nsulas, for the religious lores
and customs they have in common are too few to justify this assertion.
They would simply tend to prove that relations had existed between them
at some epoch or other; and had interchanged some of their habits and
beliefs as it happens, between the civilized nations of our days. This
appears to be the true side of the question; for in the figures
sculptured on the obelisks of Copan the Asiatic type is plainly
discernible; whilst the features of the statues that adorn the
celebrated temples of Hindostan are, beyond all doubts, American.
The FACTS gathered from the monuments do not sustain the theory advanced
by many, that the inhabitants of tropical America received their
civilization from Egypt and Asia Minor. On the contrary. It is true that
I have shown that many of the customs and attainments of the Egyptians
were identical to those of the Mayas; but these had many religious rites
and habits unknown to the Egyptians; who, as we know, always pointed
towards the West as the birthplaces of their ancestors, and worshiped as
gods and goddesses personages who had lived, and whose remains are still
in MAYAB. Besides, the monuments themselves prove the respective
antiquity of the two nations.
According to the best authorities the most ancient monuments raised by
the Egyptians do not date further back than about 2,500 years B. C.
Well, in Ake, a city about twenty-five miles from Merida, there exists
still a monument sustaining thirty-six columns of _katuns_. Each of
these columns indicate a lapse of one hundred and sixty years in the
life of the nation. They then would show that 5,760 years has intervened
between the time when the first stone was placed on the east corner of
the uppermost of the three immense superposed platforms that compose the
structure, and the placing of the last capping stone on the top of the
thirty-sixth column. How long did that event occur before the Spanish
conquest it is impossible to surmise. Supposing, however, it did take
place at that time; this would give us a lapse of at least 6,100 years
since, among the rejoicings of the people this sacred monument being
finished, the first stone that was to serve as record of the age of the
nation, was laid by the high priest, where we see it to-day. I will
remark that the name AKE is one of the Egyptians' divinities, the third
person of the triad of Esneh; always represented as a child, holding his
finger to his mouth. A
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