FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   >>  
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
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   >>  



Top keywords:

Egyptians

 

monuments

 

columns

 

nation

 
nations
 

religious

 

customs

 

monument

 

habits

 

thirty


corner

 

uppermost

 

superposed

 
platforms
 
compose
 
immense
 

structure

 

hundred

 

exists

 

intervened


twenty

 

sustaining

 

katuns

 
Merida
 

Spanish

 

priest

 
finished
 
record
 

remark

 
holding

finger
 

represented

 
divinities
 

person

 
sacred
 

people

 

conquest

 
capping
 

column

 

impossible


surmise

 
rejoicings
 

Supposing

 

placing

 
remains
 

plainly

 

discernible

 

whilst

 
features
 

Asiatic