n Temple. He
constructed his edifices of mud and bricks, with rectangular bases,
their angles fronting the cardinal points; receding stages, exterior
staircases, with shrines crowning the whole structure. In this
description of the primitive constructions of the Chaldeans, no one can
fail to recognize the Maya mode of building, and we see them not only in
Yucatan, but throughout Central America, Peru, even Hindoostan. The very
name _Urkuh_ seems composed of two Maya words HUK, to make everything,
and LUK, mud; he who makes everything of mud; so significative of his
building propensities and of the materials used by him.

ASSYRIA.

The etymology of the name of that country, as well as that of Asshur,
the supreme god of the Assyrians, who never pronounced his name without
adding "Asshur is my lord," is still an undecided matter amongst the
learned philologists of our days. Some contend that the country was
named after the god Asshur; others that the god Asshur received his name
from the place where he was worshiped. None agree, however, as to the
significative meaning of the name Asshur. In Assyrian and Hebrew
languages the name of the country and people is derived from that of the
god. That Asshur was the name of the deity, and that the country was
named after it, I have no doubt, since I find its etymology, so much
sought for by philologists, in the American Maya language. Effectively
the word _asshur_, sometimes written _ashur_, would be AXUL in Maya.

_A_, in that language, placed before a noun, is the possessive pronoun,
as the second person, thy or thine, and _xul_, means end, termination.
It is also the name of the sixth month of the Maya calendar. _Axul_
would therefore be _thy end_. Among all the nations which have
recognized the existence of a SUPREME BEING, Deity has been considered
as the beginning and end of all things, to which all aspire to be
united.

A strange coincidence that may be without significance, but is not out
of place to mention here, is the fact that the early kings of Chaldea
are represented on the monuments as sovereigns over the _Kiprat-arbat_,
or FOUR RACES. While tradition tells us that the great lord of the
universe, king of the giants, whose capital was _Tiahuanaco_, the
magnificent ruins of which are still to be seen on the shores of the
lake of Titicaca, reigned over _Ttahuatyn-suyu_, the FOUR PROVINCES. In
the _Chou-King_ we read that in very remote times _China_ was called by