were built by the same architects, or at the same period, but because their
construction was in accordance with certain teachings pertaining to the
mysteries. In all the buildings, whatever their size, the ground plan was
in the shape of an oblong square [Symbol: long hollow rectangle], that is
of their letter M, pronounced _Ma_. Ma is the contraction of _Mam_, the
ancestor, as they denominated the Earth, and by extension the Universe.
_Ma_ is also the radical of _Ma-yax_, the name of the Yucatecan peninsula,
in ancient times, whose shape, no doubt, suggested that of the letter _M_,
both to the Mayas and to the Egyptians. In fact, in Egypt and in Mayax, the
figure [Symbol: long hollow rectangle] in the hieroglyphs, stands for Earth
and Universe. It will be noticed by examining their plans, that this was
also the shape of the apartments in the temples and palaces of Chaldea, of
Egypt and Greece; that of the tombs of the Etruscans; hence, no doubt, was
assigned to the masonic lodges in our days.
The triangular ceiling in those countries, and there is no reason for
doubting that it was the same in the "Lands of the West," was symbolical of
the Triune God, the Ruling Spirit of the Universe, supposed to reside in
the heavens, above all things. (This accounts for the constellations of the
firmament being represented on the ceilings).
[Illustration]
According to Zoroaster, He is the fire, the sun, the light; that the later
Platonists have described as power, intellect, soul, or spirit; and the
ancient theologians, who invoked the sun in their mysteries, according to
Macrobius, as power of the world, light of the world, spirit of the world;
that Plutarch gives as intelligence, matter, kosmos, beauty, order, the
world; of these three he says, "universal nature may be considered to be
made up, and there is reason to conclude that the Egyptians were wont to
liken this nature to what they called the most beautiful and perfect
triangle."
[Illustration]
It will be noticed that the geometrical figure formed at the ends of each
of these apartments, by the lines of the ceilings, sides, and floor, is a
pentagon, symbol of the mystic number 5 whose name, _penta_, in Greek also
conveys the idea of Universe; whilst _Ho_ in Maya, meaning 5, is also the
radical of _Hool_, the head, hence the Deity.
Then, lastly, the number of planes forming the rooms--the two of the
ceilings, the two of the sides, the two of the ends, and that of the
floor--_seven_ in all, shows conclusively not only why the builders adopted
the triangular arch instead of the circular, but also that the plan of
their buildings was conceived in strict adherence to the mystic numbers 3,
5, 7, or their multiples, as we see by the height of the pyramids; the
number of courses of the stones forming the walls; that of the terraces on
which the temples stood; that of the degrees of the stairs by which they
were reached.
Only two edifices of different construction have been found among the
ancient cities of the Mayas. One, now completely ruined, having been
shattered by a thunderbolt in 1848, was in Mayapan. That place was
destroyed, according to Bishop Landa, in the year 1446 of the Christian
era, by the lords and nobles of the country, to put an end to the dynasty
of the Cocomes that governed with tyrannical rule. The other, still
standing, although much injured by the action of time and vegetation, is to
be seen in the most ancient city of Chichen. These buildings were
consecrated to the study of astronomy; no doubt also to the performance of
certain religious ceremonies connected with the worship of the sun, moon,
and other celestial bodies. They were circular; their ground plan formed
three concentric circles representing the Zodiac, and their vertical
section, in its general outlines, conveys to the mind that, in their inward
or esoteric construction placed before the eyes of the masses yet hidden
from them, the architect wished to represent the figure of the mastodon,
which was venerated by the people as image of Deity on Earth--probably
because this pachyderm was the largest and most powerful creature that
lived in the land.
Among the ornaments which beautified one of the seven turrets that adorned
the south façade of the north wing of the ancient palace of King CAN, and
were dedicated to each of the seven members composing his family, on that
set apart to commemorate the name of his eldest son Cay (Fish), the high
pontiff, are seen these symbols:
[Illustration: FIG. 1.] [Illustration: FIG. 2.]
My knowledge of the symbols and sacred characters used by the learned
priests of Mayax, in the mural inscriptions and ornaments of their temples
and palaces, enables me to understand their exoteric meaning. The first
(Fig. 1) is composed of an equilateral triangle with the apex downward;
through it passes a ribbon tied in a knot. The triangle seems here to
represent the whole country, the "Lands of the West," composed of _three_
great continents, "North and South America" of to-day, and "the great
island," called Atlantis by Plato, that disappeared in the midst of an
awful cataclysm, under the waves of the ocean, as described by the author
of the Troano MS., who thus confirms the account of it given by the priests
of Egypt, to Solon. The ribbon tied in a knot would indicate that the
initiates, to whom the esoteric explanation of the symbol had been
imparted, were bound to each other, to secrecy and to their oath. Its
hidden meaning may have been that the equilateral triangle represented
Deity ever watchful, always creating--Nature in which we move, and live and
have our being, in which all things are bound.
The second emblem (Fig. 2) seems to have belonged more particularly to the
highest degree of the sacred mysteries, since we find it among other
symbols sculptured on the slabs that formed the external casing of the
mausoleum raised to the memory of the high pontiff _Cay_. This second
emblem is also a ribbon, tied up so as to form three loops, each occupying
one angle of an oblong square, image of the Universe; the fourth angle
being adorned with flat folds, that are emblematic of Mayax the seat or
head of the government, so arranged as to form the steps--5 in number--of a
throne. This accounts for their being placed at the upper angle. The
_three_ round loops are symbolical of the _three_ great parts composing the
"Lands of the West," that the Greek mythologists figured by the trident of
Poseidon, their god of the sea. As to the sign [Symbol: circle with a dot
in the middle], in Mayax as in Egypt, it was meant to represent the sun. It
was placed in the middle of the square simply to signify that as the sun
was the centre of the universe, the vivifying soul of all things, so his
representative the "_Child of the Sun_," the high priest, was the light
that illumined the secrets of the sacred mysteries by his wisdom; and whose
knowledge made him the fit ruler of the country. [Symbol: circle with a dot
in the middle] Is also the first letter of the Maya and Egyptian alphabets,
corresponding to our Latin letter A, initial of _Ah_, maya masculine
article, denoting strength, power--_Ah_ being likewise the first syllable
of the word _Ahau_ King.
We know as yet too little of the religious tenets of the ancient priesthood
of Mayax, to venture upon an explanation. All we can assert positively is
that number 7 was the particular appendage of the third degree of the
mysteries. It was considered as endowed with great potentiality; was as
Pythagoras says, the vehicle of life, containing soul and body.
What motives may have induced the founders of the mysteries in Mayax to
select the numbers 3, 5, 7, as symbols of the various degrees into which
they divided them, we can at present only surmise. It is probable that
certain natural causes, or the commemoration of important events which had
taken place in the life of the nation, or in that of the family of the
founders of the dynasty that governed it, suggested their adoption. The
fact is that the _seven_ members of that family were collectively
symbolized by the emblem of the _Ah-ac-Chapat_ or _Seven_ Headed Serpent.
It is difficult to prognosticate if we shall ever obtain an insight into
the secret teachings of the Mayas, even if we had access to their
libraries; for it is to be presumed that they did not confide them to the
papyrus of their books.
Landa, in his "Relation of the things of Yucatan," says: "The sons or the
nearest relatives succeeded to the high priest in his dignity; with him was
the key of their sciences, and in that they most concerned themselves,
because it was the priests who gave advice to the lords and answered their
queries.... It was the high priest who nominated the priests for cities or
villages which had none, examined them as to their proficiency in sciences
and ceremonies. He entrusted to them the things of their office, and bade
them give good example to the people. The priests employed themselves in
the service of the temple and in teaching their divers sciences,
particularly how to write the books that contained them. They taught the
sons of the other priests and the younger sons of the princes who were sent
to them in their childhood, if they saw them inclined for that profession."
In order to understand the explanation of the possible origin of the
mystification of the numbers 3, 5, and 7, it is necessary to know something
of the people among whom it seems to have originated.
If we start from the mouths of the Mississippi River and travel due south,
across the Gulf of Mexico, at a distance of exactly four hundred and eighty
miles, we come to the northern coast of the Yucatecan Peninsula. Its
north-easternmost point, Cape Catoche, is one hundred and twenty miles from
Cape San Antonio, the western end of the island of Cuba. Yucatan divides
the Gulf of Mexico from the Caribbean Sea. It is comprised between the 17°
30' and 21° 50' of latitude north, and the 88° and 91° of longitude west
from the Greenwich meridian. Its length is, therefore, 260 miles from north
to south, and its breadth 180 miles from east to west. The whole country is
a fossiliferous limestone formation, elevated a few feet only above the
sea; its maximum height in the interior being about 70 feet. Although its
rocky surface, bare for the most part, is, in places only, covered with a
few inches of tillable loam, formed by the detritus of the stones and the
decomposition of vegetable matter, its soil is of surprising fertility.
The whole country is now covered with well-nigh impenetrable forests. A
bird's eye view of it from the top of one of the lofty pyramids, that seem
like light-houses in the midst of that ocean of foliage, impresses the
beholder with the idea that he is looking on an immense sea of verdure
having for boundary the horizon, and whose billows come to die, with gentle
murmur, at the foot of the monument on which he stands. Not a hill, not a
hillock even, breaks the monotony of the landscape, which is only relieved
by clusters of palm trees that loom here and there, as islets, above the
dead green level.
Anciently, this country, now well nigh depopulated, was thickly peopled by
a highly civilized nation, if we are to judge by the great number of large
cities whose ruins exist scattered in the midst of the forests throughout
the country, and by the stupendous edifices, once upon a time temples of
the gods, or palaces of the kings and priests, whose walls are covered with
inscriptions, bas-reliefs, and other interesting sculptures that equal in
beauty of design and masterly execution those of Egypt and Babylon.
The author of the Troano MS.--a very ancient treatise on geology, one of
the four known books which escaped destruction at the hands of Bishop Landa
and other fanatical Catholic monks who accompanied the Spanish invaders,
when, after a struggle of twenty years, they at last, in 1541, became
masters of the country--tells us that anciently the peninsula was called
MAYAX; that is, the primitive land, the _terra firma_. It gave its name to
the whole empire of the Mayas, that comprised all the countries known
to-day as Central America, from the isthmus of Darien on the south, to that
of Tehuantepec on the north. The site of the government was at Uxmal; but
the great emporium of their arts and sciences, the heart, consequently, of
that marvellous civilization, was at Chichen-Itza; that became a vast
metropolis. In its temples pilgrims from all parts came to worship, and
even offer their own persons as a sacrifice to the Almighty, by throwing
themselves into the sacred well from which the city took its name. There
also came the wise men from afar, to consult the _H-Menes_, learned
priests, whose college still exists. Among these foreigners, were bearded
men whose features vividly recall those of the Assyrians of old, and the
Afghans of to-day.
From Chichen this great civilization seems to have extended its influence
to the remotest parts of the Earth, and to have exercised its controlling
power among far distant and heterogeneous nations. The fact is, that we
meet with the name Maya in many countries of Asia, Africa, Europe, as well
as of America, and always with the meaning of wisdom and power attached to
it. Wherever we find it, there also are found vestiges of the language, of
the customs, of the religion, of the cosmogonical and historical traditions
of the people of Mayax. Many of these traditions have been recorded in the
sacred books of various nations and have come to be regarded as the
primitive history of mankind. To quote a few instances. The creation of the
world, according to their conceptions, is sculptured, and forms an
interesting tableau over the door-way, on the east façade of the palace at
Chichen-Itza.
It might serve as illustration for the relation of the creation, as we read
of it at the beginning of the first chapter of the Manava Dharma Sastra, or
ordinances of Menu; a book compiled, says the celebrated indianist, H. T.
Colebrooke, about 1300 years before the Christian era, and from other and
more ancient works of the Brahmins. Said relation completed, however, by
the narrative of the myth according to the Egyptians as told by Eusebius in
his work _Evangelical Preparations_.
Effectively, in the tableau we see represented a luminous egg, emitting
rays, and floating in the midst of the waters where it had been deposited
by the Supreme Intelligence. In that egg is seated the Creator, his body
painted blue, his loins surrounded by a girdle; he holds a sceptre in his
left hand; his head is adorned with a plume of feathers; he is surrounded
by a serpent, symbol of the Universe.
Porphyrius, speaking of Jupiter, the Creator in the Orphic mysteries, says,
"the philosophers, that is the initiated, represented him as a man,
_seated_, alluding to his immutable essence; _the upper part of the body
naked_, because it is in its upper portions (in the skies) that the
Universe is seen most uncovered; _clothed from the waist below_ because the
terrestrial things are those most hidden from view. _He holds a sceptre in
his left hand_ because the heart is on that side, and the heart is the seat
of understanding that regulates all the actions of man."
[Illustration]
And again, "the Egyptians call Kneph the intelligence, or creative power."
_Kneph_, or be it _Kaneh_, seems a cognate of _can-hel_, a Maya word the
meaning of which is serpent (dragon); they say that this god threw from his
mouth an egg in which was produced another god called _Phtha_, (_Thah_ is
another Maya word, it means the worker--hence the Maker, the Creator); and
Eusebius asserts, "That they represented Kneph, or the Efficient Cause, as
a man of a blue color, with a girdle round his loins, a sceptre in his
hand, a crown on his head, adorned with a plume of feathers; and that
emblematically they figured him under the form of _a serpent_."
Will any one with common sense pretend that these conceptions concerning
the Creator, we find not only identical, but expressed in like manner and
with the same symbols, by the philosophers of India, of Egypt, and of
Mayax, are mere coincidences? If they are not the result of hazard, they
must have been conceived by the wise men of one of these countries, that,
no doubt, in which the civilization was the oldest, and communicated to
others; these, in turn, taught them to their neighbors, as we know the
Egyptians did to the Greeks.
Again, we read in Genesis that at a very early period in man's history, a
certain man murdered his brother through jealousy. The victim we are told
was named ABEL, his murderer Cain.
No doubt the writer of the book simply repeated the story he had learned
from the Egyptian priests, concerning the murder of Osiris (_in whose honor
the mysteries were instituted_), by his brother _Set_, through jealousy;
making such alterations in his narration as not to divulge the secrets he
had sworn to keep.
If any of those initiated to the higher mysteries were still acquainted
with the true history of the murder, they kept it a profound secret; and
only gave of it such exoteric explanations as best suited their purpose.
Very little can be learned from the ancient historians. Herodotus always
excuses himself from speaking on the subject; although he asserts he is
well acquainted with what pertained to the mysteries: and what we gather
from the book of Plutarch, de _Iside et Osiride_, is a version invented to
satisfy the initiates of the lower degrees. In it Osiris is represented as
having become the culture hero of Egypt. After ascending the throne, having
taught his subjects the arts of civilization, he undertook an expedition
from Egypt, in order to visit and dispense the same benefits to the
different countries of the world. He left his wife and sister Isis in
charge of the affairs of the kingdom which she administered aided by the
counsels of her friend and preceptor Thoth. Isis, being extremely vigilant,
_Set_, her other brother, had no opportunity for making innovations in the
government. Still he desired to sit on the throne. After the return of
Osiris, he conspired against him and persuaded seventy-two other persons to
join with him in the conspiracy, together with a certain queen of Ethiopia
named _Aso_ who happened to be in Egypt at the time. He invited his
unsuspecting brother to a banquet, and caused a beautiful chest to be
brought into the banqueting-room. It was much admired by all. He then, as
if in jest, offered to give it to the person it fitted best. All tried
getting into it one after another, but it did not fit any as well as Osiris
when he in turn laid himself down in it. Then Set, aided by the
conspirators, closed the lid and fastened it on the outside with nails.
This story of a brother being slain at the request of another brother,
through jealousy, is also related in Valmiki's ancient Sanscrit poem, the
"Ramayana." We are not informed by the author from where he obtained it;
but the victim was called BÂLI, and MAYA is represented as being his enemy.
The recital of this event being identical with that archived in the
sculptures and mural paintings still existing on the walls of certain
edifices at Chichen-Itza, and with the account of it recorded in the second
part of the Troano MS. would seem to indicate that the relation of the
fratricide was brought to India by some Maya traveler or missionary; or
maybe by the colonists from Mayax that Valmiki tells us took possession of
and settled, in very remote ages, in the countries, at the south of the
Indo-Chinese peninsula, known to-day as _Dekkan_. They, of course, brought
to their new home with the language and customs, the civilization,
traditions, and folk-lore from the mother country. Among these the
tradition that, in very ancient times, the son of one of their primitive
rulers murdered his brother through jealousy, in order to possess himself
of his wife, with whom he had fallen in love, and of the reins of the
government.
In the inflated style of the Hindoo poets Valmiki recounts the murder of
Bâli. The story is as follows. There were two princes named Bâli and
Sougriva, sons of a king of the Monkey nation. After the death of their
father, Bâli the eldest was called to the throne, being elected sole
monarch and supreme lord by the people. A terrible feud had originated
between Bâli and Maya on account of a woman they both coveted. Maya
challenged Bâli to mortal combat and allured him into an ambush. Bâli not
returning after a time was believed to have succumbed, and his brother
Sougriva ascended the throne. Bâli returned however, and finding his
brother installed in his place accused him of treason in the council of the
nobles and before the people. He charged him with causing the news of his
death to be circulated in order to usurp the reins of the government. Then
he banished him from court, sent him adrift without means, depriving him of
his home, his wife and his social position.
Sougriva met Rama; besought his help to avenge his wrongs. Having received
his promise to kill Bâli, strong in the protection of such an ally, he
challenged his brother to mortal combat, although he knew that alone he was
not a match for him. During the encounter that ensued, Rama who was
present, seeing that Sougriva was being badly beaten, sent an arrow through
the breast of Bâli and killed him. The last word of that prince to his
slayer who was standing by him, were: "What glory dost thou expect to reap
from the death thou hast given me whilst I was not even looking toward
thee? Hidden thou hast wounded me in a cowardly manner while my attention
was engrossed in that duel." _And so Bâli was treacherously slain._
We learn from the sculptures and mural paintings that adorn the walls of
the palaces at Chichen-Itza and Uxmal that king _Can_ (Serpent) the
founder, or maybe the restorer, of these ancient cities, had three sons
whose names were _Cay_ (Fish), _Aac_ (Turtle), and _Coh_ (Leopard), and two
daughters, _Moo_ (Macaw), and _Nicté_ (Flower).
It was the law among the Mayas that the youngest of the brothers should
marry the eldest of the sisters to insure the legitimate and divine descent
of the royal family. This same custom of princes of royal blood marrying
their sisters existed among the Egyptians from the earliest days, and it
became in after times general; such alliance being considered fortunate. It
also prevailed with the Ethiopians, the Greeks, those of Mesopotamia in the
time of the patriarchs, the Peruvians, and many other nations. Prince _Coh_
was a brave and successful warrior; at the head of his followers, whom he
had often led to victory, he had conquered many nations and greatly added
to the glory and extent of the Maya empire. Being the youngest of the
brothers, he was the one who had to marry Moo, the eldest of the sisters.
She, on her part, loved him dearly and was proud of his exploits. After the
death of King Can, their father, the country was parcelled among his
children. Moo became the queen of Chichen, and many of the lords swore
allegiance to her. After her death she received the honors of apotheosis;
became the goddess of fire, and was worshiped in a magnificent temple,
built on the summit of a high and very extensive pyramid whose ruins are
still to be seen in the city of Izamal.
[Illustration]