building, have seven rattles; that the head-dress of kings and queens
were adorned with seven blue feathers; in a word, that the number SEVEN
prevails in all places and in everything where Maya influence has
predominated.

It is a FACT, and one that may not be altogether devoid of significance,
that this number SEVEN seems to have been the mystic number of many of
the nations of antiquity. It has even reached our times as such, being
used as symbol[TN-26] by several of the secret societies existing among
us.

If we look back through the vista of ages to the dawn of civilized life
in the countries known as the _old world_, we find this number SEVEN
among the Asiatic nations as well as in Egypt and Mayab. Effectively, in
Babylon, the celebrated temple of _the seven lights_ was made of _seven_
stages or platforms. In the hierarchy of Mazdeism, the _seven marouts_,
or genii of the winds, the _seven amschaspands_; then among the Aryans
and their descendants, the _seven horses_ that drew the chariot of the
sun, the _seven apris_ or shape of the flame, the _seven rays_ of Agni,
the _seven manons_ or criators of the Vedas; among the Hebrews, the
_seven days_ of the creation, the _seven lamps_ of the ark and of
Zacharias's vision, the _seven branches_ of the golden candlestick, the
_seven days_ of the feast of the dedication of the temple of Solomon,
the _seven years_ of plenty, the _seven years_ of famine; in the
Christian dispensation, the _seven_ churches with the _seven_ angels at
their head, the _seven_ golden candlesticks, the _seven seals_ of the
book, the _seven_ trumpets of the angels, the _seven heads_ of the beast
that rose from the sea, the _seven vials_ full of the wrath of God, the
_seven_ last plagues of the Apocalypse; in the Greek mythology, the
_seven_ heads of the hydra, killed by Hercules, etc.

The origin of the prevalence of that number SEVEN amongst all the
nations of earth, even the most remote from each other, has never been
satisfactorily explained, each separate people giving it a different
interpretation, according to their belief and to the tenets of their
religious creeds. As far as the Mayas are concerned, I think to have
found that it originated with the _seven_ members of CAN'S family, who
were the founders of the principal cities of _Mayab_, and to each of
whom was dedicated a mound in Uxmal and a turret in their palace. Their
names, according to the inscriptions carved on the monuments rais