ATLANTIS
THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD.
BY
IGNATIUS DONNELLY.
The world has made such comet-like advance
Lately on science, we may almost hope,
Before we die of sheer decay, to learn
Something about our infancy; when lived
That great, original, broad-eyed, sunken race,
Whose knowledge, like the sea-sustaining rocks,
Hath formed the base of this world's fluctuous lore
FESTUS.
{scanned at sacred-texts, November 2000. Notes by transcriber are enclosed
in wavy brackets. Transcribed Greek is shown in monospaced font. The system
of Greek transcription is described at the sacred-texts website.}
CONTENTS.
PART I.
THE HISTORY OF ATLANTIS.
I. THE PURPOSE OF THE BOOK
II. PLATO'S HISTORY OF ATLANTIS
III. THE PROBABILITIES OF PLATO'S STORY
IV. WAS SUCH A CATASTROPHE POSSIBLE?
V. THE TESTIMONY OF THE SEA
VI. THE TESTIMONY OF THE FLORA AND FAUNA
PART II.
THE DELUGE.
1. THE DESTRUCTION OF ATLANTIS DESCRIBED IN THE DELUGE LEGENDS
Il. THE DELUGE OF THE BIBLE
III. THE DELUGE OF THE CHALDEANS
IV. THE DELUGE LEGENDS OF OTHER NATIONS
V. THE DELUGE LEGENDS OF AMERICA
VI. SOME CONSIDERATION OF THE DELUGE LEGENDS
PART III
THE CIVILIZATION OP THE OLD WORLD AND NEW COMPARED.
I. CIVILIZATION AN INHERITANCE
II. THE IDENTITY OF THE CIVILIZATIONS OF THE OLD WORLD AND THE NEW
III. AMERICAN EVIDENCES OF INTERCOURSE WITH EUROPE OR ATLANTIS
IV. CORROBORATING CIRCUMSTANCES
V. THE QUESTION OF COMPLEXION
VI. GENESIS CONTAINS A HISTORY OF ATLANTIS
VII. THE: ORIGIN OF OUR ALPHABET
VIII. THE BRONZE AGE IN EUROPE
IX. ARTIFICIAL DEFORMATION OF THE SKULL
PART IV.
THE MYTHOLOGIES OF THE OLD WORLD A RECOLLECTION OF ATLANTIS.
I. TRADITIONS OF ATLANTIS
II. THE KINGS OF ATLANTIS BECOME THE GODS OF THE GREEKS
III. THE GODS OF THE PHNICIANS ALSO KINGS OF ATLANTIS
IV. THE GOD ODIN, WODEN, OR WOTAN
V. THE PYRAMID, THE CROSS, AND THE GARDEN OF EDEN
VI. GOLD AND SILVER THE SACRED METALS OF ATLANTIS
PART V.
THE COLONIES OF ATLANTIS.
I. THE CENTRAL AMERICAN AND MEXICAN COLONIES
II. THE EGYPTIAN COLONY
III. THE COLONIES OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY
IV. THE IBERIAN COLONIES OF ATLANTIS
V. THE PERUVIAN COLONY
VI. THE AFRICAN COLONIES
VII. THE IRISH COLONIES FROM ATLANTIS
VIII. THE OLDEST SON OF NOAH
IX. THE ANTIQUITY OF SOME OF OUR GREAT INVENTIONS
X. THE ARYAN COLONIES FROM ATLANTIS
XI. ATLANTIS RECONSTRUCTED
ATLANTIS:
THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD.
PART I. THE HISTORY OF ATLANTIS.
CHAPTER I.
THE PURPOSE OF THE BOOK.
THIS book is an attempt to demonstrate several distinct and novel
propositions. These are:
1. That there once existed in the Atlantic Ocean, opposite the mouth of the
Mediterranean Sea, a large island, which was the remnant of an Atlantic
continent, and known to the ancient world as Atlantis.
2. That the description of this island given by Plato is not, as has been
long supposed, fable, but veritable history.
3. That Atlantis was the region where man first rose from a state of
barbarism to civilization.
4. That it became, in the course of ages, a populous and mighty nation, from
whose overflowings the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi River,
the Amazon, the Pacific coast of South America, the Mediterranean, the west
coast of Europe and Africa, the Baltic, the Black Sea, and the Caspian were
populated by civilized nations.
5. That it was the true Antediluvian world; the Garden of Eden; the Gardens
of the Hesperides; the Elysian Fields; the Gardens of Alcinous; the
Mesomphalos; the Olympos; the Asgard of the traditions of the ancient
nations; representing a universal memory of a great land, where early
mankind dwelt for ages in peace and happiness.
6. That the gods and goddesses of the ancient Greeks, the Phnicians, the
Hindoos, and the Scandinavians were simply the kings, queens, and heroes of
Atlantis; and the acts attributed to them in mythology are a confused
recollection of real historical events.
7. That the mythology of Egypt and Peru represented the original religion of
Atlantis, which was sun-worship.
8. That the oldest colony formed by the Atlanteans was probably in Egypt,
whose civilization was a reproduction of that of the Atlantic island.
9. That the implements of the "Bronze Age" of Europe were derived from
Atlantis. The Atlanteans were also the first manufacturers of iron.
10. That the Phnician alphabet, parent of all the European alphabets, was
derived from au Atlantis alphabet, which was also conveyed from Atlantis to
the Mayas of Central America.
11. That Atlantis was the original seat of the Aryan or Indo-European family
of nations, as well as of the Semitic peoples, and possibly also of the
Turanian races.
12. That Atlantis perished in a terrible convulsion of nature, in which the
whole island sunk into the ocean, with nearly all its inhabitants.
13. That a few persons escaped in ships and on rafts, and, carried to the
nations east and west the tidings of the appalling catastrophe, which has
survived to our own time in the Flood and Deluge legends of the different
nations of the old and new worlds.
If these propositions can be proved, they will solve many problems which now
perplex mankind; they will confirm in many respects the statements in the
opening chapters of Genesis; they will widen the area of human history; they
will explain the remarkable resemblances which exist between the ancient
civilizations found upon the opposite shores of the Atlantic Ocean, in the
old and new worlds; and they will aid us to rehabilitate the fathers of our
civilization, our blood, and our fundamental ideas-the men who lived, loved,
and labored ages before the Aryans descended upon India, or the Phnician
had settled in Syria, or the Goth had reached the shores of the Baltic.
The fact that the story of Atlantis was for thousands of years regarded as a
fable proves nothing. There is an unbelief which grows out of ignorance, as
well as a scepticism which is born of intelligence. The people nearest to
the past are not always those who are best informed concerning the past.
For a thousand years it was believed that the legends of the buried cities
of Pompeii and Herculaneum were myths: they were spoken of as "the fabulous
cities." For a thousand years the educated world did not credit the accounts
given by Herodotus of the wonders of the ancient civilizations of the Nile
and of Chaldea. He was called "the father of liars." Even Plutarch sneered
at him. Now, in the language of Frederick Schlegel, "the deeper and more
comprehensive the researches of the moderns have been, the more their regard
and esteem for Herodotus has increased." Buckle says, "His minute
information about Egypt and Asia Minor is admitted by all geographers."
There was a time when the expedition sent out by Pharaoh Necho to
circumnavigate Africa was doubted, because the explorers stated that after
they had progressed a certain distance the sun was north of them; this
circumstance, which then aroused suspicion, now proves to us that the
Egyptian navigators had really passed the equator, and anticipated by 2100
years Vasquez de Gama in his discovery of the Cape of Good Hope.
If I succeed in demonstrating the truth of the somewhat startling
propositions with which I commenced this chapter, it will only be by
bringing to bear upon the question of Atlantis a thousand converging lines
of light from a multitude of researches made by scholars in different fields
of modern thought. Further investigations and discoveries will, I trust,
confirm the correctness of the conclusions at which I have arrived.
CHAPTER II.
PLATO'S HISTORY OF ATLANTIS.
PLATO has preserved for us the history of Atlantis. If our views are
correct, it is one of the most valuable records which have come down to us
from antiquity.
Plato lived 400 years before the birth of Christ. His ancestor, Solon, was
the great law-giver of Athens 600 years before the Christian era. Solon
visited Egypt. Plutarch says, "Solon attempted in verse a large description,
or rather fabulous account of the Atlantic Island, which he had learned from
the wise men of Sais, and which particularly concerned the Athenians; but by
reason of his age, not want of leisure (as Plato would have it), he was
apprehensive the work would be too much for him, and therefore did not go
through with it. These verses are a proof that business was not the
hinderance:
"'I grow in learning as I grow in age.'
And again:
"'Wine, wit, and beauty still their charms bestow,
Light all the shades of life, and cheer us as we go.'
"Plato, ambitious to cultivate and adorn the subject of the Atlantic Island,
as a delightful spot in some fair field unoccupied, to which also be had
some claim by reason of his being related to Solon, laid out magnificent
courts and enclosures, and erected a grand entrance to it, such as no other
story, fable, or Poem ever had. But, as he began it late, he ended his life
before the work, so that the more the reader is delighted with the part that
is written, the more regret he has to find it unfinished."
There can be no question that Solon visited Egypt. The causes of his
departure from Athens, for a period of ten years, are fully explained by
Plutarch. He dwelt, be tells us,
"On the Canopian shore, by Nile's deep mouth."
There be conversed upon points of philosophy and history with the most
learned of the Egyptian priests. He was a man of extraordinary force and
penetration of mind, as his laws and his sayings, which have been preserved
to us, testify. There is no improbability in the statement that be commenced
in verse a history and description of Atlantis, which be left unfinished at
his death; and it requires no great stretch of the imagination to believe
that this manuscript reached the bands of his successor and descendant,
Plato; a scholar, thinker, and historian like himself, and, like himself,
one of the profoundest minds of the ancient world. the Egyptian priest had
said to Solon, "You have no antiquity of history, and no history of
antiquity;" and Solon doubtless realized fully the vast importance of a
record which carried human history back, not only thousands of years before
the era of Greek civilization, but many thousands of years before even the
establishment of the kingdom of Egypt; and be was anxious to preserve for
his half-civilized countrymen this inestimable record of the past.
We know of no better way to commence a book about Atlantis than by giving in
full the record preserved by Plato. It is as follows:
Critias. Then listen, Socrates, to a strange tale, which is, however,
certainly true, as Solon, who was the wisest of the seven sages, declared.
He was a relative and great friend of my great-grandfather, Dropidas, as be
himself says in several of his poems; and Dropidas told Critias, my
grandfather, who remembered, and told us, that there were of old great and
marvellous actions of the Athenians, which have passed into oblivion through
time and the destruction of the human race and one in particular, which was
the greatest of them all, the recital of which will be a suitable testimony
of our gratitude to you....
Socrates. Very good; and what is. this ancient famous action of which
Critias spoke, not as a mere legend, but as a veritable action of the
Athenian State, which Solon recounted!
Critias. I will tell an old-world story which I heard from an aged man; for
Critias was, as be said, at that time nearly ninety years of age, and I was
about ten years of age. Now the day was that day of the Apaturia which is
called the registration of youth; at which, according to custom, our parents
gave prizes for recitations, and the poems of several poets were recited by
us boys, and many of us sung the poems of Solon, which were new at the time.
One of our tribe, either because this was his real opinion, or because he
thought that he would please Critias, said that, in his judgment, Solon was
not only the wisest of men but the noblest of poets. The old man, I well
remember, brightened up at this, and said, smiling: "Yes, Amynander, if
Solon had only, like other poets, made poetry the business of his life, and
had completed the tale which he brought with him from Egypt, and had not
been compelled, by reason of the factions and troubles which he found
stirring in this country when he came home, to attend to other matters, in
my opinion be would have been as famous as Homer, or Hesiod, or any poet."
"And what was that poem about, Critias?" said the person who addressed him.
"About the greatest action which the Athenians ever did, and which ought to
have been most famous, but which, through the lapse of time and the
destruction of the actors, has not come down to us."
"Tell us," said the other, "the whole story, and bow and from whom Solon
heard this veritable tradition."
He replied: "At the head of the Egyptian Delta, where the river Nile
divides, there is a certain district which is called the district of Sais,
and the great city of the district is also called Sais, and is the city from
which Amasis the king was sprung. And the citizens have a deity who is their
foundress: she is called in the Egyptian tongue Neith, which is asserted by
them to be the same whom the Hellenes called Athene. Now, the citizens of
this city are great lovers of the Athenians, and say that they are in some
way related to them. Thither came Solon, who was received by them with great
honor; and be asked the priests, who were most skilful in such matters,
about antiquity, and made the discovery that neither he nor any other
Hellene knew anything worth mentioning about the times of old. On one
occasion, when he was drawing them on to speak of antiquity, he began to
tell about the most ancient things in our part of the world--about
Phoroneus, who is called 'the first,' and about Niobe; and, after the
Deluge, to tell of the lives of Deucalion and Pyrrha; and he traced the
genealogy of their descendants, and attempted to reckon bow many years old
were the events of which he was speaking, and to give the dates. Thereupon,
one of the priests, who was of very great age; said, 'O Solon, Solon, you
Hellenes are but children, and there is never an old man who is an Hellene.'
Solon, bearing this, said, 'What do you mean?' 'I mean to say,' he replied,
'that in mind you are all young; there is no old opinion handed down among
you by ancient tradition, nor any science which is hoary with age. And I
will tell you the reason of this: there have been, and there will be again,
many destructions of mankind arising out of many causes. There is a story
which even you have preserved, that once upon a time Phaëthon, the son of
Helios, having yoked the steeds in his father's chariot, because he was not
able to drive them in the path of his father, burnt up all that was upon the
earth, and was himself destroyed by a thunderbolt. Now, this has the form of
a myth, but really signifies a declination of the bodies moving around the
earth and in the heavens, and a great conflagration of things upon the earth
recurring at long intervals of time: when this happens, those who live upon
the mountains and in dry and lofty places are more liable to destruction
than those who dwell by rivers or on the sea-shore; and from this calamity
the Nile, who is our never-failing savior, saves and delivers us. When, on
the other hand, the gods purge the earth with a deluge of water, among you
herdsmen and shepherds on the mountains are the survivors, whereas those of
you who live in cities are carried by the rivers into the sea; but in this
country neither at that time nor at any other does the water come from above
on the fields, having always a tendency to come up from below, for which
reason the things preserved here are said to be the oldest. The fact is,
that wherever the extremity of winter frost or of summer sun does not
prevent, the human race is always increasing at times, and at other times
diminishing in numbers. And whatever happened either in your country or in
ours, or in any other region of which we are informed--if any action which
is noble or great, or in any other way remarkable has taken place, all that
has been written down of old, and is preserved in our temples; whereas you
and other nations are just being provided with letters and the other things
which States require; and then, at the usual period, the stream from heaven
descends like a pestilence, and leaves only those of you who are destitute
of letters and education; and thus you have to begin all over again as
children, and know nothing of what happened in ancient times, either among
us or among yourselves. As for those genealogies of yours which you have
recounted to us, Solon, they are no better than the tales of children; for,
in the first place, you remember one deluge only, whereas there were many of
them; and, in the next place, you do not know that there dwelt in your land
the fairest and noblest race of men which ever lived, of whom you and your
whole city are but a seed or remnant. And this was unknown to you, because
for many generations the survivors of that destruction died and made no
sign. For there was a time, Solon, before that great deluge of all, when the
city which now is Athens was first in war, and was preeminent for the
excellence of her laws, and is said to have performed the noblest deeds, and
to have had the fairest constitution of any of which tradition tells, under
the face of heaven.' Solon marvelled at this, and earnestly requested the
priest to inform him exactly and in order about these former citizens. 'You
are welcome to hear about them, Solon,' said the priest, 'both for your own
sake and for that of the city; and, above all, for the sake of the goddess
who is the common patron and protector and educator of both our cities. She
founded your city a thousand years before ours, receiving from the Earth and
Hephæstus the seed of your race, and then she founded ours, the constitution
of which is set down in our sacred registers as 8000 years old. As touching
the citizens of 9000 years ago, I will briefly inform you of their laws and
of the noblest of their actions; and the exact particulars of the whole we
will hereafter go through at our leisure. in the sacred registers
themselves. If you compare these very laws with your own, you will find that
many of ours are the counterpart of yours, as they were in the olden time.
In the first place, there is the caste of priests, which is separated from
all the others; next there are the artificers, who exercise their several
crafts by themselves, and without admixture of any other; and also there is
the class of shepherds and that of hunters, as well as that of husbandmen;
and you will observe, too, that the warriors in Egypt are separated from all
the other classes, and are commanded by the law only to engage in war;
moreover, the weapons with which they are equipped are shields and spears,
and this the goddess taught first among you, and then in Asiatic countries,
and we among the Asiatics first adopted.
"'Then, as to wisdom, do you observe what care the law took from the very
first, searching out and comprehending the whole order of things down to
prophecy and medicine (the latter with a view to health); and out of these
divine elements drawing what was needful for human life, and adding every
sort of knowledge which was connected with them. All this order and
arrangement the goddess first imparted to you when establishing your city;
and she chose the spot of earth in which you were born, because she saw that
the happy temperament of the seasons in that land would produce the wisest
of men. Wherefore the goddess, who was a lover both of war and of wisdom,
selected, and first of all settled that spot which was the most likely to
produce men likest herself. And there you dwelt, having such laws as these
and still better ones, and excelled all mankind in all virtue, as became the
children and disciples of the gods. Many great and wonderful deeds are
recorded of your State in our histories; but one of them exceeds all the
rest in greatness and valor; for these histories tell of a mighty power
which was aggressing wantonly against the whole of Europe and Asia, and to
which your city put an end. This power came forth out of the Atlantic Ocean,
for in those days the Atlantic was navigable; and there was an island
situated in front of the straits which you call the Columns of Heracles: the
island was larger than Libya and Asia put together, and was the way to other
islands, and from the islands you might pass through the whole of the
opposite continent which surrounded the true ocean; for this sea which is
within the Straits of Heracles is only a harbor, having a narrow entrance,
but that other is a real sea, and the surrounding land may be most truly
called a continent. Now, in the island of Atlantis there was a great and
wonderful empire, which had rule over the whole island and several others,
as well as over parts of the continent; and, besides these, they subjected
the parts of Libya within the Columns of Heracles as far as Egypt, and of
Europe as far as Tyrrhenia. The vast power thus gathered into one,
endeavored to subdue at one blow our country and yours, and the whole of the
land which was within the straits; and then, Solon, your country shone
forth, in the excellence of her virtue and strength, among all mankind; for
she was the first in courage and military skill, and was the leader of the
Hellenes. And when the rest fell off from her, being compelled to stand
alone, after having undergone the very extremity of danger, she defeated and
triumphed over the invaders, and preserved from slavery those who were not
yet subjected, and freely liberated all the others who dwelt within the
limits of Heracles. But afterward there occurred violent earthquakes and
floods, and in a single day and night of rain all your warlike men in a body
sunk into the earth, and the island of Atlantis in like manner disappeared,
and was sunk beneath the sea. And that is the reason why the sea in those
parts is impassable and impenetrable, because there is such a quantity of
shallow mud in the way; and this was caused by the subsidence of the
island.' ("Plato's Dialogues," ii., 617, Timæus.) . . .
"But in addition to the gods whom you have mentioned, I would specially
invoke Mnemosyne; for all the important part of what I have to tell is
dependent on her favor, and if I can recollect and recite enough of what was
said by the priests, and brought hither by Solon, I doubt not that I shall
satisfy the requirements of this theatre. To that task, then, I will at once
address myself.
"Let me begin by observing, first of all, that nine thousand was the sum of
years which had elapsed since the war which was said to have taken place
between all those who dwelt outside the Pillars of Heracles and those who
dwelt within them: this war I am now to describe. Of the combatants on the
one side the city of Athens was reported to have been the ruler, and to have
directed the contest; the combatants on the other side were led by the kings
of the islands of Atlantis, which, as I was saying, once had an extent
greater than that of Libya and Asia; and, when afterward sunk by an
earthquake, became an impassable barrier of mud to voyagers sailing from
hence to the ocean. The progress of the history will unfold the various
tribes of barbarians and Hellenes which then existed, as they successively
appear on the scene; but I must begin by describing, first of all, the
Athenians as they were in that day, and their enemies who fought with them;
and I shall have to tell of the power and form of government of both of
them. Let us give the precedence to Athens. . . .
Many great deluges have taken place during the nine thousand years, for that
is the number of years which have elapsed since the time of which I am
speaking; and in all the ages and changes of things there has never been any
settlement of the earth flowing down from the mountains, as in other places,
which is worth speaking of; it has always been carried round in a circle,
and disappeared in the depths below. The consequence is that, in comparison
of what then was, there are remaining in small islets only the bones of the
wasted body, as they may be called, all the richer and softer parts of the
soil having fallen away, and the mere skeleton of the country being left. .
. .
"And next, if I have not forgotten what I heard when I was a child, I will
impart to you the character and origin of their adversaries; for friends
should not keep their stories to themselves, but have them in common. Yet,
before proceeding farther in the narrative, I ought to warn you that you
must not be surprised if you should bear Hellenic names given to foreigners.
I will tell you the reason of this: Solon, who was intending to use the tale
for his poem, made an investigation into the meaning of the names, and found
that the early Egyptians, in writing them down, had translated them into
their own language, and be recovered the meaning of the several names and
retranslated them, and copied them out again in our language. My great-
grandfather, Dropidas, had the original writing, which is still in my
possession, and was carefully studied by me when I was a child. Therefore,
if you bear names such as are used in this country, you must not be
surprised, for I have told you the reason of them.
"The tale, which was of great length, began as follows: I have before
remarked, in speaking of the allotments of the gods, that they distributed
the whole earth into portions differing in extent, and made themselves
temples and sacrifices. And Poseidon, receiving for his lot the island of
Atlantis, begat children by a mortal woman, and settled them in a part of
the island which I will proceed to describe. On the side toward the sea, and
in the centre of the whole island, there was a plain which is said to have
been the fairest of all plains, and very fertile. Near the plain again, and
also in the centre of the island, at a distance of about fifty stadia, there
was a mountain, not very high on any side. In this mountain there dwelt one
of the earth-born primeval men of that country, whose name was Evenor, and
he had a wife named Leucippe, and they had an only daughter, who was named
Cleito. The maiden was growing up to womanhood when her father and mother
died; Poseidon fell in love with her, and had intercourse with her; and,
breaking the ground, enclosed the hill in which she dwelt all round, making
alternate zones of sea and land, larger and smaller, encircling one another;
there were two of land and three of water, which he turned as with a lathe
out of the centre of the island, equidistant every way, so that no man could
get to the island, for ships and voyages were not yet heard of. He himself,
as be was a god, found no difficulty in making special arrangements for the
centre island, bringing two streams of water under the earth, which he
caused to ascend as springs, one of warm water and the other of cold, and
making every variety of food to spring up abundantly in the earth. He also
begat and brought up five pairs of male children, dividing the island of
Atlantis into ten portions: he gave to the first-born of the eldest pair his
mother's dwelling and the surrounding allotment, which was the largest and
best, and made him king over the rest; the others he made princes, and gave
them rule over many men and a large territory. And he named them all: the
eldest, who was king, he named Atlas, and from him the whole island and the
ocean received the name of Atlantic. To his twin-brother, who was born after
him, and obtained as his lot the extremity of the island toward the Pillars
of Heracles, as far as the country which is still called the region of Gades
in that part of the world, be gave the name which in the Hellenic language
is Eumelus, in the language of the country which is named after him,
Gadeirus. Of the second pair of twins, he called one Ampheres and the other
Evæmon. To the third pair of twins he gave the name Mneseus to the elder,
and Autochthon to the one who followed him. Of the fourth pair of twins he
called the elder Elasippus and the younger Mestor, And of the fifth pair be
gave to the elder the name of Azaes, and to the younger Diaprepes. All these
and their descendants were the inhabitants and rulers of divers islands in
the open sea; and also, as has been already said, they held sway in the
other direction over the country within the Pillars as far as Egypt and
Tyrrhenia. Now Atlas had a numerous and honorable family, and his eldest
branch always retained the kingdom, which the eldest son handed on to his
eldest for many generations; and they had such an amount of wealth as was
never before possessed by kings and potentates, and is not likely ever to be
again, and they were furnished with everything which they could have, both
in city and country. For, because of the greatness of their empire, many
things were brought to them from foreign countries, and the island itself
provided much of what was required by them for the uses of life. In the
first place, they dug out of the earth whatever was to be found there,
mineral as well as metal, and that which is now only a name, and was then
something more than a name--orichalcum--was dug out of the earth in many
parts of the island, and, with the exception of gold, was esteemed the most
precious of metals among the men of those days. There was an abundance of
wood for carpenters' work, and sufficient maintenance for tame and wild
animals. Moreover, there were a great number of elephants in the island, and
there was provision for animals of every kind, both for those which live in
lakes and marshes and rivers, and also for those which live in mountains and
on plains, and therefore for the animal which is the largest and most
voracious of them. Also, whatever fragrant things there are in the earth,
whether roots, or herbage, or woods, or distilling drops of flowers or
fruits, grew and thrived in that land; and again, the cultivated fruit of
the earth, both the dry edible fruit and other species of food, which we
call by the general name of legumes, and the fruits having a hard rind,
affording drinks, and meats, and ointments, and good store of chestnuts and
the like, which may be used to play with, and are fruits which spoil with
keeping--and the pleasant kinds of dessert which console us after dinner,
when we are full and tired of eating--all these that sacred island lying
beneath the sun brought forth fair and wondrous in infinite abundance. All
these things they received from the earth, and they employed themselves in
constructing their temples, and palaces, and harbors, and docks; and they
arranged the whole country in the following manner: First of all they
bridged over the zones of sea which surrounded the ancient metropolis, and
made a passage into and out of they began to build the palace in the royal
palace; and then the habitation of the god and of their ancestors. This they
continued to ornament in successive generations, every king surpassing the
one who came before him to the utmost of his power, until they made the
building a marvel to behold for size and for beauty. And, beginning from the
sea, they dug a canal three hundred feet in width and one hundred feet in
depth, and fifty stadia in length, which they carried through to the
outermost zone, making a passage from the sea up to this, which became a
harbor, and leaving an opening sufficient to enable the largest vessels to
find ingress. Moreover, they divided the zones of land which parted the
zones of sea, constructing bridges of such a width as would leave a passage
for a single trireme to pass out of one into another, and roofed them over;
and there was a way underneath for the ships, for the banks of the zones
were raised considerably above the water. Now the largest of the zones into
which a passage was cut from the sea was three stadia in breadth, and the
zone of land which came next of equal breadth; but the next two, as well the
zone of water as of land, were two stadia, and the one which surrounded the
central island was a stadium only in width. The island in which the palace
was situated had a diameter of five stadia. This, and the zones and the
bridge, which was the sixth part of a stadium in width, they surrounded by a
stone wall, on either side placing towers, and gates on the bridges where
the sea passed in. The stone which was used in the work they quarried from
underneath the centre island and from underneath the zones, on the outer as
well as the inner side. One kind of stone was white, another black, and a
third red; and, as they quarried, they at the same time hollowed out docks
double within, having roofs formed out of the native rock. Some of their
buildings were simple, but in others they put together different stones,
which they intermingled for the sake of ornament, to be a natural source of
delight. The entire circuit of the wall which went round the outermost one
they covered with a coating of brass, and the circuit of the next wall they
coated with tin, and the third, which encompassed the citadel flashed with
the red light of orichalcum. The palaces in the interior of the citadel were
constructed in this wise: In the centre was a holy temple dedicated to
Cleito and Poseidon, which remained inaccessible, and was surrounded by an
enclosure of gold; this was the spot in which they originally begat the race
of the ten princes, and thither they annually brought the fruits of the
earth in their season from all the ten portions, and performed sacrifices to
each of them. Here, too, was Poiseidon's own temple, of a stadium in length
and half a stadium in width, and of a proportionate height, having a sort of
barbaric splendor. All the outside of the temple, with the exception of the
pinnacles, they covered with silver, and the pinnacles with gold. In the
interior of the temple the roof was of ivory, adorned everywhere with gold
and silver and orichalcum; all the other parts of the walls and pillars and
floor they lined with orichalcum. In the temple they placed statues of gold:
there was the god himself standing in a chariot--the charioteer of six
winged horses--and of such a size that be touched the roof of the building
with his bead; around him there were a hundred Nereids riding on dolphins,
for such was thought to be the number of them in that day. There were also
in the interior of the temple other images which had been dedicated by
private individuals. And around the temple on the outside were placed
statues of gold of all the ten kings and of their wives; and there were many
other great offerings, both of kings and of private individuals, coming both
from the city itself and the foreign cities over which they held sway. There
was an altar, too, which in size and workmanship corresponded to the rest of
the work, and there were palaces in like manner which answered to the
greatness of the kingdom and the glory of the temple.
"In the next place, they used fountains both of cold and hot springs; these
were very abundant, and both kinds wonderfully adapted to use by reason of
the sweetness and excellence of their waters. They constructed buildings
about them, and planted suitable trees; also cisterns, some open to the
heaven, other which they roofed over, to be used in winter as warm baths,
there were the king's baths, and the baths of private persons, which were
kept apart; also separate baths for women, and others again for horses and
cattle, and to them they gave as much adornment as was suitable for them.
The water which ran off they carried, some to the grove of Poseidon, where
were growing all manner of trees of wonderful height and beauty, owing to
the excellence of the soil; the remainder was conveyed by aqueducts which
passed over the bridges to the outer circles: and there were many temples
built and dedicated to many gods; also gardens and places of exercise, some
for men, and some set apart for horses, in both of the two islands formed by
the zones; and in the centre of the larger of the two there was a race-
course of a stadium in width, and in length allowed to extend all round the
island, for horses to race in. Also there were guard-houses at intervals for
the body-guard, the more trusted of whom had their duties appointed to them
in the lesser zone, which was nearer the Acropolis; while the most trusted
of all had houses given them within the citadel, and about the persons of
the kings. The docks were full of triremes and naval stores, and all things
were quite ready for use. Enough of the plan of the royal palace. Crossing
the outer harbors, which were three in number, you would come to a wall
which began at the sea and went all round: this was everywhere distant fifty
stadia from the largest zone and harbor, and enclosed the whole, meeting at
the mouth of the channel toward the sea. The entire area was densely crowded
with habitations; and the canal and the largest of the harbors were full of
vessels and merchants coming from all parts, who, from their numbers, kept
up a multitudinous sound of human voices and din of all sorts night and day.
I have repeated his descriptions of the city and the parts about the ancient
palace nearly as he gave them, and now I must endeavor to describe the
nature and arrangement of the rest of the country. The whole country was
described as being very lofty and precipitous on the side of the sea, but
the country immediately about and surrounding the city was a level plain,
itself surrounded by mountains which descended toward the sea; it was smooth
and even, but of an oblong shape, extending in one direction three thousand
stadia, and going up the country from the sea through the centre of the
island two thousand stadia; the whole region of the island lies toward the
south, and is sheltered from the north. The surrounding mountains he
celebrated for their number and size and beauty, in which they exceeded all
that are now to be seen anywhere; having in them also many wealthy inhabited
villages, and rivers and lakes, and meadows supplying food enough for every
animal, wild or tame, and wood of various sorts, abundant for every kind of
work. I will now describe the plain, which had been cultivated during many
ages by many generations of kings. It was rectangular, and for the most part
straight and oblong; and what it wanted of the straight line followed the
line of the circular ditch. The depth and width and length of this ditch
were incredible and gave the impression that such a work, in addition to so
many other works, could hardly have been wrought by the hand of man. But I
must say what I have heard. It was excavated to the depth of a hundred feet,
and its breadth was a stadium everywhere; it was carried round the whole of
the plain, and was ten thousand stadia in length. It received the streams
which came down from the mountains, and winding round the plain, and
touching the city at various points, was there let off into the sea. From
above, likewise, straight canals of a hundred feet in width were cut in the
plain, and again let off into the ditch, toward the sea; these canals were
at intervals of a Hundred stadia, and by them they brought, down the wood
from the mountains to the city, and conveyed the fruits of the earth in
ships, cutting transverse passages from one canal into another, and to the
city. Twice in the year they gathered the fruits of the earth--in winter
having the benefit of the rains, and in summer introducing the water of the
canals. As to the population, each of the lots in the plain had an appointed
chief of men who were fit for military service, and the size of the lot was
to be a square of ten stadia each way, and the total number of all the lots
was sixty thousand.
"And of the inhabitants of the mountains and of the rest of the country
there was also a vast multitude having leaders, to whom they were assigned
according to their dwellings and villages. The leader was required to
furnish for the war the sixth portion of a war-chariot, so as to make up a
total of ten thousand chariots; also two horses and riders upon them, and a
light chariot without a seat, accompanied by a fighting man on foot carrying
a small shield, and having a charioteer mounted to guide the horses; also,
be was bound to furnish two heavy-armed men, two archers, two slingers,
three stone-shooters, and three javelin men, who were skirmishers, and four
sailors to make up a complement of twelve hundred ships. Such was the order
of war in the royal city--that of the other nine governments was different
in each of them, and would be wearisome to narrate. As to offices and
honors, the following was the arrangement from the first: Each of the ten
kings, in his own division and in his own city, had the absolute control of
the citizens, and in many cases of the laws, punishing and slaying
whomsoever be would.
"Now the relations of their governments to one another were regulated by the
injunctions of Poseidon as the law had handed them down. These were
inscribed by the first men on a column of orichalcum, which was situated in
the middle of the island, at the temple of Poseidon, whither the people were
gathered together every fifth and sixth years alternately, thus giving equal
honor to the odd and to the even number. And when they were gathered
together they consulted about public affairs, and inquired if any one had
transgressed in anything, and passed judgment on him accordingly--and before
they passed judgment they gave their pledges to one another in this wise:
There were bulls who had the range of the temple of Poseidon; and the ten
who were left alone in the temple, after they had offered prayers to the
gods that they might take the sacrifices which were acceptable to them,
hunted the bulls without weapons, but with staves and nooses; and the bull
which they caught they led up to the column; the victim was then struck on
the head by them, and slain over the sacred inscription, Now on the column,
besides the law, there was inscribed an oath invoking mighty curses on the
disobedient. When, therefore, after offering sacrifice according to their
customs, they had burnt the limbs of the bull, they mingled a cup and cast
in a clot of blood for each of them; the rest of the victim they took to the
fire, after having made a purification of the column all round. Then they
drew from the cup in golden vessels, and, pouring a libation on the fire,
they swore t hat they would judge according to the laws on the column, and
would punish any one who had previously transgressed, and that for the
future they would not, if they could help, transgress any of the
inscriptions, and would not command or obey any ruler who commanded them to
act otherwise than according to the laws of their father Poseidon. This was
the prayer which each of them offered up for himself and for his family, at
the same time drinking, and dedicating the vessel in the temple of the god;
and, after spending some necessary time at supper, when darkness came on and
the fire about the sacrifice was cool, all of them put on most beautiful
azure robes, and, sitting on the ground at night near the embers of the
sacrifices on which they had sworn, and extinguishing all the fire about the
temple, they received and gave judgement, if any of them had any accusation
to bring against any one; and, when they had given judgment, at daybreak
they wrote down their sentences on a golden tablet, and deposited them as
memorials with their robes. There were many special laws which the several
kings had inscribed about the temples, but the most important was the
following: That they were not to take up arms against one another, and they
were all to come to the rescue if any one in any city attempted to over.
throw the royal house. Like their ancestors, they were to deliberate in
common about war and other matters, giving the supremacy to the family of
Atlas; and the king was not to have the power of life and death over any of
his kinsmen, unless he had the assent of the majority of the ten kings.
"Such was the vast power which the god settled in the lost island of
Atlantis; and this he afterward directed against our land on the following
pretext, as traditions tell: For many generations, as long as the divine
nature lasted in them, they were obedient to the laws, and well-affectioned
toward the gods, who were their kinsmen; for they possessed true and in
every way great spirits, practising gentleness and wisdom in the various
chances of life, and in their intercourse with one another. They despised
everything but virtue, not caring for their present state of life, arid
thinking lightly on the possession of gold and other property, which seemed
only a burden to them; neither were they intoxicated by luxury; nor did
wealth deprive them of their self-control; but they were sober, and saw
clearly that all these goods are increased by virtuous friendship with one
another, and that by excessive zeal for them, and honor of them, the good of
them is lost, and friendship perishes with them.
"By such reflections, and by the continuance in them of a divine nature, all
that which we have described waxed and increased in them; but when this
divine portion began to fade away in them, and became diluted too often, and
with too much of the mortal admixture, and the human nature got the upper-
hand, then, they being unable to bear their fortune, became unseemly, and to
him who had an eye to see, they began to appear base, and had lost the
fairest of their precious gifts; but to those who had no eye to see the true
happiness, they still appeared glorious and blessed at the very time when
they were filled with unrighteous avarice and power. Zeus, the god of gods,
who rules with law, and is able to see into such things, perceiving that an
honorable race was in a most wretched state, and wanting to inflict
punishment on them, that they might be chastened and improved, collected all
the gods into his most holy habitation, which, being placed in the centre of
the world, sees all things that partake of generation. And when he had
called them together he spake as follows:"
CHAPTER III.
THE PROBABILITIES OF PLATO'S STORY.
THERE is nothing improbable in this narrative, so far as it describes a
great, rich, cultured, and educated people. Almost every part of Plato's
story can be paralleled by descriptions of the people of Egypt or Peru; in
fact, in some respects Plato's account of Atlantis falls short of
Herodotus's description of the grandeur of Egypt, or Prescott's picture of
the wealth and civilization of Peru. For instance, Prescott, in his
"Conquest of Peru" (vol. i., p. 95), says:
"The most renowned of the Peruvian temples, the pride of the capital and the
wonder of the empire, was at Cuzco, where, under the munificence of
successive sovereigns, it had become so enriched that it received the name
of Coricancha, or 'the Place of Gold.' . . . The interior of the temple was
literally a mine of gold. On the western wall was emblazoned a
representation of the Deity, consisting of a human countenance looking forth
from amid innumerable rays of light, which emanated from it in every
direction, in the same manner as the sun is often personified with us. The
figure was engraved on a massive plate of gold, of enormous dimensions,
thickly powdered with emeralds and precious stones. . . . The walls and
ceilings were everywhere incrusted with golden ornaments; every part of the
interior of the temple glowed with burnished plates and studs of the
precious metal; the cornices were of the same material."
There are in Plato's narrative no marvels; no myths; no tales of gods,
gorgons, hobgoblins, or giants. It is a plain and reasonable history of a
people who built temples, ships, and canals; who lived by agriculture and
commerce: who in pursuit of trade, reached out to all the countries around
them. The early history of most nations begins with gods and demons, while
here we have nothing of the kind; we see an immigrant enter the country,
marry one of the native women, and settle down; in time a great nation grows
up around him. It reminds one of the information given by the Egyptian
priests to Herodotus. "During the space of eleven thousand three hundred and
fort years they assert," says Herodotus, "that no divinity has appeared in
human shape, . . . they absolutely denied the possibility of a human being's
descent from a god." If Plato had sought to draw from his imagination a
wonderful and pleasing story, we should not have had so plain and reasonable
a narrative. He would have given us a history like the legends of Greek
mythology, full of the adventures of gods and goddesses, nymphs, fauns, and
satyrs.
Neither is there any evidence on the face of this history that Plato sought
to convey in it a moral or political lesson, in the guise of a fable, as did
Bacon in the "New Atlantis," and More in the "Kingdom of Nowhere." There is
no ideal republic delineated here. It is a straightforward, reasonable
history of a people ruled over by their kings, living and progressing as
other nations have lived and progressed since their day.
Plato says that in Atlantis there was "a great and wonderful empire," which
"aggressed wantonly against the whole of Europe and Asia," thus testifying
to the extent of its dominion. It not only subjugated Africa as far as
Egypt, and Europe as far as Italy, but it ruled "as well over parts of the
continent," to wit, "the opposite continent" of America, "which surrounded
the true ocean." Those parts of America over which it ruled were, as we will
show hereafter, Central America, Peru, and the Valley of the Mississippi,
occupied by the "Mound Builders."
Moreover, be tells us that "this vast power was gathered into one;" that is
to say, from Egypt to Peru it was one consolidated empire. We will see
hereafter that the legends of the Hindoos as to Deva Nahusha distinctly
refer to this vast empire, which covered the whole of the known world.
Another corroboration of the truth of Plato's narrative is found in the fact
that upon the Azores black lava rocks, and rocks red and white in color, are
now found. He says they built with white, red, and black stone. Sir C.
Wyville Thomson describes a narrow neck of land between Fayal and Monte da
Guia, called "Monte Queimada" (the burnt mountain), as follows: "It is
formed partly of stratified tufa of a dark chocolate color, and partly of
lumps of black lava, porous, and each with a large cavity in the centre,
which must have been ejected as volcanic bombs in a glorious display of
fireworks at some period beyond the records of Acorean history, but late in
the geological annals of the island" ("Voyage of the Challenger," vol. ii.,
p. 24). He also describes immense walls of black volcanic rock in the
island.
The plain of Atlantis, Plato tells us, "had been cultivated during many ages
by many generations of kings." If, as we believe, agriculture, the
domestication of the horse, ox, sheep, goat, and bog, and the discovery or
development of wheat, oats, rye, and barley originated in this region, then
this language of Plato in reference to "the many ages, and the successive
generations of kings," accords with the great periods of time which were
necessary to bring man from a savage to a civilized condition.
In the great ditch surrounding the whole land like a circle, and into which
streams flowed down from the mountains, we probably see the original of the
four rivers of Paradise, and the emblem of the cross surrounded by a circle,
which, as we will show hereafter, was, from the earliest pre-Christian ages,
accepted as the emblem of the Garden of Eden.
We know that Plato did not invent the name of Poseidon, for the worship of
Poseidon was universal in the earliest ages of Europe; "Poseidon-worship
seems to have been a peculiarity of all the colonies previous to the time of
Sidon" ("Prehistoric Nations," p. 148.) This worship "was carried to Spain,
and to Northern Africa, but most abundantly to Italy, to many of the
islands, and to the regions around the Ægean Sea; also to Thrace." (Ibid.,
p. 155.)
Poseidon, or Neptune, is represented in Greek mythology as a sea-god; but he
is figured as standing in a war-chariot drawn by horses. The association of
the horse (a land animal) with a sea-god is inexplicable, except with the
light given by Plato. Poseidon was a sea-god because he ruled over a great
land in the sea, and was the national god of a maritime people; be is
associated with horses, because in Atlantis the horse was first
domesticated; and, as Plato shows, the Atlanteans had great race-courses for
the development of speed in horses; and Poseidon is represented as standing
in a war-chariot, because doubtless wheeled vehicles were first invented by
the same people who tamed the horse; and they transmitted these war-chariots
to their descendants from Egypt to Britain. We know that horses were the
favorite objects chosen for sacrifice to Poseidon by the nations of
antiquity within the Historical Period; they were killed, and cast into the
sea from high precipices. The religious horse-feasts of the pagan
Scandinavians were a survival of this Poseidon-worship, which once prevailed
along all the coasts of Europe; they continued until the conversion of the
people to Christianity, and were then suppressed by the Church with great
difficulty.
We find in Plato's narrative the names of some of the Phnician deities
among the kings of Atlantis. Where did the Greek, Plato, get these names if
the story is a fable?
Does Plato, in speaking of "the fruits having a hard rind, affording drinks
and meats and ointments," refer to the cocoa nut?
Again: Plato tells us that Atlantis abounded in both cold and hot springs.
How did he come to hit upon the hot springs if be was drawing a picture from
his imagination? It is a singular confirmation of his story that hot springs
abound in the Azores, which are the surviving fragments of Atlantis; and an
experience wider than that possessed by Plato has taught scientific men that
hot springs are a common feature of regions subject to volcanic convulsions.
Plato tells us, "The whole country was very lofty and precipitous on the
side of the sea, but the country immediately about and surrounding the city
was a level plain, itself surrounded by mountains which descended toward the
sea." One has but to look at the profile of the "Dolphin's Ridge," as
revealed by the deep-sea soundings of the Challenger, given as the
frontispiece to this volume, to see that this is a faithful description of
that precipitous elevation. "The surrounding mountains," which sheltered the
plain from the north, are represented in the present towering peaks of the
Azores.
Plato tells us that the destruction of Atlantis filled the sea with mud, and
interfered with navigation. For thousands of years the ancients believed the
Atlantic Ocean to be "a muddy, shallow, dark, and misty sea, Mare
tenebrosum." ("Cosmos," vol. ii., p. 151.)
The three-pronged sceptre or trident of Poseidon reappears constantly in
ancient history. We find it in the hands of Hindoo gods, and at the base of
all the religious beliefs of antiquity.
"Among the numerals the sacred three has ever been considered the mark of
perfection, and was therefore exclusively ascribed to the Supreme Deity, or
to its earthly representative--a king, emperor, or any sovereign. For this
reason triple emblems of various shapes are found on the belts, neckties, or
any encircling fixture, as can be seen on the works of ancient art in
Yucatan, Guatemala, Chiapas, Mexico, etc., whenever the object has reference
to divine supremacy." (Dr. Arthur Schott, "Smith. Rep.," 1869, p. 391.)
We are reminded of the, "tiara," and the "triple round of sovereignty."
In the same manner the ten kingdoms of Atlantis are perpetuated in all the
ancient traditions.
"In the number given by the Bible for the Antediluvian patriarchs we have
the first instance of a striking agreement with the traditions of various
nations. Ten are mentioned in the Book of Genesis. Other nations, to
whatever epoch they carry back their ancestors, whether before or after the
Deluge, whether the mythical or historical character prevail, they are
constant to this sacred number ten, which some have vainly attempted to
connect with the speculations of later religious philosophers on the
mystical value of numbers. In Chaldea, Berosus enumerates ten Antediluvian
kings whose fabulous reign extended to thousands of years. The legends of
the Iranian race commence with the. reign of ten Peisdadien (Poseidon?)
kings, 'men of the ancient law, who lived on pure Homa (water of life)'
(nectar?), 'and who preserved their sanctity.' In India we meet with the
nine Brahmadikas, who, with Brahma, their founder, make ten, and who are
called the Ten Petris, or Fathers. The Chinese count ten emperors, partakers
of the divine nature, before the dawn of historical times. The Germans
believed in the ten ancestors of Odin, and the Arabs in the ten mythical
kings of the Adites." (Lenormant and Chevallier, "Anc. Hist. of the East,"
vol. i., p. 13.)
The story of Plato finds confirmation from other sources.
An extract preserved in Proclus, taken from a work now lost, which is quoted
by Boeckh in his commentary on Plato, mentions islands in the exterior sea,
beyond the Pillars of Hercules, and says it was known that in one of these
islands "the inhabitants preserved from their ancestors a remembrance of
Atlantis, all extremely large island, which for a long time held dominion
over all the islands of the Atlantic Ocean."
Ælian, in his "Varia Historia" (book iii., chap. xviii.), tells us that
Theopompus (400 B.C.) related the particulars of an interview between Midas,
King of Phrygia, and Silenus, in which Silenus reported the existence of a
great continent beyond the Atlantic, "larger than Asia, Europe, and Libya
together." He stated that a race of men called Meropes dwelt there, and had
extensive cities. They were persuaded that their country alone was a
continent. Out of curiosity some of them crossed the ocean and visited the
Hyperboreans.
"The Gauls possessed traditions upon the subject of Atlantis which were
collected by the Roman historian Timagenes, who lived in the first century
before Christ. He represents that three distinct people dwelt in Gaul: 1.
The indigenous population, which I suppose to be Mongoloids, who had long
dwelt in Europe; 2. The invaders from a distant island, which I understand
to be Atlantis; 3. The Aryan Gauls." ("Preadamites," p. 380.)
Marcellus, in a work on the Ethiopians, speaks of seven islands lying in the
Atlantic Ocean--probably the Canaries--and the inhabitants of these islands,
he says, preserve the memory of a much greater island, Atlantis, "which had
for a long time exercised dominion over the smaller ones." (Didot Müller,
"Fragmenta Historicorum Græcorum," vol. iv., p. 443.)
Diodorus Siculus relates that the Phnicians discovered "a large island in
the Atlantic Ocean, beyond the Pillars of Hercules, several days' sail from
the coast of Africa. This island abounded in all manner of riches. The soil
was exceedingly fertile; the scenery was diversified by rivers, mountains,
and forests. It was the custom of the inhabitants to retire during the
summer to magnificent country-houses, which stood in the midst of beautiful
gardens. Fish and game were found in great abundance; the climate was
delicious, and the trees bore fruit at all seasons of the year." Homer,
Plutarch, and other ancient writers mention islands situated in the
Atlantic, "several thousand stadia from the Pillars of Hercules." Silenus
tells Midas that there was another continent besides Europe, Asia, and
Africa--"a country where gold and silver are so plentiful that they are
esteemed no more than we esteem iron." St. Clement, in his Epistle to the
Corinthians, says that there were other worlds beyond the ocean.
Attention may here be called to the extraordinary number of instances in
which allusion is made in the Old Testament to the "islands of the sea,"
especially in Isaiah and Ezekiel. What had an inland people, like the Jews,
to do with seas and islands? Did these references grow out of vague
traditions linking their race with "islands in the sea?"
The Orphic Argonaut sings of the division of the ancient Lyktonia into
separate islands. He says," When the dark-haired Poseidon, in anger with
Father Kronion, struck Lyktonia with the golden trident."
Plato states that the Egyptians told Solon that the destruction of Atlantis
occurred 9000 years before that date, to wit, about 9600 years before the
Christian era. This looks like an extraordinarily long period of time, but
it must be remembered that geologists claim that the remains of man found in
the caves of Europe date back 500,000 years; and the fossil Calaveras skull
was found deep under the base of Table Mountain, California, the whole
mountain having been formed since the man to whom it belonged lived and
died.
"M. Oppert read an essay at the Brussels Congress to show, from the
astronomical observations of the Egyptians and Assyrians, that 11,542 years
before our era man existed on the earth at such a stage of civilization as
to be able to take note of astronomical phenomena, and to calculate with
considerable accuracy the length of the year. The Egyptians, says he,
calculated by cycles of 1460 years--zodiacal cycles, as they were called.
Their year consisted of 365 days, which caused them to lose one day in every
four solar years, and, consequently, they would attain their original
starting-point again only after 1460 years (365 x 4). Therefore, the
zodiacal cycle ending in the year 139 of our era commenced in the year 1322
B.C. On the other hand, the Assyrian cycle was 1805 years, or 22,325
lunations. An Assyrian cycle began 712 B.C. The Chaldeans state that between
the Deluge and their first historic dynasty there was a period of 39,180
years. Now, what means, this number? It stands for 12 Egyptian zodiacal
cycles plus 12 Assyrian lunar cycles.
12 X 1460 = 17,520
= 39,180
12 X 1805 = 21,660
"These two modes of calculating time are in agreement with each other, and
were known simultaneously to one people, the Chaldeans. Let us now build up
the series of both cycles, starting from our era, and the result will be as
follows:
Zodiacal Cycle.
Lunar Cycle.
1,460
1,805
1,822
712
_____
_____
2,782
2,517
4,242
4,322
5,702
6,127
7,162
7,932
8,622
9,737
110,082
11,542
11,542
"At the year 11,542 B.C. the two cycles came together, and consequently they
had on that year their common origin in one and the same astronomical
observation."
That observation was probably made in Atlantis.
The wide divergence of languages which is found to exist among the
Atlanteans at the beginning of the Historical Period implies a vast lapse of
time. The fact that the nations of the Old World remembered so little of
Atlantis, except the colossal fact of its sudden and overwhelming
destruction, would also seem to remove that event into a remote past.
Herodotus tells us that he learned from the Egyptians that Hercules was one
of their most ancient deities, and that he was one of the twelve produced
from the eight gods, 17,000 years before the reign of Amasis.
In short, I fail to see why this story of Plato, told as history, derived
from the Egyptians, a people who, it is known, preserved most ancient
records, and who were able to trace their existence back to a vast
antiquity, should have been contemptuously set aside as a fable by Greeks,
Romans, and the modern world. It can only be because our predecessors, with
their limited knowledge of the geological history of the world, did not
believe it possible that any large. part of the earth's surface could have
been thus suddenly swallowed up by the sea.
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CHAPTER IV.
WAS SUCH A CATASTROPHE POSSIBLE?
ALL that is needed to answer this question is to briefly refer to some of
the facts revealed by the study of geology.
In the first place, the earth's surface is a record of successive risings
and fallings of the land. The accompanying picture represents a section of
the anthracite coal-measures of Pennsylvania. Each of the coal deposits here
shown, indicated by the black lines, was created when the land had risen
sufficiently above the sea to maintain vegetation; each of the strata of
rock, many of them hundreds of feet in thickness, was deposited under water.
Here we have twenty-three different changes of the level of the land during
the formation of 2000 feet of rock and coal; and these changes took place
over vast areas, embracing thousands of square miles.
All the continents which now exist were, it is well understood, once, under
water, and the rocks of which they are composed were deposited beneath the
water; more than this, most of the rocks so deposited were the detritus or
washings of other continents, which then stood where the oceans now roll,
and whose mountains and plains were ground down by the action of volcanoes
and earthquakes, and frost, ice, wind, and rain, and washed into the sea, to
form the rocks upon which the nations now dwell; so that we have changed the
conditions of land and water: that which is now continent was once sea, and
that which is now sea was formerly continent. There can be no question that
the Australian Archipelago is simply the mountain-tops of a drowned
continent, which once reached from India to South America. Science has gone
so far as to even give it a name; it is called "Lemuria," and here, it is
claimed, the human race originated. An examination of the geological
formation of our Atlantic States proves beyond a doubt, from the manner in
which the sedimentary rocks, the sand, gravel, and mud--aggregating a
thickness of 45,000 feet--are deposited, that they came from the north and
east. "They represent the detritus of pre-existing lands, the washings of
rain, rivers, coast-currents, and other agencies of erosion; and since the
areas supplying the waste could scarcely have been of less extent than the
new strata it formed, it is reasonably inferred that land masses of
continental magnitude must have occupied the region now covered by the North
Atlantic before America began to be, and onward at least through the
palæozoic ages of American history. The proof of this fact is that the great
strata of rocks are thicker the nearer we approach their source in the east:
the maximum thickness of the palæozoic rocks of the Appalachian formation is
25,000 to 35,000 feet in Pennsylvania and Virginia, while their minimum
thickness in Illinois and Missouri is from 3000 to 4000 feet; the rougher
and grosser-textured rocks predominate in the east, while the farther west
we go the finer the deposits were of which the rocks are composed; the finer
materials were carried farther west by the water." ("New Amer. Cyclop.,"
art. Coal.)
The history of the growth of the European Continent, as recounted by
Professor Geikie, gives an instructive illustration of the relations of
geology to geography. The earliest European land, he says, appears to have
existed in the north and north-west, comprising Scandinavia, Finland, and
the northwest of the British area, and to have extended thence through
boreal and arctic latitudes into North America. Of the height and mass of
this primeval land some idea may be formed by considering the enormous bulk
of the material derived from its disintegration. In the Silurian formations
of the British Islands alone there is a mass of rock, worn from the land,
which would form a mountain-chain extending from Marseilles to the North
Cape (1800 miles), with a mean breadth of over thirty-three miles, and an
average height of 16,000 feet.
As the great continent which stood where the Atlantic Ocean now is wore
away, the continents of America and Europe were formed; and there seems to
have been from remote times a continuous rising, still going on, of the new
lands, and a sinking of the old ones. Within five thousand years, or since
the age of the "polished stone," the shores of Sweden, Denmark, and Norway
have risen from 200 to 600 feet.
Professor Winchell says ("The Preadamites," p. 437):
We are in the midst of great, changes, and are scarcely conscious of it. We
have seen worlds in flames, and have felt a cornet strike the earth. We have
seen the whole coast of South America lifted up bodily ten or fifteen feet
and let down again in an hour. We have seen the Andes sink 220 feet in
seventy years. . . Vast transpositions have taken place in the coast-line of
China. The ancient capital, located, in all probability, in an accessible
position near the centre of the empire, has now become nearly surrounded by
water, and its site is on the peninsula of Corea. . . . There was a time
when the rocky barriers of the Thracian Bosphorus gave way and the Black Sea
subsided. It had covered a vast area in the north and east. Now this area
became drained, and was known as the ancient Lectonia: it is now the prairie
region of Russia, and the granary of Europe."
There is ample geological evidence that at one time the entire area of Great
Britain was submerged to the depth of at least seventeen hundred feet. Over
the face of the submerged land was strewn thick beds of sand, gravel, and
clay, termed by geologists "the Northern Drift." The British Islands rose
again from the sea, bearing these water-deposits on their bosom. What is now
Sicily once lay deep beneath the sea: A subsequently rose 3000 feet above
the sea-level. The Desert of Sahara was once under water, and its now
burning sands are a deposit of the sea.
Geologically speaking, the submergence of Atlantis, within the historical
period, was simply the last of a number of vast changes, by which the
continent which once occupied the greater part of the Atlantic had gradually
sunk under the ocean, while the new lands were rising on both sides of it.
We come now to the second question, Is it possible that Atlantis could have
been suddenly destroyed by such a convulsion of nature as is described by
Plato? The ancients regarded this part of his story as a fable. With the
wider knowledge which scientific research has afforded the modern world, we
can affirm that such an event is not only possible, but that the history of
even the last two centuries has furnished us with striking parallels for it.
We now possess the record of numerous islands lifted above the waters, and
others sunk beneath the waves, accompanied by storms and earthquakes similar
to those which marked the destruction of Atlantis.
In 1783 Iceland was visited by convulsions more tremendous than any recorded
in the modern annals of that country. About a month previous to the eruption
on the main-land a submarine volcano burst forth in the sea, at a distance
of thirty miles from the shore. It ejected so much pumice that the sea was
covered with it for a distance of 150 miles, and ships were considerably
impeded in their course. A new island was thrown up, consisting of high
cliffs, which was claimed by his Danish Majesty, and named "Nyöe," or the
New Island; but before a year had elapsed it sunk beneath the sea, leaving a
reef of rocks thirty fathoms under water.
The earthquake of 1783 in Iceland destroyed 9000 people out of a population
of 50,000; twenty villages were consumed by fire or inundated by water, and
a mass of lava thrown out greater than the entire bulk of Mont Blanc."
On the 8th of October, 1822, a great earthquake occurred on the island of
Java, near the mountain of Galung Gung. "A loud explosion was heard, the
earth shook, and immense columns of hot water and boiling mud, mixed with
burning brimstone, ashes, and lapilli, of the size of nuts, were projected
from the mountain like a water-spout, with such prodigious violence that
large quantities fell beyond the river Tandoi, which is forty miles distant.
. . . The first eruption lasted nearly five hours; and on the following days
the rain fell ill torrents, and the rivers, densely charged with mud,
deluged the country far and wide. At the end of four days (October 12th), a
second eruption occurred, more violent than the first, in which hot water
and mud were again vomited, and great blocks of basalt were thrown to the
distance of seven miles from the volcano. There was at the same time a
violent earthquake, the face of the mountain was utterly changed, its
summits broken down, and one side, which had been covered with trees, became
an enormous gulf in the form of a semicircle. Over 4000 persons were killed
and 114 villages destroyed." (Lyell's "Principles of Geology," p. 430.)
In 1831 a new island was born in the Mediterranean, near the coast of
Sicily. It was called Graham's Island. It came up with an earthquake, and "a
water-spout sixty feet high and eight hundred yards in circumference rising
from the sea." In about a month the island was two hundred feet high and
three miles in circumference; it soon, however, stink beneath the sea.
The Canary Islands were probably a part of the original empire of Atlantis.
On the 1st of September, 1730, the earth split open near Year, in the island
of Lancerota. In one night a considerable hill of ejected matter was thrown
up; in a few days another vent opened and gave out a lava stream which
overran several villages. It flowed at first rapidly, like water, but became
afterward heavy and slow, like honey. On the 11th of September more lava
flowed out, covering up a village, and precipitating itself with a horrible
roar into the sea. Dead fish floated on the waters in indescribable
multitudes, or were thrown dying on the shore; the cattle throughout the
country dropped lifeless to the ground, suffocated by putrid vapors, which
condensed and fell down in drops. These manifestations were accompanied by a
storm such as the people of the country had never known before. These
dreadful commotions lasted for five years. The lavas thrown out covered one-
third of the whole island of Lancerota.
The Gulf of Santorin, in the Grecian Archipelago, has been for two thousand
years a scene of active volcanic operations. Pliny informs us that in the
year 186 B.C. the island of "Old Kaimeni," or the Sacred Isle, was lifted up
from the sea; and in A.D. 19 the island of "Thia" (the Divine) made its
appearance. In A.D. 1573 another island was created, called "the small
sunburnt island." In 1848 a volcanic convulsion of three months' duration
created a great shoal; an earthquake destroyed many houses in Thera, and the
sulphur and hydrogen issuing from the sea killed 50 persons and 1000
domestic animals. A recent examination of these islands shows that the whole
mass of Santorin has sunk, since its projection from the sea, over 1200
feet.
The fort and village of Sindree, on the eastern arm of the Indus, above
Luckput, was submerged in 1819 by an earthquake, together with a tract of
country 2000 square miles in extent.
"In 1828 Sir A. Burnes went in a boat to the ruins of Sindree, where a
single remaining tower was seen in the midst of a wide expanse of sea. The
tops of the ruined walls still rose two or three feet above the level of the
water; and, standing on one of these, he could behold nothing in the horizon
but water, except in one direction, where a blue streak of land to the north
indicated the Ullah Bund. This scene," says Lyell ("Principles of Geology,"
p. 462), "presents to the imagination a lively picture of the revolutions
now in progress on the earth-a waste of waters where a few years before all
was land, and the only land visible consisting of ground uplifted by a
recent earthquake."
We give from Lyell's great work the following curious pictures of the
appearance of the Fort of Sindree before and after the inundation.
In April, 1815, one of the most frightful eruptions recorded in history
occurred in the province of Tomboro, in the island of Sumbawa, about two
hundred miles from the eastern extremity of Java. It lasted from April 5th
to July of that year; but was most violent on the 11th and 12th of July. The
sound of the explosions was heard for nearly one thousand miles. Out of a
population of 12,000, in the province of Tombora, only twenty-six
individuals escaped. "Violent whirlwinds carried up men, horses, and cattle
into the air, tore tip the largest trees by the roots, and covered the whole
sea with floating timber." (Raffles's "History of Java," vol. i., p. 28.)
The ashes darkened the air; "the floating cinders to the westward of Sumatra
formed, on the 12th of April, a mass two feet thick and several miles in
extent, through which ships with difficulty forced their way." The darkness
in daytime was more profound than the blackest night. "The town called
Tomboro, on the west side of Sumbawa, was overflowed by the sea, which
encroached upon the shore, so that the water remained permanently eighteen
feet deep in places where there was land before. The area covered by the
convulsion was 1000 English miles in circumference. "In the island of
Amboyna, in the same month and year, the ground opened, threw out water and
then closed again." (Raffles's "History of Java," vol. i., p. 25.)
But it is at that point of the European coast nearest to the site of
Atlantis at Lisbon that the most tremendous earthquake of modern times has
occurred. On the 1st of November, 1775, a sound of thunder was heard
underground, and immediately afterward a violent shock threw down the
greater part of the city. In six minutes 60,000 persons perished. A great
concourse of people had collected for safety upon a new quay, built entirely
of marble; but suddenly it sunk down with all the people on it, and not one
of the dead bodies ever floated to the surface. A great number of small
boats and vessels anchored near it, and, full of people, were swallowed up
as in a whirlpool. No fragments of these wrecks ever rose again to the
surface; the water where the quay went down is now 600 feet deep. The area
covered by this earthquake was very great. Humboldt says that a portion of
the earth's surface, four times as great as the size of Europe, was
simultaneously shaken. It extended from the Baltic to the West Indies, and
from Canada to Algiers. At eight leagues from Morocco the ground opened and
swallowed a village of 10,000 inhabitants, and closed again over them.
It is very probable that the centre of the convulsion was in the bed of the
Atlantic, at or near the buried island of Atlantis, and that it was a
successor of the great earth throe which, thousands of years before, had
brought destruction upon that land.
Ireland also lies near the axis of this great volcanic area, reaching from
the Canaries to Iceland, and it has been many times in the past the seat of
disturbance. The ancient annals contain numerous accounts of eruptions,
preceded by volcanic action. In 1490, at the Ox Mountains, Sligo, one
occurred by which one hundred persons and numbers of cattle were destroyed;
and a volcanic eruption in May, 1788, on the hill of Knocklade, Antrim,
poured a stream of lava sixty yards wide for thirty-nine hours, and
destroyed the village of Ballyowen and all the inhabitants, save a man and
his wife and two children. ("Amer. Cyclop.," art. Ireland.)
While we find Lisbon and Ireland, east of Atlantis, subjected to these great
earthquake shocks, the West India Islands, west of the same centre, have
been repeatedly visited in a similar manner. In 1692 Jamaica suffered from a
violent earthquake. The earth opened, and great quantities of water were
cast out; many people were swallowed up in these rents; the earth caught
some of them by the middle and squeezed them to death; the heads of others
only appeared above-ground. A tract of land near the town of Port Royal,
about a thousand acres in extent, sunk down in less than one minute, and the
sea immediately rolled in.
The Azore Islands are undoubtedly the peaks of the mountains of Atlantis.
They are even yet the centre of great volcanic activity. They have suffered
severely from eruptions and earthquakes. In 1808 a volcano rose suddenly in
San Jorge to the height of 3500 feet, and burnt for six days, desolating the
entire island. In 1811 a volcano rose from the sea, near San Miguel,
creating an island 300 feet high, which was named Sambrina, but which soon
sunk beneath the sea. Similar volcanic eruptions occurred in the Azores in
1691 and 1720.
Along a great line, a mighty fracture in the surface of the globe,
stretching north and south through the Atlantic, we find a continuous series
of active or extinct volcanoes. In Iceland we have Oerafa, Hecla, and Rauda
Kamba; another in Pico, in the Azores; the peak of Teneriffe; Fogo, in one
of the Cape de Verde Islands: while of extinct volcanoes we have several in
Iceland, and two in Madeira; while Fernando de Noronha, the island of
Ascension, St. Helena, and Tristan d'Acunha are all of volcanic origin.
("Cosmos," vol. v., p. 331.)
The following singular passage we quote entire from Lyell's Principles of
Geology," p. 436:
"In the Nautical Magazine for 1835, p. 642, and for 1838, p. 361, and in the
Comptes Rendus, April, 1838, accounts are given of a series of volcanic
phenomena, earthquakes, troubled water, floating scoria, and columns of
smoke, which have been observed at intervals since the middle of the last
century, in a space of open sea between longitudes 20° and 22' W., about
half a degree south of the equator. These facts, says Mr. Darwin, seem to
show that an island or archipelago is in process of formation in the middle
of the Atlantic. A line joining St. Helena and Ascension would, if
prolonged, intersect this slowly nascent focus of volcanic action. Should
land be eventually formed here, it will not be the first that has been
produced by igneous action in this ocean since it was inhabited by the
existing species of testacea. At Porto Praya, in St. Jago, one of the
Azores, a horizontal, calcareous stratum occurs, containing shells of recent
marine species, covered by a great sheet of basalt eighty feet thick. It
would be difficult to estimate too highly the commercial and political
importance which a group of islands might acquire if, in the next two or
three thousand years, they should rise in mid-ocean between St. Helena and
Ascension."
These facts would seem to show that the great fires which destroyed Atlantis
are still smouldering in the depths of the ocean; that the vast oscillations
which carried Plato's continent beneath the sea may again bring it, with all
its buried treasures, to the light; and that even the wild imagination of
Jules Verne, when he described Captain Nemo, in his diving armor, looking
down upon the temples and towers of the lost island, ht by the fires of
submarine volcanoes, had some groundwork of possibility to build upon.
But who will say, in the presence of all the facts here enumerated, that the
submergence of Atlantis, in some great world-shaking cataclysm, is either
impossible or improbable? As will be shown hereafter, when we come to
discuss the Flood legends, every particular which has come down to us of the
destruction of Atlantis has been duplicated in some of the accounts just
given.
CHAPTER. V.
THE TESTIMONY OF THE SEA.
SUPPOSE we were to find in mid-Atlantic, in front of the Mediterranean, in
the neighborhood of the Azores, the remains of an immense island, sunk
beneath the sea--one thousand miles in width, and two or three thousand
miles long--would it not go far to confirm the statement of Plato that,
"beyond the strait where you place the Pillars of Hercules, there was an
island larger than Asia (Minor) and Libya combined," called Atlantis? And
suppose we found that the Azores were the mountain peaks of this drowned
island, and were torn and rent by tremendous volcanic convulsions; while
around them, descending into the sea, were found great strata of lava; and
the whole face of the sunken land was covered for thousands of miles with
volcanic débris, would we not be obliged to confess that these facts
furnished strong corroborative proofs of the truth of Plato's statement,
that "in one day and one fatal night there came mighty earthquakes and
inundations which ingulfed that mighty people? Atlantis disappeared beneath
the sea; and then that sea became inaccessible on account of the quantity of
mud which the ingulfed island left in its place."
And all these things recent investigation has proved conclusively. Deep-sea
soundings have been made by ships of different nations; the United States
ship Dolphin, the German frigate Gazelle, and the British ships Hydra,
Porcupine, and Challenger have mapped out the bottom of the Atlantic, and
the result is the revelation of a great elevation, reaching from a point on
the coast of the British Islands southwardly to the coast of South America,
at Cape Orange, thence south-eastwardly to the coast of Africa, and thence
southwardly to Tristan d'Acunha. I give one map showing the profile of this
elevation in the frontispiece, and another map, showing the outlines of the
submerged land, on page 47. It rises about 9000 feet above the great
Atlantic depths around it, and in the Azores, St. Paul's Rocks, Ascension,
and Tristan d'Acunha it reaches the surface of the ocean.
Evidence that this elevation was once dry land is found in the fact that
"the inequalities, the mountains and valleys of its surface, could never
have been produced in accordance with any laws for the deposition of
sediment, nor by submarine elevation; but, on the contrary, must have been
carved by agencies acting above the water level." (Scientific American, July
28th, 1877.)
Mr. J. Starke Gardner, the eminent English geologist, is of the opinion that
in the Eocene Period a great extension of land existed to the west of
Cornwall. Referring to the location of the "Dolphin" and "Challenger"
ridges, he asserts that "a great tract of land formerly existed where the
sea now is, and that Cornwall, the Scilly and Channel Islands, Ireland and
Brittany, are the remains of its highest summits." (Popular Science Review,
July, 1878.)
Here, then, we have the backbone of the ancient continent which once
occupied the whole of the Atlantic Ocean, and from whose washings Europe and
America were constructed; the deepest parts of the ocean, 3500 fathoms deep,
represent those portions which sunk first, to wit, the plains to the east
and west of the central mountain range; some of the loftiest peaks of this
range--the Azores, St. Paul's, Ascension, Tristan d'Acunba--are still above
the ocean level; while the great body of Atlantis lies a few hundred fathoms
beneath the sea. In these "connecting ridges" we see the pathway which once
extended between the New World and the Old, and by means of which the plants
and animals of one continent travelled to the other; and by the same avenues
black men found their way, as we will show hereafter, from Africa to
America, and red men from America to Africa.
And, as I have shown, the same great law which gradually depressed the
Atlantic continent, and raised the lands east and west of it, is still at
work: the coast of Greenland, which may be regarded as the northern
extremity of the Atlantic continent, is still sinking "so rapidly that
ancient buildings on low rock-islands are now submerged, and the Greenlander
has learned by experience never to build near the water's edge," ("North
Amer. of Antiq.," p. 504.) The same subsidence is going on along the shore
of South Carolina and Georgia, while the north of Europe and the Atlantic
coast of South America are rising rapidly. Along the latter raised beaches,
1180 miles long and from 100 to 1300 feet high, have been traced.
When these connecting ridges extended from America to Europe and Africa,
they shut off the flow of the tropical waters of the ocean to the north:
there was then no "Gulf Stream;" the land-locked ocean that laved the shores
of Northern Europe was then intensely cold; and the result was the Glacial
Period. When the barriers of Atlantis sunk sufficiently to permit the
natural expansion of the heated water of the tropics to the north, the ice
and snow which covered Europe gradually disappeared; the Gulf Stream flowed
around Atlantis, and it still retains the circular motion first imparted to
it by the presence of that island.
The officers of the Challenger found the entire ridge of Atlantis covered
with volcanic deposits; these are the subsided mud which, as Plato tells us,
rendered the sea impassable after the destruction of the island.
It does not follow that, at the time Atlantis was finally ingulfed, the
ridges connecting it with America and Africa rose above the water-level;
these may have gradually subsided into the sea, or have gone down in
cataclysms such as are described in the Central American books. The Atlantis
of Plato may have been confined to the "Dolphin Ridge" of our map.
The United States sloop Gettysburg has also made some remarkable discoveries
in a neighboring field. I quote from John James Wild (in Nature, March 1st,
1877, p. 377):
"The recently announced discovery by Commander Gorringe, of the United
States sloop Gettysburg, of a bank of soundings bearing N. 85° W., and
distant 130 miles from Cape St. Vincent, during the last voyage of the
vessel across the Atlantic, taken in connection with previous soundings
obtained in the same region of the North Atlantic, suggests the probable
existence of a submarine ridge or plateau connecting the island of Madeira
with the coast of Portugal, and the probable subaerial connection in
prehistoric times of that island with the south-western extremity of
Europe." . . . "These soundings reveal the existence of a channel of an
average depth of from 2000 to 3000 fathoms, extending in a northeasterly
direction from its entrance between Madeira and the Canary Islands toward
Cape St. Vincent. . . . Commander Gorringe, when about 150 miles from the
Strait of Gibraltar, found that the soundings decreased from 2700 fathoms to
1600 fathoms in the distance of a few miles. The subsequent soundings (five
miles apart) gave 900, 500, 400, and 100 fathoms; and eventually a depth of
32 fathoms was obtained, in which the vessel anchored. The bottom was found
to consist of live pink coral, and the position of the bank in lat. 36° 29'
N., long. 11° 33' W."
The map on page 51 shows the position of these elevations. They must have
been originally islands;--stepping-stones, as it were, between Atlantis and
the coast of Europe.
Sir C. Wyville Thomson found that the specimens of the fauna of the coast of
Brazil, brought up in his dredging-machine, are similar to those of the
western coast of Southern Europe. This is accounted for by the connecting
ridges reaching from Europe to South America.
CHAPTER VI.
THE TESTIMONY OF THE FLORA AND FAUNA.
PROOFS are abundant that there must have been at one time uninterrupted land
communication between Europe and America. In the words of a writer upon this
subject,
"When the animals and plants of the Old and New World are compared, one
cannot but be struck with their identity; all or nearly all belong to the
same genera, while many, even of the species, are common to both continents.
This is most important in its bearing on our theory, as indicating that they
radiated from a common centre after the Glacial Period. . . . The hairy
mammoth, woolly-haired rhinoceros, the Irish elk, the musk-ox, the reindeer,
the glutton, the lemming, etc., more or less accompanied this flora, and
their remains are always found in the post-glacial deposits of Europe as low
down as the South of France. In the New World beds of the same age contain
similar remains, indicating that they came from a common centre, and were
spread out over both continents alike." (Westminster Review, January, 1872,
p. 19.)
Recent discoveries in the fossil beds of the Bad Lands of Nebraska prove
that the horse originated in America. Professor Marsh, of Yale College, has
identified the several preceding forms from which it was developed, rising,
in the course of ages, from a creature not larger than a fox until, by
successive steps, it developed into the true horse. How did the wild horse
pass from America to Europe and Asia if there was not continuous land
communication between the two continents? He seems to have existed in Europe
in a wild state prior to his domestication by man.
The fossil remains of the camel are found in India, Africa, South America,
and in Kansas. The existing alpacas and llamas of South America are but
varieties of the camel family.
The cave bear, whose remains are found associated with the hones of the
mammoth and the bones and works of man in the caves of Europe, was identical
with the grizzly bear of our Rocky Mountains. The musk-ox, whose relics are
found in the same deposits, now roams the wilds of Arctic America. The
glutton of Northern Europe, in the Stone Age, is identical with the
wolverine of the United States. According to Rutimeyer, the ancient bison
(Bos priscus) of Europe was identical with the existing American buffalo.
"Every stage between the ancient cave bison and the European aurochs can be
traced." The Norway elk, now nearly extinct, is identical with the American
moose. The Cervus Americanus found in Kentucky was as large as the Irish
elk, which it greatly resembled. The lagomys, or tailless hare, of the
European eaves, is now found in the colder regions of North America. The
reindeer, which once occupied Europe as far down as France, was the same as
the reindeer of America. Remains of the cave lion of Europe (Felix speloæ),
a larger beast than the largest of the existing species, have been found at
Natchez, Mississippi. The European cave wolf was identical with the American
wolf.
Cattle were domesticated among the people of Switzerland during the earliest
part of the Stone Period (Darwin's "Animals Under Domestication," vol. i.,
p. 103), that is to say, before the Bronze Age and the Age of Iron. Even at
that remote period they had already, by long-continued selection, been
developed out of wild forms akin to the American buffalo. M. Gervais ("Hist.
Nat. des Mammifores," vol. xi., p. 191) concludes that the wild race from
which our domestic sheep was derived is now extinct. The remains of domestic
sheep are found in the debris of the Swiss lake-dwellings during the Stone
Age. The domestic horse, ass, lion, and goat also date back to a like great
antiquity. We have historical records 7000 years old, and during that time
no similar domestication of a wild animal has been made. This fact speaks
volumes as to the vast period,, of time during which man must have lived in
a civilized state to effect the domestication of so many and such useful
animals.
And when we turn from the fauna to the flora, we find the same state of
things.
An examination of the fossil beds of Switzerland of the Miocene Age reveals
the remains of more than eight hundred different species of flower-bearing
plants, besides mosses, ferns, etc. The total number of fossil plants
catalogued from those beds, cryptogamous as well as phænogamous, is upward
of three thousand. The majority of these species have migrated to America.
There were others that passed into Asia, Africa, and even to Australia. The
American types are, however, in the largest proportion. The analogues of the
flora of the Miocene Age of Europe now grow in the forests of Virginia,
North and South Carolina, and Florida; they include such familiar examples
as magnolias, tulip-trees, evergreen oaks, maples, plane-trees, robinas,
sequoias, etc. It would seem to be impossible that these trees could have
migrated from Switzerland to America unless there was unbroken land
communication between the two continents.
It is a still more remarkable fact that a comparison of the flora of the Old
World and New goes to show that not only was there communication by land,
over which the plants of one continent could extend to another, but that man
must have existed, and have helped this transmigration, in the case of
certain plants that were incapable of making the journey unaided.
Otto Kuntze, a distinguished German botanist, who has spent many years in
the tropics, announces his conclusion that "In America and in Asia the
principal domesticated tropical plants are represented by the same species."
He instances the Manihot utilissima, whose roots yield a fine flour; the
tarro (Colocasia esculenta), the Spanish or red pepper, the tomato, the
bamboo, the guava, the mango-fruit, and especially the banana. He denies
that the American origin of tobacco, maize, and the cocoa-nut is proved. He
refers to the Paritium tiliaceum, a malvaceous plant, hardly noticed by
Europeans, but very highly prized by the natives of the tropics, and
cultivated everywhere in the East and West Indies; it supplies to the
natives of these regions so far apart their ropes and cordage. It is always
seedless in a cultivated state. It existed in America before the arrival of
Columbus.
But Professor Kuntze pays especial attention to the banana, or plantain. The
banana is seedless. It is found throughout tropical Asia and Africa.
Professor Kuntze asks, "In what way was this plant, which cannot stand a
voyage through the temperate zone, carried to America?" And yet it was
generally cultivated in America before 1492. Says Professor Kuntze, "It must
be remembered that the plantain is a tree-like, herbaceous plant, possessing
no easily transportable bulbs, like the potato or the dahlia, nor propagable
by cuttings, like the willow or the poplar. It has only a perennial root,
which, once planted, needs hardly any care, and yet produces the most
abundant crop of any known tropical plant." He then proceeds to discuss how
it could have passed from Asia to America. He admits that the roots must
have been transported from one country to the other by civilized man. He
argues that it could not have crossed the Pacific from Asia to America,
because the Pacific is nearly thrice or four times as wide as the Atlantic.
The only way he can account for the plantain reaching America is to suppose
that it was carried there when the North Pole had a tropical climate! Is
there any proof that civilized man existed at the North Pole when it
possessed the climate of Africa?
Is it not more reasonable to suppose that the plantain, or banana, was
cultivated by the people of Atlantis, and carried by their civilized
agricultural colonies to the east and the west? Do we not find a
confirmation of this view in the fact alluded to by Professor Kuntze in
these words: "A cultivated plant which does not possess seeds must have been
under culture for a very long period--we have not in Europe a single
exclusively seedless, berry-bearing, cultivated plant--and hence it is
perhaps fair to infer that these plants were cultivated as early as the
beginning of the middle of the Diluvial Period."
Is it possible that a plant of this kind could have been cultivated for this
immense period of time in both Asia and America? Where are the two nations,
agricultural and highly civilized, on those continents by whom it was so
cultivated? What has become of them? Where are the traces of their
civilization? All the civilizations of Europe, Asia, and Africa radiated
from the Mediterranean; the Hindoo-Aryans advanced from the north-west; they
were kindred to the Persians, who were next-door neighbors to the Arabians
(cousins of the Phnicians), and who lived along-side of the Egyptians, who
had in turn derived their civilization from the Phnicians.
It would be a marvel of marvels if one nation, on one continent, had
cultivated the banana for such a vast period of time until it became
seedless; the nation retaining a peaceful, continuous, agricultural
civilization during all that time. But to suppose that two nations could
have cultivated the same plant, under the same circumstances, on two
different continents, for the same unparalleled lapse of time, is supposing
an impossibility.
We find just such a civilization as was necessary, according to Plato, and
under just such a climate, in Atlantis and nowhere else. We have found it
reaching, by its contiguous islands, within one hundred and fifty miles of
the coast of Europe on the one side, and almost touching the West India
Islands on the other, while, by its connecting ridges, it bound together
Brazil and Africa.
But it may be said these animals and plants may have passed from Asia to
America across the Pacific by the continent of Lemuria; or there may have
been continuous land communication at one time at Behring's Strait. True;
but an examination of the flora of the Pacific States shows that very many
of the trees and plants common to Europe and the Atlantic States are not to
be seen west of the Rocky Mountains. The magnificent magnolias, the tulip-
trees, the plane-trees, etc., which were found existing in the Miocene Age
in Switzerland, and are found at the present day in the United States, are
altogether lacking on the Pacific coast. The sources of supply of that
region seem to have been far inferior to the sources of supply of the
Atlantic States. Professor Asa Gray tells us that, out of sixty-six genera
and one hundred and fifty-five species found in the forests cast of the
Rocky Mountains, only thirty-one genera and seventy-eight species are found
west of the mountains. The Pacific coast possesses no papaw, no linden or
basswood, no locust-trees, no cherry-tree large enough for a timber tree, no
gum-trees, no sorrel-tree, nor kalmia; no persimmon-trees, not a holly, only
one ash that may be called a timber tree, no catalpa or sassafras, not a
single elm or hackberry, not a mulberry, not a hickory, or a beech, or a
true chestnut. These facts would seem to indicate that the forest flora of
North America entered it from the east, and that the Pacific States possess
only those fragments of it that were able to struggle over or around the
great dividing mountain-chain.
We thus see that the flora and fauna of America and Europe testify not only
to the existence of Atlantis, but to the fact that in an earlier age it must
have extended from the shores of one continent to those of the other; and by
this bridge of land the plants and animals of one region passed to the
other.
The cultivation of the cotton-plant and the manufacture of its product was
known to both the Old and New World. Herodotus describes it (450 B.C.) as
the tree of India that bears a fleece more beautiful than that of the sheep.
Columbus found the natives of the West Indies using cotton cloth. It was
also found in Mexico and Peru. It is a significant fact that the cotton-
plant has been found growing wild in many parts of America, but never in the
Old World. This would seem to indicate that the plant was a native of
America; and this is confirmed by the superiority of American cotton, and
the further fact that the plants taken from America to India constantly
degenerate, while those taken from India to America as constantly improve.
There is a question whether the potato, maize, and tobacco were not
cultivated in China ages before Columbus discovered America. A recent
traveller says, "The interior of China, along the course of the Yang-tse-
Kiang, is a land full of wonders. In one place piscicultural nurseries line
the banks for nearly fifty miles. All sorts of inventions, the cotton-gin
included, claimed by Europeans and Americans, are to be found there forty
centuries old. Plants, yielding drugs of great value, without number, the
familiar tobacco and potato, maize, white and yellow corn, and other plants
believed to be indigenous to America, have been cultivated there from time
immemorial."
Bonafous ("Histoire Naturelle du Mais," Paris, 1826) attributes a European
or Asiatic origin to maize. The word maize, (Indian corn) is derived from
mahiz or mahis, the name of the plant in the language of the Island of
Hayti. And yet, strange to may, in the Lettish and Livonian languages, in
the north of Europe, mayse signifies bread; in Irish, maise is food, and in
the Old High German, maz is meat. May not likewise the Spanish maiz have
antedated the time of Columbus, and borne testimony to early
intercommunication between the people of the Old and New Worlds?
It is to Atlantis we must look for the origin of nearly all our valuable
plants. Darwin says ("Animals and Plants under Domestication," vol. i., p.
374), "It has often been remarked that we do not owe a single useful plant
to Australia, or the Cape of Good Hope--countries abounding to an
unparalleled degree with endemic species--or to New Zealand, or to America
south of the Plata; and, according to some authors, not to America north of
Mexico." In other words, the domesticated plants are only found within the
limits of what I shall show hereafter was the Empire of Atlantis and its
colonies; for only here was to be found an ancient, long-continuing
civilization, capable of developing from a wild state those plants which
were valuable to man, including all the cereals on which to-day civilized
man depends for subsistence. M. Alphonse de Candolle tells us that we owe 33
useful plants to Mexico, Peru, and Chili. According to the same high
authority, of 157 valuable cultivated plants 85 can be traced back to their
wild state; as to 40, there is doubt as to their origin; while 32 are
utterly unknown in their aboriginal condition. ("Geograph. Botan.
Raisonnée," 1855, pp. 810-991.) Certain roses--the imperial lily, the
tuberose and the lilac--are said to have been cultivated from such a vast
antiquity that they are not known in their wild state. (Darwin, "Animals and
Plants," vol. i., p. 370.) And these facts are the more remarkable because,
as De Candolle has shown, all the plants historically known to have been
first cultivated in Europe still exist there in the wild state. (Ibid.) The
inference is strong that the great cereals--wheat, oats, barley, rye, and
maize--must have been first domesticated in a vast antiquity, or in some
continent which has since disappeared, carrying the original wild plants
with it.
Darwin quotes approvingly the opinion of Mr. Bentham (Hist. Notes Cult.
Plants"), "as the result of all the most reliable evidence that none of the
Ceralia--wheat, rye, barley, and oats--exist or have existed truly wild in
their present state." In the Stone Age of Europe five varieties of wheat and
three of barley were cultivated. (Darwin, "Animals and Plants," vol. i., p.
382.) He says that it may be inferred, from the presence in the lake
habitations of Switzerland of a variety of wheat known as the Egyptian
wheat, and from the nature of the weeds that grew among their crops, "that
the lake inhabitants either still kept up commercial intercourse with some
southern people, or had originally proceeded as colonists from the south." I
should argue that they were colonists from the land where wheat and barley
were first domesticated, to wit, Atlantis. And when the Bronze Age came, we
find oats and rye making their appearance with the weapons of bronze,
together with a peculiar kind of pea. Darwin concludes (Ibid., vol. i., p.
385) that wheat, barley, rye, and oats were either descended from ten or
fifteen distinct species, "most of which are now unknown or extinct," or
from four or eight species closely resembling our present forms, or so
"widely different as to escape identification;" in which latter case, he
says, "man must have cultivated the cereals at an enormously remote period,"
and at that time practised "some degree of selection."
Rawlinson ("Ancient Monarchies," vol. i., p. 578) expresses the opinion that
the ancient Assyrians possessed the pineapple. "The representation on the
monuments is so exact that I can scarce] doubt the pineapple being
intended." (See Layard's "Nineveh and Babylon," p. 338.) The pineapple
(Bromelia ananassa) is supposed to be of American origin, and unknown to
Europe before the time of Columbus; and yet, apart from the revelations of
the Assyrian monuments, there has been some dispute upon this point. ("Amer.
Cyclop.," vol. xiii., p. .528.)
It is not even certain that the use of tobacco was not known to the
colonists from Atlantis settled in Ireland in an age long prior to Sir
Walter Raleigh. Great numbers of pipes have been found in the raths and
tumuli of Ireland, which, there is every reason to believe, were placed
there by men of the Prehistoric Period. The illustration on p. 63 represents
some of the so-called "Danes' pipes" now in the collection of the Royal
Irish Academy. The Danes entered Ireland many centuries before the time of
Columbus, and if the pipes are theirs, they must have used tobacco, or some
substitute for it, at that early period. It is probable, however, that the
tumuli of Ireland antedate the Danes thousands of years.
Compare these pipes from the ancient mounds of Ireland with the accompanying
picture of an Indian pipe of the Stone Age of New Jersey. ("Smithsonian
Rep.," 1875, p. 342.)
PART II. THE DELUGE.
CHAPTER I.
THE DESTRUCTION OF ATLANTIS DESCRIBED IN THE DELUGE LEGENDS.
HAVING demonstrated, as we think successfully, that there is no
improbability in the statement of Plato that a large island, almost a
continent, existed in the past in the Atlantic Ocean, nay, more, that it is
a geological certainty that it did exist; and having further shown that it
is not improbable but very possible that it may have sunk beneath the sea in
the manner described by Plato, we come now to the next question, Is the
memory of this gigantic catastrophe preserved among the traditions of
mankind? We think there can be no doubt that an affirmative answer must be
given to this question.
An event, which in a few hours destroyed, amid horrible convulsions, an
entire country, with all its vast population-that Population the ancestors
of the great races of both continents, and they themselves the custodians of
the civilization of their age-could not fail to impress with terrible force
the minds of men, and to project its gloomy shadow over all human history.
And hence, whether we turn to the Hebrews, the Aryans, the Phnicians, the
Greeks, the Cushites, or the inhabitants of America, we find everywhere
traditions of the Deluge; and we shall see that all these traditions point
unmistakably to the destruction of Atlantis.
François Lenormant says (Contemp. Rev., Nov., 1879):
"The result authorizes us to affirm the story of the Deluge to be a
universal tradition among all branches of the human race, with the one
exception, however, of the black. Now, a recollection thus precise and
concordant cannot be a myth voluntarily invented. No religious or cosmogonic
myth presents this character of universality. It must arise from the
reminiscence of a real and terrible event, so powerfully impressing the
imagination of the first ancestors of our race as never to have been
forgotten by their descendants. This cataclysm. must have occurred near the
first cradle of mankind, and before the dispersion of the families from
which the principal races were to spring; for it would be at once improbable
and uncritical to admit that, at as many different points of the globe as we
should have to assume in order to explain the wide spread of these
traditions, local phenomena so exactly alike should have occurred, their
memory having assumed an identical form, and presenting circumstances that
need not necessarily have occurred to the mind in such cases.
"Let us observe, however, that probably the diluvian tradition is not
primitive, but imported in America; that it undoubtedly wears the aspect of
an importation among the rare populations of the yellow race where it is
found; and lastly, that it is doubtful among the Polynesians of Oceania.
There will still remain three great races to which it is undoubtedly
peculiar, who have not borrowed it from each other, but among whom the
tradition is primitive, and goes back to the most ancient times, and these
three races are precisely the only ones of which the Bible speaks as being
descended from Noah--those of which it gives the ethnic filiation in the
tenth chapter of Genesis. This observation. which I hold to be undeniable,
attaches a singularly historic and exact value to the tradition as recorded
by the Sacred Book, even if, on the other hand, it may lead to giving it a
more limited geographical and ethnological significance. . . .
"But, as the case now stands, we do not hesitate to declare that, far from
being a myth, the Biblical Deluge is a real and historical fact, having, to
say the least, left its impress on the ancestors of three races--Aryan, or
Indo-European, Semitic, or Syro-Arabian, Chamitic, or Cushite--that is to
say, on the three great civilized races of the ancient world, those which
constitute the higher humanity--before the ancestors of those races had as
yet separated, and in the part of Asia they together inhabited."
Such profound scholars and sincere Christians as M. Schwbel (Paris, 1858),
and M. Omalius d'Halloy (Bruxelles, 1866), deny the universality of the
Deluge, and claim that "it extended only to the principal centre of
humanity, to those who remained near its primitive cradle, without reaching
the scattered tribes who had already spread themselves far away in almost
desert regions. It is certain that the Bible narrative commences by relating
facts common to the whole human species, confining itself subsequently to
the annals of the race peculiarly chosen by the designs of Providence."
(Lenormant and Chevallier, "Anc. Hist. of the East," p. 44.) This theory is
supported by that eminent authority on anthropology, M. de Quatrefages, as
well as by Cuvier; the Rev. R. p. Bellynck, S.J., admits that it has nothing
expressly opposed to orthodoxy.
CHAPTER II.
THE DELUGE OF THE BIBLE
We give first the Bible history of the Deluge, as found in Genesis (chap.
vi. to chap. viii.):
"And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth,
and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of
men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
"And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he
also is flesh: yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.
"There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the
sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to
them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
"And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved
him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created
from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and
the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah
found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
["These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his
generations, and Noah walked with God. And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham,
and Japheth.]
"The earth also was corrupt before God; and the earth was filled with
violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for
all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The
end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence
through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an
ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it
within and without with pitch. And this is the fashion which thou shalt make
it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of
it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. A window shalt thou
make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of
the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third
stories shalt thou make it. And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of
waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life,
from under heaven; and everything that is in the earth shall die. But with
thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou,
and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee. And of every
living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark,
to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. Of fowls after
their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the
earth after his kind; two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them
alive. And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt
gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.
"Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.
"And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for
thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. Of every clean
beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of
beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. Of fowls also of
the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face
of all the earth. For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the
earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have
made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.
"And Noah did according unto all that the Lord commanded him. And Noah was
six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
"And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him,
into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. Of clean beasts, and of
beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of everything that creepeth
upon the earth, there went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male
and the female, as God had commanded Noah.
"And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were
upon the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second
month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains
of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the
rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. In the selfsame day
entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's
wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark; they, and
every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every
creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl
after his kind, every bird of every sort. And they went in unto Noah into
the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. And they
that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded
him: and the Lord shut him in.
"And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and
bare up the ark, and it was lifted up above the earth. And the waters
prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went Upon
the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth;
and all the high bills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.
Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were
covered. And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of
cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the
earth, and every man: all in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all
that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance was destroyed
which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the
creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from
the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the
ark. And the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days.
"And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that
was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the
waters assuaged. The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven
were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained. And the waters
returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred
and fifty days the waters were abated. And the ark rested in the seventh
mouth, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.
And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth
month, on the first day of the mouth, were the tops of the mountains seen.
"And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window
of the ark which he had made: and be sent forth a raven, which went forth to
and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth. Also he sent
forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of
the ground. But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she
returned unto him into the ark; for the waters were on the face of the whole
earth. Then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him
into the ark. And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth
the dove out of the ark. And the dove came in to him in the evening, and,
lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off: so Noah knew that the waters
were abated from off the earth. And he stayed yet other seven days, and sent
forth the dove, which returned not again unto him any more.
"And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first
month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the
earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold,
the face of the ground was dry. And in the second month, on the seven and
twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried.
"And God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife,
and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee. Bring forth with thee every
living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl and of cattle,
and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may
breed abundantly it) the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the
earth.
"And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and big sons' wives with
him: every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever
creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.
"And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and
of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord
smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again
curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart
is evil from his youth: neither will I again smite any more every thing
living, as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and
cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."
Let us briefly consider this record.
It shows, taken in connection with the opening chapters of Genesis:
1. That the land destroyed by water was the country in which the
civilization of the human race originated. Adam was at first naked (Gen.,
chap. iii., 7); then he clothed himself in leaves; then in the skins of
animals (chap. iii., 21): be was the first that tilled the earth, having
emerged from a more primitive condition in which be lived upon the fruits of
the forest (chap. ii., 16); his son Abel was the first of those that kept
flocks of sheep (chap. iv., 2); his son Cain was the builder of the first
city (chap. iv., 17); his descendant, Tubal-cain, was the first metallurgist
(chap. iv., 22); Jabal was the first that erected tents and kept cattle
(chap. iv., 20); Jubal was the first that made musical instruments. We have
here the successive steps by which a savage race advances to civilization.
We will see hereafter that the Atlanteans passed through precisely similar
stages of development.
2. The Bible agrees with Plato in the statement that these Antediluvians had
reached great populousness and wickedness, and that it was on account of
their wickedness God resolved to destroy them.
3. In both cases the inhabitants of the doomed land were destroyed in a
great catastrophe by the agency of water; they were drowned.
4. The Bible tells us that in an earlier age, before their destruction,
mankind had dwelt in a happy, peaceful, sinless condition in a Garden of
Eden. Plato tells us the same thing of the earlier ages of the Atlanteans.
6. In both the Bible history and Plato's story the destruction of the people
was largely caused by the intermarriage of the superior or divine race, "the
sons of God," with an inferior stock, "the children of men," whereby they
were degraded and rendered wicked.
We will see hereafter that the Hebrews and their Flood legend are closely
connected with the Phnicians, whose connection with Atlantis is established
in many ways.
It is now conceded by scholars that the genealogical table given in tho
Bible (Gen., chap. x.) is not intended to include the true negro races, or
the Chinese, the Japanese, the Finns or Lapps, the Australians, or the
American red men. It refers altogether to the Mediterranean races, the
Aryans, the Cushites, the Phnicians, the Hebrews, and the Egyptians. "The
sons of Ham" were not true negroes, but the dark-brown races. (See
Winchell's "Preadamites," chap. vii.)
If these races (the Chinese, Australians, Americans, etc.) are not descended
from Noah they could not have been included in the Deluge. If neither China,
Japan, America, Northern Europe, nor Australia were depopulated by the
Deluge, the Deluge could not have been universal. But as it is alleged that
it did destroy a country, and drowned all the people thereof except Noah and
his family, the country so destroyed could not have been Europe, Asia,
Africa, America, or Australia, for there has been no universal destruction
of the people of those regions; or, if there had been, how can we account
for the existence to-day of people on all of those continents whose descent
Genesis does not trace back to Noah, and, in fact, about whom the writer of
Genesis seems to have known nothing?
We are thus driven to one of two alternative conclusions: either the Deluge
record of the Bible is altogether fabulous, or it relates to some land other
than Europe, Asia, Africa, or Australia, some land that was destroyed by
water. It is not fabulous; and the land it refers to is not Europe, Asia,
Africa, or Australia--but Atlantis. No other land is known to history or
tradition that was overthrown in a great catastrophe by the agency of water;
that was civilized, populous, powerful, and given over to wickedness.
That high and orthodox authority, François Lenormant, says ("Ancient Hist.
of the East," vol. i., p. 64), "The descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japhet, so
admirably catalogued by Moses, include one only of the races of humanity,
the white race, whose three chief divisions he gives us as now recognized by
anthropologists. The other three races--yellow, black, and red--have no
place in the Bible list of nations sprung from Noah." As, therefore, the
Deluge of the Bible destroyed only the land and people of Noah, it could not
have been universal. The religious world does not pretend to fix the
location of the Garden of Eden. The Rev. George Leo Haydock says, "The
precise situation cannot be ascertained; bow great might be its extent we do
not know;" and we will see hereafter that the unwritten traditions of the
Church pointed to a region in the west, beyond the ocean which bounds Europe
in that direction, as the locality in which "mankind dwelt before the
Deluge."
CHAPTER III.
THE DELUGE OF THE CHALDEANS.
WE have two versions of the Chaldean story--unequally developed, indeed, but
exhibiting a remarkable agreement. The one most anciently known, and also
the shorter, is that which Berosus took from the sacred books of Babylon,
and introduced into the history that he wrote for the use of the Greeks.
After speaking of the last nine antediluvian kings, the Chaldean priest
continues thus.
"Obartès Elbaratutu being dead, his son Xisuthros (Khasisatra) reigned
eighteen sares (64,800 years). It was under him that the Great Deluge took
place, the history of which is told in the sacred documents as follows:
Cronos (Ea) appeared to him in his sleep, and announced that on the
fifteenth of the month of Daisios (the Assyrian month Sivan--a little before
the summer solstice) all men should perish by a flood. He therefore
commanded him to take the beginning, the middle, and the end of whatever was
consigned to writing, and to bury it in the City of the Sun, at Sippara;
then to build a vessel, and to enter it with his family and dearest friends;
to place in this vessel provisions to eat and drink, and to cause animals,
birds, and quadrupeds to enter it; lastly, to prepare everything, for
navigation. And when Xisuthros inquired in what direction he should steer
his bark, be was answered, 'toward the gods,' and enjoined to pray that good
might come of it for men.
"Xisuthros obeyed, and constructed a vessel five stadia long and five broad;
he collected all that had been prescribed to him, and embarked his wife, his
children, and his intimate friends.
"The Deluge having come, and soon going down, Xisuthros loosed some of the
birds. These, finding no food nor place to alight on, returned to the ship.
A few days later Xisuthros again let them free, but they returned again to
the vessel, their feet fall of mud. Finally, loosed the third time, the
birds came no more back. Then Xisuthros understood that the earth was bare.
He made an opening in the roof of the ship, and saw that it had grounded on
the top of a mountain. He then descended with his wife, his daughter, and
his pilot, who worshipped the earth, raised an altar, and there sacrificed
to the gods; at the same moment he vanished with those who accompanied him.
"Meanwhile those who had remained in the vessel, not seeing Xisutbros
return, descended too, and began to seek him, calling him by his name. They
saw Xisuthros no more; but a voice from heaven was heard commanding them
piety toward the gods; that he, indeed, was receiving the reward of his
piety in being carried away to dwell thenceforth in the midst of the gods,
and that his wife, his daughter, and the pilot of the ship shared the same
honor. The voice further said that they were to return to Babylon, and,
conformably to the decrees of fate, disinter the writings buried at Sippara
in order to transmit them to men. It added that the country in which they
found themselves was Armenia. These, then, having heard the voice,
sacrificed to the gods and returned on foot to Babylon. Of the vessel of
Xisuthros, which had finally landed in Armenia, a portion is still to be
found in the Gordyan Mountains in Armenia, and pilgrims bring thence
asphalte that they have scraped from its fragments. It is used to keep off
the influence of witchcraft. As to the companions of Xisuthros, they came to
Babylon, disinterred the writings left at Sippara, founded numerous cities,
built temples, and restored Babylon."
"By the side of this version," says Lenormant, "which, interesting though it
be, is, after all, second-hand, we are now able to place an original
Chaldeo-Babylonian edition, which the lamented George Smith was the first to
decipher on the cuneiform tablets exhumed at Nineveh, and now in the British
Museum. Here the narrative of the Deluge appears as an episode in the
eleventh tablet, or eleventh chant of the great epic of the town of Uruk.
The hero of this poem, a kind of Hercules, whose name has not as yet been
made out with certainty, being attacked by disease (a kind of leprosy),
goes, with a view to its cure, to consult the patriarch saved from the
Deluge, Khasisatra, in the distant land to which the gods have transported
him, there to enjoy eternal felicity. He asks Khasisatra to reveal the
secret of the events which led to his obtaining the privilege of
immortality, and thus the patriarch is induced to relate the cataclysm.
"By a comparison of the three copies of the poem that the library of the
palace of Nineveh contained, it has been possible to restore the narrative
with hardly any breaks. These three copies were, by order of the King of
Assyria, Asshurbanabal, made in the eighth century B.C., from a very ancient
specimen in the sacerdotal library of the town of Uruk, founded by the
monarchs of the first Chaldean empire. It is difficult precisely to fix the
date of the original, copied by Assyrian scribes, but it certainly goes back
to the ancient empire, seventeen centuries at least before our era, and even
probably beyond; it was therefore much anterior to Moses, and nearly
contemporaneous with Abraham. The variations presented by the three existing
copies prove that the original was in the primitive mode of writing called
the hieratic, a character which must have already become difficult to
decipher in the eighth century B.C., as the copyists have differed as to the
interpretation to be given to certain signs, and in other cases have simply
reproduced exactly the forms of such as they did not understand. Finally, it
results from a comparison of these variations, that the original,
transcribed by order of Asshurbanabal, must itself have been a copy of some
still more ancient manuscript, it, which the original text had already
received interlinear comments. Some of the copyists have introduced these
into their text, others have omitted them. With these preliminary
observations, I proceed to give integrally the narrative ascribed ill the
poem to Khasisatra:
"'I will reveal to thee, O Izdhubar, the history of my preservation-and tell
to thee the decision of the gods.
"'The town of Shurippak, a town which thou knowest, is situated on the
Euphrates--it was ancient, and in it [men did not honor] the gods. [I alone,
I was] their servant, to the great gods--[The gods took counsel on the
appeal of] Ann--[a deluge was proposed by] Bel--[and approved by Nabon,
Nergal and] Adar.
"'And the god [Ea], the immutable lord, repeated this command in a dream.--I
listened to the decree of fate that he announced, and he said to me:--" Man
of Shurippak, son of Ubaratutu--thou, build a vessel and finish it
[quickly].--[By a deluge] I will destroy substance and life.--Cause thou to
go up into the vessel the substance of all that has life.--The vessel thou
shall build-600 cubits shall be the measure of its length--and 60 cubits the
amount of its breadth and of its height. [Launch if] thus on the ocean, and
cover it with a roof."--I understood, and I said to Ea, my lord:--"The
vessel] that thou commandest me to build thus--[when] I shall do it,--young
and old [shall laugh at me.]"--[Ea opened his mouth and] spoke.--He said to
me, his servant:--"[If they laugh at thee] thou shalt say to them:--[shall
be punished] he who has insulted me, [for the protection of the gods] is
over me.-- . . . like to caverns . . . -- . . . I will exercise my judgment
on that which is on high and that which is below . . . .--. . . Close the
vessel . . . -- . . . At a given moment that I shall cause thee to know,--
enter into it, and draw the door of the ship toward thee.--Within it, thy
grains, thy furniture, thy provisions, thy riches, thy men-servants, and thy
maid-servants, and thy young people--the cattle of the field, and the wild
beasts of the plain that I will assemble-and that I will send thee, shall be
kept behind thy door."--Khasisatra opened his mouth and spoke;--he said to
Ea, his lord:--"No one has made [such a] ship.--On the prow I will fix . . .
--1 shall see . . . and the vessel . . . --the vessel thou commandest me to
build [thus]which in . . ."
"'On the fifth day [the two sides of the bark] were raised.--In its covering
fourteen in all were its rafters--fourteen in all did it count above.--I
placed its roof, and I covered it.--I embarked in it on the sixth day; I
divided its floors on the seventh;--I divided the interior compartments on
the eighth. 1 stopped up the chinks through which the water entered in;--I
visited the chinks, and added what was wanting.--I poured on the exterior
three times 3600 measures of asphalte,--and three times 3600 measures of
asphalte within.--Three times 3600 men, porters, brought on their beads the
chests of provisions.--I kept 3600 chests for the nourishment of my family,-
-and the mariners divided among themselves twice 3600 chests.--For
[provisioning] I had oxen slain;--I instituted [rations] for each day.--In
anticipation of the need of] drinks, of barrels, and of wine--[I collected
in quantity] like to the waters of a river, [of provisions] in quantity like
to the dust of the earth.-[To arrange them in] the chests I set my hand to.-
-. . . of the sun . . . the vessel was completed.-- . . . strong and--I had
carried above and below the furniture of the ship.--[This lading filled the
two-thirds.]
'All that I possessed I gathered together; all I possessed of silver I
gathered together; all that I possessed of gold I gathered--all that I
possessed of the substance of life of every kind I gathered together.--I
made all ascend into the vessel; my servants, male and female,--the cattle
of the fields, the wild beasts of the plains, and the sons of the people, I
made them all ascend.
"'Shamash (the sun) made the moment determined, and he announced it in these
terms:--"In the evening I will cause it to rain abundantly from heaven;
enter into the vessel and close the door."--The fixed Moment had arrived,
which he announced in these terms:--"In the evening I will cause it to rain
abundantly from heaven."--When the evening of that day arrived, I was
afraid,--I entered into the vessel and shut my door.--In shutting the
vessel, to Buzur-shadi-rabi, the pilot,--I confided this dwelling, with all
that it contained.
"'Mu-sheri-ina-namari--rose from the foundations of heaven in a black
cloud;--Ramman thundered in the midst of the cloud,--and Nabon and Sharru
marched before;--they marched, devastating the mountain and the plain;--
Nergal the powerful dragged chastisements after him;--Adar advanced,
overthrowing;--before him;--the archangels of the abyss brought
destruction,--in their terrors they agitated the earth.--The inundation of
Ramman swelled up to the sky,--and [the earth] became without lustre, was
changed into a desert.
'They broke . . . of the surface of the earth like . . . ;--[they destroyed]
the living beings of the surface of the earth.--The terrible [Deluge] on men
swelled up to [heaven].The brother no longer saw his brother; men no longer
knew each other. In heaven--the gods became afraid of the water-spout, and--
sought a refuge; they mounted up to the heaven of Anu.--The gods were
stretched out motionless, pressing one against another like dogs.--Ishtar
wailed like a child, the great goddess pronounced her discourse:--"Here is
humanity returned into mud, and--this is the misfortune that I have
announced in the presence of the gods.--So I announced the misfortune in the
presence of the gods,--for the evil I announced the terrible [chastisement]
of men who are mine.--I am the mother who gave birth to men, and--like to
the race of fishes, there they are filling the sea;--and the gods, by reason
of that--which the archangels of the abyss are doing, weep with me."--The
gods on their seats were seated in tears,--and they held their lips closed,
[revolving] future things.
"'Six days and as many nights passed; the wind, the water-spout, and the
diluvian rain were in all their strength. At the approach of the seventh day
the diluvian rain grew weaker, the terrible water-spout-which had assailed
after the fashion of an earthquake--grew calm, the sea inclined to dry up,
and the wind and the water-spout came to an end. I looked at the sea,
attentively observing--and the whole of humanity had returned to mud; like
unto sea-weeds the corpses floated. I opened the window, and the light smote
on my face. I was seized with sadness; I sat down and I wept;-and my tears
came over my face.
"'I looked at the regions bounding the sea: toward the twelve points of the
horizon; not any continent.--The vessel was borne above the land of Nizir,--
the mountain of Nizir arrested the vessel, and did not permit it to pass
over.--A day and a second day the mountain of Nizir arrested the vessel, and
did not permit it to pass over;--the third and fourth day the mountain of
Nizir arrested the vessel, and did not permit it to pass over;--the fifth
and sixth day the mountain of Nizir arrested the vessel, and did not permit
it to pass over. At the approach of the seventh day, I sent out and loosed a
dove. The dove went, turned, and--found no place to light on, and it came
back. I sent out and loosed a swallow; the swallow went, turned, and--found
no place to light on, and it came back. I sent out and loosed a raven; the
raven went and saw the corpses on the waters; it ate, rested, turned, and
came not back.
"'1 then sent out (what was in the vessel) toward the four winds, and I
offered a sacrifice. I raised the pile of my burnt-offering on the peak of
the mountain; seven by seven I disposed the measured vases,--and beneath I
spread rushes, cedar, and juniper-wood. The gods were seized with the desire
of it--the gods were seized with a benevolent desire of it;--and the gods
assembled like flies above the master of the sacrifice. From afar, in
approaching, the great goddess raised the great zones that Anu has made for
their glory (the gods). These gods, luminous crystal before me, I will never
leave them; in that day I prayed that I might never leave them. "Let the
gods come to my sacrificial pile!--but never may Bel come to my sacrificial
pile! for he did not master himself, and he has made the water-spout for the
Deluge, and he has numbered my men for the pit."
"'From far, in drawing near, Bel--saw the vessel, and Bel stopped;--he was
filled with anger against the gods and the celestial archangels:--
"'"No one shall come out alive! No man shall be preserved from the abyss!"--
Adar opened his mouth and said; he said to the warrior Bel:--"What other
than Ea should have formed this resolution?--for Ea possesses knowledge, and
[he foresees] all."--Ea opened his mouth and spake; he said to the warrior
Bel:--"O thou, herald of the gods, warrior,--as thou didst not master
thyself, thou hast made the water-spout of the Deluge.--Let the sinner carry
the weight of his sins, the blasphemer the weight of his blasphemy.--Please
thyself with this good pleasure, and it shall never be infringed; faith in
it never [shall be violated].--Instead of thy making a new deluge, let lions
appear and reduce the number of men;--instead of thy making a new deluge,
let hyenas appear and reduce the number of men;--instead of thy making a new
deluge, let there be famine, and let the earth be [devastated];--instead of
thy making a new deluge, let Dibbara appear, and let men be [mown down]. I
have not revealed the decision of the great gods;--it is Khasisatra who
interpreted a dream and comprehended what the gods had decided."
"'Then, when his resolve was arrested, Bel entered into the vessel.-He took
my hand and made me rise.--He made my wife rise, and made her place herself
at my side-.-He turned around us and stopped short; he approached our
group.--"Until now Khasisatra has made part of perishable humanity;--but lo,
now Khasisatra and his wife are going to be carried away to live like the
gods,--and Khasisatra will reside afar at the mouth of the rivers."--They
carried me away, and established me in a remote place at the mouth of the
streams.'
"This narrative," says Lenormant, "follows with great exactness the same
course as that, or, rather, as those of Genesis; and the analogies are, on
both sides, striking."
When we consider these two forms of the same legend, we see many points
wherein the story points directly to Atlantis.
1. In the first place, Berosus tells us that the god who gave warning of the
coming of the Deluge was Chronos. Chronos, it is well known, was the same as
Saturn. Saturn was an ancient king of Italy, who, far anterior to the
founding of Rome, introduced civilization from some other country to the
Italians. He established industry and social order, filled the land with
plenty, and created the golden age of Italy. He was suddenly removed to the
abodes of the gods. His name is connected, in the mythological legends, with
"a great Saturnian continent" in the Atlantic Ocean, and a great kingdom
which, in the remote ages, embraced Northern Africa and the European coast
of the Mediterranean as far as the peninsula of Italy, and "certain islands
in the sea;" agreeing, in this respect, with the story of Plato as to the
dominions of Atlantis. The Romans called the Atlantic Ocean "Chronium Mare,"
the Sea of Chronos, thus identifying Chronos with that ocean. The pillars of
Hercules were also called by the ancients "the pillars of Chronos."
Here, then, we have convincing testimony that the country referred to in the
Chaldean legends was the land of Chronos, or Saturn--the ocean world, the
dominion of Atlantis.
2. Hea or Ea. the god of the Nineveh tablets, was a fish-god: he was
represented in the Chaldean monuments as half man and half fish; he was
described as the god, not of the rivers and seas, but of "the abyss"--to
wit, the ocean. He it was who was said to have brought civilization and
letters to the ancestors of the Assyrians. He clearly represented an
ancient, maritime, civilized nation; he came from the ocean, and was
associated with some land and people that had been destroyed by rain and
inundations. The fact that the scene of the Deluge is located on the
Euphrates proves nothing, for we will see hereafter that almost every nation
had its especial mountain on which, according to its traditions, the ark
rested; just as every Greek tribe had its own particular mountain of
Olympos. The god Bel of the legend was the Baal of the Phnicians, who, as
we shall show, were of Atlantean origin. Bel, or Baal, was worshipped on the
western and northern coasts of Europe, and gave his name to the Baltic, the
Great and Little Belt, Balesbaugen, Balestranden, etc.; and to many
localities, in the British Islands, as, for instance, Belan and the Baal
hills in Yorkshire.
3. In those respects wherein the Chaldean legend, evidently the older form
of the tradition, differs from the Biblical record, we see that in each
instance we approach nearer to Atlantis. The account given in Genesis is the
form of the tradition that would be natural to an inland people. Although
there is an allusion to "the breaking up of the fountains of the great deep"
(about which I shall speak more fully hereafter), the principal destruction
seems to have been accomplished by rain; hence the greater period allowed
for the Deluge, to give time enough for the rain to fall, and subsequently
drain off from the land. A people dwelling in the midst of a continent could
not conceive the possibility of a whole world sinking beneath the sea; they
therefore supposed the destruction to have been, caused by a continuous
down-pour of rain for forty days and forty nights.
In the Chaldean legend, on the contrary, the rain lasted but seven days; and
we see that the writer had a glimpse of the fact that the destruction
occurred in the midst of or near the sea. The ark of Genesis (têbâh) was
simply a chest, a coffer, a big box, such as might be imagined by an inland
people. The ark of the Chaldeans was a veritable ship; it had a prow, a
helm, and a pilot, and men to manage it; and it navigated "the sea."
4. The Chaldean legend represents not a mere rain-storm, but a tremendous
cataclysm. There was rain, it is true, but there was also thunder,
lightning, earthquakes, wind, a water-spout, and a devastation of mountain
and land by the war of the elements. All the dreadful forces of nature were
fighting together over the doomed land: "the archangel of the abyss brought
destruction," "the water rose to the sky," "the brother no longer saw his
brother; men no longer knew each other;" the men "filled the sea like
fishes;" the sea was filled with mud, and "the corpses floated like sea-
weed." When the storm abated the land had totally disappeared-there was no
longer "any continent." Does not all this accord with "that dreadful day and
night" described by Plato?
CHAPTER IV.
THE DELUGE LEGENDS OF OTHER NATIONS.
A COLLECTION of the Deluge legends of other nations will throw light upon
the Biblical and Chaldean records of that great event.
The author of the treatise "On the Syrian Goddess" acquaints us with the
diluvian tradition of the Arameans, directly derived from that of Chaldea,
as it was narrated in the celebrated Sanctuary of Hierapolis, or Bambyce.
"The generality of people," be says, "tells us that the founder of the
temple was Deucalion Sisythes--that Deucalion in whose time the great
inundation occurred. I have also heard the account given by the Greeks
themselves of Deucalion; the myth runs thus: The actual race of men is not
the first, for there was a previous one, all the members of which perished.
We belong to a second race, descended from Deucalion, and multiplied in the
course of time. As to the former men, they are said to have been full of
insolence and pride, committing many crimes, disregarding their oath,
neglecting the rights of hospitality, unsparing to suppliants; accordingly,
they were punished by an immense disaster. All on a sudden enormous volumes
of water issued from the earth, and rains of extraordinary abundance began
to fall; the rivers left their beds, and the sea overflowed its shores; the
whole earth was covered with water, and all men perished. Deucalion alone,
because of his virtue and piety, was preserved alive to give birth to a new
race. This is how he was saved: He placed himself, his children, and his
wives in a great coffer that he had, in which pigs, horses, lions, serpents,
and all other terrestrial animals came to seek refuge with him. He received
them all; and while they were in the coffer Zeus inspired them with
reciprocal amity, which prevented their devouring one another. In this
manner, shut up within one single coffer, they floated as long as the waters
remained in force. Such is the account given by the Greeks of Deucalion.
"But to this, which they equally tell, the people of Hierapolis add a
marvellous narrative: That in their country a great chasm opened, into which
all the waters of the Deluge poured. Then Deucalion raised an altar, and
dedicated a temple to Hera (Atargatis) close to this very chasm. I have seen
it; it is very narrow, and situated under the temple. Whether it was once
large, and has now shrunk, I do not know; but I have seen it, and it is
quite small. In memory of the event the following is the rite accomplished:
Twice a year sea-water is brought to the temple. This is not only done by
the priests, but numerous pilgrims come from the whole of Syria and Arabia,
and even from beyond the Euphrates, bringing water. It is poured out in the
temple and goes into the cleft, which, narrow as it is, swallows up a
considerable quantity. This is said to be in virtue of a religious law
instituted by Deucalion to preserve the memory of the catastrophe, and of
the benefits that he received from the gods. Such is the ancient tradition
of the temple."
"It appears to me difficult," says Lenormant, "not to recognize an echo of
fables popular in all Semitic countries about this chasm of Hierapolis, and
the part it played in the Deluge, in the enigmatic expressions of the Koran
respecting the oven (tannur) which began to bubble and disgorge water all
around at the commencement of the Deluge. We know that this tannur has been
the occasion of most grotesque imaginings of Mussulman commentators, who had
lost the tradition of the story to which Mohammed made allusion. And,
moreover, the Koran formally states that the waters of the Deluge were
absorbed in the bosom of the earth."
Here the Xisuthros of Berosus becomes Deucalion-Sisythes. The animals are
not collected together by Deucalion, as in the case of Noah and Khasisatra,
but they crowded into the vessel of their own accord, driven by the terror
with which the storm had inspired them; as in great calamities the creatures
of the forest have been known to seek refuge in the houses of men.
India affords us art account of the Deluge which, by its poverty, strikingly
contrasts with that of the Bible and the Chaldeans. Its most simple and
ancient form is found in the Çatapatha Brâhmana of the Rig-Veda. It has been
translated for the first time by Max Müller.
"One morning water for washing was brought to Manu, and when he had washed
himself a fish remained in his hands, and it addressed these words to him:
'Protect me, and I will save thee.' 'From what wilt thou save me?' 'A deluge
will sweep all creatures away; it is from that I will save thee.' 'How shall
I protect thee?' The fish replied, 'While we are small we run great dangers,
for fish swallow fish. Keep me at first in a vase; when I become too large
for it, dig a basin to put me into. When I shall have grown still more,
throw me into the ocean; then I shall be preserved from destruction.' Soon
it grew a large fish. It said to Mann, 'The very year I shall have reached
my full growth the Deluge will happen. Then build a vessel and worship me.
When the waters rise, enter the vessel, and I will save thee.'
"After keeping him thus, Mann carried the fish to the sea. In the year
indicated Mann built a vessel and worshipped the fish. And when the Deluge
came he entered the vessel. Then the fish came swimming up to him, and Mann
fastened the cable of the ship to the horn of the fish, by which means the
latter made it pass over the Mountain of the North. The fish said, 'I have
saved thee; fasten the vessel to a tree, that the water may not sweep it
away while thou art on the mountain; and in proportion as the waters
decrease thou shalt descend.' Manu descended with the waters, and this is
what is called the descent of Manu on the Mountain of the North. The Deluge
had carried away all creatures, and Mann remained alone."
There is another form of the Hindoo legend in the Purânas. Lenormant says:
"We must also 'remark that in the Purânas it is no longer Manu Vaivasata
that the divine fish saves from the Deluge, but a different personage, the
King of the Dâstas--i. e., fisher--Satyravata,' the man who loves justice
and truth,' strikingly corresponding to the Chaldean Khasisatra. Nor is the
Puranic version of the Legend of the Deluge to be despised, though it be of
recent date, and full of fantastic and often puerile details. In certain
aspects it is less Aryanized than that of Brâhmana or than the Mahâbhârata;
and, above all, it gives some circumstances omitted in these earlier
versions, which must yet have belonged to the original foundation, since
they appear in the Babylonian legend; a circumstance preserved, no doubt, by
the oral tradition--popular, and not Brahmanic--with which the Purânas are
so deeply imbued. This has already been observed by Pictet, who lays due
stress on the following passage of the Bhâgavata-Purâna: 'In seven days,'
said Vishnu to Satyravata, 'the three worlds shall be submerged.' There is
nothing like this in the Brâhmana nor the Mahâbhârata, but in Genesis the
Lord says to Noah, 'Yet seven days and I will cause it to rain upon the
earth;' and a little farther we read, 'After seven days the waters of the
flood were upon the earth.'. . . Nor must we pay less attention to the
directions given by the fish-god to Satyravata for the placing of the sacred
Scriptures in a safe place, in order to preserve them from Hayagriva, a
marine horse dwelling in the abyss. . . . We recognize in it, under an
Indian garb, the very tradition of the interment of the sacred writings at
Sippara by Khasisatra, such as we have seen it in the fragment of Berosus."
The references to "the three worlds" and the "fish-god" in these legends
point to Atlantis. The "three worlds" probably refers to the great empire of
Atlantis, described by Plato, to wit, the western continent, America, the
eastern continent, Europe and Africa, considered as one, and the island of
Atlantis. As we have seen, Poseidon, the founder of the civilization of
Atlantis, is identical with Neptune, who is always represented riding a
dolphin, bearing a trident, or three-pronged symbol, in his hand,
emblematical probably of the triple kingdom. He is thus a sea-god, or fish-
god, and be comes to save the representative of his country.
And we have also a new and singular form of the legend in the following.
Lenormant says:
"Among the Iranians, in the sacred books containing the fundamental
Zoroastrian doctrines, and dating very far back, we meet with a tradition
which must assuredly be looked upon as a variety of that of the Deluge,
though possessing a special character, and diverging in some essential
particulars from those we have been examining. It relates how Yima, who, in
the original and primitive conception, was the father of the human race, was
warned by Ahuramazda, the good deity, of the earth being about to be
devastated by a flood. The god ordered Yima to construct a refuge, a square
garden, vara, protected by an enclosure, and to cause the germs of men,
beasts, and plants to enter it, in order to escape annihilation.
Accordingly, when the inundation occurred, the garden of Yima, with all that
it contained, was alone spared, and the message of safety was brought
thither by the bird Karshipta, the envoy of Ahuramazda." ("Vendûdid," vol.
ii., p. 46.)
This clearly signifies that, prior to the destruction of Atlantis, a colony
had been sent out to some neighboring country. These emigrants built a
walled town, and brought to it the grains and domestic animals of the mother
country; and when the island of Atlantis sunk in the ocean, a messenger
brought the terrible tidings to them in a ship.
"The Greeks had two principal legends as to the cataclysm by which primitive
humanity was destroyed. The first was connected with the name of Ogyges, the
most ancient of the kings of Botia or Attica--a quite mythical personage,
lost in the night of ages, his very name seemingly derived from one
signifying deluge in Aryan idioms, in Sanscrit Angha. It is said that in his
time the whole land was covered by a flood, whose waters reached the sky,
and from which he, together with some companions, escaped in a vessel.
"The second tradition is the Thessalian legend of Deucalion. Zeus having
worked to destroy the men of the age of bronze, with whose crimes be was
wroth, Deucalion, by the advice of Prometheus, his father, constructed a
coffer, in which he took refuge with his wife, Pyrrha. The Deluge came; the
chest, or coffer, floated at the mercy of the waves for nine days and nine
nights, and was finally stranded on Mount Parnassus. Deucalion and Pyrrha
leave it, offer sacrifice, and, according to the command of Zeus, repeople
the world by throwing behind them 'the bones of the earth'--namely, stones,
which change into men. This Deluge of Deucalion is, in Grecian tradition,
what most resembles a universal deluge. Many authors affirm that it extended
to the whole earth, and that the whole human race perished. At Athens, in
memory of the event, and to appease the manes of its victims, a ceremony
called Hydrophoria was observed, having so close a resemblance to that in
use at Hierapolis, in Syria, that we can hardly fail to look upon it as a
Syro-Phnician importation, and the result of an assimilation established in
remote antiquity between the Deluge of Deucalion and that of Khasisatra, as
described by the author of the treatise 'On the Syrian Goddess.' Close to
the temple of the Olympian Zeus a fissure in the soil was shown, in length
but one cubit, through which it was said the waters of the Deluge had been
swallowed tip. Thus,, every year, on the third day of the festival of the
Anthestéria, a day of mourning consecrated to the dead--that is, on the
thirteenth of the month of Anthestérion, toward the beginning of March-it
was customary, as at Bambyce, to pour water into the fissure, together with
flour mixed with honey, poured also into the trench dug to the west of the
tomb, in the funeral sacrifices of the Athenians."
In this legend, also, there are passages which point to Atlantis. We will
see hereafter that the Greek god Zeus was one of the kings of Atlantis. "The
men of the age of bronze" indicates the civilization of the doomed people;
they were the great metallurgists of their day, who, as we will see, were
probably the source of the great number of implements and weapons of bronze
found all over Europe. Here, also, while no length of time is assigned to
the duration of the storm, we find that the ark floated but nine days and
nights. Noah was one year and ten days in the ark, Khasisatra was not half
that time, while Deucalion was afloat only nine days.
At Megara, in Greece, it was the eponym of the city, Megaros, son of Zeus
and one of the nymphs, Sithnides, who, warned by the cry of cranes of the
imminence of the danger of the coming flood, took refuge on Mount Geranien.
Again, there was the Thessalian Cerambos, who was said to have escaped the
flood by rising into the air on wings given him by the nymphs; and it was
Perirrhoos, son of Eolus, that Zeus Naios had preserved at Dodona. For the
inhabitants of the Isle of Cos the hero of the Deluge was Merops, son of
Hyas, who there assembled under his rule the remnant of humanity preserved
with him. The traditions of Rhodes only supposed the Telchines, those of
Crete Sasion, to have escaped the cataclysm. In Samothracia the same
character was attributed to Saon, said to be the son of Zeus or of Hermes.
It will be observed that in all these legends the name of Zeus, King of
Atlantis, reappears. It would appear probable that many parties had escaped
from the catastrophe, and had landed at the different points named in the
traditions; or else that colonies had already been established by the
Atlanteans at those places. It would appear impossible that a maritime
people could be totally destroyed; doubtless many were on shipboard in the
harbors, and others going and coming on distant voyages.
"The invasion of the East," says Baldwin ('Prehistoric Nations,' p. 396),
"to which the story of Atlantis refers, seems to have given rise to the
Panathenæ, the oldest, greatest, and most splendid festivals in honor of
Athena celebrated in Attica. These festivals are said to have been
established by Erichthonis in the most ancient times remembered by the
historical traditions of Athens. Boeckh says of them, in his 'Commentary on
Plato:'
"'In the greater Panathenæ there was carried in procession a peplum of
Minerva, representing the war with the giants and the victory of the gods of
Olympus. In the lesser Panathenæ they carried another peplum (covered with
symbolic devices), which showed how the Athenians, supported by Minerva, had
the advantage in the war with the Atlantes.' A scholia quoted from Proclus
by Humboldt and Boeckh says: 'The historians who speak of the islands of the
exterior sea tell us that in their time there were seven islands
consecrated, to Proserpine, and three others of immense extent, of which the
first was consecrated to Pluto, the second to Ammon, and the third to
Neptune. The inhabitants of the latter had preserved a recollection
(transmitted to them by their ancestors) of the island of Atlantis, which
was extremely large, and for a long time held sway over all the islands of
the Atlantic Ocean. Atlantis was also consecrated to Neptune."' (See
Humboldt's "Histoire de la Géographie du Nouveau Continent," vol. i.)
No one can read these legends and doubt that the Flood watt an historical
reality. It is impossible that in two different places in the Old World,
remote from each other, religious ceremonies should have been established
and perpetuated from age to age in memory of an event which never occurred.
We have seen that at Athens and at Hierapolis, in Syria, pilgrims came from
a distance to appease the god of the earthquake, by pouring offerings into
fissures of the earth said to have been made at the time Atlantis was
destroyed.
More than this, we know from Plato's history that the Athenians long
preserved in their books the memory of a victory won over the Atlanteans in
the early ages, and celebrated it by national festivals, with processions
and religious ceremonies.
It is too much to ask us to believe that Biblical history, Chaldean,
Iranian, and Greek legends signify nothing, and that even religious
pilgrimages and national festivities were based upon a myth.
I would call attention to the farther fact that in the Deluge legend of the
Isle of Cos the hero of the affair was Merops. Now we have seen that,
according to Theopompus, one of the names of the people of Atlantis was
"Meropes."
But we have not reached the end of our Flood legends. The Persian Magi
possessed a tradition in which the waters issued from the oven of an old
woman. Mohammed borrowed this story, and in the Koran he refers to the
Deluge as coming from an oven. "All men were drowned save Noah and his
family; and then God said, 'O earth, swallow up thy waters; and thou, O
heaven, withhold thy rain;' and immediately the waters abated."
In the bardic poems of Wales we have a tradition of the Deluge which,
although recent, under the concise forms of the triads, is still deserving
of attention. As usual, the legend is localized in the country, and the
Deluge counts among three terrible catastrophes of the island of Prydian, or
Britain, the other two consisting of devastation by fire and by drought.
"The first of these events," it is said, "was the eruption of Llyn-llion, or
'the lake of waves,' and the inundation (bawdd) of the whole country, by
which all mankind was drowned with the exception of Dwyfam and Dwyfach, who
saved themselves in a vessel without rigging, and it was by them that the
island of Prydian was repeopled."
Pictet here observes:
"Although the triads in their actual form hardly date farther than the
thirteenth or fourteenth century, some of them are undoubtedly connected
with very ancient traditions, and nothing here points to a borrowing from
Genesis.
"But it is not so, perhaps, with another triad, speaking of the vessel
Nefyddnaf-Neifion, which at the time of the overflow of Llyon-llion, bore a
pair of all living creatures, and rather too much resembles the ark of Noah.
The very name of the patriarch may have suggested this triple epithet,
obscure as to its meaning, but evidently formed on the principle of Cymric
alliteration. In the same triad we have the enigmatic story of the horned
oxen (ychain banog) of Hu the mighty, who drew out of Llyon-llion the avanc
(beaver or crocodile?), in order that the lake should not overflow. The
meaning of these enigmas could only be hoped from deciphering the chaos of
barbaric monuments of the Welsh middle age; but meanwhile we cannot doubt
that the Cymri possessed an indigenous tradition of the Deluge."
We also find a vestige of the same tradition in the Scandinavian Ealda. Here
the story is combined with a cosmogonic myth. The three sons of Borr--Othin,
Wili, and We--grandsons of Buri, the first man, slay Ymir, the father of the
Hrimthursar, or ice giants, and his body serves them for the construction of
the world. Blood flows from his wounds in such abundance that all the race
of giants is drowned in it except Bergelmir, who saves himself, with his
wife, in a boat, and reproduces the race.
In the Edda of Smund, "The Vala's Prophecy" (stz. 48-56, p. 9), we seem to
catch traditional glimpses of a terrible catastrophe, which reminds us of
the Chaldean legend:
"Then trembles Yggdrasil's ash yet standing, groans that ancient tree, and
the Jötun Loki is loosed. The shadows groan on the ways of Hel (the goddess
of death), until the fire of Surt has consumed the tree. Hyrm steers from
the east, the waters rise, the mundane snake is coiled in jötun-rage. The
worm beats the water and the eagle screams; the pale of beak tears
carcasses; (the ship) Naglfar is loosed. Surt from the south comes with
flickering flame; shines from his sword the Valgod's sun. The stony hills
are dashed together, the giantesses totter; men tread the path of Hel, and
heaven is cloven. The sun darkens, earth in ocean sinks, fall from heaven
the bright stars, fire's breath assails the all-nourishing, towering fire
plays against heaven itself."
Egypt does not contain a single allusion to the Flood. Lenormant says:
"While the tradition of the Deluge holds so considerable a place in the
legendary memories of all branches of the Aryan race, the monuments and
original texts of Egypt, with their many cosmogonic speculations, have not
afforded one, even distant, allusion to this cataclysm. When the Greeks told
the Egyptian priests of the Deluge of Deucalion, their reply was that they
had been preserved from it as well as from the conflagration produced by
Phaëthon; they even added that the Hellenes were childish in attaching so
much importance to that event, as there had been several other local
catastrophes resembling it. According to a passage in Manetho, much
suspected, however, of being an interpolation, Thoth, or Hermes
Trismegistus, had himself, before the cataclysm, inscribed on stelæ, in
hieroglyphical and sacred language, the principles of all knowledge. After
it the second Thoth translated into the vulgar tongue the contents of these
stelæ. This would be the only Egyptian mention of the Deluge, the same
Manetho not speaking of it in what remains to us of his 'Dynasties,' his
only complete authentic work. The silence of all other myths of the
Pharaonic religion on this head render it very likely that the above is
merely a foreign tradition, recently introduced, and no doubt of Asiatic and
Chaldean origin."
To my mind the explanation of this singular omission is very plain. The
Egyptians had preserved in their annals the precise history of the
destruction of Atlantis, out of which the Flood legends grew; and, as they
told the Greeks, there had been no universal flood, but only local
catastrophes. Possessing the real history of the local catastrophe which
destroyed Atlantis, they did not indulge in any myths about a universal
deluge covering the mountain-tops of all the world. They had no Ararat in
their neighborhood.
The traditions of the early Christian ages touching the Deluge pointed to
the quarter of the world in which Atlantis was situated.
There was a quaint old monk named Cosmos, who, about one thousand years ago,
published a book, "Topographia Christiana," accompanied by a map, in which
he gives his view of the world as it was then understood. It was a body
surrounded by water, and resting on nothing. "The earth," says Cosmos,
"presses downward, but the igneous parts tend upward," and between the
conflicting forces the earth hangs suspended,, like Mohammed's coffin in the
old story. The accompanying illustration (page 95) represents the earth
surrounded by the ocean, and beyond this ocean was "the land where men dwelt
before the Deluge."
He then gives us a more accurate map, in detail, of the known world of his
day.
I copy this map, not to show how much more we know than poor Cosmos, but
because be taught that all around this habitable world there was yet another
world, adhering closely on all sides to the circumscribing walls of heaven.
"Upon the eastern side of this transmarine land he judges man was created;
and that there the paradise of gladness was located, such as here on the
eastern edge is described, where it received our first parents, driven out
of Paradise to that extreme point of land on the sea-shore. Hence, upon the
coming of the Deluge, Noah and his sons were borne by the ark to the earth
we now inhabit. The four rivers he supposes to be gushing up the spouts of
Paradise." They are depicted on the above map: O is the Mediterranean Sea;
P, the Arabian Gulf; L, the Caspian Sea; Q, the Tigris; M, the river Pison;
"and J, the land where men dwelt before the Flood."
It will be observed that, while he locates Paradise in the east, he places
the scene of the Deluge in the west; and he supposes that Noah came from the
scene of the Deluge to Europe.
This shows that the traditions in the time of Cosmos looked to the west as
the place of the Deluge, and that after the Deluge Noah came to the shores
of the Mediterranean. The fact, too, that there was land in the west beyond
the ocean is recognized by Cosmos, and is probably a dim echo from Atlantean
times.
CHAPTER V
THE DELUGE LEGENDS OF AMERICA.
"IT is a very remarkable fact," says Alfred Maury, "that we find in America
traditions of the Deluge coming infinitely nearer to that of the Bible and
the Chaldean religion than among any people of the Old World. It is
difficult to suppose that the emigration that certainly took place from Asia
into North America by the Kourile and Aleutian Islands, and still does so in
our day, should have brought in these memories, since no trace is found of
them among those Mongol or Siberian populations which were fused with the
natives of the New World. . . . The attempts that have been made to trace
the origin of Mexican civilization to Asia have not as vet led to any
sufficiently conclusive facts. Besides, had Buddhism, which we doubt, made
its way into America, it could not have introduced a myth not found in its
own scriptures. The cause of these similarities between the diluvian
traditions of the nations of the New World and that of the Bible remains
therefore unexplained."
The cause of these similarities can be easily explained: the legends of the
Flood did not pass into America by way of the Aleutian Islands, or through
the Buddhists of Asia, but were derived from an actual knowledge of Atlantis
possessed by the people of America.
Atlantis and the western continent had from an immemorial age held
intercourse with each other: the great nations of America were simply
colonies from Atlantis, sharing in its civilization, language, religion, and
blood. From Mexico to the peninsula of Yucatan, from the shores of Brazil to
the heights of Bolivia and Peru, from the Gulf of Mexico to the head-waters
of the Mississippi River, the colonies of Atlantis extended; and therefore
it is not strange to find, as Alfred Maury says, American traditions of the
Deluge coming nearer to that of the Bible and the Chaldean record than those
of any people of the Old World.
"The most important among the American traditions are the Mexican, for they
appear to have been definitively fixed by symbolic and mnemonic paintings
before any contact with Europeans. According to these documents, the Noah of
the Mexican cataclysm was Coxcox, called by certain peoples Teocipactli or
Tezpi. He had saved himself, together with his wife Xochiquetzal, in a bark,
or, according to other traditions, on a raft made of cypress-wood (Cupressus
disticha). Paintings retracing the deluge of Coxcox have been discovered
among the Aztecs, Miztecs, Zapotecs, Tlascaltecs, and Mechoacaneses. The
tradition of the latter is still more strikingly in conformity with the
story as we have it in Genesis, and in Chaldean sources. It tells how Tezpi
embarked in a spacious vessel with his wife, his children, and several
animals, and grain, whose preservation was essential to the subsistence of
the human race. When the great god Tezcatlipoca decreed that the waters
should retire, Tezpi sent a vulture from the bark. The bird, feeding on the
carcasses with which the earth was laden, did not return. Tezpi sent out
other birds, of which the humming-bird only came back with a leafy branch in
its beak. Then Tezpi, seeing that the country began to vegetate, left his
bark on the mountain of Colhuacan.
"The document, however, that gives the most valuable information," says
Lenormant, "as to the cosmogony of the Mexicans is one known as 'Codex
Vaticanus,' from the library where it is preserved. It consists of four
symbolic pictures, representing the four ages of the world preceding the
actual one. They were copied at Chobula from a manuscript anterior to the
conquest, and accompanied by the explanatory commentary of Pedro de los
Rios, a Dominican monk, who, in 1566, less than fifty years after the
arrival of Cortez, devoted himself to the research of indigenous traditions
as being necessary to his missionary work."
There were, according to this document, four ages of the world. The first
was an age of giants (the great mammalia?) who were destroyed by famine; the
second age ended in a conflagration; the third age was an age of monkeys.
"Then comes the fourth age, Atonatiuh, 'Sun of Water,' whose number is 10 X
400 + 8, or 4008. It ends by a great inundation, a veritable deluge. All
mankind are changed into fish, with the exception of one man and his wife,
who save themselves in a bark made of the trunk of a cypress-tree. The
picture represents Matlalcueye, goddess of waters, and consort of Tlaloc,
god of rain, as darting down toward earth. Coxcox and Xochiquetzal, the two
human beings preserved, are seen seated on a tree-trunk and floating in the
midst of the waters. This flood is represented as the last cataclysm that
devastates the earth."
The learned Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg translates from the Aztec language of
the "Codex Chimalpopoca" the following Flood legend:
"This is the sun called Nahui-atl, '4 water.' Now the water was tranquil for
forty years, plus twelve, and men lived for the third and fourth times. When
the sun Nahui-atl came there had passed away four hundred years, plus two
ages, plus seventy-six years. Then all mankind was lost and drowned, and
found themselves changed into fish. The sky came nearer the water. In a
single day all was lost, and the day Nahui-xochitl, '4 flower,' destroyed
all our flesh.
"And that year was that of cé-calli, '1 house,' and the day Nahui-atl all
was lost. Even the mountains sunk into the water, and the water remained
tranquil for fifty-two springs.
"Now at the end of the year the god Titlacahuan had warned Nata and his
spouse Nena, saying, 'Make no more wine of Agave, but begin to hollow out a
great cypress, and you will enter into it when in the month Tozontli the
water approaches the sky.'
"Then they entered in, and when the god had closed the door, he said, 'Thou
shalt eat but one ear of maize, and thy wife one also.'
"But as soon as they had finished they went out, and the water remained
calm, for the wood no longer moved, and, on opening it, they began to see
fish.
"Then they lit a fire, by rubbing together pieces of wood, and they roasted
fish.
The gods Citlallinicué and Citlalatonac, instantly looking down said:
'Divine Lord, what is that fire that is making there? Why do they thus smoke
the sky?' At once Titlacahuan-Tezcatlipoca descended. He began to chide,
saying, 'Who has made this fire here?' And, seizing hold of the fish, he
shaped their loins and heads, and they were transformed into dogs
(chichime)."
Here we note a remarkable approximation to Plato's account of the
destruction of Atlantis. "In one day and one fatal night," says Plato,
"there came mighty earthquakes and inundations that ingulfed that warlike
people." "In a single day all was lost," says the Aztec legend. And, instead
of a rainfall of forty days and forty nights, as represented in the Bible,
here we see "in a single day. . . even the mountains sunk into the water;"
not only the land on which the people dwelt who were turned into fish, but
the very mountains of that land sunk into the water. Does not this describe
the fate of Atlantis? In the Chaldean legend "the great goddess Ishtar
wailed like a child," saying, "I am the mother who gave birth to men, and,
like to the race of fishes, they are filling the sea."
In the account in Genesis, Noah "builded an altar unto the Lord, and took of
every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on
the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savor; and the Lord said in his
heart, 'I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake.'" In the
Chaldean legend we are told that Khasisatra also offered a sacrifice, a
burnt offering, "and the gods assembled like flies above the master of the
sacrifice." But Bel came in a high state of indignation, just as the Aztec
god did, and was about to finish the work of the Deluge, when the great god
Ea took ''pity in his heart and interfered to save the remnant of mankind.
These resemblances cannot be accidental; neither can they be the
interpolations of Christian missionaries, for it will be observed the Aztec
legends differ from the Bible in points where they resemble on the one hand
Plato's record, and on the other the Chaldean legend.
The name of the hero of the Aztec story, Nata, pronounced with the broad
sound of the a, is not far from the name of Noah or Noe. The Deluge of
Genesis is a Phnician, Semitic, or Hebraic legend, and yet, strange to say,
the name of Noah, which occurs in it, bears no appropriate meaning in those
tongues, but is derived from Aryan sources; its fundamental root is Na, to
which in all the Aryan language is attached the meaning of water--{Greek}
na'ein, to flow; {Greek} na~ma, water; Nympha, Neptunus, water deities.
(Lenormant and Chevallier, "Anc. Hist. of the East," vol. i., p. 15.) We
find the root Na repeated in the name of this Central American Noah, Na-ta,
and probably in the word "Na-hui-atl"--the age of water.
But still more striking analogies exist between the Chaldean legend and the
story of the Deluge as told in the "Popul Vuh" (the Sacred Book) of the
Central Americans:
"Then the waters were agitated by the will of the Heart of Heaven (Hurakan),
and a great inundation came upon the heads of these creatures. . . . They
were ingulfed, and a resinous thickness descended from heaven; . . . the
face of the earth was obscured, and a heavy darkening rain commenced-rain by
day and rain by night. . . . There was beard a great noise above their
heads, as if produced by fire. Then were men seen running, pushing each
other, filled with despair; they wished to climb upon their houses, and the
houses, tumbling down, fell to the ground; they wished to climb upon the
trees, and the trees shook them off; they wished to enter into the grottoes
(eaves), and the grottoes closed themselves before them. . . . Water and
fire contributed to the universal ruin at the time of the last great
cataclysm which preceded the fourth creation."
Observe the similarities here to the Chaldean legend. There is the same
graphic description of a terrible event. The "black cloud" is referred to in
both instances; also the dreadful noises. the rising water, the earthquake
rocking the trees, overthrowing the houses, and crushing even the mountain
caverns; "the men running and pushing each other, filled with despair," says
the "Popul Vuh;" "the brother no longer saw his brother," says the Assyrian
legend.
And here I may note that this word hurakan--the spirit of the abyss, the god
of storm, the hurricane--is very suggestive, and testifies to an early
intercourse between the opposite shores of the Atlantic. We find in Spanish
the word huracan; in Portuguese, furacan; in French, ouragan; in German,
Danish, and Swedish, orcan--all of them signifying a storm; while in Latin
furo, or furio, means to rage. And are not the old Swedish hurra, to be
driven along; our own word hurried; the Icelandic word hurra, to be rattled
over frozen ground, all derived from the same root from which the god of the
abyss, Hurakan, obtained his name? The last thing a people forgets is the
name of their god; we retain to this day, in the names of the days of the
week, the designations of four Scandinavian gods and one Roman deity.
It seems to me certain the above are simply two versions of the same event;
that while ships from Atlantis carried terrified passengers to tell the
story of the dreadful catastrophe to the people of the Mediterranean shores,
other ships, flying from the tempest, bore similar awful tidings to the
civilized races around the Gulf of Mexico.
The native Mexican historian, Ixtlilxochitl, gave this as the Toltec legend
of the Flood:
It is found in the histories of the Toltecs that this age and first world,
as they call it, lasted 1716 years; that men were destroyed by tremendous
rains and lightning from the sky, and even all the land, without the
exception of anything, and the highest mountains, were covered up and
submerged in water fifteen cubits (caxtolmolatli); and here they added other
fables of how men came to multiply from the few who escaped from this
destruction in a "toptlipetlocali;" that this word nearly signifies a close
chest; and how, after men had multiplied, they erected a very high
"zacuali," which is to-day a tower of great height, in order to take refuge
in it should the second world (age) be destroyed. Presently their languages
were confused, and, not being able to understand each other, they went to
different parts of the earth.
"The Toltecs, consisting of seven friends, with their wives, who understood
the same language, came to these parts, having first passed great land and
seas, having lived in caves, and having endured great hardships in order to
reach this land; . . . they wandered 104 years through different parts of
the world before they reached Hue Hue Tlapalan, which was in Ce Tecpatl, 520
years after the Flood." ("Ixtlilxochitl Relaciones," in Kingsborough's "Mex.
Ant.," vol. ix., pp. 321, 322.)
It will of course be said that this account, in those particulars where it
agrees with the Bible, was derived from the teachings of the Spanish
priests; but it must be remembered that Ixtlilxochitl was an Indian, a
native of Tezeuco, a son of the queen, and that his "Relaciones" were drawn
from the archives of his family and the ancient writings of his nation: he
had no motive to falsify documents that were probably in the hands of
hundreds at that time.
Here we see that the depth of the water over the earth, "fifteen cubits,"
given in the Toltec legend, is precisely the same as that named in the
Bible: "fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail." (Gen., chap. vii.,
20.)
In the two curious picture-histories of the Aztecs preserved in the Boturini
collection, and published by Gamelli Careri and others, there is a record of
their migrations from their original location through various parts of the
North American continent until their arrival in Mexico. In both cases their
starting-point is an island, from which they pass in a boat; and the island
contains in one case a mountain, and in the other a high temple in the midst
thereof. These things seem to be reminiscences of their origin in Atlantis.
In each case we see the crooked mountain of the Aztec legends, the
Calhuacan, looking not unlike the bent mountain of the monk, Cosmos.
In the legends of the Chibchas of Bogota we seem to have distinct
reminiscences of Atlantis. Bochica was their leading divinity. During two
thousand years he employed himself in elevating his subjects. He lived in
the sun, while his wife Chia occupied the moon. This would appear to be an
allusion to the worship of the sun and moon. Beneath Bochica in their
mythology was Chibchacum. In an angry mood he brought a deluge on the people
of the table-land. Bochica punished him for this act, and obliged him ever
after, like Atlas, to bear the burden of the earth on his back. Occasionally
be shifts the earth from one shoulder to another, and this causes
earthquakes!
Here we have allusions to an ancient people who, during thousands of years,
were elevated in the scale of civilization, and were destroyed by a deluge;
and with this is associated an Atlantean god bearing the world on his back.
We find even the rainbow appearing in connection with this legend. When
Bochica appeared in answer to prayer to quell the deluge he is seated on a
rainbow. He opened a breach in the earth at Tequendama, through which the
waters of the flood escaped, precisely as we have seen them disappearing
through the crevice in the earth near Bambyce, in Greece.
The Toltecs traced their migrations back to a starting-point called
"Aztlan," or "Atlan." This could be no other than , Atlantis. (Bancroft's
"Native Races," vol. v., p. 221.) "The original home of the Nahuatlacas was
Aztlan, the location of which has been the subject of much discussion. The
causes that led to their exodus from that country can only be conjectured;
but they may be supposed to have been driven out by their enemies, for
Aztlan is described as a land too fair and beautiful to be left willingly in
the mere hope of finding a better." (Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. v., p.
.306.) The Aztecs also claimed to have come originally from Aztlan. (Ibid.,
p. 321.) Their very name, Aztecs, was derived from Aztlan. (Ibid., vol. ii.,
p. 125). They were Atlanteans.
The "Popul Vuh" tells us that after the migration from Aztlan three sons of
the King of the Quiches, upon the death of their father, "determined to go
as their fathers had ordered to the East, on the shores of the sea whence
their fathers had come, to receive the royalty, 'bidding adieu to their
brothers and friends, and promising to return.' Doubtless they passed over
the sea when they went to the East to receive the royalty. Now this is the
name of the lord, of the monarch of the people of the East where they went.
And when they arrived before the lord Nacxit, the name of the great lord,
the only judge, whose power was without limit, behold he granted them the
sign of royalty and all that represents it . . . and the insignia of royalty
. . . all the things, in fact, which they brought on their return, and which
they went to receive from the other side of the sea--the art of painting
from Tulan, a system of writing, they said, for the things recorded in their
histories." (Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. v., p. 553 "Popul Vuh," p.
294.)
This legend not only points to the East as the place of origin of these
races, but also proves that this land of the East, this Aztlan, this
Atlantis, exercised dominion over the colonies in Central America, and
furnished them with the essentials of civilization. How completely does this
agree with the statement of Plato that the kings of Atlantis held dominion
over parts of "the great opposite continent!"
Professor Valentini ("Maya Archæol.," p. 23) describes an Aztec picture in
the work of Gemelli ("Il giro del mondo," vol. vi.) of the migration of the
Aztecs from Aztlan:
"Out of a sheet of water there projects the peak of a mountain; on it stands
a tree, and on the tree a bird spreads its .wings. At the foot of the
mountain-peak there comes out of the water the heads of a man and a woman.
The one wears on his head the symbol of his name, Coxcox, a pheasant. The
other head bears that of a hand with a bouquet (xochitl, a flower, and
quetzal, shining in green gold). In the foreground is a boat, out of which a
naked man stretches out his hand imploringly to heaven. Now turn to the
sculpture in the Flood tablet (on the great Calendar stone). There you will
find represented the Flood, and with great emphasis, by the accumulation of
all those symbols with which the ancient Mexicans conveyed the idea of
water: a tub of standing water, drops springing out--not two, as heretofore
in the symbol for Atl, water--but four drops; the picture for moisture, a
snail; above, a crocodile, the king of the rivers. In the midst of these
symbols you notice the profile of a man with a fillet, and a smaller one of
a woman. There can be doubt these are the Mexican Noah, Coxcox, and his
wife, Xochiquetzal; and at the same time it is evident (the Calendar stone,
we know, was made in A.D., 1478) that the story of them, and the pictures
representing the story, have not been invented by the Catholic clergy, but
really existed among these nations long before the Conquest."
The above figure represents the Flood tablet on the great Calendar stone.
When we turn to the uncivilized Indians of America, while we still find
legends referring to the Deluge, they are, with one exception, in such
garbled and uncouth forms that we can only see glimpses of the truth shining
through a mass of fable.
The following tradition was current among the Indians of the Great Lakes:
"In former times the father of the Indian tribes dwelt toward the rising
sun. Having been warned in a dream that a deluge was coming upon the earth,
be built a raft, on which be saved himself, with his family and all the
animals. He floated thus for several months. The animals, who at that time
spoke, loudly complained and murmured against him. At last a new earth
appeared, on which he landed with all the animals, who from that time lost
the power of speech, as a punishment for their murmurs against their
deliverer."
According to Father Charlevoix, the tribes of Canada and the valley of the
Mississippi relate in their rude legends that all mankind was destroyed by a
flood, and that the Good Spirit, to repeople the earth, had changed animals
into men. It is to J. S. Kohl we owe our acquaintance with the version of
the Chippeways--full of grotesque and perplexing touches--in which the man
saved from the Deluge is called Menaboshu. To know if the earth be drying,
he sends a bird, the diver, out of his bark; then becomes the restorer of
the human race and the founder of existing society.
A clergyman who visited the Indians north-west of the Ohio in 1764 met, at a
treaty, a party of Indians from the west of the Mississippi.
"They informed him that one of their most ancient traditions was that, a
great while ago, they had a common father, who lived toward the rising of
the sun, and governed the whole world; that all the white people's heads
were under his feet; that he had twelve sons, by whom he administered the
government; that the twelve sons behaved very bad, and tyrannized over the
people, abusing their power; that the Great Spirit, being thus angry with
them, suffered the white people to introduce spirituous liquors among them,
made them drunk, stole the special gift of the Great Spirit from them, and
by this means usurped power over them; and ever since the Indians' heads
were under the white people's feet." (Boudinot's "Star in the West," p.
111.)
Here we note that they looked "toward the rising sun"--toward Atlantis--for
the original home of their race; that this region governed "the whole
world;" that it contained white people, who were at first a subject race,
but who subsequently rebelled, and acquired dominion over the darker races.
We will see reason hereafter to conclude that Atlantis had a composite
population, and that the rebellion of the Titans in Greek mythology was the
rising up of a subject population.
In 1836 C. S. Rafinesque published in Philadelphia, Pa., a work called "The
American Nations," in which he gives the historical songs or chants of the
Lenni-Lenapi, or Delaware Indians, the tribe that originally dwelt along,
the Delaware River. After describing a time "when there was nothing but sea-
water on top of the land," and the creation of sun, moon, stars, earth, and
man, the legend depicts the Golden Age and the Fall in these words: "All
were willingly pleased, all were easy-thinking, and all were well-happified.
But after a while a snake-priest, Powako, brings on earth secretly the
snake-worship (Initako) of the god of the snakes, Wakon. And there came
wickedness, crime, and unhappiness. And bad weather was coming, distemper
was coming, with death was coming. All this happened very long ago, at the
first land, Netamaki, beyond the great ocean Kitahikau." Then follows the
Song of the Flood:
"There was, long ago, a powerful snake, Maskanako, when the men had become
bad beings, Makowini. This strong snake had become the foe of the Jins, and
they became troubled, hating each other. Both were fighting, both were,
spoiling, both were never peaceful. And they were fighting, least man
Mattapewi with dead-keeper Nihaulowit. And the strong snake readily resolved
to destroy or fight the beings or the men. The dark snake he brought, the
monster (Amanyam) he brought, snake-rushing water he brought (it). Much
water is rushing, much go to hills, much penetrate, much destroying.
Meanwhile at Tula (this is the same Tula referred to in the Central American
legends), at THAT ISLAND, Nana-Bush (the great hare Nana) becomes the
ancestor of beings and men. Being born creeping, he is ready to move and
dwell at Tula. The beings and men all go forth from the flood creeping in
shallow water or swimming afloat, asking which is the way to the turtle-
back, Tula-pin. But there are many monsters in the way, and some men were
devoured by them. But the daughter of a spirit helped them in a boat,
saying, 'Come, come;' they were coming and were helped. The name of the boat
or raft is Mokol. . . . Water running off, it is drying; in the plains and
the mountains, at the path of the cave, elsewhere went the powerful action
or motion." Then follows Song 3, describing the condition of mankind after
the Flood. Like the Aryans, they moved into a cold country: "It freezes was
there; it snows was there; it is cold was there." They move to a milder
region to hunt cattle; they divided their forces into tillers and hunters.
"The good and the holy were the hunters;" they spread themselves north,
south, east, and west." Meantime all the snakes were afraid in their huts,
and the Snake-priest Nakopowa said to all, 'Let us go.' Eastwardly they go
forth at Snakeland (Akhokink), and they went away earnestly grieving."
Afterward the fathers of the Delawares, who "were always boating and
navigating," find that the Snake-people have taken possession of a fine
country; and they collect together the people from north, south, east, and
west, and attempt "to pass over the waters of the frozen sea to possess that
land." They seem to travel in the dark of an Arctic winter until they come
to a gap of open sea. They can go no farther; but some tarry at Firland,
while the rest return to where they started from, "the old turtle land."
Here we find that the land that was destroyed was the "first land;" that it
was an island "beyond the great ocean." In all early age the people were
happy and peaceful; they became wicked; "snake worship" was introduced, and
was associated, as in Genesis, with the "fall of man;" Nana-Bush became the
ancestor of the new race; his name reminds us of the Toltec Nata and the
Hebrew Noah. After the flood came a dispersing of the people, and a
separation into hunters and tillers of the soil.
Among the Mandan Indians we not only find flood legends, but, more
remarkable still, we find an image of the ark preserved from generation to
generation, and a religious ceremony performed which refers plainly to the
destruction of Atlantis, and to the arrival of one of those who escaped from
the Flood, bringing the dreadful tidings of the disaster. It must be
remembered, as we will show hereafter, that many of these Mandan Indians
were white men, with hazel, gray, and blue eyes, and all shades of color of
the hair from black to pure white; that they dwelt in houses in fortified
towns, and manufactured earthen-ware pots in which they could boil water--an
art unknown to the ordinary Indians, who boiled water by putting heated
stones into it.
I quote the very interesting account of George Catlin, who visited the
Mandans nearly fifty years ago, lately republished in London in the "North
American Indians," a very curious and valuable work. He says (vol. i., p.
88):
"In the centre of the village is an open space, or public square, 150 feet
in diameter and circular in form, which is used for all public games and
festivals, shows and exhibitions. The lodges around this open space front
in, with their doors toward. the centre; and in the middle of this stands an
object of great religious veneration, on account of the importance it has in
connection with the annual religious ceremonies. This object is in the form
of a large hogshead, some eight or ten feet high, made of planks and hoops,
containing within it some of their choicest mysteries or medicines. They
call it the 'Big Canoe.'"
This is a representation of the ark; the ancient Jews venerated a similar
image, and some of the ancient Greek States followed in processions a model
of the ark of Deucalion. But it is indeed surprising to find this practice
perpetuated, even to our own times, by a race of Indians in the heart of
America. On page 158 of the first volume of the same work Catlin describes
the great annual mysteries and religious ceremonials of which this image of
the ark was the centre. He says:
"On the day set apart for the commencement of the ceremonies a solitary
figure is seen approaching the village.
"During the deafening din and confusion within the pickets of the village
the figure discovered on the prairie continued to approach with a dignified
step, and in a right line toward the village; all eyes were upon him, and he
at length made his appearance within the pickets, and proceeded toward the
centre of the village, where all the chiefs and braves stood ready to
receive him, which they did in a cordial manner by shaking hands,
recognizing him as an old acquaintance, and pronouncing his name, Nu-mohk-
muck-a-nah (the first or only man). The body of this strange personage,
which was chiefly naked, was painted with white clay, so as to resemble at a
distance a white man. He enters the medicine lodge, and goes through certain
mysterious ceremonies.
"During the whole of this day Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah (the first or only man)
travelled through the village, stopping in front of each man's lodge, and
crying until the owner of the lodge came out and asked who he was, and what
was the matter? To which be replied by narrating the sad catastrophe which
had happened on the earth's surface by the overflowing of the waters, saying
that 'he was the only person saved from the universal calamity; that he
landed his big canoe on a high mountain in the west, where he now resides;
that be has come to open the medicine lodge, which must needs receive a
present of an edged tool from the owner of every wigwam, that it may be
sacrificed to the water; for,' he says, 'if this is not done there will be
another flood, and no one will be saved, as it was with such tools that the
big canoe was made.'
"Having visited every lodge in the village during the day, and having
received such a present from each as a hatchet, a knife, etc. (which is
undoubtedly always prepared ready for the occasion), be places them in the
medicine lodge; and, on the last day of the ceremony, they are thrown into a
deep place in the river--'sacrificed to the Spirit of the Waters."'
Among the sacred articles kept in the great medicine lodge are four sacks of
water, called Eeh-teeh-ka, sewed together, each of them in the form of a
tortoise lying on its back, with a bunch of eagle feathers attached to its
tail. "These four tortoises," they told me, "contained the waters from the
four quarters of the world--that those waters had been contained therein
ever since the settling down of the waters," "I did not," says Catlin, who
knew nothing of an Atlantis theory, "think it best to advance anything
against such a ridiculous belief." Catlin tried to purchase one of these
water-sacks, but could not obtain it for any price; he was told they were "a
society property."
He then describes a dance by twelve men around the ark: "They arrange
themselves according to the four cardinal points; two are painted perfectly
black, two are vermilion color, some were painted partially white. They
dance a dance called Bel-lohck-na-pie,'" with horns on their heads, like
those used in Europe as symbolical of Bel, or Baal.
Could anything be more evident than the connection of these ceremonies with
the destruction of Atlantis? Here we have the image of the ark; here we have
a white man coming with the news that "the waters had overflowed the land,"
and that all the people were destroyed except himself; here we have the
sacrifice to appease the spirit that caused the Flood, just as we find the
Flood terminating, in the Hebrew, Chaldean, and Central American legends,
with a sacrifice. Here, too, we have the image of the tortoise, which we
find in other flood legends of the Indians, and which is a very natural
symbol for an island. As one of our own poets has expressed it,
"Very fair and full of promise
Lay the island of St. Thomas;
Like a great green turtle slumbered
On the sea which it encumbered."
Here we have, too, the four quarters of Atlantis, divided by its four
rivers, as we shall see a little farther on, represented in a dance, where
the dancers arrange themselves according to the four cardinal points of the
compass; the dancers are painted to represent the black and red races, while
"the first and only man" represents the white race; and the name of the
dance is a reminiscence of Baal, the ancient god of the races derived from
Atlantis.
But this is not all. The Mandans were evidently of the race of Atlantis.
They have another singular legend, which we find in the account of Lewis and
Clarke:
"Their belief in a future state is connected with this theory of their
origin: The whole nation resided in one large village, underground, near a
subterranean lake. A grape-vine extended its roots down to their habitation,
and gave them a view of the light. Some of the most adventurous climbed up
the vine, and were delighted with the sight of the earth, which they found
covered with buffalo, and rich with every kind of fruit. Returning with the
grapes they had gathered, their countrymen were so pleased with the taste of
them that the whole nation resolved to leave their dull residence for the
charms of the upper region. Men, women, and children ascended by means of
the vine, but, when about half the nation had reached the surface of the
earth, a corpulent woman, who was clambering up the vine, broke it with her
weight, and closed upon herself and the rest of the nation the light of the
sun."
This curious tradition means. that the present nation dwelt in a large
settlement underground, that is, beyond the land, in the sea; the sea being
represented by "the subterranean lake." At one time the people had free
intercourse between this "large village" and the American continent, and
they founded extensive colonies on this continent; whereupon some mishap cut
them off from the mother country. This explanation is confirmed by the fact
that in the legends of the Iowa Indians, who were a branch of the Dakotas,
or Sioux Indians, and relatives of the Mandans (according to Major James W.
Lynd), "all the tribes of Indians were formerly one, and all dwelt together
on an island, or at least across a large water toward the east or sunrise.
They crossed this water in skin canoes, or by swimming; but they know not
how long they were in crossing, or whether the water was salt or fresh."
While the Dakotas, according to Major Lynd, who lived among them for nine
years, possessed legends of "huge skiffs, in which the Dakotas of old
floated for weeks, finally gaining dry land"--a reminiscence of ships and
long sea-voyages.
The Mandans celebrated their great religious festival above described in the
season when the willow is first in leaf, and a dove is mixed up in the
ceremonies; and they further relate a legend that "the world was once a
great tortoise, borne on the waters, and covered with earth, and that when
one day, in digging the soil, a tribe of white men, who had made holes in
the earth to a great depth digging for badgers, at length pierced the shell
of the tortoise, it sank, and the water covering it drowned all men with the
exception of one, who saved himself in a boat; and when the earth re-
emerged, sent out a dove, who returned with a branch of willow in its beak."
The holes dug to find badgers were a savage's recollection of mining
operations; and when the great disaster came, and the island sunk in the sea
amid volcanic convulsions, doubtless men said it was due to the deep mines,
which had opened the way to the central fires. But the recurrence of "white
men" as the miners, and of a white man as "the last and only man," and the
presence of white blood in the veins of the people, all point to the same
conclusion--that the Mandans were colonists from Atlantis.
According to Major Lynd, the Dakotas, or Sioux, belonged to the same race as
the Mandans; hence the interest which .attaches to these verbal
similarities.
"Among the Iroquois there is a tradition that the sea and waters infringed
upon the land, so that all human life was destroyed. The Chickasaws assert
that the world was once destroyed by water, but that one family was saved,
and two animals of every kind. The Sioux say there was a time when there was
no dry land, and all men had disappeared from existence." (See Lynd's "MS.
History of the Dakotas," Library of Historical Society of Minnesota.)
"The Okanagaus have a god, Skyappe, and also one called Chacha, who appear
to be endowed with omniscience; but their principal divinity is their great
mythical ruler and heroine, Scomalt. Long ago, when the sun was no bigger
than a star, this strong medicine-woman ruled over what appears to have now
become a lost island. At last the peace of the island was destroyed by war,
and the noise of battle was heard, with which Scomalt was exceeding wroth,
whereupon she rose up in her might and drove her rebellious subjects to one
end of the island, and broke off the piece of land on which they were
huddled and pushed it out to sea, to drift whither it would. This floating
island was tossed to and fro and buffeted by the winds till all but two
died. A man and woman escaped in a canoe, and arrived on the main-land; and
from these the Okanagaus are descended." (Bancroft's "Native Races," vol.
iii., p. 149.)
Here we have the Flood legend clearly connected with a lost island.
The Nicaraguans believed "that ages ago the world was destroyed by a flood,
in which the most part of mankind perished. Afterward the teotes, or gods,
restored the earth as at the beginning." (Ibid., p. 75.) The wild Apaches,
"wild from their natal hour," have a legend that "the first days of the
world were happy and peaceful days;" then came a great flood, from which
Montezuma and the coyote alone escaped. Montezuma became then very wicked,
and attempted to build a house that would reach to heaven, but the Great
Spirit destroyed it with thunderbolts. (Bancroft's "Native Races," vol.
iii., p. 76.)
CHAPTER VI.
SOME CONSIDERATION OF THE DELUGE LEGENDS.
The Fountains of the Great Deep.--As Atlantis perished in a volcanic
convulsion, it must have possessed volcanoes. This is rendered the more
probable when we remember that the ridge of land of which it was a part,
stretching from north to south, from Iceland to St. Helena, contains even
now great volcanoes--as in Iceland, the Azores, the Canaries, etc.--and that
the very sea-bed along the line of its original axis is, to this day, as we
have shown, the scene of great volcanic disturbances.
If, then, the mountains of Atlantis contained volcanoes, of which the peaks
of the Azores are the surviving representatives, it is not improbable that
the convulsion which drowned it in the sea was accompanied by great
discharges of water. We have seen that such discharges occurred in the
island of Java, when four thousand people perished. "Immense columns of hot
water and boiling mud were thrown out" of the volcano of Galung Gung; the
water was projected from the mountain "like a water-spout." When a volcanic
island was created near Sicily in 1831, it was accompanied by "a waterspout
sixty feet high."
In the island of Dominica, one of the islands constituting the Leeward group
of the West Indies, and nearest to the site of Atlantis, on the 4th of
January, 1880, occurred a series of convulsions which reminds us forcibly of
the destruction of Plato's island; and the similarity extends to another
particular: Dominica contains, like Atlantis, we are told, numerous hot and
sulphur springs. I abridge the account given by the New York Herald of
January 28th, 1880:
"A little after 11 o'clock A.M., soon after high-mass in the Roman Catholic
cathedral, and while divine service was still going on in the Anglican and
Wesleyan chapels, all the indications of an approaching thunder-storm
suddenly showed themselves; the atmosphere, which just previously had been
cool and pleasant--slight showers falling since early morning--became at
once nearly stifling hot; the rumbling of distant thunder was heard, and the
light-blue and fleecy white of the sky turned into a heavy and lowering
black. Soon the thunder-peals came near and loud, the lightning flashes, of
a blue and red color, more frequent and vivid; and the rain, first with a
few heavy drops, commenced to pour as if the floodgates of heaven were open.
In a moment it darkened, as if night had come; a strong, nearly overpowering
smell of sulphur announced itself; and people who happened to be out in the
streets felt the rain-drops failing on their heads, backs, and shoulders
like showers of hailstones. The cause of this was to be noted by looking at
the spouts, from which the water was rushing like so many cataracts of
molten lead, while the gutters below ran swollen streams of thick gray mud,
looking like nothing ever seen in them before. In the mean time the Roseau
River had worked itself into a state of mad fury, overflowing its banks,
carrying down rocks and large trees, and threatening destruction to the
bridges over it and the houses in its neighborhood. When the storm ceased--
it lasted till twelve, mid-day--the roofs and walls of the buildings in
town, the street pavement, the door-steps and back-yards were found covered
with a deposit of volcanic débris, holding together like clay, dark-gray in
color, and in some places more than an inch thick, with small, shining
metallic particles on the surface, which could be easily identified as iron
pyrites. Scraping up some of the stuff, it required only a slight
examination to determine its main constituents--sandstone and magnesia, the
pyrites being slightly mixed, and silver showing itself in even smaller
quantity. This is, in fact, the composition of the volcanic mud thrown up by
the soufrières at Watton Waven and in the Boiling Lake country, and it is
found in solution as well in the lake water. The Devil's Billiard-table,
within half a mile of the Boiling Lake, is composed wholly of this
substance, which there assumes the character of stone in formation.
Inquiries instituted on Monday morning revealed the fact that, except on the
south-east, the mud shower had not extended beyond the limits of the town.
On the north-west, in the direction of Fond Colo and Morne Daniel, nothing
but pure rain-water had fallen, and neither Loubière nor Pointe Michel had
seen any signs of volcanic disturbance. . . .
"But what happened at Pointe Mulâtre enables us to spot the locale of the
eruption. Pointe Mulâtre lies at the foot of the range of mountains on the
top of which the Boiling Lake frets and seethes. The only outlet of the lake
is a cascade which falls into one of the branches of the Pointe Mulâtre
River, the color and temperature of which, at one time and another, shows
the existence or otherwise of volcanic activity in the lake-country. We may
observe, en passant, that the fall of the water from the lake is similar in
appearance to the falls on the sides of Roairama, in the interior of British
Guiana; there, is no continuous stream, but the water overleaps its basin.
like a kettle boiling over, and comes down in detached cascades from the
top. May there not be a boiling lake on the unapproachable summit of
Roairama? The phenomena noted at Pointe Mulâtre on Sunday were similar to
what we witnessed in Roseau, but with every feature more strongly marked.
The fall of mud was heavier, covering all the fields; the atmospheric
disturbance was greater, and the change in the appearance of the running
water about the place more surprising. The Pointe Mulâtre River suddenly
began to run volcanic mud and water; then the mud predominated, and almost
buried the stream under its weight, and the odor of sulphur in the air
became positively oppressive. Soon the fish in the water--brochet, camoo,
meye, crocro, mullet, down to the eel, the crawfish, the loche, the tétar,
and the dormer--died, and were thrown on the banks. The mud carried down by
the river has formed a bank at the month which nearly dams up the stream,
and threatens to throw it back over the low-lying lands of the Pointe
Mulâtre estate. The reports from the Laudat section of the Boiling Lake
district are curious. The Bachelor and Admiral rivers, and the numerous
mineral springs which arise in that part of the island, are all running a
thick white flood, like cream milk. The face of the entire country, from the
Admiral River to the Solfatera Plain, has undergone some portentous change,
which the frightened peasants who bring the news to Roseau seem unable
clearly and connectedly to describe, and the volcanic activity still
continues."
From this account it appears that the rain of water and mud came from a
boiling lake on the mountains; it must have risen to a great height, "like a
water-spout," and then fallen in showers over the face of the country. We
are reminded, in this Boiling Lake of Dominica, of the Welsh legend of the
eruption of the Llyn-llion, "the Lake of Waves," which "inundated the whole
country." On the top of a mountain in the county of Kerry, Ireland, called
Mangerton, there is a deep lake known as Poulle-i-feron, which signifies
Hell-hole; it frequently overflows, and rolls down the mountain in frightful
torrents. On Slieve-donart, in the territory of Mourne, in the county of
Down, Ireland, a lake occupies the mountain-top, and its overflowings help
to form rivers.
If we suppose the destruction of Atlantis to have been, in like manner,
accompanied by a tremendous outpour of water from one or more of its
volcanoes, thrown to a great height, and deluging the land, we can
understand the description in the Chaldean legend of "the terrible water-
spout," which even "the gods grew afraid of," and which "rose to the sky,"
and which seems to have been one of the chief causes, together with the
earthquake, of the destruction of the country. And in this view we are
confirmed by the Aramæan legend of the Deluge, probably derived at an
earlier age from the Chaldean tradition. In it we are told, "All on a sudden
enormous volumes of water issued from the earth, and rains of extraordinary
abundance began to fall; the rivers left their beds, and the ocean
overflowed its banks." The disturbance in Dominica duplicates this
description exactly: "In a moment" the water and mud burst from the
mountains, "the floodgates of heaven were opened," and "the river overflowed
its banks."
And here, again, we are reminded of the expression in Genesis, "the same day
were all the fountains of the great deep broken up" (chap. vii., 11). That
this does not refer to the rain is clear from the manner in which it is
stated: "The same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up,
and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth,"
etc. And when the work of destruction is finished, we are told "the
fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped." This is
a reminiscence by an inland people, living where such tremendous volcanic
disturbances were nearly unknown, of "the terrible water-spout which "rose
to the sky," of the Chaldean legend, and of "the enormous volumes of water
issuing from the earth" of the Aramæan tradition. The Hindoo legend of the
Flood speaks of "the marine god Hayagriva, who dwelt in the abyss," who
produced the cataclysm. This is doubtless "the archangel of the abyss"
spoken of in the Chaldean tradition.
The Mountains of the North.--We have in Plato the following reference to the
mountains of Atlantis:
"The whole country was described as being very lofty and precipitous on the
side of the sea. . . . The whole region of the island lies toward the south,
and is sheltered from the north. . . . The surrounding mountains exceeded
all that are to be seen now anywhere."
These mountains were the present Azores. One has but to contemplate their
present elevation, and remember the depth to which they descend in the
ocean, to realize their tremendous altitude and the correctness of the
description given by Plato.
In the Hindoo legend we find the fish-god, who represents Poseidon, father
of Atlantis, helping Mann. over "the Mountain of the North." In the Chaldean
legend Khasisatra's vessel is stopped by "the Mountain of Nizir" until the
sea goes down.
The Mud which Stopped Navigation.--We are told by Plato, "Atlantis
disappeared beneath the sea, and then that sea became inaccessible, so that
navigation on it ceased, on account of the quantity of mud which the
ingulfed island left in its place." This is one of the points of Plato's
story which provoked the incredulity and ridicule of the ancient, and even
of the modern, world. We find in the Chaldean legend something of the same
kind: Khasisatra says, "I looked at the sea attentively, observing, and the
whole of humanity had returned to mud." In the "Popol Vuh" we are told that
a "resinous thickness descended from heaven," even as in Dominica the rain
was full of "thick gray mud," accompanied by an "overpowering smell of
sulphur."
The explorations of the ship Challenger show that the whole of the submerged
ridge of which Atlantis is a part is to this day thickly covered with
volcanic débris.
We have but to remember the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, which were
covered with such a mass of volcanic ashes from the eruption of A.D. 79 that
for seventeen centuries they remained buried at a depth of from fifteen to
thirty feet; a new population lived and labored above them; an aqueduct was
constructed over their heads; and it was only when a farmer, in digging for
a well, penetrated the roof of a house, that they were once more brought to
the light of day and the knowledge of mankind.
We have seen that, in 1783, the volcanic eruption in Iceland covered the sea
with pumice for a distance of one hundred and fifty miles, "and ships were
considerably impeded in their course."
The eruption in the island of Sumbawa, in April, 1815, threw out such masses
of ashes as to darken the air. "The floating cinders to the west of Sumatra
formed, on the 12th of April, a mass two feet thick and several miles in
extent, through which ships with difficulty forced their way."
It thus appears that the very statement of Plato which has provoked the
ridicule of scholars is in itself one of the corroborating features of his
story. It is probable that the ships of the Atlanteans, when they returned
after the tempest to look for their country, found the sea impassable from
the masses of volcanic ashes and pumice. They returned terrified to the
shores of Europe; and the shock inflicted by the destruction of Atlantis
upon the civilization of the world probably led to one of those retrograde
periods in the history of our race in which they lost all intercourse with
the Western continent.
The Preservation of a Record.--There is a singular coincidence in the
stories of the Deluge in another particular.
The legends of the Phnicians, preserved by Sanchoniathon, tell us that
Taautos, or Taut, was the inventor of the alphabet and of the art of
writing.
Now, we find in the Egyptian legends a passage of Manetho, in which Thoth
(or Hermes Trismegistus), before the Deluge, inscribed on stelæ, or tablets,
in hieroglyphics, or sacred characters, the principles of all knowledge.
After the Deluge the second Thoth translated the contents of these stelæ
into the vulgar tongue.
Josephus tells us that "The patriarch Seth, in order that wisdom and
astronomical knowledge should not perish, erected, in prevision of the
double destruction by fire and water predicted by Adam, two columns, one of
brick, the other of stone, on which this knowledge was engraved, and which
existed in the Siriadic country."
In the Chaldean legends the god Ea ordered Khasisatra to inscribe the divine
learning, and the principles of all sciences, on tables of terra-cotta, and
bury them, before the Deluge, "in the City of the Sun at Sippara."
Berosus, in his version of the Chaldean flood, says:
"The deity, Chronos, appeared to him (Xisuthros) in a vision, and warned him
that, upon the 15th day of the month Dsius, there would be a flood by which
mankind would be destroyed. He therefore enjoined him to write a history of
the beginning, procedure, and conclusion of all things, and to bury it in
the City of the Sun at Sippara, and to build a vessel," etc.
The Hindoo Bhâgavata-Purâna tells us that the fish-god, who warned
Satyravata of the coming of the Flood, directed him to place the sacred
Scriptures in a safe place, "in order to preserve them from Hayagriva, a
marine horse dwelling in the abyss."
Are we to find the original of these legends in the following passage from
Plato's history of Atlantis?
"Now, the relations of their governments to one another were regulated by
the injunctions of Poseidon, as the law had handed them down. These were
inscribed by the first then on a column of orichalcum, which was situated in
the middle of the island, at the Temple of Poseidon, whither the people were
gathered together. . . . They received and gave judgments, and at daybreak
they wrote down their sentences on a golden tablet, and deposited them as
memorials with their robes. There were many special laws which the several
kings had inscribed about the temples." (Critias, p. 120.)
A Succession of Disasters.--The Central American books, translated by De
Bourbourg, state that originally a part of the American continent extended
far into the Atlantic Ocean. This tradition is strikingly confirmed by the
explorations of the ship Challenger, which show that the "Dolphin's Ridge"
was connected with the shore of South America north of the mouth of the
Amazon. The Central American books tell us that this region of the continent
was destroyed by a succession of frightful convulsions, probably at long
intervals apart; three of these catastrophes are constantly mentioned, and
sometimes there is reference to one or two more.
"The land," in these convulsions, "was shaken by frightful earthquakes, and
the waves of the sea combined with volcanic fires to overwhelm and ingulf
it. . . . Each convulsion swept away portions of the land until the whole
disappeared, leaving the line of coast as it now is. Most of the
inhabitants, overtaken amid their regular employments, were destroyed; but
some escaped in ships, and some fled for safety to the summits of high
mountains, or to portions of the land which for a time escaped immediate
destruction." (Baldwin's "Ancient America," p. 176.)
This accords precisely with the teachings of geology. We know that the land
from which America and Europe were formed once covered nearly or quite the
whole space now occupied by the Atlantic between the continents; and it is
reasonable to believe that it went down piecemeal, and that Atlantis was but
the stump of the ancient continent, which at last perished from the same
causes and in the same way.
The fact that this tradition existed among the inhabitants of America is
proven by the existence of festivals, "especially one in the month Izcalli,
which were instituted to commemorate this frightful destruction of land and
people, and in which, say the sacred books, 'princes and people humbled
themselves before the divinity, and besought him to withhold a return of
such terrible calamities.'"
Can we doubt the reality of events which we thus find confirmed by religious
ceremonies at Athens, in Syria, and on the shores of Central America?
And we find this succession of great destructions of the Atlantic continent
in the triads of Wales, where traditions are preserved of "three terrible
catastrophes." We are told by the explorations of the ship Challenger that
the higher lands reach in the direction of the British Islands; and the
Celts had traditions that a part of their country once extended far out into
the Atlantic, and was subsequently destroyed.
And the same succession of destructions is referred to in the Greek legends,
where a deluge of Ogyges--"the most ancient of the kings of Botia or
Attica, a quite mythical person, lost in the night of ages"--preceded that
of Deucalion.
We will find hereafter the most ancient hymns of the Aryans praying God to
hold the land firm. The people of Atlantis, having seen their country thus
destroyed, section by section, and judging that their own time must
inevitably come, must have lived under a great and perpetual terror, which
will go far to explain the origin of primeval religion, and the hold which
it took upon the minds of men; and this condition of things may furnish us a
solution of the legends which have come down to us of their efforts to
perpetuate their learning on pillars, and also an explanation of that other
legend of the Tower of Babel, which, as I will show hereafter, was common to
both continents, and in which they sought to build a tower high enough to
escape the Deluge.
PART III
THE CIVILIZATION OF THE OLD WORLD AND NEW COMPARED.
CHAPTER I.
CIVILIZATION AN INHERITANCE.
MATERIAL civilization might be defined to be the result of a series of
inventions and discoveries, whereby man improves his condition, and controls
the forces of nature for his own advantage.
The savage man is a pitiable creature; as Menabosbu says, in the Chippeway
legends, he is pursued by a "perpetual hunger;" he is exposed unprotected to
the blasts of winter and the heats of summer. A great terror sits upon his
soul; for every manifestation of nature--the storm, the wind, the thunder,
the lightning, the cold, the heat--all are threatening and dangerous demons.
The seasons bring him neither seed-time nor harvest; pinched with hunger,
appeasing in part the everlasting craving of his stomach with seeds,
berries, and creeping things, he sees the animals of the forest dash by him,
and he has no means to arrest their flight. He is powerless and miserable in
the midst of plenty. Every step toward civilization is a step of conquest
over nature. The invention of the bow and arrow was, in its time, a far
greater stride forward for the human race than the steam-engine or the
telegraph. The savage could now reach his game--his insatiable hunger could
be satisfied; the very eagle, "towering in its pride of place," was not
beyond the reach of this new and wonderful weapon. The discovery of fire and
the art of cooking was another immense step forward. The savage, having
nothing but wooden vessels in which to cook, covered the wood with clay; the
day hardened in the fire. The savage gradually learned that he could
dispense with the wood, and thus pottery was invented. Then some one (if we
are to believe the Chippeway legends, on the shores of Lake Superior) found
fragments of the pure copper of that region, beat them into shape, and the
art of metallurgy was begun; iron was first worked in the same way by
shaping meteoric iron into spear-heads.
But it must not be supposed that these inventions followed one another in
rapid succession. Thousands, and perhaps tens of thousands, of years
intervened between each step; many savage races have not to this day
achieved some of these steps. Prof. Richard Owen says, "Unprepossessed and
sober experience teaches that arts, language, literature are of slow growth,
the results of gradual development."
I shall undertake to show hereafter that nearly all the arts essential to
civilization which we possess date back to the time of Atlantis--certainly
to that ancient Egyptian civilization which was coeval with, and an
outgrowth from, Atlantis.
In six thousand years the world made no advance on the civilization which it
received from Atlantis.
Phnicia, Egypt, Chaldea, India, Greece, and Rome passed the torch of
civilization from one to the other; but in all that lapse of time they added
nothing to the arts which existed at the earliest period of Egyptian
history. In architecture, sculpture, painting, engraving, mining,
metallurgy, navigation, pottery, glass-ware, the construction of canals,
roads, and aqueducts, the arts of Phnicia and Egypt extended, without
material change or improvement, to a period but two or three hundred years
ago. The present age has entered upon a new era; it has added a series of
wonderful inventions to the Atlantean list; it has subjugated steam and
electricity to the uses of man. And its work has but commenced: it will
continue until it lifts man to a plane as much higher than the present as
the present is above the barbaric condition; and in the future it will be
said that between the birth of civilization in Atlantis and the new
civilization there stretches a period of many thousands of years, during
which mankind did not invent, but simply perpetuated.
Herodotus tells us ("Euterpe," cxlii.) that, according to the information he
received from the Egyptian priests, their written history dated back 11,340
years before his era, or nearly 14,000 years prior to this time. They
introduced him into a spacious temple, and showed him the statues of 341
high-priests who had in turn succeeded each other; and yet the age of
Columbus possessed no arts, except that of printing (which was ancient in
China), which was not known to the Egyptians; and the civilization of Egypt
at its first appearance was of a higher order than at any subsequent period
of its history, thus testifying that it drew its greatness from a fountain
higher than itself. It was in its early days that Egypt worshipped one only
God; in the later ages this simple and sublime belief was buried under the
corruptions of polytheism. The greatest pyramids were built by the Fourth
Dynasty, and so universal was education at that time among the people that
the stones with which they were built retain to this day the writing of the
workmen. The first king was Menes.
"At the epoch of Menes," says Winchell, "the Egyptians were already a
civilized and numerous people. Manetho tells us that Athotis, the son of
this first king, Menes, built the palace at Memphis; that he was a
physician, and left anatomical books. All these statements imply that even
at this early period the Egyptians were in a high state of civilization."
(Winchell's "Preadamites," p. 120.) "In the time of Menes the Egyptians had
long been architects, sculptors, painters, mythologists, and theologians."
Professor Richard Owen says, "Egypt is recorded to have been a civilized and
governed community before the time of Menes. The pastoral community of a
group of nomad families, as portrayed in the Pentateuch, may be admitted as
an early step in civilization. But how far in advance of this stage is a
nation administered by a kingly government, consisting of grades of society,
with divisions of labor, of which one kind, assigned to the priesthood, was
to record or chronicle the names and dynasties of the kings, the duration
and chief events of their reigns!" Ernest Renan points out that "Egypt at
the beginning appears mature, old, and entirely without mythical and heroic
ages, as if the country had never known youth. Its civilization has no
infancy, and its art no archaic period. The civilization of the Old Monarchy
did not begin with infancy. It was already mature."
We shall attempt to show that it matured in Atlantis, and that the Egyptian
people were unable to maintain it at the high standard at which they had
received it, as depicted in the pages of Plato. What king of Assyria, or
Greece, or Rome, or even of these modern nations, has ever devoted himself
to the study of medicine and the writing of medical books for the benefit of
mankind? Their mission has been to kill, not to heal the people; yet here,
at the very dawn of Mediterranean history, we find the son of the first king
of Egypt recorded "as a physician, and as having left anatomical books."
I hold it to be incontestable that, in some region of the earth, primitive
mankind must have existed during vast spaces of time, and under most
favorable circumstances, to create, invent, and discover those arts and
things which constitute civilization. When we have it before our eyes that
for six thousand years mankind in Europe, Asia, and Africa, even when led by
great nations, and illuminated by marvellous minds, did not advance one inch
beyond the arts of Egypt, we may conceive what lapses, what aeons, of time
it must have required to bring savage man to that condition of refinement
and civilization possessed by Egypt when it first comes within the purview
of history.
That illustrious Frenchman, H. A. Taine (" History of English Literature,"
p. 23), sees the unity of the Indo-European races manifest in their
languages, literature, and philosophies, and argues that these pre-eminent
traits are "the great marks of an original model," and that when we meet
with them "fifteen, twenty, thirty centuries before our era, in an Aryan, an
Egyptian, a Chinese, they represent the work of a great many ages, perhaps
of several myriads of centuries. . . . Such is the first and richest source
of these master faculties from which historical events take their rise; and
one sees that if it be powerful it is because this is no simple spring, but
a kind of lake, a deep reservoir, wherein other springs have, for a
multitude of centuries, discharged their several streams." In other words,
the capacity of the Egyptian, Aryan, Chaldean, Chinese, Saxon, and Celt to
maintain civilization is simply the result of civilized training during
"myriads of centuries" in some original home of the race.
I cannot believe that the great inventions were duplicated spontaneously, as
some would have us believe, in different countries; there is no truth in the
theory that men pressed by necessity will always hit upon the same invention
to relieve their wants. If this were so, all savages would have invented the
boomerang; all savages would possess pottery, bows and arrows, slings,
tents, and canoes; in short, all races would have risen to civilization, for
certainly the comforts of life are as agreeable to one people as another.
Civilization is not communicable to all; many savage tribes are incapable of
it. There are two great divisions of mankind, the civilized and the savage;
and, as we shall show, every civilized race in the world has had something
of civilization from the earliest ages; and as "all roads lead to Rome," so
all the converging lines of civilization lead to Atlantis. The abyss between
the civilized man and the savage is simply incalculable; it represents not
alone a difference in arts and methods of life, but in the mental
constitution, the instincts, and the predispositions of the soul. The child
of the civilized races in his sports manufactures water-wheels, wagons, and
houses of cobs; the savage boy amuses himself with bows and arrows: the one
belongs to a building and creating race; the other to a wild, hunting stock.
This abyss between savagery and civilization has never been passed by any
nation through its own original force, and without external influences,
during the Historic Period; those who were savages at the dawn of history
are savages still; barbarian slaves may have been taught something of the
arts of their masters, and conquered races have shared some of the
advantages possessed by their conquerors; but we will seek in vain for any
example of a savage people developing civilization of and among themselves.
I may be reminded of the Gauls, Goths, and Britons; but these were not
savages, they possessed written languages, poetry, oratory, and history;
they were controlled by religious ideas; they believed in God and the
immortality of the soul, and in a state of rewards and punishments after
death. Wherever the Romans came in contact with Gauls, or Britons, or German
tribes, they found them armed with weapons of iron. The Scots, according to
Tacitus, used chariots and iron swords in the battle of the Grampians--
"enormes gladii sine mucrone." The Celts of Gaul are stated by Diodorus
Siculus to have used iron-headed spears and coats-of-mail, and the Gauls who
encountered the Roman arms in B.C. 222 were armed with soft iron swords, as
well as at the time when Caesar conquered their country. Among the Gauls men
would lend money to be repaid in the next world, and, we need not add, that
no Christian people has yet reached that sublime height of faith; they
cultivated the ground, built houses and walled towns, wove cloth, and
employed wheeled vehicles; they possessed nearly all the cereals and
domestic animals we have, and they wrought in iron, bronze, and steel. The
Gauls had even invented a machine on wheels to cut their grain, thus
anticipating our reapers and mowers by two thousand years. The difference
between the civilization of the Romans under Julius Caesar and the Gauls
under Vercingetorix was a difference in degree and not in kind. The Roman
civilization was simply a development and perfection of the civilization
possessed by all the European populations; it was drawn from the common
fountain of Atlantis.
If we find on both sides of the Atlantic precisely the same arts, sciences,
religious beliefs, habits, customs, and traditions, it is absurd to say that
the peoples of the two continents arrived separately, by precisely the same
steps, at precisely the same ends. When we consider the resemblance of the
civilizations of the Mediterranean nations to one another, no man is silly
enough to pretend that Rome, Greece, Egypt, Assyria, Phnicia, each
spontaneously and separately invented the arts, sciences, habits, and
opinions in which they agreed; but we proceed to trace out the thread of
descent or connection from one to another. Why should a rule of
interpretation prevail, as between the two sides of the Atlantic, different
from that which holds good as to the two sides of the Mediterranean Sea? If,
in the one case, similarity of origin has unquestionably produced similarity
of arts, customs, and condition, why, in the other, should not similarity of
arts, customs, and condition prove similarity of origin? Is there any
instance in the world of two peoples, without knowledge of or intercourse
with each other, happening upon the same invention, whether that invention
be an arrow-head or a steam-engine? If it required of mankind a lapse of at
least six thousand years before it began anew the work of invention, and
took up the thread of original thought where Atlantis dropped it, what
probability is there of three or four separate nations all advancing at the
same speed to precisely the same arts and opinions? The proposition is
untenable.
CHAPTER II
THE IDENTITY OF THE CIVILIZATIONS OF THE OLD WORLD AND THE NEW
Architecture.--Plato tells us that the Atlanteans possessed architecture;
that they built walls, temples, and palaces.
We need not add that this art was found in Egypt and all the civilized
countries of Europe, as well as in Peru, Mexico, and Central America. Among
both the Peruvians and Egyptians the walls receded inward, and the doors
were narrower at, the top than at the threshold.
The obelisks of Egypt, covered with hieroglyphics, are paralleled by the
round columns of Central America, and both are supposed to have originated
in Phallus-worship. "The usual symbol of the Phallus was an erect stone,
often in its rough state, sometimes sculptured." (Squier, "Serpent Symbol,"
p. 49; Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iii., p. 504.) The worship of Priapus
was found in Asia, Egypt, along the European shore of the Mediterranean, and
in the forests of Central America.
The mounds of Europe and Asia were made in the same way and for the same
purposes as those of America. Herodotus describes the burial of a Scythian
king; he says, "After this they set to work to raise a vast mound above the
grave, all of them vying with each other, and seeking to make it as tall as
possible." "It must be confessed," says Foster ("Prehistoric Races," p.
193), "that these Scythic burial rites have a strong resemblance to those of
the Mound Builders." Homer describes the erection of a great symmetrical
mound over Achilles, also one over Hector. Alexander the Great raised a
great mound over his friend Hephæstion, at a cost of more than a million
dollars; and Semiramis raised a similar mound over her husband. The pyramids
of Egypt, Assyria, and Phnicia had their duplicates in Mexico and Central
America.
The grave-cists made of stone of the American mounds are exactly like the
stone chests, or kistvaen for the dead, found in the British mounds.
(Fosters "Prehistoric Races," p. 109.) Tumuli have been found in Yorkshire
enclosing wooden coffins, precisely as in the mounds of the Mississippi
Valley. (Ibid., p. 185.) The articles associated with the dead are the same
in both continents: arms, trinkets, food, clothes, and funeral urns. In both
the Mississippi Valley and among the Chaldeans vases were constructed around
the bones, the neck of the vase being too small to permit the extraction of
the skull. (Foster's "Prehistoric Races," p. 200.)
The use of cement was known alike to the European and American nations.
The use of the arch was known on both sides of the Atlantic.
The manufacture of bricks was known in both the Old and New Worlds.
The style of ornamentation in architecture was much the same on both
hemispheres, as shown in the preceding designs, pages 137, 139.
Metallurgy.--The Atlanteans mined ores, and worked in metals; they used
copper, tin, bronze, gold, and silver, and probably iron.
The American nations possessed all these metals. The age of bronze, or of
copper combined with tin, was preceded in America, and nowhere else, by a
simpler age of copper; and, therefore, the working of metals probably
originated in America, or in some region to which it was tributary. The
Mexicans manufactured bronze, and the Incas mined iron near Lake Titicaca;
and the civilization of this latter region, as we will show, probably dated
back to Atlantean times. The Peruvians called gold the tears of the sun: it
was sacred to, the sun, as silver was to the moon.
Sculpture.--The Atlanteans possessed this art; so did the American and
Mediterranean nations.
Dr. Arthur Schott ("Smith. Rep.," 1869, p. 391), in describing the "Cara
Gigantesca," or gigantic face, a monument of Yzamal, in Yucatan, says,
"Behind and on both sides, from under the mitre, a short veil falls upon the
shoulders, so as to protect the back of the head and the neck. This
particular appendage vividly calls to mind the same feature in the symbolic
adornments of Egyptian and Hindoo priests, and even those of the Hebrew
hierarchy." Dr. Schott sees in the orbicular wheel-like plates of this
statue the wheel symbol of Kronos and Saturn; and, in turn, it may be
supposed that the wheel of Kronos was simply the cross of Atlantis,
surrounded by its encircling ring.
Painting.--This art was known on both sides of the Atlantic. The paintings
upon the walls of some of the temples of Central America reveal a state of
the art as high as that of Egypt.
Engraving.--Plato tells us that the Atlanteans engraved upon pillars. The
American nations also had this art in common with Egypt, Phnicia, and
Assyria.
Agriculture.--The people of Atlantis were pre-eminently an agricultural
people; so were the civilized nations of America and the Egyptians. In Egypt
the king put his hand to the plough at an annual festival, thus dignifying
and consecrating the occupation of husbandry. In Peru precisely the same
custom prevailed. In both the plough was known; in Egypt it was drawn by
oxen, and in Peru by men. It was drawn by men in the North of Europe down to
a comparatively recent period.
Public Works.--The American nations built public works as great as or
greater than any known in Europe. The Peruvians had public roads, one
thousand five hundred to two thousand miles long, made so thoroughly as to
elicit the astonishment of the Spaniards. At every few miles taverns or
hotels were established for the accommodation of travellers. Humboldt
pronounced these Peruvian roads "among the most useful and stupendous works
ever executed by man." They built aqueducts for purposes of irrigation some
of which were five hundred miles long. They constructed magnificent bridges
of stone, and had even invented suspension bridges thousands of years before
they were introduced into Europe. They had, both in Peru and Mexico, a
system of posts, by means of which news was transmitted hundreds of miles in
a day, precisely like those known among the Persians in the time of
Herodotus, and subsequently among the Romans. Stones similar to mile-stones
were placed along the roads in Peru. (See Prescott's "Peru,")
Navigation.--Sailing vessels were known to the Peruvians and the Central
Americans. Columbus met, in 1502, at an island near Honduras, a party of the
Mayas in a large vessel, equipped with sails, and loaded with a variety of
textile fabrics of divers colors.
Manufactures.--The American nations manufactured woollen and cotton goods;
they made pottery as beautiful as the wares of Egypt; they manufactured
glass; they engraved gems and precious stones. The Peruvians had such
immense numbers of vessels and ornaments of gold that the Inca paid with
them a ransom for himself to Pizarro of the value of fifteen million
dollars.
Music.--It has been pointed out that there is great resemblance between the
five-toned music of the Highland Scotch and that of the Chinese and other
Eastern nations. ("Anthropology," p. 292.)
Weapons.--The weapons of the New World were identically the same as those of
the Old World; they consisted of bows and arrows, spears, darts, short
swords, battle-axes, and slings; and both peoples used shields or bucklers,
and casques of wood or hide covered with metal. If these weapons had been
derived from separate sources of invention, one country or the other would
have possessed implements not known to the other, like the blow-pipe, the
boomerang, etc. Absolute identity in so many weapons strongly argues
identity of origin.
Religion.--The religion of the Atlanteans, as Plato tells us, was pure and
simple; they made no regular sacrifices but fruits and flowers; they
worshipped the sun.
In Peru a single deity was worshipped, and the sun, his most glorious work,
was honored as his representative. Quetzalcoatl, the founder of the Aztecs,
condemned all sacrifice but that of fruits and flowers. The first religion
of Egypt was pure and simple; its sacrifices were fruits and flowers;
temples were erected to the sun, Ra, throughout Egypt. In Peru the great
festival of the sun was called Ra-mi. The Phnicians worshipped Baal and
Moloch; the one represented the beneficent, and the other the injurious
powers of the sun.
Religious Beliefs.--The Guanches of the Canary Islands, who were probably a
fragment of the old Atlantean population, believed in the immortality of the
soul and the resurrection of the body, and preserved their dead as mummies.
The Egyptians believed in the immortality of the soul and the resurrection
of the body, and preserved the bodies of the dead by embalming them. The
Peruvians believed in the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of
the body, and they too preserved the bodies of their dead by embalming them.
"A few mummies in remarkable preservation have been found among the Chinooks
and Flatheads." (Schoolcraft, vol. v., p. 693.) The embalmment of the body
was also practised in Central America and among the Aztecs. The Aztecs, like
the Egyptians, mummified their dead by taking out the bowels and replacing
them with aromatic substances. (Dorman, "Origin Prim. Superst.," p. 173.)
The bodies of the kings of the Virginia Indians were preserved by embalming.
(Beverly, p. 47.)
Here are different races, separated by immense distances of land and ocean,
uniting in the same beliefs, and in the same practical and logical
application of those beliefs.
The use of confession and penance was known in the religious ceremonies of
some of the American nations. Baptism was a religious ceremony with them,
and the bodies of the dead were sprinkled with water.
Vestal virgins were found in organized communities on both sides of the
Atlantic; they were in each case pledged to celibacy, and devoted to death
if they violated their vows. In both hemispheres the recreant were destroyed
by being buried alive. The Peruvians, Mexicans, Central Americans,
Egyptians, Phnicians, and Hebrews each had a powerful hereditary
priesthood.
The Phnicians believed in an evil spirit called Zebub; the Peruvians had a
devil called Cupay. The Peruvians burnt incense in their temples. The
Peruvians, when they sacrificed animals, examined their entrails, and from
these prognosticated the future.
I need not add that all these nations preserved traditions of the Deluge;
and all of them possessed systems of writing.
The Egyptian priest of Sais told Solon that the myth of Phaëthon, the son of
Helios, having attempted to drive the chariot of the sun, and thereby
burning up the earth, referred to "a declination of the bodies moving round
the earth and in the heavens" (comets), which caused a "great conflagration
upon the earth," from which those only escaped who lived near rivers and
seas. The "Codex Chimalpopoca"--a Nahua, Central American record--tells us
that the third era of the world, or "third sun," is called, Quia Tonatiuh,
or sun of rain, "because in this age there fell a rain of fire, all which
existed burned, and there fell a rain of gravel;" the rocks "boiled with
tumult, and there also arose the rocks of vermilion color." In other words,
the traditions of these people go back to a great cataclysm of fire, when
the earth possibly encountered, as in the Egyptian story, one of "the bodies
moving round the earth and in the heavens;" they had also memories of "the
Drift Period," and of the outburst of Plutonic rocks. If man has existed on
the earth as long as science asserts, be must have passed through many of
the great catastrophes which are written upon the face of the planet; and it
is very natural that in myths and legends he should preserve some
recollection of events so appalling and destructive.
Among the early Greeks Pan was the ancient god; his wife was Maia. The Abbé
Brasseur de Bourbourg calls attention to the fact that Pan was adored in all
parts of Mexico and Central America; and at Panuco, or Panca, literally
Panopolis, the Spaniards found. upon their entrance into Mexico, superb
temples and images of Pan. (Brasseur's Introduction in Landa's "Relacion.")
The names of both Pan and Maya enter extensively into the Maya vocabulary,
Maia being the same as Maya, the principal name of the peninsula; and pan,
added to Maya, makes the name of the ancient capital Mayapan. In the Nahua
language pan, or pani, signifies "equality to that which is above," and
Pentecatl was the progenitor of all beings. ("North Americans of Antiquity,"
p. 467.)
The ancient Mexicans believed that the sun-god would destroy the world in
the last night of the fifty-second year, and that he would never come back.
They offered sacrifices to him at that time to propitiate him; they
extinguished all the fires in the kingdom; they broke all their household
furniture; they bung black masks before their faces; they prayed and fasted;
and on the evening of the last night they formed a great procession to a
neighboring mountain. A human being was sacrificed exactly at midnight; a
block of wood was laid at once on the body, and fire was then produced by
rapidly revolving another piece of wood upon it; a spark was carried to a
funeral pile, whose rising flame proclaimed to the anxious people the
promise of the god not to destroy the world for another fifty-two years.
Precisely the same custom obtained among the nations of Asia Minor and other
parts of the continent of Asia, wherever sun-worship prevailed, at the
periodical reproduction of the sacred fire, but not with the same bloody
rites as in Mexico. (Valentini, "Maya Archaeology," p. 21.)
To this day the Brahman of India "churns" his sacred fire out of a board by
boring into it with a stick; the Romans renewed their sacred fire in the
same way; and in Sweden even now a "need-fire is kindled in this manner when
cholera or other pestilence is about." (Tylor's "Anthropology," p. 262.)
A belief in ghosts is found on both continents. The American Indians think
that the spirits of the dead retain the form and features which they wore
while living; that there is a hell and a heaven; that hell is below the
earth, and heaven above the clouds; that the souls of the wicked sometimes
wander the face of the earth, appearing occasionally to mortals. The story
of Tantalus is found among the Chippewayans, who believed that bad souls
stand up to their chins in water in sight of the spirit-land, which they can
never enter. The dead passed to heaven across a stream of water by means of
a narrow and slippery bridge, from which many were lost. The Zuñis set apart
a day in each year which they spent among the graves of their dead,
communing with their spirits, and bringing them presents--a kind of All-
souls-day. (Dorman, "Prim. Superst.," p. 35.) The Stygian flood, and Scylla
and Charybdis, are found among the legends of the Caribs. (Ibid., p. 37.)
Even the boat of Charon reappears in the traditions of the Chippewayans.
The Oriental belief in the transmigration of souls is found in every
American tribe. The souls of men passed into animals or other men.
(Schoolcraft, vol. i., p. 33.) The souls of the wicked passed into toads and
wild beasts. (Dorman, "Prim. Superst.," p. 50.)
Among both the Germans and the American Indians lycanthropy, or the
metamorphosis of men into wolves, was believed in. In British Columbia the
men-wolves have often been seen seated around a fire, with their wolf-hides
hung upon sticks to dry! The Irish legend of hunters pursuing an animal
which suddenly disappears, whereupon a human being appears in its place is
found among all the American tribes.
That timid and harmless animal, the hare, was, singularly enough, an object
of superstitious reverence and fear in Europe, Asia, and America. The
ancient Irish killed all the hares they found on May-day among their cattle,
believing them to be witches. Cæsar gives an account of the horror in which
this animal was held by the Britons. The Calmucks regarded the rabbit with
fear and reverence. Divine honors were paid to the hare in Mexico. Wabasso
was changed into a white rabbit, and canonized in that form.
The white bull, Apis, of the Egyptians, reappears in the Sacred white
buffalo of the Dakotas, which was supposed to possess supernatural power,
and after death became a god. The white doe of European legend had its
representative in the white deer of the Housatonic Valley, whose death
brought misery to the tribe. The transmission of spirits by the laying on of
hands, and the exorcism of demons, were part of the religion of the American
tribes.
The witches of Scandinavia, who produced tempests by their incantations, are
duplicated in America. A Cree sorcerer sold three days of fair weather for
one pound of tobacco! The Indian sorcerers around Freshwater Bay kept the
winds in leather bags, and disposed of them as they pleased.
Among the American Indians it is believed that those who are insane or
epileptic are "possessed of devils." (Tylor, "Prim. Cult.," vol. ii., pp.
123-126.) Sickness is caused by evil spirits entering into the sick person.
(Eastman's "Sioux.") The spirits of animals are much feared, and their
departure out of the body of the invalid is a cause of thanksgiving. Thus an
Omaha, after an eructation, says, "Thank you, animal." (Dorman, "Prim.
Superst.," p. 55.) The confession of their sins was with a view to satisfy
the evil spirit and induce him to leave them. (Ibid., p. 57.)
In both continents burnt-offerings were sacrificed to the gods. In both
continents the priests divined the future from the condition of the internal
organs of the man or animal sacrificed. (Ibid., pp. 214, 226.) In both
continents the future was revealed by the flight of birds and by dreams. In
Peru and Mexico there were colleges of augurs, as in Rome, who practised
divination by watching the movements and songs of birds. (Ibid., p. 261.)
Animals were worshipped in Central America and on the banks of the Nile.
(Ibid., p. 259.)
The Ojibbeways believed that the barking of a fox was ominous of ill.
(Ibid., p. 225). The peasantry of Western Europe have the same belief as to
the howling of a dog.
The belief in satyrs, and other creatures half man and half animal, survived
in America. The Kickapoos are Darwinians. "They think their ancestors had
tails, and when they lost them the impudent fox sent every morning to ask
how their tails were, and the bear shook his fat sides at the joke." (Ibid.,
p. 232.) Among the natives of Brazil the father cut a stick at the wedding
of his daughter; "this was done to cut off the tails of any future
grandchildren." (Tylor, vol. i., p. 384.)
Jove, with the thunder-bolts in his hand, is duplicated in the Mexican god
of thunder, Mixcoatl, who is represented holding a bundle of arrows. "He
rode upon a tornado, and scattered the lightnings." (Dorman, "Prim.
Superst.," p. 98.)
Dionysus, or Bacchus, is represented by the Mexican god Texcatzoncatl, the
god of wine. (Bancroft, vol. iii., p. 418.)
Atlas reappears in Chibchacum, the deity of the Chibchas; he bears the world
on his shoulders, and when be shifts the burden from one shoulder to another
severe earthquakes are produced. (Bollært, pp. 12, 13.)
Deucalion repeopling the world is repeated in Xololt, who, after the
destruction of the world, descended to Mictlan, the realm of the dead, and
brought thence a bone of the perished race. This, sprinkled with blood, grew
into a youth, the father of the present race. The Quiche hero-gods, Hunaphu
and Xblanque, died; their bodies were burnt, their bones ground to powder
and thrown into the waters, whereupon they changed into handsome youths,
with the same features as before. (Dorman, "Prim. Superst.," p. 193.)
Witches and warlocks, mermaids and mermen, are part of the mythology of the
American tribes, as they were of the European races. (Ibid., p. 79.) The
mermaid of the Ottawas was "woman to the waist and fair;" thence fish-like.
(Ibid., p. 278.)
The snake-locks of Medusa are represented in the snake-locks of At-otarho,
an ancient culture-hero of the Iroquois.
A belief in the incarnation of gods in men, and the physical translation of
heroes to heaven, is part of the mythology of the Hindoos and the American
races. Hiawatha, we are told, rose to heaven in the presence of the
multitude, and vanished from sight in the midst of sweet music.
The vocal statues and oracles of Egypt and Greece were duplicated in
America. In Peru, in the valley of Rimac, there was an idol which answered
questions and became famous as an oracle. (Dorman, "Prim. Superst.," p.
124.)
The Peruvians believed that men were sometimes metamorphosed into stones.
The Oneidas claimed descent from a stone, as the Greeks from the stones of
Deucalion. (Ibid., p. 132.)
Witchcraft is an article of faith among all the American races. Among the
Illinois Indians "they made small images to represent those whose days they
have a mind to shorten, and which they stab to the heart," whereupon the
person represented is expected to die. (Charlevoix, vol. ii., p. 166.) The
witches of Europe made figures of wax of their enemies, and gradually melted
them at the fire, and as they diminished the victim was supposed to sicken
and die.
A writer in the Popular Science Monthly (April, 1881, p. 828) points out the
fact that there is an absolute identity between the folk-lore of the negroes
on the plantations of the South and the myths and stories of certain tribes
of Indians in South America, as revealed by Mr. Herbert Smith's "Brazil, the
Amazons, and the Coast." (New York: Scribner, 1879.) Mr. Harris, the author
of a work on the folk-lore of the negroes, asks this question, "When did the
negro or the North American Indian come in contact with the tribes of South
America?"
Customs.--Both peoples manufactured a fermented, intoxicating drink, the one
deriving it from barley, the other from maize. Both drank toasts. Both had
the institution of marriage, an important part of the ceremony consisting in
the joining of bands; both recognized divorce, and the Peruvians and
Mexicans established special courts to decide cases of this kind. Both the
Americans and Europeans erected arches, and had triumphal processions for
their victorious kings, and both strewed the ground before them with leaves
and flowers. Both celebrated important events with bonfires and
illuminations; both used banners, both invoked blessings. The Phnicians,
Hebrews, and Egyptians practised circumcision. Palacio relates that at
Azori, in Honduras, the natives circumcised boys before an idol called
Icelca. ("Carta," p. 84.) Lord Kingsborough tells us the Central Americans
used the same rite, and McKenzie (quoted by Retzius) says he saw the
ceremony performed by the Chippeways. Both had bards and minstrels, who on
great festivals sung the deeds of kings and heroes. Both the Egyptians and
the Peruvians held agricultural fairs; both took a census of the people.
Among both the land was divided per capita among the people; in Judea a new
division was made every fifty years. The Peruvians renewed every year all
the fires of the kingdom from the Temple of the Sun, the new fire being
kindled from concave mirrors by the sun's rays. The Romans under Numa had
precisely the same custom. The Peruvians had theatrical plays. They chewed
the leaves of the coca mixed with lime, as the Hindoo to-day chews the
leaves of the betel mixed with lime. Both the American and European nations
were divided into castes; both practised planet-worship; both used scales
and weights and mirrors. The Peruvians, Egyptians, and Chaldeans divided the
year into twelve months, and the months into lesser divisions of weeks. Both
inserted additional days, so as to give the year three hundred and sixty-
five days. The Mexicans added five intercalary days; and the Egyptians, in
the time of Amunoph I., had already the same practice.
Humboldt, whose high authority cannot be questioned, by an elaborate
discussion ("Vues des Cordilleras," p. 148 et. seq., ed. 1870), has shown
the relative likeness of the Nahua calendar to that of Asia. He cites the
fact that the Chinese, Japanese, Calmucks, Mongols, Mantchou, and other
hordes of Tartars have cycles of sixty years' duration, divided into five
brief periods of twelve years each. The method of citing a date by means of
signs and numbers is quite similar with Asiatics and Mexicans. He further
shows satisfactorily that the majority of the names of the twenty days
employed by the Aztecs are those of a zodiac used since the most remote
antiquity among the peoples of Eastern Asia.
Cabera thinks he finds analogies between the Mexican and Egyptian calendars.
Adopting the view of several writers that the Mexican year began on the 26th
of February, be finds the date to correspond with the beginning of the
Egyptian year.
The American nations believed in four great primeval ages, as the Hindoo
does to this day.
"In the Greeks of Homer," says Volney, "I find the customs, discourse, and
manners of the Iroquois, Delawares, and Miamis. The tragedies of Sophocles
and Euripides paint to me almost literally the sentiments of the red men
respecting necessity, fatality, the miseries of human life, and the rigor of
blind destiny." (Volney's "View of the United States.")
The Mexicans represent an eclipse of the moon as the moon being devoured by
a dragon; and the Hindoos have precisely the same figure; and both nations
continued to use this expression long after they had discovered the real
meaning of an eclipse.
The Tartars believe that if they cut with an axe near a fire, or stick a
knife into a burning stick, or touch the fire with a knife, they will "cut
the top off the fire." The Sioux Indians will not stick an awl or a needle
into a stick of wood on the fire, or chop on it with an axe or a knife.
Cremation was extensively practised in the New World. The dead were burnt,
and their ashes collected and placed in vases and urns, as in Europe. Wooden
statues of the dead were made.
There is a very curious and apparently inexplicable custom, called the
"Couvade," which extends from China to the Mississippi Valley; it demands
"that, when a child is born, the father must take to his bed, while the
mother attends to all the duties of the household." Marco Polo found the
custom among the Chinese in the thirteenth century.
The widow tells Hudibras--
"Chineses thus are said
To lie-in in their ladies' stead."
The practice remarked by Marco Polo continues to this day among the hill-
tribes of China. "The father of a new-born child, as soon as the mother has
become strong enough to leave her couch, gets into bed himself, and there
receives the congratulations Of his acquaintances." (Max Müller's "Chips
from a German Workshop," vol. ii., p. 272.) Strabo (vol. iii., pp. 4, 17)
mentions that, among the Iberians of the North of Spain, the women, after
the birth of a child, tend their husbands, putting them to bed instead of
going themselves. The same custom existed among the Basques only a few years
ago. "In Biscay," says M. F. Michel, "the women rise immediately after
childbirth and attend to the duties of the household, while the husband goes
to bed, taking the baby with him, and thus receives the neighbors'
compliments." The same custom was found in France, and is said to exist to
this day in some cantons of Béarn. Diodorus Siculus tells us that among the
Corsicans the wife was neglected, and the husband put to bed and treated as
the patient. Apollonius Rhodius says that among the Tibereni, at the south
of the Black Sea, "when a child was born the father lay groaning, with his
head tied up, while the mother tended him with food and prepared his baths."
The same absurd custom extends throughout the tribes of North and South
America. Among the Caribs in the West Indies (and the Caribs, Brasseur de
Bourbourg says, were the same as the ancient Carians of the Mediterranean
Sea) the man takes to his bed as soon as a child is born, and kills no
animals. And herein we find an explanation of a custom otherwise
inexplicable. Among the American Indians it is believed that, if the father
kills an animal during the infancy of the child, the spirit of the animal
will revenge itself by inflicting some disease upon the helpless little one.
"For six months the Carib father must not eat birds or fish, for what ever
animals he eats will impress their likeness on the child, or produce disease
by entering its body." (Dorman, "Prim. Superst.," p. 58.) Among the Abipones
the husband goes to bed, fasts a number of days, "and you would think," says
Dobrizboffer, "that it was he that had had the child." The Brazilian father
takes to his hammock during and after the birth of the child, and for
fifteen days eats no meat and hunts no game. Among the Esquimaux the
husbands forbear hunting during the lying-in of their wives and for some
time thereafter,
Here, then, we have a very extraordinary and unnatural custom, existing to
this day on both sides of the Atlantic, reaching back to a vast antiquity,
and finding its explanation only in the superstition of the American races.
A practice so absurd could scarcely have originated separately in the two
continents; its existence is a very strong proof of unity of origin of the
races on the opposite sides of the Atlantic; and the fact that the custom
and the reason for it are both found in America, while the custom remains in
Europe without the reason, would imply that the American population was the
older of the two.
The Indian practice of depositing weapons and food with the dead was
universal in ancient Europe, and in German villages nowadays a needle and
thread is placed in the coffin for the dead to mend their torn clothes with;
"while all over Europe the dead man had a piece of money put in his hand to
pay his way with." ("Anthropology," p. 347.)
The American Indian leaves food with the dead; the Russian peasant puts
crumbs of bread behind the saints' pictures on the little iron shelf, and
believes that the souls of his forefathers creep in and out and eat them. At
the cemetery of Père-la-Chaise, Paris, on All-souls-day, they "still put
cakes and sweetmeats on the graves; and in Brittany the peasants that night
do not forget to make up the fire and leave the fragments of the supper on
the table for the souls of the dead." (Ibid.. p. 351.)
The Indian prays to the spirits of his forefathers; the Chinese religion is
largely "ancestor-worship;" and the rites paid to the dead ancestors, or
lares, held the Roman family together." ("Anthropology," p. 351.)
We find the Indian practice of burying the dead in a sitting posture in use
among the Nasamonians, tribe of Libyans. Herodotus, speaking of the
wandering tribes of Northern Africa, says, "They bury their dead according
to the fashion of the Greeks. . . . They bury them sitting, and are right
careful, when the sick man is at the point of giving up the ghost, to make
him sit, and not let him die lying down."
The dead bodies of the caciques of Bogota were protected from desecration by
diverting the course of a river and making the grave in its bed, and then
letting the stream return to its natural course. Alaric, the leader of the
Goths, was secretly buried in the same way. (Dorman, "Prim. Superst.," p.
195.)
Among the American tribes no man is permitted to marry a wife of the same
clan-name or totem as himself. In India a Brahman is not allowed to marry a
wife whose clan-name (her "cow-stall," as they say) is the same as his own;
nor may a Chinaman take a wife of his own surname. ("Anthropology," p. 403.)
"Throughout India the hill-tribes are divided into septs or clans, and a man
may not marry a woman belonging to his own clan. The Calmucks of Tartary are
divided into hordes, and a man may not marry a girl of his own horde. The
same custom prevails among the Circassians and the Samoyeds of Siberia. The
Ostyaks and Yakuts regard it as a crime to marry a woman of the same family,
or even of the same name." (Sir John Lubbock, "Smith. Rep.," p. 347, 1869.)
Sutteeism--the burning of the widow upon the funeral-pile of the husband--
was extensively practised in America (West's "Journal," p. 141); as was also
the practice of sacrificing warriors, servants, and animals at the funeral
of a great chief (Dorman, pp. 210-211.) Beautiful girls were sacrificed to
appease the anger of the gods, as among the Mediterranean races. (Bancroft,
vol. iii., p. 471.) Fathers offered up their children for a like purpose, as
among the Carthaginians.
The poisoned arrows of America had their representatives in Europe. Odysseus
went to Ephyra for the man-slaying drug with which to smear his bronze-
tipped arrows. (Tylor's "Anthropology," p. 237.)
"The bark canoe of America was not unknown in Asia and Africa" (Ibid., p.
254), while the skin canoes of our Indians and the Esquimaux were found on
the shores of the Thames and the Euphrates. In Peru and on the Euphrates
commerce was carried on upon rafts supported by inflated skins. They are
still used on the Tigris.
The Indian boils his meat by dropping red-hot stones into a water-vessel
made of hide; and Linnæus found the Both land people brewing beer in this
way--"and to this day the rude Carinthian boor drinks such stone-beer, as it
is called." (Ibid., p. 266.)
In the buffalo dance of the Mandan Indians the dancers covered their heads
with a mask made of the head and horns of the buffalo. To-day in the temples
of India, or among the lamas of Thibet, the priests dance the demons out, or
the new year in, arrayed in animal masks (Ibid., p. 297 ); and the "mummers"
at Yule-tide, in England, are a survival of the same custom. (Ibid., p.
298.) The North American dog and bear dances, wherein the dancers acted the
part of those animals, had their prototype in the Greek dances at the
festivals of Dionysia. (Ibid., p. 298.)
Tattooing was practised in both continents. Among the Indians it was
fetichistic in its origin; "every Indian had the image of an animal tattooed
on his breast or arm, to charm away evil spirits." (Dorman, "Prim.
Superst.," p. 156.) The sailors of Europe and America preserve to this day a
custom which was once universal among the ancient races. Banners, flags, and
armorial bearings are supposed to be survivals of the old totemic tattooing.
The Arab woman still tattoos her face, arms, and ankles. The war-paint of
the American savage reappeared in the woad with which the ancient Briton
stained his body; and Tylor suggests that the painted stripes on the circus
clown are a survival of a custom once universal. (Tylor's "Anthropology," p.
327.)
In America, as in the Old World, the temples of worship were built over the
dead., (Dorman, "Prim. Superst.," p. 178.) Says Prudentius, the Roman bard,
"there were as many temples of gods as sepulchres."
The Etruscan belief that evil spirits strove for the possession of the dead
was found among the Mosquito Indians. (Bancroft, "Native Races," vol. i., p.
744.)
The belief in fairies, which forms so large a part of the folklore of
Western Europe, is found among the American races. The Ojibbeways see
thousands of fairies dancing in a sunbeam; during a rain myriads of them
bide in the flowers. When disturbed they disappear underground. They have
their dances, like the Irish fairies; and, like them, they kill the domestic
animals of those who offend them. The Dakotas also believe in fairies. The
Otoes located the "little people" in a mound at the mouth of Whitestone
River; they were eighteen inches high, with very large heads; they were
armed with bows and arrows, and killed those who approached their residence.
(See Dorman's "Origin of Primitive Superstitions," p. 23.) "The Shoshone
legends people the mountains of Montana with little imps, called Nirumbees,
two feet long, naked, and with a tail." They stole the children of the
Indians, and left in their stead the young of their own baneful race, who
resembled the stolen children so much that the mothers were deceived and
suckled them, whereupon they died. This greatly resembles the European
belief in "changelings." (Ibid., p. 24.)
In both continents we find tree-worship. In Mexico and Central America
cypresses and palms were planted near the temples, generally in groups of
threes; they were tended with great care, and received offerings of incense
and gifts. The same custom prevailed among the Romans--the cypress was
dedicated to Pluto, and the palm to Victory.
Not only infant baptism by water was found both in the old Babylonian
religion and among the Mexicans, but an offering of cakes, which is recorded
by the prophet Jeremiah as part of the worship of the Babylonian goddess-
mother, "the Queen of Heaven," was also found in the ritual of the Aztecs.
("Builders of Babel," p. 78.)
In Babylonia, China, and Mexico the caste at the bottom of the social scale
lived upon floating islands of reeds or rafts, covered with earth, on the
lakes and rivers.
In Peru and Babylonia marriages were made but once a year, at a public
festival.
Among the Romans, the Chinese, the Abyssinians, and the Indians of Canada
the singular custom prevails of lifting the bride over the door-step of her
husband's home. (Sir John Lubbock, "Smith. Rep.," 1869, p. 352.)
"The bride-cake which so invariably accompanies a wedding among ourselves,
and which must always be cut by the bride, may be traced back to the old
Roman form of marriage by 'conferreatio,' or eating together. So, also,
among the Iroquois the bride and bridegroom used to partake together of a
cake of sagamite, which the bride always offered to her husband." (Ibid.)
Among many American tribes, notably in Brazil, the husband captured the wife
by main force, as the men of Benjamin carried off the daughters of Shiloh at
the feast, and as the Romans captured the Sabine women. "Within a few
generations the same old habit was kept up in Wales, where the bridegroom
and his friends, mounted and armed as for war, carried off the bride; and in
Ireland they used even to hurl spears at the bride's people, though at such
a distance that no one was hurt, except now and then by accident--as
happened when one Lord Hoath lost an eye, which mischance put an end to this
curious relic of antiquity." (Tylor's "Anthropology," p. 409.)
Marriage in Mexico was performed by the priest. He exhorted them to maintain
peace and harmony, and tied the end of the man's mantle to the dress of the
woman; he perfumed them, and placed on each a shawl on which was painted a
skeleton, "as a symbol that only death could now separate them from one
another." (Dorman, "Prim. Superst.," p. 379.)
The priesthood was thoroughly organized in Mexico and Peru. They were
prophets as well as priests. "They brought the newly-born infant into the
religious society; they directed their training and education; they
determined the entrance of the young men into the service of the state; they
consecrated marriage by their blessing; they comforted the sick and assisted
the dying." (Ibid., p. 374.) There were five thousand priests in the temples
of Mexico. They confessed and absolved the sinners, arranged the festivals,
and managed the choirs in the churches. They lived in conventual discipline,
but were allowed to marry; they practised flagellation and fasting, and
prayed at regular hours. There were great preachers and exhorters among
them. There were also convents into which females were admitted. The novice
had her hair cut off and took vows of celibacy; they lived holy and pious
lives. (Ibid., pp. 375, 376.) The king was the high-priest of the religious
orders. A new king ascended the temple naked, except his girdle; he was
sprinkled four times with water which had been blessed; he was then clothed
in a mantle, and on his knees took an oath to maintain the ancient religion.
The priests then instructed him in his royal duties. (Ibid., p. 378.)
Besides the regular priesthood there were monks who were confined in
cloisters. (Ibid., p. 390.) Cortes says the Mexican priests were very strict
in the practice of honesty and chastity, and any deviation was punished with
death. They wore long white robes and burned incense. (Dorman, "Prim.
Superst.," p. 379.) The first fruits of the earth were devoted to the
support of the priesthood. (Ibid., p. 383.) The priests of the Isthmus were
sworn to perpetual chastity.
The American doctors practised phlebotomy. They bled the sick man because
they believed the evil spirit which afflicted him would come away with the
blood. In Europe phlebotomy only continued to a late period, but the
original superstition out of which it arose, in this case as in many others,
was forgotten.
There is opportunity here for the philosopher to meditate upon the
perversity of human nature and the persistence of hereditary error. The
superstition of one age becomes the science of another; men were first bled
to withdraw the evil spirit, then to cure the disease; and a practice whose
origin is lost in the night of ages is continued into the midst of
civilization, and only overthrown after it has sent millions of human beings
to untimely graves. Dr. Sangrado could have found the explanation of his
profession only among the red men of America.
Folk-lore.--Says Max Müller: "Not only do we find the same words and the
same terminations in Sanscrit and Gothic; not only do we find the same name
for Zeus in Sanscrit, Latin, and German; not only is the abstract Dame for
God the same in India, Greece, and Italy; but these very stories, these
'Mährchen' which nurses still tell, with almost the same words, in the
Thuringian forest and in the Norwegian villages, and to which crowds of
children listen under the Pippal-trees of India--these stories, too,
belonged to the common heirloom of the Indo-European race, and their origin
carries us back to the same distant past, when no Greek had set foot in
Europe, no Hindoo had bathed in the sacred waters of the Ganges."
And we find that an identity of origin can be established between the folk-
lore or fairy tales of America and those of the Old World, precisely such as
exists between the, legends of Norway and India.
Mr. Tylor tells us the story of the two brothers in Central America who,
starting on their dangerous journey to the land of Xibalba, where their
father had perished, plant each a cane in the middle of their grandmother's
house, that she may know by its flourishing or withering whether they are
alive or dead. Exactly the same conception occurs in Grimm's "Mährchen,"
when the two gold-children wish to see the world and to leave their father;
and when their father is sad, and asks them how he shall bear news of them,
they tell him, "We leave you the two golden lilies; from these you can see
how we fare. If they are fresh, we are well; if they fade, we are ill; if
they fall, we are dead." Grimm traces the same idea in Hindoo stories. "Now
this," says Max Müller, "is strange enough, and its occurrence in India,
Germany, and Central America is stranger still."
Compare the following stories, which we print in parallel columns, one from
the Ojibbeway Indians, the other from Ireland:
THE OJIBBEWAY STORY.
The birds met together one day to try which could fly the highest. Some flew
up very swift, but soon got tired, and were passed by others of stronger
wing. But the eagle went up beyond them all, and was ready to claim the
victory, when the gray linnet, a very small bird, flew from the eagle's
back, where it had perched unperceived, and, being fresh and unexhausted,
succeeded in going the highest. When the birds came down and met in council
to award the prize it was given to the eagle, because that bird had not only
gone up nearer to the sun than any of the larger birds, but it had carried
the linnet on its back.
For this reason the eagle's feathers became the most honorable marks of
distinction a warrior could bear.
THE IRISH STORY.
The birds all met together one day, and settled among themselves that
whichever of them could fly highest was to be the king of all. Well, just as
they were on the hinges of being off, what does the little rogue of a wren
do but hop up and perch himself unbeknown on the eagle's tail. So they flew
and flew ever so high, till the eagle was miles above all the rest, and
could not fly another stroke, he was so tired. "Then," says he, "I'm king of
the birds." "You lie!" says the wren, darting up a perch and a half above
the big fellow. Well, the eagle was so mad to think how he was done, that
when the wren was coming down he gave him a stroke of his wing, and from
that day to this the wren was never able to fly farther than a hawthorn-
bush.
Compare the following stories:
THE ASIATIC STORY.
In Hindoo mythology Urvasi came down from heaven and became the wife of the
son of Buddha only on condition that two pet rams should never be taken from
her bedside, and that she should never behold her lord undressed. The
immortals, however, wishing Urvasi back in heaven, contrived to steal the
rams; and, as the king pursued the robbers with his sword in the dark, the
lightning revealed his person, the compact was broken, and Urvasi
disappeared. This same story is found in different forms among many people
of Aryan and Turanian descent, the central idea being that of a man marrying
some one of an aerial or aquatic origin, and living happily with her till he
breaks the condition on which her residence with him depends, stories
exactly parallel to that of Raymond of Toulouse, who chances in the hunt
upon the beautiful Melusina at a fountain, and lives with her happily until
he discovers her fish-nature and she vanishes.
THE AMERICAN STORY.
Wampee, a great hunter, once came to a strange prairie, where be heard faint
sounds of music, and looking up saw a speck in the sky, which proved itself
to be a basket containing twelve most beautiful maidens, who, on reaching
the earth, forthwith set themselves to dance. He tried to catch the
youngest, but in vain; ultimately he succeeded by assuming the disguise of a
mouse. He was very attentive to his new wife, who was really a daughter of
one of the stars, but she wished to return home, so she made a wicker basket
secretly, and, by help of a charm she remembered, ascended to her father.
If the legend of Cadmus recovering Europa, after she has been carried away
by the white bull, the spotless cloud, means that "the sun must journey
westward until he sees again the beautiful tints which greeted his eyes in
the morning," it is curious to find a story current in North America to the
effect that a man once had a beautiful daughter, 'whom he forbade to leave
the lodge lest she should be carried off by the king of the buffaloes; and
that as she sat, notwithstanding, outside the house combing her hair, "all
of a sudden the king of the buffaloes came dashing on, with his herd of
followers, and, taking her between his horns, away be cantered over plains,
plunged into a river which bounded his land, and carried her safely to his
lodge on the other side," whence she was finally recovered by her father.
Games.--The same games and sports extended from India to the shores of Lake
Superior. The game of the Hindoos, called pachisi, is played upon a cross-
shaped board or cloth; it is a combination of checkers and draughts, with
the throwing of dice, the dice determining the number of moves; when the
Spaniards entered Mexico they found the Aztecs playing a game called
patolli, identical with the Hindoo pachisi, on a similar cross-shaped board.
The game of ball, which the Indians of America were in the habit of playing
at the time of the discovery of the country, from California to the
Atlantic, was identical with the European chueca, crosse, or hockey.
One may well pause, after reading this catalogue, and ask himself, wherein
do these peoples differ? It is absurd to pretend that all these similarities
could have been the result of accidental coincidences.
These two peoples, separated by the great ocean, were baptized alike in
infancy with blessed water; they prayed alike to the gods; they worshipped
together the sun, moon, and stars; they confessed their sins alike; they
were instructed alike by an established priesthood; they were married in the
same way and by the joining of hands; they armed themselves with the same
weapons; when children came, the man, on both continents, went to bed and
left his wife to do the honors of the household; they tattooed and painted
themselves in the same fashion; they became intoxicated on kindred drinks;
their dresses were alike; they cooked in the same manner; they used the same
metals; they employed the same exorcisms and bleedings for disease; they
believed alike in ghosts, demons, and fairies; they listened to the same
stories; they played the same games; they used the same musical instruments;
they danced the same dances, and when they died they were embalmed in the
same way and buried sitting; while over them were erected, on both
continents, the same mounds, pyramids, obelisks, and temples. And yet we are
asked to believe that there was no relationship between them, and that they
had never had any ante-Columbian intercourse with each other.
CHAPTER III.
AMERICAN EVIDENCES OF INTERCOURSE WITH EUROPE OR ATLANTIS.
1. ON the monuments of Central America there are representations of bearded
men. How could the beardless American Indians have imagined a bearded race?
2. All the traditions of the civilized races of Central America point to an
Eastern origin.
The leader and civilizer of the Nahua family was Quetzalcoatl. This is the
legend respecting him:
"From the distant East, from the fabulous Hue Hue Tlapalan, this mysterious
person came to Tula, and became the patron god and high-priest of the
ancestors of the Toltecs. He is described as having been a white man, with
strong formation of body, broad forehead, large eyes, and flowing beard. He
wore a mitre on his bead, and was dressed in a long white robe reaching to
his feet, and covered with red crosses. In his hand he held a sickle. His
habits were ascetic, he never married, was most chaste and pure in life, and
is said to have endured penance in a neighboring mountain, not for its
effects upon himself, but as a warning to others. He condemned sacrifices,
except of fruits and flowers, and was known as the god of peace; for, when
addressed on the subject of war, he is reported to have stopped his ears
with his fingers." ("North Amer. of Antiq.," p. 268.)
"He was skilled in many arts: he invented" (that is, imported) "gem-cutting
and metal-casting; he originated letters, and invented the Mexican calendar.
He finally returned to the land in the East from which be came: leaving the
American coast at Vera Cruz, he embarked in a canoe made of serpent-skins,
and 'sailed away into the east.'" (Ibid., p. 271.)
Dr. Le Plongeon says of the columns at Chichen:
"The base is formed by the head of Cukulcan, the shaft of the body of the
serpent, with its feathers beautifully carved to the very chapiter. On the
chapiters of the columns that support the portico, at the entrance of the
castle in Chichen Itza, may be seen the carved figures of long-bearded men,
with upraised hands, in the act of worshipping sacred trees. They forcibly
recall to mind the same worship in Assyria."
In the accompanying cut of an ancient vase from Tula, we see a bearded
figure grasping a beardless man.
In the cut given below we see a face that might be duplicated among the old
men of any part of Europe.
The Cakchiquel MS. says: "Four persons came from Tulan, from the direction
of the rising sun--that is one Tulan. There is another Tulan in Xibalbay,
and another where the sun sets, and it is there that we came; and in the
direction of the setting sun there is another, where is the god; so that
there are four Tulans; and it is where the sun sets that we came to Tulan,
from the other side of the sea, where this Tulan is; and it is there that we
were conceived and begotten by our mothers and fathers."
That is to say, the birthplace of the race was in the East, across the sea,
at a place called Tulan and when they emigrated they called their first
stopping-place on the American continent Tulan also; and besides this there
were two other Tulans.
"Of the Nahua predecessors of the Toltecs in Mexico the Olmecs and
Xicalaucans were the most important. They were the forerunners of the great
races that followed. According to Ixtlilxochitl, these people-which are
conceded to be one occupied the world in the third age; they came from the
East in ships or barks to the land of Potonchan, which they commenced to
populate."
3. The Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, in one of the notes of the Introduction
of the "Popol Vuh," presents a very remarkable analogy between the kingdom
of Xibalba, described in that work, and Atlantis. He says:
"Both countries are magnificent, exceedingly fertile, and abound in the
precious metals. The empire of Atlantis was divided into ten kingdoms,
governed by five couples of twin sons of Poseidon, the eldest being supreme
over the others; and the ten constituted a tribunal that managed the affairs
of the empire. Their descendants governed after them. The ten kings of
Xibalba, who reigned (in couples) under Hun-Came and Vukub-Came (and who
together constituted a grand council of the kingdom), certainly furnish
curious points of comparison. And there is wanting neither a catastrophe--
for Xibalba had a terrific inundation--nor the name of Atlas, of which the
etymology is found only in the Nahuatl tongue: it comes from atl, water; and
we know that a city of Atlan (near the water) still existed on the Atlantic
side of the Isthmus of Panama at the time of the Conquest."
"In Yucatan the traditions all point to an Eastern and foreign origin for
the race. The early writers report that the natives believe their ancestors
to have crossed the sea by a passage which was opened for them." (Landa's
"Relacion," p. 28.)
"It was also believed that part of the population came into the country from
the West. Lizana says that the smaller portion, 'the little descent,' came
from the East, while the greater portion, 'the great descent,' came from the
West. Cogolluda considers the Eastern colony to have been the larger. . . .
The culture-hero Zamna, the author of all civilization in Yucatan, is
described as the teacher of letters, and the leader of the people from their
ancient home. . . . He was the leader of a colony from the East." ("North
Amer. of Antiq.," p. 229.)
The ancient Mexican legends say that, after the Flood, Coxcox and his wife,
after wandering one hundred and four years, landed at Antlan, and passed
thence to Capultepec, and thence to Culhuacan, and lastly to Mexico.
Coming from Atlantis, they named their first landing-place Antlan.
All the races that settled Mexico, we are told, traced their origin back to
an Aztlan (Atlan-tis). Duran describes Aztlan as "a most attractive land."
("North Amer. of Antiq.," p. 257.)
Samé, the great name of Brazilian legend, came across the ocean from the
rising sun. He had power over the elements and tempests; the trees of the
forests would recede to make room for him (cutting down the trees); the
animals used to crouch before him (domesticated animals); lakes and rivers
became solid for him (boats and bridges); and he taught the use of
agriculture and magic. Like him, Bochica, the great law-giver of the
Muyscas, and son of the sun--he who invented for them the calendar and
regulated their festivals--had a white beard, a detail in which all the
American culture-heroes agree. The "Samé" of Brazil was probably the "Zamna"
of Yucatan.
4. We find in America numerous representations of the elephant. We are
forced to one of two conclusions: either the monuments date back to the time
of the mammoth in North America, or these people held intercourse at some
time in the past with races who possessed the elephant, and from whom they
obtained pictures of that singular animal. Plato tells us that the
Atlanteans possessed great numbers of elephants.
There are in Wisconsin a number of mounds of earth representing different
animals-men, birds, and quadrupeds.
Among the latter is a mound representing an elephant, "so perfect in its
proportions, and complete in its representation of an elephant, that its
builders must have been well acquainted with all the physical
characteristics of the animal which they delineated." We copy the
representation of this mound on page 168.
On a farm in Louisa County, Iowa, a pipe was ploughed up which also
represents an elephant. We are indebted to the valuable work of John T.
Short ("The North Americans of Antiquity," p. 530) for a picture of this
singular object. It was found in a section where the ancient mounds were
very abundant and rich in relies. The pipe is of sandstone, of the ordinary
Mound-Builder's type, and has every appearance of age and usage. There can
be no doubt of its genuineness. The finder had no conception of its
archæological value.
In the ruined city of Palenque we find, in one of the palaces, a stucco
bass-relief of a priest. His elaborate head-dress or helmet represents very
faithfully the bead of an elephant. The cut on page 169 is from a drawing
made by Waldeck.
The decoration known as "elephant-trunks" is found in many parts of the
ancient ruins of Central America, projecting from above the door-ways of the
buildings.
CHAPTER IV.
CORROBORATING CIRCUMSTANCES.
1. LENORMANT insists that the human race issued from Ups Merou, and adds
that some Greek traditions point to "this locality--particularly the
expression me'ropes a?'nðwpoi, which can only mean 'the men sprung from
Merou.'" ("Manual," p.21.)
Theopompus tells us that the people who inhabited Atlantis were the Meropes,
the people of Merou.
2. Whence comes the word Atlantic? The dictionaries tell us that the ocean
is named after the mountains of Atlas; but whence did the Atlas mountains
get their name?
"The words Atlas and Atlantic have no satisfactory etymology in any language
known to Europe. They are not Greek, and cannot be referred to any known
language of the Old World. But in the Nahuatl language we find immediately
the radical a, atl, which signifies water, war, and the top of the head.
(Molina, "Vocab. en lengua Mexicana y Castellana.") From this comes a series
of words, such as atlan--on the border of or amid the water--from which we
'have the adjective Atlantic. We have also atlaça, to combat, or be in
agony; it means likewise to hurl or dart from the water, and in the preterit
makes Atlaz. A city named Atlan existed when the continent was discovered by
Columbus, at the entrance of the Gulf of Uraba, in Darien. With a good
harbor, it is now reduced to an unimportant pueblo named Acla." (Baldwin's
"Ancient America," p. 179.)
Plato tells us that Atlantis and the Atlantic Ocean were named after Atlas,
the eldest son of Poseidon, the founder of the kingdom.
3. Upon that part of the African continent nearest to the site of Atlantis
we find a chain of mountains, known from the most ancient times as the Atlas
Mountains. Whence this name Atlas, if it be not from the name of the great
king of Atlantis? And if this be not its origin, how comes it that we find
it in the most north-western corner of Africa? And how does it happen that
in the time of Herodotus there dwelt near this mountain-chain a people
called the Atlantes, probably a remnant of a colony from Solon's island? How
comes it that the people of the Barbary States were known to the Greeks,
Romans, and Carthaginians as the "Atlantes," this name being especially
applied to the inhabitants of Fezzan and Bilma? Where did they get the name
from? There is no etymology for it east of the Atlantic Ocean. (Lenormants
"Anc. Hist. of the East," p. 253.)
Look at it! An "Atlas" mountain on the shore of Africa; an "Atlan" town on
the shore of America; the "Atlantes" living along the north and west coast
of Africa; an Aztec people from Aztlan, in Central America; an ocean rolling
between the two worlds called the "Atlantic;" a mythological deity called
"Atlas" holding the world on his shoulders; and an immemorial tradition of
an island of Atlantis. Can all these things be the result of accident?
4. Plato says that there was a "passage west from Atlantis to the rest of
the islands, as well as from these islands to the whole opposite continent
that surrounds that real sea." He calls it a real sea, as
contradistinguished from the Mediterranean, which, as he says, is not a real
sea (or ocean) but a landlocked body of water, like a harbor.
Now, Plato might have created Atlantis out of his imagination; but how could
he have invented the islands beyond (the West India Islands), and the whole
continent (America) enclosing that real sea? If we look at the map, we see
that the continent of America does "surround" the ocean in a great half-
circle. Could Plato have guessed all this? If there had been no Atlantis,
and no series of voyages from it that revealed the half-circle of the
continent from Newfoundland to Cape St. Roche, how could Plato have guessed
it? And how could he have known that the Mediterranean was only a harbor
compared with the magnitude of the great ocean surrounding Atlantis? Long
sea-voyages were necessary to establish that fact, and the Greeks, who kept
close to the shores in their short journeys, did not make such voyages.
5. How can we, without Atlantis, explain the presence of the Basques in
Europe, who have no lingual affinities with any other race on the continent
of Europe, but whose language is similar to the languages of America?
Plato tells us that the dominion of Gadeirus, one of the kings of Atlantis,
extended "toward the pillars of Heracles (Hercules) as far as the country
which is still called the region of Gades in that part of the world." Gades
is the Cadiz of today, and the dominion of Gadeirus embraced the land of the
Iberians or Basques, their chief city taking its name from a king of
Atlantis, and they themselves being Atlanteans.
Dr. Farrar, referring to the Basque language, says:
"What is certain about it is, that its structure is polysynthetic, like the
languages of America. Like them, it forms its compounds by the elimination
of certain radicals in the simple words; so that ilhun, the twilight, is
contracted from hill, dead, and egun, day; and belhaur, the knee, from
belhar, front, and oin, leg. . . . The fact is indisputable, and is
eminently noteworthy, that while the affinities of the Basque roots have
never been conclusively elucidated, there has never been any doubt that this
isolated language, preserving its identity in a western corner of Europe,
between two mighty kingdoms, resembles, in its grammatical structure, the
aboriginal languages of the vast opposite continent (America), and those
alone." ("Families of Speech," p. 132.)
If there was an Atlantis, forming, with its connecting ridges, a continuous
bridge of land from America to Africa, we can understand how the Basques
could have passed from one continent to another; but if the wide Atlantic
rolled at all times unbroken between the two continents, it is difficult to
conceive of such an emigration by an uncivilized people.
6. Without Atlantis, how can we explain the fact that the early Egyptians
were depicted by themselves as red men on their own monuments? And, on the
other hand, how can we account for the representations of negroes on the
monuments of Central America?
Dêsirè Charnay, now engaged in exploring those monuments, has published in
the North American Review for December, 1880, photographs of a number of
idols exhumed at San Juan de Teotihuacan, from which I select the following
strikingly negroid faces:
Dr. Le Plongeon says:
"Besides the sculptures of long-bearded men seen by the explorer at Chichen
Itza, there were tall figures of people with small heads, thick lips, and
curly short hair or wool, regarded as negroes. 'We always see them as
standard or parasol bearers, but never engaged in actual warfare.'" ("Maya
Archæology," p. 62.)
The following cut is from the court of the Palace of Palenque, figured by
Stephens. The face is strongly Ethiopian.
The figure below represents a gigantic granite head, found near the volcano
of Tuxtla, in the Mexican State of Vera Cruz, at Caxapa. The features are
unmistakably negroid.
As the negroes have never been a sea-going race, the presence of these faces
among the antiquities of Central America proves one of two things, either
the existence of a land connection between America and Africa via Atlantis,
as revealed by the deep-sea soundings of the Challenger, or commercial
relations between America and Africa through the ships of the Atlanteans or
some other civilized race, whereby the negroes were brought to America as
slaves at a very remote epoch.
And we find some corroboration of the latter theory in that singular book of
the Quiches, the "Popol Vuh," in which, after describing the creation of the
first men "in the region of the rising sun" (Bancroft's "Native Races," vol.
v., p. 548), and enumerating their first generations, we are told, "All seem
to have spoken one language, and to have lived in great peace, black men and
white together. Here they awaited the rising of the sun, and prayed to the
Heart of Heaven." (Bancroft's "Native Races," p. 547.) How did the red men
of Central America know anything about "black men and white men?" The
conclusion seems inevitable that these legends of a primitive, peaceful, and
happy land, an Aztlan in the East, inhabited by black and white men, to
which all the civilized nations of America traced their origin, could only
refer to Atlantis--that bridge of land where the white, dark, and red races
met. The "Popol Vuh" proceeds to tell how this first home of the race became
over-populous, and how the people under Balam-Quitze migrated; how their
language became "confounded," in other words, broken up into dialects, in
consequence of separation; and how some of the people "went to the East, and
many came hither to Guatemala." (Ibid., p. 547.)
M. A. de Quatrefages ("Human Species," p. 200) says, "Black populations have
been found in America in very small numbers only, as isolated tribes in the
midst of very different populations. Such are the Charruas, of Brazil, the
Black Carribees of Saint Vincent, in the Gulf of Mexico; the Jamassi of
Florida, and the dark-complexioned Californians. . . . Such, again, is the
tribe that Balboa saw some representatives of in his passage of the Isthmus
of Darien in 1513; . . . they were true negroes."
7. How comes it that all the civilizations of the Old World radiate from the
shores of the Mediterranean? The Mediterranean is a cul de sac, with
Atlantis opposite its mouth. Every civilization on its shores possesses
traditions that point to Atlantis. We hear of no civilization coining to the
Mediterranean from Asia, Africa, or Europe--from north, south, or west; but
north, south, east, and west we find civilization radiating from the
Mediterranean to other lands. We see the Aryans descending upon Hindostan
from the direction of the Mediterranean; and we find the Chinese borrowing
inventions from Hindostan, and claiming descent from a region not far from
the Mediterranean.
The Mediterranean has been the centre of the modern world, because it lay in
the path of the extension of an older civilization, whose ships colonized
its shores, as they did also the shores .of America. Plato says, "the
nations are gathered around the shores of the Mediterranean like frogs
around a marsh."
Dr. McCausland says:
The obvious conclusion from these facts is, that at some time previous to
these migrations a people speaking a language of a superior and complicated
structure broke up their society, and, under some strong impulse, poured out
in different directions, and gradually established themselves in all the
lands now inhabited by the Caucasian race. Their territories extend from the
Atlantic to the Ganges, and from Iceland to Ceylon, and are bordered on the
north and east by the Asiatic Mongols, and on the south by the negro tribes
of Central Africa. They present all the appearances of a later race,
expanding itself between and into the territories of two pre-existing
neighboring races, and forcibly appropriating the room required for its
increasing population." (McCausland's "Adam and the Adamites," p. 280.)
Modern civilization is Atlantean. Without the thousands of years of
development which were had in Atlantis modern civilization could not have
existed. The inventive faculty of the present age is taking up the great
delegated work of creation where Atlantis left it thousands of years ago.
8. How are we to explain the existence of the Semitic race in Europe without
Atlantis? It is an intrusive race; a race colonized on sea-coasts. Where are
its Old World affinities?
9. Why is it that the origin of wheat, barley, oats, maize, and rye--the
essential plants of civilization--is totally lost in the mists of a vast
antiquity? We have in the Greek mythology legends of the introduction of
most of these by Atlantean kings or gods into Europe; but no European nation
claims to have discovered or developed them, and it has been impossible to
trace them to their wild originals. Out of the whole flora of the world
mankind in the last seven thousand years has not developed a single food-
plant to compare in importance to the human family with these. If a wise and
scientific nation should propose nowadays to add to this list, it would have
to form great botanical gardens, and, by systematic and long-continued
experiments, develop useful plants from the humble productions of the field
and forest. Was this done in the past on the island of Atlantis?
10. Why is it that we find in Ptolemy's "Geography of Asia Minor," in a list
of cities in Armenia Major in A.D. 140, the names of five cities which have
their counterparts in the names of localities in Central America?
Armenian Cities.
Central American Localities.
Chol.
Chol-ula
Colua.
Colua-can.
Zuivana.
Zuivan.
Cholima.
Colima.
Zalissa.
Xalisco.
(Short's "North Americans of Antiquity," p. 497.)
11. How comes it that the sandals upon the feet of the statue of Chacmol,
discovered at Chichen Itza, are "exact representations of those found on the
feet of the Guanches, the early inhabitants of the Canary Islands, whose
mummies are occasionally discovered in the eaves of Teneriffe?" Dr. Merritt
deems the axe or chisel heads dug up at Chiriqui, Central America, "almost
identical in form as well as material with specimens found in Suffolk
County, England." (Bancroft's Native Races," vol. iv., p. 20.) The rock-
carvings of Chiriqui are pronounced by Mr. Seemann to have a striking
resemblance to the ancient incised characters found on the rocks of
Northumberland, England. (Ibid.)
"Some stones have recently been discovered in Hierro and Las Palmas (Canary
Islands), bearing sculptured symbols similar to those found on the shores of
Lake Superior; and this has led M. Bertholet, the historiographer of the
Canary Islands, to conclude that the first inhabitants of the Canaries and
those of the great West were one in race." (Benjamin, "The Atlantic
Islands," p. 130.)
12. How comes it that that very high authority, Professor Retzius
("Smithsonian Report," 1859, p. 266), declares, "With regard to the
primitive dolichocephalæ of America I entertain a hypothesis still more
bold, namely, that they are nearly related to the Guanches in the Canary
Islands, and to the Atlantic populations of Africa, the Moors, Tuaricks,
Copts, etc., which Latham comprises under the name of Egyptian-Atlantidæ. We
find one and the same form of skull in the Canary Islands, in front of the
African coast, and in the Carib Islands, on the opposite coast, which faces
Africa. The color of the skin on both sides of the Atlantic is represented
in these populations as being of a reddish-brown."
13. The Barbarians who are alluded to by Homer and Thucydides were a race of
ancient navigators and pirates called Cares, or Carians, who occupied the
isles of Greece before the Pelasgi, and antedated the Phnicians in the
control of the sea. The Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg claims that these Carians
were identical with the Caribs of the West Indies, the Caras of Honduras,
and the Gurani of South America. (Landa's "Relacion," pp. 52-65.)
14. When we consider it closely, one of the most extraordinary customs ever
known to mankind is that to which I have already alluded in a preceding
chapter, to wit, the embalming of the body of the dead man, with a purpose
that the body itself may live again in a future state. To arrive at this
practice several things must coexist:
a. The people must be highly religious, and possessed of an organized and
influential priesthood, to perpetuate so troublesome a custom from age to
age.
b. They must believe implicitly in the immortality of the soul; and this
implies a belief in rewards and punishments after death; in a heaven and a
hell.
c. They must believe in the immortality of the body, and its resurrection
from the grave on some day of judgment in the distant future.
d. But a belief in the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the
body is not enough, for all Christian nations hold to these beliefs; they
must supplement these with a determination that the body shall not perish;
that the very flesh and blood in which the man died shall rise with him on
the last day, and not a merely spiritual body.
Now all these four things must coexist before a people proceed to embalm
their dead for religious purposes. The probability that all these four
things should coexist by accident in several widely separated races is
slight indeed. The doctrine of chances is all against it. There is here no
common necessity driving men to the same expedient, with which so many
resemblances have been explained; the practice is a religious ceremony,
growing out of religious beliefs by no means common or universal, to wit,
that the man who is dead shall live again, and live again in the very body
in which he died. Not even all the Jews believed in these things.
If, then, it should appear that among the races which we claim were
descended from Atlantis this practice of embalming the dead is found, and
nowhere else, we have certainly furnished evidence which can only be
explained by admitting the existence of Atlantis, and of some great
religious race dwelling on Atlantis, who believed in the immortality of soul
and body, and who embalmed their dead. We find, as I have shown:
First. That the Guanches of the Canary Islands, supposed to be a remnant of
the Atlantean population, preserved their dead as mummies.
Second. That the Egyptians, the oldest colony of Atlantis, embalmed their
dead in such vast multitudes that they are now exported by the ton to
England, and ground up into manures to grow English turnips.
Third. That the Assyrians, the Ethiopians, the Persians, the Greeks, and
even the Romans embalmed their dead.
Fourth. On the American continents we find that the Peruvians, the Central
Americans, the Mexicans, and some of the Indian tribes, followed the same
practice.
Is it possible to account for this singular custom, reaching through a belt
of nations, and completely around the habitable world, without Atlantis?
15. All the traditions of the Mediterranean races look to the ocean as the
source of men and gods. Homer sings of
"Ocean, the origin of gods and Mother Tethys."
Orpheus says, "The fair river of Ocean was the first to marry, and he
espoused his sister Tethys, who was his mothers daughter." (Plato's
"Dialogues," Cratylus, p. 402.) The ancients always alluded to the ocean as
a river encircling the earth, as in the map of Cosmos (see page 95 ante);
probably a reminiscence of the great canal described by Plato which
surrounded the plain of Atlantis. Homer (Iliad, book xviii.) describes
Tethys, "the mother goddess," coming to Achilles "from the deep abysses of
the main:"
"The circling Nereids with their mistress weep,
And all the sea-green sisters of the deep."
Plato surrounds the great statue of Poseidon in Atlantis with the images of
one hundred Nereids.
16. in the Deluge legends of the Hindoos (as given on page 87 ante), we have
seen Manu saving a small fish, which subsequently grew to a great size, and
warned him of the coming of the Flood. In this legend all the indications
point to an ocean as the scene of the catastrophe. It says: "At the close of
the last calpa there was a general destruction, caused by the sleep of
Brahma, whence his creatures, in different worlds, were drowned in a vast
ocean. . . . A holy king, named Satyavrata, then reigned, a servant of the
spirit which moved on the waves" (Poseidon?), "and so devout that water was
his only sustenance. . . . In seven days the three worlds" (remember
Poseidon's trident) "shall be plunged in an ocean of death." . . . "'Thou
shalt enter the spacious ark, and continue in it secure from the Flood on
one immense ocean.' . . . The sea overwhelmed its shores, deluged the whole
earth, augmented by showers from immense clouds." ("Asiatic Researches,"
vol. i., p. 230.)
All this reminds us of "the fountains of the great deep and the flood-gates
of heaven," and seems to repeat precisely the story of Plato as to the
sinking of Atlantis in the ocean.
CHAPTER V.
THE QUESTION OF COMPLEXION.
THE tendency of scientific thought in ethnology is in the direction of
giving more and more importance to the race characteristics, such as height,
color of the hair, eyes and skin, and the formation of the skull and body
generally, than to language. The language possessed by a people may be
merely the result of conquest or migration. For instance, in the United
States to-day, white, black, and red men, the descendants of French,
Spanish, Italians, Mexicans, Irish, Germans, Scandinavians, Africans, all
speak the English language, and by the test of language they are all
Englishmen; and yet none of them are connected by birth or descent with the
country where that language was developed.
There is a general misconception as to the color of the European and
American races. Europe is supposed to be peopled exclusively by white men;
but in reality every shade of color is represented on that continent, from
the fair complexion of the fairest of the Swedes to the dark-skinned
inhabitants of the Mediterranean coast, only a shade lighter than the
Berbers, or Moors, on the opposite side of that sea. Tacitus spoke of the
"Black Celts," and the term, so far as complexion goes, might not
inappropriately be applied to some of the Italians, Spaniards, and
Portuguese, while the Basques are represented as of a still darker hue.
Tylor says ("Anthropology," p. 67), "On the whole, it seems that the
distinction of color, from the fairest Englishman to the darkest African,
has no hard and fast lines. but varies gradually from one tint to another."
And when we turn to America we find that the popular opinion that all
Indians are "red men," and of the same hue from Patagonia to Hudson's Bay,
is a gross error.
Prichard says ("Researches into the Physical History of Mankind," vol. i.,
p. 269, 4th ed., 1841):
"It will be easy to show that the American races show nearly as great a
variety in this respect as the nations of the old continent; there are among
them white races with a florid complexion, and tribes black or of a very
dark hue; that their stature, figure, and countenance are almost equally
diversified."
John T. Short says ("North Americans of Antiquity," p. 189):
"The Menominees, sometimes called the 'White Indians,' formerly occupied the
region bordering on Lake Michigan, around Green Bay. The whiteness of these
Indians, which is compared to that of white mulattoes, early attracted the
attention of the Jesuit missionaries, and has often been commented on by
travellers. While it is true that hybridy has done much to lighten the color
of many of the tribes, still the peculiarity of the complexion of this
people has been marked since the first time a European encountered them.
Almost every shade, from the ash-color of the Menominees through the
cinnamon-red, copper, and bronze tints, may be found among the tribes
formerly occupying the territory cast of the Mississippi, until we reach the
dark-skinned Kaws of Kansas, who are nearly as black as the negro. The
variety of complexion is as great in South America as among the tribes of
the northern part of the continent."
In foot-note of p. 107 of vol. iii. of "U. S. Explorations for a Railroad
Route to the Pacific Ocean," we are told,
"Many of the Indians of Zuni (New Mexico) are white. They have a fair skin,
blue eyes, chestnut or auburn hair, and are quite good-looking. They claim
to be full-blooded Zunians, and have no tradition of intermarriage with any
foreign race. The circumstance creates no surprise among this people, for
from time immemorial a similar class of people has existed among the tribe."
Winchell says:
"The ancient Indians of California, in the latitude of forty-two degrees,
were as black as the negroes of Guinea, while in Mexico were tribes of an
olive or reddish complexion, relatively light. Among the black races of
tropical regions we find, generally, some light-colored tribes interspersed.
These sometimes have light hair and blue eyes. This is the case with the
Tuareg of the Sahara, the Afghans of India, and the aborigines of the banks
of the Oronoco and the Amazon." (Winchell's "Preadamites, p. 185.)
William Penn said of the Indians of Pennsylvania, in his letter of August,
1683:
"The natives . . . are generally tall, straight, well-built, and of singular
proportion; they tread strong and clever, and mostly walk with a lofty chin.
. . . Their eye is little and black, not unlike a straight-looked Jew. . . .
I have seen among them as comely European-like faces of both sexes as on
your side of the sea; and truly an Italian complexion hath not much more of
the white, and the noses of several of them have as much of the Roman. . . .
For their original, I am ready to believe them to be of the Jewish race--I
mean of the stock of the ten tribes--and that for the following reasons:
first, in the next place, I find them to be of the like countenance, and
their children of so lively a resemblance that a man would think himself in
Duke's Place or Berry Street in London when he seeth them. But this is not
all: they agree in rites, they reckon by moons, they offer their first-
fruits, they have a kind of feast of tabernacles, they are said to lay their
altars upon twelve stones, their mourning a year, customs of women, with
many other things that do not now occur."
Upon this question of complexion Catlin, in his "Indians of North America,"
vol. i., p. 95, etc., gives us some curious information. We have already
seen that the Mandans preserved an image of the ark, and possessed legends
of a clearly Atlantean character. Catlin says:
"A stranger in the Mandan village is first struck with the different shades
of complexion and various colors of hair which he sees in a crowd about him,
and is at once disposed to exclaim, 'These are not Indians.' There are a
great many of these people whose complexions appear as light as half-breeds;
and among the women particularly there are many whose skins are almost
white, with the most pleasing symmetry and proportion of feature; with
hazel, with gray, and with blue eyes; with mildness and sweetness of
expression and excessive modesty of demeanor, which render them exceedingly
pleasing and beautiful. Why this diversity of complexion I cannot tell, nor
can they themselves account for it. Their traditions, so far as I can learn
them, afford us no information of their having had any knowledge of white
men before the visit of Lewis and Clarke, made to their village thirty-three
years ago. Since that time until now (1835) there have been very few visits
of white men to this place, and surely not enough to have changed the
complexions and customs of a nation. And I recollect perfectly well that
Governor Clarke told me, before I started for this place, that I would find
the Mandans a strange people and half white.
"Among the females may be seen every shade and color of hair that can be
seen in our own country except red or auburn, which is not to be found. . .
. There are very many of both sexes, and of every age, from infancy to
manhood and old age, with hair of a bright silvery-gray, and in some
instances almost perfectly white. This unaccountable phenomenon is not the
result of disease or habit, but it is unquestionably an hereditary
characteristic which runs in families, and indicates no inequality in
disposition or intellect. And by passing this hair through my hands I have
found it uniformly to be as coarse and harsh as a horse's mane, differing
materially from the hair of other colors, which, among the Mandans, is
generally as fine and soft as silk.
"The stature of the Mandans is rather below the ordinary size of man, with
beautiful symmetry of form and proportion, and wonderful suppleness and
elasticity."
Catlin gives a group (54) showing this great diversity in complexion: one of
the figures is painted almost pure white, and with light hair. The faces are
European.
Major James W. Lynd, who lived among the Dakota Indians for nine years, and
was killed by them in the great outbreak of 1862, says (MS. "Hist. of
Dakotas," Library, Historical Society, Minnesota, p. 47), after calling
attention to the fact that the different tribes of the Sioux nation
represent several different degrees of darkness of color:
"The Dakota child is of lighter complexion than the young brave; this one
lighter than the middle-aged man, and the middle-aged man lighter than the
superannuated homo, who, by smoke, paint, dirt, and a drying up of the vital
juices, appears to be the true copper-colored Dakota. The color of the
Dakotas varies with the nation, and also with the age and condition of the
individual. It may be set down, however, as a shade lighter than olive; yet
it becomes still lighter by change of condition or mode of life, and nearly
vanishes, even in the child, under constant ablutions and avoiding of
exposure. Those children in the Mission at Hazlewood, who are taken very
young, and not allowed to expose themselves, lose almost entirely the olive
shade, and become quite as white as the American child. The Mandans are as
light as the peasants of Spain, while their brothers, the Crows, are as dark
as the Arabs. Dr. Goodrich, in the 'Universal Traveller,' p. 154, says that
the modern Peruvians, in the warmer regions of Peru, are as fair as the
people of the south of Europe."
"The Aymaras, the ancient inhabitants of the mountains of Peru and Bolivia,
are described as having an olive-brown complexion, with regular features,
large heads, and a thoughtful and melancholy cast of countenance. They
practised in early times the deformation of the skull.
Professor Wilson describes the hair of the ancient Peruvians, as found upon
their mummies, as "a lightish brown, and of a fineness of texture which
equals that of the Anglo-Saxon race." "The ancient Peruvians," says Short
("North Americans of Antiquity," p. 187), "appear, from numerous examples of
hair found in their tombs, to have been an auburn-haired race." Garcilasso,
who had an opportunity of seeing the body of the king, Viracocha, describes
the hair of that monarch as snow-white. Haywood tells us of the discovery,
at the beginning of this century, of three mummies in a cave on the south
side of the Cumberland River (Tennessee), who were buried in baskets, as the
Peruvians were occasionally buried, and whose skin was fair and white, and
their hair auburn, and of a fine texture. ("Natural and Aboriginal History
of Tennessee," p. 191.)
Neither is the common opinion correct which asserts all the American Indians
to be of the same type of features. The portraits on this page and on pages
187 and 191, taken from the "Report of the U. S. Survey for a Route for a
Pacific Railroad," present features very much like those of Europeans; in
fact, every face here could be precisely matched among the inhabitants of
the southern part of the old continent.
On the other hand, look at the portrait of the great Italian orator and
reformer, Savonarola, on page 193. It looks more like the hunting Indians of
North-western America than any of the preceding faces. In fact, if it was
dressed with a scalp-lock it would pass muster anywhere as a portrait of the
"Man-afraid-of-his-horses," or "Sitting Bull."
Adam was, it appears, a red man. Winchell tells us that Adam is derived from
the red earth. The radical letters ÂDâM are found in ADaMaH, "something out
of which vegetation was made to germinate," to wit, the earth. ÂDôM and ÂDOM
signifies red, ruddy, bay-colored, as of a horse, the color of a red heifer.
"ÂDâM, a man, a human being, male or female, red, ruddy." ("Preadamites,"
p.161.)
"The Arabs distinguished mankind into two races, one red, ruddy, the other
black." (Ibid.) They classed themselves among the red men.
Not only was Adam a red man, but there is evidence that, from the highest
antiquity, red was a sacred color; the gods of the ancients were always
painted red. The Wisdom of Solomon refers to this custom: "The carpenter
carved it elegantly, and formed it by the skill of his understanding, and
fashioned it to the shape of a man, or made it like some vile beast, laying
it over with vermilion, and with paint, coloring it red, and covering every
spot therein."
The idols of the Indians were also painted red, and red was the religious
color. (Lynd's MS. "Hist. of Dakotas," Library, Hist. Society, Minn.)
The Cushites and Ethiopians, early branches of the Atlantean stock, took
their name from their "sunburnt" complexion; they were red men.
The name of the Phnicians signified red. Himyar, the prefix of the
Himyaritic Arabians, also means red, and the Arabs were painted red on the
Egyptian monuments.
The ancient Egyptians were red men. They recognized four races of men--the
red, yellow, black, and white men. They themselves belonged to the "Rot," or
red men; the yellow men they called "Namu"--it included the Asiatic races;
the black men were called "Nahsu," and the white men "Tamhu." The following
figures are copied from Nott and Gliddon's "Types of Mankind," p. 85, and
were taken by them from the great works of Belzoni, Champollion, and
Lepsius.
In later ages so desirous were the Egyptians of preserving, the aristocratic
distinction of the color of their skin, that they represented themselves on
the monuments as of a crimson hue--an exaggeration of their original race
complexion.
In the same way we find that the ancient Aryan writings divided mankind into
four races--the white, red, yellow, and black: the four castes of India were
founded upon these distinctions in color; in fact, the word for color in
Sanscrit (varna) means caste. The red men, according to the Mahâbhârata,
were the Kshatriyas--the warrior caste-who were afterward engaged in a
fierce contest with the whites--the Brahmans--and were nearly exterminated,
although some of them survived, and from their stock Buddha was born. So
that not only the Mohammedan and Christian but the Buddhistic religion seem
to be derived from branches of the Hamitic or red stock. The great Mann was
also of the red race.
The Egyptians, while they painted themselves red-brown, represented the
nations of Palestine as yellow-brown, and the Libyans yellow-white. The
present inhabitants of Egypt range from a yellow color in the north parts to
a deep bronze. Tylor is of opinion ("Anthropology," p. 95) that the ancient
Egyptians belonged to a brown race, which embraced the Nubian tribes and, to
some extent, the Berbers of Algiers and Tunis. He groups the Assyrians,
Phnicians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Andalusians, Bretons, dark Welshmen,
and people of the Caucasus into one body, and designates them as "dark
whites." The Himyarite Arabs, as I have shown, derived their name originally
from their red color, and they were constantly depicted on the Egyptian
monuments as red or light brown. Herodotus tells us that there was a nation
of Libyans, called the Maxyans, who claimed descent from the people of Troy
(the walls of Troy, we shall see, were built by Poseidon; that is to say,
Troy was an Atlantean colony). These Maxyans painted their whole bodies red.
The Zavecians, the ancestors of the Zuavas of Algiers (the tribe that gave
their name to the French Zouaves), also painted themselves red. Some of the
Ethiopians were "copper-colored." ("'Amer. Cyclop.," art. Egypt, p. 464.)
Tylor says ("Anthropology," p. 160): "The language of the ancient Egyptians,
though it cannot be classed in the Semitic family with Hebrew, has important
points of correspondence, whether due to the long intercourse between the
two races in Egypt or to some deeper ancestral connection; and such
analogies also appear in the Berber languages of North Africa."
These last were called by the ancients the Atlanteans.
"If a congregation of twelve representatives from Malacca, China, Japan,
Mongolia, Sandwich Islands, Chili, Peru, Brazil, Chickasaws, Comanches,
etc., were dressed alike, or undressed and unshaven, the most skilful
anatomist could not, from their appearance, separate them." (Fontaine's "How
the World was Peopled," pp. 147, 244.)
Ferdinand Columbus, in his relation of his father's voyages, compares the
inhabitants of Guanaani to the Canary Islanders (an Atlantean race), and
describes the inhabitants of San Domingo as still more beautiful and fair.
In Peru the Charanzanis, studied by M. Angraud, also resemble the Canary
Islanders. L'Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg imagined himself surrounded by Arabs
when all his Indians of Rabinal were around him; for they had, he said,
their complexion, features, and beard. Pierre Martyr speaks of the Indians
of the Parian Gulf as having fair hair. ("The Human Species," p. 201.) The
same author believes that tribes belonging to the Semitic type are also
found in America. He refers to "certain traditions of Guiana, and the use in
the country of a weapon entirely characteristic of the ancient Canary
Islanders."
CHAPTER VI.
GENESIS CONTAINS A HISTORY OF ATLANTIS
THE Hebrews are a branch of the great family of which that powerful
commercial race, the Phnicians, who were the merchants of the world fifteen
hundred years before the time of Christ, were a part. The Hebrews carried
out from the common storehouse of their race a mass of traditions, many of
which have come down-to us in that oldest and most venerable of human
compositions, the Book of Genesis. I have shown that the story of the Deluge
plainly refers to the destruction of Atlantis, and that it agrees in many
important particulars with the account given by Plato. The people destroyed
were, in both instances, the ancient race that had created civilization;
they had formerly been in a happy and sinless condition; they had become
great and wicked; they were destroyed for their sins--they were destroyed by
water.
But we can go farther, and it can be asserted that there is scarcely a
prominent fact in the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis that cannot be
duplicated from the legends of the American nations, and scarcely a custom
known to the Jews that does not find its counterpart among the people of the
New World.
Even in the history of the Creation we find these similarities:
The Bible tells us (Gen. i., 2) that in the beginning the earth was without
form and void, and covered with water. In the Quiche legends we are told,
"at first all was sea--no man, animal, bird, or green herb--there was
nothing to be seen but the sea and the heavens."
The Bible says (Gen. i., 2), "And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of
the waters." The Quiche legend says, "The Creator--the Former, the
Dominator--the feathered serpent--those that give life, moved upon the
waters like a glowing light."
The Bible says (Gen. i., 9), "And God said, Let the waters under the heaven
be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was
so." The Quiche legend says, "The creative spirits cried out 'Earth!' and in
an instant it was formed, and rose like a vapor-cloud; immediately the
plains and the mountains arose, and the cypress and pine appeared."
The Bible tells us, "And God saw that it was good." The Quiche legend says,
"Then Gucumatz was filled with joy, and cried out, 'Blessed be thy coming, O
Heart of Heaven, Hurakan, thunder-bolt.'"
The order in which the vegetables, animals, and man were formed is the same
in both records.
In Genesis (chap. ii., 7) we are told, "And the Lord God formed man of the
dust of the ground." The Quiche legend says. "The first man was made of
clay; but he had no intelligence, and was consumed in the water."
In Genesis the first man is represented as naked. The Aztec legend says,
"The sun was much nearer the earth then than now, and his grateful warmth
rendered clothing unnecessary."
Even the temptation of Eve reappears in the American legends. Lord
Kingsborough says: "The Toltecs had paintings of a garden, with a single
tree standing in the midst; round the root of the tree is entwined a
serpent, whose head appearing above the foliage displays the face of a
woman. Torquemada admits the existence of this tradition among them, and
agrees with the Indian historians, who affirm that this was the first woman
in the world, who bore children, and from whom all mankind are descended."
("Mexican Antiquities," vol. viii., p. 19.) There is also a legend of
Suchiquecal, who disobediently gathered roses from a tree, and thereby
disgraced and injured herself and all her posterity. ("Mexican Antiquities,"
vol. vi., p. 401.)
The legends of the Old World which underlie Genesis, and were used by Milton
in the "Paradise Lost," appear in the Mexican le(fends of a war of angels in
heaven, and the fall of Zou-tem-que (Soutem, Satan--Arabic, Shatana?) and
the other rebellious spirits.
We have seen that the Central Americans possessed striking parallels to the
account of the Deluge in Genesis.
There is also a clearly established legend which singularly resembles the
Bible record of the Tower of Babel.
Father Duran, in his MS. "Historia Antiqua de la Nueva Espana," A.D. 1585,
quotes from the lips of a native of Cholula, over one hundred years old, a
version of the legend as to the building of the great pyramid of Cholula. It
is as follows:
"In the beginning, before the light of the sun had been created, this land
(Cholula) was in obscurity and darkness, and void of any created thing; all
was a plain, without hill or elevation, encircled in every part by water,
without tree or created thing; and immediately after the light and the sun
arose in the east there appeared gigantic men of deformed stature and
possessed the land, and desiring to see the nativity of the sun, as well as
his occident, proposed to go and seek them. Dividing themselves into two
parties, some journeyed to the west and others toward the east; these
travelled; until the sea cut off their road, whereupon they determined to
return to the place from which they started, and arriving at this place
(Cholula), not finding the means of reaching the sun, enamored of his light
and beauty, they determined to build a tower so high that its summit should
reach the sky. Having collected materials for the purpose, they found a very
adhesive clay and bitumen, with which they speedily commenced to build the
tower; and having reared it to the greatest possible altitude, so that they
say it reached to the sky, the Lord of the Heavens, enraged, said to the
inhabitants of the sky, 'Have you observed how they of the earth have built
a high and haughty tower to mount hither, being enamored of the light of the
sun and his beauty? Come and confound them, because it is not right that
they of the earth, living in the flesh, should mingle with us.' Immediately
the inhabitants of the sky sallied forth like flashes of lightning; they
destroyed the edifice, and divided and scattered its builders to all parts
of the earth."
One can recognize in this legend the recollection, by a ruder race, of a
highly civilized people; for only a highly civilized people would have
attempted such a vast work. Their mental superiority and command of the arts
gave them the character of giants who arrived from the East; who had divided
into two great emigrations, one moving eastward (toward Europe), the other
westward (toward America). They were sun-worshippers; for we are told "they
were enamored of the light and beauty of the sun," and they built a high
place for his worship.
The pyramid of Cholula is one of the greatest constructions ever erected by
human hands. It is even now, in its ruined condition, 160 feet high, 1400
feet square at the base, and covers forty-five acres; we have only to
remember that the greatest pyramid of Egypt, Cheops, covers but twelve or
thirteen acres, to form some conception of the magnitude of this American
structure.
It must not be forgotten that this legend was taken down by a Catholic
priest, shortly after the conquest of Mexico, from the lips of an old Indian
who was born before Columbus sailed from Spain.
Observe the resemblances between this legend and the Bible account of the
building of the Tower of Babel:
"All was a plain without hill or elevation," says the Indian legend. "They
found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there," says the Bible.
They built of brick in both cases. "Let us build us a tower whose top may
reach unto heaven," says the Bible. "They determined to build a tower so
high that its summit should reach the sky," says the Indian legend. "And the
Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men had
builded. And the Lord said, Behold . . . nothing will be restrained from
them which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down and confound
them," says the Bible record. "The Lord of the Heavens, enraged, said to the
inhabitants of the sky, 'Have you observed,' etc. Come and confound them,"
says the Indian record. "And the Lord scattered them abroad from thence on
all the face of the earth," says the Bible. "They scattered its builders to
all parts of the earth," says the Mexican legend.
Can any one doubt that these two legends must have sprung in some way from
one another, or from some common source? There are enough points of
difference to show that the American is not a servile copy of the Hebrew
legend. In the former the story comes from a native of Cholula: it is told
under the shadow of the mighty pyramid it commemorates; it is a local legend
which he repeats. The men who built it, according to his account, were
foreigners. They built it to reach the sun--that is to say, as a sun-temple;
while in the Bible record Babel was built to perpetuate the glory of its
architects. In the Indian legend the gods stop the work by a great storm, in
the Bible account by confounding the speech of the people.
Both legends were probably derived from Atlantis, and referred to some
gigantic structure of great height built by that people; and when the story
emigrated to the east and west, it was in the one case affixed to the tower
of the Chaldeans, and in the other to the pyramid of Cholula, precisely as
we find the ark of the Deluge resting upon separate mountain-chains all the
way from Greece to Armenia. In one form of the Tower of Babel legend, that
of the Toltecs, we are told that the pyramid of Cholula was erected "as a
means of escape from a second flood, should another occur."
But the resemblances between Genesis and the American legends do not stop
here.
We are told (Gen. ii., 21) that "the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall
upon Adam," and while he slept God made Eve out of one of his ribs.
According to the Quiche tradition, there were four men from whom the races
of the world descended (probably a recollection of the red, black, yellow,
and white races); and these men were without wives, and the Creator made
wives for them "while they slept."
Some wicked misanthrope referred to these traditions when he said, "And
man's first sleep became his last repose."
In Genesis (chap. iii., 22), "And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is
become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his
hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever:"
therefore God drove him out of the garden. In the Quiche legends we are
told, "The gods feared that they had made men too perfect, and they breathed
a cloud of mist over their vision."
When the ancestors of the Quiches migrated to America the Divinity parted
the sea for their passage, as the Red Sea was parted for the Israelites.
The story of Samson is paralleled in the history of a hero named Zipanca,
told of in the "Popol Vuh," who, being captured by his enemies and placed in
a pit, pulled down the building in which his captors had assembled, and
killed four hundred of them.
"There were giants in those days," says the Bible. A great deal of the
Central American history is taken up with the doings of an ancient race of
giants called Quinames.
This parallelism runs through a hundred particulars:
Both the Jews and Mexicans worshipped toward the east.
Both called the south "the right hand of the world."
Both burnt incense toward the four corners of the earth.
Confession of sin and sacrifice of atonement were common to both peoples.
Both were punctilious about washings and ablutions.
Both believed in devils, and both were afflicted with leprosy.
Both considered women who died in childbirth as worthy of honor as soldiers
who fell in battle.
Both punished adultery with stoning to death.
As David leaped and danced before the ark of the Lord, so did the Mexican
monarchs before their idols.
Both had an ark, the abiding-place of an invisible god.
Both had a species of serpent-worship.
Compare our representation of the great serpent-mound in Adams County, Ohio,
with the following description of a great serpent-mound in Scotland:
"Serpent-worship in the West.--Some additional light appears to have been
thrown upon ancient serpent-worship in the West by the recent archaeological
explorations of Mr. John S. Phené, F.G.S., F.R.G.S., in Scotland. Mr. Phené
has just investigated a curious earthen mound in Glen Feechan, Argyleshire,
referred to by him, at the late meeting of the British Association in
Edinburgh, as being in the form of a serpent or saurian. The mound, says the
Scotsman, is a most perfect one. The head is a large cairn, and the body of
the earthen reptile 300 feet long; and in the centre of the bead there were
evidences, when Mr. Phené first visited it, of an altar having been placed
there. The position with regard to Ben Cruachan is most remarkable. The
three peaks are seen over the length of the reptile when a person is
standing on the head, or cairn. The shape can only be seen so as to be
understood when looked down upon from an elevation, as the outline cannot be
understood unless the whole of it can be seen. This is most perfect when the
spectator is on the bead of the animal form, or on the lofty rock to the
west of it. This mound corresponds almost entirely with one 700 feet long in
America, an account of which was lately published, after careful survey, by
Mr. Squier. The altar toward the head in each case agrees. In the American
mound three rivers (also objects of worship with the ancients) were
evidently identified. The number three was a sacred number in all ancient
mythologies. The sinuous winding and articulations of the vertebral spinal
arrangement are anatomically perfect in the Argyleshire mound. The gentlemen
present with Mr. Phené during his investigation state that beneath the cairn
forming the head of the animal was found a megalithic chamber, in which was
a quantity of charcoal and burnt earth and charred nutshells, a flint
instrument, beautifully and minutely serrated at the edge, and burnt bones.
The back or spine of the serpent, which, as already stated, is 300 feet
long, was found, beneath the peat moss, to be formed by a careful adjustment
of stones, the formation of which probably prevented the structure from
being obliterated by time and weather." (Pall Mall Gazette.)
We find a striking likeness between the works of the Stone Age in America
and Europe, as shown in the figures here given.
The same singular custom which is found among the Jews and the Hindoos, for
"a man to raise up seed for his deceased brother by marrying his widow," was
found among the Central American nations. (Las Casas, MS. "Hist. Apoloq.,"
cap. ccxiii., ccxv. Torquemada, "Monarq. Ind.," tom. ii., 377-8.)
No one but the Jewish high-priest might enter the Holy of Holies. A similar
custom obtained in Peru. Both ate the flesh of the sacrifices of atonement;
both poured the blood of the sacrifice on the earth; they sprinkled it, they
marked persons with it, they smeared it upon walls and stones. The Mexican
temple, like the Jewish, faced the east. "As among the Jews the ark was a
sort of portable temple, in which the Deity was supposed to be continually
present, so among the Mexicans, the Cherokees, and the Indians of Michoacan
and Honduras, an ark was held in the highest veneration, and was considered
an object too sacred to be touched by any but the priests." (Kingsborough,
"Mex. Antiq., "vol. viii., p.258.)
The Peruvians believed that the rainbow was a sign that the earth would not
be again destroyed by a deluge. (Ibid., p. 25.)
The Jewish custom of laying the sins of the people upon the head of an
animal, and turning him out into the wilderness, had its counterpart among
the Mexicans, who, to cure a fever, formed a dog of maize paste and left it
by the roadside, saying the first passer-by would carry away the illness.
(Dorman, "Prim. Super.," p. 59.) Jacob's ladder had its duplicate in the
vine or tree of the Ojibbeways, which led from the earth to heaven, up and
down which the spirits passed. (Ibid., p. 67.)
Both Jews and Mexicans offered water to a stranger that be might wash his
feet; both ate dust in token of humility; both anointed with oil; both
sacrificed prisoners; both periodically separated the women, and both agreed
in the strong and universal idea of uncleanness connected with that period.
Both believed in the occult power of water, and both practised baptism.
"Then the Mexican midwife gave the child to taste of the water, putting her
moistened fingers in its mouth, and said, 'Take this; by this thou hast to
live on the earth, to grow and to flourish; through this we get all things
that support existence on the earth; receive it.' Then with moistened
fingers she touched the breast of the child, and said, 'Behold the pure
water that washes and cleanses thy heart, that removes all filthiness;
receive it: may the goddess see good to purify And cleanse thine heart.'
Then the midwife poured water upon the head of the child, saying, 'O my
grandson--my son--take this water of the Lord of the world, which is thy
life, invigorating and refreshing, washing and cleansing. I pray that this
celestial water, blue and light blue, may enter into thy body, and there
live; I pray that it may destroy in thee and put away from thee all the
things evil and adverse that were given thee before the beginning of the
world. . . . Wheresoever thou art in this child, O thou hurtful thing,
begone! leave it, put thyself apart; for now does it live anew, and anew is
it born; now again is it purified and cleansed; now again is it shaped and
engendered by our mother, the goddess of water." (Bancroft's "Native Races,"
vol. iii., p. 372.)
Here we find many resemblances to the Christian ordinance of baptism: the
pouring of the water on the head, the putting of the fingers in the mouth,
the touching of the breast, the new birth, and the washing away of the
original sin. The Christian rite, we know, was not a Christian invention,
but was borrowed from ancient times, from the great storehouse of Asiatic
traditions and beliefs.
The Mexicans hung up the heads of their sacrificed enemies; this was also a
Jewish custom:
"And the Lord said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people, and hang
them up before the Lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord
may be turned away from Israel. And Moses said unto the judges of Israel,
Slay ye every one his men that were joined unto Baal-peor." (Numb., xxv., 4,
5.)
The Scythians, Herodotus tells us, scalped their enemies, and carried the
scalp at the pommel of their saddles; the Jews probably scalped their
enemies:
"But God shall wound the head of his enemies, and the hairy scalp of such a
one as goeth on still in his trespasses." (Psa., lxviii., 21.)
The ancient Scandinavians practised scalping. When Harold Harefoot seized
his rival, Alfred, with six hundred followers, be "had them maimed, blinded,
hamstrung, scalped, or embowelled. (Taine's "Hist. Eng. Lit.," p. 35.)
Herodotus describes the Scythian mode of taking the scalp:
He makes a cut round the head near the ears, and shakes the skull out." This
is precisely the Indian custom. "The more scalps a man has," says Herodotus,
"the more highly he is esteemed among them."
The Indian scalp-lock is found on the Egyptian monuments as one of the
characteristics of the Japhetic Libyans, who shaved all the head except one
lock in the middle.
The Mantchoos of Tartary wear a scalp-lock, as do the modern Chinese.
Byron describes the heads of the dead Tartars under the walls of Corinth,
devoured by the wild dogs:
"Crimson and green were the shawls of their wear,
And each scalp had a single long tuft of hair,
All the rest was shaven and bare."
These resemblances are so striking and so numerous that repeated attempts
have been made to prove that the inhabitants of America are the descendants
of the Jews; some have claimed that they represented "the lost tribes" of
that people. But the Jews were never a maritime or emigrating people; they
formed no colonies; and it is impossible to believe (as has been asserted)
that they left their flocks and herds, marched across the whole face of
Asia, took ships and sailed across the greatest of the oceans to a continent
of the existence of which they had no knowledge.
If we seek the origin of these extraordinary coincidences in opinions and
habits, we must go far back of the time of the lost tribes. We must seek it
in the relationship of the Jews to the family of Noah, and in the identity
of the Noachic race destroyed in the Deluge with the people of the drowned
Atlantis.
Nor need it surprise us to find traditions perpetuated for thousands upon
thousands of years, especially among a people having a religious priesthood.
The essence of religion is conservatism; little is invented; nothing
perishes; change comes from without; and even when one religion is
supplanted by another its gods live on as the demons of the new faith, or
they pass into the folk-lore and fairy stories of the people. We see Votan,
a hero in America, become the god Odin or Woden in Scandinavia; and when his
worship as a god dies out Odin survives (as Dr. Dasent has proved) in the
Wild Huntsman of the Hartz, and in the Robin Hood (Oodin) of popular legend.
The Hellequin of France becomes the Harlequin of our pantomimes. William
Tell never existed; he is a myth; a survival of the sun-god Apollo, Indra,
who was worshipped on the altars of Atlantis.
Nothing here but it doth change into something rich and strange."
The rite of circumcision dates back to the first days of Phnicia, Egypt,
and the Cushites. It, too, was probably an Atlantean custom, invented in the
Stone Age. Tens of thousands of years have passed since the Stone Age; the
ages of copper, bronze, and iron bare intervened; and yet to this day the
Hebrew rabbi performs the ceremony of circumcision with a stone knife.
Frothingham says, speaking of St. Peter's Cathedral, in Rome:
"Into what depths of antiquity the ceremonies carried me back! To the
mysteries of Eleusis; to the sacrificial rites of Phnicia. The boys swung
the censors as censors had been swung in the adoration of Bacchus. The
girdle and cassock of the priests came from Persia; the veil and tonsure
were from Egypt; the alb and chasuble were prescribed by Numa Pompilius; the
stole was borrowed from the official who used to throw it on the back of the
victim that was to be sacrificed; the white surplice was the same as
described by Juvenal and Ovid."
Although it is evident that many thousands of years must have passed since
the men who wrote in Sanscrit, in Northwestern India, could have dwelt in
Europe, yet to this day they preserve among their ancient books maps and
descriptions of the western coast of Europe, and even of England and
Ireland; and we find among them a fuller knowledge of the vexed question of
the sources of the Nile than was possessed by any nation in the world
twenty-five years ago.
This perpetuation of forms and beliefs is illustrated in the fact that the
formulas used in the Middle Ages in Europe to exorcise evil spirits were
Assyrian words, imported probably thousands of years before from the
magicians of Chaldea. When the European conjurer cried out to the demon,
"Hilka, hilka, besha, besha," he had no idea that he was repeating the very
words of a people who had perished ages before, and that they signified Go
away, go away, evil one, evil one. (Lenormant, "Anc. Hist. East," vol. i.,
p. 448.)
Our circle of 360 degrees; the division of a chord of the circle equal to
the radius into 60 equal parts, called degrees: the division of these into
60 minutes, of the minute into 60 seconds, and the second into 60 thirds;
the division of the day into 24 hours, each hour into 60 minutes, each
minute into 60 seconds; the division of the week into seven days, and the
very order of the days--all have come down to us from the Chaldeo-Assyrians;
and these things will probably be perpetuated among our posterity "to the
last syllable of recorded time."
We need not be surprised, therefore, to find the same legends and beliefs
cropping out among the nations of Central America and the people of Israel.
Nay, it should teach us to regard the Book of Genesis with increased
veneration, as a relic dating from the most ancient days of man's history on
earth; its roots cross the great ocean; every line is valuable; a word, a
letter, an accent may throw light upon the gravest problems of the birth of
civilization.
The vital conviction which, during thousands of years, at all times pressed
home upon the Israelites, was that they were a "chosen people," selected out
of all the multitude of the earth, to perpetuate the great truth that there
was but one God--an illimitable, omnipotent, paternal spirit, who rewarded
the good and punished the wicked--in contradistinction from the
multifarious, subordinate, animal and bestial demi-gods of the other nations
of the earth. This sublime monotheism could only have been the outgrowth of
a high civilization, for man's first religion is necessarily a worship of
"stocks and stones," and history teaches us that the gods decrease in number
as man increases in intelligence. It was probably in Atlantis that
monotheism was first preached. The proverbs of "Ptah-hotep," the oldest book
of the Egyptians, show that this most ancient colony from Atlantis received
the pure faith from the mother-land at the very dawn of history: this book
preached the doctrine of one God, "the rewarder of the good and the punisher
of the wicked." (Reginald S. Poole, Contemporary Rev., Aug., 1881, p. 38.)
"In the early days the Egyptians worshipped one only God, the maker of all
things, without beginning and without end. To the last the priests preserved
this doctrine and taught it privately to a select few." ("Amer. Encycl.,"
vol. vi., p. 463.) The Jews took up this great truth where the Egyptians
dropped it, and over the beads and over the ruins of Egypt, Chaldea,
Phnicia, Greece, Rome, and India this handful of poor shepherds--ignorant,
debased, and despised--have carried down to our own times a conception which
could only have originated in the highest possible state of human society.
And even skepticism must pause before the miracle of the continued existence
of this strange people, wading through the ages, bearing on their shoulders
the burden of their great trust, and pressing forward under the force of a
perpetual and irresistible impulse. The speech that may be heard to-day in
the synagogues of Chicago and Melbourne resounded two thousand years ago in
the streets of Rome; and, at a still earlier period, it could be heard in
the palaces of Babylon and the shops of Thebes--in Tyre, in Sidon, in Gades,
in Palmyra, in Nineveh. How many nations have perished, how many languages
have ceased to exist, how many splendid civilizations have crumbled into
ruin, bow many temples and towers and towns have gone down to dust since the
sublime frenzy of monotheism first seized this extraordinary people! All
their kindred nomadic tribes are gone; their land of promise is in the hands
of strangers; but Judaism, with its offspring, Christianity, is taking
possession of the habitable world; and the continuous life of one people--
one poor, obscure, and wretched people--spans the tremendous gulf between
"Ptah-hotep" and this nineteenth century.
CHAPTER VII.
THE ORIGIN OF OUR ALPHABET
ONE of the most marvellous inventions for the advancement of mankind is the
phonetic alphabet, or a system of signs representing the sounds of human
speech. Without it our present civilization could scarcely have been
possible.
No solution of the origin of our European alphabet has. yet been obtained:
we can trace it back from nation to nation, and form to form, until we reach
the Egyptians, and the archaic forms of the Phnicians, Hebrews, and
Cushites, but. beyond this the light fails us.
The Egyptians spoke of their hieroglyphic system of writing not as their own
invention, but as "the language of the gods." (Lenormant and Cheval, "Anc.
Hist. of the East," vol. ii., p. 208.) "The gods" were, doubtless, their
highly civilized ancestors--the people of Atlantis--who, as we shall
hereafter see, became the gods of many of the Mediterranean races.
"According to the Phnicians, the art of writing was invented by Taautus, or
Taut, 'whom the Egyptians call Thouth,' and the Egyptians said it was
invented by Thouth, or Thoth, otherwise called 'the first Hermes,' in which
we clearly see that both the Phnicians and Egyptians referred the invention
to a period older than their own separate political existence, and to an
older nation, from which both peoples received it." (Baldwin's "Prehistoric
Nations," p. 91.)
The "first Hermes," here referred to (afterward called Mercury by the
Romans), was a son of Zeus and Maia, a daughter of Atlas. This is the same
Maia whom the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg identifies with the Maya of Central
America.
Sir William Drummond, in his "Origines," said:
"There seems to be no way of accounting either for the early use of letters
among so many different nations, or for the resemblance which existed
between some of the graphic systems employed by those nations, than by
supposing hieroglyphical writing, if I may be allowed the term, to have been
in use among the Tsabaists in the first ages after the Flood, when Tsabaisin
(planet-worship) was the religion of almost every country that was yet
inhabited."
Sir Henry Rawlinson says:
"So great is the analogy between the first principles of the Science of
writing, as it appears to have been pursued in Chaldea, and as we can
actually trace its progress in Egypt, that we can hardly hesitate to assign
the original invention to a period before the Hamitic race had broken up and
divided."
It is not to be believed that such an extraordinary system of sound-signs
could have been the invention of any one man or even of any one age. Like
all our other acquisitions, it must have been the slow growth and accretion
of ages; it must have risen step by step from picture-writing through an
intermediate condition like that of the Chinese, where each word or thing
was represented by a separate sign. The fact that so old and enlightened a
people as the Chinese have never reached a phonetic alphabet, gives us some
indication of the greatness of the people among whom it was invented, and
the lapse of time before they attained to it.
Humboldt says:
"According to the views which, since Champollion's great discovery, have
been gradually adopted regarding the earlier condition of the development of
alphabetical writing, the Phnician as well as the Semitic characters are to
be regarded as a phonetic alphabet that has originated from pictorial
writing; as one in which the ideal signification of the symbols is wholly
disregarded, and the characters are regarded as mere signs for sounds."
("Cosmos," vol. ii., p. 129.)
Baldwin says (" Prehistoric Nations," p. 93):
"The nation that became mistress of the seas, established communication with
every shore, and monopolized the commerce of the known world, must have
substituted a phonetic alphabet for the hieroglyphics as it gradually grew
to this eminence; while isolated Egypt, less affected by the practical wants
and tendencies of commercial enterprise, retained the hieroglyphic system,
and carried it to a marvellous height of perfection."
It must be remembered that some of the letters of our alphabet are
inventions of the later nations. In the oldest alphabets there was no c, the
g taking its place. The Romans converted the g into c; and then, finding the
necessity for a g Sign, made one by adding a tail-piece to the c (C, G). The
Greeks added to the ancient alphabet the upsilon, shaped like our V or Y,
the two forms being used at first indifferently: they added the X sign; they
converted the t of the Phnicians into th, or theta; z and s into signs for
double consonants; they turned the Phnician y (yod) into i (iota). The
Greeks converted the Phnician alphabet, which was partly consonantal, into
one purely phonetic--"a perfect instrument for the expression of spoken
language." The w was also added to the Phnician alphabet. The Romans added
the y. At first i and j were both indicated by the same sound; a sign for j
was afterward added. We have also, in common with other European languages,
added a double U, that is, VV, or W, to represent the w sound.
The letters, then, which we owe to the Phnicians, are A, B, C, D, E, H, 1,
K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, Z. If we are to trace out resemblances with
the alphabet of any other country, it must be with these signs.
Is there any other country to which we can turn which possessed a phonetic
alphabet in any respect kindred to this Phnician alphabet? It cannot be the
Chinese alphabet, which has more signs than words; it cannot be the
cuneiform alphabet of Assyria, with its seven hundred arrow-shaped
characters, none of which bear the slightest affinity to the Phnician
letters.
It is a surprising fact that we find in Central America a phonetic alphabet.
This is in the alphabet of the Mayas, the ancient people of the peninsula of
Yucatan, who claim that their civilization came to them across the sea in
ships from the east, that is, from the direction of Atlantis. The Mayas
succeeded to the Colhuas, whose era terminated one thousand years before the
time of Christ; from them they received their alphabet. It has come to us
through Bishop Landa, one of the early missionary bishops, who confesses to
having burnt a great number of Maya books because they contained nothing but
the works of the devil. He fortunately, however, preserved for posterity the
alphabet of this people. We present it herewith.
(image not included)
Diego de Landa was the first bishop of Yucatan. He wrote a history of the
Mayas and their country, which was preserved in manuscript at Madrid in the
library of the Royal Academy of History. . . . It contains a description and
explanation of the phonetic alphabet of the Mayas. Landa's manuscript seems
to have lain neglected in the library, for little or nothing was heard of it
until it was discovered by the French priest Brasseur de Bourbourg, who, by
means of it, has deciphered some of the old American writings. he says, 'the
alphabet and signs explained by Landa have been to me a Rosetta stone.'"
(Baldwin's "Ancient America," p. 191.)
When we observe, in the table of alphabets of different European nations
which I give herewith, how greatly the forms of the Phnician letters have
been modified, it would surprise us to find any resemblance between the Maya
alphabet of two or three centuries since and the ancient European forms. It
must, however, be remembered that the Mayas are one of the most conservative
peoples in the world. They still adhere with striking pertinacity to the
language they spoke when Columbus landed on San Salvador; and it is believed
that that language is the same as the one inscribed on the most ancient
monuments of their country. Señor Pimental says of them, "The Indians have
preserved this idiom with such tenacity that they will speak no other; it is
necessary for the whites to address them in their own language to
communicate with them." It is therefore probable, as their alphabet did not
pass from nation to nation, as did the Phnician, that it has not departed
so widely from the original forms received from the Colhuas.
(image not included)
But when we consider the vast extent of time which has elapsed, and the fact
that we are probably without the intermediate stages of the alphabet which
preceded the archaic Phnician, it will be astonishing if we find
resemblances between any of the Maya letters and the European forms, even
though we concede that they are related. If we find decided affinities
between two or three letters, we may reasonably presume that similar
coincidences existed as to many others which have disappeared under the
attrition of centuries.
The first thought that occurs to us on examining the Landa alphabet is the
complex and ornate character of the letters. Instead of the two or three
strokes with which we indicate a sign for a sound, we have here rude
pictures of objects. And we find that these are themselves simplifications
of older forms of a still more complex character. Take, for instance, the
letter pp in Landa's alphabet, ###: here are evidently the traces of a face.
The same appear, but not so plainly, in the sign for x, which is ###. Now,
if we turn to the ancient hieroglyphics upon the monuments of Central
America, we will find the human face appearing in a great many of them, as
in the following, which we copy from the Tablet of the Cross at Palenque. We
take the hieroglyphs from the left-hand side of the inscription. Here it
will be seen that, out of seven hieroglyphical figures, six contain human
faces. And we find that in the whole inscription of the Tablet of the Cross
there are 33 figures out of 108 that are made up in part of the human
countenance.
We can see, therefore, in the Landa alphabet a tendency to simplification.
And this is what we would naturally expect. When the emblems--which were
probably first intended for religious inscriptions, where they could be
slowly and carefully elaborated--were placed in the bands of a busy, active,
commercial people, such as were the Atlanteans, and afterward the
Phnicians, men with whom time was valuable, the natural tendency would be
to simplify and condense them; and when the original meaning of the picture
was lost, they would naturally slur it, as we find in the letters pp and x
of the Maya alphabet, where the figure of the human face remains only in
rude lines.
The same tendency is plainly shown in the two forms of the letter h, as
given in Landa's alphabet; the original form is more elaborate than the
variation of it. The original form is ### The variation is given as ###. Now
let us suppose this simplification to be carried a step farther: we have
seen the upper and lower parts of the first form shrink into a smaller and
less elaborate shape; let us imagine that the same tendency does away with
them altogether; we would then have the letter ### of the Maya alphabet
represented by this figure, now, as it takes less time to make a single
stroke than a double one, this would become in time ###. We turn now to the
archaic Greek and the old Hebrew, and we find the letter h indicated by this
sign, ###, precisely the Maya letter h simplified. We turn to the archaic
Hebrew, and we find ###. Now it is known that the Phnicians wrote from
right to left, and just as we in writing from left to right slope our
letters to the right, so did the Phnicians slope their letters to the left.
Hence the Maya sign becomes in the archaic Phnician this, ###. In some of
the Phnician alphabets we even find the letter h made with the double
strokes above and below, as in the Maya h. The Egyptian hieroglyph for h is
### while ch is ###. In time the Greeks carried the work of simplification
still farther, and eliminated the top lines, as we have supposed the
Atlanteans to have eliminated the double strokes, and they left the letter
as it has come down to us, H.
Now it may be said that all this is coincidence. If it is, it is certainly
remarkable. But let us go a step farther:
We have seen in Landa's alphabet that there are two forms of the letter m.
The first is ###. But we find also an m combined with the letter o, a, or e,
says Landa, in this form, ###. The m here is certainly indicated by the
central part of this combination, the figure ###; where does that come from?
It is clearly taken from the heart of the original figure wherein it
appears. What does this prove? That the Atlanteans, or Mayas, when they
sought to simplify their letters and combine them with others, took from the
centre of the ornate hieroglyphical figure some characteristic mark with
which they represented the whole figure. Now let us apply this rule:
We have seen in the table of alphabets that in every language, from our own
day to the time of the Phnicians, o has been represented by a circle or a
circle within a circle. Now where did the Phnicians get it? Clearly from
the Mayas. There are two figures for o in the Maya alphabet; they are ###
and ###; now, if we apply the rule which we have seen to exist in the case
of the Maya m to these figures, the essential characteristic found in each
is the circle, in the first case pendant from the hieroglyph; in the other,
in the centre of the lower part of it. And that this circle was withdrawn
from the hieroglyph, and used alone, as in the case of the m, is proved by
the very sign used at the foot of Landa's alphabet, which is, ### Landa
calls this ma, me, or mo; it is probably the latter, and in it we have the
circle detached from the hieroglyph.
We find the precise Maya o a circle in a circle, or a dot within a circle,
repeated in the Phnician forms for o, thus, ### and ###, and by exactly the
same forms in the Egyptian hieroglyphics; in the Runic we have the circle in
the circle; in one form of the Greek o the dot was placed along-side of the
circle instead of below it, as in the Maya.
Are these another set of coincidences?
Take another letter:
The letter n of the Maya alphabet is represented by this sign, itself
probably a simplification of some more ornate form, ###. This is something
like our letter S, but quite unlike our N. But let us examine into the
pedigree of our n. We find in the archaic Ethiopian, a language as old as
the Egyptian, and which represents the Cushite branch of the Atlantean
stock, the sign for n (na) is ###; in archaic Phnician it comes still
closer to the S shape, thus, ###, or in this form, ##; we have but to curve
these angles to approximate it very closely to the Maya n; in Troy this form
was found, ###. The Samaritan makes it the old Hebrew ###; the Moab stone
inscription gives it the later Phnicians simplified the archaic form still
further, until it became ###; then it passed into ###: the archaic Greek
form is ###; the later Greeks made ###, from which it passed into the
present form, N. All these forms seem to be representations of a serpent; we
turn to the valley of the Nile, and we find that the Egyptian hieroglyphic
for n was the serpent, ###; the Pelasgian n was ###; the Arcadian, ###; the
Etruscan, ###.
Can anything be more significant than to find the serpent the sign for n in
Central America, and in all these Old World languages?
Now turn to the letter k. The Maya sign for k is ###. This does not look
much like our letter K; but let us examine it. Following the precedent
established for us by the Mayas in the case of the letter m, let us see what
is the distinguishing feature here; it is clearly the figure of a serpent
standing erect, with its tail doubled around its middle, forming a circle.
It has already been remarked by Savolini that this erect serpent is very
much like the Egyptian Uræus, an erect serpent with an enlarged body--a
sacred emblem found in the hair of their deities. We turn again to the
valley of the Nile, and we find that the Egyptian hieroglyphic for k was a
serpent with a convolution or protuberance in the middle, precisely as in
the Maya, thus, ###; this was transformed into the Egyptian letter ###; the
serpent and the protuberance reappear in one of the Phnician forms of k, to
wit, ###; while in the Punic we have these forms, ### and ###. Now suppose a
busy people trying to give this sign: instead of drawing the serpent in all
its details they would abbreviate it into something like this, ###; now we
turn to the ancient Ethiopian sign for k (ka), and we have ###, or the
Himyaritic Arabian ###; while in the Phnician it becomes ###; in the
archaic Greek, ###; and in the later Greek, when they changed the writing
from left to right, ###. So that the two lines projecting from the upright
stroke of our English K are a reminiscence of the convolution of the serpent
in the Maya original and the Egyptian copy.
Turn now to the Maya sign for t: it is ###, . What is the distinctive mark
about this figure? It is the cross composed of two curved lines, thus, ###.
It is probable that in the Maya sign the cross is united at the bottom, like
a figure 8. Here again we turn to the valley of the Nile, and we find that
the Egyptian hieroglyph for t is ### and ###; and in the Syriac t it is ###.
We even find the curved lines of the Maya t which give it something of the
appearance of the numeral 8, repeated accurately in the Mediterranean
alphabets; thus the Punic t repeats the Maya form almost exactly as ### and
###. Now suppose a busy people compelled to make this mark every day for a
thousand years, and generally in a hurry, and the cross would soon be made
without curving the lines; it would become XXX. But before it reached even
that simplified form it had crossed the Atlantic, and appeared in the
archaic Ethiopian sign for tsa, thus, ###. In the archaic Phnician the sign
for ### is ### and ###; the oldest Greek form is ### or ### and the later
Greeks gave it to the Romans ###, and modified this into ###; the old Hebrew
gave it as ### and ###; the Moab stone as ###; this became in time ### and
###.
Take the letter a. In the Maya there are three forms given for this letter.
The first is ###; the third is ###. The first looks very much like the foot
of a lion or tiger; the third is plainly a foot or boot. If one were
required to give hurriedly a rude outline of either of these, would he not
represent it thus, ###; and can we not conceive that this could have been in
time modified into the Phnician a, which was ###? The hieratic Egyptian a
was ###; the ancient Hebrew, which was ### or ###; the ancient Greek was the
foot reversed, ###; the later Greek became our A.
Turn next to the Maya sign for q (ku): it is ###. Now what is the
peculiarity of this hieroglyph? The circle below is not significant, for
there are many circular figures in the Maya alphabet. Clearly, if one was
called upon to simplify this, he would retain the two small circles joined
side by side at the top, and would indicate the lower circle with a line or
dash. And when we turn to the Egyptian q we find it in this shape, ###; we
turn to the Ethiopian q (khua), and we find it ###, as qua, ###; while the
Phnician comes still nearer the supposed Maya form in ###; the Moab stone
was ###; the Himyaritic Arabian form became ###; the Greek form was ###,
which graduated into the Roman Q. But a still more striking proof of the
descent of the Phnician alphabet from the Maya is found in the other form
of the q, the Maya cu, which is ###. Now, if we apply the Maya rule to this,
and discard the outside circle, we have this left, ###. In time the curved
line would be made straight, and the figure would assume this form, ###; the
next step would be to make the cross on the straight line, thus, ###. One of
the ancient Phnician forms is ###. Can all this be accident?
The letter c or g (for the two probably gave the same sound as in the
Phnician) is given in the Maya alphabet as follows, ###. This would in time
be simplified into a figure representing the two sides of a triangle with
the apex upward, thus, ###. This is precisely the form found by Dr.
Schliemann in the ruins of Troy, ###. What is the Phnician form for ###, as
found on the Moab stone? It is ###. The Carthaginian Phnicians gave it more
of a rounded form, thus, ###. The hieratic Egyptian figure for g was ###; in
the earlier Greek form the left limb of the figure was shortened, thus, ###;
the later Greeks reversed it, and wrote it ###; the Romans, changed this
into ### and it finally became C.
In the Maya we have one sign for p, and another for pp. The first contains a
curious figure, precisely like our r laid on its back ###, There is,
apparently, no r in the Maya alphabet; and the Roman r grew out of the later
Phnician r formed thus, ###; it would appear that the earliest Phnician
alphabet did not contain the letter r. But if we now turn to the Phnician
alphabet, we will find one of the curious forms of the p given thus, ###, a
very fair representation of an r lying upon its face. Is it not another
remarkable coincidence that the p, in both Maya and Phnician, should
contain this singular sign?
The form of pp in the Maya alphabet is this, If we are asked, on the
principle already indicated, to reduce this to its elements, we would use a
figure like this, ###; in time the tendency would be to shorten one of these
perpendicular lines, thus, and this we find is very much like the Phnician
p, ###. The Greek ph is ###.
The letter l in the Maya is in two forms; one of these is ###, the other is
###. Now, if we again apply the rule which we observed to hold good with the
letter m--that is, draw from the inside of the hieroglyph some symbol that
will briefly indicate the whole letter--we will have one of two forms,
either a right-angled figure formed thus, ###, or an acute angle formed by
joining the two lines which are unconnected, thus, ###; and either of these
forms brings us quite close to the letter l of the Old World. We find l on
the Moab stone thus formed, ###. The archaic Phnician form of l was ###, or
###; the archaic Hebrew was ### and ###; the hieratic Egyptian was ###; the
Greek form was ###--the Roman L.
The Maya letter b is shaped thus, ###. Now, if we turn to the Phnician, we
find that b is represented by the same crescent-like figure which we find in
the middle of this hieroglyph, but reversed in the direction of the writing,
thus, ###; while in the archaic Hebrew we have the same crescent figure as
in the Maya, turned in the same direction, but accompanied by a line drawn
downward, and to the left, thus, ###; a similar form is also found in the
Phnician ###, and this in the earliest Greek changed into ###, and in the
later Greek into B. One of the Etruscan signs for b was ###, while the
Pelasgian b was represented thus, ###; the Chaldaic b was ###; the Syriac
sign for b was ###; the Illyrian b was ###.
The Maya e is ###; this became in time ###; then ### (we see this form on
the Maya monuments); the dots in time were indicated by strokes, and we
reach the hieratic Egyptian form, ###: we even find in some of the ancient
Phnician inscriptions the original Maya circles preserved in making the
letter e, thus, ###; then we find the old Greek form, ###; the old Hebrew,
###; and the later Phnician, ###: when the direction of the writing was
changed this became ###. Dr. Schliemann found a form like this on
inscriptions deep in the ruins of Troy, ###. This is exactly the form found
on the American monuments.
The Maya i is ###; this became in time ###; this developed into a still
simpler form, ###; and this passed into the Phnician form, ###. The
Samaritan i was formed thus, ###; the Egyptian letter i is ###: gradually in
all these the left-hand line was dropped, and we come to the figure used on
the stone of Moab, ### and ###; this in time became the old Hebrew ###, or
###; and this developed into the Greek ###.
We have seen the complicated symbol for m reduced by the Mayas themselves
into this figure, ###: if we attempt to write this rapidly, we find it very
difficult to always keep the base lines horizontal; naturally we form
something like this, ###: the distinctive figure within the sign for m in
the Maya is ### or ###. We see this repeated in the Egyptian hieroglyphics
for m, ###, and ###, and in the Chaldaic m, ###; and in the Ethiopic ###. We
find one form of the Phnician where the m is made thus, ###; and in the
Punic it appears thus, ###; and this is not unlike the m on the stone of
Moab, ###, or the ancient Phnician forms, and the old Greek ###, or the
ancient Hebrew ###, ###.
The ###, x, of the Maya alphabet is a hand pointing downward ###, this,
reduced to its elements, would be expressed some thing like this, ### or
###; and this is very much like the x of the archaic Phnician, ###; or the
Moab stone, ###; or the later Phnician ### or the Hebrew ###, ###, or the
old Greek, ###: the later Greek form was ###.
The Maya alphabet contains no sign for the letter s; there is, however, a
symbol called ca immediately above the letter k; it is probable that the
sign ca stands for the soft sound of c, as, in our words citron, circle,
civil, circus, etc. As it is written in the Maya alphabet ca, and not k, it
evidently represents a different sound. The sign ca is this, ###. A somewhat
similar sign is found in the body of the symbol for k, thus, ###, this would
appear to be a simplification of ca, but turned downward. If now we turn to
the Egyptian letters we find the sign k represented by this figure ###,
simplified again into ###; while the sign for k in the Phnician inscription
on the stone of Moab is ###. If now we turn to the s sound, indicated by the
Maya sign ca, ###, we find the resemblance still more striking to kindred
European letters. The Phnician s is ### ### ###; in the Greek this becomes
### ###; the Hebrew is ### ###; the Samaritan, ###. The Egyptian hieroglyph
for s is ###; the Egyptian letter s is ###; the Ethiopic, ###; the Chaldaic,
###; and the Illyrian s c is ###.
We have thus traced back the forms of eighteen of the ancient letters to the
Maya alphabet. In some cases the pedigree, is so plain as to be
indisputable.
For instance, take the h:
Maya, ###; old Greek, ###; old Hebrew, ###; Phnician, ###.
Or take the letter o:
Maya, ###; old Greek, ###; old Hebrew, ###; Phnician, ###.
Or take the letter t:
Maya, ###; old Greek, ###; old Phnician, ### and ###.
Or take the letter q:
Maya, ###; old Phnician, ### and ###; Greek, ###.
Or take the letter k:
Maya, ###; Egyptian, ###; Ethiopian, ###; Phnician, ###.
Or take the letter n:
Maya, ###; Egyptian, ###; Pelasgian ###, Arcadian, ###; Phnician, ###.
Surely all this cannot be accident!
But we find another singular proof of the truth of this theory: It will be
seen that the Maya alphabet lacks the letter d and the letter r. The Mexican
alphabet possessed a d. The sounds d and t were probably indicated in the
Maya tongue by the same sign, called t in the Landa alphabet. The Finns and
Lapps do not distinguish between these two sounds. In the oldest known form
of the Phnician alphabet, that found on the Moab stone, we find in the same
way but one sign to express the d and t. D does not occur on the Etruscan
monuments, t being used in its place. It would, therefore, appear that after
the Maya alphabet passed to the Phnicians they added two new signs for the
letters d and r; and it is a singular fact that their poverty of invention
seems to have been such that they used to express both d and r, the same
sign, with very little modification, which they had already obtained from
the Maya alphabet as the symbol for b. To illustrate this we place the signs
side by side:
(image not included)
table comparing the Phnician, Old Greek and Old Hebrew b, d and r.
It thus appears that the very signs d and r, in the Phnician, early Greek,
and ancient Hebrew, which are lacking in the Maya, were supplied by
imitating the Maya sign for b; and it is a curious fact that while the
Phnician legends claim that Taaut invented the art of writing, yet they
tell us that Taaut made records, and "delivered them to his successors and
to foreigners, of whom one was Isiris (Osiris, the Egyptian god), the
inventor of the three letters." Did these three letters include the d and r,
which they did not receive from the Atlantean alphabet, as represented to us
by the Maya alphabet?
In the alphabetical table which we herewith append we have represented the
sign V, or vau, or f, by the Maya sign for U. "In the present so-called
Hebrew, as in the Syriac, Sabæic, Palmyrenic, and some other kindred
writings, the vau takes the place of F, and indicates the sounds of v and u.
F occurs in the same place also on the Idalian tablet of Cyprus, in Lycian,
also in Tuarik (Berber), and some other writings." ("American Cyclopædia,"
art. F.)
Since writing the above, I find in the "Proceedings of the American
Philosophical Society" for December, 1880, p. 154, an interesting article
pointing out other resemblances between the Maya alphabet and the Egyptian.
I quote:
It is astonishing to notice that while Landa's first B is, according to
Valentini, represented by a footprint, and that path and footprint are
pronounced Be in the Maya dictionary, the Egyptian sign for B was the human
leg.
"Still more surprising is it that the H of Landa's alphabet is a tie of
cord, while the Egyptian H is a twisted cord. . . . But the most striking
coincidence of all occurs in the coiled or curled line representing Landa's
U; for it is absolutely identical with the Egyptian curled U. The Mayan word
for to wind or bend is Uuc; but why should Egyptians, confined as they were
to the valley of the Nile, and abhorring as they did the sea and sailors,
write their U precisely like Landa's alphabet U in Central America? There is
one other remarkable coincidence between Landa's and the Egyptian alphabets;
and, by-the-way, the English and other Teutonic dialects have a curious
share in it. Landa's D (T) is a disk with lines inside the four quarters,
the allowed Mexican symbol for a day or sun. So far as sound is concerned,
the English day represents it; so far as the form is concerned, the Egyptian
'cake,' ideograph for (1) country and (2) the sun's orbit is essentially the
same."
It would appear as if both the Phnicians and Egyptians drew their alphabet
from a common source, of which the Maya is a survival, but did not borrow
from one another. They followed out different characteristics in the same
original hieroglyph, as, for instance, in the letter b. And yet I have shown
that the closest resemblances exist between the Maya alphabet and the
Egyptian signs--in the c, h, t, i, k, m, n, o, q, and s--eleven letters in
all; in some cases, as in the n and k, the signs are identical; the k, in
both alphabets, is not only a serpent, but a serpent with a protuberance or
convolution in the middle! If we add to the above the b and u, referred to
in the "Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society," we have thirteen
letters out of sixteen in the Maya and Egyptian related to each other. Can
any theory of accidental coincidences account for all this? And it must be
remembered that these resemblances are found between the only two phonetic
systems of alphabet in the world.
Let us suppose that two men agree that each shall construct apart from the
other a phonetic alphabet of sixteen letters; that they shall employ only
simple forms--combinations of straight or curved lines--and that their signs
shall not in anywise resemble the letters now in use. They go to work apart;
they have a multitudinous array of forms to draw from the thousand possible
combinations of lines, angles, circles, and curves; when they have finished,
they bring their alphabets together for comparison. Under such circumstances
it is possible that out of the sixteen signs one sign might appear in both
alphabets; there is one chance in one hundred that such might be the case;
but there is not one chance in five hundred that this sign should in both
cases represent the same sound. It is barely possible that two men working
thus apart should bit upon two or three identical forms, but altogether
impossible that these forms should have the same significance; and by no
stretch of the imagination can it be supposed that in these alphabets so
created, without correspondence, thirteen out of sixteen signs should be the
same in form and the same in meaning.
It is probable that a full study of the Central American monuments may throw
stronger light upon the connection between the Maya and the European
alphabets, and that further discoveries of inscriptions in Europe may
approximate the alphabets of the New and Old World still more closely by
supplying intermediate forms.
We find in the American hieroglyphs peculiar signs which take the place of
pictures, and which probably, like the hieratic symbols mingled with the
hieroglyphics of Egypt, represent alphabetical sounds. For instance, we find
this sign on the walls of the palace of Palenque, ###; this is not unlike
the form of the Phnician t used in writing, ### and ###; we find also upon
these monuments the letter o represented by a small circle, and entering
into many of the hieroglyphs; we also find the tau sign (thus ###) often
repeated; also the sign which we have supposed to represent b, ###; also
this sign, ###, which we think is the simplification of the letter k; also
this sign, which we suppose to represent e, ###; also this figure, ###; and
this ###. There is an evident tendency to reduce the complex figures to
simple signs whenever the writers proceed to form words.
Although it has so far been found difficult, if not impossible, to translate
the compound words formed from the Maya alphabet, yet we can go far enough
to see that they used the system of simpler sounds for the whole hieroglyph
to which we have referred.
Bishop Landa gives us, in addition to the alphabet, the signs which
represent the days and months, and which are evidently compounds of the Maya
letters. For instance, we have this figure as the representative of the
month Mol ###. Here we see very plainly the letter ### for m, the sign ###
for o; and we will possibly find the sign for l in the right angle to the
right of the m sign, and which is derived from the figure in the second sign
for l in the Maya alphabet.
One of the most ancient races of Central America is the Chiapenec, a branch
of the Mayas. They claim to be the first settlers of the country. They came,
their legends tell us, from the East, from beyond the sea.
And even after the lapse of so many thousand years most remarkable
resemblances have been found to exist between the Chiapenec language and the
Hebrew, the living representative of the Phnician tongue.
The Mexican scholar, Señor Melgar ("North Americans of Antiquity," p. 475)
gives the following list of words taken from the Chiapenec and the Hebrew:
English.
Chiapenec.
Hebrew.
Son
Been
Ben.
Daughter
Batz
Bath.
Father
Abagh
Abba.
Star in Zodiac
Chimax
Chimah.
King
Molo
Maloc.
Name applied to Adam
Abagh
Abah.
Afflicted
Chanam
Chanan.
God
Elab
Elab.
September
Tsiquin
Tischiri.
More
Chic
Chi.
Rich
Chabin
Chabic.
Son of Seth
Enot
Enos.
To give
Votan
Votan.
Thus, while we find such extraordinary resemblances between the Maya
alphabet and the Phnician alphabet, we find equally surprising coincidences
between the Chiapenec tongue, a branch of the Mayas, and the Hebrew, a
branch of the Phnician.
Attempts have been repeatedly made by European scholars to trace the letters
of the Phnician alphabet back to the elaborate hieroglyphics from which all
authorities agree they must have been developed, but all such attempts have
been failures. But here, in the Maya alphabet, we are not only able to
extract from the heart of the hieroglyphic the typical sign for the sound,
but we are able to go a step farther, and, by means of the inscriptions upon
the monuments of Copan and Palenque, deduce the alphabetical hieroglyph
itself from an older and more ornate figure; we thus not Only discover the
relationship of the European alphabet to the American, but we trace its
descent in the very mode in which reason tells us it must have been
developed. All this proves that the similarities in question did not come
from Phnicians having accidentally visited the shores of America, but that
we have before us the origin, the source, the very matrix in which the
Phnician alphabet was formed. In the light of such a discovery the
inscriptions upon the monuments of Central America assume incalculable
importance; they take us back to a civilization far anterior to the oldest
known in Europe; they represent the language of antediluvian times.
It may be said that it is improbable that the use of an alphabet could have
ascended to antediluvian times, or to that prehistoric age when intercourse
existed between ancient Europe and America; but it must be remembered that
if the Flood legends of Europe and Asia are worth anything they prove that
the art of writing existed at the date of the Deluge, and that records of
antediluvian learning were preserved by those who escaped the Flood; while
Plato tells us that the people of Atlantis engraved their laws upon columns
of bronze and plates of gold.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE BRONZE AGE IN EUROPE.
THERE exist in Europe the evidences of three different ages of human
development:
1. The Stone Age, which dates back to a vast antiquity. It is subdivided
into two periods: an age of rough stone implements; and a later age, when
these implements were ground smooth and made in improved forms.
2. The Bronze Age, when the great mass of implements were manufactured of a
compound metal, consisting of about nine parts of copper and one part of
tin.
3. An age when iron superseded bronze for weapons and cutting tools,
although bronze still remained in use for ornaments. This age continued down
to what we call the Historical Period, and embraces our present
civilization; its more ancient remains are mixed with coins of the Gauls,
Greeks, and Romans.
The Bronze Period has been one of the perplexing problems of European
scientists. Articles of bronze are found over nearly all that continent, but
in especial abundance in Ireland and Scandinavia. They indicate very
considerable refinement and civilization upon the part of the people who
made them; and a wide diversity of opinion has prevailed as to who that
people were and where they dwelt.
In the first place, it was observed that the age of bronze (a compound of
copper and tin) must, in the natural order of things, have been preceded by
an age when copper and tin were used separately, before the ancient
metallurgists had discovered the art of combining them, and yet in Europe
the remains of no such age have been found. Sir John Lubbock says
("Prehistoric Times," p. 59), "The absence of implements made either of
copper or tin seems to me to indicate that the art of making bronze was
introduced into, not invented in, Europe." The absence of articles of copper
is especially marked, nearly all the European specimens of copper implements
have been found in Ireland; and yet out of twelve hundred and eighty-three
articles of the Bronze Age, in the great museum at Dublin, only thirty celts
and one sword-blade are said to be made of pure copper; and even as to some
of these there seems to be a question.
Where on the face of the earth are we to find a Copper Age? Is it in the
barbaric depths of that Asia out of whose uncivilized tribes all
civilization is said to have issued? By no means. Again we are compelled to
turn to the West. In America, from Bolivia to Lake Superior, we find
everywhere the traces of a long-enduring Copper Age; bronze existed, it is
true, in Mexico, but it held the same relation to the copper as the copper
held to the bronze in Europe--it was the exception as against the rule. And
among the Chippeways of the shores of Lake Superior, and among them alone,
we find any traditions of the origin of the manufacture of copper
implements; and on the shores of that lake we find pure copper, out of which
the first metal tools were probably hammered before man had learned to
reduce the ore or run the metal into moulds. And on the shores of this same
American lake we find the ancient mines from which some people, thousands of
years ago, derived their supplies of copper.
Sir W. R. Wilde says, "It is remarkable that so few antique copper
implements have been found (in Europe), although a knowledge of that metal
must have been the preliminary stage in the manufacture of bronze." He
thinks that this may be accounted for by supposing that "but a short time
elapsed between the knowledge of smelting and casting copper ore and the
introduction of tin, and the subsequent manufacture and use of bronze."
But here we have in America the evidence that thousands of years must have
elapsed during which copper was used alone, before it was discovered that by
adding one-tenth part of tin it gave a harder edge, and produced a superior
metal.
The Bronze Age cannot be attributed to the Roman civilization. Sir John
Lubbock shows ("Prehistoric Times," p. 21) that bronze weapons have never
been found associated with Roman coins or pottery, or other remains of the
Roman Period; that bronze articles have been found in the greatest abundance
in countries like Ireland and Denmark, which were never invaded by Roman
armies; and that the character of the ornamentation of the works of bronze
is not Roman in character, and that the Roman bronze contained a large
proportion of lead, which is never the case in that of the Bronze Age.
It has been customary to assume that the Bronze Age was due to the
Phnicians, but of late the highest authorities have taken issue with this
opinion. Sir John Lubbock (Ibid., p. 73) gives the following reasons why the
Phnicians could not have been the authors of the Bronze Age: First, the
ornamentation is different. In the Bronze Age "this always consists of
geometrical figures, and we rarely, if ever, find upon them representations
of animals and plants, while on the ornamented shields, etc., described by
Homer, as well as in the decoration of Solomon's Temple, animals and plants
were abundantly represented." The cuts on p. 242 will show the character of
the ornamentation of the Bronze Age. In the next place, the form of burial
is different in the Bronze Age from that of the Phnicians. "In the third
place, the Phnicians, so far as we know them, were well acquainted with the
use of iron; in Homer we find the warriors already armed with iron weapons,
and the tools used in preparing the materials for Solomon's Temple were of
this metal."
This view is also held by M. de Fallenberg, in the "Bulletin de la Société
des Sciences" of Berne. (See "Smithsonian Rep.," 1865-66, p. 383.) He says,
"It seems surprising that the nearest neighbors of the Phnicians--the
Greeks, the Egyptians, the Etruscans, and the Romans--should have
manufactured plumbiferous bronzes, while the Phnicians carried to the
people of the North only pure bronzes without the alloy of lead. If the
civilized people of the Mediterranean added lead to their bronzes, it can
scarcely be doubted that the calculating Phnicians would have done as much,
and, at least, with distant and half-civilized tribes, have replaced the
more costly tin by the cheaper metal. . . . On the whole, then, I consider
that the first knowledge of bronze may have been conveyed to the populations
of the period tinder review not only by the Phnicians, but by other
civilized people dwelling more to the south-east."
Professor E. Desor, in his work on the "Lacustrian Constructions of the Lake
of Neuchatel," says,
"The Phnicians certainly knew the use of iron, and it can scarcely be
conceived why they should have excluded it from their commerce on the
Scandinavian coasts. . . . The Etruscans, moreover, were acquainted with the
use of iron as well as the Phnicians, and it has already been seen that the
composition of their bronzes is different, since it contains lead, which is
entirely a stranger to our bronze epoch. . . . We must look, then, beyond
both the Etruscans and Phnicians in attempting to identify the commerce of
the Bronze Age of our palafittes. It will be the province of the historian
to inquire whether, exclusive of Phnicians and Carthaginians, there may not
have been some maritime and commercial people who carried on a traffic
through the ports of Liguria with the populations of the age of bronze of
the lakes of Italy before the discovery of iron. We may remark, in passing,
that there is nothing to prove that the Phnicians were the first
navigators. History, on the Contrary, positively mentions prisoners, under
the name of Tokhari, who were vanquished in a naval battle fought by Rhamses
III. in the thirteenth century before our era, and whose physiognomy,
according to Morton, would indicate the Celtic type. Now there is room to
suppose that if these Tokhari were energetic enough to measure their
strength on the sea with one of the powerful kings of Egypt, they must, with
stronger reason, have been in a condition to carry on a commerce along the
coasts of the Mediterranean, and perhaps of the Atlantic. If such a commerce
really existed before the time of the Phnicians, it would not be limited to
the southern slope of the Alps; it would have extended also to the people of
the age of bronze in Switzerland. The introduction of bronze would thus
ascend to a very high antiquity, doubtless beyond the limits of the most
ancient European races."
For the merchants of the Bronze Age we must look beyond even the Tokhari,
who were contemporaries of the Phnicians, The Tokhari, we have seen, are
represented as taken prisoners, in a sea-fight with Rhamses III., of the
twentieth dynasty, about the thirteenth century B.C. They are probably the
Tochari of Strabo. The accompanying figure represents one of these people as
they appear upon the Egyptian monuments. (See Nott and Gliddon's "Types of
Mankind," p. 108.) Here we have, not an inhabitant of Atlantis, but probably
a representative of one of the mixed races that sprung from its colonies.
Dr. Morton thinks these people, as painted on the Egyptian monuments, to
have "strong Celtic features. Those familiar with the Scotch Highlanders may
recognize a speaking likeness."
It is at least interesting to have a portrait of one of the daring race who
more than three thousand years ago left the west of Europe in their ships to
attack the mighty power of Egypt.
They were troublesome to the nations of the East for many centuries; for in
700 B.C. we find them depicted on the Assyrian monuments. This figure
represents one of the Tokhari of the time of Sennacherib. It will be
observed that the headdress (apparently of feathers) is the same in both
portraits, al, though separated by a period of six hundred years.
It is more reasonable to suppose that the authors of the bronze Age of
Europe were the people described by Plato, who were workers in metal, who
were highly civilized, who preceded in time all the nations which we call
ancient. It was this people who passed through an age of copper before they
reached the age of bronze, and whose colonies in America represented this
older form of metallurgy as it existed for many generations.
Professor Desor says:
"We are asked if the preparation of bronze was not an indigenous invention
which had originated on the slopes of the Alps? . . . In this idea we
acquiesced for a moment. But we are met by the objection that, if this were
so, the natives, like the ancient tribes of America, would have commenced by
manufacturing utensils of copper; yet thus far no utensils of this metal
have been found except a few in the strand of Lake Garda. The great majority
of metallic objects is of bronze, which necessitated the employment of tin,
and this could not be obtained except by commerce, inasmuch as it is a
stranger to the Alps. It would appear, therefore, more natural to admit that
the art of combining tin with copper--in other words, that the manufacture
of bronze--was of foreign importation." He then shows that, although copper
ores are found in the Alps, the probability is that even "the copper also
was of foreign importation. Now, in view of the prodigious quantity of
bronze manufactured at that epoch, this single branch of commerce must
itself have necessitated the most incessant commercial communications."
And as this commerce could not, as we have seen, have been carried on by the
Romans, Greeks, Etruscans, or Phnicians, because their civilizations
flourished during the Iron Age, to which this age of bronze was anterior,
where then are we to look for a great maritime and commercial people, who
carried vast quantities of copper, tin, and bronze (unalloyed by the lead of
the south of Europe) to Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Ireland, England, France,
Spain, Switzerland, and Italy? Where can we find them save in that people of
Atlantis, whose ships, docks, canals, and commerce provoked the astonishment
of the ancient Egyptians, as recorded by Plato. The Toltec root for water is
Atl; the Peruvian word for copper is Anti (from which, probably, the Andes
derived their name, as there was a province of Anti on their slopes): may it
not be that the name of Atlantis is derived from these originals, and
signified the copper island, or the copper mountains in the sea? And from
these came the thousands of tons of copper and tin that must, during the
Bronze Age, have been introduced into Europe? There are no ancient works to
indicate that the tin mines of Cornwall were worked for any length of time
in the early days (see "Prehistoric Times," p. 74). Morlot has pointed out
that the bronze implements of Hallstadt, in Austria, were of foreign origin,
because they contain no lead or silver.
Or, if we are to seek for the source of the vast amount of copper brought
into Europe somewhere else than in Atlantis, may it not be that these
supplies were drawn in large part from the shores of Lake Superior in
America? The mining operations of some ancient people were there carried on
upon a gigantic scale, not only along the shores of the lake but even far
out upon its islands. At Isle Royale vast works were found, reaching to a
depth of sixty feet; great intelligence was shown in following up the
richest veins even when interrupted; the excavations were drained by
underground drains. On three sections of land on this island the amount of
mining exceeded that mined in twenty years in one of our largest mines, with
a numerous force constantly employed. In one place the excavations extended
in a nearly continuous line for two miles. No remains of the dead and no
mounds are found near these mines: it would seem, therefore, that the miners
came from a distance, and carried their dead back with them. Henry Gillman
("Smithsonian Rep.," 1873, p. 387) supposes that the curious so-called
"Garden Beds" of Michigan were the fields from which they drew their
supplies of food. He adds,
"The discoveries in Isle Royale throw a new light on the character of the
'Mound Builders,' giving us a totally distinct conception of them, and
dignifying them with something of the prowess and spirit of adventure which
we associate with the higher races. The copper, the result of their mining,
to be available, must, in all probability, have been conveyed in vessels,
great or small, across a treacherous and stormy sea, whose dangers are
formidable to us now, being dreaded even by our largest craft, and often
proving their destruction. Leaving their homes, those men dared to face the
unknown, to brave the hardships and perils of the deep and of the
wilderness, actuated by an ambition which we to-day would not be ashamed to
acknowledge."
Such vast works in so remote a land must have been inspired by the
commercial necessities of some great civilization; and why not by that
ancient and mighty people who covered Europe, Asia, and Africa with their
manufactures of bronze-and who possessed, as Plato tells us, enormous fleets
trading to all parts of the inhabited world-whose cities roared with the
continual tumult of traffic, whose dominion extended to Italy and Egypt, and
who held parts of "the great opposite continent" of America under their
control? A continuous water-way led, from the island of Atlantis to the Gulf
of Mexico, and thence up the Mississippi River and its tributaries almost to
these very mines of Lake Superior.
Arthur Mitchell says ("The Past in the Present," p. 132),
"The discovery of bronze, and the knowledge of how to make it, may, as a
mere intellectual effort, be regarded as rather above than below the effort
which is involved in the discovery and use of iron. As regards bronze, there
is first the discovery of copper, and the way of getting it from its ore;
then the discovery of tin, and the way to get it from its ore; and then the
further discovery that, by an admixture of tin with copper in proper
proportions, an alloy with the qualities of a hard metal can be produced. It
is surely no mistake to say that there goes quite as much thinking to this
as to the getting of iron from its ore, and the conversion of that iron into
steel. There is a considerable leap from stone to bronze, but the leap from
bronze to iron is comparatively small. . . . It seems highly improbable, if
not altogether absurd, that the human mind, at some particular stage of its
development, should here, there, and everywhere--independently, and as the
result of reaching that stage--discover that an alloy of copper and tin
yields a hard metal useful in the manufacture of tools and weapons. There is
nothing analogous to such an occurrence in the known history of human
progress. It is infinitely more probable that bronze was discovered in one
or more centres by one or more men, and that its first use was solely in
such centre or centres. That the invention should then be perfected, and its
various applications found out, and that it should thereafter spread more or
less broadly over the face of the earth, is a thing easily understood."
We will find the knowledge of bronze wherever the colonies of Atlantis
extended, and nowhere else; and Plato tells us that the people of Atlantis
possessed and used that metal.
The indications are that the Bronze Age represents the coming in of a new
people--a civilized people. With that era, it is believed, appears in Europe
for the first time the domesticated animals-the horse, the ox, the sheep,
the goat, and the hog. (Morlot, "Smithsonian Rep.," 1860, p. 311.) It was a
small race, with very small hands; this is shown in the size of the sword-
hilts: they are not large enough to be used by the present races of Europe.
They were a race with long skulls, as contradistinguished. from the round
heads of the Stone Period. The drawings on the following page represent the
types of the two races.
This people must have sent out colonies to the shores of France, Spain,
Italy, Ireland, Denmark, and Norway, who bore with them the arts and
implements of civilized life. They raised crops of grain, as is proved by
the bronze sickles found in different parts of Europe.
It is not even certain that their explorations did not reach to Iceland.
Says Humboldt,
"When the Northmen first landed in Iceland (A.D. 875), although the country
was uninhabited, they found there Irish books, mass-bells, and other objects
which had been left behind by earlier visitors, called Papar; these papæ
(fathers) were the clerici of Dicuil. If, then, as we may suppose from the
testimony here referred to, these objects belonged to Irish monks (papar),
who had come from the Faroe Islands, why should they have been termed in the
native sagas 'West men' (Vestmen), 'who had come over the sea from the
westward' (kommer til vestan um haf)?" (Humboldt's "Cosmos," vol. ii., 238.)
If they came "from the West" they could not have come from Ireland; and the
Scandinavians may easily have mistaken Atlantean books and bells for Irish
books and mass-bells. They do not say that there were any evidences that
these relics belonged to a people who had recently visited the island; and,
as they found the island uninhabited, it would be impossible for them to
tell how many years or centuries had elapsed since the books and bells were
left there.
The fact that the implements of the Bronze Age came from some common centre,
and did not originate independently in different countries, is proved by the
striking similarity which exists between the bronze implements of regions as
widely separated as Switzerland, Ireland, Denmark, and Africa. It is not to
be supposed that any overland communication existed in that early age
between these countries; and the coincidence of design which we find to
exist can only be accounted for by the fact that the articles of bronze were
obtained from some sea-going people, who carried on a commerce at the same
time with all these regions.
Compare, for instance, these two decorated bronze celts. the first from
Ireland, the second from Denmark; and then com pare both these with a stone
celt found in a mound in Tennessee, given below. Here we have the same form
precisely.
Compare the bronze swords in the four preceding illustrations-from Ireland,
Sweden, Switzerland, and Denmark-and then observe the same very peculiar
shape--the leaf-shape, as it is called--in the stone sword from Big Harpeth
River, Tennessee.
We shall find, as we proceed, that the Phnicians were unquestionably
identified with Atlantis, and that it was probably from Atlantis they
derived their god Baal, or Bel, or El, whose name crops out in the Bel of
the Babylonians, the Elohim, and the Beelzebub of the Jews, and the Allah of
the Arabians, And we find that this great deity, whose worship extended so
widely among the Mediterranean races, was known and adored also upon the
northern and western coasts of Europe. Professor Nilsson finds traces of
Baal worship in Scandinavia; he tells us that the festival of Baal, or
Balder, was celebrated on midsummer's night in Scania, and far up into
Norway, almost to the Loffoden Islands, until within the last fifty years.
The feast of Baal, or Beltinne, was celebrated in Ireland to a late period.
I argue from these facts, not that the worship of Baal came to Ireland and
Norway from Assyria or Arabia, but that the same great parent-race which
carried the knowledge of Baal to the Mediterranean brought it also to the
western coasts of Europe, and with the adoration of Baal they imported also
the implements of bronze now found in such abundance in those regions.
The same similarity of form exists in the bronze knives from Denmark and
Switzerland, as represented in the illustrations on p. 254.
In the central figure we have a representation of an Egyptian-looking man
holding a cup before him. We shall see, as we proceed, that the magnetic
needle, or "mariner's compass," dates back to the days of Hercules, and that
it consisted of a bar of magnetized iron floating upon a piece of wood in a
cup. It is possible that in this ancient relic of the Bronze Age we have a
representation of the magnetic cup. The magnetic needle must certainly have
been an object of great interest to a people who, through its agency, were
able to carry on commerce on all the shores of Europe, from the
Mediterranean to the Baltic. The second knife represented above has upon its
handle a wheel, or cross surrounded by a ring, which, we shall see here
after, was pre-eminently the symbol of Atlantis.
If we are satisfied that these implements of bronze were the work of the
artisans of Atlantis--of the antediluvians--they must acquire additional and
extraordinary interest in our eyes, and we turn to them to earn something of
the habits and customs of "that great, original, broad-eyed, sunken race."
We find among the relies of the Bronze Age an urn, which probably gives us
some idea of the houses of the Atlanteans: it is evidently made to represent
a house, and shows us even the rude fashion in which they fastened their
doors. The Mandan Indiana built round houses very much of this appearance.
The museum at Munich contains a very interesting piece of pottery, which is
supposed to represent one of the lake villages or hamlets of the era when
the people of Switzerland dwelt in houses erected on piles driven into the
bottom of the lakes of that country. The accompanying illustration
represents it. The double spiral ornament upon it shows that it belongs to
the Bronze Age.
Among the curious relies of the Bronze Age are a number of razor-like
knives; from which we may conclude that the habit of shaving the whole or
some part of the face or head dates back to a great antiquity. The
illustrations below represent them.
These knives were found in Denmark. The figures upon them represent ships,
and it is not impossible that their curious appendages may have been a
primitive kind of sails.
An examination of the second of these bronze knives reveals a singular
feature: Upon the handle of the razor there are ten series of lines; the
stars in the sky are ten in number; and there were probably ten rings at the
left-hand side of the figure, two being obliterated. There were, we are
told, ten sub-kingdoms in Atlantis; and precisely as the thirteen stripes on
the American flag symbolize the thirteen original States of the Union, so
the recurrence of the figure ten in the emblems upon this bronze implement
may have reference to the ten subdivisions of Atlantis. The large object in
the middle of this ship may be intended to represent a palm-tree-the symbol,
as we shall see, in America, of Aztlan, or Atlantis. We have but to compare
the pictures of the ships upon these ancient razor-knives with the
accompanying representations of a Roman galley and a ship of William the
Conqueror's time, to see that there can be no question that they represented
the galleys of that remote age. They are doubtless faithful portraits of the
great vessels which Plato described as filling the harbors of Atlantis.
We give on page 258 a representation of a bronze dagger found in Ireland, a
strongly-made weapon. The cut below it represents the only implement of the
Bronze Age yet found containing an inscription. It has been impossible to
decipher it, or even to tell to what group of languages its alphabet
belongs.
It is proper to note, in connection with a discussion of the Bronze Age,
that our word bronze is derived from the Basque, or Iberian broncea, from
which the Spanish derive bronce, and the Italians bronzo. The copper mines
of the Basques were extensively worked at a very early age of the world,
either by the people of Atlantis or by the Basques themselves, a colony from
Atlantis. The probabilities are that the name for bronze, as well as the
metal itself, dates back to Plato's island.
I give some illustrations on pages 239 and 242 of ornaments and implements
of the Bronze Age, which may serve to throw light upon the habits of the
ancient people. It will be seen that they had reached a considerable degree
of civilization; that they raised crops of grain, and cut them with sickles;
that their women ornamented themselves with bracelets, armlets, earrings,
finger-rings, hair-pins, and amulets; that their mechanics used hammers,
adzes, and chisels; and that they possessed very fair specimens of pottery.
Sir John Lubbock argues ("Prehistoric Times," pp. 14, 16, etc.):
"A new civilization is indicated not only by the mere presence of bronze but
by the beauty and variety of the articles made from it. We find not only, as
before, during the Stone Age, axes, arrows, and knives, but, in addition,
swords, lances, sickles, fish-hooks, ear-rings, bracelets, pins, rings, and
a variety of other articles."
If the bronze implements of Europe had been derived from the Phnicians,
Greeks, Etruscans, or Romans, the nearer we approached the site of those
nations the greater should be the number of bronze weapons we would find;
but the reverse is the case. Sir John Lubbock ("Prehistoric Times," p. 20)
shows that more than three hundred and fifty bronze swords have been found
in Denmark, and that the Dublin Museum contains twelve hundred and eighty-
three bronze weapons found in Ireland; "while," he says, "I have only been
able to hear of six bronze swords in all Italy." This state of things is
inexplicable unless we suppose that Ireland and Denmark received their
bronze implements directly from some maritime nation whose site was
practically as near their shores as it was to the shores of the
Mediterranean. We have but to look at our map on page 43, ante, to see that
Atlantis was considerably nearer to Ireland than it was to Italy.
The striking resemblance between the bronze implements found in the
different portions of Europe is another proof that they were derived from
one and the same source-from some great mercantile people who carried on
their commerce at the same time with Denmark, Norway, Ireland, Spain,
Greece, Italy, Egypt, Switzerland, and Hungary. Mr. Wright ("Essays on
Archæology," p. 120) says, "Whenever we find the bronze swords or celts,
whether in Ireland, in the far west, in Scotland, in distant Scandinavia, in
Germany, or still farther east, in the Sclavonic countries, they are the
same--not similar in character, but identical." Says Sir John Lubbock
("Prehistoric Times," p. 59), "Not only are the several varieties of celts
found throughout Europe alike, but some of the swords, knives, daggers,
etc., are so similar that they seem as if they must have been cast by the
same maker."
What race was there, other than the people of Atlantis, that existed before
the Iron Age-before the Greek, Roman, Etruscan, and Phnician--that was
civilized, that worked in metals, that carried on a commerce with all parts
of Europe? Does history or tradition make mention of any such?
We find a great resemblance between the pottery of the Bronze Age in Europe
and the pottery of the ancient inhabitants of America. The two figures on
page 260 represent vases from one of the mounds of the Mississippi Valley.
Compare them with the following from the lake dwellings of Switzerland:
It will be seen that these vases could scarcely stand upright unsupported;
and we find that the ancient inhabitants of Switzerland had circles or rings
of baked earth in which they placed them when in use, as in the annexed
figure. The Mound Builders used the same contrivance.
The illustrations of discoidal stones on page 263 are from the "North
Americans of Antiquity," p. 77. The objects represented were taken from an
ancient mound in Illinois. It would be indeed surprising if two distinct
peoples, living in two different continents, thousands of miles apart,
should, without any intercourse with each other, not only form their vases
in the same inconvenient form, but should hit upon the same expedient as a
remedy.
We observe, in the American spear-head and the Swiss hatchets, on the
opposite page, the same overlapping), of the metal around the staff, or
handle--a very peculiar mode of uniting them together, which has now passed
out of use.
A favorite design of the men of the Bronze Age in Europe is the spiral or
double-spiral form. It appears on the face of the urn in the shape of a lake
dwelling, which is given on p. 255; it also appears in the rock sculptures
of Argyleshire, Scotland, here shown.
We find the same figure in an ancient fragment of pottery from the Little
Colorado, as given in the "United States Pacific Railroad Survey Report,"
vol. iii., p. 49, art. Pottery. It was part of a large vessel. The annexed
illustration represents this.
The same design is also found in ancient rock etchings of the Zuñis of New
Mexico, of which the cut on p. 265 is an illustration.
We also find this figure repeated upon vase from a Mississippi Valley mound,
which we give elsewhere. (See p. 260.)
It is found upon many of the monuments of Central America. In the Treasure
House of Atreus, at Mycenæ, Greece, a fragment of a pillar was found which
is literally covered with this double spiral design. (See "Rosengarten's
Architectural Styles," p, 59.)
This Treasure House of Atreus is one of the oldest buildings in Greece.
We find the double-spiral figure upon a shell ornament found on the breast
of a skeleton, in a carefully constructed stone coffin, in a mound near
Nashville, Tennessee.
Lenormant remarks ("Anc. Civil.," vol. ii., p. 158) that the bronze
implements found in Egypt, near Memphis, had been buried for six thousand
years; and that at that time, as the Egyptians had a horror of the sea, some
commercial nation must have brought the tin, of which the bronze was in part
composed, from India, the Caucasus, or Spain, the nearest points to Egypt in
which tin is found.
Heer has shown that the civilized plants of the lake dwellings are not of
Asiatic, but of African, and, to a great extent, of Egyptian origin. Their
stone axes are made largely of jade or nephrite, a mineral which, strange to
say, geologists have not found in place on the continent of Europe."
(Foster's "Prehistoric Races," p. 44.)
Compare this picture of a copper axe from a mound near Laporte, Indiana,
with this representation of a copper axe of the Bronze Age, found near
Waterford, Ireland. Professor Foster pronounces them almost identical.
Compare this specimen of pottery from the lake dwellings of Switzerland with
the following specimen from San José, Mexico. Professor Foster calls
attention to the striking resemblance in the designs of these two widely
separated works of art, one belonging to the Bronze Age of Europe, the other
to the Copper Age of America.
These, then, in conclusion, are our reasons for believing that the Bronze
Age of Europe has relation to Atlantis:
1. The admitted fact that it is anterior in time to the Iron Age relegates
it to a great antiquity.
2. The fact that it is anterior in time to the Iron Age is conclusive that
it is not due to any of the known European or Asiatic nations, all of which
belong to the Iron Age.
3. The fact that there war. in Europe, Asia, or Africa no copper or tin age
prior to the Bronze Age, is conclusive testimony that the manufacture of
bronze was an importation into those continents from some foreign country.
4. The fact that in America alone of all the world is found the Copper Age,
which must necessarily have preceded the Bronze Age, teaches us to look to
the westward of Europe and beyond the sea for that foreign country.
5. We find many similarities in forms of implements between the Bronze Age
of Europe and the Copper Age of America.
6. if Plato told the truth, the Atlanteans were a great commercial nation,
trading to America and Europe, and, at the same time, they possessed bronze,
and were great workers in the other metals.
7. We shall see hereafter that the mythological traditions of Greece
referred to a Bronze Age which preceded an Iron Age, and placed this in the
land of the gods, which was an island in the Atlantic Ocean, beyond the
Pillars of Hercules; and this land was, as we shall see, clearly Atlantis.
CHAPTER IX.
ARTIFICIAL DEFORMATION OF THE SKULL.
AN examination of the American monuments shows (see figure on page 269) that
the people represented were in the habit of flattening the skull by
artificial means. The Greek and Roman writers had mentioned this practice,
but it was long totally forgotten by the civilized world, until it was
discovered, as an unheard-of wonder, to be the usage among the Carib
Islanders, and several Indian tribes in North America. It was afterward
found that the ancient Peruvians and Mexicans practised this art: several
flattened Peruvian skulls are depicted in Morton's "Crania Americana." It is
still in use among the Flat-head Indians of the north-western part of the
United States.
In 1849 a remarkable memoir appeared from the pen of M. Rathke, showing that
similar skulls had been found near Kertsch, in the Crimea, and calling
attention to the book of Hippocrates, "De Aeris, Aquis et Locu," lib. iv.,
and a passage of Strabo, which speaks of the practice among the Scythians.
In 1854 Dr. Fitzinger published a learned memoir on the skulls of the Avars,
a branch of the Uralian race of Turks. He shows that the practice of
flattening the head had existed from an early date throughout the East, and
described an ancient skull, greatly distorted by artificial means, which had
lately been found in Lower Austria. Skulls similarly flattened have been
found in Switzerland and Savoy. The Huns under Attila had the same practice
of flattening the heads. Professor Anders Retzius proved (see "Smithsonian
Report," 1859) that the custom still exists in the south of France, and in
parts of Turkey. "Not long since a French physician surprised the world by
the fact that nurses in Normandy were still giving the children's heads a
sugar-loaf shape by bandages and a tight cap, while in Brittany they
preferred to press it round. No doubt they are doing so to this day."
(Tylor's "Anthropology," p. 241.)
Professor Wilson remarks:
"Trifling as it may appear, it is not without interest to have the fact
brought under our notice, by the disclosures of ancient barrows and cysts,
that the same practice of nursing the child and carrying it about, bound to
a flat cradle-board, prevailed in Britain and the north of Europe long
before the first notices of written history reveal the presence of man
beyond the Baltic or the English Channel, and that in all probability the
same custom prevailed continuously from the shores of the German Ocean to
Behring's Strait." ("Smithsonian Report," 1862, p. 286.)
Dr. L. A. Gosse testifies to the prevalence of the same custom among the
Caledonians and Scandinavians in the earliest times; and Dr. Thurman has
treated of the same peculiarity among the Anglo-Saxons. Crania Britannica,"
chap. iv., p. 38.)
Here, then, is an extraordinary and unnatural practice which has existed
from the highest antiquity, over vast regions of country, on both sides of
the Atlantic, and which is perpetuated unto this day in races as widely
separated as the Turks, the French, and the Flat-head Indians. Is it
possible to explain this except by supposing that it originated from some
common centre?
The annexed out represents an ancient Swiss skull, from a cemetery near
Lausanne, from a drawing of Frederick Troyon. Compare this with the
illustration given on page 271, which represents a Peruvian flat-head,
copied from Morton's "Ethnography and Archæology of the American
Aborigines," 1846. This skull is shockingly distorted. The dotted lines
indicate the course of the bandages by which the skull was deformed.
The following heads are from Del Rio's "Account of Palenque," copied into
Nott and Gliddon's "Types of Mankind," p. 440. They show that the receding
forehead was a natural characteristic of the ancient people of Central
America. The same form of head has been found even in fossil skulls. We may
therefore conclude that the skull-flattening, which we find to have been
practised in both the Old and New Worlds, was an attempt of other races to
imitate the form of skull of a people whose likenesses are found on the
monuments of Egypt and of America. It has been shown that this peculiar form
of the head was present even in the ftus of the Peruvian mummies.
Hippocrates tells us that the practice among the Scythians was for the
purpose of giving a certain aristocratic distinction.
Amedée Thierry, in his "History of Attila," says the Huns used it for the
same reason; and the same purpose influences the Indians of Oregon.
Dr. Lund, a Swedish naturalist, found in the bone caves of Minas-Geraes,
Brazil, ancient human bones associated with the remains of extinct
quadrupeds. "These skulls," says Lund, "show not only the peculiarity of the
American race but in an excessive degree, even to the entire disappearance
of the forehead." Sir Robert Schomburgh found on some of the affluents of
the Orinoco a tribe known as Frog Indians, whose heads were flattened by
Nature, as shown in newly-born children.
In the accompanying plate we show the difference in the conformation of the
forehead in various races. The upper dotted line, A, represents the shape of
the European forehead; the next line, B, that of the Australian; the next,
C, that of the Mound Builder of the United States; the next, D, that of the
Guanche of the Canary Islands; and the next, E, that of a skull from the
Inca cemetery of Peru. We have but to compare these lines with the skulls of
the Egyptians, Kurds, and the heroic type of heads in the statues of the
gods of Greece, to see that there was formerly an ancient race marked by a
receding forehead; and that the practice of flattening the skull was
probably an attempt to approximate the shape of the bead to this standard of
an early civilized and dominant people.
Not only do we find the same receding forehead in the skulls of the ancient
races of Europe and America, and the same attempt to imitate this natural
and peculiar conformation by artificial flattening of the head, but it has
been found (see Henry Gillman's "Ancient Man in Michigan," "Smithsonian
Report," 1875, p. 242) that the Mound Builders and Peruvians of America, and
the Neolithic people of France and the Canary Islands, had alike an
extraordinary custom of boring a circular bole in the top of the skulls of
their dead, so that the soul might readily pass in and out. More than this,
it has been found that in all these ancient populations the skeletons
exhibit a remarkable degree of platicnemism, or flattening of the tibiæ or
leg bones. (lbid., 1873, p.367.) In this respect the Mound Builders of
Michigan were identical with the man of Cro Magnon and the ancient
inhabitants of Wales.
The annexed ancient Egyptian heads, copied from the monuments, indicate
either that the people of the Nile deformed their beads by pressure upon the
front of the skull, or that there was some race characteristic which gave
this appearance to their heads. These heads are all the heads of priests,
and therefore represented the aristocratic class.
The first illustration below is taken from a stucco relief found in a temple
at Palenque, Central America. The second is from an Egyptian monument of the
time of Rameses IV.
The outline drawing on the following page shows the form of the skull of the
royal Inca line: the receding forehead here seems to be natural, and not the
result of artificial compression.
Both illustrations at the bottom of the preceding page show the same
receding form of the forehead, due to either artificial deformation of the
skull or to a common race characteristic.
PART IV.
THE MYTHOLOGIES OF THE OLD WORLD A RECOLLECTION OF ATLANTIS.
CHAPTER I. TRADITIONS OF ATLANTIS.
WE find allusions to the Atlanteans in the most ancient traditions of many
different races.
The great antediluvian king of the Mussulman was Shedd-Ad-Ben-Ad, or Shed-
Ad, the son of Ad, or Atlantis.
Among the Arabians the first inhabitants of that country are known as the
Adites, from their progenitor, who is called Ad, the grandson of Ham. These
Adites were probably the people of Atlantis or Ad-lantis. "They are
personified by a monarch to whom everything is ascribed, and to whom is
assigned several centuries of life." ("Ancient History of the East,"
Lenormant and Chevallier, vol. ii., p. 295.), Ad came from the northeast.
"He married a thousand wives, had four thousand sons, and lived twelve
hundred years. His descendants multiplied considerably. After his death his
sons Shadid and Shedad reigned in succession over the Adites. In the time of
the latter the people of Ad were a thousand tribes, each composed of several
thousands of men. Great conquests are attributed to Shedad; he subdued, it
is said, all Arabia and Irak. The migration of the Canaanites, their
establishment in Syria, and the Shepherd invasion of Egypt are, by many Arab
writers, attributed to an expedition of Shedad." (Ibid., p. 296.)
Shedad built a palace ornamented with superb columns, and surrounded by a
magnificent garden. It was called Irem. "It was a paradise that Shedad had
built in imitation of the celestial Paradise, of whose delights he had
heard." ("Ancient History of the East," p. 296.) In other words, an ancient,
sun-worshipping, powerful, and conquering race overran Arabia at the very
dawn of history; they were the sons of Adlantis: their king tried to create
a palace and garden of Eden like that of Atlantis.
The Adites are remembered by the Arabians as a great and civilized race.
"They are depicted as men of gigantic stature; their strength was equal to
their size, and they easily moved enormous blocks of stone." (Ibid.) They
were architects and builders. "They raised many monuments of their power;
and hence, among the Arabs, arose the custom of calling great ruins
"buildings of the Adites." To this day the Arabs say "as old as Ad." In the
Koran allusion is made to the edifices they built on "high places for vain
uses;" expressions proving that their "idolatry was considered to have been
tainted with Sabæism or star-worship." (Ibid.) "In these legends," says
Lenormant, "we find traces of a wealthy nation, constructors of great
buildings, with an advanced civilization, analogous to that of Chaldea,
professing a religion similar to the Babylonian; a nation, in short, with
whom material progress was allied to great moral depravity and obscene
rites. These facts must be true and strictly historical, for they are
everywhere met with among the Cushites, as among the Canaanites, their
brothers by origin."
Nor is there wanting a great catastrophe which destroys the whole Adite
nation, except a very few who escape because they had renounced idolatry. A
black cloud assails their country, from which proceeds a terrible hurricane
(the water-spout?) which sweeps away everything.
The first Adites were followed by a second Adite race; probably the
colonists who had escaped the Deluge. The centre of its power was the
country of Sheba proper. This empire endured for a thousand years. The
Adites are represented upon the Egyptian monuments as very much like the
Egyptians themselves; in other words, they were a red or sunburnt race:
their great temples were pyramidal, surmounted by buildings. ("Ancient
History of the East," p. 321.) "The Sabæans," says Agatharchides ("De Mari
Erythræo," p. 102), "have in their houses an incredible number of vases, and
utensils of all sorts, of gold and silver, beds and tripods of silver, and
all the furniture of astonishing richness. Their buildings have porticos
with columns sheathed with gold, or surmounted by capitals of silver. On the
friezes, ornaments, and the framework of the doors they place plates of gold
incrusted with precious stones."
All this reminds one of the descriptions given by the Spaniards of the
temples of the sun in Peru.
The Adites worshipped the gods of the Phnicians under names but slightly
changed; "their religion was especially solar... It was originally a
religion without images, without idolatry, and without a priesthood."
(Ibid., p. 325.) They "worshipped the sun from the tops of pyramids."
(Ibid.) They believed in the immortality of the soul.
In all these things we see resemblances to the Atlanteans.
The great Ethiopian or Cushite Empire, which in the earliest ages prevailed,
as Mr. Rawlinson says, "from the Caucasus to the Indian Ocean, from the
shores of the Mediterranean to the mouth of the Ganges," was the empire of
Dionysos, the empire of "Ad," the empire of Atlantis. El Eldrisi called the
language spoken to this day by the Arabs of Mahrah, in Eastern Arabia, "the
language of the people of Ad," and Dr. J. H. Carter, in the Bombay Journal
of July, 1847, says, "It is the softest and sweetest language I have ever
heard." It would be interesting to compare this primitive tongue with the
languages of Central America.
The god Thoth of the Egyptians, who was the god of a foreign country, and
who invented letters, was called At-hothes.
We turn now to another ancient race, the Indo-European family--the Aryan
race.
In Sanscrit Adim, means first. Among the Hindoos the first man was Ad-ima,
his wife was Heva. They dwelt upon an island, said to be Ceylon; they left
the island and reached the main-land, when, by a great convulsion of nature,
their communication with the parent land was forever cut off. (See "Bible in
India.")
Here we seem to have a recollection of the destruction of Atlantis.
Mr. Bryant says, "Ad and Ada signify the first." The Persians called the
first man "Ad-amah." "Adon" was one of the names of the Supreme God of the
Phnicians; from it was derived the name of the Greek god "Ad-onis." The
Arv-ad of Genesis was the Ar-Ad of the Cushites; it is now known as Ru-Ad.
It is a series of connected cities twelve miles in length, along the coast,
full of the most massive and gigantic ruins.
Sir William Jones gives the tradition of the Persians as to the earliest
ages. He says: "Moshan assures us that in the opinion of the best informed
Persians the first monarch of Iran, and of the whole earth, was Mashab-Ad;
that he received from the Creator, and promulgated among men a sacred book,
in a heavenly language, to which the Mussulman author gives the Arabic title
of 'Desatir,' or 'Regulations.' Mashab-Ad was, in the opinion of the ancient
Persians, the person left at the end of the last great cycle, and
consequently the father of the present world. He and his wife having
survived the former cycle, were blessed with a numerous progeny; he planted
gardens, invented ornaments, forged weapons, taught men to take the fleece
from sheep and make clothing; he built cities, constructed palaces,
fortified towns, and introduced arts and commerce."
We have already seen that the primal gods of this people are identical with
the gods of the Greek mythology, and were originally kings of Atlantis. But
it seems that these ancient divinities are grouped together as "the Aditya;"
and in this name "Ad-itya" we find a strong likeness to the Semitic
"Adites," and another reminiscence of Atlantis, or Adlantis. In
corroboration of this view we find,
1. The gods who are grouped together as the Aditya are the most ancient in
the Hindoo mythology.
2. They are all gods of light, or solar gods. (Whitney's Oriental and
Linguistic Studies," p. 39.)
3. There are twelve of them. (Ibid.)
4. These twelve gods presided over twelve months in the year.
5. They are a dim recollection of a very remote past. Says Whitney, "It
seems as if here was an attempt on the part of the Indian religion to take a
new development in a moral direction, which a change in the character and
circumstances of the people has caused to fail in the midst, and fall back
again into forgetfulness, while yet half finished and indistinct." (Ibid.)
6. These gods are called "the sons of Aditi," just as in the Bible we have
allusions to "the sons of Adab," who were the first metallurgists and
musicians. "Aditi is not a goddess. She is addressed as a queen's daughter,
she of fair children."
7. The Aditya "are elevated above all imperfections; they do not sleep or
wink." The Greeks represented their gods as equally wakeful and omniscient.
"Their character is all truth; they hate and punish guilt." We have seen the
same traits ascribed by the Greeks to the Atlantean kings.
8. The sun is sometimes addressed as an Aditya.
9. Among the Aditya is Varuna, the equivalent of Uranos, whose
identification with Atlantis I have shown. In the vedas Varuna is "the god
of the ocean."
10. The Aditya represent an earlier and purer form of religion: "While in
hymns to the other deities long: life, wealth, power, are the objects
commonly prayed for, of the Aditya is craved purity, forgiveness of sin,
freedom from guilt, and repentance." ("Oriental and Linguistic Studies," p.
43.)
11. The Aditya, like the Adites, are identified with the doctrine of the
immortality of the soul. Yama is the god of the abode beyond the grave. In
the Persian story he appears as Yima, and "is made ruler of the golden age
and founder of the Paradise." (Ibid., p. 45.) (See "Zamna," p. 167 ante.)
In view of all these facts, one cannot doubt that the legends of the "sons
of Ad," "the Adites," and "the Aditya," all refer to Atlantis.
Mr. George Smith, in the Chaldean account of the Creation (p. 78),
deciphered from the Babylonian tablets, shows that there was an original
race of men at the beginning of Chaldean history, a dark race, the Zalmat-
qaqadi, who were called Ad-mi, or Ad-ami; they were the race "who had
fallen," and were contradistinguished from "the Sarku, or light race." The
"fall" probably refers to their destruction by a deluge, in consequence of
their moral degradation and the indignation of the gods. The name Adam is
used in these legends, but as the name of a race, not of a man.
Genesis (chap. v., 2) distinctly says that God created man male and female,
and "called their name Adam." That is to say, the people were the Ad-ami,
the people of "Ad," or Atlantis. "The author of the Book of Genesis," says
M. Schbel, "in speaking of the men who were swallowed up by the Deluge,
always describes them as 'Haadam,' 'Adamite humanity.'" The race of Cain
lived and multiplied far away from the land of Seth; in other words, far
from the land destroyed by the Deluge. Josephus, who gives us the primitive
traditions of the Jews, tells us (chap. ii., p. 42) that "Cain travelled
over many countries" before he came to the land of Nod. The Bible does not
tell us that the race of Cain perished in the Deluge. "Cain went out from
the presence of Jehovah;" he did not call on his name; the people that were
destroyed were the "sons of Jehovah." All this indicates that large colonies
had been sent out by the mother-land before it sunk in the sea.
Across the ocean we find the people of Guatemala claiming their descent from
a goddess called At-tit, or grandmother, who lived for four hundred years,
and first taught the worship of the true God, which they afterward forgot.
(Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iii., p. 75.) While the famous Mexican
calendar stone shows that the sun was commonly called tonatiuh but when it
was referred to as the god of the Deluge it was then called Atl-tona-ti-uh,
or At-onatiuh. (Valentini's "Mexican Calendar Stone," art. Maya Archæology,
p. 15.)
CHAPTER II
THE KINGS OF ATLANTIS BECOME THE GODS OF THE GREEKS.
LORD BACON said:
"The mythology of the Greeks, which their oldest writers do not pretend to
have invented, was no more than a light air, which had passed from a more
ancient people into the flutes of the Greeks, which they modulated to such
descants as best suited their fancies."
This profoundly wise and great man, who has illuminated every subject which
he has touched, guessed very close to the truth in this utterance.
The Hon. W. E. Gladstone has had quite a debate of late with Mr. Cox as to
whether the Greek mythology was underlaid by a nature worship, or a
planetary or solar worship.
Peru, worshipping the sun and moon and planets, probably represents very
closely the simple and primitive religion of Atlantis, with its sacrifices
of fruits and flowers. This passed directly to their colony in Egypt. We
find the Egyptians in their early ages sun and planet worshippers. Ptah was
the object of their highest adoration. He is the father of the god of the
sun, the ruler of the region of light. Ra was the sun-god. He was the
supreme divinity at On, or Heliopolis, near Memphis. His symbol was the
solar disk, supported by two rings. He created all that exists below the
heavens.
The Babylonian trinity was composed of Idea, Anu, and Bel. Bel represented
the sun, and was the favorite god. Sin was the goddess of the moon.
The Phnicians were also sun-worshippers. The sun was represented by Baal-
Samin, the great god, the god of light and the heavens, the creator and
rejuvenator.
"The attributes of both Baal and Moloch (the good and bad powers of the sun)
were united in the Phnician god Melkart, "king of the city," whom the
inhabitants of Tyre considered their special patron. The Greeks called him
"Melicertes," and identified him with Hercules. By his great strength and
power he turned evil into good, brought life out of destruction, pulled back
the sun to the earth at the time of the solstices, lessened excessive beat
and cold, and rectified the evil signs of the zodiac. In Phnician legends
he conquers the savage races of distant coasts, founds the ancient
settlements on the Mediterranean, and plants the rocks in the Straits of
Gibraltar. ("American Cyclopædia," art. Mythology.)
The Egyptians worshipped the sun under the name of Ra; the Hindoos
worshipped the sun under the name of Rama; while the great festival of the
sun, of the Peruvians, was called Ray-mi.
Sun-worship, as the ancient religion of Atlantis, underlies all the
superstitions of the colonies of that country. The Samoyed woman says to the
sun, "When thou, god, risest, I too rise from my bed." Every morning even
now the Brahmans stand on one foot, with their hands held out before them
and their faces turned to the east, adoring the sun. "In Germany or France
one may still see the peasant take off his hat to the rising sun."
("Anthropology," p. 361.) The Romans, even, in later times, worshipped the
sun at Emesa, under the name of Elagabalus, "typified in the form of a black
conical stone, which it was believed had fallen from heaven." The conical
stone was the emblem of Bel. Did it have relation to the mounds and
pyramids?
Sun-worship was the primitive religion of the red men of America. It was
found among all the tribes. (Dorman, "Origin of Primitive Superstitions, p.
338.) The Chichimecs called the sun their father. The Comanches have a
similar belief.
But, compared with such ancient nations as the Egyptians and Babylonians,
the Greeks were children. A priest of Sais said to Solon,
"You Greeks are novices in knowledge of antiquity. You are ignorant of what
passed either here or among yourselves in days of old. The history of eight
thousand years is deposited in our sacred books; but I can ascend to a much
higher antiquity, and tell you what our fathers have done for nine thousand
years; I mean their institutions, their laws, and their most brilliant
achievements."
The Greeks, too young to have shared in the religion of Atlantis, but
preserving some memory of that great country and its history, proceeded to
convert its kings into gods, and to depict Atlantis itself as the heaven of
the human race. Thus we find a great solar or nature worship in the elder
nations, while Greece has nothing but an incongruous jumble of gods and
goddesses, who are born and eat and drink and make love and ravish and steal
and die; and who are worshipped as immortal in presence of the very
monuments that testify to their death.
"These deities, to whom the affairs of the world were in trusted, were, it
is believed, immortal, though not eternal in their existence. In Crete there
was even a story of the death of Zeus, his tomb being pointed out."
(Murray's "Mythology," p. 2.)
The history of Atlantis is the key of the Greek mythology. There can be no
question that these gods of Greece were human beings. The tendency to attach
divine attributes to great earthly rulers is one deeply implanted in human
nature. The savages who killed Captain Cook firmly believed that he was
immortal, that he was yet alive, and would return to punish them. The highly
civilized Romans made gods out of their dead emperors. Dr. Livingstone
mentions that on one occasion, after talking to a Bushman for some time
about the Deity, he found that the savage thought he was speaking of Sekomi,
the principal chief of the district.
We find the barbarians of the coast of the Mediterranean regarding the
civilized people of Atlantis with awe and wonder: "Their physical strength
was extraordinary, the earth shaking sometimes under their tread. Whatever
they did was done speedily. They moved through space almost without the loss
of a moment of time." This probably alluded to the rapid motion of their
sailing-vessels. "They were wise, and communicated their wisdom to men."
That is to say, they civilized the people they came in contact with. 'They
had a strict sense of justice, and punished crime rigorously, and rewarded
noble actions, though it is true they were less conspicuous for the latter."
(Murray's "Mythology," p. 4.) We should understand this to mean that where
they colonized they established a government of law, as contradistinguished
from the anarchy of barbarism.
"There were tales of personal visits and adventures of the gods among men,
taking part in battles and appearing in dreams. They were conceived to
possess the form of human beings, and to be, like men, subject to love and
pain, but always characterized by the highest qualities and grandest forms
that could be imagined." (Ibid.)
Another proof that the gods of the Greeks were but the deified kings of
Atlantis is found in the fact that "the gods were not looked upon as having
created the world." They succeeded to the management of a world already in
existence.
The gods dwelt on Olympus. They lived together like human beings; they
possessed palaces, storehouses, stables, horses, etc.; "they dwelt in a
social state which was but a magnified reflection of the social system on
earth. Quarrels, love passages, mutual assistance, and such instances as
characterize human life, were ascribed to them." (Ibid., p. 10.)
Where was Olympus? It was in Atlantis. "The ocean encircled the earth with a
great stream, and was a region of wonders of all kinds." (Ibid., p. 23.) It
was a great island, the then civilized world. The encircling ocean "was
spoken of in all the ancient legends. Okeanos lived there with his wife
Tethys: these were the Islands of the Blessed, the garden of the gods, the
sources of the nectar and ambrosia on which the gods lived." (Murray's
"Mythology," p. 23.) Nectar was probably a fermented intoxicating liquor,
and ambrosia bread made from wheat. Soma was a kind of whiskey, and the
Hindoos deified it. "The gods lived on nectar and ambrosia" simply meant
that the inhabitants of these blessed islands were civilized, and possessed
a liquor of some kind and a species of food superior to anything in use
among the barbarous tribes with whom they came in contact.
This blessed land answers to the description of Atlantis. It was an island
full of wonders. It lay spread out in the ocean "like a disk, with the
mountains rising from it." (Ibid.) On the highest point of this mountain
dwelt Zeus (the king), "while the mansions of the other deities were
arranged upon plateaus, or in ravines lower down the mountain. These
deities, including Zeus, were twelve in number: Zeus (or Jupiter), Hera (or
Juno), Poseidon (or Neptune), Demeter (or Ceres), Apollo, Artemis (or
Diana), Hephæstos (or Vulcan), Pallas Athena (or Minerva), Ares (or Mars),
Aphrodite (or Venus), Hermes (or Mercury), and Hestia (or Vesta)." These
were doubtless the twelve gods from whom the Egyptians derived their kings.
Where two names are given to a deity in the above list, the first name is
that bestowed by the Greeks, the last that given by the Romans.
It is not impossible that our division of the year into twelve parts is a
reminiscence of the twelve gods of Atlantis. Diodorus Siculus tells us that
among the Babylonians there were twelve gods of the heavens, each
personified by one of the signs of the zodiac, and worshipped in a certain
month of the year. The Hindoos had twelve primal gods, "the Aditya." Moses
erected twelve pillars at Sinai. The Mandan Indians celebrated the Flood
with twelve typical characters, who danced around the ark. The Scandinavians
believed in the twelve gods, the Aesir, who dwelt on Asgard, the Norse
Olympus. Diligent investigation may yet reveal that the number of a modern
jury, twelve, is a survival of the ancient council of Asgard.
"According to the traditions of the Phnicians, the Gardens of the
Hesperides were in the remote west." (Murray's "Manual of Mythology," p.
258.) Atlas lived in these gardens. (Ibid., p. 259.) Atlas, we have seen,
was king of Atlantis. "The Elysian Fields (the happy islands) were commonly
placed in the remote west. They were ruled over by Chronos." (Ibid., p. 60.)
Tartarus, the region of Hades, the gloomy home of the dead, was also located
"under the mountains of an island in the midst of the ocean in the remote
west." (Ibid., p. 58.) Atlas was described in Greek mythology as "an
enormous giant, who stood upon the western confines of the earth, and
supported the heavens on his shoulders, in a region of the west where the
sun continued to shine after he had set upon Greece." (Ibid., p. 156.)
Greek tradition located the island in which Olympus was situated "in the far
west," "in the ocean beyond Africa," "on the western boundary of the known
world," "where the sun shone when it had ceased to shine on Greece," and
where the mighty Atlas "held up the heavens." And Plato tells us that the
land where Poseidon and Atlas ruled was Atlantis.
"The Garden of the Hesperides" (another name for the dwelling-place of the
gods) "was situated at the extreme limit of Africa. Atlas was said to have
surrounded it on every side with high mountains." (Smith's "Sacred Annals,
Patriarchal Age," p. 131.) Here were found the golden apples.
This is very much like the description which Plato gives of the great plain
of Atlantis, covered with fruit of every kind, and surrounded by precipitous
mountains descending to the sea.
The Greek mythology, in speaking of the Garden of the Hesperides, tells us
that "the outer edge of the garden was slightly raised, so that the water
might not run in and overflow the land." Another reminiscence of the
surrounding mountains of Atlantis as described by Plato, and as revealed by
the deep-sea soundings of modern times.
Chronos, or Saturn, Dionysos, Hyperion, Atlas, Hercules, were all connected
with "a great Saturnian continent;" they were kings that ruled over
countries on the western shores of the Mediterranean, Africa and Spain. One
account says:
"Hyperion, Atlas, and Saturn, or Chronos, were sons of Uranos, who reigned
over a great kingdom composed of countries around the western part of the
Mediterranean, with certain islands in the Atlantic. Hyperion succeeded his
father, and was then killed by the Titans. The kingdom was then divided
between Atlas and Saturn--Atlas taking Northern Africa, with the Atlantic
islands, and Saturn the countries on the opposite shore of the Mediterranean
to Italy and Sicily." (Baldwin's Prehistoric Nations," p. 357.)
Plato says, speaking of the traditions of the Greeks ("Dialogues, Laws," c.
iv., p. 713), "There is a tradition of the happy life of mankind in the days
when all things were spontaneous and abundant. . . . In like manner God in
his love of mankind placed over us the demons, who are a superior race, and
they, with great care and pleasure to themselves and no less to us, taking
care of us and giving us place and reverence and order and justice never
failing, made the tribes of men happy and peaceful . . . for Cronos knew
that no human nature, invested with supreme power, is able to order human
affairs and not overflow with insolence and wrong."
In other words, this tradition refers to an ancient time when the
forefathers of the Greeks were governed by Chronos, of the Cronian Sea (the
Atlantic), king of Atlantis, through civilized Atlantean governors, who by
their wisdom preserved peace and created a golden age for all the
populations under their control--they were the demons, that is, "the knowing
ones," the civilized.
Plato puts into the mouth of Socrates these words ("Dialogues, Cratylus," p.
397): "My notion would be that the sun, moon, and stars, earth, and heaven,
which are still the gods of many barbarians, were the only gods known to the
aboriginal Hellenes. . . . What shall follow the gods? Must not demons and
heroes and men come next? . . . Consider the real meaning of the word
demons. You know Hesiod uses the word. He speaks of 'a golden race of men'
who came first. He says of them,
But now that fate has closed over this race,
They are holy demons upon earth,
Beneficent averters of ills, guardians of mortal men.'
He means by the golden men not men literally made of gold, but good and
noble men; he says we are of the 'age of iron.' He called them demons
because they were dah'mones (knowing or wise)."
This is made the more evident when we read that this region of the gods, of
Chronos and Uranos and Zeus, passed through, first, a Golden Age, then a
Silver Age--these constituting a great period of peace and happiness; then
it reached a Bronze Age; then an Iron Age, and finally perished by a great
flood, sent upon these people by Zeus as a punishment for their sins. We
read:
"Men were rich then (in the Silver Age), as in the Golden Age of Chronos,
and lived in plenty; but still they wanted the innocence and contentment
which were the true sources of bu man happiness in the former age; and
accordingly, while living in luxury and delicacy, they became overbearing in
their manners to the highest degree, were never satisfied, and forgot the
gods, to whom, in their confidence of prosperity and com fort, they denied
the reverence they owed. . . . Then followed the Bronze Age, a period of
constant quarrelling and deeds of violence. Instead of cultivated lands, and
a life of peaceful occupations and orderly habits, there came a day when
every where might was right, and men, big and powerful as they were, became
physically worn out. . . . Finally came the Iron Age, in which enfeebled
mankind had to toil for bread with their hands, and, bent on gain, did their
best to overreach each other. Dike, or Astræa, the goddess of justice and
good faith, modesty and truth, turned her back on such scenes, and retired
to Olympus, while Zeus determined to destroy the human race by a great
flood. The whole of Greece lay under water, and none but Deucalion and his
wife Pyrrha were saved." (Murray's "Mythology" p. 44.)
It is remarkable that we find here the same succession of the Iron Age after
the Bronze Age that has been revealed to scientific men by the patient
examination of the relies of antiquity in Europe. And this identification of
the land that was destroyed by a flood--the land of Chronos and Poseidon and
Zeus--with the Bronze Age, confirms the view expressed in Chapter VIII.
(page 237, ante), that the bronze implements and weapons of Europe were
mainly imported from Atlantis.
And here we find that the Flood that destroyed this land of the gods was the
Flood of Deucalion, and the Flood of Deucalion was the Flood of the Bible,
and this, as we have shown, was "the last great Deluge of all," according to
the Egyptians, which destroyed Atlantis.
The foregoing description of the Golden Age of Chronos, when "men were rich
and lived in plenty," reminds us of Plato's description of the happy age of
Atlantis, when "men despised everything but virtue, not caring for their
present state of life, and thinking lightly of the possession of gold and
other property;" a time when, as the chants of the Delaware Indians stated
it (page 109, ante), "all were willingly pleased, all were well-happified."
While the description given by Murray in the above extract of the degeneracy
of mankind in the land of the gods, "a period of constant quarrelling and
deeds of violence, when might was right," agrees with Plato's account of the
Atlanteans, when they became "aggressive," "unable to bear their fortune,"
"unseemly," "base," "filled with unrighteous avarice and power,"--and "in a
most wretched state." And here again I might quote from the chant of the
Delaware Indians--"they became troubled, hating each other; both were
fighting, both were spoiling, both were never peaceful." And in all three
instances the gods punished the depravity of mankind by a great deluge. Can
all these precise coincidences be the result of accident?
May we not even suppose that the very word "Olympus" is a transformation
from "Atlantis" in accordance with the laws that regulate the changes of
letters of the same class into each other? Olympus was written by the Greeks
"Olumpos." The letter a in Atlantis was sounded by the ancient world broad
and full, like the a in our words all or altar; in these words it
approximates very closely to the sound of o. It is not far to go to convert
Otlontis into Oluntos, and this into Olumpos. We may, therefore, suppose
that when the Greeks said that their gods dwelt in "Olympus," it was the
same as if they said that they dwelt in "Atlantis."
Nearly all the gods of Greece are connected with Atlantis. We have seen the
twelve principal gods all dwelling on the mountain of Olympus, in the midst
of an island in the ocean in the far west, which was subsequently destroyed
by a deluge on account of the wickedness of its people. And when we turn to
Plato's description of Atlantis (p. 13, ante) we find that Poseidon and
Atlas dwelt upon a mountain in the midst of the island; and on this mountain
were their magnificent temples and palaces, where they lived, separated by
great walls from their subjects.
It may be urged that Mount Olympus could not have referred to any mountain
in Atlantis, because the Greeks gave that name to a group of mountains
partly in Macedonia and partly in Thessaly. But in Mysia, Lycia, Cyprus, and
elsewhere there were mountains called Olympus; and on the plain of Olympia,
in Elis, there was an eminence bearing the same designation. There is a
natural tendency among uncivilized peoples to give a "local habitation" to
every general tradition.
"Many of the oldest myths," says Baldwin (" Prehistoric Nations," p. 376),
"relate to Spain, North-western Africa, and other regions on the Atlantic,
such as those concerning Hercules, the Cronidæ, the Hyperboreans, the
Hesperides, and the Islands of the Blessed. Homer described the Atlantic
region of Europe in his account of the wanderings of Ulysses. . . . In the
ages previous to the decline of Phnician influence in Greece and around the
Ægean Sea, the people of those regions must have had a much better knowledge
of Western Europe than prevailed there during the Ionian or Hellenic
period."
The mythology of Greece is really a history of the kings of Atlantis. The
Greek heaven was Atlantis. Hence the references to statues, swords, etc.,
that fell from heaven, and were preserved in the temples of the different
states along the shores of the Mediterranean from a vast antiquity, and
which were regarded as the most precious possessions of the people. They
were relics of the lost race received in the early ages. Thus we read of the
brazen or bronze anvil that was preserved in one city, which fell from
heaven, and was nine days and nine nights in falling; in other words, it
took nine days and nights of a sailing-voyage to bring it from Atlantis.
The modern theory that the gods of Greece never had any personal existence,
but represented atmospheric and meteorological myths, the movements of
clouds, planets, and the sun, is absurd. Rude nations repeat, they do not
invent; to suppose a barbarous people creating their deities out of clouds
and sunsets is to reverse nature. Men first worship stones, then other men,
then spirits. Resemblances of names prove nothing; it is as if one would
show that the name of the great Napoleon meant "the lion of the desert"
(Napo-leon), and should thence argue that Napoleon never existed, that he
was a myth, that he represented power in solitude, or some such stuff. When
we read that Jove whipped his wife, and threw her son out of the window, the
inference is that Jove was a man, and actually did something like the thing
described; certainly gods, sublimated spirits, aerial sprites, do not act
after this fashion; and it would puzzle the mythmakers to prove that the
sun, moon, or stars whipped their wives or flung recalcitrant young men out
of windows. The history of Atlantis could be in part reconstructed out of
the mythology of Greece; it is a history of kings, queens, and princes; of
love-making, adulteries, rebellions, wars, murders, sea-voyages, and
colonizations; of palaces, temples, workshops, and forges; of sword-making,
engraving and metallurgy; of wine, barley, wheat, cattle, sheep, horses, and
agriculture generally. Who can doubt that it represents the history of a
real people?
Uranos was the first god; that is to say, the first king of the great race.
As he was at the commencement of all things, his symbol was the sky. He
probably represented the race previous even to the settlement of Atlantis.
He was a son of Gæa (the earth). He seems to have been the parent of three
races--the Titans, the Hekatoncheires, and the Kyklopes or Cyclops.
I incline to the belief that these were civilized races, and that the
peculiarities ascribed to the last two refer to the vessels in which they
visited the shores of the barbarians.
The empire of the Titans was clearly the empire of Atlantis. "The most
judicious among our mythologists" (says Dr. Rees, "New British Cyclopædia,"
art. Titans)--"such as Gerard Vossius, Marsham, Bochart, and Father
Thomassin--are of opinion that the partition of the world among the sons of
Noah-Shem, Ham, and Japheth--was the original of the tradition of the same
partition among Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto," upon the breaking up of the
great empire of the Titans. "The learned Pezron contends that the division
which was made of this vast empire came, in after-times, to be taken for the
partition of the whole world; that Asia remaining in the hands of Jupiter
(Zeus), the most potent of the three brothers, made him looked upon as the
god of Olympus; that the sea and islands which fell to Neptune occasioned
their giving him the title of 'god of the sea;' and that Spain, the
extremity of the then known world, thought to be a very low country in
respect of Asia, and famous for its excellent mines of gold and silver,
failing to Pluto, occasioned him to be taken for the 'god of the infernal
regions.'" We should suppose that Pluto possibly ruled over the
transatlantic possessions of Atlantis in America, over those "portions of
the opposite continent" which Plato tells us were dominated by Atlas and his
posterity, and which, being far beyond or below sunset, were the "under-
world" of the ancients; while Atlantis, the Canaries, etc., constituted the
island division with Western Africa and Spain. Murray tells us ("Mythology,"
p. 58) that Pluto's share of the kingdom was supposed to lie "in the remote
west." The under-world of the dead was simply the world below the western
horizon; "the home of the dead has to do with that far west region where the
sun dies at night." ("Anthropology," p. 350.) "On the coast of Brittany,
where Cape Raz stands out westward into the ocean, there is 'the Bay of
Souls,' the launching-place where the departed spirits sail off across the
sea." (Ibid.) In like manner, Odysseus found the land of the dead in the
ocean beyond the Pillars of Hercules. There, indeed, was the land of the
mighty dead, the grave of the drowned Atlanteans.
"However this be," continues F. Pezron, "the empire of the Titans, according
to the ancients, was very extensive; they possessed Phrygia, Thrace, a part
of Greece, the island of Crete, and several other provinces to the inmost
recesses of Spain. To these Sanchoniathon seems to join Syria; and Diodorus
adds a part of Africa, and the kingdoms of Mauritania." The kingdoms of
Mauritania embraced all that north-western region of Africa nearest to
Atlantis in which are the Atlas Mountains, and in which, in the days of
Herodotus, dwelt the Atlantes.
Neptune, or Poseidon, says, in answer to a message from Jupiter,
No vassal god, nor of his train am I.
Three brothers, deities, from Saturn came,
And ancient Rhea, earth's immortal dame;
Assigned by lot our triple rule we know;
Infernal Pluto sways the shades below:
O'er the wide clouds, and o'er the starry plain
Ethereal Jove extends his high domain;
My court beneath the hoary waves I keep,
And hush the roaring of the sacred deep.
Iliad, book xviii.
Homer alludes to Poseidon as
"The god whose liquid arms are hurled
Around the globs, whose earthquakes rock the world."
Mythology tells us that when the Titans were defeated by Saturn they
retreated into the interior of Spain; Jupiter followed them up, and beat
them for the last time near Tartessus, and thus terminated a ten-years' war.
Here we have a real battle on an actual battle-field.
If we needed any further proof that the empire of the Titans was the empire
of Atlantis, we would find it in the names of the Titans: among these were
Oceanus, Saturn or Chronos, and Atlas; they were all the sons of Uranos.
Oceanus was at the base of the Greek mythology. Plato says ("Dialogues,"
Timæus, vol. ii., p. 533): "Oceanus and Tethys were the children of Earth
and Heaven, and from these sprung Phorcys, and Chronos, and Rhea, and many
more with them; and from Chronos and Rhea sprung Zeus and Hera, and all
those whom we know as their brethren, and others who were their children."
In other words, all their gods came out of the ocean; they were rulers over
some ocean realm; Chronos was the son of Oceanus, and Chronos was an
Atlantean god, and from him the Atlantic Ocean was called by tho ancients
"the Chronian Sea." The elder Minos was called "the Son of the Ocean:" he
first gave civilization to the Cretans; he engraved his laws on brass,
precisely as Plato tells us the laws of Atlantis were engraved on pillars of
brass.
The wanderings of Ulysses, as detailed in the "Odyssey" of Homer, are
strangely connected with the Atlantic Ocean. The islands of the Phnicians
were apparently in mid-ocean:
We dwell apart, afar
Within the unmeasured deep, amid its waves
The most remote of men; no other race
Hath commerce with us.--Odyssey, book vi.
The description of the Phæacian walls, harbors, cities, palaces, ships,
etc., seems like a recollection of Atlantis. The island of Calypso appears
also to have been in the Atlantic Ocean, twenty days' sail from the Phæacian
isles; and when Ulysses goes to the land of Pluto, "the under-world," the
home of the dead, he
"Reached the far confines of Oceanus,"
beyond the Pillars of Hercules. It would be curious to inquire how far the
poems of Homer are Atlantean in their relations and inspiration. Ulysses's
wanderings were a prolonged struggle with Poseidon, the founder and god of
Atlantis.
"The Hekatoncheires, or Cetimæni, beings each with a hundred hands, were
three in number--Kottos, Gyges or Gyes, and Briareus--and represented the
frightful crashing of waves, and its resemblance to the convulsions of
earthquakes." (Murray's "Mythology," p. 26.) Are not these hundred arms the
oars of the galleys, and the frightful crashing of the waves their movements
in the water?
"The Kyklopes also were three in number--Brontes, with his thunder;
Steropes, with his lightning; and Arges, with his stream of light. They were
represented as having only one eye, which was placed at the juncture between
the nose and brow. It was, however, a large, flashing eye, as became beings
who were personifications of the storm-cloud, with its flashes of
destructive lightning and peals of thunder."
We shall show hereafter that the invention of gunpowder dates back to the
days of the Phnicians, and may have been derived by them from Atlantis. It
is not impossible that in this picture of the Kyklopes we see a tradition of
sea-going ships, with a light burning at the prow, and armed with some
explosive preparation, which, with a roar like thunder, and a flash like
lightning, destroyed those against whom it was employed? It at least
requires less strain upon our credulity to suppose these monsters were a
barbarian's memory of great ships than to believe that human beings ever
existed with a hundred arms, and with one eye in the middle of the forehead,
and giving out thunder and lightning.
The natives of the West India Islands regarded the ships of Columbus as
living creatures, and that their sails were wings.
Berosus tells us, speaking of the ancient days of Chaldea, "In the first
year there appeared, from that part of the Erythræan Sea which borders upon
Babylonia, an animal endowed with reason, by name Oannes, whose whole body
(according to the account of Apollodorus) was that of a fish; that under the
fish's head he had another head, with feet also below, similar to those of a
man, subjoined to the fish's tail. His. voice too and language was
articulate and human, and a representation of him is preserved even unto
this day. This being was accustomed to pass the day among men, but took no
food at that season, and he gave them an insight into letters and arts of
all kinds. He taught them to construct cities, to found temples, to compile
laws, and explained to them the principles of geometrical knowledge. He made
them distinguish the seeds of the earth, and showed them how to collect the
fruits; in short, be instructed them in everything which could tend to
soften manners and humanize their laws. From that time nothing material has
been added by way of improvement to his instructions. And when the sun set,
this being, Oannes, retired again into the sea, and passed the night in the
deep, for he was amphibious. After this there appeared other animals like
Oannes."
This is clearly the tradition preserved by a barbarous people of the great
ships of a civilized nation, who colonized their coast and introduced the
arts and sciences among them. And here we see the same tendency to represent
the ship as a living thing, which converted the war-vessels of the
Atlanteans (the Kyklopes) into men with one blazing eye in the middle of the
forehead.
Uranos was deposed from the throne, and succeeded by his son Chronos. He was
called "the ripener, the harvest-god," and was probably identified with the
beginning of the Agricultural Period. He married his sister Rhea, who bore
him Pluto, Poseidon, Zeus, Hestia, Demeter, and Hera. He anticipated that
his sons would dethrone him, as he had dethroned his father, Uranos, and he
swallowed his first five children, and would have swallowed the sixth child,
Zeus, but that his wife Rhea deceived him with a stone image of the child;
and Zeus was conveyed to the island of Crete, and there concealed in a cave
and raised to manhood. Subsequently Chronos "yielded back to the light the
children he had swallowed." This myth probably means that Chronos had his
children raised in some secret place, where they could not be used by his
enemies as the instruments of a rebellion against his throne; and the stone
image of Zeus, palmed off upon him by Rhea, was probably some other child
substituted for his own. His precautions seem to have been wise; for as soon
as the children returned to the light they commenced a rebellion, and drove
the old gentleman from his throne. A rebellion of the Titans followed. The
struggle was a tremendous one, and seems to have been decided at last by the
use of gunpowder, as I shall show farther on.
We have seen Chronos identified with the Atlantic, called by the Romans the
"Chronian Sea." He was known to the Romans under the name of Saturn, and
ruled over "a great Saturnian continent" in the Western Ocean. Saturn, or
Chronos, came to Italy: he presented himself to the king, Janus, "and
proceeded to instruct the subjects of the latter in agriculture, gardening,
and many other arts then quite unknown to them; as, for example, how to tend
and cultivate the vine. By such means he at length raised the people from a
rude and comparatively barbarous condition to one of order and peaceful
occupations, in consequence of which he was everywhere held in high esteem,
and, in course of time, was selected by Janus to share with him the
government of the country, which thereupon assumed the name of Saturnia--'a
land of seed and fruit.' The period of Saturn's government was sung in later
days by poets as a happy time, when sorrows were unknown, when innocence,
freedom, and gladness reigned throughout the land in such a degree as to
deserve the title of the Golden Age." (Murray's Mythology," p. 32.)
All this accords with Plato's story. He tells us that the rule of the
Atlanteans extended to Italy; that they were a civilized, agricultural, and
commercial people. The civilization of Rome was therefore an outgrowth
directly from the civilization of Atlantis.
The Roman Saturnalia was a remembrance of the Atlantean colonization. It was
a period of joy and festivity; master and slave met as equals; the
distinctions of poverty and wealth were forgotten; no punishments for crime
were inflicted; servants and slaves went about dressed in the clothes of
their masters; and children received presents from their parents or
relatives. It was a time of jollity and mirth, a recollection of the Golden
Age. We find a reminiscence of it in the Roman "Carnival."
The third and last on the throne of the highest god was Zeus. We shall see
him, a little farther on, by the aid of some mysterious engine overthrowing
the rebels, the Titans, who rose against his power, amid the flash of
lightning and the roar of thunder. He was called "the thunderer," and "the
mighty thunderer." He was represented with thunder-bolts in his hand and an
eagle at his feet.
During the time of Zeus Atlantis seems to have reached its greatest height
of power. He was recognized as the father of the whole world; he everywhere
rewarded uprightness, truth, faithfulness, and kindness; be was merciful to
the poor, and punished the cruel. To illustrate his rule on earth the
following story is told:
"Philemon and Baukis, an aged couple of the poorer class, were living
peacefully and full of piety toward the gods in their cottage in Phrygia,
when Zeus, who often visited the earth, disguised, to inquire into the
behavior of men, paid a visit, in passing through Phrygia on such a journey,
to these poor old people, and was received by them very kindly as a weary
traveller, which he pretended to be. Bidding him welcome to the house, they
set about preparing for their guest, who was accompanied by Hermes, as
excellent a meal as they could afford, and for this purpose were about to
kill the only goose they had left, when Zeus interfered; for he was touched
by their kindliness and genuine piety, and that all the more because be had
observed among the other inhabitants of the district nothing but cruelty of
disposition and a habit of reproaching and despising the gods. To punish
this conduct he determined to visit the country with a flood, but to save
from it Philemon and Baukis, the good aged couple, and to reward them in a
striking manner. To this end he revealed himself to them before opening the
gates of the great flood, transformed their poor cottage on the hill into a
splendid temple, installed the aged pair as his priest and priestess, and
granted their prayer that they might both die together. When, after many
years, death overtook them, they were changed into two trees, that side by
side in the neighborhood--an oak and a linden." (Murray's "Mythology," p.
38.)
Here we have another reference to the Flood, and another identification with
Atlantis.
Zeus was a kind of Henry VIII., and took to himself a number of wives. By
Demeter (Ceres) he had Persephone (Proserpine); by Leto, Apollo and Artemis
(Diana); by Dione, Aphrodite (Venus); by Semele, Dionysos (Bacchus); by
Maia, Hermes (Mercury); by Alkmene, Hercules, etc., etc.
We have thus the whole family of gods and goddesses traced back to Atlantis.
Hera, or Juno, was the first and principal wife of Zeus. There were numerous
conjugal rows between the royal pair, in which, say the poets, Juno was
generally to blame. She was naturally jealous of the other wives of Zeus.
Zeus on one occasion beat her, and threw her son Hephæstos out of Olympus;
on another occasion he hung her out of Olympus with her arms tied and two
great weights attached to her feet--a very brutal and ungentlemanly trick--
but the Greeks transposed this into a beautiful symbol: the two weights,
they say, represent the earth and sea, "an illustration of how all the
phenomena of the visible sky were supposed to hang dependent on the highest
god of heaven!" (Ibid., p. 47.) Juno probably regarded the transaction in an
altogether different light; and she therefore United with Poseidon, the
king's brother, and his daughter Athena, in a rebellion to put the old
fellow in a strait-jacket, "and would have succeeded had not Thetis brought
to his aid the sea-giant Ægæon," probably a war-ship. She seems in the main,
however, to have been a good wife, and was the type of all the womanly
virtues.
Poseidon, the first king of Atlantis, according to Plato, was, according to
Greek mythology, a brother of Zeus, and a son of Chronos. In the division of
the kingdom he fell heir to the ocean and its islands, and to the navigable
rivers; in other words, he was king of a maritime and commercial people. His
symbol was the horse. "He was the first to train and employ horses;" that is
to say, his people first domesticated the horse. This agrees with what Plato
tells us of the importance attached to the horse in Atlantis, and of the
baths and race-courses provided for him. He was worshipped in the island of
Tenos "in the character of a physician," showing that he represented an
advanced civilization. He was also master of an agricultural people; "the
ram with the golden fleece for which the Argonauts sailed was the offspring
of Poseidon." He carried in his hand a three-pronged symbol, the trident,
doubtless an emblem of the three continents that were embraced in the empire
of Atlantis. He founded many colonies along the shores of the Mediterranean;
"he helped to build the walls of Troy;" the tradition thus tracing the
Trojan civilization to an Atlantean source. He settled Attica and founded
Athens, named after his niece Athena, daughter of Zeus, who had no mother,
but had sprung from the bead of Zeus, which probably signified that her
mother's name was not known--she was a foundling. Athena caused the first
olive-tree to grow on the Acropolis of Athens, parent of all the olive-trees
of Greece. Poseidon seems to have had settlements at Corinth, Ægina, Naxos,
and Delphi. Temples were erected to his honor in nearly all the seaport
towns Of Greece. He sent a sea-monster, to wit, a slip, to ravage part of
the Trojan territory.
In the "Iliad" Poseidon appears "as ruler of the sea, inhabiting a brilliant
palace in its depths, traversing its surface in a chariot, or stirring the
powerful billows until the earth shakes as they crash upon the shores. . . .
He is also associated with well-watered plains and valleys." (Murray's
"Mythology," p, 51.) The palace in the depths of the sea was the palace upon
Olympus in Atlantis; the traversing of the sea referred to the movements of
a mercantile race; the shaking of the earth was an association with
earthquakes; the "well-watered plains and valleys" remind us of the great
plain of Atlantis described by Plato.
All the traditions of the coming of civilization into Europe point to
Atlantis.
For instance, Keleos, who lived at Eleusis, near Athens, hospitably received
Demeter, the Greek Ceres, the daughter of Poseidon, when she landed; and in
return she taught him the use of the plough, and presented his son with the
seed of barley, and sent him out to teach mankind bow to sow and utilize
that grain. Dionysos, grandson of Poseidon, travelled "through all the known
world, even into the remotest parts of India, instructing the people, as be
proceeded, how to tend the vine, and how to practise many other arts of
peace, besides teaching them the value of just and honorable dealings."
(Murray's "Mythology," p. 119.) The Greeks celebrated great festivals in his
honor down to the coming of Christianity.
"The Nymphs of Grecian mythology were a kind of middle beings between the
gods and men, communicating with both, loved and respected by both; . . .
living like the gods on ambrosia. In extraordinary cases they were summoned,
it was believed, to the councils of the Olympian gods; but they usually
remained in their particular spheres, in secluded grottoes and peaceful
valleys, occupied in spinning, weaving, bathing, singing sweet songs,
dancing, sporting, or accompanying deities who passed through their
territories--hunting with Artemis (Diana), rushing about with Dionysos
(Bacchus), making merry with Apollo or Hermes (Mercury), but always in a
hostile attitude toward the wanton and excited Satyrs."
The Nymphs were plainly the female inhabitants of Atlantis dwelling on the
plains, while the aristocracy lived on the higher lands. And this is
confirmed by the fact that part of them were called Atlantids, offspring of
Atlantis. The Hesperides were also "daughters of Atlas;" their mother was
Hesperis, a personification of "the region of the West." Their home was an
island in the ocean," Off the north or west coast of Africa.
And here we find a tradition which not only points to Atlantis, but also
shows some kinship to the legend in Genesis of the tree and the serpent.
Titæa, "a goddess of the earth," gave Zeus a tree bearing golden apples on
it. This tree was put in the care of the Hesperides, but they could not
resist the temptation to pluck and eat its fruit; thereupon a serpent named
Ladon was put to watch the tree. Hercules slew the serpent, and gave the
apples to the Hesperides.
Heracles (Hercules), we have seen, was a son of Zeus, king of Atlantis. One
of his twelve labors (the tenth) was the carrying off the cattle of Geryon.
The meaning of Geryon is the red glow of the sunset." He dwelt on the island
of "Erythea, in the remote west, beyond the Pillars of Hercules." Hercules
took a ship, and after encountering a storm, reached the island and placed
himself on Mount Abas. Hercules killed Geryon, stole the cattle, put them on
the ship, and landed them safely, driving them "through Iberia, Gaul, and
over the Alps down into Italy." (Murray's "Mythology," p. 257.) This was
simply the memory of a cattle raid made by an uncivilized race upon the
civilized, cattle-raising people of Atlantis.
It is not necessary to pursue the study of the gods of Greece any farther.
They were simply barbarian recollections of the rulers of a great civilized
people who in early days visited their shores, and brought with them the
arts of peace.
Here then, in conclusion, are the proofs of our proposition that the gods of
Greece had been the kings of Atlantis:
1. They were not the makers, but the rulers of the world.
2. They were human in their attributes; they loved, sinned, and fought
battles, the very sites of which are given; they founded cities, and
civilized the people of the shores of the Mediterranean.
3. They dwelt upon an island in the Atlantic,." in the remote west. . . .
where the sun shines after it has ceased to shine on Greece."
4. Their land was destroyed in a deluge.
5. They were ruled over by Poseidon and Atlas.
6. Their empire extended to Egypt and Italy and the shores of Africa,
precisely as stated by Plato.
7. They existed during the Bronze Age and at the beginning of the Iron Age.
CHAPTER III.
THE GODS OF THE PHNICIANS ALSO KINGS OF ATLANTIS.
NOT alone were the gods of the Greeks the deified kings of Atlantis, but we
find that the mythology of the Phnicians was drawn from the same source.
For instance, we find in the Phnician cosmogony that the Titans (Rephaim)
derive their origin from the Phnician gods Agrus and Agrotus. This connects
the Phnicians with that island in the remote west, in the midst of ocean,
where, according to the Greeks, the Titans dwelt.
According to Sanchoniathon, Ouranos was the son of Autochthon, and,
according to Plato, Autochthon was one of the ten kings of Atlantis. He
married his sister Ge. He is the Uranos of the Greeks, who was the son of
Gæa (the earth), whom he married. The Phnicians tell us, "Ouranos had by Ge
four sons: Ilus (El), who is called Chronos, and Betylus (Beth-El), and
Dagon, which signifies bread-corn, and Atlas (Tammuz?)." Here, again, we
have the names of two other kings of Atlantis. These four sons probably
represented four races, the offspring of the earth. The Greek Uranos was the
father of Chronos, and the ancestor of Atlas. The Phnician god Ouranos had
a great many other wives: his wife Ge was jealous; they quarrelled, and he
attempted to kill the children he had by her. This is the legend which the
Greeks told of Zeus and Juno. In the Phnician mythology Chronos raised a
rebellion against Ouranos, and, after a great battle, dethroned him. In the
Greek legends it is Zeus who attacks and overthrows his father, Chronos.
Ouranos had a daughter called Astarte (Ashtoreth), another called Rhea. "And
Dagon, after he had found out bread-corn and the plough, was called Zeus-
Arotrius."
We find also, in the Phnician legends, mention made of Poseidon, founder
and king of Atlantis.
Chronos gave Attica to his daughter Athena, as in the Greek legends. In a
time of plague be sacrificed his son to Ouranos, and "circumcised himself,
and compelled his allies to do the same thing." It would thus appear that
this singular rite, practised as we have seen by the Atlantidæ of the Old
and New Worlds, the Egyptians, the Phnicians, the Hebrews, the Ethiopians,
the Mexicans, and the red men of America, dates back, as we might have
expected, to Atlantis.
"Chronos visits the different regions of the habitable world."
He gave Egypt as a kingdom to the god Taaut, who had invented the alphabet.
The Egyptians called him Thoth, and he was represented among them as "the
god of letters, the clerk of the under-world," bearing a tablet, pen, and
palm-branch.
This not only connects the Phnicians with Atlantis, but shows the relations
of Egyptian civilization to both Atlantis and the Phnicians.
There can be no doubt that the royal personages who formed the gods of
Greece were also the gods of the Phnicians. We have seen the Autochthon of
Plato reappearing in the Autochthon of the Phnicians; the Atlas of Plato in
the Atlas of the Phnicians; the Poseidon of Plato in the Poseidon of the
Phnicians; while the kings Mestor and Mneseus of Plato are probably the
gods Misor and Amynus of the Phnicians.
Sanchoniathon tells us, after narrating all the discoveries by which the
people advanced to civilization, that the Cabiri set down their records of
the past by the command of the god Taaut, "and they delivered them to their
successors and to foreigners, of whom one was Isiris (Osiris), the inventor
of the three letters, the brother of Chua, who is called the first
Phnician." (Lenormant and Chevallier, "Ancient History of the East," vol.
ii., p. 228.)
This would show that the first Phnician came long after this line of the
kings or gods, and that he was a foreigner, as compared with them; and,
therefore, that it could not have been the Phnicians proper who made the
several inventions narrated by Sanchoniathon, but some other race, from whom
the Phnicians might have been descended.
And in the delivery of their records to the foreigner Osiris, the god of
Egypt, we have another evidence that Egypt derived her civilization from
Atlantis.
Max Müller says:
"The Semitic languages also are all varieties of one form of speech. Though
we do not know that primitive language from which the Semitic dialects
diverged, yet we know that at one time such language must have existed. . .
. We cannot derive Hebrew from Sanscrit, or Sanscrit from Hebrew; but we can
well understand bow both may have proceeded from one common source. They are
both channels supplied from one river, and they carry, though not always on
the surface, floating materials of language which challenge comparison, and
have already yielded satisfactory results to careful analyzers." ("Outlines
of Philosophy of History," vol. i., p. 475.)
There was an ancient tradition among the Persians that the Phnicians
migrated from the shores of the Erythræan Sea, and this has been supposed to
mean the Persian Gulf; but there was a very old city of Erythia, in utter
ruin in the time of Strabo, which was built in some ancient age, long before
the founding of Gades, near the site of that town, on the Atlantic coast of
Spain. May not this town of Erythia have given its name to the adjacent sea?
And this may have been the starting-point of the Phnicians in their
European migrations. It would even appear that there was an island of
Erythea. In the Greek mythology the tenth labor of Hercules consisted in
driving away the cattle of Geryon, who lived in the island of Erythea, "an
island somewhere in the remote west, beyond the Pillars of Hercules."
(Murray's "Mythology," p. 257.) Hercules stole the cattle from this remote
oceanic island, and, returning drove them "through Iberia, Gaul, over the
Alps, and through Italy." (Ibid.) It is probable that a people emigrating
from the Erythræan Sea, that is, from the Atlantic, first gave their name to
a town on the coast of Spain, and at a later date to the Persian Gulf--as we
have seen the name of York carried from England to the banks of the Hudson,
and then to the Arctic Circle.
The builders of the Central American cities are reported to have been a
bearded race. The Phnicians, in common with the Indians, practised human
sacrifices to a great extent; they worshipped fire and water, adopted the
names of the animals whose skins they wore--that is to say, they had the
totemic system--telegraphed by means of fires, poisoned their arrows,
offered peace before beginning battle, and used drums. (Bancroft's "Native
Races," vol. v., p. 77.)
The extent of country covered by the commerce of the Phnicians represents
to some degree the area of the old Atlantean Empire. Their colonies and
trading-posts extended east and west from the shores of the Black Sea,
through the Mediterranean to the west coast of Africa and of Spain, and
around to Ireland and England; while from north to south they ranged from
the Baltic to the Persian Gulf. They touched every point where civilization
in later ages made its appearance. Strabo estimated that they had three
hundred cities along the west coast of Africa. When Columbus sailed to
discover a new world, or re-discover an old one, he took his departure from
a Phnician seaport, founded by that great race two thousand five hundred
years previously. This Atlantean sailor, with his Phnician features,
sailing from an Atlantean port, simply re-opened the path of commerce and
colonization which had been closed when Plato's island sunk in the sea. And
it is a curious fact that Columbus had the antediluvian world in his mind's
eye even then, for when he reached the mouth of the Orinoco he thought it
was the river Gihon, that flowed out of Paradise, and he wrote home to
Spain, "There are here great indications suggesting the proximity of the
earthly Paradise, for not only does it correspond in mathematical position
with the opinions of the holy and learned theologians, but all other signs
concur to make it probable."
Sanchoniathon claims that the learning of Egypt, Greece, and Judæa was
derived from the Phnicians. It would appear probable that, while other
races represent the conquests or colonizations of Atlantis, the Phnicians
succeeded to their arts, sciences, and especially their commercial
supremacy; and hence the close resemblances which we have found to exist
between the Hebrews, a branch of the Phnician stock, and the people of
America.
Upon the Syrian sea the people live
Who style themselves Phnicians. . . .
These were the first great founders of the world--
Founders of cities and of mighty states--
Who showed a path through seas before unknown.
In the first ages, when the sons of men
Knew not which way to turn them, they assigned
To each his first department; they bestowed
Of land a portion and of sea a lot,
And sent each wandering tribe far off to share
A different soil and climate. Hence arose
The great diversity, so plainly seen,
'Mid nations widely severed.
Dyonysius of Susiana, A.D. 3,
CHAPTER IV.
THE GOD ODIN, WODEN, OR WOTAN.
IN the Scandinavian mythology the chief god was Odin, the Woden, Wotan, or
Wuotan of the Germans. He is represented with many of the attributes of the
Greek god Zeus, and is supposed by some to be identical with him. He dwelt
with the twelve Æsir, or gods, upon Asgard, the Norse Olympus, which arose
out of Midgard, a land half-way between the regions of frost and fire (to
wit, in a temperate climate). The Scandinavian Olympus was probably
Atlantis. Odin is represented as a grave-looking elderly man with a long
beard, carrying in his hand a spear, and accompanied by two dogs and two
ravens. He was the father of poetry, and the inventor of Runic writing.
The Chiapenese of Central America (the people whose language we have seen
furnishing such remarkable resemblances to Hebrew) claim to have been the
first people of the New World. Clavigero tells us ("Hist. Antiq. del
Messico," Eng. trans., 1807, vol. i.) that according to the traditions of
the Chiapenese there was a Votan who was the grandson of the man who built
the ark to save himself and family from the Deluge; he was one of those who
undertook to build the tower that should reach to heaven., The Lord ordered
him to people America. "He came from the East." He brought seven families
with him. He had been preceded in America by two others, Igh and Imox. He
built a great city in America called "Nachan," City of the Serpents (the
serpent that tempted Eve was Nahash), from his own race, which was named
Chan, a serpent. This Nachan is supposed to have been Palenque. The date of
his journey is placed in the legends in the year 3000 of the world, and in
the tenth century B.C. He also founded three tributary monarchies, whose
capitals were Tulan, Mayapan, and Chiquimala. He wrote a book containing a
history of his deeds, and proofs that he belonged to the tribe of Chanes
(serpents). He states that "he is the third of the Votans; that he conducted
seven families from Valum-Votan to this continent, and assigned lands to
them; that be determined to travel until he came to the root of heaven and
found his relations, the Culebres, and made himself known to them; that he
accordingly made four voyages to Chivim; that he arrived in Spain; that he
went to Rome; that he saw the house of God building; that be went by the
road which his brethren, the Culebres, had bored; that he marked it, and
that he passed by the houses of the thirteen Culebres. He relates that, in
returning from one of his voyages, he found seven other families of the
Tzequil nation who had joined the first inhabitants, and recognized in them
the same origin as his own, that is, of the Culebres; he speaks of the place
where they built the first town, which from its founders received the name
of Tzequil; he affirms that, having taught them the refinement of manners in
the use of the table, table-cloths, dishes, basins, cups, and napkins, they
taught him the knowledge of God and his worship; his first ideas of a king,
and obedience to him; that he was chosen captain of all these united
families."
It is probable that Spain and Rome are interpolations. Cabrera claims that
the Votanites were Carthaginians. He thinks the Chivim of Votan were the
Hivim, or Givim, who were descended of Heth, son of Canaan, Phnicians; they
were the builders of Accaron, Azotus, Ascalon, and Gaza. The Scriptures
refer to them as Hivites (Givim) in Deuteronomy (chap. ii., verse 32), and
Joshua (chap. xiii., verse 4). He claims that Cadmus and his wife Hermione
were of this stock; and according to Ovid they were metamorphosed into
snakes (Culebres). The name Hivites in Phnician signifies a snake.
Votan may not, possibly, have passed into Europe; be may have travelled
altogether in Africa. His singular allusion to "a way which the Culebres had
bored" seems at first inexplicable; but Dr. Livingstone's last letters,
published 8th November, 1869, in the "Proceedings of the Royal Geographical
Society," mention that "tribes live in underground houses in Rua. Some
excavations are said to be thirty miles long, and have running rills in
them; a whole district can stand a siege in them. The 'writings' therein, I
have been told by some of the people, are drawings of animals, and not
letters; otherwise I should have gone to see them. People very dark, well
made, and outer angle of eyes slanting inward."
And Captain Grant, who accompanied Captain Speke in his famous exploration
of the sources of the Nile, tells of a tunnel or subway under the river
Kaoma, on the highway between Loowemba and Marunga, near Lake Tanganyika.
His guide Manua describes it to him:
"I asked Manua if he had ever seen any country resembling it. His reply was,
'This country reminds me of what I saw in the country to the south of the
Lake Tanganyika, when travelling with an Arab's caravan from Unjanyembeh.
There is a river there called the Kaoma, running into the lake, the sides of
which are similar in precipitousness to the rocks before us.' I then asked,
'Do the people cross this river in boats?' 'No; they have no boats; and even
if they had, the people could not land, as the sides are too steep: they
pass underneath the river by a natural tunnel, or subway.' He and all his
party went through it on their way from Loowemba to Ooroongoo, and returned
by it. He described its length as having taken them from sunrise till noon
to pass through it, and so high that, if mounted upon camels, they could not
touch the top. Tall reeds, the thickness of a walking-stick, grew inside,
the road was strewed with white pebbles, and so wide--four hundred yards--
that they could see their way tolerably well while passing through it. The
rocks looked as if they had been planed by artificial means. Water never
came through from the river overhead; it was procured by digging wells.
Manua added that the people of Wambweh take shelter in this tunnel, and live
there with their families and cattle, when molested by the Watuta, a warlike
race, descended from the Zooloo Kafirs.
But it is interesting to find in this book of Votan, however little reliance
we may place in its dates or details, evidence that there was actual
intercourse between the Old World and the New in remote ages.
Humboldt remarks:
"We have fixed the special attention of our readers upon this Votan, or
Wodan, an American who appears of the same family with the Wods or Odins of
the Goths and of the people of Celtic origin. Since, according to the
learned researches of Sir William Jones, Odin and Buddha are probably the
same person, it is curious to see the names of Bondvar, Wodansday, and Votan
designating in India, Scandinavia, and in Mexico the day of a brief period."
("Vues des Cordilleras," p. 148, ed. 1810.)
CHAPTER V.
THE PYRAMID, THE CROSS, AND THE GARDEN OF EDEN.
No fact is better established than the reverence shown to the sign of the
Cross in all the ages prior to Christianity. We cannot do better than quote
from an able article in the Edinburgh Review of July, 1870, upon this
question:
"From the dawn of organized Paganism in the Eastern world to the final
establishment of Christianity in the Western, the Cross was undoubtedly one
of the commonest and most sacred of symbolical monuments; and, to a
remarkable extent, it is so still in almost every land where that of Calvary
is unrecognized or unknown. Apart from any distinctions of social or
intellectual superiority, of caste, color, nationality, or location in
either hemisphere, it appears to have been the aboriginal possession of
every people in antiquity--the elastic girdle, so to say, which embraced the
most widely separated heathen communities--the most significant token of a
universal brotherhood, to which all the families of mankind were severally
and irresistibly drawn, and by which their common descent was emphatically
expressed, or by means of which each and all preserved, amid every
vicissitude of fortune, a knowledge of the primeval happiness and dignity of
their species. Where authentic history is silent on the subject, the
material relics of past and long since forgotten races are not wanting to
confirm and strengthen this supposition. Diversified forms of the symbol are
delineated more or less artistically, according to the progress achieved in
civilization at the period, on the ruined walls of temples and palaces, on
natural rocks and sepulchral galleries, on the hoariest monoliths and the
rudest statuary; on coins, medals, and vases of every description; and, in
not a few instances, are preserved in the architectural proportions of
subterranean as well as superterranean structures, of tumuli as well as
fanes. The extraordinary sanctity attaching to the symbol, in every age and
under every variety of circumstance, justified any expenditure incurred in
its fabrication or embellishment; hence the most persistent labor, the most
consummate ingenuity, were lavished upon it. Populations of essentially
different culture, tastes, and pursuits--the highly-civilized and the demi-
civilized, the settled and nomadic--vied with each other in their efforts to
extend the knowledge of its exceptional import and virtue among their latest
posterities. The marvellous rock-hewn caves of Elephanta and Ellora, and the
stately temples of Mathura and Terputty, in the East, may be cited as
characteristic examples of one laborious method of exhibiting it; and the
megalithic structures of Callernish and Newgrange, in the West, of another;
while a third may be instanced. in the great temple at Mitzla, 'the City of
the Moon,' in Ojaaca, Central America. also excavated in the living rock,
and manifesting the same stupendous labor and ingenuity as are observable in
the cognate caverns of Salsette--of endeavors, we repeat, made by peoples as
intellectually as geographically distinct, and followers withal of
independent and unassociated deities, to magnify and perpetuate some grand
primeval symbol. . . .
"Of the several varieties of the Cross still in vogue, as national or
ecclesiastical emblems, in this and other European states, and distinguished
by the familiar appellations of St. George, St. Andrew, the Maltese, the
Greek, the Latin, etc., etc., there is not one among them the existence of
which may not be traced to the remotest antiquity. They were the common
property of the Eastern nations. No revolution or other casualty has wrought
any perceptible difference in their several forms or delineations; they have
passed from one hemisphere to the other intact; have survived dynasties,
empires, and races; have been borne on the crest of each successive wave of
Aryan population in its course toward the West; and, having been
reconsecrated in later times by their lineal descendants, are still
recognized as military and national badges of distinction. . . .
Among the earliest known types is the crux ansata, vulgarly called 'the key
of the Nile,' because of its being found sculptured or otherwise represented
so frequently upon Egyptian and Coptic monuments. It has, however, a very
much older and more sacred signification than this. It was the symbol of
symbols, the mystical Tau, 'the bidden wisdom,' not only of the ancient
Egyptians but also of the Chaldeans, Phnicians, Mexicans, Peruvians, and of
every other ancient people commemorated in history, in either hemisphere,
and is formed very similarly to our letter T, with a roundlet, or oval,
placed immediately above it. Thus it was figured on the gigantic emerald or
glass statue of Serapis, which was transported (293 B.C.) by order of
Ptolemy Soter from Sinope, on the southern shores of the Black Sea, re-
erected within that famous labyrinth which encompassed the banks of Lake
Mris, and destroyed by the victorious army of Theodosius (A.D. 389),
despite the earnest entreaties of the Egyptian priesthood to spare it,
because it was the emblem of their god and of 'the life to come.' Sometimes,
as may be seen on the breast of an Egyptian mummy in the museum of the
London University, the simple T only is planted on the frustum of a cone;
and sometimes it is represented as springing from a heart; in the first
instance signifying goodness; in the second, hope or expectation of reward.
As in the oldest temples and catacombs of Egypt, so this type likewise
abounds in the ruined cities of Mexico and Central America, graven as well
upon the most ancient cyclopean and polygonal walls as upon the more modern
and perfect examples of masonry; and is displayed in an equally conspicuous
manner upon the breasts of innumerable bronze statuettes which have been
recently disinterred from the cemetery of Juigalpa (of unknown antiquity) in
Nicaragua."
When the Spanish missionaries first set foot upon the soil of America, in
the fifteenth century, they were amazed to find the Cross was as devoutly
worshipped by the red Indians as by themselves, and were in doubt whether to
ascribe the fact to the pious labors of St. Thomas or to the cunning device
of the Evil One. The hallowed symbol challenged their attention on every
hand and in almost every variety of form. It appeared on the bass-reliefs of
ruined and deserted as well as on those of inhabited palaces, and was the
most conspicuous ornament in the great temple of Gozumel, off the coast of
Yucatan. According to the particular locality, and the purpose which it
served, it was formed of various materials--of marble and gypsum in the open
spaces of cities and by the way-side; of wood in the teocallis or chapels on
pyramidal summits and in subterranean sanctuaries; and of emerald or jasper
in the palaces of kings and nobles.
When we ask the question how it comes that the sign of the Cross has thus
been reverenced. from the highest antiquity by the races of the Old and New
Worlds, we learn that it is a reminiscence of the Garden of Eden, in other
words, of Atlantis.
Professor Hardwicke says:
"All these and similar traditions are but mocking satires of the old Hebrew
story--jarred and broken notes of the same strain; but with all their
exaggerations they intimate how in the background of man's vision lay a
paradise of holy joy--a paradise secured from every kind of profanation, and
made inaccessible to the guilty; a paradise full of objects that were
calculated to delight the senses and to elevate the mind a paradise that
granted to its tenant rich and rare immunities, and that fed with its
perennial streams the tree of life and immortality."
To quote again from the writer in the Edinburgh Review, already cited;
"Its undoubted antiquity, no less than its extraordinary diffusion,
evidences that it must have been, as it may be said to be still in
unchristianized lands, emblematical of some fundamental doctrine or mystery.
The reader will not have failed to observe that it is most usually
associated with water; it was 'the key of the Nile,' that mystical
instrument by means of which, in the popular judgment of his Egyptian
devotees, Osiris produced the annual revivifying inundations of the sacred
stream; it is discernible in that mysterious pitcher or vase portrayed on
the brazen table of Bembus, before-mentioned, with its four lips discharging
as many streams of water in opposite directions; it was the emblem of the
water-deities of the Babylonians in the East and of the Gothic nations in
the West, as well as that of the rain-deities respectively of the mixed
population in America. We have seen with what peculiar rites the symbol was
honored by those widely separated races in the western hemisphere; and the
monumental slabs of Nineveh, now in the museums of London and Paris, show us
bow it was similarly honored by the successors of the Chaldees in the
eastern. . . .
"In Egypt, Assyria, and Britain it was emblematical of creative power and
eternity; in India, China, and Scandinavia, of heaven and immortality; in
the two Americas, of rejuvenescence and freedom from physical suffering;
while in both hemispheres it was the common symbol of the resurrection, or
'the sign of the life to come;' and, finally, in all heathen communities,
without exception, it was the emphatic type, the sole enduring evidence, of
the Divine Unity. This circumstance alone determines its extreme antiquity--
an antiquity, in all likelihood, long antecedent to the foundation of either
of the three great systems of religion in the East. And, lastly, we have
seen how, as a rule, it is found in conjunction with a stream or streams of
water, with exuberant vegetation, and with a bill or a mountainous region--
in a word, with a land of beauty, fertility, and joy. Thus it was expressed
upon those circular and sacred cakes of the Egyptians, composed of the
richest materials-of flour, of honey, of milk--and with which the serpent
and bull, as well as other reptiles and beasts consecrated to the service of
Isis and their higher divinities, were daily fed; and upon certain festivals
were eaten with extraordinary ceremony by the people and their priests. 'The
cross-cake,' says Sir Gardner Wilkinson, 'was their hieroglyph for civilized
land;' obviously a land superior to their own, as it was, indeed, to all
other mundane territories; for it was that distant, traditional country of
sempiternal contentment and repose, of exquisite delight and serenity, where
Nature, unassisted by man, produces all that is necessary for his
sustentation."
And this land was the Garden of Eden of our race. This was the Olympus of
the Greeks, where
"This same mild season gives the blooms to blow,
The buds to harden and the fruits to grow."
In the midst of it was a sacred and glorious eminence--the umbilicus orbis
terrarum--"toward which the heathen in all parts of the world, and in all
ages, turned a wistful gaze in every act of devotion, and to which they
hoped to be admitted, or, rather, to be restored, at the close of this
transitory scene."
In this "glorious eminence" do we not see Plato's mountain in the middle of
Atlantis, as he describes it:
"Near the plain and in the centre of the island there was a mountain, not
very high on any side. In this mountain there dwelt one of the earth-born
primeval men of that country, whose name was Evenor, and he had a wife named
Leucippe, and they had an only daughter, who was named Cleito. Poseidon
married her. He enclosed the hill in which she dwelt all around, making
alternate zones of sea and land, larger and smaller, encircling one another;
there were two of land and three of water . . . so that no man could get to
the island. . . . He brought streams of water under the earth to this
mountain-island, and made all manner of food to grow upon it. This island
became the seat of Atlas, the over-king of the whole island; upon it they
built the great temple of their nation; they continued to ornament it in
successive generations, every king surpassing the one who came before him to
the utmost of his power, until they made the building a marvel to behold for
size and beauty. . . . And they had such an amount of wealth as was never
before possessed by kings and potentates--as is not likely ever to be
again."
The gardens of Alcinous and Laertes, of which we read in Homeric song, and
those of Babylon, were probably transcripts of Atlantis. "The sacred
eminence in the midst of a 'superabundant, happy region figures more or less
distinctly in a]most every mythology, ancient or modern. It was the
Mesomphalos of the earlier Greeks, and the Omphalium of the Cretans,
dominating the Elysian fields, upon whose tops, bathed in pure, brilliant,
incomparable light, the gods passed their days in ceaseless joys."
"The Buddhists and Brahmans, who together constitute nearly half the
population of the world, tell us that the decussated figure (the cross),
whether in a simple or a complex form, symbolizes the traditional happy
abode of their primeval ancestors--that 'Paradise of Eden toward the East,'
as we find expressed in the Hebrew. And, let us ask, what better picture, or
more significant characters, in the complicated alphabet of symbolism, could
have been selected for the purpose than a circle and a cross: the one to
denote a region of absolute purity and perpetual felicity; the other, those
four perennial streams that divided and watered the several quarters of it?"
(Edinburgh Review, January, 1870.)
And when we turn to the mythology of the Greeks, we find that the origin of
the world was ascribed to Okeanos, the ocean, The world was at first an
island surrounded by the ocean, as by a great stream:
"It was a region of wonders of all kinds; Okeanos lived there with his wife
Tethys: these were the Islands of the Blessed, the gardens of the gods, the
sources of nectar and ambrosia, on which the gods lived. Within this circle
of water the earth lay spread out like a disk, with mountains rising from
it, and the vault of heaven appearing to rest upon its outer edge all
around." (Murray's "Manual of Mythology," pp. 23, 24, et seq.)
On the mountains dwelt the gods; they had palaces on these mountains, with
store-rooms, stabling, etc.
"The Gardens of the Hesperides, with their golden apples, were believed to
exist in some island of the ocean, or, as it was sometimes thought, in the
islands off the north or west coast of Africa. They were far famed in
antiquity; for it was there that springs of nectar flowed by the couch of
Zeus, and there that the earth displayed the rarest blessings of the gods;
it was another Eden." (Ibid., p. 156.)
Homer described it in these words:
"Stern winter smiles on that auspicious clime,
The fields are florid with unfading prime,
From the bleak pole no winds inclement blow.
Mould the round hail, or flake the fleecy snow;
But from the breezy deep the blessed inhale
The fragrant murmurs of the western gale."
"It was the sacred Asgard of the Scandinavians, springing from the centre of
a fruitful land, which was watered by four primeval rivers of milk,
severally flowing in the direction of the cardinal points, 'the abode of
happiness, and the height of bliss.' It is the Tien-Chan, 'the celestial
mountain-land, . . . the enchanted gardens' of the Chinese and Tartars,
watered by the four perennial fountains of Tychin, or Immortality; it is the
hill-encompassed Ilá of the Singhalese and Thibetians, 'the everlasting
dwelling-place of the wise and just.' It is the Sineru of the Buddhist, on
the summit of which is Tawrutisa, the habitation of Sekrá, the supreme god,
from which proceed the four sacred streams, running in as many contrary
directions.
It is the Slávratta, 'the celestial earth,' of the Hindoo, the summit of his
golden mountain Meru, the city of Brahma, in the centre of Jambadwípa, and
from the four sides of which gush forth the four primeval rivers, reflecting
in their passage the colorific glories of their source, and severally
flowing northward, southward, eastward, and westward."
It is the Garden of Eden of the Hebrews:
"And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the
man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow
every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of
life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and
evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it
was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison; that
is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; and
the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. And the
name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole
land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it
which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.
And the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress
it and to keep it." (Gen. ii., 8-1-5.)
As the four rivers named in Genesis are not branches of any one stream, and
head in very different regions, it is evident that there was an attempt, on
the part of the writer of the Book, to adapt an ancient tradition concerning
another country to the known features of the region in which be dwelt.
Josephus tells us (chap. i., p. 41), "Now the garden (of Eden) was watered
by one river, which ran round about the whole earth, and was parted into
four parts." Here in the four parts we see the origin of the Cross, while in
the river running around the whole earth we have the wonderful canal of
Atlantis, described by Plato, which was "carried around the whole of the
plain," and received the streams which came down from the mountains. The
streams named by Josephus would seem to represent the migrations of people
from Atlantis to its colonies. "Phison," he tells us, "denotes a multitude;
it ran into India; the Euphrates and Tigris go down into the Red Sea while
the Geon runs through Egypt."
We are further told (chap. ii., p. 42) that when Cain, after the murder of.
Abel, left the land of Adam, "he travelled over many countries" before be
reached the land of Nod; and the land of Nod was to the eastward of Adam's
home. In other words, the original seat of mankind was in the West, that is
to say, in the direction of Atlantis. Wilson tells us that the Aryans of
India believed that they originally came "from the West." Thus the nations
on the west of the Atlantic look to the east for their place of origin;
while on the east of the Atlantic they look to the west: thus all the lines
of tradition converge upon Atlantis.
But here is the same testimony that in the Garden of Eden there were four
rivers radiating from one parent stream. And these four rivers, as we have
seen, we find in the Scandinavian traditions, and in the legends of the
Chinese, the Tartars, the Singhalese, the Thibetians, the Buddhists, the
Hebrews, and the Brahmans.
And not only do we find this tradition of the Garden of Eden in the Old
World, but it meets us also among the civilized races of America. The elder
Montezuma said to Cortez, "Our fathers dwelt in that happy and prosperous
place which they called Aztlan, which means whiteness. . . . In this place
there is a great mountain in the middle of the water which is called
Culhuacan, because it has the point somewhat turned over toward the bottom;
and for this cause it is called Culhuacan, which means 'crooked mountain.'"
He then proceeds to describe the charms of this favored land, abounding in
birds, game, fish, trees, "fountains enclosed with elders and junipers, and
alder-trees both large and beautiful." The people planted "maize, red
peppers, tomatoes, beans, and all kinds of plants, in furrows."
Here we have the same mountain in the midst of the water which Plato
describes--the same mountain to which all the legends of the most ancient
races of Europe refer.
The inhabitants of Aztlan were boatmen. (Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. v.,
p. 325.) E. G. Squier, in his "Notes on Central America," p. 349, says, "It
is a significant fact that in the map of their migrations, presented by
Gemelli, the place of the origin of the Aztecs is designated by the sign of
water, Atl standing for Atzlan, a pyramidal temple with grades, and near
these a palm-tree." This circumstance did not escape the attention of
Humboldt, who says, I am astonished at finding a palm-tree near this
teocalli. This tree certainly does not indicate a northern origin. . . . The
possibility that an unskilful artist should unintentionally represent a tree
of which he had no knowledge is so great, that any argument dependent on it
hangs upon a slender thread." ("North Americans of Antiquity," p. 266.)
The Miztecs, a tribe dwelling on the outskirts of Mexico, had a tradition
that the gods, "in the day of obscurity and darkness," built "a sumptuous
palace, a masterpiece of skill, in which they male their abode upon a
mountain. The rock was called 'The Place of Heaven;' there the gods first
abode on earth, living many years in great rest and content, as in a happy
and delicious land, though the world still lay in obscurity and darkness.
The children of these gods made to themselves a garden, in which they put
many trees, and fruit-trees, and flowers, and roses, and odorous herbs.
Subsequently there came a great deluge, in which many of the sons and
daughters of the gods perished." (Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iii., p.
71.) Here we have a distinct reference to Olympus, the Garden of Plato, and
the destruction of Atlantis.
And in Plato's account of Atlantis we have another description of the Garden
of Eden and the Golden Age of the world:
"Also, whatever fragrant things there are in the earth, whether roots, or
herbage, or woods, or distilling drops of flowers and fruits, grew and
thrived in that land; and again the cultivated fruits of the earth, both the
edible fruits and other species of food which we call by the name of
legumes, and the fruits having a hard rind, affording drinks and meats and
ointments . . . all these that sacred island, lying beneath the sun, brought
forth in abundance. . . . For many generations, as long as the divine nature
lasted in them, they were obedient to the laws, and well affectioned toward
the gods, who were their kinsmen; for they possessed true and in every way
great spirits, practising gentleness and wisdom in the various chances of
life, and in their intercourse with one another. They despised everything
but virtue, not caring for their present state of life, and thinking lightly
of the possession of gold and other property, which seemed only a burden to
them; neither were they intoxicated by luxury; nor did wealth deprive them
of their self-control; but they were sober, and saw clearly that all these
goods were increased by virtuous friendship with one another, and that by
excessive zeal for them, and honor of them, the good of them is lost, and
friendship perishes with them."
All this cannot be a mere coincidence; it points to a common tradition of a
veritable land, where four rivers flowed down in opposite directions from a
central mountain-peak. And these four rivers, flowing to the north, south,
east, and west, constitute the origin of that sign of the Cross which we
have seen meeting us at every point among the races who were either
descended from the people of Atlantis, or who, by commerce and colonization,
received their opinions and civilization from them.
Let us look at the question of the identity of the Garden of Eden with
Atlantis from another point of view:
If the alphabet of the Phnicians is kindred with the Maya alphabet, as I
think is clear, then the Phnicians were of the same race, or of some race
with which the Mayas were connected; in other words, they were from
Atlantis.
Now we know that the Phnicians and Hebrews were of the same stock, used the
same alphabet, and spoke almost precisely the same language.
The Phnicians preserved traditions, which have come down to us in the
writings, of Sanchoniathon, of all the great essential inventions or
discoveries which underlie civilization. The first two human beings, they
tell us, were Protogonos and Aion (Adam and 'Havath), who produce Genos and
Genea (Qên and Qênath), from whom again are descended three brothers, named
Phos, Phur, and Phlox (Light, Fire, and Flame), because they "have
discovered how to produce fire by the friction of two pieces of wood, and
have taught the use of this element." In another fragment, at the origin of
the human race we see in succession the fraternal couples of Autochthon and
Technites (Adam and Quen--Cain?), inventors of the manufacture of bricks;
Agros and Agrotes (Sade and Cêd), fathers of the agriculturists and hunters;
then Amynos and Magos, "who taught to dwell in villages and rear flocks."
The connection between these Atlantean traditions and the Bible record is
shown in many things. For instance, "the Greek text, in expressing the
invention of Amynos, uses the words kw'mas kai` poi'mnas, which are
precisely the same as the terms ôhel umiqneh, which the Bible uses in
speaking of the dwellings of the descendants of Jabal (Gen., chap. iv., v.
20). In like manner Lamech, both in the signification of his name and also
iv the savage character attributed to him by the legend attached to his
memory, is a true synonyme of Agrotes."
"And the title of A?lh~tai, given to Agros and Agrotes in the Greek of the
Phnician history, fits in wonderfully with the physiognomy of the race of
the Cainites in the Bible narrative, whether we take a?lh~tai simply as a
Hellenized transcription of the Semitic Elim, 'the strong, the mighty,' or
whether we take it in its Greek acceptation, 'the wanderers;' for such is
the destiny of Cain and his race according to the very terms of the
condemnation which was inflicted upon him after his crime (Gen. iv., 14),
and this is what is signified by the name of his grandson 'Yirad. Only, in
Sanchoniathon the genealogy does not end with Amynos and Magos, as that of
the Cainites in the Bible does with the three sons of Lamech. These two
personages are succeeded by Misôr and Sydyk, 'the released and the just,' as
Sanchoniathon translates them, but rather the 'upright and the just' (Mishôr
and Çüdüq), 'who invent the use of salt.' To Misôr is born Taautos (Taût),
to whom we owe letters; and to Sydyk the Cabiri or Corybantes, the
institutors of navigation." (Lenormant, "Genealogies between Adam and the
Deluge." Contemporary Review, April, 1880.)
We have, also, the fact that the Phnician name for their goddess Astynome
(Ashtar No'emâ), whom the Greeks called Nemaun, was the same as the name of
the sister of the three sons of Lamech, as given in Genesis--Na'emah, or
Na'amah.
If, then, the original seat of the Hebrews and Phnicians was the Garden of
Eden, to the west of Europe, and if the Phnicians are shown to be
connected, through their alphabets, with the Central Americans, who looked
to an island in the sea, to the eastward, as their starting-point, the
conclusion becomes irresistible that Atlantis and the Garden of Eden were
one and the same.
The Pyramid.--Not only are the Cross and the Garden of Eden identified with
Atlantis, but in Atlantis, the habitation of the gods, we find the original
model of all those pyramids which extend from India to Peru.
This singular architectural construction dates back far beyond the birth of
history. In the Purânas of the Hindoos we read of pyramids long anterior in
time to any which have survived to our day. Cheops was preceded by a
countless host of similar erections which have long since mouldered into
ruins.
If the reader will turn to page 104 of this work he will see, in the midst
of the picture of Aztlan, the starting-point of the Aztecs, according to the
Botturini pictured writing, a pyramid with worshippers kneeling before it.
Fifty years ago Mr. Faber, in his "Origin of Pagan Idolatry," placed
artificial tumuli, pyramids, and pagodas in the same category, conceiving
that all were transcripts of the holy mountain which was generally supposed
to have stood in the centre of Eden; or, rather. as intimated in more than
one place by the Psalmist, the garden itself was situated on an eminence.
(Psalms, chap. iii., v. 4, and chap. lxviii., vs. 15, 16, 18.)
The pyramid is one of the marvellous features of that problem which
confronts us everywhere, and which is insoluble without Atlantis.
The Arabian traditions linked the pyramid with the Flood. In a manuscript
preserved in the Bodleian Library, and translated by Dr. Sprenger, Abou
Balkhi says:
"The wise men, previous to the Flood, foreseeing an impending Judgment from
heaven, either by submersion or fire, which would destroy every created
thing, built upon the tops of the mountains in Upper Egypt many pyramids of
stone, in order to have some refuge against the approaching calamity. Two of
these buildings exceeded the rest in height, being four hundred cubits, high
and as many broad and as many long. They were built with large blocks of
marble, and they were so well put together that the joints were scarcely
perceptible. Upon the exterior of the building every charm and wonder of
physic was inscribed."
This tradition locates these monster structures upon the mountains of Upper
Egypt, but there are no buildings of such dimensions to be found anywhere in
Egypt. Is it not probable that we have here another reference to the great
record preserved in the land of the Deluge? Were not the pyramids of Egypt
and America imitations of similar structures in Atlantis? Might not the
building of such a gigantic edifice have given rise to the legends existing
on both continents in regard to a Tower of Babel?
How did the human mind hit upon this singular edifice--the pyramid? By what
process of development did it reach it? Why should these extraordinary
structures crop out on the banks of the Nile, and amid the forests and
plains of America? And why, in both countries, should they stand with their
sides square to the four cardinal points of the compass? Are they in this,
too, a reminiscence of the Cross, and of the four rivers of Atlantis that
ran to the north, south, east, and west?
"There is yet a third combination that demands a specific notice. The
decussated symbol is not unfrequently planted upon what Christian
archæologists designate 'a calvary,' that is, upon a mount or a cone. Thus
it is represented in both hemispheres. The megalithic structure of
Callernish, in the island of Lewis before mentioned, is the most perfect
example of the practice extant in Europe. The mount is preserved to this
day. This, to be brief, was the recognized conventional mode of expressing a
particular primitive truth or mystery from the days of the Chaldeans to
those of the Gnostics, or from one extremity of the civilized world to the
other. It is seen in the treatment of the ash Yggdrasill of the
Scandinavians, as well as in that of the Bo-tree of the Buddhists. The
prototype was not the Egyptian, but the Babylonian crux ansata, the lower
member of which constitutes a conical support for the oval or sphere above
it. With the Gnostics, who occupied the debatable ground between primitive
Christianity and philosophic paganism, and who inscribed it upon their
tombs, the cone symbolized death as well as life. In every heathen mythology
it was the universal emblem of the goddess or mother of heaven, by
whatsoever name she was addressed--whether as Mylitta, Astarte, Aphrodite,
Isis, Mata, or Venus; and the several eminences consecrated to her worship
were, like those upon which Jupiter was originally adored, of a conical or
pyramidal shape. This, too, is the ordinary form of the altars dedicated to
the Assyrian god of fertility. In exceptional instances the cone is
introduced upon one or the other of the sides, or is distinguishable in the
always accompanying mystical tree." (Edinburgh Review, July, 1870.)
If the reader will again turn to page 104 of this work he will see that the
tree appears on the top of the pyramid or mountain in both the Aztec
representations of Aztlan, the original island-home of the Central American
races.
The writer just quoted believes that Mr. Faber is correct in his opinion
that the pyramid is a transcript of the sacred mountain which stood in the
midst of Eden, the Olympus of Atlantis. He adds:
"Thomas Maurice, who is no mean authority, held the same view. He conceived
the use to which pyramids in particular were anciently applied to have been
threefold-namely, as tombs, temples, and observatories; and this view he
labors to establish in the third volume of his 'Indian Antiquities.' Now,
whatever may be their actual date, or with whatsoever people they may have
originated, whether in Africa or Asia, in the lower valley of the Nile or in
the plains of Chaldea, the pyramids of Egypt were unquestionably destined to
very opposite purposes. According, to Herodotus, they were introduced by the
Hyksos; and Proclus, the Platonic philosopher, connects them with the
science of astronomy--a science which, he adds, the Egyptians derived from
the Chaldeans. Hence we may reasonably infer that they served as well for
temples for planetary worship as for observatories. Subsequently to the
descent of the shepherds, their hallowed precincts were invaded by royalty,
from motives of pride and superstition; and the principal chamber in each
was used as tombs."
The pyramidal imitations, dear to the hearts of colonists of the sacred
mountain upon which their gods dwelt, was devoted, as perhaps the mountain
itself was, to sun and fire worship. The same writer says:
"That Sabian worship once extensively prevailed in the New World is a well-
authenticated fact; it is yet practised to some extent by the wandering
tribes on the Northern continent, and was the national religion of the
Peruvians at the time of the Conquest. That it was also the religion of
their more highly civilized predecessors on the soil, south of the equator
more especially, is evidenced by the remains of fire-altars, both round and
square, scattered about the shores of lakes Umayu and Titicaca, and which
are the counterparts of the Gueber dokh mehs overhanging the Caspian Sea.
Accordingly, we find, among these and other vestiges of antiquity that
indissolubly connected those long-since extinct populations in the New with
the races of the Old World, the well-defined symbol of the Maltese Cross. On
the Mexican feroher before alluded to, and which is most elaborately carved
in bass-relief on a massive piece of polygonous granite, constituting a
portion of a cyclopean wall, the cross is enclosed within the ring, and
accompanying it are four tassel-like ornaments, graved equally well. Those
accompaniments, however, are disposed without any particular regard to
order, but the four arms of the cross, nevertheless, severally and
accurately point to the cardinal quarters, The same regularity is observable
on a much smaller but not less curious monument, which was discovered some
time since in an ancient Peruvian huaca or catacomb--namely, a syrinx or
pandean pipe, cut out of a solid mass of lapis ollaris, the sides of which
are profusely ornamented, not only with Maltese crosses, but also with other
symbols very similar in style to those inscribed on the obelisks of Egypt
and on the monoliths of this country. The like figure occurs on the equally
ancient Otrusco black pottery. But by far the most remarkable example of
this form of the Cross in the New World is that which appears on a second
type of the Mexican feroher, engraved on a tablet of gypsum, and which is
described at length by its discoverer, Captain du Paix, and depicted by his
friend, M. Baradère. Here the accompaniments--a shield, a hamlet, and a
couple of bead-annulets or rosaries--are, with a single exception, identical
in even the minutest particular with an Assyrian monument emblematical of
the Deity. . . .
"No country in the world can compare with India for the exposition of the
pyramidal cross. There the stupendous labors of Egypt are rivalled, and
sometimes surpassed. Indeed, but for the fact of such monuments of patient
industry and unexampled skill being still in existence, the accounts of some
others which have long since disappeared, having succumbed to the ravages of
time and the fury of the bigoted Mussulman, would sound in our ears as
incredible as the story of Porsenna's tomb, which 'o'ertopped old Pelion,'
and made 'Ossa like a wart.' Yet something not very dissimilar in character
to it was formerly the boast of the ancient city of Benares, on the banks of
the Ganges. We allude to the great temple of Bindh Madhu, which was
demolished in the seventeenth century by the Emperor Aurungzebe. Tavernier,
the French baron, who travelled thither about the year 1680, has preserved a
brief description of it. The body of the temple was constructed in the
figure of a colossal cross (i. e., a St. Andrew's Cross), with a lofty dome
at the centre, above which rose a massive structure of a pyramidal form. At
the four extremities of the cross there were four other pyramids of
proportionate dimensions, and which were ascended from the outside by steps,
with balconies at stated distances for places of rest, reminding us of the
temple of Belus, as described in the pages of Herodotus. The remains of a
similar building are found at Mhuttra, on the banks of the Jumna. This and
many others, including the subterranean temple at Elephanta and the caverns
of Ellora and Salsette, are described at length in the well-known work by
Maurice; who adds that, besides these, there was yet another device in which
the Hindoo displayed the all-pervading sign; this was by pyramidal towers
placed crosswise. At the famous temple of Chillambrum, on the Coromandel
coast, there were seven lofty walls, one within the other, round the central
quadrangle, and as many pyramidal gate-ways in the midst of each side which
forms the limbs of a vast cross."
In Mexico pyramids were found everywhere. Cortez, in a letter to Charles V.,
states that he counted four hundred of them at Cholula. Their temples were
on those "high-places." The most ancient pyramids in Mexico are at
Teotihuacan, eight leagues from the city of Mexico; the two largest were
dedicated to the sun and moon respectively, each built of cut stone, with a
level area at the summit, and four stages leading up to it. The larger one
is 680 feet square at the base, about 200 feet high, and covers an area of
eleven acres. The Pyramid of Cholula, measured by Humboldt, is 160 feet
high, 1400 feet square at the base, and covers forty five acres! The great
pyramid of Egypt, Cheops, is 746 feet square, 450 feet high, and covers
between twelve and thirteen acres. So that it appears that the base of the
Teotihuacan structure is nearly as large as that of Cheops, while that of
Cholula covers nearly four times as much space. The Cheops pyramid, however,
exceeds very much in height both the American structures.
Señor Garcia y Cubas thinks the pyramids of Teotihuacan (Mexico) were built
for the same purpose as those of Egypt. He considers the analogy established
in eleven particulars, as follows: 1, the site chosen is the same; 2, the
structures are orientated with slight variation; 3, the line through the
centres of the structures is in the astronomical meridian; 4, the
construction in grades and steps is the same; 5, in both cases the larger
pyramids are dedicated to the sun; 6, the Nile has "a valley of the dead,"
as in Teotihuacan there is "a street of the dead;" 7, some monuments in each
class have the nature of fortifications; 8, the smaller mounds are of the
same nature and for the same purpose; 9, both pyramids have a small mound
joined to one of their faces; 10, the openings discovered in the Pyramid of
the Moon are also found in some Egyptian pyramids; 11, the interior
arrangements of the pyramids are analogous. ("Ensayo de un Estudio.")
It is objected that the American edifices are different in form from the
Egyptian, in that they are truncated, or flattened at the top; but this is
not an universal rule.
"In many of the ruined cities of Yucatan one or more pyramids have been
found upon the summit of which no traces of any building could be
discovered, although upon surrounding pyramids such structures could be
found. There is also some reason to believe that perfect pyramids have been
found in America. Waldeck found near Palenque two pyramids in a state of
perfect preservation, square at the base, pointed at the top, and thirty-one
feet high, their sides forming equilateral triangles." (Bancroft's Native
Races," vol. v., p. 58.)
Bradford thinks that some of the Egyptian pyramids, and those which with
some reason it has been supposed are the most ancient, are precisely similar
to the Mexican teocalli." ("North Americans of Antiquity" p. 423.)
And there is in Egypt another form of pyramid called the mastaba, which,
like the Mexican, was flattened on the top; while in Assyria structures
flattened like the Mexican are found. "In fact," says one writer, "this form
of temple (the flat-topped) has been found from Mesopotamia to the Pacific
Ocean." The Phnicians also built pyramids. In the thirteenth century the
Dominican Brocard visited the ruins of the Phnician city of Mrith or
Marathos, and speaks in the strongest terms of admiration of those pyramids
of surprising grandeur, constructed of blocks of stone from twenty-six to
twenty eight feet long, whose thickness exceeded the stature of a tall man.
("Prehistoric Nations," p. 144.)
"If," says Ferguson, "we still hesitate to pronounce that there was any
connection between the builders of the pyramids of Suku and Oajaca, or the
temples of Xochialco and Boro Buddor, we must at least allow that the
likeness is startling, and difficult to account for on the theory of mere
accidental coincidence."
The Egyptian pyramids all stand with their sides to the cardinal points,
while many of the Mexican pyramids do likewise. The Egyptian pyramids were
penetrated by small passage-ways; so were the Mexican. The Pyramid of
Teotihuacan, according to Almarez, has, at a point sixty-nine feet from the
base, a gallery large enough to admit a man crawling on hands and knees,
which extends, inward, on an incline, a distance of twenty feet, and
terminates in two square wells or chambers, each five feet square and one of
them fifteen feet deep. Mr. Löwenstern states, according to Mr. Bancroft
("Native Races," vol. iv., p. 533), that "the gallery is one hundred and
fifty-seven feet long, increasing in height to over six feet and a half as
it penetrates the pyramid; that the well is over six feet square, extending
(apparently) down to the base and up to the summit; and that other cross-
galleries are blocked up by débris." In the Pyramid of Cheops there is a
similar opening or passage-way forty-nine feet above the base; it is three
feet eleven inches high, and three feet five and a half inches wide; it
leads down a slope to a sepulchral chamber or well, and connects with other
passage-ways leading up into the body of the pyramid.
In both the Egyptian the American pyramids the outside of the structures was
covered with a thick coating of smooth, shining cement.
Humboldt considered the Pyramid of Cholula of the same type as the Temple of
Jupiter Belus, the pyramids of Meidoun Dachhour, and the group of Sakkarah,
in Egypt.
In both America and Egypt the pyramids were used as places of sepulture; and
it is a remarkable fact that the system of earthworks and mounds, kindred to
the pyramids, is found even in England. Silsbury Hill, at Avebury, is an
artificial mound one hundred and seventy feet high. It is connected with
ramparts, avenues (fourteen hundred and eighty yards long), circular
ditches, and stone circles, almost identical with those found in the valley
of the Mississippi. In Ireland the dead were buried in vaults of stone, and
the earth raised over them in pyramids flattened on the top. They were
called "moats" by the people. We have found the stone vaults at the base of
similar truncated pyramids in Ohio. There can be no doubt that the pyramid
was a developed and perfected mound, and that the parent form of these
curious structures is to be found in Silsbury Hill, and in the mounds of
earth of Central America and the Mississippi Valley.
We find the emblem of the Cross in pre-Christian times venerated as a holy
symbol on both sides of the Atlantic; and we find it explained as a type of
the four rivers of the happy island where the civilization of the race
originated.
We find everywhere among the European and American nations the memory of an
Eden of the race, where the first men dwelt in primeval peace and happiness,
and which was afterward destroyed by water.
We find the pyramid on both sides of the Atlantic, with its four sides
pointing, like the arms of the Cross, to the four cardinal points-a
reminiscence of Olympus; and in the Aztec representation of Olympos (Aztlan)
we find the pyramid as the central and typical figure.
CHAPTER VI.
GOLD AND SILVER THE SACRED METALS OF ATLANTIS.
MONEY is the instrumentality by which man is lifted above the limitations of
barter. Baron Storch terms it "the marvellous instrument to which we are
indebted for our wealth and civilization."
It is interesting to inquire into the various articles which have been used
in different countries and ages as money. The following is a table of some
of them:
Articles of Utility.
India
Cakes of tea.
China
Pieces of silk.
Abyssinia
Salt.
Iceland and Newfoundland
Codfish.
Illinois (in early days)
Coon-skins.
Bornoo (Africa)
Cotton shirts.
Ancient Russia
Skins of wild animals.
West India Islands (1500)
Cocoa-nuts.
Massachusetts Indians
Wampum and musket-balls.
Virginia (1700)
Tobacco.
British West India Islands
Pins, snuff, and whiskey.
Central South America
Soap, chocolate, and eggs.
Ancient Romans
Cattle.
Ancient Greece
Nails of copper and iron.
The Lacedemonians
Iron.
The Burman Empire
Lead.
Russia (1828 to 1845)
Platinum.
Rome (under Numa Pompilius)
Wood and leather.
Rome (under the Cæsars)
Land.
Carthaginians
Leather.
Ancient Britons Cattle,
slaves, brass, and iron.
England (under James II.)
Tin, gun-metal, and pewter.
South Sea Islands
Axes and hammers.
Articles of Ornament.
Ancient Jews
Jewels.
The Indian Islands and Africa
Cowrie shells,
Conventional Signs.
Holland (1574)
Pieces of pasteboard.
China (1200)
Bark of the mulberry-tree.
It is evident that every primitive people uses as money those articles upon
which they set the highest value--as cattle, jewels, slaves, salt, musket-
balls, pins, snuff, whiskey, cotton shirts, leather, axes, and hammers; or
those articles for which there was a foreign demand, and which they could
trade off to the merchants for articles of necessity--as tea, silk, codfish,
coonskins, cocoa-nuts, and tobacco. Then there is a later stage, when the
stamp of the government is impressed upon paper, wood, pasteboard, or the
bark of trees, and these articles are given a legal-tender character.
When a civilized nation comes in contact with a barbarous people they seek
to trade with them for those things which they need; a metal-working people,
manufacturing weapons of iron or copper, will seek for the useful metals,
and hence we find iron, copper, tin, and lead coming into use as a standard
of values--as money; for they can always be converted into articles of use
and weapons of war. But when we ask bow it chanced that gold and silver came
to be used as money, and why it is that gold is regarded as so much more
valuable than silver, no answer presents itself. It was impossible to make
either of them into pots or pans, swords or spears; they were not
necessarily more beautiful than glass or the combinations of tin and copper.
Nothing astonished the American races more than the extraordinary value set
upon gold and silver by the Spaniards; they could not understand it. A West
Indian savage traded a handful of gold-dust with one of the sailors
accompanying Columbus for some tool, and then ran for his life to the woods
lest the sailor should repent his bargain and call him back. The Mexicans
had coins of tin shaped like a letter T. We can understand this, for tin was
necessary to them in hardening their bronze implements, and it may have been
the highest type of metallic value among them. A round copper coin with a
serpent stamped on it was found at Palenque, and T-shaped copper coins are
very abundant in the ruins of Central America. This too we can understand,
for copper was necessary in every work of art or utility.
All these nations were familiar with gold and silver, but they used them as
sacred metals for the adornment of the temples of the sun and moon. The
color of gold was something of the color of the sun's rays, while the color
of silver resembled the pale light of the moon, and hence they were
respectively sacred to the gods of the sun and moon. And this is probably
the origin of the comparative value of these metals: they became the
precious metals because they were the sacred metals, and gold was more
valuable than silver--just as the sun-god was the great god of the nations,
while the mild moon was simply an attendant upon the sun.
The Peruvians called gold "the tears wept by the sun." It was not used among
the people for ornament or money. The great temple of the sun at Cuzco was
called the "Place of Gold." It was, as I have shown, literally a mine of
gold. Walls, cornices, statuary, plate, ornaments, all were of gold; the
very ewers, pipes, and aqueducts--even the agricultural implements used in
the garden of the temple--were of gold and silver. The value of the jewels
which adorned the temple was equal to one hundred and eighty millions of
dollars! The riches of the kingdom can be conceived when we remember that
from a pyramid in Chimu a Spanish explorer named Toledo took, in 1577,
$4,450,284 in gold and silver. ("New American Cyclopædia," art. American
Antiquities.) The gold and silver of Peru largely contributed to form the
metallic currency upon which Europe has carried on her commerce during the
last three hundred years.
Gold and silver were not valued in Peru for any intrinsic usefulness; they
were regarded as sacred because reserved for the two great gods of the
nation. As we find gold and silver mined and worked on both sides of the
Atlantic at the earliest periods of recorded history, we may fairly conclude
that they were known to the Atlanteans; and this view is confirmed by the
statements of Plato, who represents a condition of things in Atlantis
exactly like that which Pizarro found in Peru. Doubtless the vast
accumulations of gold and silver in both countries were due to the fact that
these metals were not permitted to be used by the people. In Peru the annual
taxes of the people were paid to the Inca in part in gold and silver from
the mines, and they were used to ornament the temples; and thus the work of
accumulating the sacred metals went on from generation to generation. The
same process doubtless led to the vast accumulations in the temples of
Atlantis, as described by Plato.
Now, as the Atlanteans carried on an immense commerce with all the countries
of Europe and Western Asia, they doubtless inquired and traded for gold and
silver for the adornment of their temples, and they thus produced a demand
for and gave a value to the two metals otherwise comparatively useless to
man--a value higher than any other commodity which the people could offer
their civilized customers; and as the reverence for the great burning orb of
the sun, master of all the manifestations of nature, was tenfold as great as
the veneration for the smaller, weaker, and variable goddess of the night,
so was the demand for the metal sacred to the sun ten times as great as for
the metal sacred to the moon. This view is confirmed by the fact that the
root of the word by which the Celts, the Greeks, and the Romans designated
gold was the Sanscrit word karat, which means, "the color of the sun." Among
the Assyrians gold and silver were respectively consecrated to the and moon
precisely as they were in Peru. A pyramid belonging to the palace of Nineveh
is referred to repeatedly in the inscriptions. It was composed of seven
stages, equal in height, and each one smaller in area than the one beneath
it; each stage was covered with stucco of different colors, "a different
color representing each of the heavenly bodies, the least important being at
the base: white (Venus); black (Saturn); purple (Jupiter); blue (Mercury);
vermillion (Mars); silver (the Moon); and gold (the Sun)." (Lenormant's
"Ancient History of the East," vol. i., p. 463.) "In England, to this day
the new moon is saluted with a bow or a courtesy, as well as the curious
practice of 'turning one's silver,' which seems a relic of the offering of
the moon's proper metal." (Tylor's "Anthropology", p. 361.) The custom of
wishing, when one first sees the new moon, is probably a survival of moon-
worship; the wish taking the place of the prayer.
And thus has it come to pass that, precisely as the physicians of Europe,
fifty years ago, practised bleeding, because for thousands of years their
savage ancestors had used it to draw away the evil spirits out of the man,
so the business of our modern civilization is dependent upon the
superstition of a past civilization, and the bankers of the world are to-day
perpetuating the adoration of "the tears wept by the sun" which was
commenced ages since on the island of Atlantis.
PART V.
THE COLONIES OF ATLANTIS.
CHAPTER I.
THE CENTRAL AMERICAN AND MEXICAN COLONIES.
THE western shores of Atlantis were not far distant from the West India
Islands; a people possessed of ships could readily pass from island to
island until they reached the continent. Columbus found the natives making
such voyages in open canoes. If, then, we will suppose that there was no
original connection between the inhabitants of the main-land and of
Atlantis, the commercial activity of the Atlanteans would soon reveal to
them the shores of the Gulf. Commerce implies the plantation of colonies;
the trading-post is always the nucleus of a settlement; we have seen this
illustrated in modern times in the case of the English East India Company
and the Hudson Bay Company. We can therefore readily believe that commercial
intercourse between Atlantis and Yucatan, Honduras and Mexico, created
colonies along the shores of the Gulf which gradually spread into the
interior, and to the high table-lands of Mexico. And, accordingly, we find,
as I have already shown, that all the traditions of Central America and
Mexico point to some country in the East, and beyond the sea, as the source
of their first civilized people; and this region, known among them as
"Aztlan," lived in the memory of the people as a beautiful and happy land,
where their ancestors had dwelt in peace for many generations.
Dr. Le Plongeon, who spent four years exploring Yucatan, says:
"One-third of this tongue (the Maya) is pure Greek. Who brought the dialect
of Homer to America? or who took to Greece that of the Mayas? Greek is the
offspring of the Sanscrit. Is Maya? or are they coeval? . . . The Maya is
not devoid of words from the Assyrian."
That the population of Central America (and in this term I include Mexico)
was at one time very dense, and had attained to a high degree of
civilization, higher even than that of Europe in the time of Columbus, there
can be no question; and it is also probable, as I have shown, that they
originally belonged to the white race. Dêsirè Charnay, who is now exploring
the ruins of Central America, says (North American Review, January, 1881, p.
48), "The Toltecs were fair, robust, and bearded. I have often seen Indians
of pure blood with blue eyes." Quetzalcoatl was represented as large, "with
a big head and a heavy beard." The same author speaks (page 44) of "the
ocean of ruins all around, not inferior in size to those of Egypt" At
Teotihuacan he measured one building two thousand feet wide on each side,
and fifteen pyramids, each nearly as large in the base as Cheops. "The city
is indeed of vast extent . . . the whole ground, over a space of five or six
miles in diameter, is covered with heaps of ruins--ruins which at first make
no impression, so complete is their dilapidation." He asserts the great
antiquity of these ruins, because be found the very highways of the ancient
city to be composed of broken bricks and pottery, the débris left by earlier
populations. "This continent," he says (page 43), "is the land of mysteries;
we here enter an infinity whose limits we cannot estimate. . . . I shall
soon have to quit work in this place. The long avenue on which it stands is
lined with ruins of public buildings and palaces, forming continuous lines,
as in the streets of modern cities. Still, all these edifices and balls were
as nothing compared with the vast substructures which strengthened their
foundations."
We find the strongest resemblances to the works of the ancient European
races: the masonry is similar; the cement is the same; the sculptures are
alike; both peoples used the arch; in both continents we find bricks,
glassware, and even porcelain (North American Review, December, 1880, pp.
524, 525), "with blue figures on a white ground;" also bronze composed of
the same elements of copper and tin in like proportions; coins made of
copper, round and T-shaped, and even metallic candlesticks.
Dêsirè Charnay believes that he has found in the ruins of Tula the bones of
swine, sheep, oxen, and horses, in a fossil state, indicating an immense
antiquity. The Toltecs possessed a pure and simple religion, like that of
Atlantis, as described by Plato, with the same sacrifices of fruits and
flowers; they were farmers; they raised and wove cotton; they cultivated
fruits; they used the sign of the Cross extensively; they cut and engraved
precious stones; among their carvings have been found representations of the
elephant and the lion, both animals not known in America. The forms of
sepulture were the same as among the ancient races of the Old World; they
burnt the bodies of their great men, and enclosed the dust in funeral urns;
some of their dead were buried in a sitting position, others reclined at
full length, and many were embalmed like the Egyptian mummies.
When we turn to Mexico, the same resemblances present themselves.
The government was an elective monarchy, like that of Poland, the king being
selected from the royal family by the votes of the nobles of the kingdom.
There was a royal family, an aristocracy, a privileged priesthood, a
judiciary, and a common people. Here we have all the several estates into
which society in Europe is divided.
There were thirty grand nobles in the kingdom, and the vastness of the realm
may be judged by the fact that each of these could muster one hundred
thousand vassals from their own estates, or a total of three millions. And
we have only to read of the vast hordes brought into the field against
Cortez to know that this was not an exaggeration.
They even possessed that which has been considered the crowning feature of
European society, the feudal system. The nobles held their lands upon the
tenure of military service.
But the most striking feature was the organization of the judiciary. The
judges were independent even of the king, and held their offices for life.
There were supreme judges for the larger divisions of the kingdom, district
judges in each of the provinces, and magistrates chosen by the people
throughout the country.
There was also a general legislative assembly, congress, or parliament, held
every eighty days, presided over by the king, consisting of all the judges
of the realm, to which the last appeal lay
"The rites of marriage," says Prescott, "were celebrated with as much
formality as in any Christian country; and the institution was held in such
reverence that a tribunal was instituted for the sole purpose of determining
questions relating to it. Divorces could not be obtained until authorized by
a sentence of the court, after a patient hearing of the parties."
Slavery was tolerated, but the labors of the slave were light, his rights
carefully guarded, and his children were free. The slave could own property,
and even other slaves.
Their religion possessed so many features similar to those of the Old World,
that the Spanish priests declared the devil had given them a bogus imitation
of Christianity to destroy their souls. "The devil," said they, "stole all
he could."
They had confessions, absolution of sins, and baptism. When their children
were named, they sprinkled their lips and bosoms with water, and "the Lord
was implored to permit the holy drops to wash away the sin that was given it
before the foundation of the world."
The priests were numerous and powerful. They practised fasts, vigils,
flagellations, and many of them lived in monastic seclusion.
The Aztecs, like the Egyptians, had progressed through all the three
different modes of writing--the picture-writing, the symbolical, and the
phonetic. They recorded all their laws, their tribute-rolls specifying the
various imposts, their mythology, astronomical calendars, and rituals, their
political annals and their chronology. They wrote on cotton-cloth, on skins
prepared like parchment, on a composition of silk and gum, and on a species
of paper, soft and beautiful, made from the aloe. Their books were about the
size and shape of our own, but the leaves were long strips folded together
in many folds.
They wrote poetry and cultivated oratory, and paid much attention to
rhetoric. They also had a species of theatrical performances.
Their proficiency in astronomy is thus spoken of by Prescott:
"That they should be capable of accurately adjusting their festivals by the
movements of the heavenly bodies, and should fix the true length of the
tropical year with a precision unknown to the great philosophers of
antiquity, could be the result only of a long series of nice and patient
observations, evincing no slight progress in civilization."
"Their women," says the same author, "are described by the Spaniards as
pretty, though with a serious and rather melancholy cast of countenance.
Their long, black hair might generally be seen wreathed with flowers, or,
among the richer people, with strings of precious stones and pearls from the
Gulf of California. They appear to have been treated with much consideration
by their husbands; and passed their time in indolent tranquillity, or in
such feminine occupations as spinning, embroidery, and the like; while their
maidens beguiled the hours by the rehearsal of traditionary tales and
ballads.
"Numerous attendants of both sexes waited at the banquets. The balls were
scented with perfumes, and the courts strewed with odoriferous herbs and
flowers, which were distributed in profusion among the guests as they
arrived. Cotton napkins and ewers of water were placed before them as they
took their seats at the board. Tobacco was them offered, in pipes, mixed
with aromatic substances, or in the form of cigars inserted in tubes of
tortoise-shell or silver. It is a curious fact that the Aztecs also took the
dried tobacco leaf in the pulverized form of snuff.
"The table was well supplied with substantial meats, especially game, among
which the most conspicuous was the turkey. Also, there were found very
delicious vegetables and. fruits of every variety native to the continent.
Their palate was still further regaled by confections and pastry, for which
their maize-flower and sugar furnished them ample materials. The meats were
kept warm with chafing-dishes. The table was ornamented with vases of silver
and sometimes gold of delicate workmanship. The favorite beverage was
chocolatl, flavored with vanilla and different spices. The fermented juice
of the maguey, with a mixture of sweets and acids, supplied various
agreeable drinks of different degrees of strength."
It is not necessary to describe their great public works, their floating
gardens, their aqueducts, bridges, forts, temples, palaces, and gigantic
pyramids, all ornamented with wonderful statuary.
We find a strong resemblance between the form of arch used in the
architecture of Central America and that of the oldest buildings of Greece.
The Palenque arch is made by the gradual overlapping of the strata of the
building, as shown in the accompanying cut from Baldwin's "Ancient America,"
page 100. It was the custom of these ancient architects to fill in the arch
itself with masonry, as shown in the picture on page 355 of the Arch of Las
Monjas, Palenque. If now we took at the representation of the "Treasure-
house of Atreus" at Mycenæ, on page 354-one of the oldest structures in
Greece--we find precisely the same form of arch, filled in in the same way.
Rosengarten ("Architectural Styles," p. 59) says:
"The base of these treasure-houses is circular, and the covering of a dome
shape; it does not, however, form an arch, but courses of stone are laid
horizontally over one another in such a way that each course projects beyond
the one below it, till the space at the highest course becomes so narrow
that a single stone covers it. Of all those that have survived to the
present day the treasure-house at Atreus is the most venerable."
The same form of arch is found among the ruins of that interesting people,
the Etruscans.
"Etruscan vaults are of two kinds. The more curious and probably the most
ancient are false arches, formed of horizontal courses of stone, each a
little overlapping the other, and carried on until the aperture at the top
could be closed by a single superincumbent slab. Such is the construction of
the Regulini-Galassi vault, at Cervetere, the ancient Cære." (Rawlinson's
"Origin of Nations," p. 117.)
CHAPTER II.
THE EGYPTIAN COLONY.
WHAT proofs have we that the Egyptians were a Mom from Atlantis?
1. They claimed descent from "the twelve great gods," which must have meant
the twelve gods of Atlantis, to wit, Poseidon and Cleito and their ten sons.
2. According to the traditions of the Phnicians, the Egyptians derived
their civilization from them; and as the Egyptians far antedated the rise of
the Phnician nations proper, this must have meant that Egypt derived its
civilization from the same country to which the Phnicians owed their own
origin. The Phnician legends show that Misor, from whom, the Egyptians were
descended, was the child of the Phnician gods Amynus and Magus. Misor gave
birth to Taaut, the god of letters, the inventor of the alphabet, and Taaut
became Thoth, the god of history of the Egyptians. Sanchoniathon tells us
that "Chronos (king of Atlantis) visited the South, and gave all Egypt to
the god Taaut, that it might be his kingdom." "Misor" is probably the king
"Mestor" named by Plato.
3. According to the Bible, the Egyptians were descendants of Ham, who was
one of the three sons of Noah who escaped from the Deluge, to wit, the
destruction of Atlantis.
4. The great similarity between the Egyptian civilization and that of the
American nations.
5. The fact that the Egyptians claimed to be red men.
6. The religion of Egypt was pre-eminently sun-worship, and Ra was the sun-
god of Egypt, Rama, the sun of the Hindoos, Rana, a god of the Toltecs,
Raymi, the great festival of the sun of the Peruvians, and Rayam, a god of
Yemen.
7. The presence of pyramids in Egypt and America.
8. The Egyptians were the only people of antiquity who were well-informed as
to the history of Atlantis. The Egyptians were never a maritime people, and
the Atlanteans must have brought that knowledge to them. They were not
likely to send ships to Atlantis.
9. We find another proof of the descent of the Egyptians from Atlantis in
their belief as to the "under-world." This land of the dead was situated in
the West--hence the tombs were all placed, whenever possible, on the west
bank of the Nile. The constant cry of the mourners as the funeral procession
moved forward was, "To the west; to the west." This under-world was beyond
the water, hence the funeral procession always crossed a body of water.
"Where the tombs were, as in most cases, on the west bank of the Nile, the
Nile was crossed; where they were on the eastern shore the procession passed
over a sacred lake." (R. S. Poole, Contemporary Review, August, 1881, p.
17.) In the procession was "a sacred ark of the sun."
All this is very plain: the under-world in the West, the land of the dead,
was Atlantis, the drowned world, the world beneath the horizon, beneath the
sea, to which the peasants of Brittany looked from Cape Raz, the most
western cape projecting into the Atlantic. It was only to be reached from
Egypt by crossing the water, and it was associated with the ark, the emblem
of Atlantis in all lands.
The soul of the dead man was supposed to journey to the under-world by "a
water progress" (Ibid., p. 18), his destination was the Elysian Fields,
where mighty corn grew, and where he was expected to cultivate the earth;
"this task was of supreme importance." (Ibid., p. 19.) The Elysian Fields
were the "Elysion" of the Greeks, the abode of the blessed, which we have
seen was an island in the remote west." The Egyptian belief referred to a
real country; they described its cities, mountains, and rivers; one of the
latter was called Uranes, a name which reminds us of the Atlantean god
Uranos. In connection with all this we must not forget that Plato described
Atlantis as "that sacred island lying beneath the sun." Everywhere in the
ancient world we find the minds of men looking to the west for the land of
the dead. Poole says, "How then can we account for this strong conviction?
Surely it must be a survival of an ancient belief which flowed in the very
veins of the race." (Contemporary Review, 1881, p. 19.) It was based on an
universal tradition that under "an immense ocean," in "the far west," there
was an "under-world," a world comprising millions of the dead, a mighty
race, that had been suddenly swallowed up in the greatest catastrophe known
to man since he had inhabited the globe.
10. There is no evidence that the civilization of Egypt was developed in
Egypt itself; it must have been transported there from some other country.
To use the words of a recent writer in Blackwood,
"Till lately it was believed that the use of the papyrus for writing was
introduced about the time of Alexander the Great; then Lepsius found the
hieroglyphic sign of the papyrus-roll on monuments of the twelfth dynasty;
afterward be found the same sign on monuments of the fourth dynasty, which
is getting back pretty close to Menes, the protomonarch; and, indeed, little
doubt is entertained that the art of writing on papyrus was understood as
early as the days of Menes himself. The fruits of investigation in this, as
m many other subjects, are truly most marvellous. Instead of exhibiting the
rise and progress of any branches of knowledge, they tend to prove that
nothing had any rise or progress, but that everything is referable to the
very earliest dates. The experience of the Egyptologist must teach him to
reverse the observation of Topsy, and to '`spect that nothing growed,' but
that as soon as men were planted on the banks of the Nile they were already
the cleverest men that ever lived, endowed with more knowledge and more
power than their successors for centuries and centuries could attain to.
Their system of writing, also, is found to have been complete from the very
first. . . .
"But what are we to think when the antiquary, grubbing in the dust and silt
of five thousand years ago to discover some traces of infant effort--some
rude specimens of the ages of Magog and Mizraim, in which we may admire the
germ that has since developed into a wonderful art--breaks his shins against
an article so perfect that it equals if it does not excel the supreme
stretch of modern ability? How shall we support the theory if it come to our
knowledge that, before Noah was cold in his grave, his descendants were
adepts in construction and in the fine arts, and that their achievements
were for magnitude such as, if we possess the requisite skill, we never
attempt to emulate? . . .
"As we have not yet discovered any trace of the rude, savage Egypt, but have
seen her in her very earliest manifestations already skilful, erudite, and
strong, it is impossible to determine the order of her inventions. Light may
yet be thrown upon her rise and progress, but our deepest researches have
hitherto shown her to us as only the mother of a most accomplished race. How
they came by their knowledge is matter for speculation; that they possessed
it is matter of fact. We never find them without the ability to organize
labor, or shrinking from the very boldest efforts in digging canals and
irrigating, in quarrying rock, in building, and in sculpture."
The explanation is simple: the waters of the Atlantic now flow over the
country where all this magnificence and power were developed by slow stages
from the rude beginnings of barbarism.
And how mighty must have been the parent nation of which this Egypt was a
colony!
Egypt was the magnificent, the golden bridge, ten thousand years long,
glorious with temples and pyramids, illuminated and illustrated by the most
complete and continuous records of human history, along which the
civilization of Atlantis, in a great procession of kings and priests,
philosophers and astronomers, artists and artisans, streamed forward to
Greece, to Rome, to Europe, to America. As far back in the ages as the eye
can penetrate, even where the perspective dwindles almost to a point, we can
still see the swarming multitudes, possessed of all the arts of the highest
civilization, pressing forward from out that other and greater empire of
which even this wonderworking Nile-land is but a faint and imperfect copy.
Look at the record of Egyptian greatness as preserved in her works: The
pyramids, still in their ruins, are the marvel of mankind. The river Nile
was diverted from its course by monstrous embankments to make a place for
the city of Memphis. The artificial lake of Mris was created as a reservoir
for the waters of the Nile: it was four hundred and fifty miles in
circumference and three hundred and fifty feet deep, with subterranean
channels, flood-gates, locks, and dams, by which the wilderness was redeemed
from sterility. Look at the magnificent mason-work of this ancient people!
Mr. Kenrick, speaking of the casing of the Great Pyramid, says, "The joints
are scarcely perceptible, and not wider than the thickness of silver-paper,
and the cement so tenacious that fragments of the casing-stones still remain
in their original position, notwithstanding the lapse of so many centuries,
and the violence by which they were detached." Look at the ruins of the
Labyrinth, which aroused the astonishment of Herodotus; it had three
thousand chambers, half of them above ground and half below--a combination
of courts, chambers, colonnades, statues, and pyramids. Look at the Temple
of Karnac, covering a square each side of which is eighteen hundred feet.
Says a recent writer, "Travellers one and all appear to have been unable to
find words to express the feelings with which these sublime remains inspired
them. They have been astounded and overcome by the magnificence and the
prodigality of workmanship here to be admired. Courts, halls, gate-ways,
pillars, obelisks, monolithic figures, sculptures, rows of sphinxes, are
massed in such profusion that the sight is too much for modern
comprehension." Denon says, "It is hardly possible to believe, after having
seen it, in the reality of the existence of so many buildings collected on a
single point--in their dimensions, in the resolute perseverance which their
construction required, and in the incalculable expense of so much
magnificence." And again, "It is necessary that the reader should fancy what
is before him to be a dream, as he who views the objects themselves
occasionally yields to the doubt whether he be perfectly awake." There were
lakes and mountains within the periphery of the sanctuary. "The cathedral of
Notre Dame at Paris could be set inside one of the halls of Karnac, and not
touch the walls! . . . The whole valley and delta of the Nile, from the
Catacombs to the sea, was covered with temples, palaces, tombs, pyramids,
and pillars." Every stone was covered with inscriptions.
The state of society in the early days of Egypt approximated very closely to
our modern civilization. Religion consisted in the worship of one God and
the practice of virtue; forty-two commandments prescribed the duties of men
to themselves, their neighbors, their country, and the Deity; a heaven
awaited the good and a hell the vicious; there was a judgment-day when the
hearts of men were weighed:
"He is sifting out the hearts of men
Before his judgment-seat."
Monogamy was the strict rule; not even the kings, in the early days, were
allowed to have more than one wife. The wife's rights of separate property
and her dower were protected by law; she was "the lady of the house;" she
could "buy, sell, and trade on her own account;" in case of divorce her
dowry was to be repaid to her, with interest at a high rate. The marriage-
ceremony embraced an oath not to contract any other matrimonial alliance.
The wife's status was as high in the earliest days of Egypt as it is now in
the most civilized nations of Europe or America.
Slavery was permitted, but the slaves were treated with the greatest
humanity. In the confessions, buried with the dead, the soul is made to
declare that "I have not incriminated the slave to his master," There was
also a clause in the commandments "which protected the laboring man against
the exaction of more than his day's labor." They were merciful to the
captives made in war; no picture represents torture inflicted upon them;
while the representation of a sea-fight shows them saving their drowning
enemies. Reginald Stuart Poole says (Contemporary Review, August, 1881, p.
43):
"When we consider the high ideal of the Egyptians, as proved by their
portrayals of a just life, the principles they laid down as the basis of
ethics, the elevation of women among them, their humanity in war, we must
admit that their moral place ranks very high among the nations of antiquity.
"The true comparison of Egyptian life is with that of modern nations. This
is far too difficult a task to be here undertaken. Enough has been said,
however, to show that we need not think that in all respects they were far
behind us."
Then look at the proficiency in art of this ancient people.
They were the first mathematicians of the Old World. Those Greeks whom we
regard as the fathers of mathematics were simply pupils of Egypt. They were
the first land-surveyors. They were the first astronomers, calculating
eclipses, and watching the periods of planets and constellations. They knew
the rotundity of the earth, which it was supposed Columbus had discovered!
"The signs of the zodiac were certainly in use among the Egyptians 1722
years before Christ. One of the learned men of our day, who for fifty years
labored to decipher the hieroglyphics of the ancients, found upon a mummy-
case in the British Museum a delineation of the signs of the zodiac, and the
position of the planets; the date to which they pointed was the autumnal
equinox of the year 1722 B.C. Professor Mitchell, to whom the fact was
communicated, employed his assistants to ascertain the exact position of the
heavenly bodies belonging to our solar system on the equinox of that year.
This was done, and a diagram furnished by parties ignorant of his object,
which showed that on the 7th of October, 1722 B.C. the moon and planets
occupied the exact point in the heavens marked upon the coffin in the
British Museum." (Goodrich's "Columbus," p. 22.)
They had clocks and dials for measuring time. They possessed gold and silver
money. They were the first agriculturists of the Old World, raising all the
cereals, cattle, horses, sheep, etc. They manufactured linen of so fine a
quality that in the days of King Amasis (600 years B.C.) a single thread of
a garment was composed of three hundred and sixty-five minor threads. They
worked in gold, silver, copper, bronze, and iron; they tempered iron to the
hardness of steel. They were the first chemists. The word "chemistry" comes
from chemi, and chemi means Egypt. They manufactured glass and all kinds of
pottery; they made boats out of earthenware; and, precisely as we are now
making railroad car-wheels of paper, they manufactured vessels of paper.
Their dentists filled teeth with gold; their farmers hatched poultry by
artificial beat. They were the first musicians; they possessed guitars,
single and double pipes, cymbals, drums, lyres, harps, flutes, the sambric,
ashur, etc.; they had even castanets, such as are now used in Spain. In
medicine and surgery they had reached such a degree of perfection that
several hundred years B.C. the operation for the removal of cataract from
the eye was performed among them; one of the most delicate and difficult
feats of surgery, only attempted by us in the most recent times. "The
papyrus of Berlin" states that it was discovered, rolled up in a case, under
the feet of an Anubis in the town of Sekhem, in the days of Tet (or Thoth),
after whose death it was transmitted to King Sent, and was then restored to
the feet of the statue. King Sent belonged to the second dynasty, which
flourished 4751 B.C., and the papyrus was old in his day. This papyrus is a
medical treatise; there are in it no incantations or charms; but it deals in
reasonable remedies, draughts, unguents and injections. The later medical
papyri contain a great deal of magic and incantations.
"Great and splendid as are the things which we know about oldest Egypt, she
is made a thousand times more sublime by our uncertainty as to the limits of
her accomplishments. She presents not a great, definite idea, which, though
hard to receive, is, when once acquired, comprehensible and clear. Under the
soil of the modern country are hid away thousands and thousands of relics
which may astonish the world for ages to come, and change continually its
conception of what Egypt was. The effect of research seems to be to prove
the objects of it to be much older than we thought them to be--some things
thought to be wholly modern having been proved to be repetitions of things
Egyptian, and other things known to have been Egyptian being by every
advance in knowledge carried back more and more toward the very beginning of
things. She shakes our most rooted ideas concerning the world's history; she
has not ceased to be a puzzle and a lure: there is a spell over her still."
Renan says, "It has no archaic epoch." Osborn says, "It bursts upon us at
once in the flower of its highest perfection." Seiss says ("A, Miracle in
Stone," p. 40), "It suddenly takes its place in the world in all its
matchless magnificence, without father, without mother, and as clean apart
from all evolution as if it had dropped from the unknown heavens." It had
dropped from Atlantis.
Rawlinson says ("Origin of Nations," p. 13):
"Now, in Egypt, it is notorious that there is no indication of any early
period of savagery or barbarism. All the authorities agree that, however far
back we go, we find in Egypt no rude or uncivilized time out of which
civilization is developed. Menes, the first king, changes the course of the
Nile, makes a great reservoir, and builds the temple of Phthah at Memphis. .
. . We see no barbarous customs, not even the habit, so slowly abandoned by
all people, of wearing arms when not on military service."
Tylor says (" Anthropology," p. 192):
"Among the ancient cultured nations of Egypt and Assyria handicrafts had
already come to a stage which could only have been reached by thousands of
years of progress. In museums still may be examined the work of their
joiners, stone-cutters, goldsmiths, wonderful in skill and finish, and in
putting to shame the modern artificer. . . . To see gold jewellery of the
highest order, the student should examine that of the ancients, such as the
Egyptian, Greek, and Etruscan."
The carpenters' and masons' tools of the ancient Egyptians were almost
identical with those used among us to-day.
There is a plate showing an Aztec priestess in Delafield's "Antiquities of
America," p. 61, which presents a head-dress strikingly Egyptian. In the
celebrated "tablet of the cross," at Palenque, we see a cross with a bird
perched upon it, to which (or to the cross) two priests are offering
sacrifice. In Mr. Stephens's representation from the Vocal Memnon we find
almost the same thing, the difference being that, instead of an ornamented
Latin cross, we have a crux commissa, and instead of one bird there are two,
not on the cross, but immediately above it. In both cases the hieroglyphics,
though the characters are of course different, are disposed upon the stone
in much the same manner. (Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. v., p. 61.)
Even the obelisks of Egypt have their counterpart in America.
Quoting from Molina ("History of Chili," tom. i., p. 169), McCullough
writes, "Between the hills of Mendoza and La Punta is a pillar of stone one
hundred and fifty feet high, and twelve feet in diameter." ("Researches,"
pp. 171, 172.) The columns of Copan stand detached and solitary, so do the
obelisks of Egypt; both are square or four-sided, and covered with
sculpture. (Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. v., p. 60.)
In a letter by Jomard, quoted by Delafield, we read,
"I have recognized in your memoir on the division of time among the Mexican
nations, compared with those of Asia, some very striking analogies between
the Toltec characters and institutions observed on the banks of the Nile.
Among these analogies there is one which is worthy of attention--it is the
use of the vague year of three hundred and sixty-five days, composed of
equal months, and of five complementary days, equally employed at Thebes and
Mexico--a distance of three thousand leagues. . . . In reality, the
intercalation of the Mexicans being thirteen days on each cycle of fifty-two
years, comes to the same thing as that of the Julian calendar, which is one
day in four years; and consequently supposes the duration of the year to be
three hundred and sixty-five days six hours. Now such was the length of the
year among the Egyptians--they intercalated an entire year of three hundred
and seventy-five days every one thousand four hundred and sixty years. ...
The fact of the intercalation (by the Mexicans) of thirteen days every cycle
that is, the use of a year of three hundred and sixty-five days and a
quarter--is a proof that it was borrowed from the Egyptians, or that they
had a common origin." ("Antiquities of America," pp. 52, 53.)
The Mexican century began on the 26th of February, and the 26th of February
was celebrated from the time of Nabonassor, 747 B.C., because the Egyptian
priests, conformably to their astronomical observations, had fixed the
beginning of the month Toth, and the commencement of their year, at noon on
that day. The five intercalated days to make up the three hundred and sixty-
five days were called by the Mexicans Nemontemi, or useless, and on them
they transacted no business; while the Egyptians, during that epoch,
celebrated the festival of the birth of their gods, as attested by Plutarch
and others.
It will be conceded that a considerable degree of astronomical knowledge
must have been necessary to reach the conclusion that the true year
consisted of three hundred and sixty-five days and six hours (modern science
has demonstrated that it consists of three hundred and sixty-five days and
five hours, less ten seconds); and a high degree of civilization was
requisite to insist that the year must be brought around, by the
intercalation of a certain number of days in a certain period of time, to
its true relation to the seasons. Both were the outgrowth of a vast, ancient
civilization of the highest order, which transmitted some part of its
astronomical knowledge to its colonies through their respective priesthoods.
Can we, in the presence of such facts, doubt the statements of the Egyptian
priests to Solon, as to the glory and greatness of Atlantis, its monuments,
its sculpture, its laws, its religion, its civilization?
In Egypt we have the oldest of the Old World children of Atlantis; in her
magnificence we have a testimony to the development attained by the parent
country; by that country whose kings were the gods of succeeding nations,
and whose kingdom extended to the uttermost ends of the earth.
CHAPTER III.
THE COLONIES OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY
IF we will suppose a civilized, maritime people to have planted colonies, in
the remote past, along the headlands and shores of the Gulf of Mexico,
spreading thence, in time, to the tablelands of Mexico and to the plains and
mountains of New Mexico and Colorado, what would be more natural than that
these adventurous navigators, passing around the shores of the Gulf, should,
sooner or later, discover the mouth of the Mississippi River; and what more
certain than that they would enter it, explore it, and plant colonies along
its shores, wherever they found a fertile soil and a salubrious climate.
Their outlying provinces would penetrate even into regions where the
severity of the climate would prevent great density of population or
development of civilization.
The results we have presupposed are precisely those which we find to have
existed at one time in the Mississippi Valley.
The Mound Builders of the United States were pre-eminently a river people.
Their densest settlements and greatest works were near the Mississippi and
its tributaries. Says Foster ("Prehistoric Races," p. 110), "The navigable
streams were the great highways of the Mound Builders."
Mr. Fontaine claims ("How the World was Peopled") that this ancient people
constructed "levees" to control and utilize the bayous of the Mississippi
for the purpose of agriculture and commerce. The Yazoo River is called
Yazoo-okhinnah--the River of Ancient Ruins. "There is no evidence that they
had reached the Atlantic coast; no authentic remains of the Mound Builders
are found in the New England States, nor even in the State of New York."
("North Americans of Antiquity," p. 28.) This would indicate that the
civilization of this people advanced up the Mississippi River and spread out
over its tributaries, but did not cross the Alleghany {sic} Mountains. They
reached, however, far up the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers, and thence
into Oregon. The head-waters of the Missouri became one of their great
centres of population; but their chief sites were upon the Mississippi and
Ohio rivers. In Wisconsin we find the northern central limit of their work;
they seem to have occupied the southern counties of the State, and the
western shores of Lake Michigan. Their circular mounds are found in
Minnesota and Iowa, and some very large ones in Dakota. Illinois and Indiana
were densely populated by them: it is believed that the vital centre of
their colonies was near the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.
The chief characteristic of the Mound Builders was that from which they
derived their name-the creation of great structures of earth or stone, not
unlike the pyramids of Mexico and Egypt. Between Alton and East St. Louis is
the great mound of Cahokia, which may be selected as a type of their works:
it rises ninety-seven feet high, while its square sides are 700 and 500 feet
respectively. There was a terrace on the south side 160 by 300 feet, reached
by a graded way; the summit of the pyramid is flattened, affording a
platform 200 by 450 feet. It will thus be seen that the area covered by the
mound of Cahokia is about as large as that of the greatest pyramid of Egypt,
Cheops, although its height is much less.
The number of monuments left by the Mound Builders is extraordinarily great.
In Ohio alone there are more than ten thousand tumuli, and from one thousand
to fifteen hundred enclosures. Their mounds were not cones but four-sided
pyramids-their sides, like those of the Egyptian pyramids, corresponding
with the cardinal points. (Foster's "Prehistoric Races," p. 112.)
The Mound Builders had attained a considerable degree of civilization; they
were able to form, in the construction of their works, perfect circles and
perfect squares of great accuracy, carried over the varying surface of the
country. One large enclosure comprises exactly forty acres. At Hopetown,
Ohio, are two walled figures--one a square, the other a circle--each
containing precisely twenty acres. They must have possessed regular scales
of measurement, and the means of determining angles and of computing the
area to be enclosed by the square and the circle, so that the space enclosed
by each might exactly correspond.
"The most skilful engineer of this day would find it difficult," says Mr.
Squier, "without the aid of instruments, to lay down an accurate square of
the great dimensions above represented, measuring, as they do, more than
four-fifths of a mile in circumference. . . . But we not only find accurate
squares and perfect circles, but also, as we have seen, octagons of great
dimensions."
They also possessed an accurate system of weights; bracelets of copper on
the arms of a skeleton have been found to be of uniform size, measuring each
two and nine-tenth inches, and each weighing precisely four ounces.
They built great military works surrounded by walls and ditches, with
artificial lakes in the centre to supply water. One work, Fort Ancient, on
the Little Miami River, Ohio, has a circuit of between four and five miles;
the embankment was twenty feet high; the fort could have held a garrison of
sixty thousand men with their families and provisions.
Not only do we find pyramidal structures of earth in the Mississippi Valley
very much like the pyramids of Egypt, Mexico, and Peru, but a very singular
structure is repeated in Ohio and Peru: I refer to the double walls or
prolonged pyramids, if I may coin an expression, shown in the cut page 375.
The Mound Builders possessed chains of fortifications reaching from the
southern line of New York diagonally across the country, through Central and
Northern Ohio to the Wabash. It would appear probable, therefore, that while
they advanced from the south it was from the north-east the savage races
came who drove them south or exterminated them.
At Marietta, Ohio, we find a combination of the cross and pyramid., (See p.
334, ante.) At Newark, Ohio, are extensive and intricate works: they occupy
an area two miles square, embraced within embankments twelve miles long. One
of the mounds is a threefold symbol, like a bird's foot; the central mound
is 155 feet long, and the other two each 110 feet it length. Is this curious
design a reminiscence of Atlantis and the three-pronged trident of Poseidon?
(See 4th fig., p, 242, ante.)
The Mound Builders made sun-dried brick mixed with rushes, as the Egyptians
made sun-dried bricks mixed with straw; they worked in copper, silver, lead,
and there are evidences, as we shall see, that they wrought even in iron.
Copper implements are very numerous in the mounds. Copper axes, spear-heads,
hollow buttons, bosses for ornaments, bracelets, rings, etc., are found in
very many of them strikingly similar to those of the Bronze Age in Europe.
In one in Butler County, Ohio, was found a copper fillet around the head of
a skeleton, with strange devices marked upon it.
Silver ornaments have also been found, but not in such great numbers. They
seem to have attached a high value to silver, and it is often found in thin
sheets, no thicker than paper, wrapped over copper or stone ornaments so
neatly as almost to escape detection. The great esteem in which they held a
metal so intrinsically valueless as silver, is another evidence that they
must have drawn their superstitions from the same source as the European
nations.
Copper is also often found in this manner plated over stone pipes,
presenting an unbroken metallic lustre, the overlapping edges so well
polished as to be scarcely discoverable. Beads and stars made of shells have
sometimes been found doubly plated, first with copper then with silver.
The Mound Builders also understood the art of casting metals, or they held
intercourse with some race who did; a copper axe it "cast" has been found in
the State of New York. (See Lubbock's "Prehistoric Times," p. 254, note.)
Professor Foster ("Prehistoric Races," p. 259) also proves that the ancient
people of the Mississippi Valley possessed this art, and he gives us
representations of various articles plainly showing the marks of the mould
upon them.
A rude article in the shape of an axe, composed of pure lead, weighing about
half a pound, was found in sinking a well within the trench of the ancient
works at Circleville. There can be no doubt it was the production of the
Mound Builders, as galena has often been found on the altars in the mounds.
It has been generally thought, by Mr. Squier and others, that there were no
evidences that the Mound Builders were acquainted with the use of iron, or
that their plating was more than a simple overlaying of one metal on
another, or on some foreign substance.
Some years since, however, a mound was opened at Marietta, Ohio, which seems
to have refuted these opinions. Dr. S. P. Hildreth, in a letter to the
American Antiquarian Society, thus speaks of it:
"Lying immediately over or on the forehead of the body were found three
large circular bosses, or ornaments for a sword-belt or buckler; they are
composed of copper overlaid with a thick plate of silver. The fronts are
slightly convex, with a depression like a cup in the centre, and they
measure two inches and a quarter across the face of each. On the back side,
opposite the depressed portion, is a copper rivet or nail, around which are
two separate plates by which they were fastened to the leather. Two small
pieces of leather were found lying between the plates of one of the bosses;
they resemble the skin of a mummy, and seem to have been preserved by the
salts of copper. Near the side of the body was found a plate of silver,
which appears to have been the upper part of a sword scabbard; it is six
inches in length, two in breadth, and weighs one ounce. It seems to have
been fastened to the scabbard by three or four rivets, the holes of which
remain in the silver.
"Two or three pieces of copper tube were also found, filled with iron rust.
These pieces, from their appearance, composed the lower end of the scabbard,
near the point of the sword. No signs of the sword itself were discovered,
except the rust above mentioned.
"The mound had every appearance of being as old as any in the neighborhood,
and was at the first settlement of Marietta covered with large trees. It
seems to have been made for this single personage, as this skeleton alone
was discovered. The bones were very much decayed, and many of them crumbled
to dust upon exposure to the air."
Mr. Squier says, "These articles have been critically examined, and it is
beyond doubt that the copper bosses were absolutely plated, not simply
overlaid, with silver. Between the copper and the silver exists a connection
such as, it seems to me, could only be produced by heat; and if it is
admitted that. these are genuine relies of the Mound Builders, it must, at
the same time, be admitted that they possessed the difficult art of plating
one metal upon another. There is but one alternative, viz., that they had
occasional or constant intercourse with a people advanced in the arts, from
whom these articles were obtained. Again, if Dr. Hildreth is not mistaken,
oxydized iron or steel was also discovered in connection with the above
remains, from which also follows the extraordinary conclusion that the Mound
Builders were acquainted with the use of iron, the conclusion being, of
course, subject to the improbable alternative already mentioned."
In connection with this subject, we would refer to the interesting evidences
that the copper mines of the shore of Lake Superior had been at some very
remote period worked by the Mound Builders. There were found deep
excavations, with rude ladders, huge masses of rock broken off, also
numerous stone tools, and all the evidences of extensive and long-continued
labor. It is even said that the great Ontonagon mass of pure copper which is
now in Washington was excavated by these ancient miners, and that when first
found its surface showed numerous marks of their tools.
There seems to be no doubt, then, that the Mound Builders were familiar with
the use of copper, silver, and lead, and in all probability of iron. They
possessed various mechanical contrivances. They were very probably
acquainted with the lathe. Beads of shell have been found looking very much
like ivory, and showing the circular striæ, identical with those produced by
turning in a lathe.
In a mound on the Scioto River was found around the neck of a skeleton
triple rows of beads, made of marine shells and the tusks of some animal.
"Several of these," says Squier, "still retain their polish, and bear marks
which seem to indicate that they were turned in some machine, instead of
being carved or rubbed into shape by hand."
"Not among the least interesting and remarkable relies," continues the same
author, "obtained from the mounds are the stone tubes. They are all carved
from fine-grained materials, capable of receiving a polish, and being made
ornamental as well as useful. The finest specimen yet discovered, and which
can scarcely be surpassed in the delicacy of its workmanship, was found in a
mound in the immediate vicinity of Chillicothe. It is composed of a compact
variety of slate. This stone cuts with great clearness, and receives a fine
though not glaring polish. The tube under notice is thirteen inches long by
one and one-tenth in diameter; one end swells slightly, and the other
terminates in a broad, flattened, triangular mouth-piece of fine
proportions, which is carved with mathematical precision. It is drilled
throughout; the bore is seven-tenths of an inch in diameter at the
cylindrical end of the tube, and retains that calibre until it reaches the
point where the cylinder subsides into the mouth-piece, when it contracts
gradually to one-tenth of an inch. The inner surface of the tube is
perfectly smooth till within a short distance of the point of contraction.
For the remaining distance the circular striæ, formed by the drill in
boring, are distinctly marked. The carving upon it is very fine."
That they possessed saws is proved by the fact that on some fossil teeth
found in one of the mounds the striæ of the teeth of the saw could be
distinctly perceived.
When we consider that some of their porphyry carvings will turn the edge of
the best-tempered knife, we are forced to conclude that they possessed that
singular process, known to the Mexicans and Peruvians of tempering copper to
the hardness of steel.
We find in the mounds adzes similar in shape to our own, with the edges
bevelled from the inside.
Drills and gravers of copper have also been found, with chisel-shaped edges
or sharp points.
"It is not impossible," says Squier, "but, on the contrary, very probable,
from a close inspection of the mound pottery, that the ancient people
possessed the simple approximation toward the potter's wheel; and the polish
which some of the finer vessels possess is due to other causes than
vitrification."
Their sculptures show a considerable degree of progress. They consist of
figures of birds, animals, reptiles, and the faces of men, carved from
various kinds of stones, upon the bowls of pipes, upon toys, upon rings, and
in distinct and separate figures. We give the opinions of those who have
examined them.
Mr. Squier observes: "Various though not abundant specimens of their skill
have been recovered, which in elegance of model, delicacy, and finish, as
also in fineness of material, come fully up to the best Peruvian specimens,
to which they bear, in many respects, a close resemblance. The bowls of most
of the stone pipes are carved in miniature figures of animals, birds,
reptiles, etc. All of them are executed with strict fidelity to nature, and
with exquisite skill. Not only are the features of the objects faithfully
represented, but their peculiarities and habits. are in some degree
exhibited. . . . The two heads here presented, intended to represent the
eagle, are far superior in point of finish, spirit, and truthfulness, to any
miniature carvings, ancient or modern, which have fallen under the notice of
the authors. The peculiar defiant expression of the king of birds is
admirably preserved in the carving, which in this respect, more than any
other, displays the skill of the artist."
Traces of cloth with "doubled and twisted fibre" have been found in the
mounds; also matting; also shuttle-like tablets, used in weaving. There have
also been found numerous musical pipes, with mouth-pieces and stops; lovers'
pipes, curiously and delicately carved, reminding us of Bryant's lines--
"Till twilight came, and lovers walked and wooed
In a forgotten language; and old tunes,
From instruments of unremembered forms,
Gave the soft winds a voice."
There is evidence which goes to prove that the Mound Builders had relations
with the people of a semi-tropical region in the direction of Atlantis,
Among their sculptures, in Ohio, we find accurate representations of the
lamantine, manatee, or sea-cow--found to-day on the shores of Florida,
Brazil, and Central America--and of the toucan, a tropical and almost
exclusively South American bird. Sea-shells from the Gulf, pearls from the
Atlantic, and obsidian from Mexico, have also been found side by side in
their mounds.
The antiquity of their works is now generally conceded. "From the ruins of
Nineveh and Babylon," says Mr. Gliddon, "we have bones of at least two
thousand five hundred years old; from the pyramids and the catacombs of
Egypt both mummied and unmummied crania have been taken, of still higher
antiquity, in perfect preservation; nevertheless, the skeletons deposited in
our Indian mounds, from the Lakes to the Gulf, are crumbling into dust
through age alone."
All the evidence points to the conclusion that civilized or semi-civilized
man has dwelt on the western continent from a vast antiquity. Maize,
tobacco, quinoa, and the mandico plants have been cultivated so long that
their wild originals have quite disappeared.
"The only species of palm cultivated by the South American Indians, that
known as the Gulielma speciosa, has lost through that culture its original
nut-like seed, and is dependent on the hands of its cultivators for its
life. Alluding to the above-named plants Dr. Brinton ("Myths of the New
World," p. 37) remarks, 'Several are sure to perish unless fostered by human
care. What numberless ages does this suggest? How many centuries elapsed ere
man thought of cultivating Indian corn? How many more ere it had spread over
nearly a hundred degrees of latitude and lost all resemblance to its
original form?' In the animal kingdom certain animals were domesticated by
the aborigines from so remote a period that scarcely any of their species,
as in the case of the lama of Peru, were to be found in a state of
unrestrained freedom at the advent of the Spaniards." (Short's "North
Americans of Antiquity," p. 11.)
The most ancient remains of man found in Europe are distinguished by a
flattening of the tibia; and this peculiarity is found to be present in an
exaggerated form in some of the American mounds. This also points to a high
antiquity.
"None of the works, mounds, or enclosures are found on the lowest formed of
the river terraces which mark the subsidence of the streams, and as there is
no good reason why their builders should have avoided erecting them on that
terrace while they raised them promiscuously on all the others, it follows,
not unreasonably, that this terrace has been formed since the works were
erected. (Baldwin's "Ancient America," p. 47.)
We have given some illustrations showing the similarity between the works of
the Mound Builders and those of the Stone and Bronze Age in Europe. (See pp.
251, 260, 261, 262, 265, 266, ante.)
The Mound Builders retreated southward toward Mexico, and probably arrived
there some time between A.D. 29 and A.D. 231, under the name of Nahuas. They
called the region they left in the Mississippi Valley "Hue Hue Tlapalan"--
the old, old red land--in allusion, probably, to the red-clay soil of part
of the country.
In the mounds we find many works of copper but none of bronze. This may
indicate one of two things: either the colonies which settled the
Mississippi Valley may have left Atlantis prior to the discovery of the art
of manufacturing bronze, by mixing one part of tin with nine parts of
copper, or, which is more probable, the manufactures of the Mound Builders
may have been made on the spot; and as they had no tin within their
territory they used copper alone, except, it may be, for such tools as were
needed to carve stone, and these, perhaps, were hardened with tin. It is
known that the Mexicans possessed the art of manufacturing true bronze; and
the intercourse which evidently existed between Mexico and the Mississippi
Valley, as proved by the presence of implements of obsidian in the mounds of
Ohio, renders it probable that the same commerce which brought them obsidian
brought them also small quantities of tin, or tin-hardened copper implements
necessary for their sculptures.
The proofs, then, of the connection of the Mound Builders with Atlantis are:
1. Their race identity with the nations of Central America who possessed
Flood legends, and whose traditions all point to an eastern, over-sea
origin; while the many evidences of their race identity with the ancient
Peruvians indicate that they were part of one great movement of the human
race, extending from the Andes to Lake Superior, and, as I believe, from
Atlantis to India.
2. The similarity of their civilization, and their works of stone and
bronze, with the civilization of the Bronze Age in Europe.
3. The presence of great truncated mounds, kindred to the pyramids of
Central America, Mexico, Egypt, and India.
4. The representation of tropical animals, which point to an intercourse
with the regions around the Gulf of Mexico, where the Atlanteans were
colonized.
5. The fact that the settlements of the Mound Builders were confined to the
valley of the Mississippi, and were apparently densest at those points where
a population advancing up that, stream would first reach high, healthy, and
fertile lands.
6. The hostile nations which attacked them came from the north; and when the
Mound Builders could no longer hold the country, or when Atlantis stink in
the sea, they retreated in the direction whence they came, and fell back
upon their kindred races in Central America, as the Roman troops in Gaul and
Britain drew southward upon the destruction of Rome.
7. The Natchez Indians, who are supposed to have descended from the Mound
Builders, kept a perpetual fire burning before an altar, watched by old men
who were a sort of priesthood, as in Europe.
CHAPTER IV.
THE IBERIAN COLONIES OF ATLANTIS
AT the farthest point in the past to which human knowledge extends a race
called Iberian inhabited the entire peninsula of Spain, from the
Mediterranean to the Pyrenees. They also extended over the southern part of
Gaul as far as the Rhone.
"It is thought that the Iberians from Atlantis and the north-west part of
Africa," says Winchell, "settled in the Southwest of Europe at a period
earlier than the settlement of the Egyptians in the north-east of Africa.
The Iberians spread themselves over Spain, Gaul, and the British Islands as
early as 4000 or 5000 B.C. . . . The fourth dynasty (of the Egyptians),
according to Brugsch, dates from about 3500 B.C. At this time the Iberians
had become sufficiently powerful to attempt the conquest of the known
world." ("Preadamites," p. 443.)
"The Libyan-Amazons of Diodorus--that is to say, the Libyans of the Iberian
race--must be identified with the Libyans with brown and grizzly skin, of
whom Brugsch has already pointed out the representations figured on the
Egyptian monuments of the fourth dynasty." (Ibid.)
The Iberians, known as Sicanes, colonized Sicily in the ancient days. They
were the original settlers in Italy and Sardinia. They are probably the
source of the dark-haired stock in Norway and Sweden. Bodichon claims that
the Iberians embraced the Ligurians, Cantabrians, Asturians, and
Aquitanians. Strabo says, speaking of the Turduli and Turdetani, "they are
the most cultivated of all the Iberians; they employ the art of writing, and
have written books containing memorials of ancient times, and also poems and
laws set in verse, for which they claim an antiquity of six thousand years."
(Strabo, lib. iii., p. 139.)
The Iberians are represented to-day by the Basques.
The Basque are "of middle size, compactly built, robust and agile, of a
darker complexion than the Spaniards, with gray eyes and black hair. They
are simple but proud, impetuous, merry, and hospitable. The women are
beautiful, skilful in performing men's work, and remarkable for their
vivacity and grace. The Basques are much attached to dancing, and are very
fond of the music of the bagpipe." ("New American Cyclopædia," art.
Basques.)
"According to Paul Broca their language stands quite alone, or has mere
analogies with the American type. Of all Europeans, we must provisionally
hold the Basques to be the oldest inhabitants of our quarter of the world."
(Peschel, "Races of Men," p. 501.)
The Basque language--the Euscara--"has some common traits with the Magyar,
Osmanli, and other dialects of the Altai family, as, for instance, with the
Finnic on the old continent, as well as the Algonquin-Lenape language and
some others in America." ("New American Cyclopædia," art. Basques.)
Duponceau says of the Basque tongue:
"This language, preserved in a corner of Europe by a few thousand
mountaineers, is the sole remaining fragment of, perhaps, a hundred dialects
constructed on the same plan, which probably existed and were universally
spoken at a remote period in that quarter of the world. Like the bones of
the mammoth, it remains a monument of the destruction produced by a
succession of ages. It stands single and alone of its kind, Surrounded by
idioms that have no affinity with it."
We have seen them settling, in the earliest ages, in Ireland. They also
formed the base of the dark-haired population of England and Scotland. They
seem to have race affinities with the Berbers, on the Mediterranean coast of
Africa.
Dr. Bodichon, for fifteen years a surgeon in Algiers, says
"Persons who have inhabited Brittany, and then go to Algeria, are struck
with the resemblance between the ancient Armoricans (the Brètons) and the
Cabyles (of Algiers). In fact, the moral and physical character is
identical. The Breton of pure blood has a long head, light yellow complexion
of bistre tinge, eyes black or brown, stature short, and the black hair of
the Cabyle. Like him, he instinctively hates strangers; in both are the same
perverseness and obstinacy, same endurance of fatigue, same love of
independence, same inflexion of the voice, same expression of feelings.
Listen to a Cabyle speaking his native ton(rue, and you will think you bear
a Breton talking Celtic."
The Bretons, he tells us, form a strong contrast to the people around them,
who are "Celts of tall stature, with blue eyes, white skins, and blond hair:
they are communicative, impetuous, versatile; they pass rapidly from courage
to despair. The Bretons are entirely different: they are taciturn, hold
strongly to their ideas and usages, are persevering and melancholic; in a
word, both in morale and physique they present the type of a southern race--
of the Atlanteans."
By Atlanteans Dr. Bodichon refers to the inhabitants of the Barbary States--
that being one of the names by which they were known to the Greeks and
Romans. He adds:
"The Atlanteans, among the ancients, passed for the favorite children of
Neptune; they made known the worship of this god to other nations-to the
Egyptians, for example. In other words, the Atlanteans were the first known
navigators. Like all navigators, they must have planted colonies at a
distance. The Bretons, in our opinion, sprung from one of them."
Neptune was Poseidon, according to Plato, founder of Atlantis.
CHAPTER V.
THE PERUVIAN COLONY.
IF we look at the map of Atlantis, as revealed by the deep sea soundings, we
will find that it approaches at one point, by its connecting ridge, quite
closely to the shore of South. America, above the mouth of the Amazon, and
that probably it was originally connected with it.
If the population of Atlantis expanded westwardly, it naturally found its
way in its ships up the magnificent valley of the Amazon and its
tributaries; and, passing by the low and fever-stricken lands of Brazil, it
rested not until it had reached the high, fertile, beautiful, and healthful
regions of Bolivia, from which it would eventually cross the mountains into
Peru.
Here it would establish its outlying colonies at the terminus of its western
line of advance, arrested only by the Pacific Ocean, precisely as we have
seen it advancing up the valley of the Mississippi, and carrying on its
mining operations on the shores of Lake Superior; precisely as we have seen
it going eastward up the Mediterranean, past the Dardanelles, and founding
Aryan, Hamitic, and probably Turanian colonies on the farther shores of the
Black Sea and on the Caspian. This is the universal empire over which, the
Hindoo books tell us, Deva Nahusha was ruler; this was "the great and
aggressive empire" to which Plato alludes; this was the mighty kingdom,
embracing the whole of the then known world, from which the Greeks obtained
their conception of the universal father of all men in King Zeus. And in
this universal empire Señor Lopez must find an explanation of the similarity
which, as we shall show, exists between the speech of the South American
Pacific coast on the one hand, and the speech of Gaul, Ireland, England,
Italy, Greece, Bactria, and Hindostan on the other.
Montesino tells us that at some time near the date of the Deluge, in other
words, in the highest antiquity, America was invaded by a people with four
leaders, named Ayar-manco-topa, Ayar-chaki, Ayar-aucca, and Ayar-uyssu.
"Ayar," says Señor Lopez, "is the Sanscrit Ajar, or aje, and means primitive
chief; and manco, chaki, aucca, and uyssu, mean believers, wanderers,
soldiers, husbandmen. We have here a tradition of castes like that preserved
in the four tribal names of Athens." The laboring class (naturally enough in
a new colony) obtained the supremacy, and its leader was named Pirhua-manco,
revealer of Pir, light (pu~r, Umbrian pir). Do the laws which control the
changes of language, by which a labial succeeds a labial, indicate that the
Mero or Merou of Theopompus, the name of Atlantis, was carried by the
colonists of Atlantis to South America (as the name of old York was
transplanted in a later age to New York), and became in time Pérou or Peru?
Was not the Nubian "Island of Merou," with its pyramids built by "red men,"
a similar transplantation? And when the Hindoo priest points to his sacred
emblem with five projecting points upon it, and tells us that they typify
"Mero and the four quarters of the world," does he not refer to Atlantis and
its ancient universal empire?
Manco, in the names of the Peruvian colonists, it has been urged, was the
same as Mannus, Manu, and the Santhal Maniko. It reminds us of Menes, Minos,
etc., who are found at the beginning of so many of the Old World traditions.
The Quichuas--this invading people--were originally a fair skinned race,
with blue eyes and light and even auburn hair; they had regular features,
large heads, and large bodies. Their descendants are to this day an olive-
skinned people, much lighter in color than the Indian tribes subjugated by
them.
They were a great race. Peru, as it was known to the Spaniards, held very
much the same relation to the ancient Quichua civilization as England in the
sixteenth century held to the civilization of the empire of the Cæsars. The
Incas were simply an offshoot, who, descending from the mountains, subdued
the rude races of the sea-coast, and imposed their ancient civilization upon
them.
The Quichua nation extended at one time over a region of country more than
two thousand miles long. This whole region, when the Spaniards arrived, "was
a populous and prosperous empire, complete in its civil organization,
supported by an efficient system of industry, and presenting a notable
development of some of the more important arts of civilized life."
(Baldwin's "Ancient America," p. 222.)
The companions of Pizarro found everywhere the evidences of a civilization
of vast antiquity. Cieça de Leon mentions it great edifices "that were in
ruins at Tiahuanaca, "an artificial hill raised on a groundwork of stone,"
and "two stone idols, apparently made by skilful artificers," ten or twelve
feet high, clothed in long robes. "In this place, also," says De Leon,
"there are stones so large and so overgrown that our wonder is excited, it
being incomprehensible how the power of man could have placed them where we
see them. They are variously wrought, and some of them, having the form of
men, must have been idols. Near the walls are many caves and excavations
under the earth; but in another place, farther west, are other and greater
monuments, such as large gate-ways with hinges, platforms, and porches, each
made of a single stone. It surprised me to see these enormous gate-ways,
made of great masses of stone, some of which were thirty feet long, fifteen
high, and six thick."
The capital of the Chimus of Northern Peru at Gran-Chimu was conquered by
the Incas after a long and bloody struggle, and the capital was given up to
barbaric ravage and spoliation. "But its remains exist to-day, the marvel of
the Southern Continent, covering not less than twenty square miles. Tombs.
temples, and palaces arise on every hand, ruined but still traceable.
Immense pyramidal structures, some of them half a mile in circuit; vast
areas shut in by massive walls, each containing its water-tank, its shops,
municipal edifices, and the dwellings of its inhabitants, and each a branch
of a larger organization; prisons, furnaces for smelting metals, and almost
every concomitant of civilization, existed in the ancient Chimu capital. One
of the great pyramids, called the "Temple of the Sun," is 812 feet long by
470 wide, and 150 high. These vast structures have been ruined for
centuries, but still the work of excavation is going on.
One of the centres of the ancient Quichua civilization was around Lake
Titicaca. The buildings here, as throughout Peru, were all constructed of
hewn stone, and had doors and windows with posts, sills, and thresholds of
stone.
At Cuelap, in Northern Peru, remarkable ruins were found. "They consist of a
wall of wrought stones 3600 feet long, 560 broad, and 150 high, constituting
a solid mass with a level summit. On this mass was another 600 feet long,
500 broad, and 150 high," making an aggregate height of three hundred feet!
In it were rooms and cells which were used as tombs.
Very ancient ruins, showing remains of large and remarkable edifices, were
found near Huamanga, and described by Cieça de Leon. The native traditions
said this city was built "by bearded white men, who came there long before
the time of the Incas, and established a settlement."
"The Peruvians made large use of aqueducts, which they built with notable
skill, using hewn stones and cement, and making them very substantial." One
extended four hundred and fifty miles across sierras and over rivers. Think
of a stone aqueduct reaching from the city of New York to the State of North
Carolina!
The public roads of the Peruvians were most remarkable; they were built on
masonry. One of the-se roads ran along the mountains through the whole
length of the empire, from Quito to Chili; another, starting from this at
Cuzco, went down to the coast, and extended northward to the equator. These
roads were from twenty to twenty-five feet wide, were macadamized with
pulverized stone mixed with lime and bituminous cement, and were walled in
by strong walls "more than a fathom in thickness." In many places these
roads were cut for leagues through the rock; great ravines were filled up
with solid masonry; rivers were crossed by suspension bridges, used here
ages before their introduction into Europe. Says Baldwin, "The builders of
our Pacific Railroad, with their superior engineering skill and mechanical
appliances, might reasonably shrink from the cost and the difficulties of
such a work as this. Extending from one degree north of Quito to Cuzco, and
from Cuzco to Chili, it was quite as long as the two Pacific railroads, and
its wild route among the mountains was far more difficult." Sarmiento,
describing it, said, "It seems to me that if the emperor (Charles V.) should
see fit to order the construction of another road like that which leads from
Quito to Cuzco, or that which from Cuzco goes toward Chili, I certainly
think be would not be able to make it, with all his power." Humboldt said,
"This road was marvellous; none of the Roman roads I had seen in Italy, in
the south of France, or in Spain, appeared to me more imposing than this
work of the ancient Peruvians."
Along these great roads caravansaries were established for the accommodation
of travellers.
These roads were ancient in the time of the Incas. They were the work of the
white, auburn-haired, bearded men from Atlantis, thousands of years before
the time of the Incas. When Huayna Capac marched his army over the main road
to invade Quito, it was so old and decayed "that he found great difficulties
in the passage," and he immediately ordered the necessary reconstructions.
It is not necessary, in a work of this kind, to give a detailed description
of the arts and civilization of the Peruvians.. They were simply marvellous.
Their works in cotton and wool exceeded in fineness anything known in Europe
at that time. They had carried irrigation, agriculture, and the cutting of
gems to a point equal to that of the Old World. Their accumulations of the
precious metals exceeded anything previously known in the history of the
world. In the course of twenty-five years after the Conquest the Spaniards
sent from Peru to Spain more than eight hundred millions of dollars of gold,
nearly all of it taken from the Peruvians as "booty." In one of their
palaces "they had an artificial garden, the soil of which was made of small
pieces of fine gold, and this was artificially planted with different kinds
of maize, which were of gold, their stems, leaves, and cars. Besides this,
they had more than twenty sheep (llamas) with their lambs, attended by
shepherds, all made of gold." In a description of one lot of golden
articles, sent to Spain in 1534 by Pizarro, there is mention of "four
llamas, ten statues of women of full size, and a cistern of gold, so curious
that it excited the wonder of all."
Can any one read these details and declare Plato's description of Atlantis
to be fabulous, simply because he tells us of the enormous quantities of
gold and silver possessed by the people? Atlantis was the older country, the
parent country, the more civilized country; and, doubtless, like the
Peruvians, its people regarded the precious metals as sacred to their gods;
and they had been accumulating them from all parts of the world for
countless ages. If the story of Plato is true, there now lies beneath the
waters of the Atlantic, covered, doubtless, by hundreds of feet of volcanic
débris, an amount of gold and silver exceeding many times that brought to
Europe from Peru, Mexico, and Central America since the time of Columbus; a
treasure which, if brought to light, would revolutionize the financial
values of the world.
I have already shown, in the chapter upon the similarities between the
civilizations of the Old and New Worlds, some of the remarkable coincidences
which existed between the Peruvians and the ancient European races; I will
again briefly, refer to a few of them:
1. They worshipped the sun, moon, and planets.
2. They believed in the immortality of the soul.
3. They believed in the resurrection of the body, and accordingly embalmed
their dead.
4. The priest examined the entrails of the animals offered in sacrifice,
and, like the Roman augurs, divined the future from their appearance.
5. They had an order of women vowed to celibacy-vestal virgins-nuns; and a
violation of their vow was punished, in both continents, by their being
buried alive.
6. They divided the year into twelve months.
7. Their enumeration was by tens; the people were divided into decades and
hundreds, like the Anglo-Saxons; and the whole nation into bodies of 500,
1000, and 10,000, with a governor over each.
8. They possessed castes; and the trade of the father descended to the son,
as in India.
9. They had bards and minstrels, who sung at the great festivals.
10. Their weapons were the same as those of the Old World, and made after
the same pattern.
11. They drank toasts and invoked blessings.
12. They built triumphal arches for their returning heroes, and strewed the
road before them with leaves and flowers.
13. They used sedan-chairs.
14. They regarded agriculture as the principal interest of the nation, and
held great agricultural fairs and festivals for the interchange of the
productions of the farmers.
15. The king opened the agricultural season by a great celebration, and,
like the kings of Egypt, be put his hand to the plough, and ploughed the
first furrow.
16. They had an order of knighthood, in which the candidate knelt before the
king; his sandals were put on by a nobleman, very much as the spurs were
buckled on the European knight; he was then allowed to use the girdle or
sash around the loins, corresponding to the toga virilis of the Romans; he
was then crowned with flowers. According to Fernandez, the candidates wore
white shirts, like the knights of the Middle Ages, with a cross embroidered
in front.
17. There was a striking resemblance between the architecture of the
Peruvians and that of some of the nations of the Old World. It is enough for
me to quote Mr. Ferguson's words, that the coincidence between the buildings
of the Incas and the Cyclopean remains attributed to the Pelasgians in Italy
and Greece, "is the most remarkable in the history of architecture."
The illustrations on page 397 strikingly confirm Mr. Ferguson's views.
"The sloping jambs, the window cornice, the polygonal masonry, and other
forms so closely resemble what is found in the old Pelasgic cities of Greece
and Italy, that it is difficult to resist the conclusion that there may be
some relation between them."
Even the mode of decorating their palaces and temples finds a parallel in
the Old World. A recent writer says:
"We may end by observing, what seems to have escaped Señor Lopez, that the
interior of an Inca palace, with its walls covered with gold, as described
by Spaniards, with its artificial golden flowers and golden beasts, must
have been exactly like the interior of the house of Alkinous or Menelaus--
"'The doors were framed of gold,
Where underneath the brazen floor doth glass
Silver pilasters, which with grace uphold
Lintel of silver framed; the ring was burnished gold,
And dogs on each side of the door there stand,
Silver and golden.'"
"I can personally testify" (says Winchell, "Preadamites," p. 387) "that a
study of ancient Peruvian pottery has constantly reminded me of forms with
which we are familiar in Egyptian archæology."
Dr. Schliemann, in his excavations of the ruins of Troy, found a number of
what he calls "owl-headed idols" and vases. I give specimens on page 398 and
page 400.
In Peru we find vases with very much the same style of face.
I might pursue those parallels much farther; but it seems to me that these
extraordinary coincidences must have arisen either from identity of origin
or long-continued ancient intercourse. There can be little doubt that a
fair-skinned, light-haired, bearded race, holding the religion which Plato
says prevailed in Atlantis, carried an Atlantean civilization at an early
day up the valley of the Amazon to the heights of Bolivia and Peru,
precisely as a similar emigration of Aryans went westward to the shores of
the Mediterranean and Caspian, and it is very likely that these diverse
migrations habitually spoke the same language.
Señor Vincente Lopez, a Spanish gentleman of Montevideo, in 1872 published a
work entitled "Les Races Aryennes in Pérou," in which he attempts to prove
that the great Quichua language, which the Incas imposed on their subjects
over a vast extent of territory, and which is still a living tongue in Peru
and Bolivia, is really a branch of the great Aryan or Indo-European speech.
I quote Andrew Lang's summary of the proofs on this point:
"Señor Lopez's view, that the Peruvians were Aryans who left the parent
stock long before the Teutonic or Hellenic races entered Europe, is
supported by arguments drawn from language, from the traces of institutions,
from religious beliefs, from legendary records, and artistic remains. The
evidence from language is treated scientifically, and not as a kind of
ingenious guessing. Señor Lopez first combats the idea that the living
dialect of Peru is barbarous and fluctuating. It is not one of the casual
and shifting forms of speech produced by nomad races. To which of the stages
of language does this belong--the agglutinative, in which one root is
fastened on to another, and a word is formed in which the constitutive
elements are obviously distinct, or the inflexional, where the auxiliary
roots get worn down and are only distinguishable by the philologist? As all
known Aryan tongues are inflexional, Señor Lopez may appear to contradict
himself when be says that Quichua is an agglutinative Aryan language. But he
quotes Mr. Max Müller's opinion that there must have been a time when the
germs of Aryan tongues had not yet reached the inflexional stage, and shows
that while the form of Quichua is agglutinative, as in Turanian, the roots
of words are Aryan. If this be so, Quichua may be a linguistic missing link.
"When we first look at Quichua, with its multitude of words, beginning with
hu, and its great preponderance of q's, it seems almost as odd as Mexican.
But many of these forms are due to a scanty alphabet, and really express
familiar sounds; and many, again, result from the casual spelling of the
Spaniards. We must now examine some of the-forms which Aryan roots are
supposed to take in Quichua. In the first place, Quichua abhors the shock of
two consonants. Thus, a word like ple'w in Greek would be unpleasant to the
Peruvian's ear, and he says pillui, 'I sail.' The plu, again, in pluma, a
feather, is said to be found in pillu, 'to fly.' Quichua has no v, any more
than Greek has, and just as the Greeks had to spell Roman words beginning
with V with Ou, like Valerius--Ou?ale'rios--so, where Sanscrit has v,
Quichua has sometimes hu. Here is a list of words in hu:
QUICHUA.
SANSCRIT.
Huakia, to call.
Vacc, to speak.
Huasi, a house.
Vas, to inhabit.
Huayra, air, au?'ra.
Vâ, to breathe.
Huasa, the back.
Vas, to be able (pouvoir).
"There is a Sanscrit root, kr, to act, to do: this root is found In more
than three hundred names of peoples and places in Southern America. Thus
there are the Caribs, whose name may have the same origin as that of our old
friends the Carians, and mean the Braves, and their land the home of the
Braves, like Kaleva-la, in Finnish. The same root gives kara, the hand, the
Greek xei'r, and kkalli, brave, which a person of fancy may connect with
kalo's. Again, Quichua has an 'alpha privative'--thus A-stani means 'I
change a thing's place;' for ni or mi is the first person singular, and,
added to the root of a verb, is the sign of the first person of the present
indicative. For instance, can means being, and Can-mi, or Cani, is, 'I am.'
In the same way Munanmi, or Munani, is 'I love,' and Apanmi, or Apani, 'I
carry.' So Lord Strangford was wrong when he supposed that the last verb in
mi lived with the last patriot in Lithuania. Peru has stores of a
grammatical form which has happily perished in Europe. It is impossible to
do more than refer to the supposed Aryan roots contained in the glossary,
but it may be noticed that the future of the Quichuan verb is formed in s-I
love, Munani; I shall love, Munasa--and that the affixes denoting cases in
the noun are curiously like the Greek prepositions."
The resemblance between the Quichua and Mandan words for I or me--mi--will
here be observed.
Very recently Dr. Rudolf Falb has announced (Neue Freie Presse, of Vienna)
that be has discovered that the relation of the Quichua and Aimara languages
to the Aryan and Semitic tongues is very close; that, in fact, they "exhibit
the most astounding affinities with the Semitic tongue, and particularly the
Arabic, in which tongue Dr. Falb has been skilled from his boyhood.
Following, up the lines of this discovery, Dr. Falb has found (1) a
connecting link with the Aryan roots, and (2) has ultimately arrived face to
face with the surprising revelation that "the Semitic roots are universally
Aryan." The common stems of all the variants are found in their purest
condition in Quichua and Aimara, from which fact Dr. Falb derives the
conclusion that the high plains of Peru and Bolivia must be regarded as the
point of exit of the present human race.
[Since the above was written I have received a letter from Dr. Falb, dated
Leipsic, April 5th, 1881. Scholars will be glad to learn that Dr. Falb's
great work on the relationship of the Aryan and Semitic languages to the
Quichua and Aimara tongues will be published in a year or two; the
manuscript contains over two thousand pages, and Dr. Falb has devoted to it
ten years of study. A work from such a source, upon so curious and important
a subject, will be looked for with great interest.]
But it is impossible that the Quichuas and Aimaras could have passed across
the wide Atlantic to Europe if there had been no stepping-stone in the shape
of Atlantis with its bridge-like ridges connecting the two continents.
It is, however, more reasonable to suppose that the Quichuas and Aimaras
were a race of emigrants from Plato's island than to think that Atlantis was
populated from South America. The very traditions to which we have referred
as existing among the Peruvians, that the civilized race were white and
bearded, and that they entered or invaded the country, would show that
civilization did not originate in Peru, but was a transplantation from
abroad, and only in the direction of Atlantis can we look for a white and
bearded race.
CHAPTER VI.
THE AFRICAN COLONIES.
AFRICA, like Europe and America, evidences a commingling of different
stocks: the blacks are not all black, nor all woolly-haired; the Africans
pass through all shades, from that of a light Berber, no darker than the
Spaniard, to the deep black of the Iolofs, between Senegal and Gambia.
The traces of red men or copper-colored races are found in many parts of the
continent. Prichard divides the true negroes into four classes; his second
class is thus described:
"2. Other tribes have forms and features like the European; their complexion
is black, or a deep olive, or a copper color approaching to black, while
their hair, though often crisp and frizzled, is not in the least woolly.
Such are the Bishari and Danekil and Hazorta, and the darkest of the
Abyssinians.
"The complexion and hair of the Abyssinians vary very much, their complexion
ranging from almost white to dark brown or black, and their hair from
straight to crisp, frizzled, and almost woolly." (Nott and Gliddon, "Types
of Mankind," p. 194.)
"Some of the Nubians are copper-colored or black, with a tinge of red."
(Ibid., p. 198.)
Speaking of the Barbary States, these authors further say (Ibid., p. 204):
"On the northern coast of Africa, between the Mediterranean and the Great
Desert, including Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, and Benzazi, there is a
continuous system of highlands, which have been included under the general
term Atlas--anciently Atlantis, now the Barbary States. . . . Throughout
Barbary we encounter a peculiar group of races, subdivided into many tribes
of various shades, now spread over a vast area, but which formerly had its
principal and perhaps aboriginal abode along the mountain slopes of Atlas. .
. . The real name of the Berbers is Mazirgh, with the article prefixed or
suffixed--T-amazirgh or Amazirgh-T--meaning free, dominant, or 'noble race.'
. . . We have every reason to believe the Berbers existed in the remotest
times, with all their essential moral and physical peculiarities. . . . They
existed in the time of Menes in the same condition in which they were
discovered by Phnician navigators previously to the foundation of Carthage.
They are an indomitable, nomadic people, who, since the introduction of
camels, have penetrated in considerable numbers into the Desert, and even as
far as Nigritia. . . . Some of these clans are white, others black, with
woolly hair."
Speaking of the Barbary Moors, Prichard says:
"Their figure and stature are nearly the same as those of the southern
Europeans, and their complexion, if darker, is only so in proportion to the
higher temperature of the country. It displays great varieties."
Jackson says:
"The men of Temsena and Showiah are of a strong, robust make, and of a
copper color; the women are beautiful. The women of Fez are fair as the
Europeans, but hair and eyes always dark. The women of Mequinas are very
beautiful, and have the red-and-white complexion of English women."
Spix and Martins, the German travellers, depict the Moors as follows:
A high forehead, an oval countenance, large, speaking, black eyes, shaded by
arched and strong eyebrows, a thin, rather long, but not too pointed nose,
rather broad lips, meeting in an acute angle, brownish-yellow complexion,
thick, smooth, and black hair, and a stature greater than the middle
height."
Hodgson states:
"The Tuarycks are a white people, of the Berber race; the Mozabiaks are a
remarkably white people, and mixed with the Bedouin Arabs. The Wadreagans
and Wurgelans are of a dark bronze, with woolly hair."
The Foolahs, Fulbe (sing. Pullo), Fellani, or Fellatah, are a people of West
and Central Africa. It is the opinion of modern travellers that the Foolahs
are destined to become the dominant people of Negro-land. In language,
appearance, and history they present striking differences from the
neighboring tribes, to whom they are superior in intelligence, but inferior,
according to Garth, in physical development. Golbery describes them as
"robust and courageous, of a reddish-black color, with regular features,
hair longer and less woolly than that of the common negroes, and high mental
capacity." Dr. Barth found great local differences in their physical
characteristics, as Bowen describes the Foolahs of Bomba as being some
black, some almost white, and many of a mulatto color, varying from dark to
very bright. Their features and skulls were cast in the European mould. They
have a tradition that their ancestors were whites, and certain tribes call
themselves white men. They came from Timbuctoo, which lies to the north of
their present location.
The Nubians and Foolahs are classed as Mediterraneans. They are not black,
but yellowish-brown, or red-brown. The hair is not woolly but curly, and
sometimes quite straight; it is either dark-brown or black, with a fuller
growth of beard than the negroes. The oval face gives them a Mediterranean
type. Their noses are prominent, their lips not puffy, and their languages
have no connection with the tongues of the negroes proper. ("American
Cyclopædia," art. Ethnology, p. 759.)
"The Cromlechs (dolmens) of Algeria" was the subject of an address made by
General Faidherbe at the Brussels International Congress. He considers these
structures to be simply sepulchral monuments, and, after examining five or
six thousand of them, maintains that the dolmens of Africa and of Europe
were all constructed by the same race, during their emigration from the
shores of the Baltic to the southern coast of the Mediterranean. The author
does not, however, attempt to explain the existence of these monuments in
other countries--Hindostan, for instance, and America. "In Africa," he says,
"cromlechs are called tombs of the idolaters"--the idolaters being neither
Romans, nor Christians, nor Phnicians, but some antique race. He regards
the Berbers as the descendants of the primitive dolmen-builders. Certain
Egyptian monuments tell of invasions of Lower Egypt one thousand five
hundred years before our era by blond tribes from the West. The bones found
in the cromlechs are those of a large and dolichocephalous race. General
Faidherbe gives the average stature (including the women) at 1.65 or 1.74
metre, while the average stature of French carabineers is only 1.65 metre.
He did not find a single brachycephalous skull. The profiles indicated great
intelligence. The Egyptian documents already referred to call the invaders
Tamahu, which must have come from the invaders' own language, as it is not
Egyptian. The Tuaregs of the present day may be regarded as the best
representatives of the Tamahus. They are of lofty stature, have blue eyes,
and cling to the custom of bearing long swords, to be wielded by both bands.
In Soudan, on the banks of the Niger, dwells a negro tribe ruled by a royal
family (Masas), who are of rather fair complexion, and claim descent from
white men. Masas is perhaps the same as Mashash, which occurs in the
Egyptian documents applied to the Tamahus. The Masas wear the hair in the
same fashion as the Tamahus, and General Faidherbe is inclined to think that
they too are the descendants of the dolmen-builders.
CHAPTER VII.
THE IRISH COLONIES FROM ATLANTIS.
WE have seen that beyond question Spain and France owed a great part of
their population to Atlantis. Let us turn now to Ireland.
We would naturally expect, in view of the geographical position of the
country, to find Ireland colonized at an early day by the overflowing
population of Atlantis. And, in fact, the Irish annals tell us that their
island was settled prior to the Flood. In their oldest legends an account is
given of three Spanish fishermen who were driven by contrary winds on the
coast of Ireland before the Deluge. After these came the Formorians, who
were led into the country prior to the Deluge by the Lady Banbha, or Kesair;
her maiden name was h'Erni, or Berba; she was accompanied by fifty maidens
and three men--Bith, Ladhra, and Fintain. Ladhra was their conductor, who
was the first buried in Hibernia. That ancient book, the "Cin of Drom-
Snechta," is quoted in the "Book of Ballymote" as authority for this legend.
The Irish annals speak of the Formorians as a warlike race, who, according
to the "Annals of Clonmacnois," "were a sept descended from Cham, the son of
Noeh, and lived by pyracie and spoile of other nations, and were in those
days very troublesome to the whole world."
Were not these the inhabitants of Atlantis, who, according to Plato, carried
their arms to Egypt and Athens, and whose subsequent destruction has been
attributed to divine vengeance invoked by their arrogance and oppressions?
The Formorians were from Atlantis. They were called Fomhoraicc, F'omoraig
Afraic, and Formoragh, which has been rendered into English as Formorians.
They possessed ships, and the uniform representation is that they came, as
the name F'omoraig Afraic indicated, from Africa. But in that day Africa did
not mean the continent of Africa, as we now understand it. Major Wilford, in
the eighth volume of the "Asiatic Researches," has pointed out that Africa
comes from Apar, Aphar, Apara, or Aparica, terms used to signify "the West,"
just as we now speak of the Asiatic world as "the East." When, therefore,
the Formorians claimed to come from Africa, they simply meant that they came
from the West--in other words, from Atlantis--for there was no other country
except America west of them.
They possessed Ireland from so early a period that by some of the historians
they are spoken of as the aborigines of the country.
The first invasion of Ireland, subsequent to the coming of the Formorians,
was led by a chief called Partholan: his people are known in the Irish
annals as "Partholan's people." They were also probably Atlanteans. They
were from Spain. A British prince, Gulguntius, or Gurmund, encountered off
the Hebrides a fleet of thirty ships, filled with men and women, led by one
Partholyan, who told him they were from Spain, and seeking some place to
colonize. The British prince directed him to Ireland. ("De Antiq. et Orig.
Cantab.")
Spain in that day was the land of the Iberians, the Basques; that is to say,
the Atlanteans.
The Formorians defeated Partholan's people, killed Partholan, and drove the
invaders out of the country.
The Formorians were a civilized race; they had "a fleet of sixty ships and a
strong army."
The next invader of their dominions was Neimhidh; he captured one of their
fortifications, but it was retaken by the Formorians under "Morc." Neimhidh
was driven out of the country, and the Atlanteans continued in undisturbed
possession of the island for four hundred years more. Then came the Fir-
Bolgs. They conquered the whole island, and divided it into five provinces.
They held possession of the country for only thirty-seven years, when they
were overthrown by the Tuatha-de-Dananns, a people more advanced in
civilization; so much so that when their king, Nuadha, lost his hand in
battle, "Creidne, the artificer," we are told, "put a silver hand upon him,
the fingers of which were capable of motion." This great race ruled the
country for one hundred and ninety-seven years: they were overthrown by an
immigration from Spain, probably of Basques, or Iberians, or Atlanteans,
"the sons of Milidh," or Milesius, who "possessed a large fleet and a strong
army." This last invasion took place about the year 1700 B.C.; so that the
invasion of Neimhidh must have occurred about the year 2334 B.C.; while we
will have to assign a still earlier date for the coming of Partholan's
people, and an earlier still for the occupation of the country by the
Formorians from the West.
In the Irish historic tales called "Catha; or Battles," as given by the
learned O'Curry, a record is preserved of a real battle which was fought
between the Tuatha-de-Dananns and the Fir Bolgs, from which it appears that
these two races spoke the same language, and that they were intimately
connected with the Formorians. As the armies drew near together the Fir-
Bolgs sent out Breas, one of their great chiefs, to reconnoitre the camp of
the strangers; the Tuatha-de-Dananns appointed one of their champions, named
Sreng, to meet the emissary of the enemy; the two warriors met and talked to
one another over the tops of their shields, and each was delighted to find
that the other spoke the same language. A battle followed, in which Nunda,
king of the Fir-Bolgs, was slain; Breas succeeded him; he encountered the
hostility of the bards, and was compelled to resign the crown. He went to
the court of his father-in-law, Elathe, a Formorian sea-king or pirate; not
being well received, be repaired to the camp of Balor of the Evil Eye, a
Formorian chief. The Formorian head-quarters seem to have been in the
Hebrides. Breas and Balor collected a vast army and navy and invaded
Ireland, but were defeated in a great battle by the Tuatha-de-Dananns.
These particulars would show the race-identity of the Fir-Bolg and Tuatha-
de-Dananns; and also their intimate connection, if not identity with, the
Formorians.
The Tuatha-de-Dananns seem to have been a civilized people; besides
possessing ships and armies and working in the metals, they had an organized
body of surgeons, whose duty it was to attend upon the wounded in battle;
and they had also a bardic or Druid class, to preserve the history of the
country and the deeds of kings and heroes.
According to the ancient books of Ireland the race known as "Partholan's
people," the Nemedians, the Fir-Bolgs, the Tuatha-de-Dananns, and the
Milesians were all descended from two brothers, sons of Magog, son of
Japheth, son of Noah, who escaped from the catastrophe which destroyed his
country. Thus all these races were Atlantean. They were connected with the
African colonies of Atlantis, the Berbers, and with the Egyptians. The
Milesians lived in Egypt: they were expelled thence; they stopped a while in
Crete, then in Scythia, then they settled in Africa (See MacGeoghegan's
"History of Ireland," p. 57), at a place called Gæthulighe or Getulia, and
lived there during eight generations, say two hundred and fifty years; "then
they entered Spain, where they built Brigantia, or Briganza, named after
their king Breogan: they dwelt in Spain a considerable time. Milesius, a
descendant of Breogan, went on an expedition to Egypt, took part in a war
against the Ethiopians, married the king's daughter, Scota: he died in
Spain, but his people soon after conquered Ireland. On landing on the coast
they offered sacrifices to Neptune or Poseidon"--the god of Atlantis.
(Ibid., p. 58.)
The Book of Genesis (chap. x.) gives us the descendants of Noah's three
sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. We are told that the sons of Japheth were
Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras.
We are then given the names of the descendants of Gomer and Javan, but not
of Magog. Josephus says the sons of Magog were the Scythians. The Irish
annals take up the genealogy of Magog's family where the Bible leaves it.
The Book of Invasions, the "Cin of Drom-Snechta," claims that these
Scythians were the Phnicians; and we are told that a branch of this family
were driven out of Egypt in the time of Moses: "He wandered through Africa
for forty-two years, and passed by the lake of Salivæ to the altars of the
Philistines, and between Rusicada and the mountains Azure, and he came by
the river Monlon, and by the sea to the Pillars of Hercules, and through the
Tuscan sea, and he made for Spain, and dwelt there many years, and he
increased and multiplied, and his people were multiplied."
From all these facts it appears that the population of Ireland came from the
West, and not from Asia--that it was one of the many waves of population
flowing out from the Island of Atlantis-and herein we find the explanation
of that problem which has puzzled the Aryan scholars. As Ireland is farther
from the Punjab than Persia, Greece, Rome, or Scandinavia, it would follow
that the Celtic wave of migration must have been the earliest sent out from
the Sanscrit centre; but it is now asserted by Professor Schleicher and
others that the Celtic tongue shows that it separated from the Sanscrit
original tongue later than the others, and that it is more closely allied to
the Latin than any other Aryan tongue. This is entirely inexplicable upon
any theory of an Eastern origin of the Indo-European races, but very easily
understood if we recognize the Aryan and Celtic migrations as going out
about the same time from the Atlantean fountain-head.
There are many points confirmatory of this belief. In the first place, the
civilization of the Irish dates back to a vast antiquity. We have seen their
annals laying claim to an immigration from the direction of Atlantis prior
to the Deluge, with no record that the people of Ireland were subsequently
destroyed by the Deluge. From the Formorians, who came before the Deluge, to
the Milesians, who came from Spain in the Historic Period, the island was
continuously inhabited. This demonstrates (1) that these legends did not
come from Christian sources, as the Bible record was understood in the old
time to imply a destruction of all who lived before the Flood except Noah
and his family; (2) it confirms our view that the Deluge was a local
catastrophe, and did not drown the whole human family; (3) that the coming
of the Formorians having been before the Deluge, that great cataclysm was of
comparatively recent date, to wit, since the settlement of Ireland; and (4)
that as the Deluge was a local catastrophe, it must have occurred somewhere
not far from Ireland to have come to their knowledge. A rude people could
scarcely have heard in that day of a local catastrophe occurring in the
heart of Asia.
There are many evidences that the Old World recognized Ireland as possessing
a very ancient civilization. In the Sanscrit books it is referred to as
Hiranya, the "Island of the Sun," to wit, of sun-worship; in other words, as
pre-eminently the centre of that religion which was shared by all the
ancient races of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. It is believed that
Ireland was the "Garden of Phbus" of the Western mythologists.
The Greeks called Ireland the "Sacred Isle" and "Ogygia."
"Nor can any one," says Camden, "conceive why they should call it Ogygia,
unless, perhaps, from its antiquity; for the Greeks called nothing Ogygia
unless what was extremely ancient." We have seen that Ogyges was connected
by the Greek legends with a first deluge, and that Ogyges was "a quite
mythical personage, lost in the night of ages."
It appears, as another confirmation of the theory of the Atlantis origin of
these colonies, that their original religion was sun-worship; this, as was
the case in other countries, became subsequently overlaid with idol-worship.
In the reign of King Tighernmas the worship of idols was introduced. The
priests constituted the Order of Druids. Naturally many analogies have been
found to exist between the beliefs and customs of the Druids and the other
religions which were drawn from Atlantis. We have seen in the chapter on
sun-worship how extensive this form of religion was in the Atlantean days,
both in Europe and America.
It would appear probable that the religion of the Druids passed from Ireland
to England and France. The metempsychosis or transmigration of souls was one
of the articles of their belief long before the time of Pythagoras; it had
probably been drawn from the storehouse of Atlantis, whence it passed to the
Druids, the Greeks, and the Hindoos. The Druids had a pontifex maximus to
whom they yielded entire obedience. Here again we see a practice which
extended to the Phnicians, Egyptians, Hindoos, Peruvians, and Mexicans.
The Druids of Gaul and Britain offered human sacrifices, while it is claimed
that the Irish Druids did not. This would appear to have been a corrupt
after-growth imposed upon the earlier and purer sacrifice of fruits and
flowers known in Atlantis, and due in part to greater cruelty and barbarism
in their descendants. Hence we find it practised in degenerate ages on both
sides of the Atlantic.
The Irish Druidical rites manifested themselves principally in sun worship.
Their chief god was Bel or Baal--the same worshipped by the Phnicians--the
god of the sun. The Irish name for the sun, Grian, is, according to Virgil,
one of the names of Apollo--another sun-god, Gryneus. Sun-worship continued
in Ireland down to the time of St. Patrick, and some of its customs exist
among the peasantry of that country to this day. We have seen that among the
Peruvians, Romans, and other nations, on a certain day all fires were
extinguished throughout the kingdom. and a new fire kindled at the chief
temple by the sun's rays, from which the people obtained their fire for the
coming year. In Ireland the same practice was found to exist. A piece of
land was set apart, where the four provinces met, in the present county of
Meath; here, at a palace called Tlachta, the divine fire was kindled. Upon
the night of what is now All-Saints-day the Druids assembled at this place
to offer sacrifice, and it was established, under heavy penalties, that no
fire should be kindled except from this source. On the first of May a
convocation of Druids was held in the royal palace of the King of Connaught,
and two fires were lit, between which cattle were driven, as a preventive of
murrain and other pestilential disorders. This was called Beltinne, or the
day of Bel's fire. And unto this day the Irish call the first day of May
"Lha-Beul-tinne," which signifies "the day of Bel's fire." The celebration
in Ireland of St. John's-eve by watch-fires is a relic of the ancient sun-
worship of Atlantis. The practice of driving cattle through the fire
continued for a longtime, and Kelly mentions in his "Folk-lore" that in
Northamptonshire, in England, a calf was sacrificed in one of these fires to
"stop the murrain" during the present century. Fires are still lighted in
England and Scotland as well as Ireland for superstitious purposes; so that
the people of Great Britain, it may be said, are still in some sense in the
midst of the ancient sun-worship of Atlantis.
We find among the Irish of to-day many Oriental customs. The game of
"jacks," or throwing up five pebbles and catching them on the back of the
hand, was known in Rome. "The Irish keen (caoine), or the lament over the
dead, may still be heard in Algeria and Upper Egypt, even as Herodotus heard
it chanted by the Libyan women." The same practice existed among the
Egyptians, Etruscans, and Romans. The Irish wakes are identical with the
funeral feasts of the Greeks, Etruscans, and Romans. (Cusack's "History of
Ireland," p. 141.) The Irish custom of saying "God bless you!" when one
sneezes, is a very ancient practice; it was known to the Romans, and
referred, it is said, to a plague in the remote past, whose first symptom
was sneezing.
We find many points of resemblance between the customs of the Irish and
those of the Hindoo. The practice of the creditor fasting at the door-step
of his debtor until be is paid, is known to both countries; the kindly "God
save you!" is the same as the Eastern "God be gracious to you, my son!" The
reverence for the wren in Ireland and Scotland reminds us of the Oriental
and Greek respect for that bird. The practice of pilgrimages, fasting,
bodily macerations, and devotion to holy wells and particular places,
extends from Ireland to India.
All these things speak of a common origin; this fact has been generally
recognized, but it has always been interpreted that the Irish camp, from the
East, and were in fact a migration of Hindoos. There is not the slightest
evidence to sustain this theory. The Hindoos have never within the knowledge
of man sent out colonies or fleets for exploration; but there is abundant
evidence, on the other hand, of migrations from Atlantis eastward. And how
could the Sanscrit writings have preserved maps of Ireland, England, and
Spain, giving the shape and outline of their coasts, and their very names,
and yet have preserved no memory of the expeditions or colonizations by
which they acquired that knowledge?
Another proof of our theory is found in "the round-towers" of Ireland.
Attempts have been made to show, by Dr. Petrie and others, that these
extraordinary structures are of modern origin, and were built by the
Christian priests, in which to keep their church-plate. But it is shown that
the "Annals of Ulster" mention the destruction of fifty-seven of them by an
earthquake in A.D. 448; and Giraldus Cambrensis shows that Lough Neagh was
created by an inundation, or sinking of the laud, in A.D. 65, and that in
his day the fishermen could
"See the round-towers of other days
In the waves beneath them shining."
Moreover, we find Diodorus Siculus, in a well-known passage, referring to
Ireland, and describing it as "an island in the ocean over against Gaul, to
the north, and not inferior in size to Sicily, the soil of which is so
fruitful that they mow there twice in the year." He mentions the skill of
their harpers, their sacred groves, and their singular temples of round
form.
We find similar structures in America, Sardinia, and India. The remains of
similar round-towers are very abundant in the Orkneys and Shetlands. "They
have been supposed by some," says Sir John Lubbock, to be Scandinavian, but
no similar buildings exist in Norway, Sweden, or Denmark, so that this style
of architecture is no doubt anterior to the arrival of the Northmen." I give
above a picture of the Burgh or Broch of the little island of Moussa, in the
Shetlands. It is circular in form, forty-one feet in height. Open at the
top; the central space is twenty feet in diameter, the walls about fourteen
feet thick at the base, and eight feet at the top. They contain a staircase,
which leads to the top of the building. Similar structures are found in the
Island of Sardinia.
In New Mexico and Colorado the remains of round-towers are very abundant.
The illustration below represents our of these in the valley of the Mancos,
in the south-western corner of Colorado. A model of it is to be found in the
Smithsonian collection at Washington. The tower stands at present, in its
ruined condition, twenty feet high. It will be seen that it resembles the
towers of Ireland, not only in its circular form but also in the fact that
its door-way is situated at some distance from the ground.
It will not do to say that the resemblance between these prehistoric and
singular towers, in countries so far apart as Sardinia, Ireland, Colorado,
and India, is due to an accidental coincidence. It might as well be argued
that the resemblance between the roots of the various Indo-European
languages was also due to accidental coincidence, and did not establish any
similarity of origin. In fact, we might just as well go back to the theory
of the philosophers of one hundred and fifty years ago, and say that the
resemblance between the fossil forms in the rocks and the living forms upon
them did not indicate relationship, or prove that the fossils were the
remains of creatures that had once lived, but that it was simply a way
nature had of working out extraordinary coincidences in a kind of joke; a
sort of "plastic power in nature," as it was called.
We find another proof that Ireland was settled by the people of Atlantis in
the fact that traditions long existed among the Irish peasantry of a land in
the "Far West," and that this belief was especially found among the
posterity of the Tuatha-de-Dananns, whose connection with the Formorians we
have shown.
The Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, in a note to his translation of the "Popol
Vuh," says:
"There is an abundance of legends and traditions concerning the passage of
the Irish into America, and their habitual communication with that continent
many centuries before the time of Columbus. We should bear in mind that
Ireland was colonized by the Phnicians (or by people of that race). An
Irish Saint named Vigile, who lived in the eighth century, was accused to
Pope Zachary of having taught heresies on the subject of the antipodes. At
first he wrote to the pope in reply to the charge, but afterward he went to
Rome in person to justify himself, and there be proved to the pope that the
Irish had been accustomed to communicate with a transatlantic world."
"This fact," says Baldwin, "seems to have been preserved in the records of
the Vatican."
The Irish annals preserve the memory of St. Brendan of Clonfert, and his
remarkable voyage to a land in the West, made A.D. 545. His early youth was
passed under the care of St. Ita, a lady of the princely family of the
Desii. When he was five years old he was placed under the care of Bishop
Ercus. Kerry was his native home; the blue waves of the Atlantic washed its
shores; the coast was full of traditions of a wonderful land in the West. He
went to see the venerable St. Enda, the first abbot of Arran, for counsel.
he was probably encouraged in the plan he had formed of carrying the Gospel
to this distant land. "He proceeded along the coast of Mayo, inquiring as he
went for traditions of the Western continent. On his return to Kerry he
decided to set out on the important expedition. St. Brendan's Hill still
bears his name; and from the bay at the foot of this lofty eminence be
sailed for the 'Far West.' Directing his course toward the southwest, with a
few faithful companions, in a well-provisioned bark, he came, after some
rough and dangerous navigation, to calm seas, where, without aid of oar or
sail, he was borne along for many weeks." He had probably entered upon the
same great current which Columbus travelled nearly one thousand years later,
and which extends from the shores of Africa and Europe to America. He
finally reached land; he proceeded inland until he came to a large river
flowing from east to west, supposed by some to be the Ohio. "After an
absence of seven years he returned to Ireland, and lived not only to tell of
the marvels he had seen, but to found a college of three thousand monks at
Clonfert." There are eleven Latin MSS. in the Bibliothèque Impériale at
Paris of this legend, the dates of which vary from the eleventh to the
fourteenth century, but all of them anterior to the time of Columbus.
The fact that St. Brendan sailed in search of a country in the west cannot
be doubted; and the legends which guided him were probably the traditions of
Atlantis among a people whose ancestors had been derived directly or at
second-hand from that country.
This land was associated in the minds of the peasantry with traditions of
Edenic happiness and beauty. Miss Eleanor C. Donnelly, of Philadelphia, has
referred to it in her poem, "The Sleeper's Sail," where the starving boy
dreams of the pleasant and plentiful land:
"'Mother, I've been on the cliffs out yonder,
Straining my eyes o'er the breakers free
To the lovely spot where the sun was setting,
Setting and sinking into the sea.
"'The sky was full of the fairest colors
Pink and purple and paly green,
With great soft masses of gray and amber,
And great bright rifts of gold between.
"'And all the birds that way were flying,
Heron and curlew overhead,
With a mighty eagle westward floating,
Every plume in their pinions red.
"'And then I saw it, the fairy city,
Far away o'er the waters deep;
Towers and castles and chapels glowing
Like blesséd dreams that we see in sleep.
"'What is its name?' 'Be still, acushla
(Thy hair is wet with the mists, my boy);
Thou hast looked perchance on the Tir-na-n'oge,
Land of eternal youth and joy!
"'Out of the sea, when the sun is setting,
It rises, golden and fair to view;
No trace of ruin, or change of sorrow,
No sign of age where all is new.
"'Forever sunny, forever blooming,
Nor cloud nor frost can touch that spot,
Where the happy people are ever roaming,
The bitter pangs of the past forgot.'
This is the Greek story of Elysion; these are the Elysian Fields of the
Egyptians; these are the Gardens of the Hesperides; this is the region in
the West to which the peasant of Brittany looks from the shores of Cape Raz;
this is Atlantis.
The starving child seeks to reach this blessed land in a boat and is
drowned.
"High on the cliffs the light-house keeper
Caught the sound of a piercing scream;
Low in her hut the lonely widow
Moaned in the maze of a troubled dream;
"And saw in her sleep a seaman ghostly,
With sea-weeds clinging in his hair,
Into her room, all wet and dripping,
A drownéd boy on his bosom bear.
"Over Death Sea on a bridge of silver
The child to his Father's arms had passed!
Heaven was nearer than Tir-na-n'oge,
And the golden city was reached at last."
CHAPTER VIII.
THE OLDEST SON OF NOAH.
THAT eminent authority, Dr. Max Müller, says, in his "Lectures on the
Science of Religion,"
"If we confine ourselves to the Asiatic continent, with its important
peninsula of Europe, we find that in the vast desert of drifting human
speech three, and only three, oases have been formed in which, before the
beginning of all history, language became permanent and traditional--
assumed, in fact, a new character, a character totally different from the
original character of the floating and constantly varying speech of human
beings. These three oases of language are known by the name of Turanian,
Aryan, and Semitic. In these three centres, more particularly in the Aryan
and Semitic, language ceased to be natural; its growth was arrested, and it
became permanent, solid, petrified, or, if you like, historical speech. I
have always maintained that this centralization and traditional conservation
of language could only have been the result of religious and political
influences, and I now mean to show that we really have clear evidence of
three independent settlements of religion--the Turanian, the Aryan, and the
Semitic--concomitantly with the three great settlements of language."
There can be no doubt that the Aryan and another branch, which Müller calls
Semitic, but which may more properly be called Hamitic, radiated from Noah;
it is a question yet to be decided whether the Turanian or Mongolian is also
a branch of the Noachic or Atlantean stock.
To quote again from Max Müller:
"If it can only be proved that the religions of the Aryan nations are united
by the same bonds of a real relationship which have enabled us to treat
their languages as so many varieties of the same type--and so also of the
Semitic--the field thus opened is vast enough, and its careful clearing, and
cultivation will occupy several generations of scholars. And this original
relationship, I believe, can be proved. Names of the principal deities,
words also expressive of the most essential elements of religion, such as
prayer, sacrifice, altar, spirit, law, and faith, have been preserved among
the Aryan and among the Semitic nations, and these relies admit of one
explanation only. After that, a comparative study of the Turanian religions
may be approached with better hope of success; for that there was not only a
primitive Aryan and a primitive Semitic religion, but likewise a primitive
Turanian religion, before each of these primeval races was broken up and
became separated in language, worship and national sentiment, admits, I
believe, of little doubt. . . . There was a period during which the
ancestors of the Semitic family had not yet been divided, whether in
language or in religion. That period transcends the recollection of every
one of the Semitic races, in the same way as neither Hindoos, Greeks, nor
Romans have any recollection of the time when they spoke a common language,
and worshipped their Father in heaven by a name that was as yet neither
Sanscrit, nor Greek, nor Latin. But I do not hesitate to call this
Prehistoric Period historical in the best sense of the word. It was a real
period, because, unless it was real, all the realities of the Semitic
languages and the Semitic religions, such as we find them after their
separation, would be unintelligible. Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic point to a
common source as much as Sanscrit, Greek, and Latin; and unless we can bring
ourselves to doubt that the Hindoos, the Greeks, the Romans, and the Teutons
derived the worship of their principal deity from their common Aryan
sanctuary, we shall not be able to deny that there was likewise a primitive
religion of the whole Semitic race, and that El, the Strong One in heaven,
was invoked by the ancestors of all the Semitic races before there were
Babylonians in Babylon, Phnicians in Sidon and Tyrus--before there were
Jews in Mesopotamia or Jerusalem. The evidence of the Semitic is the same as
that of the Aryan languages: the conclusion cannot be different....
"These three classes of religion are not to be mistaken-as little as the
three classes of language, the Turanian, the Semitic, and the Aryan. They
mark three events in the most ancient history of the world, events which
have determined the whole fate of the human race, and of which we ourselves
still feel the consequences in our language, in our thoughts, and in our
religion."
We have seen that all the evidence points to the fact that this original
seat of the Phnician-Hebrew family was in Atlantis.
The great god of the so-called Semites was El, the Strong One, from whose
name comes the Biblical names Beth-el, the house of God; Ha-el, the strong
one; El-ohim, the gods; El-oah, God; and from the same name is derived the
Arabian name of God, Al-lah.
Another evidence of the connection between the Greeks, Phnicians, Hebrews,
and Atlanteans is shown in the name of Adonis.
The Greeks tell us that Adonis was the lover of Aphrodite, or Venus, who was
the offspring of Uranus--"she came out of the sea;" Uranus was the father of
Chronos, and the grandfather of Poseidon, king of Atlantis.
Now We find Adonâi in the Old Testament used exclusively as the name of
Jehovah, while among the Phnicians Adonâi was the supreme deity. In both
cases the root Ad is probably a reminiscence of Ad-lantis.
There seem to exist similar connections between the Egyptian and the
Turanian mythology. The great god of Egypt was Neph or Num; the chief god of
the Samoyedes is Num; and Max Müller established an identity between the Num
of the Samoyedes and the god Yum-ala of the Finns, and probably with the
name of the god Nam of the Thibetians.
That mysterious people, the Etruscans, who inhabited part of Italy, and
whose bronze implements agreed exactly in style and workmanship with those
which we think were derived from Atlantis, were, it is now claimed, a branch
of the Turanian family.
"At a recent meeting of the English Philological Society great interest was
excited by a paper on Etruscan Numerals, by the Rev. Isaac Taylor. He stated
that the long-sought key to the Etruscan language had at last been
discovered. Two dice had been found in a tomb, with their six faces marked
with words instead of pips. He showed that these words were identical with
the first six digits in the Altaic branch of the Turanian family of speech.
Guided by this clew, it was easy to prove that the grammar and vocabulary of
the 3000 Etruscan inscriptions were also Altaic. The words denoting kindred,
the pronouns, the conjugations, and the declensions, corresponded closely to
those of the Tartar tribes of Siberia. The Etruscan mythology proved to be
essentially the same as that of the Kalevala, the great Finnic epic."
According to Lenormant ("Ancient History of the East," vol. i., p. 62; vol.
ii., p. 23), the early contests between the Aryans and the Turanians are
represented in the Iranian traditions as "contests between hostile brothers
. . . the Ugro-Finnish races must, according to all appearances, be looked
upon as a branch, earlier detached than the others from the Japhetic stem."
If it be true that the first branch originating from Atlantis was the
Turanian, which includes the Chinese and Japanese, then we have derived from
Atlantis all the building and metalworking races of men who have proved
themselves capable of civilization; and we may, therefore, divide mankind
into two great classes: those capable of civilization, derived from
Atlantis, and those essentially and at all times barbarian, who hold no
blood relationship with the people of Atlantis.
Humboldt is sure "that some connection existed between ancient Ethiopia and
the elevated plain of Central Asia." There were invasions which reached from
the shores of Arabia into China. "An Arabian sovereign, Schamar-Iarasch
(Abou Karib), is described by Hamza, Nuwayri, and others as a powerful ruler
and conqueror, who carried his arms successfully far into Central Asia; he
occupied Samarcand and invaded China. He erected an edifice at Samarcand,
bearing an inscription, in Himyarite or Cushite characters, 'In the name of
God, Schamar-Iarasch has erected this edifice to the sun, his Lord."
(Baldwin's "Prehistoric Nations," p. 110.) These invasions must have been
prior to 1518 B.C.
Charles Walcott Brooks read a paper before the California Academy of
Sciences, in which be says:
"According to Chinese annals, Tai-Ko-Fokee, the great stranger king, ruled
the kingdom of China. In pictures he is represented with two small horns,
like those associated with the representations of Moses. He and his
successor are said to have introduced into China 'picture-writing,' like
that in use in Central America at the time of the Spanish conquest. He
taught the motions of the heavenly bodies, and divided time into years and
months; be also introduced many other useful arts and sciences.
"Now, there has been found at Copan, in Central America, a figure strikingly
like the Chinese symbol of Fokee, with his two horns; and, in like manner,
there is a close resemblance between the Central American and the Chinese
figures representing earth and heaven. Either one people learned from the
other, or both acquired these forms from a common source. Many physico-
geographical facts favor the hypothesis that they were derived in very
remote ages from America, and that from China they passed to Egypt. Chinese
records say that the progenitors of the Chinese race came from across the
sea."
The two small horns of Tai-Ko-Fokee and Moses are probably a reminiscence of
Baal. We find the horns of Baal represented in the remains of the Bronze Age
of Europe. Bel sometimes wore a tiara with his bull's horns; the tiara was
the crown subsequently worn by the Persian kings, and it became, in time,
the symbol of Papal authority. The Atlanteans having domesticated cattle,
and discovered their vast importance to humanity, associated the bull and
cow with religious ideas, as revealed in the oldest hymns of the Aryans and
the cow-headed idols of Troy, a representation of one of which is shown on
the preceding page. Upon the head of their great god Baal they placed the
horns of the bull; and these have descended in popular imagination to the
spirit of evil of our day. Burns says:
"O thou! whatever title suit thee,
Auld Hornie, Satan, Nick, or Clootie."
"Clootie" is derived from the cleft hoof of a cow; while the Scotch name for
a bull is Bill, a corruption, probably, of Bel. Less than two hundred years
ago it was customary to sacrifice a bull on the 25th of August to the "God
Mowrie" and "his devilans" on the island of Inis Maree, Scotland. ("The Past
in the Present," p. 165.) The trident of Poseidon has degenerated into the
pitchfork of Beelzebub!
And when we cross the Atlantic, we find in America the horns of Baal
reappearing in a singular manner. The first cut on page 429 represents an
idol of the Moquis of New Mexico: the head is very bull-like. In the next
figure we have a representation of the war-god of the Dakotas, with
something like a trident in his hand; while the next illustration is taken
from Zarate's "Peru," and depicts "the god of a degrading worship." He is
very much like the traditional conception of the European devil-horns,
pointed ears, wings, and poker. Compare this last figure, from Peru, with
the representation on page 430 of a Greek siren, one of those cruel monsters
who, according to Grecian mythology, sat in the midst of bones and blood,
tempting men to ruin by their sweet music. Here we have the same bird-like
legs and claws as in the Peruvian demon.
Heeren shows that a great overland commerce extended in ancient times
between the Black Sea and "Great Mongolia;" he mentions a "Temple of the
Sun," and a great caravansary in the desert of Gobi. Arminius Vámbéry, in
his "Travels in Central Asia," describes very important ruins near the
eastern shore of the Caspian Sea, at a place called Gömüshtepe; and
connected with these are the remains of a great wall which he followed "ten
geographical miles." He found a vast aqueduct one hundred and fifty miles
long, extending to the Persian mountains. He reports abundant ruins in all
that country, extending even to China.
The early history of China indicates contact with a superior race. "Fuh-hi,
who is regarded as a demi-god, founded the Chinese Empire 2852 B.C. He
introduced cattle, taught the people how to raise them, and taught the art
of writing." ("American Cyclopædia," art. China.) He might have invented his
alphabet, but he did not invent the cattle; be must have got them from some
nation who, during many centuries of civilization, had domesticated them;
and from what nation was he more likely to have obtained them than from the
Atlanteans, whose colonies we have seen reached his borders, and whose
armies invaded his territory! "He instituted the ceremony of marriage."
(Ibid.) This also was an importation from a civilized land. "His successor,
Shin-nung, during a reign of one hundred and forty years, introduced
agriculture and medical science. The next emperor, Hwang-ti, is believed to
have invented weapons, wagons, ships, clocks, and musical instruments, and
to have introduced coins, weights, and measures." (Ibid.) As these various
inventions in all other countries have been the result of slow development,
running through many centuries, or are borrowed from some other more
civilized people, it is certain that no emperor of China ever invented them
all during a period of one hundred and sixty-four years. These, then, were
also importations from the West. In fact, the Chinese themselves claim to
have invaded China in the early days from the north-west; and their first
location is placed by Winchell near Lake Balkat, a short distance east of
the Caspian, where we have already seen Aryan Atlantean colonies planted at
an early day. "The third successor of Fuh-hi, Ti-ku, established schools,
and was the first to practise polygamy. In 2357 his son Yau ascended the
throne, and it is from his reign that the regular historical records begin.
A great flood, which occurred in his reign, has been considered synchronous
and identical with the Noachic Deluge, and to Yau is attributed the merit of
having successfully battled against the waters."
There can be no question that the Chinese themselves, in their early
legends, connected their origin with a people who were destroyed by water in
a tremendous convulsion of the earth. Associated with this event was a
divine personage called Niu-va (Noah?).
Sir William Jones says:
"The Chinese believe the earth to have been wholly covered with water,
which, in works of undisputed authenticity, they describe as flowing
abundantly, then subsiding and separating the higher from the lower ages of
mankind; that this division of time, from which their poetical history
begins, just preceded the appearance of Fo-hi on the mountains of Chin.
("Discourse on the Chinese; Asiatic Researches," vol. ii., p. 376.)
The following history of this destruction of their ancestors vividly recalls
to us the convulsion depicted in the Chaldean and American legends:
"The pillars of heaven were broken; the earth shook to its very foundations;
the heavens sunk lower toward the north; the sun, the moon, and the stars
changed their motions; the earth fell to pieces, and the waters enclosed
within its bosom burst forth with violence and overflowed it. Man having
rebelled against Heaven, the system of the universe was totally disordered.
The sun was eclipsed, the planets altered their course, and the grand
harmony of nature was disturbed."
A learned Frenchman, M. Terrien de la Couperie, member of the Asiatic
Society of Paris, has just published a work (1880) in which he demonstrates
the astonishing fact that the Chinese language is clearly related to the
Chaldean, and that both the Chinese characters and the cuneiform alphabet
are degenerate descendants of an original hieroglyphical alphabet. The same
signs exist for many words, while numerous words are very much alike. M. de
la Couperie gives a table of some of these similarities, from which I quote
as follows:
English.
Chinese.
Chaldee.
To shine
Mut
Mul.
To die
Mut
Mit.
Book
King
Kin.
Cloth
Sik
Sik.
Right hand
Dzek
Zag.
Hero
Tan
Dun.
Earth
Kien-kai
Kiengi.
Cow
Lub
Lu, lup.
Brick
Ku
Ku.
This surprising discovery brings the Chinese civilization still nearer to
the Mediterranean head-quarters of the races, and increases the probability
that the arts of China were of Atlantean origin; and that the name of Nai
Hoang-ti, or Nai Korti, the founder of Chinese civilization, may be a
reminiscence of Nakhunta, the chief of the gods, as recorded in the Susian
texts, and this, in turn, a recollection of the Deva-Nahusha of the Hindoos,
the Dionysos of the Greeks, the king of Atlantis, whose great empire reached
to the "farther parts of India," and embraced, according to Plato, "parts of
the continent of America."
Linguistic science achieved a great discovery when it established the fact
that there was a continuous belt of languages from Iceland to Ceylon which
were the variant forms of one mother-tongue, the Indo-European; but it must
prepare itself for a still wider generalization. There is abundant proof--
proof with which pages might be filled--that there was a still older mother-
tongue, from which Aryan, Semitic, and Hamitic were all derived--the
language of Noah, the language of Atlantis, the language of the great
"aggressive empire" of Plato, the language of the empire of the Titans.
The Arabic word bin, within, becomes, when it means interval, space, binnon;
this is the German and Dutch binnen and Saxon binnon, signifying within. The
Ethiopian word aorf, to fall asleep, is the root of the word Morpheus, the
god of sleep. The Hebrew word chanah, to dwell, is the parent of the Anglo-
Saxon inne and Icelandic inni, a house, and of our word inn, a hotel. The
Hebrew word naval or nafal signifies to fall; from it is derived our word
fall and fool (one who falls); the Chaldee word is nabal, to make foul, and
the Arabic word nabala means to die, that is, to fall. From the last
syllable of the Chaldee nasar, to saw, we can derive the Latin serra, the
High German sagen, the Danish sauga, and our word to saw. The Arabic nafida,
to fade, is the same as the Italian fado, the Latin fatuus (foolish,
tasteless), the Dutch vadden, and our to fade. The Ethiopic word gaber, to
make, to do, and the Arabic word jabara, to make strong, becomes the Welsh
word goberu, to work, to operate, the Latin operor, and the English operate.
The Arabic word abara signifies to prick, to sting; we see this root in the
Welsh bar, a summit, and pâr, a spear, and per, a spit; whence our word
spear. In the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic zug means to join, to couple; from
this the Greeks obtained zugos, the Romans jugum, and we the word yoke;
while the Germans obtained jok or jog, the Dutch juk, the Swedes ok. The
Sanscrit is juga. The Arabic sanna, to be old, reappears in the Latin senex,
the Welsh hen, and our senile. The Hebrew banah, to build, is the Irish bun,
foundation, and the Latin fundo, fundare, to found. The Arabic baraka, to
bend the knee, to fall on the breast, is probably the Saxon brecau, the
Danish bräkke, the Swedish bräcka, Welsh bregu, and our word to break. The
Arabic baraka also signifies to rain violently; and from this we get the
Saxon rgn, to rain, Dutch regen, to rain, Cimbric rkia, rain, Welsh rheg,
rain. The Chaldee word braic, a branch, is the Irish braic or raigh, an arm,
the Welsh braic, the Latin brachium, and the English brace, something which
supports like an arm. The Chaldee frak, to rub, to tread out grain, is the
same as the Latin frico, frio, and our word rake. The Arabic word to rub is
fraka. The Chaldee rag, ragag, means to desire, to long for; it is the same
as the Greek oregw, the Latin porrigere, the Saxon rccan, the Icelandic
rakna, the German reichen, and our to reach, to rage. The Arabic rauka, to
strain or purify, as wine, is precisely our English word rack, to rack wine.
The Hebrew word bara, to create, is our word to bear, as to bear children: a
great number of words in all the European languages contain this root in its
various modifications. The Hebrew word kafar, to cover, is our word to
cover, and coffer, something which covers, and covert, a secret place; from
this root also comes the Latin cooperio and the French couvrir, to cover.
The Arabic word shakala, to bind under the belly, is our word to shackle.
From the Arabic walada and Ethiopian walad, to beget, to bring forth, we get
the Welsh llawd, a shooting out; and hence our word lad. Our word matter, or
pus, is from the Arabic madda; our word mature is originally from the
Chaldee mita. The Arabic word amida signifies to end, and from this comes
the noun, a limit, a termination, Latin meta, and our words meet and mete.
I might continue this list, but I have given enough to show that all the
Atlantean races once spoke the same language, and that the dispersion on the
plains of Shinar signifies that breaking up of the tongues of one people
under the operation of vast spaces of time. Philology is yet in its infancy,
and the time is not far distant when the identity of the languages of all
the Noachic races will be as clearly established and as universally
acknowledged as is now the identity, of the languages of the Aryan family of
nations.
And precisely as recent research has demonstrated the relationship between
Pekin and Babylon, so investigation in Central America has proved that there
is a mysterious bond of union connecting the Chinese and one of the races of
Mexico. The resemblances are so great that Mr. Short ("North Americans of
Antiquity," p. 494) says, "There is no doubt that strong analogies exist
between the Otomi and the Chinese." Señor Najera ("Dissertacion Sobre la
lingua Othomi, Mexico," pp. 87, 88) gives a list of words from which I quote
the following:
(information removed)
Recently Herr Forchhammer, of Leipsic, has published a truly scientific
comparison of the grammatical structure of the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Muscogee,
and Seminole languages with the Ural-Altaic tongues, in which be has
developed many interesting points of resemblance.
It has been the custom to ascribe the recognized similarities between the
Indians of America and the Chinese and Japanese to a migration by way of
Behring's Strait from Asia into America; but when we find that the Chinese
themselves only reached the Pacific coast within the Historical Period, and
that they came to it from the direction of the Mediterranean and Atlantis,
and when we find so many and such distinct recollections of the destruction
of Atlantis in the Flood le(rends of the American races, it seems more
reasonable to conclude that the resemblances between the Othomi and the
Chinese are to be accounted for by intercourse through Atlantis.
We find a confirmation in all these facts of the order in which Genesis
names the sons of Noah:
"Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth,
and unto them were sons born after the flood."
Can we not suppose that those three sons represent three great races in the
order of their precedence?
The record of Genesis claims that the Phnicians were descended from Ham,
while the Hebrews were descended from Shem; yet we find the Hebrews and
Phnicians united by the ties of a common language, common traditions, and
common race characteristics. The Jews are the great merchants of the world
eighteen centuries after Christ, just as the Phnicians were the great
merchants of the world fifteen centuries before Christ.
Moreover, the Arabians, who are popularly classed as Semites, or sons of
Shem, admit in their traditions that they are descended from "Ad, the son of
Ham;" and the tenth chapter of Genesis classes them among the descendants of
Ham, calling them Seba, Havilah, Raamah, etc. If the two great so-called
Semitic stocks--the Phnicians and Arabians--are Hamites, surely the third
member of the group belongs to the same "sunburnt" race.
If we concede that the Jews were also a branch of the Hamitic stock, then we
have, firstly, a Semitic stock, the Turanian, embracing the Etruscans, the
Finns, the Tartars, the Mongols, the Chinese, and Japanese; secondly, a
Hamitic family, "the sunburnt" race--a red race--including the Cushites,
Phnicians, Egyptians, Hebrews, Berbers, etc.; and, thirdly, a Japhetic or
whiter stock, embracing the Greeks, Italians, Celts, Goths, and the men who
wrote Sanscrit-in other words, the entire Aryan family.
If we add to these three races the negro race--which cannot be traced back
to Atlantis, and is not included, according to Genesis, among the
descendants of Noah--we have the four races, the white, red, yellow, and
black, recognized by the Egyptians as embracing all the people known to
them.
There seems to be some confusion in Genesis as to the Semitic stock. It
classes different races as both Semites and Hamites; as, for instance, Sheba
and Havilah; while the race of Mash, or Meshech, is classed among the sons
of Shem and the sons of Japheth. In fact, there seems to be a confusion of
Hamitic and Semitic stocks. "This is shown in the blending of Hamitic and
Semitic in some of the most ancient inscriptions; in the facility of
intercourse between the Semites of Asia and the Hamites of Egypt; in the
peaceful and unobserved absorption of all the Asiatic Hamites, and the
Semitic adoption of the Hamitic gods and religious system. It is manifest
that, at a period not long previous, the two families had dwelt together and
spoken the same language." (Winchell's "Pre-Adamites," p. 36.) Is it not
more reasonable to suppose that the so-called Semitic races of Genesis were
a mere division of the Hamitic stock, and that we are to look for the third
great division of the sons of Noah among the Turanians?
Francis Lenormant, high authority, is of the opinion that the Turanian races
are descended from Magog, the son of Japheth. He regards the Turanians as
intermediate between the white and yellow races, graduating insensibly into
each. "The Uzbecs, the Osmanli Turks, and the Hungarians are not to be
distinguished in appearance from the most perfect branches of the white
race; on the other hand, the Tchondes almost exactly resemble the Tongouses,
who belong to the yellow race.
The Turanian languages are marked by the same agglutinative character found
in the American races.
The Mongolian and the Indian are alike in the absence of a heavy beard. The
royal color of the Incas was yellow; yellow is the color of the imperial
family in China. The religion of the Peruvians was sun-worship; "the sun was
the peculiar god of the Mongols from the earliest times." The Peruvians
regarded Pachacamac as the sovereign creator. Camac-Hya was the name of a
Hindoo goddess. Haylli was the burden of every verse of the song composed in
praise of the sun and the Incas. Mr. John Ranking derives the word Allah
from the word Haylli, also the word Halle-lujah. In the city of Cuzco was a
portion of land which none were permitted to cultivate except those of the
royal blood. At certain seasons the Incas turned up the sod here, amid much
rejoicing, and many ceremonies. A similar custom prevails in China: The
emperor ploughs a few furrows, and twelve illustrious persons attend the
plough after him. (Du Halde, "Empire of China," vol. i., p. 275.) The cycle
of sixty years was in use among most of the nations of Eastern Asia, and
among the Muyscas of the elevated plains of Bogota. The "quipu," a knotted
reckoning-cord, was in use in Peru and in China. (Bancroft's "Native Races,"
vol. v., p. 48.) In Peru and China "both use hieroglyphics, which are read
from above downward." (Ibid.)
"It appears most evident to me," says Humboldt, "that the monuments, methods
of computing time, systems of cosmogony, and many myths of America, offer
striking analogies with the ideas of Eastern Asia--analogies which indicate
an ancient communication, and are not simply the result of that uniform
condition in which all nations are found in the dawn of civilization."
("Exam. Crit.," tom. ii., p. 68.)
"In the ruined cities of Cambodia, which lies farther to the east of Burmah,
recent research has discovered teocallis like those in Mexico, and the
remains of temples of the same type and pattern as those of Yucatan. And
when we reach the sea we encounter at Suku, in Java, a teocalli which is
absolutely identical with that of Tehuantepec. Mr. Ferguson said, 'as we
advance eastward from the valley of the Euphrates, at every step we meet
with forms of art becoming more and more like those of Central America.'"
("Builders of Babel," p. 88.)
Prescott says:
The coincidences are sufficiently strong to authorize a belief that the
civilization of Anahuac was in some degree influenced by that of Eastern
Asia; and, secondly, that the discrepancies are such as to carry back the
communication to a very remote period." ("Mexico," vol. iii., p. 418.)
"All appearances," continues Lenormant ("Ancient History of the East," vol.
i., p. 64), "would lead us to regard the Turanian race as the first branch
of the family of Japheth which went forth into the world; and by that
premature separation, by an isolated and antagonistic existence, took, or
rather preserved, a completely distinct physiognomy. . . . It is a type of
the white race imperfectly
CHAPTER IX.
THE ANTIQUITY OF SOME OF OUR GREAT INVENTIONS.
IT may seem like a flight of the imagination to suppose that the mariner's
compass was known to the inhabitants of Atlantis. And yet, if my readers are
satisfied that the Atlantean, were a highly civilized maritime people,
carrying on commerce with regions as far apart as Peru and Syria, we must
conclude that they possessed some means of tracing their course in the great
seas they traversed; and accordingly, when we proceed to investigate this
subject, we find that as far back as we may go in the study of the ancient
races of the world, we find them possessed of a knowledge of the virtues of
the magnetic stone, and in the habit of utilizing it. The people of Europe,
rising a few centuries since out of a state of semi-barbarism, have been in
the habit of claiming the invention of many things which they simply
borrowed from the older nations. This was the case with the mariner's
compass. It was believed for many years that it was first invented by an
Italian named Amalfi, A.D. 1302. In that interesting work, Goodrich's "Life
of Columbus," we find a curious history of the magnetic compass prior to
that time, from which we collate the following points:
"In A.D. 868 it was employed by the Northmen." ("The Landnamabok," vol. i.,
chap. 2.) An Italian poem Of A.D. 1190 refers to it as in use among the
Italian sailors at that date. In the ancient language of the Hindoos, the
Sanscrit--which has been a dead language for twenty-two hundred years--the
magnet was called "the precious stone beloved of Iron." The Talmud speaks of
it as "the stone of attraction;" and it is alluded to in the early Hebrew
prayers as Kalamitah, the same name given it by the Greeks, from the reed
upon which the compass floated. The Phnicians were familiar with the use of
the magnet. At the prow of their vessels stood the figure of a woman
(Astarte) holding a cross in one hand and pointing the way with the other;
the cross represented the compass, which was a magnetized needle, floating
in water crosswise upon a piece of reed or wood. The cross became the coat
of arms of the Phnicians--not only, possibly, as we have shown, as a
recollection of the four rivers of Atlantis, but because it represented the
secret of their great sea-voyages, to which they owed their national
greatness. The hyperborean magician, Abaras, carried "a guiding arrow,"
which Pythagoras gave him, "in order that it may be useful to him in all
difficulties in his long journey." ("Herodotus," vol. iv., p. 36.)
The magnet was called the "Stone of Hercules." Hercules was the patron
divinity of the Phnicians. He was, as we have shown elsewhere, one of the
gods of Atlantis--probably one of its great kings and navigators. The
Atlanteans were, as Plato tells us, a maritime, commercial people, trading
up the Mediterranean as far as Egypt and Syria, and across the Atlantic to
"the whole opposite continent that surrounds the sea;" the Phnicians, as
their successors and descendants, and colonized on the shores of the
Mediterranean, inherited their civilization and their maritime habits, and
with these that invention without which their great voyages were impossible.
From them the magnet passed to the Hindoos, and from them to the Chinese,
who certainly possessed it at an early date. In the year 2700 B.C. the
Emperor Wang-ti placed a magnetic figure with an extended arm, like the
Astarte of the Phnicians, on the front of carriages, the arm always turning
and pointing to the south, which the Chinese regarded as the principal pole.
(See Goodrich's "Columbus," p. 31, etc.) This illustration represents one of
these chariots:
In the seventh century it was used by the navigators of the Baltic Sea and
the German Ocean.
The ancient Egyptians called the loadstone the bone of Haroeri, and iron the
bone of Typhon. Haroeri was the son of Osiris and grandson of Rhea, a
goddess of the earth, a queen of Atlantis, and mother of Poseidon; Typhon
was a wind-god and an evil genius, but also a son of Rhea, the earth
goddess. Do we find in this curious designation of iron and loadstone as
"bones of the descendants of the earth," an explanation of that otherwise
inexplicable Greek legend about Deucalion "throwing the bones of the earth
behind him, when instantly men rose from the ground, and the world was
repeopled?" Does it mean that by means of the magnet he sailed, after the
Flood, to the European colonies of Atlantis. already thickly inhabited?
A late writer, speaking upon the subject of the loadstone, tells us:
"Hercules, it was said, being once overpowered by the heat of the sun, drew
his bow against that luminary; whereupon the god Phbus, admiring his
intrepidity, gave him a golden cup, with which he sailed over the ocean.
This cup was the compass, which old writers have called Lapis Heracleus.
Pisander says Oceanus lent him the cup, and Lucian says it was a sea-shell.
Tradition affirms that the magnet originally was not on a pivot, but set to
float on water in a cup. The old antiquarian is wildly theoretical on this
point, and sees a compass in the Golden Fleece of Argos, in the oracular
needle which Nero worshipped, and in everything else. Yet undoubtedly there
are some curious facts connected with the matter. Osonius says that Gama and
the Portuguese got the compass from some pirates at the Cape of Good Hope,
A.D. 1260. M. Fauchet, the French antiquarian, finds it plainly alluded to
in some old poem of Brittany belonging to the year A.D. 1180. Paulo Venetus
brought it in the thirteenth century from China, where it was regarded as
oracular. Genebrand says Melvius, a Neapolitan, brought it to Europe in A.D.
1303. Costa says Gama got it from Mohammedan seamen. But all nations with
whom it was found associate it with regions where Heraclean myths prevailed.
And one of the most curious facts is that the ancient Britons, as the Welsh
do to-day, call a pilot llywydd (lode). Lodemanage, in Skinner's
'Etymology,' is the word for the price paid to a pilot. But whether this
famous, and afterward deified, mariner (Hercules) had a compass or not, we
can hardly regard the association of his name with so many Western monuments
as accidental."
Hercules was, as we know, a god of Atlantis, and Oceanos, who lent the
magnetic cup to Hercules, was the Dame by which the Greeks designated the
Atlantic Ocean. And this may be the explanation of the recurrence of a cup
in many antique paintings and statues. Hercules is often represented with a
cup in his hand; we even find the cup upon the handle of the bronze dagger
found in Denmark, and represented in the chapter on the Bronze Age, in this
work. (See p. 254 ante.)
So "oracular" an object as this self-moving needle, always pointing to the
north, would doubtless affect vividly the minds of the people, and appear in
their works of art. When Hercules left the coast of Europe to sail to the
island of Erythea in the Atlantic, in the remote west, we are told, in Greek
mythology (Murray, p. 257), that he borrowed "the cup" of Helios, in (with)
which "he was accustomed to sail every night." Here we seem to have a
reference to the magnetic cup used in night sailing; and this is another
proof that the use of the magnetic needle in sea-voyages was associated with
the Atlantean gods.
Lucian tells us that a sea-shell often took the place of the cup, as a
vessel in which to hold the water where the needle floated, and hence upon
the ancient coins of Tyre we find a sea-shell represented.
Here, too, we have the Pillars of Hercules, supposed to have been placed at
the mouth of the Mediterranean, and the tree of life or knowledge, with the
serpent twined around it, which appears in Genesis; and in the combination
of the two pillars and the serpent we have, it is said, the original source
of our dollar mark [$].
Compare these Phnician coins with the following representation of a copper
coin, two inches in diameter and three lines thick, found nearly a century
ago by Ordonez, at the city of Guatemala. "M. Dupaix noticed an indication
of the use of the compass in the centre of one of the sides, the figures on
the same side representing a kneeling, bearded, turbaned man between two
fierce heads, perhaps of crocodiles, which appear to defend the entrance to
a mountainous and wooded country. The reverse presents a serpent coiled
around a fruit-tree, and an eagle on a hill." (Bancroft's "Native Races,"
vol. iv., p. 118.) The mountain leans to one side: it is a "culhuacan," or
crooked mountain.
We find in Sanchoniathon's "Legends of the Phnicians that Ouranus, the
first god of the people of Atlantis, "devised Bætulia, contriving stones
that moved as having life, which were supposed to fall from heaven." These
stones were probably magnetic loadstones; in other words, Ouranus, the first
god of Atlantis, devised the mariner's compass.
I find in the "Report of United States Explorations for a Route for a
Pacific Railroad" a description of a New Mexican Indian priest, who
foretells the result of a proposed war by placing a piece of wood in a bowl
of water, and causing it to turn to the right or left, or sink or rise, as
he directs it. This is incomprehensible, unless the wood, like the ancient
Chinese compass, contained a piece of magnetic iron hidden in it, which
would be attracted or repulsed, or even drawn downward, by a piece of iron
held in the hand of the priest, on the outside of the bowl. If so, this
trick was a remembrance of the mariner's compass transmitted from age to age
by the medicine men. The reclining statue of Chac-Mol, of Central America,
holds a bowl or dish upon its breast.
Divination was the ars Etrusca. The Etruscans set their temples squarely
with the cardinal points of the compass; so did the Egyptians, the Mexicans,
and the Mound Builders of America. Could they have done this without the
magnetic compass?
The Romans and the Persians called the line of the axis of the globe cardo,
and it was to cardo the needle pointed. Now "Cardo was the name of the
mountain on which the human race took refuge from the Deluge . . . the
primitive geographic point for the countries which were the cradle of the
human race." (Urquhart's "Pillars of Hercules," vol. i., p. 145.) From this
comes our word "cardinal," as the cardinal points.
Navigation.--Navigation was not by any means in a rude state in the earliest
times:
"In the wanderings of the heroes returning from Troy, Aristoricus makes
Menelaus circumnavigate Africa more than 500 years before Neco sailed from
Gadeira to India." ("Cosmos," vol. ii., p. 144.)
"In the tomb of Rameses the Great is a representation of a naval combat
between the Egyptians and some other people, supposed to be the Phnicians,
whose huge ships are propelled by sails." (Goodrich's "Columbus," p. 29.)
The proportions of the fastest sailing-vessels of the present day are about
300 feet long to 50 wide and 30 high; these were precisely the proportions
of Noah's ark--300 cubits long, 50 broad, and 30 high.
"Hiero of Syracuse built, under the superintendence of Archimedes, a vessel
which consumed in its construction the material for fifty galleys; it
contained galleries, gardens, stables, fish-ponds, mills, baths, a temple of
Venus, and an engine to throw stones three hundred pounds in weight, and
arrows thirty-six feet long. The floors of this monstrous vessel were inlaid
with scenes from Homer's 'Iliad.'" (Ibid., p. 30.)
The fleet of Sesostris consisted of four hundred ships; and when Semiramis
invaded India she was opposed by four thousand vessels.
It is probable that in the earliest times the vessels were sheeted with
metal. A Roman ship of the time of Trajan has been recovered from Lake
Ricciole after 1300 years. The outside was covered with sheets of lead
fastened with small copper nails. Even the use of iron chains in place of
ropes for the anchors was known at an early period. Julius Cæsar tells us
that the galleys of the Veneti were thus equipped. (Goodrich's "Columbus,"
p. 31.)
Gunpowder.--It is not impossible that even the invention of gunpowder may
date back to Atlantis. It was certainly known in Europe long before the time
of the German monk, Berthold Schwarz, who is commonly credited with the
invention of it. It was employed in 1257 at the siege of Niebla, in Spain.
It was described in an Arab treatise of the thirteenth century. In A.D. 811
the Emperor Leo employed fire-arms. "Greek-fire" is supposed to have been
gunpowder mixed with resin or petroleum, and thrown in the form of fuses and
explosive shells. It was introduced from Egypt A.D. 668. In A.D. 690 the
Arabs used fire-arms against Mecca, bringing the knowledge of them from
India. In A.D. 80 the Chinese obtained from India a knowledge of gunpowder.
There is reason to believe that the Carthaginian (Phnician) general,
Hannibal, used gunpowder in breaking a way for his army over the Alps. The
Romans, who were ignorant of its use, said that Hannibal made his way by
making fires against the rocks, and pouring vinegar and water over the
ashes. It is evident that fire and vinegar would have no effect on masses of
the Alps great enough to arrest the march of an army. Dr. William Maginn has
suggested that the wood was probably burnt by Hannibal to obtain charcoal;
and the word which has been translated "vinegar" probably signified some
preparation of nitre and sulphur, and that Hannibal made gunpowder and blew
up the rocks. The same author suggests that the story of Hannibal breaking
loose from the mountains where he was surrounded on all sides by the Romans,
and in danger of starvation, by fastening firebrands to the horns of two
thousand oxen, and sending them rushing at night among the terrified Romans,
simply refers to the use of rockets. As Maginn well asks, how could Hannibal
be in danger of starvation when he had two thousand oxen to spare for such
an experiment? And why should the veteran Roman troops have been so
terrified and panic-stricken by a lot of cattle with firebrands on their
horns? At the battle of Lake Trasymene, between Hannibal and Flaminius, we
have another curious piece of information which goes far to confirm the
belief that Hannibal was familiar with the use of gunpowder. In the midst of
the battle there was, say the Roman historians, an "earthquake;" the earth
reeled under the feet of the soldiers, a tremendous crash was heard, a fog
or smoke covered the scene, the earth broke open, and the rocks fell upon
the beads of the Romans. This reads very much as if the Carthaginians had
decoyed the Romans into a pass where they had already planted a mine, and
had exploded it at the proper moment to throw them into a panic. Earthquakes
do not cast rocks up in the air to fall on men's heads!
And that this is not all surmise is shown by the fact that a city of India,
in the time of Alexander the Great, defended itself by the use of gunpowder:
it was said to be a favorite of the gods, because thunder and lightning came
from its walls to resist the attacks of its assailants.
As the Hebrews were a branch of the Phnician race, it is not surprising
that we find some things in their history which look very much like legends
of gunpowder.
When Korah, Dathan, and Abiram led a rebellion against Moses, Moses
separated the faithful from the unfaithful, and thereupon "the ground clave
asunder that was under them: and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed
them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and
all their goods. . . . And there came out a fire from the Lord, and consumed
the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense. . . . But on the morrow
all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and
against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of the Lord." (Numb. xvi.,
31-41.)
This looks very much as if Moses had blown up the rebels with gunpowder.
Roger Bacon, who himself rediscovered gunpowder, was of opinion that the
event described in Judges vii., where Gideon captured the camp of the
Midianites with the roar of trumpets, the crash caused by the breaking of
innumerable pitchers, and the flash of a multitude of lanterns, had
reference to the use of gunpowder; that the noise made by the breaking of
the pitchers represented the detonation of an explosion, the flame of the
lights the blaze, and the noise of the trumpets the thunder of the
gunpowder. We can understand, in this wise, the results that followed; but
we cannot otherwise understand how the breaking of pitchers, the flashing of
lamps, and the clangor of trumpets would throw an army into panic, until
"every man's sword was set against his fellow, and the host fled to Beth-
shittah;" and this, too, without any attack upon the part of the Israelites,
for "they stood every man in his place around the camp; and all the host ran
and cried and fled."
If it was a miraculous interposition in behalf of the Jews, the Lord could
have scared the Midianites out of their wits without the smashed pitchers
and lanterns; and certain it is the pitchers, and lanterns would not have
done the work with out a miraculous interposition.
Having traced the knowledge of gunpowder back to the most remote times, and
to the different races which were descended from Atlantis, we are not
surprised to find in the legends of Greek mythology events described which
are only explicable by supposing that the Atlanteans possessed the secret of
this powerful explosive.
A rebellion sprang tip in Atlantis (see Murray's "Manual of Mythology," p.
.30) against Zeus; it is known in mythology as the "War of the Titans:"
"The struggle lasted many years, all the might which the Olympians could
bring to bear being useless, until, on the advice of Gæa, Zeus set free the
Kyklopes and the Hekatoncheires" (that is, brought the ships into play), "of
whom the former fashioned thunder-bolts for him, while the latter advanced
on his side with force equal to the shock of an earthquake. The earth
trembled down to lowest Tartarus as Zeus now appeared with his terrible
weapon and new allies. Old Chaos thought his hour had come, as from a
continuous blaze of thunder-bolts the earth took fire, and the waters
seethed in the sea. The rebels were partly slain or consumed, and partly
hurled into deep chasms, with rocks and hills reeling after them."
Do not these words picture the explosion of a mine with a "force equal to
the shock of an earthquake?"
We have already shown that the Kyklopes and Hekatoncheires were probably
great war-ships, armed with some explosive material in the nature of
gunpowder.
Zeus, the king of Atlantis, was known as "the thunderer," and was
represented armed with thunder-bolts.
Some ancient nation must, in the most remote ages, have invented gunpowder;
and is it unreasonable to attribute it to that "great original race" rather
than to any one people of their posterity, who seem to have borrowed all the
other arts from them; and who, during many thousands of years, did not add a
single new invention to the list they received from Atlantis?
Iron.--have seen that the Greek mythological legends asserted that before
the submergence of the great race over whom their gods reigned there had
been not only an Age of Bronze but an Age of Iron. This metal was known to
the Egyptians in the earliest ages; fragments of iron have been found in the
oldest pyramids. The Iron Age in Northern Europe far antedated intercourse
with the Greeks or Romans. In the mounds of the Mississippi Valley, as I
have shown, the remains of iron implements have been found. In the "Mercurio
Peruano" (tom. i., p. 201, 1791) it is stated that "anciently the Peruvian
sovereigns worked magnificent iron mines at Ancoriames, on the west shore of
Lake Titicaca." "It is remarkable," says Molina, "that iron, which has been
thought unknown to the ancient Americans, had particular names in some of
their tongues." In official Peruvian it was called quillay, and in Chilian
panilic. The Mound Builders fashioned implements out of meteoric iron.
(Foster's "Prehistoric Races," p. 333.)
As we find this metal known to man in the earliest ages on both sides of the
Atlantic, the presumption is very strong that it was borrowed by the
nations, east and west, from Atlantis.
Paper.--The same argument holds good as to paper. The oldest Egyptian
monuments contain pictures of the papyrus roll; while in Mexico, as I have
shown, a beautiful paper was manufactured and formed into books shaped like
our own. In Peru a paper was made of plantain leaves, and books were common
in the earlier ages. Humboldt mentions books of hieroglyphical writings
among the Panoes, which were "bundles of their paper resembling our volumes
in quarto."
Silk Manufacture.--The manufacture of a woven fabric of great beauty out of
the delicate fibre of the egg-cocoon of a worm could only have originated
among a people who had attained the highest degree of civilization; it
implies the art of weaving by delicate instruments, a dense population, a
patient, skilful, artistic people, a sense of the beautiful, and a wealthy
and luxurious class to purchase such costly fabrics.
We trace it back to the most remote ages. In the introduction to the
"History of Hindostan," or rather of the Mohammedan Dynasties, by Mohammed
Cassim, it is stated that in the year 3870 B.C. an Indian king sent various
silk stuffs as a present to the King of Persia. The art of making silk was
known in China more than two thousand six hundred years before the Christian
era, at the time when we find them first possessed of civilization. The
Phnicians dealt in silks in the most remote past; they imported them from
India and sold them along the shores of the Mediterranean. It is probable
that the Egyptians understood and practised the art of manufacturing silk.
It was woven in the island of Cos in the time of Aristotle. The "Babylonish
garment" referred to in Joshua (chap. vii., 21), and for secreting which
Achan lost his life, was probably a garment of silk; it was rated above
silver and gold in value.
It is not a violent presumption to suppose that an art known to the Hindoos
3870 B.C., and to the Chinese and Phnicians at the very beginning of their
history--an art so curious, so extraordinary--may have dated back to
Atlantean times.
Civil Government.--Mr. Baldwin shows ("Prehistoric Nations," p. 114) that
the Cushites, the successors of the Atlanteans, whose very ancient empire
extended from Spain to Syria, were the first to establish independent
municipal republics, with the right of the people to govern themselves; and
that this system was perpetuated in the great Phnician communities; in "the
fierce democracies" of ancient Greece; in the "village republics" of the
African Berbers and the Hindoos; in the "free cities" of the Middle Ages in
Europe; and in the independent governments of the Basques, which continued
down to our own day. The Cushite state was an aggregation of municipalities,
each possessing the right of self-government, but subject within prescribed
limits to a general authority; in other words, it was precisely the form of
government possessed to-day by the United States. It is a surprising thought
that the perfection of modern government may be another perpetuation of
Atlantean civilization.
Agriculture.--The Greek traditions of "the golden apples of the Hesperides"
and "the golden fleece" point to Atlantis. The allusions to the golden
apples indicate that tradition regarded the "Islands of the Blessed" in the
Atlantic Ocean as a place of orchards. And when we turn to Egypt we find
that in the remotest times many of our modern garden and field plants were
there cultivated. When the Israelites murmured in the wilderness against
Moses, they cried out (Numb., chap. xi., 4, 5), "Who shall give us flesh to
eat? We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers,
and the Melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic." The
Egyptians also cultivated wheat, barley, oats, flax, hemp, etc. In fact, if
we were to take away from civilized man the domestic animals, the cereals,
and the field and garden vegetables possessed by the Egyptians at the very
dawn of history, there would be very little left for the granaries or the
tables of the world.
Astronomy.--The knowledge of the ancients as to astronomy was great and
accurate. Callisthenes, who accompanied Alexander the Great to Babylon, sent
to Aristotle a series of Chaldean astronomical observations which he found
preserved there, recorded on tablets of baked clay, and extending back as
far as 2234 B.C. Humboldt says, "The Chaldeans knew the mean motions of the
moon with an exactness which induced the Greek astronomers to use their
calculations for the foundation of a lunar theory." The Chaldeans knew the
true nature of comets, and could foretell their reappearance. "A lens of
considerable power was found in the ruins of Babylon; it was an inch and a
half in diameter and nine-tenths of an inch thick." (Layard's "Nineveh and
Babylon," pp. 16,17.) Nero used optical glasses when be watched the fights
of the gladiators; they are supposed to have come from Egypt and the East.
Plutarch speaks of optical instruments used by Archimedes "to manifest to
the eye the largeness of the sun." "There are actual astronomical
calculations in existence, with calendars formed upon them, which eminent
astronomers of England and France admit to be genuine and true, and which
carry back the antiquity of the science of astronomy, together with the
constellations, to within a few years of the Deluge, even on the longer
chronology of the Septuagint." ("The Miracle in Stone," p. 142.) Josephus
attributes the invention of the constellations to the family of the
antediluvian Seth, the son of Adam, while Origen affirms that it was
asserted in the Book of Enoch that in the time of that patriarch the
constellations were already divided and named. The Greeks associated the
origin of astronomy with Atlas and Hercules, Atlantean kings or heroes. The
Egyptians regarded Taut (At?) or Thoth, or At-hotes, as the originator of
both astronomy and the alphabet; doubtless he represented a civilized
people, by whom their country was originally colonized. Bailly and others
assert that astronomy "must have been established when the summer solstice
was in the first degree of Virgo, and that the solar and lunar zodiacs were
of similar antiquity, which would be about four thousand years before, the
Christian era. They suppose the originators to have lived in about the
fortieth degree of north latitude, and to have been a highly-civilized
people." It will be remembered that the fortieth degree of north latitude
passed through Atlantis. Plato knew (" Dialogues, Phædo," 108) that the
earth "is a body in the centre of the heavens" held in equipoise. He speaks
of it as a "round body," a "globe;" he even understood that it revolved on
its axis, and that these revolutions produced day and night. He says--
"Dialogues, Timæus"--"The earth circling around the pole (which is extended
through the universe) be made to be the artificer of night and day." All
this Greek learning was probably drawn from the Egyptians.
Only among the Atlanteans in Europe and America do we find traditions
preserved as to the origin of all the principal inventions which have raised
man from a savage to a civilized condition. We can give in part the very
names of the inventors.
Starting with the Chippeway legends, and following with the Bible and
Phnician records, we make a table like the appended:
The Invention or Discovery.
The Race.
The Inventors.
Fire
Atlantean
Phos, Phur, and Phlox.
The bow and arrow
Chippeway
Manaboshu.
The use of flint
"
"
The use of copper
"
"
The manufacture of bricks
Atlantean
Autochthon and Technites.
Agriculture and hunting
"
Argos and Agrotes.
Village life, and the rearing of flocks
"
Amynos and Magos.
The use of salt
"
Misor and Sydyk.
The use of letters
"
Taautos, or Taut.
Navigation
"
The Cabiri, or Corybantes.
The art of music
Hebrew
Jubal.
Metallurgy, and the use of iron
"
Tubal-cain.
The syrinx
Greek
Pan.
The lyre
"
Hermes.
We cannot consider all these evidences of the vast antiquity of the great
inventions upon which our civilization mainly rests, including the art of
writing, which, as I have shown, dates back far beyond the beginning of
history; we cannot remember that the origin of all the great food-plants,
such as wheat, oats, barley, rye, and maize, is lost in the remote past; and
that all the domesticated animals, the horse, the ass, the ox, the sheep,
the goat, and the hog had been reduced to subjection to man in ages long
previous to written history, without having the conclusion forced upon us
irresistibly that beyond Egypt and Greece, beyond Chaldea and China, there
existed a mighty civilization, of which these states were but the broken
fragments.
CHAPTER X.
THE ARYAN COLONIES FROM ATLANTIS.
WE come now to another question: "Did the Aryan or Japhetic race come from
Atlantis?"
If the Aryans are the Japhetic race, and if Japheth was one of the sons of
the patriarch who escaped from the Deluge, then assuredly, if the tradition
of Genesis be true, the Aryans came from the drowned land, to wit, Atlantis.
According to Genesis, the descendants of the Japheth who escaped out of the
Flood with Noah are the Ionians, the inhabitants of the Morea, the dwellers
on the Cilician coast of Asia Minor, the Cyprians, the Dodoneans of
Macedonia, the Iberians, and the Thracians. These are all now recognized as
Aryans, except the Iberians.
"From non-Biblical sources," says Winchell, "we obtain further information
respecting the early dispersion of the Japhethites or Indo-Europeans--called
also Aryans. All determinations confirm the Biblical account of their
primitive residence in the same country with the Hamites and Semites.
Rawlinson informs us that even Aryan roots are mingled with Presemitic in
some of the old inscriptions of Assyria. The precise region where these
three families dwelt in a common home has not been pointed out."
("Preadamites," p. 43.)
I have shown in the chapter in relation to Peru that all the languages of
the Hamites, Semites, and Japhethites are varieties of one aboriginal
speech.
The centre of the Aryan migrations (according to popular opinion) within the
Historical Period was Armenia. Here too is Mount Ararat, where it is said
the ark rested--another identification with the Flood regions, as it
represents the usual transfer of the Atlantis legend by an Atlantean people
to a high mountain in their new home.
Now turn to a map: Suppose the ships of Atlantis to have reached the shores
of Syria, at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, where dwelt a people who,
as we have seen, used the Central American Maya alphabet; the Atlantis ships
are then but two hundred miles distant from Armenia. But these ships need
not stop at Syria, they can go by the Dardanelles and the Black Sea, by
uninterrupted water communication, to the shores of Armenia itself. If we
admit, then, that it was from Armenia the Aryans stocked Europe and India,
there is no reason why the original population of Armenia should not have
been themselves colonists from Atlantis.
But we have seen that in the earliest ages, before the first Armenian
migration of the historical Aryans, a people went from Iberian Spain and
settled in Ireland, and the language of this people, it is now admitted, is
Aryan. And these Iberians were originally, according to tradition, from the
West.
The Mediterranean Aryans are known to have been in Southeastern Europe,
along the shores of the Mediterranean, 2000 B.C. They at that early date
possessed the plough; also wheat, rye, barley, gold, silver, and bronze.
Aryan faces are found depicted upon the monuments of Egypt, painted four
thousand years before the time of Christ. "The conflicts between the Kelts
(an Aryan race) and the Iberians were far anterior in date to the
settlements of the Phnicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, and Noachites on the
coasts of the Mediterranean Sea." ("American Cyclopædia," art. Basques.)
There is reason to believe that these Kelts were originally part of the
population and Empire of Atlantis. We are told (Rees's "British
Encyclopædia," art. Titans) that "Mercury, one of the Atlantean gods, was
placed as ruler over the Celtæ, and became their great divinity." F. Pezron,
in his "Antiquity of the Celtæ," makes out that the Celtæ were the same as
the Titans, the giant race who rebelled in Atlantis, and "that their princes
were the same with the giants of Scripture." He adds that the word Titan "is
perfect Celtic, and comes from tit, the earth, and ten or den, man, and
hence the Greeks very properly also called them terriginæ, or earth-born."
And it will be remembered that Plato uses the same phrase when he speaks of
the race into which Poseidon intermarried as "the earth-born primeval men of
that country."
The Greeks, who are Aryans, traced their descent from the people who were
destroyed by the Flood, as did other races clearly Aryan.
"The nations who are comprehended under the common appellation of Indo-
European," says Max Müller--"the Hindoos, the Persians, the Celts, Germans,
Romans, Greeks, and Slavs--do not only share the same words and the same
grammar, slightly modified in each country, but they seem to have likewise
preserved a mass of popular traditions which had grown up before they left
their common home."
"Bonfey, L. Geiger, and other students of the ancient Indo-European
languages, have recently advanced the opinion that the original home of the
Indo-European races must be sought in Europe, because their stock of words
is rich in the names of plants and animals, and contains names of seasons
that are not found in tropical countries or anywhere in Asia." ("American
Cyclopædia," art. Ethnology.)
By the study of comparative philology, or the seeking out of the words
common to the various branches of the Aryan race before they separated, we
are able to reconstruct an outline of the civilization of that ancient
people. Max Müller has given this subject great study, and availing
ourselves of his researches we can determine the following facts as to the
progenitors of the Aryan stock: They were a civilized race; they possessed
the institution of marriage; they recognized the relationship of father,
mother, son, daughter, grandson, brother, sister, mother-in-law, father-in-
law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, brother-in-law, and sister-in-law, and had
separate words for each of these relationships, which we are only able to
express by adding the words "in-law." They recognized also the condition of
widows, or "the husbandless." They lived in an organized society, governed
by a king. They possessed houses with doors and solid walls. They had wagons
and carriages. They possessed family names. They dwelt in towns and cities,
on highways. They were not hunters or nomads. They were a peaceful people;
the warlike words in the different Aryan languages cannot be traced back to
this original race. They lived in a country having few wild beasts; the only
wild animals whose names can be assigned to this parent stock being the
bear, the wolf, and the serpent. The name of the elephant, "the beast with a
hand," occurs only twice in the "Rig-Veda;" a singular omission if the
Aryans were from time immemorial an Asiatic race; and "when it does occur,
it is in such a way as to show that he was still an object of wonder and
terror to them." (Whitney's "Oriental and Linguistic Studies," p. 26.) They
possessed nearly all the domestic animals we now have--the ox and the cow,
the horse, the dog, the sheep, the goat, the hog, the donkey, and the goose.
They divided the year into twelve months. They were farmers; they used the
plough; their name as a race (Aryan) was derived from it; they were, par
excellence, ploughmen; they raised various kinds of grain, including flax,
barley, hemp, and wheat; they had mills and millers, and ground their corn.
The presence of millers shows that they had proceeded beyond the primitive
condition where each family ground its corn in its own mill. They used fire,
and cooked and baked their food; they wove cloth and wore clothing; they
spun wool; they possessed the different metals, even iron: they had gold.
The word for "water" also meant "salt made from water," from which it might
be inferred that the water with which they were familiar was saltwater. It
is evident they manufactured salt by evaporating salt water. They possessed
boats and ships. They had progressed so far as to perfect "a decimal system
of enumeration, in itself," says Max Müller, "one of the most marvellous
achievements of the human mind, based on an abstract conception of quantity,
regulated by a philosophical classification, and yet conceived, nurtured,
and finished before the soil of Europe was trodden by Greek, Roman, Slav, or
Teuton."
And herein we find another evidence of relationship between the Aryans and
the people of Atlantis. Although Plato does not tell us that the Atlanteans
possessed the decimal system of numeration, nevertheless there are many
things in his narrative which point to that conclusion "There were ten kings
ruling over ten provinces; the whole country was divided into military
districts or squares ten stadia each way; the total force of chariots was
ten thousand; the great ditch or canal was one hundred feet deep and ten
thousand stadia long; there were one hundred Nereids," etc. In the Peruvian
colony the decimal system clearly obtained: "The army had heads of ten,
fifty, a hundred, five hundred, a thousand, ten thousand. . . . The
community at large was registered in groups, under the control of officers
over tens, fifties, hundreds, and so on." (Herbert Spencer, "Development of
Political Institutions," chap. x.) The same division into tens and hundreds
obtained among the Anglo-Saxons.
Where, we ask, could this ancient nation, which existed before Greek was
Greek, Celt was Celt, Hindoo was Hindoo, or Goth was Goth, have been
located! The common opinion says, in Armenia or Bactria, in Asia. But where
in Asia could they have found a country so peaceful as to know no terms for
war or bloodshed;--a country so civilized as to possess no wild beasts save
the bear, wolf, and serpent? No people could have been developed in Asia
without bearing in its language traces of century-long battles for life with
the rude and barbarous races around them; no nation could have fought for
ages for existence against "man-eating" tigers, lions, elephants, and
hyenas, without bearing the memory of these things in their tongue. A tiger,
identical with that of Bengal, still exists around Lake Aral, in Asia; from
time to time it is seen in Siberia. "The last tiger killed in 1828 was on
the Lena, in latitude fifty-two degrees thirty minutes, in a climate colder
than that of St. Petersburg and Stockholm."
The fathers of the Aryan race must have dwelt for many thousand years so
completely protected from barbarians and wild beasts that they at last lost
all memory of them, and all words descriptive of them; and where could this
have been possible save in some great, long-civilized land, surrounded by
the sea, and isolated from the attack of the savage tribes that occupied the
rest of the world? And if such a great civilized nation had dwelt for
centuries in Asia, Europe, or Africa, why have not their monuments long ago
been discovered and identified? Where is the race who are their natural
successors, and who must have continued to live after them in that sheltered
and happy land, where they knew no human and scarcely any animal enemies?
Why would any people have altogether left such a home? Why, when their
civilization had spread to the ends of the earth, did it cease to exist in
the peaceful region where it originated?
Savage nations cannot usually count beyond five. This people had names for
the numerals up to one hundred, and the power, doubtless, of combining these
to still higher powers, as three hundred, five hundred, ten hundred, etc.
Says a high authority, "If any more proof were wanted as to the reality of
that period which must have preceded the dispersion of the Aryan race, we
might appeal to the Aryan numerals as irrefragable evidence of that long-
continued intellectual life which characterizes that period." Such a degree
of progress implies necessarily an alphabet, writing, commerce, and trade,
even as the existence of words for boats and ships has already implied
navigation.
In what have we added to the civilization of this ancient people? Their
domestic animals were the same as our own, except one fowl adopted from
America. In the past ten thousand years we have added one bird to their list
of domesticated animals! They raised wheat and wool, and spun and wove as we
do, except that we have added some mechanical contrivances to produce the
same results. Their metals are ours. Even iron, the triumph, as we had
supposed, of more modern times, they had already discovered. And it must not
be forgotten that Greek mythology tells us that the god-like race who dwelt
on Olympus, that great island "in the midst of the Atlantic," in the remote
west, wrought in iron; and we find the remains of an iron sword and meteoric
iron weapons in the mounds of the Mississippi Valley, while the name of the
metal is found in the ancient languages of Peru and Chili, and the Incas
worked in iron on the shores of Lake Titicaca.
A still further evidence of the civilization of this ancient race is found
in the fact that, before the dispersion from their original home, the Aryans
had reached such a degree of development that they possessed a regularly
organized religion: they worshipped God, they believed in an evil spirit,
they believed in a heaven for the just. All this presupposes temples,
priests, sacrifices, and an orderly state of society.
We have seen that Greek mythology is really a history of the kings and
queens of Atlantis.
When we turn to that other branch of the great Aryan family, the Hindoos, we
find that their gods are also the kings of Atlantis. The Hindoo god Varuna
is conceded to be the Greek god Uranos, who was the founder of the royal
family of Atlantis.
In the Veda we find a hymn to "King Varuna," in which occurs this passage:
"This earth, too, belongs to Varuna, the king, and this wide sky, with its
ends far apart. The two seas are Varuna's loins; he is contained also in
this drop of water."
Again in the Veda we find another hymn to King Varuna:
"He who knows the place of the birds that fly through the sky; who on the
waters knows the ships. He, the upholder of order, who knows the twelve
months with the offspring of each, and knows the month that is engendered
afterward."
This verse would seem to furnish additional proof that the Vedas were
written by a maritime people; and in the allusion to the twelve months we
are reminded of the Peruvians, who also divided the year into twelve parts
of thirty days each, and afterward added six days to complete the year. The
Egyptians and Mexicans also had intercalary days for the same purpose.
But, above all, it must be remembered that the Greeks, an Aryan race, in
their mythological traditions, show the closest relationship to Atlantis.
At-tika and At-hens are reminiscences of Ad, and we are told that Poseidon,
god and founder of Atlantis, founded Athens. We find in the "Eleusinian
mysteries" an Atlantean institution; their influence during the whole period
of Greek history down to the coming of Christianity was extraordinary; and
even then this masonry of Pre-Christian days, in which kings and emperors
begged to be initiated, was, it is claimed, continued to our own times in
our own Freemasons, who trace their descent back to "a Dionysiac fraternity
which originated in Attika." And just as we have seen the Saturnalian
festivities of Italy descending from Atlantean harvest-feasts, so these
Eleusinian mysteries can be traced back to Plato's island. Poseidon was at
the base of them; the first hierophant, Eumolpus, was "a son of Poseidon,"
and all the ceremonies were associated with seed-time and harvest, and with
Demeter or Ceres, an Atlantean goddess, daughter of Chronos, who first
taught the Greeks to use the plough and to plant barley. And, as the
"Carnival" is a survival of the "Saturnalia," so Masonry is a survival of
the Eleusinian mysteries. The roots of the institutions of to-day reach back
to the Miocene Age.
We have seen that Zeus, the king of Atlantis, whose tomb was shown at Crete,
was transformed into the Greek god Zeus; and in like manner we find him
reappearing among the Hindoos as Dyaus. He is called "Dyaus-pitar," or God
the Father, as among the Greeks we have Zeus-pater," which became among the
Romans "Jupiter."
The strongest connection, however, with the Atlantean system is shown in the
case of the Hindoo god Deva-Nahusha.
We have seen in the chapter on Greek mythology that Dionysos was a son of
Zeus and grandson of Poseidon, being thus identified with Atlantis. "When he
arrived at manhood," said the Greeks, "he set out on a journey through all
known countries, even into the remotest parts of India, instructing the
people, as be proceeded, how to tend the vine, and how to practise many
other arts of peace, besides teaching them the value of just and honorable
dealings. He was praised everywhere as the greatest benefactor of mankind."
(Murray's "Mythology," p. 119.)
In other words, be represented the great Atlantean civilization, reaching
into "the remotest parts of India," and "to all parts of the known world,"
from America to Asia. In consequence of the connection of this king with the
vine, he was converted in later times into the dissolute god Bacchus. But
everywhere the traditions concerning him refer us back to Atlantis. "All the
legends of Egypt, India, Asia Minor, and the older Greeks describe him as a
king very great during his life, and deified after death. . . . Amon, king
of Arabia or Ethiopia, married Rhea, sister of Chronos, who reigned over
Italy, Sicily, and certain countries of Northern Africa." Dionysos,
according to the Egyptians, was the son of Amon by the beautiful Amalthea.
Chronos and Amon had a prolonged war; Dionysos defeated Chronos and captured
his capital, dethroned him, and put his son Zeus in his place; Zeus reigned
nobly, and won a great fame. Dionysos succeeded his father Amon, and "became
the greatest of sovereigns. He extended his sway in all the neighboring
countries, and completed the conquest of India. . . . He gave much attention
to the Cushite colonies in Egypt, greatly increasing their strength,
intelligence, and prosperity." (Baldwin's "Prehistoric Nations," p. 283.)
When we turn to the Hindoo we still find this Atlantean king.
In the Sanscrit books we find reference to a god called Deva-Nahusha, who
has been identified by scholars with Dionysos. He is connected "with the
oldest history and mythology in the world." He is said to have been a
contemporary with Indra, king of Meru, who was also deified, and who appears
in the Veda as a principal form of representation of the Supreme Being.
"The warmest colors of imagination are used in portraying the greatness of
Deva-Nahusha. For a time he had sovereign control of affairs in Meru; he
conquered the seven dwipas, and led his armies through all the known
countries of the world; by means of matchless wisdom and miraculous heroism
he made his empire universal." (Ibid., p. 287.)
Here we see that the great god Indra, chief god of the Hindoos, was formerly
king of Meru, and that Deva-Nahusha (De(va)nushas--De-onyshas) had also been
king of Meru; and we must remember that Theopompus tell us that the island
of Atlantis was inhabited by the "Meropes;" and Lenormant has reached the
conclusion that the first people of the ancient world were "the men of
Mero."
We can well believe, when we see traces of the same civilization extending
from Peru and Lake Superior to Armenia and the frontiers of China, that this
Atlantean kingdom was indeed "universal," and extended through all the
"known countries of the world."
"We can see in the legends that Pururavas, Nahusha, and others had no
connection with Sanscrit history. They are referred to ages very long
anterior to the Sanscrit immigration, and must have been great personages
celebrated in the traditions of the natives or Dasyus. . . . Pururavas was a
king of great renown, who ruled over thirteen islands of the ocean,
altogether surrounded by inhuman (or superhuman) personages; he engaged in a
contest with Brahmans, and perished. Nahusha, mentioned by Maull, and in
many legends, as famous for hostility to the Brahmans, lived at the time
when Indra ruled on earth. He was a very great king, who ruled with justice
a mighty empire, and attained the sovereignty of three worlds." (Europe,
Africa, and America?) "Being intoxicated with pride, he was arrogant to
Brahmans, compelled them to bear his palanquin, and even dared to touch one
of them with his foot" (kicked him?), "whereupon be was transformed into a
serpent." (Baldwin's "Prehistoric Nations," p. 291.)
The Egyptians placed Dionysos (Osiris) at the close of the period of their
history which was assigned to the gods, that is, toward the close of the
great empire of Atlantis.
When we remember that the hymns of the "Rig-Veda" are admitted to date back
to a vast antiquity, and are written in a language that had ceased to be a
living tongue thousands of years ago, we can almost fancy those hymns
preserve some part of the songs of praise uttered of old upon the island of
Atlantis. Many of them seem to belong to sun-worship, and might have been
sung with propriety upon the high places of Peru:
"In the beginning there arose the golden child. He was the one born Lord of
all that is. He established the earth and the sky. Who is the god to whom we
shall offer sacrifice?
"He who gives life; He who gives strength; whose command all the bright
gods" (the stars?) "revere; whose light is immortality; whose shadow is
death. . . . He who through his power is the one God of the breathing and
awakening world. He who governs all, man and beast. He whose greatness these
snowy mountains, whose greatness the sea proclaims, with the distant river.
He through whom the sky is bright and the earth firm. . . . He who measured
out the light in the air... Wherever the mighty water-clouds went, where
they placed the seed and lit the fire, thence arose He who is the sole life
of the bright gods. . . . He to whom heaven and earth, standing firm by His
will, look up, trembling inwardly. . . . May he not destroy us; He, the
creator of the earth; He, the righteous, who created heaven. He also created
the bright and mighty waters."
This is plainly a hymn to the sun, or to a god whose most glorious
representative was the sun. It is the hymn of a people near the sea; it was
not written by a people living in the heart of Asia. It was the hymn of a
people living in a volcanic country, who call upon their god to keep the
earth "firm" and not to destroy them. It was sung at daybreak, as the sun
rolled up the sky over an "awakening world."
The fire (Agni) upon the altar was regarded as a messenger rising from the
earth to the sun:
"Youngest of the gods, their messenger, their invoker. . . . For thou, O
sage, goest wisely between these two creations (heaven and earth, God and
man) like a friendly messenger between two hamlets."
The dawn of the day (Ushas), part of the sun-worship, became also a god:
"She shines upon us like a young wife, rousing every living being to go to
his work. When the fire had to be kindled by man, she made the light by
striking down the darkness."
As the Egyptians and the Greeks looked to a happy abode (an under-world) in
the west, beyond the waters, so the Aryan's paradise was the other side of
some body of water. In the Veda (vii. 56, 24) we find a prayer to the
Maruts, the storm-gods: "O, Maruts, may there be to us a strong son, who is
a living ruler of men; through whom we may cross the waters on our way to
the happy abode." This happy abode is described as "where King Vaivasvata
reigns; where the secret place of heaven is; where the mighty waters are . .
. where there is food and rejoicing . . . where there is happiness and
delight; where joy and pleasure reside." (Rig-Veda ix. 113, 7.) This is the
paradise beyond the seas; the Elysion; the Elysian Fields of the Greek and
the Egyptian, located upon an island in the Atlantic which was destroyed by
water. One great chain of tradition binds together these widely separated
races.
"The religion of the Veda knows no idols," says Max Müller; "the worship of
idols in India is a secondary formation, a degradation of the more primitive
worship of ideal gods."
It was pure sun-worship, such as prevailed in Peru on the arrival of the
Spaniards. It accords with Plato's description of the religion of Atlantis.
"The Dolphin's Ridge," at the bottom of the Atlantic, or the high land
revealed by the soundings taken by the ship Challenger, is, as will be seen,
of a three-pronged form--one prong pointing toward the west coast of
Ireland, another connecting with the north-east coast of South America, and
a third near or on the west coast of Africa. It does not follow that the
island of Atlantis, at any time while inhabited by civilized people,
actually reached these coasts; there is a strong probability that races of
men may have found their way there from the three continents of Europe,
America, and Africa; or the great continent which once filled the whole bed
of the present Atlantic Ocean, and from whose débris geology tells us the
Old and New Worlds were constructed, may have been the scene of the
development, during immense periods of time, of diverse races of men,
occupying different zones of climate.
There are many indications that there were three races of men dwelling on
Atlantis. Noah, according to Genesis, had three sons--Shem, Ham, and
Japheth--who represented three different races of men of different colors.
The Greek legends tell us of the rebellions inaugurated at different times
in Olympus. One of these was a rebellion of the Giants, "a race of beings
sprung from the blood of Uranos," the great original progenitor of the
stock. "Their king or leader was Porphyrion, their most powerful champion
Alkyoneus." Their mother was the earth: this probably meant that they
represented the common people of a darker line. They made a desperate
struggle for supremacy, but were conquered by Zeus. There were also two
rebellions of the Titans. The Titans seem to have had a government of their
own, and the names of twelve of their kings are given in the Greek mythology
(see Murray, p. 27). They also were of "the blood of Uranos," the Adam of
the people. We read, in fact, that Uranos married Gæa (the earth), and had
three families: 1, the Titans; 2, the Hekatoncheires; and 3, the Kyklopes.
We should conclude that the last two were maritime peoples, and I have shown
that their mythical characteristics were probably derived from the
appearance of their ships. Here we have, I think, a reference to the three
races: 1, the red or sunburnt men, like the Egyptians, the Phnicians, the
Basques, and the Berber and Cushite stocks; 2, the sons of Shem, possibly
the yellow or Turanian race; and 3, the whiter men, the Aryans, the Greeks,
Kelts, Goths, Slavs, etc. If this view is correct, then we may suppose that
colonies of the pale-faced stock may have been sent out from Atlantis to the
northern coasts of Europe at different and perhaps widely separated periods
of time, from some of which the Aryan families of Europe proceeded; hence
the legend, which is found among them, that they were once forced to dwell
in a country where the summers were only two months long.
From the earliest times two grand divisions are recognized in the Aryan
family: "to the east those who specially called themselves Arians, whose
descendants inhabited Persia, India, etc.; to the west, the Yavana, or the
Young Ones, who first emigrated westward, and from whom have descended the
various nations that have populated Europe. This is the name (Javan) found
in the tenth chapter of Genesis." (Lenormant and Chevallier, "Ancient
History of the East," vol. ii., p. 2.) But surely those who "first emigrated
westward," the earliest to leave the parent stock, could not be the "Young
Ones;" they would be rather the elder brothers. But if we can suppose the
Bactrian population to have left Atlantis at an early date, and the Greeks,
Latins, and Celts to have left it at a later period, then they would indeed
be the "Young Ones" of the family, following on the heels of the earlier
migrations, and herein we would find the explanation of the resemblance
between the Latin and Celtic tongues. Lenormant says the name of Erin
(Ireland) is derived from Aryan; and yet we have seen this island populated
and named Erin by races distinctly. connected with Spain, Iberia, Africa,
and Atlantis.
There is another reason for supposing that the Aryan nations came from
Atlantis.
CHAPTER XI.
ATLANTIS RECONSTRUCTED.
THE farther we go back in time toward the era of Atlantis, the more the
evidences multiply that we are approaching the presence of a great, wise,
civilized race. For instance, we find the Egyptians, Ethiopians, and
Israelites, from the earliest ages, refusing to eat the flesh of swine. The
Western nations departed from this rule, and in these modern days we are
beginning to realize the dangers of this article of food, on account of the
trichina contained in it; and when we turn to the Talmud, we are told that
it was forbidden to the Jews, "because of a small insect which infests it."
The Egyptians, the Ethiopians, the Phnicians, the Hebrews, and others of
the ancient races, practised circumcision. It was probably resorted to in
Atlantean days, and imposed as a religious duty, to arrest one of the most
dreadful scourges of the human race-a scourge which continued to decimate
the people of America, arrested their growth, and paralyzed their
civilization. Circumcision stamped out the disease in Atlantis; we read of
one Atlantean king, the Greek god Ouranos, who, in a time of plague,
compelled his whole army and the armies of his allies to undergo the rite.
The colonies that went out to Europe carried the practice but not the
disease out of which it originated with them; and it was not until Columbus
reopened communication with the infected people of the West India Islands
that the scourge crossed the Atlantic and "turned Europe," as one has
expressed it, "into a charnal-house."
Life-insurance statistics show, nowadays, that the average life and health
of the Hebrew is much greater than that of other men; and he owes this to
the retention of practices and beliefs imposed ten thousand years ago by the
great, wise race of Atlantis.
Let us now, with all the facts before us, gleaned from various sources,
reconstruct, as near as may be, the condition of the antediluvians.
They dwelt upon a great island, near which were other smaller islands,
probably east and west of them, forming stepping-stones, as it were, toward
Europe and Africa in one direction, and the West India Islands and America
in the other. There were volcanic mountains upon the main island, rising to
a height of fifteen hundred feet, with their tops covered with perpetual
snow. Below these were elevated table-lands, upon which were the royal
establishments. Below these, again, was "the great plain of Atlantis." There
were four rivers flowing north, south, east, and west from a central point.
The climate was like that of the Azores, mild and pleasant; the soil
volcanic and fertile, and suitable at its different elevations for the
growth of the productions of the tropical and temperate zones.
The people represented at least two different races: a dark brown reddish
race, akin to the Central Americans, the Berbers and the Egyptians; and a
white race, like the Greeks, Goths, Celts, and Scandinavians. Various
battles and struggles followed between the different peoples for supremacy.
The darker race seems to have been, physically, a smaller race, with small
hands; the lighter-colored race was much larger--hence the legends of the
Titans and Giants. The Guanches of the Canary Islands were men of very great
stature. As the works of the Bronze Age represent a small-handed race, and
as the races who possessed the ships and gunpowder joined in the war against
the Giants, we might conclude that the dark races were the more civilized,
that they were the metal-workers and navigators.
The fact that the same opinions and customs exist on both sides of the ocean
implies identity of origin; it might be argued that the fact that the
explanation of many customs existing on both hemispheres is to be found only
in America, implies that the primeval stock existed in America, the
emigrating portion of the population carrying away the custom, but
forgetting the reason for it. The fact that domestic cattle and the great
cereals, wheat, oats, barley, and rye, are found in Europe and not in
America, would imply that after population moved to Atlantis from America
civilization was developed in Atlantis, and that in the later ages
communication was closer and more constant between Atlantis and Europe than
between Atlantis and America. In the case of the bulky domestic animals, it
would be more difficult to transport them, in the open vessels of that day,
from Atlantis across the wider expanse of sea to America, than it would be
to carry them by way of the now submerged islands in front of the
Mediterranean Sea to the coast of Spain. It may be, too, that the climate of
Spain and Italy was better adapted to the growth of wheat, barley, oats and
rye, than maize; while the drier atmosphere of America was better suited to
the latter plant Even now comparatively little wheat or barley is raised in
Central America, Mexico, or Peru, and none on the low coasts of those
countries; while a smaller quantity of maize, proportionately, is grown in
Italy, Spain, and the rest of Western Europe, the rainy climate being
unsuited to it. We have seen (p. 60, ante) that there is reason to believe
that maize was known in a remote period in the drier regions of the
Egyptians and Chinese.
As science has been able to reconstruct the history of the migrations of the
Aryan race, by the words that exist or fail to appear in the kindred
branches of that tongue, so the time will come when a careful comparison of
words, customs, opinions, arts existing on the opposite sides of the
Atlantic will furnish an approximate sketch of Atlantean history.
The people had attained a high position as agriculturists. The presence of
the plough in Egypt and Peru implies that they possessed that implement. And
as the horns and ox-head of Baal show the esteem in which cattle were held
among them, we may suppose that they had passed the stage in which the
plough was drawn by men, as in Peru and Egypt in ancient times, and in
Sweden during the Historical Period, and that it was drawn by oxen or
horses. They first domesticated the horse, hence the association of Poseidon
or Neptune, a sea-god, with horses; hence the race-courses for horses
described by Plato. They possessed sheep, and manufactured woollen goods;
they also had goats, dogs, and swine. They raised cotton and made cotton
goods; they probably cultivated maize, wheat, oats, barley, rye, tobacco,
hemp, and flax, and possibly potatoes; they built aqueducts and practised
irrigation; they were architects, sculptors, and engravers; they possessed
an alphabet; they worked in tin, copper, bronze, silver, gold, and iron.
During the vast period of their duration, as peace and agriculture caused
their population to increase to overflowing, they spread out in colonies
east and west to the ends of the earth. This was not the work of a few
years, but of many centuries; and the relations between these colonies may
have been something like the relation between the different colonies that in
a later age were established by the Phnicians, the Greeks, and the Romans;
there was an intermingling with the more ancient races, the autochthones of
the different lands where they settled; and the same crossing of stocks,
which we know to have been continued all through the Historical Period, must
have been going on for thousands of years, whereby new races and new
dialects were formed; and the result of all this has been that the smaller
races of antiquity have grown larger, while all the complexions shade into
each other, so that we can pass from the whitest to the darkest by
insensible degrees.
In some respects the Atlanteans exhibited conditions similar to those of the
British Islands: there were the same, and even greater, race differences in
the population; the same plantation of colonies in Europe, Asia, and
America; the same carrying of civilization to the ends of the earth. We have
seen colonies from Great Britain going out in the third and fifth centuries
to settle on the shores of France, in Brittany, representing one of the
nationalities and languages of the mother-country--a race Atlantean in
origin. In the same way we may suppose Hamitic emigrations to have gone out
from Atlantis to Syria, Egypt, and the Barbary States. If we could imagine
Highland Scotch, Welsh, Cornish, and Irish populations emigrating en masse
from England in later times, and carrying to their new lands the
civilization of England, with peculiar languages not English, we would have
a state of things probably more like the migrations which took place from
Atlantis. England, with a civilization Atlantean in origin, peopled by races
from the same source, is repeating in these modern times the empire of Zeus
and Chronos; and, just as we have seen Troy, Egypt, and Greece warring
against the parent race, so in later days we have seen Brittany and the
United States separating themselves from England, the race characteristics
remaining after the governmental connection had ceased.
In religion the Atlanteans had reached all the great thoughts which underlie
our modern creeds. They had attained to the conception of one universal,
omnipotent, great First Cause. We find the worship of this One God in Peru
and in early Egypt. They looked upon the sun as the mighty emblem, type, and
instrumentality of this One God. Such a conception could only have come with
civilization. It is not until these later days that science has realized the
utter dependence of all earthly life upon the sun's rays:
"All applications of animal power may be regarded as derived directly or
indirectly from the static chemical power of the vegetable substance by
which the various organisms and their capabilities are sustained; and this
power, in turn, from the kinetic action of the sun's rays.
"Winds and ocean currents, hailstorms and rain, sliding glaciers, flowing
rivers, and falling cascades are the direct offspring of solar heat. All our
machinery, therefore, whether driven by the windmill or the water-wheel, by
horse-power or by steam--all the results of electrical and electro-magnetic
changes--our telegraphs, our clocks, and our watches, all are wound up
primarily by the sun.
"The sun is the great source of energy in almost all terrestrial phenomena.
From the meteorological to the geographical, from the geological to the
biological, in the expenditure and conversion of molecular movements,
derived from the sun's rays, must be sought the motive power of all this
infinitely varied phantasmagoria."
But the people of Atlantis had gone farther; they believed that the soul of
man was immortal, and that he would live again in his material body; in
other words, they believed in "the resurrection of the body and the life
everlasting." They accordingly embalmed their dead.
The Duke of Argyll ("The Unity of Nature") says:
"We have found in the most ancient records of the Aryan language proof that
the indications of religious thought are higher, simpler, and purer as we go
back in time, until at last, in the very oldest compositions of human speech
which have come down to us, we find the Divine Being spoken of in the
sublime language which forms the opening of the Lord's Prayer. The date in
absolute chronology of the oldest Vedic literature does not seem to be
known. Professor Max Müller, however, considers that it may possibly take us
back 5000 years. . . . All we can see with certainty is that the earliest
inventions of mankind are the most wonderful that the race has ever made. .
. . The first use of fire, and the discovery of the methods by which it can
be kindled; the domestication of wild animals; and, above all, the processes
by which the various cereals were first developed out of some wild grasses-
these are all discoveries with which, in ingenuity and in importance, no
subsequent discoveries may compare. They are all unknown to history--all
lost in the light of an effulgent dawn."
The Atlanteans possessed an established order of priests; their religious
worship was pure and simple. They lived under a kingly government; they had
their courts, their judges, their records, their monuments covered with
inscriptions, their mines, their founderies, their workshops, their looms,
their grist-mills, their boats and sailing-vessels, their highways,
aqueducts, wharves, docks, and canals. They had processions, banners, and
triumphal arches for their kings and heroes; they built pyramids, temples,
round-towers, and obelisks; they practised religious ablutions; they knew
the use of the magnet and of gunpowder. In short, they were in the enjoyment
of a civilization nearly as high as our own, lacking only the printing-
press, and those inventions in which steam, electricity, and magnetism are
used. We are told that Deva-Nahusha visited his colonies in Farther India.
An empire which reached from the Andes to Hindostan, if not to China, must
have been magnificent indeed. In 'its markets must have met the maize of the
Mississippi Valley, the copper of Lake Superior, the gold and silver of Peru
and Mexico, the spices of India, the tin of Wales and Cornwall, the bronze
of Iberia, the amber of the Baltic, the wheat and barley of Greece, Italy,
and Switzerland.
It is not surprising that when this mighty nation sank beneath the waves, in
the midst of terrible convulsions, with all its millions of people, the
event left an everlasting impression upon the imagination of mankind. Let us
suppose that Great Britain should to-morrow meet with a similar fate. What a
wild consternation would fall upon her colonies and upon the whole human
family! The world might relapse into barbarism, deep and almost universal.
William the Conqueror, Richard Cur de Lion, Alfred the Great, Cromwell, and
Victoria might survive only as the gods or demons of later races; but the
memory of the cataclysm in which the centre of a universal empire
instantaneously went down to death would never be forgotten; it would
survive in fragments, more or less complete, in every land on earth; it
would outlive the memory of a thousand lesser convulsions of nature; it
would survive dynasties, nations, creeds, and languages; it would never be
forgotten while man continued to inhabit the face of the globe.
Science has but commenced its work of reconstructing the past and
rehabilitating the ancient peoples, and surely there is no study which
appeals more strongly to the imagination than that of this drowned nation,
the true antediluvians. They were the founders of nearly all our arts and
sciences; they were the parents of our fundamental beliefs; they were the
first civilizers, the first navigators, the first merchants, the first
colonizers of the earth; their civilization was old when Egypt was young,
and they had passed away thousands of years before Babylon, Rome, or London
were dreamed of. This lost people were our ancestors, their blood flows in
our veins; the words we use every day were heard, in their primitive form,
in their cities, courts, and temples. Every line of race and thought, of
blood and belief, leads back to them.
Nor is it impossible that the nations of the earth may yet employ their idle
navies in bringing to the light of day some of the relies of this buried
people. Portions of the island lie but a few hundred fathoms beneath the
sea; and if expeditions have been sent out from time to time in the past, to
resurrect from the depths of the ocean sunken treasure-ships with a few
thousand doubloons bidden in their cabins, why should not an attempt be made
to reach the buried wonders of Atlantis? A single engraved tablet dredged up
from Plato's island would be worth more to science, would more strike the
imagination of mankind, than all the gold of Peru, all the monuments of
Egypt, and all the terra-cotta fragments gathered from the great libraries
of Chaldea.
May not the so-called "Phnician coins" found on Corvo, one of the Azores,
be of Atlantean origin? Is it probable that that great race, pre-eminent as
a founder of colonies, could have visited those islands within the
Historical Period, and have left them unpeopled, as they were when
discovered by the Portuguese?
We are but beginning to understand the past: one hundred years ago the world
knew nothing of Pompeii or Herculaneum; nothing of the lingual tie that
binds together the Indo-European nations; nothing of the significance of the
vast volume of inscriptions upon the tombs and temples of Egypt; nothing of
the meaning of the arrow-headed inscriptions of Babylon; nothing of the
marvellous civilizations revealed in the remains of Yucatan, Mexico, and
Peru. We are on the threshold. Scientific investigation is advancing with
giant strides. Who shall say that one hundred years from now the great
museums of the world may not be adorned with gems, statues, arms, and
implements from Atlantis, while the libraries of the world shall contain
translations of its inscriptions, throwing new light upon all the past
history of the human race, and all the great problems which now perplex the
thinkers of our day?