The word Maya, though not familiar to modern ears, is a most
interesting one to the antiquary. It appears to have originated with
the great nation whose people, as well as their language and country,
bore that name, even thousands of years back; their empire extended
over the land comprised between the isthmus of Tehuantepec and that of
Darien; known collectively to-day as Central America.
Dr. Le Plongeon has shown that in Yucatan and in Egypt the radical
_MA_, of the word Maya, meant _earth_ and _place_. This word was used
by Hindoo sages to indicate _matter_, the _earth_, as it is found in
their cosmogonic diagram. All matter being regarded as illusion, the
word _maya_, in India, has that meaning. The mother of Buddha was Maya
Devi (Beautiful Illusion). Maya is _matter_, the feminine energy of
Brahma. But in the Indian epic, “Ramayana”, Maya is spoken of as a
great magician, an architect, a terrible warrior and famous navigator,
who took forcible possession of, and settled in, the countries at the
south of the Hindostan peninsula. Plainly, the poet personified as one
hero the Maya colonists who long ago made their way westward, across
the Pacific, and settled there.
On the shores of the Mediterranean we find nations whose ancestors seem
to have been intimate with the Mayas, for the names of their country,
of their cities, and of their divinities can be traced to the Maya
tongue. Furthermore, their traditions, customs, architecture, mode of
dress, weapons, and even their alphabetical letters are like those of
the Mayas. From records in stone and MSS. we learn something of the
philosophy of the Maya sages; and the same ideas are found among
nations living in Asia and Africa.
Nothing could be more significant than the universality of the word
Maya. In one country it is the name of a god or goddess; in another
that of a hero or heroine; elsewhere that of a cast, tribe or country.
This word is never used to indicate anything unimportant. In Greece the
goddess Maia was daughter of Atlas, mother of Hermes, the good mother
Kubéle, the Earth, Mother of the gods. We see a vestige of her worship
in the still popular festival of the Maya or May Queen, fair goddess of
spring, May, that very month when the Earth, matter, Maya, lives again,
refreshed by the nourishing rain which, then particularly, after a
season of drought, pours down upon those latitudes where the Maya
nation had its birth.
The Maypole dance is yet performed among the natives of Yucatan, the
land where it probably originated. The dancers are invariably thirteen
in number, which may be another reminiscence of the land submerged
beneath the waves of the Atlantic on the thirteenth day of the Maya
month of Zac.
This Maypole dance, called in Yucatan “Ribbon Dance” is unquestionably
a vestige of sun worship; the ancients, versed in astronomy, thus
celebrated the sun’s entrance into Taurus, and the vernal equinox. The
Maypole, as known in Europe, has been satisfactorily shown to be the
remains of an ancient institution of Persia, India, and Egypt, where
Maya civilization was carried in past ages. The May Queen is a
personification of the goddess Maya, the feminine forces of nature;
possibly too of that Maya country whence it came. In Yucatan there is
no queen connected with the dance; there it is and was sun worship pure
and simple.
In Yucatan, as in the British Isles and elsewhere, the pole is planted
before the residences of leading citizens, and the dance is performed
for a recompense. In Ireland the dancers wore over their other dress
white shirts, a detail which becomes interesting in view of the fact
that the Maya people always dress exclusively in white.
In Dr. Le Plongeon’s prolonged studies among the remarkable Ruins on
the Yucatan peninsula, after finding, by much patient endeavor, a clue
to the hieroglyphic signs covering the walls of ancient palaces and
temples, he clearly saw that the word CAN was inscribed in a variety of
ways on all the buildings, and as he advanced in his studies, he
learned that this had been the title of several monarchs who
constituted a powerful dynasty. It is a remarkably interesting fact
that the same title, spelled Khan, is to-day given to rulers in many of
the Asiatic nations; furthermore, the principal emblem on the banners
of those Khans is the serpent or dragon.
Continued research, including excavations and a close study of every
object found, together with several tableaux of mural paintings,
convinced Dr. Le Plongeon that he had succeeded in tracing certain
incidents which occurred in the last family of the CAN dynasty, and
which led to its downfall. Upon studying the famous Troano MS., he
found the same story recorded there; and the tragic events resulting
from the acts of one member of that family, Prince Aac, are the theme
of the present poem.
The scene is laid at Chicħen, which appears to have been the favorite
city of the CANS, judging from certain indications, among these the
prevalence of the serpent as an ornament in all the buildings. These
serpents are represented covered with feathers indicating that they
were emblems of Maya potentates. On ceremonial occasions royal
personages and high officials wore mantles of feathers, whose colors
varied according to the rank of the individual; yellow being that of
the royal family, red that of the nobility, and green that of the
learned men. The word CAN has in the Maya language a great variety of
meanings, as Dr. Le Plongeon explains in his works; it is the generic
name for serpent.
The personages whom Dr. Le Plongeon succeeded in tracing were—the CAN,
his Queen, Zoɔ; their three sons—Cay, Aac, and Coh; and two
daughters—Móo and Nicté. There was also an aged man named Cay, the
High Priest, elder brother of the King. This venerable person is
introduced in the early part of the poem. When he died, his nephew and
namesake, Cay, succeeded to his position and title. Let it be noted
that the High Priest was, as among the Egyptians and the Hindoos of
old, superior in authority to the King himself.
At the death of King Can, his daughter Móo became Queen of Chicħen. As
among the Egyptians, and the Incas in Peru, so among the Mayas, royal
brothers and sisters were obliged to marry each other; in Siam and some
other places the same custom exists to-day. One of Móo’s brothers had
therefore to be Prince consort. Aac aspired to her hand, but Coh, a
valiant leader in battle, and favorite with the people, was her own
choice. This gave rise to lamentable events which caused the ruin of
the dynasty, Aac refusing to be reconciled.
In a carving on stone, as well as in the Troano MS. and the Codex
Cortesianus, Dr. Le Plongeon has found records of the destruction by
earthquake, followed by submergence, of a great island in the Atlantic
ocean. The author of the Troano MS. affirms that this land disappeared
under the waves 8,060 years before the inditing of that volume. It is
not known when the book in question was written, but judging from
Egyptian records, the cataclysm must have occurred between ten and
eleven thousand years ago. In the Maya books the lost land is called MU.
Lately Dr. Le Plongeon has discovered, in translating the inscriptions,
written in Maya language with Egyptian and Maya characters, which adorn
the faces of the Pyramid of Xochicalco, situated sixty miles to the
southwest of the city of Mexico, in the State of Morelos, eighteen
miles from the city of Cuernavaca, that said pyramid was a
commemorative monument raised to perpetuate the memory of the
destruction of the land of Mu among coming generations, and that it was
made an exact model of the sacred hill in Atlantis which Plato in his
Timœus describes as having been crowned by a temple dedicated to Cleito
and Poseidon.
Looking at scenes depicted in mural paintings, one is driven to the
conclusion that the Mayas were much addicted to the study of occult
forces; they certainly used magic mirrors and appealed to haruspicy in
their desire to foretell events. As may be seen in Dr. Le Plongeon’s
“Queen Móo”, one tableau represents a wiseman examining the cracks
induced by heat on the shell of an armadillo and the marks made by the
vapor; from these signs he endeavors to read the fate of the young
Princess Móo. The soothsayer, of the imperial family of China uses a
turtle in the same way in a ceremony called _Puu_, for the royal family
only, and in state affairs of exceptional importance.
Another tableau, also reproduced in “Queen Móo”, represents one man in
his feather mantle, mesmerizing another, showing that hypnotism was
anciently made use of in Yucatan by priests and wisemen.
There can be no doubt that certain stones were considered efficacious,
as talismans. Jadeite, particularly that of a beautiful apple-green,
mottled with grey, was held in high esteem by the Mayas, if they did
not regard it as sacred. They called it “Bones of the Earth” because it
was the hardest stone known to them. Of the many varieties of jadeite,
for which no less than a hundred and fifty names have been found,
according to Fischer, the apple-green is the most rare.
In the great square of the old city of Chicħen, Dr. Le Plongeon
discovered, in the thick forest, two very ancient tombs with some of
their decorative sculptures yet in place; those on one, enabled him to
see that the tomb had been erected to the memory of Coh by his widow,
Queen Móo. In it he found a statue of the Prince consort; also a large
white stone urn, containing what proved, by chemical analysis, to have
been human flesh, charred and preserved in red oxide of mercury. In the
same urn, among other relics, was a beautiful ornament of green
jadeite, like those decorating the necks of various personages
portrayed in the sculptures of certain edifices.
In connection with the statue it must be observed that the ancient
Mayas held a belief similar to that entertained by the Egyptians,
regarding the condition of the soul after death, and in the same way
made a statue of the deceased, with the idea that this would give the
individual a hold upon life. The natives who aided in bringing Coh’s
statue to light, out of the mausoleum where it had remained concealed
for thousands of years, invariably spoke of it as the “Enchanted
Prince”, and frequently assured its discoverer that he had succeeded in
finding it because he himself had dwelt there in past ages, and was one
of the great men whose effigies were seen on all sides.
When the larger portion of the charred viscera found in the urn was
burned, to reduce it to ashes, the natives standing by exclaimed—“A
majestic shade ascends amid the smoke! It is the form of the enchanted
Prince, that seems to fade into nothingness.” So impressed were the men
by what their imagination had evoked, that all ran from the spot in a
state of agitation.
On the day when the statue, weighing three thousand pounds, was taken
out of the monument, a party of hostile Indians suddenly emerged from
the forest. One of their number was aged, and he remarked to his
companions, “This represents one of our great men of antiquity.” Then
the young men paid homage to the statue by bending one knee, in a
manner peculiar to those people.
Traditions of their ancestors are not altogether lost among the
natives, as some travelers assert. Many still perform rites and
ceremonies in the depths of forests or in unexplored caverns, in the
darkness of the night, but keep their secrets to themselves,
remembering the tortures inflicted on their fathers by the Spanish
priests to oblige them to forego the religious observances that had
been dear to those of their race for countless generations.
In connection with the song to the rain-gods it may be said that
although the natives of Yucatan are to-day Catholic in name, they
really prefer to render homage to some statue of their forefathers, and
cling tenaciously to a few of their old divinities. Among these may be
mentioned Balam (tiger), guardian of the crops, likewise appealed to as
a rain-god. In a subterranean cavern a few miles from Chicħen, there is
an old image of a man with long beard; this serves as a representation
of Balam, and to it offerings are made. The antiquity of the carving
cannot be doubted, similar ones existing on pillars at the entrance of
a very ancient castle at Chicħen. The figure in the cavern is on its
knees, its hands are raised to a level with its head, palms upturned.
On its back is a bag containing what the natives say is a cake made of
corn and beans. The statue is now black, owing to the incense and
candles with which its devotees frequently smoke it. Previous to the
planting of grain, they place before it a basin of cool beverage made
of corn, also lighted wax candles and sweet-smelling copal, imploring
the god to grant an abundant harvest. When the crops ripen, the finest
ears are carried to the grimy divinity by men, women, and children, who
within the cavern dance and pray all day long, some of their quaint
instruments serving as accompaniment to the Latin litanies which they
chant, without having even the vaguest idea of their meaning.
The sun-dance mentioned in the Preface, is occasionally performed by
Indians in Yucatan at the time of the vernal equinox. Twenty men take
part—corresponding to the number of days in the ancient Maya
month—but ten dress as women, whence it may be inferred that in olden
times the dancers were of both sexes. All their faces are covered with
masks of deer-skin, and each has on his head the inverted half-shell of
a calabash, with turkey feathers standing up through a hole in the
centre. They wear their usual spotless white garments, and sandals.
Those clad as women are ornamented with large bead necklaces,
principally red, in imitation of old Maya coin, and all the dancers
have ear-rings. The hostile Indians[1] still pierce their ears as their
ancestors did; the rank of a chief being indicated by his having a ring
in the left ear only, or in the right, or in both.
The Master of the dance wears a stiff circular cap, surrounded by
upright peacock feathers that sway with every movement, towering above
all the dancers, and about his shoulders is a string of big sea-shells.
From his neck hangs a metallic representation of the sun, in whose
centre is an all-seeing eye within a triangle, from which depends a
large tongue, symbol of power and wisdom.
One man carries a white flag on which is painted an image of the sun,
and a man and woman on their knees worshiping it. Three men, apart from
the dancers, play a clarionet, a _sacatan_, and a big turtle-shell
beaten with deer-horns. The Master marks time with a rattle, and in his
other hand has a three-thonged whip like the flagellum of Osiris in
Egypt; throughout the performance he remains standing close to the
flag-staff.
Each dancer holds in his left hand a fan of turkey feathers whose
handle is a claw of that bird; and in his right a small rattle made of
a calabash shell, fancifully painted, containing pebbles and dried
seeds. These rattles remind us of the sistrums used anciently in the
temples of Egypt.
Around the pole on which the flag is furled, the dancers walk three
times, with solemn tread, groping their way as if in darkness. Suddenly
the flag is unfurled, the sun appears, all draw themselves up to their
full height, raise their eyes and hands, and utter a unanimous shout of
joy.
Now the dance commences, round and round the pole they go with various
steps and motions, not graceful, but energetic and full of meaning. The
dance is intended to represent, among other things, the course and
movement of our planet around the sun. The chief and the dancers sing
alternately:
“Take care how you step!”
“We step well, O Master!”
The melody and strange accompaniment are impressive and stirring, the
rattles being particularly effective, now imitating the scattering of
grain, then by a brisk motion of every arm sending forth a sound like a
sudden rainfall on parched leaves, or a thunder clap in the distance,
uniting with a shout raised by the dancers at the conclusion of each
chorus. The fans, kept in motion, are emblematic of refreshing breezes.
The flag on the pole is undoubtedly a modern addition, simply to
indicate what the dance originally was; of old, the pole itself
represented the central orb; as the round towers did in Ireland,
Persia, and India; the conical stones in Phoenicia; the pyramids and
obelisks in Egypt, etc.—for in America, as in those countries, sun
worship was the religion of the people.
Finally, the expression “Will Supreme” in the opening line of the poem
is used in the sense of the Maya word UOL (or _will_) as applied by the
Mayas of ancient times to the First Great Cause. This subject has been
fully treated elsewhere by Dr. Le Plongeon.
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Footnote 1:
These Indians were in May, 1901, subjugated by Mexican troops, under
General Bravo, after a prolonged struggle, and their capital of Chan
Santa Cruz was taken.