imately connected. If we may apply this inference to
nations likewise, regardless of the distance that to-day separates the
countries where they live, I can then affirm that the Mayas and the
Egyptians are either of a common descent, or that very intimate
communication must have existed in remote ages between their ancestors.

Without entering here into a full detail of the customs and manners of
these people, I will make a rapid comparison between their religious
belief, their customs, manners, scientific attainments, and the
characters used by them in writing etc., sufficient to satisfy any
reasonable body that the strange coincidences that follow, cannot be
altogether accidental.

The SUN, RA, was the supreme god worshiped throughout the land of Egypt;
and its emblem was a disk or circle, at times surmounted by the serpent
Uraeus. Egypt was frequently called the Land of the Sun. RA or LA
signifies in Maya that which exists, emphatically that which is--the
truth.

The sun was worshiped by the ancient Mayas; and the Indians to-day
preserve the dance used by their forefathers among the rites of the
adoration of that luminary, and perform it yet in certain epoch[TN-21]
of the year. The coat-of-arms of the city of Uxmal, sculptured on the
west facade of the sanctuary, attached to the masonic temple in that
city, teaches us that the place was called U LUUMIL KIN, _the land of
the sun_. This name forming the center of the escutcheon, is written
with a cross, circumscribed by a circle, that among the Egyptians is
the sign for land, region, surrounded by the rays of the sun.

Colors in Egypt, as in Mayab, seem to have had the same symbolical
meaning. The figure of _Amun_ was that of a man whose body was light
blue, like the Indian god Wishnu,[TN-22] and that of the god Nilus; as if
to indicate their peculiar exalted and heavenly nature; this color being
that of the pure, bright skies above. The blue color had exactly the
same significance in Mayab, according to Landa and Cogolludo, who tell
us that, even at the time of the Spanish conquest, the bodies of those
who were to be sacrificed to the gods were painted blue. The mural
paintings in the funeral chamber of Chaacmol, at Chichen, confirm this
assertion. There we see figures of men and women painted blue, some
marching to the sacrifice with their hands tied behind their backs.
After being thus painted they were venerated by the people, who regarded
them as sanctified. B