. He +and his wife having survived the former cycle, were blessed with a +numerous progeny; he planted gardens, invented ornaments, forged +weapons, taught men to take the fleece from sheep and make clothing; he +built cities, constructed palaces, fortified towns, and introduced arts +and commerce." + +We have already seen that the primal gods of this people are identical +with the gods of the Greek mythology, and were originally kings of +Atlantis. But it seems that these ancient divinities are grouped +together as "the Aditya;" and in this name "Ad-itya" we find a strong +likeness to the Semitic "Adites," and another reminiscence of Atlantis, +or Adlantis. In corroboration of this view we find, + +1. The gods who are grouped together as the Aditya are the most ancient +in the Hindoo mythology. + +2. They are all gods of light, or solar gods. (Whitney's Oriental and +Linguistic Studies," p. 39.) + +3. There are twelve of them. (Ibid.) + +4. These twelve gods presided over twelve months in the year. + +5. They are a dim recollection of a very remote past. Says Whitney, "It +seems as if here was an attempt on the part of the Indian religion to +take a new development in a moral direction, which a change in the +character and circumstances of the people has caused to fail in the +midst, and fall back again into forgetfulness, while yet half finished +and indistinct." (Ibid.) + +6. These gods are called "the sons of Aditi," just as in the Bible we +have allusions to "the sons of Adab," who were the first metallurgists +and musicians. "Aditi is not a goddess. She is addressed as a queen's +daughter, she of fair children." + +7. The Aditya "are elevated above all imperfections; they do not sleep +or wink." The Greeks represented their gods as equally wakeful and +omniscient. "Their character is all truth; they hate and punish guilt." +We have seen the same traits ascribed by the Greeks to the Atlantean +kings. + +8. The sun is sometimes addressed as an Aditya. + +9. Among the Aditya is Varuna, the equivalent of Uranos, whose +identification with Atlantis I have shown. In the vedas Varuna is "the +god of the ocean." + +10. The Aditya represent an earlier and purer form of religion: "While +in hymns to the other deities long life, wealth, power, are the objects +commonly prayed for, of the Aditya is craved purity, forgiveness of sin, +freedom from guilt, and repentance." ("Oriental and Linguistic Studies," +p. 43.) + +11. The Aditya, like the Adites, are identified with the doctrine of the +immortality of the soul. Yama is the god of the abode beyond the grave. +In the Persian story he appears as Yima, and "is made ruler of the +golden age and founder of the Paradise." (Ibid., p. 45.) (See "Zamna," +p. 167 ante.) + +In view of all these facts, one cannot doubt that the legends of the +"sons of Ad," "the Adites," and "the Aditya," all refer to Atlantis. + +Mr. George Smith, in the Chaldean account of the Creation (p. 78), +deciphered from the Babylonian tablets, shows that there was an original +race of men at the beginning of Chaldean history, a dark race, the +Zalmat-qaqadi, who were called Ad-mi, or Ad-ami; they were the race "who +had fallen," and were contradistinguished from "the Sarku, or light +race." The "fall" probably refers to their destruction by a deluge, in +consequence of their moral degradation and the indignation of the gods. +The name Adam is used in these legends, but as the name of a race, not +of a man. + +Genesis (chap. v., 2) distinctly says that God created man male and +female, and "called their name Adam." That is to say, the people were +the Ad-ami, the people of "Ad," or Atlantis. "The author of the Book of +Genesis," says M. Schoebel, "in speaking of the men who were swallowed up +by the Deluge, always describes them as 'Haadam,' 'Adamite humanity.'" +The race of Cain lived and multiplied far away from the land of Seth; in +other words, far from the land destroyed by the Deluge. Josephus, who +gives us the primitive traditions of the Jews, tells us (chap. ii., p. +42) that "Cain travelled over many countries" before he came to the land +of Nod. The Bible does not tell us that the race of Cain perished in the +Deluge. "Cain went out from the presence of Jehovah;" he did not call on +his name; the people that were destroyed were the "sons of Jehovah." All +this indicates that large colonies had been sent out by the mother-land +before it sunk in the sea. + +Across the ocean we find the people of Guatemala claiming their descent +from a goddess called At-tit, or grandmother, who lived for four hundred +years, and first taught the worship of the true God, which they +afterward forgot. (Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iii., p. 75.) While +the famous Mexican calendar stone shows that the sun was commonly called +tonatiuh but when it was referred to as the god of the Deluge it was +then called Atl-tona-ti-uh, or At-onatiuh. (Valentini's "Mexican +Calendar Stone," art. Maya Archæology, p. 15.) + +We thus find the sons of Ad at the base of all the most ancient races of +men, to wit, the Hebrews, the Arabians, the Chaldeans, the Hindoos, the +Persians, the Egyptians, the Ethiopians, the Mexicans, and the Central +Americans; testimony that all these races traced their beginning back to +a dimly remembered Ad-lantis. + +CHAPTER II + +THE KINGS OF ATLANTIS BECOME THE GODS OF THE GREEKS. + +Lord Bacon said: + +"The mythology of the Greeks, which their oldest writers do not pretend +to have invented, was no more than a light air, which had passed from a +more ancient people into the flutes of the Greeks, which they modulated +to such descants as best suited their fancies." + +This profoundly wise and great man, who has illuminated every subject +which he has touched, guessed very close to the truth in this utterance. + +The Hon. W. E. Gladstone has had quite a debate of late with Mr. Cox as +to whether the Greek mythology was underlaid by a nature worship, or a +planetary or solar worship. + +Peru, worshipping the sun and moon and planets, probably represents very +closely the simple and primitive religion of Atlantis, with its +sacrifices of fruits and flowers. This passed directly to their colony +in Egypt. We find the Egyptians in their early ages sun and planet +worshippers. Ptah was the object of their highest adoration. He is the +father of the god of the sun, the ruler of the region of light. Ra was +the sun-god. He was the supreme divinity at On, or Heliopolis, near +Memphis. His symbol was the solar disk, supported by two rings. He +created all that exists below the heavens. + +The Babylonian trinity was composed of Idea, Anu, and Bel. Bel +represented the sun, and was the favorite god. Sin was the goddess of +the moon. + +The Phoenicians were also sun-worshippers. The sun was represented by +Baal-Samin, the great god, the god of light and the heavens, the creator +and rejuvenator. + +"The attributes of both Baal and Moloch (the good and bad powers of the +sun) were united in the Phoenician god Melkart, "king of the city," whom +the inhabitants of Tyre considered their special patron. The Greeks +called him "Melicertes," and identified him with Hercules. By his great +strength and power he turned evil into good, brought life out of +destruction, pulled back the sun to the earth at the time of the +solstices, lessened excessive heat and cold, and rectified the evil +signs of the zodiac. In Phoenician legends he conquers the savage races +of distant coasts, founds the ancient settlements on the Mediterranean, +and plants the rocks in the Straits of Gibraltar." ("American +Cyclopædia," art. Mythology.) + +The Egyptians worshipped the sun under the name of Ra; the Hindoos +worshipped the sun under the name of Rama; while the great festival of +the sun, of the Peruvians, was called Ray-mi. + +Sun-worship, as the ancient religion of Atlantis, underlies all the +superstitions of the colonies of that country. The Samoyed woman says to +the sun, "When thou, god, risest, I too rise from my bed." Every morning +even now the Brahmans stand on one foot, with their hands held out +before them and their faces turned to the east, adoring the sun. "In +Germany or France one may still see the peasant take off his hat to the +rising sun." ("Anthropology," p. 361.) The Romans, even, in later times, +worshipped the sun at Emesa, under the name of Elagabalus, "typified in +the form of a black conical stone, which it was believed had fallen from +heaven." The conical stone was the emblem of Bel. Did it have relation +to the mounds and pyramids? + +Sun-worship was the primitive religion of the red men of America. It was +found among all the tribes. (Dorman, "Origin of Primitive Superstitions," +p. 338.) The Chichimecs called the sun their father. The Comanches have +a similar belief. + +But, compared with such ancient nations as the Egyptians and +Babylonians, the Greeks were children. A priest of Sais said to Solon, + +"You Greeks are novices in knowledge of antiquity. You are ignorant of +what passed either here or among yourselves in days of old. The history +of eight thousand years is deposited in our sacred books; but I can +ascend to a much higher antiquity, and tell you what our fathers have +done for nine thousand years; I mean their institutions, their laws, and +their most brilliant achievements." + +The Greeks, too young to have shared in the religion of Atlantis, but +preserving some memory of that great country and its history, proceeded +to convert its kings into gods, and to depict Atlantis itself as the +heaven of the human race. Thus we find a great solar or nature worship +in the elder nations, while Greece has nothing but an incongruous jumble +of gods and goddesses, who are born and eat and drink and make love and +ravish and steal and die; and who are worshipped as immortal in presence +of the very monuments that testify to their death. + +"These deities, to whom the affairs of the world were intrusted, were, +it is believed, immortal, though not eternal in their existence. In +Crete there was even a story of the death of Zeus, his tomb being +pointed out." (Murray's "Mythology," p. 2.) + +The history of Atlantis is the key of the Greek mythology. There can be +no question that these gods of Greece were human beings. The tendency to +attach divine attributes to great earthly rulers is one deeply implanted +in human nature. The savages who killed Captain Cook firmly believed +that he was immortal, that he was yet alive, and would return to punish +them. The highly civilized Romans made gods out of their dead emperors. +Dr. Livingstone mentions that on one occasion, after talking to a +Bushman for some time about the Deity, he found that the savage thought +he was speaking of Sekomi, the principal chief of the district. + +We find the barbarians of the coast of the Mediterranean regarding the +civilized people of Atlantis with awe and wonder: "Their physical +strength was extraordinary, the earth shaking sometimes under their +tread. Whatever they did was done speedily. They moved through space +almost without the loss of a moment of time." This probably alluded to +the rapid motion of their sailing-vessels. "They were wise, and +communicated their wisdom to men." That is to say, they civilized the +people they came in contact with. They had a strict sense of justice, +and punished crime rigorously, and rewarded noble actions, though it is +true they were less conspicuous for the latter." (Murray's "Mythology," +p. 4.) We should understand this to mean that where they colonized they +established a government of law, as contradistinguished from the anarchy +of barbarism. + +"There were tales of personal visits and adventures of the gods among +men, taking part in battles and appearing in dreams. They were conceived +to possess the form of human beings, and to be, like men, subject to +love and pain, but always characterized by the highest qualities and +grandest forms that could be imagined." (Ibid.) + +Another proof that the gods of the Greeks were but the deified kings of +Atlantis is found in the fact that "the gods were not looked upon as +having created the world." They succeeded to the management of a world +already in existence. + +The gods dwelt on Olympus. They lived together like human beings; they +possessed palaces, storehouses, stables, horses, etc.; "they dwelt in a +social state which was but a magnified reflection of the social system +on earth. Quarrels, love passages, mutual assistance, and such instances +as characterize human life, were ascribed to them." (Ibid., p. 10.) + +Where was Olympus? It was in Atlantis. "The ocean encircled the earth +with a great stream, and was a region of wonders of all kinds." (Ibid., +p. 23.) It was a great island, the then civilized world. The encircling +ocean "was spoken of in all the ancient legends. Okeanos lived there +with his wife Tethys: these were the Islands of the Blessed, the garden +of the gods, the sources of the nectar and ambrosia on which the gods +lived." (Murray's "Mythology," p. 23.) Nectar was probably a fermented +intoxicating liquor, and ambrosia bread made from wheat. Soma was a kind +of whiskey, and the Hindoos deified it. "The gods lived on nectar and +ambrosia" simply meant that the inhabitants of these blessed islands +were civilized, and possessed a liquor of some kind and a species of +food superior to anything in use among the barbarous tribes with whom +they came in contact. + +This blessed land answers to the description of Atlantis. It was an +island full of wonders. It lay spread out in the ocean "like a disk, +with the mountains rising from it." (Ibid.) On the highest point of this +mountain dwelt Zeus (the king), "while the mansions of the other deities +were arranged upon plateaus, or in ravines lower down the mountain. +These deities, including Zeus, were twelve in number: Zeus (or Jupiter), +Hera (or Juno), Poseidon (or Neptune), Demeter (or Ceres), Apollo, +Artemis (or Diana), Hephæstos (or Vulcan), Pallas Athena (or Minerva), +Ares (or Mars), Aphrodite (or Venus), Hermes (or Mercury), and Hestia +(or Vesta)." These were doubtless the twelve gods from whom the +Egyptians derived their kings. Where two names are given to a deity in +the above list, the first name is that bestowed by the Greeks, the last +that given by the Romans. + +It is not impossible that our division of the year into twelve parts is +a reminiscence of the twelve gods of Atlantis. Diodorus Siculus tells us +that among the Babylonians there were twelve gods of the heavens, each +personified by one of the signs of the zodiac, and worshipped in a +certain month of the year. The Hindoos had twelve primal gods, "the +Aditya." Moses erected twelve pillars at Sinai. The Mandan Indians +celebrated the Flood with twelve typical characters, who danced around +the ark. The Scandinavians believed in the twelve gods, the Aesir, who +dwelt on Asgard, the Norse Olympus. Diligent investigation may yet +reveal that the number of a modern jury, twelve, is a survival of the +ancient council of Asgard. + +"According to the traditions of the Phoenicians, the Gardens of the +Hesperides were in the remote west." (Murray's "Mannal of Mythology," p. +258.) Atlas lived in these gardens. (Ibid., p. 259.) Atlas, we have +seen, was king of Atlantis. "The Elysian Fields (the happy islands) were +commonly placed in the remote west. They were ruled over by Chronos." +(Ibid., p. 60.) Tartarus, the region of Hades, the gloomy home of the +dead, was also located "under the mountains of an island in the midst of +the ocean in the remote west." (Ibid., p. 58.) Atlas was described in +Greek mythology as "an enormous giant, who stood upon the western +confines of the earth, and supported the heavens on his shoulders, in a +region of the west where the sun continued to shine after he had set +upon Greece." (Ibid., p. 156.) + +Greek tradition located the island in which Olympus was situated "in the +far west," "in the ocean beyond Africa," "on the western boundary of the +known world," "where the sun shone when it had ceased to shine on +Greece," and where the mighty Atlas "held up the heavens." And Plato +tells us that the land where Poseidon and Atlas ruled was Atlantis. + +"The Garden of the Hesperides" (another name for the dwelling-place of +the gods) "was situated at the extreme limit of Africa. Atlas was said +to have surrounded it on every side with high mountains." (Smith's +"Sacred Annals, Patriarchal Age," p. 131.) Here were found the golden +apples. + +This is very much like the description which Plato gives of the great +plain of Atlantis, covered with fruit of every kind, and surrounded by +precipitous mountains descending to the sea. + +The Greek mythology, in speaking of the Garden of the Hesperides, tells +us that "the outer edge of the garden was slightly raised, so that the +water might not run in and overflow the land." Another reminiscence of +the surrounding mountains of Atlantis as described by Plato, and as +revealed by the deep-sea soundings of modern times. + +Chronos, or Saturn, Dionysos, Hyperion, Atlas, Hercules, were all +connected with "a great Saturnian continent;" they were kings that ruled +over countries on the western shores of the Mediterranean, Africa and +Spain. One account says: + +"Hyperion, Atlas, and Saturn, or Chronos, were sons of Uranos, who +reigned over a great kingdom composed of countries around the western +part of the Mediterranean, with certain islands in the Atlantic. +Hyperion succeeded his father, and was then killed by the Titans. The +kingdom was then divided between Atlas and Saturn--Atlas taking Northern +Africa, with the Atlantic islands, and Saturn the countries on the +opposite shore of the Mediterranean to Italy and Sicily." (Baldwin's +"Prehistoric Nations," p. 357.) + +Plato says, speaking of the traditions of the Greeks ("Dialogues, Laws," +c. iv., p. 713), "There is a tradition of the happy life of mankind in +the days when all things were spontaneous and abundant.... In like +manner God in his love of mankind placed over us the demons, who are a +superior race, and they, with great care and pleasure to themselves and +no less to us, taking care of us and giving us place and reverence and +order and justice never failing, made the tribes of men happy and +peaceful ... for Cronos knew that no human nature, invested with +supreme power, is able to order human affairs and not overflow with +insolence and wrong." + +In other words, this tradition refers to an ancient time when the +forefathers of the Greeks were governed by Chronos, of the Cronian Sea +(the Atlantic), king of Atlantis, through civilized Atlantean governors, +who by their wisdom preserved peace and created a golden age for all the +populations under their control--they were the demons, that is, "the +knowing ones," the civilized. + +Plato puts into the mouth of Socrates these words ("Dialogues, +Cratylus," p. 397): "My notion would be that the sun, moon, and stars, +earth, and heaven, which are still the gods of many barbarians, were the +only gods known to the aboriginal Hellenes.... What shall follow the +gods? Must not demons and heroes and men come next?... Consider the +real meaning of the word demons. You know Hesiod uses the word. He +speaks of 'a golden race of men' who came first. He says of them, + + But now that fate has closed over this race, + They are holy demons upon earth, + Beneficent averters of ills, guardians of mortal men.' + +He means by the golden men not men literally made of gold, but good and +noble men; he says we are of the 'age of iron.' He called them demons +because they were dah'mones (knowing or wise)." + +This is made the more evident when we read that this region of the gods, +of Chronos and Uranos and Zeus, passed through, first, a Golden Age, +then a Silver Age--these constituting a great period of peace and +happiness; then it reached a Bronze Age; then an Iron Age, and finally +perished by a great flood, sent upon these people by Zeus as a +punishment for their sins. We read: + +"Men were rich then (in the Silver Age), as in the Golden Age of +Chronos, and lived in plenty; but still they wanted the innocence and +contentment which were the true sources of human happiness in the +former age; and accordingly, while living in luxury and delicacy, they +became overbearing in their manners to the highest degree, were never +satisfied, and forgot the gods, to whom, in their confidence of +prosperity and comfort, they denied the reverence they owed.... Then +followed the Bronze Age, a period of constant quarrelling and deeds of +violence. Instead of cultivated lands, and a life of peaceful +occupations and orderly habits, there came a day when every where might +was right, and men, big and powerful as they were, became physically +worn out.... Finally came the Iron Age, in which enfeebled mankind +had to toil for bread with their hands, and, bent on gain, did their +best to overreach each other. Dike, or Astræa, the goddess of justice +and good faith, modesty and truth, turned her back on such scenes, and +retired to Olympus, while Zeus determined to destroy the human race by a +great flood. The whole of Greece lay under water, and none but Deucalion +and his wife Pyrrha were saved." (Murray's "Mythology" p. 44.) + +It is remarkable that we find here the same succession of the Iron Age +after the Bronze Age that has been revealed to scientific men by the +patient examination of the relics of antiquity in Europe. And this +identification of the land that was destroyed by a flood--the land of +Chronos and Poseidon and Zeus--with the Bronze Age, confirms the view +expressed in Chapter VIII. (page 237, ante), that the bronze implements +and weapons of Europe were mainly imported from Atlantis. + +And here we find that the Flood that destroyed this land of the gods was +the Flood of Deucalion, and the Flood of Deucalion was the Flood of the +Bible, and this, as we have shown, was "the last great Deluge of all," +according to the Egyptians, which destroyed Atlantis. + +The foregoing description of the Golden Age of Chronos, when "men were +rich and lived in plenty," reminds us of Plato's description of the +happy age of Atlantis, when "men despised everything but virtue, not +caring for their present state of life, and thinking lightly of the +possession of gold and other property;" a time when, as the chants of +the Delaware Indians stated it (page 109, ante), "all were willingly +pleased, all were well-happified." While the description given by Murray +in the above extract of the degeneracy of mankind in the land of the +gods, "a period of constant quarrelling and deeds of violence, when +might was right," agrees with Plato's account of the Atlanteans, when +they became "aggressive," "unable to bear their fortune," "unseemly," +"base," "filled with unrighteous avarice and power,"--and "in a most +wretched state." And here again I might quote from the chant of the +Delaware Indians--"they became troubled, hating each other; both were +fighting, both were spoiling, both were never peaceful." And in all +three instances the gods punished the depravity of mankind by a great +deluge. Can all these precise coincidences be the result of accident? + +May we not even suppose that the very word "Olympus" is a transformation +from "Atlantis" in accordance with the laws that regulate the changes of +letters of the same class into each other? Olympus was written by the +Greeks "Olumpos." The letter a in Atlantis was sounded by the ancient +world broad and full, like the a in our words all or altar; in these +words it approximates very closely to the sound of o. It is not far to +go to convert Otlontis into Oluntos, and this into Olumpos. We may, +therefore, suppose that when the Greeks said that their gods dwelt in +"Olympus," it was the same as if they said that they dwelt in "Atlantis." + +Nearly all the gods of Greece are connected with Atlantis. We have seen +the twelve principal gods all dwelling on the mountain of Olympus, in +the midst of an island in the ocean in the far west, which was +subsequently destroyed by a deluge on account of the wickedness of its +people. And when we turn to Plato's description of Atlantis (p. 13, +ante) we find that Poseidon and Atlas dwelt upon a mountain in the midst +of the island; and on this mountain were their magnificent temples and +palaces, where they lived, separated by great walls from their subjects. + +It may be urged that Mount Olympus could not have referred to any +mountain in Atlantis, because the Greeks gave that name to a group of +mountains partly in Macedonia and partly in Thessaly. But in Mysia, +Lycia, Cyprus, and elsewhere there were mountains called Olympus; and on +the plain of Olympia, in Elis, there was an eminence bearing the same +designation. There is a natural tendency among uncivilized peoples to +give a "local habitation" to every general tradition. + +"Many of the oldest myths," says Baldwin ("Prehistoric Nations," p. +376), "relate to Spain, North-western Africa, and other regions on the +Atlantic, such as those concerning Hercules, the Cronidæ, the +Hyperboreans, the Hesperides, and the Islands of the Blessed. Homer +described the Atlantic region of Europe in his account of the wanderings +of Ulysses.... In the ages previous to the decline of Phoenician +influence in Greece and around the Ægean Sea, the people of those +regions must have had a much better knowledge of Western Europe than +prevailed there during the Ionian or Hellenic period." + +The mythology of Greece is really a history of the kings of Atlantis. +The Greek heaven was Atlantis. Hence the references to statues, swords, +etc., that fell from heaven, and were preserved in the temples of the +different states along the shores of the Mediterranean from a vast +antiquity, and which were regarded as the most precious possessions of +the people. They were relics of the lost race received in the early +ages. Thus we read of the brazen or bronze anvil that was preserved in +one city, which fell from heaven, and was nine days and nine nights in +falling; in other words, it took nine days and nights of a +sailing-voyage to bring it from Atlantis. + +The modern theory that the gods of Greece never had any personal +existence, but represented atmospheric and meteorological myths, the +movements of clouds, planets, and the sun, is absurd. Rude nations +repeat, they do not invent; to suppose a barbarous people creating their +deities out of clouds and sunsets is to reverse nature. Men first +worship stones, then other men, then spirits. Resemblances of names +prove nothing; it is as if one would show that the name of the great +Napoleon meant "the lion of the desert" (Napo-leon), and should thence +argue that Napoleon never existed, that he was a myth, that he +represented power in solitude, or some such stuff. When we read that +Jove whipped his wife, and threw her son out of the window, the +inference is that Jove was a man, and actually did something like the +thing described; certainly gods, sublimated spirits, aerial sprites, do +not act after this fashion; and it would puzzle the mythmakers to prove +that the sun, moon, or stars whipped their wives or flung recalcitrant +young men out of windows. The history of Atlantis could be in part +reconstructed out of the mythology of Greece; it is a history of kings, +queens, and princes; of love-making, adulteries, rebellions, wars, +murders, sea-voyages, and colonizations; of palaces, temples, workshops, +and forges; of sword-making, engraving and metallurgy; of wine, barley, +wheat, cattle, sheep, horses, and agriculture generally. Who can doubt +that it represents the history of a real people? + +Uranos was the first god; that is to say, the first king of the great +race. As he was at the commencement of all things, his symbol was the +sky. He probably represented the race previous even to the settlement of +Atlantis. He was a son of Gæa (the earth). He seems to have been the +parent of three races--the Titans, the Hekatoncheires, and the Kyklopes +or Cyclops. + +I incline to the belief that these were civilized races, and that the +peculiarities ascribed to the last two refer to the vessels in which +they visited the shores of the barbarians. + + THE EMPIRE OF ATLANTIS. + +The empire of the Titans was clearly the empire of Atlantis. "The most +judicious among our mythologists" (says Dr. Rees, "New British +Cyclopædia," art. Titans)--"such as Gerard Vossius, Marsham, Bochart, +and Father Thomassin--are of opinion that the partition of the world +among the sons of Noah--Shem, Ham, and Japheth--was the original of the +tradition of the same partition among Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto," upon +the breaking up of the great empire of the Titans. "The learned Pezron +contends that the division which was made of this vast empire came, in +after-times, to be taken for the partition of the whole world; that Asia +remaining in the hands of Jupiter (Zeus), the most potent of the three +brothers, made him looked upon as the god of Olympus; that the sea and +islands which fell to Neptune occasioned their giving him the title of +'god of the sea;' and that Spain, the extremity of the then known world, +thought to be a very low country in respect of Asia, and famous for its +excellent mines of gold and silver, failing to Pluto, occasioned him to +be taken for the 'god of the infernal regions.'" We should suppose that +Pluto possibly ruled over the transatlantic possessions of Atlantis in +America, over those "portions of the opposite continent" which Plato +tells us were dominated by Atlas and his posterity, and which, being far +beyond or below sunset, were the "under-world" of the ancients; while +Atlantis, the Canaries, etc., constituted the island division with +Western Africa and Spain. Murray tells us ("Mythology," p. 58) that +Pluto's share of the kingdom was supposed to lie "in the remote west." +The under-world of the dead was simply the world below the western +horizon; "the home of the dead has to do with that far west region where +the sun dies at night." ("Anthropology," p. 350.) "On the coast of +Brittany, where Cape Raz stands out westward into the ocean, there is +'the Bay of Souls,' the launching-place where the departed spirits sail +off across the sea." (Ibid.) In like manner, Odysseus found the land of +the dead in the ocean beyond the Pillars of Hercules. There, indeed, was +the land of the mighty dead, the grave of the drowned Atlanteans. + +"However this be," continues F. Pezron, "the empire of the Titans, +according to the ancients, was very extensive; they possessed Phrygia, +Thrace, a part of Greece, the island of Crete, and several other +provinces to the inmost recesses of Spain. To these Sanchoniathon seems +to join Syria; and Diodorus adds a part of Africa, and the kingdoms of +Mauritania." The kingdoms of Mauritania embraced all that north-western +region of Africa nearest to Atlantis in which are the Atlas Mountains, +and in which, in the days of Herodotus, dwelt the Atlantes. + +Neptune, or Poseidon, says, in answer to a message from Jupiter, + + No vassal god, nor of his train am I. + Three brothers, deities, from Saturn came, + And ancient Rhea, earth's immortal dame; + Assigned by lot our triple rule we know; + Infernal Pluto sways the shades below: + O'er the wide clouds, and o'er the starry plain + Ethereal Jove extends his high domain; + My court beneath the hoary waves I keep, + And hush the roaring of the sacred deep. + + Iliad, book xviii. + +Homer alludes to Poseidon as + + "The god whose liquid arms are hurled + Around the globe, whose earthquakes rock the world." + +Mythology tells us that when the Titans were defeated by Saturn they +retreated into the interior of Spain; Jupiter followed them up, and beat +them for the last time near Tartessus, and thus terminated a ten-years' +war. Here we have a real battle on an actual battle-field. + +If we needed any further proof that the empire of the Titans was the +empire of Atlantis, we would find it in the names of the Titans: among +these were Oceanus, Saturn or Chronos, and Atlas; they were all the sons +of Uranos. Oceanus was at the base of the Greek mythology. Plato says +("Dialogues," Timæus, vol. ii., p. 533): "Oceanus and Tethys were the +children of Earth and Heaven, and from these sprung Phorcys, and +Chronos, and Rhea, and many more with them; and from Chronos and Rhea +sprung Zeus and Hera, and all those whom we know as their brethren, and +others who were their children." In other words, all their gods came out +of the ocean; they were rulers over some ocean realm; Chronos was the +son of Oceanus, and Chronos was an Atlantean god, and from him the +Atlantic Ocean was called by the ancients "the Chronian Sea." The elder +Minos was called "the Son of the Ocean:" he first gave civilization to +the Cretans; he engraved his laws on brass, precisely as Plato tells us +the laws of Atlantis were engraved on pillars of brass. + +The wanderings of Ulysses, as detailed in the "Odyssey" of Homer, are +strangely connected with the Atlantic Ocean. The islands of the +Phoenicians were apparently in mid-ocean: + + We dwell apart, afar + Within the unmeasured deep, amid its waves + The most remote of men; no other race + Hath commerce with us.--Odyssey, book vi. + +The description of the Phæacian walls, harbors, cities, palaces, ships, +etc., seems like a recollection of Atlantis. The island of Calypso +appears also to have been in the Atlantic Ocean, twenty days' sail from +the Phæacian isles; and when Ulysses goes to the land of Pluto, "the +under-world," the home of the dead, he + + "Reached the far confines of Oceanus," + +beyond the Pillars of Hercules. It would be curious to inquire how far +the poems of Homer are Atlantean in their relations and inspiration. +Ulysses's wanderings were a prolonged struggle with Poseidon, the +founder and god of Atlantis. + +"The Hekatoncheires, or Cetimæni, beings each with a hundred hands, were +three in number--Kottos, Gyges or Gyes, and Briareus--and represented +the frightful crashing of waves, and its resemblance to the convulsions +of earthquakes." (Murray's "Mythology," p. 26.) Are not these hundred +arms the oars of the galleys, and the frightful crashing of the waves +their movements in the water? + +"The Kyklopes also were three in number--Brontes, with his thunder; +Steropes, with his lightning; and Arges, with his stream of light. They +were represented as having only one eye, which was placed at the +juncture between the nose and brow. It was, however, a large, flashing +eye, as became beings who were personifications of the storm-cloud, with +its flashes of destructive lightning and peals of thunder." + +We shall show hereafter that the invention of gunpowder dates back to +the days of the Phoenicians, and may have been derived by them from +Atlantis. It is not impossible that in this picture of the Kyklopes we +see a tradition of sea-going ships, with a light burning at the prow, +and armed with some explosive preparation, which, with a roar like +thunder, and a flash like lightning, destroyed those against whom it was +employed? It at least requires less strain upon our credulity to suppose +these monsters were a barbarian's memory of great ships than to believe +that human beings ever existed with a hundred arms, and with one eye in +the middle of the forehead, and giving out thunder and lightning. + +The natives of the West India Islands regarded the ships of Columbus as +living creatures, and that their sails were wings. + +Berosus tells us, speaking of the ancient days of Chaldea, "In the first +year there appeared, from that part of the Erythræan Sea which borders +upon Babylonia, an animal endowed with reason, by name Oannes, whose +whole body (according to the account of Apollodorus) was that of a fish; +that under the fish's head he had another head, with feet also below, +similar to those of a man, subjoined to the fish's tail. His voice too +and language was articulate and human, and a representation of him is +preserved even unto this day. This being was accustomed to pass the day +among men, but took no food at that season, and he gave them an insight +into letters and arts of all kinds. He taught them to construct cities, +to found temples, to compile laws, and explained to them the principles +of geometrical knowledge. He made them distinguish the seeds of the +earth, and showed them how to collect the fruits; in short, he +instructed them in everything which could tend to soften manners and +humanize their laws. From that time nothing material has been added by +way of improvement to his instructions. And when the sun set, this +being, Oannes, retired again into the sea, and passed the night in the +deep, for he was amphibious. After this there appeared other animals +like Oannes." + +This is clearly the tradition preserved by a barbarous people of the +great ships of a civilized nation, who colonized their coast and +introduced the arts and sciences among them. And here we see the same +tendency to represent the ship as a living thing, which converted the +war-vessels of the Atlanteans (the Kyklopes) into men with one blazing +eye in the middle of the forehead. + +Uranos was deposed from the throne, and succeeded by his son Chronos. He +was called "the ripener, the harvest-god," and was probably identified +with the beginning of the Agricultural Period. He married his sister +Rhea, who bore him Pluto, Poseidon, Zeus, Hestia, Demeter, and Hera. He +anticipated that his sons would dethrone him, as he had dethroned his +father, Uranos, and he swallowed his first five children, and would have +swallowed the sixth child, Zeus, but that his wife Rhea deceived him +with a stone image of the child; and Zeus was conveyed to the island of +Crete, and there concealed in a cave and raised to manhood. Subsequently +Chronos "yielded back to the light the children he had swallowed." This +myth probably means that Chronos had his children raised in some secret +place, where they could not be used by his enemies as the instruments of +a rebellion against his throne; and the stone image of Zeus, palmed off +upon him by Rhea, was probably some other child substituted for his own. +His precautions seem to have been wise; for as soon as the children +returned to the light they commenced a rebellion, and drove the old +gentleman from his throne. A rebellion of the Titans followed. The +struggle was a tremendous one, and seems to have been decided at last by +the use of gunpowder, as I shall show farther on. + +We have seen Chronos identified with the Atlantic, called by the Romans +the "Chronian Sea." He was known to the Romans under the name of Saturn, +and ruled over "a great Saturnian continent" in the Western Ocean. +Saturn, or Chronos, came to Italy: he presented himself to the king, +Janus, "and proceeded to instruct the subjects of the latter in +agriculture, gardening, and many other arts then quite unknown to them; +as, for example, how to tend and cultivate the vine. By such means he at +length raised the people from a rude and comparatively barbarous +condition to one of order and peaceful occupations, in consequence of +which he was everywhere held in high esteem, and, in course of time, was +selected by Janus to share with him the government of the country, which +thereupon assumed the name of Saturnia--'a land of seed and fruit.' The +period of Saturn's government was sung in later days by poets as a happy +time, when sorrows were unknown, when innocence, freedom, and gladness +reigned throughout the land in such a degree as to deserve the title of +the Golden Age." (Murray's "Mythology," p. 32.) + +All this accords with Plato's story. He tells us that the rule of the +Atlanteans extended to Italy; that they were a civilized, agricultural, +and commercial people. The civilization of Rome was therefore an +outgrowth directly from the civilization of Atlantis. + +The Roman Saturnalia was a remembrance of the Atlantean colonization. It +was a period of joy and festivity; master and slave met as equals; the +distinctions of poverty and wealth were forgotten; no punishments for +crime were inflicted; servants and slaves went about dressed in the +clothes of their masters; and children received presents from their +parents or relatives. It was a time of jollity and mirth, a recollection +of the Golden Age. We find a reminiscence of it in the Roman "Carnival." + +The third and last on the throne of the highest god was Zeus. We shall +see him, a little farther on, by the aid of some mysterious engine +overthrowing the rebels, the Titans, who rose against his power, amid +the flash of lightning and the roar of thunder. He was called "the +thunderer," and "the mighty thunderer." He was represented with +thunder-bolts in his hand and an eagle at his feet. + +During the time of Zeus Atlantis seems to have reached its greatest +height of power. He was recognized as the father of the whole world; he +everywhere rewarded uprightness, truth, faithfulness, and kindness; he +was merciful to the poor, and punished the cruel. To illustrate his rule +on earth the following story is told: + +"Philemon and Baukis, an aged couple of the poorer class, were living +peacefully and full of piety toward the gods in their cottage in +Phrygia, when Zeus, who often visited the earth, disguised, to inquire +into the behavior of men, paid a visit, in passing through Phrygia on +such a journey, to these poor old people, and was received by them very +kindly as a weary traveller, which he pretended to be. Bidding him +welcome to the house, they set about preparing for their guest, who was +accompanied by Hermes, as excellent a meal as they could afford, and for +this purpose were about to kill the only goose they had left, when Zeus +interfered; for he was touched by their kindliness and genuine piety, +and that all the more because he had observed among the other +inhabitants of the district nothing but cruelty of disposition and a +habit of reproaching and despising the gods. To punish this conduct he +determined to visit the country with a flood, but to save from it +Philemon and Baukis, the good aged couple, and to reward them in a +striking manner. To this end he revealed himself to them before opening +the gates of the great flood, transformed their poor cottage on the hill +into a splendid temple, installed the aged pair as his priest and +priestess, and granted their prayer that they might both die together. +When, after many years, death overtook them, they were changed into two +trees, that grew side by side in the neighborhood--an oak and a linden." +(Murray's "Mythology," p. 38.) + +Here we have another reference to the Flood, and another identification +with Atlantis. + +Zeus was a kind of Henry VIII., and took to himself a number of wives. +By Demeter (Ceres) he had Persephone (Proserpine); by Leto, Apollo and +Artemis (Diana); by Dione, Aphrodite (Venus); by Semele, Dionysos +(Bacchus); by Maia, Hermes (Mercury); by Alkmene, Hercules, etc., etc. + +We have thus the whole family of gods and goddesses traced back to +Atlantis. + +Hera, or Juno, was the first and principal wife of Zeus. There were +numerous conjugal rows between the royal pair, in which, say the poets, +Juno was generally to blame. She was naturally jealous of the other +wives of Zeus. Zeus on one occasion beat her, and threw her son +Hephæstos out of Olympus; on another occasion he hung her out of Olympus +with her arms tied and two great weights attached to her feet--a very +brutal and ungentlemanly trick--but the Greeks transposed this into a +beautiful symbol: the two weights, they say, represent the earth and +sea, "an illustration of how all the phenomena of the visible sky were +supposed to hang dependent on the highest god of heaven!" (Ibid., p. +47.) Juno probably regarded the transaction in an altogether different +light; and she therefore united with Poseidon, the king's brother, and +his daughter Athena, in a rebellion to put the old fellow in a +strait-jacket, "and would have succeeded had not Thetis brought to his +aid the sea-giant Ægæon," probably a war-ship. She seems in the main, +however, to have been a good wife, and was the type of all the womanly +virtues. + +Poseidon, the first king of Atlantis, according to Plato, was, according +to Greek mythology, a brother of Zeus, and a son of Chronos. In the +division of the kingdom he fell heir to the ocean and its islands, and +to the navigable rivers; in other words, he was king of a maritime and +commercial people. His symbol was the horse. "He was the first to train +and employ horses;" that is to say, his people first domesticated the +horse. This agrees with what Plato tells us of the importance attached +to the horse in Atlantis, and of the baths and race-courses provided for +him. He was worshipped in the island of Tenos "in the character of a +physician," showing that he represented an advanced civilization. He was +also master of an agricultural people; "the ram with the golden fleece +for which the Argonauts sailed was the offspring of Poseidon." He +carried in his hand a three-pronged symbol, the trident, doubtless an +emblem of the three continents that were embraced in the empire of +Atlantis. He founded many colonies along the shores of the +Mediterranean; "he helped to build the walls of Troy;" the tradition +thus tracing the Trojan civilization to an Atlantean source. He settled +Attica and founded Athens, named after his niece Athena, daughter of +Zeus, who had no mother, but had sprung from the head of Zeus, which +probably signified that her mother's name was not known--she was a +foundling. Athena caused the first olive-tree to grow on the Acropolis +of Athens, parent of all the olive-trees of Greece. Poseidon seems to +have had settlements at Corinth, Ægina, Naxos, and Delphi. Temples were +erected to his honor in nearly all the seaport towns of Greece. He sent +a sea-monster, to wit, a slip, to ravage part of the Trojan territory. + +In the "Iliad" Poseidon appears "as ruler of the sea, inhabiting a +brilliant palace in its depths, traversing its surface in a chariot, or +stirring the powerful billows until the earth shakes as they crash upon +the shores.... He is also associated with well-watered plains and +valleys." (Murray's "Mythology," p. 51.) The palace in the depths of the +sea was the palace upon Olympus in Atlantis; the traversing of the sea +referred to the movements of a mercantile race; the shaking of + + POSEIDON, OR NEPTUNE. + +the earth was an association with earthquakes; the "well-watered plains +and valleys" remind us of the great plain of Atlantis described by Plato. + +All the traditions of the coming of civilization into Europe point to +Atlantis. + +For instance, Keleos, who lived at Eleusis, near Athens, hospitably +received Demeter, the Greek Ceres, the daughter of Poseidon, when she +landed; and in return she taught him the use of the plough, and +presented his son with the seed of barley, and sent him out to teach +mankind how to sow and utilize that grain. Dionysos, grandson of +Poseidon, travelled "through all the known world, even into the remotest +parts of India, instructing the people, as he proceeded, how to tend the +vine, and how to practise many other arts of peace, besides teaching +them the value of just and honorable dealings." (Murray's "Mythology," +p. 119.) The Greeks celebrated great festivals in his honor down to the +coming of Christianity. + +"The Nymphs of Grecian mythology were a kind of middle beings between +the gods and men, communicating with both, loved and respected by both; +... living like the gods on ambrosia. In extraordinary cases they were +summoned, it was believed, to the councils of the Olympian gods; but +they usually remained in their particular spheres, in secluded grottoes +and peaceful valleys, occupied in spinning, weaving, bathing, singing +sweet songs, dancing, sporting, or accompanying deities who passed +through their territories--hunting with Artemis (Diana), rushing about +with Dionysos (Bacchus), making merry with Apollo or Hermes (Mercury), +but always in a hostile attitude toward the wanton and excited Satyrs." + +The Nymphs were plainly the female inhabitants of Atlantis dwelling on +the plains, while the aristocracy lived on the higher lands. And this is +confirmed by the fact that part of them were called Atlantids, offspring +of Atlantis. The Hesperides were also "daughters of Atlas;" their mother +was Hesperis, a personification of "the region of the West." Their home +was "an island in the ocean," Off the north or west coast of Africa. + +And here we find a tradition which not only points to Atlantis, but also +shows some kinship to the legend in Genesis of the tree and the serpent. + +Titæa, "a goddess of the earth," gave Zeus a tree bearing golden apples +on it. This tree was put in the care of the Hesperides, but they could +not resist the temptation to pluck and eat its fruit; thereupon a +serpent named Ladon was put to watch the tree. Hercules slew the +serpent, and gave the apples to the Hesperides. + +Heracles (Hercules), we have seen, was a son of Zeus, king of Atlantis. +One of his twelve labors (the tenth) was the carrying off the cattle of +Geryon. The meaning of Geryon is "the red glow of the sunset." He dwelt +on the island of "Erythea, in the remote west, beyond the Pillars of +Hercules." Hercules took a ship, and after encountering a storm, reached +the island and placed himself on Mount Abas. Hercules killed Geryon, +stole the cattle, put them on the ship, and landed them safely, driving +them "through Iberia, Gaul, and over the Alps down into Italy." +(Murray's "Mythology," p. 257.) This was simply the memory of a cattle +raid made by an uncivilized race upon the civilized, cattle-raising +people of Atlantis. + +It is not necessary to pursue the study of the gods of Greece any +farther. They were simply barbarian recollections of the rulers of a +great civilized people who in early days visited their shores, and +brought with them the arts of peace. + +Here then, in conclusion, are the proofs of our proposition that the +gods of Greece had been the kings of Atlantis: + +1. They were not the makers, but the rulers of the world. + +2. They were human in their attributes; they loved, sinned, and fought +battles, the very sites of which are given; they founded cities, and +civilized the people of the shores of the Mediterranean. + +3. They dwelt upon an island in the Atlantic," in the remote west.... +where the sun shines after it has ceased to shine on Greece." + +4. Their land was destroyed in a deluge. + +5. They were ruled over by Poseidon and Atlas. + +6. Their empire extended to Egypt and Italy and the shores of Africa, +precisely as stated by Plato. + +7. They existed during the Bronze Age and at the beginning of the Iron +Age. + +The entire Greek mythology is the recollection, by a degenerate race, of +a vast, mighty, and highly civilized empire, which in a remote past +covered large parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. + +CHAPTER III. + +THE GODS OF THE PHOENICIANS ALSO KINGS OF ATLANTIS. + +Not alone were the gods of the Greeks the deified kings of Atlantis, but +we find that the mythology of the Phoenicians was drawn from the same +source. + +For instance, we find in the Phoenician cosmogony that the Titans +(Rephaim) derive their origin from the Phoenician gods Agrus and Agrotus. +This connects the Phoenicians with that island in the remote west, in the +midst of ocean, where, according to the Greeks, the Titans dwelt. + +According to Sanchoniathon, Ouranos was the son of Autochthon, and, +according to Plato, Autochthon was one of the ten kings of Atlantis. He +married his sister Ge. He is the Uranos of the Greeks, who was the son +of Gæa (the earth), whom he married. The Phoenicians tell us, "Ouranos +had by Ge four sons: Ilus (El), who is called Chronos, and Betylus +(Beth-El), and Dagon, which signifies bread-corn, and Atlas (Tammuz?)." +Here, again, we have the names of two other kings of Atlantis. These +four sons probably represented four races, the offspring of the earth. +The Greek Uranos was the father of Chronos, and the ancestor of Atlas. +The Phoenician god Ouranos had a great many other wives: his wife Ge was +jealous; they quarrelled, and he attempted to kill the children he had +by her. This is the legend which the Greeks told of Zeus and Juno. In +the Phoenician mythology Chronos raised a rebellion against Ouranos, and, +after a great battle, dethroned him. In the Greek legends it is Zeus who +attacks and overthrows his father, Chronos. Ouranos had a daughter +called Astarte (Ashtoreth), another called Rhea. "And Dagon, after he +had found out bread-corn and the plough, was called Zeus-Arotrius." + +We find also, in the Phoenician legends, mention made of Poseidon, +founder and king of Atlantis. + +Chronos gave Attica to his daughter Athena, as in the Greek legends. In +a time of plague he sacrificed his son to Ouranos, and "circumcised +himself, and compelled his allies to do the same thing." It would thus +appear that this singular rite, practised as we have seen by the +Atlantidæ of the Old and New Worlds, the Egyptians, the Phoenicians, the +Hebrews, the Ethiopians, the Mexicans, and the red men of America, dates +back, as we might have expected, to Atlantis. + +"Chronos visits the different regions of the habitable world." + +He gave Egypt as a kingdom to the god Taaut, who had invented the +alphabet. The Egyptians called him Thoth, and he was represented among +them as "the god of letters, the clerk of the under-world," bearing a +tablet, pen, and palm-branch. + +This not only connects the Phoenicians with Atlantis, but shows the +relations of Egyptian civilization to both Atlantis and the Phoenicians. + +There can be no doubt that the royal personages who formed the gods of +Greece were also the gods of the Phoenicians. We have seen the Autochthon +of Plato reappearing in the Autochthon of the Phoenicians; the Atlas of +Plato in the Atlas of the Phoenicians; the Poseidon of Plato in the +Poseidon of the Phoenicians; while the kings Mestor and Mneseus of Plato +are probably the gods Misor and Amynus of the Phoenicians. + +Sanchoniathon tells us, after narrating all the discoveries by which the +people advanced to civilization, that the Cabiri set down their records +of the past by the command of the god Taaut, "and they delivered them to +their successors and to foreigners, of whom one was Isiris (Osiris), the +inventor of the three letters, the brother of Chua, who is called the +first Phoenician." (Lenormant and Chevallier, "Ancient History of the +East," vol. ii., p. 228.) + +This would show that the first Phoenician came long after this line of +the kings or gods, and that he was a foreigner, as compared with them; +and, therefore, that it could not have been the Phoenicians proper who +made the several inventions narrated by Sanchoniathon, but some other +race, from whom the Phoenicians might have been descended. + +And in the delivery of their records to the foreigner Osiris, the god of +Egypt, we have another evidence that Egypt derived her civilization from +Atlantis. + +Max Müller says: + +"The Semitic languages also are all varieties of one form of speech. +Though we do not know that primitive language from which the Semitic +dialects diverged, yet we know that at one time such language must have +existed.... We cannot derive Hebrew from Sanscrit, or Sanscrit from +Hebrew; but we can well understand how both may have proceeded from one +common source. They are both channels supplied from one river, and they +carry, though not always on the surface, floating materials of language +which challenge comparison, and have already yielded satisfactory +results to careful analyzers." ("Outlines of Philosophy of History," +vol. i., p. 475.) + +There was an ancient tradition among the Persians that the Phoenicians +migrated from the shores of the Erythræan Sea, and this has been +supposed to mean the Persian Gulf; but there was a very old city of +Erythia, in utter ruin in the time of Strabo, which was built in some +ancient age, long before the founding of Gades, near the site of that +town, on the Atlantic coast of Spain. May not this town of Erythia have +given its name to the adjacent sea? And this may have been the +starting-point of the Phoenicians in their European migrations. It would +even appear that there was an island of Erythea. In the Greek mythology +the tenth labor of Hercules consisted in driving away the cattle of +Geryon, who lived in the island of Erythea, "an island somewhere in the +remote west, beyond the Pillars of Hercules." (Murray's "Mythology," p. +257.) Hercules stole the cattle from this remote oceanic island, and, +returning drove them "through Iberia, Gaul, over the Alps, and through +Italy." (Ibid.) It is probable that a people emigrating from the +Erythræan Sea, that is, from the Atlantic, first gave their name to a +town on the coast of Spain, and at a later date to the Persian Gulf--as +we have seen the name of York carried from England to the banks of the +Hudson, and then to the Arctic Circle. + +The builders of the Central American cities are reported to have been a +bearded race. The Phoenicians, in common with the Indians, practised +human sacrifices to a great extent; they worshipped fire and water, +adopted the names of the animals whose skins they wore--that is to say, +they had the totemic system--telegraphed by means of fires, poisoned +their arrows, offered peace before beginning battle, and used drums. +(Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. v., p. 77.) + +The extent of country covered by the commerce of the Phoenicians +represents to some degree the area of the old Atlantean Empire. Their +colonies and trading-posts extended east and west from the shores of the +Black Sea, through the Mediterranean to the west coast of Africa and of +Spain, and around to Ireland and England; while from north to south they +ranged from the Baltic to the Persian Gulf. They touched every point +where civilization in later ages made its appearance. Strabo estimated +that they had three hundred cities along the west coast of Africa. When +Columbus sailed to discover a new world, or re-discover an old one, he +took his departure from a Phoenician seaport, founded by that great race +two thousand five hundred years previously. This Atlantean sailor, with +his Phoenician features, sailing from an Atlantean port, simply re-opened +the path of commerce and colonization which had been closed when Plato's +island sunk in the sea. And it is a curious fact that Columbus had the +antediluvian world in his mind's eye even then, for when he reached the +mouth of the Orinoco he thought it was the river Gihon, that flowed out +of Paradise, and he wrote home to Spain, "There are here great +indications suggesting the proximity of the earthly Paradise, for not +only does it correspond in mathematical position with the opinions of +the holy and learned theologians, but all other signs concur to make it +probable." + +Sanchoniathon claims that the learning of Egypt, Greece, and Judæa was +derived from the Phoenicians. It would appear probable that, while other +races represent the conquests or colonizations of Atlantis, the +Phoenicians succeeded to their arts, sciences, and especially their +commercial supremacy; and hence the close resemblances which we have +found to exist between the Hebrews, a branch of the Phoenician stock, and +the people of America. + + Upon the Syrian sea the people live + Who style themselves Phoenicians.... + These were the first great founders of the world-- + Founders of cities and of mighty states-- + Who showed a path through seas before unknown. + In the first ages, when the sons of men + Knew not which way to turn them, they assigned + To each his first department; they bestowed + Of land a portion and of sea a lot, + And sent each wandering tribe far off to share + A different soil and climate. Hence arose + The great diversity, so plainly seen, + 'Mid nations widely severed. + + Dyonysius of Susiana, A.D. 3. + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE GOD ODIN, WODEN, OR WOTAN. + +In the Scandinavian mythology the chief god was Odin, the Woden, Wotan, +or Wuotan of the Germans. He is represented with many of the attributes +of the Greek god Zeus, and is supposed by some to be identical with him. +He dwelt with the twelve Æsir, or gods, upon Asgard, the Norse Olympus, +which arose out of Midgard, a land half-way between the regions of frost +and fire (to wit, in a temperate climate). The Scandinavian Olympus was +probably Atlantis. Odin is represented as a grave-looking elderly man +with a long beard, carrying in his hand a spear, and accompanied by two +dogs and two ravens. He was the father of poetry, and the inventor of +Runic writing. + +The Chiapenese of Central America (the people whose language we have +seen furnishing such remarkable resemblances to Hebrew) claim to have +been the first people of the New World. Clavigero tells us ("Hist. +Antiq. del Messico," Eng. trans., 1807, vol. i.) that according to the +traditions of the Chiapenese there was a Votan who was the grandson of +the man who built the ark to save himself and family from the Deluge; he +was one of those who undertook to build the tower that should reach to +heaven. The Lord ordered him to people America. "He came from the +East." He brought seven families with him. He had been preceded in +America by two others, Igh and Imox. He built a great city in America +called "Nachan," City of the Serpents (the serpent that tempted Eve was +Nahash), from his own race, which was named Chan, a serpent. This Nachan +is supposed to have been Palenque. The date of his journey is placed in +the legends in the year 3000 of the world, and in the tenth century B.C. +He also founded three tributary monarchies, whose capitals were Tulan, +Mayapan, and Chiquimala. He wrote a book containing a history of his +deeds, and proofs that he belonged to the tribe of Chanes (serpents). He +states that "he is the third of the Votans; that he conducted seven +families from Valum-Votan to this continent, and assigned lands to them; +that he determined to travel until he came to the root of heaven and +found his relations, the Culebres, and made himself known to them; that +he accordingly made four voyages to Chivim; that he arrived in Spain; +that he went to Rome; that he saw the house of God building; that he +went by the road which his brethren, the Culebres, had bored; that he +marked it, and that he passed by the houses of the thirteen Culebres. He +relates that, in returning from one of his voyages, he found seven other +families of the Tzequil nation who had joined the first inhabitants, and +recognized in them the same origin as his own, that is, of the Culebres; +he speaks of the place where they built the first town, which from its +founders received the name of Tzequil; he affirms that, having taught +them the refinement of manners in the use of the table, table-cloths, +dishes, basins, cups, and napkins, they taught him the knowledge of God +and his worship; his first ideas of a king, and obedience to him; that +he was chosen captain of all these united families." + +It is probable that Spain and Rome are interpolations. Cabrera claims +that the Votanites were Carthaginians. He thinks the Chivim of Votan +were the Hivim, or Givim, who were descended of Heth, son of Canaan, +Phoenicians; they were the builders of Accaron, Azotus, Ascalon, and +Gaza. The Scriptures refer to them as Hivites (Givim) in Deuteronomy +(chap. ii., verse 32), and Joshua (chap. xiii., verse 4). He claims that +Cadmus and his wife Hermione were of this stock; and according to Ovid +they were metamorphosed into snakes (Culebres). The name Hivites in +Phoenician signifies a snake. + +Votan may not, possibly, have passed into Europe; he may have travelled +altogether in Africa. His singular allusion to "a way which the Culebres +had bored" seems at first inexplicable; but Dr. Livingstone's last +letters, published 8th November, 1869, in the "Proceedings of the Royal +Geographical Society," mention that "tribes live in underground houses +in Rua. Some excavations are said to be thirty miles long, and have +running rills in them; a whole district can stand a siege in them. The +'writings' therein, I have been told by some of the people, are drawings +of animals, and not letters; otherwise I should have gone to see them. +People very dark, well made, and outer angle of eyes slanting inward." + +And Captain Grant, who accompanied Captain Speke in his famous +exploration of the sources of the Nile, tells of a tunnel or subway +under the river Kaoma, on the highway between Loowemba and Marunga, near +Lake Tanganyika. His guide Manna describes it to him: + +"I asked Manna if he had ever seen any country resembling it. His reply +was, 'This country reminds me of what I saw in the country to the south +of the Lake Tanganyika, when travelling with an Arab's caravan from +Unjanyembeh. There is a river there called the Kaoma, running into the +lake, the sides of which are similar in precipitousness to the rocks +before us.' I then asked, 'Do the people cross this river in boats?' +'No; they have no boats; and even if they had, the people could not +land, as the sides are too steep: they pass underneath the river by a +natural tunnel, or subway.' He and all his party went through it on +their way from Loowemba to Ooroongoo, and returned by it. He described +its length as having taken them from sunrise till noon to pass through +it, and so high that, if mounted upon camels, they could not touch the +top. Tall reeds, the thickness of a walking-stick, grew inside, the road +was strewed with white pebbles, and so wide--four hundred yards--that +they could see their way tolerably well while passing through it. The +rocks looked as if they had been planed by artificial means. Water never +came through from the river overhead; it was procured by digging wells. +Manna added that the people of Wambweh take shelter in this tunnel, and +live there with their families and cattle, when molested by the Watuta, +a warlike race, descended from the Zooloo Kafirs." + +But it is interesting to find in this book of Votan, however little +reliance we may place in its dates or details, evidence that there was +actual intercourse between the Old World and the New in remote ages. + +Humboldt remarks: + +"We have fixed the special attention of our readers upon this Votan, or +Wodan, an American who appears of the same family with the Wods or Odins +of the Goths and of the people of Celtic origin. Since, according to the +learned researches of Sir William Jones, Odin and Buddha are probably +the same person, it is curious to see the names of Bondvar, Wodansday, +and Votan designating in India, Scandinavia, and in Mexico the day of a +brief period." ("Vues des Cordilleras," p. 148, ed. 1810.) + +There are many things to connect the mythology of the Gothic nations +with Atlantis; they had, as we have seen, flood legends; their gods +Krodo and Satar were the Chronos and Saturn of Atlantis; their Baal was +the Bel of the Phoenicians, who were closely connected with Poseidon and +Atlas; and, as we shall see hereafter, their language has a distinct +relationship with the tongues of the Arabians, Cushites, Chaldeans, and +Phoenicians. + +CHAPTER V. + +THE PYRAMID, THE CROSS, AND THE GARDEN OF EDEN. + +No fact is better established than the reverence shown to the sign of +the Cross in all the ages prior to Christianity. We cannot do better +than quote from an able article in the Edinburgh Review of July, 1870, +upon this question: + +"From the dawn of organized Paganism in the Eastern world to the final +establishment of Christianity in the Western, the Cross was undoubtedly +one of the commonest and most sacred of symbolical monuments; and, to a +remarkable extent, it is so still in almost every land where that of +Calvary is unrecognized or unknown. Apart from any distinctions of +social or intellectual superiority, of caste, color, nationality, or +location in either hemisphere, it appears to have been the aboriginal +possession of every people in antiquity--the elastic girdle, so to say, +which embraced the most widely separated heathen communities--the most +significant token of a universal brotherhood, to which all the families +of mankind were severally and irresistibly drawn, and by which their +common descent was emphatically expressed, or by means of which each and +all preserved, amid every vicissitude of fortune, a knowledge of the +primeval happiness and dignity of their species. Where authentic history +is silent on the subject, the material relics of past and long since +forgotten races are not wanting to confirm and strengthen this +supposition. Diversified forms of the symbol are delineated more or less +artistically, according to the progress achieved in civilization at the +period, on the ruined walls of temples and palaces, on natural rocks and +sepulchral galleries, on the hoariest monoliths and the rudest statuary; +on coins, medals, and vases of every description; and, in not a few +instances, are preserved in the architectural proportions of +subterranean as well as superterranean structures, of tumuli as well as +fanes. The extraordinary sanctity attaching to the symbol, in every age +and under every variety of circumstance, justified any expenditure +incurred in its fabrication or embellishment; hence the most persistent +labor, the most consummate ingenuity, were lavished upon it. Populations +of essentially different culture, tastes, and pursuits--the +highly-civilized and the demi-civilized, the settled and nomadic--vied +with each other in their efforts to extend the knowledge of its +exceptional import and virtue among their latest posterities. The +marvellous rock-hewn caves of Elephanta and Ellora, and the stately +temples of Mathura and Terputty, in the East, may be cited as +characteristic examples of one laborious method of exhibiting it; and +the megalithic structures of Callernish and Newgrange, in the West, of +another; while a third may be instanced in the great temple at Mitzla, +'the City of the Moon,' in Ojaaca, Central America, also excavated in +the living rock, and manifesting the same stupendous labor and ingenuity +as are observable in the cognate caverns of Salsette--of endeavors, we +repeat, made by peoples as intellectually as geographically distinct, +and followers withal of independent and unassociated deities, to magnify +and perpetuate some grand primeval symbol.... + +"Of the several varieties of the Cross still in vogue, as national or +ecclesiastical emblems, in this and other European states, and +distinguished by the familiar appellations of St. George, St. Andrew, +the Maltese, the Greek, the Latin, etc., etc., there is not one among +them the existence of which may not be traced to the remotest antiquity. +They were the common property of the Eastern nations. No revolution or +other casualty has wrought any perceptible difference in their several +forms or delineations; they have passed from one hemisphere to the other +intact; have survived dynasties, empires, and races; have been borne on +the crest of each successive wave of Aryan population in its course +toward the West; and, having been reconsecrated in later times by their +lineal descendants, are still recognized as military and national badges +of distinction.... + +"Among the earliest known types is the crux ansata, vulgarly called 'the +key of the Nile,' because of its being found sculptured or otherwise +represented so frequently upon Egyptian and Coptic monuments. It has, +however, a very much older and more sacred signification than this. It +was the symbol of symbols, the mystical Tau, 'the hidden wisdom,' not +only of the ancient Egyptians but also of the Chaldeans, Phoenicians, +Mexicans, Peruvians, and of every other ancient people commemorated in +history, in either hemisphere, and is formed very similarly to our +letter T, with a roundlet, or oval, placed immediately above it. Thus it +was figured on the gigantic emerald or glass statue of Serapis, which +was transported (293 B.C.) by order of Ptolemy Soter from Sinope, on the +southern shores of the Black Sea, re-erected within that famous +labyrinth which encompassed the banks of Lake Moeris, and destroyed by +the victorious army of Theodosius (A.D. 389), despite the earnest +entreaties of the Egyptian priesthood to spare it, because it was the +emblem of their god and of 'the life to come.' Sometimes, as may be seen +on the breast of an Egyptian mummy in the museum of the London +University, the simple T only is planted on the frustum of a cone; and +sometimes it is represented as springing from a heart; in the first +instance signifying goodness; in the second, hope or expectation of +reward. As in the oldest temples and catacombs of Egypt, so this type +likewise abounds in the ruined cities of Mexico and Central America, +graven as well upon the most ancient cyclopean and polygonal walls as +upon the more modern and perfect examples of masonry; and is displayed +in an equally conspicuous manner upon the breasts of innumerable bronze +statuettes which have been recently disinterred from the cemetery of +Juigalpa (of unknown antiquity) in Nicaragua." + +When the Spanish missionaries first set foot upon the soil of America, +in the fifteenth century, they were amazed to find the Cross was as +devoutly worshipped by the red Indians as by themselves, and were in +doubt whether to ascribe the fact to the pious labors of St. Thomas or +to the cunning device of the Evil One. The hallowed symbol challenged +their attention on every hand and in almost every variety of form. It +appeared on the bass-reliefs of ruined and deserted as well as on those +of inhabited palaces, and was the most conspicuous ornament in the great +temple of Gozumel, off the coast of Yucatan. According to the particular +locality, and the purpose which it served, it was formed of various +materials--of marble and gypsum in the open spaces of cities and by the +way-side; of wood in the teocallis or chapels on pyramidal summits and +in subterranean sanctuaries; and of emerald or jasper in the palaces of +kings and nobles. + +When we ask the question how it comes that the sign of the Cross has +thus been reverenced from the highest antiquity by the races of the Old +and New Worlds, we learn that it is a reminiscence of the Garden of +Eden, in other words, of Atlantis. + +Professor Hardwicke says: + +"All these and similar traditions are but mocking satires of the old +Hebrew story--jarred and broken notes of the same strain; but with all +their exaggerations they intimate how in the background of man's vision +lay a paradise of holy joy--a paradise secured from every kind of +profanation, and made inaccessible to the guilty; a paradise full of +objects that were calculated to delight the senses and to elevate the +mind, a paradise that granted to its tenant rich and rare immunities, and +that fed with its perennial streams the tree of life and immortality." + +To quote again from the writer in the Edinburgh Review, already cited; + +"Its undoubted antiquity, no less than its extraordinary diffusion, +evidences that it must have been, as it may be said to be still in +unchristianized lands, emblematical of some fundamental doctrine or +mystery. The reader will not have failed to observe that it is most +usually associated with water; it was 'the key of the Nile,' that +mystical instrument by means of which, in the popular judgment of his +Egyptian devotees, Osiris produced the annual revivifying inundations of +the sacred stream; it is discernible in that mysterious pitcher or vase +portrayed on the brazen table of Bembus, before-mentioned, with its four +lips discharging as many streams of water in opposite directions; it was +the emblem of the water-deities of the Babylonians in the East and of +the Gothic nations in the West, as well as that of the rain-deities +respectively of the mixed population in America. We have seen with what +peculiar rites the symbol was honored by those widely separated races in +the western hemisphere; and the monumental slabs of Nineveh, now in the +museums of London and Paris, show us how it was similarly honored by the +successors of the Chaldees in the eastern.... + + ANCIENT IRISH CROSS--PRE-CHRISTIAN--KILNABOY. + +"In Egypt, Assyria, and Britain it was emblematical of creative power +and eternity; in India, China, and Scandinavia, of heaven and +immortality; in the two Americas, of rejuvenescence and freedom from +physical suffering; while in both hemispheres it was the common symbol +of the resurrection, or 'the sign of the life to come;' and, finally, in +all heathen communities, without exception, it was the emphatic type, +the sole enduring evidence, of the Divine Unity. This circumstance alone +determines its extreme antiquity--an antiquity, in all likelihood, long +antecedent to the foundation of either of the three great systems of +religion in the East. And, lastly, we have seen how, as a rule, it is +found in conjunction with a stream or streams of water, with exuberant +vegetation, and with a hill or a mountainous region--in a word, with a +land of beauty, fertility, and joy. Thus it was expressed upon those +circular and sacred cakes of the Egyptians, composed of the richest +materials--of flour, of honey, of milk--and with which the serpent and +bull, as well as other reptiles and beasts consecrated to the service of +Isis and their higher divinities, were daily fed; and upon certain +festivals were eaten with extraordinary ceremony by the people and their +priests. 'The cross-cake,' says Sir Gardner Wilkinson, 'was their +hieroglyph for civilized land;' obviously a land superior to their own, +as it was, indeed, to all other mundane territories; for it was that +distant, traditional country of sempiternal contentment and repose, of +exquisite delight and serenity, where Nature, unassisted by man, +produces all that is necessary for his sustentation." + +And this land was the Garden of Eden of our race. This was the Olympus +of the Greeks, where + + "This same mild season gives the blooms to blow, + The buds to harden and the fruits to grow." + +In the midst of it was a sacred and glorious eminence--the umbilicus +orbis terrarum--"toward which the heathen in all parts of the world, and +in all ages, turned a wistful gaze in every act of devotion, and to +which they hoped to be admitted, or, rather, to be restored, at the +close of this transitory scene." + +In this "glorious eminence" do we not see Plato's mountain in the middle +of Atlantis, as he describes it: + +"Near the plain and in the centre of the island there was a mountain, +not very high on any side. In this mountain there dwelt one of the +earth-born primeval men of that country, whose name was Evenor, and he +had a wife named Leucippe, and they had an only daughter, who was named +Cleito. Poseidon married her. He enclosed the hill in which she dwelt +all around, making alternate zones of sea and land, larger and smaller, +encircling one another; there were two of land and three of water ... +so that no man could get to the island.... He brought streams of +water under the earth to this mountain-island, and made all manner of +food to grow upon it. This island became the seat of Atlas, the +over-king of the whole island; upon it they built the great temple of +their nation; they continued to ornament it in successive generations, +every king surpassing the one who came before him to the utmost of his +power, until they made the building a marvel to behold for size and +beauty.... And they had such an amount of wealth as was never before +possessed by kings and potentates--as is not likely ever to be again." + +The gardens of Alcinous and Laertes, of which we read in Homeric song, +and those of Babylon, were probably transcripts of Atlantis. "The sacred +eminence in the midst of a superabundant, happy region figures more or +less distinctly in almost every mythology, ancient or modern. It was the +Mesomphalos of the earlier Greeks, and the Omphalium of the Cretans, +dominating the Elysian fields, upon whose tops, bathed in pure, +brilliant, incomparable light, the gods passed their days in ceaseless +joys." + +"The Buddhists and Brahmans, who together constitute nearly half the +population of the world, tell us that the decussated figure (the cross), +whether in a simple or a complex form, symbolizes the traditional happy +abode of their primeval ancestors--that 'Paradise of Eden toward the +East,' as we find expressed in the Hebrew. And, let us ask, what better +picture, or more significant characters, in the complicated alphabet of +symbolism, could have been selected for the purpose than a circle and a +cross: the one to denote a region of absolute purity and perpetual +felicity; the other, those four perennial streams that divided and +watered the several quarters of it?" (Edinburgh Review, January, 1870.) + +And when we turn to the mythology of the Greeks, we find that the origin +of the world was ascribed to Okeanos, the ocean. The world was at first +an island surrounded by the ocean, as by a great stream: + +"It was a region of wonders of all kinds; Okeanos lived there with his +wife Tethys: these were the Islands of the Blessed, the gardens of the +gods, the sources of nectar and ambrosia, on which the gods lived. +Within this circle of water the earth lay spread out like a disk, with +mountains rising from it, and the vault of heaven appearing to rest upon +its outer edge all around." (Murray's "Mannal of Mythology," pp. 23, 24, +et seq.) + +On the mountains dwelt the gods; they had palaces on these mountains, +with store-rooms, stabling, etc. + +"The Gardens of the Hesperides, with their golden apples, were believed +to exist in some island of the ocean, or, as it was sometimes thought, +in the islands off the north or west coast of Africa. They were far +famed in antiquity; for it was there that springs of nectar flowed by +the couch of Zeus, and there that the earth displayed the rarest +blessings of the gods; it was another Eden." (Ibid., p. 156.) + +Homer described it in these words: + + "Stern winter smiles on that auspicious clime, + The fields are florid with unfading prime, + From the bleak pole no winds inclement blow. + Mould the round hail, or flake the fleecy snow; + But from the breezy deep the blessed inhale + The fragrant murmurs of the western gale." + +"It was the sacred Asgard of the Scandinavians, springing from the +centre of a fruitful land, which was watered by four primeval rivers of +milk, severally flowing in the direction of the cardinal points, 'the +abode of happiness, and the height of bliss.' It is the Tien-Chan, 'the +celestial mountain-land, ... the enchanted gardens' of the Chinese and +Tartars, watered by the four perennial fountains of Tychin, or +Immortality; it is the hill-encompassed Ilá of the Singhalese and +Thibetians, 'the everlasting dwelling-place of the wise and just.' It is +the Sineru of the Buddhist, on the summit of which is Tawrutisa, the +habitation of Sekrá, the supreme god, from which proceed the four sacred +streams, running in as many contrary directions. + +It is the Slávratta, 'the celestial earth,' of the Hindoo, the summit of +his golden mountain Meru, the city of Brahma, in the centre of +Jambadwípa, and from the four sides of which gush forth the four +primeval rivers, reflecting in their passage the colorific glories of +their source, and severally flowing northward, southward, eastward, and +westward." + +It is the Garden of Eden of the Hebrews: + +"And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put +the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to +grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the +tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge +of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and +from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the +first is Pison; that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, +where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good: there is +bdellium and the onyx stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon: +the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name +of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east +of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates. And the Lord God took the +man and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it." +(Gen. ii., 8-1-5.) + +As the four rivers named in Genesis are not branches of any one stream, +and head in very different regions, it is evident that there was an +attempt, on the part of the writer of the Book, to adapt an ancient +tradition concerning another country to the known features of the region +in which he dwelt. + +Josephus tells us (chap. i., p. 41), "Now the garden (of Eden) was +watered by one river, which ran round about the whole earth, and was +parted into four parts." Here in the four parts we see the origin of the +Cross, while in the river running around the whole earth we have the +wonderful canal of Atlantis, described by Plato, which was "carried +around the whole of the plain," and received the streams which came down +from the mountains. The streams named by Josephus would seem to +represent the migrations of people from Atlantis to its colonies. +"Phison," he tells us, "denotes a multitude; it ran into India; the +Euphrates and Tigris go down into the Red Sea while the Geon runs +through Egypt." + +We are further told (chap. ii., p. 42) that when Cain, after the murder +of Abel, left the land of Adam, "he travelled over many countries" +before he reached the land of Nod; and the land of Nod was to the +eastward of Adam's home. In other words, the original seat of mankind +was in the West, that is to say, in the direction of Atlantis. Wilson +tells us that the Aryans of India believed that they originally came +"from the West." Thus the nations on the west of the Atlantic look to +the east for their place of origin; while on the east of the Atlantic +they look to the west: thus all the lines of tradition converge upon +Atlantis. + +But here is the same testimony that in the Garden of Eden there were +four rivers radiating from one parent stream. And these four rivers, as +we have seen, we find in the Scandinavian traditions, and in the legends +of the Chinese, the Tartars, the Singhalese, the Thibetians, the +Buddhists, the Hebrews, and the Brahmans. + +And not only do we find this tradition of the Garden of Eden in the Old +World, but it meets us also among the civilized races of America. The +elder Montezuma said to Cortez, "Our fathers dwelt in that happy and +prosperous place which they called Aztlan, which means whiteness.... +In this place there is a great mountain in the middle of the water which +is called Culhuacan, because it has the point somewhat turned over +toward the bottom; and for this cause it is called Culhuacan, which +means 'crooked mountain.'" He then proceeds to describe the charms of +this favored land, abounding in birds, game, fish, trees, "fountains +enclosed with elders and junipers, and alder-trees both large and +beautiful." The people planted "maize, red peppers, tomatoes, beans, and +all kinds of plants, in furrows." + +Here we have the same mountain in the midst of the water which Plato +describes--the same mountain to which all the legends of the most +ancient races of Europe refer. + +The inhabitants of Aztlan were boatmen. (Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. +v., p. 325.) E. G. Squier, in his "Notes on Central America," p. 349, +says, "It is a significant fact that in the map of their migrations, +presented by Gemelli, the place of the origin of the Aztecs is +designated by the sign of water, Atl standing for Atzlan, a pyramidal +temple with grades, and near these a palm-tree." This circumstance did +not escape the attention of Humboldt, who says, "I am astonished at +finding a palm-tree near this teocalli. This tree certainly does not +indicate a northern origin.... The possibility that an unskilful +artist should unintentionally represent a tree of which he had no +knowledge is so great, that any argument dependent on it hangs upon a +slender thread." ("North Americans of Antiquity," p. 266.) + +The Miztecs, a tribe dwelling on the outskirts of Mexico, had a +tradition that the gods, "in the day of obscurity and darkness," built +"a sumptuous palace, a masterpiece of skill, in which they made their +abode upon a mountain. The rock was called 'The Place of Heaven;' there +the gods first abode on earth, living many years in great rest and +content, as in a happy and delicious land, though the world still lay in +obscurity and darkness. The children of these gods made to themselves a +garden, in which they put many trees, and fruit-trees, and flowers, and +roses, and odorous herbs. Subsequently there came a great deluge, in +which many of the sons and daughters of the gods perished." (Bancroft's +"Native Races," vol. iii., p. 71.) Here we have a distinct reference to +Olympus, the Garden of Plato, and the destruction of Atlantis. + +And in Plato's account of Atlantis we have another description of the +Garden of Eden and the Golden Age of the world: + +"Also, whatever fragrant things there are in the earth, whether roots, +or herbage, or woods, or distilling drops of flowers and fruits, grew +and thrived in that land; and again the cultivated fruits of the earth, +both the edible fruits and other species of food which we call by the +name of legumes, and the fruits having a hard rind, affording drinks and +meats and ointments ... all these that sacred island, lying beneath +the sun, brought forth in abundance.... For many generations, as long +as the divine nature lasted in them, they were obedient to the laws, and +well affectioned toward the gods, who were their kinsmen; for they +possessed true and in every way great spirits, practising gentleness and +wisdom in the various chances of life, and in their intercourse with one +another. They despised everything but virtue, not caring for their +present state of life, and thinking lightly of the possession of gold +and other property, which seemed only a burden to them; neither were +they intoxicated by luxury; nor did wealth deprive them of their +self-control; but they were sober, and saw clearly that all these goods +were increased by virtuous friendship with one another, and that by +excessive zeal for them, and honor of them, the good of them is lost, +and friendship perishes with them." + +All this cannot be a mere coincidence; it points to a common tradition +of a veritable land, where four rivers flowed down in opposite +directions from a central mountain-peak. And these four rivers, flowing +to the north, south, east, and west, constitute the origin of that sign +of the Cross which we have seen meeting us at every point among the +races who were either descended from the people of Atlantis, or who, by +commerce and colonization, received their opinions and civilization from +them. + +Let us look at the question of the identity of the Garden of Eden with +Atlantis from another point of view: + +If the alphabet of the Phoenicians is kindred with the Maya alphabet, as +I think is clear, then the Phoenicians were of the same race, or of some +race with which the Mayas were connected; in other words, they were from +Atlantis. + +Now we know that the Phoenicians and Hebrews were of the same stock, used +the same alphabet, and spoke almost precisely the same language. + +The Phoenicians preserved traditions, which have come down to us in the +writings, of Sanchoniathon, of all the great essential inventions or +discoveries which underlie civilization. The first two human beings, +they tell us, were Protogonos and Aion (Adam and 'Havath), who produce +Genos and Genea (Qên and Qênath), from whom again are descended three +brothers, named Phos, Phur, and Phlox (Light, Fire, and Flame), because +they "have discovered how to produce fire by the friction of two pieces +of wood, and have taught the use of this element." In another fragment, +at the origin of the human race we see in succession the fraternal +couples of Autochthon and Technites (Adam and Quen--Cain?), inventors of +the manufacture of bricks; Agros and Agrotes (Sade and Cêd), fathers of +the agriculturists and hunters; then Amynos and Magos, "who taught to +dwell in villages and rear flocks." + +The connection between these Atlantean traditions and the Bible record +is shown in many things. For instance, "the Greek text, in expressing +the invention of Amynos, uses the words kw'mas kai` poi'mnas, which are +precisely the same as the terms ôhel umiqneh, which the Bible uses in +speaking of the dwellings of the descendants of Jabal (Gen., chap. iv., +v. 20). In like manner Lamech, both in the signification of his name and +also in the savage character attributed to him by the legend attached to +his memory, is a true synonyme of Agrotes." + +"And the title of A?lh~tai, given to Agros and Agrotes in the Greek of +the Phoenician history, fits in wonderfully with the physiognomy of the +race of the Cainites in the Bible narrative, whether we take a?lh~tai +simply as a Hellenized transcription of the Semitic Elim, 'the strong, +the mighty,' or whether we take it in its Greek acceptation, 'the +wanderers;' for such is the destiny of Cain and his race according to +the very terms of the condemnation which was inflicted upon him after +his crime (Gen. iv., 14), and this is what is signified by the name of +his grandson 'Yirad. Only, in Sanchoniathon the genealogy does not end +with Amynos and Magos, as that of the Cainites in the Bible does with +the three sons of Lamech. These two personages are succeeded by Misôr +and Sydyk, 'the released and the just,' as Sanchoniathon translates +them, but rather the 'upright and the just' (Mishôr and Çüdüq), 'who +invent the use of salt.' To Misôr is born Taautos (Taût), to whom we owe +letters; and to Sydyk the Cabiri or Corybantes, the institutors of +navigation." (Lenormant, "Genealogies between Adam and the Deluge." +Contemporary Review, April, 1880.) + +We have, also, the fact that the Phoenician name for their goddess +Astynome (Ashtar No'emâ), whom the Greeks called Nemaun, was the same as +the name of the sister of the three sons of Lamech, as given in +Genesis--Na'emah, or Na'amah. + +If, then, the original seat of the Hebrews and Phoenicians was the Garden +of Eden, to the west of Europe, and if the Phoenicians are shown to be +connected, through their alphabets, with the Central Americans, who +looked to an island in the sea, to the eastward, as their +starting-point, the conclusion becomes irresistible that Atlantis and +the Garden of Eden were one and the same. + +The Pyramid.--Not only are the Cross and the Garden of Eden identified +with Atlantis, but in Atlantis, the habitation of the gods, we find the +original model of all those pyramids which extend from India to Peru. + +This singular architectural construction dates back far beyond the birth +of history. In the Purânas of the Hindoos we read of pyramids long +anterior in time to any which have survived to our day. Cheops was +preceded by a countless host of similar erections which have long since +mouldered into ruins. + +If the reader will turn to page 104 of this work he will see, in the +midst of the picture of Aztlan, the starting-point of the Aztecs, +according to the Botturini pictured writing, a pyramid with worshippers +kneeling before it. + +Fifty years ago Mr. Faber, in his "Origin of Pagan Idolatry," placed +artificial tumuli, pyramids, and pagodas in the same category, +conceiving that all were transcripts of the holy mountain which was +generally supposed to have stood in the centre of Eden; or, rather, as +intimated in more than one place by the Psalmist, the garden itself was +situated on an eminence. (Psalms, chap. iii., v. 4, and chap. lxviii., +vs. 15, 16, 18.) + +The pyramid is one of the marvellous features of that problem which +confronts us everywhere, and which is insoluble without Atlantis. + +The Arabian traditions linked the pyramid with the Flood. In a +manuscript preserved in the Bodleian Library, and translated by Dr. +Sprenger, Abou Balkhi says: + +"The wise men, previous to the Flood, foreseeing an impending Judgment +from heaven, either by submersion or fire, which would destroy every +created thing, built upon the tops of the mountains in Upper Egypt many +pyramids of stone, in order to have some refuge against the approaching +calamity. Two of these buildings exceeded the rest in height, being four +hundred cubits high and as many broad and as many long. They were built +with large blocks of marble, and they were so well put together that the +joints were scarcely perceptible. Upon the exterior of the building +every charm and wonder of physic was inscribed." + +This tradition locates these monster structures upon the mountains of +Upper Egypt, but there are no buildings of such dimensions to be found +anywhere in Egypt. Is it not probable that we have here another +reference to the great record preserved in the land of the Deluge? Were +not the pyramids of Egypt and America imitations of similar structures +in Atlantis? Might not the building of such a gigantic edifice have +given rise to the legends existing on both continents in regard to a +Tower of Babel? + +How did the human mind hit upon this singular edifice--the pyramid? By +what process of development did it reach it? Why should these +extraordinary structures crop out on the banks of the Nile, and amid the +forests and plains of America? And why, in both countries, should they +stand with their sides square to the four cardinal points of the +compass? Are they in this, too, a reminiscence of the Cross, and of the +four rivers of Atlantis that ran to the north, south, east, and west? + +"There is yet a third combination that demands a specific notice. The +decussated symbol is not unfrequently planted upon what Christian +archæologists designate 'a calvary,' that is, upon a mount or a cone. +Thus it is represented in both hemispheres. The megalithic structure of +Callernish, in the island of Lewis before mentioned, is the most perfect +example of the practice extant in Europe. The mount is preserved to this +day. This, to be brief, was the recognized conventional mode of +expressing a particular primitive truth or mystery from the days of the +Chaldeans to those of the Gnostics, or from one extremity of the +civilized world to the other. It is seen in the treatment of the ash +Yggdrasill of the Scandinavians, as well as in that of the Bo-tree of +the Buddhists. The prototype was not the Egyptian, but the Babylonian +crux ansata, the lower member of which constitutes a conical support for +the oval or sphere above it. With the Gnostics, who occupied the +debatable ground between primitive Christianity and philosophic +paganism, and who inscribed it upon their tombs, the cone symbolized +death as well as life. In every heathen mythology it was the universal +emblem of the goddess or mother of heaven, by whatsoever name she was +addressed--whether as Mylitta, Astarte, Aphrodite, Isis, Mata, or Venus; +and the several eminences consecrated to her worship were, like those +upon which Jupiter was originally adored, of a conical or pyramidal +shape. This, too, is the ordinary form of the altars dedicated to the +Assyrian god of fertility. In exceptional instances the cone is +introduced upon one or the other of the sides, or is distinguishable in +the always accompanying mystical tree." (Edinburgh Review, July, 1870.) + +If the reader will again turn to page 104 of this work he will see that +the tree appears on the top of the pyramid or mountain in both the Aztec +representations of Aztlan, the original island-home of the Central +American races. + +The writer just quoted believes that Mr. Faber is correct in his opinion +that the pyramid is a transcript of the sacred mountain which stood in +the midst of Eden, the Olympus of Atlantis. He adds: + +"Thomas Maurice, who is no mean authority, held the same view. He +conceived the use to which pyramids in particular were anciently applied +to have been threefold--namely, as tombs, temples, and observatories; and +this view he labors to establish in the third volume of his 'Indian +Antiquities.' Now, whatever may be their actual date, or with whatsoever +people they may have originated, whether in Africa or Asia, in the lower +valley of the Nile or in the plains of Chaldea, the pyramids of Egypt +were unquestionably destined to very opposite purposes. According to +Herodotus, they were introduced by the Hyksos; and Proclus, the Platonic +philosopher, connects them with the science of astronomy--a science +which, he adds, the Egyptians derived from the Chaldeans. Hence we may +reasonably infer that they served as well for temples for planetary +worship as for observatories. Subsequently to the descent of the +shepherds, their hallowed precincts were invaded by royalty, from +motives of pride and superstition; and the principal chamber in each was +used as tombs." + +The pyramidal imitations, dear to the hearts of colonists of the sacred +mountain upon which their gods dwelt, was devoted, as perhaps the +mountain itself was, to sun and fire worship. The same writer says: + +"That Sabian worship once extensively prevailed in the New World is a +well-authenticated fact; it is yet practised to some extent by the +wandering tribes on the Northern continent, and was the national +religion of the Peruvians at the time of the Conquest. That it was also +the religion of their more highly civilized predecessors on the soil, +south of the equator more especially, is evidenced by the remains of +fire-altars, both round and square, scattered about the shores of lakes +Umayu and Titicaca, and which are the counterparts of the Gueber dokh +mehs overhanging the Caspian Sea. Accordingly, we find, among these and +other vestiges of antiquity that indissolubly connected those long-since +extinct populations in the New with the races of the Old World, the +well-defined symbol of the Maltese Cross. On the Mexican feroher before +alluded to, and which is most elaborately carved in bass-relief on a +massive piece of polygonous granite, constituting a portion of a +cyclopean wall, the cross is enclosed within the ring, and accompanying +it are four tassel-like ornaments, graved equally well. Those +accompaniments, however, are disposed without any particular regard to +order, but the four arms of the cross, nevertheless, severally and +accurately point to the cardinal quarters. The same regularity is +observable on a much smaller but not less curious monument, which was +discovered some time since in an ancient Peruvian huaca or +catacomb--namely, a syrinx or pandean pipe, cut out of a solid mass of +lapis ollaris, the sides of which are profusely ornamented, not only +with Maltese crosses, but also with other symbols very similar in style +to those inscribed on the obelisks of Egypt and on the monoliths of this +country. The like figure occurs on the equally ancient Otrusco black +pottery. But by far the most remarkable example of this form of the +Cross in the New World is that which appears on a second type of the +Mexican feroher, engraved on a tablet of gypsum, and which is described +at length by its discoverer, Captain du Paix, and depicted by his +friend, M. Baradère. Here the accompaniments--a shield, a hamlet, and a +couple of bead-annulets or rosaries--are, with a single exception, +identical in even the minutest particular with an Assyrian monument +emblematical of the Deity.... + +"No country in the world can compare with India for the exposition of +the pyramidal cross. There the stupendous labors of Egypt are rivalled, +and sometimes surpassed. Indeed, but for the fact of such monuments of +patient industry and unexampled skill being still in existence, the +accounts of some others which have long since disappeared, having +succumbed to the ravages of time and the fury of the bigoted Mussulman, +would sound in our ears as incredible as the story of Porsenna's tomb, +which 'o'ertopped old Pelion,' and made 'Ossa like a wart.' Yet +something not very dissimilar in character to it was formerly the boast +of the ancient city of Benares, on the banks of the Ganges. We allude to +the great temple of Bindh Madhu, which was demolished in the seventeenth +century by the Emperor Aurungzebe. Tavernier, the French baron, who +travelled thither about the year 1680, has preserved a brief description +of it. The body of the temple was constructed in the figure of a +colossal cross (i. e., a St. Andrew's Cross), with a lofty dome at the +centre, above which rose a massive structure of a pyramidal form. At the +four extremities of the cross there were four other pyramids of +proportionate dimensions, and which were ascended from the outside by +steps, with balconies at stated distances for places of rest, reminding +us of the temple of Belus, as described in the pages of Herodotus. The +remains of a similar building are found at Mhuttra, on the banks of the +Jumna. This and many others, including the subterranean temple at +Elephanta and the caverns of Ellora and Salsette, are described at +length in the well-known work by Maurice; who adds that, besides these, +there was yet another device in which the Hindoo displayed the +all-pervading sign; this was by pyramidal towers placed crosswise. At +the famous temple of Chillambrum, on the Coromandel coast, there were +seven lofty walls, one within the other, round the central quadrangle, +and as many pyramidal gate-ways in the midst of each side which forms +the limbs of a vast cross." + +In Mexico pyramids were found everywhere. Cortez, in a letter to Charles +V., states that he counted four hundred of them at Cholula. Their +temples were on those "high-places." The most ancient pyramids in Mexico +are at Teotihuacan, eight leagues from the city of Mexico; the two +largest were dedicated to the sun and moon respectively, each built of +cut stone, with a level area at the summit, and four stages leading up +to it. The larger one is 680 feet square at the base, about 200 feet +high, and covers an area of eleven acres. The Pyramid of Cholula, +measured by Humboldt, is 160 feet high, 1400 feet square at the base, +and covers forty five acres! The great pyramid of Egypt, Cheops, is 746 +feet square, 450 feet high, and covers between twelve and thirteen +acres. So that it appears that the base of the Teotihuacan structure is +nearly as large as that of Cheops, while that of Cholula covers nearly +four times as much space. The Cheops pyramid, however, exceeds very much +in height both the American structures. + +Señor Garcia y Cubas thinks the pyramids of Teotihuacan (Mexico) were +built for the same purpose as those of Egypt. He considers the analogy +established in eleven particulars, as follows: 1, the site chosen is the +same; 2, the structures are orientated with slight variation; 3, the +line through the centres of the structures is in the astronomical +meridian; 4, the construction in grades and steps is the same; 5, in +both cases the larger pyramids are dedicated to the sun; 6, the Nile has +"a valley of the dead," as in Teotihuacan there is "a street of the +dead;" 7, some monuments in each class have the nature of +fortifications; 8, the smaller mounds are of the same nature and for the +same purpose; 9, both pyramids have a small mound joined to one of their +faces; 10, the openings discovered in the Pyramid of the Moon are also +found in some Egyptian pyramids; 11, the interior arrangements of the +pyramids are analogous. ("Ensayo de un Estudio.") + +It is objected that the American edifices are different in form from the +Egyptian, in that they are truncated, or flattened at the top; but this +is not an universal rule. + +"In many of the ruined cities of Yucatan one or more pyramids have been +found upon the summit of which no traces of any building could be +discovered, although upon surrounding pyramids such structures could be +found. There is also some reason to believe that perfect pyramids have +been found in America. Waldeck found near Palenque two pyramids in a +state of perfect preservation, square at the base, pointed at the top, +and thirty-one feet high, their sides forming equilateral triangles." +(Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. v., p. 58.) + +Bradford thinks that "some of the Egyptian pyramids, and those which +with some reason it has been supposed are the most ancient, are +precisely similar to the Mexican teocalli." ("North Americans of +Antiquity" p. 423.) + +And there is in Egypt another form of pyramid called the mastaba, which, +like the Mexican, was flattened on the top; while in Assyria structures +flattened like the Mexican are found. "In fact," says one writer, "this +form of temple (the flat-topped) has been found from Mesopotamia to the +Pacific Ocean." The Phoenicians also built pyramids. In the thirteenth +century the Dominican Brocard visited the ruins of the Phoenician city of +Mrith or Marathos, and speaks in the strongest terms of admiration of +those pyramids of surprising grandeur, constructed of blocks of stone +from twenty-six to twenty eight feet long, whose thickness exceeded the +stature of a tall man. ("Prehistoric Nations," p. 144.) + +"If," says Ferguson, "we still hesitate to pronounce that there was any +connection between the builders of the pyramids of Suku and Oajaca, or +the temples of Xochialco and Boro Buddor, we must at least allow that +the likeness is startling, and difficult to account for on the theory of +mere accidental coincidence." + + PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT. + +The Egyptian pyramids all stand with their sides to the cardinal points, +while many of the Mexican pyramids do likewise. The Egyptian pyramids +were penetrated by small passage-ways; so were the Mexican. The Pyramid +of Teotihuacan, according to Almarez, has, at a point sixty-nine feet +from the base, a gallery large enough to admit a man crawling on hands +and knees, which extends, inward, on an incline, a distance of twenty +feet, and terminates in two square wells or chambers, each five feet +square and one of them fifteen feet deep. Mr. Löwenstern states, + + PYRAMIDS OF TEOTIHUACAN. + +according to Mr. Bancroft ("Native Races," vol. iv., p. 533), that "the +gallery is one hundred and fifty-seven feet long, increasing in height +to over six feet and a half as it penetrates the pyramid; that the well +is over six feet square, extending (apparently) down to the base and up +to the summit; and that other cross-galleries are blocked up by débris." +In the Pyramid of Cheops there is a similar opening or passage-way +forty-nine feet above the base; it is three feet eleven inches high, and +three feet five and a half inches wide; it leads down a slope to a +sepulchral chamber or well, and connects with other passage-ways leading +up into the body of the pyramid. + + THE GREAT MOUND, NEAR MIAMISBURG, OHIO. + +In both the Egyptian the American pyramids the outside of the structures +was covered with a thick coating of smooth, shining cement. + +Humboldt considered the Pyramid of Cholula of the same type as the +Temple of Jupiter Belus, the pyramids of Meidoun Dachhour, and the group +of Sakkarah, in Egypt. + + GREAT PYRAMID OF XCOCH. + +In both America and Egypt the pyramids were used as places of sepulture; +and it is a remarkable fact that the system of earthworks and mounds, +kindred to the pyramids, is found even in England. Silsbury Hill, at +Avebury, is an artificial mound one hundred and seventy feet high. It is +connected with ramparts, avenues (fourteen hundred and eighty yards +long), circular ditches, and stone circles, almost identical with those +found in the valley of the Mississippi. In Ireland the dead were buried +in vaults of stone, and the earth raised over them in pyramids flattened +on the top. They were called "moats" by the people. We have found the +stone vaults at the base of similar truncated pyramids in Ohio. There +can be no doubt that the pyramid was a developed and perfected mound, +and that the parent form of these curious structures is to be found in +Silsbury Hill, and in the mounds of earth of Central America and the +Mississippi Valley. + +We find the emblem of the Cross in pre-Christian times venerated as a +holy symbol on both sides of the Atlantic; and we find it explained as a +type of the four rivers of the happy island where the civilization of +the race originated. + +We find everywhere among the European and American nations the memory of +an Eden of the race, where the first men dwelt in primeval peace and +happiness, and which was afterward destroyed by water. + +We find the pyramid on both sides of the Atlantic, with its four sides +pointing, like the arms of the Cross, to the four cardinal points--a +reminiscence of Olympus; and in the Aztec representation of Olympos +(Aztlan) we find the pyramid as the central and typical figure. + +Is it possible to suppose all these extraordinary coincidences to be the +result of accident? We might just as well say that the similarities +between the American and English forms of government were not the result +of relationship or descent, but that men placed in similar circumstances +had spontaneously and necessarily reached the same results. + +CHAPTER VI. + +GOLD AND SILVER THE SACRED METALS OF ATLANTIS. + +Money is the instrumentality by which man is lifted above the +limitations of barter. Baron Storch terms it "the marvellous instrument +to which we are indebted for our wealth and civilization." + +It is interesting to inquire into the various articles which have been +used in different countries and ages as money. The following is a table +of some of them: + +Articles of Utility. + + +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ + | India | Cakes of tea. | + +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ + | China | Pieces of silk. | + +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ + | Abyssinia | Salt. | + +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ + | Iceland and Newfoundland | Codfish. | + +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ + | Illinois (in early days) | Coon-skins. | + +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ + | Bornoo (Africa) | Cotton shirts. | + +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ + | Ancient Russia | Skins of wild animals. | + +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ + | West India Islands (1500) | Cocoa-nuts. | + +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ + | Massachusetts Indians | Wampum and musket-balls. | + +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ + | Virginia (1700) | Tobacco. | + +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ + | British West India Islands | Pins, snuff, and whiskey. | + +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ + | Central South America | Soap, chocolate, and eggs. | + +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ + | Ancient Romans | Cattle. | + +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ + | Ancient Greece | Nails of copper and iron. | + +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ + | The Lacedemonians | Iron. | + +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ + | The Burman Empire | Lead. | + +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ + | Russia (1828 to 1845) | Platinum. | + +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ + | Rome (under Numa Pompilius) | Wood and leather. | + +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ + | Rome (under the Cæsars) | Land. | + +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ + | Carthaginians | Leather. | + +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ + | Ancient Britons Cattle, | slaves, brass, and iron. | + +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ + | England (under James II.) | Tin, gun-metal, and pewter. | + +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ + | South Sea Islands | Axes and hammers. | + +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ + +Articles of Ornament. + + +-------------------------------+----------------+ + | Ancient Jews | Jewels. | + +-------------------------------+----------------+ + | The Indian Islands and Africa | Cowrie shells, | + +-------------------------------+----------------+ + +Conventional Signs. + + +----------------+----------------------------+ + | Holland (1574) | Pieces of pasteboard. | + +----------------+----------------------------+ + | China (1200) | Bark of the mulberry-tree. | + +----------------+----------------------------+ + +It is evident that every primitive people uses as money those articles +upon which they set the highest value--as cattle, jewels, slaves, salt, +musket-balls, pins, snuff, whiskey, cotton shirts, leather, axes, and +hammers; or those articles for which there was a foreign demand, and +which they could trade off to the merchants for articles of +necessity--as tea, silk, codfish, coonskins, cocoa-nuts, and tobacco. +Then there is a later stage, when the stamp of the government is +impressed upon paper, wood, pasteboard, or the bark of trees, and these +articles are given a legal-tender character. + +When a civilized nation comes in contact with a barbarous people they +seek to trade with them for those things which they need; a +metal-working people, manufacturing weapons of iron or copper, will seek +for the useful metals, and hence we find iron, copper, tin, and lead +coming into use as a standard of values--as money; for they can always +be converted into articles of use and weapons of war. But when we ask +how it chanced that gold and silver came to be used as money, and why it +is that gold is regarded as so much more valuable than silver, no answer +presents itself. It was impossible to make either of them into pots or +pans, swords or spears; they were not necessarily more beautiful than +glass or the combinations of tin and copper. Nothing astonished the +American races more than the extraordinary value set upon gold and +silver by the Spaniards; they could not understand it. A West Indian +savage traded a handful of gold-dust with one of the sailors +accompanying Columbus for some tool, and then ran for his life to the +woods lest the sailor should repent his bargain and call him back. The +Mexicans had coins of tin shaped like a letter T. We can understand +this, for tin was necessary to them in hardening their bronze +implements, and it may have been the highest type of metallic value +among them. A round copper coin with a serpent stamped on it was found +at Palenque, and T-shaped copper coins are very abundant in the ruins of +Central America. This too we can understand, for copper was necessary in +every work of art or utility. + +All these nations were familiar with gold and silver, but they used them +as sacred metals for the adornment of the temples of the sun and moon. +The color of gold was something of the color of the sun's rays, while +the color of silver resembled the pale light of the moon, and hence they +were respectively sacred to the gods of the sun and moon. And this is +probably the origin of the comparative value of these metals: they +became the precious metals because they were the sacred metals, and gold +was more valuable than silver--just as the sun-god was the great god of +the nations, while the mild moon was simply an attendant upon the sun. + +The Peruvians called gold "the tears wept by the sun." It was not used +among the people for ornament or money. The great temple of the sun at +Cuzco was called the "Place of Gold." It was, as I have shown, literally +a mine of gold. Walls, cornices, statuary, plate, ornaments, all were of +gold; the very ewers, pipes, and aqueducts--even the agricultural +implements used in the garden of the temple--were of gold and silver. +The value of the jewels which adorned the temple was equal to one +hundred and eighty millions of dollars! The riches of the kingdom can be +conceived when we remember that from a pyramid in Chimu a Spanish +explorer named Toledo took, in 1577, $4,450,284 in gold and silver. +("New American Cyclopædia," art. American Antiquities.) The gold and +silver of Peru largely contributed to form the metallic currency upon +which Europe has carried on her commerce during the last three hundred +years. + +Gold and silver were not valued in Peru for any intrinsic usefulness; +they were regarded as sacred because reserved for the two great gods of +the nation. As we find gold and silver mined and worked on both sides of +the Atlantic at the earliest periods of recorded history, we may fairly +conclude that they were known to the Atlanteans; and this view is +confirmed by the statements of Plato, who represents a condition of +things in Atlantis exactly like that which Pizarro found in Peru. +Doubtless the vast accumulations of gold and silver in both countries +were due to the fact that these metals were not permitted to be used by +the people. In Peru the annual taxes of the people were paid to the Inca +in part in gold and silver from the mines, and they were used to +ornament the temples; and thus the work of accumulating the sacred +metals went on from generation to generation. The same process doubtless +led to the vast accumulations in the temples of Atlantis, as described +by Plato. + +Now, as the Atlanteans carried on an immense commerce with all the +countries of Europe and Western Asia, they doubtless inquired and traded +for gold and silver for the adornment of their temples, and they thus +produced a demand for and gave a value to the two metals otherwise +comparatively useless to man--a value higher than any other commodity +which the people could offer their civilized customers; and as the +reverence for the great burning orb of the sun, master of all the +manifestations of nature, was tenfold as great as the veneration for the +smaller, weaker, and variable goddess of the night, so was the demand +for the metal sacred to the sun ten times as great as for the metal +sacred to the moon. This view is confirmed by the fact that the root of +the word by which the Celts, the Greeks, and the Romans designated gold +was the Sanscrit word karat, which means, "the color of the sun." Among +the Assyrians gold and silver were respectively consecrated to the sun and +moon precisely as they were in Peru. A pyramid belonging to the palace +of Nineveh is referred to repeatedly in the inscriptions. It was +composed of seven stages, equal in height, and each one smaller in area +than the one beneath it; each stage was covered with stucco of different +colors, "a different color representing each of the heavenly bodies, the +least important being at the base: white (Venus); black (Saturn); purple +(Jupiter); blue (Mercury); vermillion (Mars); silver (the Moon); and +gold (the Sun)." (Lenormant's "Ancient History of the East," vol. i., p. +463.) "In England, to this day the new moon is saluted with a bow or a +courtesy, as well as the curious practice of 'turning one's silver,' +which seems a relic of the offering of the moon's proper metal." +(Tylor's "Anthropology", p. 361.) The custom of wishing, when one first +sees the new moon, is probably a survival of moon-worship; the wish +taking the place of the prayer. + +And thus has it come to pass that, precisely as the physicians of +Europe, fifty years ago, practised bleeding, because for thousands of +years their savage ancestors had used it to draw away the evil spirits +out of the man, so the business of our modern civilization is dependent +upon the superstition of a past civilization, and the bankers of the +world are to-day perpetuating the adoration of "the tears wept by the +sun" which was commenced ages since on the island of Atlantis. + +And it becomes a grave question--when we remember that the rapidly +increasing business of the world, consequent upon an increasing +population, and a civilization advancing with giant steps, is measured +by the standard of a currency limited by natural laws, decreasing +annually in production, and incapable of expanding proportionately to +the growth of the world--whether this Atlantean superstition may not yet +inflict more incalculable injuries on mankind than those which resulted +from the practice of phlebotomy. + +PART V. + +THE COLONIES OF ATLANTIS. + +CHAPTER I. + +THE CENTRAL AMERICAN AND MEXICAN COLONIES. + +The western shores of Atlantis were not far distant from the West India +Islands; a people possessed of ships could readily pass from island to +island until they reached the continent. Columbus found the natives +making such voyages in open canoes. If, then, we will suppose that there +was no original connection between the inhabitants of the main-land and +of Atlantis, the commercial activity of the Atlanteans would soon reveal +to them the shores of the Gulf. Commerce implies the plantation of +colonies; the trading-post is always the nucleus of a settlement; we +have seen this illustrated in modern times in the case of the English +East India Company and the Hudson Bay Company. We can therefore readily +believe that commercial intercourse 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 Mexico point to some country in the +East, and beyond the sea, as the source of their first civilized people; +and this region, known among them as "Aztlan," lived in the memory of +the people as a beautiful and happy land, where their ancestors had +dwelt in peace for many generations. + +Dr. Le Plongeon, who spent four years exploring Yucatan, says: + +"One-third of this tongue (the Maya) is pure Greek. Who brought the +dialect of Homer to America? or who took to Greece that of the Mayas? +Greek is the offspring of the Sanscrit. Is Maya? or are they coeval?... +The Maya is not devoid of words from the Assyrian." + +That the population of Central America (and in this term I include +Mexico) was at one time very dense, and had attained to a high degree of +civilization, higher even than that of Europe in the time of Columbus, +there can be no question; and it is also probable, as I have shown, that +they originally belonged to the white race. Dêsirè Charnay, who is now +exploring the ruins of Central America, says (North American Review, +January, 1881, p. 48), "The Toltecs were fair, robust, and bearded. I +have often seen Indians of pure blood with blue eyes." Quetzalcoatl was +represented 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 found the very highways of the ancient city to be +composed of broken bricks and pottery, the débris left by earlier +populations. "This continent," he says (page 43), "is the land of +mysteries; we here enter an infinity whose limits we cannot estimate.... +I shall soon have to quit work in this place. The long avenue on +which it stands is lined with ruins of public buildings and palaces, +forming continuous lines, as in the streets of modern cities. Still, all +these edifices and halls were as nothing compared with the vast +substructures which strengthened their foundations." + +We find the strongest resemblances to the works of the ancient European +races: the masonry is similar; the cement is the same; the sculptures +are alike; both peoples 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 white ground;" also bronze +composed of the same elements of copper and tin in like proportions; +coins made of copper, round and T-shaped, and even metallic candlesticks. + +Dêsirè Charnay believes that he has found in the ruins of Tula the bones +of swine, sheep, oxen, and horses, in a fossil state, indicating an +immense antiquity. The Toltecs possessed a pure and simple religion, +like that of Atlantis, as described by Plato, with the same sacrifices +of fruits and 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 forms of sepulture were the same as among the +ancient races of the Old World; they burnt the bodies of their great +men, and enclosed the dust in funeral urns; some of their dead were +buried in a sitting position, others reclined at full length, and many +were embalmed like the Egyptian mummies. + +When we turn to Mexico, the same resemblances present themselves. + +The government was an elective monarchy, like that of Poland, the king +being selected from the royal family by the votes of the nobles of the +kingdom. There was a royal family, an aristocracy, a privileged +priesthood, a judiciary, and a common people. Here we have all the +several estates into which society in Europe is divided. + +There were thirty grand nobles in the kingdom, and the vastness of the +realm may be judged by the fact that each of these could muster one +hundred thousand vassals from their own estates, or a total of three +millions. And we have only to read of the vast hordes brought into the +field against Cortez to know that this was not an exaggeration. + +They even possessed that which has been considered the crowning feature +of European society, the feudal system. The nobles held their lands upon +the tenure of military service. + +But the most striking feature was the organization of the judiciary. The +judges were independent even of the king, and held their offices for +life. There were supreme judges for the larger divisions of the kingdom, +district judges in each of the provinces, and magistrates chosen by the +people throughout the country. + +There was also a general legislative assembly, congress, or parliament, +held every eighty days, presided over by the king, consisting of all the +judges of the realm, to which the last appeal lay + +"The rites of marriage," says Prescott, "were celebrated with as much +formality as in any Christian country; and the institution was held in +such reverence that a tribunal was instituted for the sole purpose of +determining questions relating to it. Divorces could not be obtained +until authorized by a sentence of the court, after a patient hearing of +the parties." + +Slavery was tolerated, but the labors of the slave were light, his +rights carefully guarded, and his children were free. The slave could +own property, and even other slaves. + +Their religion possessed so many features similar to those of the Old +World, that the Spanish priests declared the devil had given them a +bogus imitation of Christianity to destroy their souls. "The devil," +said they, "stole all he could." + +They had confessions, absolution of sins, and baptism. When their +children were named, they sprinkled their lips and bosoms with water, +and "the Lord was implored to permit the holy drops to wash away the sin +that was given it before the foundation of the world." + +The priests were numerous and powerful. They practised fasts, vigils, +flagellations, and many of them lived in monastic seclusion. + +The Aztecs, like the Egyptians, had progressed through all the three +different modes of writing--the picture-writing, the symbolical, and the +phonetic. They recorded all their laws, their tribute-rolls specifying +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 composition of silk +and gum, and on a species of paper, soft and beautiful, made from the +aloe. Their books were about the size and shape of our own, but the +leaves were long strips folded together in many folds. + +They wrote poetry and cultivated oratory, and paid much attention to +rhetoric. They also had a species of theatrical performances. + +Their proficiency in astronomy is thus spoken of by Prescott: + +"That they should be capable of accurately adjusting their festivals by +the movements of the heavenly bodies, and should fix the true length of +the tropical year with a precision unknown to the great philosophers of +antiquity, could be the result only of a long series of nice and patient +observations, evincing no slight progress in civilization." + +"Their women," says the same author, "are described by the Spaniards as +pretty, though with a serious and rather melancholy cast of countenance. +Their long, black hair might generally be seen wreathed 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 passed their time in indolent +tranquillity, or in such feminine occupations as spinning, embroidery, +and the like; while their maidens beguiled the hours by the rehearsal of +traditionary tales and ballads. + +"Numerous attendants of both sexes waited at the banquets. The balls +were scented with perfumes, and the courts strewed with odoriferous +herbs and flowers, which were distributed in profusion 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 aromatic substances, or in the form of cigars inserted +in tubes of tortoise-shell or silver. It is a curious fact that the +Aztecs also took the dried tobacco leaf in the pulverized form of snuff. + +"The table was well supplied with substantial meats, especially game, +among which the most conspicuous was the turkey. Also, there were found +very delicious vegetables and fruits of every variety native to the +continent. Their palate was 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 delicate +workmanship. The favorite beverage was chocolatl, flavored with vanilla +and different spices. The fermented juice of the maguey, with a mixture +of sweets and acids, supplied various agreeable drinks of different +degrees of strength." + +It is not necessary to describe their great public works, their floating +gardens, their aqueducts, bridges, forts, temples, + + COMMON FORM OF ARCH, CENTRAL AMERICA. + +palaces, and gigantic pyramids, all ornamented with wonderful statuary. + + SECTION OF THE TREASURE-HOUSE OF ATREUS AT MYCENAE + +We find a strong resemblance between the form of arch used in the +architecture of Central America and that of the oldest buildings of +Greece. The Palenque arch is made by the gradual overlapping of the +strata of the building, as shown in the accompanying cut from Baldwin's +"Ancient America," page 100. It was the custom of these ancient +architects to fill in the arch itself with masonry, as shown in the +picture + + ARCH OF LAS MONJAS, PALENQUE, CENTRAL AMERICA + +on page 355 of the Arch of Las Monjas, Palenque. If now we look at the +representation of the "Treasure-house of Atreus" at Mycenæ, on page +354--one of the oldest structures in Greece--we find precisely the same +form of arch, filled in in the same way. + +Rosengarten ("Architectural Styles," p. 59) says: + +"The base of these treasure-houses is circular, and the covering of a +dome shape; it does not, however, form an arch, but courses of stone are +laid 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 so narrow that a single stone covers it. Of all those that have +survived to the present day the treasure-house at Atreus is the most +venerable." + +The same form of arch is found among the ruins of that interesting +people, the Etruscans. + +"Etruscan vaults are of two kinds. The more curious and probably the +most ancient are false arches, formed of horizontal courses of stone, +each a little overlapping the other, and carried on until the aperture +at the top could be closed by a single superincumbent slab. Such is the +construction of the Regulini-Galassi vault, at Cervetere, the ancient +Cære." (Rawlinson's "Origin of Nations," p. 117.) + +It is sufficient to say, in conclusion, that Mexico, under European +rule, or under her own leaders, has never again risen to her former +standard of refinement, wealth, prosperity, or civilization. + +CHAPTER II. + +THE EGYPTIAN COLONY. + +What proofs have we that the Egyptians were a colony from Atlantis? + +1. They claimed descent from "the twelve great gods," which must have +meant the twelve gods of Atlantis, to wit, Poseidon and Cleito and their +ten sons. + +2. According to the traditions of the Phoenicians, the Egyptians derived +their civilization from them; and as the Egyptians far antedated the +rise of the Phoenician nations proper, this must have meant that Egypt +derived its civilization from the same country to which the Phoenicians +owed their own origin. The Phoenician legends show that Misor, from whom +the Egyptians were descended, was the child of the Phoenician gods Amynus +and Magus. Misor gave birth to Taaut, the god of letters, the inventor +of the alphabet, and Taaut became Thoth, the god of history of the +Egyptians. Sanchoniathon tells us that "Chronos (king of Atlantis) +visited the South, and gave all Egypt to the god Taaut, that it might be +his kingdom." "Misor" is probably the king "Mestor" named by Plato. + +3. According to the Bible, the Egyptians were descendants of Ham, who +was one of the three sons of Noah who escaped from the Deluge, to wit, +the destruction of Atlantis. + +4. The great similarity between the Egyptian civilization and that of +the American nations. + +5. The fact that the Egyptians claimed to be red men. + +6. The religion of Egypt was pre-eminently sun-worship, and Ra was the +sun-god of Egypt, Rama, the sun of the Hindoos, Rana, a god of the +Toltecs, Raymi, the great festival of the sun of the Peruvians, and +Rayam, a god of Yemen. + +7. The presence of pyramids in Egypt and America. + +8. The Egyptians were the only people of antiquity who were +well-informed as to the history of Atlantis. The Egyptians were never a +maritime people, and the Atlanteans must have brought that knowledge to +them. They were not likely to send ships to Atlantis. + +9. We find another proof of the descent of the Egyptians from Atlantis +in their belief as to the "under-world." This land of the dead was +situated in the West--hence the tombs were all placed, whenever +possible, on the west bank of the Nile. The constant cry of the mourners +as the funeral procession moved forward was, "To the west; to the west." +This under-world was beyond the water, hence the funeral procession +always crossed a body of water. "Where the tombs were, as in most cases, +on the west bank of the Nile, the Nile was crossed; where they were on +the eastern shore the procession passed over a sacred lake." (R. S. +Poole, Contemporary Review, August, 1881, p. 17.) In the procession was +"a sacred ark of the sun." + +All this is very plain: the under-world in the West, the land of the +dead, was Atlantis, the drowned world, the world beneath the horizon, +beneath the sea, to which the peasants of Brittany looked from Cape Raz, +the most western cape projecting into the Atlantic. It was only to be +reached from Egypt by crossing the water, and it was associated with the +ark, the emblem of Atlantis in all lands. + +The soul of the dead man was supposed to journey to the under-world by +"a water progress" (Ibid., p. 18), his destination was the Elysian +Fields, where mighty corn grew, and where he was expected to cultivate +the earth; "this task was of supreme importance." (Ibid., p. 19.) The +Elysian Fields were the "Elysion" of the Greeks, the abode of the +blessed, which we have seen was an island in the remote west. The +Egyptian belief referred to a real country; they described its cities, +mountains, and rivers; one of the latter was called Uranes, a name which +reminds us of the Atlantean god Uranos. In connection with all this we +must not forget that Plato described Atlantis as "that sacred island +lying beneath the sun." Everywhere in the ancient world we find the +minds of men looking to the west for the land of the dead. Poole says, +"How then can we account for this strong conviction? Surely it must be a +survival of an ancient belief which flowed in the very veins of the +race." (Contemporary Review, 1881, p. 19.) It was based on an universal +tradition that under "an immense ocean," in "the far west," there was an +"under-world," a world comprising millions of the dead, a mighty race, +that had been suddenly swallowed up in the greatest catastrophe known to +man since he had inhabited the globe. + +10. There is no evidence that the civilization of Egypt was developed in +Egypt itself; it must have been transported there from some other +country. To use the words of a recent writer in Blackwood, + +"Till lately it was believed that the use of the papyrus for writing was +introduced about the time of Alexander the Great; then Lepsius found the +hieroglyphic sign of the papyrus-roll on monuments of the twelfth +dynasty; afterward he found the same sign on monuments of the fourth +dynasty, which is getting back pretty close to Menes, the protomonarch; +and, indeed, little doubt is entertained that the art of writing on +papyrus was understood as early as the days of Menes himself. The fruits +of investigation in this, as in many other subjects, are truly most +marvellous. Instead of exhibiting the rise and progress of any branches +of knowledge, they tend to prove that nothing had any rise or progress, +but that everything is referable to the very earliest dates. The +experience of the Egyptologist must teach him to reverse the observation +of Topsy, and to '`spect that nothing growed,' but that as soon as men +were planted on the banks of the Nile they were already the cleverest +men that ever lived, endowed with more knowledge and more power than +their successors for centuries and centuries could attain to. Their +system of writing, also, is found to have been complete from the very +first.... + +"But what are we to think when the antiquary, grubbing in the dust and +silt of five thousand years ago to discover some traces of infant +effort--some rude specimens of the ages of Magog and Mizraim, in which +we may admire the germ that has since developed into a wonderful +art--breaks his shins against an article so perfect that it equals if it +does not excel the supreme stretch of modern ability? How shall we +support the theory if it come to our knowledge that, before Noah was +cold in his grave, his descendants were adepts in construction and in +the fine arts, and that their achievements were for magnitude such as, +if we possess the requisite skill, we never attempt to emulate?... + +"As we have not yet discovered any trace of the rude, savage Egypt, but +have seen her in her very earliest manifestations already skilful, +erudite, and strong, it is impossible to determine the order of her +inventions. Light may yet be thrown upon her rise and progress, but our +deepest researches have hitherto shown her to us as only the mother of a +most accomplished race. How they came by their knowledge is matter for +speculation; that they possessed it is matter of fact. We never find +them without the ability to organize labor, or shrinking from the very +boldest efforts in digging canals and irrigating, in quarrying rock, in +building, and in sculpture." + +The explanation is simple: the waters of the Atlantic now flow over the +country where all this magnificence and power were developed by slow +stages from the rude beginnings of barbarism. + +And how mighty must have been the parent nation of which this Egypt was +a colony! + +Egypt was the magnificent, the golden bridge, ten thousand years long, +glorious with temples and pyramids, illuminated and illustrated by the +most complete and continuous records of human history, along which the +civilization of Atlantis, in a great procession of kings and priests, +philosophers and astronomers, artists and artisans, streamed forward to +Greece, to Rome, to Europe, to America. As far back in the ages as the +eye can penetrate, even where the perspective dwindles almost to a +point, we can still see the swarming multitudes, possessed of all the +arts of the highest civilization, pressing forward from out that other +and greater empire of which even this wonderworking Nile-land is but a +faint and imperfect copy. + +Look at the record of Egyptian greatness as preserved in her works: The +pyramids, still in their ruins, are the marvel of mankind. The river +Nile was diverted from its course by monstrous embankments to make a +place for the city of Memphis. The artificial lake of Moeris was created +as a reservoir for the waters of the Nile: it was four hundred and fifty +miles in circumference and three hundred and fifty feet deep, with +subterranean channels, flood-gates, locks, and dams, by which the +wilderness was redeemed from sterility. Look at the magnificent +mason-work of this ancient people! Mr. Kenrick, speaking of the casing +of the Great Pyramid, says, "The joints are scarcely perceptible, and +not wider than the thickness of silver-paper, and the cement so +tenacious that fragments of the casing-stones still remain in their +original position, notwithstanding the lapse of so many centuries, and +the violence by which they were detached." Look at the ruins of the +Labyrinth, which aroused the astonishment of Herodotus; it had three +thousand chambers, half of them above ground and half below--a +combination of courts, chambers, colonnades, statues, and pyramids. Look +at the Temple of Karnac, covering a square each side of which is +eighteen hundred feet. Says a recent writer, "Travellers one and all +appear to have been unable to find words to express the feelings with +which these sublime remains inspired them. They have been astounded and +overcome by the magnificence and the prodigality of workmanship here to +be admired. Courts, halls, gate-ways, pillars, obelisks, monolithic +figures, sculptures, rows of sphinxes, are massed in such profusion that +the sight is too much for modern comprehension." Denon says, "It is +hardly possible to believe, after having seen it, in the reality of the +existence of so many buildings collected on a single point--in their +dimensions, in the resolute perseverance which their construction +required, and in the incalculable expense of so much magnificence." And +again, "It is necessary that the reader should fancy what is before him +to be a dream, as he who views the objects themselves occasionally +yields to the doubt whether he be perfectly awake." There were lakes and +mountains within the periphery of the sanctuary. "The cathedral of Notre +Dame at Paris could be set inside one of the halls of Karnac, and not +touch the walls!... The whole valley and delta of the Nile, from the +Catacombs to the sea, was covered with temples, palaces, tombs, +pyramids, and pillars." Every stone was covered with inscriptions. + +The state of society in the early days of Egypt approximated very +closely to our modern civilization. Religion consisted in the worship of +one God and the practice of virtue; forty-two commandments prescribed +the duties of men to themselves, their neighbors, their country, and the +Deity; a heaven awaited the good and a hell the vicious; there was a +judgment-day when the hearts of men were weighed: + + "He is sifting out the hearts of men + Before his judgment-seat." + +Monogamy was the strict rule; not even the kings, in the early days, +were allowed to have more than one wife. The wife's rights of separate +property and her dower were protected by law; she was "the lady of the +house;" she could "buy, sell, and trade on her own account;" in case of +divorce her dowry was to be repaid to her, with interest at a high rate. +The marriage-ceremony embraced an oath not to contract any other +matrimonial alliance. The wife's status was as high in the earliest days +of Egypt as it is now in the most civilized nations of Europe or America. + +Slavery was permitted, but the slaves were treated with the greatest +humanity. In the confessions, buried with the dead, the soul is made to +declare that "I have not incriminated the slave to his master," There +was also a clause in the commandments "which protected the laboring man +against the exaction of more than his day's labor." They were merciful +to the captives made in war; no picture represents torture inflicted +upon them; while the representation of a sea-fight shows them saving +their drowning enemies. Reginald Stuart Poole says (Contemporary Review, +August, 1881, p. 43): + +"When we consider the high ideal of the Egyptians, as proved by their +portrayals of a just life, the principles they laid down as the basis of +ethics, the elevation of women among them, their humanity in war, we +must admit that their moral place ranks very high among the nations of +antiquity. + +"The true comparison of Egyptian life is with that of modern nations. +This is far too difficult a task to be here undertaken. Enough has been +said, however, to show that we need not think that in all respects they +were far behind us." + +Then look at the proficiency in art of this ancient people. + +They were the first mathematicians of the Old World. Those Greeks whom +we regard as the fathers of mathematics were simply pupils of Egypt. +They were the first land-surveyors. They were the first astronomers, +calculating eclipses, and watching the periods of planets and +constellations. They knew the rotundity of the earth, which it was +supposed Columbus had discovered! + +"The signs of the zodiac were certainly in use among the Egyptians 1722 +years before Christ. One of the learned men of our day, who for fifty +years labored to decipher the hieroglyphics of the ancients, found upon +a mummy-case in the British Museum a delineation of the signs of the +zodiac, and the position of the planets; the date to which they pointed +was the autumnal equinox of the year 1722 B.C. Professor Mitchell, to +whom the fact was communicated, employed his assistants to ascertain the +exact position of the heavenly bodies belonging to our solar system on +the equinox of that year. This was done, and a diagram furnished by +parties ignorant of his object, which showed that on the 7th of October, +1722 B.C. the moon and planets occupied the exact point in the heavens +marked upon the coffin in the British Museum." (Goodrich's "Columbus," +p. 22.) + +They had clocks and dials for measuring time. They possessed gold and +silver money. They were the first agriculturists of the Old World, +raising all the cereals, cattle, horses, sheep, etc. They manufactured +linen of so fine a quality that in the days of King Amasis (600 years +B.C.) a single thread of a garment was composed of three hundred and +sixty-five minor threads. They worked in gold, silver, copper, bronze, +and iron; they tempered iron to the hardness of steel. They were the +first chemists. The word "chemistry" comes from chemi, and chemi means +Egypt. They manufactured glass and all kinds of pottery; they made boats +out of earthenware; and, precisely as we are now making railroad +car-wheels of paper, they manufactured vessels of paper. Their dentists +filled teeth with gold; their farmers hatched poultry by artificial +heat. They were the first musicians; they possessed guitars, single and +double pipes, cymbals, drums, lyres, harps, flutes, the sambric, ashur, +etc.; they had even castanets, such as are now used in Spain. In +medicine and surgery they had reached such a degree of perfection that +several hundred years B.C. the operation for the removal of cataract +from the eye was performed among them; one of the most delicate and +difficult feats of surgery, only attempted by us in the most recent +times. "The papyrus of Berlin" states that it was discovered, rolled up +in a case, under the feet of an Anubis in the town of Sekhem, in the +days of Tet (or Thoth), after whose death it was transmitted to King +Sent, and was then restored to the feet of the statue. King Sent +belonged to the second dynasty, which flourished 4751 B.C., and the +papyrus was old in his day. This papyrus is a medical treatise; there +are in it no incantations or charms; but it deals in reasonable +remedies, draughts, unguents and injections. The later medical papyri +contain a great deal of magic and incantations. + +"Great and splendid as are the things which we know about oldest Egypt, +she is made a thousand times more sublime by our uncertainty as to the +limits of her accomplishments. She presents not a great, definite idea, +which, though hard to receive, is, when once acquired, comprehensible +and clear. Under the soil of the modern country are hid away thousands +and thousands of relics which may astonish the world for ages to come, +and change continually its conception of what Egypt was. The effect of +research seems to be to prove the objects of it to be much older than we +thought them to be--some things thought to be wholly modern having been +proved to be repetitions of things Egyptian, and other things known to +have been Egyptian being by every advance in knowledge carried back more +and more toward the very beginning of things. She shakes our most rooted +ideas concerning the world's history; she has not ceased to be a puzzle +and a lure: there is a spell over her still." + +Renan says, "It has no archaic epoch." Osborn says, "It bursts upon us +at once in the flower of its highest perfection." Seiss says ("A, +Miracle in Stone," p. 40), "It suddenly takes its place in the world in +all its matchless magnificence, without father, without mother, and as +clean apart from all evolution as if it had dropped from the unknown +heavens." It had dropped from Atlantis. + +Rawlinson says ("Origin of Nations," p. 13): + +"Now, in Egypt, it is notorious that there is no indication of any early +period of savagery or barbarism. All the authorities agree that, however +far back we go, we find in Egypt no rude or uncivilized time out of +which civilization is developed. Menes, the first king, changes the +course of the Nile, makes a great reservoir, and builds the temple of +Phthah at Memphis.... We see no barbarous customs, not even the +habit, so slowly abandoned by all people, of wearing arms when not on +military service." + +Tylor says ("Anthropology," p. 192): + +"Among the ancient cultured nations of Egypt and Assyria handicrafts had +already come to a stage which could only have been reached by thousands +of years of progress. In museums still may be examined the work of their +joiners, stone-cutters, goldsmiths, wonderful in skill and finish, and +in putting to shame the modern artificer.... To see gold jewellery of +the highest order, the student should examine that of the ancients, such +as the Egyptian, Greek, and Etruscan." + +The carpenters' and masons' tools of the ancient Egyptians were almost +identical with those used among us to-day. + +There is a plate showing an Aztec priestess in Delafield's "Antiquities +of America," p. 61, which presents a head-dress strikingly Egyptian. In +the celebrated "tablet of the cross," at Palenque, we see a cross with a +bird perched upon it, to which (or to the cross) two priests are +offering sacrifice. In Mr. Stephens's representation from the Vocal +Memnon we find almost the same thing, the difference being that, instead +of an ornamented Latin cross, we have a crux commissa, and instead of +one bird there are two, not on the cross, but immediately above it. In +both cases the hieroglyphics, though the characters are of course +different, are disposed upon the stone in much the same manner. +(Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. v., p. 61.) + +Even the obelisks of Egypt have their counterpart in America. + +Quoting from Molina ("History of Chili," tom. i., p. 169), McCullough +writes, "Between the hills of Mendoza and La Punta is a pillar of stone +one hundred and fifty feet high, and twelve feet in diameter." +("Researches," pp. 171, 172.) The columns of Copan stand detached and +solitary, so do the obelisks of Egypt; both are square or four-sided, +and covered with sculpture. (Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. v., p. 60.) + +In a letter by Jomard, quoted by Delafield, we read, + +"I have recognized in your memoir on the division of time among the +Mexican nations, compared with those of Asia, some very striking +analogies between the Toltec characters and institutions observed on the +banks of the Nile. Among these analogies there is one which is worthy of +attention--it is the use of the vague year of three hundred and +sixty-five days, composed of equal months, and of five complementary +days, equally employed at Thebes and Mexico--a distance of three +thousand leagues.... In reality, the intercalation of the Mexicans +being thirteen days on each cycle of fifty-two years, comes to the same +thing as that of the Julian calendar, which is one day in four years; +and consequently supposes the duration of the year to be three hundred +and sixty-five days six hours. Now such was the length of the year among +the Egyptians--they intercalated an entire year of three hundred and +seventy-five days every one thousand four hundred and sixty years.... +The fact of the intercalation (by the Mexicans) of thirteen days every +cycle that is, the use of a year of three hundred and sixty-five days +and a quarter--is a proof that it was borrowed from the Egyptians, or +that they had a common origin." ("Antiquities of America," pp. 52, 53.) + +The Mexican century began on the 26th of February, and the 26th of +February was celebrated from the time of Nabonassor, 747 B.C., because +the Egyptian priests, conformably to their astronomical observations, +had fixed the beginning of the month Toth, and the commencement of their +year, at noon on that day. The five intercalated days to make up the +three hundred and sixty-five days were called by the Mexicans Nemontemi, +or useless, and on them they transacted no business; while the +Egyptians, during that epoch, celebrated the festival of the birth of +their gods, as attested by Plutarch and others. + +It will be conceded that a considerable degree of astronomical knowledge +must have been necessary to reach the conclusion that the true year +consisted of three hundred and sixty-five days and six hours (modern +science has demonstrated that it consists of three hundred and +sixty-five days and five hours, less ten seconds); and a high degree of +civilization was requisite to insist that the year must be brought +around, by the intercalation of a certain number of days in a certain +period of time, to its true relation to the seasons. Both were the +outgrowth of a vast, ancient civilization of the highest order, which +transmitted some part of its astronomical knowledge to its colonies +through their respective priesthoods. + +Can we, in the presence of such facts, doubt the statements of the +Egyptian priests to Solon, as to the glory and greatness of Atlantis, +its monuments, its sculpture, its laws, its religion, its civilization? + +In Egypt we have the oldest of the Old World children of Atlantis; in +her magnificence we have a testimony to the development attained by the +parent country; by that country whose kings were the gods of succeeding +nations, and whose kingdom extended to the uttermost ends of the earth. + +The Egyptian historian, Manetho, referred to a period of thirteen +thousand nine hundred years as "the reign of the gods," and placed this +period at the very beginning of Egyptian history. These thirteen +thousand nine hundred years were probably a recollection of Atlantis. +Such a lapse of time, vast as it may appear, is but as a day compared +with some of our recognized geological epochs. + +CHAPTER III. + +THE COLONIES OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY + +If we will suppose a civilized, maritime people to have planted +colonies, in the remote past, along the headlands and shores of the Gulf +of Mexico, spreading thence, in time, to the tablelands of Mexico and to +the plains and mountains of New Mexico and Colorado, what would be more +natural than that these adventurous navigators, passing around the +shores of the Gulf, should, sooner or later, discover the mouth of the +Mississippi River; and what more certain than that they would enter it, +explore it, and plant colonies along its shores, wherever they found a +fertile soil and a salubrious climate. Their outlying provinces would +penetrate even into regions where the severity of the climate would +prevent great density of population or development of civilization. + +The results we have presupposed are precisely those which we find to +have existed at one time in the Mississippi Valley. + +The Mound Builders of the United States were pre-eminently a river +people. Their densest settlements and greatest works were near the +Mississippi and its tributaries. Says Foster ("Prehistoric Races," p. +110), "The navigable streams were the great highways of the Mound +Builders." + +Mr. Fontaine claims ("How the World was Peopled") that this ancient +people constructed "levees" to control and utilize the bayous of the +Mississippi for the purpose of agriculture and commerce. The Yazoo River +is called Yazoo-okhinnah--the River of Ancient Ruins. "There is no +evidence that they had reached the Atlantic coast; no authentic remains +of the Mound Builders are found in the New England States, nor even in +the State of New York." ("North Americans of Antiquity," p. 28.) This +would indicate that the civilization of this people advanced up the +Mississippi River and spread out over its tributaries, but did not cross +the Alleghany {sic} Mountains. They reached, however, far up the +Missouri and Yellowstone rivers, and thence into Oregon. The head-waters +of the Missouri became one of their great centres of population; but +their chief sites were upon the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. In +Wisconsin we find the northern central limit of their work; they seem to +have occupied the southern counties of the State, and the western shores +of Lake Michigan. Their circular mounds are found in Minnesota and Iowa, +and some very large ones in Dakota. Illinois and Indiana were densely +populated by them: it is believed that the vital centre of their +colonies was near the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. + +The chief characteristic of the Mound Builders was that from which they +derived their name--the creation of great structures of earth or stone, +not unlike the pyramids of Mexico and Egypt. Between Alton and East St. +Louis is the great mound of Cahokia, which may be selected as a type of +their works: it rises ninety-seven feet high, while its square sides are +700 and 500 feet respectively. There was a terrace on the south side 160 +by 300 feet, reached by a graded way; the summit of the pyramid is +flattened, affording a platform 200 by 450 feet. It will thus be seen +that the area covered by the mound of Cahokia is about as large as that +of the greatest pyramid of Egypt, Cheops, although its height is much +less. + +The number of monuments left by the Mound Builders is extraordinarily +great. In Ohio alone there are more than ten thousand tumuli, and from +one thousand to fifteen hundred enclosures. Their mounds were not cones +but four-sided pyramids--their sides, like those of the Egyptian +pyramids, corresponding with the cardinal points. (Foster's "Prehistoric +Races," p. 112.) + +The Mound Builders had attained a considerable degree of civilization; +they were able to form, in the construction of their works, perfect +circles and perfect squares of great accuracy, carried over the varying +surface of the country. One large enclosure comprises exactly forty +acres. At Hopetown, Ohio, are two walled figures--one a square, the +other a circle--each containing precisely twenty acres. They must have +possessed regular scales of measurement, and the means of determining +angles and of computing the area to be enclosed by the square and the +circle, so that the space enclosed by each might exactly correspond. + +"The most skilful engineer of this day would find it difficult," says +Mr. Squier, "without the aid of instruments, to lay down an accurate +square of the great dimensions above represented, measuring, as they do, +more than four-fifths of a mile in circumference.... But we not only +find accurate squares and perfect circles, but also, as we have seen, +octagons of great dimensions." + +They also possessed an accurate system of weights; bracelets of copper +on the arms of a skeleton have been found to be of uniform size, +measuring each two and nine-tenth inches, and each weighing precisely +four ounces. + +They built great military works surrounded by walls and ditches, with +artificial lakes in the centre to supply water. One work, Fort Ancient, +on the Little Miami River, Ohio, has a circuit of between four and five +miles; the embankment was twenty feet high; the fort could have held a +garrison of sixty thousand men with their families and provisions. + +Not only do we find pyramidal structures of earth in the Mississippi +Valley very much like the pyramids of Egypt, Mexico, and Peru, but a +very singular structure is repeated in Ohio and Peru: I refer to the +double walls or prolonged pyramids, if I may coin an expression, shown +in the cut page 375. + + GRAND WAY NEAR PIKETON, OHIO. + +The Mound Builders possessed chains of fortifications reaching from the +southern line of New York diagonally across the country, through Central +and Northern Ohio to the Wabash. It would appear probable, therefore, +that while they + + WALLS AT GRAN-CHIMU, PERU. + +advanced from the south it was from the north-east the savage races came +who drove them south or exterminated them. + +At Marietta, Ohio, we find a combination of the cross and pyramid. (See +p. 334, ante.) At Newark, Ohio, are extensive + + CROSS AND PYRAMID MOUND, OHIO. + +and intricate works: they occupy an area two miles square, embraced +within embankments twelve miles long. One of the mounds is a threefold +symbol, like a bird's foot; the central mound is 155 feet long, and the +other two each 110 feet it length. Is this curious design a reminiscence +of Atlantis and the three-pronged trident of Poseidon? (See 4th fig., p. +242, ante.) + +The Mound Builders made sun-dried brick mixed with rushes, as the +Egyptians made sun-dried bricks mixed with straw; they worked in copper, +silver, lead, and there are evidences, as we shall see, that they +wrought even in iron. + +Copper implements are very numerous in the mounds. Copper axes, +spear-heads, hollow buttons, bosses for ornaments, bracelets, rings, +etc., are found in very many of them strikingly similar to those of the +Bronze Age in Europe. In one in Butler County, Ohio, was found a copper +fillet around the head of a skeleton, with strange devices marked upon +it. + +Silver ornaments have also been found, but not in such great numbers. +They seem to have attached a high value to silver, and it is often found +in thin sheets, no thicker than paper, wrapped over copper or stone +ornaments so neatly as almost to escape detection. The great esteem in +which they held a metal so intrinsically valueless as silver, is another +evidence that they must have drawn their superstitions from the same +source as the European nations. + +Copper is also often found in this manner plated over stone pipes, +presenting an unbroken metallic lustre, the overlapping edges so well +polished as to be scarcely discoverable. Beads and stars made of shells +have sometimes been found doubly plated, first with copper then with +silver. + +The Mound Builders also understood the art of casting metals, or they +held intercourse with some race who did; a copper axe it "cast" has been +found in the State of New York. (See Lubbock's "Prehistoric Times," p. +254, note.) Professor Foster ("Prehistoric Races," p. 259) also proves +that the ancient people of the Mississippi Valley possessed this art, +and he gives us representations of various articles plainly showing the +marks of the mould upon them. + +A rude article in the shape of an axe, composed of pure lead, weighing +about half a pound, was found in sinking a well within the trench of the +ancient works at Circleville. There can be no doubt it was the +production of the Mound Builders, as galena has often been found on the +altars in the mounds. + +It has been generally thought, by Mr. Squier and others, that there were +no evidences that the Mound Builders were acquainted with the use of +iron, or that their plating was more than a simple overlaying of one +metal on another, or on some foreign substance. + +Some years since, however, a mound was opened at Marietta, Ohio, which +seems to have refuted these opinions. Dr. S. P. Hildreth, in a letter to +the American Antiquarian Society, thus speaks of it: + +"Lying immediately over or on the forehead of the body were found three +large circular bosses, or ornaments for a sword-belt or buckler; they +are composed of copper overlaid with a thick plate of silver. The fronts +are slightly convex, with a depression like a cup in the centre, and +they measure two inches and a quarter across the face of each. On the +back side, opposite the depressed portion, is a copper rivet or nail, +around which are two separate plates by which they were fastened to the +leather. Two small pieces of leather were found lying between the plates +of one of the bosses; they resemble the skin of a mummy, and seem to +have been preserved by the salts of copper. Near the side of the body +was found a plate of silver, which appears to have been the upper part +of a sword scabbard; it is six inches in length, two in breadth, and +weighs one ounce. It seems to have been fastened to the scabbard by +three or four rivets, the holes of which remain in the silver. + +"Two or three pieces of copper tube were also found, filled with iron +rust. These pieces, from their appearance, composed the lower end of the +scabbard, near the point of the sword. No signs of the sword itself were +discovered, except the rust above mentioned. + +"The mound had every appearance of being as old as any in the +neighborhood, and was at the first settlement of Marietta covered with +large trees. It seems to have been made for this single personage, as +this skeleton alone was discovered. The bones were very much decayed, +and many of them crumbled to dust upon exposure to the air." + +Mr. Squier says, "These articles have been critically examined, and it +is beyond doubt that the copper bosses were absolutely plated, not +simply overlaid, with silver. Between the copper and the silver exists a +connection such as, it seems to me, could only be produced by heat; and +if it is admitted that these are genuine relics of the Mound Builders, +it must, at the same time, be admitted that they possessed the difficult +art of plating one metal upon another. There is but one alternative, +viz., that they had occasional or constant intercourse with a people +advanced in the arts, from whom these articles were obtained. Again, if +Dr. Hildreth is not mistaken, oxydized iron or steel was also discovered +in connection with the above remains, from which also follows the +extraordinary conclusion that the Mound Builders were acquainted with +the use of iron, the conclusion being, of course, subject to the +improbable alternative already mentioned." + +In connection with this subject, we would refer to the interesting +evidences that the copper mines of the shore of Lake Superior had been +at some very remote period worked by the Mound Builders. There were +found deep excavations, with rude ladders, huge masses of rock broken +off, also numerous stone tools, and all the evidences of extensive and +long-continued labor. It is even said that the great Ontonagon mass of +pure copper which is now in Washington was excavated by these ancient +miners, and that when first found its surface showed numerous marks of +their tools. + +There seems to be no doubt, then, that the Mound Builders were familiar +with the use of copper, silver, and lead, and in all probability of +iron. They possessed various mechanical contrivances. They were very +probably acquainted with the lathe. Beads of shell have been found +looking very much like ivory, and showing the circular striæ, identical +with those produced by turning in a lathe. + +In a mound on the Scioto River was found around the neck of a skeleton +triple rows of beads, made of marine shells and the tusks of some +animal. "Several of these," says Squier, "still retain their polish, and +bear marks which seem to indicate that they were turned in some machine, +instead of being carved or rubbed into shape by hand." + +"Not among the least interesting and remarkable relics," continues the +same author, "obtained from the mounds are the stone tubes. They are all +carved from fine-grained materials, capable of receiving a polish, and +being made ornamental as well as useful. The finest specimen yet +discovered, and which can scarcely be surpassed in the delicacy of its +workmanship, was found in a mound in the immediate vicinity of +Chillicothe. It is composed of a compact variety of slate. This stone +cuts with great clearness, and receives a fine though not glaring +polish. The tube under notice is thirteen inches long by one and +one-tenth in diameter; one end swells slightly, and the other terminates +in a broad, flattened, triangular mouth-piece of fine proportions, which +is carved with mathematical precision. It is drilled throughout; the +bore is seven-tenths of an inch in diameter at the cylindrical end of +the tube, and retains that calibre until it reaches the point where the +cylinder subsides into the mouth-piece, when it contracts gradually to +one-tenth of an inch. The inner surface of the tube is perfectly smooth +till within a short distance of the point of contraction. For the +remaining distance the circular striæ, formed by the drill in boring, +are distinctly marked. The carving upon it is very fine." + +That they possessed saws is proved by the fact that on some fossil teeth +found in one of the mounds the striæ of the teeth of the saw could be +distinctly perceived. + +When we consider that some of their porphyry carvings will turn the edge +of the best-tempered knife, we are forced to conclude that they +possessed that singular process, known to the Mexicans and Peruvians of +tempering copper to the hardness of steel. + +We find in the mounds adzes similar in shape to our own, with the edges +bevelled from the inside. + +Drills and gravers of copper have also been found, with chisel-shaped +edges or sharp points. + +"It is not impossible," says Squier, "but, on the contrary, very +probable, from a close inspection of the mound pottery, that the ancient +people possessed the simple approximation toward the potter's wheel; and +the polish which some of the finer vessels possess is due to other +causes than vitrification." + +Their sculptures show a considerable degree of progress. They consist of +figures of birds, animals, reptiles, and the faces of men, carved from +various kinds of stones, upon the bowls of pipes, upon toys, upon rings, +and in distinct and separate figures. We give the opinions of those who +have examined them. + +Mr. Squier observes: "Various though not abundant specimens of their +skill have been recovered, which in elegance of model, delicacy, and +finish, as also in fineness of material, come fully up to the best +Peruvian specimens, to which they bear, in many respects, a close +resemblance. The bowls of most of the stone pipes are carved in +miniature figures of animals, birds, reptiles, etc. All of them are +executed with strict fidelity to nature, and with exquisite skill. Not +only are the features of the objects faithfully represented, but their +peculiarities and habits are in some degree exhibited.... The two +heads here presented, intended to represent the eagle, are far superior +in point of finish, spirit, and truthfulness, to any miniature carvings, +ancient or modern, which have fallen under the notice of the authors. +The peculiar defiant expression of the king of birds is admirably +preserved in the carving, which in this respect, more than any other, +displays the skill of the artist." + + FROM THE MOUNDS OF THE OHIO VALLEY + +Traces of cloth with "doubled and twisted fibre" have been found in the +mounds; also matting; also shuttle-like tablets, used in weaving. There +have also been found numerous musical pipes, with mouth-pieces and +stops; lovers' pipes, curiously and delicately carved, reminding us of +Bryant's lines-- + + "Till twilight came, and lovers walked and wooed + In a forgotten language; and old tunes, + From instruments of unremembered forms, + Gave the soft winds a voice." + +There is evidence which goes to prove that the Mound Builders had +relations with the people of a semi-tropical region in the direction of +Atlantis. Among their sculptures, in Ohio, we find accurate +representations of the lamantine, manatee, or sea-cow--found to-day on +the shores of Florida, Brazil, and Central America--and of the toucan, a +tropical and almost exclusively South American bird. Sea-shells from the +Gulf, pearls from the Atlantic, and obsidian from Mexico, have also been +found side by side in their mounds. + +The antiquity of their works is now generally conceded. "From the ruins +of Nineveh and Babylon," says Mr. Gliddon, "we have bones of at least +two thousand five hundred years old; from the pyramids and the catacombs +of Egypt both mummied and unmummied crania have been taken, of still +higher antiquity, in perfect preservation; nevertheless, the skeletons +deposited in our Indian mounds, from the Lakes to the Gulf, are +crumbling into dust through age alone." + +All the evidence points to the conclusion that civilized or +semi-civilized man has dwelt on the western continent from a vast +antiquity. Maize, tobacco, quinoa, and the mandico plants have been +cultivated so long that their wild originals have quite disappeared. + +"The only species of palm cultivated by the South American Indians, that +known as the Gulielma speciosa, has lost through that culture its +original nut-like seed, and is dependent on the hands of its cultivators +for its life. Alluding to the above-named plants Dr. Brinton ("Myths of +the New World," p. 37) remarks, 'Several are sure to perish unless +fostered by human care. What numberless ages does this suggest? How many +centuries elapsed ere man thought of cultivating Indian corn? How many +more ere it had spread over nearly a hundred degrees of latitude and +lost all resemblance to its original form?' In the animal kingdom +certain animals were domesticated by the aborigines from so remote a +period that scarcely any of their species, as in the case of the lama of +Peru, were to be found in a state of unrestrained freedom at the advent +of the Spaniards." (Short's "North Americans of Antiquity," p. 11.) + +The most ancient remains of man found in Europe are distinguished by a +flattening of the tibia; and this peculiarity is found to be present in +an exaggerated form in some of the American mounds. This also points to +a high antiquity. + +"None of the works, mounds, or enclosures are found on the lowest formed +of the river terraces which mark the subsidence of the streams, and as +there is no good reason why their builders should have avoided erecting +them on that terrace while they raised them promiscuously on all the +others, it follows, not unreasonably, that this terrace has been formed +since the works were erected." (Baldwin's "Ancient America," p. 47.) + +We have given some illustrations showing the similarity between the +works of the Mound Builders and those of the Stone and Bronze Age in +Europe. (See pp. 251, 260, 261, 262, 265, 266, ante.) + +The Mound Builders retreated southward toward Mexico, and probably +arrived there some time between A.D. 29 and A.D. 231, under the name of +Nahuas. They called the region they left in the Mississippi Valley "Hue +Hue Tlapalan"--the old, old red land--in allusion, probably, to the +red-clay soil of part of the country. + +In the mounds we find many works of copper but none of bronze. This may +indicate one of two things: either the colonies which settled the +Mississippi Valley may have left Atlantis prior to the discovery of the +art of manufacturing bronze, by mixing one part of tin with nine parts +of copper, or, which is more probable, the manufactures of the Mound +Builders may have been made on the spot; and as they had no tin within +their territory they used copper alone, except, it may be, for such +tools as were needed to carve stone, and these, perhaps, were hardened +with tin. It is known that the Mexicans possessed the art of +manufacturing true bronze; and the intercourse which evidently existed +between Mexico and the Mississippi Valley, as proved by the presence of +implements of obsidian in the mounds of Ohio, renders it probable that +the same commerce which brought them obsidian brought them also small +quantities of tin, or tin-hardened copper implements necessary for their +sculptures. + +The proofs, then, of the connection of the Mound Builders with Atlantis +are: + +1. Their race identity with the nations of Central America who possessed +Flood legends, and whose traditions all point to an eastern, over-sea +origin; while the many evidences of their race identity with the ancient +Peruvians indicate that they were part of one great movement of the +human race, extending from the Andes to Lake Superior, and, as I +believe, from Atlantis to India. + +2. The similarity of their civilization, and their works of stone and +bronze, with the civilization of the Bronze Age in Europe. + +3. The presence of great truncated mounds, kindred to the pyramids of +Central America, Mexico, Egypt, and India. + +4. The representation of tropical animals, which point to an intercourse +with the regions around the Gulf of Mexico, where the Atlanteans were +colonized. + +5. The fact that the settlements of the Mound Builders were confined to +the valley of the Mississippi, and were apparently densest at those +points where a population advancing up that, stream would first reach +high, healthy, and fertile lands. + +6. The hostile nations which attacked them came from the north; and when +the Mound Builders could no longer hold the country, or when Atlantis +sank in the sea, they retreated in the direction whence they came, and +fell back upon their kindred races in Central America, as the Roman +troops in Gaul and Britain drew southward upon the destruction of Rome. + +7. The Natchez Indians, who are supposed to have descended from the +Mound Builders, kept a perpetual fire burning before an altar, watched +by old men who were a sort of priesthood, as in Europe. + +8. If the tablet said to have been found in a mound near Davenport, +Iowa, is genuine, which appears probable, the Mound Builders must either +have possessed an alphabet, or have held intercourse with some people +who did. (See "North Americans of Antiquity," p. 38.) This singular +relic exhibits what appears to be a sacrificial mound with a fire upon +it; over it are the sun, moon, and stars, and above these a mass of +hieroglyphics which bear some resemblance to the letters of European +alphabets, and especially to that unknown alphabet which appears upon +the inscribed bronze celt found near Rome. (See p. 258 of this work.) +For instance, one of the letters on the celt is this, ###; on the +Davenport tablet we find this sign, ###; on the celt we have ###; on the +tablet, ###; on the celt we have ###; on the tablet, ###. + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE IBERIAN COLONIES OF ATLANTIS + +At the farthest point in the past to which human knowledge extends a +race called Iberian inhabited the entire peninsula of Spain, from the +Mediterranean to the Pyrenees. They also extended over the southern part +of Gaul as far as the Rhone. + +"It is thought that the Iberians from Atlantis and the north-west part +of Africa," says Winchell, "settled in the south-west of Europe at a +period earlier than the settlement of the Egyptians in the north-east of +Africa. The Iberians spread themselves over Spain, Gaul, and the British +Islands as early as 4000 or 5000 B.C.... The fourth dynasty (of the +Egyptians), according to Brugsch, dates from about 3500 B.C. At this +time the Iberians had become sufficiently powerful to attempt the +conquest of the known world." ("Preadamites," p. 443.) + +"The Libyan-Amazons of Diodorus--that is to say, the Libyans of the +Iberian race--must be identified with the Libyans with brown and grizzly +skin, of whom Brugsch has already pointed out the representations +figured on the Egyptian monuments of the fourth dynasty." (Ibid.) + +The Iberians, known as Sicanes, colonized Sicily in the ancient days. +They were the original settlers in Italy and Sardinia. They are probably +the source of the dark-haired stock in Norway and Sweden. Bodichon +claims that the Iberians embraced the Ligurians, Cantabrians, Asturians, +and Aquitanians. Strabo says, speaking of the Turduli and Turdetani, +"they are the most cultivated of all the Iberians; they employ the art +of writing, and have written books containing memorials of ancient +times, and also poems and laws set in verse, for which they claim an +antiquity of six thousand years." (Strabo, lib. iii., p. 139.) + +The Iberians are represented to-day by the Basques. + +The Basque are "of middle size, compactly built, robust and agile, of a +darker complexion than the Spaniards, with gray eyes and black hair. +They are simple but proud, impetuous, merry, and hospitable. The women +are beautiful, skilful in performing men's work, and remarkable for +their vivacity and grace. The Basques are much attached to dancing, and +are very fond of the music of the bagpipe." ("New American Cyclopædia," +art. Basques.) + +"According to Paul Broca their language stands quite alone, or has mere +analogies with the American type. Of all Europeans, we must +provisionally hold the Basques to be the oldest inhabitants of our +quarter of the world." (Peschel, "Races of Men," p. 501.) + +The Basque language--the Euscara--"has some common traits with the +Magyar, Osmanli, and other dialects of the Altai family, as, for +instance, with the Finnic on the old continent, as well as the +Algonquin-Lenape language and some others in America." ("New American +Cyclopædia," art. Basques.) + +Duponceau says of the Basque tongue: + +"This language, preserved in a corner of Europe by a few thousand +mountaineers, is the sole remaining fragment of, perhaps, a hundred +dialects constructed on the same plan, which probably existed and were +universally spoken at a remote period in that quarter of the world. Like +the bones of the mammoth, it remains a monument of the destruction +produced by a succession of ages. It stands single and alone of its +kind, surrounded by idioms that have no affinity with it." + +We have seen them settling, in the earliest ages, in Ireland. They also +formed the base of the dark-haired population of England and Scotland. +They seem to have race affinities with the Berbers, on the Mediterranean +coast of Africa. + +Dr. Bodichon, for fifteen years a surgeon in Algiers, says: + +"Persons who have inhabited Brittany, and then go to Algeria, are struck +with the resemblance between the ancient Armoricans (the Brètons) and +the Cabyles (of Algiers). In fact, the moral and physical character is +identical. The Breton of pure blood has a long head, light yellow +complexion of bistre tinge, eyes black or brown, stature short, and the +black hair of the Cabyle. Like him, he instinctively hates strangers; in +both are the same perverseness and obstinacy, same endurance of fatigue, +same love of independence, same inflexion of the voice, same expression +of feelings. Listen to a Cabyle speaking his native tongue, and you will +think you bear a Breton talking Celtic." + +The Bretons, he tells us, form a strong contrast to the people around +them, who are "Celts of tall stature, with blue eyes, white skins, and +blond hair: they are communicative, impetuous, versatile; they pass +rapidly from courage to despair. The Bretons are entirely different: +they are taciturn, hold strongly to their ideas and usages, are +persevering and melancholic; in a word, both in morale and physique they +present the type of a southern race--of the Atlanteans." + +By Atlanteans Dr. Bodichon refers to the inhabitants of the Barbary +States--that being one of the names by which they were known to the +Greeks and Romans. He adds: + +"The Atlanteans, among the ancients, passed for the favorite children of +Neptune; they made known the worship of this god to other nations--to the +Egyptians, for example. In other words, the Atlanteans were the first +known navigators. Like all navigators, they must have planted colonies +at a distance. The Bretons, in our opinion, sprung from one of them." + +Neptune was Poseidon, according to Plato, founder of Atlantis. + +I could multiply proofs of the close relationship between the people of +the Bronze Age of Europe and the ancient inhabitants of Northern Africa, +which should be read remembering that "connecting ridge" which, +according to the deep-sea soundings, united Africa and Atlantis. + +CHAPTER V. + +THE PERUVIAN COLONY. + +If we look at the map of Atlantis, as revealed by the deep sea +soundings, we will find that it approaches at one point, by its +connecting ridge, quite closely to the shore of South America, above +the mouth of the Amazon, and that probably it was originally connected +with it. + +If the population of Atlantis expanded westwardly, it naturally found +its way in its ships up the magnificent valley of the Amazon and its +tributaries; and, passing by the low and fever-stricken lands of Brazil, +it rested not until it had reached the high, fertile, beautiful, and +healthful regions of Bolivia, from which it would eventually cross the +mountains into Peru. + +Here it would establish its outlying colonies at the terminus of its +western line of advance, arrested only by the Pacific Ocean, precisely +as we have seen it advancing up the valley of the Mississippi, and +carrying on its mining operations on the shores of Lake Superior; +precisely as we have seen it going eastward up the Mediterranean, past +the Dardanelles, and founding Aryan, Hamitic, and probably Turanian +colonies on the farther shores of the Black Sea and on the Caspian. This +is the universal empire over which, the Hindoo books tell us, Deva +Nahusha was ruler; this was "the great and aggressive empire" to which +Plato alludes; this was the mighty kingdom, embracing the whole of the +then known world, from which the Greeks obtained their conception of the +universal father of all men in King Zeus. And in this universal empire +Señor Lopez must find an explanation of the similarity which, as we +shall show, exists between the speech of the South American Pacific +coast on the one hand, and the speech of Gaul, Ireland, England, Italy, +Greece, Bactria, and Hindostan on the other. + +Montesino tells us that at some time near the date of the Deluge, in +other words, in the highest antiquity, America was invaded by a people +with four leaders, named Ayar-manco-topa, Ayar-chaki, Ayar-aucca, and +Ayar-uyssu. "Ayar," says Señor Lopez, "is the Sanscrit Ajar, or aje, and +means primitive chief; and manco, chaki, aucca, and uyssu, mean +believers, wanderers, soldiers, husbandmen. We have here a tradition of +castes like that preserved in the four tribal names of Athens." The +laboring class (naturally enough in a new colony) obtained the +supremacy, and its leader was named Pirhua-manco, revealer of Pir, light +(p[~u]r, Umbrian pir). Do the laws which control the changes of language, +by which a labial succeeds a labial, indicate that the Mero or Merou of +Theopompus, the name of Atlantis, was carried by the colonists of +Atlantis to South America (as the name of old York was transplanted in a +later age to New York), and became in time Pérou or Peru? Was not the +Nubian "Island of Merou," with its pyramids built by "red men," a +similar transplantation? And when the Hindoo priest points to his sacred +emblem with five projecting points upon it, and tells us that they +typify "Mero and the four quarters of the world," does he not refer to +Atlantis and its ancient universal empire? + +Manco, in the names of the Peruvian colonists, it has been urged, was +the same as Mannus, Mann, and the Santhal Maniko. It reminds us of +Menes, Minos, etc., who are found at the beginning of so many of the Old +World traditions. + +The Quichuas--this invading people--were originally a fair skinned race, +with blue eyes and light and even auburn hair; they had regular +features, large heads, and large bodies. Their descendants are to this +day an olive-skinned people, much lighter in color than the Indian +tribes subjugated by them. + +They were a great race. Peru, as it was known to the Spaniards, held +very much the same relation to the ancient Quichua civilization as +England in the sixteenth century held to the civilization of the empire +of the Cæsars. The Incas were simply an offshoot, who, descending from +the mountains, subdued the rude races of the sea-coast, and imposed +their ancient civilization upon them. + +The Quichua nation extended at one time over a region of country more +than two thousand miles long. This whole region, when the Spaniards +arrived, "was a populous and prosperous empire, complete in its civil +organization, supported by an efficient system of industry, and +presenting a notable development of some of the more important arts of +civilized life." (Baldwin's "Ancient America," p. 222.) + +The companions of Pizarro found everywhere the evidences of a +civilization of vast antiquity. Cieça de Leon mentions "great edifices" +that were in ruins at Tiahuanaca, "an artificial hill raised on a +groundwork of stone," and "two stone idols, apparently made by skilful +artificers," ten or twelve feet high, clothed in long robes. "In this +place, also," says De Leon, "there are stones so large and so overgrown +that our wonder is excited, it being incomprehensible how the power of +man could have placed them where we see them. They are variously +wrought, and some of them, having the form of men, must have been idols. +Near the walls are many caves and excavations under the earth; but in +another place, farther west, are other and greater monuments, such as +large gate-ways with hinges, platforms, and porches, each made of a +single stone. It surprised me to see these enormous gate-ways, made of +great masses of stone, some of which were thirty feet long, fifteen +high, and six thick." + +The capital of the Chimus of Northern Peru at Gran-Chimu was conquered +by the Incas after a long and bloody struggle, and the capital was given +up to barbaric ravage and spoliation. But its remains exist to-day, the +marvel of the Southern Continent, covering not less than twenty square +miles. Tombs, temples, and palaces arise on every hand, ruined but still +traceable. Immense pyramidal structures, some of them half a mile in +circuit; vast areas shut in by massive walls, each containing its +water-tank, its shops, municipal edifices, and the dwellings of its +inhabitants, and each a branch of a larger organization; prisons, +furnaces for smelting metals, and almost every concomitant of +civilization, existed in the ancient Chimu capital. One of the great +pyramids, called the "Temple of the Sun," is 812 feet long by 470 wide, +and 150 high. These vast structures have been ruined for centuries, but +still the work of excavation is going on. + +One of the centres of the ancient Quichua civilization was around Lake +Titicaca. The buildings here, as throughout Peru, were all constructed +of hewn stone, and had doors and windows with posts, sills, and +thresholds of stone. + +At Cuelap, in Northern Peru, remarkable ruins were found. "They consist +of a wall of wrought stones 3600 feet long, 560 broad, and 150 high, +constituting a solid mass with a level summit. On this mass was another +600 feet long, 500 broad, and 150 high," making an aggregate height of +three hundred feet! In it were rooms and cells which were used as tombs. + +Very ancient ruins, showing remains of large and remarkable edifices, +were found near Huamanga, and described by Cieça de Leon. The native +traditions said this city was built "by bearded white men, who came +there long before the time of the Incas, and established a settlement." + +"The Peruvians made large use of aqueducts, which they built with +notable skill, using hewn stones and cement, and making them very +substantial." One extended four hundred and fifty miles across sierras +and over rivers. Think of a stone aqueduct reaching from the city of New +York to the State of North Carolina! + +The public roads of the Peruvians were most remarkable; they were built +on masonry. One of these roads ran along the mountains through the +whole length of the empire, from Quito to Chili; another, starting from +this at Cuzco, went down to the coast, and extended northward to the +equator. These roads were from twenty to twenty-five feet wide, were +macadamized with pulverized stone mixed with lime and bituminous cement, +and were walled in by strong walls "more than a fathom in thickness." In +many places these roads were cut for leagues through the rock; great +ravines were filled up with solid masonry; rivers were crossed by +suspension bridges, used here ages before their introduction into +Europe. Says Baldwin, "The builders of our Pacific Railroad, with their +superior engineering skill and mechanical appliances, might reasonably +shrink from the cost and the difficulties of such a work as this. +Extending from one degree north of Quito to Cuzco, and from Cuzco to +Chili, it was quite as long as the two Pacific railroads, and its wild +route among the mountains was far more difficult." Sarmiento, describing +it, said, "It seems to me that if the emperor (Charles V.) should see +fit to order the construction of another road like that which leads from +Quito to Cuzco, or that which from Cuzco goes toward Chili, I certainly +think he would not be able to make it, with all his power." Humboldt +said, "This road was marvellous; none of the Roman roads I had seen in +Italy, in the south of France, or in Spain, appeared to me more imposing +than this work of the ancient Peruvians." + +Along these great roads caravansaries were established for the +accommodation of travellers. + +These roads were ancient in the time of the Incas. They were the work of +the white, auburn-haired, bearded men from Atlantis, thousands of years +before the time of the Incas. When Huayna Capac marched his army over +the main road to invade Quito, it was so old and decayed "that he found +great difficulties in the passage," and he immediately ordered the +necessary reconstructions. + +It is not necessary, in a work of this kind, to give a detailed +description of the arts and civilization of the Peruvians. They were +simply marvellous. Their works in cotton and wool exceeded in fineness +anything known in Europe at that time. They had carried irrigation, +agriculture, and the cutting of gems to a point equal to that of the Old +World. Their accumulations of the precious metals exceeded anything +previously known in the history of the world. In the course of +twenty-five years after the Conquest the Spaniards sent from Peru to +Spain more than eight hundred millions of dollars of gold, nearly all of +it taken from the Peruvians as "booty." In one of their palaces "they +had an artificial garden, the soil of which was made of small pieces of +fine gold, and this was artificially planted with different kinds of +maize, which were of gold, their stems, leaves, and ears. Besides this, +they had more than twenty sheep (llamas) with their lambs, attended by +shepherds, all made of gold." In a description of one lot of golden +articles, sent to Spain in 1534 by Pizarro, there is mention of "four +llamas, ten statues of women of full size, and a cistern of gold, so +curious that it excited the wonder of all." + +Can any one read these details and declare Plato's description of +Atlantis to be fabulous, simply because he tells us of the enormous +quantities of gold and silver possessed by the people? Atlantis was the +older country, the parent country, the more civilized country; and, +doubtless, like the Peruvians, its people regarded the precious metals +as sacred to their gods; and they had been accumulating them from all +parts of the world for countless ages. If the story of Plato is true, +there now lies beneath the waters of the Atlantic, covered, doubtless, +by hundreds of feet of volcanic débris, an amount of gold and silver +exceeding many times that brought to Europe from Peru, Mexico, and +Central America since the time of Columbus; a treasure which, if brought +to light, would revolutionize the financial values of the world. + +I have already shown, in the chapter upon the similarities between the +civilizations of the Old and New Worlds, some of the remarkable +coincidences which existed between the Peruvians and the ancient +European races; I will again briefly, refer to a few of them: + +1. They worshipped the sun, moon, and planets. + +2. They believed in the immortality of the soul. + +3. They believed in the resurrection of the body, and accordingly +embalmed their dead. + +4. The priest examined the entrails of the animals offered in sacrifice, +and, like the Roman augurs, divined the future from their appearance. + +5. They had an order of women vowed to celibacy--vestal virgins-nuns; and +a violation of their vow was punished, in both continents, by their +being buried alive. + +6. They divided the year into twelve months. + +7. Their enumeration was by tens; the people were divided into decades +and hundreds, like the Anglo-Saxons; and the whole nation into bodies of +500, 1000, and 10,000, with a governor over each. + +8. They possessed castes; and the trade of the father descended to the +son, as in India. + +9. They had bards and minstrels, who sung at the great festivals. + +10. Their weapons were the same as those of the Old World, and made +after the same pattern. + +11. They drank toasts and invoked blessings. + +12. They built triumphal arches for their returning heroes, and strewed +the road before them with leaves and flowers. + +13. They used sedan-chairs. + +14. They regarded agriculture as the principal interest of the nation, +and held great agricultural fairs and festivals for the interchange of +the productions of the farmers. + +15. The king opened the agricultural season by a great celebration, and, +like the kings of Egypt, he put his hand to the plough, and ploughed the +first furrow. + +16. They had an order of knighthood, in which the candidate knelt before +the king; his sandals were put on by a nobleman, very much as the spurs +were buckled on the European knight; he was then allowed to use the +girdle or sash around the loins, corresponding to the toga virilis of +the Romans; he was then crowned with flowers. According to Fernandez, +the candidates wore white shirts, like the knights of the Middle Ages, +with a cross embroidered in front. + +17. There was a striking resemblance between the architecture of the +Peruvians and that of some of the nations of the Old World. It is enough +for me to quote Mr. Ferguson's words, that the coincidence between the +buildings of the Incas and the Cyclopean remains attributed to the +Pelasgians in Italy and Greece "is the most remarkable in the history +of architecture." + + OWL-HEADED VASES, TROY AND PERU + +The illustrations on page 397 strikingly confirm Mr. Ferguson's views. + +"The sloping jambs, the window cornice, the polygonal masonry, and other +forms so closely resemble what is found in the old Pelasgic cities of +Greece and Italy, that it is difficult to resist the conclusion that +there may be some relation between them." + +Even the mode of decorating their palaces and temples finds a parallel +in the Old World. A recent writer says: + +"We may end by observing, what seems to have escaped Señor Lopez, that +the interior of an Inca palace, with its walls covered with gold, as +described by Spaniards, with its artificial golden flowers and golden +beasts, must have been exactly like the interior of the house of +Alkinous or Menelaus-- + + "'The doors were framed of gold, + Where underneath the brazen floor doth glass + Silver pilasters, which with grace uphold + Lintel of silver framed; the ring was burnished gold, + And dogs on each side of the door there stand, + Silver and golden.'" + +"I can personally testify" (says Winchell, "Preadamites," p. 387) "that +a study of ancient Peruvian pottery has constantly reminded me of forms +with which we are familiar in Egyptian archæology." + +Dr. Schliemann, in his excavations of the ruins of Troy, found a number +of what he calls "owl-headed idols" and vases. I give specimens on page +398 and page 400. + +In Peru we find vases with very much the same style of face. + +I might pursue those parallels much farther; but it seems to me that +these extraordinary coincidences must have arisen either from identity +of origin or long-continued ancient intercourse. There can be little +doubt that a fair-skinned, light-haired, bearded race, holding the +religion which Plato says prevailed in Atlantis, carried an Atlantean +civilization at an early day up the valley of the Amazon to the heights +of Bolivia and Peru, precisely as a similar emigration of Aryans went +westward to the shores of the Mediterranean and Caspian, and it is very +likely that these diverse migrations habitually spoke the same language. + +Señor Vincente Lopez, a Spanish gentleman of Montevideo, in 1872 +published a work entitled "Les Races Aryennes in Pérou," in which he +attempts to prove that the great Quichua language, which the Incas +imposed on their subjects over a vast extent of territory, and which is +still a living tongue in Peru and Bolivia, is really a branch of the +great Aryan or Indo-European speech. I quote Andrew Lang's summary of +the proofs on this point: + + OWL-HEADED VASE, TROY + +"Señor Lopez's view, that the Peruvians were Aryans who left the parent +stock long before the Teutonic or Hellenic races entered Europe, is +supported by arguments drawn from language, from the traces of +institutions, from religious beliefs, from legendary records, and +artistic remains. The evidence from language is treated scientifically, +and not as a kind of ingenious guessing. Señor Lopez first combats the +idea that the living dialect of Peru is barbarous and fluctuating. It is +not one of the casual and shifting forms of speech produced by nomad +races. To which of the stages of language does this belong--the +agglutinative, in which one root is fastened on to another, and a word +is formed in which the constitutive elements are obviously distinct, or +the inflexional, where the auxiliary roots get worn down and are only +distinguishable by the philologist? As all known Aryan tongues are +inflexional, Señor Lopez may appear to contradict himself when he says +that Quichua is an agglutinative Aryan language. But he quotes Mr. Max +Müller's opinion that there must have been a time when the germs of +Aryan tongues had not yet reached the inflexional stage, and shows that +while the form of Quichua is agglutinative, as in Turanian, the roots of +words are Aryan. If this be so, Quichua may be a linguistic missing link. + +"When we first look at Quichua, with its multitude of words, beginning +with hu, and its great preponderance of q's, it seems almost as odd as +Mexican. But many of these forms are due to a scanty alphabet, and +really express familiar sounds; and many, again, result from the casual +spelling of the Spaniards. We must now examine some of the forms which +Aryan roots are supposed to take in Quichua. In the first place, Quichua +abhors the shock of two consonants. Thus, a word like ple'w in Greek +would be unpleasant to the Peruvian's ear, and he says pillui, 'I sail.' +The plu, again, in pluma, a feather, is said to be found in pillu, 'to +fly.' Quichua has no v, any more than Greek has, and just as the Greeks +had to spell Roman words beginning with V with Ou, like +Valerius--Ou?ale'rios--so, where Sanscrit has v, Quichua has sometimes +hu. Here is a list of words in hu: + + +----------------------+----------------------------+ + | QUICHUA. | SANSCRIT. | + +----------------------+----------------------------+ + | Huakia, to call. | Vacc, to speak. | + +----------------------+----------------------------+ + | Huasi, a house. | Vas, to inhabit. | + +----------------------+----------------------------+ + | Huayra, air, au?'ra. | Vâ, to breathe. | + +----------------------+----------------------------+ + | Huasa, the back. | Vas, to be able (pouvoir). | + +----------------------+----------------------------+ + +"There is a Sanscrit root, kr, to act, to do: this root is found in more +than three hundred names of peoples and places in Southern America. Thus +there are the Caribs, whose name may have the same origin as that of our +old friends the Carians, and mean the Braves, and their land the home of +the Braves, like Kaleva-la, in Finnish. The same root gives kara, the +hand, the Greek xei'r, and kkalli, brave, which a person of fancy may +connect with kalo's. Again, Quichua has an 'alpha privative'--thus +A-stani means 'I change a thing's place;' for ni or mi is the first +person singular, and, added to the root of a verb, is the sign of the +first person of the present indicative. For instance, can means being, +and Can-mi, or Cani, is 'I am.' In the same way Munanmi, or Munani, is +'I love,' and Apanmi, or Apani, 'I carry.' So Lord Strangford was wrong +when he supposed that the last verb in mi lived with the last patriot in +Lithuania. Peru has stores of a grammatical form which has happily +perished in Europe. It is impossible to do more than refer to the +supposed Aryan roots contained in the glossary, but it may be noticed +that the future of the Quichuan verb is formed in s--I love, Munani; I +shall love, Munasa--and that the affixes denoting cases in the noun are +curiously like the Greek prepositions." + +The resemblance between the Quichua and Mandan words for I or +me--mi--will here be observed. + +Very recently Dr. Rudolf Falb has announced (Neue Freie Presse, of +Vienna) that he has discovered that the relation of the Quichua and +Aimara languages to the Aryan and Semitic tongues is very close; that, +in fact, they "exhibit the most astounding affinities with the Semitic +tongue, and particularly the Arabic," in which tongue Dr. Falb has been +skilled from his boyhood. Following up the lines of this discovery, Dr. +Falb has found (1) a connecting link with the Aryan roots, and (2) has +ultimately arrived face to face with the surprising revelation that "the +Semitic roots are universally Aryan." The common stems of all the +variants are found in their purest condition in Quichua and Aimara, from +which fact Dr. Falb derives the conclusion that the high plains of Peru +and Bolivia must be regarded as the point of exit of the present human +race. + +[Since the above was written I have received a letter from Dr. Falb, +dated Leipsic, April 5th, 1881. Scholars will be glad to learn that Dr. +Falb's great work on the relationship of the Aryan and Semitic languages +to the Quichua and Aimara tongues will be published in a year or two; +the manuscript contains over two thousand pages, and Dr. Falb has +devoted to it ten years of study. A work from such a source, upon so +curious and important a subject, will be looked for with great interest.] + +But it is impossible that the Quichuas and Aimaras could have passed +across the wide Atlantic to Europe if there had been no stepping-stone +in the shape of Atlantis with its bridge-like ridges connecting the two +continents. + +It is, however, more reasonable to suppose that the Quichuas and Aimaras +were a race of emigrants from Plato's island than to think that Atlantis +was populated from South America. The very traditions to which we have +referred as existing among the Peruvians, that the civilized race were +white and bearded, and that they entered or invaded the country, would +show that civilization did not originate in Peru, but was a +transplantation from abroad, and only in the direction of Atlantis can +we look for a white and bearded race. + +In fact, kindred races, with the same arts, and speaking the same tongue +in an early age of the world, separated in Atlantis and went east and +west--the one to repeat the civilization of the mother-country along the +shores of the Mediterranean Sea, which, like a great river, may be said +to flow out from the Black Sea, with the Nile as one of its tributaries, +and along the shores of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf; while the +other emigration advanced up the Amazon, and created mighty nations upon +its head-waters in the valleys of the Andes and on the shores of the +Pacific. + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE AFRICAN COLONIES. + +Africa, like Europe and America, evidences a commingling of different +stocks: the blacks are not all black, nor all woolly-haired; the +Africans pass through all shades, from that of a light Berber, no darker +than the Spaniard, to the deep black of the Iolofs, between Senegal and +Gambia. + +The traces of red men or copper-colored races are found in many parts of +the continent. Prichard divides the true negroes into four classes; his +second class is thus described: + +"2. Other tribes have forms and features like the European; their +complexion is black, or a deep olive, or a copper color approaching to +black, while their hair, though often crisp and frizzled, is not in the +least woolly. Such are the Bishari and Danekil and Hazorta, and the +darkest of the Abyssinians. + +"The complexion and hair of the Abyssinians vary very much, their +complexion ranging from almost white to dark brown or black, and their +hair from straight to crisp, frizzled, and almost woolly." (Nott and +Gliddon, "Types of Mankind," p. 194.) + +"Some of the Nubians are copper-colored or black, with a tinge of red." +(Ibid., p. 198.) + +Speaking of the Barbary States, these authors further say (Ibid., p. +204): + +"On the northern coast of Africa, between the Mediterranean and the +Great Desert, including Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, and Benzazi, +there is a continuous system of highlands, which have been included +under the general term Atlas--anciently Atlantis, now the Barbary +States.... Throughout Barbary we encounter a peculiar group of races, +subdivided into many tribes of various shades, now spread over a vast +area, but which formerly had its principal and perhaps aboriginal abode +along the mountain slopes of Atlas.... The real name of the Berbers +is Mazirgh, with the article prefixed or suffixed--T-amazirgh or +Amazirgh-T--meaning free, dominant, or 'noble race.'... We have every +reason to believe the Berbers existed in the remotest times, with all +their essential moral and physical peculiarities.... They existed in +the time of Menes in the same condition in which they were discovered by +Phoenician navigators previously to the foundation of Carthage. They are +an indomitable, nomadic people, who, since the introduction of camels, +have penetrated in considerable numbers into the Desert, and even as far +as Nigritia.... Some of these clans are white, others black, with +woolly hair." + +Speaking of the Barbary Moors, Prichard says: + +"Their figure and stature are nearly the same as those of the southern +Europeans, and their complexion, if darker, is only so in proportion to +the higher temperature of the country. It displays great varieties." + +Jackson says: + +"The men of Temsena and Showiah are of a strong, robust make, and of a +copper color; the women are beautiful. The women of Fez are fair as the +Europeans, but hair and eyes always dark. The women of Mequinas are very +beautiful, and have the red-and-white complexion of English women." + +Spix and Martins, the German travellers, depict the Moors as follows: + +"A high forehead, an oval countenance, large, speaking, black eyes, +shaded by arched and strong eyebrows, a thin, rather long, but not too +pointed nose, rather broad lips, meeting in an acute angle, +brownish-yellow complexion, thick, smooth, and black hair, and a stature +greater than the middle height." + +Hodgson states: + +"The Tuarycks are a white people, of the Berber race; the Mozabiaks are +a remarkably white people, and mixed with the Bedouin Arabs. The +Wadreagans and Wurgelans are of a dark bronze, with woolly hair." + +The Foolahs, Fulbe (sing. Pullo), Fellani, or Fellatah, are a people of +West and Central Africa. It is the opinion of modern travellers that the +Foolahs are destined to become the dominant people of Negro-land. In +language, appearance, and history they present striking differences from +the neighboring tribes, to whom they are superior in intelligence, but +inferior, according to Garth, in physical development. Golbery describes +them as "robust and courageous, of a reddish-black color, with regular +features, hair longer and less woolly than that of the common negroes, +and high mental capacity." Dr. Barth found great local differences in +their physical characteristics, as Bowen describes the Foolahs of Bomba +as being some black, some almost white, and many of a mulatto color, +varying from dark to very bright. Their features and skulls were cast in +the European mould. They have a tradition that their ancestors were +whites, and certain tribes call themselves white men. They came from +Timbuctoo, which lies to the north of their present location. + +The Nubians and Foolahs are classed as Mediterraneans. They are not +black, but yellowish-brown, or red-brown. The hair is not woolly but +curly, and sometimes quite straight; it is either dark-brown or black, +with a fuller growth of beard than the negroes. The oval face gives them +a Mediterranean type. Their noses are prominent, their lips not puffy, +and their languages have no connection with the tongues of the negroes +proper. ("American Cyclopædia," art. Ethnology, p. 759.) + +"The Cromlechs (dolmens) of Algeria" was the subject of an address made +by General Faidherbe at the Brussels International Congress. He +considers these structures to be simply sepulchral monuments, and, after +examining five or six thousand of them, maintains that the dolmens of +Africa and of Europe were all constructed by the same race, during their +emigration from the shores of the Baltic to the southern coast of the +Mediterranean. The author does not, however, attempt to explain the +existence of these monuments in other countries--Hindostan, for +instance, and America. "In Africa," he says, "cromlechs are called tombs +of the idolaters"--the idolaters being neither Romans, nor Christians, +nor Phoenicians, but some antique race. He regards the Berbers as the +descendants of the primitive dolmen-builders. Certain Egyptian monuments +tell of invasions of Lower Egypt one thousand five hundred years before +our era by blond tribes from the West. The bones found in the cromlechs +are those of a large and dolichocephalous race. General Faidherbe gives +the average stature (including the women) at 1.65 or 1.74 metre, while +the average stature of French carabineers is only 1.65 metre. He did not +find a single brachycephalous skull. The profiles indicated great +intelligence. The Egyptian documents already referred to call the +invaders Tamahu, which must have come from the invaders' own language, +as it is not Egyptian. The Tuaregs of the present day may be regarded as +the best representatives of the Tamahus. They are of lofty stature, have +blue eyes, and cling to the custom of bearing long swords, to be wielded +by both hands. In Soudan, on the banks of the Niger, dwells a negro +tribe ruled by a royal family (Masas), who are of rather fair +complexion, and claim descent from white men. Masas is perhaps the same +as Mashash, which occurs in the Egyptian documents applied to the +Tamahus. The Masas wear the hair in the same fashion as the Tamahus, and +General Faidherbe is inclined to think that they too are the descendants +of the dolmen-builders. + +These people, according to my theory, were colonists from +Atlantis--colonists of three different races--white, yellow, and +sunburnt or red. + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE IRISH COLONIES FROM ATLANTIS. + +We have seen that beyond question Spain and France owed a great part of +their population to Atlantis. Let us turn now to Ireland. + +We would naturally expect, in view of the geographical position of the +country, to find Ireland colonized at an early day by the overflowing +population of Atlantis. And, in fact, the Irish annals tell us that +their island was settled prior to the Flood. In their oldest legends an +account is given of three Spanish fishermen who were driven by contrary +winds on the coast of Ireland before the Deluge. After these came the +Formorians, who were led into the country prior to the Deluge by the +Lady Banbha, or Kesair; her maiden name was h'Erni, or Berba; she was +accompanied by fifty maidens and three men--Bith, Ladhra, and Fintain. +Ladhra was their conductor, who was the first buried in Hibernia. That +ancient book, the "Cin of Drom-Snechta," is quoted in the "Book of +Ballymote" as authority for this legend. + +The Irish annals speak of the Formorians as a warlike race, who, +according to the "Annals of Clonmacnois," "were a sept descended from +Cham, the son of Noeh, and lived by pyracie and spoile of other nations, +and were in those days very troublesome to the whole world." + +Were not these the inhabitants of Atlantis, who, according to Plato, +carried their arms to Egypt and Athens, and whose subsequent destruction +has been attributed to divine vengeance invoked by their arrogance and +oppressions? + +The Formorians were from Atlantis. They were called Fomhoraicc, +F'omoraig Afraic, and Formoragh, which has been rendered into English as +Formorians. They possessed ships, and the uniform representation is that +they came, as the name F'omoraig Afraic indicated, from Africa. But in +that day Africa did not mean the continent of Africa, as we now +understand it. Major Wilford, in the eighth volume of the "Asiatic +Researches," has pointed out that Africa comes from Apar, Aphar, Apara, +or Aparica, terms used to signify "the West," just as we now speak of +the Asiatic world as "the East." When, therefore, the Formorians claimed +to come from Africa, they simply meant that they came from the West--in +other words, from Atlantis--for there was no other country except +America west of them. + +They possessed Ireland from so early a period that by some of the +historians they are spoken of as the aborigines of the country. + +The first invasion of Ireland, subsequent to the coming of the +Formorians, was led by a chief called Partholan: his people are known in +the Irish annals as "Partholan's people." They were also probably +Atlanteans. They were from Spain. A British prince, Gulguntius, or +Gurmund, encountered off the Hebrides a fleet of thirty ships, filled +with men and women, led by one Partholyan, who told him they were from +Spain, and seeking some place to colonize. The British prince directed +him to Ireland. ("De Antiq. et Orig. Cantab.") + +Spain in that day was the land of the Iberians, the Basques; that is to +say, the Atlanteans. + +The Formorians defeated Partholan's people, killed Partholan, and drove +the invaders out of the country. + +The Formorians were a civilized race; they had "a fleet of sixty ships +and a strong army." + +The next invader of their dominions was Neimhidh; he captured one of +their fortifications, but it was retaken by the Formorians under "Morc." +Neimhidh was driven out of the country, and the Atlanteans continued in +undisturbed possession of the island for four hundred years more. Then +came the Fir-Bolgs. They conquered the whole island, and divided it into +five provinces. They held possession of the country for only +thirty-seven years, when they were overthrown by the Tuatha-de-Dananns, +a people more advanced in civilization; so much so that when their king, +Nuadha, lost his hand in battle, "Creidne, the artificer," we are told, +"put a silver hand upon him, the fingers of which were capable of +motion." This great race ruled the country for one hundred and +ninety-seven years: they were overthrown by an immigration from Spain, +probably of Basques, or Iberians, or Atlanteans, "the sons of Milidh," +or Milesius, who "possessed a large fleet and a strong army." This last +invasion took place about the year 1700 B.C.; so that the invasion of +Neimhidh must have occurred about the year 2334 B.C.; while we will have +to assign a still earlier date for the coming of Partholan's people, and +an earlier still for the occupation of the country by the Formorians +from the West. + +In the Irish historic tales called "Catha; or Battles," as given by the +learned O'Curry, a record is preserved of a real battle which was fought +between the Tuatha-de-Dananns and the Fir Bolgs, from which it appears +that these two races spoke the same language, and that they were +intimately connected with the Formorians. As the armies drew near +together the Fir-Bolgs sent out Breas, one of their great chiefs, to +reconnoitre the camp of the strangers; the Tuatha-de-Dananns appointed +one of their champions, named Sreng, to meet the emissary of the enemy; +the two warriors met and talked to one another over the tops of their +shields, and each was delighted to find that the other spoke the same +language. A battle followed, in which Nunda, king of the Fir-Bolgs, was +slain; Breas succeeded him; he encountered the hostility of the bards, +and was compelled to resign the crown. He went to the court of his +father-in-law, Elathe, a Formorian sea-king or pirate; not being well +received, he repaired to the camp of Balor of the Evil Eye, a Formorian +chief. The Formorian head-quarters seem to have been in the Hebrides. +Breas and Balor collected a vast army and navy and invaded Ireland, but +were defeated in a great battle by the Tuatha-de-Dananns. + +These particulars would show the race-identity of the Fir-Bolg and +Tuatha-de-Dananns; and also their intimate connection, if not identity +with, the Formorians. + +The Tuatha-de-Dananns seem to have been a civilized people; besides +possessing ships and armies and working in the metals, they had an +organized body of surgeons, whose duty it was to attend upon the wounded +in battle; and they had also a bardic or Druid class, to preserve the +history of the country and the deeds of kings and heroes. + +According to the ancient books of Ireland the race known as "Partholan's +people," the Nemedians, the Fir-Bolgs, the Tuatha-de-Dananns, and the +Milesians were all descended from two brothers, sons of Magog, son of +Japheth, son of Noah, who escaped from the catastrophe which destroyed +his country. Thus all these races were Atlantean. They were connected +with the African colonies of Atlantis, the Berbers, and with the +Egyptians. The Milesians lived in Egypt: they were expelled thence; they +stopped a while in Crete, then in Scythia, then they settled in Africa +(See MacGeoghegan's "History of Ireland," p. 57), at a place called +Gæthulighe or Getulia, and lived there during eight generations, say two +hundred and fifty years; "then they entered Spain, where they built +Brigantia, or Briganza, named after their king Breogan: they dwelt in +Spain a considerable time. Milesius, a descendant of Breogan, went on an +expedition to Egypt, took part in a war against the Ethiopians, married +the king's daughter, Scota: he died in Spain, but his people soon after +conquered Ireland. On landing on the coast they offered sacrifices to +Neptune or Poseidon"--the god of Atlantis. (Ibid., p. 58.) + +The Book of Genesis (chap. x.) gives us the descendants of Noah's three +sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. We are told that the sons of Japheth were +Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and +Tiras. We are then given the names of the descendants of Gomer and +Javan, but not of Magog. Josephus says the sons of Magog were the +Scythians. The Irish annals take up the genealogy of Magog's family +where the Bible leaves it. The Book of Invasions, the "Cin of +Drom-Snechta," claims that these Scythians were the Phoenicians; and we +are told that a branch of this family were driven out of Egypt in the +time of Moses: "He wandered through Africa for forty-two years, and +passed by the lake of Salivæ to the altars of the Philistines, and +between Rusicada and the mountains Azure, and he came by the river +Monlon, and by the sea to the Pillars of Hercules, and through the +Tuscan sea, and he made for Spain, and dwelt there many years, and he +increased and multiplied, and his people were multiplied." + +From all these facts it appears that the population of Ireland came from +the West, and not from Asia--that it was one of the many waves of +population flowing out from the Island of Atlantis--and herein we find +the explanation of that problem which has puzzled the Aryan scholars. As +Ireland is farther from the Punjab than Persia, Greece, Rome, or +Scandinavia, it would follow that the Celtic wave of migration must have +been the earliest sent out from the Sanscrit centre; but it is now +asserted by Professor Schleicher and others that the Celtic tongue shows +that it separated from the Sanscrit original tongue later than the +others, and that it is more closely allied to the Latin than any other +Aryan tongue. This is entirely inexplicable upon any theory of an +Eastern origin of the Indo-European races, but very easily understood if +we recognize the Aryan and Celtic migrations as going out about the same +time from the Atlantean fountain-head. + +There are many points confirmatory of this belief. In the first place, +the civilization of the Irish dates back to a vast antiquity. We have +seen their annals laying claim to an immigration from the direction of +Atlantis prior to the Deluge, with no record that the people of Ireland +were subsequently destroyed by the Deluge. From the Formorians, who came +before the Deluge, to the Milesians, who came from Spain in the Historic +Period, the island was continuously inhabited. This demonstrates (1) +that these legends did not come from Christian sources, as the Bible +record was understood in the old time to imply a destruction of all who +lived before the Flood except Noah and his family; (2) it confirms our +view that the Deluge was a local catastrophe, and did not drown the +whole human family; (3) that the coming of the Formorians having been +before the Deluge, that great cataclysm was of comparatively recent +date, to wit, since the settlement of Ireland; and (4) that as the +Deluge was a local catastrophe, it must have occurred somewhere not far +from Ireland to have come to their knowledge. A rude people could +scarcely have heard in that day of a local catastrophe occurring in the +heart of Asia. + +There are many evidences that the Old World recognized Ireland as +possessing a very ancient civilization. In the Sanscrit books it is +referred to as Hiranya, the "Island of the Sun," to wit, of sun-worship; +in other words, as pre-eminently the centre of that religion which was +shared by all the ancient races of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. It +is believed that Ireland was the "Garden of Phoebus" of the Western +mythologists. + +The Greeks called Ireland the "Sacred Isle" and "Ogygia." + +"Nor can any one," says Camden, "conceive why they should call it +Ogygia, unless, perhaps, from its antiquity; for the Greeks called +nothing Ogygia unless what was extremely ancient." We have seen that +Ogyges was connected by the Greek legends with a first deluge, and that +Ogyges was "a quite mythical personage, lost in the night of ages." + +It appears, as another confirmation of the theory of the Atlantis origin +of these colonies, that their original religion was sun-worship; this, +as was the case in other countries, became subsequently overlaid with +idol-worship. In the reign of King Tighernmas the worship of idols was +introduced. The priests constituted the Order of Druids. Naturally many +analogies have been found to exist between the beliefs and customs of +the Druids and the other religions which were drawn from Atlantis. We +have seen in the chapter on sun-worship how extensive this form of +religion was in the Atlantean days, both in Europe and America. + +It would appear probable that the religion of the Druids passed from +Ireland to England and France. The metempsychosis or transmigration of +souls was one of the articles of their belief long before the time of +Pythagoras; it had probably been drawn from the storehouse of Atlantis, +whence it passed to the Druids, the Greeks, and the Hindoos. The Druids +had a pontifex maximus to whom they yielded entire obedience. Here again +we see a practice which extended to the Phoenicians, Egyptians, Hindoos, +Peruvians, and Mexicans. + +The Druids of Gaul and Britain offered human sacrifices, while it is +claimed that the Irish Druids did not. This would appear to have been a +corrupt after-growth imposed upon the earlier and purer sacrifice of +fruits and flowers known in Atlantis, and due in part to greater cruelty +and barbarism in their descendants. Hence we find it practised in +degenerate ages on both sides of the Atlantic. + +The Irish Druidical rites manifested themselves principally in sun +worship. Their chief god was Bel or Baal--the same worshipped by the +Phoenicians--the god of the sun. The Irish name for the sun, Grian, is, +according to Virgil, one of the names of Apollo--another sun-god, +Gryneus. Sun-worship continued in Ireland down to the time of St. +Patrick, and some of its customs exist among the peasantry of that +country to this day. We have seen that among the Peruvians, Romans, and +other nations, on a certain day all fires were extinguished throughout +the kingdom, and a new fire kindled at the chief temple by the sun's +rays, from which the people obtained their fire for the coming year. In +Ireland the same practice was found to exist. A piece of land was set +apart, where the four provinces met, in the present county of Meath; +here, at a palace called Tlachta, the divine fire was kindled. Upon the +night of what is now All-Saints-day the Druids assembled at this place +to offer sacrifice, and it was established, under heavy penalties, that +no fire should be kindled except from this source. On the first of May a +convocation of Druids was held in the royal palace of the King of +Connaught, and two fires were lit, between which cattle were driven, as +a preventive of murrain and other pestilential disorders. This was +called Beltinne, or the day of Bel's fire. And unto this day the Irish +call the first day of May "Lha-Beul-tinne," which signifies "the day of +Bel's fire." The celebration in Ireland of St. John's-eve by watch-fires +is a relic of the ancient sun-worship of Atlantis. The practice of +driving cattle through the fire continued for a longtime, and Kelly +mentions in his "Folk-lore" that in Northamptonshire, in England, a calf +was sacrificed in one of these fires to "stop the murrain" during the +present century. Fires are still lighted in England and Scotland as well +as Ireland for superstitious purposes; so that the people of Great +Britain, it may be said, are still in some sense in the midst of the +ancient sun-worship of Atlantis. + +We find among the Irish of to-day many Oriental customs. The game of +"jacks," or throwing up five pebbles and catching them on the back of +the hand, was known in Rome. "The Irish keen (caoine), or the lament +over the dead, may still be heard in Algeria and Upper Egypt, even as +Herodotus heard it chanted by the Libyan women." The same practice +existed among the Egyptians, Etruscans, and Romans. The Irish wakes are +identical with the funeral feasts of the Greeks, Etruscans, and Romans. +(Cusack's "History of Ireland," p. 141.) The Irish custom of saying "God +bless you!" when one sneezes, is a very ancient practice; it was known +to the Romans, and referred, it is said, to a plague in the remote past, +whose first symptom was sneezing. + +We find many points of resemblance between the customs of the Irish and +those of the Hindoo. The practice of the creditor fasting at the +door-step of his debtor until he is paid, is known to both countries; +the kindly "God save you!" is the same as the Eastern "God be gracious +to you, my son!" The reverence for the wren in Ireland and Scotland +reminds us of the Oriental and Greek respect for that bird. The practice +of pilgrimages, fasting, bodily macerations, and devotion to holy wells +and particular places, extends from Ireland to India. + +All these things speak of a common origin; this fact has been generally +recognized, but it has always been interpreted that the Irish came from +the East, and were in fact a migration of Hindoos. There is not the +slightest evidence to sustain this theory. The Hindoos have never within +the knowledge of man sent out colonies or fleets for exploration; but +there is abundant evidence, on the other hand, of migrations from +Atlantis eastward. And how could the Sanscrit writings have preserved +maps of Ireland, England, and Spain, giving the shape and outline of +their coasts, and their very names, and yet have preserved no memory of +the expeditions or colonizations by which they acquired that knowledge? + +Another proof of our theory is found in "the round-towers" of Ireland. +Attempts have been made to show, by Dr. Petrie and others, that these +extraordinary structures are of modern origin, and were built by the +Christian priests, in which to keep their church-plate. But it is shown +that the "Annals of Ulster" mention the destruction of fifty-seven of +them by an earthquake in A.D. 448; and Giraldus Cambrensis shows that +Lough Neagh was created by an inundation, or sinking of the land, in +A.D. 65, and that in his day the fishermen could + + "See the round-towers of other days + In the waves beneath them shining." + +Moreover, we find Diodorus Siculus, in a well-known passage, referring +to Ireland, and describing it as "an island in the ocean over against +Gaul, to the north, and not inferior in size to Sicily, the soil of +which is so fruitful that they mow there twice in the year." He mentions +the skill of their harpers, their sacred groves, and their singular +temples of round form. + + THE BURGH OF MOUSSA, IN THE SHETLANDS + +We find similar structures in America, Sardinia, and India. The remains +of similar round-towers are very abundant in the Orkneys and Shetlands. +"They have been supposed by some," says Sir John Lubbock, "to be +Scandinavian, but no similar buildings exist in Norway, Sweden, or +Denmark, so that this style of architecture is no doubt anterior to the +arrival of the Northmen." I give above a picture of the Burgh or Broch +of the little island of Moussa, in the Shetlands. It is circular in +form, forty-one feet in height. Open at the top; the central space is +twenty feet in diameter, the walls about fourteen feet thick at the +base, and eight feet at the top. They contain a staircase, which leads +to the top of the building. Similar structures are found in the Island +of Sardinia. + + ROUND-TOWER OF THE CANYON OF THE MANCOS, COLORADO, U.S. + +In New Mexico and Colorado the remains of round-towers are very +abundant. The illustration below represents one of these in the valley +of the Mancos, in the south-western corner of Colorado. A model of it is +to be found in the Smithsonian collection at Washington. The tower +stands at present, in its ruined condition, twenty feet high. It will be +seen that it resembles the towers of Ireland, not only in its circular +form but also in the fact that its door-way is situated at some distance +from the ground. + +It will not do to say that the resemblance between these prehistoric and +singular towers, in countries so far apart as Sardinia, Ireland, +Colorado, and India, is due to an accidental coincidence. It might as +well be argued that the resemblance between the roots of the various +Indo-European languages was also due to accidental coincidence, and did +not establish any similarity of origin. In fact, we might just as well +go back to the theory of the philosophers of one hundred and fifty years +ago, and say that the resemblance between the fossil forms in the rocks +and the living forms upon them did not indicate relationship, or prove +that the fossils were the remains of creatures that had once lived, but +that it was simply a way nature had of working out extraordinary +coincidences in a kind of joke; a sort of "plastic power in nature," as +it was called. + +We find another proof that Ireland was settled by the people of Atlantis +in the fact that traditions long existed among the Irish peasantry of a +land in the "Far West," and that this belief was especially found among +the posterity of the Tuatha-de-Dananns, whose connection with the +Formorians we have shown. + +The Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, in a note to his translation of the +"Popol Vuh," says: + +"There is an abundance of legends and traditions concerning the passage +of the Irish into America, and their habitual communication with that +continent many centuries before the time of Columbus. We should bear in +mind that Ireland was colonized by the Phoenicians (or by people of that +race). An Irish Saint named Vigile, who lived in the eighth century, was +accused to Pope Zachary of having taught heresies on the subject of the +antipodes. At first he wrote to the pope in reply to the charge, but +afterward he went to Rome in person to justify himself, and there he +proved to the pope that the Irish had been accustomed to communicate +with a transatlantic world." + +"This fact," says Baldwin, "seems to have been preserved in the records +of the Vatican." + +The Irish annals preserve the memory of St. Brendan of Clonfert, and his +remarkable voyage to a land in the West, made A.D. 545. His early youth +was passed under the care of St. Ita, a lady of the princely family of +the Desii. When he was five years old he was placed under the care of +Bishop Ercus. Kerry was his native home; the blue waves of the Atlantic +washed its shores; the coast was full of traditions of a wonderful land +in the West. He went to see the venerable St. Enda, the first abbot of +Arran, for counsel. He was probably encouraged in the plan he had formed +of carrying the Gospel to this distant land. "He proceeded along the +coast of Mayo, inquiring as he went for traditions of the Western +continent. On his return to Kerry he decided to set out on the important +expedition. St. Brendan's Hill still bears his name; and from the bay at +the foot of this lofty eminence be sailed for the 'Far West.' Directing +his course toward the southwest, with a few faithful companions, in a +well-provisioned bark, he came, after some rough and dangerous +navigation, to calm seas, where, without aid of oar or sail, he was +borne along for many weeks." He had probably entered upon the same great +current which Columbus travelled nearly one thousand years later, and +which extends from the shores of Africa and Europe to America. He +finally reached land; he proceeded inland until he came to a large river +flowing from east to west, supposed by some to be the Ohio. "After an +absence of seven years he returned to Ireland, and lived not only to +tell of the marvels he had seen, but to found a college of three +thousand monks at Clonfert." There are eleven Latin MSS. in the +Bibliothèque Impériale at Paris of this legend, the dates of which vary +from the eleventh to the fourteenth century, but all of them anterior to +the time of Columbus. + +The fact that St. Brendan sailed in search of a country in the west +cannot be doubted; and the legends which guided him were probably the +traditions of Atlantis among a people whose ancestors had been derived +directly or at second-hand from that country. + +This land was associated in the minds of the peasantry with traditions +of Edenic happiness and beauty. Miss Eleanor C. Donnelly, of +Philadelphia, has referred to it in her poem, "The Sleeper's Sail," +where the starving boy dreams of the pleasant and plentiful land: + + "'Mother, I've been on the cliffs out yonder, + Straining my eyes o'er the breakers free + To the lovely spot where the sun was setting, + Setting and sinking into the sea. + + "'The sky was full of the fairest colors + Pink and purple and paly green, + With great soft masses of gray and amber, + And great bright rifts of gold between. + + "'And all the birds that way were flying, + Heron and curlew overhead, + With a mighty eagle westward floating, + Every plume in their pinions red. + + "'And then I saw it, the fairy city, + Far away o'er the waters deep; + Towers and castles and chapels glowing + Like blesséd dreams that we see in sleep. + + "'What is its name?' 'Be still, acushla + (Thy hair is wet with the mists, my boy); + Thou hast looked perchance on the Tir-na-n'oge, + Land of eternal youth and joy! + + "'Out of the sea, when the sun is setting, + It rises, golden and fair to view; + No trace of ruin, or change of sorrow, + No sign of age where all is new. + + "'Forever sunny, forever blooming, + Nor cloud nor frost can touch that spot, + Where the happy people are ever roaming, + The bitter pangs of the past forgot.' + +This is the Greek story of Elysion; these are the Elysian Fields of the +Egyptians; these are the Gardens of the Hesperides; this is the region +in the West to which the peasant of Brittany looks from the shores of +Cape Raz; this is Atlantis. + +The starving child seeks to reach this blessed land in a boat and is +drowned. + + "High on the cliffs the light-house keeper + Caught the sound of a piercing scream; + Low in her hut the lonely widow + Moaned in the maze of a troubled dream; + + "And saw in her sleep a seaman ghostly, + With sea-weeds clinging in his hair, + Into her room, all wet and dripping, + A drownéd boy on his bosom bear. + + "Over Death Sea on a bridge of silver + The child to his Father's arms had passed! + Heaven was nearer than Tir-na-n'oge, + And the golden city was reached at last." + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE OLDEST SON OF NOAH. + +That eminent authority, Dr. Max Müller, says, in his "Lectures on the +Science of Religion," + +"If we confine ourselves to the Asiatic continent, with its important +peninsula of Europe, we find that in the vast desert of drifting human +speech three, and only three, oases have been formed in which, before +the beginning of all history, language became permanent and +traditional--assumed, in fact, a new character, a character totally +different from the original character of the floating and constantly +varying speech of human beings. These three oases of language are known +by the name of Turanian, Aryan, and Semitic. In these three centres, +more particularly in the Aryan and Semitic, language ceased to be +natural; its growth was arrested, and it became permanent, solid, +petrified, or, if you like, historical speech. I have always maintained +that this centralization and traditional conservation of language could +only have been the result of religious and political influences, and I +now mean to show that we really have clear evidence of three independent +settlements of religion--the Turanian, the Aryan, and the +Semitic--concomitantly with the three great settlements of language." + +There can be no doubt that the Aryan and another branch, which Müller +calls Semitic, but which may more properly be called Hamitic, radiated +from Noah; it is a question yet to be decided whether the Turanian or +Mongolian is also a branch of the Noachic or Atlantean stock. + +To quote again from Max Müller: + +"If it can only be proved that the religions of the Aryan nations are +united by the same bonds of a real relationship which have enabled us to +treat their languages as so many varieties of the same type--and so also +of the Semitic--the field thus opened is vast enough, and its careful +clearing, and cultivation will occupy several generations of scholars. +And this original relationship, I believe, can be proved. Names of the +principal deities, words also expressive of the most essential elements +of religion, such as prayer, sacrifice, altar, spirit, law, and faith, +have been preserved among the Aryan and among the Semitic nations, and +these relics admit of one explanation only. After that, a comparative +study of the Turanian religions may be approached with better hope of +success; for that there was not only a primitive Aryan and a primitive +Semitic religion, but likewise a primitive Turanian religion, before +each of these primeval races was broken up and became separated in +language, worship and national sentiment, admits, I believe, of little +doubt.... There was a period during which the ancestors of the +Semitic family had not yet been divided, whether in language or in +religion. That period transcends the recollection of every one of the +Semitic races, in the same way as neither Hindoos, Greeks, nor Romans +have any recollection of the time when they spoke a common language, and +worshipped their Father in heaven by a name that was as yet neither +Sanscrit, nor Greek, nor Latin. But I do not hesitate to call this +Prehistoric Period historical in the best sense of the word. It was a +real period, because, unless it was real, all the realities of the +Semitic languages and the Semitic religions, such as we find them after +their separation, would be unintelligible. Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic +point to a common source as much as Sanscrit, Greek, and Latin; and +unless we can bring ourselves to doubt that the Hindoos, the Greeks, the +Romans, and the Teutons derived the worship of their principal deity +from their common Aryan sanctuary, we shall not be able to deny that +there was likewise a primitive religion of the whole Semitic race, and +that El, the Strong One in heaven, was invoked by the ancestors of all +the Semitic races before there were Babylonians in Babylon, Phoenicians +in Sidon and Tyrus--before there were Jews in Mesopotamia or Jerusalem. +The evidence of the Semitic is the same as that of the Aryan languages: +the conclusion cannot be different.... + +"These three classes of religion are not to be mistaken--as little as the +three classes of language, the Turanian, the Semitic, and the Aryan. +They mark three events in the most ancient history of the world, events +which have determined the whole fate of the human race, and of which we +ourselves still feel the consequences in our language, in our thoughts, +and in our religion." + +We have seen that all the evidence points to the fact that this original +seat of the Phoenician-Hebrew family was in Atlantis. + +The great god of the so-called Semites was El, the Strong One, from +whose name comes the Biblical names Beth-el, the house of God; Ha-el, +the strong one; El-ohim, the gods; El-oah, God; and from the same name +is derived the Arabian name of God, Al-lah. + +Another evidence of the connection between the Greeks, Phoenicians, +Hebrews, and Atlanteans is shown in the name of Adonis. + +The Greeks tell us that Adonis was the lover of Aphrodite, or Venus, who +was the offspring of Uranus--"she came out of the sea;" Uranus was the +father of Chronos, and the grandfather of Poseidon, king of Atlantis. + +Now we find Adonâi in the Old Testament used exclusively as the name of +Jehovah, while among the Phoenicians Adonâi was the supreme deity. In +both cases the root Ad is probably a reminiscence of Ad-lantis. + +There seem to exist similar connections between the Egyptian and the +Turanian mythology. The great god of Egypt was Neph or Num; the chief +god of the Samoyedes is Num; and Max Müller established an identity +between the Num of the Samoyedes and the god Yum-ala of the Finns, and +probably with the name of the god Nam of the Thibetians. + +That mysterious people, the Etruscans, who inhabited part of Italy, and +whose bronze implements agreed exactly in style and workmanship with +those which we think were derived from Atlantis, were, it is now +claimed, a branch of the Turanian family. + +"At a recent meeting of the English Philological Society great interest +was excited by a paper on Etruscan Numerals, by the Rev. Isaac Taylor. +He stated that the long-sought key to the Etruscan language had at last +been discovered. Two dice had been found in a tomb, with their six faces +marked with words instead of pips. He showed that these words were +identical with the first six digits in the Altaic branch of the Turanian +family of speech. Guided by this clew, it was easy to prove that the +grammar and vocabulary of the 3000 Etruscan inscriptions were also +Altaic. The words denoting kindred, the pronouns, the conjugations, and +the declensions, corresponded closely to those of the Tartar tribes of +Siberia. The Etruscan mythology proved to be essentially the same as +that of the Kalevala, the great Finnic epic." + +According to Lenormant ("Ancient History of the East," vol. i., p. 62; +vol. ii., p. 23), the early contests between the Aryans and the +Turanians are represented in the Iranian traditions as "contests between +hostile brothers ... the Ugro-Finnish races must, according to all +appearances, be looked upon as a branch, earlier detached than the +others from the Japhetic stem." + +If it be true that the first branch originating from Atlantis was the +Turanian, which includes the Chinese and Japanese, then we have derived +from Atlantis all the building and metalworking races of men who have +proved themselves capable of civilization; and we may, therefore, divide +mankind into two great classes: those capable of civilization, derived +from Atlantis, and those essentially and at all times barbarian, who +hold no blood relationship with the people of Atlantis. + +Humboldt is sure "that some connection existed between ancient Ethiopia +and the elevated plain of Central Asia." There were invasions which +reached from the shores of Arabia into China. "An Arabian sovereign, +Schamar-Iarasch (Abou Karib), is described by Hamza, Nuwayri, and others +as a powerful ruler and conqueror, who carried his arms successfully far +into Central Asia; he occupied Samarcand and invaded China. He erected +an edifice at Samarcand, bearing an inscription, in Himyarite or Cushite +characters, 'In the name of God, Schamar-Iarasch has erected this +edifice to the sun, his Lord." (Baldwin's "Prehistoric Nations," p. +110.) These invasions must have been prior to 1518 B.C. + +Charles Walcott Brooks read a paper before the California Academy of +Sciences, in which he says: + +"According to Chinese annals, Tai-Ko-Fokee, the great stranger king, +ruled the kingdom of China. In pictures he is represented with two small +horns, like those associated with the representations of Moses. He and +his successor are said to have introduced into China 'picture-writing,' +like that in use in Central America at the time of the Spanish conquest. +He taught the motions of the heavenly bodies, and divided time into +years and months; he also introduced many other useful arts and sciences. + +"Now, there has been found at Copan, in Central America, a figure +strikingly like the Chinese symbol of Fokee, with his two horns; and, in +like manner, there is a close resemblance between the Central American +and the Chinese figures representing earth and heaven. Either one people +learned from the other, or both acquired these forms from a common +source. Many physico-geographical facts favor the hypothesis that they +were derived in very remote ages from America, and that from China they +passed to Egypt. Chinese records say that the progenitors of the Chinese +race came from across the sea." + +The two small horns of Tai-Ko-Fokee and Moses are probably a +reminiscence of Baal. We find the horns of Baal represented in the +remains of the Bronze Age of Europe. Bel sometimes wore a tiara with his +bull's horns; the tiara was the crown subsequently worn by the Persian +kings, and it became, in time, the symbol of Papal authority. The +Atlanteans having domesticated cattle, and discovered their vast +importance to humanity, associated the bull and cow with religious +ideas, as revealed in the oldest hymns of the Aryans and the cow-headed +idols of Troy, a representation of one of which is shown on the +preceding page. Upon the head of their great god Baal they placed the +horns of the bull; and these have descended in popular imagination to +the spirit of evil of our day. Burns says: + + "O thou! whatever title suit thee, + Auld Hornie, Satan, Nick, or Clootie." + +"Clootie" is derived from the cleft hoof of a cow; while the Scotch name +for a bull is Bill, a corruption, probably, of Bel. Less than two +hundred years ago it was customary to sacrifice a bull on the 25th of +August to the "God Mowrie" and "his devilans" on the island of Inis +Maree, Scotland. ("The Past in the Present," p. 165.) The trident of +Poseidon has degenerated into the pitchfork of Beelzebub! + +And when we cross the Atlantic, we find in America the horns of Baal +reappearing in a singular manner. The first cut on page 429 represents +an idol of the Moquis of New Mexico: the head is very bull-like. In the +next figure we have a representation of the war-god of the Dakotas, with +something like a trident in his hand; while the next illustration is +taken from Zarate's "Peru," and depicts "the god of a degrading +worship." He is very much like the traditional conception of the +European devil-horns, pointed ears, wings, and poker. Compare this last +figure, from Peru, with the representation on page 430 of a Greek siren, +one of those cruel monsters who, according to Grecian mythology, sat in +the midst of bones and blood, tempting men to ruin by their sweet music. +Here we have the same bird-like legs and claws as in the Peruvian demon. + +Heeren shows that a great overland commerce extended in ancient times +between the Black Sea and "Great Mongolia;" he mentions a "Temple of the +Sun," and a great caravansary in the desert of Gobi. Arminius Vámbéry, +in his "Travels in Central Asia," describes very important ruins near +the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea, at a place called Gömüshtepe; and +connected with these are the remains of a great wall which he followed +"ten geographical miles." He found a vast aqueduct one hundred and fifty +miles long, extending to the Persian mountains. He reports abundant +ruins in all that country, extending even to China. + +The early history of China indicates contact with a superior race. +"Fuh-hi, who is regarded as a demi-god, founded the Chinese Empire 2852 +B.C. He introduced cattle, taught the people how to raise them, and +taught the art of writing." ("American Cyclopædia," art. China.) He +might have invented his alphabet, but he did not invent the cattle; he +must have got them from some nation who, during many centuries of +civilization, had domesticated them; and from what nation was he more +likely to have obtained them than from the Atlanteans, whose colonies we +have seen reached his borders, and whose armies invaded his territory! +"He instituted the ceremony of marriage." (Ibid.) This also was an +importation from a civilized land. "His successor, Shin-nung, during a +reign of one hundred and forty years, introduced agriculture and medical +science. The next emperor, Hwang-ti, is believed to have invented +weapons, wagons, ships, clocks, and musical instruments, and to have +introduced coins, weights, and measures." (Ibid.) As these various +inventions in all other countries have been the result of slow +development, running through many centuries, or are borrowed from some +other more civilized people, it is certain that no emperor of China ever +invented them all during a period of one hundred and sixty-four years. +These, then, were also importations from the West. In fact, the Chinese +themselves claim to have invaded China in the early days from the +north-west; and their first location is placed by Winchell near Lake +Balkat, a short distance east of the Caspian, where we have already seen +Aryan Atlantean colonies planted at an early day. "The third successor +of Fuh-hi, Ti-ku, established schools, and was the first to practise +polygamy. In 2357 his son Yau ascended the throne, and it is from his +reign that the regular historical records begin. A great flood, which +occurred in his reign, has been considered synchronous and identical +with the Noachic Deluge, and to Yau is attributed the merit of having +successfully battled against the waters." + +There can be no question that the Chinese themselves, in their early +legends, connected their origin with a people who were destroyed by +water in a tremendous convulsion of the earth. Associated with this +event was a divine personage called Niu-va (Noah?). + +Sir William Jones says: + +"The Chinese believe the earth to have been wholly covered with water, +which, in works of undisputed authenticity, they describe as flowing +abundantly, then subsiding and separating the higher from the lower ages +of mankind; that this division of time, from which their poetical +history begins, just preceded the appearance of Fo-hi on the mountains +of Chin." ("Discourse on the Chinese; Asiatic Researches," vol. ii., p. +376.) + +The following history of this destruction of their ancestors vividly +recalls to us the convulsion depicted in the Chaldean and American +legends: + +"The pillars of heaven were broken; the earth shook to its very +foundations; the heavens sunk lower toward the north; the sun, the moon, +and the stars changed their motions; the earth fell to pieces, and the +waters enclosed within its bosom burst forth with violence and +overflowed it. Man having rebelled against Heaven, the system of the +universe was totally disordered. The sun was eclipsed, the planets +altered their course, and the grand harmony of nature was disturbed." + +A learned Frenchman, M. Terrien de la Couperie, member of the Asiatic +Society of Paris, has just published a work (1880) in which he +demonstrates the astonishing fact that the Chinese language is clearly +related to the Chaldean, and that both the Chinese characters and the +cuneiform alphabet are degenerate descendants of an original +hieroglyphical alphabet. The same signs exist for many words, while +numerous words are very much alike. M. de la Couperie gives a table of +some of these similarities, from which I quote as follows: + + +------------+----------+----------+ + | English. | Chinese. | Chaldee. | + +------------+----------+----------+ + | To shine | Mut | Mul. | + +------------+----------+----------+ + | To die | Mut | Mit. | + +------------+----------+----------+ + | Book | King | Kin. | + +------------+----------+----------+ + | Cloth | Sik | Sik. | + +------------+----------+----------+ + | Right hand | Dzek | Zag. | + +------------+----------+----------+ + | Hero | Tan | Dun. | + +------------+----------+----------+ + | Earth | Kien-kai | Kiengi. | + +------------+----------+----------+ + | Cow | Lub | Lu, lup. | + +------------+----------+----------+ + | Brick | Ku | Ku. | + +------------+----------+----------+ + +This surprising discovery brings the Chinese civilization still nearer +to the Mediterranean head-quarters of the races, and increases the +probability that the arts of China were of Atlantean origin; and that +the name of Nai Hoang-ti, or Nai Korti, the founder of Chinese +civilization, may be a reminiscence of Nakhunta, the chief of the gods, +as recorded in the Susian texts, and this, in turn, a recollection of +the Deva-Nahusha of the Hindoos, the Dionysos of the Greeks, the king of +Atlantis, whose great empire reached to the "farther parts of India," +and embraced, according to Plato, "parts of the continent of America." + +Linguistic science achieved a great discovery when it established the +fact that there was a continuous belt of languages from Iceland to +Ceylon which were the variant forms of one mother-tongue, the +Indo-European; but it must prepare itself for a still wider +generalization. There is abundant proof--proof with which pages might be +filled--that there was a still older mother-tongue, from which Aryan, +Semitic, and Hamitic were all derived--the language of Noah, the +language of Atlantis, the language of the great "aggressive empire" of +Plato, the language of the empire of the Titans. + +The Arabic word bin, within, becomes, when it means interval, space, +binnon; this is the German and Dutch binnen and Saxon binnon, signifying +within. The Ethiopian word aorf, to fall asleep, is the root of the word +Morpheus, the god of sleep. The Hebrew word chanah, to dwell, is the +parent of the Anglo-Saxon inne and Icelandic inni, a house, and of our +word inn, a hotel. The Hebrew word naval or nafal signifies to fall; +from it is derived our word fall and fool (one who falls); the Chaldee +word is nabal, to make foul, and the Arabic word nabala means to die, +that is, to fall. From the last syllable of the Chaldee nasar, to saw, +we can derive the Latin serra, the High German sagen, the Danish sauga, +and our word to saw. The Arabic nafida, to fade, is the same as the +Italian fado, the Latin fatuus (foolish, tasteless), the Dutch vadden, +and our to fade. The Ethiopic word gaber, to make, to do, and the Arabic +word jabara, to make strong, becomes the Welsh word goberu, to work, to +operate, the Latin operor, and the English operate. The Arabic word +abara signifies to prick, to sting; we see this root in the Welsh bar, a +summit, and pâr, a spear, and per, a spit; whence our word spear. In the +Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic zug means to join, to couple; from this the +Greeks obtained zugos, the Romans jugum, and we the word yoke; while the +Germans obtained jok or jog, the Dutch juk, the Swedes ok. The Sanscrit +is juga. The Arabic sanna, to be old, reappears in the Latin senex, the +Welsh hen, and our senile. The Hebrew banah, to build, is the Irish bun, +foundation, and the Latin fundo, fundare, to found. The Arabic baraka, +to bend the knee, to fall on the breast, is probably the Saxon brecau, +the Danish bräkke, the Swedish bräcka, Welsh bregu, and our word to +break. The Arabic baraka also signifies to rain violently; and from this +we get the Saxon roegn, to rain, Dutch regen, to rain, Cimbric roekia, +rain, Welsh rheg, rain. The Chaldee word braic, a branch, is the Irish +braic or raigh, an arm, the Welsh braic, the Latin brachium, and the +English brace, something which supports like an arm. The Chaldee frak, +to rub, to tread out grain, is the same as the Latin frico, frio, and +our word rake. The Arabic word to rub is fraka. The Chaldee rag, ragag, +means to desire, to long for; it is the same as the Greek oregw, the +Latin porrigere, the Saxon roeccan, the Icelandic rakna, the German +reichen, and our to reach, to rage. The Arabic rauka, to strain or +purify, as wine, is precisely our English word rack, to rack wine. The +Hebrew word bara, to create, is our word to bear, as to bear children: a +great number of words in all the European languages contain this root in +its various modifications. The Hebrew word kafar, to cover, is our word +to cover, and coffer, something which covers, and covert, a secret +place; from this root also comes the Latin cooperio and the French +couvrir, to cover. The Arabic word shakala, to bind under the belly, is +our word to shackle. From the Arabic walada and Ethiopian walad, to +beget, to bring forth, we get the Welsh llawd, a shooting out; and hence +our word lad. Our word matter, or pus, is from the Arabic madda; our +word mature is originally from the Chaldee mita. The Arabic word amida +signifies to end, and from this comes the noun, a limit, a termination, +Latin meta, and our words meet and mete. + +I might continue this list, but I have given enough to show that all the +Atlantean races once spoke the same language, and that the dispersion on +the plains of Shinar signifies that breaking up of the tongues of one +people under the operation of vast spaces of time. Philology is yet in +its infancy, and the time is not far distant when the identity of the +languages of all the Noachic races will be as clearly established and as +universally acknowledged as is now the identity of the languages of the +Aryan family of nations. + +And precisely as recent research has demonstrated the relationship +between Pekin and Babylon, so investigation in Central America has +proved that there is a mysterious bond of union connecting the Chinese +and one of the races of Mexico. The resemblances are so great that Mr. +Short ("North Americans of Antiquity," p. 494) says, "There is no doubt +that strong analogies exist between the Otomi and the Chinese." Señor +Najera ("Dissertacion Sobre la lingua Othomi, Mexico," pp. 87, 88) gives +a list of words from which I quote the following: + + +----------+---------+------------+----------+--------+------------+ + | Chinese. | Othomi. | English. | Chinese. | Othomi | English. | + +----------+---------+------------+----------+--------+------------+ + | Cho | To | The, that. | Pa | Da | To give. | + +----------+---------+------------+----------+--------+------------+ + | Y | N-y | A wound. | Tsun | Nsu | Honor. | + +----------+---------+------------+----------+--------+------------+ + | Ten | Gu, mu | Head. | Hu | Hmu | Sir, Lord. | + +----------+---------+------------+----------+--------+------------+ + | Siao | Sui | Night | Na | Na | That. | + +----------+---------+------------+----------+--------+------------+ + | Tien | Tsi | Tooth | Hu | He | Cold. | + +----------+---------+------------+----------+--------+------------+ + | Ye | Yo | Shining | Ye | He | And. | + +----------+---------+------------+----------+--------+------------+ + | Ky | Hy (ji) | Happiness. | Hoa | Hia | Word. | + +----------+---------+------------+----------+--------+------------+ + | Ku | Du | Death | Nugo | Nga | I | + +----------+---------+------------+----------+--------+------------+ + | Po | Yo | No | Ni | Nuy | Thou. | + +----------+---------+------------+----------+--------+------------+ + | Na | Ta | Man | Hao | Nho | The good. | + +----------+---------+------------+----------+--------+------------+ + | Nin | Nsu | Female | Ta | Da | The great. | + +----------+---------+------------+----------+--------+------------+ + | Tseu | Tsi, ti | Son | Li | Ti | Gain. | + +----------+---------+------------+----------+--------+------------+ + | Tso | Tsa | To perfect | Ho | To | Who. | + +----------+---------+------------+----------+--------+------------+ + | Kuan | Khuani | True | Pa | Pa | To leave. | + +----------+---------+------------+----------+--------+------------+ + | Siao | Sa | To mock | Mu, mo | Me | Mother. | + +----------+---------+------------+----------+--------+------------+ + +Recently Herr Forchhammer, of Leipsic, has published a truly scientific +comparison of the grammatical structure of the Choctaw, Chickasaw, +Muscogee, and Seminole languages with the Ural-Altaic tongues, in which +he has developed many interesting points of resemblance. + +It has been the custom to ascribe the recognized similarities between +the Indians of America and the Chinese and Japanese to a migration by +way of Behring's Strait from Asia into America; but when we find that +the Chinese themselves only reached the Pacific coast within the +Historical Period, and that they came to it from the direction of the +Mediterranean and Atlantis, and when we find so many and such distinct +recollections of the destruction of Atlantis in the Flood legends of the +American races, it seems more reasonable to conclude that the +resemblances between the Othomi and the Chinese are to be accounted for +by intercourse through Atlantis. + +We find a confirmation in all these facts of the order in which Genesis +names the sons of Noah: + +"Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and +Japheth, and unto them were sons born after the flood." + +Can we not suppose that those three sons represent three great races in +the order of their precedence? + +The record of Genesis claims that the Phoenicians were descended from +Ham, while the Hebrews were descended from Shem; yet we find the Hebrews +and Phoenicians united by the ties of a common language, common +traditions, and common race characteristics. The Jews are the great +merchants of the world eighteen centuries after Christ, just as the +Phoenicians were the great merchants of the world fifteen centuries +before Christ. + +Moreover, the Arabians, who are popularly classed as Semites, or sons of +Shem, admit in their traditions that they are descended from "Ad, the +son of Ham;" and the tenth chapter of Genesis classes them among the +descendants of Ham, calling them Seba, Havilah, Raamah, etc. If the two +great so-called Semitic stocks--the Phoenicians and Arabians--are +Hamites, surely the third member of the group belongs to the same +"sunburnt" race. + +If we concede that the Jews were also a branch of the Hamitic stock, +then we have, firstly, a Semitic stock, the Turanian, embracing the +Etruscans, the Finns, the Tartars, the Mongols, the Chinese, and +Japanese; secondly, a Hamitic family, "the sunburnt" race--a red +race--including the Cushites, Phoenicians, Egyptians, Hebrews, Berbers, +etc.; and, thirdly, a Japhetic or whiter stock, embracing the Greeks, +Italians, Celts, Goths, and the men who wrote Sanscrit--in other words, +the entire Aryan family. + +If we add to these three races the negro race--which cannot be traced +back to Atlantis, and is not included, according to Genesis, among the +descendants of Noah--we have the four races, the white, red, yellow, and +black, recognized by the Egyptians as embracing all the people known to +them. + +There seems to be some confusion in Genesis as to the Semitic stock. It +classes different races as both Semites and Hamites; as, for instance, +Sheba and Havilah; while the race of Mash, or Meshech, is classed among +the sons of Shem and the sons of Japheth. In fact, there seems to be a +confusion of Hamitic and Semitic stocks. "This is shown in the blending +of Hamitic and Semitic in some of the most ancient inscriptions; in the +facility of intercourse between the Semites of Asia and the Hamites of +Egypt; in the peaceful and unobserved absorption of all the Asiatic +Hamites, and the Semitic adoption of the Hamitic gods and religious +system. It is manifest that, at a period not long previous, the two +families had dwelt together and spoken the same language." (Winchell's +"Pre-Adamites," p. 36.) Is it not more reasonable to suppose that the +so-called Semitic races of Genesis were a mere division of the Hamitic +stock, and that we are to look for the third great division of the sons +of Noah among the Turanians? + +Francis Lenormant, high authority, is of the opinion that the Turanian +races are descended from Magog, the son of Japheth. He regards the +Turanians as intermediate between the white and yellow races, graduating +insensibly into each. "The Uzbecs, the Osmanli Turks, and the Hungarians +are not to be distinguished in appearance from the most perfect branches +of the white race; on the other hand, the Tchondes almost exactly +resemble the Tongouses, who belong to the yellow race. + +The Turanian languages are marked by the same agglutinative character +found in the American races. + +The Mongolian and the Indian are alike in the absence of a heavy beard. +The royal color of the Incas was yellow; yellow is the color of the +imperial family in China. The religion of the Peruvians was sun-worship; +"the sun was the peculiar god of the Mongols from the earliest times." +The Peruvians regarded Pachacamac as the sovereign creator. Camac-Hya +was the name of a Hindoo goddess. Haylli was the burden of every verse +of the song composed in praise of the sun and the Incas. Mr. John +Ranking derives the word Allah from the word Haylli, also the word +Halle-lujah. In the city of Cuzco was a portion of land which none were +permitted to cultivate except those of the royal blood. At certain +seasons the Incas turned up the sod here, amid much rejoicing, and many +ceremonies. A similar custom prevails in China: The emperor ploughs a +few furrows, and twelve illustrious persons attend the plough after him. +(Du Halde, "Empire of China," vol. i., p. 275.) The cycle of sixty years +was in use among most of the nations of Eastern Asia, and among the +Muyscas of the elevated plains of Bogota. The "quipu," a knotted +reckoning-cord, was in use in Peru and in China. (Bancroft's "Native +Races," vol. v., p. 48.) In Peru and China "both use hieroglyphics, +which are read from above downward." (Ibid.) + +"It appears most evident to me," says Humboldt, "that the monuments, +methods of computing time, systems of cosmogony, and many myths of +America, offer striking analogies with the ideas of Eastern +Asia--analogies which indicate an ancient communication, and are not +simply the result of that uniform condition in which all nations are +found in the dawn of civilization." ("Exam. Crit.," tom. ii., p. 68.) + +"In the ruined cities of Cambodia, which lies farther to the east of +Burmah, recent research has discovered teocallis like those in Mexico, +and the remains of temples of the same type and pattern as those of +Yucatan. And when we reach the sea we encounter at Suku, in Java, a +teocalli which is absolutely identical with that of Tehuantepec. Mr. +Ferguson said, 'as we advance eastward from the valley of the Euphrates, +at every step we meet with forms of art becoming more and more like +those of Central America.'" ("Builders of Babel," p. 88.) + +Prescott says: + +"The coincidences are sufficiently strong to authorize a belief that the +civilization of Anahuac was in some degree influenced by that of Eastern +Asia; and, secondly, that the discrepancies are such as to carry back +the communication to a very remote period." ("Mexico," vol. iii., p. +418.) + +"All appearances," continues Lenormant ("Ancient History of the East," +vol. i., p. 64), "would lead us to regard the Turanian race as the first +branch of the family of Japheth which went forth into the world; and by +that premature separation, by an isolated and antagonistic existence, +took, or rather preserved, a completely distinct physiognomy.... It +is a type of the white race imperfectly developed." + +We may regard this yellow race as the first and oldest wave from +Atlantis, and, therefore, reaching farthest away from the common source; +then came the Hamitic race; then the Japhetic. + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE ANTIQUITY OF SOME OF OUR GREAT INVENTIONS. + +It may seem like a flight of the imagination to suppose that the +mariner's compass was known to the inhabitants of Atlantis. And yet, if +my readers are satisfied that the Atlantean were a highly civilized +maritime people, carrying on commerce with regions as far apart as Peru +and Syria, we must conclude that they possessed some means of tracing +their course in the great seas they traversed; and accordingly, when we +proceed to investigate this subject, we find that as far back as we may +go in the study of the ancient races of the world, we find them +possessed of a knowledge of the virtues of the magnetic stone, and in +the habit of utilizing it. The people of Europe, rising a few centuries +since out of a state of semi-barbarism, have been in the habit of +claiming the invention of many things which they simply borrowed from +the older nations. This was the case with the mariner's compass. It was +believed for many years that it was first invented by an Italian named +Amalfi, A.D. 1302. In that interesting work, Goodrich's "Life of +Columbus," we find a curious history of the magnetic compass prior to +that time, from which we collate the following points: + +"In A.D. 868 it was employed by the Northmen." ("The Landnamabok," vol. +i., chap. 2.) An Italian poem of A.D. 1190 refers to it as in use among +the Italian sailors at that date. In the ancient language of the +Hindoos, the Sanscrit--which has been a dead language for twenty-two +hundred years--the magnet was called "the precious stone beloved of +Iron." The Talmud speaks of it as "the stone of attraction;" and it is +alluded to in the early Hebrew prayers as Kalamitah, the same name given +it by the Greeks, from the reed upon which the compass floated. The +Phoenicians were familiar with the use of the magnet. At the prow of +their vessels stood the figure of a woman (Astarte) holding a cross in +one hand and pointing the way with the other; the cross represented the +compass, which was a magnetized needle, floating in water crosswise upon +a piece of reed or wood. The cross became the coat of arms of the +Phoenicians--not only, possibly, as we have shown, as a recollection of +the four rivers of Atlantis, but because it represented the secret of +their great sea-voyages, to which they owed their national greatness. +The hyperborean magician, Abaras, carried "a guiding arrow," which +Pythagoras gave him, "in order that it may be useful to him in all +difficulties in his long journey." ("Herodotus," vol. iv., p. 36.) + +The magnet was called the "Stone of Hercules." Hercules was the patron +divinity of the Phoenicians. He was, as we have shown elsewhere, one of +the gods of Atlantis--probably one of its great kings and navigators. +The Atlanteans were, as Plato tells us, a maritime, commercial people, +trading up the Mediterranean as far as Egypt and Syria, and across the +Atlantic to "the whole opposite continent that surrounds the sea;" the +Phoenicians, as their successors and descendants, and colonized on the +shores of the Mediterranean, inherited their civilization and their +maritime habits, and with these that invention without which their great +voyages were impossible. From them the magnet passed to the Hindoos, and +from them to the Chinese, who certainly possessed it at an early date. +In the year 2700 B.C. the Emperor Wang-ti placed a magnetic figure with +an extended arm, like the Astarte of the Phoenicians, on the front of +carriages, the arm always turning and pointing to the south, which the +Chinese regarded as the principal pole. (See Goodrich's "Columbus," p. +31, etc.) This illustration represents one of these chariots: + +In the seventh century it was used by the navigators of the Baltic Sea +and the German Ocean. + + CHINESE MAGNETIC CAR + +The ancient Egyptians called the loadstone the bone of Haroeri, and iron +the bone of Typhon. Haroeri was the son of Osiris and grandson of Rhea, +a goddess of the earth, a queen of Atlantis, and mother of Poseidon; +Typhon was a wind-god and an evil genius, but also a son of Rhea, the +earth goddess. Do we find in this curious designation of iron and +loadstone as "bones of the descendants of the earth," an explanation of +that otherwise inexplicable Greek legend about Deucalion "throwing the +bones of the earth behind him, when instantly men rose from the ground, +and the world was repeopled?" Does it mean that by means of the magnet +he sailed, after the Flood, to the European colonies of Atlantis, +already thickly inhabited? + +A late writer, speaking upon the subject of the loadstone, tells us: + +"Hercules, it was said, being once overpowered by the heat of the sun, +drew his bow against that luminary; whereupon the god Phoebus, admiring +his intrepidity, gave him a golden cup, with which he sailed over the +ocean. This cup was the compass, which old writers have called Lapis +Heracleus. Pisander says Oceanus lent him the cup, and Lucian says it +was a sea-shell. Tradition affirms that the magnet originally was not on +a pivot, but set to float on water in a cup. The old antiquarian is +wildly theoretical on this point, and sees a compass in the Golden +Fleece of Argos, in the oracular needle which Nero worshipped, and in +everything else. Yet undoubtedly there are some curious facts connected +with the matter. Osonius says that Gama and the Portuguese got the +compass from some pirates at the Cape of Good Hope, A.D. 1260. M. +Fauchet, the French antiquarian, finds it plainly alluded to in some old +poem of Brittany belonging to the year A.D. 1180. Paulo Venetus brought +it in the thirteenth century from China, where it was regarded as +oracular. Genebrand says Melvius, a Neapolitan, brought it to Europe in +A.D. 1303. Costa says Gama got it from Mohammedan seamen. But all +nations with whom it was found associate it with regions where Heraclean +myths prevailed. And one of the most curious facts is that the ancient +Britons, as the Welsh do to-day, call a pilot llywydd (lode). +Lodemanage, in Skinner's 'Etymology,' is the word for the price paid to +a pilot. But whether this famous, and afterward deified, mariner +(Hercules) had a compass or not, we can hardly regard the association of +his name with so many Western monuments as accidental." + +Hercules was, as we know, a god of Atlantis, and Oceanos, who lent the +magnetic cup to Hercules, was the name by which the Greeks designated +the Atlantic Ocean. And this may be the explanation of the recurrence of +a cup in many antique paintings and statues. Hercules is often +represented with a cup in his hand; we even find the cup upon the handle +of the bronze dagger found in Denmark, and represented in the chapter on +the Bronze Age, in this work. (See p. 254 ante.) + +So "oracular" an object as this self-moving needle, always pointing to +the north, would doubtless affect vividly the minds of the people, and +appear in their works of art. When Hercules left the coast of Europe to +sail to the island of Erythea in the Atlantic, in the remote west, we +are told, in Greek mythology (Murray, p. 257), that he borrowed "the +cup" of Helios, in (with) which "he was accustomed to sail every night." +Here we seem to have a reference to the magnetic cup used in night +sailing; and this is another proof that the use of the magnetic needle +in sea-voyages was associated with the Atlantean gods. + + ANCIENT COINS OF TYRE + +Lucian tells us that a sea-shell often took the place of the cup, as a +vessel in which to hold the water where the needle floated, and hence +upon the ancient coins of Tyre we find a sea-shell represented. + +Here, too, we have the Pillars of Hercules, supposed to have been placed +at the mouth of the Mediterranean, and the tree of life or knowledge, +with the serpent twined around it, which appears in Genesis; and in the +combination of the two pillars and the serpent we have, it is said, the +original source of our dollar mark [$]. + + COIN FROM CENTRAL AMERICA + +Compare these Phoenician coins with the following representation of a +copper coin, two inches in diameter and three lines thick, found nearly +a century ago by Ordonez, at the city of Guatemala. "M. Dupaix noticed +an indication of the use of the compass in the centre of one of the +sides, the figures on the same side representing a kneeling, bearded, +turbaned man between two fierce heads, perhaps of crocodiles, which +appear to defend the entrance to a mountainous and wooded country. The +reverse presents a serpent coiled around a fruit-tree, and an eagle on a +hill." (Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iv., p. 118.) The mountain leans +to one side: it is a "culhuacan," or crooked mountain. + +We find in Sanchoniathon's "Legends of the Phoenicians" that Ouranus, the +first god of the people of Atlantis, "devised Bætulia, contriving stones +that moved as having life, which were supposed to fall from heaven." +These stones were probably magnetic loadstones; in other words, Ouranus, +the first god of Atlantis, devised the mariner's compass. + +I find in the "Report of United States Explorations for a Route for a +Pacific Railroad" a description of a New Mexican Indian priest, who +foretells the result of a proposed war by placing a piece of wood in a +bowl of water, and causing it to turn to the right or left, or sink or +rise, as he directs it. This is incomprehensible, unless the wood, like +the ancient Chinese compass, contained a piece of magnetic iron hidden +in it, which would be attracted or repulsed, or even drawn downward, by +a piece of iron held in the hand of the priest, on the outside of the +bowl. If so, this trick was a remembrance of the mariner's compass +transmitted from age to age by the medicine men. The reclining statue of +Chac-Mol, of Central America, holds a bowl or dish upon its breast. + +Divination was the ars Etrusca. The Etruscans set their temples squarely +with the cardinal points of the compass; so did the Egyptians, the +Mexicans, and the Mound Builders of America. Could they have done this +without the magnetic compass? + +The Romans and the Persians called the line of the axis of the globe +cardo, and it was to cardo the needle pointed. Now "Cardo was the name +of the mountain on which the human race took refuge from the Deluge... +the primitive geographic point for the countries which were the cradle +of the human race." (Urquhart's "Pillars of Hercules," vol. i., p. 145.) +From this comes our word "cardinal," as the cardinal points. + +Navigation.--Navigation was not by any means in a rude state in the +earliest times: + +"In the wanderings of the heroes returning from Troy, Aristoricus makes +Menelaus circumnavigate Africa more than 500 years before Neco sailed +from Gadeira to India." ("Cosmos," vol. ii., p. 144.) + +"In the tomb of Rameses the Great is a representation of a naval combat +between the Egyptians and some other people, supposed to be the +Phoenicians, whose huge ships are propelled by sails." (Goodrich's +"Columbus," p. 29.) + +The proportions of the fastest sailing-vessels of the present day are +about 300 feet long to 50 wide and 30 high; these were precisely the +proportions of Noah's ark--300 cubits long, 50 broad, and 30 high. + +"Hiero of Syracuse built, under the superintendence of Archimedes, a +vessel which consumed in its construction the material for fifty +galleys; it contained galleries, gardens, stables, fish-ponds, mills, +baths, a temple of Venus, and an engine to throw stones three hundred +pounds in weight, and arrows thirty-six feet long. The floors of this +monstrous vessel were inlaid with scenes from Homer's 'Iliad.'" (Ibid., +p. 30.) + +The fleet of Sesostris consisted of four hundred ships; and when +Semiramis invaded India she was opposed by four thousand vessels. + +It is probable that in the earliest times the vessels were sheeted with +metal. A Roman ship of the time of Trajan has been recovered from Lake +Ricciole after 1300 years. The outside was covered with sheets of lead +fastened with small copper nails. Even the use of iron chains in place +of ropes for the anchors was known at an early period. Julius Cæsar +tells us that the galleys of the Veneti were thus equipped. (Goodrich's +"Columbus," p. 31.) + +Gunpowder.--It is not impossible that even the invention of gunpowder +may date back to Atlantis. It was certainly known in Europe long before +the time of the German monk, Berthold Schwarz, who is commonly credited +with the invention of it. It was employed in 1257 at the siege of +Niebla, in Spain. It was described in an Arab treatise of the thirteenth +century. In A.D. 811 the Emperor Leo employed fire-arms. "Greek-fire" is +supposed to have been gunpowder mixed with resin or petroleum, and +thrown in the form of fuses and explosive shells. It was introduced from +Egypt A.D. 668. In A.D. 690 the Arabs used fire-arms against Mecca, +bringing the knowledge of them from India. In A.D. 80 the Chinese +obtained from India a knowledge of gunpowder. There is reason to believe +that the Carthaginian (Phoenician) general, Hannibal, used gunpowder in +breaking a way for his army over the Alps. The Romans, who were ignorant +of its use, said that Hannibal made his way by making fires against the +rocks, and pouring vinegar and water over the ashes. It is evident that +fire and vinegar would have no effect on masses of the Alps great enough +to arrest the march of an army. Dr. William Maginn has suggested that +the wood was probably burnt by Hannibal to obtain charcoal; and the word +which has been translated "vinegar" probably signified some preparation +of nitre and sulphur, and that Hannibal made gunpowder and blew up the +rocks. The same author suggests that the story of Hannibal breaking +loose from the mountains where he was surrounded on all sides by the +Romans, and in danger of starvation, by fastening firebrands to the +horns of two thousand oxen, and sending them rushing at night among the +terrified Romans, simply refers to the use of rockets. As Maginn well +asks, how could Hannibal be in danger of starvation when he had two +thousand oxen to spare for such an experiment? And why should the +veteran Roman troops have been so terrified and panic-stricken by a lot +of cattle with firebrands on their horns? At the battle of Lake +Trasymene, between Hannibal and Flaminius, we have another curious piece +of information which goes far to confirm the belief that Hannibal was +familiar with the use of gunpowder. In the midst of the battle there +was, say the Roman historians, an "earthquake;" the earth reeled under +the feet of the soldiers, a tremendous crash was heard, a fog or smoke +covered the scene, the earth broke open, and the rocks fell upon the +heads of the Romans. This reads very much as if the Carthaginians had +decoyed the Romans into a pass where they had already planted a mine, +and had exploded it at the proper moment to throw them into a panic. +Earthquakes do not cast rocks up in the air to fall on men's heads! + +And that this is not all surmise is shown by the fact that a city of +India, in the time of Alexander the Great, defended itself by the use of +gunpowder: it was said to be a favorite of the gods, because thunder and +lightning came from its walls to resist the attacks of its assailants. + +As the Hebrews were a branch of the Phoenician race, it is not surprising +that we find some things in their history which look very much like +legends of gunpowder. + +When Korah, Dathan, and Abiram led a rebellion against Moses, Moses +separated the faithful from the unfaithful, and thereupon "the ground +clave asunder that was under them: and the earth opened her mouth, and +swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained +unto Korah, and all their goods.... And there came out a fire from +the Lord, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered +incense.... But on the morrow all the congregation of the children of +Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed +the people of the Lord." (Numb. xvi., 31-41.) + +This looks very much as if Moses had blown up the rebels with gunpowder. + +Roger Bacon, who himself rediscovered gunpowder, was of opinion that the +event described in Judges vii., where Gideon captured the camp of the +Midianites with the roar of trumpets, the crash caused by the breaking +of innumerable pitchers, and the flash of a multitude of lanterns, had +reference to the use of gunpowder; that the noise made by the breaking +of the pitchers represented the detonation of an explosion, the flame of +the lights the blaze, and the noise of the trumpets the thunder of the +gunpowder. We can understand, in this wise, the results that followed; +but we cannot otherwise understand how the breaking of pitchers, the +flashing of lamps, and the clangor of trumpets would throw an army into +panic, until "every man's sword was set against his fellow, and the host +fled to Beth-shittah;" and this, too, without any attack upon the part +of the Israelites, for "they stood every man in his place around the +camp; and all the host ran and cried and fled." + +If it was a miraculous interposition in behalf of the Jews, the Lord +could have scared the Midianites out of their wits without the smashed +pitchers and lanterns; and certain it is the pitchers and lanterns +would not have done the work with out a miraculous interposition. + +Having traced the knowledge of gunpowder back to the most remote times, +and to the different races which were descended from Atlantis, we are +not surprised to find in the legends of Greek mythology events described +which are only explicable by supposing that the Atlanteans possessed the +secret of this powerful explosive. + +A rebellion sprang up in Atlantis (see Murray's "Mannal of Mythology," +p. 30) against Zeus; it is known in mythology as the "War of the +Titans:" + +"The struggle lasted many years, all the might which the Olympians could +bring to bear being useless, until, on the advice of Gæa, Zeus set free +the Kyklopes and the Hekatoncheires" (that is, brought the ships into +play), "of whom the former fashioned thunder-bolts for him, while the +latter advanced on his side with force equal to the shock of an +earthquake. The earth trembled down to lowest Tartarus as Zeus now +appeared with his terrible weapon and new allies. Old Chaos thought his +hour had come, as from a continuous blaze of thunder-bolts the earth +took fire, and the waters seethed in the sea. The rebels were partly +slain or consumed, and partly hurled into deep chasms, with rocks and +hills reeling after them." + +Do not these words picture the explosion of a mine with a "force equal +to the shock of an earthquake?" + +We have already shown that the Kyklopes and Hekatoncheires were probably +great war-ships, armed with some explosive material in the nature of +gunpowder. + +Zeus, the king of Atlantis, was known as "the thunderer," and was +represented armed with thunder-bolts. + +Some ancient nation must, in the most remote ages, have invented +gunpowder; and is it unreasonable to attribute it to that "great +original race" rather than to any one people of their posterity, who +seem to have borrowed all the other arts from them; and who, during many +thousands of years, did not add a single new invention to the list they +received from Atlantis? + +Iron.--have seen that the Greek mythological legends asserted that +before the submergence of the great race over whom their gods reigned +there had been not only an Age of Bronze but an Age of Iron. This metal +was known to the Egyptians in the earliest ages; fragments of iron have +been found in the oldest pyramids. The Iron Age in Northern Europe far +antedated intercourse with the Greeks or Romans. In the mounds of the +Mississippi Valley, as I have shown, the remains of iron implements have +been found. In the "Mercurio Peruano" (tom. i., p. 201, 1791) it is +stated that "anciently the Peruvian sovereigns worked magnificent iron +mines at Ancoriames, on the west shore of Lake Titicaca." "It is +remarkable," says Molina, "that iron, which has been thought unknown to +the ancient Americans, had particular names in some of their tongues." +In official Peruvian it was called quillay, and in Chilian panilic. The +Mound Builders fashioned implements out of meteoric iron. (Foster's +"Prehistoric Races," p. 333.) + +As we find this metal known to man in the earliest ages on both sides of +the Atlantic, the presumption is very strong that it was borrowed by the +nations, east and west, from Atlantis. + +Paper.--The same argument holds good as to paper. The oldest Egyptian +monuments contain pictures of the papyrus roll; while in Mexico, as I +have shown, a beautiful paper was manufactured and formed into books +shaped like our own. In Peru a paper was made of plantain leaves, and +books were common in the earlier ages. Humboldt mentions books of +hieroglyphical writings among the Panoes, which were "bundles of their +paper resembling our volumes in quarto." + +Silk Mannfacture.--The manufacture of a woven fabric of great beauty out +of the delicate fibre of the egg-cocoon of a worm could only have +originated among a people who had attained the highest degree of +civilization; it implies the art of weaving by delicate instruments, a +dense population, a patient, skilful, artistic people, a sense of the +beautiful, and a wealthy and luxurious class to purchase such costly +fabrics. + +We trace it back to the most remote ages. In the introduction to the +"History of Hindostan," or rather of the Mohammedan Dynasties, by +Mohammed Cassim, it is stated that in the year 3870 B.C. an Indian king +sent various silk stuffs as a present to the King of Persia. The art of +making silk was known in China more than two thousand six hundred years +before the Christian era, at the time when we find them first possessed +of civilization. The Phoenicians dealt in silks in the most remote past; +they imported them from India and sold them along the shores of the +Mediterranean. It is probable that the Egyptians understood and +practised the art of manufacturing silk. It was woven in the island of +Cos in the time of Aristotle. The "Babylonish garment" referred to in +Joshua (chap. vii., 21), and for secreting which Achan lost his life, +was probably a garment of silk; it was rated above silver and gold in +value. + +It is not a violent presumption to suppose that an art known to the +Hindoos 3870 B.C., and to the Chinese and Phoenicians at the very +beginning of their history--an art so curious, so extraordinary--may +have dated back to Atlantean times. + +Civil Government.--Mr. Baldwin shows ("Prehistoric Nations," p. 114) +that the Cushites, the successors of the Atlanteans, whose very ancient +empire extended from Spain to Syria, were the first to establish +independent municipal republics, with the right of the people to govern +themselves; and that this system was perpetuated in the great Phoenician +communities; in "the fierce democracies" of ancient Greece; in the +"village republics" of the African Berbers and the Hindoos; in the "free +cities" of the Middle Ages in Europe; and in the independent governments +of the Basques, which continued down to our own day. The Cushite state +was an aggregation of municipalities, each possessing the right of +self-government, but subject within prescribed limits to a general +authority; in other words, it was precisely the form of government +possessed to-day by the United States. It is a surprising thought that +the perfection of modern government may be another perpetuation of +Atlantean civilization. + +Agriculture.--The Greek traditions of "the golden apples of the +Hesperides" and "the golden fleece" point to Atlantis. The allusions to +the golden apples indicate that tradition regarded the "Islands of the +Blessed" in the Atlantic Ocean as a place of orchards. And when we turn +to Egypt we find that in the remotest times many of our modern garden +and field plants were there cultivated. When the Israelites murmured in +the wilderness against Moses, they cried out (Numb., chap. xi., 4, 5), +"Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish which we did eat +in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the +onions, and the garlic." The Egyptians also cultivated wheat, barley, +oats, flax, hemp, etc. In fact, if we were to take away from civilized +man the domestic animals, the cereals, and the field and garden +vegetables possessed by the Egyptians at the very dawn of history, there +would be very little left for the granaries or the tables of the world. + +Astronomy.--The knowledge of the ancients as to astronomy was great and +accurate. Callisthenes, who accompanied Alexander the Great to Babylon, +sent to Aristotle a series of Chaldean astronomical observations which +he found preserved there, recorded on tablets of baked clay, and +extending back as far as 2234 B.C. Humboldt says, "The Chaldeans knew +the mean motions of the moon with an exactness which induced the Greek +astronomers to use their calculations for the foundation of a lunar +theory." The Chaldeans knew the true nature of comets, and could +foretell their reappearance. "A lens of considerable power was found in +the ruins of Babylon; it was an inch and a half in diameter and +nine-tenths of an inch thick." (Layard's "Nineveh and Babylon," pp. +16, 17.) Nero used optical glasses when he watched the fights of the +gladiators; they are supposed to have come from Egypt and the East. +Plutarch speaks of optical instruments used by Archimedes "to manifest +to the eye the largeness of the sun." "There are actual astronomical +calculations in existence, with calendars formed upon them, which +eminent astronomers of England and France admit to be genuine and true, +and which carry back the antiquity of the science of astronomy, together +with the constellations, to within a few years of the Deluge, even on +the longer chronology of the Septuagint." ("The Miracle in Stone," p. +142.) Josephus attributes the invention of the constellations to the +family of the antediluvian Seth, the son of Adam, while Origen affirms +that it was asserted in the Book of Enoch that in the time of that +patriarch the constellations were already divided and named. The Greeks +associated the origin of astronomy with Atlas and Hercules, Atlantean +kings or heroes. The Egyptians regarded Taut (At?) or Thoth, or +At-hotes, as the originator of both astronomy and the alphabet; +doubtless he represented a civilized people, by whom their country was +originally colonized. Bailly and others assert that astronomy "must have +been established when the summer solstice was in the first degree of +Virgo, and that the solar and lunar zodiacs were of similar antiquity, +which would be about four thousand years before the Christian era. They +suppose the originators to have lived in about the fortieth degree of +north latitude, and to have been a highly-civilized people." It will be +remembered that the fortieth degree of north latitude passed through +Atlantis. Plato knew ("Dialogues, Phædo," 108) that the earth "is a +body in the centre of the heavens" held in equipoise. He speaks of it as +a "round body," a "globe;" he even understood that it revolved on its +axis, and that these revolutions produced day and night. He +says--"Dialogues, Timæus"--"The earth circling around the pole (which is +extended through the universe) be made to be the artificer of night and +day." All this Greek learning was probably drawn from the Egyptians. + +Only among the Atlanteans in Europe and America do we find traditions +preserved as to the origin of all the principal inventions which have +raised man from a savage to a civilized condition. We can give in part +the very names of the inventors. + +Starting with the Chippeway legends, and following with the Bible and +Phoenician records, we make a table like the appended: + ++------------------------------+-----------+----------------------------+ +| The Invention or Discovery. | The Race. | The Inventors. | ++------------------------------+-----------+----------------------------+ +| Fire | Atlantean | Phos, Phur, and Phlox. | ++------------------------------+-----------+----------------------------+ +| The bow and arrow | Chippeway | Manaboshu. | ++------------------------------+-----------+----------------------------+ +| The use of flint | " | " | ++------------------------------+-----------+----------------------------+ +| The use of copper | " | " | ++------------------------------+-----------+----------------------------+ +| The manufacture of bricks | Atlantean | Autochthon and Technites. | ++------------------------------+-----------+----------------------------+ +| Agriculture and hunting | " | Argos and Agrotes. | ++------------------------------+-----------+----------------------------+ +| Village life, and the | " | Amynos and Magos. | +| rearing of flocks | | | ++------------------------------+-----------+----------------------------+ +| The use of salt | " | Misor and Sydyk. | ++------------------------------+-----------+----------------------------+ +| The use of letters | " | Taautos, or Taut. | ++------------------------------+-----------+----------------------------+ +| Navigation | " | The Cabiri, or Corybantes. | ++------------------------------+-----------+----------------------------+ +| The art of music | Hebrew | Jubal. | ++------------------------------+-----------+----------------------------+ +| Metallurgy, and the use of | " | Tubal-cain. | +| iron | | | ++------------------------------+-----------+----------------------------+ +| The syrinx | Greek | Pan. | ++------------------------------+-----------+----------------------------+ +| The lyre | " | Hermes. | ++------------------------------+-----------+----------------------------+ + +We cannot consider all these evidences of the vast antiquity of the +great inventions upon which our civilization mainly rests, including the +art of writing, which, as I have shown, dates back far beyond the +beginning of history; we cannot remember that the origin of all the +great food-plants, such as wheat, oats, barley, rye, and maize, is lost +in the remote past; and that all the domesticated animals, the horse, +the ass, the ox, the sheep, the goat, and the hog had been reduced to +subjection to man in ages long previous to written history, without +having the conclusion forced upon us irresistibly that beyond Egypt and +Greece, beyond Chaldea and China, there existed a mighty civilization, +of which these states were but the broken fragments. + +CHAPTER X. + +THE ARYAN COLONIES FROM ATLANTIS. + +We come now to another question: "Did the Aryan or Japhetic race come +from Atlantis?" + +If the Aryans are the Japhetic race, and if Japheth was one of the sons +of the patriarch who escaped from the Deluge, then assuredly, if the +tradition of Genesis be true, the Aryans came from the drowned land, to +wit, Atlantis. According to Genesis, the descendants of the Japheth who +escaped out of the Flood with Noah are the Ionians, the inhabitants of +the Morea, the dwellers on the Cilician coast of Asia Minor, the +Cyprians, the Dodoneans of Macedonia, the Iberians, and the Thracians. +These are all now recognized as Aryans, except the Iberians. + +"From non-Biblical sources," says Winchell, "we obtain further +information respecting the early dispersion of the Japhethites or +Indo-Europeans--called also Aryans. All determinations confirm the +Biblical account of their primitive residence in the same country with +the Hamites and Semites. Rawlinson informs us that even Aryan roots are +mingled with Presemitic in some of the old inscriptions of Assyria. The +precise region where these three families dwelt in a common home has not +been pointed out." ("Preadamites," p. 43.) + +I have shown in the chapter in relation to Peru that all the languages +of the Hamites, Semites, and Japhethites are varieties of one aboriginal +speech. + +The centre of the Aryan migrations (according to popular opinion) within +the Historical Period was Armenia. Here too is Mount Ararat, where it is +said the ark rested--another identification with the Flood regions, as +it represents the usual transfer of the Atlantis legend by an Atlantean +people to a high mountain in their new home. + +Now turn to a map: Suppose the ships of Atlantis to have reached the +shores of Syria, at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, where dwelt a +people who, as we have seen, used the Central American Maya alphabet; +the Atlantis ships are then but two hundred miles distant from Armenia. +But these ships need not stop at Syria, they can go by the Dardanelles +and the Black Sea, by uninterrupted water communication, to the shores +of Armenia itself. If we admit, then, that it was from Armenia the +Aryans stocked Europe and India, there is no reason why the original +population of Armenia should not have been themselves colonists from +Atlantis. + +But we have seen that in the earliest ages, before the first Armenian +migration of the historical Aryans, a people went from Iberian Spain and +settled in Ireland, and the language of this people, it is now admitted, +is Aryan. And these Iberians were originally, according to tradition, +from the West. + +The Mediterranean Aryans are known to have been in Southeastern Europe, +along the shores of the Mediterranean, 2000 B.C. They at that early date +possessed the plough; also wheat, rye, barley, gold, silver, and bronze. +Aryan faces are found depicted upon the monuments of Egypt, painted four +thousand years before the time of Christ. "The conflicts between the +Kelts (an Aryan race) and the Iberians were far anterior in date to the +settlements of the Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, and Noachites on +the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea." ("American Cyclopædia," art. +Basques.) There is reason to believe that these Kelts were originally +part of the population and Empire of Atlantis. We are told (Rees's +"British Encyclopædia," art. Titans) that "Mercury, one of the Atlantean +gods, was placed as ruler over the Celtæ, and became their great +divinity." F. Pezron, in his "Antiquity of the Celtæ," makes out that +the Celtæ were the same as the Titans, the giant race who rebelled in +Atlantis, and "that their princes were the same with the giants of +Scripture." He adds that the word Titan "is perfect Celtic, and comes +from tit, the earth, and ten or den, man, and hence the Greeks very +properly also called them terriginæ, or earth-born." And it will be +remembered that Plato uses the same phrase when he speaks of the race +into which Poseidon intermarried as "the earth-born primeval men of that +country." + +The Greeks, who are Aryans, traced their descent from the people who +were destroyed by the Flood, as did other races clearly Aryan. + +"The nations who are comprehended under the common appellation of +Indo-European," says Max Müller--"the Hindoos, the Persians, the Celts, +Germans, Romans, Greeks, and Slavs--do not only share the same words and +the same grammar, slightly modified in each country, but they seem to +have likewise preserved a mass of popular traditions which had grown up +before they left their common home." + +"Bonfey, L. Geiger, and other students of the ancient Indo-European +languages, have recently advanced the opinion that the original home of +the Indo-European races must be sought in Europe, because their stock of +words is rich in the names of plants and animals, and contains names of +seasons that are not found in tropical countries or anywhere in Asia." +("American Cyclopædia," art. Ethnology.) + +By the study of comparative philology, or the seeking out of the words +common to the various branches of the Aryan race before they separated, +we are able to reconstruct an outline of the civilization of that +ancient people. Max Müller has given this subject great study, and +availing ourselves of his researches we can determine the following +facts as to the progenitors of the Aryan stock: They were a civilized +race; they possessed the institution of marriage; they recognized the +relationship of father, mother, son, daughter, grandson, brother, +sister, mother-in-law, father-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, +brother-in-law, and sister-in-law, and had separate words for each of +these relationships, which we are only able to express by adding the +words "in-law." They recognized also the condition of widows, or "the +husbandless." They lived in an organized society, governed by a king. +They possessed houses with doors and solid walls. They had wagons and +carriages. They possessed family names. They dwelt in towns and cities, +on highways. They were not hunters or nomads. They were a peaceful +people; the warlike words in the different Aryan languages cannot be +traced back to this original race. They lived in a country having few +wild beasts; the only wild animals whose names can be assigned to this +parent stock being the bear, the wolf, and the serpent. The name of the +elephant, "the beast with a hand," occurs only twice in the "Rig-Veda;" +a singular omission if the Aryans were from time immemorial an Asiatic +race; and "when it does occur, it is in such a way as to show that he +was still an object of wonder and terror to them." (Whitney's "Oriental +and Linguistic Studies," p. 26.) They possessed nearly all the domestic +animals we now have--the ox and the cow, the horse, the dog, the sheep, +the goat, the hog, the donkey, and the goose. They divided the year into +twelve months. They were farmers; they used the plough; their name as a +race (Aryan) was derived from it; they were, par excellence, ploughmen; +they raised various kinds of grain, including flax, barley, hemp, and +wheat; they had mills and millers, and ground their corn. The presence +of millers shows that they had proceeded beyond the primitive condition +where each family ground its corn in its own mill. They used fire, and +cooked and baked their food; they wove cloth and wore clothing; they +spun wool; they possessed the different metals, even iron: they had +gold. The word for "water" also meant "salt made from water," from which +it might be inferred that the water with which they were familiar was +saltwater. It is evident they manufactured salt by evaporating salt +water. They possessed boats and ships. They had progressed so far as to +perfect "a decimal system of enumeration, in itself," says Max Müller, +"one of the most marvellous achievements of the human mind, based on an +abstract conception of quantity, regulated by a philosophical +classification, and yet conceived, nurtured, and finished before the +soil of Europe was trodden by Greek, Roman, Slav, or Teuton." + + ANCIENT EGYPTIAN PLOUGH + +And herein we find another evidence of relationship between the Aryans +and the people of Atlantis. Although Plato does not tell us that the +Atlanteans possessed the decimal system of numeration, nevertheless +there are many things in his narrative which point to that conclusion +"There were ten kings ruling over ten provinces; the whole country was +divided into military districts or squares ten stadia each way; the +total force of chariots was ten thousand; the great ditch or canal was +one hundred feet deep and ten thousand stadia long; there were one +hundred Nereids," etc. In the Peruvian colony the decimal system clearly +obtained: "The army had heads of ten, fifty, a hundred, five hundred, a +thousand, ten thousand.... The community at large was registered in +groups, under the control of officers over tens, fifties, hundreds, and +so on." (Herbert Spencer, "Development of Political Institutions," chap. +x.) The same division into tens and hundreds obtained among the +Anglo-Saxons. + +Where, we ask, could this ancient nation, which existed before Greek was +Greek, Celt was Celt, Hindoo was Hindoo, or Goth was Goth, have been +located! The common opinion says, in Armenia or Bactria, in Asia. But +where in Asia could they have found a country so peaceful as to know no +terms for war or bloodshed--a country so civilized as to possess no +wild beasts save the bear, wolf, and serpent? No people could have been +developed in Asia without bearing in its language traces of century-long +battles for life with the rude and barbarous races around them; no +nation could have fought for ages for existence against "man-eating" +tigers, lions, elephants, and hyenas, without bearing the memory of +these things in their tongue. A tiger, identical with that of Bengal, +still exists around Lake Aral, in Asia; from time to time it is seen in +Siberia. "The last tiger killed in 1828 was on the Lena, in latitude +fifty-two degrees thirty minutes, in a climate colder than that of St. +Petersburg and Stockholm." + +The fathers of the Aryan race must have dwelt for many thousand years so +completely protected from barbarians and wild beasts that they at last +lost all memory of them, and all words descriptive of them; and where +could this have been possible save in some great, long-civilized land, +surrounded by the sea, and isolated from the attack of the savage tribes +that occupied the rest of the world? And if such a great civilized +nation had dwelt for centuries in Asia, Europe, or Africa, why have not +their monuments long ago been discovered and identified? Where is the +race who are their natural successors, and who must have continued to +live after them in that sheltered and happy land, where they knew no +human and scarcely any animal enemies? Why would any people have +altogether left such a home? Why, when their civilization had spread to +the ends of the earth, did it cease to exist in the peaceful region +where it originated? + +Savage nations cannot usually count beyond five. This people had names +for the numerals up to one hundred, and the power, doubtless, of +combining these to still higher powers, as three hundred, five hundred, +ten hundred, etc. Says a high authority, "If any more proof were wanted +as to the reality of that period which must have preceded the dispersion +of the Aryan race, we might appeal to the Aryan numerals as irrefragable +evidence of that long-continued intellectual life which characterizes +that period." Such a degree of progress implies necessarily an alphabet, +writing, commerce, and trade, even as the existence of words for boats +and ships has already implied navigation. + +In what have we added to the civilization of this ancient people? Their +domestic animals were the same as our own, except one fowl adopted from +America. In the past ten thousand years we have added one bird to their +list of domesticated animals! They raised wheat and wool, and spun and +wove as we do, except that we have added some mechanical contrivances to +produce the same results. Their metals are ours. Even iron, the triumph, +as we had supposed, of more modern times, they had already discovered. +And it must not be forgotten that Greek mythology tells us that the +god-like race who dwelt on Olympus, that great island "in the midst of +the Atlantic," in the remote west, wrought in iron; and we find the +remains of an iron sword and meteoric iron weapons in the mounds of the +Mississippi Valley, while the name of the metal is found in the ancient +languages of Peru and Chili, and the Incas worked in iron on the shores +of Lake Titicaca. + +A still further evidence of the civilization of this ancient race is +found in the fact that, before the dispersion from their original home, +the Aryans had reached such a degree of development that they possessed +a regularly organized religion: they worshipped God, they believed in an +evil spirit, they believed in a heaven for the just. All this +presupposes temples, priests, sacrifices, and an orderly state of +society. + +We have seen that Greek mythology is really a history of the kings and +queens of Atlantis. + +When we turn to that other branch of the great Aryan family, the +Hindoos, we find that their gods are also the kings of Atlantis. The +Hindoo god Varuna is conceded to be the Greek god Uranos, who was the +founder of the royal family of Atlantis. + +In the Veda we find a hymn to "King Varuna," in which occurs this +passage: + +"This earth, too, belongs to Varuna, the king, and this wide sky, with +its ends far apart. The two seas are Varuna's loins; he is contained +also in this drop of water." + +Again in the Veda we find another hymn to King Varuna: + +"He who knows the place of the birds that fly through the sky; who on +the waters knows the ships. He, the upholder of order, who knows the +twelve months with the offspring of each, and knows the month that is +engendered afterward." + +This verse would seem to furnish additional proof that the Vedas were +written by a maritime people; and in the allusion to the twelve months +we are reminded of the Peruvians, who also divided the year into twelve +parts of thirty days each, and afterward added six days to complete the +year. The Egyptians and Mexicans also had intercalary days for the same +purpose. + +But, above all, it must be remembered that the Greeks, an Aryan race, in +their mythological traditions, show the closest relationship to +Atlantis. At-tika and At-hens are reminiscences of Ad, and we are told +that Poseidon, god and founder of Atlantis, founded Athens. We find in +the "Eleusinian mysteries" an Atlantean institution; their influence +during the whole period of Greek history down to the coming of +Christianity was extraordinary; and even then this masonry of +Pre-Christian days, in which kings and emperors begged to be initiated, +was, it is claimed, continued to our own times in our own Freemasons, +who trace their descent back to "a Dionysiac fraternity which originated +in Attika." And just as we have seen the Saturnalian festivities of +Italy descending from Atlantean harvest-feasts, so these Eleusinian +mysteries can be traced back to Plato's island. Poseidon was at the base +of them; the first hierophant, Eumolpus, was "a son of Poseidon," and +all the ceremonies were associated with seed-time and harvest, and with +Demeter or Ceres, an Atlantean goddess, daughter of Chronos, who first +taught the Greeks to use the plough and to plant barley. And, as the +"Carnival" is a survival of the "Saturnalia," so Masonry is a survival +of the Eleusinian mysteries. The roots of the institutions of to-day +reach back to the Miocene Age. + +We have seen that Zeus, the king of Atlantis, whose tomb was shown at +Crete, was transformed into the Greek god Zeus; and in like manner we +find him reappearing among the Hindoos as Dyaus. He is called +"Dyaus-pitar," or God the Father, as among the Greeks we have +"Zeus-pater," which became among the Romans "Jupiter." + +The strongest connection, however, with the Atlantean system is shown in +the case of the Hindoo god Deva-Nahusha. + +We have seen in the chapter on Greek mythology that Dionysos was a son +of Zeus and grandson of Poseidon, being thus identified with Atlantis. +"When he arrived at manhood," said the Greeks, "he set out on a journey +through all known countries, even into the remotest parts of India, +instructing the people, as he proceeded, how to tend the vine, and how +to practise many other arts of peace, besides teaching them the value of +just and honorable dealings. He was praised everywhere as the greatest +benefactor of mankind." (Murray's "Mythology," p. 119.) + +In other words, he represented the great Atlantean civilization, +reaching into "the remotest parts of India," and "to all parts of the +known world," from America to Asia. In consequence of the connection of +this king with the vine, he was converted in later times into the +dissolute god Bacchus. But everywhere the traditions concerning him +refer us back to Atlantis. "All the legends of Egypt, India, Asia Minor, +and the older Greeks describe him as a king very great during his life, +and deified after death.... Amon, king of Arabia or Ethiopia, married +Rhea, sister of Chronos, who reigned over Italy, Sicily, and certain +countries of Northern Africa." Dionysos, according to the Egyptians, was +the son of Amon by the beautiful Amalthea. Chronos and Amon had a +prolonged war; Dionysos defeated Chronos and captured his capital, +dethroned him, and put his son Zeus in his place; Zeus reigned nobly, +and won a great fame. Dionysos succeeded his father Amon, and "became +the greatest of sovereigns. He extended his sway in all the neighboring +countries, and completed the conquest of India.... He gave much +attention to the Cushite colonies in Egypt, greatly increasing their +strength, intelligence, and prosperity." (Baldwin's "Prehistoric +Nations," p. 283.) + +When we turn to the Hindoo we still find this Atlantean king. + +In the Sanscrit books we find reference to a god called Deva-Nahusha, +who has been identified by scholars with Dionysos. He is connected "with +the oldest history and mythology in the world." He is said to have been +a contemporary with Indra, king of Meru, who was also deified, and who +appears in the Veda as a principal form of representation of the Supreme +Being. + +"The warmest colors of imagination are used in portraying the greatness +of Deva-Nahusha. For a time he had sovereign control of affairs in Meru; +he conquered the seven dwipas, and led his armies through all the known +countries of the world; by means of matchless wisdom and miraculous +heroism he made his empire universal." (Ibid., p. 287.) + +Here we see that the great god Indra, chief god of the Hindoos, was +formerly king of Meru, and that Deva-Nahusha (De(va)nushas--De-onyshas) +had also been king of Meru; and we must remember that Theopompus tells us +that the island of Atlantis was inhabited by the "Meropes;" and +Lenormant has reached the conclusion that the first people of the +ancient world were "the men of Mero." + +We can well believe, when we see traces of the same civilization +extending from Peru and Lake Superior to Armenia and the frontiers of +China, that this Atlantean kingdom was indeed "universal," and extended +through all the "known countries of the world." + +"We can see in the legends that Pururavas, Nahusha, and others had no +connection with Sanscrit history. They are referred to ages very long +anterior to the Sanscrit immigration, and must have been great +personages celebrated in the traditions of the natives or Dasyus.... +Pururavas was a king of great renown, who ruled over thirteen islands of +the ocean, altogether surrounded by inhuman (or superhuman) personages; +he engaged in a contest with Brahmans, and perished. Nahusha, mentioned +by Maull, and in many legends, as famous for hostility to the Brahmans, +lived at the time when Indra ruled on earth. He was a very great king, +who ruled with justice a mighty empire, and attained the sovereignty of +three worlds." (Europe, Africa, and America?) "Being intoxicated with +pride, he was arrogant to Brahmans, compelled them to bear his +palanquin, and even dared to touch one of them with his foot" (kicked +him?), "whereupon he was transformed into a serpent." (Baldwin's +"Prehistoric Nations," p. 291.) + +The Egyptians placed Dionysos (Osiris) at the close of the period of +their history which was assigned to the gods, that is, toward the close +of the great empire of Atlantis. + +When we remember that the hymns of the "Rig-Veda" are admitted to date +back to a vast antiquity, and are written in a language that had ceased +to be a living tongue thousands of years ago, we can almost fancy those +hymns preserve some part of the songs of praise uttered of old upon the +island of Atlantis. Many of them seem to belong to sun-worship, and +might have been sung with propriety upon the high places of Peru: + +"In the beginning there arose the golden child. He was the one born Lord +of all that is. He established the earth and the sky. Who is the god to +whom we shall offer sacrifice? + +"He who gives life; He who gives strength; whose command all the bright +gods" (the stars?) "revere; whose light is immortality; whose shadow is +death.... He who through his power is the one God of the breathing +and awakening world. He who governs all, man and beast. He whose +greatness these snowy mountains, whose greatness the sea proclaims, with +the distant river. He through whom the sky is bright and the earth firm.... +He who measured out the light in the air... Wherever the mighty +water-clouds went, where they placed the seed and lit the fire, thence +arose He who is the sole life of the bright gods.... He to whom +heaven and earth, standing firm by His will, look up, trembling +inwardly.... May he not destroy us; He, the creator of the earth; He, +the righteous, who created heaven. He also created the bright and mighty +waters." + +This is plainly a hymn to the sun, or to a god whose most glorious +representative was the sun. It is the hymn of a people near the sea; it +was not written by a people living in the heart of Asia. It was the hymn +of a people living in a volcanic country, who call upon their god to +keep the earth "firm" and not to destroy them. It was sung at daybreak, +as the sun rolled up the sky over an "awakening world." + +The fire (Agni) upon the altar was regarded as a messenger rising from +the earth to the sun: + +"Youngest of the gods, their messenger, their invoker.... For thou, O +sage, goest wisely between these two creations (heaven and earth, God +and man) like a friendly messenger between two hamlets." + +The dawn of the day (Ushas), part of the sun-worship, became also a god: + +"She shines upon us like a young wife, rousing every living being to go +to his work. When the fire had to be kindled by man, she made the light +by striking down the darkness." + +As the Egyptians and the Greeks looked to a happy abode (an under-world) +in the west, beyond the waters, so the Aryan's paradise was the other +side of some body of water. In the Veda (vii. 56, 24) we find a prayer +to the Maruts, the storm-gods: "O, Maruts, may there be to us a strong +son, who is a living ruler of men; through whom we may cross the waters +on our way to the happy abode." This happy abode is described as "where +King Vaivasvata reigns; where the secret place of heaven is; where the +mighty waters are ... where there is food and rejoicing ... where +there is happiness and delight; where joy and pleasure reside." +(Rig-Veda ix. 113, 7.) This is the paradise beyond the seas; the +Elysion; the Elysian Fields of the Greek and the Egyptian, located upon +an island in the Atlantic which was destroyed by water. One great chain +of tradition binds together these widely separated races. + +"The religion of the Veda knows no idols," says Max Müller; "the worship +of idols in India is a secondary formation, a degradation of the more +primitive worship of ideal gods." + +It was pure sun-worship, such as prevailed in Peru on the arrival of the +Spaniards. It accords with Plato's description of the religion of +Atlantis. + +"The Dolphin's Ridge," at the bottom of the Atlantic, or the high land +revealed by the soundings taken by the ship Challenger, is, as will be +seen, of a three-pronged form--one prong pointing toward the west coast +of Ireland, another connecting with the north-east coast of South +America, and a third near or on the west coast of Africa. It does not +follow that the island of Atlantis, at any time while inhabited by +civilized people, actually reached these coasts; there is a strong +probability that races of men may have found their way there from the +three continents of Europe, America, and Africa; or the great continent +which once filled the whole bed of the present Atlantic Ocean, and from +whose débris geology tells us the Old and New Worlds were constructed, +may have been the scene of the development, during immense periods of +time, of diverse races of men, occupying different zones of climate. + +There are many indications that there were three races of men dwelling +on Atlantis. Noah, according to Genesis, had three sons--Shem, Ham, and +Japheth--who represented three different races of men of different +colors. The Greek legends tell us of the rebellions inaugurated at +different times in Olympus. One of these was a rebellion of the Giants, +"a race of beings sprung from the blood of Uranos," the great original +progenitor of the stock. "Their king or leader was Porphyrion, their +most powerful champion Alkyoneus." Their mother was the earth: this +probably meant that they represented the common people of a darker line. +They made a desperate struggle for supremacy, but were conquered by +Zeus. There were also two rebellions of the Titans. The Titans seem to +have had a government of their own, and the names of twelve of their +kings are given in the Greek mythology (see Murray, p. 27). They also +were of "the blood of Uranos," the Adam of the people. We read, in fact, +that Uranos married Gæa (the earth), and had three families: 1, the +Titans; 2, the Hekatoncheires; and 3, the Kyklopes. We should conclude +that the last two were maritime peoples, and I have shown that their +mythical characteristics were probably derived from the appearance of +their ships. Here we have, I think, a reference to the three races: 1, +the red or sunburnt men, like the Egyptians, the Phoenicians, the +Basques, and the Berber and Cushite stocks; 2, the sons of Shem, +possibly the yellow or Turanian race; and 3, the whiter men, the Aryans, +the Greeks, Kelts, Goths, Slavs, etc. If this view is correct, then we +may suppose that colonies of the pale-faced stock may have been sent out +from Atlantis to the northern coasts of Europe at different and perhaps +widely separated periods of time, from some of which the Aryan families +of Europe proceeded; hence the legend, which is found among them, that +they were once forced to dwell in a country where the summers were only +two months long. + +From the earliest times two grand divisions are recognized in the Aryan +family: "to the east those who specially called themselves Arians, whose +descendants inhabited Persia, India, etc.; to the west, the Yavana, or +the Young Ones, who first emigrated westward, and from whom have +descended the various nations that have populated Europe. This is the +name (Javan) found in the tenth chapter of Genesis." (Lenormant and +Chevallier, "Ancient History of the East," vol. ii., p. 2.) But surely +those who "first emigrated westward," the earliest to leave the parent +stock, could not be the "Young Ones;" they would be rather the elder +brothers. But if we can suppose the Bactrian population to have left +Atlantis at an early date, and the Greeks, Latins, and Celts to have +left it at a later period, then they would indeed be the "Young Ones" of +the family, following on the heels of the earlier migrations, and herein +we would find the explanation of the resemblance between the Latin and +Celtic tongues. Lenormant says the name of Erin (Ireland) is derived +from Aryan; and yet we have seen this island populated and named Erin by +races distinctly connected with Spain, Iberia, Africa, and Atlantis. + +There is another reason for supposing that the Aryan nations came from +Atlantis. + +We find all Europe, except a small corner of Spain and a strip along the +Arctic Circle, occupied by nations recognized as Aryan; but when we turn +to Asia, there is but a corner of it, and that corner in the part +nearest Europe, occupied by the Aryans. All the rest of that great +continent has been filled from immemorial ages by non-Aryan races. There +are seven branches of the Aryan family: 1. Germanic or Teutonic; 2. +Slavo-Lithuanic; 3. Celtic; 4. Italic; 5. Greek; 6. Iranian or Persian; +7. Sanscritic or Indian; and of these seven branches five dwell on the +soil of Europe, and the other two are intrusive races in Asia from the +direction of Europe. The Aryans in Europe have dwelt there apparently +since the close of the Stone Age, if not before it, while the movements +of the Aryans in Asia are within the Historical Period, and they appear +as intrusive stocks, forming a high caste amid a vast population of a +different race. The Vedas are supposed to date back to 2000 B.C., while +there is every reason to believe that the Celt inhabited Western Europe +5000 B.C. If the Aryan race had originated in the heart of Asia, why +would not its ramifications have extended into Siberia, China, and +Japan, and all over Asia? And if the Aryans moved at a comparatively +recent date into Europe from Bactria, where are the populations that +then inhabited Europe--the men of the ages of stone and bronze? We +should expect to find the western coasts of Europe filled with them, +just as the eastern coasts of Asia and India are filled with Turanian +populations. On the contrary, we know that the Aryans descended upon +India from the Punjab, which lies to the north-west of that region; and +that their traditions represent that they came there from the west, to +wit, from the direction of Europe and Atlantis. + +CHAPTER XI. + +ATLANTIS RECONSTRUCTED. + +The farther we go back in time toward the era of Atlantis, the more the +evidences multiply that we are approaching the presence of a great, +wise, civilized race. For instance, we find the Egyptians, Ethiopians, +and Israelites, from the earliest ages, refusing to eat the flesh of +swine. The Western nations departed from this rule, and in these modern +days we are beginning to realize the dangers of this article of food, on +account of the trichina contained in it; and when we turn to the Talmud, +we are told that it was forbidden to the Jews, "because of a small +insect which infests it." + +The Egyptians, the Ethiopians, the Phoenicians, the Hebrews, and others +of the ancient races, practised circumcision. It was probably resorted +to in Atlantean days, and imposed as a religious duty, to arrest one of +the most dreadful scourges of the human race--a scourge which continued +to decimate the people of America, arrested their growth, and paralyzed +their civilization. Circumcision stamped out the disease in Atlantis; we +read of one Atlantean king, the Greek god Ouranos, who, in a time of +plague, compelled his whole army and the armies of his allies to undergo +the rite. The colonies that went out to Europe carried the practice but +not the disease out of which it originated with them; and it was not +until Columbus reopened communication with the infected people of the +West India Islands that the scourge crossed the Atlantic and "turned +Europe," as one has expressed it, "into a charnal-house." + +Life-insurance statistics show, nowadays, that the average life and +health of the Hebrew is much greater than that of other men; and he owes +this to the retention of practices and beliefs imposed ten thousand +years ago by the great, wise race of Atlantis. + +Let us now, with all the facts before us, gleaned from various sources, +reconstruct, as near as may be, the condition of the antediluvians. + +They dwelt upon a great island, near which were other smaller islands, +probably east and west of them, forming stepping-stones, as it were, +toward Europe and Africa in one direction, and the West India Islands +and America in the other. There were volcanic mountains upon the main +island, rising to a height of fifteen hundred feet, with their tops +covered with perpetual snow. Below these were elevated table-lands, upon +which were the royal establishments. Below these, again, was "the great +plain of Atlantis." There were four rivers flowing north, south, east, +and west from a central point. The climate was like that of the Azores, +mild and pleasant; the soil volcanic and fertile, and suitable at its +different elevations for the growth of the productions of the tropical +and temperate zones. + +The people represented at least two different races: a dark brown +reddish race, akin to the Central Americans, the Berbers and the +Egyptians; and a white race, like the Greeks, Goths, Celts, and +Scandinavians. Various battles and struggles followed between the +different peoples for supremacy. The darker race seems to have been, +physically, a smaller race, with small hands; the lighter-colored race +was much larger--hence the legends of the Titans and Giants. The +Guanches of the Canary Islands were men of very great stature. As the +works of the Bronze Age represent a small-handed race, and as the races +who possessed the ships and gunpowder joined in the war against the +Giants, we might conclude that the dark races were the more civilized, +that they were the metal-workers and navigators. + +The fact that the same opinions and customs exist on both sides of the +ocean implies identity of origin; it might be argued that the fact that +the explanation of many customs existing on both hemispheres is to be +found only in America, implies that the primeval stock existed in +America, the emigrating portion of the population carrying away the +custom, but forgetting the reason for it. The fact that domestic cattle +and the great cereals, wheat, oats, barley, and rye, are found in Europe +and not in America, would imply that after the population moved to Atlantis +from America civilization was developed in Atlantis, and that in the +later ages communication was closer and more constant between Atlantis +and Europe than between Atlantis and America. In the case of the bulky +domestic animals, it would be more difficult to transport them, in the +open vessels of that day, from Atlantis across the wider expanse of sea +to America, than it would be to carry them by way of the now submerged +islands in front of the Mediterranean Sea to the coast of Spain. It may +be, too, that the climate of Spain and Italy was better adapted to the +growth of wheat, barley, oats and rye, than maize; while the drier +atmosphere of America was better suited to the latter plant. Even now +comparatively little wheat or barley is raised in Central America, +Mexico, or Peru, and none on the low coasts of those countries; while a +smaller quantity of maize, proportionately, is grown in Italy, Spain, +and the rest of Western Europe, the rainy climate being unsuited to it. +We have seen (p. 60, ante) that there is reason to believe that maize +was known in a remote period in the drier regions of the Egyptians and +Chinese. + +As science has been able to reconstruct the history of the migrations of +the Aryan race, by the words that exist or fail to appear in the kindred +branches of that tongue, so the time will come when a careful comparison +of words, customs, opinions, arts existing on the opposite sides of the +Atlantic will furnish an approximate sketch of Atlantean history. + +The people had attained a high position as agriculturists. The presence +of the plough in Egypt and Peru implies that they possessed that +implement. And as the horns and ox-head of Baal show the esteem in which +cattle were held among them, we may suppose that they had passed the +stage in which the plough was drawn by men, as in Peru and Egypt in +ancient times, and in Sweden during the Historical Period, and that it +was drawn by oxen or horses. They first domesticated the horse, hence +the association of Poseidon or Neptune, a sea-god, with horses; hence +the race-courses for horses described by Plato. They possessed sheep, +and manufactured woollen goods; they also had goats, dogs, and swine. +They raised cotton and made cotton goods; they probably cultivated +maize, wheat, oats, barley, rye, tobacco, hemp, and flax, and possibly +potatoes; they built aqueducts and practised irrigation; they were +architects, sculptors, and engravers; they possessed an alphabet; they +worked in tin, copper, bronze, silver, gold, and iron. + +During the vast period of their duration, as peace and agriculture +caused their population to increase to overflowing, they spread out in +colonies east and west to the ends of the earth. This was not the work +of a few years, but of many centuries; and the relations between these +colonies may have been something like the relation between the different +colonies that in a later age were established by the Phoenicians, the +Greeks, and the Romans; there was an intermingling with the more ancient +races, the autochthones of the different lands where they settled; and +the same crossing of stocks, which we know to have been continued all +through the Historical Period, must have been going on for thousands of +years, whereby new races and new dialects were formed; and the result of +all this has been that the smaller races of antiquity have grown larger, +while all the complexions shade into each other, so that we can pass +from the whitest to the darkest by insensible degrees. + +In some respects the Atlanteans exhibited conditions similar to those of +the British Islands: there were the same, and even greater, race +differences in the population; the same plantation of colonies in +Europe, Asia, and America; the same carrying of civilization to the ends +of the earth. We have seen colonies from Great Britain going out in the +third and fifth centuries to settle on the shores of France, in +Brittany, representing one of the nationalities and languages of the +mother-country--a race Atlantean in origin. In the same way we may +suppose Hamitic emigrations to have gone out from Atlantis to Syria, +Egypt, and the Barbary States. If we could imagine Highland Scotch, +Welsh, Cornish, and Irish populations emigrating en masse from England +in later times, and carrying to their new lands the civilization of +England, with peculiar languages not English, we would have a state of +things probably more like the migrations which took place from Atlantis. +England, with a civilization Atlantean in origin, peopled by races from +the same source, is repeating in these modern times the empire of Zeus +and Chronos; and, just as we have seen Troy, Egypt, and Greece warring +against the parent race, so in later days we have seen Brittany and the +United States separating themselves from England, the race +characteristics remaining after the governmental connection had ceased. + +In religion the Atlanteans had reached all the great thoughts which +underlie our modern creeds. They had attained to the conception of one +universal, omnipotent, great First Cause. We find the worship of this +One God in Peru and in early Egypt. They looked upon the sun as the +mighty emblem, type, and instrumentality of this One God. Such a +conception could only have come with civilization. It is not until these +later days that science has realized the utter dependence of all earthly +life upon the sun's rays: + +"All applications of animal power may be regarded as derived directly or +indirectly from the static chemical power of the vegetable substance by +which the various organisms and their capabilities are sustained; and +this power, in turn, from the kinetic action of the sun's rays. + +"Winds and ocean currents, hailstorms and rain, sliding glaciers, +flowing rivers, and falling cascades are the direct offspring of solar +heat. All our machinery, therefore, whether driven by the windmill or +the water-wheel, by horse-power or by steam--all the results of +electrical and electro-magnetic changes--our telegraphs, our clocks, and +our watches, all are wound up primarily by the sun. + +"The sun is the great source of energy in almost all terrestrial +phenomena. From the meteorological to the geographical, from the +geological to the biological, in the expenditure and conversion of +molecular movements, derived from the sun's rays, must be sought the +motive power of all this infinitely varied phantasmagoria." + +But the people of Atlantis had gone farther; they believed that the soul +of man was immortal, and that he would live again in his material body; +in other words, they believed in "the resurrection of the body and the +life everlasting." They accordingly embalmed their dead. + +The Duke of Argyll ("The Unity of Nature") says: + +"We have found in the most ancient records of the Aryan language proof +that the indications of religious thought are higher, simpler, and purer +as we go back in time, until at last, in the very oldest compositions of +human speech which have come down to us, we find the Divine Being spoken +of in the sublime language which forms the opening of the Lord's Prayer. +The date in absolute chronology of the oldest Vedic literature does not +seem to be known. Professor Max Müller, however, considers that it may +possibly take us back 5000 years.... All we can see with certainty is +that the earliest inventions of mankind are the most wonderful that the +race has ever made.... The first use of fire, and the discovery of +the methods by which it can be kindled; the domestication of wild +animals; and, above all, the processes by which the various cereals were +first developed out of some wild grasses--these are all discoveries with +which, in ingenuity and in importance, no subsequent discoveries may +compare. They are all unknown to history--all lost in the light of an +effulgent dawn." + +The Atlanteans possessed an established order of priests; their +religious worship was pure and simple. They lived under a kingly +government; they had their courts, their judges, their records, their +monuments covered with inscriptions, their mines, their founderies, +their workshops, their looms, their grist-mills, their boats and +sailing-vessels, their highways, aqueducts, wharves, docks, and canals. +They had processions, banners, and triumphal arches for their kings and +heroes; they built pyramids, temples, round-towers, and obelisks; they +practised religious ablutions; they knew the use of the magnet and of +gunpowder. In short, they were in the enjoyment of a civilization nearly +as high as our own, lacking only the printing-press, and those +inventions in which steam, electricity, and magnetism are used. We are +told that Deva-Nahusha visited his colonies in Farther India. An empire +which reached from the Andes to Hindostan, if not to China, must have +been magnificent indeed. In its markets must have met the maize of the +Mississippi Valley, the copper of Lake Superior, the gold and silver of +Peru and Mexico, the spices of India, the tin of Wales and Cornwall, the +bronze of Iberia, the amber of the Baltic, the wheat and barley of +Greece, Italy, and Switzerland. + +It is not surprising that when this mighty nation sank beneath the +waves, in the midst of terrible convulsions, with all its millions of +people, the event left an everlasting impression upon the imagination of +mankind. Let us suppose that Great Britain should to-morrow meet with a +similar fate. What a wild consternation would fall upon her colonies and +upon the whole human family! The world might relapse into barbarism, +deep and almost universal. William the Conqueror, Richard Coeur de Lion, +Alfred the Great, Cromwell, and Victoria might survive only as the gods +or demons of later races; but the memory of the cataclysm in which the +centre of a universal empire instantaneously went down to death would +never be forgotten; it would survive in fragments, more or less +complete, in every land on earth; it would outlive the memory of a +thousand lesser convulsions of nature; it would survive dynasties, +nations, creeds, and languages; it would never be forgotten while man +continued to inhabit the face of the globe. + +Science has but commenced its work of reconstructing the past and +rehabilitating the ancient peoples, and surely there is no study which +appeals more strongly to the imagination than that of this drowned +nation, the true antediluvians. They were the founders of nearly all our +arts and sciences; they were the parents of our fundamental beliefs; +they were the first civilizers, the first navigators, the first +merchants, the first colonizers of the earth; their civilization was old +when Egypt was young, and they had passed away thousands of years before +Babylon, Rome, or London were dreamed of. This lost people were our +ancestors, their blood flows in our veins; the words we use every day +were heard, in their primitive form, in their cities, courts, and +temples. Every line of race and thought, of blood and belief, leads back +to them. + +Nor is it impossible that the nations of the earth may yet employ their +idle navies in bringing to the light of day some of the relics of this +buried people. Portions of the island lie but a few hundred fathoms +beneath the sea; and if expeditions have been sent out from time to time +in the past, to resurrect from the depths of the ocean sunken +treasure-ships with a few thousand doubloons hidden in their cabins, why +should not an attempt be made to reach the buried wonders of Atlantis? A +single engraved tablet dredged up from Plato's island would be worth +more to science, would more strike the imagination of mankind, than all +the gold of Peru, all the monuments of Egypt, and all the terra-cotta +fragments gathered from the great libraries of Chaldea. + +May not the so-called "Phoenician coins" found on Corvo, one of the +Azores, be of Atlantean origin? Is it probable that that great race, +pre-eminent as a founder of colonies, could have visited those islands +within the Historical Period, and have left them unpeopled, as they were +when discovered by the Portuguese? + +We are but beginning to understand the past: one hundred years ago the +world knew nothing of Pompeii or Herculaneum; nothing of the lingual tie +that binds together the Indo-European nations; nothing of the +significance of the vast volume of inscriptions upon the tombs and +temples of Egypt; nothing of the meaning of the arrow-headed +inscriptions of Babylon; nothing of the marvellous civilizations +revealed in the remains of Yucatan, Mexico, and Peru. We are on the +threshold. Scientific investigation is advancing with giant strides. Who +shall say that one hundred years from now the great museums of the world +may not be adorned with gems, statues, arms, and implements from +Atlantis, while the libraries of the world shall contain translations of +its inscriptions, throwing new light upon all the past history of the +human race, and all the great problems which now perplex the thinkers of +our day? + +THE END. + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 4032 *** |