inflated breast (Plate. XVII., Part II.), at other times as a serpent with
part of the body bent in the shape of the Yucatan peninsula,[2] and the
artists who executed the paintings in the funereal chamber of Prince _Coh_,
typified the country as a winged serpent, with the back painted green, the
belly yellow, wearing a blue crown on the head, its tail ending with a
peculiar dart resembling in general contour the southern continent of
America.
This is not the place to give minute explanations of these symbols which I
have considered in another work, I simply wish to consign here such facts
as cannot be attributed altogether to hazard. So the peculiar twist against
which rests the body of the serpent, emblem of the lower country, is
exactly the same that forms the symbol [Symbol: glyph] used in the Troano
MS., to represent the gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean sea, whose waters
bathe the peninsula of Yucatan, that seems as if standing erect between
them as the serpent in the Egyptian sign.
[Illustration]
As to the sieve, it is called, by the natives of that country, MAYAB. Mayab
was, in past ages, one of the names of the peninsula. The crown of Lower
Egypt [Symbol: Egyption crown], is precisely that worn by certain
chieftains, whose portraits we see in the bas-reliefs at Chichen-Itza.
There the peak was worn in front; in Egypt at the back: may be as a mark of
respect on the part of the Egyptians toward their mother country, to
signify that as the child, Egypt must stand behind its parent, as it is
customary for children to do among the aborigines of Yucatan.
Since the Egyptians and the Mayas used identical signs as symbols of the
country in which they lived, may it not be inferred that the same cause
prompted their selection? We must not lose sight of the fact that the
winged serpents introduced into the paintings of Egypt, are merely
emblematic representations connected with the mysterious rites of the dead,
and the mode of being in Amenti; that is, in the "Lands of the West" where
the souls of the departed were supposed to return and exist, after being
liberated from their mortal body.
[Illustration]
In early days _Uati_ or _Mati_, the country of Mayax, was one of the
divinities, worshiped by the settlers on the banks of the Nile; and the
asp, not any other snake, played a conspicuous part in the religious
mysteries, and was universally honored.
Here, again, we may ask why? What possible relation can exist between the
asp and the country; between the asp and the office of king or the
attributes of Deity? Still it was the badge of royalty, worn as an ornament
on the head-dress of kings and gods. Is the selection of the asp as a mark
of distinction to be ascribed to a mere whim? May not that predilection be
assigned to the fact that, when angry, it dilates its breast; and when in
that condition it recalled to the minds of the colonists, the geographical
contours of the land of their forefathers in the West, and the way it was
represented in the books, from which they had studied in their childhood?
If we look at a map of the Western continent, it will be easy to perceive
that the contours of Central America--that is the Maya empire of
old--figure a serpent with an inflated breast, in a position similar to
that of the emblem of lower Egypt (Figs. 1 and 2, p. 115.), the head being
the peninsula of Yucatan, anciently the seat of the government; and that
the southern continent would be the dart of its tail, as pictured by the
Maya artists. The green color of its back, the verdant, tropical forests
that cover the land; the yellow belly, the internal volcanic fires, that
cause the surface to wriggle like a serpent; the blue crown on its head,
the blue canopy of heaven above; the wings, the smoke of the volcanoes; the
fins, the high peaks of the chain of mountains that traverses the country
from north to south, part of the Cordilleras, that are as the backbone of
the continent.
[Illustration]
The intense love of their country is one of the most striking
characteristics of the aborigines to the present day. That love may be said
to amount to fanaticism. In it we find another origin of the serpent
worship, emblem of the motherland.
In the Serpent mantra, in the _Aytareya Brahmana_, a passage speaks of the
Earth as the _Sarpa Rajni_, the queen of the serpents, and the mother of
all that moves, still worshiped by the Nayas, dwellers in the valley of
Cashmere.
In Mayax the primitive rulers derived their title CAN (serpent) from the
shape of the contours of their empire, as the priests of the sun received
theirs from the name _Kin_ of that luminary. Their emblem however, was not
a winged serpent, with a dart at the end of the tail, but a rattlesnake
covered with feathers; image of the feathered mantle used by the king, the
high-pontiff, and other high dignitaries, as ceremonial dress. This
feathered rattlesnake adorns the walls of the royal mansions. It is seen at
Uxmal, on the east façade of the west wing of king _Can's_ palace and at
other places. After their death these rulers, images of Deity on earth,
received the honors of apotheosis. They became gods and goddesses and were
worshiped as such. In Assyria the symbol of the winged serpent was replaced
by that of the winged circle, emblem of Asshur, the supreme deity of the
Assyrians; and this symbol is seldom found in the sculptures except in
immediate connection with the monarch. It seems to be also closely related
with the sacred or symbolical tree.
Here again, is another origin of "Serpent Worship," in that of the kings of
Mayax under the symbol of the "feathered serpent." One of the names for
rattlesnake, in Maya, is _Ahau-Can_, the royal serpent. In the sculptures
the king is often represented by this emblem with _seven_ rattles at the
end of the tail; seven having been the number of the members of king
_Can's_ family. In Egypt the kings and queens were honored as gods after
their death. In Greece and other countries, the heroes were deified and
worshiped as divinities.
From all antiquity and by all nations, the tree and serpent worship have
been so closely identified, as to guarantee the inference that their origin
is the same, although it seems difficult to comprehend what possible
analogy may exist between them, without a knowledge of the place where they
originated, of the people that first instituted it, of their traditions and
peculiar notions. Many learned students have published the results of their
researches on the subject. None, however, has yet assigned a birthplace to
the tree or serpent worship.
The late Mr. James Fergusson tells us that he is inclined to believe that
it was in "the mud of the lower Euphrates, among a people of Turanian
origin, and spread thence to every country of the old world." This is truly
indefinite. Then comes the query: what about the tree and serpent worship
among the inhabitants of the Western continent? For they also had their
sacred trees; and with them as with the natives of the Eastern world, the
tree was symbolical of eternal life.
The oak tree was dedicated to _Baal_, the chief god of the Phoenicians and
other eastern nations. Under it the Druids performed their most sacred
rites in honor of _Oeseus_, the Supreme Being. The ash was venerated by the
Scandinavians. The inhabitants of the island of Delos believe the gigantic
palm tree to be the favorite production of Latona. The people of Samos,
Athens, Dodona, Arcadia, worshiped in sacred groves, as those of Canaan. In
India the worship of the tree is of very ancient date, as in the island of
Ceylon: in the courtyard of every monastery a bo-tree (ficus Indicus) is
planted. Nowhere, however, do we find the origin of that worship mentioned.
Mr. Fergusson advises us to look to the Egyptians, these being the most
ancient civilized people, for an explanation of it, averring that it
undoubtedly prevailed among them before the multifarious Theban pantheon
was elaborated. In Egypt the tamarisk was the holy tree chosen to
overshadow the supposed sepulchre of Osiris, the king of Amenti. The
_persea_ was sacred to Athor, the regent of the West, often identified with
Isis. The sycamore was consecrated to Nut, mother of Isis and Osiris,
frequently represented in the paintings of the tombs, standing in its
branches, pouring from a vase, a liquid which the soul of the departed,
under the form of a bird with a human head, catches in his hands. It is the
water of eternal life. So the trees were particularly sacred to the deities
connected with Amenti, that is, to the deified kings and queens from the
"Lands of the West."
We are told that the sacred tree was an emblem found in frequent
association with the "winged circle" in Assyria. As this symbol is always
met with in immediate connection with the monarchs, it would seem that the
worship of the tree bears a close relation to, if it is not typical of,
that of the deified heroes and kings.
To understand the relationship between the tree, the winged serpent or
"circle" and the "monarchs" it is again necessary to consult the annals
left carved in stone or written in their books by the wise men of Mayax.
From them we learn that the Mayas held certain trees sacred, Landa,
Cogolludo, and other early writers tell us that, even as far down as the
time of the Spanish conquest, the aborigines believed in the immortality of
the soul, that would be rewarded or punished in the life beyond the grave,
for its deeds whilst in the body.
[Illustration]
Their reward was to consist in dwelling in a delectable place, where pain
was unknown, where there would be an abundance of delicious food, which
they would enjoy, with eternal repose, in the cool shade beneath the
evergreen and spreading branches of the _yaxché_ (ceiba tree), which is
found planted, even to-day, in front of the main entrance of the churches,
throughout Yucatan and Central America. Sometimes the churches are built in
the midst of groves of ceiba trees, that in some localities are replaced by
the gigantic palm tree (_Palma real_).
The Maya empire was of old, according to the author of the Troano MS.,
figured as a tree, planted in the continent known to-day as South America,
its principal branch being formed by the Yucatecan peninsula. (See map,
page 120.) Here we have the key to the origin of the tree worship, and its
intimate relation to the winged serpent and the king. It is again the
worship of the country symbolized by a tree, as it also was by a serpent,
or by the Ruler. Thus we find a natural explanation of the tradition
current among the ancient nations, that the TREE _par excellence_, the tree
of life, that is of civilization, of knowledge, was placed in the middle of
the land, of the garden, of the primitive country (_Mayax_) of the race;
the empire of the Mayas being placed between the two great continents,
North and South America, forming the "Lands of the West."[3]
This relation of the tree, the serpent and the country in the middle of the
World, is confirmed by the Chinese writers, commentators on the
_Chou-king_, one of the most ancient literary monuments of China. Speaking
of the Tien-Hoang or kings of heaven, Yong-chi says: _Tien-hoang had the
body of a serpent. He was the origin of letters._ _He gave names to the
ten_ KAN, _and to the twelve Tchi, in order to determine the place of the
year_; and _Yuen-leao-fan_, another writer, says that KAN _means the trunk
of a tree, and that_ TCHI _are the branches, reason why they are called_
CHE-CULL-TSE, _the twelve children_. It is well to remark here that the
children of king _Can_ were called CAN-CHI, which is still a family name
among the aborigines.
TI-HUANG, king of the Earth, is also called _Hoang-kiun_, that is, he who
reigns sovereignly in the middle of the earth, and also TSE-YUEN, or the
son principle, the engendered, the _Brahma_ of the Hindoos, the _Kneph_ of
the Egyptians, the _Mehen_ of the Mayas.
The cross is another sacred symbol much reverenced by all nations,
civilized and semi-civilized, ages before the establishment of
Christianity: and although we find representations of it in almost every
part of the world, from its mere delineation scratched on the rock, to the
stately temples and admirably hewn caves of Elephanta in India, still
nowhere do we learn of its origin. There are several varieties of crosses,
but all may be traced back to the primitive form which resembles the Latin
cross.
Among the earliest type known on the Eastern continents is the "Cruz
Ansata," called the "Key of the Nile." It was the "symbol of symbols" among
the Egyptians, the Phoenicians and the Chaldees, being the emblem of the
_life to come_. It was placed on the breast of the deceased, sometimes as a
simple [Symbol: T cross] on the fulcrum _of a cone_; sometimes represented
as supported on a heart. It is also seen adorning the breasts of statues
and statuettes in Palenque, Copan, and other ancient cities of Guatemala,
Nicaragua, and various localities of Central America. Everywhere it was
associated with _water_. In Babylon it was the emblem of _water deities_.
In Egypt, Assyria, and Britain, it was emblematical of _creative power and
eternity_. In India, China, and Scandinavia of _heaven and immortality_. In
Mayax of _rejuvenescence and freedom from physical suffering_. The cross,
as a symbol, was placed on the breast of the initiate after his new birth
was accomplished in the Bacchic and Eleusinian mysteries.
Remesal and Torquemada assert, in their respective works, that when in
1519, the Spaniards, under Hernan Cortez, landed at the island of Cozumel,
they found crosses which the natives worshiped as gods in their temples.
After them many writers, on their authority, have affirmed the same thing.
This, however, seems to have been a mistake. Bernal Diaz del Castillo, who
accompanied Cortez, does not mention the existence of such symbols in
Cozumel, but emphatically says that Cortez, having ordered the destruction
of the idols that were in the sanctuaries, caused an image of the Virgin
Mary to be placed in their stead, and near it a wooden cross, made by two
of his carpenters, to be erected, recommending the natives to take great
care of them when he left. Dr. Pedro Sanchez de Aguilar, another of the
early writers, maintains that the stone crosses found afterward in the
island were made in imitation of that of Cortez; and Bishop Landa, although
a most zealous missionary, intent on converting the aborigines to the
Catholic faith, does not mention the existence of crosses in Cozumel before
the advent of the Spaniards; a fact he would certainly have taken advantage
of in his predication of the gospel, and would not have failed to mention
in his work, had he been satisfied that the symbol really existed.
There can be no doubt that in Mayax, in very remote ages, the cross was an
emblem pertaining to the sacred mysteries. No external vestiges of the
symbol are to be found among the remains of the temples and palaces of the
Mayas, such as those seen at Palenque and other places of Central America.
Only one image of a perfect cross have I ever met with in the ancient
edifices of Yucatan besides the ground plan of the sanctuary at Uxmal. (See
page 35.) It forms part of the inscription carved on the lintel of the
doorway of the east façade of the palace at Chichen. Still tradition tells
us that the cross was symbolical of the "_God of Rain_." If so, they made
no image of it, nor did they celebrate any festival in honor of it at the
time of the conquest, but held it simply as a notion of their forefathers.
The ancient Maya astronomers had observed that at a certain period of the
year, at the beginning of our month of May, that owes its name to the
goddess MAYA, _the good dame, mother of the gods_, the "_Southern Cross_,"
appears perfectly perpendicular above the line of the southern horizon.
This is why the Catholic church celebrates the feast of the _exaltation of
the holy cross_ on the third day of that month, which it has consecrated
particularly to the _Mother of God_, the _Good Lady_, the virgin _Ma-R-ia_,
or the goddess Isis anthropomorphised by Bishop Cyril of Alexandria.
In all localities situated within the 12th and 23d degree of latitude
north, about the beginning of January, the dry season sets in and no more
rain falls during several months. In May and April in the countries like
Yucatan, where there is no water on the surface of the ground, all things
become parched; the trees and shrubs lose their leaves, nature looks
desolate, all living beings thirst for a drop of moisture, the birds and
other wild creatures, mad with thirst, lose their characteristic shyness
and venture near the haunts of man, imperiling their lives in search of
water; death, for want of it, seems to threaten all creation.
But four bright stars appear in the south. A shining cross stands erect
above the southern horizon. It is the heavenly messenger that brings good
tidings to all, for it announces that the flood-gates of heaven soon shall
be open; that the so longed for rain will shortly descend from on high, and
with it joy and happiness, new life to all creatures. Man hails with
thankful heart, welcomes with songs of gladness, this brilliant harbinger
of the _life to come_, for indeed it is a god for him, the GOD OF RAIN that
_rejuvenates nature, frees man and all other creatures from physical
sufferings, brings felicity to them--heaven therefore_--and, with renewed
life, _immortality_. Is it not the creative power that is eternally
renovating and revivifying all things on the surface of the earth? Is it
then strange that all nations, in every age, should have worshiped the
cross as symbol of the _life to come_ and _immortality_, and held it in so
great veneration? It must be remembered that all the civilized nations in
the "Lands of the West" and in the "Eastern Continent," dwelt in latitudes
where the constellation known as "the Southern Cross" is visible during the
month of May, and that the first showers soon follow its apparition above
the horizon. From these of course it was transmitted to the others further
north, that accepted the symbol, without understanding its meaning, and in
aftertimes many speculations have been indulged in concerning its origin:
but the unsophisticated natives, in the midst of their forests to-day,
rejoice at the sight of the "Southern Cross" and prepare to sow their
fields.
[Illustration]
The origin and meaning of the mystical [Symbol: T cross], that symbol of
"hidden wisdom" as it has been denominated by scholars of our days, found
on all Egyptian monuments, in the temples, in the hands of the gods, in the
tombs on the breast of the mummies, also met with in the ancient edifices
of Mayax, and on the statues and altars in the temples at Palenque, has
given rise to many speculations on the part of modern savants. They have
not reached yet any conclusion, although its name TAU says plainly, that it
is nothing more or less than a representation of the "_God of Rain_" the
"Southern Cross." Effectively _tau_ is a Maya word composed of the three
primitives _ti_, here, _a_ for _ha_, water, and _u_ month, which translated
freely means "_This is the month for water_;" hence for the resurrection of
nature--for the new life to come.
The complex form of the mystical [Symbol: T cross] which is formed of a
cone with two arms extending, one each side, and an oval placed immediately
above them, has been denominated by the Egyptologists _cruz-ansata_. It is
not of Egyptian origin. It has its prototype in the conoidal pillar,
surmounted by a sphere, used by the Babylonians as symbol of life and
death; death being but the beginning or nursery of life. This emblem was
only a reminiscence of the _yaxche_, the sacred tree of the Mayas, under
the roots of which, the natives assert, is always to be found a source of
pure cold water. The trunk of the yaxche, from the foot to the top, forms a
perfect cone from which the main branches shoot in an horizontal direction.
Its leafy top, seen from a distance, presents the appearance of a half
sphere of verdure. The _cone_, the _tau_ and the _cruz-ansata_ were for
those initiated to the mysteries the same symbol, emblematical of Deity, of
the life to come, of the dual powers, of fertility. The Mayas and other
peoples of Central America, in the sculptures or paintings, always
represented their sacred trees with two branches shooting horizontally from
the top of the trunk, thus presenting the appearance of a cross or tau.
[Illustration: From a Mexican MS. in British Museum. (Add. MS. b. m.
9789.)]
In straying apparently so far from the main object of these pages, and
tracing to their true origin the primitive traditions of mankind and many
of the religious symbols common to all the civilized nations of antiquity,
by dispelling the mists that have accumulated around them in the long vista
of ages, my aim has been to show that they all emanated from one and the
same source, and that this source was the country of Mayax, in the "Lands
of the West." Ancient sacred mysteries, have been celebrated in the temples
of Egypt, Chaldea, and India, from ages so remote that it is no longer
known by whom or where they were first instituted. Herodotus tells us that
the daughters of Danaus instituted the Thesmophoria in honor of the goddess
Ceres, in imitation of the mysteries celebrated in Egypt in honor of Isis,
and taught them to the Pelasgic women. That Eumolpus, king of Eleusis,
instituted in his own country the Eleusinian mysteries on his return from
Egypt, where he had been initiated by the priests as Orpheus who founded in
Thracia those that bear his name; but who taught the rites of initiation,
the use of the symbols and their meaning, to the Hierophants of Egypt, to
the magi of Chaldea, to the Gymnosophists of India?
The mode of initiation, the use of the same symbols, with an identical
signification ascribed to them, by peoples living so far apart whose
customs and manners were so unlike, whose religion, so far at least as
external practices were concerned, differed so widely, show that these
mysteries originated with one people, and were carried to and promulgated
among the others. As we do not find it mentioned anywhere that they
originated either with the Egyptians, Chaldees, or Hindoos, and we have
seen that their primitive traditions have been derived from the history of
the early rulers of Mayax, is it not natural that we should look for the
institution of the mysteries among the Mayas, since we find the same
mysterious symbols, used by the initiates in all the other countries,
carved on the walls of the temples of their gods, and the palaces of their
kings? Their history may afford the clue to the original meaning of said
symbols, as their language has given us the true signification of the words
used by the celebrating priest to dismiss the initiates in the Eleusinian
mysteries, or by the Brahmins at the end of their religious ceremonies, and
as it has revealed the so long hidden mystery of the mystical TAU.
That sacred mysteries were celebrated from times immemorial in the temples
of Mayax, Xibalba, Nachan (Palenque of to-day), Copan and other places of
Central America there can be no doubt, since besides the symbols sculptured
on the walls of the temples and palaces, in two distinct instances, we see
the rites and the trials of initiation described in the Popol-Vuh; and as
these rites and trials were identical with those to which the applicants to
initiation in the mysteries of Egypt, Greece, Chaldea and India were
subjected, we are justified in seeking in Mayax for the causes that may
have induced the founders of the sacred mysteries to select the odd numbers
3, 5, and 7, instead of the even 2, 4, and 6 for mystic numbers.