Sacred Mysteries Sacred Mysteries AMONG THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES, 11,500 YEARS AGO THEIR RELATION TO THE SACRED MYS- TERIES OF EGYPT, GREECE, CHALDEA AND INDIA FREEMASONRY 3ht vEimrfi Anterior tit tfa Stmpl? at &uUmuiu ILLUSTRATED BY AUGUSTUS LE PLONGEON Author of "A Sketch of the Ancient Inhabitants of Peru, and their Civilization;' Vestiges ol the Mayas;" "Essay on Vestiges of Antiquity;" "Essay on the Causes of Earthquakes;" Religion of Jesus compared with the Teaching* of the Church;" "The Monuments of Mayax; and their Historical Teachings." QUEEN MOO AND THE EGYPTIAN SPHINX as a sequel to Sacred Mysteries THIRD EDITION NEW YORK CITY. N. Y. THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY 244 LENOX AVENUE 1909 MR. PIERRE LORILLARD, THIS SMALL HISTORICAL STUDY OF THE SACRED MYSTERIES PRACTICED IN REMOTE AGES BY THE MAYAS AND QUICHES 3 a SUapertfulUt Sbbitateh, AS A FEEBLE TESTIMONIAL OF MY APPRECIATION OF HIS EF- FORTS TO HELP IN REMOVING THE VEIL THAT HAS SO LONG HUNG OVER THE HISTORY, CUSTOMS AND CIVI- LIZATION OF THE ANCIENT INHABITANTS OF THIS WESTERN CONTINENT. AUGUSTUS LE PLONGEON NEW YORK, MAY 20rn, 1886 PREFACE. THE forests of Yucatan and Central America are to-day, for the majority of the people of the United States, even those who call themselves scientific and well informed, as much a terra incognita, as Amer- ica was to the inhabitants of Europe before its dis- covery by Cristobal Colon in 1498, when for the first time he came in sight of the northern, coast of South America, and navigated along it from the mouth of the river Orinoco to Porto Cabello in the Golfo Triste. A few, having perused the books of J. L. Stephens, Norman, and other tourists who have hurriedly vis- ited the ruins of the ancient cities that lie hidden in the depths of those forests, have a vague idea that there exist the remains of stone houses built some time or other before the discovery, aver authorita- tively that ' ' their builders were but little removed from the state of savagism, and that none of their handwork is worth the attention of the students of our age. Their civilization, they confidently say, was at best very crude. They were ignorant of the vi PREFACE. art of writing; and the scanty records of their his- tory chronicled on deer-skins, in pictorial represen- tations, are well nigh unintelligible. They had no sciences, no mental culture or intellectual develop- ment. They were in fact a race whose intelligence was for the most part of lower order. From what they did nothing is to be learned that has any direct bearing on the progress of civilization. 1 ' In no wise can they be compared with the Egyptians or the Chaldees, much less with the Greeks or Romans; it is not, therefore, worth our while to spend time and money in researches among the ruins of their cities. It is to Greece, it is to Egypt, to Chaldea, that Americans must go in order to make new discoveries. In those countries must be established schools for study of Greek, or Egyptian, or Chaldean archaeol- ogy: and American schools have been established at Athens and Alexandria, and expeditions sent to Syria, to the shores of the Euphrates. But the European scientists, who for many years past have explored those old fields in order to obtain relics to fill the shelves of the museums of their cap- itals and turned up the soil of the Orient in search of archaeological treasures, now look to the Western contineiit in quest of the origin of those ancient civ- ilizations which they have been unable to find in the countries where they once flourished; and they look with that reverence which true learning begets, PREFACE. Vll on those ancient American temples and palaces that are objects of contempt for some modern American scientists. Thus we see established in Paris the " Societe des Americanistes " whose sole object is the study of all things pertaining to ancient American civilization. That Society, composed of students, spares no efforts to obtain knowledge respecting the architecture, the sciences, the arts, the language, and the civilization of the people who inhabited, in remote ages, the various countries of this Western continent. A premium of 25,000 francs has been offered for the discovery of an alphabet or key to the inscriptions carved on the walls of the monuments in Yucatan and Central America. M. Desire Charnay has been sent to obtain molds of the sculptures and other precious relics that lie hidden and lost in the recesses of the Central American forests. Casts have been made from such squeezes as he obtained. These casts adorn the Trocadero Museum at Paris, dupli- cates of the same having been presented to the Smithsonian Institute at Washington by Mr. Pierre Lorillard of New York. This gentleman is the only American who has ever contributed with his wealth and influence (he has spent 25,000 dollars) in expedi- tions for the recovery of facts and objects that may throw light on the ancient history of America. Then again we have in Europe the international Vlll PREFACE. "Congres des Americanistes " that convenes every four years in one of the capitals of Europe for the purpose of collecting all new data, obtained in the in- terval, concerning ancient American civilization. In England, at Cambridge, there is in the Univer- sity a large building especially dedicated to Central American archaeology. There are to be seen, as I am informed by General Sir Henry Lefroy, the casts and photographs obtained by Mr. Maudslay, a wealthy gentleman who has devoted his time and wealth to the work of obtaining fac-xiinilex in plaster and photographs of the ancient monuments of Honduras and Guatemala. But what have we in ]\~e\v York, in the United States, in fact, to offer to students of American archaeology ? True, Mr. George Peabody, among his many bene- factions, left a sum of money for the foundation of a museum to be specially dedicated to the collection of objects pertaining to American archaeology. Such museum exists at the University of Cambridge, Massachusetts. It bears his name. Docs it contain anything that may throw light on the history of the ancient inhabitants of this Western Continent? I once wrote to an influential gentlemen connected with the University asking him to propose to the trustees the purchase of a copy of my collections of casts and mural paintings. His answer dated July PREFACE. IX 23d, 1885, was: "I will send your letter to one of "the trustees, enjoining him to accept its offer, but ' ' I fear they will treat that proposal as they have so ' ' many others and say no I The collection of trac- "ings they ought to secure. The time has come "when such things should be got at any cost. We ''shah 1 soon be as they are in India, hunting "everywhere for things which were easily to be " had a few years ago." My correspondent has visited the ruined cities of Yucatan; he knows the value of my collections. I have done all in my power to call the attention of American scientists, of the men of leisure and money, to the fact that in New York perfect fac- similes of the palaces and temples of the Mayas could be erected in Central Park, both as ornament to the place, and object of study for the lovers of American archaeology who may not have the means, nor the time, nor the desire, to run the risk of submitting to the privations and hardships that those who wish to visit the ruined cities, must inevitably encounter. But alas ! all in vain. Three years ago I had casts made from some of the stereotyped moulds made by me of the sculptures at Uxmal and offered them for exhibition in the Met- ropolitan Museum of Art in Central Park. They have been placed in the cellar, out of the way, " for want of space against the wall." The public has X PREFACE. never seen them. I once remonstrated with one of the trustees, and proposed to sell to the museum a copy of the collection of fresco paintings from Chichen Itza, last remnants of ancient American art. The answer of the gentleman was " No! those things are not appreciated, they are looked upon as of no value." Nevertheless, some of the illustrations in this book are photographs of the same despised casts and mural paintings. During the last lecturing season I offered to sev- eral literary, scientific and historical societies, to give lectures illustrated with vie\vs made by us of the monuments, and enlarged with the stereopticon. In every instance I received the same answer. "Our people are not interested in such a subject." What ! Americans not interested in American antiquities ! in ancient American history ! in ancient American civilization ! Desiring to make the subject known before the lecture season was over, en dewxpoir de canxe, I asked Dr. John Stoughton Newbury, of the School of Mines at Columbia College, if he could give me a chance to present the subject before the members of the New York Academy of Science. I had no hope of a favorable answer; but to my great surprise Pro- fessor Newbury received my offer enthusiastically. Mrs. Le Plongeon lectured on the monuments of Yucatan on the 2nd of March last, at Columbia Col- PREFACE. xi lege. Let the ladies and gentlemen who were pres- ent say if the facts and views presented to them were of sufficient interest to command their attention. A lady, Mrs. Francis B. Arnold, residing at 21 West 12th Street, New York, was so pleased that she asked Mrs. Le Plongeon to lecture at her own house to a select party of friends. Let again the ladies and gentlemen who were present at Mrs. Arnold's house, say if there is nothing worth seeing and studying in the remains of ancient American civilization. Let Mrs. Arnold and Dr. Newbury accept our heartfelt-thanks for affording us an opportunity of presenting ancient America to a few appreciative minds, if no more. Mrs. Le Plongeon and I have written two works on Yucatan. One is: "Monuments of Mayax, and their historical teachings." The other: "Yucatan, its ancient palaces and modern cities; life and cus- toms of the Aborigines." We have offered them to several publishing houses, but the same answer has been given by all. " There is no money in the pub- lication of such books; American readers do not care for this subject." Notwithstanding such rebuffs. I made up my mind to present to American readers some of the historical facts that have been brought to light by deciphering the bas-reliefs and mural inscriptions, by means of the ancient hieratic Maya alphabet discovered by me. Xll PREFACE. Ancient Maya Hieratic alphabet ac- cording to mural inscriptions. Egyptian Hieratic alphabet ac- cording to Messrs. Champollion le Jeune and Bunsen. O. A. O. B.n T. \\ . K. *4.<4.G\. ./-. H- a -(nnJ- rvW O& 9 O- T. X. 2. /. \\\ , rn. . v /L.\ /vw- m.n. D- ES- rt A B C H I K L M N PP T TH U X Y Z CH CH TZ E If the perusal of this hook fails to awaken in tliis country an interest in ancient American civilization and history, then I will follow the advice said to have heen given hy Jesus of Nazareth to his dis- ciples when sending them on their mission of spreading the gospel among the nations: "And "whomsoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, "when ye depart thence, shako off the dust under PREFACE. XI 11 "your feet. . . v St. Mark. chap, vi., verse 11 for I shall consider it useless to spend more time, labor, and money on the subject in the United States, re- membering the fate of Professor Morse, when he asked Congress for permission to introduce his elec- tric telegraph in this country. In this small book (which two of the most prom- inent firms in New York have positively refused to publish believing it to be a bad speculation), I pre- sent only such facts as can be proved by the works of well-known writers ancient and modern, and by the inscriptions carved on stone by the Maya learned men and historians. It is for you, Reader, to judge if they are worthy your consideration. ILLUSTRATIONS.* Symbolical stone found in the Mausoleum of high pontiff Cay at Chicheri. 19 View of the pyramid called " House of the L)warf," at Uxmal, 34 Ground plan of the Sanctuary, 35 Ground plan of the Temple of Mysteries, ... 36 Part of cornice surrounding the Sanctuary, ... 39 Cross bones and skeletons carved on the cornice of the Sanctuary, ........ 39 Part of a statue with apron on which is sculptured the image of an extended hand. (From Uxmal.) . . 40 Symbolical slab with title of the high pontiff, . . 45 Symbols from the turret dedicated to the high pontiff Cay in the palace of King Can, at Uxmal, . . 65 Tableau of the creation, from the east facade of the palace at Chichen-Itza, 72 Prince Coh in battle (from mural paintings at Chichen- Itza), 78 Prince Coh's body laid out for cremation (from mural paintings at Chichen-Itza), 80 Slab from Prince Coh's Mausoleum, at Chichen, leop- ard eating the heart of his enemies 85 Dying leopard with human head, from Prince Coh's Mausoleum at Chichen-Itza 86 Priest of Osiris making an offering (from the tombs of Thebes), 86 X v l ILL US TEA TI ONS. PAOB Statue of Prince Coh, found in his Mausoleum at Chichen-Itza, now in the National Museum in the City of Mexico, 87 Slab from Prince Coh's Mausoleum atChichen, repre- senting Queen Moo, under the figure of a macaw, eating the heart of her enemies, .... Tableau of the Mastodon worship, at Chichen, . . Sculptures on monolith gate at Tiahuanuco (Peru), from a model in the museum of the Long Island Historical Society in Brooklyn, .... 102 Small terra cotta heads from British Honduras, . . 104 Symbols of lower Egypt (from Sir Gardner Wilkin- son's works on Egypt), 115 Plate XVII, part II. of Troano M.S., . . . .116 Plate XXV. part II. of Troano M.S., head dress of mother Earth, 118 Bas-reliefs from small room at the foot of Prince Coh's monument at Chichen-Itza, .... 118, 119 Maps of the Maya Empire, 120 Yaxche, sacred tree of the Mayas, 124 Plate VI., part II. of Troano M.S., .... 126 Worship of sacred tree (Papaya) from a Mexican M.S., in the library of the British Museum, . . . 134 Plate XXIV., part I., Troano M.S., .... 137 Sons of King Can, represented under the symbol of deer-heads, totem of the country, plate XVI, part II. of Troano, M.S., 139 * From drawings and photographs made by the author, and engraved by A. F. Ringler & Co., New York City. AMONG THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. THERE are authors who attribute the origin of modern Free Masonry to the followers of Pythagoras, because some of the specula- tions of that Philosopher concerning the meaning of the numbers are to be found in the esoteric doctrines taught in the masonic lodges. Others, on account of the Christian symbols that have been incorporated in the decoration of things pertaining to Masonry, following the Swedish sys- tem, say that the Esseiies and first Christians founded it. Others, again, make it originate in the building of Solomon's temple, many Jewish names, emblems and legends, taken from the Bible, having found their way into the rites of initiation to several de- grees. Others, still, make it go back to Adam. Ask them why they do not know. While not a few, and I among them, earnestly believe that Masonry existed before Adam was created. I SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG believe it, because I am convinced that this pre- tended ancestor of man is a myth and has never existed. Thomas Payne and those of his school say that the Druids were the fathers of the craft; they being worshipers of the sun, moon and stars : and these jewels of the firmament being represented on the ceilings of the M.' . lodges. Dance of Villoison speaks of Herculaneum as its birth place, because of the many similarities that existed between the col- legia of the Romans and the lodges of the operative Masons of the middle ages. Michael Andrew Ram- say, a Scotch gentleman, in a discourse delivered in Paris in 1740, suggested the possibility of the fra- ternity having its origin, in the time of the crusades, among the Knight Templars, and he explains it in this way : The Pope, Clement V., and Phillippe-le-bel, King of France, fearing the power of the Templars and coveting their immense wealth, resolved to destroy the Order. When, in 1308, Jacques de Molay, then Grand Master of the Order, was preparing an expe- dition to avenge the wrongs and disasters suffered by the Christians in the East, the Pope, who was the only power to which, in the spiritual, the Templars owed allegiance, enticed him to France. On his arrival he was received with every mark of friendship: but, soon after, the King caused him to be arrested together with some of the other dignitaries, THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 3 accusing them of the most heinous crimes, imputing to them the secret rites of their initiation. By order of the Archbishop of Sens and his provincial coun- cil, Jacques de Molay, Guy of Auvergne and several other officers of the Order were burned alive on March 18, 1314. The Pope, by a bull dated on the 2d of April, and published on the 2d of May 1312, that he issued on his own responsibility, the Council of Vienne, in Dauphine, being adverse to hasty measures, declared the Order abolished throughout the world. The ex- ecution of the Grand Master and his companions gave the coup de grace to the Order. Some of the Knights who had escaped to Portugal continued the Order. They assumed the title of Knights of Christ, which it bears to this day; but it never recovered its former prestige and power. Jacques de Molay before dying had appointed Johan Marcus Larmenio as his successor to the office of Grand Master. The Knights who, fleeing from the persecution, had taken refuge in Scotland at the Court of King Robert Bruce, refused to recognize his authority; and pretending to reestablish the Order of the Temple, under the allegory and title of Archi- tects, protected by the King, laid the foundation of the Order of Free and Accepted Masons of the Scot- tish Rite in 1314. This new society soon forgot the meaning of the SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG execratory oath that the members were obliged to take at their initiation ; the death of Clement V., of Phillippe-le-bel, of the accusers and enemies of Jacques de Molayand the other Knights who had been executed, having removed the object of their ven- geance. Still they continued to decorate their lodges with tokens commemorative of the death of the Grand Master, to impose on all new members the obligation of avenging it, which they signified by striking with an unsheathed dagger at unseen beings, his supposed murderers, although all their efforts were now directed to the restoration of the honor of their association. This allegory is well-known to the Knights of Kadosh. A century had scarcely elapsed when this idea also was abandoned, the founders and their disciples having passed away. Their successors saw only allegories in the symbols of the Order, and the extensive use of words and texts from the Bible was then introduced. Of their work but little is positively known until the reign of Charles I. of England, when their mysterious initia- tions began to attract attention. The enemies of Cromwell and of the Republic, having in view the reestablishment of the monarchy, created the degree of Grand Master to prepare the minds of the Masons for that event. King Wil- liam III. was initiated. Masonry, says Preston, was very much neglected as early as the reign of James THE NAY AS AND THE QUICHES. 5 II., and even after this period it made but slow prog- ress until 1714, when King George I. ascended the throne. Three years later, in February 1717, the first Grand Lodge was established in London. A committee from the four lodges then existing in that city met at the tavern of the "Apple Tree " and nominated Anthony Saver, who was elected Grand Master on the 24th of the following June, day of St. John the Baptist, that for this reason was selected as patron of the Order. This origin of the craft is credited by many of the best authorities on the subject. They found their opinion 011 the fact that many of the ceremonies practiced by the Architects are still observed among the Masons ; and that the Grand Lodge preserved, with the spirit of the ancient brotherhood, its fun- damental laws. There are others, however, who likewise claim to be well informed, that pretend it did not originate in any order of chivalry, but in the building fraternities of the Middle Ages. Be the origin what it may, the fact is that after the establishment of the Grand Lodge at "Apple Tree Tavern," Masonry spread over Europe at a rapid rate, notwithstanding the bitter opposition of the Church of Rome that fulminated against it its most terrible anathemas as early as 1738 at the in- stigation of the Inquisition. Pope Clement XII., on 6 SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG the 28th of April of that year, caused a prohibitory bull to be issued against Free Masonry, entitled In Eminenti\ in which lie excommunicated all Masons; and the Cardinal Vicar of Rome, by edict in the name of the High Priest of the God of Peace and Mercy, decreed the penalty of death against them in 1739 ; and on May IS 1751, Pope Benoit XIV. re- newed the bull of Clement XII. by another beginning with these words: Providas Romanorum Ponfijicmn. The Order was introduced in France in 1725. and on the 14th of September 1732, all Masonic Asso- ciations were prohibited by a decree of the Chamber of Police of the Chatelet of Paris. In 1727, Lord Coleraine founded a lodge in Gib- raltar, and in the succeeding year in Madrid, the capital of Spain, the strong-hold of the Inquisition. But in 1740, in consequence of the bull of Clement XII.. King Philip A"., of Spain, promulgated an ordi- nance against the Masons in his kingdom, many of whom were arrested and sent to the galleys. The Inquisitors took advantage of the opportunity to persecute the members of a lodge they discovered in Madrid. They caused them to be loaded with chains, to be obliged to row in the galleys without other retribution than scanty rations of victuals of the poorest quality, but an abundant supply of bas- tinade. Fernando VI. renewed the ordinance on July 2 1751, making Masonry high treason. THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 7 The brotherhood made its appearance in Ireland in 1730. It is not positively known if it existed in the country before that time. In 1732 it crossed the Atlantic and was imported in America. In that year a lodge was held in " Tun tavern "' in Philadelphia, the B. '. having previously met in Boston, which may be regarded as the birth- place of American Free Masonry. Henry Price was the first provincial Grand Master appointed by the Grand Lodge of England on April 3oth, 1733. The same year witnessed its establishment in va- rious cities of Italy. In 1735, the Grand Duke Fran- cis of Lorraine was initiated. He protected the Masons, and the craft flourished in Italy until 1737, when Juan Gaston of Medicis, Grand Duke of Tus- cany, issued a decree of prohibition against it. Soon after his death, which occurred the same year, the lodges which had been closed were reopened. It was not long, however, before they were denounced to the Pope Clement XII., who issued his bull of 28th of April 1738, and sent an inquisitor to Florence who caused various members of the society to be cast into dungeons. They were set at liberty as soon as Francis of Lorraine became Grand Duke of Tuscany. He not only protected the Masons, but founded lodges in Florence and other places in his estates. In 1735 a lodge was established in Lisbon the capital of Portugal. It will be remembered that 8 SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG some of the Knights Templars, under the title of "Knights of Christ," had kept alive the ancient order in that country in defiance of the Pope's thunderbolts. Among the Masons initiated in England were a great many Germans as early as 1730. These seem to have met occasionally in traveling in Germany, or to have corresponded with each other; hut no lodge is known to have existed previous to the year 1737, when one without name was established in Hamburg, although Grand Master Lord Strathmore had authorized in 1733, eleven gentlemen and Broth- ers to open one. In 1 74(), B. Puttman, of the Hamburg lodge, re- ceived a patent of Provincial Grand Master from England, and the lodge assumed the title of Absa- lom. King Frederick II., denominated the Great, whilst still Crown Prince, had been initiated; and from the time of his initiation took great interest in the wel- fare of the brotherhood. Crowned King of Prussia, he continued to give it his support, assuming the title of "Great master universal, and Conservator of the most ancient and most respectable association of ancient free masons or architects of Scotland." Ma- sonry enjoyed under his reign such consideration, that many German princes, following his example, were initiated; and so many of the nobility joined THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. the society, that to belong to it came to be regarded as a mark of nobility and high breeding. Notwithstanding his multifarious State duties, and the many wars that took place during his reign, which demanded his constant attention, he found time to frame a constitution to cement together again the Order that at one time, owing to external persecu- tions on the one hand, to internal dissensions, suscita- ted by the incorporation to it of the Eosicrucians and still more that of the Illuminati, on the other seemed on the eve of falling asunder. That constitution, signed by him in his palace at Berlin, on the 1st of May 1786, savedFree Masonry from annihilation in Germany for many regarding it with suspicion at- tacked and persecuted it : the Catholics because it came from Protestant England; the Protestant clergy looked upon it as hostile to Christianity, be- cause of the teachings and symbols altogether Catho- lic of the ISth degree, those of Eosa Cruz, whose motto " we have the happiness of being in the paci- fic unity of the sacred numbers," and ''in the name of the holy and indivisible Trinity," bespeaks its Jesuit origin. The people believed in the accusation of witchcraft and sorcery, made against it by its enemies, because of the vail of secrecy thrown over their meetings. Authors have endeavored to show that modern free-masonry is not derived from the mysteries 10 SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG of the ancients. J. G. Fiiidel, an advocate of this opinion, says: "Seeing that the ancient sym- bolical marks and ceremonials in the lodges hear a very striking resemblance to those of the mysteries of the ancients some have allowed themselves to be deceived, and led others astray imagining they can trace; hack the history of the craft into the cloudy mists of antiquity. Instead of endeavoring to ascertain how and when these ceremonies were introduced into our present system, they have taken it for granted that they were derived from the religious mysteries of the ancients." Now, if we merely consider the tokens of recogni- tion, the pass words and secret words, the decora- tions of the lodges, according to the degrees into which modern Masonry is divided, tokens, words and decorations nearly all taken from the Bible and symbolical of events, real or imaginary, some of which are said to have taken place in comparatively modern times, after the decline arid final discontin- uance of the ancient mysteries in consequence of the spread of Christianity; others having occurred in the early days of the Christian era; others at the time of the building of Solomon's Temple, all of which had certainly nothing to do with the religious mys- teries of Egypt, Chaldea, Greece, Etruria, etc., that were instituted ages before the pretended occurrence of those events, then we may positively affirm that THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 11 it is not derived from these. But if, on the other hand, we observe, and it is difficult to overlook it, that these symbols are precisely the same that we find in the temples of Egypt, Chaldea, India, and Central America, whatever may have been the esoteric meaning given to them by the initiated of those countries, we are bound to admit that a link exists between the ancient mysteries and Free Masonry. It is for us to try to discover when that link was riveted and by whom. If the theory of Chevalier Ramsay be true, that is, if modern Masonry had its beginning in the Society of Architects founded in Scotland under the protection of King Robert Bruce, and the title of "Ancient and Accepted Masons of the Scottish rite," seems to favor that opinion, then we may trace its origin to the order of Knight Templars; and through them to the ancient mysteries practiced in the East from times immemorial. It is well known that one of the charges made against Jacques de Molay and his associates by their accusers was that they used secret rites in their initiations. Their four oaths were well known; but not their rites of initiation. What were they ? We are told that the aim of the Society of Archi- tects was to perpetuate the ancient Order of the Temple. It is therefore to be presumed that they continued to observe the rites and ceremonies prac- 12 SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG ticed in the chapters of the Templars, to use them at the initiations of members into the new Society, to whom they communicated the intimate meaning of their symbols. Were these rites analogous to those observed in the initiations to the symbolical degrees ? These degrees were, it must be remembered, the only ones originally recognized by the brotherhood; as there are but three in the Society of Jesus; the Neo- phites the Coadjutors and the Profess; as there were anciently among the priests of the temples of Egypt, who indeed considered it a great honor to be judged worthy of admission to the third degree; that is, to participation in the greater mysteries. Was their explanation of the symbols similar to that taught in M.' . lodges ( The Templars were accused. as Masons are to day, by the Romish Church, since it has lost its hold and influence on the association, of the crime of heresy, and many Masons have suffered death by being burnt alive as heretics. From whom did the Templars receive those sym- bols, and their esoteric meaning, in which we plainly trace the doctrine of Pythagoras ? No doubt from the Christians who, like the Emperor Julian, the Bishop Synnesius, Clement of Alexandria and many other pagan philosophers, who had been in- itiated to the mysteries by the priests of Egypt, be- fore being converted to Christianity. In that case the connection of modern Masonry with the ancient THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 13 religious mysteries of Egypt, consequently with those of Greece and Samothracia is easily traced; and the resemblance of the symbolical marks and ceremonials of M. * . lodges with those of the mys- teries naturally accounted for. Thus it is that many masonic authors may have been led to trace the origin of the craft to followers of Pythagoras; and others to the Essenes and first Christians. Krause, in his work, has endeavored to prove that Masonry originated in the associations of opera- tive masons that in the Middle Ages travelled through Europe, and by whom the cathedrals, monasteries, and castles were built; whose funda- mental laws, traditions, customs and tools are now used in the lodges in a figurative sense. These associations may have sprung from the building corporations of the Romans: if so, we have a connecting link between the lodges of the Middle Ages and the mysteries of the ancients. The initiates of the architectural collegia of the Romans did not call themselves Brothers; this is a title that came into use only when the Christian Masonic fraterni- ties adopted it. They styled themselves Collega or Incorporatus. They worked in buildings apart or in secluded rooms; and the constitution of M. . lodges, so far as the officers, their titles and duties, and the symbols are concerned, is so similar to theirs that one might 14 SACRED MYHTE1UES AMONG be inclined to believe that tbe early Masons imitated the Roman collegia. Tins tlieoiy is not without seml)lance of plausi- bility. Rome, (hiring several centuries, held sway over (Jaul and Britain. Roman colonists settled in various parts of those countries. \Vith their lan- guage and customs they imported many of their institutions and associations. That of the builders or collegia, as is manifest from the remains still existing of the magnificent roads and ediiices of various kinds constructed by them. The College held their lodges wherever they established themselves; no doubt initiated new members. In the course of time, when those countries freed themselves from the yoke of Rome, these societies of builders became the asso- ciations of the itinerant operative masons which inherited the symbols, tokens and pass words of the Collega 1 . These, in all probability, had received them, either from the Chaldean magicians, who flocked to Rome at the beginning of the Christian era, Avhen the progress of philosophical incredulity had shaken the confidence in legal divination; or from some of the priests of inferior order, all initiated to part of the lesser mysteries, that, when the sacerdotal class hav- ing lost in majesty, power and wealth, in order to preserve whole its numerous hierarchy, repaired to the Capital of the world to escape misery by levying contributions on the credulity and superstition of the people. THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 15 The Christian Church, on the one hand, the Koman emperors on the other, fearing the influence of those magicians and priests, persecuted them even to death. These learned and wise men formed secret societies to preserve and transmit their knowledge. These societies lasted during the Middle Ages the Eosicrucians, the Theurgists, among them. Leibnitz, one of the greatest men of science that ever lived, who died in Hanover, in 171(5, at the age of seventy years, became a member of one of these societies; and there received an instruction he had vainly sought elsewhere. Were their mysterious meetings remnants of the ancient learned initiations ( Everything tends to make us suspect it. The trials and examinations to which those who applied for initiation were obliged to submit; the nature of the secrets they possessed; the manlier in which they were preserved. In these again may be found an explanation of why so many of the Pythagorean doctrines made their way into Masonry. Of the ceremonies performed at the initiation into the mysteries of Egypt we know but little at present, for the initiated were very careful to conceal these sacred rites. Herodotus tells that if any person di- vulged any part of them, he was thought to have called down Divine judgment upon his head, and it was accounted unsafe to abide in the same house 16 SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG with him. He was even, apprehended as a puhlic offender and put to death. Still, on reading the visions in the hook of Henoch, and comparing them with what we know of the trials to which were subjected the applicants for initiation into the greater mysteries of Eleusis and Egypt, and those of Xihalha, one can scarcely refrain from helieving that, under the title of Visions, the author relates his experience at the initiation, am) what he learned in the mysteries before being con. verted to Christianity. That hook is believed to have been written at the beginning of the Christian era, when, under the yoke of the Roman emperors, the customs and religion of the Egyptians fell into de- cadency; and the Christian bishops of Alexandria, such as George, Theophilus, Cyril, the murderer of the beautiful, learned and noble Hypathia, daughter of the mathematician Theon, persecuted the wor- shipers of Isis and Osiris, and converted their temples into Christian churches, after defacing and white- washing the ancient sculptures that covered their walls, on which they painted rough images of saints. It may be that its author, although having embraced Christianity, still retained in his heart of hearts a strong love for the ancient institutions that were 4 fast disappearing in the midst of the political and religious dissensions that were raging at the time. Fearing lest the learning of the priests of old and the THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 17 knowledge he had acquired by his initiation into the mysteries should become lost, the dread of death be- ing removed by the new order of things, he put, for greater safety, in the mouth of Henoch, as instruct- ing his son, what he had seen and learned in the secrecy of the temples. Let us hope that further discoveries in the ruins of the temples, or in the tombs, may put into our possession some papyrus whose contents will throw light on the subject, and reveal these secrets. The masonic objects found under the base of the obelisk, known as Cleopatra's needle, now in Central Park, New York, show that many of the symbols pertaining to the rites of modern Free Masonry, where used in Egypt by building organizations and architects at least 1900 years ago. And although I do not agree with all the conclusions of Dr. Fanton, notwithstanding they are approved by some of the high masons at Cairo and Alexandria, I am ready to recognize many of the emblems, and admit that they belonged to the mysteries, if their meaning anciently was not quite the same as we give them to-day. The reluctance of the Egyptians to admit strangers to the holy secret of their mysteries was for a very long time insuperable. However, they seem to have relaxed at rare intervals, in favor of personages noted for their wisdom and knoAvledge. So they admitted the great philosopher Thales, who went to 18 SACKED MYSTERIES AMONG Egypt to learn geometry and astronomy, about 587 years before the Christian era. Eumolpus, king of Eleusis, who, on returning to his country, instituted the mysteries of that name in honor of the goddess Ceres, that presided over the crops and other fruits of the earth. Orpheus, the celebrated Greek poet, obtained likewise the honor of the initiation, and established the Orphic ceremonies, which, according to Herodotus, were observed alike by the Egyptians and the Pythagoreans. It must be remembered that Pythagoras, after being submitted to extremely se- vere ordeals, to cause him to desist from his desire of being initiated, was, on account of his firmness, granted the privilege of initiation. Many of the rites and ceremonies were therefore brought from Egypt to Greece. Speaking of the Thesmophoria festivals in honor of Ceres, next in importance to the mysteries of Eleusis, Herodotus says: "These rites were brought from Egypt into Greece by the daughters of Danaus, who taught them to the Pelagic women; but in the course of time they fell into disuse, except among the Arcadians who continued to preserve them. The Pelasgians had also initiated the inhab- itants of Samothracia. They in turn taught the Athenians the mysteries of the ' Cabiri.' ' From that it results that if we desire to obtain an insight of the Egyptian mysteries, we must see what happened at the initiation into those of Greece. THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 19 No one could be admitted to the greater unless they had been purified at the lesser, and one year at least had elapsed since they had become mystai or initiated. The initiation to the greater mysteries when the Mystai took the degree of Ephoroi, that is Inspector, by being instructed in the secret rites, except a few reserved for the priests alone, was as follows: The candidate, being crowned with myrtle, which was used instead of the acacia, was admitted by night into an immense building called the Mystikos Sekos, that is the ''mystical enclosure." At their entrance they purified themselves by washing their hands in holy water, being at the same time ad- monished to present themselves with minds pure and undefined, without which external cleanliness of the body would by no means be accepted. After this the holy mysteries were read to them from a book called Petroma, because the book consisted of two stones fitly cemented together. I have discov- ered such stones, last year, in the mausoleum of high pontiff Cay, in the city of Chichen-Itza, in Yucatan. The priest who conducted the ceremonies was called hierophantes. He proposed certain questions, to which answers were returned in a set form. Then, strange and amazing objects presented themselves. Sometimes the place they were in seemed to shake, as if an earthquake was occurring, or whirl round and 20 SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG round as if carried away in a tornado. Sometimes it appeared bathed in bright and resplendent light, and flames seemed to issue from the walls, threatening to consume the temple; and all of a sudden they were extinguished by invisible hands, and the most profound obscurity succeeded to the dazzling radi- ance. Flashes of lightning, at intervals, broke forth with extreme brilliancy, only to make the dark- ness more dark, when peal after peal of thunder caused the building to shake to its very foundations. These were succeeded by loud cries for help and laments of persons in great agony; soon to be re- placed by the most frightful noises and bellowings, and terrible apparitions. The nerves of the appli- cants were tried to the utmost, and required to be strung by the most indomitable will and moral as well as physical courage, to enable them to with- stand to the last such awful trials. All the faint hearted were invariably rejected and refused admission to the next degree, the Epoptcia, or Inspection. Powerful narcotic drugs were ad- ministered to the timorous, that plunged them into a deathlike sleep,' from which they emerged with but confused recollections, if not entire forgetfulness, of the terrible scenes they had witnessed, and which they believed to be produced by some flight fill dream or dreadful nightmare. I will now quote from the book of Henoch. Chap. THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 21 xiv. ver. 12. "I saw a spacious habitation built with stones of crystal. The roof had the appear- ance of agitating stars and flashes of lightning. Flames burnt around its walls, its portals blazed with fire. This dwelling was hot as fire cold as ice." Chap. xvii. ver. 1. " They raised me up into a cer- tain place where there was the appearance of burning fire, and when they pleased, they assumed the like- ness of men, (ver. 3) and I beheld the receptacles of light and of thunder at the extremities of the place. There was a bow of fire and arrows in their quiver a sword of fire and every species of lightning." Chap. xxi. vers. 4. "Then I passed to another terrific place (ver. 5) where I beheld the opera- tion of a great fire blazing and glittering, in the midst of which there was a division columns of fire struggled together to the end of the abyss and deep was their descent. (Ver 6.) This was the place of suffering. ' ' Those who resisted to the last the trials of the Autopsia, as the initiation was called, were then dis- missed with these three words : Kon-x Oni Pan-x, which, strange to say, have no meaning in the Greek language. Captain Wilford, in his Essay on Egypt, says they correspond to the words Canslta Om Pan- si ia, which the Brahmins pronounce every day to an- nounce to the devotees that the religious ceremonies are over. They have been translated, '' retire, re- SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG tire, profane ! ' ' Corresponding to the ite missa est of the Catholic Church. These words are not Sanscrit, hut Maya. "Con-ex Onion Pan ed',^ go, stranger, scatter ! are vocables, of the language of the ancient inhabitants of Yucatan, still spoken by their descendants, the aborigines of that country. They were probably used by the priests of the temples, whose sumptuous and awe- inspiring ruins I have studied during fourteen years, to dismiss the members of their mystic societies, among which we find the same symbols that are seen even to-day in the temples of Egypt as in the M. . lodges. I will endeavor to show you that the ancient sacred mysteries, the origin of Free Masonry conse- quently, date back from a period far more remote than the most sanguine students of its history ever imagined. I will try to trace their origin, step by step, to this continent which we inhabit, to America from where Maya colonists transported their ancient religious rites and ceremonies, not only to the banks of the Nile, but to those of the Eu- phrates, and the shores of the Indian Ocean, not less than 1 1, .">(>(> years ago. But let us return to the mysteries of Eleusis. In the trials to which the Mt/xtai were subjected to try their titness to become Ephoroi, Masons no doubt recognize several of the ceremonies that took place THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 23 at their initiation into the craft. If Free Ma- sonry had not its origin in the ancient Sacred Mys- teries, how could these rites have found their way into it ? The Ephoroi were now prepared for the third degree, the Epopteia the most sacred of all. In this the Epoptai or ' ' Inspectors of themselves ' ' were placed in presence of the gods, who were supposed to appear to the initiated. Proclus, a philosopher, disciple of the divine Plato, in his commentaries on the Republic of his master, says: " In all initiations and mysteries, the gods exhibit themselves under many forms, and appear in a variety of shapes. Sometimes their unfigured light is held forth to view. Sometimes this light appears under a human form, and sometimes it assumes a different shape." And again, in his commentaries on the first Alci- biades: " In the most holy of the mysteries, before the god appears, the impulsions of certain terrestrial demons become visible, alluring the initiated from undefiled good to matter." Then all the seductions that human mind can imagine to excite the passions were placed within the grasp of those who aspired to become Epoptai. They were invited to freely give way to voluptuousness, to the enjoyment of all kind of mundane pleasures, before they renounced them forever. Nothing that could possibly entice applicants to fall from their state of moral and physi- 24 SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG cal purity was omitted; all that could be done to induce them to yield to temptation was resorted to. If in a moment of weakness they allowed their senses to obtain the mastery over their reason, woe to them ! for before they could realize their position, before they had time to recall their scattered thoughts, the blight surroundings disappeared as by magic; they were plunged in the most dense ob- scurity; the ground gave way under their feet; and they were precipitated into a deep abyss, from which if they escaped with their life, they never did with their reason. Theon of Smyrna, in his work Matematica, di- vides the mysteries into five parts. 1. The purification. 2. The reception of sacred rites. 3. The Epopteia, or reception. 4. End and design of the revelation, the building of the head and fixing of the crowns. 5. The friendship and interior communion with God, the last and most awful of all the mysteries. It is supposed the prophet Ezekiel alludes to these initiations, when lie speaks of the abomina- tions committed by the idolatrous ancients of the house of Israel in the dark, every man in the cham- bers of its imagery. Here again, I will quote from the book of Ilenoch: Chap. xxii. ----" From thence I proceeded to another THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 25 spot where I saw on the West a great and lofty mountain, a strong rock and four delightful places." Chap. xiv. ver. 14. "Then I went to another habitation more spacious than the former. Every entrance which was opened before me was erected in the midst of a vibrating flame. Ver. IS. Its floor was on fire, above were lightning and agitated stars, whilst its roof exhibited a blazing fire. Ver. 21. One of great glory sat upon the orb of the brilliant sun. Ver. 24. A fire of great extent con- tinued to rise up before him." It is said that the ordeal through which the candi- dates were obliged to pass previous to admission into the Egyptian mysteries, were even more severe, and that Pythagoras, wise philosopher as he was, had a narrow escape from it. The priests alone could arrive at a thorough under- standing of the mysteries. So sacred were their secrets held that many of the members of the sacerdotal order, even, were not admitted to a par- ticipation of them; but those alone who proved themselves deserving of the honor; since Clement of Alexandria, tells us: "the Egyptians neither en- trusted their mysteries to every one, nor degraded the secrets of divine matters by disclosing them to the profane, reserving them for the heir apparent to the throne, and for such of the priests as excelled in virtue and wisdom.' 26 HACKED MYKTERIES AMONG From all \ve can learn on the subject, the mys- teries consisted of two kinds, the greater and the lesser, divided into many classes. The candidate for initiation had to be pure, his character without blemish. He was commanded to study such lessons as tended to purify the mind. Great was the honor of ascending to the greater mysteries and it was diffi- cult to attain to it. An inscription of a high priest at Memphis, says Mr. Samuel Birch, states: "That he knew the arrangements of the Earth, and those of Heliopolis and Memphis; that he had penetrated the mysteries of every sanctuary; that nothing was concealed from him; that he adored God and glorified Him in all His works, and that he hid in his breast all that he had seen.'' Had he not kept his secrets so carefully concealed, no doubt he would have told us that at one of the initiations the figure of the god Osiris, in whose honor the mysteries were cele- brated, and whose name the initiates did not dare pronounce, appeared to the candidate, as it did at Heliopolis to Pianchi, king of Ethiopia. At a later period, when, the ancient customs had become relaxed owing to the invasion of the coun- try by foreigners and to the government passing from the hands of native rulers to those of Persian, of Greek or Roman governors, many, besides the priests, came to be admitted to the lesser mysteries. But all had to puss through the different grades and THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 27 conform to the prescribed rules, as in the case of Thales, Eumolpus, Orpheus, Pythagoras, Plato, Herodotus and others. I will not here describe at length the initia- tions to the mysteries in honor of the Sun God, Mithra, instituted by Zoroaster, but only state that Porphyrius, on the testimony of Eubulus, says that this philosopher and reformer having selected a cavern in a pleasant locality in some mountains near Persia, dedicated it to Mithra, the Sun, creator and father of all beings; that he divided it into geometrical figures intended to represent the climates and elements; in a word that he imitated in a small way the order and disposition of the universe by Mithra. After him, it became customary to conse- crate caverns for the celebration of mysteries; as we see yet in Japan and India. The candidates for initiation to the Mithra mys- teries were submitted to the most awful trials among which one was to try the docility and cour- age of the applicant. He was ordered by the priest to kill a man. According to Plutarch, in his life of Pompeius, these mysteries were brought to the Occident by Cilician pirates about sixty-eight years before the Christian era. They were well received by the Greco-Latin world, and the initiated were soon to be counted by thousands. In the time of the Emperor Adrian, the mysteries of Mithra had SACKED MYSTERIES AMONG become so popular that Pallas, a Greek writer, com- posed a poem on the subject, that Porphyrius has preserved in a special treatise on the abstinence from the use of animal flesh. The mysterious initiations vividly impressed the imagination, as at times and by way of expiation, human victims were offered and immolated. The ceremonies of the priests consisted, says Origenes, in imitating the motions of the celestial bodies, those of the planets, in fact of the heavens. The initiated took the names of the constellations and dressed themselves as animals. A theology purely astronomical was taught in these mysteries, in which they used the purification by water in honor of the goddess Ardvi qonra andhita, "She of the celestial waters;'' the confession of sins; and a sort of eucharist, or offering of bread, still observed by the Parsis or fire worshippers in India. It may be said that during the last years of the Roman Empire, the religion of Mithrahad become the state religion. It is not, therefore, to be wondered at, if it extended to the Roman provinces of Gaul and Britain, and if some of its rites have found their way into Free Masonry, and are practised to the present day; thus again relating it \vith very ancient sacred mysteries, established by Zoroaster, the author of the Zend- Avesta at least 1,1 (>0 years before Christ, although llerniippus. the Greek translator of his work, places him 5,1)00 years before the taking of Troy. THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 29 If we go to Hindostan, there we will learn of a secret society of wise and learned men, whose ob- ject is the study of philosophy in all its branches, but particularly the spiritual development of man. The leading fraternity is established in Thibet; and the high pontiff and other dignitaries of the Lama religion belong to it. They are known throughout India by the name of Mahatmas or Brothers. To obtain this title it is necessary to suffer a long and weary probation, and pass through ordeals of terri- ble severity. Many of the Chelas, as the aspirants are called, have spent twenty, even thirty years of blameless and arduous devotion to their task, and still they are in the earlier degrees, looking forward to the happy day when they may be judged worthy to have the title of Brother conferred upon them. These Mahatmas are the successors of those secret societies of learned Brahmins, so celebrated for their wisdom, from very remote ages, in India; and of whose colleges or lodges, always built on the summit of high mounds, either natural or artificial, Alexan- der, the Great, when he achieved the conquest of that country, was never able to take possession. Philo- stratus informs us, that their mode of defense consist- ed in surrounding themselves with clouds, by means of which they could at will render themselves visible or not, and hurling from their midst tempests and thunder on their enemies. Evidently in those early 30 HACKED MYSTERIES AMONG times they hud discovered gunpowder, or some other explosives of like nature, and made use of them to explode mines and destroy their assailants. These same Brahmins claimed to have heeii the teachers of the Egyptians, who, according to that, would have received their civilization and scientific knowledge from them, as also did the Chaldeans. It is well known that the Magi were strangers who came to Bahylon, possessors, says the prophet Dan- iel, not only of a special learning, but of a peculiar tongue. They formed a powerful society into which, at the beginning, none hut those of their own people were admitted, as their science was both exclusive and hereditary. A certain religious character was attached to the whole body; every priest must be a Chaldean, 1 nit every Chaldean was not a priest. They passed their whole lives in meditating questions of philosophy. Astronomy was their favorite study; but they acquired great reputation for their astrol- ogy. They were versed in the arts of prophesying, of explaining dreams and prodigies, and the omens furnished by the entrails of victims offered in sacri- fice. The parents taught the children. At their head was a high pontiff with the title of liab-iiicuj. Vener- able, or according to its meaning in the Maya lan- guage, Lab-ni metres (about 1*5 feet) in height; >P metres (~1\\ feet (\ inches) in length at the base 1 , and :>:? metres ( 1<>7 feet .'> ine/lies) in width. The 1 lowe>r part is formed of the frustum of an elliptical cone 11 metres < K~> feet P> inclu'S) in THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 35 height, divided into 7 gradients, each 2 metres high. On the upper plane of the frustum, which forms a terrace 35 metres long by 10 metres wide, are con- structed the Sanctuary, or Holy of Holies, facing west, whose ground plan is made in the shape of a cross with a double set of arms; and a truncated East. West. GROUND PLAN OF SANCTUARY. rectangular pyramid (> metres high, the upper plane of which supports the crowning edifice 6 metres high, -2V metres long and 7 metres wide. This building emblem of the " Lands of the West," is composed of three separate apartments i^m. 2T>c. wide, having originally no communication with each other. Holes have been bored in the partition walls that have much weakened the construction ; for 36 SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG what purpose it is difficult to surmise, unless it be for the love of destruction. The rooms at the extremities are of the same size, 5m. 50c. (about 17 feet 10 inches) long, while the middle chamber is 7m. i>5c. in length. The door of this chamber faced west, and led, by means of a small stair, to a terrace formed by the roof of the sanctuary. West. GROUND PLAN OF TEMPLE OF MYSTERIES. From there the learned priests and astronomers, elevated above the mists of the plains below, could without hindrance follow the course of the celestial bodies, in the clear cloudless skies of Yucatan, where at times the atmosphere is so pure and trans- parent that stars are clearly visible to the naked eye, that require the aid of the telescope to be seen in other countries. The doors of the other rooms faced East. The ceilings, like those of all the apartments in the monuments of Yucatan and Central America, form a triangular arch. This shape was adopted by the builders, not because they were 1 ignorant of how to construct circular arches since they erected edi- THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 37 fices roofed with domes, but in accordance with certain esoteric teachings pertaining to the mysteries and relating to the mystic numbers 3.5.7. This kind of arch is also found in the ancient tombs of Chaldea, at Mughier in the center of the great pyramid of Ghizeh, in Egypt in the most ancient monuments of Greece, as the treasure room at Mikeiie, in the tombs of Etruria and other places. Here, again, we learn from the book of Henoch, that the subterranean building that he constructed in the land of Canaan in the bowels of the moun- tain, with the help of his son Mathusalath, was in imitation of the nine vaults that were shown to him by the Deity, each apartment being roofed with an arch, the apex of which formed a key-stone with mirific characters inscribed on it. Each of the nine letters, we are told, represented one of the nine names traced in characters emblematical of the at- tributes of Deity. Henoch then constructed two triangles of the purest gold, and traced two of the mysterious characters on each. One he placed in the deepest arch; the other he entrusted to Mathu- salath, to whom lid communicated important secrets. Thou art Bait (the soul); thou art Athor, one of the Bia: and thou art Akori, Hail, father of the world! hail, triform God! 38 SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG The triangular arches appear, therefore, as land- marks of one and the same doctrine, practised in remote times, in India, Egypt, Chaldea, Greece, Etruria and Central America. In the ceilings of the rooms situated at the north and south extremities of the building are carved in peculiar and regular order, in deep intaglio, semi- spheres, ten centimeters in diameter, intended to represent the stars that at night so beautify the firmament. Inside of the triangle formed at each end of said rooms by the converging lines of the arch are also several of these semispheres those in the north room form a triangle (Fig. 1); while those in the south room, five in number, figure a trapezium (Fig. 'J); with one of these half spheres in the middle. The middle chamber is now devoid of decorations of any sort. Its length, .wren, meters, is to-day the only vestige which remains to indicate that in it, in former times, were practised rites and ceremonies pertaining 1<> the third degree of initiation. This chamber could be readied by \valking on the nar- row terrace round the building; but I feel certain that those whose privilege it was to assemble within THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 39 its walls, got to it from the west side. There was a stairway nine metres wide, beautifully orna- mented, leading from the court yard adjoining the priests' palace, to the entrance of the sanctuary. Thence another small stairway 2m. 40c. wide, sit- uated on the north side of the sanctuary, led to the upper terrace, to the roof of that monument, and to the middle chamber. The access to the north and south rooms was by a grand stairway of ninety-six steps, each 20cm. high, that led to the upper terrace surrounding the whole edifice. This stairway, sit- uated on the east side of the mound, is fourteen metres (45 feet 6 inches) wide, and, like that on the east side, so steep as to require no little practice and care to ascend and descend its narrow steps with comparative safety and ease. A few centimetres above the lintel of the entrance to the sanctuary is a cornice that surrounds the whole edifice. On it are sculptured these symbols, many times repeated. On the under part of this cornice are small rings cut in the stone, from which curtains were suspended to hide the Holy of Holies from profane gaze. The exterior of the monument was once upon a 40 SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG time ornamented with elaborate and beautifully executed sculptures, which have now, in great part, disappeared. Still those that adorn the exterior walls of the sanctuary, remain as specimens of the beautiful handhvork and of the great skill of the artists; whilst the exquisite architectural proportions of the whole edifice bespeak the mathematical and other scientific attainments of the architects who planned the building and superintended its erection. The ornaments that cover these walls are remark- able in more than one sense. They are not only inscriptions in the Maya language, written in char- acters identical with, and having the same meaning and value as those carved on the temples of Egypt; but among them are symbols known to have be- longed to the ancient sacred mysteries of the Egyp- tians, and to modern Free Masonry. In August isso, among the debris, at the foot of the mound just described, I found pieces of what once had been the statue of a priest. The part of the statue, from the waist to the knee, par- ticularly attracted my atten- tion. Over his dress the personage wore an apron with an extended band, as seen in the adjoining illustra- tion. A symbol that will easily be recognized by members of I he masonic fraternitv. THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 41 We must not forget that Plato informs us that the priests of Egypt assured Solon, when he visited them 000 years before the Christian era, that all communications between their people and the in- habitants of the "Lands of the West" had been interrupted for 0,000 years, in consequence of the great cataclysms, during which, in. one night, the large island of Atlantis disappeared, submerged under the waves of the ocean. Are we not then right if we surmise that the monuments of Mayax existed 11,500 years ago, and that mysteries, similar to those of Egypt, were celebrated in them '( To support that belief we have the symbols already mentioned as existing in the chambers, the con- struction of the chambers themselves, the sculptures carved on the cornice that surrounds the sanc- tuary, representing cross bones and skeletons, with arms and hands uplifted, tokens that many of the Masons again cannot fail to recognize; besides other emblems that I will endeavor to explain, which exist on the walls of the residence of the priests, an edifice adjoining that temple. This may be considered the oldest known edifice in the world consecrated to secret rites and ceremonies; and its builders the founders of the sacred mysteries, that were transported from Mayax to India, Chaldea, Egypt, Etruria, by colonists or missionaries. What the ceremonies of initiation were among the N ACRED MYSTERIES AMONG Mayas, it is difficult to surmise at present, all their books, except four that still exist, having been de- stroyed by the monks who came with the Spanish adventurers, or soon after the conquest. But they must have been similar to the rites of initiation practiced by the Qui cites, a branch of the Maya nation, at Xibalba, a place in the heart of the mountains of Guatemala. We learn from the Popol- Vnh, sacred book of the Quiches, that the applicants for initiation to the mysteries were made to cross two rivers, one of mud, the other of blood, be- fore they reached the four roads that led to the place where the priests awaited them. The crossing of these livers was full of dangers that were to be avoided. Then they had to journey along the four roads, the white, the red, the green and the black, that led to where the council, composed of hrclre veiled priests, and a wooden statue dressed and wear- ing ornaments as the priests, awaited them. When in presence of the council, they were told to salute tlif King; and the wooden statue was pointed out to them. This was to try their discernment. Then they had to salute each individual, giving his name or title without being told; after which they were asked to sit down on a certain seat. If, forgetting the respect due to the august assembly, they sat as invited, they soon had reason to regret their want of good breeding and proper preparation, for the seat, made THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 43 of stone, was burning hot. Having modestly de- clined the invitation, they were conducted to the ' ' Dark house, ' ' where they had to pass the night, and submit to the second trial. Guards were placed all round, to prevent the candidates from holding intercourse with the outer world. Then a lighted torch of pine wood and a cigar were given to each. These were not to be extinguished. Still they had to be returned whole at sunrise, when the officer in charge of the house came to demand them. Woe to him who allowed his torch and cigar to get con- sumed ! Terrible chastisements, death, even, awaited him. Having passed through this second trial success- fully, the third was to be suffered in the " House of Spears." There, they had to produce four pots of certain rare flowers, without communicating with any one outside, or bringing them at the time of their coming; and had also to defend themselves, during a whole night, against the attacks of the best spearmen, selected for the purpose, one for each candidate. Coming out victorious at dawn, they were judged worthy of the fourth trial. This con- sisted in being shut for a whole night in the ' ' Ice house," where the cold was intense. They had to prevent themselves from being overcome by the cold and frozen to death. The fifth ordeal was not less terrible. It consisted 44 SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG in passing a night in company with wild tigers, in tin 1 '"Tiger house," exposed to be torn to pieces, or devoured alive, by the ferocious animals. Emerg- ing safe from the den, they had to submit to their sixth trial in the " Fiery house." This was a burn- ing furnace where they had to remain from sunset to sunrise. Coming out unscorched, they were ready for the seventh trial, said to be the most severe of all, in the '' House of the bats." The sacred book tells us it was the house of Cainazotz, the " God of the bats," full of death-dealing weapons, where the God himself, coming from on high, appeared to the candidates and beheaded them, if off their guard. Do not these initiations vividly recall to mind what Henoch said he saw in his visions ? That blazing house of crystal, burning hot and icy cold that place where were the bow of fire, the quiver of arrows, the sword of fire that other where he had to cross the babbling stream, and the river of fire and those extremities of the Earth full of all kinds of huge beasts and birds or the habitation where appeared one of great glory sitting upon the orb of the sun and, lastly, does not the tamarind tree in the midst of the earth, that he was told was the Tree of Knowledge, find its simile in the calabash tree, in the middle of the road where those of Xibal- ba placed the head of Hunhun Ahpu, after sacrific- ing him for having failed to support the first trial of THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 45 the initiation ? Even the title f^ ^ ^ = V V 1 Hach-mac, "the true, the very man," of the high priest in Mayax, that we see over the bust of High Pontiff, prince Cay Canchi, son of King Can at Ux- mal, recalls that of the chief of the Magi at Babylon. These were the awful ordeals that the candidates for initiation into the sacred mysteries had to pass through in Xibalba. Do they not seem an exact counterpart of what happened, in a milder form at the initiation into the Eleusinian mysteries ? and also the greater mysteries of Egypt, from which these were copied ? Does not the recital of what the candidates to the mysteries in Xibalba were required to know, before being admitted, in order to distin- guish the wooden statue pointed out to them as the King from the veiled Brothers; to avoid seating them- selves on a burning hot stone seat: to keep lighted the torch and cigar and prevent them from being consumed; to produce the flowers asked from them while isolated from the world in a guarded chamber; to defend themselves from the attacks of dexterous spearmen; to protect themselves against the intense cold of the "Icehouse;" to remain unhurt amidst wild tigers; or unscorched in the middle of a burn- ing furnace ; recall to mind the wonderful similar feats said to be performed by the Mahatiiias, the Brothers in India, and of several of the passages of the book of Daniel, who had been initiated to the 46 SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG mysteries of the Chaldeans or Magi which, accord- ing to Eubulus, were divided into three classes or genera, the highest being the most learned ? Will it be said that the mysteries were imported from Egypt or Chaldea or India, or Phoenicia to America? Then I will ask when ? By whom ? What facts can be adduced to sustain such assertion ? Why should the words with which the priest at the con- clusion of the ceremonies in the Eleusinian mysteries, and the Brahmins at the end of their religious cere- monies, dismiss the assistants, be Maya instead of Greek or Sanscrit words ? Is it not probable that the dismissal continued to be uttered in the language of those who first instituted and taught the cere monies and rites of the mysteries to the others ? That sacred mysteries have existed in America from times immemorial, there can be no doubt. Even setting aside the proofs of their existence, that we gather from the monuments of Uxmal, and the description of the trials of initiation related in the sacred book of the Quiches, we find vestiges of them in various other countries of the Western Continent. (Jarcilasso de la Vega informs us that in Peru, it was illicit for any one not belonging to the nobility to acquire learning. There again, as in Egypt, in Chaldea, Elruria, India, Mayax, science was the privilege of Hie priests and kings. Tbe sacerdotal class held the pre-eminence. Sacerdotal orders were THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 47 conferred only upon young men who had given proofs of sufficiency for such important office; and before they could be received into the Society of the Atnautas or wise men, which was considered a great honor, they had to submit to very severe ordeals. The rites and ceremonies of initiation were imported in Peru by the ancestors of Manco Capac, the founder of the Inca dynasty, who were colonists from Central America, as we learn from an unpub- lished MS., written by a Jesuit father, Eev. Anello Oliva, at the beginning of the year 1631, in Lima; and now in the library of the British Museum in London. The name Quick ua, of the general lan- guage of Peru, points directly to the Quiches as the branch of the Maya nation that carried civilization to that country. If from South America we go to New Mexico, there we find the Zmlis, and other Pueblo Indians. Having preserved their independence by shaking off at an early period the yoke of the Spaniards, they have been little influenced, if at all, by the civiliza- tion of the Europeans, and live to-day as their ances- tors did many centuries back; preserving with great care, not only the purity of their language, which they teach their children to speak correctly, but their customs, traditions, and ancient religious rites and observances. Mr. Frank Gushing, who was commissioned by 48 SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG the Smithsonian Institution, at Washington, to make a study of their customs and manners, lias been adopted by the tribe, and has now become one of their most influential chiefs. Among the many interesting things discovered by him, not the least is the existence of twelve sacred orders, with their priests, their initiations, their sacred rites, as carefully guarded as the secrets of the ancient sacred mysteries to which they bear great re- semblance. He has been initiated into many of them, having had to submit to ordeals almost as severe as those of Xibalba from which no doubt they are derived, having been brought among them by Maya colonists and afterward Nahualt invaders. The Nahualts invaded and for a long time held sway over Mexico and some of the northern portions of Central America. The abori- gines of those countries at last expelled them from their territories, when they scattered in all directions, about the end of the XIII. century A.D. Some reached as far north as the gulf of California and Arizona. The Yaqui Indians, neighbors of the Mayos, and who inhabit the countries watered by the rivers Yaqui and Mayo in Sonora, are descen- dants of a Xahualt tribe, from which in all proba- bility, the adjoining nations, the inhabitants of the seven cities of Cibola, the Zufiis among them, learned many of their religious practices; and the institution THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 49 of the twelve sacred orders, that recall the twelve priests who presided at the initiation into the sacred mysteries at Xibalba. Seeking for the origin of the institution of the sacred mysteries, of which Masonry seems to be the great-grandchild , following their vestiges from coun- try to country, we have been brought over the vast expanse of the blue sea, to this western continent, to these mysterious "Lands of the West" where the souls of all good men, the Egyptians believed, dwelt among the blessed. It is, therefore, in that country, where Osiris was said to reign supreme, that we may expect to find the true signification of the symbols held sacred by the initiates in all countries, in all times, and which have reached us, through the long vista of ages, still surrounded by the veil, well-nigh impenetrable, of mystery woven round them by their inventors. My long researches among the ruins of the ancient temples and palaces of the Mayas, have been rewarded by learning at the foun- tain-head the esoteric meaning of some at least of the symbols, the interpretation of which has puz- zled many a wise head the origin of the mystifi- cation and symbolism of the numbers 3, 5, and 7. Whoever has read history knows that in all nations, civilized as well as uncivilized, from the re- motest antiquity, the priests have claimed learning as the privilege of their caste, bestowed upon them 50 SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG by special favor of the Ruling Spirit of the universe. For this reason they have zealously kept from the gaze of other men their intellectual treasures, and surrounded them with the veil of mystery. They have carefully hid all their discoveries, scientific or artistic, under the cover of symbols, reserving their esoteric or secret meaning for the initiated; giving to the people only such exoteric or public explanation of them as best suited their purpose. They put into practice the principle, that ' ' It was necessary to keep the discoveries of the philosophers in the works of art or nature from those unworthy of knowing them," enunciated by the erudite and celebrated English monk Roger Bacon, one of the most learned men of his time, who was confined during many years in a prison cell by his ignorant brethren on account of his great erudition. This same principle is yet closely adhered to by the Brahmins, the Bud- dhist priests of Thibet, the Adepts of India, and I might add the Jesuits among the Christians, al- though they are very inferior in knowledge to the others; the secrecy they have observed for centu- ries, and do still observe, being their best guarantee of power and honor. Judging from the numerous devices and emblems that formed the ornamentation of the temples and palaces in the ancient ruined cities of Yucatan, the priests of Mayax seem to have been as addicted to THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 51 symbology as their congeners in India, Egypt, Chal- dea and other countries. Among these devices and symbols, several belong clearly to their sacred mys- teries. The study of the relics of ancient Maya civiliza- tion has made manifest to my mind the source of many of the primitive traditions of mankind, which have reached us through the sacred books of the Hindoos, the Chaldeans, the Egyptians, and the Jews. These, having received them from both the Chaldees and the Egyptians, have consigned the re- lation in the Pentateuch, a book long attributed to Moses, but now believed by Matthew Henry and other commentators, who pride themselves upon their orthodoxy, to have been written in times sub- sequent to the foundation of the Hebrew monarchy. Might it not be possible that, in Mayax also, could be found the origin of the mystification of the num- bers 3, 5, and 7, regarded as mystic by all civilized nations of antiquity all over the earth ? Surely this mystification must have originated with one of these nations and been carried to the others either by colonists, missionaries, or travelers. It is not admissible, or even presumable, that the same idea and mysticism has been attached to these numbers by all these different peoples without being communicated from one to another. Such abstruse speculations respecting the ontological properties of 52 SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG numbers can not be ascribed to tbe first workings of the human mind in its incipient steps toward in- tellectual development. In its awakening, human intellect, still unable to comprehend the causes of the natural phenomena that take place, as everyday occurrences, in the material existence of man, does not soar in the elevated regions of metaphysics or of philosophical and abstract theories. Do we not see, even in our midst, that men who live in igno- rance ascribe the manifestations of the powers of nature to unseen, mighty beings, of whom they con- tinually stand in awe; to whom they tribute homage, and address prayers filled with the superstitious fears that these fancies of their untutored imagina- tion inspire in them ? Abstract conceptions, numeri- cal combinations, metaphysical speculations, philos- ophical hypothesis, are productions of highly culti- vated intelligences, of minds accustomed to reason on causes and effects, to deduce things unseen from things seen. The mysticism with which these numbers have been invested, their symbolization in the sacred mys- teries, must have had its origin in material causes, palpable to physical senses, the memory of which became lost in the course of ages, altered by being transported among peoples living far away from the nation that conceived the idea, by passing from month to mouth, in the secrecy of initiations, genera- THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 53 tion after generation. The idea of a sole and om- nipotent Deity, who created all things, seems to have heen the universal belief in early ages, among all the nations that had reached a high degree of civiliza- tion. This was the doctrine of the Egyptian priests. They called the Divine Intelligence Kneph, and placed him above and apart from the Triads. Damascius, an eclectic philosopher, who taught in the schools of Athens, about the year 520 of the Christian era, in his ' ' Treatise on Principles, ' ' says that " they asserted nothing of the first principle of all things, but celebrated it as a thrice unknown darkness, transcending all intellectual perception." Proems, platonic philosopher, director of the school of Athens in 450 after Christ, says: " the Demiurges or Creator is triple, and the three intellects are the three kings, he who exists, he who possesses, he who beholds. These three intellects, therefore, he supposes to be the Demiurge; the same as the three kings of Plato, and as the three whom Orpheus cele- brates under the names of Phaenes, Ouranos, and Kronos, kings of the great " Saturnian continent,"" in the Atlantic ocean. In Chaldea, the twin sister of Egypt, daughter of Poseidon, king of the u Lands beyond the sea " and Lybia, we find that notwithstanding the apparent polytheistic character which, from the earliest times, religion had assumed, it was possible for the priests 54 SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG and learned men, if we give credence to Pythagoras, Democritus, and other philosopher's, to account by esoteric explanation for the multiplicity of their gods, resolving them into the powers of nature, thus reconciling the whole scheme with monotheism. In fact, above and apart from the personages which peopled their Pantheon and were reverenced with equal respect by kings and people, they recognized a superior deity, RA, so far removed from their first triad, that they did not know how to worship it. The meaning of the name RA seems to have been unknown to the historians. They only assert that it means God emphatically; but its origin still re- mains a mystery. In Egypt they gave that name to the " Sun " particularly, as the fount of all things, the life-giver and sustainer of all that exists on earth. LA, in the Maya language, means "that which has existed forever. The eternal truth." So it is evident that the ancient Chaldeans recog- nized a supreme being, a divine essence, Ru, to which the Triads were subordinate. The same conceptions about Deity existed in India from the remotest antiquity. H. T. Colebrooke, in his notice on "the Sacred Books of the Hindoos" says: "In the last part of the ^'iroiikta, dedicated exclusively to the divinities, it is tin-ice affirmed that there are only ilrrcc f/or/.s; and that these three gods designate one sole dcil//. The gods arc 1 t/ircc only, THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 55 whose mansions are the Earth, the intermediate re- gions and heavens; that is the fire, the air, and the sun; but Pradjapati, the Lord of all creatures, is their collective God. In fact there is but one God, the "great Soul" Maha-atma. It is called the " SUN," because the sun is the soul of all beings, of all that moves, and of all that does not move. The other gods are only parts or fractions of his person. The belief in a Triune God has also existed from very early ages among the Chinese philosophers. Lo-pi, a Chinese writer, who flourished toward the eleventh century of the Christian era. during the Songs dy- nasty, explaining certain passages of the Hi-Tse, says: That the " Great Term," is " the Great Unit " and the great Y. That the Y has neither body or shape. That all that has body and shape was made by that which has no body or shape. Tradition re- counts that the " Great Term " or the " Great Unit " comprehends three; that one is three and three are one. Hiu-Cltin, who lived under the dynasty of the Hans, is the author of a Chinese dictionary called Choueven in which he has preserved many ancient traditions. He wrote about the beginning of the Christian era. Explaining the character Y he says: In the first beginning reason subsisted in unity. Reason made and divided Heaven and Earth; con- verted and perfected all things. And Tao-Tse, a con- 56 SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG temporary of Confucius, who wrote the Tao-te-King, a book reputed very profound, said more than five hundred years before Christ: "That reason, Tao, produced one. That one produced two, that both produced three; and that three had produced all things." All early writers who have given an ac- count of the religion of the ancient Peruvians, tell us that they worshiped a mighty unseen being who they believed had created all things, for which rea- son they called him PacJia carnac. lie, being incom- prehensible, they did not represent under any shape or figure, although they raised a magnificent temple in his honor on the sea coast that rivaled in wealth and splendor those dedicated to the Sun at Titicaca and Cuzco. We are also informed that He stood at the head of a trinity composed of Himself Paclia- caniac Co i i and Uiracoch a . In this conception of a Supreme Being, Creator of all things, we see reflected the teachings of the Poi>ol- nilt, Sacred book of the Quiches, in which we read, " that all that exists is the work of Tzakol the Crea- tor who by his will caused the Universe to spring into existence, and whose names are ]>ilol the maker Aloni the engenderer QaJtoloiu He who gives being. The fact that the same doctrine of a Supreme Deity composed of three parts distinct from each other, yet forming one, was universally prevalent THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 57 among the civilized nations of America, Asia and the Egyptians, naturally leads to the inference that at some time or other, communications and rela- tions more or less intimate have existed between them. They must, then, have imparted their tra- ditions, metaphysical speculations, and intellectual attainments one to another. In fact, all historians agree with Philostratus and admit that commercial intercourse did exist be- tween Egypt and India. Nay more, Eusebius asserts that in the reign of Memnon, king of Ethiopia, a body of Ethiopians from the countries about the Indus river migrated and settled in the valley of the Nile. And the many Chinese bottles, with inscrip- tions in that language, found in the tombs of Thebes, prove, beyond the least doubt, that communications have existed between the inhabitants of China and the Egyptians in times very remote, as is conject- ured from the inferior quality of the bottles, that some seem to believe were manufactured before the art of making objects of porcelain reached the high degree of perfection to which it attained afterward. On the other hand, the vase with Chinese inscrip- tions found by Dr. Schliemann in the lowest stratum of his excavations at Hissarlik, inscriptions that were partly deciphered by the eminent indianist Mr. Emile Burnouf and afterward thoroughly interpreted by the great Chinese scholar Fi-Fangpao, when am- 58 SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG bassador at Berlin, and proved to mention the fact of the vase having contained samples of Chinese gauze, shows that active commercial intercourse was carried on by the Chinese with Greece and Asia Minor even before the siege of Troy. These conceptions concerning the Triune God have come down through the vista of ages, to the present day, preserved in the works of the philoso- phers, and are still held sacred by many among Christians and Brahmins. But we do not learn from their sacred books where, when or how said doctrine originated. Whatever may have been the source from which it sprang, it is certain that the priests and learned men of Egypt, Chaldea, India, or China, if they still knew the true history of its origin at the time they wrote, kept it a profound secret, and imparted it only to a few select among those initiated in the sacred mysteries. We need not seek for information among the fathers of the Christian Church, for they are as silent as the tomb on the subject. They admitted into their tenets the notion of a Triune God as taught by the pagan philosophers, and appropriated it, as they have many other of their teachings and theories, without knowing, without inquiring, concerning their origin. The councils pronounced them revela- tions from on high; unfathomable mysteries not to */ be investigated; and imposed them as dogmas, to be THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 59 implicitly believed, with blind faith, as they are to-day, by the followers of the Eomish Church. Through their adherents the idea of the three per- sons in the Godhead has found its way into Free Masonry, and on the columns that adorn the temple, in the working of one of the degrees, we read these inscriptions: " In the name of the holy and indivisi- ble Trinity;" and further down, "We have the happiness to dwell in the pacific unity of the sacred numbers. To those initiated to the lesser mysteries the doc- trine was presented under the garb of the compli- cated metaphysical speculations with which it has reached us. Such explanations of the symbolical na- ture of the mystic numbers were given to them so as to make it well-nigh impossible to obtain a fair under- standing of their purport. By the perusal of the extracts just quoted it is easy to see that all the reasonings concerning the mystic value of number 3 and its relations to a Supreme Deity are mere fancies of the imagination, vague speculations, fallacious cavils; meaningless for practical and in- quiring minds. So far as explaining the nature of the Deity all philosophers agree in admitting that it transcends the intelligence of man since man is finite; and what is finite will never be able to comprehend that which is infinite. Some of the Greek philosophers reflected in their 60 SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG teachings, as well as in their writings, the doctrines they had learned from their teachers, the priests of Heliopolis, Memphis and Thebes. From them we may gather a glimmer of dim light pointing toward the origin of the symbolization of the num- bers. We have said that Proems asserts that the three component parts of the triple deity were three intellects or three Kings a fact corroborated by Plato, who also had been admitted to the mysteries, and by Orpheus, who celebrated these three Kings, in the ceremonies instituted by him, that HeTodotus says were identical with the Egyptian mysteries. Pythagoras, who had received his knowledge of the numbers and their meaning from the Egyptians, taught his disciples that God was number and har- mony. He caused them to honor numbers and geometrical diagrams with the names of the gods. The Egyptians likened nature to the equilateral tri- angle, the most perfect and beautiful of all triangles; and according to Servius, assigned the perfect num- ber 3 to the great God. The Chaldees symbolized the Eusoph or great light, by an equilateral triangle; and in the tiri-X(tntara or cosmogonical diagram of the Hindoos, which has served as model for many of their temples, the name- less, the great Aunt that dwells in the infinite, is fig- ured as an equilateral triangle. The Egyptians held the equilateral triangle as the symbol of "Nature" THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 61 beautiful and fruitful. In the hieroglyphs it was the emblem of worship. We see, over the main altar, in all the ancient Catholic churches, the repre- sentation of an equilateral triangle containing the all-seeing eye of Osiris, as symbol of Deity. The same emblem is familiar also to those who visit masonic lodges as one under which is figured the " Great Architect of the Universe." If from those countries that we have been accus- tomed to consider as the " Old World," and guided by the three words of dismissal used by the Brah- mins, and the officiating priests of Eleusis, at the closing of their religious ceremonies, words we have shown to belong to the Maya language, we carry our inquiries into the "Lands of the West," there again we will find that the triangle was also sym- bolical among the Mayas and their neighbors. We see it in the position of the three semispheres carved, as already said, at each end of the north- ern chamber of the building above the sanctu- ary at Uxmal. We next meet with it in the tri- angular arches that form the ceilings of the apart- ments in all the temples and palaces, in fact in all the edifices of Mayax, as well as in those of Palenque and other localities of Central America. The general plan of these edifices is the same everywhere; not because they were built by the same architects, or at the same period, but because 6)3 SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG 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 ohlong square | j, that is of their letter M, pronounced Ma. Ma is the contrac- tion of M(tni, the ancestor, as they denominated the Earth, and hy extension the Universe. Ma is also the radical of Ma-ya,v, 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 I J in the hieroglyphs, stands for Earth and Universe. It will be noticed by ex- amining 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 Killing Spirit of the Universe, sup- posed to reside in the heavens, above all things. (This accounts for the constellations of the firma- ment being represented on the ceilings). 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 THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 63 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 rea- son to conclude that the Egyptians were wont to liken this nature to what they called the most beau- tiful and perfect triangle." 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 penta- Agon. 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 con- ceived 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. 64 SACKED MYSTERIES AMONG Only two edifices of different construction have been found among the ancient cities of the Mayas. One, now completely ruined, having been shat- tered by a thunderbolt in 1S4S, was in Mayapaii. That place was destroyed, according to Bishop Landa, in the year 1440 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 tyran- nical 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 astrono- my; 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 con- centric circles representing the Zodiac, and their vertical section, in its general outlines, conveys to the mind that, in their inward or esoteric construc- tion, 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 peo}ileas image of Deity on Earth; probably because "*his 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 farade of the north wing of the ancient palace of King CAN, THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 65 and were dedicated to each of the seven members composing his family, 011 that set apart to com- memorate the name of his eldest son Cay (Fish), the high pontiff, are seen these symbols: FIG. 2. My knowledge of the symbols and sacred charac- ters used by the learned priests of May ax, 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 equi- lateral 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, 1 ' composed of iltree great continents, "North and South America v of to-day, and "the great island," called Atlantis by Plato, that disap- peared 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 66 SACKED MYSTERIES AMONG 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 equi- lateral 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 oc- cupying 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 tlircc round loops are symbolical of the tJtrce 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 O, in Mayax as in Egypt, it was meant to represent the sun. It was placed in the middle of tin; square simply to signify that as the sun was the centre of the uni- verse, the vivifying soul of all things, so his repre- THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 67 sentative 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. O 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 T was the particular appendage of the third degree of the mysteries. It was considered as en- dowed 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, T, 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 com- memoration 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 prog- GS HATRED MYSTER1EX A uostieato 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 ad- vice 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 oil ice, 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, par- ticularly 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 in- clined for that profession." In order to understand the explanation of the possible origin of the mystification of the numbers o, ~), and T. 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 duo south, across the (in!f of Mex- THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. G9 ico, at a distance of exactly four hundred and eighty miles, we come to the northern coast of the Yuca- tecan 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 :><>' of latitude north, and the Ss and 01 of longitude west from the Greenwich me- ridian. Its length is, therefore, 200 miles from north to south, and its breadth ISO miles from east to west. The whole country is a fossiliferous lime- stone formation, elevated a few feet only above the sea: its maximum height in the interior being about ~o 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 look- ing on an immense sea of verdure having for boun- dary 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, 70 SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG 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 depop- ulated, 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, be- came masters of the country tells us that anciently the peninsula was called MAYAX; that is, the primi- tive land, the terra finna. It gave its name to the whole empire of the Mayas, that comprised all the countries known to-day as Central America, from th(> isthmus of Darien on the south, to that of Tehuantepec on the north. The site of the govern- ment was at Uxmal; but the great emporium of THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. their arts and sciences, the heart, consequently, of that marvellous civilization, was at Chichen-Itza; that became a vast metropolis. In its temples pil- grims from all parts came to worship, and even offer their own persons as a sacrifice to the Al- mighty, 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 7'3 X AC RED MYSTERIES AMONG forms an interesting tableau over the door-way, on the east facade 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 iirst chapter of the Manava Dhanna Sastra, or ordinances of Menu; a book compiled, says the celebrated indianist. II. T. Colebrooke, about i:$t>0 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 EraiKjelical Prcpundions. 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 Ins left hand; his head is adorned with a plume of feathers; he is sur- rounded 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; ; 1l/<> n)>)>cr jxii-/ of /}/<> bod,/ milled, because it is in its upper portions (ill the skies i that the Universe is seen most uncovered; clothed from Ute intixl brloir because the terrestrial things are those most hidden from view. r. THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 73 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." 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 Pltt/ta, (Tliah is another Maya word, it means the worker hence the Maker, the Creator); and Eusebiiis as- serts, ' ' That they represented Kneph, or the Effi- cient 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 May ax, are mere coinci- dences ? 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 neigh- bors, as we know the Egyptians did to the Greeks. 74 SACKED MYSTERIES AMONG 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 re- peated the story he had learned from the Egyptian priests, concerning the murder of Osiris (in u-hose honor the mysteries ware 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 him- self from speaking on the subject; although he as- serts he is well acquainted with what pertained to the mysteries: and what we gather from the book of Plutarch, de Isidc, ct 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 ails of civilization, he under- took an expedition from Egypt, in order to visit and dispense the same benefits to the different countries of the world. lie left his wife and sister Isis in THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 75 charge of the affairs of the kingdom which she ad- ministered aided by the counsels of her friend and preceptor Thoth. Isis, being extremely vigilant, Set, her other brother, had no opportunity for mak- ing 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 w^ho 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 baii- queting-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 an- other, 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 ' ' Ramayaiia. " We are not informed by the author from where he obtained it; but the victim was called BALI, and MAYA is represented as being his enemy. The reci- tal 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 76 SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG with the account of it recorded in the second part of the Troano MS. would seem to indicate that the re- lation of the fratricide was brought to India by some Maya traveler or missionary; or maybe by the colo- nists from Mayax thatValmiki tells us took posses- sion of and settled, in very remote ages, in the coun- tries, 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 primi- tive 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 govern- ment. In the inflated style of the Hindoo poets Valmiki recounts the murder of Bali. The story is as fol- lows. There were two princes named Bali and Sou- griva, sons of a king of the Monkey nation. After the death of their father, Bali the eldest was called to the throne, being elected sole monarch and su- preme lord by the people. A terrible feud had originated between Bali and Maya on account of a woman they both coveted. Maya challenged Bali to mortal combat and allured him into an ambush. Bali not returning after a time was believed to have succumbed, and his brother Sougriva ascended the THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 77 throne. Bali 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 Bali, 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 Bali 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 coward- ly manner while my attention was engrossed in that duel." And so Bali -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), SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG and Coli (Leopard), and two daughters, Moo (Ma- caw), and Xicfe (Flower). It was the law among the Mayas that the young- est of the brothers should marry the eldest of the sis- ters 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 consid- ered fortunate. It also prevailed with the Ethio- pians, the Greeks, those of Mesopotamia in the time of the patriarchs, the Peruvians, and many other na- tions. Prince Coh was a brave and successful war- rior; 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 Chicheii, and many of the lords swore allegiance to her. After her death she received the honors of apotheosis; became the goddess of lire, and was worshiped in a magnificent temple, built on tin- summit of a high and very extensive pyramid whose ruins are still to be seen in tho city of Izamal. THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 79 Aac, the second son of king Can, was also in love with her. To his lot had fallen the ancient metrop- olis Uxmal, "the three times rebuilt." His head- less and legless statue is still to be seen over the main entrance on the fagade of the palace known as the "House of the Governor," at that place. The flay- ed bodies of his two brothers and his eldest sister are at his feet ; their heads hang from the belt round his waist : and the ruins of his private residence, orna- mented with turtles, his totem yet exist at the northwest corner of the second of the three ter- races on which the palace is built. The law of the land and her own predilection for Coh were insur- mountable barriers that prevented Aac from mar- rying Moo. He was not a warrior but a courtier. He spent his life in idleness amidst pleasures and frivolities. Still he was envious of the fame won by his younger brother ; jealous of him because of the love of the people, and still more of that of his sister and wife. He allowed his evil passions to gain the mastery over his better feelings. He incited a. conspiratioii against the friends of his childhood, with the object of killing his own brother, to obtain forcible possession of the sister he so much coveted, seize the reins of the government, and become the supreme lord of the whole empire. In the carvings on the wooden lintels over the en- trance of Coh's funereal chamber, in the paintings 80 SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG that adorn its walls, and in which that part of the life of the personages concerned in these events is por- trayed, Aac is represented full of wrath, holding three spears in his hand, engaged in a terrible alter- cation with Coh. From the sculptures that adorned his mausoleum we learn that he was murdered treacherously by being stabbed with a spear three times in the back; and the author of the Troano MS. in giving an account of that murder and its consequences, has recorded this fact and illustrated it in the first section of plate xiv., in the second part of his work. [When I disinterred his statue, I found in an urn his heart, partially cremated, and the flint head of the spear with which he was slain.] In one of the tableaux of the mural paintings the body of Coh, surrounded by his wife, his sister Nicte, his children and his mother, is being prepared for crema- tion; the heart and other viscera having been ex- tracted to be preserved in urns. A similar custom prevailed among the Egyptians of high rank whose bodies were embalmed according to the most expen- sive process. The internal parts of the body having been removed, were cleansed, embalmed in spices and various substances, then deposited in four vases that were placed in the tomb with the coffin. At the death of Coh the whole country became involved in a civil war. The conspirators, partisans of Aac, striving to seize the reins of the government, THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 81 the friends of Prince Coh fighting to avenge his death and in defense of their queen. The goddess of war favored at times one party, then the other. Aac, in order to obtain the preponderance, had re- course to diplomacy. He renewed his suit for the hand of his sister. He sent messengers to her, with a present of fruits, begging her to accept his love now that she was free. The scene is vividly pictured in the mural paintings. Queen Moo is represented seated in her house situ- ated in the middle of a garden. At her feet, but outside of the house to indicate that she does not accept it, is a basket full of oranges. Her extended left hand shows that she declines to listen to the mes- senger who stands before her in an entreating posture, and that she scorns the love of Aac who is seen on a lower plane, making an obeisance. Over his head is a serpent, typical of his name, Can, looking as lov- ingly as a serpent can be made to look, at a Macaw perched on the top of a tree and above the figure of the queen whose totem it is. The tree is guarded by a monkey in a threatening attitude. This monkey here, as in Egypt the cynocephalus, is the emblem of the preceptor of Moo, symbol therefor of wisdom. This tableau is most interesting and significant, since in it we have a natural explanation of the myth of the temptation of the woman by the ser- pent. Here we have the garden, the woman, the 82 SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG temptor, and the fruit. ''The story of this family incident passing from mouth to mouth, from gener- ation to generation, from country to country, lias be- come disfigured probably by peoples that did not hold woman in as high esteem, or did not honor her as much as the Mayas did. Perhaps, also, an old misanthropical bachelor, hater of the fair sex, wrote a distorted account of the tradition. out of spite at having been jilted by his lady-love, and his version was accepted by the author of Genesis, if he himself did not make the alteration. The fact is that the author of the Troano MS. (Plate xvii., part second) as the artist who painted the scene just describedasserts that she refused to listen to Aac's entreat ics, in consequence of which the civil war continued. At last Moo and her fol- lowers succumbed. She fell into the hands of Aac who, after ill-treating her, she having fled, put to death Cdij t.ie high pontiff, his elder brother, who had sided with the queen of Chichen, with right and justice. In token of his victory, Aac caused his statue -the feet resting on the flayed bodies of his kin, their heads being suspended from his belt to be placed over the main entrance of the royal pal- ace at Uxmal, where, as 1 have said, its remains may be seen to-day 1 mav add hero in explanation of the tableau of the scene in the garden, that the present of a basket THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 83 of oranges was the offer of marriage made by Aac to Moo. It is usual with the aborigines of Yucatan, that yet retain many of the customs of their fore- fathers, when a young man wishes to propose mar- riage to a girl to send by a friend as a present, a fruit, or flower, or sweetmeat. The acceptance of the pres- ent is the sign that the proposal of the suitor is ad- mitted, and from that moment they are betrothed; whilst the refusal of the present means that he is rejected. A similar custom exists in Japan. When a young lady expects a proposal of marriage a con- venient flower-pot is placed in a handy position on the window-sill. The lover plants a flower in it. If next morning the flower is watered he can present himself to his lady-love knowing that he is wel- come. If on the contrary, the flower has been up- rooted and thrown on the side- walk, he well under- stands he is not wanted. The family name of the kings of Mayax was Can (serpent) as KJtau is still the title of the Kings of Tartary and Burmah, and of the governor of pro- vinces in Persia, Afghanistan and other countries in Central Asia. Can was therefore the family name of Aac. The meaning of the writer of Genesis when he says that the serpent spoke to the woman and se- duced her with a fruit is now easily understood. The account of the fratricide in Genesis, in the Ramayana, or in the papyri of Egypt, is nothing 84 SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG more or loss, with a slight variance, than the story of the fends of king Can's children. This story, treas- ured hy the jn-iests of Egypt and India, consigned in their sacred books and poems, lias been handed down to us among the primitive traditions of mankind. Nowhere, except in Mayax, do we find it as form- ing part of the history of the nation. Nowhere;, ex- cept in Mayax, do we find the portraits of the actors in the tragedy. There, we not only see their portraits carved in bas-reliefs, on stone or wood, or their marble; statues in the round, or represented in the mnral paintings that adorn the walls of the funereal chamber built to the memory of the victim, but we discover the ornaments they wore, the weapons they used, nay, more, their mortal remains. The following is the certificate of Charles O. Thompson, Principal and Professor of Chemistry at the Worcester Free Institute, who made the chemi- cal analysis of part of the cremated remains found in the; stone urn that was near the chest of the statue that occupied the centre of the mausoleum raised to the memory of the famous warrior 1 Cob, twenty feet below the upper plane of the monument. \VORCKSTKR, Mass.. Sept. k J5, isso. "Stephen Salisbury, Jr., Ksq., submits an un- " known solid for qualitative examination. v> L'nder microscope it presents a certain com pact- ''ness and horny aspect characteristic of animal w^n*&\ -.33 > ifa iSrS^^f "** **--*** "^ ir* V'VA- J '- *-- ^-^v ^ ' < r^dS^i-^ rV ' ; - ' > 1 .** J-, "" THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 85 "matter which has been charred in a close vessel, "it loses 9 per cent, when dried at 100 and 9 per "cent, more by combustion. After calcination, ; ' a dross and residue remains which contains 3 per ' ' cent, f enic oxide, a little alumina and much silica. ' ' Warm water exposed to action of residue shows "traces of potash and soda. " These results are consistent with the theory that "the mass was once part of a human body which "has been burned with some fuel." "CHARLES O. THOMPSON." There is a fact certainly worthy of notice, and this is that the names of the personages mentioned in the various accounts of the fratricide are precisely identical, or are words having the same signification. May not that be regarded as unimpeachable proof that they all refer to the same event ? No one who has any knowledge of philology will ever deny that A-bel A-bal Bal-/ Balam are identical words. A, contraction of A h, is the Maya masculine arti- cle, the. Bal is the radical of Balaw. Balam is for the superstitious aborigines, even to-day, the Yumil Kaaxthe "Lord of the fields" the "Leopard" which they also call Coh . The totem of the victim of Aac is the leopard: and it is so represented in the bas-reliefs and sculptures. In Egypt, the spotted skin of the leopard, usually without the head, but sometimes with it, was al- 86 SA CRED .Ifr.S' TK R /A\S' AM CM (, ways suspended near the images and statues of Osiris. The skin of a leopard was worn as a mantle over the ceremonial dress of his priests. Besides, when represented as King of the Amenti of the "West" the symbol of Osiris was always a crouch- i n g leopard with an open eye over it. We must not lose sight of the fact that the leop- ard's skin worn by Nimrod and Bacchus was a sacred appendage to the Mysteries. It was used in the Eleusinian as well as in the Egyptian mysteries in- stituted in honor of Osiris. It is mentioned in the earliest speculations by the Brahmins on the mean- ing of their sacrificial prayers the Aytareya Brali- UKUHI, and is used in the aynix1iioni(i. the initiation rites of the tionia mysteries. When the neophyte is to be born again he is covered with a ''leopard skin," out of which he emerges as from his mother's womb. A leopard skin is worn by the African war- riors, who are so fortunate as to possess one, as a charm to render them invulnerable to spears ac- cording to the French traveler Paul till Chaillu. It would seetn as if the manner in which ( '<>// met his death, by being stabbed with a spear, had been known THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 87 to their ancestors, and that they imagined that wearing his totem would save them from being wounded with the same kind of weapon used in kill- ing him. That the inhabitants of Africa had com- munications with those of the Western Continent there can be no doubt, since populations of black people existed on the isthmus of Panama and other localities at the time of the first arrival of the Span- iards; besides their pictures can be seen in the mural paintings at Chichen. As to the name Osir, or be it Ozil, it would seem to be a nickname given to Coh on account of the great love his sisters, and the people in general, pro- fessed for him. Ozil is a Maya verb that means to desire vehemently. He, therefore, who was very much desired dearly beloved. Osiris in Egypt, Abel in Chaldea, Bali in India, are myths. Coh, in Mayax, is a reality a warrior whose mausoleum I have opened; whose weapons and jade ornaments are in my possession; whose heart I have found, and a piece of which was ana- lyzed by Professor Thompson; whose statue, with his name inscribed on the tablets occupying the place of the ears, I have unearthed. This is now in the National Museum in the City of Mexico, one of the most precious relics in that institution, having been robbed from me, by force of arms, by the Mexican authorities. 88 SACRK1) MYSTERIES AMONG /.s/.s Avas the wile and sister of Osiris. The word Zs/.s may simply he a dialectical mode of pronounc- ing the Maya word i-~>in (idzin) the yointyer sixler. Her headgear, as a goddess, was a vulture. That bird was her totem and the peculiar type of mater- nity. Isis was often called the great mother-goddess Man; a word certainly as suggestive of the name Moo, sister and wife of Coh and queen of Chichen, as the vulture is of the Macaw. It must not he forgotten that one of the titles of Isis was the royal icife and sixler. THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 89 Authors, who of course know nothing of the facts in the ancient history of Mayax, revealed to me by the sculptures and the mural paintings of the tem- ples and palaces of the Mayas, and contained in the pages of the Troano MS., do not believe that Osiris and his sister Isis were deified persons who had lived on earth, but fabulous beings, whose history was founded on metaphysical speculations, and adapted to certain phenomena of nature. But the primitive rulers of the Mayas, whose history is an exact counterpart of that of the children of Seb and Nut, were deified after their death and worshiped as gods of the elements. My object is not here to en- ter into long explanations on these historical disclosures. I refer the reader who wishes to know more of the subject to my work, " The Monuments of Mavax and their Historical Teachings." / fj As to the names Cam, Set, Sougriva, Aac, they all convey the idea of something belonging to or having affinity with water. Cain, by apocope, gives Cay, the Maya word for "fish." Set is a cognate word of the Maya Ze, to ill-treat with blows. Can a name be more appropriate to designate one who has killed his brother with three thrusts of his spear; and his sister by kicking her to death, as Aac is represented doing by the author of the Troano MS.? 90 SACRED MYSTEKIES AMONG Set, after being treated with the same honor as the other members of the family of Seb, came to be re- garded as the Evil principle and was called Niibli, that is, according to the Maya language, the adver- sary, from imp adversary and ti for. He also was the Sun God, the enemy of the serpent. Here again we have a most singular resemblance, to say the least. Aac, in the sculptures of Mayax, is always pictured surrounded by the sun as his protecting genius; while the serpent, emblem of the country, always shields Coh and his sister-wife within its folds. The escutcheon of the city of Uxmal shows that the title of that metropolis w^as the " Land of the Sun." In the bas-reliefs of the queen's chamber at Chichen, the followers of Aac are seen to render homage to the *SVm; the friends of Moo to the ser- pent. So in Mayax as in Egypt, the Sun and the Serpent were inimical. In Egypt this enmity was a myth; in Mayax a dire reality. The hippopotamus and the crocodile were emblems of Set. Plutarch says "that at Hermopolis there "was a statue of Set, which was a hippopotamus "with a hawk upon its back fighting with a serpent." 1 Both the hippopotamus and the crocodile are am- phibious animals, having consequently much affin- ity with water. Aac, in Maya, is the name for the turtle, also an amphibious animal. THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 91 The name Sougriva, of the brother of Bali, is a word composed of three Maya primitives, zuc, lib, ha, zuc, quiet, tranquil; lib, to ascend, and ha, water "He who tranquilly rises on the water" as the turtle does. The universal deluge is another tradition of the early days that was credited by certain civilized na- tions of antiquity. The Egyptian priests who, from times immemo- rial, had kept in the archives of the temples a faithful account of all events worthy of being re- membered, derided the Greek philosophers when they spoke of the deluge of Deucalion and the de- struction of the human race. Their answer was that as they had been preserved from it the inun- dation could not have been universal; 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. They told Solon that the greatest cataclysm on record in their books was that during Avhich Atlan- tis disappeared under the waves of the ocean, in one day and night, in consequence of violent earth- quakes and volcanic eruptions; that from that time all communications between their people and the inhabitants of the "Lands of the West " had become interrupted; the occurrence having taken place 9,000 years before his visit to Egypt. 92 SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG An account of that fearful event was also pre- served by the learned men of Mayax who give of it a description identical with that given by the Egyp- tians. Nearly all the nations living on the western continent have kept the tradition of it, but they do not pretend that all mankind was destroyed. In Mayax the learned priests caused a relation of it to be carved in intaglio on the stone that forms the lintel over the interior doorway in the rooms on the south side of their college. The building is known to this day by the name of Akab-oib, the dark, or terrible writing. The author of the Troano MS. , a work, I have al- ready said, on geology, dedicates several pages at the beginning of the second part to the recital of that fearful cataclysm, and the phenomena which then took place. This leaves no longer room for doubting that a large continent existed in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, and which was destroyed with- in the memory of man; and that the narrative by Plato of the submersion of Atlantis is, in the main, correct. The Maya author represents the lost land by the figure of a black man with red lips, which would imply that it was mostly inhabited by a race of black men. In this case, the presence of black- skinned populations on the Western continent, an- terior to the advent of the Spaniards, would be easily accounted for. The Mayas like the Kgyp- THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 93 tians represented the world as an old man. Plu- tarch says they called East the face, North the right side, South the left side; this conception has reached our days, only we reckon the East as the right hand, West the left, North the face. When the author of the Troano MS., speaks of the ' ' Master of the land ' ' par excellence, that is king Can deified, he pictures him sometimes with a human body, painted blue, and the head of a mastodon. On the fagade of the building at Chicheii Itza called by the natives Kuna, the house of God, to which Stephens, in his work on Yucatan, gives the name of Iglesia, is a tableau representing the wor- ship of that great pachyderm, whose head, with its trunk, forms the principal ornament of the temples and palaces built by the members of king Can's family. This tableau is composed of a face intended for that of the mastodon. Over the trunk and between the eyes formerly existed a human head, which has been destroyed by malignant hands. It wore a royal crown. This is still in place. On the front of it is a small portrait cut in the round of some very ancient personage. On each side of the head are square niches containing each two now head- less statues, a male and a female; they are seated, not Indian fashion, squatting, but with the legs crossed and doubled under them, in a worshiping 94 HACKKD MYSTER1KS AMONG attitude. Each carries a symbol on their back; totem of the nation or tribe by which the mastodon was held sacred. Under these figures, are two tri- angles j^^ emblems of offerings and worship in Mayax as in Eygpt. So also was the other symbol image of a honey-comb, an oblation most grateful to the gods, since with the bark of the Balclie tree, honey formed the principal ingredient of lldlche, that beverage so pleasing to their palate: the same that under the name of nectar, Hebe served to the inhabitants of Olympus. It is the Amrita, still enjoyed, on the day of the full moon, by the gods, the manes and the saints, according to the Hindoos; although it was the cause of the war between the gods and the Titans, and is the origin of many sanguinary quarrels among the tribes of equatorial Africa even in our days. These symbols leave no doubt as to the fact that the personages represented by the statues are in the act of worshiping the mastodon. The corona of the upper cornice, that above the mastodon's bead, is formed of a peculiar wavy adornment often met with in the ornamentation of the monuments erected by the Cans. Emblematic of the serpent, it is composed of two letters JV jux- taposed, monogram of Can ^=s. The corona of the lower cornice is made of two characters [_ji_ THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 95 that read in Maya Ah oam, He of the throne the monarch. In Japan the seven members of the Can family, deified and figured by the same symbols as in Mayax, are worshiped to-day in the shrine of the palace at Tokio, dedicated to the goddess symbo- lized by a bird. This goddess calls to mind the god- dess Moo of the Mayas, or Isis of the Egyptians. In the upper part of the shrine, over and above all the other attendants who have wings and beaked noses, is seen an elephant couchant, the god of fire standing on his back. In the midst of the flames that surround him is the head of a bird. So in Chichen we see the followers of queen Moo, who, we are informed by the author of the Troano MS. became the goddess of fire, carrying her totem, a bird, in their head-gears. The Japanese claim to be offspring of the gods, and produce two different genealogical tables in support of their assertion. These gods amounting to seven, are said to have reigned an almost incalcu- lable number of years in the country; although they assert that these primitive gods were spiritual substances, incorporeal. They were succeeded by five terrestrial spirits, or deified heroes, after whom appeared the Japanese themselves. Here again we have a reminiscence, as it were, of the twelve gods, that the Egyptians told Hero- 96 SACRED MYSTERIES AMOXG dotus, had governed their country, an incalculable number of years, before the reign of Menes their first terrestrial king. These gods were converted by the Greeks into the tirelve deities, dwellers of the Olympus. The twelve serpent heads, brought to light by me in December, 1883, from the center of the mausoleum of the high-pontiff Cay, at Chichen- Itza, are emblematic of the twelve rulers, who had reigned in Mayax in times anterior to the great cataclysm when the Land of Mil was submerged; whose portraits, with the sign cinii, dead, adorn the east facade of the palace with the tableau of creation, showing that they existed in very early times. Of these rulers we again find a dim tradition in China in the Tchi. also called che-cuU-tse the twelve chil- dren of the emperor of Heaven, Tien-Ifoany, who had the body of a serpent. Each of these Tchi are said to have lived eighteen thousand years, and to have reigned in times anterior to Ti-hoarxj, sover- eign of the country in the middle of ilte hind. From this short digression let us return to the worship of the mastodon which we find very prevalent in India in that of the elephant (> 1 (M) years ago. The sceptre held in the right hand of the central THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 107 figure being whole, would show that the entire country was governed by a potentate to whom the rulers of the seventeen nations, into which the em- pire was divided, paid homage and acknowledged as their suzerain. These seventeen divisions of the empire are indicated by the seventeen small heads sculptured on the lower band, and the seventeen signs of land that adorned the arms, the breast- plate, and the ribbon from which it is suspended. Of the small kneeling winged figures, those of the middle row are portrayed with the heads of macaws to signify that they are the particular adherents of queen Moo, that here, as in Mayax, carry her totem as a badge or sign of recognition; whilst the others have human heads, but wear on their crowns her totem, in token that they recognize her as their suzerain. All these figures are ornamented with twelve serpents, arranged in groups of three, whilst the sash they carry across their body from the shoulder to the waist on the opposite side, termi- nates in a peculiar knot adorned with the four cir- cles, that we have said stood for the word Aliau, that is king, indicating that their lord paramount is a member of the Can (serpent) dynasty. The whole tableau recalls vividly, that presented by ,the kneel- ing beaked nosed personages in attendance at the shrine of the bird deity at Kioto. Mr. Angrand, the well known French archeeolo- 108 HACKED MYSTERIES AMONG gist, finds, and with reason, a coincidence between these sculptures and those of Central America, hav- ing a corresponding symbolical significance. In them he sees the proof of the identity of origin, of the intimate relationship of the builders of Tiahua- nuco and those of Palenque, Ocosingo, and Xochi- calco. He might have added, and be nearer to the truth, those of the cities of Mayax, that were founded many centuries before those mentioned by him. In Mayax, it is where, indeed, the image of the serpent, as a symbol, is most commonly met with. We see it on almost every edifice in every city. It is one of the favorite ornaments, especially at Chichen-Itza, of which place it seems to have been the particular protecting genius. There it is found everywhere. It guards the entrance- of all public edifices. It is at the foot of their grand stair- ways, as if defending the ascent. The columns that support their porticos are representations of it. Its head forms the base, its body the shaft. The nobles and other personages of high rank wore adornments made in the shape of serpents. Chi- chen. may indeed be called the ki '/'/// <>f *SV/7^///.s " par excellence. If we, therefore, wish to know the true meaning of the serpent as a symbol, if we de- sire to inquire as to the motives that led to its wor- ship, it is necessary to question the learned priests THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 109 of that city; to consult the books in which the phi- losophers of Mayax have consigned their knowledge and their esoteric doctrines. The origin of the " Serpent Worship " they tell us, can be traced to two apparently distinct causes. One, the esoteric, taught only to a few select of those initiated in the greater mysteries, is the homage to be tributed by the creature to the Crea- tor. The other, the exoteric, inculcated on the un- initiated, was the love of the country, and the re- spect due by the subjects to their rulers, living images and vicars of the Deity on earth. In order to comprehend the first, or esoteric, we must recall to mind that Eusebius says that the Eygptians represented emblematically Knepli the Creator, and the world also, under the figure of serpent, which, Horapollo asserts, was of a blue color with yellow scales; but they fail to inform us as to what may have been their motives for thus symbolizing the First Cause; or from whom they had received this symbol, that was the same used by the Mayas. A clue to this mystery can no doubt be found in the cosmogonical notions prevalent among the ancient civilized nations; for, strange to say, they seem to have been alike with all. We read in the Manava-dliarma-sastra that the visible universe in the beginning was nothing but darkness. Then the great, self -existing Power dis- 110 SACRED MYHTER1KH AMONG peeled that darkness, and appeared in all His splen- dor. He first produced the \vaters; and on them moved X(iraf/rr.sw. was sacred to Athor, the regent of the West, often identified witli Isis. The sycamore^ was consecrated to Nut, mother of Isis and Osiris, frequently represented in the paintings of the tombs, standing in its brunches, 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 con- nected 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 cir- cle '' 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 " mon- urchs " it is again necessary to consult the annals left carved in stone or written in their books by the wise men of Muyax. From them we learn that the Mayas held certain trees sacred, Landa, Cogol- ludo. 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, THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES, 125 that would be rewarded or punished in the life be- yond the grave, for its deeds whilst in the body. Their reward was to consist in dwelling in a delect- able 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 yaxche (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 re- placed by the gigantic palm tree (Pal ma real). The Maya empire was of old, according to the au- thor 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 (May ax } of the race; the empire of the Mayas being placed 1','G SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG bet ween the two great continents, North and South America, forming the " Lands of the West/' * * The legend reads commencing from the top of the left hand column Can Ahau C linen eb for heb Ezandb Kan the King dead forcing its earthquake has risen master of the basin way of water (beginning again at the top of the second column) tk linnat foot sank air wind filled up crater or bosom of the volcanoes uric luninilob nmnkan con kak-miil Tinuinik .s/.r fertile lands uniukan four volcano Timanik Freely translated : ('an, the master of the basin of water, who was dead, forcing his way by means of the earthquake, has risen. Can's foot sank, THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 127 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 chil- dren 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- Jciun, that is, he who reigns sovereignly in the mid- dle of the earth, and also TSE-YUEN, or the son prin- ciple, the engendered, the Brahma of the Hindoos, the air having filled up the crater of the volcano. Six fertile lands have appeared in Umukan (Cuba) and four volcanoes in Timanik (one of the small Antilles.) The Maya writers, as the author of the Troano, etc,, sometimes represented the Earth under the figure of an old woman and called it mam the grandmother. She is here represented hold- ing in her left hand the sign of the smoke, and darting a jave- lin emblem of the volcanic- energy, and in her right hand she holds the symbol of the "Land of the Scorpion" " Zinaan," the West India Islands of our days. The deer head represents the Maya Empire. 128 SACRED MYSTERIES AMONQ the Kneph of the Eygptians, the Menen of the Mayas. The cross is another sacred symbol much rever- enced 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 "Crux 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 conic. It was placed on the breast of the deceased, sometimes as a simple T on the fulcrum of oirer and ctcnt/f//. Tn India, China, and THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 129 Scandinavia of heaven and immortality. In Mayax of rejuvenescence and freedom from physical suffer- ing. The cross, as a symbol, was placed on the breast of the initiate after his new birth was accom- plished in the Bacchic and Eleusim'an mysteries. Remesal and Torquemada assert, in their respec- tive 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, OR their authority, have affirmed the same thing. This, however, seems to have been a mistake. Ber- na) Diaz del Castillo, who accompanied Cortez, does not mention the existence of such symbols in Cozu- mel, but emphatically says that Cortez, having or- dered 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, rec- ommending the natives to take great care of them when he left. Dr. Pedro Sanchez de Aguilar, an- other 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, al- though a most zealous missionarv, intent on con- c? */ - verting the aborigines to the Catholic faith, does not mention the existence of crosses in Cozumel be- fore the advent of the Spaniards; a fact he would KH> SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG 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 re- mote 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 Amer- ica. 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 :>f>.) It forms part of the inscription carved on the lintel of the doorway of the east facade of the palace at Chichen. Still tradition tells us that the cross was symbolical of the " God of llain. " If so, they made no image of it, nor did they celebrate any festival in honor of it at the time of the con- quest, but held it simply as a notion of their fore- fathers. 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 god- dess MAYA, the good dawe, mother of Ihc yod.s, the " Southern Oo.s.s," appears perfectly perpendicular above the line of the southern horizon. This is why the Catholic church celebrates the feast of the ado- THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 131 ration 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, na- ture looks desolate, all living beings thirst for a drop of moisture, the birds and other wild crea- tures, mad with thirst, lose their characteristic shy- ness and venture near the haunts of man, imperil- ing 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 hori- zon. 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 132 SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG RAIN that rejuvenates nature, frees man and all oilier creatures front physical snfferiuys, briuys felicity to them liearen therefore and, with re- newed 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 constella- tion 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 fur- ther north, that accepted the symbol, without under- standing its meaning, and in aftertimes many spec- ulations 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 11 and prepare to sow their fields. The origin and meaning of the mystical T, that symbol of "hidden wisdom" 1 as it has been de- nominated 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 mum- mies, also met with in the ancient edifices of Mayax, THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 133 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 repre- sentation 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 T 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 crux-ansata. It is not of Eygptian 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 dis- tance, presents the appearance of a hah sphere of verdure. The cone, the tau and the crux-ansata 134 SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG were for those initiated to the mysteries the same symbol, emblematical of Deity, of the life to come, of the dual powers, of fertility. Tin; 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 tan. From a Mexican MS. in British Museum. (Add. MS. b. in. 9789.) In straying apparently so far from the main ob- ject of these pages, and tracing to their true origin the primitive traditions of mankind and many of the religious symbols common i<> all the civil- ized nations of antiquity, by dispelling the mists that have accumulated around them in the long vista THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 135 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 Eygpt, Chal- dea, 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 cele- brated 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 Gymnoso- phists of India ? The mode of initiation, the use of the same sym- bols, 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, dif- fered so widely, show that these mysteries origi- nated with one people, and were carried to and promulgated among the others. As we do not find 136 SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG it mentioned anywhere that they originated either with the Eygptians, 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 Eleusiiiian 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 (Palenqueof 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 1 rites and trials were identical with those to which the applicants to initiation in the mysteries of Egypt, Greece, Chal- dea and India were subjected, we are justified in THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 137 seeking in Mayax for the causes that may have in- duced 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. The symbolization of number 3 may possibly be accounted for in two different ways. One is sug- gested by the sceptre of Poseidon, that Plato says was the first king of Atlantis, and is represented by the Greek mythologists as being a son of Kronos; his three-pronged trident being an allusion to the three great islands that formed his kingdom. North and South America and Mu, that now lies buried under the waves of the Atlantic ocean. The emblem * > J placed in the hands of Vul the god of the *|i atmosphere in the Chaldean mythology, found also in those of the Hin- doo gods, may likewise represent the three worlds or great regions that the Egyptian and Maya hierogram- matists designed by the character (MM1 in the hieroglyph for the name of the ' ' Lands of the West, ' ' which the latter also figured as the sacred tree with three branches,* a * The legend literally translated reads as follows: that is: PPeii, caban for cabahaan has struck again bat ax. Freely translated: PPeu has struck again the tree with his ax. l' : * s RACKED MYSTERIES AMONG simile of which we find in Scandinavia, in the tliree roofs of the sacred ash Yggdrasil, mystic- world tree, and the three heavens, and the three worlds whose destruction, hy water, was prophesied hy Vishnu. The deification of the "World" coin- posed of three parts forming a great whole, may have heen the origin of the Trimourti, or Triune god, so prevalent among the ancient nations of antiquity, and probahly led to the mystification of number 3. We find it symbolized all over the earth, in every nation. We see it in Mayax in the three platforms on which are raised the most ancient edifices ; in the three rooms that formed the temple where the mysteries were performed ; in the three steps that led to the first or lower platform in all sacred edifices ; in the L>1 metres (3x7) of all the principal pyramids in Yucatan; in the three concentric circles of the Zodiac. We meet with it constantly in India, in the vyahritis or three sacred words; the three orna- ments or xnrditax; the three principal classes; the three ways of salvation; the three fetters of the soul PPeu was tlif name of one of the twelve ancient rulers who governed Ilie counlrv in times anterior to the great cataclysm during which the Atlantic island was subnu-rg'od. Deilied after his death he liecame one of the protecting i^cnii of the land, whose flli^ies still adorn the east facade of the palace- at Ciiichen Itza, where they are placed, hetween the eyes, over the trunks of the mastodon's head, and surrounded with an aureola. THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 139 or gunas; the three eyes in Siva's forehead; the three strands of the sacred cord worn by the initi- ates of the three principal classes; the three letters of the sacred word A.u.m. In Egypt the three thonged flagelum of Osiris; the triple phallus car- ried in procession at the festival of the Paamylia in honor of the birth of Osiris, and also the triads, as likewise in Chaldea. Another way of accounting for the mystification of number 3, is by taking heed of the indications of Orpheus, Plato, Proems; and the other Greek philoso- phers who had been admitted to the participation of the secrets communicated in the mysteries to those worthy of being entrusted with them. They tell us that the three intellects of the Demiurgos, of the triple deity, were " three Icings.''' 1 The author of the Troano MS., relates at some length the history of the three sons of king Can; and of the troubles that arose among them when, after the death of their father, the reins of the government tj -.^ /~v \\ fell into their hands. Of that fact **- a faint tradition, very much distorted, seems to have still existed among the aborigines of Central Amer- * Symbol of the three sons of King Can represented under the emblem of the three deer heads Uluumil cell, "the land of the deer," being one of the names of the country of the Mayas. 140 SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG ica at the time of the Spanish conquest; for Bishop Landa states : ' ' That is was said that once upon a time three lords, hrothers, governed the country together." Those three brothers, sons of king Can, are realities, personages who have certainly lived a mundane existence, since we not only have their portraits, their weapons, and their ornaments, but also their mortal remains. They recall vividly the three sons of Adam, the three sons of Seb, and the three sons of Kronos. The author of the Troano MS., informs us that the members of the family of king Can were deified after their death, and wor- shiped in temples, the ruins of which still exist buried in the depths of the forests of Yucatan un- der a shroud of verdure. It is not at all improbable that Cay, the elder brother and high-pontiff having instituted with his father the sacred mysteries, took as symbol of the various degrees into which they divided them, the number of the members of their family, in order to perpetuate their name and history through the coming ages. This explanation seems the more plausible, if we remember that Eusebius tells us that the Egyptians represented the supreme Deity under the shape of a serpent (Can- he!) that was as superior to the triads, as the father is to his children in whom he rejoices. "X/uiicro Dots jn/pan j (jand^t.^ In this connection the iliree i, of Chinese mythological times, might THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 141 also be mentioned. They too had the shape of ser- pents. Among the ancient civilized nations of the east- ern continents number 5 was also considered mys- tic. Frequent mention is made of it in their sacred books. In China it occupies a conspicuous place among the celestial or perfect numbers, as 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, are called in the y-king, or Canonical book of Changes; a very ancient work, so highly esteemed by the wise philosopher Confucius (Kong-fou-tse) that he was seldom seen without it. There we read of the five elements, water, fire, wood, metal, and earth; of the five kinds of grain; of the five colors, black, red, green or blue, yellow and white; of the five tastes, salt, bitter, sour, acid, and sweet; of the five tones in music; of the five relations of life be- tween men; those between a king and its ministers, a father and his children, a husband and his wife, elder and younger brothers, and between friends; of the five virtues, philanthropy, uprightness, decorum, prudence, fidelity; of the five organs of the body, kidneys, heart, liver, lungs, and spleen; of the five Chang- ti, or elementary generations; of the five parts that form the heavens; of the five seasons of the year; of the five genii that govern the five ele- ments; of the five principal mountains of the em- pire; of the five tutelary mountains. In India number 5 is also very prevalent in things 142 SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG pertaining particularly to psychological concep- tions or religious observances; so they speak of the five organs of intelligence, by means of which the external objects are perceived; of the five organs of action; the iive elements, the five great obla- tions; of the five great sacrifices; the five great fires, etc. In Mayax it was likewise a mystic number, since we find this simbol carved at each end of the southern apartment in the edi- fice consecrated to the celebration of the sacred mysteries. It appears in the number of steps lead- ing from the courtyards or ten-aces to the principal apartments in the "House of the Governor," "the palace of king Can" and other edifices at Uxmal, and in other buildings. It is the number particularly set apart for the second of the three platforms that compose the base on which all the ancient temples and palaces of the Mayas are raised. In the rites of modern Freemasonry, it is still the sacred number related to the second degree. In the Troano MS., the legends of all the compartments into which the work is divided, as in chapters, are composed of five characters, to indicate that said legends are the headings, that is ho-ol, the beginning, the head. This number may have become sacred, in the mysteries, among the Mayas, in remembrance of the number of the children of king (.'fui; for besides his three sons ( y rrinces of the Persian court; and the seven councillors of the king: of the seven Ameshas- />(i/t/s or first angels; of the seven yr cat gods of the Assyrians; or the seven jiriinilive yofis regarded by the Japanese as their ancestors and said by them to have governed the world during an incalculable number of years: of the seven Cabin', worshiped THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 145 by the Pelasgians at Lemnos and Samothracia; the seven great gods in theogony of the Nahuatls ? Do we not see a simile of the Ah Ac chapat or seven- headed serpent of the Mayas, totem of their seven primitive Rulers, that is of the seven members of king Call's family, in the seven-headed heavenly Serpent on which rests Vishnu, the Indian creator, that corresponds to the Egyptian Knepli or the Mehen (Canhel) of the Mayas; or in the seven serpents that form the crown of Siva; or again in the Seven- rayed god Heptaktis, of which the emperor Julian was so reluctant to speak ? It would seem that the duration of certain relig- ious festivals was fixed to commemorate the exist- ence on Earth of these seven primitive gods or rulers, the tradition of which we find in all countries where we meet with vestiges of the Mayas. So we see the seven days of the festival of the Eleusinian mysteries; the seven days of the festival in honor of the bull Apis, a symbol of Osiris: the seven days of the feast of the tabernacles. The septenary system was also adopted for the same purpose no doubt, in May ax, since we find the seven cities dedicated to each of the members of king Can's family; the seven pyramids that adorned the city of Uxinal; the seven turrets that ornamented the south facade of the north wing of king Can's palace at Uxnial, each tur- ret inscribed with the name of one of the members SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG of liis family; those dedicated to the females being on the east end of the wing. The seven yradieiits into which is divided the third or uppermost of the three platforms that serve as a substructure to the temples and palaces; the wren superposed gradients, forming all the pyamids, calling to mind the seven terraces of the temple of the seven lights at Bor- sippa, the most perfect form of Chaldee "temple tower," and the " pyramid degrees " at Sakkara, al- though in this Egyptian pyramid the gradients are more numerous. The seven rooms built on the west side of the conical mound that supports the temple in which the mysteries were performed at Uxmal: each room again being dedicated to one of the members of king Can's family; the bust of the per- son to whom it was consecrated being affixed over the doorway. The seven courses of the stones used in the construction of the walls and of the triangu- lar arches that form the ceilings of the rooms. The same system prevails in the arrangement of the grand gallery in the centre of the great pyramid at Ghizzeh in Egypt. In that monument as in all the antique edifices of Mayax, the proportional scale followed by the architects in the drawing of their plans is in accordance with the numbers :*>, .">, V, and their multiples. The predilection of the nations of antiquity in which the sacred mvsteries were celebrated, for THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 147 number seven appears in many ways. The seven days that the rainfall that produced the deluge lasted, according to the Chaldeans, is reproduced in the seven days of the prophesy of the deluge by Vishnu to Satyravata, as we read of it in the Bhagavata rjurana; and the seven days of the prophesy of the same event, made by the Lord to Noah, according to Genesis; on account of the seven days of rainfall the Babylonian priests used seven vases in the sacrifices ; and in the hierarchy of Mazdeism, the seven Marouts or genii of the winds; the seven rounds of the ladder in the cave of Mith- ra. The Aryans had the seven horses that drew the chariot of the sun; the seven Apris or shapes of the flame ; the seven rays of Agni; the seven steps of Buddha at his birth. The Egyptians had divided their nation into seven classes; the week into seven days: according to them the creation was com- pleted in seven days. Among the Hebrews, we find the seven lamps of the ark. and of Zacharias vision ; the seven branches of the golden candlestick ; the seven days of the feast of the dedication of the temple; the seven years of plenty; and the seven years of famine. In the Christian dispensation, the seven churches with the seven angels at their head; the seven golden candlesticks; the seven heads of the beast that rose from the sea; the seven seals of the book; the seven trumpets of the angels; the 148 SACRED MYSTERIES AMONG wven vials full of the wrath of God; the seven last plagues of Apocalypse. In Greek mythology, the seven heads of the hydra killed by Hercules, the seven islands sacred to Proserpine mentioned by Proclus. The prevalence of seven as a mystic number among the inhabitants of the ' ' Western Continent ' ' is not less remarkable. It frequently occurs in the Popol- Vnh. We find it besides in the seven families said by Sahagun and Clavigero to have accompanied the mystical personage named Votan, the reputed founder of the great city of Nachan, identified by some with Palenque. In the seven caves from which the ancestors of the Nahualts are reported to have emerged. In the seven cities of Cibola, described by Coronado and Niza, the site of which has been accurately fixed by Mr. Frank Gushing in the im- mediate neighborhood of the village of Zuiii. In the seven Antilles; in the Seven heroes who, we are told, escaped the deluge. ' Can it be maintained that this acceptation of seven as a mystic number by nations so heterogene- ous and living so far apart, and from the remotest ages, is purely accidental '( The origin of its mysti- fication has never been explained. It has been transmitted to us by our predecessors, who them- selves had accepted it from theirs, without knowing whv it was made the sacred number of the third THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 149 degree in the rites of initiation into Freemasonry. True, in receiving the degree the initiated are told the esoteric meaning attached to it in modern times; but this meaning does not give the origin of its mystification. In fact, it is an invention of our days. That it was the sacred number of the highest de- gree of the sacred mvsteries in Mayax is evident. *^ / We have seen that o was the number of the male children of king Can; 5 that of his sons and daugh- ters; 7 was consequently that of the members of the whole family. It is not therefore improbable that to commemorate that fact, 7 was made the sacred number of the third degree of their sacred mysteries, and that this was the origin of its mys- tification. In these pages I have presented, without com- mentaries, a few of the facts that twelve years re- searches among the ruins of the antique temples and palaces of the Mayas, a knowledge of their language (still spoken by their descendants, and in some places, as in the vicinity of Peten, in all its pristine purity); the deciphering of certain mural inscriptions; the study of the sacred book of the Quiches, and the interpretation of passages in the Troano MS., have disclosed to me concerning the history, civilization, cosmogonical conceptions, re- ligious tenets and practices of the ancient inhabi- tants of Yucatan. 150 SA('JU-:i) MYSTERIES AMOXG It is for you, reader, to judge if such facts are worthy your consideration, and of the truthful- ness of my assertion that a knowledge of the his- tory of the primitive dwellers in these "Lands of the West" will help to raise the veil that has covered during so many centuries the origin of the first traditions of mankind. Although in the first annual report of the executive committee of the "Archaeological institute of America/' we read that: "The study of American archaeology relates indeed to the monuments of a race that never at- tained to a high degree of civilization and that has left no trustworthy records of continuous history. It was a race whose intelligence was for the most part of a low order, whose sentiments and emotions were confined within a narrow range, and whose imagination was never quickened to find expression of itself in poetic or artistic forms of beauty. From what it was or what it did, nothing is to be learned that has any direct bearing on the progress of civil- ization."' 'With all due respect for the learning of the gentlemen who have attached their names to so astounding an assertion, I beg to differ from their opinion expressed so emphatically. 1 differ because I have seen and photographed the constructions left by the mighty races that have preceded us on this continent. They have not. Because I have studied for years, hi .s/7//, these monuments that attest to the THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 151 high civilization of their builders. They have not. Because I have learned the language in which they have consigned part at least of their history in in- scriptions carved 011 stones, and read some of said inscriptions. They have not. Indeed, on this con- tinent, not far from New Orleans, exist the relics of past generations which are as interesting, if not more so, as those of Egypt, Babylonia, Greece, and Italy; as deserving the attention of all students of archaeology, of history, of ethnology, and philology. It is time yet to save from utter destruction the last records of ancient American history, that are crum- bling every day more and more, and are being de- stroyed by the hand of ignorance and cupidity. A few years more, and all intelligible traces of them will have disappeared. Will nothing be done in this country to preserve what remains of the ancient American civilization ? of that civilization which seems to have been the fountain-head at which the philosophers of all nations, in the remotest an- tiquity, have come to acquire knowledge and drink inspiration from the learning and wisdom of the Maya sages. Americans have established in Athens schools for the study of Greek Archaeology; in Alexandria, for the decipherment of the inscriptions carved on the walls of the temples, on the obelisks, and in the papyri found in the tombs in Egypt; is it not time 15^ SACRED MYHTERIEU AMONG that students in United States shonld direct their attention to tlie ancient history of the continent oil which they live '. It is not altogether lost, and the tongue in which it is written is not a dead language. Maya is one of the oldest forms of speech, coeval, if not anterior to Sanscrit. The names Alpha, Beta, Gamma, etc., etc., of the letters of the (I reek alpha- bet, form a curious epic poem in that language. There are many interesting inscriptions in it tliat only await decipherment to illumine the past records of the race in America. Many of these precious doc- uments exist in the City of New York. They will reveal the history of the mighty nations that have dwelt on tin's "Western Continent;"' they will tell us of the origin of many of our primitive traditions. Why then not found in Yucatan, in the midst of the ruins of the temples and colleges of the learned priesthood of Mayax, a school where students of American archaeology can learn with their language, what the Maya sages knew of man's origin, of his intellectual development, of the past of their people, of the colonists they sent to other parts of tin 1 world, where they carried the arts, sciences, and religion of the mother country and its civilization from which our own is descended ? After twelve years of incessant labors and great hardships, unaided by any government or scientific societv. having to encounter opposition, and sur- THE MAYAS AND THE QUICHES. 153 mount countless difficulties placed maliciously in our way by those whose duty it should have been to afford us all protection, robbed of our finds by the Mexican government which has even refused to indemnify us for the money expended in making these discoveries, Mrs. Le Plongeon and myself, after saving from destruction many important docu- ments and relics, have at last found a key that will unlock the door of that chamber of mysteries. Shall it be allowed to remain closed much longer ? We have lifted, in part at least, the veil that has hung so long over the history of mankind in America in remote ages. Shall it be allowed to fall again ? Will no efforts be made by American students, by men of wealth and leisure in the United States, to remove it altogether ? INDEX. Aac, his history, 78-79. protecting genius of, 90. offer of marriage by, 83. Abel, murder of, 74. meaning of the name of, 85. Adam, a myth, 1. Adrian, Emperor, 27. Ah - ac - chapat, seven-headed serpent, its meaning, 67. Akkadian language, 33. Alom, the creator, 56. Alexander the Great, 29. Amautas, 47, Angrand, quoted, 108. Arch, triangular, 37. Architects, foundation of soci- ety of, 3. Ardvi Qoura anahita (god- dess), 28. Asp, badge of royalty, why, 119. figure of Central America, 120. Atlantis, submerged, 41. record of submersion of, in Egypt and Mayax, 91. figured as a black man, 92. its destruction, 11, 500 years ago, 106. A ftm, figured as an equilateral triangle, 60. Auvergne, (Gruy of) burned alive, 3. B Bacon, Roger, quoted, 50. Balche, nectar, amrita, bev- erage of the gods, 94. Bali, murdered, 77. Bearded men in Mayax, 71. Benoit (Pope), renews bull of excommunication, 6. Berosus, on the creation of the world according to the Chaldees, 110. Bird deity at Kioto, Japan, 107. Birch, Samuel, quoted, 26. Bitol, creator, 56. Black populations in America, 87. Bottles, Chinese, found in the tombs of Egypt, in the ruins of Hissarlik, 57. Brahmins, 29-32. Brothers (in India), 29. Bruce, Robert, gives protec- tion to the Knights Tem- plars, 3. Building Associations, Ro- man, 14. Burnouf, Emile, 57. 150 1XDEX. Cabiri (mysteries), 1H. < ' 'nmazotz, god of bats, -1-1. ('mi, king of Mayax, 45. - his family, 77. - royal titles of, b:5. deified, and represented with a mastodon's head. 93. - members of his family "wor- shiped in Japan. !5. <'<1U, high pontill', 1!), 45. (hdinhcr of Police of Paris, prohil)it Freemasonry, (i. rfii'i'li'ti I., King, 4. <'hit:h<-)i.-llz(t, the city of ser- pents, 10S. ('Jii'intiiuix. first, 1. ' 'lin ri-li of Rome opposes Free- masonry, 5. accuses M.'. of heresy, burns them alive, 12. - persecutes ( Jhaldean magi- c i an s and Ugy p t i an priests, 14. ' 'ilioJti. seven cities of. 48. f 'ilif.itt n. pirate's, '-27. ('ircnhic buildings in Yuca- tan, their use. (14. >'!<-i< nt \. (Pope), abolishes the order of Knights Templars. :). entices JaccjiK's de Molay to Paris. 2. - death of, 4. < 'liiiLi'.nt. XII. (Pope), excom- ni u n i c a t e s all Free- masons, (i. - persecutes them, 7. ('ltiiH-iit of Alexandria, quot- ed, 2f). Cixjollndo, quoted, l~>4. ( '<>/<. murdered by his brother. 80. -- \vlio was, 78. - analysis of remains of, 84. - statue of, robbed by Mexi- can < iovernment. 87. ('<>,'< l/r<><>!;, II. T., quoted, 54, 72 < >///( -(/in of Romans, 2. l:>. Culcrni IK-, Jjord, founded a lodge in Gibraltar and another in Madrid, (i. (.'ommunitMtloiiJi bet ween Egypt and India and ( 'hina, 57. < 'litint< concerning a Triune (iod, 5:>, 54. 55, 5(5, 58. ( '<>iij'n<-i us, 5(5. - ((noted, 141. < 'nriiitntln, (juoted. 148. ('//uf ion of the world, myth found in ( 'liicheii-lt/.a. 72. myth of, in various coun- tries. 10!). - its origin traced to Mayax. 111. - portrayed on Hast facade of Palace at Chichen- it/a. 112. - tableau of. explained, 114. < '/'ni/i in II. (. (.Yo.v.v. as sacred symbol of \vaier deities among all nations, of the life to come, and eternitv, 128. IXDEX. 157 Cross, as symbol in Bacchic and E 1 e u s i 11 i a n mys- teries, 129. - symbol of the, in America, 129. god of rain, 130. southern, 132. Crown of lower Egypt, the same as that worn by kings in May ax, 118. Customs, many similar in In- dia, Mayax, and Egypt, 97. (lushing, Frank, quoted. 47. 148. Cyril, (Bishop) murderer of Hypathia, persecuted the worshipers of Isis and Osiris, 1G. E Egyptian civilization, birth- place of, 113. Emperors, Roman, persecuted the Chaldean magicians and Egyptian priests to death. 15. Ephoroi, 19, 22. Epoptai, 23. Essenes, 1, Eubulus, quoted, 27, 40. Eumolpus, initiated to Egypt- ian sacred mysteries in- stituted those of Eleusis, 18. Eusebins, quoted, 57, 72, 99. Eiisoph, equilateral triangle, GO. r> iUN, (quoted, 53. Dunuus' 1 Daughters, 18. Daniel, prophet, (juoted, 30, 45. .Degrees (3) in Freemasonry, among the Jesuits, and the Egyptian priests, 12. Deluge, tradition of, common to all nations where the name Maya is found, 90. - what the Egyptians said of, 91. - relation of, in Troano M.S. and mural inscriptions, 92. Danocritus, 54. Di-uids, 2. F F( niton, (Dr.) opinion of, 17.33. Fei'gnason, James, quoted, 99, 122, 123. Fernando, VI., of Spain, m.'i kes Freemasonry high treason, G. Fi-FungpaO) 57. Fin-del, J. G., ojiinion of, 10. Four, number, its meaning, 105. Fi'(Ui'-i.-; of Lorraine (Duke) initiated, protects masons, founds lodges, 7. Fratricide, account of the same in Genesis, liamay- ana, papyri of Egypt, inscriptions of Mayax, 84. 158 L\DKX Fr e e in a ,v <> n r i/ . v a r ions opinions concerning orig- in of, 1, '2. - persecuted, ;", 6. established in France and Spain, 0. in Ireland, Italy, America, Lisbon, 7. in Germany, 8. origin of. traced to Ameri- ca, 22. Frederick II. of Prussia, in- itiated, assumes the title of (I. '. M.'. Universal, frames a constitution, 8, 9. G Qanesha, god of letters, its re- presentation,^ worship, 96. origin of its elephant head, !)7. tr a r c i I (i .v .v o dc la Veya, quoted, 46. tjtorye. I. ascends the throne, 5. G forge (Bishop), persecutes the worshipers of Isis and < )siris, 16. G'odx, twelve, of Egyptians, ( J reeks, Mayas, Japan- ese, Chinese, 96. (li'und Maxter, degree of, created, 4. ( i rand Lodtjf, first establish- ed in London, ">, :2. (Ireynry of Nazianze, cjuoted, 31, Gucninatz, winged serpent, the creator. 112. H Hat-h-muc, 45. Henoi-h, book of, (juoted, 16, 21, 24, 2r>, :!7, 44. Herodotux. (juoted, l."i. - concerning the Thesiuo- plioria, 1>S. 60. (juoted, 74, i:j4. JlermippitN, 28. Hernu'tic books, relation of creation in modern, 111. Ifierophantefi, 19. :52. Hin-chin, quoted, 5."). Hnttn(\ dark. 4:!. House of spears, 43. - ice, 43. - tiger. 44. - fiery, 44. - of bats, 44. Hunhnn Appn,, 44. IHnmiiidti, incorporated into Freemasonry, 9. Initiations into Egyptian mysteries, but little known. 16. - into Eleusinian mysteries, 19, 20, 22, 2:;, 24. In q n i .v / / / o 71 persecutes Masons, 5. /.s/.v, meaning of the name, 87. - her title, her totem, 88. INDEX. 159 Isis, believed to be a fabulous being. 80. Jamex 11.. 4. Japane.fe, offspring of the twelve gods. 95. Jtrnnie, Saint, 31. John the Baptist, St.. selected patron of the M.'. Order. 5. Ja.an Gtistnri of M e d i c i s . (Duke) persecutes Masons, 7. K Khan, titles of kings in Asia, origin of it. S3. A7///y.v. three. C>0. Kni-ph name of the creator, 53. Kni (jlits of Chn'xt, order of. founded. 3. Knirjlitx Ti-inplitrs, take ref- uge in Scotland and Portugal. 3. - refuse' TO recogni/e the au- thority of J. M. Larnie- uio. 12. - received their symbols from Christians initiated into Egyptian mysteries. 12. Kraiitu>< quoted. 13. Kronon, king of the " Lands of the West." 53. La, meaning of the word, 54. Lab-mew, title of high priest among the Mayas, 30. Landd (Bishop), quoted, 04, (iS, 70. 124. La/'/ii<'it/, Joliaii Marcus appointed Grand Master of the K. Templars, 3. Leibnitz, initiated into Free- masonry. 15. Leopard skin as a symbol, y(i. Lopi, quoted, 55. M Ma, the world, 33. Mat-i'obiitx, his meaiiingof the triangular arch, (53. Jfttf/f, 30, 32. Maha-dt))ia. the great soul, 55. Ma7i(i-(itniax, the brothers, 20, 45. Mauco Co.pitc, founder of the Inca empire, 47. Marriage, custom among the Mayas, 78. Miu'i/L Virgin, goddess Mai'a- Isis anthropoiuorphised, 131. Jfaxtodoti. worsliij) of. !)3. explanation of tableau re- presenting the worship (^f, 94. Maya, name found in various countries. 71. Challenges Bali. 7<5. IfiO Jftiytt empire figured as a ser- pcnt. 1 Hi. empire (inured as a 1 :ve. 1 ','5. empire the land of the deer in the i:iiddle of 1 lie earth. l',Y>. according to The ('hinese represented as a tree, 127. Muijd.r, description of the country of. (i!>. IfaillK-ir. Henry. 51. ^ff^th'tt.t(tlfttfl. -!T. Jfciniimi, Kin^r of Kthiopia. >7. ,]/' iii \.wise laeTi of 1 lie Mayas. 71. .1/7////Y/, mysteries of. '.27. JAoo, who she was, 7S. - history of c o n s p i r uc y . against, si. - rejects the love of Aac, s.2. Mold;/, .Jacques de. enticed to Paris and arrested. 2. - burnt alive. .'!. appoints his successor. '!. MOV*, 51. f, the initiated. 1!). .\iunht-r 7. origin of its syni- bolization. 14:5. 14!). O - its origin as symbol, . - forms the ground plan of temples and palaces, li'J. (tlir -HCN, <) noted. L'S. < > r p h eit ft , i n i t i a t ed into Egyptian sacred myster- ies founds the orphic. is. o:}. C0. 1 :;.">. OrpJu'f J///.v/f-/vV.v, 72. O.svY/.v, :!4. 45). - murder of, 74. culture hero. 74. - his history. 7.~>. - meaning of the name. ST. - believed to be a mythical beinjr. S'.l. p -. 50. P(tllf its sym- boli/.ation. \'-\(\. 5. origin of its symboli/.a- tion. 141, 142. f, Thomas, 2. Pent.sic.i'n<;ia'tts, their i n c o r - ])o rut ion into Free- masonry, 9. S y. Stephen, 84. DK-t-ntu-y at Uxmaf, descrip- tion of, 35. -iilie-in.ed still in India, 121. title of the Kings of Mayax, 121 origin of. and tree worship in America, 12:5. /o//, 41. ul, Maya belief in immortal- ity of the. 124. ricd, causes tlie death of JJali. 77 moaning of the name, 1)0. ibo. quoted, :!1. r/unon- 1 -, Lord, (irand master. S. inbolx. masonic, identical in the temples of Egypt, ( 'iiald(-a. India., and ( 'en- tral America 11 masonic. in Fxmal. (55. their meaning, (ifi, (17. found under the. base of Cleopatra's needle. 17. of worship, the same in Mayax, Kgypt,and Peru, 94. 105. Symbolization of n u m b e r three. i;5(i. of number five, 142. of number seven, 149. T Trio-fur, 5.1. Tan. meaning of mystic. 1152. complex form of. its origin, Io2 Ti-ni]>t'- of mysteries at Ux- inal. ;!'!. Temptation, origin of teui])ta- tion oi the \\omaii in the garden. ^2. 8;>. Tludkx, initiated to Egyptian sacred mysteries IS. Thi'ou, of Smyrna, quoted. 24. TJieoj)hillt.s (Bishop), pei-se- cutc-s the worshipei's of Isis and Osiris. Id. Theti)noj)horia, mysteries of Ceres. i:)4. Thoin])Nn, Charles O., certi- ficate of chemical analy- sis. s4. N.I TJiotli, god of letters in Egypt, his description of the creation. 1 10. Tialiiiu i/ IK-O, explanation of sculpture* on .Monolith- gat e. at, 102. Ti-H/MtiKj, king of the country in the middle of the land, 90. Tien llodnu, liis twelve chil- d'-en. '.Hi. [124. Tree worxhijt in America, 12:3, INDEX. 163 Tree worship by the Phoenic- ians, Druids, Scandina- vians, the inhabitants of Delos, Samos, Athens, Dodona, Arcadia. Ca- naan, India, Ceylon, 12:5. Egypt, Assyria. 124. relationship between the serpent and tree wor- ship, 124. sacred, among the Mayas, 124. Triangle as a symbol, GO. its meaning among the Mayas, 61. - its meaning among the Egyptians, 63. Triangular Arches, symbols of a Triune God, 62. Wilford, Captain, quoted, 33. William 111., King of Eng- land, initiated into Free- masonry, 4. Winged circle, symbol of, 124. Words of dismissal, 21. their meaning, 22, 33. Worshipers of Is is and Osiris persecuted by Bishops G eorge, Theophilus, Cyril, 16. JTibalba, 42, 45, 48, 49. U Uati, goddess, genius of lower Egypt, its symbols, 115. Uiracocha. god, 56. Yaqui nation, 48. Yaxche, sacred tree among the Mayas, 124. origin of the eruz-ansata, of the cone as symbol of the mystic Tau, 132. V Valmiki, quoted, 75, 76. 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