itain and Ireland, and like the latter they claimed
to be the "children of the sun." An ark or argha was one of the
universal sacred symbols which we find alike in India, Chaldea,
Assyria, Egypt, Greece and amongst the Keltic peoples. Lord
Kingsborough in his _Mexican Antiquities_ (vol. viii. p. 250) says:
"As among the Jews the ark was a sort of portable temple in which the
deity was supposed to be continually present, so among the Mexicans,
the Cherokees and the Indians of Michoacan and Honduras, an ark was
held in the highest veneration and was considered an object too sacred
to be touched by any but the priests."

As to religious architecture, we find on both sides of the Atlantic
that one of the earliest sacred buildings is the pyramid. Doubtful as
are the uses for which these structures were originally intended, one
thing is clear, that they were closely connected with some religious
idea or group of ideas. The identity of design in the pyramids of
Egypt and those of Mexico and Central America is too striking to be a
mere coincidence. True some--the greater number--of the American
pyramids are of the truncated or flattened form, yet according to
Bancroft and others, many of those found in Yucatan, and notably those
near Palenque, are pointed at the top in true Egyptian fashion, while
on the other hand we have some of the Egyptian pyramids of the stepped
and flattened type. Cholula has been compared to the groups of
Dachour, Sakkara and the step pyramid of Medourn. Alike in
orientation, in structure, and even in their internal galleries and
chambers, these mysterious monuments of the east and of the west stand
as witnesses to some common source whence their builders drew their
plan.

The vast remains of cities and temples in Mexico and Yucatan also
strangely resemble those of Egypt, the ruins of Teotihuacan having
frequently been compared to those of Karnak. The "false
arch"--horizontal courses of stone, each slightly overlapping the
other--is found to be identical in Central America, in the oldest
buildings of Greece, and in Etruscan remains. The mound builders of
both eastern and western continents formed similar tumuli over their
dead, and laid the bodies in similar stone coffins. Both continents
have their great serpent-mounds; compare that of Adams Co., Ohio, with
the fine serpent-mound discovered in Argyleshire, or the less perfect
specimen at Avebury in Wilts. The very carving and decoration of the
temple