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fe^!?^ 


Presented  to  the 

LIBRARIES  of  the 

UNIVERSITY  OF  TORONTO 

by 

Willard  G.  Oxtoby 


ATLANTIS: 

THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  ^ORLD, 


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;  ^r.  .^  ./^"^ 


•tC)  f  1  */  '^ 


IGNATIUS    DONNELLY. 


ILLUSTRATED. 


•  The  world  has  made  such  comet-liJce  advance 
Lately  on  science,  ive  may  almost  hope, 
Before  loe  die  of  sheer  decay,  to  learn 
Something  about  our  infancy ;  when  lived 
That  great,  original,  broad-eyed,  sunken  race. 
Whose  knowledge,  like  the  sea-sustainirg  rocks, 
Hath  formed  the  ba^e  of  tfiis  world'' s  fluctuous  lore. " 

Festcs. 


NEW    YORK: 
HARPER    &    BROTHERS,   FRANKLIN^    SQUARE. 

18  8  2. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1882,  by 
HARPER  &  BROTHERS, 


All  rights  reserved. 


CONTENTS 


PART  I. 

^  THE  HISTORY  OF  ATLANTIS.  ^ 

Chap.  Pagk 

I.  The  Purpose  of  the  Book 1 

U.  Plato's  History  of  Atlantis 5 

III.  The  Probabilities  of  Plato's  Story 22 

IV.  Was  such  a  Catastrophe  Possible? 31 

V.  The  Testimony  of  the  Sea 46 

VI.  The  Testimony  of  the  Flora  and  Fauna 54 


PART  II. 

THE   DELUGE. 

I.  The    Destruction    of    Atlantis    described    in    the    Deluge 

Legends 65 

II.  The  Deluge  of  the  Bible 68 

III.  The  Deluge  of  the  Chaldeans 75 

IV.  The  Deluge  Legends  of  other  Nations 85 

V.  The  Deluge  Legends  of  America 98 

VL  Some  Consideration  op  the  Deluge  Legends 119 


PART  III. 

THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  THE  OLD   WORLD  AND  NEW  COMPARED. 

I.  Civilization  an  Inheritance 129 

II.  The  Identity   of  the  Civilizations  of  the   Old  World  and 

THE  New 136 

III.  American  Evidences  of  Intercourse  with  Europe  or  Atlantis  165 


VI 


CONTENTS. 


Chap. 
IV.  Corroborating  Circumstances  .... 
V.  The  Question  of  Complexion     .... 
VI.  Genesis  contains  a  History  of  Atlantis 
VII.   The  Origin  of  our  Alphabet  .... 

VIII.  The  Bronze  Age  in  Europe 

IX.  Artificial  Deformation  op  the  Skull  . 


Pagk 
.  171 
.  183 
.  198 
.  214 
,  237 
.  268 


THE  MYTHOLOGIES    OF 


PART  IV. 

THE    OLD    WORLD 
ATLANTIS. 


A    RECOLLECTION    OF 


I.  Traditions  of  Atlantis 276 

II.  The  Kings  of  Atlantis  become  the  Gods  of  the  Greeks    .  283 

III.  The  Gods  of  the  Phcenicians  also  Kings  of  Atlantis   .     .  308 

IV.  The  God  Odin,  Woden,  or  Wotan 313 

V.  The  Pyramid,  the  Cross,  and  the  Garden  of  Eden    .     .     .317 

VI.  Gold  and  Silver  the  Sacred  Metals  of  Atlantis  ....  34.3 


PART  V. 

THE   COLONIES  OF  ATLANTIS. 

I.  The  Central  American  and  Mexican  Colonies 348 

II.  The  Egyptian  Colony 358 

III.  The  Colonies  of  the  Mississippi  Valley 370 

IV.  The  Iberian  Colonies  of  Atlantis 387 

V.  The  Peruvian  Colony 390 

VI.  The  African  Colonies 404 

VII.  The  Irish  Colonies  from  Atlantis 408 

VIII.  The  Oldest  Son  of  Noah 423 

IX.  The  Antiquity  of  some  of  our  Great  Inventions  ....  440 

X.  The  Aryan  Colonies  from  Atlantis 456 

XI.  Atlantis  Reconstructed 472 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Page 

The  Profile  of  Atlantis Frontispiece 

Coal-measures  of  Pennsylvania 31 

Destruction  of  Pompeii 33 

Calabrian  Peasants  Ingulfed  by  Crevasses  (I'ZSS) 3*7 

Fort  of  Sindree,  on  the  Eastern  Branch  of  the  Indus,  before  it  was 

Submerged  by  the  Earthquake  of  1819 39 

View  of  the  Fort  of  Sindree  from  the  West  in  March,  1838      .     .     39 

Eruption  of  Vesuvius  in  1737 41 

Map  of  Atlantis,  with  its  Islands  and  Connecting  Ridges,  from  Deep- 
sea  Soundings 47 

Ancient  Islands  between  Atlantis  and  the  Mediterranean,  from  Deep- 
sea  Soundings 51 

Ancient  Carving,  Stratford-on-Avon,  England 60 

Cereals  of  the  Age  of  Stone  in  Europe 62 

Ancient  Irish  Pipes 63 

Ancient  Indian  Pipe,  New  Jersey 64 

The  World,  according  to  Cosmos 95 

Map  of  Europe,  after  Cosmos 96 

The  Mountain  the  Sun  goes  behind  at  Night 97 

The  Starting-point  of  the  Aztecs,  according  to  the  Gamelli   Careri 

Pictured  MS 104 

The  Starting-point  of  the  Aztecs,  according  to   the  Boturini  Pict- 
ured Writing 104 

Calendar  Stone 107 

The  God  of  the  Flood 123 

Mosaics  at  Mitla,  Mexico 137 

Carving  on  the  Buddhist  Tower,  Sarnath,  India 139 

Ancient  Irish  Vase  of  the  Bronze  Age 142 

Ancient  Vase  from  the  Mounds  of  the  United  States 143 


viii  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Pagk 

Ancient  Mexican  Vase 16t) 

Bearded  Head,  from  Teotihuacan 166 

Elephant  Mound,  Wisconsin ,     .     .  168 

Elephant  Pipe,  Louisa  County,  Iowa 169 

Elephant-trunk  Head-dress,  Palenque 169 

Mexican  Representation  of  Elephant 1*70 

Negro  Idols  found  in  Central  America 174 

Negroid  Figure,  Palenque 175 

Negro  Head,  Vera  Cruz 1V5 

Governor  and  other  Indians  of  the  Pueblo  of  San  Domingo,  New 

Mexico 187 

Choctaw 190 

Shawnees 191 

Savonarola 193 

The  Races  of  Men  according  to  the  Egyptians 195 

Ruins  of  the  Pyramid  of  Cholula 201 

Great  Serpent-mound,  Ohio 205 

Stone  Implements  of  Europe  and  America 206 

Landa's  Alphabet 217 

The  Alphabet 219 

Implements  and  Ornaments  of  the  Bronze  Age 239 

Ornaments  of  the  Bronze  Age 242 

Celtic  Warrior,  from  Egyptian  Monuments 244 

Celtic  Warrior,  from  Assyrian  Monuments 245 

A  Skull  of  the  Age  of  Stone,  Denmark 249 

A  Skull  of  the  Earliest  Times  of  the  Age  of  Iron,  Denmark     .     .  249 

Irish  Celt 250 

Danish  Celt 250 

Leaf-shaped  Bronze  Swords 251 

Stone  Celt,  Mound  in  Tennessee 253 

Bronze  Knives  from  Denmark 254 

Bronze  Knives  from  Switzerland 254 

Hut  Urn,  Albano 255 

Bronze  Lake  Village 255 

Bronze  Razor-knives 250 

Ancient  Galley,  from  a  Roman  Com 257 

Ship  of  William  the  Conqueror 257 

Irish  Bronze  Dagger 258 

Inscribed  Celt 258 

Bronze  Hair-pins 259 

Vases  from  Mounds  in  the  Mississippi  Valley ....  260 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


IX 


Page 

Vases  from  Switzerland 261 

Ancient  Swiss  Vase  and  Supporter .  261 

Bronze  Chisels 262 

Spirals  from  Scotland 262 

Spiral  from  New  Mexico 262 

Discoidal  Stones,  Illinois 263 

Copper  Spear-head,  Lake  Superior 263 

Bronze  Hatchets,  Switzerland 263 

Spiral  from  New  Mexico 265 

Shell  Ornament,  Mound  near  Nashville,  Tennessee 265 

Copper  Axe,  from  a  Mound  near  Laporte,  Indiana 266 

Copper  Axe,  Waterford,  Ireland 266 

Fragment  of  Pottery,  Lake  Neufchatel,  Switzerland 266 

Fragment  of  Pottery,  San  Jose,  Mexico 266 

Stucco  Bass-relief  in  the  Palace  of  Palenque 269 

Ancient  Swiss  Skull 270 

Peruvian  Skull 271 

Chinook  (Flat-head),  after  Catlin 271 

Heads  from  Palenque 272 

Outlines  of  Skulls  of  Different  Races 273 

Egyptian  Heads 274 

Central  American  Head 274 

Egyptian  Head 274 

Peruvian  Inca  Skull,  from  the  Ancient  Cemetery  of  Pachacamac    .  275 

The  Empire  of  Atlantis 295 

Poseidon,  or  Neptune 305 

Egyptian  Tau 319 

Cross  from  Monuments  of  Palenque 319 

Ancient  Irish  Cross 320 

Central  American  Cross 320 

Copper  Coin,  Tec-tihuacan 320 

Ancient  Irish  Cross — Pre-Christian — Kilnaboy 321 

Cross  from  Egyptian  Monuments 322 

Pyramids  of  Egypt 337 

Pyramids  of  Teotihuacan 338 

The  great  Mound,  near  Miamisburg,  Ohio 339 

Great  Pyramid  of  Xcoch,  Mexico 341 

Common  Form  of  Arch,  Central  America 353 

Section  of  the  Treasure-house  of  Atreus  at  Mycenae 354 

Arch  of  Las  Monjas,  Palenque,  Central  America 355 

Graded  Way  near  Piketon,  Ohio 373 


X  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Paqi: 

Walls  at  Gran-Chirau,  Peru 375 

Cross  and  Pyramid  Mound,  Ohio 375 

From-  the  Mounds  of  the  Ohio  Valley 381 

Cyclopean  Wall,  Greece 397 

Cyclopean  Masonry,  Peru 397 

Owl-headed  Vase,  Troy 398 

Owl-headed  Vase,  Peru 398 

Owl-headed  Vase,  Peru 399 

Owl-headed  Vase,  Troy 400 

Tamahu,  from  the  Egyptian  Monuments,  1500  b.c 407 

The  Burgh  of  Moussa,  in  the  Shetlands 417 

Round-tower  of  the  Canon  of  the  Mancos,  Colorado,  U.  S.      ...  418 

Cow-headed  Idol,  Mycenae  (from  Schliemann) 427 

Religious  Emblem  of  the  Bronze  Age,  Switzerland 428 

Baal,  the  Phoenician  God 428 

Moqui  Idol 429 

Dakota  Idol 429 

Peruvian  Devil 429 

Greek  Siren 430 

Chinese  Magnetic  Car 442 

Ancient  Coins  of  Tyre 444 

Coin  from  Central  America 445 

Ancient  Egyptian  Plough 460 


I 


ATLANTIS : 

THE    ANTEDILUVIAN    WORLD. 


PART  I. 
THE  HISTOKY  OF  ATLANTIS. 


Chapter  I. 

THE  PURPOSE  OF  THE  BOOK. 

This  book  is  an  attempt  to  demonstrate  several  distinct  and 
novel  propositions.     These  are : 

1.  That  there  once  existed  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  opposite 
tlie  mouth  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  a  large  island,  which  was 
the  remnant  of  an  Atlantic  continent,  and  known  to  the  an- 
cient world  as  Atlantis. 

2.  That  the  description  of  this  island  given  by  Plato  is  not, 
as  has  been  long  supposed,  fable,  but  veritable  history. 

3.  That  Atlantis  was  the  region  where  man  first  rose  from 
a  state  of  barbarism  to  civilization. 

4.  That  it  became,  in  the  course  of  ages,  a  populous  and 
mighty  nation,  from  whose  overflowings  the  shores  of  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico,  the  Mississippi  River,  the  Amazon,  the  Pacific 
coast  of  South  America,  the  Mediterranean,  the  west  coast  of 
Europe  and  Africa,  the  Baltic,  the  Black  Sea,- and  the  Caspian 
were  populated  by  civilized  nations. 

5.  That  it  was  the  true  Antediluvian  world ;  the  Garden  of 
Eden;   the   Gardens   of  the  Hesperides ;   the   Elysian   Fields; 

1 


2  ATLANTIC:  THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

the  Gardens  of  Alcinous;  the  Mesomphalos ;  the  Olyrapos;  the 
Asgard  of  the  traditions  of  the  ancient  nations;  representing 
a  universal  memory  of  a  great  land,  where  early  mankind  dwelt 
for  ages  in  peace  and  happiness. 

6.  That  the  gods  and  goddesses  of  the  ancient  Greeks,  the 
Phoenicians,  the  Hindoos,  and  the  Scandinavians  were  simply 
the  kings,  queens,  and  heroes  of  Atlantis  ;  and  the  acts  at- 
tributed to  them  in  mythology  are  a  confused  recollection  of 
real  historical  events. 

v.  That  the  mythology  of  Egypt  and  Peru  represented  the 
original  religion  of  Atlantis,  which  was  sun-worship. 

8.  That  the  oldest  colony  formed  by  the  Atlanteans  was 
probably  in  Egypt,  whose  civilization  was  a  reproduction  of 
that  of  the  Atlantic  island. 

9.  That  the  implements  of  the  "Bronze  Age"  of  Europe 
Avere  derived  from  Atlantis.  The  Atlanteans  were  also  the 
first  manufacturers  of  iron. 

10.  That  the  Phoenician  alphabet,  parent  of  all  the  Euro- 
pean alphabets,  was  derived  from  an  Atlantis  alphabet,  which 
was  also  conveyed  from  Atlantis  to  the  Mayas  of  Central 
America. 

11.  That  Atlantis  was  the  original  seat  of  the  Aryan  or 
Indo-European  family  of  nations,  as  well  as  of  the  Semitic 
peoples,  and  possibly  also  of  the  Turanian  races. 

12.  That  Atlantis  perished  in  a  terrible  convulsion  of  nature, 
in  which  the  whole  island  sunk  into  the  ocean,  with  nearly  all 
its  inhabitants. 

13.  That  a  few  persons  escaped  in  ships  and  on  rafts,  and 
carried  to  the  nations  east  and  west  the  tidings  of  the  ap- 
palling catastrophe,  which  has  survived  to  our  own  time  in 
the  Flood  and  Deluge  legends  of  the  different  nations  of  the 
old  and  new  worlds. 

If  these  propositions  can  be  proved,  they  will  solve  many 
problems  which  now  perplex  mankind ;  they  will  confirm  in 


THE  PURPOSE  OF  THE  BOOK.  3 

many  respects  the  statements  in  the  opening  chapters  of  Gen- 
esis ;  they  will  widen  the  area  of  human  history  ;  they  will  ex- 
plain the  remarkable  resemblances  which  exist  between  the 
ancient  civilizations  found  upon  the  opposite  shores  of  the  At- 
lantic Ocean,  in  the  old  and  new  worlds ;  and  they  will  aid  us 
to  rehabilitate  the  fathers  of  our  civilization,  our  blood,  and 
our  fundamental  ideas — the  men  who  lived,  loved,  and  labored 
ages  before  the  Aryans  descended  upon  India,  or  the  Phoeni- 
cian had  settled  in  Syria,  or  the  Goth  had  reached  the  shores 
of  the  Baltic. 

The  fact  that  the  story  of  Atlantis  was  for  thousands  of 
years  regarded  as  a  fable  proves  nothing.  There  is  an  unbelief 
which  grows  out  of  ignorance,  as  well  as  a  scepticism  which  is 
born  of  intelligence.  The  people  nearest  to  the  past  are  not 
always  those  who  are  best  informed  concerning  the  past. 

For  a  thousand  years  it  was  believed  that  the  legends  of  the 
buried  cities  of  Pompeii  and  Herculaneum  were  myths:  they 
were  spoken  of  as  "  the  fabulous  cities."  For  a  thousand  years 
the  educated  world  did  not  credit  the  accounts  given  by  He- 
rodotus of  the  wonders  of  the  ancient  civilizations  of  the  Nile 
and  of  Chaldea.  He  was  called  "the  father  of  liars."  Even 
Plutarch  sneered  at  him.  Now,  in  the  language  of  Frederick 
Schlegel,  "the  deeper  and  more  comprehensive  the  researches 
of  the  moderns  have  been,  the  more  their  regard  and  esteem 
for  Herodotus  has  increased."  Buckle  says,  "His  minute  in- 
formation about  Egypt  and  Asia  Minor  is  admitted  by  all 
geographers." 

There  was  a  time  when  the  expedition  sent  out  by  Pharaoh 
Necho  to  circumnavigate  Africa  was  doubted,  because  the  ex- 
plorers stated  that  after  they  had  progressed  a  certain  distance 
the  sun  was  north  of  them  ;  this  circumstance,  which  then 
aroused  suspicion,  now  proves  to  us  that  the  Egyptian  navi- 
gators had  really  passed  the  equator,  and  anticipated  by  2100 
years  Vasquez  de  Gama  in  his  discovery  of  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope. 


4  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

If  T  succeed  in  demonstrating  the  truth  of  the  somewhat 
startling  propositions  with  which  I  commenced  this  chapter, 
it  will  only  be  by  bringing  to  bear  upon  the  question  of  At- 
lantis a  thousand  converging  lines  of  light  from  a  multitude 
of  researches  made  by  scholars  in  different  fields  of  modern 
thought.  Further  investigations  and  discoveries  will,  I  trust, 
confirm  the  correctness  of  the  conclusions  at  which  I  have 
arrived. 


FLAW  a  HIHTOJiY  OF  ATLANTIS. 


Chapter  II. 

PLATO'S  HISTORY  OF  ATLANTIS. 

Plato  has  preserved  for  us  the  history  of  Atlantis.  If  our 
views  are  correct,  it  is  one  of  the  most  vaUiable  records  which 
have  come  down  to  ns  from  antiquity. 

Plato  lived  400  years  before  the  birth  of  Christ.  His  an- 
cestor, Solon,  was  the  great  law-giver  of  Athens  600  years  be- 
fore the  Christian  era.  Solon  visited  Egypt.  Plutarch  says, 
"  Solon  attempted  in  verse  a  large  description,  or  rather  fabu- 
lous account  of  the  Atlantic  Island,  which  he  had  learned  from 
the  wise  men  of  Sais,  and  which  particularly  concerned  the 
Athenians;  but  by  reason  of  his  age,  not  want  of  leisure  (as 
Plato  would  have  it),  he  was  apprehensive  the  work  would  be 
too  much  for  him,  and  therefore  did  not  go  through  with  it. 
These  verses  are  a  proof  that  business  was  not  the  hinderance : 

"  '  I  grow  in  learning  as  I  grow  in  age.' 

And  again  : 

"  '  Wine,  wit,  and  beauty  still  their  charms  bestow, 
Light  all  the  shades  of  life,  and  cheer  us  as  we  go.' 

"Plato,  ambitious  to  cultivate  and  adorn  the  subject  ot  the 
Atlantic  Island,  as  a  delightful  spot  in  some  fair  field  unoccu- 
pied, to  which  also  he  had  some  claim  by  reason  of  his  being 
related  to  Solon,  laid  out  magnificent  courts  and  enclosures,  and 
erected  a  grand  entrance  to  it,  such  as  no  other  story,  fable,  or 
poem  ever  had.  But,  as  he  began  it  late,  he  ended  his  life 
before  the  work,  so  that  the  more  the  reader  is  delighted  with 


6  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

the  part  that  is  written,  the  more  "regret  he  has  to  find  it  un- 
finished." 

There  can  be  no  question  that  Solon  visited  Egypt.  The 
causes  of  his  departure  from  Athens,  for  a  period  of  ten  years, 
are  fully  explained  by  Plutarch.     He  dwelt,  he  tells  us, 

"  On  the  Canopian  shore,  by  Nile's  deep  mouth." 

There  he  conversed  upon  points  of  philosophy  and  history 
with  the  most  learned  of  the  Egyptian  priests.  He  was  a  man 
of  extraordinary  force  and  penetration  of  mind,  as  his  laws  and 
his  sayings,  which  have  been  preserved  to  us,  testify.  There  is 
no  improbability  in  the  statement  that  he  commenced  in  verse 
a  history  and  description  of  Atlantis,  which  he  left  unfinished 
at  his  death ;  and  it  requires  no  great  stretch  of  the  imagina- 
tion to  believe  that  this  manuscript  reached  the  hands  of  his 
successor  and  descendant,  Plato ;  a  scholar,  thinker,  and  his- 
torian like  himself,  and,  like  himself,  one  of  the  profoundest 
minds  of  the  ancient  world.  The  Egyptian  priest  had  said  to 
Solon,  "You  have  no  antiquity  of  history,  and  no  history  of 
antiquity ;"  and  Solon  doubtless  realized  fully  the  vast  impor- 
tance of  a  record  which  carried  human  history  back,  not  only 
thousands  of  years  before  the  era  of  Greek  civilization,  but 
many  thousands  of  years  before  even  the  establishment  of  the 
kingdom  of  Egypt;  and  he  was  anxious  to  preserve  for  his 
half-civilized  countrymen  this  inestimable  record  of  the  past. 

We  know  of  no  better  way  to  commence  a  book  about  At- 
lantis than  by  giving  in  full  the  record  preserved  by  Plato. 
It  is  as  follows : 

Critias.  Then  listen,  Socrates,  to  a  strange  tale,  which  is, 
however,  certainly  true,  as  Solon,  who  was  the  wisest  of  the 
seven  sages,  declared.  He  was  a  relative  and  great  friend  of 
my  great-grandfather,  Dropidas,  as  he  himself  says  in  several  of 
his  poems  ;  and  Dropidas  told  Critias,  my  grandfather,  who  re- 
membered, and  told  us,  that  there  were  of  old  great  and  mar- 
vellous actions  of  the  Athenians,  which  have  passed  into  ob- 
livion throuo-h  time  and  the  destruction  of  the  human  race — 


PLATO'S  HISTORY   OF  ATLANTIS  7 

and  one  in  particular,  which  was  the  greatest  of  them  all,  the 
recital  of  which  will  be  a  suitable  testimony  of  our  gratitude 
to  jou.  .  .  . 

Socrates.  Very  good ;  and  what  is  this  ancient  famous  ac- 
tion of  which  Critias  spoke,  not  as  a  mere  legend,  but  as  a 
veritable  action  of  the  Athenian  State,  which  Solon  recounted? 

Critias.  I  will  tell  an  old-world  story  which  I  heard  from 
an  aged  man ;  for  Critias  was,  as  he  said,  at  that  time  nearly 
ninety  years  of  age,  and  I  was  about  ten  years  of  age.  Now 
the  day  was  that  day  of  the  Apaturia  which  is  called  the  regis- 
tration of  youth ;  at  which,  according  to  custom,  our  parents 
gave  prizes  for  recitations,  and  the  poems  of  several  poets  were 
recited  by  us  boys,  and  many  of  us  sung  the  poems  of  Solon, 
which  were  new  at  the  time.  One  of  our  tribe,  either  because 
this  was  his  real  opinion,  or  because  he  thought  that  he  would 
please  Critias,  said  that,  in  his  judgment,  Solon  was  not  only 
the  wisest  of  men  but  the  noblest  of  poets.  The  old  man,  I 
well  remember,  brightened  up  at  this,  and  said,  smiling:  "Yes, 
Amynander,  if  Solon  had  only,  like  other  poets,  made  poetry 
the  business  of  his  life,  and  had  completed  the  tale  which  he 
brought  with  him  from  Egypt,  and  had  not  been  compelled, 
by  reason  of  the  factions  and  troubles  which  he  found  stirring 
in  this  country  when  he  came  home,  to  attend  to  other  mat- 
ters, in  my  opinion  he  would  have  been  as  famous  as  Homer, 
or  Hesiod,  or  any  poet." 

"And  what  was  that  poem  about,  Critias?"  said  the  person 
who  addressed  him. 

"About  the  greatest  action  which  the  Athenians  ever  did, 
and  which  ought  to  have  been  most  famous,  but  which,  through 
the  lapse  of  time  and  the  destruction  of  the  actors,  has  not 
come  down  to  us." 

"  Tell  us,"  said  the  other,  "  the  whole  story,  and  how  and 
from  whom  Solon  heard  this  veritable  tradition." 

He  replied  :  "  At  the  head  of  the  Egyptian  Delta,  where  the 
river  Nile  divides,  there  is  a  certain  district  which  is  called  the 
district  of  Sais,  and  the  great  city  of  the  district  is  also  called 
Sais,  and  is  the  city  from  which  Amasis  the  king  was  sprung. 
And  the  citizens  have  a  deity  who  is  their  foundress :  she  is 
called  in  the  Egyptian  tongue  Neith,  which  is  asserted  by 
them  to  be  the  same  whom  the  Hellenes  called  Athene.  Now, 
the  citizens  of  this  city  are  great  lovers  of  the  Athenians,  and 


8  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

say  that  they  are  in  some  way  related  to  them.  Thither  came 
Solon,  who  was  received  by  them  with  gTeat  honor ;  and  he 
asked  the  priests,  who  were  most  skilful  in  such  matters,  about 
antiquity,  and  made  the  discovery  that  neither  he  nor  any  oth- 
er Hellene  knew  anvthinjy  worth  mentioninoj  about  the  times  of 
old.  On  one  occasion,  when  he  was  drawing  them  on  to  speak 
of  antiquity,  he  began  to  tell  about  the  most  ancient  things  in 
our  part  of  the  world  —  about  Phoroneus,  who  is  called  'the 
first,'  and  about  Niobe;  and,  after  the  Deluge,  to  tell  of  the 
lives  of  Deucalion  and  Pyrrha;  and  he  traced  the  genealogy 
of  their  descendants,  and  attempted  to  reckon  how  many  years 
old  were  the  events  of  which  he  was  speaking,  and  to  give  the 
dates.  Thereupon,  one  of  the  priests,  who  was  of  very  great 
age,  said,  '  O  Solon,  Solon,  you  Hellenes  are  but  children,  and 
there  is  never  an  old  man  who  is  an  Hellene.'  Solon,  hearing 
this,  said,  '  What  do  you  mean  ?'  ^  I  mean  to  say,'  he  replied, 
'that  in  mind  you  are  all  young;  there  is  no  old  opinion 
handed  down  among  you  by  ancient  tradition,  nor  any  sci- 
ence which  is  hoary  with  age.  And  I  will  tell  you  the  reason 
of  this:  there  have  been,  and  there  will  be  again,  many  de- 
structions of  mankind  arising  out  of  many  causes.  There  is 
a  story  which  even  you  have  preserved,  that  once  upon  a  time 
Phaethon,  the  son  of  Helios,  having  yoked  the  steeds  in  his 
father's  chariot,  because  he  was  not  able  to  drive  them  in  the 
path  of  his  father,  burnt  up  all  that  was  upon  the  earth,  and 
was  himself  destroyed  by  a  thunder-bolt.  Now,  this  has  the 
form  of  a  myth,  but  really  signifies  a  declination  of  the  bodies 
moving  around  the  earth  and  in  the  heavens,  and  a  great  confla- 
gration of  things  upon  the  earth  recurring  at  long  intervals  of 
time:  when  this  happens,  those  who  live  upon  the  mountains. 
and  in  dry  and  lofty  places  are  more  liable  to  destruction  than 
those  who  dwell  by  rivers  or  on  the  sea-shore;  and  from  this 
calamity  the  Nile,  who  is  our  never-failing  savior,  saves  and  de- 
livers us.  When,  on  the  other  hand,  the  gods  purge  the  earth 
with  a  deluge  of  water,  among  you  herdsmen  and  shepherds 
on  the  mountains  are  the  survivors,  whereas  those  of  you  who 
live  in  cities  are  carried  by  the  rivers  into  the  sea;  but  in  this 
country  neither  at  that  time  nor  at  any  other  does  the  water 
come  from  above  on  the  fields,  having  always  a  tendency  to 
come  up  from  below,  for  which  reason  the  things  preserved 
here  are  said  to  be  the  oldest.     The  fact  is,  that  wherever  the 


PLATO'S  HISTORY  OF  ATLANTIS.  9 

extremity  of  winter  frost  or  of  summer  sun  does  not  prevent, 
the  human  race  is  always  increasing  at  times,  and  at  other 
times  diminishing  in  numbers.  And  whatever  happened  either 
in  your  country  or  in  ours,  or  in  any  other  region  of  which  we 
are  informed— if  any  action  which  is  noble  or  great,  or  in  any 
other  way  remarkable  has  taken  place,  all  that  has  been  writ- 
ten down  of  old,  and  is  preserved  in  our  temples;  whereas 
you  and  other  nations  are  just  being  provided  with  letters  and 
the  other  things  which  States  require ;  and  then,  at  the  usual 
period,  the  stream  from  heaven  descends  like  a  pestilence,  and 
leaves  only  those  of  you  who  are  destitute  of  letters  and  edu- 
cation ;  and  thus  you  have  to  begin  all  over  again  as  children, 
and  know  nothing  of  what  happened  in  ancient  times,  either 
among  us  or  among  yourselves.  As  for  those  genealogies  of 
yours  which  you  have  recounted  to  us,  Solon,  they  are  no  bet- 
ter than  the  tales  of  children ;  for,  in  the  first  place,  you  re- 
member one  deluge  only,  whereas  there  were  many  of  them  ; 
and,  in  the  next  place,  you  do  not  know  that  there  dwelt  in 
your  land  the  fairest  and  noblest  race  of  men  which  ever  lived, 
of  whom  you  and  your  whole  city  are  but  a  seed  or  remnant. 
And  this  was  unknown  to  you,  because  for  many  generations 
the  survivors  of  that  destruction  died  and  made  no  sign.  For 
there  was  a  time,  Solon,  before  that  great  deluge  of  all,  when 
the  city  which  now  is  Athens  was  first  in  war,  and  was  pre- 
eminent for  the  excellence  of  her  laws,  and  is  said  to  have  per- 
formed the  noblest  deeds,  and  to  have  had  the  fairest  consti- 
tution of  any  of  which  tradition  tells,  under  the  face  of  heaven.' 
Solon  marvelled  at  this,  and  earnestly  requested  the  priest  to  in- 
form him  exactly  and  in  order  about  these  former  citizens.  'You 
are  welcome  to  hear  about  them,  Solon,'  said  the  priest,  'both 
for  your  own  sake  and  for  that  of  the  city ;  and,  above  all,  for 
the  sake  of  the  goddess  who  is  the  common  patron  and  pro- 
tector and  educator  of  both  our  cities.  She  founded  your  city 
a  thousand  years  before  ours,  receiving  from  the  Earth  and 
Hephtestus  the  seed  of  your  race,  and  then  she  founded  ours, 
the  constitution  of  which  is  set  down  in  our  sacred  registers 
as  8000  years  old.  As  touching  the  citizens  of  9000  years 
ago,  I  will  briefly  inform  you  of  their  laws  and  of  the  noblest 
of  their  actions;  and  the  exact  particulars  of  the  whole  we  will 
hereafter  go  through  at  our  leisure  in  the  sacred  registers  them- 
selves.    If  you  compare  these  very  laws  with  your  own,  you 

1* 


10  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

will  find  that  many  of  ours  are  the  counterpart  of  yours,  as 
they  were  in  the  olden  time.  In  the  first  place,  there  is  the 
caste  of  priests,  which  is  separated  from  all  the  others ;  next 
there  are  the  artificers,  who  exercise  their  several  crafts  by 
themselves,  and  without  admixture  of  any  other ;  and  also 
there  is  the  class  of  shepherds  and  that  of  hunters,  as  well  as 
that  of  husbandmen ;  and  you  will  observe,  too,  that  the  war- 
riors in  Egypt  are  separated  from  all  the  other  classes,  and  are 
commanded  by  the  law  only  to  engage  in  war;  moreover,  the 
weapons  with  which  they  are  equipped  are  shields  and  spears, 
and  this  the  goddess  taught  first  among  you,  and  then  in  Asi- 
atic countries,  and  we  among  the  Asiatics  first  adopted. 

" '  Then,  as  to  wisdom,  do  you  observe  what  care  the  law 
took  from  the  very  first,  searching  out  and  comprehending  the 
whole  order  of  things  down  to  prophecy  and  medicine  (the  lat- 
ter with  a  view  to  health) ;  and  out  of  these  divine  elements 
drawing  what  was  needful  for  human  life,  and  adding  every 
sort  of  knowledge  which  was  connected  with  them.  All  this 
order  and  arrangement  the  goddess  first  imparted  to  you  when 
establishing  your  city;  and  she  chose  the  spot  of  earth  in 
which  you  were  born,  because  she  saw  that  the  happy  tem- 
perament of  the  seasons  in  that  land  would  produce  the  wisest 
of  men.  Wherefore  the  goddess,  who  was  a  lover  both  of  war 
and  of  wisdom,  selected,  and  first  of  all  settled  that  spot  which 
was  the  most  likely  to  produce  men  likest  herself.  And  there 
you  dwelt,  having  such  laws  as  these  and  still  better  ones,  and 
excelled  all  mankind  in  all  virtue,  as  became  the  children  and 
disciples  of  the  gods.  Many  great  and  wonderful  deeds  are 
recorded  of  your  State  in  our  liistories;  but  one  of  them  ex- 
ceeds all  the  rest  in  greatness  and  valor ;  for  these  histories 
tell  of  a  mighty  power  which  was  aggressing  wantonly  against 
the  whole  of  Europe  and  Asia,  and  to  which  your  city  put  an 
end.  This  power  came  forth  out  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  for 
in  those  days  the  Atlantic  was  navigable;  and  there  was  an 
island  situated  in  front  of  the  straits  wliich  you  call  the  Col- 
umns of  Heracles:  the  island  was  larger  than  Libya  and  Asia 
put  together,  and  was  the  way  to  other  islands,  and  from  the 
islands  you  might  pass  through  the  whole  of  the  opposite  con- 
tinent which  surrounded  the  true  ocean ;  for  this  sea  which  is 
within  the  Straits  of  Heracles  is  only  a  harbor,  having  a  nar- 
row entrance,  but  that  other  is  a  real  sea,  and  the  surrounding 


PLATO'S  HISTORY  OF  ATLANTIS.  \\ 

land  may  be  most  truly  called  a  continent,  Now,  in  the  island 
of  Atlantis  there  was  a  great  and  wonderful  empire,  which  had 
rule  over  the  whole  island  and  several  others,  as  well  as  over 
parts  of  the  continent ;.  and,  besides  these,  they  subjected  the 
parts  of  Libya  within  the  Columns  of  Heracles  as  far  as  Egypt, 
and  of  Europe  as  far  as  Tyrrhenia.  The  vast  power  thus  gath- 
ered into  one,  endeavored  to  subdue  at  one  blow  our  country 
and  yours,  and  the  whole  of  the  land  which  was  within  the 
straits ;  and  then,  Solon,  your  country  shone  forth,  in  the  ex- 
cellence of  her  virtue  and  strength,  among  all  mankind;  for 
she  was  the  first  in  courage  and  military  skill,  and  was  the 
leader  of  the  Hellenes.  And  when  the  rest  fell  off  from  her, 
being  compelled  to  stand  alone,  after  having  undergone  the 
7ery  extremity  of  danger,  she  defeated  and  triumphed  over 
the  invaders,  and  preserved  from  slavery  those  who  were  not 
yet  subjected,  and  freely  liberated  all  the  others  who  dwelt 
within  the  limits  of  Heracles.  But  afterward  there  occurred 
violent  earthquakes  and  floods,  and  in  a  single  day  and  night 
of  rain  all  your  warlike  men  in  a  body  sunk  into  the  earth, 
and  the  island  of  Atlantis  in  like  manner  disappeared,  and  was 
sunk  beneath  the  sea.  And  that  is  the  reason  why  the  sea  in 
those  parts  is  impassable  and  impenetrable,  because  there  is 
such  a  quantity  of  shallow  mud  in  the  way ;  and  this  was 
caused  by  the  subsidence  of  the  island.'  ("  Plato's  Dialogues," 
ii.,  617,  Timceus.)  .  .  . 

"But  in  addition  to  the  gods  whom  you  have  mentioned, 
I  would  specially  invoke  Mnemosyne ;  for  all  the  important 
part  of  what  I  have  to  tell  is  dependent  on  her  favor,  and  if 
I  can  recollect  and  recite  enough  of  what  was  said  by  the 
priests,  and  brought  hither  by  Solon,  I  doubt  not  that  I  shall 
satisfy  the  requirements  of  this  theatre.  To  that  task,  then,  I 
will  at  once  address  myself. 

"  Let  me  begin  by  observing,  first  of  all,  that  nine  thou- 
sand was  the  sum  of  years  which  had  elapsed  since  the  war 
which  was  said  to  have  taken  place  between  all  those  who 
dwelt  outside  the  Pillars  of  Heracles  and  those  who  dwelt 
within  them  :  this  war  I  am  now  to  describe.  Of  the  combat- 
ants on  the  one  side  the  city  of  Athens  was  reported  to  have 
been  the  ruler,  and  to  have  directed  the  contest ;  the  combat- 
ants on  the  other  side  were  led  by  the  kings  of  the  islands  of 
Atlantis,  which,  as  I  was  saying,  once  had  an  extent  greater 


1 2  A  TLANTIS :   THE  ANTEDIL  U VJAN  WOULD. 

than  that  of  Libya  and  Asia ;  and,  when  afterward  sunk  by  an 
earthquake,  became  an  impassable  barrier  of  mud  to  voyagers 
sailing  from  hence  to  tlie  ocean.  The  progress  of  the  history 
will  unfold  the  various  tribes  of  barbarians  and  Hellenes  which 
then  existed,  as  they  successively  appear  on  the  scene ;  but  I 
must  begin  by  describing,  first  of  all,  the  Athenians  as  they 
were  in  that  day,  and  their  enemies  who  fought  with  them ; 
and  I  shall  have  to  tell  of  the  power  and  form  of  government 
of  both  of  them.     Let  us  give  the  precedence  to  Athens.  .  .  . 

"Many  great  deluges  have  taken  place  during  the  nine  thou- 
sand years,  for  that  is  the  number  of  years  which  have  elapsed 
since  the  time  of  which  I  am  speaking ;  and  in  all  the  ages  and 
changes  of  things  there  has  never  been  any  settlement  of  the 
earth  flowing  down  from  the  mountains,  as  in  other  places, 
which  is  worth  speaking  of;  it  has  always  been  carried  round 
in  a  circle,  and  disappeared  in  the  depths  below.  The  conse- 
quence is  that,  in  comparison  of  what  then  was,  there  are  re- 
maining in  small  islets  only  the  bones  of  the  wasted  body,  as 
they  may  be  called,  all  the  richer  and  softer  parts  of  the  soil 
having  fallen  away,  and  the  mere  skeleton  of  the  country  being 
left 

"  And  next,  if  I  have  not  forgotten  what  I  heard  when  I  was 
a  child,  I  will  impart  to  you  the  character  and  origin  of  their 
adversaries ;  for  friends  should  not  keep  their  stories  to  them- 
selves, but  have  them  in  common.  Yet,  before  proceeding  far- 
ther in  the  narrative,  I  ought  to  warn  you  that  you  must  not 
be  surprised  if  you  should  hear  Hellenic  names  given  to  for- 
eigners. I  will  tell  you  the  reason  of  this :  Solon,  who  was  in- 
tending to  use  the  tale  for  his  poem,  made  an  investigation  into 
the  meaning  of  the  names,  and  found  that  the  eai'ly  Egyptians, 
in  writing  them  down,  had  translated  them  into  their  own  lan- 
guage, and  he  recovered  the  meaning  of  the  several  names  and 
retranslated  them,  and  copied  them  out  again  in  our  language. 
My  great-grandfather,  Dropidas,  had  the  original  writing,  which 
is  still  in  my  possession,  and  was  carefully  studied  by  me  when 
I  was  a  child.  Therefore,  if  you  hear  names  such  as  are  used 
in  this  country,  you  must  not  be  surprised,  for  I  have  told  you 
the  reason  of  them. 

"The  tale,  which  was  of  great  length,  began  as  follows:  I 
have  before  remarked,  in  speaking  of  the  allotments  of  the 
gods,  that  they  distributed  the  whole  earth  into  portions  dif- 


FLATO'S  HISTORY  OF  ATLANTIS.  13 

fering  in  extent,  and  made  themselves  temples  and  sacrifices. 
And  Poseidon,  receiving-  for  his  lot  the  island  of  Atlantis,  be- 
gat children  by  a  mortal  woman,  and  settled  them  in  a  part  of 
the  island  which  I  will  proceed  to  describe.  On  the  side  to- 
ward the  sea,  and  in  the  centre  of  the  whole  island,  there  was 
a  plain  which  is  said  to  have  been  the  fairest  of  all  plains,  and 
very  fertile.  Near  the  plain  again,  and  also  in  the  centre  of  the 
island,  at  a  distance  of  about  fifty  stadia,  there  was  a  mountain, 
not  very  high  on  any  side.  In  this  mountain  there  dwelt  one 
of  the  earth-born  primeval  men  of  that  country,  whose  name 
was  Evenor,  and  he  had  a  wife  named  Leucippe,  and  they  had 
an  only  daughter,  who  was  named  Cleito.  The  maiden  was 
growing  up  to  womanhood  when  her  father  and  mother  died ; 
Poseidon  fell  in  love  with  her,  and  had  intercourse  with  her; 
and,  breaking  the  ground,  enclosed  the  hill  in  which  she  dwelt 
all  round,  making  alternate  zones  of  sea  and  land,  larger  and 
smaller,  encircling  one  another;  there  were  two  of  land  and 
three  of  water,  which  he  turned  as  with  a  lathe  out  of  the  cen- 
tre of  the  island,  equidistant  every  way,  so  that  no  man  could 
get  to  the  island,  for  ships  and  voyages  were  not  yet  heard  of. 
He  himself,  as  he  was  a  god,  found  no  diflficulty  in  making- 
special  arrangements  for  the  centre  island,  bringing  two  streams 
of  water  under  the  earth,  which  he  caused  to  ascend  as  springs, 
one  of  warm  water  and  the  other  of  cold,  and  making  every 
variety  of  food  to  spring  up  abundantly  in  the  earth.  He  also 
begat  and  brought  up  five  pairs  of  male  children,  dividing  the 
island  of  Atlantis  into  ten  portions:  he  gave  to  the  first-born 
of  the  eldest  pair  his  mother's  dwelling  and  the  surrounding 
allotment,  which  was  the  largest  and  best,  and  made  him  king- 
over  the  rest ;  the  others  he  made  princes,  and  gave  them  rule 
over  many  men  and  a  large  territory.  And  he  named  them  all: 
the  eldest,  who  was  king,  he  named  Atlas,  and  from  him  the 
whole  island  and  the  ocean  received  the  name  of  Atlantic.  To 
his  twin-brother,  who  was  born  after  him,  and  obtained  as  his 
lot  the  extremity  of  the  island  toward  the  Pillars  of  Heracles, 
as  far  as  the  country  which  is  still  called  the  region  of  Gades 
in  that  part  of  the  world,  he  gave  the  name  which  in  the  Hel- 
lenic languao-e  is  Eumelus,  in  the  lano-uao-e  of  the  country  which 
is  named  after  him,  Gadeirus.  Of  the  second  pair  of  twins,  he 
called  one  Ampheres  and  the  other  Evaeraon,  To  the  third 
pair  of  twins  he  gave  the  name  Mneseus  to  the  elder,  and  Au- 


TE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORl 

tochtlion  to  the  one  who  followed  him.  Of  the  fourth  pair  of 
twins  lie  called  the  elder  Elasipy)us  and  the  j'ounger  Mestor. 
And  of  the  fifth  pair  he  gave  to  the  elder  the  name  of  Azaes, 
and  to  the  younger  Diaprepes.  All  these  and  their  descendants 
were  the  inhabitants  and  rulers  of  divers  islands  in  the  open 
sea ;  and  also,  as  has  been  already  said,  they  held  sway  in  the 
other  direction  over  the  country  within  the  Pillars  as  far  as 
Egypt  and  Tyrrhenia.  Now  Atlas  had  a  numerous  and  honor- 
able fajnily,  and  his  eldest  branch  always  retained  the  kingdom, 
which  the  eldest  son  handed  on  to  his  eldest  for  many  genera- 
tions ;  and  they  had  such  an  amount  of  wealth  as  was  never  be- 
fore possessed  by  kings  and  potentates,  and  is  not  likely  ever  to 
be  again,  and  they  were  furnished  with  everything  which  they 
could  have,  both  in  city  and  country.  For,  because  of  the  great- 
ness of  their  empire,  many  things  were  brought  to  them  from 
foreign  countries,  and  the  island  itself  provided  much  of  what 
was  required  by  them  for  the  uses  of  life.  In  the  first  place, 
they  dug  out  of  the  eafth  whatever  was  to  be  found  there,  min- 
eral as  well  as  metal,  and  that  which  is  now  only  a  name,  and 
was  then  something  more  than  a  name — orichalcum — was  dug 
out  of  the  earth  in  many  parts  of  the  island,  and,  with  the 
exception  of  gold,  was  esteemed  the  most  precious  of  metals 
among  the  men  of  those  days.  There  was  an  abundance  of 
wood  for  carpenters'  work,  and  sufficient  maintenance  for  tame 
and  wild  animals.  Moreover,  there  were  a  great  number  of  ele- 
phants in  the  island,  and  there  was  provision  for  animals  of 
every  kind,  both  for  those  which  live  in  lakes  and  marshes  and 
rivers,  and  also  for  those  wliich  live  in  mountains  and  on  plains, 
and  therefore  for  the  animal  which  is  the  largest  and  most  vo- 
racious of  them.  Also,  whatever  fragrant  things  there  are  in 
the  earth,  whether  roots,  or  herbage,  or  woods,  or  distilling 
drops  of  flowers  or  fruits,  grew  and  thrived  in  that  land;  and 
again,  the  cultivated  fruit  of  the  earth,  both  the  dry  edible  fruit 
and  other  species  of  food,  which  we  call  by  the  general  name  of 
legumes,  and  the  fruits  having  a  hard  rind,  affording  drinks,  and 
meats,  and  ointments,  and  good  store  of  chestnuts  and  the  like, 
which  may  be  used  to  play  with,  and  are  fruits  which  spoil  with 
keeping — and  the  pleasant  kinds  of  dessert  which  console  us 
after  dinner,  when  we  are  full  and  tired  of  eating — all  these  that 
sacred  island  lying  beneath  the  sun  brought  forth  fair  and  won- 
drous in  infinite  abundance.     All  these  things  they  received 


PLATO'S  HISTORY  OF  ATLANTIS.  15 

from  the  earth,  and  they  employed  themselves  in  constrncting 
their  temples,  and  palaces,  arid  harbors,  and  docks ;  and  they 
arranged  the  whole  country  in  the  following  manner:  First  of 
all  they  bridged  over  the  zones  of  sea  which  surrounded  the 
ancient  metropolis,  and  made  a  passage  into  and  out  of  the 
royal  palace;  and  then  they  began  to  build  the  palace  in  the 
habitation  of  the  god  and  of  their  ancestors.  This  they  con- 
tinued to  ornament  in  successive  generations,  every  king  sur- 
passing the  one  who  came  before  him  to  the  utmost  of  his 
power,  until  they  made  the  building  a  marvel  to  behold  for 
size  and  for  beauty.  And,  beginning  from  the  sea,  they  dug 
a  canal  three  hundred  feet  in  width  and  one  hundred  feet  in 
depth,  and  fifty  stadia  in  length,  which  they  carried  through  to 
the  outermost  zone,  making  a  passage  from  the  sea  up  to  this, 
which  became  a  harbor,  and  leaving  an  opening  sufficient  to  en- 
able the  largest  vessels  to  find  ingress.  Moreover,  they  divided 
the  zones  of  land  which  parted  the  zones  of  sea,  constructing 
bridges  of  such  a  width  as  would  leave  a  passage  for  a  single 
trireme  to  pass  out  of  one  into  another,  and  roofed  them  over; 
and  there  was  a  way  underneath  for  the  ships,  for  the  banks  of 
the  zones  were  raised  considerably  above  the  water.  Now  the 
largest  of  the  zones  into  which  a  passage  was  cut  from  the  sea 
was  three  stadia  in  breadth,  and  the  zone  of  land  which  came 
next  of  equal  breadth  ;  but  the  next  two,  as  well  the  zone  of 
water  as  of  land,  were  two  stadia,  and  the  one  which  surrounded 
the  central  island  was  a  stadium  only  in  width.  The  island  in 
which  the  palace  was  situated  had  a  diameter  of  five  stadia. 
This,  and  the  zones  and  the  bridge,  which  was  the  sixth  part 
of  a  stadium  in  width,  they  surrounded  by  a  stone  wall,  on 
either  side  placing  towers,  and  gates  on  the  bridges  where  the 
sea  passed  in.  The  stone  which  was  used  in  the  work  they 
quarried  from  underneath  the  centre  island  and  from  under- 
neath the  zones,  on  the  outer  as  well  as  the  inner  side.  One 
kind  of  stone  was  w^hite,  another  black,  and  a  third  red;  and,  as 
they  quarried,  they  at  the  same  time  hollowed  out  docks  double 
within,  having  roofs  formed  out  of  the  native  rock.  Some  of 
their  buildings  were  simple,  but  in  others  they  put  together  dif- 
ferent stones,  which  they  intermingled  for  the  sake  of  orna- 
ment, to  be  a  natural  source  of  delight.  The  entire  circuit  of 
the  wall  which  went  round  the  outermost  one  they  covered 
with  a  coating  of  brass,  and  the  circuit  of  the  next  wall  they 


16  ATLAM'IS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 

coated  with  tin,  and  the  third,  which  encompassed  the  citadel, 
flashed  with  the  red  light  of  orichalcum.  Tiie, palaces  in  the 
interior  of  the  citadel  were  constructed  in  this  wise :  In  the 
centre  was  a  holy  temple  dedicated  to  Cleito  and  Poseidon, 
which  remained  inaccessible,  and  was  surrounded  by  an  enclos- 
ure of  gold  ;  this  was  the  spot  in  which  they  originally  begat 
the  race  of  the  ten  princes,  and  thither  they  annually  brought 
the  fruits  of  the  earth  in  their  season  from  all  the  ten  portions, 
and  performed  sacrifices  to  each  of  them.  Here,  too,  was  Po- 
seidon's own  temple,  of  a  stadium  in  length  and  half  a  stadium 
in  w  idth,  and  of  a  proportionate  height,  having  a  sort  of  bar- 
baric splendor.  All  the  outside  of  the  temple,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  pinnacles,  they  covered  with  silver,  and  the  pinnacles 
with  gold.  In  the  interior  of  the  temple  the  roof  was  of  ivory, 
adorned  everywhere  with  gold  and  silver  and  orichalcum ;  all 
the  other  parts  of  the  w^alls  and  pillars  and  floor  they  lined  with 
orichalcum.  In  the  temple  they  placed  statues  of  gold  :  there 
was  the  god  himself  standing  in  a  chariot — the  charioteer  of 
six  winged  horses — and  of  such  a  size  that  he  touched  the  roof 
of  the  building  with  his  head ;  around  him  there  were  a  hun- 
dred Nereids  riding  on  dolphins,  for  such  w^as  thought  to  be 
the  number  of  them  in  that  day.  There  were  also  in  the  inte- 
rior of  the  temple  other  images  which  had  been  dedicated  by 
private  individuals.  And  around  the  temple  on  the  outside  were 
placed  statues  of  gold  of  all  the  ten  kings  and  of  their  wives ; 
and  there  were  many  other  great  offerings,  both  of  kings  and  of 
private  individuals,  coming  both  from  the  city  itself  and  the  for- 
eign cities  over  which  they  Ijcld  sway.  There  was  an  altar,  too, 
which  in  size  and  workmanship  corresponded  to  the  rest  of  the 
work,  and  there  were  palaces  in  like  manner  which  answered 
to  the  greatness  of  the  kingdom  and  the  glory  of  the  temple. 

"  In  the  next  place,  they  used  fountains  both  of  cold  and 
hot  springs ;  these  were  very  abundant,  and  both  kinds  wonder- 
fully adapted  to  use  by  reason  of  the  sweetness  and  excellence 
of  their  waters.  They  constructed  buildings  about  them,  and 
planted  suitable  trees ;  also  cisterns,  some  open  to  the  heaven, 
others  which  they  roofed  over,  to  be  used  in  winter  as  warm 
baths :  there  were  the  king's  baths,  and  the  baths  of  private 
persons,  which  were  kept  apart ;  also  separate  baths  for  women, 
and  others  again  for  horses  and  cattle,  and  to  them  they  gave 
as  much  adornment  as  was  suitable  for  them.    The  water  which 


PLATO' ii  HISTORY  OF  ATLANTIS.  17 

ran  off  they  carried,  some  to  the  grove  of  Poseidon,  where  were 
growing  all  manner  of  trees  of  wonderful  height  and  beauty, 
owing  to  the  excellence  of  the  soil ;  the  remainder  was  con- 
veyed by  aqueducts  which  passed  over  the  bridges  to  the  outer 
circles:  and  there  were  many  temples  built  and  dedicated  to 
many  gods;  also  gardens  and  places  of  exercise,  some  for  men, 
and  some  set  apart  for  horses,  in  both  of  the  two  islands  form- 
ed by  the  zones;  and  in  the  centre  of  the  larger  of  the  two 
there  was  a  race-course  of  a  stadium  in  width,  and  in  length 
allowed  to  extend  all  round  the  island,  for  horses  to  race  in. 
Also  there  were  guard-houses  at  intervals  for  the  body-guard, 
the  more  trusted  of  whom  had  their  duties  appointed  to  them 
in  the  lesser  zone,  which  was  nearer  the  Acropolis;  while  the 
most  trusted  of  all  had  houses  given  them  within  the  citadel, 
and  about  the  persons  of  the  kings.  The  docks  were  full  of 
triremes  and  naval  stores,  and  all  things  were  quite  ready  for 
use.  Enough  of  the  plan  of  the  royal  palace.  Crossing  the 
outer  harbors,  which  were  three  in  number,  you  would  come  to 
a  wall  which  began  at  the  sea  and  went  all  round :  this  was 
everywhere  distant  fifty  stadia  from  the  largest  zone  and  har- 
bor, and  enclosed  the  whole,  meeting  at  the  mouth  of  the  chan- 
nel toward  the  sea.  The  entire  area  was  densely  crowded  with 
habitations ;  and  the  canal  and  the  largest  of  the  harbors  were 
full  of  vessels  and  merchants  coming  from  all  parts,  who,  from 
their  numbers,  kept  up  a  multitudinous  sound  of  human  voices 
and  din  of  all  sorts  night  and  day.  I  have  repeated  his  de- 
scriptions of  the  city  and  the  parts  about  the  ancient  palace 
nearly  as  he  gave  them,  and  now  I  must  endeavor  to  describe 
the  nature  and  arrangement  of  the  rest  of  the  country.  The 
whole  country  was  described  as  being  very  lofty  and  precipi- 
tous on  the  side  of  the  sea,  but  the  country  immediately  about 
and  surrounding  the  city  was  a  level  plain,  itself  surrounded 
by  mountains  which  descended  toward  the  sea;  it  was  smooth 
and  even,  but  of  an  oblong  shape,  extending  in  one  direction 
three  thousand  stadia,  and  going  up  the  country  from  the  sea 
through  the  centre  of  the  island  two  thousand  stadia;  the 
whole  region  of  the  island  lies  toward  the  south,  and  is  shelter- 
ed from  the  north.  The  surrounding  mountains  he  celebrated 
for  their  number  and  size  and  beauty,  in  which  they  exceeded 
all  that  are  now  to  be  seen  anywhere;  having  in  them  also 
many  wealthy   inhabited  villages,  and  rivers   and   lakes,  and 


18  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

meadows  supplying  food  enough  for  every  animal,  wild  or 
tame,  and  wood  of  various  sorts,  abundant  for  every  kind  of 
work.  I  will  now  describe  the  plain,  which  had  been  cultivated 
during  many  ages  by  many  generations  of  kings.  It  was  rect- 
angular, and  for  the  most  part  straight  and  oblong ;  and  what  it 
wanted  of  the  straight  line  followed  the  line  of  the  circular  ditch. 
The  depth  and  width  and  length  of  this  ditch  were  incredible, 
and  gave  the  impression  that  such  a  work,  in  addition  to  so 
many  other  works,  could  hardly  liave  been  wrought  by  the  hand 
of  man.  But  I  must  say  what  I  have  heard.  It  was  excavated 
to  the  depth  of  a  hundred  feet,  and  its  breadth  was  a  stadium 
everywhere;  it  was  carried  round  the  whole  of  the  plain,  and 
was  ten  thousand  stadia  in  length.  It  received  the  streams 
which  came  down  from  the  mountains,  and  winding  round  the 
plain,  and  touching  the  city  at  various  points,  was  there  let  off 
into  the  sea.  From  above,  likewise,  straight  canals  of  a  hun- 
dred feet  in  width  were  cut  in  the  plain,  and  again  let  off  into 
the  ditch,  toward  the  sea;  these  canals  were  at  intervals  of  a 
hundred  stadia,  and  by  them  they  brought  down  the  wood 
from  the  mountains  to  the  city,  and  conveyed  the  fruits  of  the 
earth  in  ships,  cutting  transverse  passages  from  one  canal  into 
anotlier,  and  to  the  city.  Twice  in  the  year  they  gathered  the 
fruits  of  the  eartli — in  winter  having  the  benefit  of  the  rains, 
and  in  summer  introducing  the  water  of  the  canals.  As  to  the 
population,  each  of  the  lots  in  the  plain  had  an  appointed  chief 
of  men  who  were  fit  for  military  service,  and  the  size  of  the 
lot  was  to  be  a  square  of  ten  stadia  each  way,  and  the  total 
number  of  all  the  lots  was  sixty  thousand. 

"And  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  mountains  and  of  the  rest 
of  the  country  there  was  also  a  vast  multitude  having  leaders, 
to  whom  they  were  assigned  according  to  their  dwellings  and 
villages.  The  leader  was  required  to  furnish  for  the  war  the 
sixth  portion  of  a  war-chariot,  so  as  to  make  up  a  total  of  ten 
thousand  chariots ;  also  two  horses  and  riders  upon  them,  and 
a  light  chariot  without  a  seat,  accompanied  by  a  fighting  man 
on  foot  carrying  a  small  shield,  and  having  a  charioteer  mount- 
ed to  guide  the  horses;  also,  he  was  bound  to  furnish  two 
heavy-armed  men,  two  archers,  two  slingers,  three  stone-shoot- 
ers, and  three  javelin  men,  who  were  skirmishers,  and  four  sail- 
ors to  make  up  a  complement  of  twelve  hundred  ships.  Such 
was  the  order  of  war  in  the  royal  city — that  of  the  other  nine 


PL  A  TO 'S  HISTOR  Y  OF  A  TLANTIS.  \  9 

governments  was  different  in  each  of  them,  and  would  be  wea- 
risome to  narrate.  As  to  offices  and  honors,  the  following  was 
the  arrangement  from  the  first:  Each  of  the  ten  kings,  in  his 
own  division  and  in  his  own  city,  had  the  absolute  control  of 
the  citizens,  and  in  many  cases  of  the  laws,  punishing  and  slay- 
ing whomsoever  he  would. 

"Now  the  relations  of  their  governments  to  one  another 
were  regulated  by  the  injunctions  of  Poseidon  as  the  law  had 
handed  them  down.  These  were  inscribed  by  the  first  men  on 
a  column  of  orichalcum,  which  was  situated  in  the  middle  of 
the  island,  at  the  temple  of  Poseidon,  whither  the  people  were 
gathered  together  every  fifth  and  sixth  years  alternately,  thus 
giving  equal  honor  to  the  odd  and  to  the  even  number.  And 
when  they  were  gathered  together  they  consulted  about  public 
affairs,  and  inquired  if  any  one  had  transgressed  in  anything, 
and  passed  judgment  on  him  accol'dingly — and  before  they 
passed  judgment  they  gave  their  pledges  to  one  another  in 
this  wise :  There  were  bulls  who  had  the  range  of  the  temple 
of  Poseidon  ;  and  the  ten  who  were  left  alone  in  the  temple, 
after  they  had  offered  prayers  to  the  gods  that  they  might 
take  the  sacrifices  which  were  acceptable  to  them,  hunted  the 
bulls  without  weapons,  but  with  staves  and  nooses;  and  the 
bull  which  they  caught  they  led  up  to  the  colum.n  ;  the  victim 
was  then  struck  on  the  head  by  them,  and  slain  over  the  sacred 
inscription.  Now  on  the  column,  besides  the  law,  there  was 
inscribed  an  oath  invoking  n)ighty  curses  on  the  disobedient. 
When,  therefore,  after  offering  sacrifice  according  to  their  cus- 
toms, they  had  burnt  the  limbs  of  the  bull,  they  mingled  a  cup 
and  cast  in  a  clot  of  blood  for  each  of  them ;  the  rest  of  the 
victim  they  took  to  the  fire,  after  having  made  a  purification 
of  the  column  all  round.  Then  they  drew  from  the  cup  in 
golden  vessels,  and,  pouring  a  libation  on  the  fire,  they  swore 
that  they  would  judge  according  to  the  laws  on  the  column, 
and  would  punish  any  one  who  had  previously  transgressed, 
and  that  for  the  future  they  would  not,  if  they  could  help, 
transgress  any  of  the  inscriptions,  and  would  not  command  or 
obey  any  ruler  who  commanded  them  to  act  otherwise  than 
according  to  the  laws  of  their  father  Poseidon.  This  was  the 
prayer  which  each  of  them  offered  up  for  himself  and  for  his 
family,  at  the  same  time  drinking,  and  dedicating  the  vessel 
in  the  temple  of  the  god ;  and,  after  spending  some  necessary 


20  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

tune  at  supper,  when  darkness  came  on  and  the  lire  about  the 
sacrifice  was  cool,  all  of  them  put  on  most  beautiful  azure 
robes,  and,  sitting  on  the  ground  at  night  near  the  embers 
of  the  sacrifices  on  which  they  had  sworn,  and  extinguishing 
all  the  fire  about  the  temple,  they  received  and  gave  judg- 
ment, if  any  of  them  had  any  accusation  to  bring  against  any 
one ;  and,  when  they  had  given  judgment,  at  daybreak  they 
wrote  down  their  sentences  on  a  golden  tablet,  and  deposited 
them  as  memorials  with  their  robes..  There  were  many  special 
laws  which  the  several  kings  had  inscribed  about  the  temples, 
but  the  most  important  was  the  following:  That  they  were 
not  to  take  up  arms  against  one  another,  and  they  were  all  to 
come  to  the  rescue  if  any  one  in  any  city  attempted  to  over- 
throw the  royal  house.  Like  their  ancestors,  they  were  to  de- 
liberate in  common  about  war  and  other  matters,  giving  the 
supremacy  to  the  family  of  Atlas ;  and  the  king  was  not  to 
have  the  power  of  life  and  death  over  any  of  his  kinsmen,  un- 
less he  had  the  assent  of  the  majority  of  the  ten  kings. 

"Such  was  the  vast  power  which  the  god  settled  in  the  lost 
island  of  Atlantis;  and  this  he  afterward  directed  against  our 
land  on  the  following  pretext,  as  traditions  tell :  For  many 
generations,  as  long  as  the  divine  nature  lasted  in  them,  they 
were  obedient  to  the  laws,  and  well-affectioned  toward  the 
gods,  who  were  their  kinsmen ;  for  they  possessed  true  and  in 
every  way  great  spirits,  practising  gentleness  and  wisdom  in 
the  various  chances  of  life,  and  in  their  intercourse  with  one 
another.  They  despised  everything  but  virtue,  not  caring  for 
their  present  state  of  life,  and  thinking  lightly  on  the  posses- 
sion of  gold  and  other  property,  which  seemed  only  a  burden 
to  them ;  neither  were  they  intoxicated  by  luxury ;  nor  did 
wealth  deprive  them  of  their  self-control ;  but  they  were  sober, 
and  saw  clearly  that  all  these  goods  are  increased  by  virtuous 
friendship  with  one  another,  and  that  by  excessive  zeal  for 
them,  and  honor  of  them,  the  good  of  them  is  lost,  and  friend- 
ship perishes  with  them. 

"By  such  reflections,  and  by  the  continuance  in  them  of  a 
divine  nature,  all  that  which  we  have  described  waxed  and  in- 
creased in  them ;  but  w^hen  this  divine  portion  began  to  fade 
away  in  them,  and  became  diluted  too  often,  and  with  too 
much  of  the  mortal  admixture,  and  the  human  nature  got  the 
upper-hand,  then,  they  being  unable  to  bear  their  fortune,  be- 


PLATO'S  HISTORY  OF  ATLANTIS.  21 

came  unseemly,  and  to  liini  wlio  had  an  eye  to  see,  tliey  began 
to  appear  base,  and  had  lost  the  fairest  of  their  precious  gifts ; 
but  to  those  who  had  no  eye  to  see  the  true  happiness,  they 
still  appeared  glorious  and  blessed  at  the  very  time  when  they 
were  filled  with  unrighteous  avarice  and  power.  Zeus,  the  god 
of  gods,  who  rules  with  law,  and  is  able  to  see  into  such  things, 
perceiving  that  an  honorable  race  was  in  a  most  wretched  state, 
and  wanting  to  inflict  punishment  on  them,  that  they  might 
be  chastened  and  improved,  collected  all  the  gods  into  his  most 
holy  habitation,  which,  being  placed  in  the  centre  of  the  world, 
sees  all  things  that  partake  of  generation.  And  when  he  bad 
called  them  together  he  spake  as  follows :" 

[Here  Plato's  story  abruptly  ends.] 


22  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 


Chapter   III. 

THE  PROBABILITIES   OF  PLATO'S  STORY. 

There  is  nothing  improbable  in  this  narrative,  so  far  as  it 
describes  a  great,  rich,  cultured,  and  educated  people.  Almost 
every  part  of  Plato's  story  can  be  paralleled  by  descriptions  of 
the  people  of  Egypt  or  Peru ;  in  fact,  in  some  respects  Plato's 
account  of  Atlantis  falls  short  of  Herodotus's  description  of 
the  grandeur  of  Egypt,  or  Prescott's  picture  of  the  wealth  and 
civilization  of  Peru.  For  instance,  Prescott,  in  his  "  Conquest 
of  Peru "  (vol.  i.,  p.  95),  says: 

"  The  most  renowned  of  the  Peruvian  temples,  the  pride  of 
the  capital  and  the  wonder  of  the  empire,  was  at  Cuzco,  where, 
under  the  munificence  of  successive  sovereigns,  it  had  become 
so  enriched  that  it  received  the  name  of  Coricancha,  or  '  the 
Place  of  Gold.'  .  .  .  The  interior  of  the  temple  was  literally 
a  mine  of  gold.  On  the  western  wall  was  emblazoned  a  rep- 
resentation of  the  Deity,  consisting  of  a  human  countenance 
looking  forth  from  amid  innumerable  rays  of  light,  which  ema- 
nated from  it  in  every  direction,  in  the  same  manner  as  the 
sun  is  often  personified  with  us.  The  figure  was  engraved  on 
a  massive  plate  of  gold,  of  enormous  dimensions,  thickly  pow- 
dered with  emeralds  and  precious  stones.  .  .  .  The  walls  and 
ceilings  were  everywhere  incrusted  with  golden  ornaments; 
every  part  of  the  interior  of  the  temple  glowed  with  burnished 
plates  and  studs  of  the  precious  metal ;  the  cornices  were  of 
the  same  material." 

There  are  in  Plato's  narrative  no  marvels;  no  myths;  no 
tales  of  gods,  gorgons,  hobgoblins,  or  giants.  It  is  a  plain 
and  reasonable  history  of  a  people  who  built  temples,  ships, 
and  canals;  who  lived  by  agriculture  and  commerce;  who,  in 


THE  PROBABILITIES  OF  PLATO'S  STORY.  23 

pursuit  of  trade,  reached  out  to  all  the  countries  around  them. 
The  early  history  of  most  nations  begins  with  gods  and  de- 
mons, while  here  we  have  nothing  of  the  kind ;  we  see  an  im- 
migrant enter  the  country,  marry  one  of  the  native  women,  and 
settle  down ;  in  time  a  great  nation  grows  up  around  him. 
It  reminds  one  of  the  information  given  by  the  Egyptian 
priests  to  Herodotus.  "During  the  space  of  eleven  thousand 
three  hundred  and  forty  years  they  assert,"  says  Herodotus, 
"that  no  divinity  has  appeared  in  human  shape, .  .  .  they  ab- 
solutely denied  the  possibility  of  a  human  being's  descent  from 
a  o-od."     If  Plato  had  sought  to  draw  from  his  imao-ination  a 

o  C  o 

wonderful  and  pleasing  story,  we  should  not  have  had  so  plain 
and  reasonable  a  narrative.  He  would  have  given  us  a  history 
like  the  legends  of  Greek  mythology,  full  of  the  adventures  of 
gods  and  goddesses,  nymphs,  fauns,  and  satyrs. 

Neither  is  there  any  evidence  on  the  face  of  this  history 
that  Plato  sought  to  convey  in  it  a  moral  or  political  lesson, 
in  the  guise  of  a  fable,  as  did  Bacon  in  the  "  New  Atlantis," 
and  More  in  the  "  Kingdom  of  Nowhere."  There  is  no  ideal 
republic  delineated  here.  It  is  a  straightforward,  reasonable 
history  of  a  people  ruled  over  by  their  kings,  living  and  pro- 
gressing as  other  nations  have  lived  and  progressed  since  their 
day. 

Plato  says  that  in  Atlantis  there  was  "  a  great  and  wonderful 
empire,"  which  "aggressed  wantonly  against  the  whole  of  Eu- 
rope and  Asia,"  thus  testifying  to  the  extent  of  its  dominion.  It 
not  only  subjugated  Africa  as  far  as  Egypt,  and  Europe  as  far 
as  Italy,  but  it  ruled  "  as  well  over  />ar^5  of  the  continent,^^  to 
wit,  "  the  opposite  continent "  of  America,  "  which  surrounded 
the  true  ocean."  Those  parts  of  America  over  which  it  ruled 
were,  as  we  will  show^  hereafter.  Central  America,  Peru,  and  the 
Valley  of  the  Mississippi,  occupied  by  the  "  Mound  Builders." 

Moreover,  he  tells  us  that  "  this  vast  power  was  gathered 
into  one ;"  that  is  to  say,  from  Egypt  to  Peru  it  was  one  con- 
solidated empire.     We  will  see  hereafter  that  the  legends  of 


24  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

the  Hindoos  as  to  Deva  Naliuslia  distinctly  refer  to  this  vast 
empire,  which  covered  the  whole  of  the  known  world. 

Another  corroboration  of  the  truth  of  Plato's  narrative  is 
found  in  the  fact  that  upon  the  Azores  black  lava  rocks,  and 
rocks  red  and  white  in  color,  are  now  found.  He  says  they 
built  with  white,  red,  and  black  stone.  Sir  C.  Wyville  Thom- 
son describes  a  narrow  neck  of  land  between  Fayal  and  Monte 
da  Guia,  called  "  Monte  Queimada "  (the  burnt  mountain),  as 
follows :  "  It  is  formed  partly  of  stratified  tufa  of  a  dark  choc- 
olate color,  and  partly  of  lumps  of  black  lava,  porous,  and  each 
with  a  large  cavity  in  the  centre,  which  must  have  been  ejected 
as  volcanic  bombs  in  a  glorious  display  of  fireworks  at  some 
period  beyond  the  records  of  Acorean  history,  but  late  in  the 
geological  annals  of  the  island  "  ("  Voyage  of  the  Challenger," 
vol.  ii.,  p.  24).  He  also  describes  immense  walls  of  black  vol- 
canic rock  in  the  island. 

The  plain  of  Atlantis,  Plato  tells  us,  "  had  been  cultivated 
during  many  ages  by  many  generations  of  kings."  If,  as  we 
believe,  agriculture,  the  domestication  of  the  horse,  ox,  sheep, 
goat,  and  hog,  and  the  discovery  or  development  of  wheat, 
oats,  rye,  and  barley  originated  in  this  region,  then  this  lan- 
guage of  Plato  in  reference  to  "the  many  ages,  and  the  suc- 
cessive generations  of  kings,"  accords  with  the  great  periods 
of  time  which  were  necessary  to  bring  man  from  a  savage  to 
a  civilized  condition. 

In  the  great  ditch  surrounding  the  whole  land  like  a  circle, 
and  into  which  streams  flowed  down  from  the  mountains,  we 
probably  see  the  original  of  the  four  rivers  of  Paradise,  and 
the  emblem  of  the  cross  surrounded  by  a  circle,  which,  as  we 
will  show  hereafter,  was,  from  the  earliest  pre-Christian  ages, 
accepted  as  the  emblem  of  the  Garden  of  Eden. 

We  know  that  Plato  did  not  invent  the  name  of  Poseidon, 
for  the  worship  of  Poseidon  was  universal  in  the  earliest  ages 
of  Europe;  "Poseidon-worship  seems  to  have  been  a  peculi- 
arity of  all  the  colonies  previous  to  the  time  of  Sidon  "  ("  Pro- 


I 


THE  PROBABILITIES  OF  PLATO'S  STORY.  25 

historic  Nations,"  p.  148.)  This  worship  "  was  carried  to  Spain, 
and  to  Northern  Africa,  but  most  abundantly  to  Italy,  to  many 
of  the  islands,  and  to  the  regions  around  the  ^gean  Sea;  also 
to  Thrace."     (7Z»2W.,  p.  155.) 

Poseidon,  or  Neptune,  is  represented  in  Greek  mythology  as 
a  sea-god;  but  he  is  figured  as  standing  in  a  war-chariot  drawn 
by  horses.  The  association  of  the  horse  (a  land  animal)  with  a 
sea-god  is  inexplicable,  except  with  the  light  given  by  Plato. 
Poseidon  was  a  sea-god  because  he  ruled  over  a  great  land  in 
the  sea,  and  was  the  national  god  of  a  maritime  people ;  he  is 
associated  with  horses,  because  in  Atlantis  the  horse  was  first 
domesticated ;  and,  as  Plato  shows,  the  Atlanteans  had  great 
race-courses  for  the  development  of  speed  in  horses;  and  Posei- 
don is  represented  as  standing  in  a  war-chariot,  because  doubt- 
less wheeled  vehicles  were  first  invented  by  the  same  people 
who  tamed  the  horse ;  and  they  transmitted  these  war-chariots 
to  their  descendants  from  Egypt  to  Britain.  We  know  that 
horses  were  the  favorite  objects  chosen  for  sacrifice  to  Posei- 
don by  the  nations  of  antiquity  within  the  Historical  Period ; 
they  were  killed,  and  cast  into  the  sea  from  high  precipices. 
The  religious  horse-feasts  of  the  pagan  Scandinavians  were  a 
survival  of  this  Poseidon-worship,  which  once  prevailed  along 
all  the  coasts  of  Europe ;  they  continued  until  the  conversion 
of  the  people  to  Christianity,  and  were  then  supprei^sed  by  the 
Church  with  great  difficulty. 

We  find  in  Plato's  narrative  the  names  of  some  of  the  Phoe- 
nician deities  among  the  kings  of  Atlantis.  Where  did  the 
Greek,  Plato,  get  these  names  if  the  story  is  a  fable  ? 

Does  Plato,  in  speaking  of  "  the  fruits  having  a  hard  rind, 
affording  drinks  and  meats  and  ointments,"  refer  to  the  cocoa- 
nut? 

Again :  Plato  tells  us  that  Atlantis  abounded  in  both  cold 
and  hot  springs.  How  did  he  come  to  hit  upon  the  hot  springs 
if  he  was  drawing  a  picture  from  his  imagination  ?  It  is  a 
singular  confirmation  of  his  story  that  hot  springs  abound  in 

2 


26  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

the  Azores,  which  are  the  surviving  fragments  of  Atlantis;  and 
an  experience  wider  than  that  possessed  by  Plato  has  taught 
scientific  men  that  hot  springs  are  a  common  feature  of  regions 
subject  to  volcanic  convulsions. 

Plato  tells  us,  "The  whole  country  was  very  lofty  and  pre- 
cipitous on  the  side  of  the  sea,  but  the  country  immediately 
about  and  surrounding  the  city  was  a  level  plain,  itself  sur- 
rounded by  mountains  which  descended  toward  the  sea."  One 
has  but  to  look  at  the  profile  of  the  "  Dolphin's  Ridge,"  as 
revealed  by  the  deep-sea  soundings  of  the  Challenger,  given  as 
the  frontispiece  to  this  volume,  to  see  that  this  is  a  faithful 
description  of  that  precipitous  elevation.  "The  surrounding 
mountains,"  which  sheltered  the  plain  from  the  north,  are  rep- 
resented in  the  present  towering  peaks  of  the  Azores. 

Plato  tells  us  that  the  destruction  of  Atlantis  filled  the  sea 
with  mud,  and  interfered  with  navigation.  For  thousands  of 
years  the  ancients  believed  the  Atlantic  Ocean  to  be  "a  muddy, 
shallow,  dark,  and  misty  sea,  Jl/are  tenebrosum.^^  ("Cosmos," 
vol.  ii.,  p.  151.) 

The  three-pronged  sceptre  or  trident  of  Poseidon  reappears 
constantly  in  ancient  history.  We  find  it  in  the  hands  of 
Hindoo  gods,  and  at  the  base  of  all  the  religious  beliefs  of 
antiquity. 

"Among  the  numerals  the  sacred  three  has  ever  been  con- 
sidered the  mark  of  perfection,  and  was  therefore  exclusively 
ascribed  to  the  Supreme  Deity,  or  to  its  earthly  representative 
— a  king,  emperor,  or  any  sovereign.  For  this  reason  triple 
emblems  of  various  shapes  are  found  on  the  belts,  neckties,  or 
any  encircling  fixture,  as  can  be  seen  on  the  works  of  ancient 
art  in  Yucatan,  Guatemala,  Chiapas,  Mexico,  etc.,  whenever 
the  object  has  reference  to  divine  supremacy."  (Dr.  Arthur 
Schott,  "Smith.  Rep.,"  1869,  p.  391.) 

We  are  reminded  of  the  "  tiara,"  and  the  "  triple  round  of 
sovereignty." 

In  the  same  manner  the  ten  kingdoms  of  Atlantis  are  per- 
petuated in  all  the  ancient  traditions. 


THE  PROBABILITIES  OF  PLATO'S  STORY.  27 

"  In  the  number  given  by  the  Bible  for  the  Antediluvian 
patriarchs  we  liave  the  first  instance  of  a  striking  agreement 
with  the  traditions  of  various  nations.  Ten  are  mentioned  in 
the  Book  of  Genesis.  Other  nations,  to  whatever  epoch  they 
carry  back  their  ancestors,  whether  before  or  after  the  Deluge, 
whether  the  mythical  or  historical  character  prevail,  they  are 
constant  to  this  sacred  number  ten,  which  some  have  vainly 
attempted  to  connect  with  the  speculations  of  later  religious 
philosophers  on  the  mystical  value  of  numbers.  In  Chaldea, 
Berosus  enumerates  ten  Antediluvian  kings  whose  fabulous 
reign  extended  to  thousands  of  years.  The  legends  of  the 
Iranian  race  commence  with  the  reign  of  ten  Peisdadien  (Posei- 
don?) kings,  'men  of  the  ancient  law,  who  lived  on  pure  lioma 
(water  of  life)'  (nectar?), 'and  who  preserved  their  sanctity.' 
In  India  we  meet  with  the  nine  Brahmadikas,  who,  with  Brah- 
ma, their  founder,  make  ten,  and  who  are  called  the  Ten  Pe- 
tris,  or  Fathers.  The  Chinese  count  ten  emperors,  partakers 
of  the  divine  nature,  before  the  dawn  of  historical  times. 
The  Germans  believed  in  the  ten  ancestors  of  Odin,  and  the 
Arabs  in  the  ten  mythical  kings  of  the  Adites."  (Lenormant 
and  Chevallier,  "  Anc.  Hist,  of  the  East,"  vol.  i.,  p.  13.) 

The  story  of  Plato  finds  confirmation  from  other  sources. 

An  extract  preserved  in  Prochis,  taken  from  a  work  now 
lost,  which  is  quoted  by  Boeckh  in  his  commentary  on  Plato, 
mentions  islands  in  the  exterior  sea,  beyond  the  Pillars  of  Her- 
cules, and  says  it  was  known  that  in  one  of  these  islands  "  the 
inhabitants  preserved  from  their  ancestors  a  remembrance  of 
Atlantis,  an  extremely  large  island,  which  for  a  long  time  held 
dominion  over  all  the  islands  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean." 

^lian,  in  his  "  Varia  Historia  "  (book  iii.,  chap,  xviii.),  tells 
us  that  Theopompus  (400  B.C.)  related  the  particulars  of  an 
interview  between  Midas,  King  of  Phr3^gia,  and  Silenus,  in 
which  Silenus  reported  the  existence  of  a  great  continent  be- 
yond the  Atlantic,  "larger  than  Asia,  Europe,  and  Libya  to- 
gether." He  stated  that  a  race  of  men  called  Meropes  dwelt 
there,  and  had  extensive  cities.  They  were  persuaded  that 
their  country  alone  was  a  continent.  Out  of  curiosity  some 
of  them  crossed  the  ocean  and  visited  the  Hyperboreans. 


28  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

"  The  Gauls  possessed  traditions  upon  the  subject  of  Atlan- 
tis which  were  collected  by  the  Roman  historian  Timagenes,  who 
lived  in  the  first  century  before  Christ.  He  represents  that  three 
distinct  people  dwelt  in  Gaul:  1.  The  indigenous  population, 
which  I  suppose  to  be  Mongoloids,  who  had  long  dwelt  in  Eu- 
rope; 2.  The  invaders  from  a  distant  island,  which  I  under- 
stand to  be  Atlantis;  3.  The  Aryan  Gauls."  (" Preadamites," 
p.  380.) 

Marcellus,  in  a  work  on  the  Ethiopians,  speaks  of  seven  isl- 
ands lying  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean — probably  the  Canaries — and 
the  inhabitants  of  these  islands,  he  says,  preserve  the  memory 
of  a  much  greater  island,  Atlantis,  "  which  had  for  a  long 
time  exercised  dominion  over  the  smaller  ones."  (Didot  Miil- 
ler,  "  Fragmenta  Historicoruin  GraBCorum,"  vol.  iv.,  p.  443.) 

Diodorus  Siculus  relates  that  the  Phoenicians  discovered  "a 
large  island  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  beyond  the  Pillars  of  Her- 
cules, several  days'  sail  from  the  coast  of  Africa.  This  island 
abounded  in  all  manner  of  riches.  The  soil  was  exceedingly 
fertile ;  the  scenery  was  diversified  by  rivers,  mountains,  and 
forests.  It  was  the  custom  of  the  inhabitants  to  retire  during 
the  summer  to  magnificent  country-houses,  which  stood  in  the 
midst  of  beautiful  gardens.  Fish  and  game  were  found  in 
great  abundance ;  the  climate  was  delicious,  and  the  trees  bore 
fruit  at  all  seasons  of  the  year."  Homer,  Plutarch,  and  other 
ancient  writers  mention  islands  situated  in  the  Atlantic,  "  sev- 
eral thousand  stadia  from  the  Pillars  of  Hercules."  Silenus 
tells  Midas  that  there  was  another  continent  besides  Europe, 
Asia,  and  Africa — "a  country  where  gold  and  silver  are  so 
plentiful  that  they  are  esteemed  no  more  than  we  esteem 
iron."  St.  Clement,  in  liis  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  says 
that  there  were  other  worlds  beyond  the  ocean. 

Attention  may  here  be  called  to  the  extraordinary  number 
of  instances  in  which  allusion  is  made  m  the  Old  Testament 
to  the  "islands  of  the  sea,"  especially  lu  Isaiah  and  Ezekiel. 
"What  had  an  inland  people,  like  the  Jews,  to  do  with  seas  and 


THE  riWBABlLLTIEU   OF  PLATO'S  STORY.  29 

islands?  Did  these  references  grow  out  of  vague  traditions 
linking-  their  race  with  "  islands  in  the  sea  ?" 

The  Orphic  Argonaut  sings  of  the  division  of  the  ancient 
Lyktonia  into  separate  islands.  He  says,  "  When  the  dark- 
haired  Poseidon,  in  anger  with  Father  Kronion,  struck  Lyk- 
tonia with  the  golden  trident." 

Plato  states  that  the  Egyptians  told  Solon  that  the  destruc- 
tion of  Atlantis  occurred  9000  years  before  that  date,  to  wit, 
about  9600  years  before  the  Christian  era.  This  looks  like 
an  extraordinarily  long  period  of  time,  but  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  ffeoloffists  claim  that  the  remains  of  man  found  in 
the  caves  of  Europe  date  back  500,000  years;  and  the  fossil 
Calaveras  skull  was  found  deep  under  the  base  of  Table  Moun- 
tain, California,  the  whole  mountain  having  been  formed  since 
the  man  to  whom  it  belonged  lived  and  died. 

"  M.  Oppert  read  an  essay  at  the  Brussels  Congress  to  show, 
from  the  astronomical  observations  of  the  Egyptians  and  As- 
syrians, that  11,542  years  before  our  era  man  existed  on  the 
earth  at  such  a  stage  of  civilization  as  to  be  able  to  take  note 
of  astronomical  phenomena,  and  to  calculate  with  considerable 
accuracy  the  length  of  the  year.  The  Egyptians,  says  he,  cal- 
culated by  cycles  of  1460  years — zodiacal  cycles,  as  they  were 
called.  Their  year  consisted  of  365  days,  which  caused  them 
to  lose  one  day  in  every  four  solar  years,  and,  consequently, 
they  would  attain  their  original  starting-point  again  only  after 
1460  years  (365  X  4).  Therefore,  the  zodiacal  cycle  ending 
in  the  year  139  of  our  era  commenced  in  the  year  1322  B.C. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  Assyrian  cycle  was  1805  years,  or 
22,325  lunations.  An  Assyrian  cycle  began  712  b,c.  The 
Chaldeans  state  that  between  the  Deluge  and  their  first  his- 
toric dynasty  there  was  a  period  of  39,180  years.  Now,  what 
means  this  number?  It  stands  for  12  Egyptian  zodiacal  cy- 
das  plus  12  Assyrian  lunar  cycles. 

12  X  1460  =  17,520)  _oQ,«^ 
12  X  1805  =  21,660  f  "  '^^'^»"- 

"These  two  modes  of  calculating  time  are  in  agreement 
with  each  other,  and  were  known  simultaneously  to  one  peo- 


30  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

pie,  the  Chaldeans.     Let  us  now  build  up  the  series  of  both 
cycles,  starting  from  our  era,  and  the  result  will  be  as  follows : 

Zodiacal  Cycle.  Lunar  Cycle. 

1,460 1,805 

1,322 712 

2,782 2,51T 

4,242 4,322 

5,702 6,127 

7,162 7,932 

8,622 9,737 

10,082 1 1,542 

11,542 

"At  the  year  11,542  B.C.  the  two  cycles  came  together,  and 
consequently  they  had  on  that  year  their  common  origin  in 
one  and  the  same  astronomical  observation." 

That  observation  was  probably  made  in  Atlantis. 

The  wide  divergence  of  languages  which  is  found  to  exist 
among  the  Atlanteans  at  the  beginning  of  the  Historical  Pe- 
riod implies  a  vast  lapse  of  time.  The  fact  that  the  nations 
of  the  Old  World  remembered  so  little  of  Atlantis,  except  the 
colossal  fact  of  its  sudden  and  overwhelming  destruction,  would 
also  seem  to  remove  that  event  into  a  remote  past. 

Herodotus  tells  us  that  he  learned  from  the  Egyptians  that 
Hercules  was  one  of  their  most  ancient  deities,  and  that  he 
was  one  of  the  twelve  produced  from  the  eight  gods,  17,000 
years  before  the  reign  of  Amasis. 

In  short,  I  fail  to  see  why  this  story  of  Plato,  told  as  his- 
tory, derived  from  the  Egyptians,  a  people  who,  it  is  known, 
preserved  most  ancient  records,  and  who  were  able  to  trace 
their  existence  back  to  a  vast  antiquity,  should  have  been  con- 
temptuously set  aside  as  a  fable  by  Greeks,  Romans,  and  the 
modern  world.  It  can  only  be  because  our  predecessors,  with 
their  limited  knowledge  of  the  geological  history  of  the  world, 
did  not  believe  it  possible  that  any  large  part  of  the  earth's 
surface  could  have  been  thus  suddenly  swallowed  up  by  the  sea. 

Let  us  then  first  address  ourselves  to  that  question. 


WAS  SUCH  A   C.\TASTHOPHE  POSSIBLE? 


31 


Chapter  TV. 

WAS  SUCH  A   CATASTROPHE  POSSIBLE? 

All  that  is  needed  to  answer  this 
question  is  to  briefly  refer  to  some  of  the 
facts  revealed  by  the  study  of  geology. 

In  the  first  place,  the  earth's  surface  is 
a  record  of  successive  risings  and  fallings 
of  the  land.  The  accompanying  picture 
represents  a  section  of  the  anthracite  coal- 
measures  of  Pennsylvania.  Each  of  the 
coal  deposits  here  shown,  indicated  by 
the  black  lines,  was  created  when  the  land 
liad  risen  sufficiently  above  the  sea  to 
maintain  vegetation ;  each  of  the  strata 
of  rock,  many  of  them  hundreds  of  feet 
in  thickness,  was  deposited  under  water. 
Here  we  have  twenty  -  three  different 
changes  of  the  level  of  the  land  during 
the  formation  of  2000  feet  of  rock  and 
coal ;  and  these  changes  took  place  over 
vast  areas,  embracing  thousands  of  square 
miles. 

All  the  continents  which  now  exist 
were,  it  is  well  understood,  once  under 
water,  and  the  rocks  of  which  they  are 
composed  were  deposited  beneath  the 
water ;  more  than  this,  most  of  the  rocks 
so  deposited  were  the  detritus  or  wash- 
ings of  other  continents,  which  then  stood 


COAL-MEASURES   OF  PENN- 
SYLVANIA. 


32  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

where  the  oceans  now  roll,  and  whose  mountains  and  plains 
were  ground  down  by  the  action  of  volcanoes  and  earthquakes, 
and  frost,  ice,  wind,  and  rain,  and  washed  into  the  sea,  to  form 
the  rocks  upon  which  the  nations  now  dwell  ;  so  that  we 
have  changed  the  conditions  of  land  and  water  :  that  which  is 
now  continent  was  once  sea,  and  that  which  is  now  sea  was 
formerly  continent.  There  can  be  no  question  that  the  Au- 
stralian Archipelago  is  simply  the  mountain-tops  of  a  drowned 
continent,  which  once  reached  from  India  to  South  America. 
Science  has  gone  so  far  as  to  even  give  it  a  name ;  it  is  called 
"Lemuria,"  and  here,  it  is  claimed,  the  human  race  originated. 
An  examination  of  the  geological  formation  of  our  Atlantic 
States  proves  beyond  a  doubt,  from  the  manner  in  which  the 
sedimentary  rocks,  the  sand,  gravel,  and  mud — aggregating  a 
thickness  of  45,000  feet — are  deposited,  that  they  came  from 
the  north  and  east.  "  They  represent  the  detritus  of  pre-exist- 
ing lands,  the  washings  of  rain,  rivers,  coast-currents,  and  other 
agencies  of  erosion ;  and  since  the  areas  supplying  the  waste 
could  scarcely  have  been  of  less  extent  than  the  new  strata  it 
formed,  it  is  reasonably  inferred  that  land  masses  of  continen- 
tal magnitude  must  have  occupied  the  region  now  covered  by 
the  North  Atlantic  before  America  began  to  be,  and  onward  at 
least  thi'ough  the  palaeozoic  ages  of  American  history.  The 
proof  of  this  fact  is  that  the  great  strata  of  rocks  are  thicker 
the  nearer  we  approach  their  source  in  the  east :  the  maximum 
thickness  of  the  pala30zoic  rocks  of  the  Appalachian  formation 
is  25,000  to  35,000  feet  in  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia,  while 
their  minimum  thickness  in  Illinois  and  Missouri  is  from  3000 
to  4000  feet ;  the  rougher  and  grosser-textured  rocks  predom- 
inate in  the  east,  while  the  farther  west  we  go  the  finer  the 
deposits  were  of  which  the  rocks  are  composed ;  the  finer  ma- 
terials were  carried  farther  west  by  the  water."  ("  New  Amer. 
Cyclop.,"  art.  Coal.) 

The  history  of  the  growth  of  the  European  Continent,  as 
recounted  by  Professor  Geikie,  gives  an  instructive  illustration 


WAS  SUCH  A   CATASTROPHE  POSSIBLE? 


33 


DESTEXJOTION   OF   POMPEII. 


of  the  relations  of  geology  to  geography.  The  earliest  Euro- 
pean land,  he  says,  appears  to  have  existed  in  the  north  and 
north-west,  comprising  Scandinavia,  Finland,  and  the  north- 
west of  the  British  area,  and  to  have  extended  thence  through 
boreal  and  arctic  latitudes  into  North  America.  Of  the  height 
and  mass  of  this  primeval  land  some  idea  may  be  formed  by 
considering  the  enormous  bulk  of  the  material  derived  from  its 
disintegration.  In  the  Silurian  formations  of  the  British  Isl- 
ands alone  there  is  a  mass  of  rock,  worn  from  the  land,  which 
would  form  a  mountain-chain  extending  from  Marseilles  to  the 
North  Cape  (1800  miles),  with  a  mean  breadth  of  over  thirty- 
three  miles,  and  an  average  height  of  1 6,000  feet. 

As   the   great  continent   which    stood   where   the  Atlantic 
Ocean  now  is  wore  away,  the  continents  of  America  and  Eu- 

2* 


34  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

rope  were  formed ;  and  tliere  seems  to  have  been  from  remote 
times  a  continuous  rising,  still  going  on,  of  the  new  lands,  and 
a  sinkino-  of  the  old  ones.  Within  five  thousand  years,  or  since 
the  age  of  the  "  polished  stone,"  the  shores  of  Sweden,  Den- 
mark, and  Norway  have  risen  from  200  to  600  feet. 
Professor  AVinchell  says  ("  The  Preadamites,"  p.  437) : 

"  We  are  in  the  midst  of  great  changes,  and  are  scarcely 
conscious  of  it.  We  have  seen  worlds  in  flames,  and  have  felt 
a  comet  strike  the  earth.  We  have  seen  the  whole  coast  of 
South  America  lifted  up  bodily  ten  or  fifteen  feet  and  let  down 
again  in  an  hour.  We  have  seen  the  Andes  sink  220  feet 
in  seventy  years.  .  .  .  Vast  transpositions  have  taken  place  in 
the  coast-line  of  China.  The  ancient  capital,  located,  in  all 
probability,  in  an  accessible  position  near  the  centre  of  the 
empire,  has  now  become  nearly  surrounded  by  water,  and  its 
site  is  on  the  peninsula  of  Corea.  .  .  .  There  was  a  time  when 
the  rocky  barriers  of  the  Thracian  Bosphorus  gave  way  and 
the  Black  Sea  subsided.  It  had  covered  a  vast  area  in  the 
north  and  east.  Now  this  area  became  drained,  and  was  known 
as  the  ancient  Lectonia :  it  is  now  the  prairie  region  of  Russia, 
and  the  granary  of  Europe." 

There  is  ample  geological  evidence  that  at  one  time  the 
entire  area  of  Great  Britain  was  submerged  to  the  depth  of  at 
least  seventeen  hundred  feet.  Over  the  face  of  the  submerged 
land  was  strewn  thick  beds  of  sand,  gravel,  and  clay,  termed 
by  geologists  "  the  Northern  Drift."  The  British  Islands  rose 
again  from  the  sea,  bearing  these  water-deposits  on  their  bos- 
om. What  is  now  Sicily  once  lay  deep  beneath  the  sea :  it 
subsequently  rose  3000  feet  above  the  sea-level.  The  Desert 
of  Sahara  was  once  under  water,  and  its  now  burning  sands 
are  a  deposit  of  the  sea. 

Geologically  speaking,  the  submergence  of  Atlantis,  within 
the  historical  period,  was  simply  the  last  of  a  number  of  vast 
changes,  by  which  the  continent  which  once  occupied  the 
greater  part  of  the  Atlantic  had  gradually  sunk  under  the 
ocean,  while  the  new  lands  were  rising  on  both  sides  of  it. 


WAS  SUCH  A   CATASTROPHE  POSSIBLE?  35 

We  corae  now  to  the  second  question,  Is  it  possible  that 
Atlantis  could  have  been  suddenly  destroyed  by  such  a  con- 
vulsion of  nature  as  is  described  by  Plato  ?  The  ancients 
regarded  this  part  of  his  story  as  a  fable.  With  the  wider 
knowledge  which  scientific  research  has  afforded  the  modern 
world,  we  can  affirm  that  such  an  event  is  not  only  possible, 
but  that  the  history  of  even  the  last  two  centuries  has  fur- 
nished us  with  striking  parallels  for  it.  We  now  possess  the 
record  of  numerous  islands  lifted  above  the  waters,  and  others 
sunk  beneath  the  waves,  accompanied  by  storms  and  earth- 
quakes similar  to  those  which  marked  the  destruction  of  At- 
lantis. 

In  1783  Iceland  was  visited  by  convulsions  more  tremen- 
dous than  any  recorded  in  the  modern  annals  of  that  country. 
About  a  month  previous  to  the  eruption  on  the  main-land  a 
submarine  volcano  burst  forth  in  the  sea,  at  a  distance  of  thirty 
miles  from  the  shore.  It  ejected  so  much  pumice  that  the 
sea  was  covered  with  it  for  a  distance  of  150  miles,  and  ships 
were  considerably  impeded  in  their  course.  A  new  island  was 
thrown  up,  consisting  of  high  cliffs,  which  was  claimed  by  his 
Danish  Majesty,  and  named  "  Nyoe,"  or  the  New  Island ;  but 
before  a  year  had  elapsed  it  sunk  beneath  the  sea,  leaving  a 
reef  of  rocks  thirty  fathoms  under  water. 

The  earthquake  of  1783  in  Iceland  destroyed  9000  people 
out  of  a  population  of  50,000 ;  twenty  villages  were  consumed 
by  fire  or  inundated  by  water,  and  a  mass  of  lava  thrown  out 
"  greater  than  the  bulk  of  Mont  Blanc." 

On  the  8th  of  October,  1822,  a  great  earthquake  occurred 
on  the  island  of  Java,  near  the  mountain  of  Galung  Gung. 
"A  loud  explosion  was  heard,  the  earth  shook,  and  immense 
columns  of  hot  water  and  boiling  mud,  mixed  with  burning 
brimstone,  ashes,  and  lapilli,  of  the  size  of  nuts,  were  projected 
from  the  mountain  like  a  water- spout,  with  such  prodigious 
violence  that  large  quantities  fell  beyond  the  river  Tandoi, 
which  is   forty  miles  distant.  .  .  .  The    first   eruption   lasted 


36  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

nearlj^  five  hours ;  and  on  tlie  following  days  the  rain  fell  in 
torrents,  and  the  rivers,  densely  charged  with  mud,  deluged 
the  country  far  and  wide.  At  the  end  of  four  days  (October 
12th),  a  second  eruption  occurred,  more  violent  than  the  first, 
in  which  hot  water  and  mud  were  again  vomited,  and  great 
blocks  of  basalt  were  thrown  to  the  distance  of  seven  miles 
from  the  volcano.  There  was  at  the  same  time  a  violent  earth- 
quake, the  face  of  the  mountain  was  utterly  changed,  its  sum- 
mits broken  down,  and  one  side,  which  had  been  covered  with 
trees,  became  an  enormous  gulf  in  the  form  of  a  semicircle. 
Over  4000  persons  were  killed  and  114  villages  destroyed." 
(Lyell's  "  Principles  of  Geology,"  p.  430.) 

In  1831  a  new  island  was  born  in  the  Mediterranean,  near 
the  coast  of  Sicily.  It  w'as  called  Graham's  Island.  It  came 
up  with  an  earthquake,  and  "  a  water-spout  sixty  feet  high  and 
eight  hundred  yards  in  circumference  rising  from  the  sea."  In 
about  a  month  the  island  was  two  hundred  feet  high  and  three 
miles  in  circumference;  it  soon, however,  sunk  beneath  the  sea. 

The  Canary  Islands  were  probably  a  part  of  the  original 
empire  of  Atlantis.  On  the  1st  of  September,  1730,  the  earth 
split  open  near  Yaira,  in  the  island  of  Lancerota.  In  one  night 
a  considerable  hill  of  ejected  matter  was  thrown  up ;  in  a  few 
days  another  vent  opened  and  gave  out  a  lava  stream  which 
overran  several  villages.  It  flowed  at  first  rapidly,  like  water, 
but  became  afterward  heavy  and  slow,  like  honey.  On  the 
11th  of  September  more  lava  flowed  out,  covering  up  a  village, 
and  precipitating  itself  with  a  horrible  roar  into  the  sea.  Dead 
fish  floated  on  the  waters  in  indescribable  multitudes,  or  were 
thrown  dying  on  the  shore;  the  cattle  throughout  the  country 
dropped  lifeless  to  the  ground,  suffocated  by  putrid  vapors, 
which  condensed  and  fell  down  in  drops.  These  manifesta- 
tions were  accompanied  by  a  storm  such  as  the  people  of  the 
country  had  never  known  before.  These  dreadful  commotions 
lasted  iov  five  years.  The  lavas  thrown  out  covered  one-third 
of.  the  whole  island  of  Lancerota. 


WAS  SUCH  A    CATASTROPHE  POSSIBLE?  37 

The  Gulf  of  Santorin,  in  the  Grecian  Archipelago,  has  been 
for  two  thousand  years  a  scene  of  active  volcanic  operations. 
Pliny  informs  us  that  in  the  year  186  B.C.  the  island  of  "Old 
Kaimeni,"  or  the  Sacred  Isle,  was  lifted  up  from  the  sea;  and 
in  A.D.  19  the  island  of  "Thia"  (the  Divine)  made  its  appear- 
ance. In  A.D.  1573  another  island  was  created,  called  "the 
small  sunburnt  island."  In  1848  a  volcanic  convulsion  of 
three  months'  duration  created  a  great  shoal;  an  earthquake 


CALABEIAN   PEASANTS   INGULFED   BT   CREVASSES  (1783). 


destroyed  many  houses  in  Thera,  and  the  sulpliur  and  hydrogen 
issuing  from  the  sea  killed  50  persons  and  1000  domestic  ani- 
mals. A  recent  examination  of  these  islands  shows  that  the 
whole  mass  of  Santorin  has  sunk,  since  its  2>^ojection  from  the 
sea,  over  1200  feet. 


38  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOBLD. 

The  fort  and  village  of  Sindree,  on  the  eastern  arm  of  the  In- 
dus, above  Luckput,  was  submerged  in  1819  by  an  earthquake, 
together  with  a  tract  of  country  2000  square  miles  in  extent. 

"In  1828  Sir  A.  Burnes  went  in  a  boat  to  the  ruins  of 
Sindree,  where  a  single  remaining  tower  w\as  seen  in  the  midst 
of  a  wide  expanse  of  sea.  The  tops  of  the  ruined  walls  still 
rose  two  or  three  feet  above  the  level  of  the  water;  and,  stand- 
ing on  one  of  these,  he  could  behold  nothing  in  the  horizon 
but  water,  except  in  one  direction,  where  a  blue  streak  of  land 
to  the  north  indicated  the  Ullah  Bund.  This  scene,"  says 
Lyell  ("Principles  of  Geology,"  p.  462),  "presents  to  the  im- 
agination a  lively  picture  of  the  revolutions  now  in  progress 
on  the  earth — a  waste  of  waiters  where  a  few  years  before  all 
was  land,  and  the  only  land  visible  consisting  of  ground  uplift- 
ed by  a  recent  earthquake." 

We  give  from  Lyell's  great  work  the  following  curious  pict- 
ures of  the  appearance  of  the  Fort  of  Sindree  before  and  after 
the  inundation. 

In  April,  1815,  one  of  the  most  frightful  eruptions  recorded 
in  history  occurred  in  the  province  of  Tomboro,  in  the  island 
of  Sumbawa,  about  two  hundred  miles  from  the  eastern  ex- 
tremity of  Java.  It  lasted  from  April  5th  to  July  of  that 
year;  but  was  most  violent  on  the  11th  and  12th  of  July. 
The  sound  of  the  explosions  was  heard  for  nearly  one  thou- 
sand miles.  Oat  of  a  population  of  12,000,  in  the  province  of 
Tomhora,  only  twenty-six  individuals  escaped.  "  Violent  whirl- 
winds carried  up  men,  horses,  and  cattle  into  the  air,  tore  up 
the  largest  trees  by  the  roots,  and  covered  the  whole  sea  with 
floating  timber."  (Raffles's  "History  of  Java,"  vol.  i.,  p.  28.) 
The  ashes  darkened  the  air ;  "the  floating  cinders  to  the  west- 
ward of  Sumatra  formed,  on  the  12th  of  April,  a  mass  two  feet 
thick  and  several  miles  in  extent,  through  which  ships  tvith  dif- 
ficulty forced  their  way.''^  The  darkness  in  daytime  was  more 
profound  than  the  blackest  night.  "The  town  called  Tom- 
boro, on  the  west  side  of  Sumbawa,  was  overflowed  by  the  sea, 
^Yhich  encroached  upon  the  shore,  so  that  the  ivater  remained 


WAS  SUCH  A    CATASTROPHE  POSSIBLES 


39 


FOET   OF   SINDREE,  ON  THE   EASTERN   BBA.NtIH   OF   TUE  INDUS,  BEFORE   IT   WAS 
SUBMERGED   BY  THE  EARTHQUAKE   OF   1S19. 


» 


VIEW  OF  TUE   FOET  OF   8INDEEK   FROM   TUE    WEST   IN   MAEOU,  1S38. 


permanently  eighteen  feet  deep  in  places  where  there  ivas  land 
before.  The  area  covered  by  the  convulsion  was  1000  Eng- 
lish miles  in  circumference.  ''In  the  island  of  Amhoyna,  in 
the  same  month  and  year,  the  ground  opened,  threiv  out  water, 


40  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 

and  then  closed  againr  (Raffles's  "History  of  Java,"  vol.  i., 
p.  25.) 

But  it  is  at  that  point  of  the  European  coast  nearest  to  the 
site  of  Atlantis  at  Lisbon  that  the  most  tremendous  earth- 
quake of  modern  times  has  occurred.  On  the  1st  of  Novem- 
ber, 1775,  a  sound  of  thunder  was  heard  underground,  and 
immediately  afterward  a  violent  shock  threw  down  the  greater 
part  of  the  city.  In  six  minutes  60,000  persons  perished.  A 
great  concourse  of  people  had  collected  for  safety  upon  a  new 
quay, built  entirely  of  marble;  but  suddenly  it  sunk  down  with 
all  the  people  on  it,  and  not  one  of  the  dead  bodies  ever  float- 
ed to  the  surface.  A  great  number  of  small  boats  and  vessels 
anchored  near  it,  and,  full  of  people,  were  swallowed  up  as  in 
a  whirlpool.  No  fragments  of  these  wrecks  ever  rose  again  to 
the  surface;  the  water  where  the  quay  went  down  is  now  600 
feet  deep.  The  area  covered  by  this  earthquake  was  very 
great.  Humboldt  says  that  a  portion  of  the  earth's  surface^ 
four  times  as  great  as  the  size  of  Europe,  was  simultaneously 
shaken.  It  extended  from  the  Baltic  to  the  West  Indies,  and 
from  Canada  to  Algiers.  At  eight  leagues  from  Morocco  the 
ground  opened  and  swallowed  a  village  of  10,000  inhabitants, 
and  closed  again  over  them. 

It  is  very  probable  that  the  centre  of  the  convulsion  was  in 
the  bed  of  the  Atlantic,  at  or  near  the  buried  island  of  Atlan- 
tis, and  that  it  was  a  successor  of  the  great  earth  throe  which, 
thousands  of  years  before,  had  brought  destruction  upon  that 
land. 

Ireland  also  lies  near  the  axis  of  this  great  volcanic  area, 
reaching  from  the  Canaries  to  Iceland,  and  it  has  been  many 
times  in  the  past  the  seat  of  disturbance.  The  ancient  annals 
contain  numerous  accounts  of  eruptions,  preceded  by  volcanic 
action.  In  1490,  at  the  Ox  Mountains,  Sligo,  one  occurred  by 
which  one  hundred  persons  and  numbers  of  cattle  were  destroy- 
ed; and  a  volcanic  eruption  in  May,  1788,  on  the  hill  of  Knock- 
lade,  Antrim,  poured  a  stream  of  lava  sixty  yards  wide  for  thir- 


ERUPTION   OF   VESUVIUB   IN   1737. 


WAS  SUCH  A   CATASTROPHE  POSSIBLE.'  43 

ty-iiine  hours,  and  destroyed  the  village  of  Ballyowen  and  all 
the  inhabitants,  save  a  man  and  his  wife  and  two  children. 
("  Ainer.  Cyclop.,"  art.  Ireland.) 

While  we  find  Lisbon  and  Ireland,  east  of  Atlantis,  subjected 
to  these  great  earthquake  shocks,  the  West  India  Islands,  west 
of  the  same  centre,  have  been  repeatedly  visited  in  a  similar 
manner.  In  1692  Jamaica  suffered  from  a  violent  earthquake. 
The  earth  opened,  and  great  quantities  of  water  were  cast 
out ;  many  people  were  swallowed  up  in  these  rents ;  the  earth 
caught  some  of  them  by  the  middle  and  squeezed  them  to 
death ;  the  heads  of  others  only  appeared  above-ground.  A 
tract  of  land  near  the  town  of  Port  Royal,  about  a  thousand 
acres  in  extent,  sunk  down  in  less  than  one  minute,  and  the 
sea  immediately  rolled  in. 

The  Azore  Islands  are  undoubtedly  the  peaks  of  the  moun- 
tains of  Atlantis.  They  are  even  yet  the  centre  of  great  vol- 
canic activity.  They  have  suffered  severely  from  eruptions  and 
earthquakes.  In  1808  a  volcano  rose  suddenly  in  San  Jorge 
to  the  height  of  3500  feet,  and  burnt  for  six  days,  desolating 
the  entire  island.  In  1811  a  volcano  rose  from  the  sea,  near 
San  Miguel,  creating  an  island  300  feet  high,  which  was 
named  Sambrina,  but  which  soon  sunk  beneath  the  sea.  Sim- 
ilar volcanic  eruptions  occurred  in  the  Azores  in  1691  and 
1720. 

Along  a  great  line,  a  mighty  fracture  in  the  surface  of  the 
globe,  stretching  north  and  south  through  the  Atlantic,  we  find 
a  continuous  series  of  active  or  extinct  volcanoes.  In  Iceland 
we  have  Oerafa,  Hecla,  and  Rauda  Kamba ;  another  in  Pico,  in 
the  Azores ;  the  peak  of  Teneriffe ;  Fogo,  in  one  of  the  Cape 
de  Yerde  Islands :  while  of  extinct  volcanoes  we  have  several 
in  Iceland,  and  two  in  Madeira;  while  Fernando  de  Noronha, 
the  island  of  Ascension,  St.  Helena,  and  Tristan  d'Acunha  are 
all  of  volcanic  origin.     ("Cosmos,"  vol.  v.,  p.  331.) 

The  following  singular  passage  we  quote  entire  from  LyelTs 
"  Principles  of  Geology,"  p.  436  : 


44  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILVVIAX   WORLD. 

"In  the  Nautical  Magazine  for  1835,  p.  642,  and  for  1838, 
p.  361,  and  in  the  Comptes  Rendus,  April,  1838,  accounts  are 
given  of  a  series  of  volcanic  phenomena,  earthquakes,  troubled 
water,  floating  scoria,  and  columns  of  smoke,  which  have  been 
observed  at  intervals  since  the  middle  of  the  last  century,  in 
a  space  of  open  sea  between  longitudes  20°  and  22°  W.,  about 
half  a  degree  south  of  the  equator.  These  facts,  says  Mr.  Dar- 
win, seem  to  show  that  an  island  or  archipelago  is  in  process 
of  formation  in  the  middle  of  the  Atlantic.  A  line  joining 
St.  Helena  and  Ascension  would,  if  prolonged,  intersect  this 
slowly  nascent  focus  of  volcanic  action.  Should  land  be  event- 
ually formed  here,  it  will  not  be  the  first  that  has  been  produced 
by  igneous  action  in  this  ocean  since  it  was  inhabited  by  the 
existing  species  of  testacea.  At  Porto  Praya,  in  St.  Jago,  one 
of  the  Azores,  a  horizontal,  calcareous  stratum  occurs,  contain- 
ing shells  of  recent  marine  species,  covered  by  a  great  sheet  of 
basalt  eighty  feet  tliick.  It  would  be  difficult  to  estimate  too 
highly  the  commercial  and  political  importance  which  a  group 
of  islands  might  acquire  if,  in  the  next  two  or  three  thou- 
sand years,  they  should  rise  in  mid-ocean  between  St.  Helena 
and  Ascension." 

These  facts  would  seem  to  show  that  the  great  fires  which 
destroyed  Atlantis  are  still  smouldering  in  the  depths  of  the 
ocean  ;  that  the  vast  oscillations  wdiich  carried  Plato's  conti- 
nent beneath  the  sea  may  again  bring  it,  with  all  its  buried 
treasures,  to  the  light ;  and  that  even  the  wild  imagination  of 
Jules  Verne,  when  he  described  Captain  Nemo,  in  his  diving- 
armor,  looking  down  upon  the  temples  and  towers  of  the  lost 
island,  lit  by  the  fires  of  submarine  volcanoes,  had  some  ground- 
work of  possibility  to  build  upon. 

But  who  will  say,  in  the  presence  of  all  the  facts  here 
enumerated,  that  the  submergence  of  Atlantis,  in  some  great 
world-shaking  cataclysm,  is  either  impossible  or  improbable  ? 
As  will  be  shown  hereafter,  when  we  come  to  discuss  the  Flood 
legends,  every  particular  which  has  come  down  to  us  of  the 
destruction  of  Atlantis  has  been  duplicated  in  some  of  the  ac- 
counts just  given. 


WAS  SUCH  A    CATASTROPHE  roSSlBLE?  45 

We  conclude,  therefore :  1.  That  it  is  proven  beyond  question, 
by  geological  evidence,  that  vast  masses  of  land  once  existed  in 
the  region  where  Atlantis  is  located  by  Plato,  and  that  there- 
fore such  an  island  must  have  existed;  2.  That  there  is  noth- 
ing improbable  or  impossible  in  the  statement  that  it  was  de- 
stroyed suddenly  by  an  earthquake  "  in  one  dreadful  night  and 
day> 


46  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD, 


Chapter  Y. 

THE  TESTIMONY  OF  THE  SEA. 

Suppose  we  were  to  find  in  mid-Atlantic,  in  front  of  the 
Mediterranean,  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Azores,  the  remains 
of  an  immense  island,  sunk  beneath  the  sea — one  thousand 
miles  in  width,  and  two  or  three  thousand  miles  long- — would  it 
not  go  far  to  confirm  the  statement  of  Plato  that,  "  beyond 
the  strait  where  you  place  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  there  was  an 
island  larger  than  Asia  (Minor)  and  Libya  combined,"  called 
Atlantis?  And  suppose  we  found  that  the  Azores  were  the 
mountain  peaks  of  this  drowned  island,  and  were  torn  and  rent 
by  tremendous  volcanic  convulsions ;  while  around  them,  de- 
scending into  the  sea,  were  found  great  strata  of  lava ;  and  the 
whole  face  of  the  sunken  land  was  covered  for  thousands  of 
miles  with  volcanic  debris,  would  we  not  be  obliged  to  confess 
that  these  facts  furnished  strong  corroborative  proofs  of  the 
truth  of  Plato's  statement,  that  "  in  one  day  and  one  fatal 
night  there  came  mighty  earthquakes  and  inundations  which 
ingulfed  that  mighty  people?  Atlantis  disappeared  beneath 
the  sea;  and  then  that  sea  became  inaccessible  on  account  of 
the  quantity  of  mud  which  the  ingulfed  island  left  in  its  place." 

And  all  these  things  recent  investigation  has  proved  conclu- 
sively. Deep-sea  soundings  have  been  made  by  ships  of  differ- 
ent nations;  the  United  States  ship  Dolphin,  the  German  frig- 
ate Gazelle,  and  the  British  ships  Hydra,  Porcupine,  and  Chal- 
lenger have  mapped  out  the  bottom  of  the  Atlantic,  and  the 
result  is  the  revelation  of  a  great  elevation,  reaching  from  a 
point  on  the  coast  of  the  British  Islands  southwardly  to  the 
coast  of  South  America,  at  Cape  Orange,  thence  south-east- 


MAP    OF    ATLANTIS,    WITH    ITS    ISLANDS    AND    OONNEOTING    RIUQES,   FROM    D£EP  -  SEA 
SOUNDINGS. 


THE  TESTIMONY  OF  THE  SEA.  49 

wardly  to  the  coast  of  Africa,  and  thence  southwardly  to  Tristan 
d'Acunha.  I  give  one  map  showing  the  profile  of  this  eleva- 
tion in  the  frontispiece,  and  another  map,  showing  the  outlines 
of  the  submerged  land,  on  page  47.  It  rises  about  9000  feet 
above  the  great  Atlantic  depths  around  it,  and  in  the  Azores, 
St.  Paul's  Rocks,  Ascension,  and  Tristan  d'Acunha  it  reaches 
the  surface  of  the  ocean. 

Evidence  that  this  elevation  was  once  dry  land  is  found  in 
the  fact  that  "  the  inequalities,  the  mountains  and  valleys  of 
its  surface,  could  never  have  been  produced  in  accordance  with 
any  laws  for  the  deposition  of  sediment,  nor  by  submarine  ele- 
vation ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  must  have  been  carved  by  agen- 
cies acting  above  the  water  levels  {Scientific  American,  July 
28th,  1877.) 

Mr.  J.  Starke  Gardner,  the  eminent  English  geologist,  is  of 
the  opinion  that  in  the  Eocene  Period  a  great  extension  of 
land  existed  to  the  west  of  Cornwall.  Referring  to  the  loca- 
tion of  the  "Dolphin "  and  "  Challenger"  ridges,  he  asserts  that 
''  a  great  tract  of  land  formerly  existed  where  the  sea  now  is, 
and  that  Cornwall,  the  Scilly  and  Channel  Islands,  Ireland  and 
Brittany,  are  the  remains  of  its  highest  summits."  {Popular 
Science  Review^  July,  1878.) 

Here,  then,  we  have  the  backbone  of  the  ancient  continent 
which  once  occupied  the  whole  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  and 
from  whose  washings  Europe  and  America  were  constructed ; 
the  deepest  parts  of  the  ocean,  3500  fathoms  deep,  represent 
those  portions  which  sunk  first,  to  wit,  the  plains  to  the  east 
and  west  of  the  central  mountain  range;  some  of  the  loftiest 
peaks  of  this  range — the  Azores,  St.  Paul's,  Ascension,  Tristan 
d'Acunha — are  still  above  the  ocean  level ;  while  the  great  body 
of  Atlantis  lies  a  few  hundred  fathoms  beneath  the  sea.  In 
these  "  connecting  ridges  "  we  see  the  pathway  which  once 
extended  between  the  New  World  and  the  Old,  and  by  means 
of  which  the  plants  and  animals  of  one  continent  travelled  to 
the  other;  and  by  the  same  avenues  black  men  found  their 


50  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

way,  as  we  will  show  hereafter,  from  Africa  to  America,  and 
red  men  from  America  to  Africa. 

And,  as  I  have  shown,  the  same  gi*eat  law  which  gradually 
depressed  the  Atlantic  continent,  and  raised  the  lands  east 
and  west  of  it,  is  still  at  work :  the  coast  of  Greenland,  which 
may  be  regarded  as  the  northern  extremity  of  the  Atlantic 
continent,  is  still  sinking  "so  rapidly  that  ancient  buildings 
on  low  rock-islands  are  now  submerged,  and  the  Greenlander 
has  learned  by  experience  never  to  build  near  the  water's  edge." 
("  North  Amer.  of  Antiq.,"  p.  504.)  The  same  subsidence  is 
going  on  along  the  shore  of  South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  while 
the  north  of  Europe  and  the  Atlantic  coast  of  South  America 
are  rising  rapidly.  Along  the  latter  raised  beaches,  1180  miles 
long  and  from  100  to  1300  feet  high,  have  been  traced. 

When  these  connecting  ridges  extended  from  America  to 
Europe  and  Africa,  they  shut  off  the  flow  of  the  tropical  wa- 
ters of  the  ocean  to  the  north  ;  there  was  then  no  "  Gulf 
Stream ;"  the  land-locked  ocean  that  laved  the  shores  of  North- 
ern Europe  was  then  intensely  cold ;  and  the  result  was  the 
Glacial  Period.  When  the  barriers  of  Atlantis  sunk  suffi- 
ciently to  permit  the  natural  expansion  of  the  heated  water 
of  the  tropics  to  the  north,  the  ice  and  snow  which  covered 
Europe  gradually  disappeared ;  the  Gulf  Stream  flowed  around 
Atlantis,  and  it  still  retains  the  circular  motion  first  imparted 
to  it  by  the  presence  of  that  island. 

The  officers  of  the  Challenger  found  the  entire  ridge  of  At- 
lantis covered  with  volcanic  deposits;  these  are  the  subsided 
mud  which,  as  Plato  tells  us,  rendered  the  sea  impassable  after 
the  destruction  of  the  isk,nd. 

It  does  not  follow  that,  at  the  time  Atlantis  was  finally  in- 
gulfed, the  ridges  connecting  it  with  America  and  Africa  rose 
above  the  water-level;  these  may  have  gradually  subsided  into 
the  sea,  or  have  gone  down  in  cataclysms  such  as  are  described 
in  the  Central  American  books.  The  Atlantis  of  Plato  may 
have  been  confined  to  the  "  Dolphin  Ridge  "  of  our  map. 


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ANOiENT    ISLANDS    BETWEEN    ATLANTIS    ANT)   TUB   MEDITEUBANEAN,  FKOM    DEEP-SEA 
SOUNDINGS. 


L 


THE  TESTIMONY  OF  THE  i>EA.  53 

The  United  States  sloop  Gettysburg  lias  also  made  some 
remarkable  discoveries  in  a  neighboring  field.  I  quote  from 
John  James  Wild  (in  Nature,  March  1st,  1877,  p.  377) : 

"The  recently  announced  discovery  by  Commander  Gor- 
ringe,  of  the  United  States  sloop  Gettysburg,  of  a  bank  of 
soundings  bearing  N.  85°  W.,  and  distant  130  miles  from 
Cape  St.  Vincent,  during  the  last  voyage  of  the  vessel  across 
the  Atlantic,  taken  in  connection  with  previous  soundings  ob- 
tained in  the  same  region  of  the  North  Atlantic,  suggests  the 
probable  existence  of  a  submarine  ridge  or  plateau  connecting 
the  island  of  Madeira  with  the  coast  of  Portugal,  and  the  prob- 
able subaerial  connection  in  prehistoric  times  of  that  island 
with  the  south-western  extremity  of  Europe."  .  .  .  "These 
soundings  reveal  the  existence  of  a  channel  of  an  average 
depth  of  from  2000  to  3000  fathoms,  extending  in  a  north- 
easterly direction  from  its  entrance  between  Madeira  and  the 
Canary  Islands  toward  Cape  St.  Vincent.  .  .  .  Commander 
Gorringe,  when  about  150  miles  from  the  Strait  of  Gibraltar, 
found  that  the  soundings  decreased  from  2700  fathoms  to 
1600  fathoms  in  the  distance  of  a  few  miles.  The  subsequent 
soundings  (five  miles  apart)  gave  900,  500,  400,  and  100  fath- 
oms ;  and  eventually  a  depth  of  32  fathoms  was  obtained,  in 
which  the  vessel  anchored.  The  bottom  was  found  to  consist 
of  live  pink  coral,  and  the  position  of  the  bank  in  lat.  36°  29' 
N.,  long.  11°  33'  W." 

The  map  on  page  51  shows  the  position  of  these  elevations. 
They  must  have  been  originally  islands; — stepping-stones,  as  it 
were,  between  Atlantis  and  the  coast  of  Europe. 

Sir  C.  Wyville  Thomson  found  that  the  specimens  of  the 
fauna  of  the  coast  of  Brazil,  brought  up  in  his  dredging-ma- 
chine,  are  similar  to  those  of  the  western  coast  of  Southern 
Europe.  This  is  accounted  for  by  the  connecting  ridges  reach- 
ing from  Europe  to  South  America. 

A  member  of  the  Challenger  staff,  in  a  lecture  delivered  in 
London,  soon  after  the  termination  of  the  expedition,  gave  it 
as  his  opinion  that  the  great  submarine  platetiu  is  the  remains 
of  "  the  lost  Atlantis." 


54  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 


Chapter  YI. 
the  testimony  of  the  flora  and  fauna. 

Proofs  are  abundant  that  tliere  must  have  been  at  one  time 
uninterrupted  land  communication  between  Europe  and  Ameri- 
ca.    In  the  words  of  a  writer  upon  this  subject, 

"When  the  animals  and  plants  of  the  Old  and  New  World 
are  compared,  one  cannot  but  be  struck  with  their  identity ; 
all  or  nearly  all  belong  to  the  same  genera,  while  many,  even 
of  the  species,  are  common  to  both  continents.  This  is  most 
important  in  its  bearing  on  our  theory,  as  indicating  that  they 
radiated  from  a  common  centre  after  the  Glacial  Period.  .  .  . 
The  hairy  mammoth,  woolly -haired  rhinoceros,  the  Irish  elk, 
the  musk-ox,  the  reindeer,  the  glutton,  the  lemming,  etc.,  more 
or  less  accompanied  this  flora,  and  their  remains  are  always 
found  in  the  post-glacial  deposits  of  Europe  as  low  down  as 
the  South  of  France.  In  the  New  World  beds  of  the  same  age 
contain  similar  remains,  indicating  that  they  came  from  a  com- 
mon centre,  and  were  spread  out  over  both  continents  alike." 
(Westminster  Meview,  January,  1872,  p.  19.) 

Recent  discoveries  in  the  fossil  beds  of  the  Bad  Lands  of 
Nebraska  prove  that  the  horse  originated  in  America.  Pro- 
fessor Marsh,  of  Yale  College,  has  identified  the  several  preced- 
ing forms  from  which  it  was  developed,  rising,  in  the  course 
of  ages,  from  a  creature  not  larger  than  a  fox  until,  by  succes- 
sive steps,  it  developed  into  the  true  horse.  How  did  the 
wild  horse  pass  from  America  to  Europe  and  Asia  if  there  was 
not  continuous  land  communication  between  the  two  conti- 
nents? He  seems  to  have  existed  in  Europe  in  a  wild  state 
prior  to  his  domestication  by  man. 


THE  TESTIMONY  OF  THE  FLORA  AND  FAUNA.         55 

The  fossil  remains  of  the  camel  are  found  in  India,  Africa, 
South  America,  and  in  Kansas.  The  existing  alpacas  and 
llamas  of  South  America  are  but  varieties  of  the  camel  family. 

The  cave  bear,  whose  remains  are  found  associated  with  the 
bones  of  the  mammoth  and  the  bones  and  works  of  man  in  the 
caves  of  Europe,  was  identical  with  the  grizzly  bear  of  our 
Rocky  Mountains.  The  musk-ox,  whose  relics  are  found  in 
the  same  deposits,  now  roams  the  wilds  of  Arctic  America. 
The  glutton  of  Northern  Europe,  in  the  Stone  Age,  is  identical 
with  the  wolverine  of  the  United  States.  According  to  Ruti- 
meyer,  the  ancient  bison  {Bos  priscus)  of  Europe  was  identical 
with  the  existing  American  buffalo.  "Every  stage  between  the 
ancient  cave  bison  and  the  European  aurochs  can  be  traced." 
The  Norway  elk,  now  nearly  extinct,  is  identical  with  the 
American  moose.  The  Cervus  Americanus  found  in  Kentucky 
was  as  large  as  the  Irish  elk,  which  it  greatly  resembled.  The 
lagomys,  or  tailless  hare,  of  the  European  caves,  is  now  found 
in  the  colder  regions  of  North  America.  The  reindeer,  which 
once  occupied  Europe  as  far  down  as  France,  was  the  same  as 
the  reindeer  of  America.  Remains  of  the  cave  lion  of  Europe 
(Felix  spelcea)^  a  larger  beast  than  the  largest  of  the  existing 
species,  have  been  found  at  Natchez,  Mississippi.  The  Euro- 
pean cave  wolf  was  identical  with  the  American  wolf. 

Cattle  were  domesticated  among  the  people  of  Switzerland 
during  the  earliest  part  of  the  Stone  Period  (Darwin's  "Ani- 
mals Under  Domestication,"  vol.  i.,  p.  103),  that  is  to  say,  be- 
fore the  Bronze  Age  and  the  Age  of  Iron.  Even  at  that  remote 
period  they  had  already,  by  long-continued  selection,  been  de- 
veloped out  of  wild  forms  akin  to  the  American  buffalo.  M. 
Gervais  ("Hist.  Nat.  des  Mammifores,"  vol.  xi.,  p.  191)  concludes 
that  the  wild  race  from  which  our  domestic  sheep  was  derived 
is  now  extinct.  The  remains  of  domestic  sheep  are  found  in 
the  debris  of  the  Swiss  lake-dwellings  during  the  Stone  Age. 
The  domestic  horse,  ass,  hog,  and  goat  also  date  back  to  a  like 
great  antiquity.     We  have  historical  records  7000  years  old, 


56  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

and  during  that  time  no  similar  domestication  of  a  wild  animal 
has  been  made.  This  fact  speaks  volumes  as  to  the  vast  periods 
of  time  during  which  man  must  have  lived  in  a  civilized  state 
to  effect  the  domestication  of  so  many  and  such  useful  animals. 

And  when  we  turn  from  the  fauna  to  the  flora,  we  find  the 
same  state  of  things. 

An  examination  of  the  fossil  beds  of  Switzerland  of  the 
Miocene  Age  reveals  the  remains  of  more  than  eight  hundred 
different  species  of  flower-bearing  plants,  besides  mosses,  ferns, 
etc.  The  total  number  of  fossil  plants  catalogued  from  those 
beds,  cryptogamous  as  well  as  phsenogamous,  is  upward  of 
three  thousand.  The  majority  of  these  species  have  migrated  to 
America.  There  were  others  that  passed  into  Asia,  Africa,  and 
even  to  Australia.  The  American  types  are,  however,  in  the 
largest  proportion.  The  analogues  of  the  flora  of  the  Miocene 
Age  of  Europe  now  grow  in  the  forests  of  Virginia,  North 
and  South  Carolina,  and  Florida;  they  include  such  familiar 
examples  as  magnolias,  tulip -trees,  evergreen  oaks,  maples, 
plane-trees,  robinas,  sequoias,  etc.  It  would  seem  to  be  impos- 
sible that  these  trees  could  have  migrated  from  Switzerland  to 
America  unless  there  was  unbroken  land  communication  be- 
tween the  two  continents. 

It  is  a  still  more  remarkable  fact  that  a  comparison  of  the 
flora  of  the  Old  World  and  New  goes  to  show  that  not  only 
was  there  communication  by  land,  over  which  the  plants  of 
one  continent  could  extend  to  another,  but  that  man  must  have 
existed,  and  have  helped  this  transmigration,  in  the  case  of 
certain  plants  that  were  incapable  of  making  the  journey  un- 
aided. 

Otto  Kuntze,  a  distinguished  German  botanist,  who  has 
spent  many  years  in  the  tropics,  announces  his  conclusion  that 
*'  In  America  and  in  Asia  the  principal  domesticated  tropical 
plants  are  represented  hy  the  same  species^  He  instances  the 
Manihot  utilissima,  whose  roots  yield  a  fine  flour;  the  tarro 
(Colocasia  esculentd),  the  Spanish  or  red  pepper,  the  tomato, 


THE  TESTIMONY  OF  THE  FLORA  AND  FAUNA.         57 

the  bamboo,  the  giiava,  the  mango -fruit,  and  especially  the 
banana.  He  denies  that  the  American  origin  of  tobacco, 
maize,  and  the  cocoa-nut  is  proved.  He  refers  to  the  Paritium 
tiliaceum,  a  malvaceous  plant,  hardly  noticed  by  Europeans, 
but  very  highly  prized  by  the  natives  of  the  tropics,  and  culti- 
vated everywhere  in  the  East  and  West  Indies;  it  supplies  to 
tlie  natives  of  these  regions  so  far  apart  their  ropes  and  cord- 
age. It  is  always  seedless  in  a  cultivated  state.  It  existed  in 
America  before  the  arrival  of  Columbus. 

But  Professor  Kuntze  pays  especial  attention  to  the  banana, 
or  plantain.  The  banana  is  seedless.  It  is  found  throughout 
tropical  Asia  and  Africa.  Professor  Kuntze  asts,  "In  what 
way  was  this  plant,  which  cannot  stand  a  voyage  through  the 
temperate  zone,  carried  to  America  ?"  And  yet  it  was  general- 
ly cultivated  in  America  before  1492.  Says  Professor  Kuntze, 
"  It  must  be  remembered  that  the  plantain  is  a  tree-like,  herba- 
ceous plant,  possessing  no  easily  transportable  bulbs,  like  the 
potato  or  the  dahlia,  nor  propagable  by  cuttings,  like  the  wil- 
low or  the  poplar.  It  has  only  a  perennial  root,  which,  once 
planted,  needs  hardly  any  care,  and  yet  produces  the  most 
abundant  crop  of  any  known  tropical  plant."  He  then  pro- 
ceeds to  discuss  how  it  could  have  passed  from  Asia  to  Amer- 
ica. He  admits  that  the  roots  must  have  been  transported 
from  one  country  to  the  other  bi/  civilized  man.  He  argues 
that  it  could  not  have  crossed  the  Pacific  from  Asia  to  Ameri- 
ca, because  the  Pacific  is  nearly  thrice  or  four  times  as  wide  as 
the  Atlantic.  The  only  way  he  can  account  for  the  plantain 
reaching  America  is  to  suppose  that  it  was  carried  there  when 
the  North  Pole  had  a  tropical  climate !  Is  there  any  proof 
that  civilized  man  existed  at  the  North  Pole  when  it  possessed 
the  climate  of  Africa? 

Is  it  not  more  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  plantain,  or 
banana,  was  cultivated  by  the  people  of  Atlantis,  and  carried 
by  their  civilized  agricultural  colonies  to  the  east  and  the  west? 
Do  we  not  find  a  confirmation  of  this  view  in  the  fact  alluded 

3* 


58  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

to  by  Professor  Kiintze  in  these  words:  "A  cultivated  plant 
which  does  not  possess  seeds  must  have  been  under  culture /or 
a  very  long  period — we  have  not  in  Europe  a  single  exclusively 
seedless,  berry-bearing,  cultivated  plant — and  hence  it  is  per- 
haps fair  to  infer  that  these  plants  were  cultivated  as  early  as 
the  beginning  of  the  middle  of  the  Diluvial  Period.'''' 

Is  it  possible  that  a  plant  of  this  kind  could  have  been  cul- 
tivated for  this  immense  period  of  time  in  both  Asia  and 
America  ?  Where  are  the  two  nations,  agricultural  and  highly 
civilized,  on  those  continents  by  whom  it  was  so  cultivated? 
What  has  become  of  them?  Where  are  the  traces  of  their 
civilization?  All  the  civilizations  of  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa 
radiated  from  the  Mediterranean  ;  the  Hindoo- Aryans  advanced 
from  the  north-west ;  they  were  kindred  to  the  Persians,  who 
were  next-door  neighbors  to  the  Arabians  (cousins  of  the  Phoe- 
nicians), and  who  lived  along-side  of  the  Egyptians,  who  had 
in  turn  derived  their  civilization  from  the  Phoenicians. 

It  would  be  a  marvel  of  marvels  if  one  nation,  on  one  con- 
tinent, had  cultivated  the  banana  for  such  a  vast  period  of  time 
until  it  became  seedless;  the  nation  retaining  a  peaceful,  con- 
tinuous, agricultural  civilization  during  all  that  time.  But  to 
suppose  that  two  nations  could  have  cultivated  the  same  plant, 
under  the  same  circumstances,  on  two  different  continents,  for 
the  same  unparalleled  lapse  of  time,  is  supposing  an  impossi- 
bility. 

We  find  just  such  a  civilization  as  was  necessary,  according 
to  Plato,  and  under  just  such  a  climate,  in  Atlantis  and  no- 
where else.  We  have  found  it  reaching,  by  its  contiguous 
islands,  within  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  of  the  coast  of 
Europe  on  the  one  side,  and  almost  touching  the  West  India 
Islands  on  the  other,  while,  by  its  connecting  ridges,  it  bound 
together  Brazil  and  Africa. 

But  it  may  be  said  these  animals  and  plants  may  have  passed 
from  Asia  to  America  across  the  Pacific  by  the  continent  of 
Lemuria ;  or  there  may  have  been  continuous  land  communi- 


THE  TESTIMONY  OF  THE  FLORA  AND  FAUNA.         59 

cation  at  one  time  at  Beliring's  Strait.  True ;  but  an  exami- 
nation of  the  flora  of  the  Pacific  States  shows  that  very  many 
of  the  trees  and  phints  common  to  Europe  and  the  Atlantic 
States  are  not  to  be  seen  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  The 
magnificent  magnolias,  the  tulip -trees,  the  plane-trees,  etc., 
which  were  found  existing  in  the  Miocene  Age  in  Switzerland, 
and  are  found  at  the  present  day  in  the  United  States,  are  al- 
together lacking  on  the  Pacific  coast.  The  sources  of  supply 
of  that  region  seem  to  have  been  far  inferior  to  the  sources  of 
supply  of  the  Atlantic  States.  Professor  Asa  Gray  tells  us 
that,  out  of  sixty -six  genera  and  one  hundred  and  fifty -five 
species  found  in  the  forests  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  only 
thirty-one  genera  and  seventy-eight  species  are  found  west  of 
the  mountains.  The  Pacific  coast  possesses  no  papaw,  no  lin- 
den or  basswood,  no  locust-trees,  no  cherry-tree  large  enough 
for  a  timber  tree,  no  gum-trees,  no  sorrel-tree,  nor  kalmia ;  no 
persimmon-trees,  not  a  holly,  only  one  ash  that  may  be  called 
a  timber  tree,  no  catalpa  or  sassafras,  not  a  single  elm  or  hack- 
berry,  not  a  mulberry,  not  a  hickory,  or  a  beech,  or  a  true  chest- 
nut. These  facts  would  seem  to  indicate  that  the  forest  flora 
of  North  America  entered  it  from  the  east,  and  that  the  Pa- 
cific States  possess  only  those  fragments  of  it  that  were  able 
to  struggle  over  or  around  the  great  dividing  mountain-chain. 

We  thus  see  that  the  flora  and  fauna  of  America  and  Eu- 
rope testify  not  only  to  the  existence  of  Atlantis,  but  to  the 
fact  that  in  an  earlier  age  it  must  have  extended  from  the 
shores  of  one  continent  to  those  of  the  other;  and  by  this 
bridge  of  land  the  plants  and  animals  of  one  region  passed  to 
the  other. 

The  cultivation  of  the  cotton-plant  and  the  manufacture  of 
its  product  was  known  to  both  the  Old  and  New  World. 
Herodotus  describes  it  (450  b.o.)  as  the  tree  of  India  that 
bears  a  fleece  more  beautiful  than  that  of  the  sheep.  Colum- 
bus found  the  natives  of  the  West  Indies  using  cotton  cloth. 
It  was  also  found  in  Mexico  and  Peru.     It  is  a  sio-nificant  fact 


60 


ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 


that  the  cotton-plant  has  been  found  growing  wild  in  many 
parts  of  America,  but  never  in  the  Old  World.  This  would 
seem  to  indicate  that  the  plant  was  a  native  of  America ;  and 
this  is  confirmed  by  the  superiority  of  American  cotton,  and 
the  further  fact  that  the  plants  taken  from  America  to  India 
constantly  degenerate,  while  those  taken  from  India  to  America 
as  constantly  improve. 

There  is  a  question  whether  the  potato,  maize,  and  tobacco 
were  not  cultivated  in  China  ages  before  Columbus  discovered 

America.  A  recent  trav- 
eller says,  "  The  interior  of 
China,  along  the  course  of 
the  Yang-tse-Kiang,  is  a 
land  full  of  wonders.  In  one 
place  piscicultural  nurseries 
line  the  banks  for  nearly 
fifty  miles.  All  sorts  of  in- 
ventions, the  cotton-gin  in- 
cluded, claimed  by  Euro- 
peans and  Americans,  are 
to  be  found  there  forty 
centuries  old.  Plants,  yield- 
ing drugs  of  great  value, 
without  number,  the  fa- 
miliar tobacco  and  potato, 
maize,  white  and  yellow 
corn,  and  other  plants  believed  to  be  indigenous  to  America, 
have  been  cultivated  there  from  time  immem,orial.^^ 

Bonafous  ("Histoire  Naturelle  du  Mais,"  Paris,  1826)  attrib- 
utes a  European  or  Asiatic  origin  to  maize.  The  word  maize, 
(Indian  corn)  is  derived  from  mahiz  or  mahis,  the  name  of  the 
plant  in  the  language  of  the  Island  of  Hayti.  And  yet,  strange 
to  say,  in  the  Lettish  and  Livonian  languages,  in  the  north  of 
Europe,  mayse  signifies  bread ;  in  Irish,  maise  is  food,  and  in  the 
Old  High  German,  maz  is  meat.     May  not  likewise  the  Span- 


ANCIENT   OAItVlNG— STRATFOEU-ON-AVON, 
ENGLAND. 


THE  TESTIMOXY  OF  THE  FLORA  AND  FAUNA,  61 

ish  maiz  have  antedated  the  time  of  Columbus,  and  borne  tes- 
timony to  early  intercommunication  between  the  people  of  the 
Old  and  New  Worlds  ? 

It  is  to  Atlantis  we  must  look  for  the  origin  of  nearly  all  our 
valuable  plants.  Darwin  says  ("Animals  and  Plants  under 
Domestication,"  vol.  i.,  p.  374),  "  It  has  often  been  remarked 
that  we  do  not  owe  a  single  useful  plant  to  Australia,  or  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope — countries  abounding  to  an  unparalleled 
degree  with  endemic  species — or  to  New  Zealand,  or  to  Ameri- 
ca south  of  the  Plata ;  and,  according  to  some  authors,  not  to 
America  north  of  Mexico."  In  other  words,  the  domesticated 
plants  are  only  found  within  the  limits  of  what  I  shall  show 
hereafter  was  the  Empire  of  Atlantis  and  its  colonies ;  for  only 
here  was  to  be  found  an  ancient,  long-continuing  civilization, 
capable  of  developing  from  a  wild  state  those  plants  which 
were  valuable  to  man,  including  all  the  cereals  on  which  to-day 
civilized  man  depends  for  subsistence.  M.  Alphonse  de  Can- 
dolle  tells  us  that  we  owe  33  useful  plants  to  Mexico,  Peru,  and 
Chili.  According  to  the  same  high  authority,  of  157  valuable 
cultivated  plants  85  can  be  traced  back  to  their  wild  state ;  as 
to  40,  there  is  doubt  as  to  their  origin ;  while  32  are  utterly  un- 
known in  their  aboriginal  condition.  ("  Geograph.  Botan.  Rai- 
sonnee,"  1855,  pp.  810-991.)  Certain  roses — the  imperial  lily, 
the  tuberose  and  the  lilac — are  said  to  have  been  cultivated 
from  such  a  vast  antiquity  that  they  are  not  known  in  their 
wild  state.  (Darwin,  "Animals  and  Plants,"  vol.  i.,  p.  370.)  And 
these  facts  are  the  more  remarkable  because,  as  De  Candolle 
has  shown,  all  the  plants  historically  known  to  have  been  first 
cultivated  in  Europe  still  exist  there  in  the  wild  state.  (Ibid.) 
The  inference  is  strong  that  the  great  cereals  —  wheat,  oats, 
barley,  rye,  and  maize — must  have  been  first  domesticated  in 
a  vast  antiquity,  or  in  some  continent  which  has  since  disap- 
peared, carrying  the  original  wild  plants  with  it. 

Darwin  quotes  approvingly  the  opinion  of  Mr.  Bentham 
("  Hist.  Notes  Cult.  Plants"),  "as  the  result  of  all  the  most 


62 


ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 


reliable  evidence  tbat  none  of  the  Cemlia — wheat,  rye,  barley, 
and  oats — exist  or  have  existed  truly  wild  in  their  present  state." 
In  the  Stone  Age  of  Europe  five  varieties  of  wheat  and  three 
of  barley  were  cultivated.  (Darwin,  "  Animals  and  Plants,"  vol. 
i.,  p.  382.)    He  says  that  it  may  be  inferred,  from  the  presence  in 


CEREALS  OF  TUE  AGE  OF  STONE  IN  EUEOPE. 


the  lake  habitations  of  Switzerland  of  a  variety  of  wheat  known 
as  the  Egyptian  wheat,  and  from  the  nature  of  the  weeds  that 
grew  among  their  crops,  "  that  the  lake  inhabitants  either  still 
kept  up  commercial  intercourse  with  some  southern  people,  or 
had  originally  proceeded  as  colonists  from  the  south."  I  should 
argue  that  they  were  colonists  from  the  land  where  wheat  and 


THE  TESTIMONY  OF  THE  FLORA   AND  FAUNA.         63 

barley  were  first  domesticated,  to  wit,  Atlantis.  And  when  the 
Bronze  Age  came,  we  find  oats  and  rye  making  their  appear- 
ance with  the  weapons  of  bronze,  together  with  a  peculiar  kind 
of  pea.  Darwin  concludes  {Ihid.,vo\.  i.,  p.  385)  that  wheat,  bar- 
ley, rye,  and  oats  were  either  descended  from  ten  or  fifteen  dis- 
tinct species,  "  most  of  which  are  now  unknown  or  extinct,"  or 
from  four  or  eight  species  closely  resembling  our  present  forms, 
or  so  "  widely  different  as  to  escape  identification ;"  in  which  lat- 
ter case,  he  says,  "  man  must  have  cultivated  the  cereals  at  an 
enormously  remote  'period^''  and  at  that  time  practised  "  some 
degree  of  selection." 

Rawlinson  ("Ancient  Monarchies,"  vol.  i.,  p.  578)  expresses 
the  opinion  that  the  ancient  Assyrians  possessed  the  pineapple. 
"  The  representation  on  the  monuments  is  so  exact  that  I  can 
scarcely  doubt  the  pineapple  being  intended."  (See  Layard's 
*'  Nineveh  and  Babylon,"  p.  338.)  The  pineapple  {Bromelia  an- 
anassa)  is  supposed  to  be  of  American  origin,  and  unknown  to 
Europe  before  the  time  of  Columbus ;  and  yet,  apart  from  the 
revelations  of  the  Assyrian  monuments,  there  has  been  some 
dispute  upon  this  point.     ("  Amer.  Cyclop.,"  vol.  xiii.,  p.  528.) 

It  is  not  even  certain  that  the  use  of  tobacco  was  not  known 


ANCIENT   IRISH    PIPES, 


64  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

to  the  colonists  from  Atlantis  settled  in  Ireland  in  an  age  long 
prior  to  Sir  Walter  Raleigh.  Great  numbers  of  pipes  have 
been  found  in  the  raths  and  tumuli  of  Ireland,  which,  there 
is  every  reason  to  believe,  were  placed  there  by  men  of  the 
Prehistoric  Period.  The  illustration  on  p.  63  represents  some 
of  the  so-called  "  Danes'  pipes  "  now  in  the  collection  of  the 
Royal  Irish  Academy.  The  Danes  entered  Ireland  many  cen- 
turies before  the  time  of  Columbus,  and  if  the  pipes  are  theirs, 
they  must  have  used  tobacco,  or  some  substitute  for  it,  at  that 
early  period.  It  is  probable,  however,  that  the  tumuli  of  Ire- 
land antedate  the  Danes  thousands  of  years. 

Compare  these  pipes  from  the  ancient  mounds  of  Ireland 
with  the  accompanying  picture  of  an  Indian  pipe  of  the  Stone 
Age  of  New  Jersey.     ("  Smithsonian  Rep.,"  1875,  p.  342.) 


ANCIENT   INDl.VN    PIPE,  NEW   JEKSKY. 


Recent  Portuguese  travellers  have  found  the  most  remote 
tribes  of  savage  negroes  in  Africa,  holding  no  commercial  in- 
tercourse with  Europeans,  using  strangely  shaped  pipes,  in 
which  they  smoked  a  plant  of  the  country.  Investigations  in 
America  lead  to  the  conclusion  that  tobacco  was  first  burnt 
as  an  incense  to  the  gods,  the  priest  alone  using  the  pipe ;  and 
from  this  beginning  the  extraordinary  practice  spread  to  the 
people,  and  thence  over  all  the  world.  It  may  have  crossed 
the  Atlantic  in  a  remote  age,  and  have  subsequently  disap- 
peared with  the  failure  of  retrograding  colonists  to  raise  the 
tobacco-plant. 


THE  DEISTRUCTIOX  OF  ATLANTIS.  65 


PART  II. 
THE    DELUGE 


Chapter  I. 


THE  DESTRUCTION'  OF  ATLANTIS  DESCRIBED  IN 
THE  DELUGE  LEGENDS. 

Having  demonstrated,  as  we  think  successfully,  that  there 
is  no  improbability  in  the  statement  of  Plato  that  a  large 
island,  almost  a  continent,  existed  in  the  past  in  the  Atlantic 
Ocean,  nay,  more,  that  it  is  a  geological  certainty  that  it  did 
exist;  and  having  further  shown  that  it  is  not  improbable  but 
very  possible  that  it  may  have  sunk  beneath  the  sea  in  the 
manner  described  by  Plato,  we  come  now  to  the  next  ques- 
tion. Is  the  memory  of  this  gigantic  catastrophe  preserved 
among  the  traditions  of  mankind?  We  think  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  an  affirmative  answer  must  be  given  to  this 
question. 

An  event,  which  in  a  few  hours  destroyed,  amid  horrible  con- 
vulsions, an  entire  country,  with  all  its  vast  population — that 
population  the  ancestors  of  the  great  races  of  both  continents, 
and  they  themselves  the  custodians  of  the  civilization  of  their 
age — could  not  fail  to  impress  with  terrible  force  the  minds  of 
men,  and  to  project  its  gloomy  shadow  over  all  human  his- 
tory. And  hence,  whether  we  turn  to  the  Hebrews,  the  Ary- 
ans, the  Phoenicians,  the  Greeks,  the  Cushites,  or  the  inhabi- 
tants of  America,  we  find  everywhere  traditions  of  the  Del- 


66  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

iige  ;  and  we  shall  see  that  all  these  traditions  point  unmis- 
takably to  the  destruction  of  Atlantis. 

Francois  Lenormant  says  (Coniemp.  Eev.,  Nov.,  1879)  : 

"The  result  authorizes  us  to  affirm  the  story  of  the  Deluge 
to  be  a  universal  tradition  among  all  branches  of  the  human 
race,  with  the  one  exception,  however,  of  the  black.  Now,  a 
recollection  thus  precise  and  concordant  cannot  be  a  myth  vol- 
untarily invented.  No  religious  or  cosmogonic  myth  presents 
this  character  of  universality.  It  must  arise  from  the  reminis- 
cence of  a  real  and  terrible  event,  so  powerfully  impressing  the 
imagination  of  the  first  ancestors  of  our  race  as  never  to  have 
been  forgotten  by  their  descendants.  This  cataclysm  must 
have  occurred  near  the  first  cradle  of  mankind,  and  before  the 
dispersion  of  the  families  from  which  the  principal  races  were 
to  spring;  for  it  would  be  at  once  improbable  and  uncritical 
to  admit  that,  at  as  many  different  points  of  the  globe  as  we 
should  have  to  assume  in  order  to  explain  the  wide  spread  of 
these  traditions,  local  phenomena  so  exactly  alike  should  have 
occurred,  their  memory  having  assumed  an  identical  form,  and 
presenting  circumstances  that  need  not  necessarily  have  oc- 
curred to  the  mind  in  such  cases. 

"Let  us  observe,  however,  that  probably  the  diluvian  tradition 
is  not  primitive,  but  imported  in  America;  that  it  undoubtedly 
wears  the  aspect  of  an  importation  among  the  rare  populations 
of  the  yellow  race  where  it  is  found ;  and  lastly,  that  it  is 
doubtful  among  the  Polynesians  of  Oceania.  There  will  still 
remain  three  great  races  to  which  it  is  undoubtedly  peculiar, 
who  have  not  borroived  it  from  each  other ^  but  among  whom 
the  tradition  is  primitive,  and  goes  back  to  the  most  ancient 
times^  and  these  three  races  are  precisely  the  only  ones  of 
which  the  Bible  speaks  as  being  descended  from  Noah — those 
of  which  it  gives  the  ethnic  filiation  in  the  tenth  chapter  of 
Genesis.  This  observation,  which  I  hold  to  be  undeniable, 
attaches  a  singularly  historic  and  exact  value  to  the  tradition 
as  recorded  by  the  Sacred  Book,  even  if,  on  the  other  hand, 
it  may  lead  to  giving  it  a  more  limited  geographical  and  eth- 
nological significance.  .  .  . 

"  But,  as  the  case  now  stands,  we  do  not  hesitate  to  declare 
that,  far  from  being  a  myth,  the  Biblical  Deluge  is  a  real  and 
historical  fact,  having,  to  say  the  least,  left  its  impress  on  the 


THE  DESTRUCTION  OF  ATLANTIS.  67 

ancestors  of  three  races — Aryan,  or  Indo-European,  Semitic,  or 
Syro- Arabian,  Chamitic,  or  Ciishite — that  is  to  say,  on  the  three 
great  civilized  races  of  the  ancient  ivorld,  those  which  constitute 
the  higher  humanity — before  the  ancestors  of  those  races  had 
as  yet  separated,  and  in  the  part  of  Asia  they  together  in- 
habited." 

Such  profound  scholars  and  sincere  Christians  as  M.  Schoe- 
bel  (Paris,  1858),  and  M.  Omalius  d'Halloy  (Bruxelles,  1866), 
deny  the  universality  of  the  Deluge,  and  claim  that  "it  ex- 
tended only  to  the  principal  centre  of  humanity,  to  those  who 
remained  near  its  primitive  cradle,  without  reaching  the  scat- 
tered tribes  who  had  already  spread  themselves  far  away  in 
almost  desert  regions.  It  is  certain  that  the  Bible  narrative 
commences  by  relating  facts  common  to  the  whole  human 
species,  confining  itself  subsequently  to  the  annals  of  the  race 
peculiarly  chosen  by  the  designs  of  Providence."  (Lenormant 
and  Chevallier,"Anc.  Hist,  of  the  East,"  p.  44.)  This  theory 
is  supported  by  that  eminent  authority  on  anthropology,  M.  do 
Quatrefages,  as  well  as  by  Cuvier ;  the  Rev.  R.  P.  Bellynck,  S.J., 
admits  that  it  has  nothing  expressly  opposed  to  orthodoxy. 

Plato  identifies  "the  great  deluge  of* all"  with  the  destruc- 
tion of  Atlantis.  The  priest  of  Sais  told  Solon  that  before 
"the  great  deluge  of  all"  Athens  possessed  a  noble  race,  who 
performed  many  noble  deeds,  the  last  and  greatest  of  which 
was  resisting  the  attempts  of  Atlantis  to  subjugate  them ;  and 
after  this  came  the  destruction  of  Atlantis,  and  the  same  great 
convulsion  which  overwhelmed  that  island  destroyed  a  num- 
ber of  the  Greeks.  So  that  the  Egyptians,  who  possessed  the 
memory  of  many  partial  deluges,  regarded  this  as  "  the  great 
dehige  of  all." 


68  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 


Chapter  II. 

THE  DELUGE  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

We  give  first  the  Bible  history  of  the  Dehige,  as  found  in 
Genesis  (chap.  vi.  to  chap,  viii.) : 

"  And  it  came  to  pass,  when  men  began  to  multiply  on  the 
face  of  the  earth,  and  daughters  were  born  unto  them,  that  the 
sons  of  God  saw  the  daughters  of  men  that  they  were  fair ;  and 
they  took  them  wives  of  all  which  they  chose. 

"  And  the  Lord  said,  My  Spirit  shall  not  always  strive  with 
man,  for  that  he  also  is  flesh :  yet  his  days  shall  be  a  hundred 
and  twenty  years. 

"  There  were  giants  in  the  earth  in  those  days ;  and  also 
after  that,  when  the  sons  of  God  came  in  unto  the  daughters 
of  men,  and  they  bare  children  to  them,  the  same  became 
mighty  men  which  were  of  old,  men  of  renown. 

"And  God  saw  that  the  wickedness  of  man  was  great  in  the 
earth,  and  that  every  imagination  of  the  thoughts  of  his  heart 
was  only  evil  continually.  And  it  repented  the  Lord  that  he 
had  made  man  on  the  earth,  and  it  grieved  him  at  his  heart. 
And  the  Lord  said,  I  will  destroy  man  whom  I  have  created 
from  tlie  face  of  the  earth ;  both  man,  and  beast,  and  the 
creeping  thing,  and  the  fowls  of  the  air;  for  it  repenteth  me 
that  I  have  made  them.  But  Noah  found  grace  in  the  eyes 
of  the  Lord. 

["These  are  the  generations  of  Noah :  Noah  was  a  just  man 
and  perfect  in  his  generations,  and  Noah  walked  with  God. 
And  Noah  begat  three  sons,  Shem,  Ham,  and  Japheth.] 

"  The  earth  also  was  corrupt  before  God ;  and  the  earth  was 
filled  with  violence.  And  God  looked  upon  the  earth,  and, 
behold,  it  was  corrupt ;  for  all  flesh  had  corrupted  his  way 
upon  the  earth.  And  God  said  unto  Noah,  The  end  of  all 
flesh  is  come  before  me;  for  the  earth  is  filled  with  violence 


THE  DELUGE  OF  THE  BTBLE.  69 

through  them  ;  and,  behold,  I  will  destroy  them  with  the  earth. 
Make  thee  an  ark  of  gopher  wood;  rooms  shalt  thou  make 
in  the  ark,  and  shalt  pitch  it  within  and  without  with  pitch. 
And  this  is  the  fashion  which  thou  shalt  make  it  of :  The  length 
of  the  ark  shall  be  three  hundred  cubits,  the  breadth  of  it  fifty 
cubits,  and  the  height  of  it  thirty  cubits.  A  window  shalt  thou 
make  to  the  ark,  and  in  a  cubit  shalt  thou  finish  it  above ;  and 
the  door  of  the  ark  shalt  thou  set  in  the  side  thereof;  with 
lower,  second,  and  third  stories  shalt  thou  make  it.  And,  be- 
hold, I,  even  I,  do  bring  a  flood  of  waters  upon  the  earth,  to 
destroy  all  flesh,  wherein  is  the  breath  of  life,  from  under 
heaven;  and  everything  that  is  in  the  earth  shall  die.  But 
with  thee  will  I  establish  ray  covenant;  and  thou  shalt  come 
into  the  ark,  thou,  and  thy  sons,  and  thy  wife,  and  thy  sons' 
wives  with  thee.  And  of  every  living  thing  of  all  flesh,  two 
of  every  sort  shalt  thou  bring  into  the  ark,  to  keep  them  alive 
with  thee ;  they  shall  be  male  and  female.  Of  fowls  after  their 
kind,  and  of  cattle  after  their  kind,  of  every  creeping  thing  of 
the  earth  after  his  kind ;  two  of  every  sort  shall  come  unto 
thee,  to  keep  them  alive.  And  take  thou  unto  thee  of  all  food 
that  is  eaten,  and  thou  shalt  gather  it  to  thee ;  and  it  shall  be 
for  food  for  thee,  and  for  them. 

"  Thus  did  Noah ;  according  to  all  that  God  commanded 
him,  so  did  he. 

"  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Noah,  Come  thou  and  all  thy 
house  into  the  ark ;  for  thee  have  I  seen  righteous  before  me 
in  this  generation.  Of  every  clean  beast  thou  shalt  take  to 
thee  by  sevens,  the  male  and  his  female :  and  of  beasts  that 
are  not  clean  by  two,  the  male  and  his  female.  Of  fowls  also 
of  the  air  by  sevens,  the  male  and  the  female ;  to  keep  seed 
alive  upon  the  face  of  all  the  earth.  For  yet  seven  days,  and  I 
will  cause  it  to  rain  upon  the  earth  forty  days  and  forty  nights; 
and  every  living  substance  that  I  have  made  will  I  destroy  from 
off  the  face  of  the  earth. 

"  And  Noah  did  according  unto  all  that  the  Lord  command- 
ed him.  And  Noah  was  six  hundred  years  old  when  the  flood 
of  waters  was  upon  the  earth. 

"  And  Noah  went  in,  and  his  sons,  and  his  wife,  and  his 
sons'  wives  with  him,  into  the  ark,  because  of  the  waters  of  the 
flood.  Of  clean  beasts,  and  of  beasts  that  are  not  clean,  and 
of  fowls,  and  of  everything  that  creepeth  upon  the  earth,  there 


70  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

went  in  two  and  two  unto  Noali  into  the  ark,  the  male  and  the 
female,  as  God  had  commanded  Noah. 

"And  it  came  to  pass  after  seven  days,  that  the  waters  of  the 
flood  were  upon  the  earth.  In  the  six  hundredth  year  of  Noah's 
life,  in  the  second  month,  the  seventeenth  day  of  the  month, 
the  same  day  were  all  the  fountains  of  the  great  deep  broken 
up,  and  the  windows  of  heaven  were  opened.  And  the  rain 
was  upon  the  earth  forty  days  and  forty  nights.  In  the  self- 
same day  entered  Noah,  and  Shem,  and  Ham,  and  Japheth, 
the  sons  of  Noah,  and  Noah's  wife,  and  the  three  wives  of  his 
sons  with  them,  into  the  ark;  they,  and  every  beast  after  his 
kind,  and  all  the  cattle  after  their  kind,  and  every  creeping 
thing  that  creepeth  upon  the  earth  after  his  kind,  and  every 
fowl  after  his  kind,  every  bird  of  every  sort.  And  they  went 
in  unto  Noah  into  the  ark,  two  and  two  of  all  flesh,  wherein 
is  the  breath  of  life.  And  they  that  went  in,  went  in  male 
and  female  of  all  flesh,  as  God  had  commanded  him :  and  the 
Lord  shut  him  in. 

"  And  the  flood  was  forty  days  upon  the  earth ;  and  the  wa- 
ters increased,  and  bare  up  the  ark,  and  it  was  lifted  up  above 
the  earth.  And  the  waters  prevailed,  and  were  increased 
greatly  upon  the  earth ;  and  the  ark  went  upon  the  face  of 
the  waters.  And  the  waters  prevailed  exceedingly  upon  the 
earth  ;  and  all  the  high  hills,  that  were  under  the  whole  heaven, 
were  covered.  Fifteen  cubits  upward  did  the  waters  prevail ; 
and  the  mountains  were  covered.  And  all  flesh  died  that 
moved  upon  the  earth,  both  of  fowl,  and  of  cattle,  and  of 
beast,  and  of  every  creeping  thing  that  creepeth  upon  the 
earth,  and  every  man:  all  in  whose  nostrils  was  the  breath 
of  life,  of  all  that  was  in  the  dry  land,  died.  And  every  liv- 
ing substance  was  destroyed  which  was  upon  the  face  of  the 
ground,  both  man,  and  cattle,  and  the  creeping  things,  and  the 
fowl  of  the  heaven ;  and  they  were  destroyed  from  the  earth  : 
and  Noah  only  remained  alive,  and  they  that  were  with  him  in 
the  ark.  And  the  waters  prevailed  upon  the  earth  a  hundred 
and  fifty  days. 

"  And  God  remembered  Noah,  and  every  living  thing,  and 
all  the  cattle  that  was  with  him  in  the  ark :  and  God  made  a 
wind  to  pass  over  the  earth,  and  the  waters  assuaged.  The 
fountains  also  of  the  deep  and  the  windows  of  heaven  were 
stopped,  and  the  rain  from  heaven  was  restrained.  •  And  the 


THE  DELUOE  OF  THE  BIBLE.  71 

waters  returned  from  off  the  earth  continually :  and  after  the 
end  of  the  hundred  and  fifty  days  the  waters  were  abated. 
And  the  ark  rested  in  the  seventh  month,  on  the  seventeenth 
day  of  the  month,  upon  the  mountains  of  Ararat.  And  the 
waters  decreased  continually  until  the  tenth  month:  in  the 
tenth  month,  on  the  first  day  of  the  month,  were  the  tops  of 
the  mountains  seen. 

"  And  it  came  to  pass  at  the  end  of  forty  days,  that  Noah 
opened  the  window  of  the  ark  which  he  had  made:  and  he 
sent  forth  a  raven,  which  went  forth  to  and  fro,  until  the  wa- 
ters were  dried  up  from  off  the  earth.  Also  he  sent  forth 
a  dove  from  him,  to  see  if  the  waters  were  abated  from  off  the 
face  of  the  ground.  But  the  dove  found  no  rest  for  the  sole 
of  her  foot,  and  she  returned  unto  him  into  the  ark ;  for  the 
waters  were  on  the  face  of  the  whole  earth.  Then  he  put 
forth  his  hand,  and  took  her,  and  pulled  her  in  unto  him  into 
the  ark.  And  he  stayed  yet  other  seven  days;  and  again  he 
sent  forth  the  dove  out  of  the  ark.  And  the  dove  came  in 
to  him  in  the  evening,  and,  lo,  in  her  mouth  was  an  olive  leaf 
plucked  off :  so  Noah  knew  that  the  waters  were  abated  from 
off  the  earth.  And  he  stayed  yet  other  seven  days,  and  sent 
forth  the  dove,  which  returned  not  again  unto  him  any  more. 

"And  it  came  to  pass  in  the  six  hundredth  and  first  year,  in 
the  first  month,  the  first  day  of  the  month,  the  waters  were 
dried  up  from  off  the  earth :  and  Noah  removed  the  covering 
of  the  ark,  and  looked,  and,  behold,  the  face  of  the  ground 
was  dry.  And  in  the  second  month,  on  the  seven  and  twenti- 
eth day  of  the  month,  was  the  earth  dried. 

"And  God  spake  unto  Noah,  saying.  Go  forth  of  the  ark, 
thou,  and  thy  wife,  and  thy  sons,  and  thy  sons'  wives  with  thee. 
Bring  forth  with  thee  every  living  thing  that  is  with  thee,  of 
all  flesh,  both  of  fowl  and  of  cattle,  and  of  every  creeping  thing 
that  creepeth  upon  the  earth;  that  they  may  breed  abundantly 
in  the  earth,  and  be  fruitful,  and  multiply  upon  the  earth. 

"And  Noah  went  forth,  and  his  sons,  and  his  wife,  and  his 
sons'  wives  with  him  :  every  beast,  every  creeping  thing,  and 
every  fowl,  and  whatsoever  creepeth  upon  the  earth,  after  their 
kinds,  went  forth  out  of  the  ark. 

"And  Noah  builded  an  altar  unto  the  Lord;  and  took  of 
every  clean  beast,  and  of  every  clean  fowl,  and  offered  burnt 
offerings  on  the  altar.     And  the  Lord  smelled  a  sweet  savour ; 


72  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

and  the  Lord  said  in  his  heart,  I  will  not  again  curse  the  ground 
any  more  for  man's  sake;  for  the  imagination  of  man's  heart 
is  evil  from  his  youth :  neither  will  I  again  smite  any  more 
every  thing  living,  as  I  have  done.  While  the  earth  remaineth, 
seedtime  and  harvest,  and  cold  and  heat,  and  summer  and  win- 
ter, and  day  and  night  shall  not  cease." 

Let  us  briefly  consider  this  record. 

It  shows,  taken  in  connection  with  the  opening  chapters  of 
Genesis : 

1.  That  the  land  destroyed  by  water  was  the  country  in 
which  the  civilization  of  the  human  race  originated.  Adam 
was  at  first  naked  (Gen.,  chap,  iii.,  7) ;  then  he  clothed  himself 
in  leaves;  then  in  the  skins  of  animals  (chap,  iii.,  21) :  he  was 
the  first  that  tilled  the  earth,  having  emerged  from  a  more 
primitive  condition  in  which  he  lived  upon  the  fruits  of  the 
forest  (chap,  ii.,  16);  his  son  Abel  was  the  first  of  those  that 
kept  flocks  of  sheep  (chap,  iv.,  2) ;  his  son  Cain  was  the  build- 
er of  the  first  city  (chap,  iv.,  IV);  his  descendant,  Tubal-cain, 
was  the  first  metallurgist  (chap,  iv.,  22);  Jabal  was  the  first 
that  erected  tents  and  kept  cattle  (chap,  iv.,  20) ;  Jubal  was 
the  first  that  made  musical  instruments.  We  have  here  the 
successive  steps  by  which  a  savage  race  advances  to  civiliza- 
tion. We  will  see  hereafter  that  the  Atlanteans  passed  through 
precisely  similar  stages  of  development. 

2.  The  Bible  agrees  with  Plato  in  the  statement  that  these 
Antediluvians  had  reached  great  populousness  and  wickedness, 
and  that  it  was  on  account  of  their  wickedness  God  resolved 
to  destroy  them. 

3.  In  both  cases  the  inhabitants  of  the  doomed  land  were 
destroyed  in  a  great  catastrophe  by  the  agency  of  water ;  they 
were  drowned. 

4.  The  Bible  tells  us  that  in  an  earlier  age,  before  their  de- 
struction, mankind  had  dwelt  in  a  happy,  peaceful,  sinless  con- 
dition in  a  Garden  of  Eden.  Plato  tells  us  the  same  thing  of 
the  earlier  asfes  of  the  Atlanteans. 


THE  DELUGE  OF  THE  BIBLE.  V3 

5.  In  both  the  Bible  history  and  Plato's  story  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  people  was  largely  caused  by  the  intermarriage  of 
the  superior  or  divine  race,  "  the  sons  of  God,"  with  an  infe- 
ferior  stock,  "the  children  of  men,"  whereby  they  were  de- 
graded and  rendered  wicked. 

We  will  see  hereafter  that  the  Hebrews  and  their  Flood 
legend  are  closely  connected  with  the  Phoenicians,  whose  con- 
nection with  Atlantis  is  established  in  many  ways. 

It  is  now  conceded  by  scholars  that  the  genealogical  table 
giv^en  in  the  Bible  (Gen.,  chap,  x.)  is  not  intended  to  include 
the  true  negro  races,  or  the  Chinese,  the  Japanese,  the  Finns  or 
Lapps,  the  Australians,  or  the  American  red  men.  It  refers  al- 
together to  the  Mediterranean  races,  the  Aryans,  the  Cushites, 
the  Phoenicians,  the  Hebrews,  and  the  Egyptians.  "  The  sons 
of  Ham"  were  not  true  negroes,  but  the  dark -brown  races. 
(See  Winchell's  "  Preadamites,"  chap,  vii.) 

If  these  races  (the  Chinese,  Australians,  Americans,  etc.)  are 
not  descended  from  Noah  they  could  not  have  been  included 
in  the  Deluge.  If  neither  China,  Japan,  America,  Northern 
Europe,  nor  Australia  were  depopulated  by  the  Deluge,  the 
Deluge  could  not  have  been  universal.  But  as  it  is  alleged 
that  it  did  destroy  a  country,  and  drowned  all  the  people 
thereof  except  Noah  and  his  family,  the  country  so  destroyed 
could  not  have  been  Europe,  Asia,  Africa,  America,  or  Aus- 
tralia, for  there  has  been  no  universal  destruction  of  the  peo- 
ple of  those  regions;  or,  if  there  had  been,  how  can  we  ac- 
count for  the  existence  to-day  of  people  on  all  of  those  conti- 
nents whose  descent  Genesis  does  not  trace  back  to  Noah, 
and,  in  fact,  about  whom  the  writer  of  Genesis  seems  to  have 
known  nothing  ? 

We  are  thus  driven  to  one  of  two  alternative  conclusions: 
either  the  Deluge  record  of  the  Bible  is  altogether  fabulous, 
or  it  relates  to  some  land  other  than  Europe,  Asia,  Africa,  or 
Australia,  some  land  that  was  destroyed  by  water.  It  is  not 
fabulous;  and  the  land  it  refers  to  is  not  Europe,  Asia,  Africa, 

4 


74  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

or  Australia — but  Atlantis.  No  other  land  is  known  to  history 
or  tradition  that  was  overthrown  in  a  great  catastrophe  by  the 
agency  of  water;  that  was  civilized,  populous,  powerful,  and 
given  over  to  wickedness. 

That  high  and  orthodox  authority,  Francois  Lenormant,  says 
("Ancient  Hist,  of  the  East,"  vol.  i.,  p.  64),  "  The  descendants 
of  Shem,  Ham,  and  Japhet,  so  admirably  catalogued  by  Moses, 
include  one  only  of  the  races  of  humanity,  the  white  race, 
whose  three  chief  divisions  he  gives  us  as  now  recognized  by 
anthropologists.  The  other  three  races  —  yellow,  black,  and 
red — have  no  place  in  the  Bible  list  of  nations  sprung  from 
Noah."  As,  therefore,  the  Deluge  of  the  Bible  destroyed  only 
the  land  and  people  of  Noah,  it  could  not  have  been  universal. 
The  religious  world  does  not  pretend  to  fix  the  location  of  the 
Garden  of  Eden.  The  Rev.  George  Leo  Haydock  says,  "  The 
precise  situation  cannot  be  ascertained;  how  great  might  be 
its  extent  we  do  not  know ;"  and  we  will  see  hereafter  that  the 
unwritten  traditions  of  the  Church  pointed  to  a  region  in  the 
west,  beyond  the  ocean  which  bounds  Europe  in  that  direction, 
as  the  locality  in  which  "  mankind  dwelt  before  the  Deluge." 

It  will  be  more  and  more  evident,  as  we  proceed  in  the  con- 
sideration of  the  Flood  legends  of  other  nations,  that  the  Ante- 
diluvian World  was  none  other  than  Atlantis. 


THE  DELUGE  OF  THE  CHALDEANS.  75 


Chapter  III. 
THE  DELUGE  OF  THE  CHALDEANS. 

We  have  two  versions  of  the  Chaldean  story — unequally 
developed,  indeed,  but  exhibiting  a  remarkable  agreement. 
The  one  most  anciently  known,  and  also  the  shorter,  is  that 
which  Berosus  took  from  the  sacred  books  of  Babylon,  and 
introduced  into  the  history  that  he  wrote  for  the  use  of  the 
Greeks.  After  speaking  of  the  last  nine  antediluvian  kings, 
the  Chaldean  priest  continues  thus  : 

"  Obartes  Elbaratutu  being  dead,  his  son  Xisuthros  (Kha- 
sisatra)  reigned  eighteen  saies  (64,800  years).  It  was  under 
him  that  the  Great  Deluge  took  place,  the  history  of  which 
is  told  in  the  sacred  documents  as  follows :  Cronos  (Ea)  ap- 
peared to  him  in  his  sleep,  and  announced  that  on  the  fifteenth 
of  the  month  of  Daisios  (the  Assyrian  month  Sivan — a  little 
before  the  summer  solstice)  all  men  should  perish  by  a  flood. 
He  therefore  commanded  him  to  take  the  beginning,  the  mid- 
dle, and  the  end  of  whatever  was  consigned  to  writing,  and  to 
bury  it  in  the  City  of  the  Sun,  at  Sippara ;  then  to  build  a  ves- 
sel, and  to  enter  it  with  his  family  and  dearest  friends;  to  place 
in  this  vessel  provisions  to  eat  and  drink,  and  to  cause  animals, 
birds,  and  quadrupeds  to  enter  it;  lastly,  to  prepare  everything 
for  navigation.  And  when  Xisuthros  inquired  in  what  direc- 
tion he  should  steer  his  bark,  he  was  answered,  'toward  the 
gods,'  and  enjoined  to  pray  that  good  might  come  of  it  for 
men. 

"  Xisuthros  obeyed,  and  constructed  a  vessel  five  stadia  long 
and  five  broad ;  he  collected  all  that  had  been  prescribed  to 
him,  and  embarked  his  wife,  his  children,  and  his  intimate 
friends. 

"The  Deluge  having  come,  and  soon  going  down,  Xisuthros 


76  ATLANTIS:  THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

loosed  some  of  the  birds.  These,  finding  no  food  nor  place  to 
alight  on,  returned  to  the  ship.  A  few  days  later  Xisuthros 
again  let  them  free,  but  they  returned  again  to  the  vessel,  their 
feet  full  of  mud.  Finally,  loosed  the  third  time,  the  birds  came 
no  more  back.  Then  Xisuthros  understood  that  the  earth  was 
bare.  He  made  an  opening  in  the  roof  of  the  ship,  and  saw 
that  it  had  grounded  on  the  top  of  a  mountain.  He  then  de- 
scended with  his  wife,  his  daughter,  and  his  pilot,  who  wor- 
shipped the  earth,  raised  an  altar,  and  there  sacrificed  to  the 
gods;  at  the  same  moment  he  vanished  with  those  who  ac- 
companied him. 

"Meanwhile  those  who  had  remained  in  the  vessel,  not  see- 
ing Xisuthros  return,  descended  too,  and  began  to  seek  him, 
calling  him  by  his  name.  They  saw  Xisuthros  no  more;  bat 
a  voice  from  heaven  was  heard  commanding  them  piety  to- 
ward the  gods;  that  he,  indeed,  was  receiving  the  reward  of  his 
piety  in  being  carried  away  to  dwell  thenceforth  in  the  midst 
of  the  gods,  and  that  his  wife,  his  daughter,  and  the  pilot  of 
the  ship  shared  the  same  honor.  The  voice  further  said  that 
they  were  to  return  to  Babylon,  and,  conformably  to  the  de- 
crees of  fate,  disinter  the  writings  buried  at  Sippara  in  order 
to  transmit  them  to  men.  It  added  that  the  country  in  which 
they  found  themselves  was  Armenia.  These,  then,  having 
heard  the  voice,  sacrificed  to  the  gods  and  returned  on  foot  to 
Babylon.  Of  the  vessel  of  Xisuthros,  which  had  finally  land- 
ed in  Armenia,  a  portion  is  still  to  be  found  in  the  Gordyan 
Mountains  in  Armenia,  and  pilgrims  bring  thence  asphalte 
that  they  have  scraped  from  its  fragments.  It  is  used  to  keep 
off  the  influence  of  witchcraft.  As  to  the  companions  of 
Xisuthros,  they  came  to  Babylon,  disinterred  the  writings  left 
at  Sippara,  founded  numerous  cities,  built  temples,  and  restored 
Babylon." 

"By  the  side  of  this  version,"  says  Lenormant,  "which,  in- 
teresting though  it  be,  is,  after  all,  second-hand,  we  are  now 
able  to  place  an  original  Chaldeo- Babylonian  edition,  which 
the  lamented  George  Smith  was  the  first  to  decipher  on  the 
cuneiform  tablets  exhumed  at  Nineveh,  and  now  in  the  British 
Museum.  Here  the  narrative  of  the  Deluge  appears  as  an  epi- 
sode  in  the   eleventh  tablet,  or  eleventh   chant  of  the  great 


J 


THE  DELUGE   OF  THE  CHALDEANS.  T7 

epic  of  the  town  of  Uruk.  The  hero  of  this  poem,  a  kind  of 
Hercules,  whose  name  has  rrot  as  yet  been  made  out  with  cer- 
tainty, being  attacked  by  disease  (a  kind  of  leprosy),  goes,  with 
a  view  to  its  cure,  to  consult  the  patriarch  saved  from  the  Del- 
uge, Khasisatra,  in  the  distant  land  to  which  the  gods  have 
transported  him,  there  to  enjoy  eternal  felicity.  He  asks 
Khasisatra  to  reveal  the  secret  of  the  events  which  led  to  his 
obtaining  the  privilege  of  immortality,  and  thus  the  patriarch 
is  induced  to  relate  the  cataclysm. 

"  By  a  comparison  of  the  three  copies  of  the  poem  that  the 
library  of  the  palace  of  Nineveh  contained,  it  has  been  possible 
to  restore  the  narrative  with  hardly  any  breaks.  These  three 
copies  were,  by  order  of  the  King  of  Assyria,  Asshurbanabal, 
made  in  the  eighth  century  B.C.,  from  a  very  ancient  specimen 
in  the  sacerdotal  library  of  the  town  of  Uruk,  founded  by  the 
monarchs  of  the  first  Chaldean  empire.  It  is  difficult  precisely 
to  fix  the  date  of  the  original,  copied  by  Assyrian  scribes,  but 
it  certainly  goes  back  to  the  ancient  empire,  seventeen  centu- 
ries at  least  before  our  era,  and  even  probably  beyond ;  it  was 
therefore  much  anterior  to  Moses,  and  nearly  contemporaneous 
with  Abraham.  The  variations  presented  by  the  three  exist- 
ing copies  prove  that  the  original  was  in  the  primitive  mode 
of  writing  called  the  hieratic,  a  character  which  must  have  al- 
ready become  difficult  to  decipher  in  the  eighth  century  B.C., 
as  the  copyists  have  differed  as  to  the  interpretation  to  be 
given  to  certain  signs,  and  in  other  cases  have  simply  repro- 
duced exactly  the  forms  of  such  as  they  did  not  understand. 
Finally,  it  results  from  a  comparison  of  these  valuations,  that 
the  original,  transcribed  by  order  of  Asshurbanabal,  must  it- 
self have  been  a  copy  of  some  still  more  ancient  manuscript, 
in  which  the  original  text  had  already  received  interlinear  com- 
ments. Some  of  the  copyists  have  introduced  these  into  their 
text,  others  have  omitted  them.  With  these  preliminary  ob- 
servations, I  proceed  to  give  integrally  the  narrative  ascribed 
in  the  poem  to  Khasisatra : 


78  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

" '  I  will  reveal  to  thee,  O  Izdhubar,  the  history  of  my  pres- 
ervation— and  tell  to  thee  the  decision  of  the  gods. 

" '  The  town  of  Shurippak,  a  town  which  thou  knowest,  is 
situated  on  the  Euphrates — it  was  ancient,  and  in  it  [men  did 
not  honor]  the  gods.  [I  alone,  I  was]  their  servant,  to  the 
great  gods — [The  gods  took  counsel  on  the  appeal  of]  Anu — 
[a  deluge  was  proposed  by]  Bel — [and  approved  by  Nabon, 
Nergal  and]  Adar. 

"  'And  the  god  [Ea],  the  immutable  lord,  repeated  this  com- 
mand in  a  dream. — I  listened  to  the  decree  of  fate  that  he  an- 
nounced, and  he  said  to  me  : — "  Man  of  Shurippak,  son  of  Uba- 
ratutu — thou,  build  a  vessel  and  finish  it  [quickly]. — [By  a  del- 
uge] I  will  destroy  substance  and  life. — Cause  thou  to  go  up 
into  the  vessel  the  substance  of  all  that  has  life. — The  vessel 
thou  shall  build — 600  cubits  shall  be  the  measure  of  its  length 
— and  60  cubits  the  amount  of  its  breadth  and  of  its  height. — 
[Launch  it]  thus  on  the  ocean,  and  cover  it  with  a  roof." — I 
understood,  and  I  said  to  Ea,  my  lord  : — "  [The  vessel]  that  thou 
commandest  me  to  build  thus — [when]  I  shall  do  it, — young  and 
old  [shall  laugh  at  me.]" — [Ea  opened  his  mouth  and]  spoke. 
— He  said  to  me,  his  servant : — "  [If  they  laugh  at  thee]  thou 
shalt  say  to  them  : — [shall  be  punished]  he  who  has  insulted  me, 
[for  the  protection  of  the  gods]  is  over  me. —  .  .  .  like  to  cav- 
erns .  .  . ...  I  will  exercise  my  judgment  on  that  which 

is  on  high  and  that  which  is  below  .  .  . .  .  .  Close  the  ves- 
sel ..  .  ...  At  a  given  moment  that  I  shall  cause  thee  to 

know, — enter  into  it,  and  draw  the  door  of  the  ship  toward 
thee. — Within  it,  thy  grains,  thy  furniture,  thy  provisions, — 
thy  riches,  thy  men-servants,  and  thy  maid-servants,  and  thy 
young  people — the  cattle  of  the  field,  and  the  wild  beasts  of 
the  plain  that  I  will  assemble — and  that  I  will  send  thee,  shall 
be  kept  behind  thy  door." — Khasisatra  opened  his  mouth  and 
spoke ; — he  said  to  Ea,  his  lord : — "  No  one  has  made  [such 
a]  ship. — On  the  prow  I  will  fix  .  .  .  — I  shall  see  .  .  .  and  the 
vessel  .  .  .  — the  vessel  thou  commandest  me  to  build  [thus] — 
which  in  .  .  ." 

" '  On  the  fifth  day  [the  two  sides  of  the  bark]  were  raised. 
— In  its  covering  fourteen  in  all  were  its  rafters — fourteen  in 
all  did  it  count  above. — I  placed  its  roof,  and  I  covered  it. — I 
embarked  in  it  on  the  sixth  day ;  I  divided  its  floors  on  the 
seventh ; — I  divided  the  interior  compartments  on  the  eighth. 


THE  DELUGE  OF  THE  CHALDEANS.  "79 

I  stopped  up  the  chinks  through  which  the  water  entered  in ; 
— I  visited  the  chinks,  and  added  what  was  wanting. — I  poured 
on  the  exterior  three  times  3600  measures  of  asphalte, — and 
three  times  3600  measures  of  asplialte  within. — Three  times 
3600  men,  porters,  brought  on  their  heads  the  chests  of  pro- 
visions.— I  kept  3600  chests  for  the  nourishment  of  my  fami- 
ly,— and  the  mariners  divided  among  themselves  twice  3600 
chests. — For  [provisioning]  I  had  oxen  slain  ; — I  instituted  [ra- 
tions] for  each  day. — In  [anticipation  of  the  need  of]  drinks, 
of  barrels,  and  of  wine — [I  collected  in  quantity]  like  to  the 
waters  of  a  river,  [of  provisions]  in  quantity  like  to  the  dust  of 
the  earth. — [To  arrange  them  in]  the  chests  I  set  my  hand  to. 
—  ...  of  the  sun  .  .  .  the  vessel  was  completed. —  .  .  .  strong 
and — I  had  carried  above  and  below  the  furniture  of  the  ship. 
— [This  lading  filled  the  two-thirds.] 

" '  All  that  I  possessed  I  gathered  together ;  all  I  possessed 
of  silver  I  gathered  together;  all  that  I  possessed  of  gold  I 
gathered — all  that  I  possessed  of  the  substance  of  life  of  every 
kind  I  gathered  together. — I  made  all  ascend  into  the  vessel ; 
my  servants,  male  and  female, — the  cattle  of  the  fields,  the  wild 
beasts  of  the  plains,  and  the  sons  of  the  people,  I  made  them 
all  ascend. 

"  '  Shamash  (the  sun)  made  the  moment  determined,  and 

he  announced  it  in  these  terms : — "  In  the  evening  I  will  cause 
it  to  rain  abundantly  from  heaven ;  enter  into  the  vessel  and 

close  the  door." The  fixed  moment  had  arrived,  which  he 

announced  in  these  terms: — "In  the  evening  I  will  cause  it  to 

rain  abundantly  from  heaven." When  the  evening  of  that 

day  arrived,  I  was  afraid, 1  entered  into  the  vessel  and  shut 

my  door. In   shutting  the  vessel,  to  Buzur-shadi-rabi,  the 

pilot, 1  confided  this  dwelling,  with  all  that  it  contained. 

"  '  Mu-sheri-ina-namari — rose  from  the  foundations  of  heav- 
en in  a  black  cloud; — Ramman  thundered  in  the  midst  of  the 
cloud, — and  Nabon  and  Sharru  marched  before  ; — they  march- 
ed, devastating  the  mountain  and  the  plain  ; — Nergal  the  pow- 
erful dragged  chastisements  after  him  ; — Adar  advanced,  over- 
throwing before  him ; — the  archangels  of  the  abyss  brought 
destruction, — in  their  terrors  they  agitated  the  earth. — The  in- 
undation of  Ramman  swelled  up  to  the  sky, — and  [the  earth] 
became  without  lustre,  was  changed  into  a  desert. 

" '  They  broke  ...  of  the  surface  of  the  earth  like  .  .  . ; — 


80  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 

[they  destroyed]  the  living  beings  of  tlie  surface  of  tlie  earth. 
— The  terrible  [Deluge]  on  men  swelled  up  to  [heaven]. — 
The  brother  no  longer  saw  his  brother ;  men  no  longer  knew 
each  other.  In  heaven — the  gods  became  afraid  of  the  water- 
spout, and — sought  a  refuge ;  they  mounted  up  to  the  heaven 
of  x\nu. —  The  gods  were  stretched  out  motionless,  pressing 
one  against  another  like  dogs. — Ishtar  wailed  like  a  child, — 
the  great  goddess  pronounced  her  discourse : — "  Here  is  hu- 
manity returned  into  mud,  and — this  is  the  misfortune  that  I 
have  announced  in  the  presence  of  the  gods. — So  I  announced 
the  misfortune  in  the  presence  of  the  gods, — for  the  evil  I  an- 
Dounced  the  terrible  [chastisement]  of  men  who  are  mine. — I 
am  the  mother  who  gave  birth  to  men,  and — like  to  the  race 
of  fishes,  there  they  are  filling  the  sea; — and  the  gods,  by  rea- 
son of  that — which  the  archangels  of  the  abyss  are  doing,  weep 
with  me." — The  gods  on  their  seats  were  seated  in  tears, — and 
they  held  their  lips  closed,  [revolving]  future  things. 

"  '  Six  days  and  as  many  nights  passed  ;  the  wind,  the  water- 
spout, and  the  diluvian  rain  were  in  all  their  strength.  At  the 
approach  of  the  seventh  day  the  diluvian  rain  grew  weaker,  the 
terrible  water-spout — which  had  assailed  after  the  fashion  of 
an  earthquake — grew  calm,  the  sea  inclined  to  dry  up,  and  the 
wind  and  the  water-spout  came  to  an  end.  I  looked  at  the 
sea,  attentively  observing  —  and  the  whole  of  humanity  had 
returned  to  mud ;  like  unto  sea-weeds  the  corpses  floated.  I 
opened  the  window,  and  the  light  smote  on  my  face.  I  was 
seized  with  sadness ;  I  sat  down  and  I  wept ; — and  my  tears 
came  over  my  face. 

"  *  I  looked  at  the  regions  bounding  the  sea :  toward  the 
twelve  points  of  the  horizon ;  not  any  continent. — The  vessel 
was  borne  above  the  land  of  Nizir, — the  mountain  of  Nizir 
arrested  the  vessel,  and  did  not  permit  it  to  pass  over. — A  day 
and  a  second  day  the  mountain  of  Nizir  arrested  the  vessel, 
and  did  not  permit  it, to  pass  over; — the  third  and  fourth  day 
the  mountain  of  Nizir  arrested  the  vessel,  and  did  not  permit 
it  to  pass  over ; — the  fifth  and  sixth  day  the  mountain  of  Nizir 
arrested  the  vessel,  and  did  not  permit  it  to  pass  over.  At  the 
approach  of  the  seventh  day,  I  sent  out  and  loosed  a  dove. 
The  dove  went,  turned,  and — found  no  place  to  light  on,  and 
it  came  back.  I  sent  out  and  loosed  a  swallow  ;  the  swallow 
went,  turned,  and — found  no  place  to  light   on,  and  it  came 


THE  DELUGE  OF  THE  CHALDEANS.  81 

back.  I  sent  out  and  loosed  a  raven  ;  the  raven  went  and  saw 
the  corpses  on  the  waters ;  it  ate,  rested,  turned,  and  came  not 
back. 

" '  I  tlien  sent  out  (what  was  in  the  vessel)  toward  the  four 
winds,  and  I  offered  a  sacrifice.  I  raised  the  pile  of  my  burnt- 
offering  on  the  peak  of  the  mountain  ;  seven  by  seven  I  dis- 
posed the  measured  vases, — and  beneath  I  spread  rushes,  cedar, 
and  juniper-wood.  .  The  gods  were  seized  with  the  desire  of 
it — the  gods  were  seized  with  a  benevolent  desire  of  it ; — and 
the  gods  assembled  like  flies  above  the  master  of  the  sacrifice. 
From  afar,  in  approaching,  the  great  goddess  raised  the  great 
zones  that  Anu  has  made  for  their  glory  (the  gods).  These 
gods,  luminous  crystal  before  me,  I  will  never  leave  them  ;  in 
that  day  I  prayed  that  I  might  never  leave  them.  "  Let  the 
gods  come  to  my  sacrificial  pile  ! — but  never  may  Bel  come  to 
my  sacrificial  pile !  for  he  did  not  master  himself,  and  he  has 
made  the  water-spout  for  the  Dehige,  and  he  has  numbered  my 
men  for  the  pit." 

"  '  From  far,  in  drawing  near,  Bel — saw  the  vessel,  and  Bel 
stopped ; — he  was  filled  with  anger  against  the  gods  and  the 
celestial  archangels : — 

" ' "  No  one  shall  come  out  alive !  No  man  shall  be  pre- 
served from  the  abyss  !" — Adar  opened  his  mouth  and  said ;  he 
said  to  the  warrior  Bel : — "  What  other  than  Ea  should  have 
formed  this  resolution  ? — for  Ea  possesses  knowledge,  and  [he 
foresees]  all." — Ea  opened  his  mouth  and  spake;  he  said  to 
the  warrior  Bel : — "  O  thou,  herald  of  the  gods,  warrior, — as 
thou  didst  not  master  thyself,  thou  hast  made  the  water-spout 
of  the  Deluge. — Let  the  sinner  carry  the  weight  of  his  sins, 
the  blasphemer  tlie  weight  of  his  blasphemy. — Please  thyself 
with  this  good  pleasure,  and  it  shall  never  be  infringed ;  faith 
in  it  never  [shall  be  violated]. — Instead  of  thy  making  a  new 
deluge,  let  lions  appear  and  reduce  the  number  of  men  ; — in- 
stead of  thy  making  a  new  deluge,  let  hyenas  appear  and  re- 
duce the  number  of  men  ; — instead  of  thy  making  a  new  del- 
uge, let  there  be  famine,  and  let  the  earth  be  [devastated] ; — 
instead  of  thy  making  a  new  deluge,  let  Dibbara  appear,  and 
let  men  be  [mown  down].  I  have  not  revealed  the  decision  of 
the  great  gods ; — it  is  Khasisatra  who  interpreted  a  dream  and 
comprehended  what  the  gods  had  decided." 

"  '  Then,  when  his  resolve  was  arrested,  Bel  entered  into  the 
4* 


82  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

vessel. — He  took  ray  hand  and  made  me  rise. — He  made  my 
wife  rise,  and  made  her  place  herself  at  my  side. — He  turned 
around  us  and  stopped  short ;  he  approached  our  group. — 
*' Until  now  Khasisatra  has  made  part  of  perishable  humani- 
ty ; — but  lo,  now  Khasisatra  and  his  wife  are  going  to  be  car- 
ried away  to  live  like  the  gods, — and  Khasisatra  will  reside 
afar  at  the  mouth  of  the  rivers." — They  carried  me  away,  and 
established  me  in  a  remote  place  at  the  mouth  of  the  streams.' 

"This  narrative,"  says  Lenormant,  "follows  with  great  ex- 
actness the  same  course  as  that,  or,  rather,  as  those  of  Genesis ; 
and  the  analogies  are,  on  both  sides,  striking." 

When  we  consider  these  two  forms  of  the  same  legend,  we 
see  many  points  wherein  the  story  points  directly  to  Atlantis. 

1.  In  the  first  place,  Berosus  tells  us  that  the  god  who  gave 
warning  of  the  coming  of  the  Deluge  was  Chronos.  Chronos, 
it  is  well  known,  was  the  same  as  Saturn.  Saturn  was  an  an- 
cient king  of  Italy,  who,  far  anterior  to  the  founding  of  Rome, 
introduced  civilization  from  some  other  country  to  the  Ital- 
ians. He  established  industry  and  social  order,  filled  the  land 
with  plenty,  and  created  the  golden  age  of  Italy.  He  was 
suddenly  removed  to  the  abodes  of  the  gods.  His  name  is 
connected,  in  the  mythological  legends,  with  "  a  great  Satur- 
nian  continent"  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  and  a  great  kingdom 
which,  in  the  remote  ages,  embraced  Northern  Africa  and  the 
European  coast  of  the  Mediterranean  as  far  as  the  peninsula 
of  Italy,  and  "  certain  islands  in  the  sea ;"  agreeing,  in  this  re- 
spect, with  the  story  of  Plato  as  to  the  dominions  of  Atlantis. 
The  Romans  called  the  Atlantic  Ocean  "  Chronium  Mare,"  the 
Sea  of  Chronos,  thus  identifying  Chronos  with  that  ocean.  The 
pillars  of  Hercules  were  also  called  by  the  ancients  "  the  pil- 
lars of  Chronos." 

Here,  then,  we  have  convincing  testimony  that  the  country 
referred  to  in  the  Chaldean  legends  was  the  land  of  Chronos, 
or  Saturn — the  ocean  world,  the  dominion  of  Atlantis. 

2.  Hea  or  Ea,  the  god  of  the  Nineveh  tablets,  was  a  fish-god; 


THE  DELUGE  OF  THE  CHALDEANH.  83 

he  was  represented  in  the  Chaldean  monuments  as  half  man 
and  half  fish;  he  was  described  as  the  god,  not  of  the  rivers 
and  seas,  but  of  "the  abyss" — to  wit,  the  ocean.  He  it  was 
who  was  said  to  have  brought  civilization  and  letters  to  the 
ancestors  of  the  Assyrians.  He  clearly  represented  an  ancient, 
maritime,  civilized  nation  ;  he  came  from  the  ocean,  and  was 
associated  with  some  land  and  people  that  had  been  destroyed 
by  rain  and  inundations.  The  fact  that  the  scene  of  the  Del- 
uge is  located  on  the  Euphrates  proves  nothing,  for  we  will 
see  hereafter  that  almost  every  nation  had  its  especial  moun- 
tain on  which,  according  to  its  traditions,  the  ark  rested ;  just 
as  every  Greek  tribe  had  its  own  particular  mountain  of  Olym- 
pos.  The  god  Bel  of  the  legend  was  the  Baal  of  the  Phoeni- 
cians, who,  as  we  shall  show,  were  of  Atlantean  origin.  Bel,  or 
Baal,  was  worshipped  on  the  western  and  northern  coasts  of 
Europe,  and  gave  his  name  to  the  Baltic,  the  Great  and  Little 
Belt,  Baleshaugen,  Balestranden,  etc. ;  and  to  many  localities  in 
the  British  Islands,  as,  for  instance,  Belan  and  the  Baal  hills  in 
Yorkshire. 

3.  In  those  respects  wherein  the  Chaldean  legend,  evidently 
the  older  form  of  the  tradition,  differs  from  the  Biblical  rec- 
ord, we  see  that  in  each  instance  we  approach  nearer  to  Atlan- 
tis. The  account  given  in  Genesis  is  the  form  of  the  tradition 
that  would  be  natural  to  an  inland  people.  Although  there  is 
an  allusion  to  *'  the  breaking  up  of  the  fountains  of  the  great 
deep "  (about  which  I  shall  speak  moi^  fully  hei'eafter),  the 
principal  destruction  seems  to  have  been  accomplished  by  rain ; 
hence  the  greater  period  allowed  for  the  Deluge,  to  give  time 
enough  for  the  rain  to  fall,  and  subsequently  drain  off  from 
the  land.  A  people  dwelling  in  the  midst  of  a  continent  could 
not  conceive  the  possibility  of  a  whole  world  sinking  beneath 
the  sea ;  they  therefore  supposed  the  destruction  to  have  been 
caused  by  a  continuous  down-pour  of  rain  for  forty  days  and 
forty  nights. 

In  the  Chaldean  legend,  on  the  contrary,  the  rain  lasted  but 


84  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 

seven  days ;  and  we  see  that  the  writer  had  a  glimpse  of  the 
fact  that  the  destruction  occurred  in  the  midst  of  or  near  the 
sea.  The  ark  of  Genesis  (tebdh)  was  simply  a  chest,  a  cof- 
fer, a  big  box,  such  as  might  be  imagined  by  an  inland  people. 
The  ark  of  the  Chaldeans  was  a  veritable  ship ;  it  had  a  prow, 
a  helm,  and  a  pilot,  and  men  to  manage  it ;  and  it  navigated 
"  the  sea." 

4.  The  Chaldean  legend  represents  not  a  mere  rain-storm,  but 
a  tremendous  cataclysm.  There  was  rain,  it  is  true,  but  there 
was  also  thunder,  lightning,  earthquakes,  wind,  a  water-spout, 
and  a  devastation  of  mountain  and  land  by  the  war  of  the 
elements.  All  the  dreadful  forces  of  nature  were  fighting 
together  over  the  doomed  land  :  "  the  archangel  of  the  abyss 
brought  destruction,"  "  the  water  rose  to  the  sky,"  "  the  broth- 
er no  longer  saw  his  brother ;  men  no  longer  knew  each  other;" 
the  men  "  filled  the  sea  like  fishes ;"  the  sea  ivas  filled  loith 
mud,  and  "  the  corpses  floated  like  sea- weed."  When  the  storm 
abated  the  land  had  totally  disappeared — there  was  no  longer 
"  any  continent. ''"'  Does  not  all  this  accord  with  "  that  dread- 
ful day  and  night "  described  by  Plato  ? 

5.  In  the  original  it  appears  that  Izdhubar,  when  he  started 
to  find  the  deified  Khasisatra,  travelled  first,  for  nine  days'  jour- 
ney, to  the  sea ;  then  secured  the  services  of  a  boatman,  and, 
entering  a  ship,  sailed  for  fifteen  days  before  finding  the  Chal- 
dean Noah.  This  would  show  that  Khasisatra  dwelt  in  a  far 
country,  one  only  attainable  by  crossing  the  water ;  and  this, 
too,  seems  like  a  reminiscence  of  the  real  site  of  Atlantis. 
The  sea  which  a  sailing-vessel  required  fifteen  days  to  cross 
must  have  been  a  very  large  body  of  water ;  in  fact,  an  ocean. 


THE  DELUGE  LEGENJJS    OF  OTHER  NATIONS.  85 


Chapter  TV. 

THE  DELUGE  LEGENDS  OF  OTHER  NATIONS. 

A  COLLECTION  of  tliG  Dcluge  legends  of  other  nations  will 
throw  light  upon  the  Biblical  and  Chaldean  records  of  that 
great  event. 

The  author  of  the  treatise  "On  the  Syrian  Goddess"  ac- 
quaints us  with  the  diluvian  tradition  of  the  Arameans,  di- 
rectly derived  from  that  of  Chaldea,  as  it  was  narrated  in  the 
celebrated  Sanctuary  of  Hierapolis,  or  Bambyce. 

"The  generality  of  people,"  he  says,  "tells  us  that  the  found- 
er of  the  temple  was  Deucalion  Sisythes — that  Deucalion  in 
whose  time  the  great  inundation  occurred.  I  have  also  heard 
the  account  given  by  the  Greeks  themselves  of  Deucalion ;  the 
myth  runs  thus :  The  actual  race  of  men  is  not  the  first,  for 
there  was  a  previous  one,  all  the  members  of  which  perished. 
We  belong  to  a  second  race,  descended  from  Deucalion,  and 
multiplied  in  the  course  of  time.  As  to  the  former  men,  they 
are  said  to  have  been  full  of  insolence  and  pride,  committing 
many  crimes,  disregarding  their  oath,  neglecting  the  rights  of 
hospitality,  unsparing  to  suppliants;  accordingly,  they  were  pun- 
ished by  an  imjiiense  disaster.  All  on  a  sudden  enormous  vol- 
umes of  water  issued  from  the  earth,  and  rains  of  extraordinary 
abundance  began  to  fall ;  the  rivers  left  their  beds,  and  the  sea 
overflowed  its  shores;  the  whole  earth  was  covered  with  water, 
and  all  men  perished.  Deucalion  alone,  because  of  his  virtue 
and  piety,  was  preserved  alive  to  give  birth  to  a  new  race. 
This  is  how  he  was  saved:  He  placed  himself,  his  children, 
and  his  wives  in  a  great  coffer  that  he  had,  in  which  pigs, 
horses,  lions,  serpents,  and  all  other  terrestrial  animals  came  to 
seek  refuge  with  him.     He  received  them  all;  and  while  they 


86  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

were  in  the  coffer  Zeus  inspired  them  with  reciprocal  amity, 
which  prevented  their  devouring  one  another.  In  this  man- 
ner, shut  up  within  one  single  coffer,  they  floated  as  long  as 
the  waters  remained  in  force.  Such  is  the  account  given  by 
the  Greeks  of  Deucalion. 

"  But  to  this,  which  they  equally  tell,  the  people  of  Hierapo- 
lis  add  a  marvellous  narrative:  That  in  their  country  a  great 
chasm  opened,  into  which  all  the  waters  of  the  Deluge  poured. 
Then  Deucalion  raised  an  altar,  and  dedicated  a  temple  to  Hera 
(Atargatis)  close  to  this  very  chasm.  I  have  seen  it ;  it  is  very 
narrow,  and  situated  under  the  temple.  Whether  it  was  once 
large,  and  has  now  shrunk,  1  do  not  know ;  but  I  have  seen  it, 
and  it  is  quite  small.  In  memory  of  the  event  the  following 
is  the  rite  accomplished  :  Twice  a  year  sea- water  is  brought 
to  the  temple.  This  is  not  only  done  by  the  priests,  but  nu- 
merous pilgrims  come  from  the  whole  of  Syria  and  Arabia, 
and  even  from  beyond  the  Euphrates,  bringing  water.  It  is 
poured  out  in  the  temple  and  goes  into  the  cleft,  which,  nar- 
row as  it  is,  swallows  up  a  considerable  quantity.  This  is  said 
to  be  in  virtue  of  a  religious  law  instituted  by  Deucalion  to 
preserve  the. memory  of  the  catastrophe,  and  of  the  benefits 
that  he  received  from  the  gods.  Such  is  the  ancient  tradition 
of  the  temple." 

"  It  appears  to  me  difficult,"  says  Lenormant,  "  not  to  recog- 
nize an  echo  of  fables  popular  in  all  Semitic  countries  about 
this  chasm  of  Hierapolis,  and  the  part  it  played  in  the  Del- 
uge, in  the  enigmatic  expressions  of  the  Koran  respecting  the 
oven  {tannur)  which  began  to  bubble  and  disgorge  water  all 
around  at  the  commencement  of  the  Deluge.  We  know  that 
this  tannur  has  been  the  occasion  of  most  grotesque  imagin- 
ings of  Mussulman  commentators,  who  had  lost  the  tradition 
of  the  story  to  which  Mohammed  made  allusion.  And,  more- 
over, the  Koran  formally  states  that  the  waters  of  the  Deluge 
were  absorbed  in  the  bosom  of  the  earth." 

Here  the  Xisuthros  of  Berosus  becomes  Deucalion-^^sy^Aes. 
The  animals  are  not  collected  together  by  Deucalion,  as  in  the 
case  of  Noah  and  Khasisatra,  but  they  crowded  into  the  vessel 
of  their  own  accord,  driven  by  the  terror  with  which  the  storm 


THE  DELUOE  LEGENDS  OF  OTHER  NATIONS  87 

Lad  inspired  them ;  as  in  great  calamities  the  creatures  of  the 
forest  have  been  known  to  seek  refuge  in  the  houses  of  men. 

India  afiFords  us  an  account  of  the  Dehige  which,  by  its  pov- 
erty, strikingly  contrasts  with  that  of  the  Bible  and  the  Chal- 
deans. Its  most  simple  and  ancient  form  is  found  in  the  Qa- 
tapatha  Brdhmana  of  the  Rig-Yeda.  It  has  been  translated 
for  the  first  time  by  Max  Miiller. 

"  One  morning  water  for  washing  was  brought  to  Manu,  and 
when  he  had  washed  himself  a  fish  remained  in  his  hands, 
and  it  addressed  these  words  to  him :  '  Protect  me,  and  I  will 
save  thee.'  '  From  what  wilt  thou  save  me  V  '  A  deluge  will 
sweep  all  creatures  away  ;  it  is  from  that  I  will  save  thee.' 
'  How  shall  I  protect  thee  V  The  fish  replied,  '  While  we  are 
small  we  run  great  dangers,  for  fish  swallow  fish.  Keep  me  at 
first  in  a  vase ;  when  I  become  too  large  for  it,  dig  a  basin  to 
put  me  into.  When  I  shall  have  grown  still  more,  throw  me 
into  the  ocean ;  then  I  shall  be  preserved  from  destruction.' 
Soon  it  grew  a  large  fish.  It  said  to  Manu,  'The  very  year  I 
shall  have  reached  my  full  growth  the  Deluge  will  happen. 
Then  build  a  vessel  and  worship  me.  When  the  waters  rise, 
enter  the  vessel,  and  I  will  save  thee.' 

"After  keeping  him  thus,  Manu  carried  the  fish  to  the  sea. 
In  the  year  indicated  Manu  built  a  vessel  and  worshipped  the 
fish.  And  when  the  Deluge  came  he  entered  the  vessel.  Then 
tbe  fish  came  swimming  up  to  him,  and  Manu  fastened  the 
cable  of  the  ship  to  the  horn  of  the  fish,  by  which  means  the 
latter  made  it  pass  over  the  Mountain  of  the  North.  The  fish 
said,  '  I  have  saved  thee ;  fasten  the  vessel  to  a  tree,  that  the 
water  may  not  sweep  it  away  while  thou  art  on  the  mountain ; 
and  in  proportion  as  the  waters  decrease  thou  shalt  descend.' 
Manu  descended  with  the  waters,  and  this  is  what  is  called  the 
descent  of  Manu  on  the  Mountain  of  the  North.  The  Deluge 
had  carried  away  all  creatures,  and  Manu  remained  alone." 

There  is  another  form  of  the  Hindoo  legend  in  the  Puranas. 
Lenormant  says: 

"  We  must  also  remark  that  in  the  Puranas  it  is  no  longer 
Manu  Vaivasata  that  the  divine  fish  saves  from  the  Deluge, 
but  a  different  personage,  the  King  of  the  Dastas — i.  e.,  fishers 


88  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

— Satyravata, '  tlie  man  -who  loves  justice  and  truth,'  strikingly 
corresponding  to  the  Chaldean  Khasisatra.  Nor  is  the  Puranic 
version  of  the  Legend  of  the  Deluge  to  be  despised,  though  it 
be  of  recent  date,  and  full  of  fantastic  and  often  puerile  details. 
In  certain  aspects  it  is  less  Aryanized  than  that  of  Brdhmana 
or  than  the  Mahdhhdrata  ;  and,  above  all,  it  gives  some  circum- 
stances omitted  in  these  earlier  versions,  which  must  yet  have 
belonged  to  the  original  foundation,  since  they  appear  in  the 
Babylonian  legend;  a  circumstance  preserved,  no  doubt,  by  the 
oral  tradition — popular,  and  not  Brahmanic — with  which  the 
Purdnas  are  so  deeply  imbued.  This  has  already  been  ob- 
served by  Pictet,  who  lays  due  stress  on  the  following  passage 
of  the  Bhdgavata- Purdna :  'In  seven  days,'  said  Vishnu  to 
Satyravata,  '  the  three  ivorlds  shall  be  submerged.''  There  is 
nothing  like  this  in  the  Brdhmana  nor  the  Mahdbhdrata.,  but 
in  Genesis  the  Lord  says  to  Noah,  '  Yet  seven  days  and  I  will 
cause  it  to  rain  upon  the  earth  ;'  and  a  little  fartlier  we  read, 
'After  seven  days  the  waters  of  the  flood  were  upon  the  earth.' 
.  .  .  Nor  must  we  pay  less  attention  to  the  directions  given  by 
the  fish-god  to  Satyravata  for  the  placing  of  the  sacred  Script- 
ures in  a  safe  place,  in  order  to  preserve  them  from  Hayagriva, 
a  marine  horse  dwelling  in  the  abyss.  .  .  .  We  recognize  in  it, 
under  an  Indian  garb,  the  very  tradition  of  the  interment  of 
the  sacred  wn'itings  at  Sippara  by  Khasisatra,  such  as  we  have 
seen  it  in  the  fragment  of  Berosus." 

The  references  to  "  the  three  worlds  "  and  the  "  fish-god  "  in 
these  legends  point  to  Atlantis.  The  "  three  worlds  "  probably 
refers  to  the  great  empire  of  Atlantis,  described  by  Plato,  to 
wit,  the  western  continent,  America,  the  eastern  continent,  Eu- 
rope and  Africa,  considered  as  one,  and  the  island  of  Atlantis. 
As  we  have  seen,  Poseidon,  the  founder  of  the  civilization  of 
Atlantis,  is  identical  with  Neptune,  who  is  always  represented 
riding  a  dolphin,  bearing  a  trident,  or  three-pronged  symbol,  in 
liis  hand,  emblematical  probably  of  the  triple  kingdom.  He  is 
thus  a  sea-god,  or  fish-god,  and  he  comes  to  save  the  representa- 
tive of  his  country. 

And  we  have  also  a  new  and  singular  form  of  the  legend  in 
the  following:.     Lenormant  says : 


THE  DELUGE  LEGENDS   OF  OTHER  NATIONS.  89 

"Among  the  Iranians,  in  the  sacred  books  containing  the 
fundamental  Zoroastrian  doctrines,  and  dating  very  far  back, 
we  meet  with  a  tradition  which  must  assuredly  be  looked  upon 
as  a  variety  of  that  of  the  Deluge,  though  possessing  a  special 
character,  and  diverging  in  some  essential  particulars  from  those 
Ave  have  been  examining.  It  relates  how  Yima,  who,  in  the 
original  and  primitive  conception,  was  the  father  of  the  human 
race,  was  warned  by  Ahuramazda,  the  good  deity,  of  the  earth 
being  about  to  be  devastated  by  a  flood.  The  god  ordered 
Yima  to  construct  a  refuge,  a  square  garden,  vara,  protected 
by  an  enclosure,  and  to  cause  the  germs  of  men,  beasts,  and 
plants  to  enter  it,  in  order  to  escape  annihilation.  According- 
ly, when  the  inundation  occurred,  the  garden  of  Yima,  with  all 
that  it  contained,  was  alone  spared,  and  the  message  of  safety 
was  brought  thither  by  the  bird  Karshipta,  the  envoy  of  x\hu- 
ramazda."     ("  Vendudid,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  46.) 

This  clearly  signifies  that,  prior  to  the  destruction  of  Atlan- 
tis, a  colony  had  been  sent  out  to  some  neighboring  country. 
These  emigrants  built  a  walled  town,  and  brought  to  it  the 
grains  and  domestic  animals  of  the  mother  country  ;  and  when 
the  island  of  Atlantis  sunk  in  the  ocean,  a  messenger  brought 
the  terrible  tidings  to  them  in  a  ship. 

"The  Greeks  had  two  principal  legends  as  to  the  cataclysm 
by  which  primitive  humanity  was  destroyed.  The  first  was 
connected  with  the  name  of  Ogyges,  the  most  ancient  of  the 
kings  of  Boeotia  or  Attica — a  quite  mythical  personage,  lost  in 
the  night  of  ages,  his  very  name  seemingly  derived  from  one 
signifying  deluge  in  Aryan  idioms,  in  Sanscrit  Angha.  It  is 
said  that  in  his  time  the  whole  land  was  covered  by  a  flood, 
whose  waters  reached  the  sky,  and  from  which  he,  together 
with  some  companions,  escaped  in  a  vessel. 

"  The  second  tradition  is  the  Thessalian  legend  of  Deucalion. 
Zeus  having  worked  to  destroy  the  men  of  the  age  of  bronze, 
with  whose  crimes  he  was  wroth,  Deucalion,  by  the  advice  of 
Prometheus,  his  father,  constructed  a  coffer,  in  which  he  took 
refuge  with  his  wife,  Pyrrha.  The  Deluge  came;  the  chest, 
or  coffer,  floated  at  the  mercy  of  the  waves  for  nine  days  and 
nine  nights,  and  was  finally  stranded  on  Mount  Parnassus. 
Deucalion   and  Pyrrha  leave  it,  offer  sacrifice,  and,  according 


90  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 

to  the  command  of  Zeus,  repeople  the  world  by  throwing  be- 
hind them  'the  bones  of  the  earth'  —  namely,  stones,  which 
change  into  men.  This  Deluge  of  Deucalion  is,  in  Grecian 
tradition,  what  most  resembles  a  universal  deluge.  Many  au- 
thors affirm  that  it  extended  to  the  whole  earth,  and  that  the 
whole  human  race  perished.  At  Athens,  in  memory  of  the 
event,  and  to  appease  the  manes  of  its  victims,  a  ceremony 
called  Hydrophoria  was  observed,  having  so  close  a  resem- 
blance to  that  in  use  at  Hierapolis,  in  Syria,  that  we  can  hard- 
ly fail  to  look  upon  it  as  a  Syro-Phoenician  importation,  and 
the  result  of  an  assimilation  established  in  remote  antiquity 
between  the  Deluge  of  Deucalion  and  that  of  Khasisatra,  as 
described  by  the  author  of  the  treatise  '  On  the  Syrian  God- 
dess.' Close  to  the  temple  of  the  Olympian  Zeus  a  fissure  in 
the  soil  was  shown,  in  length  but  one  cubit,  through  which 
it  was  said  the  waters  of  the  Deluge  had  been  swallowed  up. 
Thus,  every  year,  on  the  third  day  of  the  festival  of  the  An- 
thesteria,  a  day  of  mourning  consecrated  to  the  dead — that  is, 
on  the  thirteenth  of  the  month  of  Anthesterion,  toward  the  be- 
ginning of  March — it  was  customary,  as  at  Bambyce,  to  pour 
water  into  the  fissure,  together  with  flour  mixed  with  honey, 
poured  also  into  the  trench  dug  to  the  west  of  the  tomb,  in 
the  funeral  sacrifices  of  the  Athenians." 

In  this  legend,  also,  there  are  passages  which  point  to  Atlan- 
tis. We  will  see  hereafter  that  the  Greek  god  Zeus  was  one 
of  the  kings  of  Atlantis.  "The  men  of  the  age  of  bronze" 
indicates  the  civilization  of  the  doomed  people;  they  were 
the  great  metallurgists  of  their  day,  who,  as  we  will  see,  were 
probably  the  source  of  the  great  number  of  implements  and 
weapons  of  bronze  found  all  over  Europe.  Here,  also,  while 
no  length  of  time  is  assigned  to  the  duration  of  the  storm,  we 
find  that  the  ark  floated  but  nine  days  and  nights.  Noah  was 
one  year  and  ten  days  in  the  ark,  Khasisatra  was  not  half  that 
time,  while  Deucalion  was  afloat  only  nine  days. 

At  Megara,  in  Greece,  it  was  the  eponym  of  the  city,  Mega- 
ros,  son  of  Zeus  and  one  of  the  nymphs,  Sithnides,  who,  warn- 
ed by  the  cry  of  cranes  of  the  imminence  of  the  danger  of  the 
coming  flood,  took  refuge  on  Mount  Geranien.     Again,  there 


I 


THE  DELUOE  LEGENDS  OF  OTHER  NATIONS.  91 

was  the  Thessalian  Cerambos,  who  was  said  to  have  escaped 
the  flood  by  rising  into  the  air  on  wings  given  him  by  the 
nymphs ;  and  it  was  Perirrhoos,  son  of  Eohis,  that  Zeus  Naios 
had  preserved  at  Dodona.  For  the  inhabitants  of  the  Isle  of 
Cos  the  hero  of  the  Deluge  was  Merops,  son  of  Hyas,  who 
there  assembled  under  his  rule  the  remnant  of  humanity  pre- 
served with  him.  The  traditions  of  Rhodes  only  supposed 
the  Telchines,  those  of  Crete  Sasion,  to  have  escaped  the  cat- 
aclysm. In  Samothracia  the  same  character  was  attributed  to 
Saon,  said  to  be  the  son  of  Zeus  or  of  Hermes. 

It  will  be  observed  that  in  all  these  legends  the  name  of 
Zeus,  King  of  Atlantis,  reappears.  It  would  appear  probable 
that  many  parties  had  escaped  from  the  catastrophe,  and  had 
landed  at  the  different  points  named  in  the  traditions ;  or  else 
that  colonies  had  already  been  established  by  the  Atlanteans  at 
those  places.  It  would  appear  impossible  that  a  maritime  peo- 
ple could  be  totally  destroyed;  doubtless  many  were  on  ship- 
board in  the  harbors,  and  others  going  and  coming  on  distant 
voyages. 

"  The  invasion  of  the  East,"  says  Baldwin  ('  Prehistoric  Na- 
tions,' p.  396),  "  to  which  the  story  of  Atlantis  refers,  seems  to 
have  given  rise  to  the  Panathenaea,  the  oldest,  greatest,  and 
most  splendid  festivals  in  honor  of  Athena  celebrated  in  Atti- 
ca. These  festivals  are  said  to  have  been  established  by  Erich- 
thonus  in  the  most  ancient  times  remembered  by  the  historical 
traditions  of  Athens.  Boeckh  says  of  them,  in  his  '  Commen- 
tary on  Plato :' 

" '  In  the  greater  Panathen?ea  there  was  carried  in  proces- 
sion a  peplum  of  Minerva,  representing  the  war  with  the  giants 
and  the  victory  of  the  gods  of  Olympus.  In  the  lesser  Pan- 
athenaea they  carried  another  peplum  (covered  with  symbolic 
devices),  which  showed  how  the  Athenians,  supported  by  Mi- 
nerva, had  the  advantage  in  the  war  with  the  Atlantes.'  A 
scholia  quoted  from  Proclus  by  Humboldt  and  Boeckh  says : 
'  The  historians  who  speak  of  the  islands  of  the  exterior  sea 


92  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

tell  us  that  in  their  time  there  were  seven  islands  consecrated 
to  Proserpine,  and  three  others  of  immense  extent,  of  which 
the  first  was  consecrated  to  Pluto,  the  second  to  Amraon,  and 
the  third  to  Neptune.  The  inhabitants  of  the  latter  had  pre- 
served a  recollection  (transmitted  to  them  by  their  ancestors) 
of  the  island  of  Atlantis,  which  was  extremely  large,  and  for  a 
long  time  held  sway  over  all  the  islands  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean. 
Atlantis  was  also  consecrated  to  Neptune.' "  (See  Humboldt's 
*'  Histoire  de  la  Geographic  du  Nouveau  Continent,"  vol.  i.) 

No  one  can  read  these  legends  and  doubt  that  the  Flood  was 
an  historical  reality.  It  is  impossible  that  in  two  different  places 
in  the  Old  World,  remote  from  each  other,  religious  ceremo- 
nies should  have  been  established  and  perpetuated  from  age  to 
age  in  memory  of  an  event  which  never  occurred.  We  have 
seen  that  at  Athens  and  at  Hierapolis,  in  Syria,  pilgrims  came 
from  a  distance  to  appease  the  god  of  the  earthquake,  by  pour- 
ing offerings  into  fissures  of  the  earth  said  to  have  been  made 
at  the  time  Atlantis  was  destroyed. 

More  than  this,  we  know  from  Plato's  history  that  the  Athe- 
nians long  preserved  in  their  books  the  memory  of  a  victory 
won  over  the  Atlanteans  in  the  early  ages,  and  celebrated  it  by 
national  festivals,  with  processions  and  religious  ceremonies. 

It  is  too  much  to  ask  us  to  believe  that  Biblical  history, 
Chaldean,  Iranian,  and  Greek  legends  signify  nothing,  and 
that  even  religious  pilgrimages  and  national  festivities  were 
based  upon  a  myth. 

I  would  call  attention  to  the  further  fact  that  in  the  Deluge 
legend  of  the  Isle  of  Cos  the  hero  of  the  affair  was  Merops. 
Now  we  have  seen  that,  according  to  Theopompus,  one  of  the 
names  of  the  people  of  Atlantis  was  "  Meropes." 

But  we  have  not  reached  the  end  of  our  Flood  legends. 
The  Persian  Magi  possessed  a  tradition  in  which  the  waters 
issued  from  the  oven  of  an  old  woman.  Mohammed  borrowed 
this  story,  and  in  the  Koran  he  refers  to  the  Deluge  as  coming 
from  an  oven.  "  All  men  were  drowned  save  Noah  and  his 
family ;  and  then  God  said,  '  O  earth,  swallow  up  thy  waters ; 


THE  DELUGE  LEGENDS  OF  OTHER  NATIONS.  93 

and  thon,  0  heaven,  withhold  thy  rain ;'  and  immediately  the 
waters  abated." 

In  the  bardic  poems  of  Wales  we  have  a  tradition  of  the 
Deluge  which,  although  recent,  under  the  concise  forms  of  the 
triads,  is  still  deserving  of  attention.  As  usual,  the  legend  is 
localized  in  the  country,  and  the  Deluge  counts  among  three 
terrible  catastrophes  of  the  island  of  Prydian,  or  Britain,  the 
other  two  consisting  of  devastation  by  fire  and  by  drought. 

"  The  first  of  these  events,"  it  is  said,  "  was  the  eruption  of 
Llyn-llion,  or  '  the  lake  of  waves,'  and  the  inundation  (bawdd) 
of  the  whole  country,  by  which  all  mankind  was  drowned  with 
the  exception  of  Dwyfan  and  Dwyfach,  who  saVed  themselves 
in  a  vessel  without  rigging,  and  it  was  by  them  that  the  island 
of  Prydian  was  repeopled." 

Pictet  here  observes : 

"Although  the  triads  in  their  actual  form  hardly  date  far- 
ther than  the  thirteenth  or  fourteenth  century,  some  of  them 
are  undoubtedly  connected  with  very  ancient  traditions,  and 
nothing  here  points  to  a  borrowing  from  Genesis. 

"But  it  is  not  so,  perhaps,  with  another  triad,  speaking  of 
the  vessel  Nefyddnaf-Neijion^  which  at  the  time  of  the  over- 
flow of  Llyon-llion,bore  a  pair  of  all  living  creatures,  and  rather 
too  much  resembles  the  ark  of  Noah.  The  very  name  of  the 
patriarch  may  have  suggested  this  triple  epithet,  obscure  as  to 
its  meaning,  but  evidently  formed  on  the  principle  of  Cymric 
alliteration.  In  the  same  triad  we  have  the  enigmatic  story  of 
the  horned  oxen  {ijchain  hanog)  of  Hu  the  mighty,  who  drew 
out  of  Llyon-llion  the  avanc  (beaver  or  crocodile?),  in  order 
that  the  lake  should  not  overflow.  The  meaning  of  these 
enigmas  could  only  be  hoped  from  deciphering  the  chaos  of 
barbaric  monuments  of  the  Welsh  middle  age;  but  meanwhile 
we  cannot  doubt  that  the  Cymri  possessed  an  indigenous  tra- 
dition of  the  Deluge." 

We  also  find  a  vestige  of  the  same  tradition  in  the  Scandi- 
navian Ealda.  Here  the  story  is  combined  with  a  cosmogonic 
myth.  The  three  sons  of  Borr — Othin,  Wili,  and  We — grand- 
sons of  Buri,  the  first  man,  slav  Ymir,  the  father  of  the  Hrim- 


94  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

thursar,  or  ice  giants,  and  his  body  serves  them  for  the  con- 
struction of  the  world.  Blood  flows  from  his  wounds  in  such 
abundance  that  all  the  race  of  giants  is  drowned  in  it  except 
Bergelmir,  who  saves  himself,  with  his  wife,  in  a  boat,  and 
reproduces  the  race. 

In  the  Edda  of  Scemund,  "The  Yala's  Prophecy"  (stz.  48-56, 
p.  9),  we  seem  to  catch  traditional  glimpses  of  a  terrible  catas- 
trophe, which  reminds  us  of  the  Chaldean  legend : 

"  Then  trembles  Yggdrasil's  ash  yet  standing,  groans  that  an- 
cient tree,  and  the  Jotun  Loki  is  loosed.  The  shadows  groan 
on  the  ways  of  Hel  (the  goddess  of  death),  until  the  fire  of 
Surt  has  consumed  the  tree.  Hyrm  steers  from  the  east,  the 
waters  rise,  the  mundane  snake  is  coiled  in  jotun-rage.  The 
worm  beats  the  water  and  the  eagle  screams ;  the  pale  of  beak 
tears  carcasses;  (the  ship)  Naglfar  is  loosed.  Surt  from  the 
south  comes  with  flickering  flame;  shines  from  his  sword  the 
Valgod's  sun.  The  stony  hills  are  dashed  together,  the  giant- 
esses totter ;  men  tread  the  path  of  Hel,  and  heaven  is  cloven. 
The  sun  darkens,  earth  in  ocean  sinks,  fall  from  heaven  the 
bright  stars,  fire's  breath  assails  the  all-nourishing,  towering  fire 
plays  against  heaven  itself." 

Egypt  does  not  contain  a  single  allusion  to  the  Flood.  Le- 
normant  says : 

"  While  the  tradition  of  the  Deluge  holds  so  considerable  a 
place  in  the  legendary  memories  of  all  branches  of  the  Aryan 
race,  the  monuments  and  original  texts  of  Egypt,  with  their 
many  cosmogonic  speculations,  have  not  afforded  one,  even  dis- 
tant, allusion  to  this  cataclysm.  When  the  Greeks  told  the 
Egyptian  priests  of  the  Deluge  of  Deucalion,  their  reply  was 
that  they  had  been  preserved  from  it  as  well  as  from  the  con- 
flagration produced  by  Phaethon  ;  they  even  added  that  the 
Hellenes  were  childish  in  attaching  so  much  importance  to 
that  event,  as  there  had  been  several  other  local  catastrophes 
resembling  it.  According  to  a  passage  in  Manetho,  much  sus- 
pected, however,  of  being  an  interpolation,  Thoth,  or  Hermes 
Trismegistus,  had  himself,  before  the  cataclysm,  inscribed  on 
stela?,  in  hieroglyphical  and  sacred  langnage,  the  principles  of 
all  knowledge.     After  it  the  second  Thoth  translated  into  the 


THE  DELUGE  LEGENDS  OF  OTHER  NATIONS. 


95 


vulgar  tongue  the  contents  of  these  stelae.  This  would  be  the 
only  Egyptian  mention  of  the  Deluge,  the  same  Manetho  not 
speaking  of  it  in  what  remains  to  us  of  his  'Dynasties,'  his 
only  complete  authentic  work.  The  silence  of  all  other  myths 
of  the  Pharaonic  religion  on  this  head  render  it  very  likely 
that  the  above  is  merely  a  foreign  tradition,  recently  intro- 
duced, and  no  doubt  of  Asiatic  and  Chaldean  origin." 

To  my  mind  the  explanation  of  this  singular  omission  is  very 
plain.  The  Egyptians  had  preserved  in  their  annals  the  pre- 
cise history  of  the  destruction  of  Atlantis,  out  of  which  the 
Flood  legends  grew ;  and,  as  they  told  the  Greeks,  there  had 
been  no  universal  flood,  but  only  local  catastrophes.  Possess- 
ing the  real  history  of  the  local  catastrophe  which  destroyed 
Atlantis,  they  did  not  indulge  in  any  myths  about  a  univer- 
sal deluge  covering  the  mountain-tops  of  all  the  world.  They 
had  no  Ararat  in  their  neighborhood. 

The  traditions  of  the  early  Christian  ages  touching  the  Del- 
uge pointed  to  the  quar- 
ter of  the  world  in  which 
Atlantis  was  situated. 

There  was  a  quaint 
old  monk  named  Cos- 
mos, who,  about  one 
thousand  years  ago,  pub- 
lished a  book,  "Topo- 
graphia  Christiana,"  ac- 
companied by  a  map,  in 
which  he  gives  his  view 
of  the  world  as  it  was 
then  understood.  It  was 
a    body   surrounded    by 

water,  and  resting  on  nothing.  "The  earth,"  says  Cosmos, 
"  presses  downward,  but  the  igneous  parts  tend  upward,"  and 
between  the  conflicting  forces  the  earth  hangs  suspended,  like 
Mohammed's  coflSn  in  the  old  story.     The  accompanying  illus- 


UE    WORLD,  AOUOUUINU    TO    OOSMOii. 


96 


ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 


tration  (page  95)  represents  the  earth  surrounded  by  tlie  ocean, 
and  beyond  this  ocean  was  "  the  land  where  men  dwelt  before 
the  Deluge." 

He  then  gives  us  a  more  accurate  map,  in  detail,  of  the 
known  world  of  his  day. 

I  copy  this  map,  not  to  show  how  much  more  we  know 
than  poor  Cosmos,  but  because  he  taught  that  all  around  this 
habitable  world  there  was  yet  another  world,  adhering  closely 
on  all  sides  to  the  circumscribing  walls  of  heaven.  "  Upon 
the  eastern  side  of  this  transmarine  land  he  judges  man  was 
created ;  and  that  there  the  paradise  of  gladness  was  located, 


MAP   OF   KUliOPK,  AFTER   COSMOS. 


such  as  here  on  the  eastern  edge  is  described,  where  it  re- 
ceived our  first  parents,  driven  out  of  Paradise  to  that  extreme 
point  of  land  on  the  sea-shore.  Hence,  upon  the  coming  of 
the  Deluge,  Noah  and  his  sons  were  borne  by  the  ark  to  the 
earth  we  now  inhabit.  The  four  rivers  he  supposes  to  be 
gushing  up  the  spouts  of  Paradise."  They  are  depicted  on 
the  above  map :  O  is  the  Mediterranean  Sea ;  P,  the  Arabian 
Gulf;  L,  the  Caspian  Sea;  Q,  the  Tigris;  M,  the  river  Pison ; 
" and  ./,  the  land  where  men  dwelt  before  the  Flood''' 


TEE  DELUGE  LEGE.VJJS  OF  OTHER  NATIOXS. 


97 


It  will  be  observed  that,  while  he  locates  Paradise  in  the 
east,  he  places  the  scene  of  the  Deluge  in  the  west ;  and  he 
supposes  that  Noah  came  from  the  scene  of  the  Deluge  to 
Europe. 

This  shows  that  the  traditions  in  the  time  of  Cosmos  looked 
to  the  west  as  the  place  of  the  Deluge,  and  that  after  the  Del- 
uge Noah  came  to  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean.  The  fact, 
too,  that  there  was  land  in  the  west  beyond  the  ocean  is  recog- 
nized by  Cosmos,  and  is  probably  a  dim  echo  from  Atlantean 
times. 

The  following  rude  cut,  from  Cosmos,  represents  the  high 
mountain  in  the  north  behind  which  the  sun  hid  himself  at 
night,  thus  producing  the  alternations  of  day  and  night.  His 
solar  majesty  is  just  getting  behind  the  mountain,  while  Luna 
looks  calmly  on  at  the  operation.  The  mountain  is  as  crooked 
as  Culhuacan,  the  crooked  mountain  of  Atzlan  described  by 
the  Aztecs. 


THE  MOUNTAIN  TUE  SUN  GOES  lir.Ui:NU  AT  ^il(iUT. 

5 


98  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 


Chapter  Y. 

THE  DELUGE  LEGENDS  OF  AMERICA. 

"  It  is  a  very  remarkable  fact,"  says  Alfred  Manry,  "  that 
we  find  in  America  traditions  of  the  Deluge  comino-  infinitely 
nearer  to  that  of  the  Bible  and  the  Chaldean  religion  than 
among  any  people  of  the  Old  World.  It  is  difficult  to  sup- 
pose that  the  emigration  that  certainly  took  place  from  Asia 
into  North  America  by  the  Kourile  and  Aleutian  Islands,  and 
still  does  so  in  our  day,  should  have  brought  in  these  mem- 
ories, since  no  trace  is  found  of  them  among  those  Mongol  or 
Siberian  populations  which  were  fused  with  the  natives  of  the 
New  World.  .  .  .  The  attempts  that  have  been  made  to  trace 
the  origin  of  Mexican  civilization  to  Asia  have  not  as  yet  led 
to  any  sufficiently  conclusive  facts.  Besides,  had  Buddhism, 
which  we  doubt,  made  its  way  into  America,  it  could  not  have 
introduced  a  myth  not  found  in  its  own  scriptures.  The  cause 
of  these  similarities  between  the  diluvian  traditions  of  the  na- 
tions of  the  New  World  and  that  of  the  Bible  remains  there- 
fore unexplained." 

The  cause  of  these  similarities  can  be  easily  explained :  the 
legends  of  the  Flood  did  not  pass  into  America  by  way  of  the 
Aleutian  Islands,  or  through  the  Buddhists  of  Asia,  but  were 
derived  from  an  actual  knowledge  of  Atlantis  possessed  by  the 
people  of  America. 

Atlantis  and  the  western  continent  had  from  an  immemo- 
rial age  held  intercourse  with  each  other;  the  great  nations 
of  America  were  simply  colonies  from  Atlantis,  sharing  in  its 
civilization,  language,  religion,  and  blood.  From  Mexico  to 
the  peninsula  of  Yucatan,  from  the  shores  of  Brazil  to  the 
heights  of  Bolivia  and  Peru,  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  the 
head-waters  of  the  Mississippi  River,  the  colonies  of  Atlantis 


THE  DELUOE  LEGENDS  OF  AMERICA.  99 

extended ;  and  therefore  it  is  not  strano-e  to  find,  as  Alfred 
Maury  says,  American  traditions  of  the  Deluge  coming  nearer 
to  that  of  the  Bible  and  the  Chaldean  record  than  those  of 
any  people  of  the  Old  World. 

"The  most  important  among  the  American  traditions  are 
the  Mexican,  for  they  appear  to  have  been  definitively  fixed 
by  symbolic  and  mnemonic  paintings  before  any  contact  with 
Europeans.  According  to  these  documents,  the  Noah  of  the 
Mexican  cataclysm  was  Coxcox,  called  by  certain  peoples  Teo- 
cipactli  or  Tezpi.  He  had  saved  himself,  together  with  his 
wife  Xochiquetzal,  in  a  bark,  or,  according  to  other  traditions, 
on  a  raft  made  of  cypress-wood  (Cupressus  disticha).  Paint- 
ino's  retracino;  the  dehisce  of  Goxcox  have  been  discovered 
among  the  x\ztecs,  Miztecs,  Zapotecs,  Tlascaltecs,  and  Mechoa- 
.caneses.  The  tradition  of  the  latter  is  still  more  strikingly  in 
conformity  with  the  story  as  we  have  it  in  Genesis,  and  in  Chal- 
dean sources.  It  tells  how  Tezpi  embarked  in  a  spacious  ves- 
sel with  his  wife,  his  children,  and  several  animals,  and  grain, 
whose  preservation  was  essential  to  the  subsistence  of  the 
human  race.  When  the  great  god  Tezcatlipoca  decreed  that 
the  waters  should  retire,  Tezpi  sent  a  vulture  from  the  bark. 
The  bird,  feeding  on  the  carcasses  with  which  the  earth  was 
laden,  did  not  return.  Tezpi  sent  out  other  birds,  of  which 
the  humming-bird  only  came  back  with  a  leafy  branch  in  its 
beak.  Then  Tezpi,  seeing  that  the  country  began  to  vegetate, 
left  his  bark  on  the  mountain  of  Colhuacan. 

"  The  document,  however,  that  gives  the  most  valuable  in- 
formation," says  Lenormant,  "as  to  the  cosmogony  of  the 
Mexicans  is  one  known  as  '  Codex  Vaticanus,'  from  the  libra- 
ry where  it  is  preserved.  It  consists  of  four  symbolic  pictures, 
representing  the  four  ages  of  the  world  preceding  the  actual 
one.  They  were  copied  at  Chobula  from  a  manuscript  ante- 
rior to  the  conquest,  and  accompanied  by  the  explanatory  com- 
mentary of  Pedro  de  los  Rios,  a  Dominican  monk,  who,  in 
1566,  less  than  fifty  years  after  the  arrival  of  Cortez,  devoted 
himself  to  the  research  of  indigenous  traditions  as  being  neces- 
sary to  his  missionary  work." 

There  were,  according  to  this  document,  four  ages  of  the 
world.     The  first  was  an  age  of  giants  (the  great  mammalia  ?) 


100  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

who  were  destroyed  by  famine ;   the  second  age  ended  in   a 
conflagration ;  the  third  age  was  an  age  of  monkeys. 

"Then  comes  the  fourth  age,  Atonatiuh,  'Sun  of  Water,' 
whose  number  is  10x4004-8,  or  4008.  It  ends  by  a  great 
inundation,  a  veritable  deluge.  All  mankind  are  changed  into 
fish,  with  the  exception  of  one  man  and  his  wife,  who  sjwe 
themselves  in  a  bark  made  of  the  trunk  of  a  cypress-tree.  The 
picture  represents  Matlalcueye,  goddess  of  waters,  and  consort 
of  Tlaloc,  god  of  rain,  as  darting  down  toward  earth.  Coxcox 
and  Xochiquetzal,  the  two  human  beings  preserved,  are  seen 
seated  on  a  tree-trunk  and  floating  in  the  midst  of  the  waters. 
This  flood  is  represented  as  the  last  cataclysm  that  devastates 
the  earth." 

The  learned  Abbe  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg  translates  from 
the  Aztec  language  of  the  "Codex  Chimalpopoca"  the  follow- 
ing Flood  legend : 

"  This  is  the  sun  called  Nahui-atl, '  4  water.'  Now  the  wa- 
ter was  tranquil  for  forty  years,  plus  twelve,  and  men  lived  for 
the  third  and  fourth  times.  When  the  sun  Nahui-atl  came 
there  had  passed  away  four  hundred  years,  plus  two  ages,  plus 
seventy-six  years.  Then  all  mankind  was  lost  and  drowned, 
and  found  themselves  changed  into  fish.  The  sky  came  near- 
er the  water.  In  a  single  day  all  was  lost,  and  the  day  Nahai- 
xockitl,  '4  flower,'  destroyed  all  our  flesh. 

"  And  that  year  was  that  of  ce-calli,  '  1  house,'  and  the  day 
Nahui-atl  all  was  lost.  Even  the  mountains  sunk  into  the 
water,  and  the  water  remained  tranquil  for  fifty-two  springs. 

"  Now  at  the  end  of  the  year  the  god  Titlacahuan  had  warn- 
ed Nata  and  his  spouse  Nena,  saying,  '  Make  no  more  wine  of 
Agave,  but  begin  to  hollow  out  a  great  cypress,  and  you  will 
enter  into  it  when  in  the  month  Tozontli  the  water  approaches 
the  sky.' 

"Then  they  entered  in,  and  when  the  god  had  closed  the 
door,  he  said,  '  Thou  shalt  eat  but  one  ear  of  maize,  and  thy 
wife  one  also.' 

"But  as  soon  as  they  had  finished  they  went  out,  and  the 
water  remained  calm,  for  the  wood  no  longer  moved,  and,  on 
opening  it^  they  began  to  see  fish. 


THE  DELUGE  LEGENDS  OF  AMERICA.  101 

"Then  they  lit  a  fire,  by  rubbing  together  pieces  of  wood, 
and  they  roasted  fish. 

"The  gods  Citlallinicue  and  Citlalatonac,  instantly  looking' 
down  said:  'Divine  Lord,  what  is  that  fire  that  is  making 
there?  Why  do  they  thus  smoke  the  sky  f  At  once  Titla- 
cahuan-Tezcatlipoca  descended.  He  began  to  chide,  saying, 
'  Who  has  made  this  fire  here  V  And,  seizing  hold  of  the  fish, 
he  shaped  their  loins  and  heads,  and  they  were  transformed 
into  dogs  {chichime)y 

Here  we  note  a  remarkable  approximation  to  Plato's  account 
of  the  destruction  of  Atlantis.  "  In  one  day  and  one  fatal 
night,"  says  Plato,  "  there  came  mighty  earthquakes  and  inun- 
dations that  ingulfed  that  warlike  people."  "  In  a  single  day 
all  was  lost,"  say^  the  Aztec  legend.  And,  instead  of  a  rain- 
fall of  forty  days  and  forty  nights,  as  represented  in  the  Bible, 
here  we  see  "  in  a  single  day  .  .  .  even  the  mountains  sunk  into 
the  water  ;^^  not  only  the  land  on  which  the  people  dwelt  who 
were  turned  into  fish,  but  the  very  mountains  of  that  land  sunk 
into  the  water.  Does  not  this  describe  the  fate  of  Atlantis  ?  In 
the  Chaldean  legend  "the  great  goddess  Ishtar  wailed  like  a 
child,"  saying,  "  I  am  the  mother  who  gave  birth  to  men,  and, 
like  to  the  race  of  fishes,  they  are  filling  the  sea." 

In  the  account  in  Genesis,  Noah  "  builded  an  altar  unto  the 
Lord,  and  took  of  every  clean  beast,  and  of  every  clean  fowl, 
and  offered  burnt  offerings  on  the  altar.  And  the  Lord  smell- 
ed  a  sweet  savor;  and  the  Lord  said  in  his  heart,  'I  will  not 
again  curse  the  ground  any  more  for  man's  sake.' "  In  the 
Chaldean  legend  we  are  told  that  Khasisatra  also  offered  a 
sacrifice,  a  burnt  offering,  "  and  the  gods  assembled  like  flies 
above  the  master  of  the  sacrifice."  But  Bel  came  in  a  high 
state  of  indignation,  just  as  the  Aztec  god  did,  and  was  about 
to  finish  the  work  of  the  Deluge,  when  the  great  god  Ea  took 
pity  in  his  heart  and  interfered  to  save  the  remnant  of  mankind. 

These  resemblances  cannot  be  accidental;  neither  can  they 
be  the  interpolations  of  Christian  missionaries,  for  it  will  be 
observed  the  Aztec  legends  differ  from   the  Bible  in  points 


102  ATLANTA:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

where  they  resemble  on  the  one  hand  Plato's  record,  and  on 
the  other  the  Chaldean  legend. 

The  name  of  the  hero  of  the  Aztec  story,  Nata^  pronounced 
with  the  broad  sound  of  the  a,  is  not  far  from  the  name  of 
Noah  or  Noe.  The  Deluge  of  Genesis  is  a  Phoenician,  Semitic, 
or  Hebraic  legend,  and  yet,  strange  to  say,  the  name  of  Noah, 
which  occurs  in  it,  bears  no  appropriate  meaning  in  those 
tongues,  but  is  derived  from  Aryan  sources ;  its  fundamental 
root  is  Na.,  to  which  in  all  the  Aryan  language  is  attached 
the  meaning  of  water — mttv,  to  flow;  m/za,  water;  Nympha, 
Neptunus,  water  deities.  (Lenormant  and  Chevallier,  "Anc. 
Hist,  of  the  East,"  vol.  i.,  p.  15.)  We  find  the  root  Na  re- 
peated in  the  name  of  this  Central  American  Noah,  Na-ta,  and 
probably  in  the  word  "iVa-hui-atl " — the  age  of  water. 

But  still  more  striking  analogies  exist  between  the  Chaldean 
legend  and  the  story  of  the  Deluge  as  told  in  the  "Popul  Vuh  " 
(the  Sacred  Book)  of  the  Central  Americans : 

"  Then  the  waters  were  agitated  by  the  will  of  the  Heart  of 
Heaven  (Hurakan),  and  a  great  inundation  came  upon  the  heads 
of  these  creatures.  .  .  .  They  Avere  ingulfed,  and  a  resinous  thick- 
ness descended  from  heaven ;  .  .  .  the  face  of  the  earth  was  ob- 
scured, and  a  heavy  darkening  rain  commenced — rain  by  day 
and  rain  by  night.  .  .  .  There  was  heard  a  great  noise  above 
their  heads,  as  if  produced  by  fire.  Then  were  men  seen  run- 
ning, pushing  each  other,  filled  with  despair;  they  wished  to 
climb  upon  their  houses,  and  the  houses,  tumbling  down,  fell  to 
the  ground ;  they  wished  to  climb  upon  the  trees,  and  the  trees 
shook  them  off;  they  wished  to  enter  into  the  grottoes  (caves), 
and  the  grottoes  closed  themselves  before  them.  .  .  .  Water 
and  fire  contributed  to  the  universal  ruin  at  the  time  of  the 
last  great  cataclysm  which  preceded  the  fourth  creation." 

Observe  the  similarities  here  to  the  Chaldean  legend.  There 
is  the  same  graphic  description  of  a  terrible  event.  The 
"  black  cloud  "  is  referred  to  in  both  instances ;  also  the  dread- 
ful noises,  the  rising  water,  the  earthquake  rocking  the  trees, 
overthrowing  the  houses,  and  crushing  even  the  mountain  cav- 


I 


THE  DELUGE  LEGEMJS   OF  AMEBICA.  103 

erns ;  "  the  men  runnino-  and  pushing  each  other,  filled  with 
despair,"  says  the  "  Popul  Vuh ;"  "  the  brother  no  longer  saw 
his  brother,"  says  the  Assyrian  legend. 

And  here  I  may  note  that  this  word  hurakan — the  spirit  of 
•the  abyss,  the  god  of  storm,  the  hurricane — is  very  suggestive, 
and  testifies  to  an  early  intercourse  between  the  opposite  shores 
of  the  Atlantic.  We  find  in  Spanish  the  word  huracan ;  in 
Portuguese, /z^racaw;  in  YvQUch,  oaragan ;  in  German,  Danish, 
and  Swedish,  orcan — all  of  them  signifying  a  storm ;  while  in 
Latin /z^ro,  oi'furio^  means  to  rage.  And  are.  not  the  old  Swed- 
ish hurra,  to  be  driven  along;  our  own  word  hurried ;  the  Ice- 
landic word  hurra,  to  be  rattled  over  frozen  ground,  all  derived 
from  the  same  root  from  which  the  god  of  the  abyss,  Hura- 
kan, obtained  his  name?  The  last  thing  a  people  forgets  is 
the  name  of  their  god ;  we  retain  to  this  day,  in  the  names  of 
the  days  of  the  week,  the  designations  of  four  Scandinavian 
gods  and  one  Roman  deity. 

It  seems  to  me  certain  the  above  are  simply  two  versions  of 
the  same  event;  that  while  ships  from  Atlantis  carried 'terrified 
passengers  to  tell  the  story  of  the  dreadful  catastrophe  to  the 
people  of  the  Mediterranean  shores,  other  ships,  flying  from 
the  tempest,  bore  similar  awful  tidings  to  the  civilized  races 
around  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

The  native  Mexican  historian,  Ixtlilxochitl,  gave  this  as  the 
Toltec  legend  of  the  Flood  : 

"  It  is  found  in  the  histories  of  the  Toltecs  that  this  age 
and  Jirst  world,  as  they  call  it,  lasted  1716  years;  that  men 
were  destroyed  by  tremendous  rains  and  lightning  from  the 
sky,  and  even  all  the  land,  without  the  exception  of  anything, 
and  the  highest  mountains,  were  covered  up  and  submerged  in 
water  fifteen  cubits  (caxtolmolatli) ;  and  here  they  added  other 
fables  of  how  men  came  to  multiply  from  the  few  who  escaped 
from  this  destruction  in  a  "  toptlipetlocali ;"  that  this  word 
nearly  signifies  a  close  chest ;  and  how,  after  men  had  multi- 
plied, they  erected  a  very  high  "  zacuali,"  which  is  to-day  a 
tower  of  great  height,  in  order  to  take  refuge  in  it  should  the 


104 


ATLAXTfS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD, 


second  world  (age)  be  destroyed.  Presently  their  languages 
were  confused,  and,  not  being  able  to  understand  each  other, 
they  went  to  different  parts  of  the  earth. 

"  The  Toltecs,  consisting  of  seven  friends,  with  their  wives, 
who  understood  the  same  language,  came  to  these  parts,  hav- 
ing first  passed  great  land  and  seas,  having  lived  in  caves,  and 
having  endured  great  hardships  in  order  to  reach  this  land ; 
.  .  .  they  wandered  104  years  through  different  parts  of  the 
world  before  they  reached  Hue  Hue  TIapalan,  which  was  in 
Ce  Tecpatl,  520  years  after  the  Flood."  ("Lxtlilxochitl  Rela- 
ciones,"  in  Kings'borough's  "  Mex.  Ant.,"  vol.  ix.,  pp.  321,  322.) 

It  will  of  course  be  said  that  this  account,  in  those  particu- 
lars where  it  agrees  with  the  Bible,  was  derived  from  the  teach- 
ings of  the  Spanish  priests;  but  it  must  be  remembered  that 
lxtlilxochitl  was  an  Indian,  a  native  of  Tezcuco,  a  son  of  the 
queen,  and  that  his  "Relaciones"  were  drawn  from  the  archives 
of  his  family  and  the  ancient  writings  of  his  nation :  he  had 
no  motive  to  falsify  documents  that  were  probably  in  the 
hands  of  hundreds  at  that  time. 

Here  we  see  that  the  depth  of  the  water  over  the  earth, 
"  fifteen  cubits,"  given  in  the  Toltec  legend,  is  precisely  the 
same  as  that  named  in  the  Bible:  "fifteen  cubits  upward  did 
the  waters  prevail."     (Gen.,  chap,  vii.,  20.) 

In  the  two  curious  picture-histories  of  the  Aztecs  preserved 
in  the  Boturini  collection,  and  published  by  Gamelli  Careri  and 


THE  STAKTING-POINT  OF  THE  AZ- 
TECS, ACOOEDINa  TO  THE  GA- 
MELLI  CAREKI    PIOTUREl)   MS. 


THE  STARTING  -  POINT  OF  THE  AZTECS,  AC- 
CORDING TO  THE  BOTURINI  PIOTUEED 
WRITING. 


THE  DELUGE  LEGENDS  OF  AMERICA,  105 

others,  there  is  a  record  of  their  migrations  from  their  origi- 
nal location  through  various  parts  of  the  North  American  con- 
tinent until  their  arrival  in  Mexico.  In  both  cases  their  start- 
ing-point is  an  island,  from  which  they  pass  in  a  boat;  and 
the  island  contains  in  one  case  a  mountain,  and  in  the  other 
a  high  temple  in  the  midst  thereof.  These  things  seem  to  be 
reminiscences  of  their  origin  in  Atlantis. 

In  each  case  we  see  the  crooked  mountain  of  the  Aztec  le- 
gends, the  Calhuacan,  looking  not  unlike  the  bent  mountain  of 
the  monk.  Cosmos. 

In  the  leo-ends  of  the  Chibchas  of  Boo;ota  we  seem  to  have 
distinct  reminiscences  of  Atlantis.  Bochica  was  their  leading 
divinity.  During  two  thousand  years  he  employed  himself  in 
elevating  his  subjects.  He  lived  in  the  sun,  while  his  wife 
Chia  occupied  the  moon.  This  would  appear  to  be  an  allu- 
sion to  the  worship  of  the  sun  and  moon.  Beneath  Bochica 
in  their  mythology  was  Chibchacum.  In  an  angry  mood  he 
brought  a  deluge  on  the  people  of  the  table-land.  Bochica 
punished  him  for  this  act,  and  obliged  him  ever  after,  like 
Atlas,  to  bear  the  burden  of  the  earth  on  his  back.  Occa- 
sionally he  shifts  the  earth  from  one  shoulder  to  another,  and 
this  causes  earthquakes ! 

Here  we  have  allusions  to  an  ancient  people  who,  during 
thousands  of  years,  were  elevated  in  the  scale  of  civilization, 
and  were  destroyed  by  a  deluge ;  and  with  this  is  associated  an 
Atlantean  god  bearing  the  world  on  his  back.  We  find  even 
the  rainbow  appearing  in  connection  with  this  legend.  When 
Bochica  appeared  in  answer  to  prayer  to  quell  the  deluge  he 
is  seated  on  a  rainbow.  He  opened  a  breach  in  the  earth  at 
Tequendama,  through  which  the  waters  of  the  flood  escaped, 
precisely  as  we  have  seen  them  disappearing  through  the  crev- 
ice in  the  earth  near  Bambyce,  in  Greece. 

The  Toltecs  traced  their  migrations  back  to  a  starting-point 
called  "Aztlan,"  or  "Atlan."  This  could  be  no  other  than 
Atlantis.     (Bancroft's  "Native  Races,"  vol.  v.,  p.  221.)     "The 

5* 


10(5  ATLANTIIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 

original  home  of  the  Nahuatlacas  was  Aztlan,  the  location  of 
which  has  been  the  subject  of  much  discussion.  The  causes 
that  led  to  their  exodus  from  that  country  can  only  be  con- 
jectured ;  but  they  may  be  supposed  to  have  been  driven  out 
by  their  enemies,  for  Aztlan  is  described  as  a  land  too  fair 
and  beautiful  to  be  left  willingly  in  the  mere  hope  of  finding 
a  better."  (Bancroft's  "  Native  Races,"  vol.  v.,  p.  306.)  The 
Aztecs  also  claimed  to  have  come  originally  from  Aztlan. 
(Ibid.,  p.  321.)  Their  very  name,  Aztecs,  was  derived  from 
Aztlan.     [Ibid.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  125).     They  were  Atlanteans. 

The  "  Popul  Vuh "  tells  us  that  after  the  migration  from 
Aztlan  three  sons  of  the  King  of  the  Quiches,  upon  the  death 
of  their  father,  "  determined  to  go  as  their  fathers  had  ordered 
to  the  East,  on  the  shores  of  the  sea  whence  their  fathers  had 
come,  to  receive  the  royalty, '  bidding  adieu  to  their  brothers 
and  friends,  and  promising  to  return.'  Doubtless  they  passed 
over  the  sea  when  they  went  to  the  East  to  receive  the  royalty. 
Now  this  is  the  name  of  the  lord,  of  the  monarch  of  the  peo- 
ple of  the  East  where  they  went.  And  when  they  arrived 
before  the  lord  Nacxit,  the  name  of  the  great  lord,  the  only 
judge,  whose  power  was  without  limit,  behold  he  granted  them 
the  sign  of  royalty  and  all  that  represents  it  .  .  .  and  the  in- 
signia of  royalty  .  .  .  all  the  things,  in  fact,  which  they  brought 
on  their  return,  and  which  they  went  to  receive  from  the  other 
side  of  the  sea — the  art  of  painting  from  Tulan,  a  system  of 
writing,  they  said,  for  the  things  recorded  in  their  histories.^'' 
(Bancroft's  "Native  Races,"  vol.  v.,  p.  553;  "Popul  Vuh,"  p. 
294.) 

This  legend  not  only  points  to  the  East  as  the  place  of 
origin  of  these  races,  but  also  proves  that  this  land  of  the 
East,  this  Aztlan,  this  Atlantis,  exercised  dominion  over  the 
colonies  in  Central  America,  and  furnished  them  with  the  es- 
sentials of  civilization.  How  completely  does  this  agree  with 
the  statement  of  Plato  that  the  kings  of  Atlantis  held  domin- 
ion over  parts  of  "  the  great  opposite  continent !" 


THE  DELUGE  LEGENDS  OF  AMERICA. 


lo: 


Professor  Valcntini  ("Maya  Archaeol.,"  p.  23)  describes  an 
Aztec  picture  in  the  work  of  Gemelli  ("  II  giro  del  mondo," 
vol.  vi.)  of  the  migration  of  the  Aztecs  from  Aztlan  : 

"  Out  of  a  sheet  of  water  there  projects  the  peak  of  a  moun- 
tain ;  on  it  stands  a  tree,  and  on  the  tree  a  bird  spreads  its 
wings.  At  the  foot  of  the  mountain-peak  there  comes  out  of 
the  water  the  heads  of  a  man  and  a  woman.  The  one  wears 
on  his  head  the  symbol  of  his  name,  Coxcox,  a  pheasant.  The 
other  head  bears  that  of  a  hand  wdth  a  bouquet  (xochitl,  a 
flower,  and  quetzal,  shining  in  green  gold).  In  the  foreground 
is  a  boat,  out  of  which  a  naked  man  stretches  out  his  hand 
imploringly  to  heaven.  Now  turn  to  the  sculpture  in  the 
Flood  tablet  (on  the  great  Calendar  stone).  There  you  will 
tind  represented  the  Flood,  and  with  great  emphasis,  by  the 
accumulation  of  all  those  symbols  with  which  the  ancient 
Mexicans  conveyed  the  idea  of  water :  a  tub  of  standing  wa- 
ter, drops  springing  out — not  two,  as  heretofore  in  the  symbol 
for  All,  water  —  but  four  drops;  the  picture  for  moisture,  a 
snail ;  above,  a  crocodile,  the  king  of 
the  rivers.  In  the  midst  of  these 
symbols  you  notice  the  profile  of 
a  man  with  a  fillet,  and  a  smaller 
one  of  a  woman.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  these  are  the  ^Mexican  Noah, 
Coxcox,  and  his  wife,  Xochiquetzal ; 
and  at  the  same  time  it  is  evident 
(the  Calendar  stone,  we  know,  was 
made  in  a.d.,  1478)  that  the  story  of 
them,  and  the  pictures  representing 
the  story,  have  not  been  invented  by  the  Catholic  clergy,  but 
really  existed  among  these  nations  long  before  the  Conquest." 

The  above  figure  represents  the  Flood  tablet  on  the  great 
Calendar  stone. 

When  we  turn  to  the  uncivilized  Indians  of  America,  while 
we  still  find  legends  referring  to  the  Deluge,  they  are,  with 
one  exception,  in  such  garbled  and  uncouth  forms  that  we  can 
only  see  glimpses  of  the  truth  shining  through  a  mass  of  fable. 

The  following  tradition  was  current  among  the  Indians  of 
the  Great  Lakes : 


OAL.ENUAK  STOJSE. 


108  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

"  In  former  times  the  father  of  the  Indian  tribes  dwelt  to- 
ward the  rising  sun.  Having  been  warned  in  a  dream  that  a 
dekige  was  coming  upon  the  earth,  he  built  a  raft,  on  which  he 
saved  himself,  with  his  family  and  all  the  animals.  He  floated 
thus  for  several  months.  The  animals,  who  at  that  time  spoke, 
loudly  complained  and  murmured  against  him.  At  last  a  new 
earth  appeared,  on  which  he  landed  with  all  the  animals,  who 
from  that  time  lost  the  power  of  speech,  as  a  punishment  for 
their  murmurs  against  their  deliverer." 

According  to  Father  Charlevoix,  the  tribes  of  Canada  and 
the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  relate  in  their  rude  legends  that 
all  mankind  was  destroyed  by  a  flood,  and  that  the  Good  Spir- 
it, to  repeople  the  earth,  had  changed  animals  into  men.  It  is 
to  J.  S.  Kohl  we  owe  our  acquaintance  with  the  version  of  the 
Chippeways  —  full  of  grotesque  and  perplexing  touches  —  in 
which  the  man  saved  from  the  Deluge  is  called  Menaboshu. 
To  know  if  the  earth  be  drying,  he  sends  a  bird,  the  diver,  out 
of  his  bark;  then  becomes  the  restorer  of  the  human  race  and 
the  founder  of  existing  society. 

A  clergyman  who  visited  the  Indians  north-west  of  the  Ohio 
in  1764  met,  at  a  treaty,  a  party  of  Indians  from  the  west  of 
the  Mississippi. 

"They  informed  him  that  one  of  their  most  ancient  tradi- 
tions was  that,  a  great  while  ago,  they  had  a  common  father, 
who  lived  toward  the  rising  of  the  sun,  and  governed  the  whole 
world;  that  all  the  white  people's  heads  were  under  his  feet; 
that  he  had  twelve  sons,  by  whom  he  administered  the  govern- 
ment; that  the  twelve  sons  behaved  very  bad,  and  tyrannized 
over  the  people,  abusing  their  power ;  that  the  Great  Spirit,  be- 
ing thus  angry  with  them,  suffered  the  white  people  to  intro- 
duce spirituous  liquors  among  them,  made  them  drunk,  stole  the 
special  gift  of  the  Great  Spirit  from  them,  and  by  this  means 
usurped  power  over  them  ;  and  ever  since  the  Indians'  heads 
were  under  the  white  people's  feet.''  (Boudinot's  "  Star  in  the 
West,"  p.  111.) 

Here  we  note  that  they  looked  "  toward  the  rising  sun" — to- 
ward Atlantis — for  the  original  home  of  their  race;  that  this 


THE  DELUGE  LEGENDS   OF  AMERICA,  109 

region  governed  "  the  whole  world ;"  that  it  contained  white 
people,  who  were  at  first  a  subject  race,  but  who  subsequently 
rebelled,  and  acquired  dominion  over  the  darker  races.  We 
will  see  reason  hereafter  to  conclude  that  Atlantis  had  a  com- 
posite population,  and  that  the  rebellion  of  the  Titans  in  Greek 
mythology  was  the  rising  up  of  a  subject  population. 

In  1836  C.  S.  Rafinesque  published  in  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  a 
work  called  "The  American  Nations,"  in  which  he  gives  the 
historical  songs  or  chants  of  the  Lenni-Lenapi,  or  Delaware  In- 
dians, the  tribe  that  originally  dwelt  along  the  Delaware  River. 
After  describino;  a  time  "  when  there  was  nothino-  but  sea-water 
on  top  of  the  land,"  and  the  creation  of  sun,  moon,  stars,  earth, 
and  man,  the  legend  depicts  the  Golden  Age  and  the  Fall  in 
these  words :  "  All  were  willingly  pleased,  all  were  easy-think- 
ing, and  all  were  well-happified.  But  after  a  while  a  snake- 
priest,  Poivako,  brings  on  earth  secretly  the  snake-worship  (Ini- 
tako)  of  the  god  of  the  snakes,  Wakon.  And  there  came  wick- 
edness, crime,  and  unhappiness.  And  bad  w-eather  was  com- 
ing, distemper  was  coming,  with  death  was  coming.  All  this 
happened  very  long  ago,  at  the  first  land,  Netamaki,  beyond 
the  great  ocean  Kitahikaiiy  Then  follows  the  Song  of  the 
Flood : 

"  There  was,  long  ago,  a  powerful  snake,  Maskanako,  when 
the  men  had  become  bad  beings,  Makovnni.  This  strong  snake 
had  become  the  foe  of  the  Jins,  and  they  became  troubled,  hat- 
ing each  other.  Both  were  fighting,  both  were  spoiling,  both 
were  never  peaceful.  And  they  were  fighting,  least  man  Mat- 
tapewi  with  dead-keeper  Nihauloivit.  And  the  strong  snake 
readily  resolved  to  destroy  or  fight  the  beings  or  the  men.  The 
dark  snake  he  brought,  the  monster  [Amanyam)  he  brought, 
snake-rushing  water  he  brought  (it).  Mitch  ivater  is  rushing, 
much  go  to  hills,  much  penetrate,  much  destroying.  Meanwhile 
at  Tula  (this  is  the  same  Tula  referred  to  in  the  Central  Ameri- 
can legends),  at  that  island,  Nana-Bush  (the  great  hare  Xana) 
becomes  the  ancestor  of  beings  and  men.  Being  born  creep- 
ing, he  is  ready  to  move  and  dwell  at  Tula.  The  beings  and 
men  all  go  forth  from  the  flood  creeping  in  shallow  water  or 


110  ATLANTIS:  THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

swimming  afloat,  asking  whicii  is  the  way  to  the  turtle-back, 
Tula-inn.  But  there  are  many  monsters  in  the  way,  and  some 
men  were  devoured  by  them.  But  the  daughter  of  a  spirit 
helped  them  in  a  boat,  saying,  *  Come,  come ;'  they  were  com- 
ing and  were  helped.  The  name  of  the  .boat  or  raft  is  Mo- 
kol.  .  .  .  Water  running  off,  it  is  drying ;  in  the  plains  and  the 
mountains,  at  the  path  of  the  cave,  elsewhere  went  the  power- 
ful action  or  motion."  Then  follows  Song  3,  describing  the 
condition  of  mankind  after  the  Flood.  Like  the  Aryans,  they 
moved  into  a  cold  country :  "  It  freezes  was  there ;  it  snows 
was  there ;  it  is  cold  was  there."  They  move  to  a  milder  re- 
gion to  hunt  cattle ;  they  divided  their  forces  into  tillers  and 
hunters.  "The  good  and  the  holy  were  the  hunters;"  they 
spread  themselves  north,  south,  east,  and  west.  "Meantime  all 
the  snakes  were  afraid  in  their  huts,  and  the  Snake-priest  Na- 
kopowa  said  to  all,  '  Let  us  go.'  Eastwardly  they  go  forth  at 
Snakeland  {Akhokiiik),?iX\(\  they  went  away  earnestly  grieving." 
Afterward  the  fathers  of  the  Delawares,  who  "were  always 
boating  and  navigating,"  find  that  the  Snake-people  have  taken 
possession  of  a  fine  country ;  and  they  collect  together  the  peo- 
ple from  north,  south,  east,  and  west,  and  attempt  "  to  pass  over 
the  waters  of  the  frozen  sea  to  possess  that  land."  They  seem 
to  travel  in  the  dark  of  an  Arctic  winter  until  they  come  to  a 
gap  of  open  sea.  They  can  go  no  farther ;  but  some  tarry  at 
Firland,  while  the  rest  return  to  where  they  started  from,  "  the 
old  turtle  land." 

Here  we  find  that  the  land  that  was  destroyed  was  the  "  first 
land;"  that  it  was  an  island  "beyond  the  great  ocean."  In  an 
early  age  the  people  were  happy  and  peaceful ;  they  became 
wicked  ;  "  snake  worship  "  was  introduced,  and  was  associated, 
as  in  Genesis,  with  the  "  fall  of  man ;"  Nana-Bush  became  the 
ancestor  of  the  new  race ;  his  name  reminds  us  of  the  Toltec 
Nata  and  the  Hebrew  Noah.  After  the  flood  came  a  disper- 
sion of  the  people,  and  a  separation  into  hunters  and  tillers  of 
the  soil. 

Among  the  Mandan  Indians  we  not  only  find  flood  legends, 
but,  more  remarkable  still,  we  find  an  image  of  the  ark  preserved 
from  generation  to  generation,  and  a  religious  ceremony  per- 


THE  DELUGE  LEGEXDti   OF  AMERICA.  HI 

formed  which  refers  plainly  to  the  destruction  of  Atlantis,  and 
to  the  arrival  of  one  of  those  who  escaped  fi*om  the  Flood, 
bringing  the  dreadful  tidings  of  the  disaster.  It  must  be  re- 
membered, as  we  will  show  hereafter,  that  many  of  these  Man- 
dan  Indians  were  white  men,  with  hazel,  gray,  and  blue  eyes, 
and  all  shades  of  color  of  the  hair  from  black  to  pure  white; 
that  they  dwelt  in  houses  in  fortified  towns,  and  manufactured 
earthen-ware  pots  in  which  they  could  boil  water — an  art  un- 
known to  the  ordinary  Indians,  who  boiled  water  by  putting 
heated  stones  into  it. 

I  quote  the  very  interesting  account  of  George  Catlin,  who 
visited  the  Mandans  nearly  fifty  years  ago,  lately  republished  in 
London  in  the  ''  North  American  Indians,"  a  very  curious  and 
valuable  work.     He  says  (vol.  i.,  p.  88) : 

"  In  the  centre  of  the  village  is  an  open  space,  or  public 
square,  150  feet  in  diameter  and  circular  in  form,  which  is 
used  for  all  public  games  and  festivals,  shows  and  exhibitions. 
The  lodges  around  this  open  space  front  in,  with  their  doors 
toward  the  centre;  and  in  the  middle  of  this  stands  an  object 
of  great  religious  veneration,  on  account  of  the  importance  it 
has  in  connection  with  the  annual  religious  ceremonies.  This 
object  is  in  the  form  of  a  large  hogshead,  some  eight  or  ten 
feet  high,  made  of  planks  and  hoops,  containing  within  it  some 
of  their  choicest  mysteries  or  medicines.  They  call  it  the  '  Big 
Canoe.' " 

This  is  a  representation  of  the  ark ;  the  ancient  Jews  vener- 
ated a  similar  image,  and  some  of  the  ancient  Greek  States 
followed  in  processions  a  model  of  the  ark  of  Deucalion.  But 
it  is  indeed  surprising  to  find  this  practice  perpetuated,  even  to 
our  own  times,  by  a  race  of  Indians  in  the  heart  of  America. 
On  page  158  of  the  first  volume  of  the  same  work  Catlin  de- 
scribes the  great  annual  mysteries  and  religious  ceremonials  of 
which  this  image  of  the  ark  was  the  centre.     He  says: 

"  On  the  day  set  apart  for  the  commencement  of  the  cere- 
monies a  solitary  figure  is  seen  approaching  the  village. 

"  During  the  deafening  din  and  confusion  within  the  pickets 


112  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAX  WOELD. 

of  the  village  the  figure  discovered  on  the  prairie  continued 
to  approach  with  a  dignified  step,  and  in  a  right  line  toward 
the  village ;  all  eyes  were  upon  him,  and  he  at  length  made  his 
appearance  within  the  pickets,  and  proceeded  toward  the  cen- 
tre of  the  village,  where  all  the  chiefs  and  braves  stood  ready 
to  receive  him,  which  they  did  in  a  cordial  manner  by  shaking 
hands,  recognizing  him  as  an  old  acquaintance,  and  pronounc- 
ing his  name,  Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah  {the  first  or  only  man). 
The  body  of  this  strange  personage,  which  was  chiefly  naked, 
was  painted  with  white  clay,  so  as  to  resemble  at  a  distance  a 
white  man.  He  enters  the  medicine  lodge,  and  goes  through 
certain  mysterious  ceremonies. 

"  During  the  whole  of  this  day  Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah  (the 
first  or  only  man)  travelled  through  the  village,  stopping  in 
front  of  each  man's  lodge,  and  crying  until  the  owner  of  the 
lodge  came  out  and  asked  who  he  was,  and  what  was  the  mat- 
ter? To  which  he  replied  by  narrating  the  sad  catastrophe 
ivhich  had  happened  on  the  earth's  surface  hy  the  overflowing 
of  the  waters,  saying  that  'he  was  the  only  person  saved  from 
the  universal  calamity;  that  he  landed  his  big  canoe  on  a  high 
mountain  in  the  west,  where  he  now  resides ;  that  he  has  come 
to  open  the  medicine  lodge,  which  must  needs  receive  a  pres- 
ent of  an  edged  tool  from  the  owner  of  every  wigwam,  that  it 
may  be  sacrificed  to  the  water;  for,'  he  says,  *  if  this  is  not  done 
there  will  be  another  flood,  and  no  one  will  be  saved,  as  it  was 
with  such  tools  that  the  big  canoe  was  made.' 

"  Having  visited  every  lodge  in  the  village  during  the  day, 
and  having  received  such  a  present  from  each  as  a  hatchet,  a 
knife,  etc.  (which  is  undoubtedly  always  prepared  ready  for 
the  occasion),  he  places  them  in  the  medicine  lodge ;  and,  on 
the  last  day  of  the  ceremony,  they  are  thrown  into  a  deep 
place  in  the  river — '  sacrificed  to  the  Spirit  of  the  Waters.' " 

Among  the  sacred  articles  kept  in  the  great  medicine  lodge 
are  four  sacks  of  water,  called  Eeh-teeh-ka,  sewed  together,  each 
of  them  in  the  form  of  a  tortoise  lying  on  its  back,  with  a 
bunch  of  eagle  feathers  attached  to  its  tail.  "  These  four  tor- 
toises," they  told  me,  "contained  the  waters  from  the  four 
quarters  of  the  world — that  those  waters  had  been  contained 
therein  ever  since  the  settling  down  of  the  waters.'''     "  I  did 


THE  DF.LUGE  LEGENDS  OF  AMERICA.  113 

not,"  says  Catlin,  who  knew  nothing  of  an  Atlantis  theor}^ 
"think  it  best  to  advance  anything  against  such  a  ridiculous 
belief."  Catlin  tried  to  purchase  one  of  these  water-sacks,  but 
could  not  obtain  it  for  any  price ;  he  was  told  they  were  "  a 
society  property.'''' 

He  then  describes  a  dance  by  twelve  men  around  the  ark : 
"They  arrange  themselves  according  to  the  four  cardinal  points ; 
two  are  painted  perfectly  black,  two  are  vermilion  color,  some 
were  painted  partially  white.  They  dance  a  dance  called  *" Bel- 
lohck-na-pie,' "  with  horns  on  their  heads,  like  those  used  in 
Europe  as  symbolical  of  Bel,  or  Baal. 

Could  anything  be  more  evident  than  the  connection  of 
these  ceremonies  with  the  destruction  of  Atlantis?  Here  we 
have  the  image  of  the  ark ;  here  we  have  a  white  man  coming 
with  the  news  that  "  the  waters  had  overflowed  the  land,"  and 
that  all  the  people  were  destroyed  except  himself;  here  we 
have  the  sacrifice  to  appease  the  spirit  that  caused  the  Flood, 
just  as  we  find  the  Flood  terminating,  in  the  Hebrew,  Chaldean, 
and  Central  American  legends,  with  a  sacrifice.  Here,  too,  we 
have  the  image  of  the  tortoise,  which  we  find  in  other  flood 
legends  of  the  Indians,  and  which  is  a  very  natural  symbol  for 
an  island.     As  one  of  our  own  poets  has  expressed  it, 

"  Very  fair  and  full  of  promise 
Lay  the  island  of  St.  Thomas ; 
Like  a  great  green  turtle  slumbered 
On  the  sea  which  it  encumbered." 

Here  we  have,  too,  the  four  quarters  of  Atlantis,  divided  by 
its  four  rivers,  as  we  shall  see  a  little  farther  on,  represented 
in  a  dance,  where  the  dancers  arrange  themselves  according  to 
the  four  cardinal  points  of  the  compass ;  the  dancers  are  paint- 
ed to  represent  the  black  and  red  races,  while  "the  first  and 
only  man"  represents  the  white  race;  and  the  name  of  the 
dance  is  a  reminiscence  of  Baal,  the  ancient  god  of  the  races 
derived  from  Atlantis. 

But  this  is  not  all.    The  Mandans  were  evidently  of  the  race 


114  ATLANTIC:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOliLI). 

of  Atlantis.     They  have  another  singular  legend,  which  we  find 
in  the  account  of  Lewis  and  Clarke : 

"  Their  belief  in  a  future  state  is  connected  with  this  theory 
of  their  origin :  The  whole  nation  resided  in  one  large  village, 
underground,  near  a  subtei'ranean  lake.  A  grape-vine  extend- 
ed its  roots  down  to  their  habitation,  and  gave  them  a  view  of 
the  light.  Some  of  the  most  adventurous  climbed  up  the  vine, 
and  were  delighted  with  the  sight  of  the  earth,  which  they 
found  covered  with  buffalo,  and  rich  with  every  kind  of  fruit. 
Returning  with  the  grapes  they  had  gathered,  their  country- 
men were  so  pleased  with  the  taste  of  them  that  the  whole  na- 
tion resolved  to  leave  their  dull  residence  for  the  charms  of  the 
upper  region.  Men,  women,  and  children  ascended  by  means 
of  the  vine,  but,  when  about  half  the  nation  had  reached  the 
surface  of  the  earth,  a  corpulent  woman,  who  was  clambering 
up  the  vine,  broke  it  with  her  weight,  and  closed  upon  herself 
and  the  rest  of  the  nation  the  light  of  the  sun." 

This  curious  tradition  means  that  the  present  nation  dwelt 
in  a  large  settlement  underground,  that  is,  beyond  the  land,  in 
the  sea ;  the  sea  being  represented  by  "  the  subterranean  lake," 
At  one  time  the  people  had  free  intercourse  between  this 
"  large  village  "  and  the  American  continent,  and  they  found- 
ed extensive  colonies  on  this  continent ;  whereupon  some  mis- 
hap cut  them  off  from  the  mother  country.  This  explanation 
is  confirmed  by  the  fact  that  in  the  legends  of  the  Iowa  In- 
dians, who  were  a  branch  of  the  Dakotas,  or  Sioux  Indians, 
and  relatives  of  the  Mandans  (according  to  Major  James  W. 
Lynd),  "  all  the  tribes  of  Indians  were  formerly  one,  and 
all  dwelt  together  on  an  island^  or  at  least  across  a  large  wa- 
ter toward  the  east  or  sunrise.  They  crossed  this  water  in 
skin  canoes,  or  by  swimming ;  but  they  know  not  how  long 
they  were  in  crossing,  or  whether  the  water  was  salt  or  fresh." 
While  the  Dakotas,  according  to  Major  Lynd,  who  lived  among 
them  for  nine  years,  possessed  legends  of  "huge  skiffs,  in 
which  the  Dakotas  of  old  floated  for  weeks,  finally  gaining 
dry  land" — a  reminiscence  of  ships  and  long  sea-voyages. 


THE  DELUOE  LEGENDS  OF  AMEHIVA. 


115 


The  Mandans  celebrated  tlieir  great  religious  festival  above 
described  in  the  season  when  the  willow  is  first  in  leaf,  and  •& 
dove  is  mixed  up  in  the  ceremonies;  and  they  further  relate 
a  legend  that  "the  world  was  once  a  great  tortoise,  borne  on  the 
waters,  and  covered  with  earth,  and  that  when  one  day,  in  dig- 
ging the  soil,  a  tribe  of  white  men,  who  had  made  holes  in  the 
earth  to  a  great  depth  digging  for  badgers,  at  length  pierced 
the  shell  of  the  tortoise,  it  sank,  and  the  water  covering  it 
drowned  all  men  with  the  exception  of  one,  who  saved  himself 
in  a  boat;  and  when  the  earth  re-emerged,  sent  out  a  dove, 
who  returned  with  a  branch  of  willow  in  its  beak." 

The  holes  dug  to  find  badgers  were  a  savage's  recollection 
of  mining  operations;  and  when  the  great  disaster  came, 
and  the  island  sunk  in  the  sea  amid  volcanic  convulsions, 
doubtless  men  said  it  was  due  to  the  deep  mines,  which  had 
opened  the  way  to  the  central  fires.  But  the  recurrence  of 
"  white  men  "  as  the  miners,  and  of  a  white  man  as  "  the  last 
and  only  man,"  and  the  presence  of  white  blood  in  the  veins 
of  the  people,  all  point  to  the  same  conclusion — that  the  Man- 
dans  were  colonists  from  Atlantis. 

And  here  I  might  add  that  Catlin  found  the  following  singu- 
lar resemblances  between  the  Mandan  tono-ue  and  the  Welsh : 


English. 

Maudan. 

Welsh. 

Pronounced. 

I. 

Me. 

Mi. 

Me. 

You. 

Ne. 

Chwi. 

Chwe. 

He. 

E. 

A. 

A. 

She. 

Ea. 

E. 

A. 

It. 

Ount. 

Hwynt. 

Hoovnt. 

We. 

Noo. 

Ni. 

Ne.' 

They. 

Eon  ah. 

Hona,  fern. 

Hona. 

No ;  or  there  is  not. 

Megosh. 

Nagoes. 

Nagosh. 

No. 

Na. 

Head. 

Pan. 

Pen. 

Pan. 

The  Great  Spirit. 

Maho  Pen  eta. 

\     Mavvr 
\  Peniethir. 

^     Mosoor 
\  Panaether. 

Major  Lynd  found  the  following  resemblances  between  the 
Dakota  tongue  and  the  languages  of  the  Old  World : 


116 


ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 


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THE  DELUGE  LEGENDS  OF  AMERICA.  117 

According  to  Major  Lynd,  the  Dakotas,  or  Sioux,  belonged 
to  the  same  race  as  the  Mandans ;  hence  the  interest  which 
attaches  to  these  verbal  similarities. 

"Among  the  Iroquois  there  is  a  tradition  that  the  sea  and 
waters  infringed  upon  the  land,  so  that  all  human  life  was  de- 
stroyed. The  Chickasaws  assert  that  the  world  was  once  de- 
stroyed by  water,  but  that  one  family  was  saved,  and  two  ani- 
mals of  every  kind.  The  Sioux  say  there  was  a  time  when 
there  was  no  dry  land,  and  all  men  had  disappeared  from  ex- 
istence." (See  Lynd's  "  MS.  History  of  the  Dakotas,"  Library 
of  Historical  Society  of  Minnesota.) 

"  The  Okanagaus  have  a  god,  Skyappe,  and  also  one  called 
Chacha,  who  appear  to  be  endowed  with  omniscience ;  but 
their  principal  divinity  is  their  great  mythical  ruler  and  hero- 
ine, Scomalt.  Long  ago,  when  the  sun  was  no  bigger  than  a 
star,  this  strong  medicine-woman  ruled  over  what  appears  to 
have  now  become  a  lost  island.  At  last  the  peace  of  the  island 
was  destroyed  by  war,  and  the  noise  of  battle  was  heard,  with 
which  Scomalt  was  exceeding  wroth,  whereupon  she  rose  up  in 
her  might  and  drove  her  rebellious  subjects  to  one  end  of  the 
island,  and  broke  off  the  piece  of  land  on  which  they  were 
huddled  and  pushed  it  out  to  sea,  to  drift  whither  it  would. 
This  floating  island  was  tossed  to  and  fro  and  buffeted  by  the 
winds  till  all  but  two  died.  A  man  and  woman  escaped  in  a 
canoe,  and  arrived  on  the  main-land;  and  from  these  the  Oka- 
nao-aus  are  descended."  (Bancroft's  "  Native  Races,"  vol.  iii., 
p.  149.) 

Here  we  have  the  Flood  legend  clearly  connected  with  a  lost 
island. 

The  Nicaraguans  believed  "  that  ages  ago  the  world  was  de- 
stroyed by  a  flood,  in  which  the  most  part  of  mankind  per- 
ished. Afterward  the  teotes,  or  gods,  restored  the  earth  as  at 
the  beginning."  {Ibid.,  p.  75.)  The  wild  Apaches,  "  wild 
from  their  natal  hour,"  have  a  legend  that  "the  first  days 
of  the  world  were  happy  and  peaceful  days ;"  then  came 
a  great  flood,  from  which  Montezuma  and  the  coyote  alone 
escaped.  Montezuma  became  then  very  wicked,  and  attempted 
to  build  a  house  that  would  reach  to  heaven,  but  the  Great 


118  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

Spirit  destroyed  it  with   thunderbolts.      (Bancroft's  "Native 
Races,"  vol.  iii.,  p.  76.) 

The  Pimas,  an  Indian  tribe  allied  to  the  Papagos,  have  a 
peculiar  flood  legend.  The  son  of  the  Creator  was  called  Szeu- 
kha  (Ze-us?).  An  eagle  prophesied  the  deluge  to  the  proph- 
et of  the  people  three  times  in  succession,  but  his  warning  was 
despised;  "then  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye  there  came  a  peal 
of  thunder  and  an  awful  crash,  and  a  green  mound  of  water 
reared  itself  over  the  plain.  It  seemed  to  stand  upright  for  a 
second,  then,  cut  incessantly  by  the  lightning,  goaded  on  like 
a  great  beast,  it  flung  itself  upon  the  prophet's  hut.  When 
the  morning  broke  there  was  nothing  to  be  seen  alive  but  one 
man — if  indeed  he  were  a  man ;  Szeu-kha,  the  son  of  the  Cre- 
ator, had  saved  himself  by  floating  on  a  ball  of  gum  or  resin." 
This  instantaneous  catastrophe  reminds  one  forcibly  of  the  de- 
struction of  Atlantis.  Szeu-kha  killed  the  eagle,  restored  its 
victims  to  life,  and  repeopled  the  earth  with  them,  as  Deucalion 
repeopled  the  earth  with  the  stones. 


SOME  CONSIDERATION  OF  THE  DELUGE  LEGENDS.    119 


Chapter  YI. 

SOME  CONSIDERATION  OF  THE  DELUGE  LBGENDS 

The  Fountains  of  the  Great  Deep. — As  Atlantis  perished  in  a 
volcanic  convulsion,  it  must  have  possessed  volcanoes.  This  is 
rendered  the  more  probable  when  we  remember  that  the  ridge 
of  land  of  which  it  was  a  part,  stretching  from  north  to  south, 
from  Iceland  to  St.  Helena,  contains  even  now  great  volca- 
noes— as  in  Iceland,  the  Azores,  the  Canaries,  etc. — and  that 
the  very  sea -bed  along  the  line  of  its  original  axis  is,  to  this 
day,  as  we  have  shown,  the  scene  of  great  volcanic  disturb- 
ances. 

If,  then,  the  mountains  of  Atlantis  contained  volcanoes,  of 
which  the  peaks  of  the  Azores  are  the  surviving  representa- 
tives, it  is  not  improbable  that  the  convulsion  which  drowned 
it  in  the  sea  was  accompanied  by  great  discharges  of  water. 
We  have  seen  that  such  discharges  occurred  in  the  island  of 
Java,  when  four  thousand  people  perished.  "  Immense  col- 
umns of  hot  water  and  boiling  mud  were  thrown  out "  of  the 
volcano  of  Galung  Gung ;  the  water  was  projected  from  the 
mountain  "  like  a  water-spout."  When  a  volcanic  island  was 
created  near  Sicily  in  1831,  it  was  accompanied  by  "a  water- 
spout sixty  feet  high." 

In  the  island  of  Dominica,  one  of  the  islands  constituting 
the  Leeward  group  of  the  West  Indies,  and  nearest  to  the  site 
of  Atlantis,  on  the  4th  of  January,  1880,  occurred  a  series  of 
convulsions  which  reminds  us  forcibly  of  the  destruction  of 
Plato's  island ;  and  the  similarity  extends  to  another  particu- 
lar :   Dominica  contains,  like  Atlantis,  we  are  told,  numerous 


120  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

hot  and  sulphur  springs.     I  abridge  the  account  given  by  the 
New  York  Herald  of  January  28th,  1880  : 

"A  little  after  11  o'clock  a.m.,  soon  after  high-mass  in  the 
Roman  Catholic  cathedral,  and  while  divine  service  was  still 
going  on  in  the  Anglican  and  Wesleyan  chapels,  all  the  in- 
dications of  an  approaching  thunder-storm  suddenly  showed 
themselves;  the  atmosphere,  which  just  previously  had  been 
cool  and  pleasant — slight  showers  falling  since  early  morning 
— became  at  once  nearly  stilling  hot ;  the  rumbling  of  distant 
thunder  was  heard,  and  the  light-blue  and  fleecy  white  of  the 
sky  turned  into  a  heavy  and  lowering  black.  Soon  the  thun- 
der-peals came  near  and  loud,  the  lightning  flashes,  of  a  blue 
and  red  color,  more  frequent  and  vivid ;  and  the  rain,  first^w  ith 
a  few  heavy  drops,  commenced  to  pour  as  if  the  floodgates 
of  heaven  were  open.  In  a  moment  it  darkened,  as  if  night 
had  come ;  a  strong,  nearly  overpowering  smell  of  sulphur  an- 
nounced itself;  and  people  who  happened  to  be  out  in  the 
streets  felt  the  rain -drops  falling  on  their  heads,  backs,  and 
shoulders  like  showers  of  hailstones.  The  cause  of  this  was 
to  be  noted  by  looking  at  the  spouts,  from  which  the  water 
was  rushing  like  so  many  cataracts  of  molten  lead,  while  the 
gutters  below  ran  swollen  streams  of  thick  gray  mud,  looking 
like  nothing  ever  seen  in  them  before.  In  the  mean  time 
the  Roseau  River  had  worked  itself  into  a  state  of  mad  fury, 
overflowing  its  banks,  carrying  down  rocks  and  large  trees, 
and  threatening  destruction  to  the  bridges  over  it  and  the 
liouses  in  its  neighborhood.  When  the  storm  ceased — it  last- 
ed till  twelve,  mid-day — the  roofs  and  walls  of  the  buildings 
in  town,  the  street  "pavement,  the  door-steps  and  back-yards 
were  found  covered  with  a  deposit  of  volcanic  debris,  holding- 
together  like  clay,  dark-gray  in  color,  and  in  some  places  lying 
more  than  an  inch  thick,  with  small,  shining  metallic  particles 
on  the  surface,  which  could  be  easily  identified  as  iron  pyrites. 
Scraping  up  some  of  the  stuff,  it  required  only  a  slight  exami- 
nation to  determine  its  main  constituents — sandstone  and  mag- 
nesia, the  pyrites  being  slightly  mixed,  and  silver  showing  itself 
in  even  smaller  quantity.  This  is,  in  fact,  the  composition  of 
the  volcanic  mud  thrown  up  by  the  soufrieres  at  Watton  Wa- 
ven  and  in  the  Boiling  Lake  country,  and  it  is  found  in  solu- 
tion as  well  in  the  lake  water.     The  Devil's  Billiard  -  table. 


SOME  CONSIDERATION  OF  THE  DELUGE  LEGENDS.     121 

within  half  a  mile  of  the  Boiling  Lake,  is  composed  wholly  of 
this  substance,  which  there  assumes  the  character  of  stone  in 
formation.  Inquiries  instituted  on  Monday  morning  revealed 
the  fact  that,  except  on  the  south-east,  tiie  mud  shower  had  not 
extended  beyond  the  limits  of  the  town.  On  the  north-west, 
in  the  direction  of  Fond  Colo  and  Morne  Daniel,  nothing  but 
pure  rain-water  had  fallen,  and  neither  Loubiere  nor  Pointe 
Michel  had  seen  any  signs  of  volcanic  disturbance.  .  .  . 

"But what  happened  at  Pointe  Mulatre  enables  us  to  spot 
the  locale  of  the  eruption.  Pointe  Mulatre  lies  at  the  foot  of 
the  range  of  mountains  on  the  top  of  which  the  Boiling  Lake 
frets  and  seethes.  The  only  outlet  of  the  lake  is  a  cascade 
which  falls  into  one  of  the  branches  of  the  Pointe  Mulatre 
River,  the  color  and  temperature  of  which,  at  one  time  and 
another,  shows  the  existence  or  otherwise  of  volcanic  activity 
in  the  lake-country.  We  may  observe,  en  passant,  that  the  fall 
of  the  water  from  the  lake  is  similar  in  appearance  to  the  falls 
on  the  sides  of  Roairama,  in  the  interior  of  British  Guiana; 
there  is  no  continuous  stream,  but  the  water  overleaps  its  ba- 
sin like  a  kettle  boiling  over,  and  comes  down  in  detached 
cascades  from  the  top.  May  there  not  be  a  boiling  lake  on 
the  unapproachable  summit  of  Roairama?  The  phenomena 
noted  at  Pointe  Mulatre  on  Sunday  were  similar  to  what  we 
witnessed  in  Roseau,  but  with  every  feature  more  strongly 
marked.  The  fall  of  mud  was  heavier,  covering  all  the  fields; 
the  atmospheric  disturbance  was  greater,  and  the  change  in  the 
appearance  of  the  running  water  about  the  place  more  surpris- 
ing. The  Pointe  Mulatre  River  suddenly  began  to  run  volcan- 
ic mud  and  water;  then  the  mud  predominated,  and  almost 
buried  the  stream  under  its  weight,  and  the  odor  of  sulphur  in 
the  air  became  positively  oppressive.  Soon  the  fish  in  the  wa- 
ter— brochet,  camoo,  meye,  crocro,  mullet,  down  to  the  eel,  the 
crawfish,  the  loche,  the  tetar,  and  the  dormer — died,  and  were 
thrown  on  the  banks.  The  mud  carried  down  by  the  river 
has  formed  a  bank  at  the  mouth  which  nearly  dams  up  the 
stream,  and  threatens  to  throw  it  back  over  the  low-lying  lands 
of  the  Pointe  Mulatre  estate.  The  reports  from  the  Laudat 
section  of  the  Boiling  Lake  district  are  curious.  The  Bach- 
elor and  Admiral  rivers,  and  the  numerous  mineral  springs 
wdiich  arise  in  that  part  of  the  island,  are  all  running  a  thick 
white  flood,  like  cream  milk.     The  face  of  the  entire  country, 

6 


]22  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

from  the  Admiral  River  to  the  Solfatera  Plain,  has  undergone 
some  portentous  change,  which  the  frightened  peasants  who 
bring  the  news  to  Roseau  seem  unable  clearly  and  connectedly 
to  describe,  and  the  volcanic  activity  still  continues." 

From  this  account  it  appears  that  the  rain  of  water  and 
mud  came  from  a  boiling  lake  on  the  mountains;  it  must  have 
risen  to  a  great  height,  "  like  a  water-spout,"  and  then  fallen 
in  showers  over  the  face  of  the  country.  We  are  reminded, 
in  this  Boiling  Lake  of  Dominica,  of  the  Welsh  legend  of  the 
eruption  of  the  Llyn-llion,  "  the  Lake  of  Waves,"  which  "  in- 
undated the  whole  country."  On  the  top  of  a  mountain  in 
the  county  of  Kerry,  Ireland,  called  Mangerton,  there  is  a  deep 
lake  known  as  Poulle-i-feron,  which  signifies  Hell-hole ;  it  fre- 
quently overflows,  and  rolls  down  the  mountain  in  frightful 
torrents.  On  Slieve-donart,  in  the  territory  of  Mourne,  in  the 
county  of  Down,  L'cland,  a  lake  occupies  the  mountain -top, 
and  its  overflowings  help  to  form  rivers. 

If  we  suppose  the  destruction  of  Atlantis  to  have  been,  in 
like  manner,  accompanied  by  a  tremendous  outpour  of  water 
from  one  or  more  of  its  volcanoes,  thrown  to  a  great  height, 
and  deluging  the  land,  we  can  understand  the  description  in 
the  Chaldean  legend  of  "  the  terrible  water-spout,^''  which  even 
"  the  gods  grew  afraid  of,"  and  which  "  rose  to  the  sky,"  and 
which  seems  to  have  been  one  of  the  chief  causes,  together 
with  the  earthquake,  of  the  destruction  of  the  country.  And 
in  this  view  we  are  confirmed  by  the  Aramaean  legend  of  the 
Deluge,  probably  derived  at  an  earlier  age  from  the  Chaldean 
tradition.  In  it  we  are  told,  "  All  on  a  sudden  enormous  vol- 
umes of  water  issued  from  the  earth,  and  rains  of  extraordinary 
abundance  began  to  fall ;  the  rivers  left  their  beds,  and  the 
ocean  overflowed  its  banks."  The  disturbance  in  Dominica 
duplicates  this  description  exactly :  "  In  a  moment "  the  water 
and  mud  burst  from  the  mountains,  "  the  floodgates  of  heaven 
were  opened,"  and  "  the  river  overflowed  its  banks." 

And  here,  again,  we  are  reminded  of  the  expression  in  Gen- 


SOME  CONSIDERATION  OF  THE  DELUGE  LEGENDS.  123 

esis,  "the  same  day  were  all  the  fountains  of  the  great  deep 
broken  up"  (chap,  vii.,  11).  That  this  does  not  refer  to  the 
rain  is  clear  from  the  manner  in  which  it  is  stated:  "The 
same  day  were  all  the  fountains  of  the  great  deep  broken  up, 
and  the  windows  of  heaven  were  opened.  And  the  rain  was 
upon  the  earth,"  etc.  And  when  the  work  of  destruction  is 
finished,  we  are  told  "  the  fountains  also  of  the  deep  and  the 
windows  of  heaven  were  stopped."  This  is  a  reminiscence  by 
an  inland  people,  living  where  such  tremendous  volcanic  dis- 
turbances were  nearly  unknown,  of  "the  terrible  water-spout" 
which  "  rose  to  the  sky,"  of  the  Chaldean  legend,  and  of  "  the 
enormous  volumes  of  water  issuing  from  the  earth"  of  the 
Aramaean  tradition.  The  Hindoo  legend  of  the  Flood  speaks 
of  "the  marine  god  Hayagriva,  who  dwelt  in  the  abyss,"  who 
produced  the  cataclysm.  This  is  doubtless  "  the  archangel  of 
the  abyss  "  spoken  of  in  the  Chaldean  tradition. 

The  Mountains  of  the  North. — We  have  in  Plato  the  fol- 
lowing reference  to  the  mountains  of  Atlantis : 

"The  whole  country  was  described  as  being  very  lofty  and 
precipitous  on  the  side  of  the  sea.  .  .  .  The  whole  region  of 
the  island  lies  toward  the  south,  and  is  sheltered  from  the  north. 
.  .  .  The  surrounding  mountains  .  .  .  exceeded  all  that  arc  to 
be  seen  now  anywhere." 

These  mountains  were  the  present  Azores.  One  has  but  to 
contemplate  their  present  elevation,  and 
remember  the  depth  to  which  they  de- 
scend in  the  ocean,  to  realize  their  tre- 
mendous altitude  and  the  correctness  of 
the  description  given  by  Plato. 

In  the  Hindoo  legend  we  find  the  fish- 
god,  who  represents  Poseidon,  father  of 
Atlantis,  helping  Manu  over  "  the  Moun- 
tain  of  the   North."      In   the  Chaldean   ,;"l.Tw'n'".V"T-; 

(From  "  The  Walls  of  Nineveb.  ') 

legend  Khasisatra's  vessel  is  stopped  by 

"the  Mountain  of  Nizir"  until  the  sea  goes  down. 


124  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

The  Mud  which  Stopped  Navigation. — We  are  told  by  Pla- 
to, *' Atlantis  disappeared  beneath  the  sea,  and  then  that  sea 
became  inaccessible,  so  that  navigation  on  it  ceased,  on  account 
of  the  quantity  of  mud  which  the  ingulfed  island  left  in  its 
place."  This  is  one  of  the  points  of  Plato's  story  which  pro- 
voked the  incredulity  and  ridicule  of  the  ancient,  and  even  of 
the  modern,  world.  We  find  in  the  Chaldean  legend  some- 
thing of  the  same  kind :  Khasisatra  says,  "  I  looked  at  the  sea 
attentively,  observing,  and  the  whole  of  humanity  had  return- 
ed to  mud."  In  the  "Popol  Vuh  "  we  are  told  that  a  "resin- 
ous thickness  descended  from  heaven,"  even  as  in  Dominica  the 
rain  was  full  of  "thick  gray  mud,"  accompanied  by  an  "  over- 
powering smell  of  sulphur." 

The  explorations  of  the  ship  Challenger  show  that  the  whole 
of  the  submerged  ridge  of  which  Atlantis  is  a  part  i^  to  this 
day  thickly  covered  with  volcanic  debris. 

We  have  but  to  remember  the  cities  of  Pompeii  and  Hercu- 
laneum,  which  were  covered  with  such  a  mass  of  volcanic  ashes 
from  the  eruption  of  a.d.  79  that  for  seventeen  centuries  they 
remained  buried  at  a  depth  of  from  fifteen  to  thirty  feet;  a 
new  population  lived  and  labored  above  them  ;  an  aqueduct 
was  constructed  over  their  heads;  and  it  was  only  when  a 
farmer,  in  digging  for  a  well,  penetrated  the  roof  of  a  house, 
that  they  were  once  more  brought  to  the  light  of  day  and  the 
knowledge  of  mankind. 

We  have  seen  that,  in  1783,  the  volcanic  eruption  in  Iceland 
covered  the  sea  with  pumice  for  a  distance  of  one  hundred 
and  fifty  miles,  "  and  ships  were  considerably  impeded  in  their 
course.''^ 

The  eruption  in  the  island  of  Sumbawa,  in  April,  1815, 
threw  out  such  masses  of  ashes  as  to  darken  the  air.  "  The 
floating  cinders  to  the  west  of  Sumatra  formed,  on  the  12th  of 
April,  a  mass  two  feet  thick  and  several  miles  in  extent,  through 
ivhich  shijjs  with  difficulty  forced  their  way.''^ 

It  thus  appears  that  the  very  statement  of  Plato  which  has 


SOME  CONSIDERATION  OF  THE  DELUGE  LEGENDS.  125 

provoked  the  ridicule  of  scholars  is  in  itself  one  of  the  corrob- 
orating features  of  his  story.  It  is  probable  that  the  ships  of 
the  i\tlanteans,  when  they  returned  after  the  tempest  to  look 
for  their  country,  found  the  sea  impassable  from  the  masses 
of  volcanic  ashes  and  pumice.  They  returned  terrified  to  the 
shores  of  Europe ;  and  the  shock  inflicted  by  the  destruction 
of  Atlantis  upon  the  civilization  of  the  world  probably  led  to 
one  of  those  retrograde  periods  in  the  history  of  our  race  in 
which  they  lost  all  intercourse  with  the  Western  continent. 

The  Preservation  of  a  Record. — There  is  a  singular  coinci- 
dence in  the  stories  of  the  Deluge  in  another  particular. 

The  legends  of  the  Phoenicians,  preserved  by  Sanchoniathon, 
tell  us  that  Taautos,  or  Taut,  was  the  inventor  of  the  alphabet 
and  of  the  art  of  writing. 

Now,  we  find  in  the  Egyptian  legends  a  passage  of  Manetho, 
in  which  Thoth  (or  Hermes  Trismegistus),  before  the  Deluge, 
inscribed  on  stelae,  or  tablets,  in  hieroglyphics,  or  sacred  char- 
acters, the  principles  of  all  knowledge.  After  the  Deluge  the 
second  Thoth  translated  the  contents  of  these  stelae  into  the 
vulgar  tongue. 

Joseph  us  tells  us  that  "  The  patriarch  Seth,  in  order  that 
wisdom  and  astronomical  knowledge  should  not  perish,  erect- 
ed, in  prevision  of  the  double  destruction  by  fire  and  water 
predicted  by  Adam,  two  columns,  one  of  brick,  the  other  of 
stone,  on  which  this  knowledge  was  engraved,  and  which  ex- 
isted in  the  Siriadic  country." 

In  the  Chaldean  legends  the  god  Ea  ordered  Khasisatra  to 
inscribe  the  divine  learning,  and  the  principles  of  all  sciences, 
on  tables  of  terra-cotta,  and  bury  them,  before  the  Deluge,  "in 
the  City  of  the  Sun  at  Sippara." 

Berosus,  in  his  version  of  the  Chaldean  flood,  says : 

"  The  deity,  Chronos,  appeared  to  him  (Xisuthros)  in  a  vision, 
and  warned  him  that,  upon  the  loth  day  of  the  month  Doesius, 
there  would  be  a  flood  by  which  mankind  would  be  destroyed. 
He  therefore  enjoined  him  to  write  a  history  of  the  beginning, 


12G  ATLANTIC:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 

procedure,  and  conclusion  of  all  thin^,  and  to  bury  it  in  the 
City  of  the  Sun  at  Sippara,  and  to  build  a  vessel,"  etc. 

The  Hindoo  Bhagavata- Parana  tells  us  that  the  fish-god, 
who  warned  Satyravata  of  the  coming  of  the  Flood,  directed 
him  to  place  the  sacred  Scriptures  in  a  safe  place,  "  in  order  to 
preserve  them  from  Hayagriva,  a  marine  horse  dwelling  in  the 
abyss." 

Are  we  to  find  the  original  of  these  legends  in  the  following 
passage  from  Plato's  history  of  Atlantis  ? 

"  Now,  the  relations  of  their  governments  to  one  another  were 
regulated  by  the  injunctions  of  Poseidon,  as  the  law  had  hand- 
ed them  down.  These  were  inscribed  by  the  first  men  on  a 
column  of  orichalcum,  which  was  situated  in  the  middle  of  the 
island,  at  the  Temple  of  Poseidon,  whither  the  people  were 
gathered  together.  .  .  .  They  received  and  gave  judgments,  and 
at  daybreak  they  wrote  down  their  sentences  on  a  golden  tab- 
let, and  deposited  them  as  memorials  with  their  robes.  There 
were  many  special  laws  which  the  several  kings  had  inscribed 
about  the  temples."     (Critias,  p.  120.) 

A  Succession  of  Disasters. — The  Central  American  books, 
translated  by  De  Bourbourg,  state  that  originally  a  part  of  the 
American  continent  extended  far  into  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  This 
tradition  is  strikingly  confirmed  by  the  explorations  of  the  ship 
Challenger,  which  show  that  the  "  Dolphin's  Ridge "  was  con- 
nected with  the  shore  of  South  America  north  of  the  mouth 
of  the  Amazon.  The  Central  American  books  tell  us  that  this 
region  of  the  continent  was  destroyed  by  a  succession  of  fright- 
ful convulsions,  probably  at  long  intervals  apart ;  three  of  these 
catastrophes  are  constantly  mentioned,  and  sometimes  there  is 
reference  to  one  or  two  more. 

"  The  land,"  in  these  convulsions,  "  was  shaken  by  frightful 
earthquakes,  and  the  waves  of  the  sea  combined  with  volcanic 
fires  to  overwhelm  and  ingulf  it.  .  .  .  Each  convulsion  swept 
away  portions  of  the  land  until  the  whole  disappeared,  leaving 
the  line  of  coast  as  it  now  is.     Most  of  the  inhabitants,  over- 


SOME  CONSIDERAriON  OF  THE  DELUGE  LEGENDS.    127 

taken  amid  their  regular  employments,  were  destroyed ;  but 
some  escaped  in  ships,  and  some  fled  for  safety  to  the  summits 
of  high  mountains,  or  to  portions  of  the  land  which  for  a  time 
escaped  immediate  destruction."  (Baldwin's  "Ancient  Amer- 
ica," p.  176.) 

This  accords  precisely  with  the  teachings  of  geology.  We 
know  that  the  land  from  which  America  and  Europe  were 
formed  once  covered  nearly  or  quite  the  whole  space  now  oc- 
cupied by  the  Atlantic  between  the  continents;  and  it  is  rea- 
sonable to  believe  that  it  went  down  piecemeal,  and  that  Atlan- 
tis was  but  the  stump  of  the  ancient  continent,  which  at  last 
perished  from  the  same  causes  and  in  the  same  way. 

The  fact  that  this  tradition  existed  among  the  inhabitants  of 
America  is  proven  by  the  existence  of  festivals,  "  especially  one 
in  the  month  Izcall%  which  were  instituted  to  commemorate 
this  frightful  destruction  of  land  and  people,  and  in  which,  say 
the  sacred  books,  *  princes  and  people  humbled  themselves  be- 
fore the  divinity,  and  besought  him  to  withhold  a  return  of 
such  terrible  calamities.' " 

Can  we  doubt  the  reality  of  events  which  we  thus  find  con- 
firmed by  religious  ceremonies  at  Athens,  in  Syria,  and  on  the 
shores  of  Central  America? 

And  we  find  this  succession  of  great  destructions  of  the  At- 
lantic continent  in  the  triads  of  Wales,  where  traditions  are 
preserved  of  "three  terrible  catastrophes."  We  are  told  by 
the  explorations  of  the  ship  Challenger  that  the  higher  lands 
reach  in  the  direction  of  the  British  Islands ;  and  the  Celts  had 
traditions  that  a  part  of  their  country  once  extended  far  out 
into  the  Atlantic,  and  was  subsequently  destroyed. 

And  the  same  succession  of  destructions  is  referred  to  in  the 
Greek  legends,  where  a  deluge  of  Ogyges — "  the  most  ancient 
of  the  kings  of  Boeotia  or  Attica,  a  quite  mythical  person,  lost 
in  the  night  of  ages" — preceded  that  of  Deucalion. 

We  will  find  hereafter  the  most  ancient  hymns  of  the  Ary- 
ans praying  God  to  liold  the  land  firm.     The  people  of  Atlan- 


128  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

tis,  having  seen  their  country  thus  destroyed,  section  by  sec- 
tion, and  judging  that  their  own  time  must  inevitably  come, 
must  have  lived  under  a  great  and  perpetual  terror,  which  will 
go  far  to  explain  the  origin  of  primeval  religion,  and  the  hold 
which  it  took  upon  the  minds  of  men ;  and  this  condition  of 
things  may  furnish  us  a  solution  of  the  legends  which  have 
come  down  to  us  of  their  efforts  to  perpetuate  their  learning 
on  pillars,  and  also  an  explanation  of  that  other  legend  of  the 
Tower  of  Babel,  which,  as  I  will  show  hereafter,  was  common 
to  both  continents,  and  in  which  they  sought  to  build  a  tower 
high  enough  to  escape  the  Deluge. 

All  the  legends  of  the  preservation  of  a  record  prove  that 
the  united  voice  of  antiquity  taught  that  the  antediluvians  had 
advanced  so  far  in  civilization  as  to  possess  an  alphabet  and  a 
system  of  writing;  a  conclusion  which,  as  we  will  see  hereafter, 
finds  confirmation  in  the  original  identity  of  the  alphabetical 
signs  used  in  the  old  world  and  the  new. 


CIVILIZATION  AN  INHEMITANCE.  129 


PART  III. 

THE  CIVILIZATIO]^  OF  THE  OLD  WOELD 
AND  NEW  COMPARED. 


Chapter  I. 
CIVILIZATION  AN  INHERITANCE. 

Material  civilization  might  be  defined  to  be  the  result  of  a 
series  of  inventions  and  discoveries,  whereby  man  improves  his 
condition,  and  controls  the  forces  of  nature  for  his  own  advan- 
tage. 

The  savage  man  is  a  pitiable  creature ;  as  Menaboshu  says, 
in  the  Chippeway  legends,  he  is  pursued  by  a  "  perpetual  hun- 
ger ;"  he  is  exposed  unprotected  to  the  blasts  of  winter  and  the 
heats  of  summer.  A  great  terror  sits  upon  his  soul ;  for  eve- 
ry manifestation  of  nature — the  storm,  the  wind,  the  thunder, 
the  lightning,  the  cold,  the  heat — all  are  threatening  and  dan- 
gerous demons.  The  seasons  bring  him  neither  seed-time  nor 
harvest;  pinched  with  hunger,  appeasing  in  part  the  everlast- 
ing craving  of  his  stomach  with  seeds,  berries,  and  creeping 
things,  he  sees  the  animals  of  the  forest  dash  by  him,  and  he 
has  no  means  to  arrest  their  flight.  He  is  powerless  and  mis- 
erable in  the  midst  of  plenty.  Every  step  toward  civilization 
is  a  step  of  conquest  over  nature.  The  invention  of  the  bow 
and  arrow  was,  in  its  time,  a  far  greater  stride  forward  for  the 
human  race  than  the  steam-engine  or  the  telegraph.  The  sav- 
age could  now  reach  his  game ;  his  insatiable  hunger  could  be 

6* 


130  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

satisfied;  the  very  eagle,  "towering  in  its  pride  of  place,"  was 
not  beyond  the  reach  of  this  new  and  wonderful  weapon.  The 
discovery  of  fire  and  the  art  of  cooking  was  another  immense 
step  forward.  The  savage,  having  nothing  but  wooden  vessels 
in  which  to  cook,  covered  the  wood  with  clay  ;  the  clay  hard- 
ened in  the  fire.  Tlie  savage  gradually  learned  that  he  could 
dispense  with  the  wood,  and  thus  pottery  was  invented.  Then 
some  one  (if  we  are  to  believe  the  Chippeway  legends,  on  the 
shores  of  Lake  Superior)  found  fragments  of  the  pure  copper 
of  that  region,  beat  them  into  shape,  and  the  art  of  metallurgy 
was  begun ;  iron  was  first  worked  in  the  same  way  by  shaping 
meteoric  iron  into  spear-heads. 

But  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  these  inventions  followed 
one  another  in  rapid  succession.  Thousands,  and  perhaps  tens 
of  thousands,  of  years  intervened  between  each  step ;  many 
savage  races  have  not  to  this  day  achieved  some  of  these  steps. 
Prof.  Richard  Owen  says,  "Unprepossessed  and  sober  experi- 
ence teaches  that  arts,  language,  literature  are  of  slow  growth, 
the  results  of  gradual  development." 

I  shall  undertake  to  show  hereafter  that  nearly  all  the  arts 
essential  to  civilization  which  we  possess  date  back  to  the  time 
of  Atlantis  —  certainly  to  that  ancient  Egyptian  civilization 
which  was  coeval  with,  and  an  outgrowth  from,  Atlantis. 

In  six  thousand  years  the  world  made  no  advance  on  the  civ- 
ilization which  it  received  from  Atlantis. 

Phoenicia,  Egypt,  Chaldea,  India,  Greece,  and  Rome  passed 
the  torch  of  civilization  from  one  to  the  other ;  but  in  all  that 
lapse  of  time  they  added  nothing  to  the  arts  which  existed 
at  the  earliest  period  of  Egyptian  history.  In  architecture, 
sculpture,  painting,  engraving,  raining,  metallurgy,  navigation, 
pottery,  glass-ware,  the  construction  of  canals,  roads,  and  aque- 
ducts, the  arts  of  Phoenicia  and  Egypt  extended,  without  ma- 
terial change  or  improvement,  to  a  period  but  two  or  three 
hundred  years  ago.  The  present  age  has  entered  upon  a  new 
era;  it  has  added  a  series  of  wonderful  inventions  to  the  At- 


CIVILIZATION  AN  INHERITANCE.  131 

lantean  list ;  it  has  subjugated  steam  and  electricity  to  the  uses 
of  man.  And  its  work  has  but  commenced :  it  will  continue 
until  it  lifts  man  to  a  plane  as  much  higher  than  the  present 
as  the  present  is  above  the  barbaric  condition ;  and  in  the 
future  it  will  be  said  that  between  the  birth  of  civilization  in 
Atlantis  and  the  new  civilization  there  stretches  a  period  of 
many  thousands  of  years,  during  which  mankind  did  not  in- 
vent, but  simply  perpetuated. 

Herodotus  tells  us  ("  Euterpe,"  cxlii.)  that,  according  to  the 
information  he  received  from  the  Egyptian  priests,  their  writ- 
ten history  dated  back  11,340  years  before  his  era,  or  nearly 
14,000  years  prior  to  this  time.  They  introduced  him  into 
a  spacious  temple,  and  showed  him  the  statues  of  341  high- 
priests  who  had  in  turn  succeeded  each  other ;  and  yet  the  age 
of  Columbus  possessed  no  arts,  except  that  of  printing  (which 
was  ancient  in  China),  which  was  not  known  to  the  Egyptians ; 
and  the  civilization  of  Egypt  at  its  first  appearance  was  of  a 
higher  order  than  at  any  subsequent  period  of  its  history,  thus 
testifying  that  it  drew  its  greatness  from  a  fountain  higher 
than  itself.  It  was  in  its  early  days  that  Egypt  worshipped 
one  only  God ;  in  the  later  ages  this  simple  and  sublime  belief 
was  buried  under  the  corruptions  of  polytheism.  The  greatest 
pyramids  were  built  by  the  Fourth  Dynasty,  and  so  universal 
was  education  at  that  time  among  the  people  that  the  stones 
with  which  they  were  built  retain  to  this  day  the  writing  of 
the  workmen.     The  first  king  was  Menes. 

"  At  the  epoch  of  Menes,"  says  Winchell,  "  the  Egyptians 
were  already  a  civilized  and  numerous  people.  Manetho  tells 
us  that  Athotis,  the  son  of  this  first  king,  Menes,  built  the 
palace  at  Memphis;  that  he  was  a  physician,  and  left  ana- 
tomical books.  All  these  statements  imply  that  even  at  this 
early  period  the  Egyptians  were  in  a  high  state  of  civiliza- 
tion." (Wincheirs  ""Preadamites,"  p.  120.)  "In  the  time 
of  Menes  the  Egyptians  had  long  been  architects,  sculptors, 
painters,  mythologists,  and  theologians."  Professor  Richard 
Owen  says:  "Egypt  is  recorded  to  have  been  a  civilized  and 


132  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN   WORLD. 

governed  community  before  the  time  of  Menes.  The  pas- 
toral community  of  a  group  of  nomad  families,  as  portrayed 
in  the  Pentateuch,  may  be  admitted  as  an  early  step  in  civ- 
ilization. But  how  far  in  advance  of  this  stage  is  a  nation 
administered  by  a  kingly  government,  consisting  of  grades  of 
society,  with  divisions  of  labor,  of  which  one  kind,  assigned  to 
the  priesthood,  was  to  record  or  chronicle  the  names  and  dynas- 
ties of  the  kings,  the  duration  and  chief  events  of  their  reigns  !" 
Ernest  Renan  points  out  that  "Egypt  at  the  beginning  appears 
mature,  old,  and  entirely  without  mythical  and  heroic  ages,  as 
if  the  country  had  never  known  youth.  Its  civilization  has  no 
infancy,  and  its  art  no  archaic  period.  The  civilization  of  the  Old 
Monarchy  did  not  begin  with  infancy.     It  was  already  mature." 

We  shall  attempt  to  show  that  it  matured  in  Atlantis,  and 
that  the  Egyptian  people  were  unable  to  maintain  it  at  the 
high  standard  at  which  they  had  received  it,  as  depicted  in  the 
pages  of  Plato.  What  king  of  Assyria,  or  Greece,  or  Rome,  or 
even  of  these  modern  nations,  has  ever  devoted  himself  to  the 
study  of  medicine  and  the  writing  of  medical  books  for  the 
benefit  of  mankind?  Their  mission  has  been  to  kill,  not  to 
heal  the  people ;  yet  here,  at  the  very  dawn  of  Mediterranean 
history,  we  find  the  son  of  the  first  king  of  Egypt  recorded 
"as  a  physician,  and  as  having  left  anatomical  books." 

I  hold  it  to  be  incontestable  that,  in  some  region  of  the 
earth,  primitive  mankind  must  have  existed  during  vast  spaces 
of  time,  and  under  most  favorable  circumstances,  to  create,  in- 
vent, and  discover  those  arts  and  things  which  constitute  civil- 
ization. When  we  have  it  before  our  eyes  that  for  six  thou- 
sand years  mankind  in  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa,  even  when  led 
by  great  nations,  and  illuminated  by  marvellous  minds,  did  not 
advance  one  inch  beyond  the  arts  of  Egypt,  we  may  conceive 
what  lapses,  what  ajons,  of  time  it  must  have  required  to  bring 
savage  man  to  that  condition  of  refinement  and  civilization 
possessed  by  Egypt  when  it  first  comes  within  the  purview  of 
history. 

That  illustrious  Frenchman,  H.  A.  Taine  ("  History  of  Eng- 


CIVILIZATION  AN  INHERITANCE.  133 

lish  Literature,"  p.  23),  sees  tlie  unity  of  the  Indo-European 
races  manifest  in  their  languages,  literature,  and  philosophies, 
and  argues  that  these  pre-eminent  traits  are  "the  great  marks  of 
an  original  model,"  and  that  when  we  meet  with  them  "  fifteen, 
twenty,  thirty  centuries  before  our  era,  in  an  Aryan,  an  Egyp- 
tian, a  Chinese,  they  represent  the  work  of  a  great  many  ages, 
perhaps  of  several  myriads  of  centuries.  .  .  .  Such  is  the  first 
and  richest  source  of  these  master  faculties  from  which  histor- 
ical events  take  their  rise ;  and  one  sees  that  if  it  be  powerful 
it  is  because  this  is  no  simple  spring,  but  a  kind  of  lake,  a  deep 
reservoir,  wherein  other  springs  have,  for  a  multitude  of  cen- 
turies, discharged  their  several  streams."  In  other  words,  the 
capacity  of  the  Egyptian,  Aryan,  Chaldean,  Chinese,  Saxon,  and 
Celt  to  maintain  civilization  is  simply  the  result  of  civilized 
training  during  "myriads  of  centuries"  in  some  original  home 
of  the  race. 

I  cannot  believe  that  the  great  inventions  were  duplicated 
spontaneously,  as  some  would  have  us  believe,  in  different 
countries;  there  is  no  truth  in  the  theory  that  men  pressed 
by  necessity  will  always  hit  upon  the  same  invention  to  relieve 
their  wants.  If  this  were  so,  all  savages  would  have  invented 
the  boomerang;  all  savages  would  possess  pottery,  bows  and 
arrows,  slings,  tents,  and  canoes ;  in  short,  all  races  would  have 
risen  to  civilization,  for  certainly  the  comforts  of  life  are  as 
agreeable  to  one  people  as  another. 

Civilization  is  not  communicable  to  all ;  many  savage  tribes 
are  incapable  of  it.  There  are  two  great  divisions  of  mankind, 
the  civilized  and  the  savage ;  and,  as  we  shall  show,  every  civ- 
ilized race  in  the  world  has  had  something  of  civilization  from 
the  earliest  ages;  and  as  "all  roads  lead  to  Rome,"  so  all  the 
converging  lines  of  civilization  lead  to  Atlantis.  The  abyss 
between  the  civilized  man  and  the  savage  is  simply  incalcula- 
ble; it  represents  not  alone  a  difference  in  arts  and  methods 
of  life,  but  in  the  mental  constitution,  the  instincts,  and  the 
predispositions  of  the  soul.     The  child  of  the  civilized  races 


134  ATLANTIS:   TRi:  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 

in  his  sports  manufactures  water-wheels,  wagons,  and  houses  of 
cobs;  the  savage  boy  amuses  himself  with  bows  and  arrows: 
the  one  belongs  to  a  building  and  creating  race ;  the  other  to 
a  wild,  hunting  stock.  This  abyss  between  savagery  and  civ- 
ilization has  never  been  passed  by  any  nation  through  its  own 
original  force,  and  without  external  influences,  during  the  His- 
toric Period ;  those  who  were  savages  at  the  dawn  of  history 
are  savages  still ;  barbarian  slaves  may  have  been  taught  some- 
thing of  the  arts  of  their  masters,  and  conquered  races  have 
shared  some  of  the  advantages  possessed  by  their  conquerors ; 
but  we  will  seek  in  vain  for  any  example  of  a  savage  people 
developing  civilization  of  and  among  themselves.  I  may  be 
reminded  of  the  Gauls,  Goths,  and  Britons;  but  these  were 
not  savages,  they  possessed  written  languages,  poetry,  oratory, 
and  history ;  they  were  controlled  by  religious  ideas ;  they  be- 
lieved in  God  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  and  in  a  state 
of  rewards  and  punishments  after  death.  Wherever  the  Romans 
came  in  contact  with  Gaiils,  or  Britons,  or  German  tribes,  they 
found  them  armed  with  weapons  of  iron.  The  Scots,  accord- 
ing to  Tacitus,  used  chariots  and  iron  swords  in  the  battle  of 
the  Grampians — "enormes  gladii  sine  mucrone."  The  Celts 
of  Gaul  are  stated  by  Diodorus  Siculus  to  have  used  iron-head- 
ed spears  and  coats- of- mail,  and  the  Gauls  who  encountered 
the  Roman  arms  in  b.c.  222  were  armed  with  soft  iron  swords, 
as  well  as  at  the  time  when  Caesar  conquered  their  country. 
Among  the  Gauls  men  would  lend  money  to  be  repaid  in  the 
next  world,  and,  we  need  not  add,  that  no  Christian  people 
has  yet  reached  that  sublime  height  of  faith ;  they  cultivated 
the  ground,  built  houses  and  walled  towns,  wove  cloth,  and 
employed  wheeled  vehicles;  they  possessed  nearly  all  the  ce- 
reals and  domestic  animals  we  have,  and  they  wrought  in 
iron,  bronze,  and  steel.  The  Gauls  had  even  invented  a  ma- 
chine on  wheels  to  cut  their  grain,  thus  anticipating  our  reap- 
ers and  mowers  by  two  thousand  years.  The  difference  be- 
tween the  civilization  of  the  Romans  under  Julius  Caesar  and 


CIVILIZATION  AN  INHERITANCE.  135 

the  Gauls  under  Vercingetorix  was  a  difference  in  degree  and 
not  in  kind.  The  Roman  civilization  was  simply  a  develop- 
ment and  perfection  of  the  civilization  possessed  by  all  the 
European  populations;  it  was  drawn  from  the  common  foun- 
tain of  Atlantis. 

If  we  find  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  precisely  the  same 
arts,  sciences,  religious  beliefs,  habits,  customs,  and  traditions, 
it  is  absurd  to  say  that  the  peoples  of  the  two  continents  ar- 
rived separately,  by  precisely  the  same  steps,  at  precisely  the 
same  ends.  When  we  consider  the  resemblance  of  the  civ- 
ilizations of  the  Mediterranean  nations  to  one  another,  no 
man  is  silly  enough  to  pretend  that  Rome,  Greece,  Egypt,  As- 
syria, Phoenicia,  each  spontaneously  and  separately  invented 
the  arts,  sciences,  habits,  and  opinions  in  which  they  agreed ; 
but  we  proceed  to  trace  out  the  thread  of  descent  or  connec- 
tion from  one  to  another.  Why  should  a  rule  of  interpreta- 
tion prevail,  as  between  the  two  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  different 
from  that  which  holds  good  as  to  the  two  sides  of  the  Medi- 
terranean Sea?  If,  in  the  one  case,  similarity  of  origin  has  un- 
questionably produced  similarity  of  arts,  customs,  and  condi- 
tion, why,  in  the  other,  should  not  similarity  of  arts,  customs, 
and  condition  prove  similarity  of  origin?  Is  there  any  in- 
stance in  the  world  of  two  peoples,  without  knowledge  of  or 
intercourse  with  each  other,  happening  upon  the  same  inven- 
tion, whether  that  invention  be  an  arrow-head  or  a  steam-en- 
gine? If  it  required  of  mankind  a  lapse  of  at  least  six  thou- 
sand years  before  it  began  anew  the  work  of  invention,  and 
took  up  the  thread  of  original  thought  where  Atlantis  dropped 
it,  what  probability  is  there  of  three  or  four  separate  nations 
all  advancing  at  the  same  speed  to  precisely  the  same  arts  and 
opinions  ?     The  proposition  is  untenable. 

If,  then,  we  prove  that,  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  civiliza- 
tions were  found  substantially  identical,  we  have  demonstrated 
that  they  must  have  descended  o'ne  from  the  other,  or  have 
radiated  from  some  common  source. 


136  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 


Chapter  II. 

THE  IDENTITY  OF  THE  CIVILIZATIONS  OF  THE  OLD 
WORLD  AND    THE  NEW. 

Architecture. — Plato  tells  us  that  the  Atlanteans  possessed 
architecture ;  that  they  built  walls,  temples,  and  palaces. 

We  need  not  add  that  this  art  was  found  in  Egypt  and  all 
the  civilized  countries  of  Europe,  as  well  as  in  Peru,  Mexico, 
and  Central  America.  Among  both  the  Peruvians  and  Egyp- 
tians the  walls  receded  inward,  and  the  doors  were  narrower  at 
the  top  than  at  the  threshold. 

The  obelisks  of  Egypt,  covered  with  hieroglyphics,  are  paral- 
leled by  the  round  columns  of  Central  America,  and  both  are 
supposed  to  have  originated  in  Phallus-worship.  "  The  usual 
symbol  of  the  Phallus  was  an  erect  stone,  often  in  its  rough 
state,  sometimes  sculptured."  (Squier,  "  Serpent  Symbol,"  p. 
49  ;  Bancroft's  "  Native  Races,"  vol.  iii.,  p.  504.)  The  worship 
of  Priapus  was  found  in  Asia,  Egypt,  along  the  European  shore 
of  the  Mediterranean,  and  in  the  forests  of  Central  America. 

The  mounds  of  Europe  and  Asia  were  made  in  the  same 
way  and  for  the  same  purposes  as  those  of  America.  Herod- 
otus describes  the  burial  of  a  Scythian  king;  he  says,  "After 
this  they  set  to  work  to  raise  a  vast  moand  above  the  grave, 
all  of  them  vying  with  each  other,  and  seeking  to  make  it  as 
tall  as  possible."  "It  must  be  confessed,"  says  Foster  ("Pre- 
historic Races,"  p.  193),  "that  these  Scythic  burial  rites  have 
a  strong  resemblance  to  those  of  the  Mound  Builders."  Ho- 
mer describes  the  erection  of  a  great  symmetrical  mound  over 
Achilles,  also  one  over  Hector.     Alexander  the  Great  raised  a 


pipiiiliii 

Mil        '! 


CIVILIZATIONS  OF  THE  OLD  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW.    139 

great  raound  over  his  friend  nepha3stion,  at  a  cost  of  more 
than  a  million  dollars;  and  Semiramis  raised  a  similar  mound 
over  her  husband.  The  pyramids  of  Egypt,  Assyria,  and  Phoe-* 
nicia  had  their  duplicates  in  Mexico  and  Central  America. 

The  grave-cists  made  of  stone  of  the  American  mounds  are 
exactly  like  the  stone  chests,  or  kistvaen  for  the  dead,  found 


OAEVINO   ON   TUB   BTTDDQIST  TOWER,  SABNATU,  INDIA. 

in  the  British  mounds.  (Foster's  "  Prehistoric  Races,"  p.  109.) 
Tumuli  have  been  found  in  Yorkshire  enclosing  wooden  cof- 
fins, precisely  as  in  the  mounds  of  the  Mississippi  Valley. 
(Ibid.,  p.  185.)  The  articles  associated  with  the  dead  are  the 
same  in  both  continents  :  arms,  trinkets,  food,  clothes,  and 
funeral  urns.     In  both  the  Mississippi  Valley  and  among  the 


140  ATLASTLS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 

Chaldeans  vases  were  constructed  around  the  bones,  the  neck 
of  tlie  vase  being  too  small  to  permit  the  extraction  of  the 
skull.     (Foster's  "  Prehistoric  Races,"  p.  200.) 

The  use  of  cement  was  known  alike  to  the  European  and 
American  nations. 

The  use  of  the  arch  was  known  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic. 

The  manufacture  of  bricks  was  -known  in  both  the  Old  and 
New  Worlds. 

The  style  of  ornamentation  in  architecture  was  much  the 
same  on  both  hemispheres,  as  shown  in  the  preceding  designs, 
pages  137,  139. 

Metallurgy. — The  Atlanteans  mined  ores,  and  worked  in 
metals;  they  used  copper,  tin,  bronze,  gold,  and  silver,  and 
probably  iron. 

The  American  nations  possessed  all  these  metals.  The  age 
of  bronze,  or  of  copper  combined  with  tin,  was  preceded  in 
America,  and  nowhere  else,  by  a  simpler  age  of  copper;  and, 
therefore,  the  working  of  metals  probably  originated  in  Amer- 
ica, or  in  some  region  to  which  it  was  tributary.  The  Mexi- 
cans manufactured  bronze,  and  the  Incas  mined  iron  near  Lake 
Titicaca;  and  the  civilization  of  this  latter*  region,  as  we  will 
show,  probably  dated  back  to  Atlantean  times.  The  Peruvians 
called  gold  the  tears  of  the  sun :  it  was  sacred  to  the  sun,  as 
silver  was  to  the  moon. 

Sculpture. — The  Atlanteans  possessed  this  art;  so  did  the 
American  and  Mediterranean  nations. 

Dr.  Arthur  Schott  ("Smith.  Rep.,"  1869,  p.  391),  in  describ- 
ing the  "  Cara  Gigantesca,"  or  gigantic  face,  a  monument  of 
Yzamal,  in  Yucatan,  says,  "Behind  and  on  both  sides,  from 
under  the  mitre,  a  short  veil  falls  upon  the  shoulders,  so  as  to 
protect  the  back  of  the  head  and  the  neck.  This  particular 
appendage  vividly  calls  to  mind  the  same  feature  in  the  sym- 
bolic adornments  of  Egyptian  and  Hindoo  priests,  and  even 
those  of  the  Hebrew  hierarchy."  Dr.  Schott  sees  in  the  orbic- 
ular wheel-like  plates  of  this  statue  the  wheel  symbol  of  Kronos 


CIVILIZATIONS  OF  THE  OLD  WOULD  AND  THE  NEW.    141 

and  Saturn ;  and,  in  turn,  it  may  be  supposed  that  the  wheel 
of  Kronos  was  simply  the  cross  of  Atlantis,  surrounded  by  its 
encircling  ring*. 

Painting. — This  art  was  known  on  both  sides  of  the  Athm- 
tic.  The  paintings  upon  the  walls  of  some  of  the  temples  of 
Central  America  reveal  a  state  of  the  art  as  high  as  that  of 
Egypt. 

Engraving. — Plato  tells  us  that  the  Atlanteans  engraved 
upon  pillars.  The  American  nations  also  had  this  art  in  com- 
mon with  Egypt,  Phoenicia,  and  Assyria. 

Agriculture. — The  people  of  Atlantis  were  pre-eminently  an 
agricultural  people ;  so  were  the  civilized  nations  of  America 
and  the  Egyptians.  In  Egypt  the  king  put  his  hand  to  the 
plough  at  ah  annual  festival,  thus  dignifying  and  consecrating 
the  occupation  of  husbandry.  In  Peru  precisely  the  same  cus- 
tom prevailed.  In  both  the  plough  was  known ;  in  Egypt  it 
was  drawn  by  oxen,  and  in  Peru  by  men.  It  was  drawn  by 
men  in  the  North  of  Europe  down  to  a  comparatively  recent 
period. 

Public  Works. — The  American  nations  built  public  works  as 
great  as  or  greater  than  any  known  in  Europe.  The  Peruvians 
had  public  roads,  one  thousand  five  hundred  to  two  thousand 
miles  long,  made  so  thoroughly  as  to  elicit  the  astonishment 
of  the  Spaniards.  At  every  few  miles  taverns  or  hotels  were 
established  for  the  accommodation  of  travellers.  Humboldt 
pronounced  these  Peruvian  roads  "among  the  most  useful  and 
stupendous  works  ever  executed  by  man."  They  built  aque- 
ducts for  purposes  of  irrigation  some  "of  which  were  five  hun- 
drjed  miles  long.  They  constructed  magnificent  bridges  of 
stone,  and  had  even  invented  suspension  bridges  thousands  of 
years  before  they  were  introduced  into  Europe.  They  had, 
both  in  Peru  and  Mexico,  a  system  of  posts,  by  means  of 
which  news  was  transmitted  hundreds  of  miles  in  a  day,  pre- 
cisely like  those  known  among  the  Persians  in  the  time  of 
Herodotus,   and   subsequently   among   the    Romans.      Stones 


142 


ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 


similar  to  mile -stones  were  placed  along  the  roads  in  Peru. 
(See  Prescott's  "  Peru.") 

Navigation. — Sailing  vessels  were  known  to  the  Peruvians 
and  the  Central  Americans.  Columbus  met,  in  1502,  at  an 
island  near  Honduras,  a  party  of  the  Mayas  in  a  large  vessel, 
equipped  with  sails,  and  loaded  with  a  variety  of  textile  fabrics 
of  divers  colors. 

Manufactures. — The  American  nations  manufactured  wool- 
len and  cotton  goods;  they  made  pottery  as  beautiful  as  the 


ANOIENT    lElSU    VAtJE   OF   TUE   BRO:<ZE   AQB. 


wares  of  Egypt ;  they  manufactured  glass ;  they  engraved 
gems  and  precious  stones.  The  Peruvians  had  such  immense 
numbers  of  vessels  and  ornaments  of  gold  that  the  Inca  paid 
with  them  a  ransom  for  himself  to  Pizarro  of  the  value  of 
fifteen  million  dollars. 

Music. — It  has  been  pointed  out  that  there  is  great  resem- 
blance between  the  five-toned  music  of  the  Iliirhland  Scotch 


CIVILIZATIONS  OF  THE  OLD  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW.    143 


and  that  of  the  Chinese  and  other  Eastern  nations.     ("Anthro- 
pology," p.  292.) 

Weapons. — The  weapons  of  the  New  World  were  identically 
the  sarae  as  those  of  the  Old  World;  they  consisted  of  bows 
and  arrows,  spears,  darts, 
short  swords,  battle  -  axes, 
and  slings;  and  both  peo- 
ples used  shields  or  buck- 
lers, and  casques  of  wood  or 
hide  covered  with  metal.  If 
these  weapons  had  been  de- 
rived from  separate  sources 
of  invention,  one  country 
or  the  other  would  have 
possessed  implements  not 
known  to  the  other,  like  the 
blow -pipe,  the  boomerang, 
etc.  Absolute  identity  in  so 
many  weapons  strongly  ar- 
gues identity  of  origin. 

Religion. — The  religion  of  the  Atlanteans,  as  Plato  tells  us, 
was  pure  and  simple;  they  made  no  regular  sacrifices  but 
fruits  and  flowers;  they  worshipped  the  sun. 

In  Peru  a  single  deity  was  worshipped,  and  the  sun,  his  most 
glorious  work,  was  honored  as  his  representative.  Quetzalco- 
atl,  the  founder  of  the  Aztecs,  condenmed  all  sacrifice  but  that 
of  fruits  and  flowers.  The  first  religion  of  Egypt  was  pure 
and  simple;  its  sacrifices  were  fruits  and  flowers;  temples  were 
erected  to  the  sun,  Ra,  throughout  Egypt.  In  Peru  the  great 
festival  of  the  sun  was  called  Ra-va\.  The  Phoenicians  wor- 
shipped Baal  and  Moloch ;  the  one  represented  the  beneficent, 
and  the  other  the  injurious  powers  of  the  sun. 

Religious  Beliefs. — The  Guanchcs  of  the  Canary  Islands,  who 
were  probably  a  fragment  of  the  old  Atlantean  population, 
believed  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul  and  the  resurrection  of 


ANCIENT  VASE  FBOM  TUB  MOUNDS  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES. 


144  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

tlie  body,  and  preserved  their  dead  as  mnmiiiies.  The  Eg-yp- 
tians  believed  in  the  immortality  of  the  sonl  and  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  body,  and  preserved  the  bodies  of  the  dead  by  em- 
balming them.  The  Peruvians  believed  in  the  immortality  of 
the  soul  and  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  and  they  too  pre- 
served the  bodies  of  their  dead  by  embalming  them.  "A  few 
mummies  in  remarkable  preservation  have  been  found  among 
the  Chinooks  and  Flatheads."  (Schoolcraft,  vol.  v.,  p.  693.) 
The  embalmment  of  the  body  was  also  practised  in  Central 
x\merica  and  among  the  Aztecs.  The  Aztecs,  like  the  Egyp- 
tians, mummified  their  dead  by  taking  out  the  bowels  and  re- 
placing them  with  aromatic  substances.  (Dorman,  "Origin 
Prim.  Superst.,"  p.  173.)  The  bodies  of  the  kings  of  the  Vir- 
ginia Indians  were  preserved  by  embalming.     (Beverly,  p.  47.) 

Here  are  different  races,  separated  by  immense  distances  of 
land  and  ocean,  uniting  in  the  same  beliefs,  and  in  the  same 
practical  and  logical  application  of  those  beliefs. 

The  use  of  confession  and  penance  was  known  in  the  re- 
ligious ceremonies  of  some  of  the  American  nations.  Baptism 
was  a  religious  ceremony  with  them,  and  the  bodies  of  the  dead 
were  sprinkled  with  water. 

Vestal  virgins  were  found  in  organized  communities  on  both 
sides  of  the  Atlantic ;  they  were  in  each  case  pledged  to  celi- 
bacy, and  devoted  to  death  if  they  violated  their  vows.  In 
both  hemispheres  the  recreant  were  destroyed  by  being  buried 
alive.  The  Peruvians,  Mexicans,  Central  Americans,  Egyp- 
tians, Phoenicians,  and  Hebrews  each  had  a  powerful  heredi- 
tary priesthood. 

The  Phoenicians  believed  in  an  evil  spirit  called  Zebub ;  the 
Peruvians  had  a  devil  called  Cupay.  The  Peruvians  burnt  in- 
cense in  their  temples.  The  Peruvians,  when  they  sacrificed 
animals,  examined  their  entrails,  and  from  these  prognosticated 
the  future. 

I  need  not  add  that  all  these  nations  preserved  traditions  of 
the  Deluge ;  and  all  of  them  possessed  systems  of  writing. 


i 


CIVILIZATIONS  OF  THE  OLD  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW.    145 

The  Egyptian  priest  of  Sais  told  Solon  that  the  myth  of 
Phaethon,  the  son  of  Helios,  having  attempted  to  drive  the 
chariot  of  the  sun,  and  thereby  burning  up  the  earth,  referred 
to  "  a  declination  of  the  bodies  moving  round  the  earth  and  in 
the  heavens"  "(comets),  which  caused  a  "great  conflagration 
upon  the  earth,"  from  which  those  only  escaped  who  lived 
near  rivers  and  seas.  The  "  Codex  Chimalpopoca  " — a  Nahua, 
Central. American  record  —  tells  us  that  the  third  era  of  the 
world,  or  "  third  sun,"  is  called  Quia  Tonatiuh,  or  sun  of  rain, 
"  because  in  this  age  there  fell  a  rain  of  fire,  all  which  existed 
burned,  and  there  fell  a  rain  of  gravel;"  the  rocks  "boiled 
with  tumult,  and  there  also  arose  the  rocks  of  vermilion  col- 
or." In  other  words,  the  traditions  of  these  people  go  back  to 
a  great  cataclysm  of  fire,  when  the  earth  possibly  encountered, 
as  in  the  Egyptian  story,  one  of  "  the  bodies  moving  round  the 
earth  and  in  the  heavens;"  they  had  also  memories  of  "the 
Drift  Period,"  and  of  the  outburst  of  Plutonic  rocks.  If  man 
has  existed  on  the  earth  as  long  as  science  asserts,  he  must 
have  passed  through  many  of  the  great  catastrophes  which  are 
written  upon  the  face  of  the  planet;  and  it  is  very  natural  that 
in  myths  and  legends  he  should  preserve  some  recollection  of 
events  so  appalling  and  destructive. 

Among  the  early  Greeks  Pan  was  the  ancient  god ;  his  wife 
was  Maia.  The  Abbe  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg  calls  attention  to 
the  fact  that  Pan  was  adored  in  all  parts  of  Mexico  and  Central 
America ;  and  at  Panuco,  or  Panca,  literally  Panopolis,  the 
Spaniards  found,  upon  their  entrance  into  Mexico,  superb  tem- 
ples and  images  of  Pan.  (Brasseur's  Introduction  in  Landa's 
"  Relacion.")  The  names  of  both  Pan  and  Maya  enter  exten- 
sively into  the  Maya  vocabulary,  Maia  being  the  same  as  Maya, 
the  principal  name  of  the  peninsula ;  and  paii,  added  to  Mat/a, 
makes  the  name  of  the  ancient  capital  Mayapan.  In  the  Nahua 
language  pan,  or  pani,  signifies  "equality  to  that  which  is 
above,"  andPentecatl  was  the  progenitor  of  all  beings.  ("North 
Americans  of  Antiquitv,"  p.  467.) 

7 


146  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

The  ancient  Mexicans  believed  that  the  sun-god  would  de- 
stroy the  world  in  the  last  night  of  the  fifty-second  year,  and 
that  he  would  never  come  back.  They  offered  sacrifices  to 
him  at  that  time  to  propitiate  him  ;  they  extinguished  all  the 
fires  in  the  kingdom ;  they  broke  all  their  household  furni- 
ture ;  they  hung  black  masks  before  their  faces ;  they  prayed 
and  fasted ;  and  on  the  evening  of  the  last  night  they  formed 
a  great  procession  to  a  neighboring  mountain.  A  human  be- 
ing was  sacrificed  exactly  at  midnight;  a  block  of  wood  was 
laid  at  once  on  the  body,  and  fire  was  then  produced  by  rapid- 
ly revolving  another  piece  of  wood  upon  it ;  a  spark  was  car- 
ried to  a  funeral  pile,  whose  rising  flame  proclaimed  to  the 
anxious  people  the  promise  of  the  god  not  to  destroy  the  world 
for  another  fifty -two  years.  Precisely  the  same  custom  ob- 
tained among  the  nations  of  Asia  Minor  and  other  parts  of  the 
continent  of  Asia,  wherever  sun-worship  prevailed,  at  the  peri- 
odical reproduction  of  the  sacred  fire,  but  not  with  the  same 
bloody  rites  as  in  Mexico.  (Valentin!,  "  Maya  Archaeology," 
p.  21.) 

To  this  day  the  Brahman  of  India  "churns"  his  sacred  fire 
out  of  a  board  by  boring  into  it  with  a  stick ;  the  Romans  re- 
newed their  sacred  fire  in  the  same  way ;  and  in  Sweden  even 
now  a  "need-fire  is  kindled  in  this  manner  when  cholera  or 
other  pestilence  is  about."     (Tylor's  "Anthropology,"  p.  262.) 

A  belief  in  ghosts  is  found  on  both  continents.  The  Amer- 
ican Indians  think  that  the  spirits  of  the  dead  Main  the  form 
and  features  which  they  wore  while  living;  that  there  is  a  hell 
and  a  heaven ;  that  hell  is  below  the  earth,  and  heaven  above 
the  clouds ;  that  the  souls  of  the  wicked  sometimes  wander  the 
face  of  the  earth,  appearing  occasionally  to  mortals.  The  story 
of  Tantalus  is  found  among  the  Chippewayans,  who  believed 
that  bad  souls  stand  up  to  their  chins  in  water  in  sight  of  the 
spirit-land,  which  they  can  never  enter.  The  dead  passed  to 
heaven  across  a  stream  of  water  by  means  of  a  narrow  and  slip- 
pery bridge,  from  which  many  were  lost.     The  Zunis  set  apart 


CIVILIZATIONS  OF  THE  OLD  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW.    147 

a  day  in  each  year  which  they  spent  among  the  graves  of  their 
dead,  communing  with  their  spirits,  and  bringing  them  presents 
— a  kind  of  All-souls-day.  (Dorman,  "  Prim.  Superst.,"  p.  35.) 
The  Stygian  flood,  and  Scylla  and  Charybdis,  are  found  among 
the  legends  of  the  Caribs.  {Ibid.,  p.  37.)  Even  the  boat  of 
Charon  reappears  in  the  traditions  of  the  Chippewayans. 

The  Oriental  belief  in  the  transmigration  of  souls  is  found 
in  every  American  tribe.  The  souls  of  men  passed  into  ani- 
mals or  other  men.  (Schoolcraft,  vol.  i.,  p.  33.)  The  souls  of 
the  wicked  passed  into  toads  and  wild  beasts.  (Dorman, 
"Prim.  Superst.,"  p.  50.) 

Among  both  the  Germans  and  the  American  Indians  lycan- 
thropy,  or  the  metamorphosis  of  men  into  wolves,  was  believed 
in.  In  British  Columbia  the  men-wolves  have  often  been  seen 
seated  around  a  fire,  with  their  wolf-hides  hung  upon  sticks  to 
dry !  The  Irish  legend  of  hunters  pursuing  an  animal  which 
suddenly  disappears,  whereupon  a  human  being  appears  in  its 
place,  is  found  among  all  the  American  tribes. 

That  timid  and  harmless  animal,  the  hare,  was,  singularly 
enough,  an  object  of  superstitious  reverence  and  fear  in  Eu- 
rope, Asia,  and  America.  The  ancient  Irish  killed  all  the  hares 
they  found  on  May-day  among  their  cattle,  believing  them  to 
be  witches.  Caesar  gives  an  account  of  the  horror  in  which 
this  animal  was  held  by  the  Britons.  The  Calmucks  regarded 
the  rabbit  with  fear  and  reverence.  Divine  honors  were  paid 
to  the  hare  in  Mexico.  Wabasso  was  changed  into  a  white 
rabbit,  and  canonized  in  that  form. 

The  white  bull.  Apis,  of  the  Egyptians,  reappears  in  the  sa- 
cred white  buffalo  of  the  Dakotas,  which  was  supposed  to  pos- 
sess supernatural  power,  and  after  death  became  a  god.  The 
white  doe  of  European  legend  had  its  representative  in  the 
white  deer  of  the  Housatonic  Valley,  whose  death  brought 
misery  to  the  tribe.  The  transmission  of  spirits  by  the  laying 
on  of  hands,  and  the  exorcism  of  demons,  were  part  of  the  re- 
iio:ion  of  the  American  tribes. 


148  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

The  witches  of  Scandinavia,  who  produced  tempests  by  their 
incantations,  are  duplicated  in  America.  A  Cree  sorcerer  sold 
three  days  of  fair  weather  for  one  pound  of  tobacco !  The  In- 
dian sorcerers  around  Freshwater  Bay  kept  the  winds  in  leather 
bags,  and  disposed  of  them  as  they  pleased. 

Among  the  American  Indians  it  is  believed  that  those  who 
are  insane  or  epileptic  are  "  possessed  of  devils."  (Tylor, 
"Prim.  Cult.,"  vol.  ii.,  pp.  123-126.)  Sickness  is  caused  by  evil 
spirits  entering  into  the  sick  person.  (Eastman's  "Sioux.") 
The  spirits  of  animals  are  much  feared,  and  their  departure  out 
of  the  body  of  the  invalid  is  a  cause  of  thanksgiving.  Thus  an 
Omaha,  after  an  eructation,  says,  "  Thank  you,  animal."  (Dor- 
man,  "Prim.  Superst.,"  p.  55.)  The  confession  of  their  sins 
was  with  a  view  to  satisfy  the  evil  spirit  and  induce  him  to 
leave  them.     (Ibid.,  p.  57.) 

In  both  continents  burnt- offerings  were  sacrificed  to  the 
gods.  In  both  continents  the  priests  divined  the  future  from 
the  condition  of  the  internal  organs  of  the  man  or  animal  sac- 
rificed. (Ibid.,  pp.  214,  226.)  In  both  continents  the  future 
was  revealed  by  the  flight  of  birds  and  by  dreams.  In  Peru 
and  Mexico  there  were  colleges  of  augurs,  as  in  Rome,  who 
practised  divination  by  watching  the  movements  and  songs  of 
birds.     (Ibid.,  p.  261.) 

Animals  were  worshipped  in  Central  America  and  on  the 
banks  of  the  Nile.     (Ibid.,  p.  259.) 

The  Ojibbevvays  believed  that  the  barking  of  a  fox  was 
ominous  of  ill.  (Ibid.,  p.  225).  The  peasantry  of  Western 
Europe  have  the  same  belief  as  to  the  howling  of  a  dog. 

The  belief  in  satyrs,  and  other  creatures  half  man  and  half 
animal,  survived  in  America.  The  Kickapoos  are  Darwini- 
ans. "They  think  their  ancestors  had  tails,  and  when  they 
lost  them  the  impudent  fox  sent  every  morning  to  ask  how 
their  tails  were,  and  the  bear  shook  his  fat  sides  at  the  joke." 
(Ibid.,  p.  232.)  Among  the  natives  of  Brazil  the  father  cut 
a  stick  at  the  wedding  of  his  daughter;  "this  was  done  to 


CIVILIZATIONS  OF  THE  OLD  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW.    149 

cut  off  the  tails  of  any  future  grandchildren."  (Tylor,  vol.  i., 
p.  384.) 

Jove,  with  the  thunder-bolts  in  his  hand,  is  duplicated  in  the 
Mexican  god  of  thunder,  Mixcoatl,  who  is  represented  holding 
a  bundle  of  arrows.  "  He  rode  upon  a  tornado,  and  scattered 
the  lightnings."     (Dorman,  "  Prim.  Superst.,"  p.  98.) 

Dionysus,  or  Bacchus,  is  represented  by  the  Mexican  god 
Texcatzoncatl,  the  god  of  wine.     (Bancroft,  vol.  iii.,  p.  418.) 

Atlas  reappears  in  Chibchacum,  the  deity  of  the  Chibchas ; 
he  bears  the  world  on  his  shoulders,  and  when  he  shifts  the 
burden  from  one  shoulder  to  another  severe  earthquakes  are 
produced.     (Bollsert,  pp.  12, 13.) 

Deucalion  repeopling  the  world  is  repeated  in  Xololt,  who, 
after  the  destruction  of  the  world,  descended  to  Mictlan,  the 
realm  of  the  dead,  and  brought  thence  a  bone  of  the  perished 
race.  This,  sprinkled  with  blood,  grew  into  a  youth,  the  fa- 
ther of  the  present  race.  The  Quiche  hero-gods,  Hunaphu  and 
Xblanque,  died  ;  their  bodies  were  burnt,  their  bones  ground  to 
powder  and  thrown  into  the  waters,  whereupon  they  changed 
into  handsome  youths,  with  the  same  features  as  before.  (Dor- 
man,  "  Prim.  Superst.,"  p.  193.) 

Witches  and  warlocks,  mermaids  and  mermen,  are  part  of 
the  mythology  of  the  American  tribes,  as  they  were  of  the 
European  races.  (Ibid.,  p.  79.)  The  mermaid  of  the  Ottawas 
was  "  woman  to  the  waist  and  fair ;"  thence  fish-like.  (Ibid., 
p.  278.) 

The  snake -locks  of  Medusa  are  represented  in  the  snake- 
locks  of  At-otarho,  an  ancient  culture-hero  of  the  Iroquois. 

A  belief  in  the  incarnation  of  gods  in  men,  and  the  physical 
translation  of  heroes  to  heaven,  is  part  of  the  mythology  of  the 
Hindoos  and  the  American  races.  Hiawatha,  we  are  told,  rose 
to  heaven  in  the  presence  of  the  multitude,  and  vanished  from 
sight  in  the  midst  of  sweet  music. 

The  vocal  statues  and  oracles  of  Egypt  and  Greece  were 
duplicated  in  America.     In  Peru,  in  the  valley  of  Rimac,  there 


150  ATLANTliS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

was  an  idol  which  answered  questions  and  became  famous  as 
an  oracle.       (Dorman,  "Prim.  Superst,"  p.  124.) 

The  Peruvians  believed  that  men  were  sometimes  metamor- 
phosed into  stones. 

The  Oneidas  claimed  descent  from  a  stone,  as  the  Greeks 
from  the  stones  of  Deucalion.     {Ibid.,  p.  132.) 

Witchcraft  is  an  article  of  faith  among  all  the  American 
races.  Among  the  Illinois  Indians  "  they  made  small  images 
to  represent  those  whose  days  they  have  a  mind  to  shorten, 
and  which  they  stab  to  the  heart,"  whereupon  the  person  rep- 
resented is  expected  to  die.  (Charlevoix,  vol.  ii.,  p.  166.)  The 
witches  of  Europe  made  figures  of  w^ax  of  their  enemies,  and 
gradually  melted  them  at  the  fire,  and  ^&  they  diminished  the 
victim  was  supposed  to  sicken  and  die. 

A  writer  in  the  Popular  Science  Monthly  (April,  1881,  p. 
828)  points  out  the  fact  that  there  is  an  absolute  identity  be- 
tween the  folk-lore  of  the  negroes  on  the  plantations  of  the 
South  and  the  myths  and  stories  of  certain  tribes  of  Indians  in 
South  America,  as  revealed  by  Mr.  Herbert  Smith's  "  Brazil, 
the  Amazons,  and  the  Coast."  (New  York:  Scribner,  1879.) 
Mr.  Harris,  the  author  of  a  work  on  the  folk-lore  of  the  ne- 
groes, asks  this  question,  "When  did  the  negro  or  the  North 
American  Indian  come  in  contact  with  the  tribes  of  South 
America  ?" 

Customs. — Both  peoples  manufactured  a  fermented,  intoxi- 
cating drink,  the  one  deriving  it  from  barley,  the  other  from 
maize.  Both  drank  toasts.  Both  had  the  institution  of  mar- 
riage, an  important  part  of  the  ceremony  consisting  in  the  join- 
ing of  hands ;  both  recognized  divorce,  and  the  Peruvians  and 
Mexicans  established  special  courts  to  decide  cases  of  this  kind. 
Both  the  Americans  and  Europeans  erected  arches,  and  had 
triumphal  processions  for  their  victorious  kings,  and  both 
strewed  the  ground  before  them  with  leaves  and  flowers. 
Both  celebrated  important  events  with  bonfires  and  illumina- 
tions; both  used  banners;  both  invoked  blessings.     The  Ph(je- 


CIVILIZATIONS  OF  THE  OLD  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW.    151 

iiiciaiis,  Hebrews,  and  Egyptians  practised  circumcision.  Pala- 
cio  relates  that  at  Azori,  in  Honduras,  the  natives  circumcised 
boys  before  an  idol  called  Icelca.  ("  Carta,"  p.  84.)  Lord 
Kingsborouo'h  tells  us  the  Central  Americans  used  the  same 
rite,  and  McKenzie  (quoted  by  Retzius)  says  he  saw  the  cere- 
mony performed  by  the  Chippeways.  Both  had  bards  and 
minstrels,  who  on  great  festivals  sung  the  deeds  of  kings  and 
heroes.  Both  the  Egyptians  and  the  Peruvians  held  agricultu- 
ral fairs ;  both  took  a  census  of  the  people.  Among  both  the 
land  was  divided  per  capita  among  the  people ;  in  Judea  a  new 
division  was  made  every  fifty  years.  The  Peruvians  renewed 
every  year  all  the  fires  of  the  kingdom  from  the  Temple  of  the 
Sun,  the  new  fire  being  kindled  from  concave  mirrors  by  the 
sun's  rays.  The  Romans  under  Numa  had  precisely  the  same 
custom.  The  Peruvians  had  theatrical  plays.  They  chewed 
the  leaves  of  the  cucu  mixed  with  lime,  as  the  Hindoo  to-day 
chews  the  leaves  of  the  betel  mixed  with  lime.  Both  the 
American  and  European  nations  were  divided  into  castes;  both 
practised  planet -worship;  both  used  scales  and  weights  and 
mirrors.  The  Peruvians,  Egyptians,  and  Chaldeans  divided  the 
year  into  twelve  months,  and  the  months  into  lesser  divisions 
of  weeks.  Both  inserted  additional  days,  so  as  to  give  the 
year  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  days.  The  Mexicans  added 
five  intercalary  days ;  and  the  Egyptians,  in  the  time  of  Amu- 
noph  I.,  had  already  the  same  practice. 

Humboldt,  whose  high  authority  cannot  be  questioned,  by 
an  elaborate  discussion  ("  Vues  des  Cordilleras,"  p.  148  et  seq.j 
ed.  1870),  has  shown  the  relative  likeness  of  the  Nahua  calen- 
dar to  that  of  Asia.  He  cites  the  fact  that  the  Chinese,  Jap- 
anese, Calmucks,  Mongols,  Mantchou,  and  other  hordes  of  Tar- 
tars have  cycles  of  sixty  years'  duration,  divided  into  five  brief 
periods  of  twelve  years  each.  The  method  of  citing  a  date  by 
means  of  signs  and  numbers  is  quite  similar  with  Asiatics  and 
Mexicans.  He  further  shows  satisfactorily  that  the  majority 
of  the  names  of  the  twenty  days  employed  by  the  Aztecs  are 


152  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

those  of  a  zodiac  used  since  the  most  remote  antiquity  among 
the  peoples  of  Eastern  Asia. 

Cabera  thinks  he  finds  analogies  between  the  Mexican  and 
Egyptian  calendars.  Adopting  the  view  of  several  writers 
that  the  Mexican  year  began  on  the  26th  of  February,  he  finds 
the  date  to  correspond  with  the  beginning  of  the  Egyptian 
year. 

The  American  nations  believed  in  four  great  primeval  ages, 
as  the  Hindoo  does  to  this  day. 

*'In  the  Greeks  of  Homer,"  says  Volney,  "I  find  the  cus- 
toms, discourse,  and  manners  of  the  Iroquois,  Delawares,  and 
Miamis.  The  tragedies  of  Sophocles  and  Euripides  paint  to 
me  almost  literally  the  sentiments  of  the  red  men  respecting 
necessity,  fatality,  the  miseries  of  human  life,  and  the  rigor  of 
blind  destiny."     (Volney's  "  View  of  the  United  States.") 

The  Mexicans  represent  an  eclipse  of  the  moon  as  the  moon 
being  devoured  by  a  dragon ;  and  the  Hindoos  have  precisely 
the  same  figure ;  and  both  nations  continued  to  use  this  expres- 
sion long  after  they  had  discovered  the  real  meaning  of  an 
eclipse. 

The  Tartars  believe  that  if  they  cut  with  an  axe  near  a  fire, 
or  stick  a  knife  into  a  burning  stick,  or  touch  the  fire  with  a 
knife,  they  will  "  cut  the  top  off  the  fire."  The  Sioux  Indians 
will  not  stick  an  awl  or  a  needle  into  a  stick  of  wood  on  the 
fire,  or  chop  on  it  with  an  axe  or  a  knife. 

Cremation  was  extensively  practised  in  the  New  World. 
The  dead  were  burnt,  and  their  ashes  collected  and  placed  in 
vases  and  nrns,  as  in  Europe.  Wooden  statues  of  the  dead 
were  made. 

There  is  a  very  curious  and  apparently  inexplicable  custom, 
called  the  "  Couvade,"  which  extends  from  China  to  the  Mis- 
sissippi Valley ;  it  demands  "  that,  when  a  child  is  born,  the 
father  must  take  to  his  bed,  while  the  mother  attends  to  all 
the  duties  of  the  household."  Marco  Polo  found  the  custom 
among  the  Chinese  in  the  thirteenth  century. 


CIVILIZATIONS  OF  TEE  OLD  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW.    153 

The  widow  tells  Hudibras — 

"Chineses  thus  are  said 
To  lie-in  in  their  ladies'  stead." 

The  practice  remarked  by  Marco  Polo  continues  to  this  day 
among  the  hill-tribes  of  China.  "The  father  of  a  new-born 
child,  as  soon  as  the  mother  has  become  strong  enough  to 
leave  her  couch,  gets  into  bed  himself,  and  there  receives  the 
congratulations  of  his  acquaintances."  (Max  Miiller's  "  Chips 
from  a  German  Workshop,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  2V2.)  Strabo  (vol.  iii., 
pp.  4,  17)  mentions  that,  among  the  Iberians  of  the  North  of 
Spain,  the  women,  after  the  birth  of  a  child,  tend  their  hus- 
bands, putting  them  to  bed  instead  of  going  themselves.  The 
same  custom  existed  among  the  Basques  only  a  few  years  ago. 
"  In  Biscay,"  says  M.  F.  Michel,  "  the  women  rise  immediate- 
ly after  childbirth  and  attend  to  the  duties  of  the  household, 
while  the  husband  goes  to  bed,  taking  the  baby  with  him,  and 
thus  receives  the  neighbors'  compliments."  The  same  custom 
was  found  in  France,  and  is  said  to  exist  to  this  dmj  in  some 
cantons  of  Beam.  Diodorus  Siculus  tells  us  that  among  the 
Corsicans  the  wife  was  neglected,  and  the  husband  put  to 
bed  and  treated  as  the  patient.  Apollonius  Rhodius  says  that 
among  the  Tibereni,  at  the  south  of  the  Black  Sea,  "  when  a 
child  was  born  the  father  lay  groaning,  with  bis  head  tied  up, 
while  the  mother  tended  him  with  food  and  prepared  his 
baths."  The  same  absurd  custom  extends  throughout  the 
tribes  of  North  and  South  America.  Among  the  Caribs  in  the 
West  Indies  (and  the  Caribs,  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg  says,  were 
the  same  as  the  ancient  Carians  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea)  the 
man  takes  to  his  bed  as  soon  as  a  child  is  born,  and  kills  no 
animals.  And  herein  we  find  an  explanation  of  a  custom 
otherwise  inexplicable.  Among  the  American  Indians  it  is 
believed  that,  if  the  father  kills  an  animal  during  the  infancy 
of  the  child,  the  spirit  of  the  animal  will  revenge  itself  by  in- 
flicting some  disease  upon  the  helpless  little  one.  "  For  six 
months  the  Carib  father  must  not  eat  birds  or  fish,  for  what-" 


154  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN   WOULD. 

ever  animals  lie  eats  will  impress  their  likeness  on  the  child, 
or  produce  disease  by  entering  its  body."  (Dorman,  "  Prim. 
Superst.,"  p.  58.)  Among  the  Abipones  the  husband  goes  to 
bed,  fasts  a  number  of  days,  "  and  you  would  think,"  says  Do- 
brizhoffer,  "  that  it  was  he  that  had  had  the  child."  The  Bra- 
zilian father  takes  to  his  hammock  during  and  after  the  birth 
of  the  child,  and  for  fifteen  days  eats  no  meat  and  hunts  no 
game.  Among  the  Esquimaux  the  husbands  forbear  hunting 
during  the  lying-in  of  their  wive^  and  for  some  time  thereafter. 

Here,  then,  we  have  a  very  extraordinary  and  unnatural  cus- 
ton3,  existing  to  this  day  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  reach- 
ing back  to  a  vast  antiquity,  and  finding  its  explanation  only 
in  the  superstition  of  the  American  races.  A  practice  so  ab- 
surd could  scarcely  have  originated  separately  in  the  two  con- 
tinents ;  its  existence  is  a  very  strong  proof  of  unity  of  origin 
of  the  races  on  the  opposite  sides  of  the  Atlantic ;  and  the  fact 
that  the  custom  and  the  reason  for  it  are  both  found  in  Amer- 
ica, while  the  custom  remains  in  Europe  without  the  reason, 
would  imply  that  the  American  population  was  the  older  of 
the  two. 

The  Indian  practice  of  depositing  weapons  and  food  with 
the  dead  was  universal  in  ancient  Europe,  and  in  German  vil- 
lages nowadays  a  needle  and  thread  is  placed  in  the  coffin  for 
the  dead  to  mend  their  torn  clothes  with ;  "  while  all  over  Eu- 
rope the  dead  man  had  a  piece  of  money  put  in  his  hand  to 
pay  his  way  with."     ("Anthropology,"  p.  347.) 

The  American  Indian  leaves  food  with  the  dead;  the  Rus- 
sian peasant  puts  crumbs  of  bread  behind  the  saints'  pictures 
on  the  little  iron  shelf,  and  believes  that  the  souls  of  his  fore- 
fathers creep  in  and  out  and  eat  them.  At  the  cemetery  of 
Pere-la-Ghaise,  Paris,  on  All-souls-day,  they  "  still  put  cakes  and 
sweetmeats  on  the  graves;  and  in  Brittany  the  peasants  that 
night  do  not  forget  to  make  up  the  fire  and  leave  the  frag- 
ments of  the  supper  on  the  table  for  the  souls  of  the  dead." 
(/62C?.,  p.  351.) 


CIVILIZATIONS  OF  THE  OLD  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW.    155 

The  Indian  prays  to  the  spirits  of  his  forefathers;  the 
Chinese  religion  is  largely  "  ancestor- worship ;"  and  the  rites 
paid  to  the  dead  ancestors,  or  lares,  held  the  Roman  family 
together."     ("  Anthropology,"  p.  351.) 

We  find  the  Indian  practice  of  burying  the  dead  in  a  sitting 
posture  in  use  among  the  Nasamonians,  a  tribe  of  Libyans. 
Herodotus,  speaking  of  the  wandering  tribes  of  Northern  Af- 
rica, says,  "  They  bury  their  dead  according  to  the  fashion  of 
the  Greeks.  .  .  .  They  bury  them  sitting,  and  are  right  careful, 
when  the  sick  man  is  at  the*  point  of  giving  up  the  ghost,  to 
make  him  sit,  and  not  let  him  die  lying  down." 

The  dead  bodies  of  the  caciques  of  Bogota  were  protected 
from  desecration  by  diverting  the  course  of  a  river  and  making 
the  grave  in  its  bed,  and  then  letting  the  stream  return  to  its 
natural  course.  Alaric,  the  leader  of  the  Goths,  was  secretly 
buried  in  the  same  way.     (Dorman,  "  Prim.  Superst.,"  p.  195.) 

Among  the  Am.erican  tribes  no  man  is  permitted  to  marry 
a  wife  of  the  same  clan-name  or  totem  as  himself.  In  India 
a  Brahman  is  not  allowed  to  marry  a  wife  whose  clan-name 
(her  "  cow-stall,"  as  they  say)  is  the  same  as  his  own ;  nor  may 
a  Chinaman  take  a  wife  of  his  own  surname.  ("Anthropology," 
p.  403.)  "  Throughout  India  the  hill-tribes  are  divided  into 
septs  or  clans,  and  a  man  may  not  marry  a  woman  belonging 
to  his  own  clan.  The  Calmucks  of  Tartary  are  divided  into 
hordes,  and  a  man  may  not  marry  a  girl  of  his  own  horde. 
The  same  custom  prevails  among  the  Circassians  and  the  Sam- 
oyeds  of  Siberia.  The  Ostyaks  and  Yakuts  regard  it  as  a  crime 
to  marry  a  woman  of  the  same  family,  or  even  of  the  same 
name."     (Sir  John  Lubbock,  "  Smith.  Rep.,"  p.  347,  1869.) 

Sutteeism — the  burning  of  the  widow  upon  the  funeral-pile 
of  the  husband — was  extensively  practised  in  America  (West's 
"Journal,"  p.  141);  as  was  also  the  practice  of  sacrificing 
warriors,  servants,  and  animals  at  the  funeral  of  a  great  chief. 
(Dorman,  pp.  210-211.)  Beautiful  girls  were  sacrificed  to 
appease  the  anger  of  the  gods,  as  among  the  Mediterranean 


156  ATLANTIC:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

races.  (Bancroft,  vol.  iii.,  p.  471.)  Fathers  offered  up  their 
children  for  a  like  purpose,  as  among  the  Carthaginians. 

The  poisoned  arrows  of  America  had  their  representatives 
in  Europe.  Odysseus  went  to  Ephyra  for  the  man -slaying 
drug  with  which  to  smear  his  bronze-tipped  arrows.  (Tylor's 
"Anthropology,"  p.  237.) 

"  The  bark  canoe  of  America  was  not  unknown  in  Asia  and 
Africa"  {Ibid.,  p.  254),  while  the  skin  canoes  of  our  Indians 
and  the  Esquimaux  were  found  pn  the  shores  of  the  Thames 
and  the  Euphrates.  In  Peru  and  on  the  Euphrates  commerce 
was  carried  on  upon  rafts  supported  by  inflated  skins.  They 
are  still  used  on  the  Tigris. 

The  Indian  boils  his  meat  by  dropping  red-hot  stones  into 
a  water- vessel  made  of  hide;  and  Linnaeus  found  the  Both- 
land  people  brewing  beer  in  this  way — "and  to  this  day  the 
rude  Carinthian  boor  drinks  such  stone -beer,  as  it  is  called." 
(Ibid.,  p.  266.) 

In  the  buffalo  dance  of  the  Mandan  Indians  the  dancers  cov- 
ered their  heads  with  a  mask  made  of  the  head  and  horns  of 
the  buffalo.  To-day  in  the  temples  of  India,  or  among  the 
lamas  of  Thibet,  the  priests  dance  the  demons  out,  or  the  new 
year  in,  arrayed  in  animal  masks  (Ibid.,  p.  297);  and  the 
"mummers"  at  Yule-tide,  in  England,  are  a  survival  of  the 
same  custom.  (Ibid.,  p.  298.)  The  North  American  dog  and 
bear  dances,  wherein  the  dancers  acted  the  part  of  those  ani- 
mals, had  their  prototype  in  the  Greek  dances  at  the  festivals 
of  Dionysia.     (Ibid.,  p.  298.) 

Tattooing  was  practised  in  both  continents.  Among  the 
Indians  it  was  fetichistic  in  its  origin ;  "  every  Indian  had  the 
image  of  an  animal  tattooed  on  his  breast  or  arm,  to  charm  away 
evil  spirits."  (Dorman,  "Prim.  Superst.,"  p.  156.)  The  sailors 
of  Europe  and  America  preserve  to  this  day  a  custom  which  was 
once  universal  among  the  ancient  races.  Banners,  flags,  and 
armorial  bearings  arc  supposed  to  be  survivals  of  the  old  to- 
temic  tattooing.     The  Arab  woman  still  tattoos  her  face,  arms, 


CIVILIZATIONS  OF  THE  OLD  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW.    157 

and  ankles.  The  war-paint  of  the  American  savage  reappeared 
in  the  looad  with  which  the  ancient  Briton  stained  his  body ; 
and  Tylor  suggests  that  the  painted  stripes  on  the  circus  clown 
are  a  survival  of  a  custom  once  universal.  (Tylor's  "  Anthro- 
polgy,"p.327.) 

In  America,  as  in  the  Old  World,  the  temples  of  worship 
were  built  over  the  dead.  (Dorman,  "  Prim.  Superst.,"  p.  178.) 
Says  Prudentius,  the  Roman  bard,  "there  were  as  many  tem- 
ples of  gods  as  sepulchres." 

The  Etruscan  belief  that  evil  spirits  strove  for  the  posses- 
sion of  the  dead  was  found  among  the  Mosquito  Indians. 
(Bancroft,  "  Native  Races,"  vol.  i.,  p.  744.) 

The  belief  in  fairies,  which  forms  so  large  a  part  of  the  folk- 
lore of  Western  Europe,  is  found  among  the  American  races. 
The  Ojibbeways  see  thousands  of  fairies  dancing  in  a  sunbeam  ; 
during  a  rain  myriads  of  them  hide  in  the  flowers.  W^hen  dis- 
turbed they  disappear  underground.  They  have  their  dances, 
like  the  Irish  fairies ;  and,  like  them,  they  kill  the  domes- 
tic animals  of  those  who  offend  them.  The  Dakotas  also  be- 
lieve in  fairies.  The  Otoes  located  the  "little  people"  in  a 
mound  at  the  mouth  of  Whitestone  River;  they  were  eighteen 
inches  high,  with  very  large  heads ;  they  were  armed  with 
bows  and  arrows,  and  killed  those  who  approached  their  resi- 
dence. (See  Dorman's  "Origin  of  Primitive  Superstitions," 
p.  23.)  "The  Shoshone  legends  people  the  mountains  of  Mon- 
tana with  little  imps,  called  Nirumbees,  two  feet  long,  naked, 
and  ivith  a  taiiy  They  stole  the  children  of  the  Indians,  and 
left  in  their  stead  the  young  of  their  own  baneful  race,  who 
resembled  the  stolen  children  so  much  that  the  mothers  were 
deceived  and  suckled  them,  whereupon  they  died.  This  great- 
ly resembles  the  European  belief  in  "  changelings."  {Ibid., 
p.  24.) 

In  both  continents  we  find  tree- worship.  In  Mexico  and 
Central  America  cypresses  and  palms  were  planted  near  the 
temples,  generally  in  groiqis  of  threes;  they  were  tended  with 


158  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

great  care,  and  received  offerings  of  incense  and  gifts.  The 
same  custom  prevailed  among  the  Romans — the  cypress  was 
dedicated  to  Pluto,  and  the  palm  to  Victory. 

Not  only  infant  baptism  by  water  was  found  both  in  the 
old  Babylonian  religion  and  among  the  Mexicans,  but  an  of- 
fering of  cakes,  which  is  recorded  by  the  prophet  Jeremiah  as 
part  of  the  worship  of  the  Babylonian  goddess-mother,  "  the 
Queen  of  Heaven,"  was  also  found  in  the  ritual  of  the  Aztecs. 
("Buildersof  Babel,"p.  78.) 

In  Babylonia,  China,  and  Mexico  the  caste  at  the  bottom 
of  the  social  scale  lived  upon  floating  islands  of  reeds  or  rafts, 
covered  with  earth,  on  the  lakes  and  rivers. 

In  Peru  and  Babylonia  marriages  were  made  but  once  a 
year,  at  a  public  festival. 

Among  the  Romans,  the  Chinese,  the  Abyssinians,  and  the 
Indians  of  Canada  the  singular  custom  prevails  of  lifting  the 
bride  over  the  door -step  of  her  husband's  home.  (Sir  John 
Lubbock,  "  Smith.  Rep.,"  1869,  p.  352.) 

"The  bride-cake  which  so  invariably  accompanies  a  wedding 
among  ourselves,  and  which  must  always  be  cut  by  the  bride, 
may  be  traced  back  to  the  old  Roman  form  of  marriage  by 
''  conferreaiio^  or  eating  together.  So,  also,  among  the  Iro- 
quois the  bride  and  bridegroom  used  to  partake  together  of  a 
cake  of  sagamite,  which  the  bride  always  offered  to  her  hus- 
band."    (lUd) 

Among  many  American  tribes,  notably  in  Brazil,  the  hus- 
band captured  the  wife  by  main  force,  as  the  men  of  Benja- 
min carried  off  the  daughters  of  Shiloh  at  the  feast,  and  as  the 
Romans  captured  the  Sabine  women.  "  Within  a  few  gen- 
erations the  same  old  habit  was  kept  up  in  Wales,  where  the 
bridegroom  and  his  friends,  mounted  and  armed  as  for  war, 
carried  off  the  bride;  and  in  Ireland  they  used  even  to  hurl 
spears  at  the  bride's  people,  though  at  such  a  distance  that  no 
one  was  hurt,  except  now  and  then  by  accident — as  happened 
when  one  Lord  Hoath  lost  an  eye,  which  mischance  put  an  end 


CIVILIZATIONS  OF  THE  OLD  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW.    159 

to  this  curious  relic  of  antiquity."  (Tylor's  "Anthropology," 
p.  409.) 

Marriage  iu  Mexico  was  performed  by  the  priest.  He  ex- 
horted them  to  maintain  peace  and  harmony,  and  tied  the 
end  of  the  man's  mantle  to  the  dress  of  the  woman ;  he  per- 
fumed them,  and  placed  on  each  a  shawl  on  which  was  paint- 
ed a  skeleton,  "as  a  symbol  that  only  death  could  now  sep- 
arate them  from  one  another."  (Dorman,  "Prim.  Superst," 
p.  379.) 

The  priesthood  was  thoroughly  organized  in  Mexico  and 
Peru.  They  were  prophets  as  well  as  priests.  "  They  brought 
the  newly-born  infant  into  the  religious  society ;  they  directed 
their  training  and  education ;  they  determined  the  entrance 
of  the  young  men  into  the  service  of  the  state;  they  con- 
secrated marriage  by  their  blessing;  they  comforted  the  sick 
and  assisted  the  dying."  {Ibid.,  p.  374.)  There  were  five 
thousand  priests  in  the  temples  of  Mexico.  They  confessed 
and  absolved  the  sinners,  arranged  the  festivals,  and  man- 
aged the  choirs  in  the  churches.  They  lived  in  conventual 
discipline,  but  were  allow^ed  to  marry ;  they  practised  flagella- 
tion and  fasting,  and  prayed  at  regular  hours.  There  were 
great  preachers  and  exhorters  among  them.  There  were  also 
convents  into  which  females  were  admitted.  The  novice  had 
her  hair  cut  off  and  took  vows  of  celibacy ;  they  lived  holy 
and  pious  lives.  [Ibid.,  pp.  375,  376.)  The  king  was  the  high- 
priest  of  the  religious  orders.  A  new  king  ascended  the  tem- 
ple naked,  except  his  girdle ;  he  was  sprinkled  four  times  with 
water  which  had  been  blessed ;  he  was  then  clothed  in  a  man- 
tle, and  on  his  knees  took  an  oath  to  maintain  the  ancient 
religion.  The  priests  then  instructed  him  in  his  royal  du- 
ties. {Ibid.,  p.  378.)  Besides  the  regular  priesthood  there 
were  monks  who  w^ere  confined  in  cloisters.  {Ibid.,  p.  390.) 
Cortes  says  the  Mexican  priests  were  very  strict  in  the  prac- 
tice of  honesty  and  chastity,  and  any  deviation  was  punished 
with  death.    They  wore  long  white  robes  and  burned  incense. 


160  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

(Dorman,  "  Prim.  Superst.,"  p.  379.)  The  first  fruits  of  the 
earth  were  devoted  to  the  support  of  the  priesthood.  {Ibid., 
p.  383.)  The  priests  of  the  Isthmus  were  sworn  to  perpetual 
chastity. 

The  American  doctors  practised  phlebotomy.  They  bled  the 
sick  man  because  they  believed  the  evil  spirit  which  afflicted 
him  would  come  away  with  the  blood.  In  Europe  phlebot- 
omy continued  to  a  late  period,  but  the  original  superstition 
out  of  which  it  arose,  in  this  case  as  in  many  others,  was  for- 
gotten. 

There  is  opportunity  here  for  the  philosopher  to  meditate 
upon  the  perversity  of  human  nature  and  the  persistence  of 
hereditary  error.  The  superstition  of  one  age  becomes  the 
science  of  another;  men  were  first  bled  to  withdraw  the  evil 
spirit,  then  to  cure  the  disease ;  and  a  practice  whose  origin  is 
lost  in  the  nio-ht  of  ao-es  is  continued  into  the  midst  of  civiliza- 
tion,  and  only  overthrown  after  it  has  sent  millions  of  human 
beings  to  untimely  graves.  Dr.  Sangrado  could  have  found 
the  explanation  of  his  profession  only  among  the  red  men  of 
America. 

Folk-lore. — Says  Max  Miiller:  "Not  only  do  we  find  the 
same  words  and  the  same  terminations  in  Sanscrit  and  Gothic ; 
not  only  do  we  find  the  same  name  for  Zeus  in  Sanscrit,  Latin, 
and  German ;  not  only  is  the  abstract  name  for  God  the  same 
in  India,  Greece,  and  Italy ;  but  these  very  stories,  these 
'  Mahrchen '  which  nurses  still  tell,  with  almost  the  same 
words,  in  the  Thuringian  forest  and  in  the  Norwegian  villages, 
and  to  which  crowds  of  children  listen  under  the  Pippal-trees 
of  India — these  stories,  too,  belonged  to  the  common  heir- 
loom of  the  Indo-European  race,  and  their  origin  carries  us 
back  to  the  same  distant  past,  when  no  Greek  had  set  foot  in 
Europe,  no  Hindoo  had  bathed  in  the  sacred  waters  of  the 
Ganges." 

And  we  find  that  an  identity  of  origin  can  be  established 
between  the  folk-lore  or  fairv  tales  of  America  and  those  of 


CIVILIZATIONS  OF  THE  OLD  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW.    161 

the  Old  World,  precisely  such  as  exists  between  the  legends  of 
Norway  and  India. 

Mr.  Tylor  tells  us  the  story  of  the  two  brothers  in  Central 
America  who,  starting  on  their  dangerous  journey  to  the  land 
of  Xibalba,  where  their  father  had  perished,  plant  each  a  cane 
in  the  middle  of  their  grandmother's  house,  that  she  may  know 
by  its  flourishing  or  withering  whether  they  are  alive  or  dead. 
Exactly  the  same  conception  occurs  in  Grimm's  "  Mahrchen," 
when  the  two  gold-children  wish  to  see  the  world  and  to  leave 
their  father ;  and  when  their  father  is  sad,  and  asks  them  how 
he  shall  hear  news  of  them,  they  tell  him,  "  We  .leave  you  the 
two  golden  lilies ;  from  these  you  can  see  how  we  fare.  If  they 
are  fresh,  we  are  well ;  if  they  fade,  we  are  ill ;  if  they  fall,  we 
are  dead."  Grimm  traces  the  same  idea  in  Hindoo  stories. 
"  Now  this,"  says  Max  Miiller, "  is  strange  enough,  and  its  oc- 
currence in  India,  Germany,  and  Central  America  is  stranger 
still." 

Compare  the  following  stories,  which  we  print  in  parallel 
columns,  one  from  the  Ojibbeway  Indians,  the  other  from  Ire- 
land : 

THE  OJIBBEWAY  STORY.  THE   IRISH   STOKY. 

The  birds  met  together  one  day  to  try  The  birds  all  met  together  one  day,  and 

which  could  fly  the  highest.     Some  flew  settled  among  themselves  tliat  whichever 

up  very  swift,  but  soon  got  tired,  and  were  of  them  could  fly  highest  Avas  to  be  the 

passed  by  others  of  stronger  wing.     But  king  of  all.     Well,  just  as  they  were  on 

the  eagle  went  up  beyond  them  all,  and  the  hinges  of  being  off,  what  does  the  little 

was  ready  to  claim  the  victory,  when  the  rogue  of  a  wren  do  but  hop  up  and  perch 

gray  linnet,  a  very  small  bird,  flew  from  himself  unbeknown  on  the  eagle's  tail.    So 

the  eagle's  back,  where  it  had  perched  un-  they  flew  and  flew  ever  so  high,  till  the  ea- 

perceived,  and,  being  fresh  and  unexhaust-  gle  was  miles  above  all  the  rest,  and  could 

ed,  succeeded  in  going  the  highest.     When  not  fly  another  stroke,  he  was  so  tired, 

the  birds  came  down  and  met  in  council  to  "Then,"  says  he,  "I'm  king  of  the  birds.'' 

award  the  prize, it  was  given  to  the  eagle,  "You  lie!"  says  the  wren,  darting  up  a 

because  that  bird  had  not  only  gone  up  perch  and  a  half  above  the   big  fellow, 

nearer  to  the  sun  than  any  of  the  larger  Well,  the  eagle  was  so  mad  to  think  how 

birds,  but  it  had  carried  the  linnet  on  its  he  was  done,  that  when  the  wren  was  com- 

back.  ing  down  he  gave  him  a  stroke  of  his  wing. 

For  this  reason  the  eagle's  feathers  be-  and  from  that  day  to  this  the  wren  was 

came  the  most  honorable  marks  of  distinc-  never  able  to  fly  farther  than  a  hawthorn- 

tion  a  warrior  could  bear.  bush. 


162  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

Compare  the  following  stories: 

THE   ASIATIC  8TOET,  THE   AMERICAN    STORY. 

In  Hindoo  mythology  Urvasi  came  down        Wampee,  a  great  hunter,  once  came  to  a 
from  heaven  and  became  the  wife  of  the    strange  prairie,  where  he  heard  faint  sounds 
son  of  Buddha  only  on  condition  that  two    of  music,  and  looking  up  saw  a  speck  in  the 
pet  rams  should  never  be  taken  from  her    sky,  which  proved  itself  to  be  a  basket  con- 
bedside,  and  that  she  should  never  behold    taining  twelve  most  beautiful  maidens,  who, 
her  lord  undressed.     The  immortals,  how-    on  reaching  the  earth,  forthwith  set  them- 
ever,  wishing  Urvasi  back  in  heaven,  con-    selves  to  dance.     He  tried  to  catch  the 
trived  to  steal  the  rams ;  and,  as  the  king    youngest,  but  in  vain ;  ultimately  he  suc- 
pursued  the  robbers  with  his  sword  in  the    ceeded  by  assuming  the  disguise  of  a  mouse, 
dark,  the  lightning  revealed  his  person,  the    He  was  very  attentive  to  his  new  wife,  who 
compact  was  broken,  and  Urvasi  disappear-    was  really  a  daugliter  of  one  of  the  stars, 
ed.     This  same  story  is  found  in  different    but  she  wished  to  return  home,  so  she  made 
forms  among  many  people  of  Aryan  and    a  wicker  basket  secretly,  and,  by  help  of  a 
Turanian  descent,  the  central  idea  being    charm  she  remembered,  ascended  to  her 
that  of  a  man  marrying  some  one  of  an    father, 
aerial  or  aquatic  origin,  and  living  happily 
with  her  till  he  breaks  the  condition  on 
which  her  residence  with  him  depends; 
stories  exactly  parallel  to  that  of  Raymond 
of  Toulouse,  who  chances  in  the  hunt  upon 
the  beautiful  Melusina  at  a  fountain,  and 
lives  with  her  happily  until  he  discovers 
her  fish-nature  and  she  vanishes. 

If  the  legend  of  Cadmus  recovering  Europa,  after  she  has 
been  carried  away  by  the  white  bull,  the  spotless  cloud,  means 
that  "  the  sun  must  journey  westward  until  he  sees  again  the 
beautiful  tints  which  greeted  his  eyes  in  the  morning,"  it  is 
curious  to  find  a  story  current  in  North  America  to  the  effect 
that  a  man  once  had  a  beautiful  daughter,  whom  he  forbade  to 
leave  the  lodge  lest  she  should  be  carried  off  by  the  king  of 
the  buffaloes ;  and  that  as  she  sat,  notwithstanding,  outside  the 
house  combing  her  hair,  "  all  of  a  sudden  the  king  of  the  buf- 
faloes came  dashing  on,  with  his  herd  of  followers,  and,  taking 
her  between  his  horns,  away  he  cantered  over  plains,  plunged 
into  a  river  which  bounded  his  land,  and  carried  her  safely  to 
his  lodge  on  the  other  side,"  whence  she  was  finally  recovered 
by  her  father. 

Games. — The  same  games  and  sports  extended  from  India 
to  the  shores  of  Lake  Superior.     The  game  of  the  Hindoos, 


CIVILIZATIONS  OF  THE  OLD  WOULD  AND  THE  NEW.    163 

called  pachisij  is  played  upon  a  cross-shaped  board  or  cloth ; 
it  is  a  combination  of  checkers  and  draughts,  with  the  throw- 
ing of  dice,  the  dice  determining  the  number  of  moves;  when 
the  Spaniards  entered  Mexico  they  found  the  Aztecs  playing 
a  game  called  patolli,  identical  with  the  Hindoo  pachisi,  on  a 
similar  cross-shaped  board.  The  game  of  ball,  which  the  In- 
dians of  America  were  in  the  habit  of  playing  at  the  time  of 
the  discovery  of  the  country,  from  California  to  the  Atlantic, 
was  identical  with  the  European  chueca,  crosse,  or  hockey. 

One  may  well  pause,  after  reading  this  catalogue,  and  ask 
himself,  wherein  do  these  peoples  differ  ?  It  is  absurd  to  pre- 
tend that  all  these  similarities  could  have  been  the  result  of 
accidental  coincidences. 

These  two  peoples,  separated  by  the  great  ocean,  were  bap- 
tized alike  in  infancy  with  blessed  water ;  they  prayed  alike  to 
the  gods ;  they  worshipped  together  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars ; 
they  confessed  their  sins  alike ;  they  were  instructed  alike  by 
an  established  priesthood;  they  were  married  in  the  same  way 
and  by  the  joining  of  hands ;  they  armed  themselves  with  the 
same  weapons;  when  children  came,  the  man,  on  both  conti- 
nents, went  to  bed  and  left  his  wife  to  do  the  honors  of  the 
household ;  they  tattooed  and  painted  themselves  in  the  same 
fashion ;  they  became  intoxicated  on  kindred  drinks ;  their 
dresses  were  alike;  they  cooked  in  the  same  manner;  they 
used  the  same  metals ;  they  employed  the  same  exorcisms  and 
bleedings  for  disease ;  they  believed  alike  in  ghosts,  demons, 
and  fairies ;  they  listened  to  the  same  stories ;  they  played  the 
same  games ;  they  used  the  same  musical  instruments ;  they 
danced  the  same  dances,  and  when  they  died  they  were  em- 
balmed in  the  same  way  and  buried  sitting;  while  over  them 
were  erected,  on  both  continents,  the  same  mounds,  pyramids, 
obelisks,  and  temples.  And  yet  we  are  asked  to  believe  that 
there  was  no  relationship  between  them,  and  that  they  had 
never  had  any  ante-Columbian  intercourse  with  each  othen 


164  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

If  our  knowledge  of  Atlantis  was  more  thorough,  it  would 
no  doubt  appear  that,  in  every  instance  wherein  the  people  of 
Europe  accord  with  the  people  of  America,  they  were  both  in 
accord  with  the  people  of  Atlantis ;  and  that  Atlantis  was  the 
common  centre  from  which  both  peoples  derived  their  arts,  sci- 
ences, customs,  and  opinions.  It  will  be  seen  that  in  every  case 
where  Plato  gives  us  any  information  in  this  respect  as  to  At- 
lantis, we  find  this  agreement  to  exist.  It  existed  in  archi- 
tecture, sculpture,  navigation,  engraving,  writing,  an  established 
priesthood,  the  mode  of  worship,  agriculture,  the  construction 
of  roads  and  canals;  and  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the 
same  correspondence  extended  down  to  all  the  minor  details 
treated  of  in  this  chapter. 


INTERCOURSE  WITH  EUROPE  OR  ATLANTIS.         165 


Chapter  III. 

AMERICAN  EVIDENCES   OF  INTERCOURSE  WITH 
EUROPE   OR  ATLANTIS. 

1.  On  the  monuments  of  Central  America  there  are  repre- 
sentations of  bearded  men.  How  could  the  beardless  Ameri- 
can Indians  have  imagined  a  bearded  race  ? 

2.  All  the  traditions  of  the  civilized  races  of  Central  America 
point  to  an  Eastern  origin. 

The  leader  and  civilizer  of  the  Nahua  family  was  Quetzal- 
coatl.     This  is  the  legend  respecting  him : 

^''From  the  distant  East,  from  the  fabulous  Hue  Hue  TIapalan, 
this  mysterious  person  came  to  Tula,  and  became  the  patron 
god  and  high -priest  of  the  ancestors  of  the  Toltecs.  He  is 
described  as  having  been  a  white  man.,  with  strong  formation 
of  body,  broad  forehead,  large  eyes,  and  flowing  beard.  He 
wore  a  mitre  on  his  head,  and  was  dressed  in  a  long  white 
robe  reaching  to  his  feet,  and  covered  with  red  crosses.  In 
his  hand  he  held  a  sickle.  His  habits  were  ascetic,  he  never 
married,  was  most  chaste  and  pure  in  life,  and  is  said  to  have 
endured  penance  in  a  neighboring  mountain,  not  for  its  effects 
upon  himself,  but  as  a  warning  to  others.  He  condemned  sac- 
rifices, except  of  fruits  and  flowers,  and  was  known  as  the  god 
of  peace ;  for,  when  addressed  on  the  subject  of  war,  he  is  re- 
ported to  have  stopped  his  ears  with  his  fingers."  ("  North 
Amer.  of  Antiq.,"  p.  268.) 

"  He  was  skilled  in  many  arts :  he  invented"  (that  is,  import- 
ed) "  gem-cutting  and  metal-casting  ;  he  originated  letters,  and 
invented  the  Mexican  calendar.  He  finally  returned  to  the 
land  in  the  East  from  which  ho  came :  leaving  the  American 
coast  at  Vera  Cruz,  he  embarked  in  a  canoe  made  of  serpent- 
skins,  and  ^sailed  away  into  the  East.''  "     (Ibid.,  p.  271.) 


166 


ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 


Dr.  Le  Plongeon  says  of  the  columns  at  Chichen : 

"The  base  is  formed  by  the  head  of  Cukiilcan,the  shaft  of 
the  body  of  the  serpent,  with  its  featliers  beautifully  carved  to 

the  very  chapiter.  On  the  chapi- 
ters of  the  columns  that  support  the 
portico,  at  the  entrance  of  the  castle 
in  Chichen  Itza,  may  be  seen  the 
carved  figures  of  long-bearded  men, 
with  upraised  hands,  in  the  act  of 
worshipping  sacred  trees.  They 
forcibly  recall  to  mind  the  same 
worship  in  Assyria." 


In  the  accompanying  cut  of  an 
ancient  vase  from  Tula,  we  see  a 
bearded  figure  grasping  a  beardless 
man. 

In  the  cut  given  below  we  see 
a  face  that  might  be  duplicated 
among  the  old  men  of  any  part  of 
Europe. 


ANCIENT  MEXICAN   VASE. 


The  Cakchiquel  MS.  says :  "  Four  persons  came  from  Tulan, 
from  the  direction  of  the  rising  sun — that  is  one  Tulan.  There 
is  another  Tulan  in  Xibalbay,  and  another 
where  the  sun  sets,  and  it  is  there  that  ive 
came ;  and  in  the  direction  of  the  setting  sun 
there  is  another,  where  is  the  god ;  so  that 
there  are  four  Tulans;  and  it  is  where  the  sun 
sets  that  we  came  to  Tulan,  from  the  other 
side  of  the  sea,  where  this  Tulan  is ;  and  it  is 
there  that  we  were  conceived  and  begotten  by 
our  mothers  and  fathers." 


BEABDET)    HEAD, 
FBOM   TKOTIUUACAN. 


That  is  to  say,  the  birthplace  of  the  race 
was  in  the  East,  across  the  sea,  at  a  place  called  Tulan  ;  and 
when  they  emigrated  they  called  their  first  stopping-place  on 
the  American  continent  Tulan  also  ;  and  besides  this  there  were 
two  other  Tulans. 


INTERCOURSE  WITH  EUROPE  OR  ATLANTIS.         167 

"  Of  the  Nahna  predecessors  of  the  Toltecs  in  Mexico  the 
Olmecs  and  Xicalancans  were  the  most  important.  They  were 
the  forerunners  of  the  great  races  that  followed.  According- 
to  Ixtlilxochitl,  these  people — which  are  conceded  to  be  one — 
occupied  the  world  in  the  third  age ;  they  came  from  the  East 
in  ships  or  barks  to  the  land  of  Potonchan,  which  they  com- 
menced to  populate." 

3.  The  Abbe  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg,  in  one  of  the  notes  of 
the  Introduction  of  the  "  Popol  Yuh,"  presents  a  very  remark- 
able analogy  between  the  kingdom  of  Xibalba,  described  in 
that  work,  and  Atlantis.     He  says : 

"Both  countries  are  magnificent,  exceedingly  fertile,  and 
abound  in  the  precious  metals.  The  empire  of  Atlantis  was 
divided  into  ten  kingdoms,  governed  by  live  couples  of  twin 
sons  of  Poseidon,  the  eldest  being  supreme  over  the  others ; 
and  the  ten  constituted  a  tribunal  that  managed  the  affairs  of 
the  empire.  Their  descendants  governed  after  them.  The  ten 
kings  of  Xibalba,  who  reigned  (in  couples)  under  Hun-Came 
and  Yukub-Came  (and  who  together  constituted  a  grand  coun- 
cil of  the  kingdom),  certainly  furnish  curious  points  of  compar- 
ison. And  there  is  wanting  neither  a  catastrophe — for  Xibal- 
ba had  a  terrific  inundation — nor  the  name  of  Atlas,  of  which 
the  etymology  is  found  only  in  the  Nahuatl  tongue :  it  comes 
from  atl,  water ;  and  we  know  that  a  city  of  Atlan  (near  the 
water)  still  existed  on  the  Atlantic  side  of  the  Isthmus  of 
Panama  at  the  time  of  the  Conquest." 

"  In  Yucatan  the  traditions  all  point  to  an  Eastern  and  for- 
eign origin  for  the  race.  The  early  writers  report  that  the  na- 
tives believe  their  ancestors  to  have  crossed  the  sea  by  a  passage 
which  was  opened  for  them."     (Landa's  "Relacion,"  p.  28.) 

*'  It  was  also  believed  that  part  of  the  population  came  into 
the  country  from  the  West.  Lizana  says  that  the  smaller  por- 
tion, '  the  little  descent,'  came  from  the  East,  while  the  greater 
portion,  'the  great  descent,'  came  from  the  \Yest.  Cogolluda 
considers  the  Eastern  colony  to  have  been  the  larger.  .  .  .  The 
culture-hero  Zamna,  the  author  of  all  civilization  in  Yucatan,  is 
described  as  the  teacher  of  letters,  and  the  leader  of  the  people 
from  their  ancient  home.  ...  He  was  the  leader  of  a  colony 
from  the  East.''     ("  North  Amer.  of  Antiq.,"  p.  229.) 


168  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

The  ancient  Mexican  legends  say  that,  after  the  Flood,  Cox- 
cox  and  his  wife,  after  wandering  one  hundred  and  four  years, 
landed  at  Antlan,  and  passed  thence  to  Capultepec,  and  thence 
to  Culhuacan,  and  lastly  to  Mexico. 

Coming  from  Atlantis,  they  named  their  first  landing-place 
Antlan. 

All  the  races  that  settled  Mexico,  we  are  told,  traced  their 
origin  back  to  an  Aztlan  (Atlan-tis).  Duran  describes  Aztlan 
as  "a  most  attractive  land."   ("  North  Amer.  of  Antiq.,"  p.  257.) 

Same,  the  great  name  of  Brazilian  legend,  came  across  the 
ocean /rom  the  rising  sun.  He  had  power  over  the  elements 
and  tempests ;  the  trees  of  the  forests  would  recede  to  make 
room  for  him  (cutting  down  the  trees) ;  the  animals  used  to 
crouch  before  him  (domesticated  animals) ;  lakes  and  rivers 
became  solid  for  him  (boats  and  bridges)  ;  and  he  taught  the 
use  of  agriculture  and  magic.  Like  him,  Bochica,  the  great 
law-giver  of  the  Muyscas,  and  son  of  the  sun — he  who  invent- 
ed for  them  the  calendar  and  regulated  their  festivals — had  a 
white  beard,  a  detail  in  which  all  the  American  culture-heroes 
agree.  The  "  Same  "  of  Brazil  was  probably  the  "  Zamna  "  of 
Yucatan. 

4.  We  find  in  America  numerous  representations  of  the  ele- 
phant.    We  are  forced  to  one  of  two  conclusions :  either  the 


ELEPUANT    MOUNT),  WISCONSIN. 


monuments  date  back  to  the  time  of  the  mammoth  in  North 
America,  or  these  people  held  intercourse  at  some  time  in  the 


INTERCOURSE  WITH  EUROPE  OR  ATLANTIS. 


169 


past  with  races  who  possessed  the  elephant,  and  from  whom 
they  obtained  pictures  of  that  singular  animal.  Plato  tells  us 
that  the  Atlanteans  possessed  great  numbers  of  elephants. 

There   are   in   Wisconsin  a  number   of   mounds   of   earth 
representing  different  animals  —  men,  birds,  and  quadrupeds. 


ELEPUANT    ril'E,    LOUISA    OOXTNTY,    IOWA. 


Among  the  latter  is  a  mound  representing  an  elephant,  "so 
perfect  in  its  proportions,  and  complete  in  its  representation 
of  an  elephant,  that  its  builders  must  have  been  well  acquaint- 
ed with  all  the  physical  characteristics  of 
the  animal  which  they  delineated."  We 
copy  the  representation  of  this  mound  on 
page  168. 

On  a  farm  in  Louisa  County,  Iowa,  a  pipe 
was  ploughed  up  which  also  represents  an 
elephant.    AVe  are  indebted  to  the  valuable 
work  of  John  T.  Short  ("  The  North  Amer- 
icans of  Antiquity,"  p.  530)  for  a  picture  of 
this  singular  object.     It  was  found  in  a  sec- 
tion where  the  ancient  mounds  were  very 
abundant  and  rich  in  relics.    The  pipe  is  of  elephant-trunk  uead- 
sandstone,  of  the  ordinary  Mound-Builder's       '^^^■^^^  palenque. 
type,  and  has  every  appearance  of  age  and  usage.     There  can 
be  no  doubt  of  its  genuineness.     The  finder  had  no  conception 
of  its  archaeological  value. 

In  the  ruined  city  of  Palenque  we  find,  in  one  of  the  pal- 

8 


170  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

aces,  a  stucco  bass-relief  of  a  priest.  His  elaborate  head-dress 
or  helmet  represents'  very  faithfully  the  head  of  an  elephant. 
The  cut  on  page  169  is  from  a  drawing  made  by  Waldeck. 

The  decoration  known  as  "elephant-trunks"  is  found  in 
many  parts  of  the  ancient  ruins  of  Central  America,  project- 
ing from  above  the  door-ways  of  the  buildings. 

In  Tylor's  "  Researches  into  the  Early  History  of  Mankind," 
p.  313, 1  find  a  remarkable  representation  of  an  elephant,  taken 
from  an  ancfent  Mexican  manuscript.     It  is  as  follows : 


MEXICAN  EEPEESENTATION  OF  ELEPHANT. 


CORROBORATING   CIRCUMSTANCES.  171 


Chapter   IY. 
CORROBORATING   CIRCUMSTANCES. 

1.  Lenormant  insists  that  the  human  race  issued  from  Upa- 
Merou,  and  adds  that  some  Greek  traditions  point  to  "  this  lo- 
cality— particularly  the  expression  fiepoireg  avOpoj-rroi,  which  can 
only  mean  '  the  men  sprung  from  Merou.'  "    ("  Manual,"  p.  21.) 

Theopompus  tells  us  that  the  people  who  inhabited  Atlantis 
were  the  Meropes,  the  people  of  Merou. 

2.  Whence  comes  the  word  Atlantic?  The  dictionaries 
tell  us  that  the  ocean  is  named  after  the  mountains  of  Atlas  ; 
but  whence  did  the  Atlas  mountains  get  their  name  ? 

"  The  words  Atlas  and  Atlantic  have  no  satisfactory  etymol- 
ogy in  any  language  known  to  Europe.  They  are  not  Greek, 
and  cannot  be  referred  to  any  known  language  of  the  Old 
World.  But  in  the  Nahuatl  language  we  find  immediately 
the  radical  a,  atL  which  signifies  water,  war,  and  the  top  of  the 
head.  (Molina,  "  Yocab.  en  lengua  Mexicana  y  Castellana.") 
From  this  comes  a  series  of  words,  such  as  atlan — on  the  bor- 
der of  or  amid  the  water — from  which  we  have  the  adjective 
Atlantic.  We  have  also  atlaga^  to  combat,  or  be  in  agony  ;  it 
means  likewise  to  hurl  or  dart  from  the  water,  and  in  the  pre- 
terit makes  Atlaz.  A  city  named  Atlan  existed  when  the  con- 
tinent was  discovered  by  Columbus,  at  the  entrance  of  the  Gulf 
of  Uraba,  in  Darien.  With  a  good  harbor,  it  is  now  reduced 
to  an  unimportant  pueblo  named  Acla.'^''  (Baldwin's  "An- 
cient America,"  p.  179.) 

Plato  tells  us  that  Atlantis  and  the  Atlantic  Ocean  were 
named  after  Atlas,  the  eldest  son  of  Poseidon,  the  founder  of 
the  kingdom. 

3.  Upon  that  part  of  the  African  continent  nearest  to  the  site 


172    '         ATLANTIS:    TUE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

of  Atlantis  we  find  a  chain  of  mountains,  known  from  the  most 
ancient  times  as  the  Atlas  Mountains.  Whence  this  name  At- 
las, if  it  be  not  from  the  name  of  the  great  king  of  Atlantis  ? 
And  if  this  be  not  its  origin,  how  comes  it  that  we  find  it  in 
the  most  north-western  corner  of  Africa?  And  how  does  it 
happen  that  in  the  time  of  Herodotus  there  dwelt  near  this 
mountain-chain  a  people  called  the  Atlantes,  probably  a  rem- 
nant of  a  colony  from  Solon's  island  ?  How  comes  it  that  the 
people  of  the  Barbary  States  were  known  to  the  Greeks,  Ro- 
mans, and  Carthaginians  as  the  "Atlantes,"  this  name  being 
especially  applied  to  the  inhabitants  of  Fezzan  and  Bilma? 
Where  did  they  get  the  name  from  ?  There  is  no  etymology 
for  it  east  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  (Lenormant's  "  Anc.  Hist, 
of  the  East,"  p.  253.) 

Look  at  it !  An  "  Atlas  "  mountain  on  the  shore  of  Africa ; 
an  "Atlan"  town  on  the  shore  of  America;  the  "Atlantes" 
living  along  the  north  and  west  coast  of  Africa;  an  Aztec 
people  from  Aztlan,  in  Central  America;  an  ocean  rolling  be- 
tween the  two  worlds  called  the  "Atlantic;"  a  mythological 
deity  called  "  Atlas  "  holding  the  w^orld  on  his  shoulders ;  and 
an  immemorial  tradition  of  an  island  of  Atlantis.  Can  all 
these  things  be  the  result  of  accident  ? 

4.  Plato  says  that  there  was  a  "  passage  west  from  Atlantis 
to  the  rest  of  the  islands,  as  well  as  from  these  islands  to  the 
whole  opposite  continent  that  surrounds  that  real  sea."  He 
calls  it  a  real  sea,  as  contradistinguished  from  the  Mediterra- 
nean, which,  as  he  says,  is  not  a  real  sea  (or  ocean)  but  a  land- 
locked body  of  w^ater,  like  a  harbor. 

Now,  Plato  might  have  created  Atlantis  out  of  his  imag- 
ination; but  how  could  he  have  invented  the  islands  beyond 
(the  West  India  Islands),  and  the  whole  continent  (America) 
enclosing  that  real  sea?  If  we  look  at  the  map,  we  see  that 
the  continent  of  America  does  "  surround  "  the  ocean  in  a  great 
half-circle.  Could  Plato  have  guessed  all  this?  If  there  had 
been  no  Atlantis,  and  no  series   of  voyages  from  it  that  re- 


CORROBORATING   CIRCUMSTANCES.  173 

vealed  tlie  half-circle  of  the  continent  from  Newfoundland  to 
Cape  St.  Roche,  how  could  Plato  have  guessed  it?  And  how 
could  he  have  known  that  the  Mediterranean  was  only  a  har- 
bor compared  with  the  magnitude  of  the  great  ocean  surround- 
ing Atlantis?  Long  sea-voyages  were  necessary  to  establish 
that  fact,  and  the  Greeks,  who  kept  close  to  the  shores  in  their 
short  journeys,  did  not  make  such  voyages. 

5.  How  can  we,  without  Atlantis,  explain  the  presence  of 
the  Basques  in  Europe,  who  have  no  lingual  affinities  with  any 
other  race  on  the  continent  of  Europe,  but  whose  language  is 
similar  to  the  languages  of  America  ? 

Plato  tells  us  that  the  dominion  of  Gadeirus,  one  of  the 
kings  of  Atlantis,  extended  "toward  the  pillars  of  Heracles 
(Hercules)  as  far  as  the  country  which  is  still  called  the  region 
of  Gades  in  that  part  of  the  world."  Gades  is  the  Cadiz  of  to- 
day, and  the  dominion  of  Gadeirus  embraced  the  land  of  the 
Iberians  or  Basques,  their  chief  city  taking  its  name  from  a 
king  of  Atlantis,  and  they  themselves  being  Atlantcans. 

Dr.  Farrar,  referring  to  the  Basque  language,  says : 

"  What  is  certain  about  it  is,  that  its  structure  is  polysyn- 
thetic,  like  the  languages  of  America.  Like  them,  it  forms  its 
compounds  by  the  elimination  of  certain  radicals  in  the  simple 
words  ;  so  that  ilhun,  the  twilight,  is  contracted  from  hill, 
dead,  and  egu7i,  day ;  and  belhaur,  the  knee,  from  helhar,  front, 
and  oin,  leg.  .  .  .  The  fact  is  indisputable,  and  is  eminently 
noteworthy,  that  while  the  affinities  of  the  Basque  roots  have 
never  been  conclusively  elucidated,  there  has  never  been  any 
doubt  that  this  isolated  language,  preserving  its  identity  in  a 
western  corner  of  Europe,  between  two  mighty  kingdoms,  re- 
sembles, in  its  grammatical  structure,  the  aboriginal  languages 
of  the  vast  opposite  continent  (America),  and  those  alone." 
("  Families  of  Speech,"  p.  132.) 

If  there  was  an  Atlantis,  forming,  with  its  connecting  ridges, 
a  continuous  bridge  of  land  from  America  to  Africa,  we  can 
understand  how  the  Basques  could  have  passed  from  one  conti- 
nent to  another ;  but  if  the  wide  Atlantic  rolled  at  all  times  un- 


174 


ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD, 


broken  between  the  two  continents,  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  of 
such  an  emioration  by  an  uncivilized  people. 

6.  Without  Atlantis,  how  can  we  explain  the  fact  that  the 
early  Egyptians  were  depicted  by  themselves  as  red  men  on 
their  own  monuments  ?  And,  on  the  other  hand,  how  can  we 
account  for  the  representations  of  negroes  on  the  monuments 
of  Central  America? 

Desire  Charnay,  now  engaged  in  exploring  those  monu- 
ments, has  published  in  the  North  American  Revieio  for  De- 
cember, 1880,  photographs  of  a  number  of  idols  exhumed  at 
San  Juan  de  Teotihuacan,  from  which  I  select  the  following 
strikingly  negroid  faces : 


KBUKO  IDOLS  FOUND   IN  OENTBAL  AMKBIOii. 


CORROBORA  TING   CIRCUMSTANCES. 


175 


I 


Dr.  Le  Plongeon  says : 

"  Besides  the  sculptures  of  long-bearded  men  seen  by  the 
explorer  at  Chichen  Itza,  there  were  tall  figures  of  people  with 
small  heads,  thick  lips,  and  curly  short  hair  or  wool,  r<igarded 
as  negroes.  '  We  always  see  them  as  standard  or  parasol  bear- 
ers, but  never  engaged  in  actual  warfare.' "  ("  Maya  Archae- 
ology," p.  62.) 

The  following  cut  is  from  the  court  of  the  Palace  of  Pa- 
lenque,  figured  by  Stephens.  The 
face  is  strongly  Ethiopian. 

The  figure  below  represents  a  gi- 
gantic granite  head,  found  near  the 
volcano  of  Tuxtla,  in  the  Mexican 
State  of  Vera  Cruz,  at  Caxapa.  The 
features  are  unmistakably  negroid. 

As  the  negroes  have  never  been 
a  sea -going  race,  the  presence  of 
these  faces  among  the  antiquities 
of  Central  America  proves  one  of 
two  things,  either  the  existence  of 
a  land  connection  between  Ameri- 
ca and  Africa  via  Atlantis,  as  re- 
vealed by  the  deep-sea  soundings 
of  the  Challenger,  or  commercial 
relations  between  America  and  Af- 


NEGEOID   FIOUKE,  PALENQUE. 


rica  through  the  ships  of  the  Atlanteans 
or  some  other  civilized  race,  whereby  the 
negroes  were  brought  to  America  as  slaves 
at  a  very  remote  epoch. 

And  we  find  some  corroboration  of  the 
latter  theory  in  that  singular  book  of  the 
Quiches,  the  "  Popol  Vuh,"  in  which,  af- 
ter describing  the  creation  of  the  first 
men  "  in  the  region  of  the  rising  sun " 
(Bancroft's  "  Native  Races,"  vol.  v.,  p.  548),    negko  ueao,  vera  okuz. 


176  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 

and  enumerating  tbeir  first  generations,  we  are  told,  "  All  seem 
to  have  spoken  one  language,  and  to  have  lived  in  great  peace, 
black  men  and  lohite  together.  Here  they  awaited  the  rising  of 
the  sun,  and  prayed  to  the  Heart  of  Heaven."  (Bancroft's 
"Native  Races,"  p.  547.)  How  did  the  red  men  of  Central 
America  know  anything  about  "  black  men  and  white  men  ?" 
The  conclusion  seems  inevitable  that  these  legends  of  a  primi- 
tive, peaceful,  and  happy  land,  an  Aztlan  in  the  East,  inhabited 
by  black  and  white  men,  to  which  all  the  civilized  nations  of 
America  traced  their  origin,  could  only  refer  to  Atlantis — that 
bridge  of  land  where  the  white,  dark,  and  red  races  met.  The 
"  Popol  Vuli "  proceeds  to  tell  how  this  first  home  of  the  race 
became  over-populous,  and  how  the  people  under  Balam-Quitze 
migrated ;  how  their  language  became  "  confounded,"  in  other 
words,  broken  up  into  dialects,  in  consequence  of  separation ; 
and  how  some  of  the  people  "  went  to  the  East,  and  many  came 
hither  to  Guatemala."     {Ibid.,  p.  547.) 

M.  A. de  Quatrefages  ("  Human  Species,"  p.  200)  says,  "Black 
populations  have  been  found  in  America  in  very  small  num- 
bers only,  as  isolated  tribes  in  the  rnidst  of  very  different  popu- 
lations. Such  are  the  Charruas  of  Brazil,  the  Black  Carribees 
of  Saint  Vincent,  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  ;  the  Jamassi  of  Flori- 
da, and  the  dark-complexioned  Californians.  .  .  .  Such,  again, 
is  the  tribe  that  Balboa  saw  some  representatives  of  in  his  pas- 
sage of  the  Isthmus  of  Darien  in  1513 ;  .  .  .  they  were  true  ne- 
groes." 

7.  How  comes  it  that  all  the  civilizations  of  the  Old  World 
radiate  from  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  ?  The  Mediter- 
ranean is  a  cul  de  sac,  with  Atlantis  opposite  its  mouth.  Ev- 
ery civilization  on  its  shores  possesses  traditions  that  point  to 
Atlantis.  AVe  hear  of  no  civilization  coming  to  the  Mediterra- 
nean from  Asia,  Africa,  or  Europe — from  north,  south,  or  west ; 
but  north,  south,  east,  and  west  we  find  civilization  radiating 
from  the  Mediten-anean  to  other  lands.  We  see  the  Aryans 
descending  upon  Hindostan  from  the  direction  of  the  Medi- 


CORROBORATING   CIRCUMSTANCES.  l^T 

terranean  ;  and  we  find  the  Chinese  borrowino-  inventions  from 
Hindostan,  and  claiming  descent  from  a  region  not  far  from 
the  Mediterranean. 

The  Mediterranean  has  been  the  centre  of  the  modern  world, 
because  it  lay  in  the  path  of  the  extension  of  an  older  civiliza- 
tion, whose  ships  colonized  its  shores,  as  they  did  also  the  shores 
of  America.  Plato  says,  "  th&  nations  are  gathered  around  the 
shores  of  the  Mediterranean  like  frogs  around  a  marsh." 

Dr.  McCausland  says : 

"The  obvious  conclusion  from  these  facts  is,  that  at  some 
time  previous  to  these  migrations  a  people  speaking  a  language 
of  a  superior  and  complicated  structure  broke  up  their  society, 
and,  under  some  strong  impulse,  poured  out  in  different  direc- 
tions, and  gradually  established  themselves  in  all  the  lands  now 
inhabited  by  the  Caucasian  race.  Their  territories  extend  from 
the  Atlantic  to  the  Ganges,  and  from  Iceland  to  Ceylon,  and 
are  bordered  on  the  north  and  east  by  the  Asiatic  Mongols, 
and  on  the  south  by  the  negro  tribes  of  Central  Africa.  They 
present  all  the  appearances  of  a  later  race,  expanding  itself  be-- 
tween  and  into  the  territories  of  two  pre-existing  neighboring 
races,  and  forcibly  appropriating  the  room  required  for  its  in- 
creasing population."  (McCausland's  "  Adam  and  the  Adam- 
ites," p.  280.) 

Modern  civilization  is  Atlantean.  Without  the  thousands 
of  years  of  development  which  were  had  in  Atlantis  modern 
civilization  could  not  have  existed.  The  inventive  faculty  of 
the  present  age  is  taking  up  the  great  delegated  work  of  crea- 
tion where  Atlantis  left  it  thousands  of  years  ago. 

8.  How  are  we  to  explain  the  existence  of  the  Semitic  race 
in  Europe  without  Atlantis?  It  is  an  intrusive  race;  a  race 
colonized  on  sea-coasts.     Where  are  its  Old  World  affinities? 

9.  Why  is  it  that  the  origin  of  wheat,  barley,  oats,  maize, 
and  rye — the  essential  plants  of  civilization — is  totally  lost  in 
the  mists  of  a  vast  antiquity  ?  We  have  in  the  Greek  mythol- 
ogy legends  of  the  introduction  of  most  of  these  by  Atlan- 
tean kings  or  gods   into   Europe ;    but  no    European   nation 

8* 


1Y8  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

claims  to  have  discovered  or  developed  them,  and  it  has  been 
impossible  to  trace  them  to  their  wild  originals.  Out  of  the 
whole  flora  of  the  wo.rld  mankind  in  the  last  seven  thousand 
years  has  not  developed  a  single  food-plant  to  compare  in  im- 
portance to  the  human  family  with  these.  If  a  wise  and  scien- 
tific nation  should  propose  nowadays  to  add  to  this  list,  it  would 
have  to  form  great  botanical  gardens,  and,  by  systematic  and 
long -continued  experiments,  develop  useful  plants  from  the 
humble  productions  of  the  field  and  forest.  Was  this  done  in 
the  past  on  the  island  of  Atlantis? 

10.  Why  is  it  that  we  find  in  Ptolemy's  "Geography  of  Asia 
Minor,"  in  a  list  of  cities  in  Armenia  Major  in  a.d.  140,  the 
names  of  five  cities  which  have  their  counterparts  in  the  names 
of  localities  in  Central  America? 

Armenian  Cities.  Central  American  Localities. 

Choi.  Chol-ula 

Colua.  Colua-can. 

Zuivana.  Zuivan. 

Cholima.  Colima. 

Zalissa.  Xalisco. 
(Short's  "  North  Americans  of  Antiquity,"  p.  497.) 

11.  How  comes  it  that  the  sandals  upon  the  feet  of  the 
statue  of  Chacmol,  discovered  at  Chichen  Itza,  are  "  exact  rep- 
resentations of  those  found  on  the  feet  of  the  Guanches,  the 
early  inhabitants  of  the  Canary  Islands,  whose  mummies  are 
occasionally  discovered  in  the  caves  of  Teneriffe  ?"  Dr.  Mcrritt 
deems  the  axe  or  chisel  heads  dug  up  at  Chiriqui,  Central 
America,  "  almost  identical  in  form  as  well  as  material  with 
specimens  found  in  Suffolk  County,  England."  (Bancroft's 
"  Native  Races,"  vol.  iv.,  p.  20.)  The  rock-carvings  of  Chiri- 
qui are  pronounced  by  Mr.  Seemann  to  have  a  striking  resem- 
blance to  the  ancient  incised  characters  found  on  the  rocks  of 
Northumberland,  England.     (Ibid.) 

"  Some  stones  have  recently  been  discovered  in  Hierro  and 
Las  Palmas  (Canary  Islands),  bearing  sculptured  symbols  simi- 


CORROBORATING   CIRCUMSTANCEiS.  179 

lar  to  those  found  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Superior;  and  this 
has  led  M.  Bertholet,  the  liistorioo-rapher  of  the  Canary  Islands, 
to  conclude  that  the  first  inhabitants  of  the  Canaries  and  those 
of  the  great  West  were  one  in  race."  (Benjamin,  "  The  Atlan- 
tic Islands,"  p.  130.) 

12.  How  comes  it  that  that  very  high  authority,  Professor 
Retzius  ("  Smithsonian  Report,"  1859,  p.  266),  declares,  "  With 
regard  to  the  primitive  dolichocephalae  of  America  I  enter- 
tain a  hypothesis  still  more  bold,  namely,  that  they  are  near- 
ly related  to  the  Guanches  in  the  Canary  Islands,  and  to  the 
Atlantic  populations  of  Africa,  the  Moors,  Tuaricks,  Copts, 
etc.,  which  Latham  comprises  under  the  name  of  Egyptian- 
Atlantidse.  We  find  one  and  the  same  form  of  skull  in  the 
Canary  Islands,  in  front  of  the  African  coast,  and  in  the  Carib 
Islands,  on  the  opposite  coast,  which  faces  Africa.  The  color 
of  the  skin  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  is  represented  in  these 
populations  as  being  of  a  reddish-brown." 

13.  The  Barbarians  who  are  alluded  to  by  Homer  and  Tliu- 
cydides  were  a  race  of  ancient  navigators  and  pirates  called 
Cares,  or  Carians,  who  occupied  the  isles  of  Greece  before  the 
Pelasgi,  and  antedated  the  Phoenicians  in  the  control  of  the 
sea.  The  Abbe  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg  claims  that  these  Ca- 
rians  were  identical  with  the  Caribs  of  the  West  Indies,  the 
Caras  of  Honduras,  and  the  Gurani  of  South  America.  (Lan- 
das,  "  Relacion,"  pp.  52-65.) 

14.  When  we  consider  it  closely,  one  of  the  most  extraordi- 
nary customs  ever  known  to  mankind  is  that  to  which  I  have 
already  alluded  in  a  preceding  chapter,  to  wit,  the  embalming 
of  the  body  of  the  dead  man,  with  a  purpose  that  the  body 
itself  may  live  again  in  a  future  state.  To  arrive  at  this  prac- 
tice several  things  must  coexist : 

a.  The  people  must  be  highly  religious,  and  possessed  of  an 
organized  and  influential  priesthood,  to  perpetuate  so  trouble- 
some a  custom  from  age  to  age. 

b.  They  must  believe  implicitly  in  the  immortality  of  the 


180  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

soul ;   and  this  implies  a  belief  in  rewards  and  punishments 
after  death ;  in  a  heaven  and  a  hell. 

c.  They  must  believe  in  the  immortality  of  the  body,  and 
its  resurrection  from  the  grave  on  some  day  of  judgment  in  the 
distant  future. 

d.  But  a  belief  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul  and  the  resur- 
rection of  the  body  is  not  enough,  for  all  Christian  nations 
hold  to  these  beliefs ;  they  must  supplement  these  with  a  deter- 
mination that  the  body  shall  not  perish;  that  the  very  flesh 
and  blood  in  which  the  man  died  shall  rise  with  him  on  the 
last  day,  and  not  a  merely  spiritual  body. 

Now  all  these  four  things  must  coexist  before  a  people  pro- 
ceed to  embalm  their  dead  for  religious  purposes.  The  proba- 
bility that  all  these  four  things  should  coexist  by  accident  in 
several  widely  separated  races  is  slight  indeed.  The  doctrine 
of  chances  is  all  against  it.  There  is  here  no  common  necessi- 
ty driving  men  to  the  same  expedient,  with  which  so  many  re- 
semblances have  been  explained ;  the  practice  is  a  religious  cere- 
mony, growing  out  of  religious  beliefs  by  no  means  common 
or  universal,  to  wit,  that  the  man  who  is  dead  shall  live  again, 
and  live  again  in  the  very  body  in  which  he  died.  Not  even 
all  the  Jews  believed  in  these  things. 

If,  then,  it  should  appear  that  among  the  races  which  we 
claim  were  descended  from  Atlantis  this  practice  of  embalm- 
ing the  dead  is  found,  and  nowhere  else,  we  have  certainly 
furnished  evidence  which  can  only  be  explained  by  admitting 
the  existence  of  Atlantis,  and  of  some  great  religious  race 
dwelling  on  Atlantis,  who  believed  in  the  immortality  of  soul 
and  body,  and  who  embalmed  their  dead.  We  find,  as  I  have 
shown  : 

First.  That  the  Guanches  of  the  Canary  Islands,  supposed  to 
be  a  remnant  of  the  Atlantean  population,  preserved  their  dead 
as  mummies. 

Second.  That  the  Egyptians,  the  oldest  colony  of  Atlantis, 
embalmed  their  dead  in   such  vast  multitudes  that  thev  are 


CORROBORATING   CIRCUMSTANCES.  181 

now  exported  by  the  ton  to  England,  and  ground  up  into 
manures  to  grow  English  turnips. 

Third.  That  the  Assyrians,  the  Ethiopians,  the  Persians,  the 
Greeks,  and  even  the  Romans  embalmed  their  dead. 

Fourth.  On  the  American  continents  we  find  that  the  Peru- 
vians, the  Central  Americans,  the  Mexicans,  and  some  of  the 
Indian  tribes,  followed  the  same  practice. 

Is  it  possible  to  account  for  this  singular  custom,  reaching 
through  a  belt  of  nations,  and  completely  around  the  habitable 
world,  without  Atlantis  ? 

15.  All  the  traditions  of  the  Mediterranean  races  look  to  the 
ocean  as  the  source  of  men  and  gods.     Homer  sings  of 

"  Ocean,  the  origin  of  gods  and  Mother  Tethys." 

Orpheus  says,  "  The  fair  river  of  Ocean  was  the  first  to  marry, 
and  he  espoused  his  sister  Tethys,  who  was  his  mother's  daugh- 
ter." (Plato's  "Dialogues,"  Cratylus,  p.  402.)  The  ancients 
always  alluded  to  the  ocean  as  a  river  encircling  the  earth,  as 
in  the  map  of  Cosmos  (see  page  95  ante) ;  probably  a  remi- 
niscence of  the  great  canal  described  by  Plato  which  surround- 
ed the  plain  of  Atlantis.  Homer  (Iliad,  book  xviii.)  describes 
Tethys,  "the  mother  goddess,"  coming  to  Achilles  "from  the 
deep  abysses  of  the  main  :" 

"The  circling  Nereids  with  their  mistress  weep, 
And  all  the  sea-green  sisters  of  the  deep." 

Plato  surrounds  the  great  statue  of  Poseidon  in  Atlantis  with 
the  images  of  one  hundred  Nereids. 

16.  In  the  Deluge  legends  of  the  Hindoos  (as  given  on  page 
8*7  ante),  we  have  seen  Manu  saving  a  small  fish,  which  sub- 
sequently grew  to  a  great  size,  and  warned  him  of  the  coming 
of  the  Flood.  In  this  legend  all  the  indications  point  to  an 
ocean  as  the  scene  of  the  catastrophe.  It  says:  "At  the  close 
of  the  last  calpa  there  was  a  general  destruction,  caused  by  the 
sleep  of  Brahma,  whence  his  creatures,  in  different  worlds,  icere 


182  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

drowned  in  a  vast  ocean.  ...  A  holy  kino-,  named  Satyavrata, 
then  reigned,  a  servant  of  the  spirit  ivhich  moved  on  the  waves''" 
(Poseidon  ?),  "  and  so  devout  that  water  was  his  only  suste- 
nance. ...  In  seven  days  the  three  worlds"  (remember  Posei- 
don's trident)  "  shall  be  plunged  in  an  ocean  of  death."  .  .  . 
" '  Thou  shalt  enter  the  spacious  ark,  and  continue  in  it  secure 
from  the  Flood  on  one  immense  ocean.''  .  .  .  The  sea  overwhelmed 
its  shores,  deluged  the  whole  earth,  augmented  by.  showers  from 
immense  clouds."     ("Asiatic  Researches,"  vol.  i.,  p.  230.) 

All  this  reminds  us  of  "  the  fountains  of  the  great  deep  and 
the  flood-gates  of  heaven,"  and  seems  to  repeat  precisely  the 
story  of  Plato  as  to  the  sinking  of  Atlantis  in  the  ocean. 

17.  While  I  do  not  attach  much  weight  to  verbal  similari- 
ties in  the  languages  of  the  two  continents,  nevertheless  there 
are  some  that  are  very  remai-kable.  We  have  seen  the  Pan 
and  Maia  of  the  Greeks  reappearing  in  the  Pan  and  Maya  of 
the  Mayas  of  Central  America.  The  god  of  the  AVelsh  tri- 
ads, "  Hu  the  mighty,"  is  found  in  the  Ilu-nap-hu,  the  hero- 
god  of  the  Quiches ;  in  Hu-napu,  a  hero-god ;  and  in  Hu-hu- 
nap-hu,  in  Hii-ncam,  in  Hu-nbatz,  semi-divine  heroes  of  the 
Quiches.  The  Phoenician  deity  El  "  was  subdivided  into  a 
number  of  hypostases  called  the  Baalim,  secondary  divinities, 
emanating  from  the  substance  of  the  deity"  ("Anc.  Hist. 
East,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  219);  and  this  word  Baalim  we  find  appear- 
ing in  the  mythology  of  the  Central  Americans,  applied  to  the 
semi-divine  progenitors  of  the  human  race,  Balam-Quitze,  Ba- 
lam-Agah,  and  Iqui-Balam. 


THE  QUESTION  OF  COMPLEXION.  183 


Chapter  Y. 

THE  QUESTION  OF  COMPLEXION. 

The  tendency  of  scientific  thought  in  ethnology  is  in  the 
direction  of  giving  more  and  more  importance  to  the  race 
characteristics,  sucli  as  height,  color  of  the  hair,  eyes  and 
skin,  and  the  formation  of  the  skull  and  body  generally,  than 
to  language.  The  language  possessed  by  a  people  may  be 
merely  the  result  of  conquest  or  migration.  F'or  instance,  in 
the  United  States  to-day,  white,  black,  and  red  men,  the  de- 
scendants of  French,  Spanish,  Italians,  Mexicans,  Irish,  Ger- 
mans, Scandinavians,  Africans,  all  speak  the  English  language, 
and  by  the  test  of  language  they  are  all  Englishmen ;  and  yet 
none  of  them  are  connected  by  birth  or  descent  with  the  coun- 
try where  that  language  was  developed. 

There  is  a  general  misconception  as  to  the  color  of  the  Eu- 
ropean and  American  races.  Europe  is  supposed  to  be  peopled 
exclusively  by  white  men  ;  but  in  reality  every  shade  of  color  is 
represented  on  that  continent,  from  the  fair  complexion  of  the 
fairest  of  the  Swedes  to  the  dark-skinned  inhabitants  of  the 
Mediterranean  coast,  only  a  shade  lighter  than  the  Berbers,  or 
Moors,  on  the  opposite  side  of  that  sea.  Tacitus  spoke  of  the 
"  Black  Celts,"  and  the  term,  so  far  as  complexion  goes,  might 
not  inappropriately  be  applied  to  some  of  the  Italians,  Span- 
iards, and  Portuguese,  while  the  Basques  are  represented  as  of  a 
still  darker  hue.  Tylor  says  ("  Anthropology,"  p.  67),  "  On  the 
whole,  it  seems  that  the  distinction  of  color,  from  the  fairest 
Englishman  to  the  darkest  African,  has  no  hard  and  fast  lines, 
but  varies  gradually  from  one  tint  to  another." 

And  when  we  turn  to  America  we  find  that  the  popular 


184  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

opinion  that  all  Indians  are  "  red  men,"  and  of  the  same  hue 
from  Patagonia  to  Hudson's  Bay,  is  a  gross  error. 

Prichard  says  ("Researches  into  the  Physical  History  of 
Mankind,"  vol.  i.,  p.  269,  4th  ed.,  1841) : 

*'  It  will  be  easy  to  show  that  the  American  races  show  near- 
ly as  great  a  variety  in  this  respect  as  the  nations  of  the  old 
continent;  there  are  among  them  white  races  with  a  florid 
complexion,  and  tribes  black  or  of  a  very  dark  hue ;  that  their 
stature,  figure,  and  countenance  are  almost  equally  diversified." 

John  T.  Short  says  ("North  Americans  of  Antiquity," 
p.  189): 

"  The  Menominees,  sometimes  called  the  '  White  Indians,' 
formerly  occupied  the  region  bordering  on  Lake  Michigan, 
around  Green  Bay.  The  whiteness  of  these  Indians,  which  is 
compared  to  that  of  white  mulattoes,  early  attracted  the  atten- 
tion of  the  Jesuit  missionaries,  and  has  often  been  commented 
on  by  travellers.  While  it  is  true  that  hybridy  has  done  much 
to  lighten  the  color  of  many  of  the  tribes,  still  the  peculiarity 
of  the  complexion  of  this  people  has  been  marked  since  the 
first  time  a  European  encountered  them.  Almost  every  shade, 
from  the  ash-color  of  the  Menominees  through  the  cinnamon- 
red,  copper,  and  bronze  tints,  may  be  found  among  the  tribes 
formerly  occupying  the  territory  east  of  the  Mississippi,  until 
we  reach  the  dark-skinned  Kaws  of  Kansas,  who  are  nearly  as 
black  as  the  negro.  The  variety  of  complexion  is  as  great  in 
Soutli  America  as  among  the  tribes  of  the  northern  part  of  the 
continent." 

In  foot-note  of  p.  107  of  vol.  iii.  of  "  U.  S.  Explorations  for 
a  Railroad  Route  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,"  we  are  told, 

"  Many  of  the  Indians  of  Zuni  (New  Mexico)  are  white.  They 
have  a  fair  skin,  blue  eyes,  chestnut  or  auburn  hair,  and  are  quite 
good-looking.  They  claim  to  be  full-blooded  Zunians,  and  have 
no  tradition  of  intermarriage  with  any  foreign  race.  The  cir- 
cumstance creates  no  surprise  among  this  people,  for  from  time 
immemorial  a  similar  class  of  people  has  existed  among  the 
tribe." 


THE  QUESTION  OF  COMPLEXION.  185 

Winchell  says : 

"The  ancient  Indians  of  California,  in  the  latitude  of  forty- 
two  degrees,  were  as  black  as  the  negroes  of  Guinea,  while  in 
Mexico  were  tribes  of  an  olive  or  reddish  complexion,  relatively 
light.  Among  the  black  races  of  tropical  regions  we  find,  gen- 
erally, some  light-colored  tribes  interspersed.  These  sometimes 
have  light  hair  and  blue  eyes.  This  is  the  case  with  the  Tua- 
reg of  the  Sahara,  the  Afghans  of  India,  and  the  aborigines  of 
the  banks  of  the  Oronoco  and  the  Amazon."  (Winchell's  "  Pre- 
adamites,"  p.  185.) 

William  Penn  said  of  the  Indians  of  Pennsylvania,  in  his 
letter  of  August,  1683: 

"  The  natives  ...  are  generally  tall,  straight,  well-built,  and 
of  singular  proportion ;  they  tread  strong  and  clever,  and  most- 
ly walk  with  a  lofty  chin.  .  .  .  Their  eye  is  little  and  black,  not 
unlike  a  straight-looked  Jew.  ...  I  have  seen  among  them  as 
comely  European-like  faces  of  both  sexes  as  on  your  side  of 
the  sea;  and  truly  an  Italian  complexion  hath  not  much  more 
of  the  white,  and  the  noses  of  several  of  them  have  as  much  of 
the  Roman.  .  .  .  For  their  original,  I  am  ready  to  believe  them 
to  be  of  the  Jewish  race — I  mean  of  the  stock  of  the  ten  tribes 
— and  that  for  the  following  reasons:  first,  .  .  .;  in  the  next 
place,  I  find  them  to  be  of  the  like  countenance,  and  their  chil- 
dren of  so  lively  a  resemblance  that  a  man  would  think  himself 
in  Duke's  Place  or  Berry  Street  in  London  when  he  seeth  them. 
But  this  is  not  all :  they  agree  in  rites,  they  reckon  by  moons, 
they  offer  their  first-fruits,  they  have  a  kind  of  feast  of  taber- 
nacles, they  are  said  to  lay  their  altars  upon  twelve  stones,  their 
mourning  a  year,  customs  of  women,  with  many  other  things 
that  do  not  now  occur." 

Upon  this  question  of  complexion  Catlin,  in  his  "  Indians  of 
North  America,"  vol.  i.,  p.  95,  etc.,  gives  ns  some  curious  in- 
formation. We  have  already  seen  that  the  Mandans  preserved 
an  image  of  the  ark,  and  possessed  legends  of  a  clearly  Atlan- 
tean  character.     Catlin  says : 

"A  stranger  in  the  Mandan  village  is  first  struck  with  the 
different  shades  of  complexion  and  various  colors  of  hair  which 


186  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

he  sees  in  a  crowd  about  him,  and  is  at  once  disposed  to  ex- 
claim, 'These  are  not  Indians.'  There  are  a  great  many  of 
these  people  whose  complexions  appear  as  light  as  half-breeds ; 
and  among  the  women  particularly  there  are  many  whose  skins 
are  almost  white,  with  the  most  pleasing  symmetry  and  pro- 
portion of  feature;  with  hazel,  with  gray,  and  with  blue  eyes; 
with  mildness  and  sweetness  of  expression  and  excessive  mod- 
esty of  demeanor,  which  render  them  exceedingly  pleasing  and 
beautiful.  Why  this  diversity  of  complexion  I  cannot  tell, 
nor  can  they  themselves  account  for  it.  Their  traditions, 
so  far  as  I  can"  learn  them,  afford  us  no  information  of  their 
having  had  any  knowledge  of  white  men  before  the  visit  of 
Lewis  and  Clarke,  made  to  their  village  thirty-three  years  ago. 
Since  that  time  until  now  (1835)  there  have  been  very  few 
visits  of  white  men  to  this  place,  and  surely  not  enough  to 
have  changed  the  complexions  and  customs  of  a  nation.  And 
I  recollect  perfectly  well  that  Governor  Clarke  told  me,  before 
I  started  for  this  place,  that  I  would  find  the  Mandans  a  strange 
people  and  half  white. 

"Among  the  females  may  be  seen  every  shade  and  color  of 
hair  that  can  be  seen  in  our  own  country  except  red  or  auburn, 
which  is  not  to  be  found.  .  .  .  There  are  very  many  of  both 
sexes,  and  of  every  age,  from  infancy  to  manhood  and  old  age, 
with  hair  of  a  bright  silvery-gray,  and  in  some  instances  almost 
perfectly  white.  This  unaccountable  phenomenon  is  not  the 
result  of  disease  or  habit,  but  it  is  unquestionably  an  hereditary 
characteristic  which  runs  in  families,  and  indicates  no  inequali- 
ty in  disposition  or  intellect.  And  by  passing  this  hair  through 
my  hands  I  have  found  it  uniformly  to  be  as  coarse  and  harsh 
as  a  horse's  mane,  differing  materially  from  the  hair  of  other 
colors,  which,  among  the  Mandans,  is  generally  as  fine  and  soft 
as  silk. 

"  The  stature  of  the  Mandans  is  rather  below  the  ordinary 
size  of  man,  with  beautiful  symmetry  of  form  and  proportion, 
and  wonderful  suppleness  and  elasticity." 

Catlin  gives  a  group  (54)  showing  this  great  diversity  in 
complexion  :  one  of  the  figures  is  painted  almost  pure  white, 
and  with  light  hair.     The  faces  are  European. 

Major  James  W.  Lynd,  who  lived  among  the  Dakota  Indians 
for  nine  years,  and  was  killed  by  them  in  the  great  outbreak  of 


THE  QUESTION  OF  COMPLEXION.  189 

1862,  says  (MS.  "Hist,  of  Dakotas,"  Library,  Historical  Socie- 
ty, Minnesota,  p.  47),  after  calling  attention  to  the  fact  that  the 
different  tribes  of  the  Sioux  nation  represent  several  different 
degrees  of  darkness  of  color  : 

"The  Dakota  child  is  of  lighter  complexion  than  the  young 
brave;  this  one  lighter  than  the  middle-aged  man,  and  the 
middle-aged  man  lighter  than  the  superannuated  homo,  who, 
by  smoke,  paint,  dirt,  and  a  drying  up  of  the  vital  juices,  ap- 
pears to  be  the  true  copper-colored  Dakota.  The  color  of  the 
Dakotas  varies  with  the  nation,  and  also  with  the  age  and  con- 
dition of  the  individual.  It  may  be  set  down,  however,  as  a 
shade  lighter  than  olive  ;  yet  it  becomes  still  lighter  by  change 
of  condition  or  mode  of  life,  and  nearly  vanishes,  even  in  the 
child,  under  constant  ablutions  and  avoiding  of  exposure. 
Those  children  in  the  Mission  at  Hazlewood,  who  are  taken 
very  young,  and  not  allowed  to  expose  themselves,  lose  almost 
entirely  the  olive  shade,  and  become  quite  as  white  as  the 
American  child.  The  Mandans  are  as  light  as  the  peasants  of 
Spain,  while  their  brothers,  the  Crows,  are  as  dark  as  the  Arabs. 
Dr.  Goodrich,  in  the  '  Universal  Traveller,'  p.  154,  says  that  the 
modern  Peruvians,  in  the  warmer  regions  of  Peru,  are  as  fair  as 
the  people  of  the  south  of  Europe." 

The  Aymaras,  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  the  mountains  of 
Peru  and  Bolivia,  are  described  as  having  an  olive-brown  com- 
plexion, with  regular  features,  large  heads,  and  a  thoughtful  and 
melancholy  cast  of  countenance.  They  practised  in  early  times 
the  deformation  of  the  skull. 

Professor  Wilson  describes  the  hair  of  the  ancient  Peruvians, 
as  found  upon  their  mummies,  as  "  a  lightish  brown,  and  of  a 
fineness  of  texture  which  equals  that  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race." 
"The  ancient  Peruvians,"  says  Short  ("North  Americans  of 
Antiquity,"  p.  187),  "appear,  from  numerous  examples  of  hair 
found  in  their  tombs,  to  have  been  an  auburn-haired  race."  Gar- 
cilasso,  who  had  an  opportunity  of  seeing  the  body  of  the  king, 
Yiracocha,  describes  the  hair  of  that  monarch  as  snow-white. 
Haywood  tells  us  of  the  discovery,  at  the  beginning  of  this 
century,  of  three  mummies  in  a  cave  on  the  south  side  of  the 


190 


ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN   WORLD. 


Cumberland  River  (Tennessee),  who  were  buried  in  baskets,  as 
the  Peruvians  were  occasionally  buried,  and  whose  skin  was 
fair  and  white,  and  their  hair  auburn,  and  of  a  fine  texture. 
("Natural  and  Aboriginal  History  of  Tennessee,"  p.  191.) 


OUOOTAW. 


Neither  is  the  common  opinion  correct  which  asserts  all  the 
American  Indians  to  be  of  the  same  type  of  features.  The  por- 
traits on  this  page  and  on  pages  187  and  191,  taken  from  the 
"  Report  of  the  U.  S.  Survey  for  a  Route  for  a  Pacific  Rail- 
road," present  features  very  much  like  those  of  Europeans ;  in 
fact,  every  face  here  could  be  precisely  matched  among  the  in- 
habitants of  the  southern  part  of  the  old  continent. 

On  the  other  hand,  look  at  the  portrait  of  the  great  Italian 
orator  and  reformer,  Savonarola,  on  page  193.     It  looks  more 


THE  QUESTION  OF  COMPLEXION.  193 

like  the  hunting  Indians  of  North-western  America  tlian  any 
of  the  preceding  faces.  In  fact,  if  it  was  dressed  with  a  scalp- 
lock  it  would  pass  muster  anywhere  as  a  portrait  of  the  "Man- 
afraid-of-his-horses,"  or  "  Sitting  Bull." 


SAVONAROLA. 


Adam  was,  it  appears,  a  red  man.  Winchell  tells  us  that 
Adam  is  derived  from  the  red  earth.  The  radical  letters  ADaM 
are  found  in  ADaMall,  "  something  out  of  which  vegetation 
was  made  to  germinate,"  to  wit,  the  earth.  AD6M  and  ADOM 
signifies  red,  ruddy,  bay-colored,  as  of  a  horse,  the  color  of  a 
red  heifer.  "ADaM,  a  man,  a  human  being,  male  or  female, 
red,  ruddyy     ("  Preadamites,"  p.  161.) 

"The  Arabs  distinguished  mankind  into  two  races,  one  red, 
ruddy,  the  other  black."  (Ibid.)  They  classed  themselves 
among  the  red  men. 


194  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN   WORLD. 

Not  only  was  Adam  a  red  man,  but  tliere  is  evidence  that, 
from  the  highest  antiquity,  red  was  a  sacred  color;  the  gods 
of  the  ancients  were  always  painted  red.  The  Wisdom  of  Sol- 
omon refers  to  this  custom  :  "The  carpenter  carved  it  elegant- 
ly, and  formed  it  by  the  skill  of  his  understanding,  and  fash- 
ioned it  to  the  shape  of  a  man,  or  made  it  like  some  vile  beast, 
laying  it  over  with  vermilion,  and  with  paint,  coloring  it  red, 
and  covering  every  spot  therein." 

The  idols  of  the  Indians  were  also  painted  red,  and  red  was 
the  religious  color.  (Lynd's  MS.  "  Hist,  of  Dakotas,"  Library, 
Hist.  Society,  Minn.) 

The  Cushites  and  Ethiopians,  early  branches  of  the  Atlan- 
tean  stock,  took  their  name  from  their  "sunburnt"  complex- 
ion ;  they  were  red  men. 

The  name  of  the  Phoenicians  signified  red.  Hiniyar,  the 
prefix  of  the  Himyaritic  Arabians,  also  means  red,  and  the 
Arabs  were  painted  red  on  the  Egyptian  monuments. 

The  ancient  Egyptians  were  red  men.  They  recognized  four 
races  of  men — the  red,  yellow,  black,  and  white  men.  They 
themselves  belonged  to  the  "^o^,"  or  red  men;  the  yellow 
men  they  called  "A^«??m" — it  included  the  Asiatic  races;  the 
black  men  were  called  "iVaAsw,"  and  the  white  men  "  Tamhu.'''' 
The  following  figures  are  copied  from  Nott  and  Gliddon's 
"  Types  of  Mankind,"  p.  85,  and  were  taken  by  them  from 
the  great  works  of  Belzoni,  Champollion,  and  Lepsius. 

In  later  ages  so  desii-ous  were  the  Egyptians  of  preserving 
the  aristocratic  distinction  of  the  color  of  their  skin,  that  they 
represented  themselves  on  the  monuments  as  of  a  crimson  hue 
— an  exaggeration  of  their  original  race  complexion. 

In  the  same  way  we  find  that  the  ancient  Aryan  writings 
divided  mankind  into  four  races — the  white,  red,  yellow,  and 
black :  the  four  castes  of  India  were  founded  upon  these  dis- 
tinctions in  color;  in  fact,  the  word  for  color  in  Sanscrit  {var- 
nci)  means  caste.  The  red  men,  according  to  the  Mahdhhdrata, 
were  the  Kshatrivas — the  warrior  caste — who  were  afterward 


THE  QUESTION  OF  COMPLEXION. 


195 


engaged  in  h  fierce  contest  with  the  whites — the  Brahraans — 
and  were  nearly  exterminated,  although  some  of  them  survived, 
and  from  their  stock  Buddha  was  born.  So  that  not  only  the 
Mohammedan  and  Christian  but  the  Buddhistic  religion  seem 
to  be  derived  from  branches  of  the  Hamitic  or  red  stock.  The 
great  Manii  was  also  of  the  red  race. 


Tellow.  Black 

TUE    RAOES    OK    MKN    ACUaKUING    TO    THE    EGYI'TIANS. 


The  Egyptians,  while  they  painted  themselves  red -brown, 
represented  the  nations  of  Palestine  as  yellow-brown,  and  the 
Libyans  yellow  -  white.  The  present  inhabitants  of  Egypt 
range  from  a  yellow  color  in  the  north  parts  to  a  deep  bronze. 
Tylor  is  of  opinion  ("Anthropology,"  p.  95)  that  the  ancient 
Egyptians  belonged  to  a  brown  race,  which  embraced  the 
Nubian  tribes  and,  to  some  extent,  the  Berbers  of  iVlgiers  and 
Tunis.  He  groups  the  Assyrians,  Phoenicians,  Persians,  Greeks, 
Romans,  Andalusians,  Bretons,  dark  Welshmen,  and  people  of 
the  Caucasus  into  one  body,  and  designates  them  as  "  dark- 
whites."  The  Himyarite  Arabs,  as  I  have  shown,  derived 
their  name  originally  from  their  red  color,  and  they  were  con- 
stantly depicted  on  the  Egyptian  monuments  as  red  or  light 


196  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

brown.  Herodotus  tells  us  that  there  was  a  nation  of  Libyans, 
called  the  Maxyans,  who  claimed  descent  from  the  people  of 
Troy  (the  walls  of  Troy,  we  shall  see,  were  built  by  Poseidon  ; 
that  is  to  say,  Troy  was  an  Atlantean  colony).  These  Maxyans 
painted  their  whole  bodies  red.  The  Zavecians,  the  ancestors 
of  the  Zuavas  of  Algiers  (the  tribe  that  gave  their  name  to 
the  French  Zouaves),  also  painted  themselves  red.  Some  of 
the  Ethiopians  were  "  copper-colored."  ("  Amer.  Cyclop.,"  art. 
Egypt,  p.  464.)  Tylor  says  ("Anthropology,"  p.  160) :  "The 
language  of  the  ancient  Egyptians,  though  it  cannot  be  classed 
in  the  Semitic  family  with  Hebrew,  has  important  points  of 
correspondence,  whether  due  to  the  long  intercourse  between 
the  two  races  in  Egypt  or  to  some  deeper  ancestral  connection; 
and  such  analogies  also  appear  in  the  Berber  languages  of 
North  Africa." 

These  last  were  called  by  the  ancients  the  Atlanteans. 

"  If  a  congregation  of  twelve  representatives  from  Malacca, 
China,  Japan,  Mongolia,  Sandwich  Islands,  Chili,  Peru,  Brazil, 
Chickasaws,  Comanches,  etc.,  were  dressed  alike,  or  undressed 
and  unshaven,  the  most  skilful  anatomist  could  not,  from  their 
appearance,  separate  them."  (Fontaine's  "  How  the  World  was 
Peopled,"  pp.  147,  244.) 

Ferdinand  Columbus,  in  his  relation  of  his  father's  voyages, 
compares  the  inhabitants  of  Guanaani  to  the  Canary  Islanders 
(an  Atlantean  race),  and  describes  the  inhabitants  of  San  Do- 
mingo as  still  more  beautiful  and  fair.  In  Peru  the  Charanza- 
nis,  studied  by  M.  Angraud,  also  resemble  the  Canary  Islanders. 
L'Abbe  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg  imagined  himself  surrounded 
by  Arabs  when  all  his  Indians  of  Rabinal  were  around  him ; 
for  they  had,  he  said,  their  complexion,  features,  and  beard. 
Pierre  Martyr  speaks  of  the  Indians  of  the  Parian  Gulf  as  hav- 
ing fair  hair.  ("The  Human  Species,"  p.  201.)  The  same 
author  believes  that  tribes  belonging  to  the  Semitic  type  are 
also  found  in  America.     He  refers  to  "certain  traditions  of 


THE  QUESTION  OF  COMPLEXION.  197 

Guiana,  and  the  use  in  the  country  of  a  weapon  entirely  charac- 
teristic of  the  ancient  Canary  Islanders.'''' 

When  science  is  able  to  disabuse  itself  of  the  Mortonian 
theory  that  the  aborigines  of  America  are  all  red  men,  and  all 
belong  to  one  race,  we  may  hope  that  the  confluence  upon  the 
continent  of  widely  different  races  from  different  countries  may 
come  to  be  recognized  and  intelligently  studied.  There  can  be 
no  doubt  that  red,  white,  black,  and  yellow  men  have  united  to 
form  the  original  population  of  Ainerica.  And  there  can  be 
as  little  doubt  that  the  entire  population  of  Europe  and  the 
south  shore  of  the  Mediterranean  is  a  mongrel  race — a  combi- 
nation, in  varying  proportions,  of  a  dark -brown  or  red  race 
with  a  white  race ;  the  characteristics  of  the  different  nations 
depending  upon  the  proportions  in  which  the  dark  and  light 
races  are  mingled,  for  peculiar  mental  and  moral  characteristics 
go  with  these  complexions.  The  red-haired  people  are  a  dis- 
tinct variety  of  the  white  stock ;  there  were  once  whole  tribes 
and  nations  with  this  color  of  hair ;  their  blood  is  now  inter- 
mingled with  all  the  races  of  men,  from  Palestine  to  Iceland. 
Everything  in  Europe  speaks  of  vast  periods  of  time  and  long- 
continued  and  constant  interfusion  of  bloods,  until  there  is  not 
a  fair-skinned  man  on  the  Continent  that  has  not  the  blood  of 
the  dark-haired  race  in  his  veins ;  nor  scarcely  a  dark-skinned 
man  that  is  not  lighter  in  hue  from  intermixture  with  the 
white  stock. 


198  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 


Chapter  YI. 

GENESIS  CONTAINS  A   HISTORY  OF  ATLANTIS 

The  HeLrevvs  are  a  branch  of  the  great  family  of  whicli 
that  powerful  commercial  race,  the  Phoenicians,  who  were  the 
merchants  of  the  world  fifteen  hundred  years  before  the  time 
of  Christ,  were  a  part.  The  Hebrews  carried  out  from  the 
common  storehouse  of  their  race  a  mass  of  traditions,  many 
of  which  have  come  down  to  us  in  that  oldest  and  most  ven- 
erable of  human  compositions,  the  Book  of  Genesis.  I  have 
shown  that  the  story  of  the  Deluge  plainly  refers  to  the  de- 
struction of  Atlantis,  and  that  it  agrees  in  many  important 
particulars  with  the  account  given  by  Plato.  The  people  de- 
stroyed were,  in  both  instances,  the  ancient  race  that  had  cre- 
ated civilization ;  they  had  formerly  been  in  a  happy  and  sin- 
less condition  ;  they  had  become  great  and  wicked  ;  they  were 
destroyed  for  their  sins — they  were  destroyed  by  water. 

But  we  can  go  farther,  and  it  can  be  asserted  that  there  is 
scarcely  a  prominent  fact  in  the  opening  chapters  of  the  Book 
of  Genesis  that  cannot  be  duplicated  from  the  legends  of  the 
American  nations,  and  scarcely  a  custom  known  to  the  Jews 
that  does  not  find  its  counterpart  among  the  people  of  the 
New  World. 

Even  in  the  history  of  the  Creation  we  find  these  similarities  : 

The  Bible  tells  us  (Gen.  i.,  2)  that  in  the  beginning  the  earth 
was  without  form  and  void,  and  covered  with  water.  In  the 
Quiche  legends  we  are  told,  "at  first  all  was  sea — no  man,  ani- 
mal, bird,  or  green  herb — there  was  nothing  to  be  seen  but  the 
sea  and  the  heavens." 


GEXESIS  COyTAIXS  A  HIISTORY  OF  ATLAXTJU.       199 

The  Bible  says  (Gen.  i.,  2),  "And  the  Spirit  of  God  moved 
upon  the  face  of  the  waters."  The  Quiche  legend  says,  "The 
Creator — the  Former,  the  Dominator — the  feathered  serpent 
— those  that  give  life,  moved  upon  the  waters  like  a  glowing 
light." 

The  Bible  says  (Gen.  i.,  9),  "  And  God  said.  Let  the  waters 
under  the  heaven  be  gathered  together  unto  one  place,  and  let 
the  dry  land  appear :  and  it  was  so."  The  Quiche  legend  says, 
"  The  creative  spirits  cried  out  '  Earth !'  and  in  an  instant  it 
was  formed,  and  rose  like  a  vapor -cloud;  immediately  the 
plains  and  the  mountains  arose,  and  the  cypress  and  pine  ap- 
peared." 

The  Bible  tells  us,  "  And  God  saw  that  it  was  good."  The 
Quiche  legend  says, "  Then  Gucumatz  was  filled  with  joy,  and 
cried  out,  '  Blessed  be  thy  coming,  O  Heart  of  Heaven,  Hura- 
kan,  thunder-bolt.'  " 

The  order  in  which  the  vegetables,  animals,  and  man  were 
formed  is  the  same  in  both  records. 

In  Genesis  (chap,  ii.,  7)  we  are  told,  "  And  the  Lord  God 
formed  man  of  the  dust  of  the  ground."  The  Quiche  legend 
says, "  The  first  man  was  made  of  clay ;  but  he  had  no  intelli- 
gence, and  was  consumed  in  the  water." 

In  Genesis  the  first  man  is  represented  as  naked.  The  Az- 
tec legend  says,  "  The  sun  was  much  nearer  the  earth  then  than 
now,  and  his  grateful  warmth  rendered  clothing  unnecessary." 

Even  the  temptation  of  Eve  reappears  in  the  American  le- 
gends. Lord  Kingsboroiigh  says :  "  The  Toltecs  had  paintings 
of  a  garden,  with  a  single  tree  standing  in  the  midst;  round 
the  root  of  the  tree  is  entwined  a  serpent,  whose  head  appear- 
ing above  the  foliage  displays  the  face  of  a  woman.  Torque- 
mada  admits  the  existence  of  this  tradition  among  them,  and 
agrees  with  the  Indian  historians,  who  affirm  that  this  was  the 
first  woman  in  the  world,  who  bore  children,  and  from  whom 
all  mankind  are  descended."  ("  Mexican  Antiquities,"  vol.  viii., 
p.  19.)     There  is  also  a  legend  of  Suchiquecal,  who  disobedi- 


'200  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

ently  gathered  roses  from  a  tree,  and  thereby  disgraced  and  in- 
jured herself  and  all  her  posterity.  ("  Mexican  Antiquities," 
vol.  vi.,  p.  401.) 

The  legends  of  the  Old  World  which  underlie  Genesis,  and 
were  used  by  Milton  in  the  "Paradise  Lost,"  appear  in  the  Mexi- 
can legends  of  a  war  of  angels  in  heaven,  and  the  fall  of  Zou- 
tem-que  (Soutem,  Satan — Arabic,  Shatana?)  and  the  other  re- 
bellious spirits. 

We  have  seen  that  the  Central  Americans  possessed  striking 
parallels  to  the  account  of  the  Deluge  in  Genesis. 

There  is  also  a  clearly  established  legend  which  singularly 
resembles  the  Bible  record  of  the  Tower  of  Babel. 

Father  Duran,  in  his  MS.  "Historia  Antiqua  de  la  Nueva 
Espana,"  a.d.  1585,  quotes  from  the  lips  of  a  native  of  Cho- 
lula,  over  one  hundred  years  old,  a  version  of  the  legend  as  to 
the  building  of  the  great  pyramid  of  Cholula.    It  is  as  follows : 

"  In  the  beginning,  before  the  light  of  the  sun  had  been 
created,  this  land  (Cholula)  was  in  obscurity  and  darkness,  and 
void  of  any  created  thing;  all  was  a  plain,  without  hill  or  ele- 
vation, encircled  in  every  part  by  water,  without  tree  or  created 
thing ;  and  immediately  after  the  light  and  the  sun  arose  in 
the  east  there  appeared  gigantic  men  of  deformed  stature  and 
possessed  the  land,  and  desiring  to  see  the  nativity  of  the  sun, 
as  well  as  his  Occident,  proposed  to  go  and  seek  them.  Di- 
viding themselves  into  two  parties,  some  journeyed  to  the 
west  and  others  toward  the  east;  these  travelled  until  the 
sea  cut  off  their  road,  whereupon  they  determined  to  return  to 
the  place  from  which  they  started,  and  arriving  at  this  place 
(Cholula),  not  finding  the  means  of  reaching  the  sun,  enamored 
of  his  light  and  beauty,  they  determined  to  build  a  tower  so 
high  that  its  summit  should  reach  the  sky.  Having  collected 
materials  for  the  purpose,  they  found  a  very  adhesive  clay  and 
bitumen,  with  which  they  speedily  commenced  to  build  the 
tower ;  and  having  reared  it  to  the  greatest  possible  altitude,  so 
that  they  say  it  reached  to  the  sky,  the  Lord  of  the  Heavens, 
enraged,  said  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  sky,  'Have  you  observed 
how  they  of  the  earth  have  built  a  high  and  haughty  tower 
to  mount  hither,  being  enamored  of  the  light  of  the  sun  and 


GENESIS  CONTAINS  A  HISTORY  OF  ATLANTIS.       201 


KUINS  OF  THE  PYEAMIB  OF  CUOLULA. 


his  beauty  ?  Come  and  confound  tliem,  because  it  is  not  rio-ht 
that  they  of  the  earth,  living  in  the  flesh,  should  minole  with 
us.'  Immediately  the  inhabitants  of  the  sky  sallied  forth  like 
flashes  of  lightning ;  they  destroyed  the  edifice,  and  divided 
and  scattered  its  builders  to  all  parts  of  the  earth." 

One  can  recognize  in  this  legend  the  recollection,  by  a  ruder 
race,  of  a  highly  civilized  people  ;  for  only  a  highly  civilized 
people  would  have  attempted  such  a  vast  work.  Their  mental 
superiority  and  command  of  the  arts  gave  them  the  character 
of  giants  who  arrived  from  the  East ;  who  had  divided  into 
two  great  emigrations,  one  moving  eastward  (toward  Europe), 
the  other  westward  (toward  x\merica).     They  were  sun-wor- 

9* 


202  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN   WORLD. 

shippers ;  for  we  are  told  "  tliey  uere  enamored  of  the  light 
and  beauty  of  the  sun,"  and  they  built  a  high  place  for  his 
worship. 

The  pyramid  of  Cholula  is  one  of  the  greatest  constructions 
ever  erected  by  human  hands.  It  is  even  now,  in  its  ruined 
condition,  160  feet  high,  1400  feet  square  at  the  base,  and 
covers  forty-five  acres;  we  have  only  to  remember  that  the 
greatest  pyramid  of  Egypt,  Cheops,  covers  but  twelve  or  thir- 
teen acres,  to  form  some  conception  of  the  magnitude  of  this 
American  structure. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  this  legend  was  taken  down 
by  a  Catholic  priest,  shortly  after  the  conquest  of  Mexico,  from 
the  lips  of  an  old  Indian  who  was  born  before  Columbus  sailed 
from  Spain. 

Observe  the  resemblances  between  this  legend  and  the  Bible 
account  of  the  building  of  the  Tower  of  Babel : 

"All  was  a  plain  without  hill  or  elevation,"  says  the  Indian 
legend.  "They  found  a  plain  in  the  land  of  Shinar,  and 
they  dwelt  there,"  says  the  Bible.  They  built  of  brick  in 
both  cases.  "  Let  us  build  us  a  tower  whose  top  may  reach 
iinto  heaven,"  says  the  Bible.  "  They  determined  to  build  a 
tower  so  high  that  its  summit  should  reach  the  sky,"  says  the 
Indian  legend.  "And  the  Lord  came  down  to  see  the  city 
and  the  tower  which  the  children  of  men  had  builded.  And 
the  Lord  said.  Behold  .  .  .  nothing  will  be  restrained  from 
them  which  they  have  imagined  to  do.  Go  to,  let  us  go  down 
and  confound  them,"  says  the  Bible  record.  "The  Lord  of  the 
Heavens,  enraged,  said  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  sky, '  Have  you 
observed,'  etc.  Come  and  confound  them,"  says  the  Indian 
record.  "And  the  Lord  scattered  them  abroad  from  thence 
on  all  the  face  of  the  earth,"  says  the  Bible.  "  They  scattered 
its  builders  to  all  parts  of  the  earth,"  says  the  Mexican  legend. 

Can  any  one  doubt  that  these  two  legends  must  have  sprung 
in  some  way  from  one  another,  or  from  some  common  source? 
There  are  enough  points  of  diiference  to  sliow  that  the  Amer- 


GENESIS  CONTAiyS  A   HISTORY  OF  ATLANTIS.       203 

icau  is  not  a  servile  copy  of  the  Hebrew  legend.  In  the  for- 
mer the  story  comes  from  a  native  of  Cholula :  it  is  told  nnder 
the  shadow  of  the  mighty  pyramid  it  commemorates ;  it  is  a 
local  legend  which  he  repeats.  The  men  who  built  it,  accord- 
ing to  his  account,  were  foreigners.  They  built  it  to  reach  the 
sun — that  is  to  say,  as  a  sun-temple ;  while  in  the  Bible  record 
Babel  was  built  to  perpetuate  the  glory  of  its  architects.  In 
the  Indian  legend  the  gods  stop  the  work  by  a  great  storm,  in 
the  Bible  account  by  confounding  the  speech  of  the  people. 

Both  legends  were  probably  derived  from  Atlantis,  and  re- 
ferred to  some  gigantic  structure  of  great  height  built  by  that 
people ;  and  when  the  story  emigrated  to  the  east  and  west, 
it  was  in  the  one  case  affixed  to  the  tower  of  the  Chaldeans, 
and  in  the  other  to  the  pyramid  of  Cholula,  precisely  as  we 
find  the  ark  of  the  Deluge  resting  upon  separate  mountain- 
chains  all  the  way  from  Greece  to  Armenia.  In  one  form  of 
the  Tower  of  Babel  legend,  that  of  the  Toltecs,  we  are  told 
that  the  pyramid  of  Cholula  was  erected  "  as  a  means  of  es- 
cape from  a  second  flood,  should  another  occur." 

But  the  resemblances  between  Genesis  and  the  American 
legends  do  not  stop  here. 

We  are  told  (Gen.  ii.,  21)  that  "the  Lord  God  caused  a  deep 
sleep  to  fall  upon  Adam,"  and  while  he  slept  God  made  Eve 
out  of  one  of  his  ribs.  According  to  the  Quiche  tradition, 
there  were  four  men  from  whom  the  races  of  the  world  de- 
scended (probably  a  recollection  of  the  red,  black,  yellow,  and 
white  races) ;  and  these  men  were  without  wives,  and  the  Cre- 
ator made  wives  for  them  "  while  they  slept." 

Some  wicked  misanthrope  referred  to  these  traditions  when 
he  said,  "And  man's  first  sleep  became  his  last  repose." 

In  Genesis  (chap,  iii.,  22),  "And  the  Lord  God  said.  Behold, 
the  man  is  become  as  one  of  us,  to  know  good  and  evil :  and 
now,  lest  he  put  forth  his  hand,  and  take  also  of  the  tree  of  life, 
and  eat,  and  live  forever:"  therefore  God  drove  him  out  of  the 
garden.     In  the  Quiche  legends  we  are  told,  "  The  gods  feared 


204  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

that  they  had  made  men  too  perfect,  and  they  breathed  a  cloud 
of  mist  over  their  vision." 

AVhen  the  ancestors  of  the  Quiches  migrated  to  America  the 
Divinity  parted  the  sea  for  their  passage,  as  the  Red  Sea  was 
parted  for  the  Israelites. 

The  story  of  Samson  is  paralleled  in  the  history  of  a  hero 
named  Zipanca,  told  of  in  the  "  Popol  Vuh,"  who,  being  capt- 
ured by  his  enemies  and  placed  in  a  pit,  pulled  down  the  build- 
ing in  which  his  captors  had  assembled,  and  killed  four  hundred 
of  them. 

"  There  were  giants  in  those  days,"  says  the  Bible.  A  great 
deal  of  the  Central  American  history  is  taken  up  with  the  do- 
ings of  an  ancient  race  of  giants  called  Quinames. 

This  parallelism  runs  through  a  hundred  particulars: 

Both  the  Jews  and  Mexicans  worshipped  toward  the  east. 
Both  called  the  south  "  the  right  hand  of  the  world." 

Both  burnt  incense  toward  the  four  corners  of  the  earth. 

Confession  of  sin  and  sacrifice  of  atonement  were  common 
to  both  peoples. 

Both  were  punctilious  about  washings  and  ablutions. 

Both  believed  in  devils,  and  both  were  afflicted  with  leprosy. 

Both  considered  women  who  died  in  childbirth  as  worthy 
of  honor  as  soldiers  who  fell  in  battle. 

Both  punished  adultery  with  stoning  to  death. 

As  David  leaped  and  danced  before  the  ark  of  the  Lord,  so 
did  the  Mexican  monarchs  before  their  idols. 

Both  had  an  ark,  the  abiding-place  of  an  invisible  god. 

Both  had  a  species  of  serpent-worship. 

Compare  our  representation  of  the  great  serpent-mound  in 
Adams  County,  Ohio,  with  the  following  description  of  a  great 
serpent-mound  in  Scotland : 

^^Serpent-ivorship  in  the  West. — Some  additional  light  appears 
to  have  been  thrown  upon  ancient  serpent-worship  in  the  West 
by  the  recent  archaeological  explorations  of  Mr.  John  S.  Phene, 
F.G.S.,  F.R.G.S.,  in  Scotland.     Mr.  Phene  has  just  investigated 


GENESIS   CONTAINS  A  HISTORY  OF  ATLANTIS.       205 

a  curious  earthen  mound  in  Glen  Feechan,  Argylesliire,  referred 
to  by  bim,  at  tbe  late  meeting  of  the  Britisb  Association  in 
Edinburgb,  as  being  in  the  form  of  a  serpent  or  saurian.  The 
mound,  says  the  /Scotsman,  is  a  most  perfect  one.  The  head 
is  a  large  cairn,  and  the  body  of  the  earthen  reptile  300  feet 
long ;  and  in  the  centre  of  the  head  there  were  evidences,  when 
Mr.  Phene  first  visited  it,  of  an  altar  having  been  placed  there. 
The  position  with  regard  to  Ben  Cruachan  is  most  remarkable. 


GREAT  EBRPENT-MOUND,  OHIO. 


The  three  peaks  are  seen  over  the  length  of  the  reptile  when  a 
person  is  standing  on  the  head,  or  cairn.  The  shape  can  only 
be  seen  so  as  to  be  understood  when  looked  down  upon  from 
an  elevation,  as  the  outline  cannot  be  understood  unless  the 
whole  of  it  can  be  seen.  This  is  most  perfect  when  the  spec- 
tator is  on  the  head  of  the  animal  form,  or  on  the  lofty  rock  to 
the  west  of  it.  This  mound  corresponds  almost  entirely  with 
one  700  feet  long  in  America,  an  account  of  which  was  lately 
published,  after  careful  survey,  by  Mr.  Squier.  The  altar  toward 
the  head  in  each  case  agrees.  In  the  American  mound  three 
rivers  (also  objects  of  worship  with  the  ancients)  were  evident- 
ly identified.  The  number  three  was  a  sacred  number  in  all 
ancient  mythologies.  The  sinuous  winding  and  articulations 
of  the  vertebral  spinal  arrangement  are  anatomically  perfect 


206 


ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 


in  the  Argyleshire  mound.  The  gentlemen  present  with  Mr. 
Phene  during  his  investigation  state  that  beneath  the  cairn 
forming  the  head  of  the  animal  was  found  a  megalithic  cham- 
ber, in  which  was  a  quantity  of  charcoal  and  burnt  earth  and 
charred  nutshells,  a  flint  instrument,  beautifully  and  minutely 
serrated  at  the  edge,  and  burnt  bones.  The  back  or  spine 
of  the  serpent,  which,  as  already  stated,  is  300  feet  long,  was 
found,  beneath  the  peat  moss,  to  be  formed  by  a  careful  adjust- 
ment of  stones,  the  formation  of  which  probably  prevented  the 
structure  from  being  obliterated  by  time  and  weather."  {Pall 
Mall  Gazette.) 

We  find  a  striking  likeness  between  the  works  of  the  Stone 
Age  in  America  and  Europe,  as  shown  in  the  figures  here  given. 


imiiiiiiiii'"""" ' '""" "'"'""""■'"'" ■ iiiiiiiiiiiiiitij 

Stone  Axe,  Illinois. 


Stone  Axe,  North  Germany. 


Stone  Arrow-head,  Switzerland.  Stone  Arrow-heads,  America. 

STONE   IMPl.E.MENTG   OK    EUROPE    AND    AMElilOA. 


OEXF^IS   COyTAIXS  A  HISTORY  OF  ATLANTIS.       207 

The  same  singular  custom  wliicli  is  found  among  the  Jews 
and  the  Hindoos,  for  "  a  man  to  raise  up  seed  for  his  deceased 
brother  by  marrying  his  widow,"  was  found  among  the  Cen- 
tral American  nations.  (Las  Casas,  MS.  "  Hist.  Apoloq.,"  cap. 
ccxiii.,  ccxv.     Torquemada,  "  Monarq.  Ind.,"  torn,  ii.,  377-8.) 

No  one  but  the  Jewish  high-priest  might  enter  the  Holy  of 
Holies.  A  similar  custom  obtained  in  Peru.  Both  ate  the 
flesh  of  the  sacrifices  of  atonement ;  both  poured  the  blood  of 
the  sacrifice  on  the  earth ;  they  sprinkled  it,  they  marked  per- 
sons with  it,  they  smeared  it  upon  walls  and  stones.  The  Mex- 
ican temple,  like  the  Jewish,  faced  the  east.  "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  Mexi- 
cans, the  Cherokees,  and  the  Indians  of  Michoacan  and  Hon- 
duras, an  ark  was  held  in  the  highest  veneration,  and  was  con- 
sidered an  object  too  sacred  to  be  touched  by  any  but  the 
priests."     (Kingsborough,  "Mex.  Antiq.,"  vol.  viii.,  p.  258.) 

The  Peruvians  believed  that  the  rainbow  was  a  sign  that 
the  earth  would  not  be  again  destroyed  by  a  deluge.  {Ibid., 
p.  25.) 

The  Jewish  custom  of  laying  the  sins  of  the  people  upon 
the  head  of  an  animal,  and  turning  him  out  into  the  wilder- 
ness, had  its  counterpart  among  the  Mexicans,  who,  to  cure  a 
fever,  formed  a  dog  of  maize  paste  and  left  it  by  the  roadside, 
saying  the  first  passer-by  would  carry  away  the  illness.  (Dor- 
man,  "  Prim.  Super.,"  p.  59.)  Jacob's  ladder  had  its  duplicate  in 
the  vine  or  tree  of  the  Ojibbeways,  which  led  from  the  earth  to 
heaven,  up  and  down  which  the  spirits  passed.     (Ibid.,  p.  67.) 

Both  Jews  and  Mexicans  offered  water  to  a  stranger  that  he 
might  wash  his  feet ;  both  ate  dust  in  token  of  humility  ;  both 
anointed  with  oil ;  both  sacrificed  prisoners ;  both  periodically 
separated  the  women,  and  both  agreed  in  the  strong  and  uni- 
versal idea  of  uncleanness  connected  with  that  period. 

Both  believed  in  the  occult  power  of  water,  and  both  prac- 
tised baptism. 


208  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

"Then  the  Mexican  midwife  gave  the  child  to  taste  of  tlie 
water,  putting  her  moistened  fingers  in  its  mouth,  and  said, 
'  Take  this ;  by  this  thou  hast  to  live  on  the  earth,  to  grow 
and  to  flourish ;  through  this  we  get  all  things  that  support 
existence  on  the  earth;  receive  it.'  Then  with  moistened  fin- 
gers she  touched  the  breast  of  the  child,  and  said, '  Behold  the 
pure  water  that  washes  and  cleanses  thy  heart,  that  removes 
all  filthiness ;  receive  it :  may  the  goddess  see  good  to  purify 
and  cleanse  thine  heart.'  Then  the  midwife  poured  water  upon 
the  head  of  the  child,  saying,  '  O  my  grandson — my  son — take 
this  water  of  the  Lord  of  the  world,  which  is  thy  life,  invigo- 
rating and  refreshing,  washing  and  cleansing.  I  pray  that  this 
celestial  water,  blue  and  light  blue,  may  enter  into  thy  body, 
and  there  live;  I  pray  that  it  may  destroy  in  thee  and  put 
away  from  thee  all  the  things  evil  and  adverse  that  were  given 
thee  before  the  beginning  of  the  world.  .  .  .  Wheresoever  thou 
art  in  this  child,  O  thou  hurtful  thing,  begone!  leave  it,  put 
thyself  apart;  for  now  does  it  live  anew,  and  anew  is  it  born; 
now  again  is  it  purified  and  cleansed ;  now  again  is  it  shaped 
and  engendered  by  our  mother,  the  goddess  of  water."  (Ban- 
croft's "Native  Races,"  vol.  iii.,  p.  372.) 

Here  we  find  many  resemblances  to  the  Christian  ordinance 
of  baptism  :  the  pouring  of  the  water  on  the  head,  the  putting 
of  the  fingers  in  the  mouth,  the  touching  of  the  breast,  the  new 
birth,  and  the  washing  away  of  the  original  sin.  The  Christian 
rite,  we  know,  was  not  a  Christian  invention,  but  was  borrowed 
from  ancient  times,  from  the  great  storehouse  of  Asiatic  tradi- 
tions and  beliefs. 

The  Mexicans  hung  up  the  heads  of  their  sacrificed  enemies; 
this  was  also  a  Jewish  custom  : 

"  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  Take  all  the  heads  of  the 
people,  and  hang  them  up  before  the  Lord  against  the  sun, 
that  the  fierce  anger  of  the  Lord  may  be  turned  away  from 
Israel.  And  Moses  said  unto  the  judges  of  Israel,  Slay  ye 
every  one  his  men  that  were  joined  unto  Baal-peor."  (Numb., 
XXV.,  4,  5.) 

The  Scythians,  HerodoUis  tells   us,  scalped  their   enemies, 


GENESIlS  CONTAINS  A   HISTORY  OF  ATLANTIS.       209 

and  carried  the  scalp  at  the  pommel  of  their  saddles ;  the  Jews 
probably  scalped  their  enemies : 

"  But  God  shall  wound  the  head  of  his  enemies,  and  the 
hairy  scalp  of  such  a  one  as  goeth  on  still  in  his  trespasses." 
(Psa.,  Ixviii.,  21.) 

The  ancient  Scandinavians  practised  scalping.  When  Har- 
old Ilarefoot  seized  his  rival,  Alfred,  with  six  hundred  follow- 
ers, he  "  had  them  maimed,  blinded,  hamstrung,  scalped,  or  em- 
bowelled."     (Taine's  "  Hist.  Eng.  Lit.,"  p.  35.) 

Herodotus  describes  the  Scythian  mode  of  taking  the  scalp : 
"  He  makes  a  cut  round  the  head  near  the  ears,  and  shakes  the 
skull  out."  This  is  precisely  the  Indian  custom.  "  The  more 
scalps  a  man  has,"  says  Herodotus,  "  the  more  highly  he  is  es- 
teemed among  them." 

The  Indian  scalp-lock  is  found  on  the  Egyptian  monuments 
as  one  of  the  characteristics  of  the  Japhetic  Libyans,  who 
shaved  all  the  head  except  one  lock  in  the  middle. 

The  Mantchoos  of  Tartary  wear  a  scalp-lock,  as  do  the  mod- 
ern Chinese. 

Byron  describes  the  heads  of  the  dead  Tartars  under  the 
walls  of  Corinth,  devoured  by  the  wild  dogs : 

"Crimson  and  green  were  the  shawls  of  their  wear, 
And  each  scalp  had  a  single  long  tuft  of  hair, 
All  the  rest  was  shaven  and  bare." 

These  resemblances  are  so  striking  and  so  numerous  that 
repeated  attempts  have  been  made  to  prove  that  the  inhab- 
itants of  America  are  the  descendants  of  the  Jews ;  some  have 
claimed  that  they  represented  "  the  lost  tribes "  of  that  peo- 
ple. But  the  Jews  were  never  a  maritime  or  emigrating  peo- 
ple ;  they  formed  no  colonies ;  and  it  is  impossible  to  believe 
(as  has  been  asserted)  that  they  left  their  flocks  and  herds, 
marched  across  the  whole  face  of  Asia,  took  ships  and  sailed 
across  the  greatest  of  the  oceans  to  a  continent  of  the  exist- 
ence of  which  they  had  no  knowledge. 


•210  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN   WORLD. 

If  we  seek  the  origin  of  these  extraordinary  coincidences  in 
opinions  and  habits,  we  must  go  far  back  of  the  time  of  the 
lost  tribes.  We  must  seek  it  in  the  relationship  of  the  Jews 
to  the  family  of  Noah,  and  in  the  identity  of  the  Noachic  race 
destroyed  in  the  Deluge  with  the  people  of  the  drowned  Atlantis. 

Nor  need-  it  surprise  us  to  find  traditions  perpetuated  for 
thousands  upon  thousands  of  years,  especially  among  a  people 
having  a  religious  priesthood. 

The  essence  of  religion  is  conservatism;  little  is  invented; 
nothing  perishes ;  change  comes  from  without ;  and  even  when 
one  religion  is  supplanted  by  another  its  gods  live  on  as  the 
demons  of  the  new  faith,  or  they  pass  into  the  folk-lore  and 
fairy  stories  of  the  people.  We  see  Votan,  a  hero  in  America, 
become  the  god  Odin  or  Woden  in  Scandinavia ;  and  when  his 
worship  as  a  god  dies  out  Odin  survives  (as  Dr.  Dasent  has 
proved)  in  the  Wild  Huntsman  of  the  Hartz,  and  in  the  Robin 
Hood  (Oodin)  of  popular  legend.  The  Hellequin  of  France  be- 
comes the  Harlequin  of  our  pantomimes.  William  Tell  never 
existed ;  he  is  a  myth ;  a  survival  of  the  sun-god  Apollo,  Indra, 
who  was  worshipped  on  the  altars  of  Atlantis. 

*'  Nothing  here  but  it  doth  change 
Into  something  rich  and  strange.'' 

The  rite  of  circumcision  dates  back  to  the  first  days  of  Phoe- 
nicia, Egypt,  and  the  Cushites.  It,  too,  was  probably  an  At- 
lantean  custom,  invented  in  the  Stone  Age.  Tens  of  thousands 
of  years  have  passed  since  the  Stone  Age ;  the  ages  of  copper, 
bronze,  and  iron  have  intervened ;  and  yet  to  this  day  the  He- 
brew rabbi  performs  the  ceremony  of  circumcision  with  a  stone 
knife. 

Frothingham  says,  speaking  of  St.  Peter's  Cathedral,  in 
Rome : 

"Into  what  depths  of  antiquity  the  ceremonies  carried  me 
back !  To  the  mysteries  of  Eleusis ;  to  the  sacrificial  rites  of 
Phoenicia.     The  boys  swung  the  censors  as  censors  had  been 


GENESIS  CONTAINS  A   HISTORY  OF  ATLANTIS.       211 

swung  in  the  adoration  of  Bacchus.  The  girdle  and  cassock 
of  the  priests  came  from  Persia ;  the  veil  and  tonsure  were 
from  Egypt ;  the  alb  and  chasuble  were  prescribed  by  Numa 
Pompilius ;  the  stole  was  borrowed  from  the  official  who  used 
to  throw  it  on  the  back  of  the  victim  that  was  to  be  sacrificed ; 
the  white  surplice  was  the  same  as  described  by  Juvenal  and 
Ovid." 

Although  it  is  evident  that  many  thousands  of  years  must 
have  passed  since  the  men  who  wrote  in  Sanscrit,  in  North- 
western India,  could  have  dwelt  in  Europe,  yet  to  this  day 
they  preserve  among  their  ancient  books  maps  and  descrip- 
tions of  the  western  coast  of  Europe,  and  even  of  England  and 
Ireland;  and  we  find  among  them  a  fuller  knowledge  of  the 
vexed  question  of  the  sources  of  the  Nile  than  was  possessed 
by  any  nation  in  the  world  twenty-five  years  ago. 

This  perpetuation  of  forms  and  beliefs  is  illustrated  in  the 
fact  that  the  fornmlas  used  in  the  Middle  Ages  in  Europe  to 
exorcise  evil  spirits  were  Assyrian  words,  imported  probably 
thousands  of  years  before  from  the  magicians  of  Chaldea. 
When  the  European  conjurer  cried  out  to  the  demon,  "ZTZ/X-t/, 
hilka,  besha,  besha,''^  he  had  no  idea  that  he  was  repeating  the 
very  words  of  a  people  who  had  perished  ages  before,  and  that 
they  signified  Go  away,  go  away,  evil  one,  evil  one.  (Lenor- 
mant,  "  Anc.  Hist.  East,"  vol  i.,  p.  448.) 

Our  circle  of  360  degrees ;  the  division  of  a  chord  of  the 
circle  equal  to  the  radius  into  60  equal  parts,  called  degrees; 
the  division  of  these  into  60  minutes,  of  the  minute  into  60 
seconds,  and  the  second  into  60  thirds ;  the  division  of  the  day 
into  24  hours,  each  hour  into  60  minutes,  each  minute  into  60 
seconds  ;  the  division  of  the  week  into  seven  days,  and  the  very 
order  of  the  days — all  have  come  down  to  us  from  the  Chal- 
deo-Assyrians ;  and  these  things  will  probably  be  perpetuated 
among  our  posterity  "  to  the  last  syllable  of  recorded  time." 

We  need  not  be  surprised,  therefore,  to  find  the  same  legends 
and  beliefs  cropping  out  among  the  nations  of  Central  America 


212  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

and  the  people  of  Israel.  Nay,  it  should  teach  us  to  regard 
the  Book  of  Genesis  with  increased  veneration,  as  a  relic  dating 
from  the  most  ancient  days  of  man's  history  on  earth;  its  roots 
cross  the  great  ocean  ;  every  line  is  valuable;  a  word,  a  letter, 
an  accent  may  throw  light  upon  the  gravest  problems  of  the 
birth  of  civilization. 

The  vital  conviction  which,  during  thousands  of  years,  at  all 
times  pressed  home  upon  the  Israelites,  was  that  they  were  a 
"chosen  people,"  selected  out  of  all  the  multitudes  of  the  earth, 
to  perpetuate  the  great  truth  that  there  was  but  one  God — an 
illimitable,  omnipotent,  paternal  spirit,  who  rewarded  the  good 
and  punished  the  wicked — in  contradistinction  from  the  multi- 
farious, subordinate,  animal  and  bestial  demi-gods  of  the  other 
nations  of  the  earth.  This  sublime  monotheism  could  only 
have  been  the  outgrowth  of  a  high  civilization,  for  man's  first 
religion  is  necessarily  a  worship  of  "  stocks  and  stones,"  and 
history  teaches  us  that  the  gods  decrease  in  number  as  man  in- 
creases in  intelligence.  It  was  probably  in  Atlantis  that  mono- 
theism was  first  preached.  The  proverbs  of  "  Ptah-hotep,"  the 
oldest  book  of  the  Egyptians,  show  that  this  most  ancient  col- 
ony from  Atlantis  received  the  pure  faith  from  the  mother-land 
at  the  very  dawn  of  history :  this  book  preached  the  doctrine 
of  one  God,  "  the  rewarder  of  the  good  and  the  punisher  of  the 
wicked."  (Reginald  S.  Poole,  Contemjoorary  Rev.^  Aug.,  1881, 
p.  38.)  "  In  the  early  days  the  Egyptians  worshipped  one  only 
God,  the  maker  of  all  things,  without  beginning  and  without 
end.  To  the  last  the  priests  preserved  this  doctrine  and  taught 
it  privately  to  a  select  few."  ("Amer.  Encycl.,"  vol.  vi.,  p.  463.) 
The  Jews  took  up  this  great  truth  where  the  Egyptians  dropped 
it,  and  over  the  heads  and  over  the  ruins  of  Egypt,  Chaldea, 
Phoenicia,  Greece,  Rome,  and  India  this  handful  of  poor  shep- 
herds— ignorant,  debased,  and  despised — have  carried  down  to 
our  own  times  a  conception  which  could  only  have  originated 
in  the  highest  possible  state  of  human  society. 

And  even  skepticism  must  pause  before  the  miracle  of  the 


GENESIS  CONTAINS  A  HISTORY  OF  ATLANTIS       213 

continued  existence  of  this  strange  people,  wading  through  the 
ages,  bearing  on  their  shoulders  the  burden  of  their  great  trust, 
and  pressing  forward  under  the  force  of  a  perpetual  and  irre- 
sistible impulse.  The  speech  that  may  be  heard  to-day  in  the 
synagogues  of  Chicago  and  Melbourne  resounded  two  thousand 
years  ago  in  the  streets  of  Rome;  and,  at  a  still  earlier  period, 
it  could  be  heard  in  the  palaces  of  Babylon  and  the  shops  of 
Thebes — in  Tyre,  in  Sidon,  in  Gades,  in  Palmyra,  in  Nineveh. 
How  many  nations  have  perished,  how  many  languages  have 
ceased  to  exist,  how  many  splendid  civilizations  have  crumbled 
into  ruin,  how  many  temples  and  towers  and  towns  have  gone 
down  to  dust  since  the  sublime  frenzy  of  monotheism  first 
seized  this  extraordinary  people !  All  their  kindred  nomadic 
tribes  are  gone;  their  land  of  promise  is  in  the  hands  of  stran- 
gers ;  but  Judaism,  with  its  offspring,  Christianity,  is  taking 
possession  of  the  habitable  world;  and  the  continuous  life  of 
one  people — one  poor,  obscure,  and  wretched  people  —  spans 
the  tremendous  gulf  between  "Ptah-hotep"  and  this  nine- 
teenth century. 

If  the  Spirit  of  which  the  universe  is  but  an  expression — of 
whose  frame  the  stars  are  the  infinite  molecules — can  be  sup- 
posed ever  to  interfere  with  the  laws  of  matter  and  reach  down 
into  the  doings  of  men,  would  it  not  be  to  save  from  the  wreck 
and  waste  of  time  the  most  sublime  fruit  of  the  civilization  of 
the  drowned  Atlantis — a  belief  in  the  one,  only,  just  God,  the 
father  of  all  life,  the  imposer  of  all  moral  obligations  ? 


214  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 


Chapter  VII. 
THE  ORIGIN  OF  OUR   ALPHABET. 

One  of  the  most  marvellous  inventions  for  the  advancement 
of  mankind  is  the  phonetic  alphabet,  or  a  system  of  signs  rep- 
resenting the  sounds  of  human  speech.  Without  it  our  pres- 
ent civilization  could  scarcely  have  been  possible. 

No  solution  of  the  origin  of  our  European  alphabet  has  yet 
been  obtained:  we  can  trace  it  back  from  nation  to  nation, 
and  form  to  form,  until  we  reach  the  Egyptians,  and  the  ar- 
chaic forms  of  the  Phcenicians,  Hebrews,  and  Cushites,  but  be- 
yond this  the  light  fails  us. 

The  Egyptians  spoke  of  their  hieroglyphic  system  of  wi'it- 
ing  not  as  their  ow^n  invention,  but  as  "  the  language  of  the 
gods."  (Lenormant  and  Cheval,  "  Anc.  Hist,  of  the  East,"  vol. 
ii.,  p.  208.)  "  The  gods  "  were,  doubtless,  their  highly  civilized 
ancestors — the  people  of  Atlantis — who,  as  we  shall  hereafter 
see,  became  the  gods  of  many  of  the  Mediterranean  races. 

"According  to  the  Phoenicians,  the  art  of  writing  was  invent- 
ed by  Taautus,  or  Taut,  '  whom  the  Egyptians  call  Tliouth,' 
and  the  Egyptians  said  it  was  invented  by  Thouth,  or  Thoth, 
otherwise  called  '  the  first  Hermes,'  in  which  we  clearly  see 
that  both  the  Phoenicians  and  Egyptians  referred  the  invention 
to  a  period  older  than  their  own  separate  political  existence, 
and  to  an  older  nation,  from  which  both  peoples  received  it." 
(Baldwin's  "Prehistoric  Nations,"  p.  91.) 

The  "  first  Hermes,"  here  referred  to  (afterward  called  Mer- 
cury by  the  Romans),  was  a  son  of  Zeus  and  ifam,  a  daughter 
of  Atlas.  This  is  the  same  Maia  whom  the  Abbe  Brasseur  de 
Bourbouro-  identifies  with  the  Mava  of  Central  America. 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  OUR  ALPHABET.  215 

Sir  William  Drummond,  in  his  "  Origines,"  said: 

"  There  seems  to  be  no  way  of  accounting  either  for  the 
early  use  of  letters  among  so  many  different  nations,  or  for 
the  resemblance  which  existed  between  some  of  the  graphic 
systems  employed  by  those  nations,  than  by  supposing  hiero- 
glyphical  writing,  if  I  may  be  allowed  the  term,  to  have  been 
in  use  among  the  Tsabaists  in  the  first  ages  after  the  Flood, 
when  Tsabaism  (planet-worship)  was  the  religion  of  almost 
every  country  that  was  yet  inhabited." 

Sir  Henry  Rawlinson  says : 

"  So  great  is  the  analogy  between  the  first  principles  of  the 
science  of  writing,  as  it  appears  to  have  been  pursued  in  Chal- 
dea,  and  as  we  can  actually  trace  its  progress  in  Egypt,  that 
we  can  hardly  hesitate  to  assign  the  original  invention  to  a 
period  before  the  Hamitic  race  had  broken  up  and  dividedy 

It  is  not  to  be  believed  that  such  an  extraordinary  system 
of  sound-signs  could  have  been  the  invention  of  any  one  man 
or  even  of  any  one  age.  Like  all  our  other  acquisitions,  it 
must  have  been  the  slow  growth  and  accretion  of  ages;  it  must 
have  risen  step  by  step  from  picture-writing  through  an  inter- 
mediate condition  like  that  of  the  Chinese,  where  each  word 
or  thing  was  represented  by  a  separate  sign.  The  fact  that  so 
old  and  enlightened  a  people  as  the  Chinese  have  never  reach- 
ed a  phonetic  alphabet,  gives  us  some  indication  of  the  great- 
ness of  the  people  among  whom  it  was  invented,  and  the  lapse 
of  time  before  they  attained  to  it. 

Humboldt  says: 

"  According  to  the  views  which,  since  Champollion's  great 
discovery,  have  been  gradually  adopted  regarding  the  earlier 
condition  of  the  development  of  alphabetical  writing,  the  Phoe- 
nician as  well  as  the  Semitic  characters  are  to  be  regarded  as 
a  phonetic  alphabet  that  has  originated  from  pictorial  writ- 
ing; as  one  in  which  the  ideal  signification  of  the  symbols  is 
wholly  disregarded,  and  the  characters  are  regarded  as  mere 
signs  for  sounds."     ("Cosmos,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  129.) 


216  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

Baldwin  says  ("Prehistoric  Nations,"  p.  93): 

"The  nation  that  became  mistress  of  the  seas,  established 
communication  with  every  shore,  and  monopolized  the  com- 
merce of  the  known  world,  must  have  substituted  a  phonetic 
alphabet  for  the  hieroglyphics  as  it  gradually  grew  to  this 
eminence;  while  isolated  Egypt,  less  affected  by  the  practical 
wants  and  tendencies  of  commercial  enterprise,  retained  the 
hieroglyphic  system,  and  carried  it  to  a  marvellous  height  of 
perfection." 

It  must  be  remembered  that  some  of  the  letters  of  our  al- 
phabet are  inventions  of  the  later  nations.  In  the  oldest  al- 
phabets there  was  no  c,  the  g  taking  its  place.  The  Romans 
converted  the  g  into  c ;  and  then,  finding  the  necessity  for  a 
g  sign,  made  one  by  adding  a  tail-piece  to  the  c  ((7,  G).  The 
Greeks  added  to  the  ancient  alphabet  the  upsilon,  shaped  like 
our  V  or  Y,  the  two  forms  being  used  at  first  indifferently : 
they  added  the  X  sign ;  they  converted  the  t  of  the  Phoeni- 
cians into  th,  or  theta;  z  and  s  into  signs  for  double  conso- 
nants; they  turned  the  Phoenician  y  {yod)  into  i  (iota).  The 
Greeks  converted  the  Phoenician  alphabet,  which  was  partly 
consonantal,  into  one  purely  phonetic  —  "a  perfect  instru- 
ment for  the  expression  of  spoken  language."  The  w  was 
also  added  to  the  Phoenician  alphabet.  The  Romans  added 
the  y.  At  first  i  and^  were  both  indicated  by  the  same  sound; 
a  sign  for^  was  afterward  added.  AVe  have  also,  in  common 
with  other  European  languages.  Added  a  double  U,  that  is,  W, 
or  W,  to  represent  the  w  sound. 

The  letters,  then,  which  we  owe  to  the  Phoenicians,  are  A,  B, 
C,  D,  E,  H,  I,  K,  L,  M,  N,  O,  P,  Q,  R,  S,  T,  Z.  If  we  are  to 
trace  out  resemblances  with  the  alphabet  of  any  other  country, 
it  must  be  with  these  signs. 

Is  there  any  other  country  to  which  we  can  turn  which  pos- 
sessed a  phonetic  alphabet  in  any  respect  kindred  to  this  Phoe- 
nician alphabet  ?  It  cannot  be  the  Chinese  alphabet,  which  has 
more  signs  than  words ;  it  cannot  be  the  cuneiform  alphabet 
of  Assyria,  with  its  seven  hundred  arrow-shaped  characters. 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  OUR  ALPHABET.  217 

none   of  which  bear  the  slightest  affinity  to  the  Phoenician 
letters. 

It  is  a  surprising  fact  that  loe  find  in  Central  America  a  jjho- 
netic  alphabet.  This  is  in  the  alphabet  of  the  Mayas,  the  an- 
cient people  of  the  peninsula  of  Yucatan,  who  claim  that  their 
civilization  came  to  them  across  the  sea  in  shij^s  from  the  east, 
that  is,  from  the  direction  of  Atlantis.  The  Mayas  succeeded 
to  the  Colhuas,  whose  era  terminated  one  thousand  years  be- 
fore the  time  of  Christ ;  from  them  they  received  their  alpha- 
bet. It  has  come  to  us  through  Bishop  Landa,  one  of  the 
early  missionary  bishops,  who  confesses  to  having  burnt  a  great 
number  of  Maya  books  because  they  contained  nothing  but  the 
works  of  the  devil.  He 
fortunately,  however,  pre-  i. 
served  for  posterity  the 
alphabet  of  this  people.  2, 
We  present  it  herewith. 


Diego  de  Landa  was 
the  first  bishop  of  Yuca- 
tan. He  wrote  a  history 
of  the  Mayas  and  their 
country,  which  was  pre- 
served in  manuscript  at 
Madrid  in  the  library  of 
the  Royal  Academy  of 
History. ...  It  contains  a 
description  and  explana- 
tion of  the  phonetic  al- 
phabet of  the  Mayas. 
Landa's  manuscript  seems 
to  have  lain  neglected  in 
the  library,  for  little  or 
nothing  was  heard  of  it 
until  it  was  discovered  by 
the  French  priest  Bras- 
seur  de  Bourbourg,  who,  ^^^,,^.^  alphabet. 

by   means    of   it,   has   deci-  {Froin"NorthAmer.ofAntiquUv,"p.424.) 

10 


218  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 

pliered  some  of  the  old  American  writings.  He  says,  '  the 
alphabet  and  signs  explained  by  Landa  have  been  to  me  a 
Rosetta  stone.'"     (Baldwin's  "Ancient  America,"  p.  191.) 

When  we  observe,  in  the  table  of  alphabets  of  different  Eu- 
ropean nations  which  I  give  herewith,  how  greatly  the  forms  of 
the  Phoenician  letters  have  been  modified,  it  would  surprise  us 
to  find  any  resemblance  between  the  Maya  alphabet  of  two  or 
three  centuries  since  and  the  ancient  European  forms.  It  must, 
however,  be  remembered  that  the  Mayas  are  one  of  the  most 
conservative  peoples  in  the  world.  They  still  adhere  with 
striking  pertinacity  to  the  language  they  spoke  when  Colum- 
bus landed  on  San  Salvador;  and  it  is  believed  that  that  lan- 
guage is  the  same  as  the  one  inscribed  on  the  most  ancient 
monuments  of  their  country.  Seiior  Pimental  says  of  them, 
"  The  Indians  have  preserved  this  idiom  with  such  tenacity 
that  they  will  speak  no  other ;  it  is  necessary  for  the  whites 
to  address  them  in  their  own  language  to  communicate  with 
them."  It  is  therefore  probable,  as  their  alphabet  did  not  pass 
from  nation  to  nation,  as  did  the  Phcenician,  that  it  has  not 
departed  so  widely  from  the  original  forms  received  from  the 
Colhuas. 

But  when  we  consider  the  vast  extent  of  time  which  has 
elapsed,  and  the  fact  that  we  are  probably  w^ithout  the  inter- 
mediate stages  of  the  alphabet  w^hich  preceded  the  archaic 
Phoenician,  it  will  be  astonishing  if  we  find  resemblances  be- 
tween any  of  the  Maya  letters  and  the  European  forms,  even 
though  we  concede  that  they  are  related.  If  we  find  decided 
affinities  between  two  or  three  letters,  we  may  reasonably  pre- 
sume that  similar  coincidences  existed  as  to  many  others  which 
have  disappeared  under  the  attrition  of  centuries. 

The  first  thought  that  occurs  to  us  on  examining  the  Landa 
alphabet  is  the  complex  and  ornate  character  of  the  letters. 
Instead  of  the  two  or  three  strokes  with  which  we  indicate  a 
sign  for  a  sound,  we  have  here  rude  pictures  of  objects.  And 
we  find  that  these  are  themselves  simplifications  of  older  forms 


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THE  ORIGIN  OF  OUR  ALPHABET. 


221 


of  a  still  more  complex  character.  Take,  for  instance,  the  let- 
ter pp  in  Landa's  alphabet,  l«  j :  here  are  evidently  the  traces 
of  a  face.  The  same  appear,  but  not  so  plainly,  in  the  sign 
for  X,  which  is  ^^.  Now,  if  we  turn  to  the  ancient  hiero- 
glyphics upon  the  monuments  of  Central  America,  we  will  find 
the  human  face  appearing  in  a  great  many  of  them,  as  in 
the  following,  which  we  copy  from  the  Tablet  of  the  Cross  at 
Palenque.  We  take  the  hieroglyphs  from  the  left-hand  side 
of  the  inscription.  Here  it  will  be  seen  that,  out  of 
seven  hieroglyphical  figures,  six  contain  human  faces. 
And  we  find  that  in  the  whole  inscription  of  the  Tab- 
let of  the  Cross  there  are  33  figures  out  of  108  that 
are  made  up  in  part  of  the  human  countenance. 

We  can  see,  therefore,  in  the  Landa  alphabet  a 
tendency  to  simplification.  And  this  is  what  we 
would  naturally  expect.  When  the  emblems — which 
were  probably  first  intended  for  religious  inscrip- 
tions, where  they  could  be  slowly  and  carefully  elab- 
orated— were  placed  in  the  hands  of  a  busy,  active, 
commercial  people,  such  as  were  the  Atlanteans,  and  afterward 
the  Phoenicians,  men  with  whom  time  was  valuable,  the  natural 
tendency  would  be  to  simplify  and  condense  them ;  and  when 
the  original  meaning  of  the  picture  was  lost,  they  would  natu- 
rally slur  it,  as  we  find  in  the  letters  pp  and  x  of  the  Maya 
alphabet,  where  the  figure  of  the  human  face  remains  only  in 
rude  lines. 

The  same  tendency  is  plainly  shown  in  the  two  forms  of 
the  letter  h,  as  given  in  Landa's  alphabet ;  the  original  form 
is  more  elaborate  than  the  variation  of  it.  The  original  form 
is  ra'.     The  variation  is  given  as  H.     Now  let  us  suppose 

this  simplification  to  be  carried  a  step  farther :  we  have  seen 
the  upper  and  lower  parts  of  the  first  form  shrink  into  a  smaller 
and  less  elaborate  shape ;  let  us  imagine  that  the  same  tenden- 
cy does  away  with  them  altogether;  we  would  then  have  the 


222  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

letter  H  of  the  Maya  alphabet  represented  by  this  figure,  Q ; 
now,  as  it  takes  less  time  to  make  a  single  stroke  than  a  double 
one,  this  would  become  in  time  Q.  We  turn  now  to  the  ar- 
chaic Greek  and  the  old  Hebrew,  and  we  find  the  letter  h  indi- 
cated by  this  sign,  Q,  precisely  the  Maya  letter  h  simplified. 
We  turn  to  the  archaic  Hebrew,  and  we  find  it  Q .  Now  it  is 
known  that  the  Phoenicians  wrote  from  right  to  left,  and  just 
as  we  in  writing  from  left  to  right  slope  our  letters  to  the  right, 
so  did  the  Pha?nicians  slope  their  letters  to  the  left.  Hence 
the  Maya  sign  becomes  in  the  archaic  Phojnician  this,  ^*0v* 
In  some  of  the  Phoenician  alphabets  we  even  find  the  letter  h 
made  with  the  double  strokes  above  and  below,  as  in  the  Maya  h. 
The  Egyptian  hieroglyph  for  h  is  "E^  while  cA  is  §  •  In  time 
the  Greeks  carried  the  work  of  simplification  still  farther,  and 
eliminated  the  top  lines,  as  we  have  supposed  the  Atlanteans 
to  have  eliminated  the  double  strokes,  and* they  left  the  letter 
as  it  has  come  down  to  us,  H. 

Now  it  may  be  said  that  all  this  is  coincidence.  If  it  is,  it 
is  certainly  remarkable.     But  let  us  go  a  step  farther : 

We  have  seen  in  Landa's  alphabet  that  there  are  two  forms 
of  the  letter  m.  The  first  is  ^).  But  we  find  also  an  m  com- 
bined with  the  letter  o,  o,  or  e,  says  Landa,  in  this  form,  o— '"^-o  • 
The  m  here  is  certainly  indicated  by  the  central  part  of  this 
combination,  the  figure  -TL.;  where  does  that  come  from?  It 
is  clearly  taken  from  the  heart  of  the  original  figure  wherein 
it  appears.  What  does  this  prove  ?  That  the  Atlanteans,  or 
Mayas,  when  they  sought  to  simplify  their  letters  and  combine 
them  with  others,  took  from  the  centre  of  the  ornate  hiero- 
glyphical  figure  some  characteristic  mark  with  which  they  rep- 
resented the  whole  figure.     Now  let  us  apply  this  rule : 

We  have  seen  in  the  table  of  alphabets  that  in  every  lan- 
guage, from  our  own  day  to  the  time  of  the  Pha3nicians,  o  has 
been  represented  by  a  circle  or  a  circle  within  a  circle.  Now 
where  did  the  Phoenicians  get  it?  Clearly  from  the  Mayas. 
There  are  two  figures  for  o  in  the  Maya  alphabet;  they  are 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  OUR  ALPHABET.  223 

Qi  and  Q  ;  now,  if  we  apply  the  rule  which  we  have  seen  to 
exist  in  the  case  of  the  Maya  m  to  these  figures,  the  essential 
characteristic  found  in  each  is  the  circle,  in  the  first  case  pen- 
dant from  the  hieroglyph ;  in  the  other,  in  the  centre  of  the 
lower  part  of  it.  And  that  this  circle  was  withdrawn  from 
the  hieroglyph,  and  used  alone,  as  in  the  case  of  the  m,  is 
proved  by  the  very  sign  used  at  the  foot  of  Landa's  alphabet, 
which  is,  o-JT— o.  Landa  calls  this  ma,  me,  or  mo  ;  it  is  prob- 
ably the  latter,  and  in  it  we  have  the  circle  detached  from  the 
hieroglyph. 

We  find  the  precise  Maya  o  a  circle  in  a  circle,  or  a  dot 
within  a  circle,  repeated  in  the  Phoenician  forms  for  o,  thus, 
0  and  @,  and  by  exactly  the  same  forms  in  the  Egyptian 
hieroglyphics ;  in  the  Runic  we  have  the  circle  in  the  circle ; 
in  one  form  of  the  Greek  o  the  dot  was  placed  along-side  of 
the  circle  instead  of  below  it,  as  in  the  Maya. 

Are  these  another  set  of  coincidences  ? 

Take  another  letter : 

The  letter  n  of  the  Maya  alphabet  is  represented  by  this 
sign,  itself  probably  a  simplification  of  some  more  ornate  form, 
^.  This  is  something  like  our  letter  S,  but  quite  unlike  our 
N.  But  let  us  examine  into  the  pedigree  of  our  n.  We  find 
in  the  archaic  Ethiopian,  a  language  as  old  as  the  Egyptian, 
and  which  represents  the  Cushite  branch  of  the  Atlantean 
stock,  the  sign  for  n  (no)  is  ^  ;  in  archaic  Phoenician  it 
comes  still  closer  to  the  S  shape,  thus,  ^  ,  or  in  this  form,  ^  ; 
we  have  but  to  curve  these  angles  to  approximate  it  very 
closely  to  the  Maya  n  ;  in  Troy  this  form  was  found,  ij  .  The 
Samaritan  makes  it  J3  ;  the  old  Hebrew  ^  ;  the  Moab  stone 
inscription  gives  it  ^  ;  the  later  Phoenicians  simplified  the 
archaic  form  still  further,  until  it  became  ^  ;  then  it  passed 
into  ^  :  the  archaic  Greek  form  is  "^ ;  the  later  Greeks  made 
A/,  from  which  it  passed  into  the  present  form,  N.  All  these 
forms  seem  to  be  representations  of  a  serpent ;  we  turn  to  the 


'224  ATLAATLS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN   WOULD. 

valley  of  the  Nile,  and  we  find  that  the  Eg-yptian  hieroglyphic 
for  n  was  the  serpent,  vp^^  ;  the  Pelasgian  n  was  2 ;  the  Ar- 
cadian, ^ ;  the  Etruscan,  2  • 

Can  anything  be  more  significant  than  to  find  the  serpent 
the  sign  for  n  in  Central  America,  and  in  all  these  Old  World 
languages  ? 

Now  turn  to  the  letter  k.  The  Maya  sign  for  k  is  6^. 
This  does  not  look  much  like  our  letter  K ;  but  let  iis  examine 
it.  Following  the  precedent  established  for  us  by  the  Mayas 
in  the  case  of  the  letter  m,  let  us  see  what  is  the  distinguishing 
feature  here ;  it  is  clearly  the  figure  of  a  serpent  standing  erect, 
with  its  tail  doubled  around  its  middle,  forming  a  circle.  It 
has  already  been  remarked  by  Savolini  that  this  erect  serpent 
is  very  much  like  the  Egyptian  Urceus,  an  erect  serpent  with 
an  enlarged  body — a  sacred  emblem  found  in  the  hair  of  their 
deities.  We  turn  again  to  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  and  we  find 
that  the  Egyptian  hieroglyphic  for  k  was  a  serpent  with  a  convo- 
lution or  protuberance  in  the  middle,  precisely  as  in  the  Maya, 
thus,  ''SLjv  '  ^^^^^  ^^^^  transformed  into  the  Egyptian  letter  ^  ; 
the  serpent  and  the  protuberance  reappear  in  one  of  the  Phoe- 
nician forms  of  ky  to  wit,  5  5  while  in  the  Punic  we  have  these 
forms,  ^  and  ^.  Now  suppose  a  busy  people  trying  to  give 
this  sign :  instead  of  drawing  the  serpent  in  all  its  details  they 
would  abbreviate  it  into  something  like  this,  ^  ;  now  we  turn 
to  the  ancient  Ethiopian  sign  for  k  [ka),  and  we  have  ^,  or 
the  Himyaritic  Arabian  t>(;  while  in  the  Phoenician  it  becomes 
^  ;  in  the  archaic  Greek,  >! ;  and  in  the  later  Greek,  when 
they  changed  the  writing  from  left  to  right,  [^  •  ^^  that  the 
two  lines  projecting  from  the  upright  stroke  of  our  English  K 
are  a  reminiscence  of  the  convolution  of  the  serpent  in  the 
Maya  original  and  the  Egyptian  copy. 

Turn  now  to  the  Maya  sign  for  t:  it  is  g^.  AVhat  is  the 
distinctive  mark  about  this  figure?  It  is  the  cross  composed 
of  two  curved  lines,  thus,  y.     It  is  probable   that   in   this 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  OUR  ALPHABET.  225 

Maya  sign  the  cross  is  united  at  the  bottom,  like  a  figure  8. 
Here  again  we  turn  to  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  and  we  find  that 
the  Egyptian  hieroglyph  for  t  is  ^  and  0^;  and  in  the  Syr- 
iac  ^  it  is  ^.  We  even  find  the  curved  lines  of  the  Maya  ?, 
which  give  it  something  of  the  appearance  of  the  numeral  8, 
repeated  accurately  in  the  Mediterranean  alphabets;  thus  the 
Punic  t  repeats  the  Maya  form  almost  exactly  as  X  and  Y\. 
Now  suppose  a  busy  people  compelled  to  make  this  mark 
every  day  for  a  thousand  years,  and  generally  in  a  hurry,  and 
the  cross  would  soon  be  made  without  curving  the  lines;  it 
would  become  X.  But  before  it  reached  even  that  simplified 
form  it  had  crossed  the  Atlantic,  and  appeared  in  the  archaic 
Ethiopian  sign  for  tsa,  thus,  ^.  In  the  archaic  Phoenician 
the  sign  for  Ms  (+)  and  ^ ;  the  oldest  Greek  form  is  ® ,  or 
X  ,  and  the  later  Greeks  gave  it  to  the  Romans  T,  and  modi- 
fied this  into  0  ;  the  old  Hebrew  gave  it  as  X  and  +;  the 
Moab  stone  as  X ;  this  became  in  time  "J"  and  X* 

Take  the  letter  a.  In  the  Maya  there  are  three  forms  given 
for  this  letter.  The  first  is  5^ ;  the  third  is  fj.  The  first 
looks  very  much  like  the  foot  of  a  lion  or  tiger;  the  third  is 
plainly  a  foot  or  boot.  If  one  were  required  to  give  hurriedly 
a  rude  outline  of  either  of  these,  would  he  not  represent  it  thus, 
j;  ;  and  can  we  not  conceive  that  this  could  have  been  in  time 
modified  into  the  Phoenician  a,  which  was  ^'^.  The  hieratic 
Egyptian  a  was  2 ;  the  ancient  Hebrew,  which  was  ^)>v,,  or 
<f  ;  the  ancient  Greek  was  the  foot  reversed,  A  ;  the  later  Greek 
became  our  A. 

Turn  next  to  the  Maya  sign  for  q  {Jcu) :  it  is  K^.  Now 
what  is  the  peculiarity  of  this  hieroglyph  ?  The  circle  below  is 
not  significant,  for  there  are  many  circular  figures  in  the  Maya 
alphabet.  Clearly,  if  one  was  called  upon  to  simplify  this,  he 
would  retain  the  two  small  circles  joined  side  by  side  at  the 
top,  and  would  indicate  the  lower  circle  with  a  line  or  dash. 
And  when  we  turn  to  the  Egyptian  q  we  find  it  in  this  shape, 

10* 


226  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

yOQ^ ;  vve  turn  to  tlie  Ethiopian  q  {kkua),  and  we  find  it  •^ , 
or  as  qua,  ^;  wliile  the  Phoenician  conies  still  nearer  the  sup- 
posed Maya  form  in  Cp;  the  Moab  stone  was  q) ;  the  Himya- 
ritic  Arabian  form  became  Cp  ;  the  Greek  form  was  Cp,  which 
graduated  into  the  Roman  Q.  But  a  still  more  striking- 
proof  of  the  descent  of  the  Phoenician  alphabet  from  the 
Maya  is  found  in  the  other  form  of  the  q,  the  Maya  cu,  which 
is  (>g).  Now,  if  we  apply  the  Maya  rule  to  this,  and  discard 
the  outside  circle,  we  have  this  left,  '^.  In  time  the  curved 
line  would  be  made  straight,  and  the  figure  would  assume  this 
form,  X|  ;  the  next  step  would  be  to  make  the  cross  07i  the 
straight  line,  thus,  A.  One  of  the  ancient  Phoenician  forms  is 
^.     Can  all  this  be  accident? 

The  letter  c  or  ^  (for  the  two  probably  gave  the  same  sound 
as  in  the  Phoenician)  is  given  in  the  Maya  alphabet  as  follows, 
^^.  This  would  in  time  be  simplified  into  a  figure  repre- 
senting tlie  two  sides  of  a  triangle  with  the  apex  upward,  thus, 
A.  This  is  precisely  the  form  found  by  Dr.  Schliemann  in 
the  ruins  of  Troy,  A-  What  is  the  Phoenician  form  for  g,  as 
found  on  the  Moab  stone?  It  is  yt.  The  Carthaginian  Phoe- 
nicians gave  it  more  of  a  rounded  form,  thus,  /^.  The  hieratic 
Egyptian  figure  for  p  was  ^  ;  in  the  earlier  Greek  form  the 
left  limb  of  the  figure  was  shortened,  thus,  "A  ',  the  later  Greeks 
reversed  it,  and  wrote  it  f;  the  Romans  changed  this  into  ^, 
and  it  finally  became  C. 

In  the  Maya  we  have  one  sign  for  p,  and  another  for  pp. 
The  first  contains  a  curious  figure,  precisely  like  our  r  laid 
on  its  back,  ^J.  There  is,  apparently,  no  r  in  the  Maya  al- 
phabet; and  the  Roman  r  grew  out  of  the  later  Phoenician  r 
formed  thus,  /^ ;  it  would  appear  that  the  earliest  Phoenician 
alphabet  did  not  contain  the  letter  r.  But  if  we  now  turn  to 
the  Phoenician  alphabet,  we  will  find  one  of  the  curious  forms 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  OUR  ALPHABET.  227 

of  the  p  given  thus,,^,  a  very  fair  representation  of  an  r  lying- 
upon  its  face.  Is  it  not  another  remarkable  coincidence  that 
the  p,  in  both  Maya  and  Phoenician,  should  contain  this  singu- 
lar sign  ? 

The  form  of  pp  in  the  Maya  alphabet  is  this,  LjlJ.  If  we 
are  asked,  on  the  principle  already  indicated,  to  reduce  this 
to  its  elements,  we  would  use  a  figure  like  this,  H;  in  time  the 
tendency  would  be  to  shorten  one  of  these  perpendicular  lines, 
thus,  [j  ;  and  this  we  find  is  very  much  like  the  Phoenician 
p,  p      The  Greek  ph  is  $. 

The  letter  I  in  the  Maya  is  in  two  forms;  one  of  these  is 
k^^^  the  other  is  X^.  Now,  if  we  again  apply  the  rule  which 
we  observed  to  hold  good  with  the  letter  m — that  is,  draw  from 
the  inside  of  the  hieroglyph  some  symbol  that  will  briefly 
indicate  the  whole  letter — we  will  have  one  of  two  forms, 
either  a  right-angled  figure  formed  thus,  t],  or  an  acute  angle 
formed  by  joining  the  two  lines  which  are  unconnected,  thus, 
1/ ;  and  either  of  these  forms  brings  us  quite  close  to  the 
letter  I  of  the  Old  World.  We  find  /  on  the  Moab  stone  thus 
formed,  6  •  The  archaic  Phoenician  form  of  I  was  y,  or  i-  ; 
the  archaic  Hebrew  was  ^  and  A*  ;  the  hieratic  Egyptian 
was  A^;  the  Greek  form  was  /\ — the  Roman  L. 

The  Maya  letter  h  is  shaped  thus,  (^.  Now,  if  we  turn  to  the 
Phoenician,  we  find  that  h  is  represented  by  the  same  crescent- 
like figure  which  w^e  find  in  the  middle  of  this  hieroglyph,  but 
reversed  in  the  direction  of  the  writing,  thus,  )  ;  while  in  the 
archaic  Hebrew^  we  have  the  same  crescent  figure  as  in  the 
Maya,  turned  in  the  same  direction,  but  accompanied  by  a  line 
drawn  downward,  and  to  the  left,  thus,  _Cj  ;  a  similar  form  is 
also  found  in  the  Phoenician  C^  ;  and  this  in  the  earliest  Greek 
changed  into  ^,  and  in  the  later  Greek  into  B.  One  of  the 
Etruscan  signs  for  h  was  "^  ,  while  the  Pelasgian  h  was  repre- 


228  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

sented  thus, '^^;  the  Chaldaic  b  was  3;  the  Syriac  sign  for  b 
was  r^ ;  the  Illyrian  b  was  ^ . 

The  Maya  e  is  ^^ ;  this  became  in  time  <i> ;  then  ttt  (we 
see  this  form  on  the  Maya  monuments)  ;  the  dots  in  time  were 
indicated  by  strokes,  and  we  reach  the  hieratic  Egyptian  form, 
TFT :  we  even  find  in  some  of  the  ancient  Phoenician  inscrip- 
tions the  original  Maya  circles  preserved  in  making  the  let- 
ter e,  thus,  2 ;  t^ien  we  find  the  old  Greek  form,  "^ ;  the  old 
Hebrew,  3 ;  and  the  later  Phcenician,  9^ :  when  the  direction 
of  the  writing  was  changed  this  became  £J.  Dr.  Schliemann 
found  a  form  like  this  on  inscriptions  deep  in  the  ruins  of 
1'i^'oy>  f^-  This  is  exactly  the  form  found  on  the  American 
monuments. 

The  Maya  i  is  ^^ ;  this  became  in  time  ^^ ;  this  developed 
into  a  still  simpler  form,  J-\ ;  and  this  passed  into  the  Phoeni- 
cian form,  /1~\.  The  Samaritan  i  was  formed  thus,  /T7;  the 
Egyptian  letter  i  h  fl)  :  gradually  in  all  these  the  left-hand 
line  w^as  dropped,  and  w^e  come  to  the  figure  used  on  the  stone 
of  Moab,  <^  and  ^;  this  in  time  became  the  old  Hebrew 
<\^   or  ^  ;  and  this  developed  into  the  Greek  J. 

We  have  seen  the  complicated  symbol  for  m  reduced  by  the 
Mayas  themselves  into  this  figure,  _n-  :  if  w^e  attempt  to  write 
this  rapidly,  we  find  it  very  difficult  to  always  keep  the  base 
lines  horizontal ;  naturally  we  form  something  like  this,  ^-in-  : 
the  distinctive  figure  within  the  sign  for  m  in  the  Maya  is  n 
or  C  We  see  this  repeated  in  the  Egyptian  hieroglyphics 
for  m,  E,  and  IHHHyHI,  and  ^=3;  in  the  Chaldaic  m,  D;  and 
in  the  Ethiopic  Dm  .  We  find  one  form  of  the  Phoenician 
where  the  m  is  made  thus,  lO  ;  and  in  the  Punic  it  appears 
thus,  ^  ;  and  this  is  not  unlike  the  m  on  the  stone  of  Moab, 
^',  or  the  ancient  Phoenician  forms,  w^,  t^,  and  the  old 
Greek  a^,  or  the  ancient  Hebrew    ^^^,  'jy- 


THE  ORIOIN  OF  OUR  ALPHABET.  229 

The  yi^x^oi  the  Maya  alphabet  is  a  hand  pointing  downward, 
;  this,  reduced  to  its  elements,  would  be  expressed  some- 
thing like  this,  ^/\  or  ^^ ;  and  this  is  very  much  like  the  x 
of  the  archaic  Phoenician,  ^;  or  the  Moab  stone,  ^;  or  the 
later  Phoenician,  ^;  or  the  Hebrew,  ^,  ^;  or  the  old  Greek, 
^  :  the  later  Greek  form  was  S. 

The  Maya  alphabet  contains  no  sign  for  the  letter  s  ;  there 
is,  however,  a  symbol  called  ca  immediately  above  the  letter  k ; 
it  is  probable  that  the  sign  ca  stands  for  the  soft  sound  of  c, 
as  in  our  words  citron,  circle,  civil,  circus,  etc.  As  it  is  written 
in  the  Maya  alphabet  ca,  and  not  k,  it  evidently  represents  a 
different  sound.  The  sign  ca  is  this,  ^ .  A  somewhat  sim- 
ilar sign  is  found  in  the  body  of  the  symbol  for  k,  thus?  tttt- 
this  would  appear  to  be  a  simplification  of  ca,  but  turned  down- 
ward. If  now  we  turn  to  the  Egyptian  letters  we  find  the  sign  k 
represented  by  this  figure  *^^^  ,  simplified  again  into  (^  ;  while 
the  sign  for  k  in  the  Phoenician  inscription  on  the  stone  of 
Moab  is  j/  .  If  now  we  turn  to  the  s  sound,  indicated  by  the 
Maya  sign  ca,  fc,  we  find  the  resemblance  still  more  striking 
to  kindred  European  letters.  The  Phoenician  s  is  l_l/  u/  uu  ; 
in  the  Greek  this  becomes  M  ^;  the  Hebrew  is  w/  W  ;  the  Sa- 
maritan, -tec  .  The  Egyptian  hieroglyph  for  s  is  Y?f?t ;  the  Egyp- 
tian letter  s  \2>  uj ;  the  Ethiopic,  erg ;  the  Chaldaic,  UJ ;  and 
the  Illyrian  s  c  is  xii  . 

We  have  thus  traced  back  the  forms  of  eighteen  of  the  an- 
cient letters  to  the  Maya  alphabet.  In  some  cases  the  pedigree 
is  so  plain  as  to  be  indisputable. 

For  instance,  take  the  h  : 

Maya,  H ;  old  Greek,  0  ;  old  Hebrew,  0 ;  Phoenician,  ^. 

Or  take  the  letter  o  : 

Maya,  o ;  old  Greek,  o ;  old  Hebrew,  o ;  Phoenician,  o. 

Or  take  the  letter  t  : 

Maya,  @  ;  old  Greek,  (x) ;  old  Phoenician,  (+)  and  x . 


230 


ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 


Or  take  the  letter  q  : 

Maya,  ^  ;  old  Phoenician,  cp  and  ^ ;  Greek,  Q. 

Or  take  the  letter  k  : 

Maya,  (g)  ;  Egyptian,  §j^ ;  Ethiopian,  J;  Phoenician,^. 

Or  take  the  letter  n  : 

Maya,  5> ;  Egyptian,  ^-T*  ;  Pelasgian,  2  ;  Arcadian,  ^  ; 
Phoenician,    tJ. 

Surely  all  this  cannot  be  accident ! 

But  we  find  another  singular  proof  of  the  truth  of  this  theory: 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  Maya  alphabet  lacks  the  letter  d  and 
the  letter  r.  The  Mexican  alphabet  possessed  a  d.  The  sounds 
d  and  t  were  probably  indicated  in  the  Maya  tongue  by  the 
same  sign,  called  t  in  the  Landa  alphabet.  The  Finns  and 
Lapps  do  not  distinguish  between  these  two  sounds.  In  the 
oldest  known  form  of  the  Phoenician  alphabet,  that  found  on 
the  Moab  stone,  we  find  in  the  same  way  but  one  sign  to  ex- 
press the  d  and  t.  D  does  not  occur  on  the  Etruscan  monu- 
ments, t  being  used  in  its  place.  It  would,  therefore,  appear 
that  after  the  Maya  alphabet  passed  to  the  Phoenicians  they 
added  two  new  signs  for  the  letters  d  and  r;  and  it  is  a  singu- 
lar fact  that  their  poverty  of  invention  seems  to  have  been  such 
that  they  used  to  express  both  d  and  r,  the  same  sign,  with 
very  little  modification,  which  they  had  already  obtained  from 
the  Maya  alphabet  as  the  symbol  for  b.  To  illustrate  this  we 
place  the  signs  side  by  side : 


Phoenician  . 
Old  Greek  . 
Old  Ilebrew 


'b 

^^  9 

d 
^9 

^ 

A 

-^3  V 

A^ 

r 
^  S 


It  thus  appears  that  the  very  signs  d  and  r,  in  the  Phoeni- 
cian, early  Greek,  and  ancient  Hebrew,  which  are  lacking  in  the 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  OVR  ALPHABET.  231 

Maya,  were  supplied  by  imitating  the  Maya  sign  for  h;  and  it 
is  a  curious  fact  that  while  the  Phoenician  legends  claim  that 
Taaut  invented  the  art  of  writing,  yet  they  tell  us  that  Taaut 
made  records,  and  "  delivered  them  to  his  successors  and  to 
foreigners,  of  whom  one  was  Isiris  (Osiris,  the  Egyptian  god), 
the  inventor  of  the  three  letters^  Did  these  three  letters  in- 
clude the  d  and  r,  which  they  did  not  receive  from  the  Atlan- 
tean  alphabet,  as  represented  to  us  by  the  Maya  alphabet? 

In  the  alphabetical  table  which  we  herewith  append  we  have 
represented  the  sign  V,  or  vau,  or/,  by  the  Maya  sign  for  U. 
"  In  the  present  so-called  Hebrew,  as  in  the  Syriac,  Sabaeic,  Pal- 
rayrenic,  and  some  other  kindred  writings,  the  vau  takes  the 
place  of  F,  and  indicates  the  sounds  of  v  and  u.  F  occurs  in 
the  same  place  also  on  the  Idalian  tablet  of  Cyprus,  in  Lycian, 
also  in  Tuarik  (Berber),  and  some  other  writings."  ("  Ameri- 
can Cyclopaedia,"  art.  F.) 

Since  writing  the  above,  I  find  in  the  "  Proceedings  of  the 
American  Philosophical  Society"  for  December,  1880,  p.  154, 
an  interesting  article  pointing  out  other  resemblances  between 
the  Maya  alphabet  and  the  Egyptian.     I  quote  : 

"  It  is  astonishing  to  notice  that  while  Landa's  first  B  is,  ac- 
cording to  Yalentini,  represented  by  a  footprint,  and  that  path 
and  footprint  are  pronounced  Be  in  the  Maya  dictionary,  the 
Egyptian  sign  for  B  was  the  human  leg. 

"  Still  more  surprising  is  it  that  the  H  of  Landa's  alphabet 
is  a  tie  of  cord,  while  the  Egyptian  H  is  a  twisted  cord.  .  .  . 
But  the  most  striking  coincidence  of  all  occurs  in  the  coiled  or 
curled  line  representing  Landa's  IT;  for  it  is  absolutely  identi- 
cal loith  the  JEgijjytian  curled  U.  The  Mayan  word  for  to  wind 
or  bend  is  Uuc ;  but  w  hy  should  Egyptians,  confined  as  they 
were  to  the  valley  of  the  Xile,  and  abhorring  as  they  did  the 
sea  and  sailors,  write  their  U  precisely  like  Landa's  alphabet  U 
in  Central  America?  There  is  one  other  remarkable  coinci- 
dence between  Landa's  and  the  Egyptian  alphabets  ;  and,  by- 
the-way,  the  English  and  other  Teutonic  dialects  have  a  curi- 
ous share  in  it.  Landa's  D  (T)  is  a  disk  with  lines  inside  the 
four  quarters,  the  allowed  Mexican  symbol  for  a  day  or  sun. 


232  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

So  far  as  sound  is  concerned,  the  English  day  represents  it ;  so 
far  as  the  form  is  concerned,  the  Egyptian  'cake,'  ideograph 
for  (l)  country  and  (2)  the  sun's  orbit  is  essentially  the  same." 

It  would  appear  as  if  both  the  Phoenicians  and  Egyptians 
drew  their  alphabet  from  a  common  source,  of  which  the  Maya 
is  a  survival,  but  did  not  borrow  from  one  another.  They  fol- 
lowed out  different  characteristics  in  the  same  original  hiero- 
glyph, as,  for  instance,  in  the  letter  h.  And  yet  I  have  shown 
that  the  closest  resemblances  exist  between  the  Maya  alphabet 
and  the  Egyptian  signs^— in  the  c,  h,  t,  i,  k^  I,  m,  n,  o,  </,  and  s — 
eleven  letters  in  all ;  in  some  cases,  as  in  the  n  and  k,  the  signs 
are  identical ;  the  k,  in  both  alphabets,  is  not  only  a  serpent, 
but  a  serpent  with  a  protuberance  or  convolution  in  the  mid- 
dle !  If  we  add  to  the  above  the  h  and  u,  referred  to  in  the 
"  Proceedings  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society,"  we  have 
thirteen  letters  out  of  sixteen  in  the  Maya  and  Egyptian  re- 
lated to  each  other.  Can  any  theory  of  accidental  coincidences 
account  for  all  this?  And  it  must  be  remembered  that  these 
resemblances  are  found  between  the  only  two  phonetic  systems 
of  alphabet  in  the  world. 

Let  us  suppose  that  two  men  agree  that  each  shall  construct 
apart  from  the  other  a  phonetic  alphabet  of  sixteen  letters; 
that  they  shall  employ  only  simple  forms — combinations  of 
straight  or  curved  lines — and  that  their  signs  shall  not  in  any- 
wise resemble  the  letters  now  in  use.  They  go  to  work  apart; 
they  have  a  multitudinous  array  of  forms  to  draw  from — the 
thousand  possible  combinations  of  lines,  angles,  circles,  and 
curves ;  when  they  have  finished,  they  bring  their  alphabets  to- 
gether for  comparison.  Under  such  circumstances  it  is  possi- 
ble that  out  of  the  sixteen  signs  one  sign  might  apjjear  in  both 
alphabets ;  there  is  one  chance  in  one  hundred  that  such  might 
be  the  case ;  but  there  is  not  one  chance  in  five  hundred  that 
this  sign  should  in  both  cases  represent  the  same  sound.  It  is 
barely  possible  tliat  two  men  working  thus  apart  should  hit 
upon  two  or  three  identical  forms,  but  altogether  impossible 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  OUR  ALPHABET.  233 

that  these  forms  should  have  the  same  significance ;  and  by  no 
stretch  of  the  imagination  can  it  be  supposed  that  in  these  alpha- 
bets so  created,  without  correspondence,  thirteen  out  of  sixteen 
signs  should  be  the  same  in  form  and  the  same  in  meaning. 

It  is  probable  that  a  full  study  of  the  Central  American  mon- 
uments may  throw  stronger  light  upon  the  connection  between 
the  Maya  and  the  European  alphabets,  and  that  further  discov- 
eries of  inscriptions  in  Europe  may  approximate  the  alphabets 
of  the  New  and  Old  World  still  more  closely  by  supplying  in- 
termediate forms. 

We  find  in  the  American  hieroglyphs  peculiar  signs  which 
take  the  place  of  pictures,  and  which  probably,  like  the  hie- 
ratic symbols  mingled  with  the  hieroglyphics  of  Egypt,  repre- 
sent alphabetical  sounds.  For  instance,  we  find  this  sign  on 
the  walls  of  the  palace  of  Palenque,  |  c^  |  ;  this  is  not  unlike 
the  form  of  the  Phoenician  t  used  in  writing,  ^  and  ^ ;  we 
find  also  upon  these  monuments  the  letter  o  represented  by 
a  small  circle,  and  entering  into  many  of  the  hieroglyphs;  we 
also  find  the  tau  sign  (thus  Ij)  often  repeated ;  also  the  sign 
which  we  have  supposed  to  represent  6,  (f  ;  also  this  sign, 
^ ,  which  we  think  is  the  simplification  of  the  letter  1c\  also 
this  sign,  which  we  suppose  to  represent  e,  |0  ;  also  this  figure, 
mi ;  and  this,  CO.  There  is  an  evident  tendency  to  reduce 
the  complex  figures  to  simple  signs  whenever  the  writers  pro- 
ceed to  form  words. 

Although  it  has  so  far  been  found  diflScult,  if  not  impossi- 
ble, to  translate  the  compound  words  formed  from  the  Maya 
alphabet,  yet  we  can  go  far  enough  to  see  that  they  used  the 
system  of  simpler  sounds  for  the  whole  hieroglyph  to  which 
we  have  referred. 

Bishop  Landa  gives  us,  in  addition  to  the  alphabet,  the  signs 
which  represent  the  days  and  months,  and  which  are  evidently 
compounds  of  the   Maya   letters.     For  instance,  we  have  this 

figure  as  the  representative  of  the  month  Mol,  ;(W)**.    Here  we 


234  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

see  very  plainly  tlie  letter  n  for  m,  the  sign  ©  for  o;  and  we 
■will  possibly  find  the  sign  for  I  in  the  right  angle  to  the  right 
of  the  m  sign,  and  which  is  derived  from  the  figure  in  the  sec- 
ond sign  for  I  in  the  Maya  alphabet. 

One  of  the  most  ancient  races  of  Central  America  is  the 
Chiapenec,  a  branch  of  the  Mayas.  They  claim  to  be  the  first 
settlers  of  the  country.  They  came,  their  legends  tell  us,  from 
the  East,  from  beyond  the  sea. 

And  even  after  the  lapse  of  so  many  thousand  years  most 
remarkable  resemblances  have  been  found  to  exist  between  the 
Chiapenec  language  and  the  Hebrew,  the  living  representative 
of  the  Phoenician  tongue. 

The  Mexican  scholar,  Senor  Melgar  ("North  Americans  of 
Antiquity,"  p.  475)  gives  the,  following  list  of  words  taken 
from  the  Chiapenec  and  the  Hebrew : 

English.  Chiapenec.  Ilehiew. 

Son Been Ben. 

Daughter Batz Bath. 

Father Abagh Abba. 

Star  in  Zodiac Chiraax Chimah. 

King Molo Maloe. 

Name  applied  to  Adam Abagh Abah. 

Afflicted Chanam Chanan. 

God Elab Elab. 

September Tsiquin Tischiri. 

More Chic Chi. 

Rich Chabin Chabic. 

Son  of  Seth Enot Enos, 

To  give Votan Votan. 

Thus,  while  we  find  such  extraordinary  resemblances  between 
the  Maya  alphabet  and  the  Phoenician  alphabet,  we  find  equally 
surprising  coincidences  between  the  Chiapenec  tongue,  a  branch 
of  the  Mayas,  and  the  Hebrew,  a  branch  of  the  Phoenician. 

Attempts  have  been  repeatedly  made  by  European  scholars 
to  trace  the  letters  of  the  Phoenician  alphabet  back  to  the  elab- 
orate hieroglyphics  from  which  all  authorities  agree  they  must 


THE' ORIOm  OF  OUR  ALPHABET.  235 

have  been  developed,  but  all  such  attempts  have  been  failures. 
But  here,  in  the  Maya  alphabet,  we  are  not  only  able  to  extract 
from  the  heart  of  the  hieroglyphic  the  typical  sign  for  the 
sound,  but  we  are  able  to  go  a  step  farther,  and,  by  means  of 
the  inscriptions  upon  the  monuments  of  Copan  and  Palenque, 
deduce  the  alphabetical  hieroglyph  itself  from  an  older  and 
more  ornate  figure ;  we  thus  not  only  discover  the  relationship 
of  the  European  alphabet  to  the  American,  but  we  trace  its  de- 
scent in  the  very  mode  in  which  reason  tells  us  it  must  have 
been  developed.  All  this  proves  thiit  the  similarities  in  ques- 
tion did  not  come  from  Phoenicians  having  accidentally  visited 
the  shores  of  America,  but  that  we  have  before  us  the  origin, 
the  source,  the  very  matrix  in  which  the  Phoenician  alphabet 
was  formed.  In  the  light  of  such  a  discovery  the  inscriptions 
upon  the  monuments  of  Central  America  assume  incalculable 
importance ;  they  take  us  back  to  a  civilization  far  anterior  to 
the  oldest  known  in  Europe ;  they  represent  the  language  of 
antediluvian  times. 

It  may  be  said  that  it  is  improbable  that  the  use  of  an  al- 
phabet could  have  ascended  to  antediluvian  times,  or  to  that 
prehistoric  age  when  intercourse  existed  between  ancient  Eu- 
rope and  America;  but  it  must  be  remembered  that  if  the 
Flood  legends  of  Europe  and  Asia  are  worth  anything  they 
prove  that  the  art  of  writing  existed  at  the  date  of  the  Deluge, 
and  that  records  of  antediluvian  learning  were  preserved  by 
those  who  escaped  the  Flood ;  while  Plato  tells  us  that  the 
people  of  Atlantis  engraved  their  laws  upon  columns  of  bronze 
and  plates  of  gold. 

There  was  a  general  belief  among  the  ancient  nations  that  the 
art  of  writing  was  known  to  the  antediluvians.  The  Druids 
believed  in  books  more  ancient  than  the  Flood.  They  styled 
them  "  the  books  of  Pheryllt,"  and  "  the  writings  of  Pridian  or 
Hu."  "  Ceridwen  consults  them  before  she  prepares  the  mys- 
terious caldron  which  shadows  out  the  awful  catastrophe  of 
the  Deluge."     (Faber's  "  Pagan  Idolatry,"  vol.  ii.,  pp.  150, 151.) 


236  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

In  the  first  Avatar  of  Vishnu  we  are  told  that  "  the  divine  ordi- 
nances were  stolen  by  the  demon  Haya-Griva.  Vishnu  became 
a  fish  ;  and  after  the  Deluge,  when  the  waters  had  subsided,  he 
recovered  the  holy  books /rowi  the  bottom  of  the  ocean.''''  Bero- 
sus,  speaking  of  the  time  before  the  Deluge,  says:  "Oannes 
wrote  concerning  the  generations  of  mankind  and  their  civil 
polity."  The  Hebrew  commentators  on  Genesis  say,  "  Our  rab- 
bins assert  that  Adam,  our  father  of  blessed  memory,  com- 
posed a  book  of  precepts,  which  were  delivered  to  him  by  God 
in  Paradise."  (Smith's  "  Sacred  Annals,"  p.  49.)  That  is  to 
say,  the  Hebrews  preserved  a  tradition  that  the  Ad-ami,  the 
people  of  Ad,  or  Adlantis,  possessed,  while  yet  dwelling  in 
Paradise,  the  art  of  writing.  It  has  been  suggested  that  with- 
out the  use  of  letters  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  preserve 
the  many  details  as  to  dates,  ages,  and  measurements,  as  of  the 
ark,  handed  down  to  us  in  Genesis.  Josephus,  quoting  Jewish 
traditions,  says,  "  The  births  and  deaths  of  illustrious  men,  be- 
tween Adam  and  Noah,  were  noted  down  at  the  time  with  great 
accuracy."  (Ant.,  lib.  1,  cap.  iii.,  sec.  3.)  Suidas,  a  Greek  lexi- 
cographer of  the  eleventh  century,  expresses  tradition  when  he 
says,  "  Adam  was  the  author  of  arts  and  letters."  The  Egyp- 
tians said  that  their  god  Anubis  was  an  antediluvian,  and 
"  wrote  annals  before  the  Flood."  The  Chinese  have  traditions 
that  the  earliest  race  of  their  nation,  prior  to  history,  "taught 
all  the  arts  of  life  and  wrote  books."  "  The  Goths  always  had 
the  use  of  letters;"  and  Le  Grand  afiirms  that  before  or  soon 
after  the  Flood  "  there  were  found  the  acts  of  great  men  en- 
graved in  letters  on  large  stones."  (Fosbroke's  "  Encyclopaedia 
of  Antiquity,"  vol.  i.,  p.  355.)  Pliny  says,  "  Letters  were  always 
in  use."  Strabo  says,  "  The  inhabitants  of  Spain  possessed  rec- 
ords uiritten  before  the  DelugeP  (Jackson's  "  Chronicles  of 
Antiquity,"  vol.  iii.,  p.  85.)  Mitford  ("  History  of  Greece,"  vol. 
i.,  p.  121)  says,  "Nothing  appears  to  us  so  probable  as  that  it 
(the  alphabet)  was  derived  from  the  antediluvian  world." 


TEE  BRONZE  AQE  IN  EUROPE.  237 


Chapter  VIII. 

THE  BRONZE  AGE  IN  EUROPE. 

There  exist  in  Europe  the  evidences  of  three  different  ages 
of  human  development : 

1.  The  Stone  Age,  which  dates  back  to  a  vast  antiquity.  It 
is  subdivided  into  two  periods :  an  age  of  rough  stone  imple- 
ments ;  and  a  later  age,  when  these  implements  were  ground 
smooth  and  made  in  improved  forms. 

2.  The  Bronze  Age,  when  the  great  mass  of  implements  were 
manufactured  of  a  compound  metal,  consisting  of  about  nine 
parts  of  copper  and  one  part  of  tin. 

3.  An  age  when  iron  superseded  bronze  for  weapons  and 
cutting  tools,  although  bronze  still  remained  in  use  for  orna- 
ments. This  age  continued  down  to  what  we  call  the  Histor- 
ical Period,  and  embraces  our  present  civilization ;  its  more  an- 
cient remains  are  mixed  with  coins  of  the  Gauls,  Greeks,  and 
Romans. 

The  Bronze  Period  has  been  one  of  the  perplexing  problems 
of  European  scientists.  Articles  of  bronze  are  found  over  near- 
ly all  that  continent,  but  in  especial  abundance  in  Ireland  and 
Scandinavia.  They  indicate  very  considerable  refinement  and 
civilization  upon  the  part  of  the  people  who  made  them ;  and 
a  wide  diversity  of  opinion  has  prevailed  as  to  who  that  people 
were  and  where  they  dwelt. 

In  the  first  place,  it  was  observed  that  the  age  of  bronze  (a 
compound  of  copper  and  tin)  must,  in  the  natural  order  of 
things,  have  been  preceded  by  an  age  when  copper  and  tin 
were  used  separately,  before  the  ancient  metallurgists  had  dis- 


238  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

covered  the  art  of  combining  them,  and  yet  in  Europe  the  re- 
mains of  no  such  age  have  been  found.  Sir  John  Lubbock 
says  ("Prehistoric  Times,"  p.  59),  "The  absence  of  implements 
made  either  of  copper  or  tin  seems  to  me  to  indicate  that  the 
art  of  making  bronze  was  introduced  into,  not  invented  in,  Exi- 
ropey  The  absence  of  articles  of  copper  is  especially  marked ; 
nearly  all  the  European  specimens  of  copper  implements  have 
been  found  in  Ireland;  and  yet  out  of  twelve  hundred  and 
eighty-three  articles  of  the  Bronze  Age,  in  the  great  museum 
at  Dublin,  only  thirty  celts  and  one  sword-blade  are  said  to  be 
made  of  pure  copper;  and  even  as  to  some  of  these  there 
seems  to  be  a  question. 

Where  on  the  face  of  the  earth  are  we  to  find  a  Copper  Age  ? 
Is  it  in  the  barbaric  depths  of  that  Asia  out  of  whose  uncivil- 
ized tribes  all  civilization  is  said  to  have  issued  ?  By  no  means. 
Again  we  are  compelled  to  turn  to  the  AVest.  In  America,  from 
Bolivia  to  Lake  Superior,  we  find  everywhere  the  traces  of  a 
long-enduring  Copper  Age ;  bronze  existed,  it  is  true,  in  Mexi- 
co, but  it  held  the  same  relation  to  the  copper  as  the  copper 
held  to  the  bronze  in  Europe — it  was  the  exception  as  against 
the  rule.  And  among  the  Chippeways  of  the  shores  of  Lake 
Superior,  and  among  them  alone,  we  find  any  traditions  of  the 
origin  of  the  manufacture  of  copper  implements ;  and  on  the 
shores  of  that  lake  we  find  pure  copper,  out  of  which  the  first 
metal  tools  were  probably  hammered  before  man  had  learned 
to  reduce  the  ore  or  run  the~  metal  into  moulds.  And  on  the 
shores  of  this  same  American  lake  we  find  the  ancient  mines 
from  which  some  people,  thousands  of  years  ago,  derived  their 
supplies  of  copper. 

Sir  W.  R.  Wilde  says,  "  It  is  remarkable  that  so  few  antique 
copper  implements  have  been  found  (in  Europe),  although  a 
knowledge  of  that  metal  nmst  have  been  the  preliminary  stage 
in  the  manufacture  of  bronze."  He  thinks  that  this  may  be 
accounted  for  by  supposing  that  "but  a  short  time  elapsed 
between  the  knowledge  of  smelting  and  casting  copper  ore 


Bronze  Hammer.  Ancient  Adze,  Ireland. 

IMl'LEMENTS    AND   ORNAMEXTS   OF   TUE    BRONZE    AQE. 


THE  BRONZE  AGE  IN  EUROPE.  241 

and  the  introduction  of  tin,  and  the  subsequent  manufacture 
and  use  of  bronze." 

But  here  we  have  in  America  the  evidence  that  thousands 
of  years  must  have  elapsed  during  which  copper  was  used 
alone,  before  it  was  discovered  that  by  adding  one-tenth  part 
of  tin  it  gave  a  harder  edge,  and  produced  a  superior  metal. 

The  Bronze  Age  cannot  be  attributed  to  the  Roman  civiliza- 
tion. Sir  John  Lubbock  shows  ("Prehistoric  Times,"  p.  21) 
that  bronze  weapons  have  never  been  found  associated  with 
Roman  coins  or  pottery,  or  other  remains  of  the  Roman  Peri- 
od ;  that  bronze  articles  have  been  found  in  the  greatest  abun- 
dance in  countries  like  Ireland  and  Denmark,  which  were  never 
invaded  by  Roman  armies;  and  that  the  character  of  the  orna- 
mentation of  the  works  of  bronze  is  not  Roman  in  character, 
and  that  the  Roman  bronze  contained  a  large  proportion  of 
lead,  which  is  never  the  case  in  that  of  the  Bronze  Age. 

It  has  been  customary  to  assume  that  the  Bronze  Age  was 
due  to  the  Phoenicians,  but  of  late  the  highest  authorities 
have  taken  issue  with  this  opinion.  Sir  John  Lubbock  {Ibid., 
p.  73)  gives  the  following  reasons  why  the  Phoenicians  could 
not  have  been  the  authors  of  the  Bronze  Age :  First,  the  orna- 
mentation is  different.  In  the  Bronze  Age  "this  always  con- 
sists of  geometrical  figures,  and  we  rarely,  if  ever,  find  upon 
them  representations  of  animals  and  plants,  while  on  the  or- 
namented shields,  etc.,  described  by  Homer,  as  well  as  in  the 
decoration  of  Solomon's  Temple,  animals  and  plants  were  abun- 
dantly represented."  The  cuts  on  p.  242  will  show  the  char- 
acter of  the  ornamentation  of  the  Bronze  Age.  In  the  next 
place,  the  form  of  burial  is  different  in  the  Bronze  Age  from 
that  of  the  Phoenicians.  "In  the  third  place,  the  Phoenicians, 
so  far  as  we  know  them,  were  well  acquainted  with  the  use  of 
iron  ;  in  Homer  we  find  the  warriors  already  armed  with  iron 
weapons,  and  the  tools  used  in  preparing  the  materials  for  Sol- 
omon's Temple  were  of  this  metal." 

This  view  is  also  held  by  M.  de  Fallenberg,  in  the  "  Bulletin 

11 


242  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 


Bronze  Hiacelut,  Switzerland. 


OUNAMENTS   OP   THE   DEONZE   AGE. 


de  la  Societe  dcs  Sciences  "  of  Berne.      (See  "  Smithsonian 
Rep.,"  1865-66,  p.  383.)     He  says, 

"  It  seems  surprising  that  the  nearest  neighbors  of  the  Phoe- 
nicians— the  Greeks,  the  Egyptians,  the  Etruscans,  and  the  Ro- 
mans— should  have  manufactured  plumhiferoiis  brooizes,  while 


THE  BRONZE  AOE  IN  EUROPE.  243 

the  Phoenicians  carried  to  the  people  of  the  Nortli  only  pure 
bronzes  without  the  alloy  of  lead.  If  the  civilized  people  of 
the  Mediterranean  added  lead  to  their  bronzes,  it  can  scarcely 
be  doubted  that  the  calculating  Phoenicians  would  have  done 
as  much,  and,  at  least,  with  distant  and  half- civilized  tribes, 
have  replaced  the  more  costly  tin  by  the  cheaper  metal.  .  .  . 
On  the  whole,  then,  I  consider  that  the  first  knowledge  of 
bronze  may  have  been  conveyed  to  the  populations  of  the 
period  under  review  not  only  by  the  Phoenicians,  but  by  oth- 
er civilized  people  dwelling  more  to  the  south-east." 

Professor  E.  Desor,  in  his  work  on  the  "  Lacustrian  Con- 
structions of  the  Lake  of  Xeuchatel,"  says, 

"The  Phoenicians  certainly  knew  the  use  of  iron,  and  it  can 
scarcely  be  conceived  why  they  should  have  excluded  it  from 
their  commerce  on  the  Scandinavian  coasts.  .  .  .  The  Etruscans, 
moreover,  were  acquainted  with  the  use  of  iron  as  well  as  the 
Phoenicians,  and  it  has  already  been  seen  that  the  composition 
of  their  bronzes  is  different,  since  it  contains  lead,  which  is  en- 
tirely a  stranger  to  our  bronze  epoch.  .  .  .  We  must  look,  then, 
beyond  both  the  Etruscans  and  Phoenicians  in  attempting  to 
identify  the  commerce  of  the  Bronze  Age  of  our  palafittes. 
It  will  be  the  province  of  the  historian  to  inquire  whether,  ex- 
clusive of  Phoenicians  and  Carthaginians,  there  may  not  have 
been  some  maritime  and  commercial  people  who  carried  on  a 
traffic  through  the  ports  of  Liguria  with  the  populations  of  the 
age  of  bronze  of  the  lakes  of  Italy  before  the  discovery  of  iron. 
We  may  remark,  in  passing,  that  there  is  nothing  to  prove  that 
the  Phoenicians  were  the  first  navigators.  History,  on  the  con- 
trary, positively  mentions  prisoners,  under  the  name  of  Tokhari, 
who  were  vanquished  in  a  naval  battle  fought  by  Rhamses  III. 
in  the  thirteenth  century  before  our  era,  and  whose  physiogno- 
my, according  to  Morton,  would  indicate  the  Celtic  type.  Now 
there  is  room  to  suppose  that  if  these  Tokhari  were  energetic 
enough  to  measure  their  strength  on  the  sea  with  one  of  the 
powerful  kings  of  Egypt,  they  must,  with  stronger  reason,  have 
been  in  a  condition  to  carry  on  a  commerce  along  the  coasts 
of  the  Mediterranean,  and  perhaps  of  the  Atlantic.  If  such  a 
commerce  really  existed  before  the  time  of  the  Phoenicians, 
it  would  not  be  limited  to  the  southern  slope  of  the  Alps;  it 


244 


ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 


^vollld  liave  extended  also  to  the  people  of  the  age  of  bronze 
in  Switzerland.  The  introduction  of  bronze  would  thus  as- 
cend to  a  very  hii^h  antiquity,  doubtless  beyond  the  limits  of 
the  most  ancient  European  races." 

For  tlie  merchants  of  the  Bronze  Age  we  must  look  beyond 
even  the  Tokliari,  who  were  contemporaries  of  the  Phoenicians. 
The  Tokhari,  we  have  seen,  are  represented  as  taken  prison- 
ers in  a  sea-fight  with  Rhamses  III.,  of  the  twentieth  dynasty, 
about  the  thirteenth  century   b.c. 
They  are  probably  the  Tochari  of 
Strabo.     The  accompanying  figure 
represents  one   of  these  people  as 
they    appear    upon    the    Egyptian 
monuments.     (See  Nott  and  Glid- 
don's  "Types  of  Mankind,"  p.  108.) 
Here  we  have,  not   an    inhabitant 
of  Atlantis,  but  probably  a  repre- 
sentative of  one  of  the  mixed  races 
that  sprung  from  its  colonies. 

Dr.  Morton  thinks  these  people, 
as  painted  on  the  Egyptian  monu- 
ments, to  have  "  strong  Celtic  feat- 
ures. Those  familiar  with  the  Scotch  Highlanders  may  recog- 
nize a  speaking  likeness." 

It  is  at  least  interesting  to  have  a  portrait  of  one  of  the 
daring  race  who  more  than  three  thousand  years  ago  left  the 
west  of  Europe  in  their  ships  to  attack  the  mighty  power  of 
Egypt. 

They  were  troublesome  to  the  nations  of  the  East  for  many 
centuries;  for  in  700  b.c.  we  find  them  depicted  on  the  As- 
syrian monuments.  This  figure  represents  one  of  the  Tokhari 
of  the  time  of  Sennacherib.  It  will  be  observed  that  the  head- 
dress (apparently  of  feathers)  is  the  same  in  both  portraits,  al- 
though separated  by  a  period  of  six  hundred 'years. 

It  is  more  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  authors  of  the 


OEhTIO     WARRIOR,    FROM 
MONU-MENTS. 


THE  BRONZE  AGE  IN  EUROPE. 


245 


Bronze  Age  of  p]urope  were  the  people  described  by  Plato, 
who  were  workers  in  metal,  who  were  highly  civilized,  who  pre- 
ceded in  time  all  the  nations  which  we 
call  ancient.  It  was  this  people  who 
passed  through  an  age  of  copper  be- 
fore they  reached  the  age  of  bronze, 
and  whose  colonies  in  America  repre- 
sented this  older  form  of  metallurgy  as 
it  existed  for  many  generations. 
Professor  Desor  says : 

"  We  are  asked  if  the  preparation  of 
bronze  was  not  an  indigenous  invention 
which  had  originated  on  the  slopes  of 
the  Alps  ? ...  In  this  idea  we  acquiesced 
for  a  moment.  But  we  are  met  by  the 
objection  that,  if  this  were  so,  the  na- 
tives, like  the  ancient  tribes  of  America, 
would  have  commenced  by  manufactur- 
ing utensils  of  copper ;  yet  thus  far  no 
utensils  of  this  metal  have  been  found 
except  a  few  in  the  strand  of  Lake  Gar- 
da.  The  great  majority  of  metallic  ob- 
jects is  of  bronze,  which  necessitated 
the  employment  of  tin,  and  this  could 
not  be  obtained  except  by  commerce, 
inasmuch  as  it  is  a  stranger  to  the  Alps. 
It  would  appear,  therefore,  more  nat- 
ural to  admit  that  the  art  of  combining  tin  with  copper — in 
other  words,  that  the  manufacture  of  bronze — was  of  foreign 
importation^  He  then  shows  that,  although  copper  ores  are 
found  in  the  Alps,  the  probability  is  that  even  "the  copper 
also  was  of  foreign  importation.  Now,  in  view  of  the  pro- 
digious quantity  of  bronze  manufactured  at  that  epoch,  this 
single  branch  of  commerce  must  itself  have  necessitated  the 
most  incessant  commercial  communications.'''' 


CELTIC  WARKIOE,  FROM    ABSTB- 
IAN   MONCMENT8, 


And  as  this  commerce  could  not,  as  we  have  seen,  have  been 
carried  on  by  the  Romans,  Greeks,  Etruscans,  or  Phoenicians, 


246  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

because  their  civilizations  flourished  during  the  Iron  Age,  to 
which  this  age  of  bronze  was  anterior,  where  then  are  we  to 
look  for  a  great  maritime  and  commercial  people,  who  carried 
vast  quantities  of  copper,  tin,  and  bronze  (unalloyed  by  the 
lead  of  the  south  of  Europe)  to  Denmark,  Norway,  Sweden, 
Ireland,  England,  France,  Spain,  Switzerland,  and  Italy  ?  Where 
can  we  find  them  save  in  that  people  of  Atlantis,  whose  ships, 
docks,  canals,  and  commerce  provoked  the  astonishment  of  the 
ancient  Egyptians,  as  recorded  by  Plato.  The  Toltec  root  for 
water  is  Atl ;  the  Peruvian  word  for  copper  is  And  (from 
which,  probably,  the  Andes  derived  their  name,  as  there  was  a 
province  of  Anti  on  their  slopes)  :  may  it  not  be  that  the  name 
of  Atlantis  is  derived  from  these  originals,  and  signified  the 
copper  island,  or  the  copper  mountains  in  the  sea  ?  And  from 
these  came  the  thousands  of  tons  of  copper  and  tin  that  must, 
during  the  Bronze  Age,  have  been  introduced  into  Europe  ? 
There  are  no  ancient  works  to  indicate  that  the  tin  mines  of 
Cornwall  were  worked  for  any  length  of  time  in  the  early  days 
(see  "  Prehistoric  Times,"  p.  14).  Morlot  has  pointed  out  that 
the  bronze  implements  of  Hallstadt,  in  Austria,  were  of  foreign 
origin,  because  they  contain  no  lead  or  silver. 

Or,  if  we  are  to  seek  for  the  source  of  the  vast  amount  of 
copper  brought  into  Europe  somewhere  else  than  in  Atlantis, 
may  it  not  be  that  these  supplies  were  drawn  in  large  part  from 
the  shores  of  Lake  Superior  in  America?  The  mining  opera- 
tions of  some  ancient  people  were  there  carried  on  upon  a  gi- 
gantic scale,  not  only  along  the  shores  of  the  lake  but  even  far 
out  upon  its  islands.  At  Isle  Royale  vast  works  were  found, 
reaching  to  a  depth  of  sixty  feet;  great  intelligence  was  shown 
in  following  up  the  richest  veins  even  when  interrupted ;  the 
excavations  were  drained  by  underground  drains.  On  three 
sections  of  land  on  this  island  the  amount  of  mining  exceeded 
that  mined  in  twenty  years  in  one  of  our  largest  mines,  with  a 
numerous  force  constantly  employed.  In  one  place  the  exca- 
vations extended  in  a  nearly  continuous  line  for  two  miles.    No 


THE  BRONZE  AGE  IN  EUROFE.  247 

remains  of  the  dead  and  no  mounds  are  found  near  these  mines; 
it  would  seem,  therefore,  that  the  miners  came  from  a  distance, 
and  carried  their  dead  back  with  them.  Henry  Gillman  ("  Smith- 
sonian Rep.,"  1873,  p.  387)  supposes  that  the  curious  so-called 
"Garden  Beds"  of  Michigan  were  the  fields  from  which  they 
drew  their  supplies  of  food.     He  adds, 

"The  discoveries  in  Isle  Royale  throw  a  new  light  on  the 
character  of  the  '  Mound  Builders,'  giving  us  a  totally  distinct 
conception  of  them,  and  dignifying  them  with  something  of 
the  prowess  and  spirit  of  adventure  which  we  associate  with 
the  higher  races.  The  copper,  the  result  of  their  mining,  to  be 
available,  must,  in.  all  probability,  have  been  conveyed  in  ves- 
sels, great  or  small,  across  a  treacherous  and  stormy  sea,  whose 
dangers  are  formidable  to  us  now,  being  dreaded  even  by  our 
largest  craft,  and  often  proving  their  destruction.  Leaving 
tlieir  homes,  those  men  dared  to  face  the  unknown,  to  brave  the 
hardships  and  perils  of  the  deep  and  of  the  wilderness,  actu- 
ated by  an  ambition  which  we  to-day  would  not  be  ashamed 
to  acknowledge." 

Such  vast  works  in  so  remote  a  land  must  have  been  inspired 
by  the  commercial  necessities  of  some  great  civilization;  and 
why  not  by  that  ancient  and  mighty  people  who  covered  Eu- 
rope, Asia,  and  Africa  with  their  manufactures  of  bronze — and 
who  possessed,  as  Plato  tells  us,  enormous  fleets  trading  to  all 
parts  of  the  inhabited  world — whose  cities  roared  with  the  con- 
tinual tumult  of  traffic,  whose  dominion  extended  to  Italy  and 
Egypt,  and  who  held  parts  of  "  the  great  opposite  continent " 
of  America  under  their  control  ?  A  continuous  water-way  led 
from  the  island  of  Atlantis  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  thence 
up  the  Mississippi  River  and  its  tributaries  almost  to  these  very 
mines  of  Lake  Superior. 

Arthur  Mitchell  says  ("The  Past  in  the  Present,"  p.  132), 

"  The  discovery  of  bronze,  and  the  knowledge  of  how  to 
make  it,  may,  as  a  mere  intellectual  effort,  be  regarded  as  rath- 
er above  than  below^  the  effort  which  is  involved  in  the  discov- 
ery and  use  of  iron.     As  regards  bronze,  there  is  first  the  dis- 


248  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN   WORLD. 

covery  of  copper,  and  the  way  of  getting-  it  from  its  ore ;  then 
the  discovery  of  tin,  and  the  way  to  get  it  from  its  ore ;  and 
then  the  further  discovery  that,  by  an  admixture  of  tin  with 
copper  in  proper  proportions,  an  alloy  with  the  qualities  of  a 
hard  metal  can  be  produced.  It  is  surely  no  mistake  to  say 
that  there  goes  quite  as  much  thinking  to  this  as  to  the  getting 
of  iron  from  its  ore,  and  the  conversion  of  that  iron  into  steel. 
There  is  a  considerable  leap  from  stone  to  bronze,  but  the  leap 
from  bronze  to  iron  is  comparatively  small.  ...  It  seems  highly 
improbable,  if  not  altogether  absurd,  that  the  human  mind,  at 
some  particular  stage  of  its  development,  should  here,  there, 
and  everywhere — independently,  and  as  the  result  of  reaching 
that  stage — discover  that  an  alloy  of  copper  and  tin  yields  a 
hard  metal  useful  in  the  manufacture  of  tools  and  weapons. 
There  is  nothing  analogous  to  such  an  occurrence  in  the  known 
history  of  human  progress.  It  is  infinitely  more  probable  that 
bronze  was  discovered  in  one  or  more  centres  by  one  or  more 
men,  and  that  its  first  use  was  solely  in  such  centre  or  centres. 
That  the  invention  should  then  be  perfected,  and  its  various 
applications  found  out,  and  tliat  it  should  thereafter  spread 
more  or  less  broadly  over  the  face  of  the  earth,  is  a  thing  easi- 
ly understood." 

We  will  find  the  knowledge  of  bronze  wherever  the  colonies 
of  Atlantis  extended,  and  nowhere  else ;  and  Plato  tells  us  that 
the  people  of  Atlantis  possessed  and  used  that  metal. 

The  indications  are  that  the  Bronze  Age  represents  the  com- 
ing in  of  a  new  people — a  civilized  people.  With  that  era,  it  is 
believed,  appears  in  Europe  for  the  first  time  the  domesticated 
animals — the  horse,  the  ox,  the  sheep,  the  goat,  and  the  hog. 
(Morlot,  "Smithsonian  Rep.,"  1860,  p.  311.)  It  was  a  small 
race,  with  very  small  hands ;  this  is  shown  in  the  size  of  the 
sword-hilts :  they  are  not  large  enough  to  be  used  by  the  pres- 
ent races  of  Europe.  They  were  a  race  with  long  skulls,  as  con- 
tradistinguished from  the  round  heads  of  the  Stone  Period. 
The  drawings  on  the  following  page  represent  the  types  of  the 
two  races. 

This  people  must  have  sent  out  colonies  to  the  shores  of 
France,  Spain,  Italy,  Ireland,  Denmark,  and  Norway,  who  bore 


THE  BRONZE  AGE  IN  EUROPE. 


249 


A  SKULL  OF  THE  AGK  OF  STONE, 
DENMAEK  {i  NATUEA.L  SIZE). 


HULL   OF   TIIK    EARLIEST  TIMES   OF   THE   AGE 
OF   IRON,  UFJfMARK  (^  NATURAL   SIZE). 


with  them  the  arts  and  implements  of  civilized  life.  They 
raised  crops  of  grain,  as  is  proved  by  the  bronze  sickles  found 
in  different  parts  of  Europe. 

It  is  not  even  certain  that  their  explorations  did  not  reach 
to  Iceland.     Says  Humboldt, 

"When  the  Northmen  first  landed  in  Iceland  (a.d.  875),  al- 
though the  country  was  uninhabited,  they  found  there  Irish 
books,  mass-bells,  and  other  objects  which  had  been  left  be- 
hind by  earlier  visitors,  called  Papar ;  these  pap^e  (fathers)  were 
the  clerici  of  Dicuil.  If,  then,  as  we  may  suppose  from  the 
testimony  here  referred  to,  these  objects  belonged  to  Irish 
monks  (papar),  who  had  come  from  the  Faroe  Islands,  why 
sliould  they  have  been  termed  in  the  native  sagas  'West  men' 
(Vestmen),  ^  loho  had  come  over  the  sea  from  the  ivestioard^ 
(kommer  til  vestan  um  haf)  ?"  (Humboldt's  "  Cosmos,"  vol.  ii., 
p.  238.) 

If  they  came  "  from  the  West "  they  could  not  have  come 
from  Ireland;  and  the  Scandinavians  may  easily  have  mis- 
taken Atlantean  books  and  bells  for  Irish  books  and  mass- 
bells.  They  do  not  say  that  there  were  any  evidences  that 
these  relics  belonged  to  a  people  who  had  recenthj  visited  the 
island ;  and,  as  they  found  the  island  uninhabited,  it  would  be 
impossible  for  them  to  tell  how  many  years  or  centuries  had 
elapsed  since  the  books  and  bells  were  left  there. 

11* 


250 


ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 


The  fact  that  the  implements  of  the  Bronze  Age  came  from 
some  common  centre,  and  did  not  originate  independently  in 
different  countries,  is  proved  by  the  striking  similarity  which 
exists  between  the  bronze  implements  of  regions  as  widely 
separated  as  Switzerland,  Ireland,  Denmark,  and  Africa.  It  is 
not  to  be  supposed  that  any  overland  communication  existed 
in  that  early  age  between  these  countries ;  and  the  coincidence 
of  design  which  we  find  to  exist  can  only  be  accounted  for  by 
the  fact  that  the  articles  of  bronze  were  obtained  from  some 
sea-going  people,  who  carried  on  a  commerce  at  the  same  time 
with  all  these  regions. 

Compare,  for  instance,  these  two  decorated  bronze  celts,  the 
first  from  Ireland,  the  second  from  Denmark ;  and  then  com- 


1EI8II  CELT. 


DANISU   CELT. 


Leaf-shaped  Stone  Sword, 
from  ancient  Earth- 
work on  Big  Harpeth 
River,  Tennessee.  {^ 
natural  size.) 


Sweden. 


LEAF-SHAPEP  BRONZE  SWOBPS. 


THE  BRONZE  AGE  IN  EUROPE. 


253 


STONE   OET.T,  MOUND 
IN   TENNESSEE. 


pare  both  these  with  a  stone  celt  found  in  a  mound  in  Tennes- 
see, given  below.     Here  we  have  the  same  form  precisely. 

Compare  the  bronze  swords  in  the  four  preceding  illustra- 
tions— from  Ireland,  Sweden,  Switzerland,  and  Denmark — and 
then  observe  the  same  very  peculiar  shape — 
the  leaf-shape,  as  it  is  called  —  in  the  stone 
sword  from  Big  Harpeth  River,  Tennessee. 

We  shall  find,  as  we  proceed,  that  the  Phoe- 
nicians were  unquestionably  identified  with 
Atlantis,  and  that  it  was  probably  from  At- 
lantis they  derived  their  god  Baal,  or  Bel,  or 
El,  whose  name  crops  out  in  the  Bel  of  the 
Babylonians,  the  Elohim,  and  the  Beelzebub 
of  the  Jews,  and  the  Allah  of  the  Arabians. 
And  we  find  that  this  great  deity,  whose  wor- 
ship extended  so  widely  among  the  Mediter- 
ranean races,  was  known  and  adored  also  upon 
the  northern  and  western  coasts  of  Europe. 
Professor  Nilsson  finds  traces  of  Baal  worship  in  Scandinavia ; 
he  tells  us  that  the  festival  of  Baal,  or  Balder,  was  celebrated 
on  midsummer's  night  in  Scania,  and  far  up  into  Norway,  al- 
most to  the  Loffoden  Islands,  until  within  the  last  fifty  years. 
The  feast  of  Baal,  or  Beltinne,  was  celebrated  in  Ireland  to  a 
late  period.  I  argue  from  these  facts,  not  that  the  worship  of 
Baal  came  to  Ireland  and  Norway  from  Assyria  or  Arabia,  but 
that  the  same  great  parent-race  which  carried  the  knowledge 
of  Baal  to  the  Mediterranean  brought  it  also  to  the  western 
coasts  of  Europe,  and  with  the  adoration  of  Baal  they  import- 
ed also  the  implements  of  bronze  now  found  in  such  abundance 
in  those  regions. 

The  same  similarity  of  form  exists  in  the  bronze  knives  from 
Denmark  and  Switzerland,  as  represented  in  the  illustrations 
on  p.  254. 

In  the  central  figure  we  have  a  representation  of  an  Egyp- 
tian-looking man  holding  a  cup  before  him.     We  shall  see,  as 


254 


ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 


we  proceed,  that  the  magnetic  needle,  or  "  mariner's  compass," 
dates  back  to  the  days  of  Hercules,  and  that  it  consisted  of 

a  bar  of  magnetized 
iron  floating  upon  a 
piece    of   wood   in  a 


UEONZE  KNIVES  FROM  DENMARK. 


cup.  It  is  possible  that  in  this  ancient 
relic  of  the  Bronze  Age  we  have  a  rep- 
resentation of  the  magnetic  cup.  The 
magnetic  needle  must  certainly  have 
been  an  object  of  great  interest  to  a 
people  who,  through  its  agency,  were 
able  to  carry  on  commerce  on  all  the 
shores  of  Europe,  from  the  Mediterra- 
nean to  the  Baltic.  The  second  knife 
represented  above  has  upon  its  handle  a 
wheel,  or  cross  surrounded  by  a  ring,  which,  we  shall  see  here- 
after, was  pre-eminently  the  symbol  of  Atlantis. 


BUONZE  KNIVES  FEOM 
SWITZERLAND. 


THE  BRONZE  AGE  IN  EUROPE. 


255 


IIUT   UBN,  ALIl\NO. 


If  we  are  satisfied  that  tbese  implements  of  bronze  were  the 
work  of  the  artisans  of  Atlantis — of  the  antediluvians — they 
must  acquire  additional  and  ex- 
traordinary interest  in  our  eyes, 
and  we  turn  to  them  to  learn 
something  of  the  habits  and  cus- 
toms of  "that  great,  original, 
broad-eyed,  sunken  race." 

AVe  find  among  the  relics  of 
the  Bronze  Age  an  urn,  which 
probably  gives  us  some  idea  of 
the  houses  of  the  Atlanteans :  it 
is  evidently  made  to  represent 
a  house,  and  shows  us  even  the 
rude  fashion  in  which  they  fast- 
ened their  doors.  The  Mandan  Indians  built  round  houses 
very  much  of  this  appearance. 

The  museum   at  Munich  contains  a  very  interesting  piece 
of  pottery,  which  is  supposed  *to  represent  one  of  the  lake 

villages  or  hamlets 
of  the  era  when  the 
people  of  Switzerland 
dwelt  in  houses  erect- 
ed on  piles  driven  into 
the  bottom  of  the 
lakes  of  that  country. 
The  accompanying  il- 
lustration represents 
it.  The  double  spi- 
ral ornament  upon  it 
shows  that  it  belongs 
to  the  Bronze  Age. 
Among  the  curious  relics  of  the  Bronze  Age  are  a  number 
of  razor -like  knives;  from  which  we  may  conclude  that  the 
habit  of  shaving  the  whole  or  some  part  of  the  face  or  head 


UKONZE    LAKE    VILLAGE. 


256 


ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 


dates  back  to  a  great  antiquity.  The  illustrations  below  repre- 
sent them. 

These  knives  were  found  in  Denmark.  The  figures  upon 
them  represent  ships,  and  it  is  not  impossible  that  their  curi- 
ous appendages  may  have  been  a  primitive  kind  of  sails. 

An  examination  of  the  second  of  these  bronze  knives  reveals 
a  singular  feature :  Upon  the  handle  of  the  razor  there  are  ten 


KKONZE   EAZOK-KNIVE8. 


series  of  lines;  the  stars  in  the  sky  are  ten  in  number;  and 
there  were  probably  ten  rings  at  the  left-liand  side  of  the  fig- 
ure, two  being  obliterated.  There  were,  we  are  told,  ten  sub- 
kingdoms  in  Atlantis ;  and  precisely  as  the  thirteen  stripes  on 
the  American  flag  symbolize  the  thirteen  original  States  of  the 
Union,  so  the  recurrence  of  the  figure  ten  in  the  emblems  upon 


THE  BRONZE  AGE  IN  EUROPE. 


257 


tliis  bronze  implement  may  have  reference  to  the  ten  sub- 
divisions of  Atlantis.  The  large  object 
in  the  middle  of  this  ship  may  be  in- 
tended to  represent  a  palm-tree  —  the 
symbol,  as  we  shall  see,  in  America,  of 
Aztlan,  or  Atlantis.  We  have  but  to 
compare  the  pictures  of  the  ships  upon 
these  ancient  razor-knives  with  the  ac- 
companying representations  of  a  Roman  galley  and  a  ship  of 
William  the  Conqueror's  time,  to  see  that  there  can  be  no 
question  that  they  represented  the  galleys  of  that  remote  age. 
They  are  doubtless  faithful  portraits  of  the  great  vessels  which 
Plato  described  as  fillino-  the  harbors  of  Atlantis. 


ANOIENT   CVl.I.KY,    FROM   A 
EOM.VN   COIN. 


SIIII'   OF    WILLIAM    THE    CONQLEIlOli 


We  give  on  page  258  a  representation  of  a  bronze  dagger 
found  in  Ireland,  a  strongly-made  weapon.  The  cut  below  it 
represents  the  only  implement  of  the  Bronze  Age  yet  found  con- 
taining an  inscription.  It  has  been  impossible  to  decipher  it, 
or  even  to  tell  to  what  group  of  languages  its  alphabet  belongs. 


258 


ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD, 


It  is  proper  to  note,  in  connection 
with  a  discussion  of  the  Bronze  Age, 
that  our  word  bronze  is  derived  from 
the  Basque,  or  Iberian  hroncea,  from 
which  the  Spanish  derive  bronce,  and 
the  Italians  hronzo.  The  copper  mines 
of  the  Basques  were  extensively  worked 
at  a  very  early  age  of  the  world,  either 
by  the  people  of  Atlantis  or  by  the 
Basques  themselves,  a  colony  from  At- 
lantis. The  probabilities  are  that  the 
name  for  bronze,  as  well  as  the  metal 
itself,  dates  back  to  Plato's  island. 

I  give  some  illustrations  on  pages  239 
and  242  of  ornaments  and  implements 
of  the  Bronze  Age,  which  may  serve  to 
throw  light  upon  the  habits  of  the  an- 
cient people.  It  will  be  seen  that  they 
had  reached  a  considerable  degree  of 
civilization ;  that  they  raised  crops  of 
grain,  and  cut  them  with  sickles;  that 
their  women  ornamented  themselves 
with  bracelets, 


IBISH  BEONZE  DAQGEE. 


armlets,  ear- 
rings, finger- 
rings,  hair-pins, 
and  amulets; 
that  their  me- 
chanics used  hammers,  adzes,  and  chis- 
els ;  and  that  they  possessed  very  fair 
specimens  of  pottery.  Sir  John  Lub- 
bock argues  ("  Prehistoric  Times,"  pp. 
14,  16,  etc.): 

"  A  new  civilization  is  indicated  not 
only  by  the  mere  presence  of  bronze 


INSOIilBEK   OELT. 


THE  BRONZE  AGE  IN  EUROPE. 


!59 


but  by  the  beauty  and  variety  of  the  articles  made 
from  it.  We  find  not  only,  as  before,  during  the  Stone 
Age,  axes,  arrows,  and  knives,  but,  in  addition,  swords, 
lances,  sickles,  fish-hooks,  ear-rings,  bracelets,  pins, 
rings,  and  a  variety  of  other  articles." 


If  the  bronze  implements  of  Eu- 
rope had  been  derived  from  the  Phoe- 
nicians,  Greeks,   Etruscans,    or    Ro- 
mans, the  nearer  we  approached  the 
site    of    those    nations    the    greater 
should   be    the    number    of   bronze 
weapons  we  would  find ;  but  the  re- 
verse is  the  case.     Sir  John  Lubbock 
("  Prehistoric  Times,"  p.  20)  shows 
that  more  than  three 
hundred     and     fifty 
bronze    swords    have 
been   found  in  Den- 
mark, and    that    the 
Dublin  Museum  con- 
tains twelve  hundred 
and    eighty  -three 
bronze  weapons  found 
in  Ireland ;  "  while," 
he  says,  "  I  have  only 
been  able  to  hear  of 
six  bronze  swords  in 
all  Italy."    This  state 
of  things  is  inexplica- 
ble unless  we  suppose 
that  Ireland  and  Den- 
mark   received    their 
bronze  implements  di- 
rectly from  some  mar- 
itime   nation    whose  bronze  haib-pins. 


'2Q0 


ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 


site  was  practically  as  near  their  shores  as  it  was  to  the  shores 
of  the  Mediterranean.  We  have  but  to  look  at  our  map  on 
page  43,  ante^  to  see  that  Atlantis  was  considerably  nearer  to 
Ireland  than  it  was  to  Italy. 

The  striking  resemblance  between  the  bronze  implements 
found  in  the  different  portions  of  Europe  is  another  proof  that 
they  were  derived  from  one  and  the  same  source — from  some 
great  mercantile  people  who  carried  on  their  commerce  at  the 
same  time  with  Denmark,  Norway,  Ireland,  Spain,  Greece,  Ita- 
ly, Egypt,  Switzerland,  and  Hungary.  Mr.  Wright  ("Essays 
on  Archrcology,"  p.  120)  says,  "Whenever  we  find  the  bronze 
swords  or  celts,  whether  in  Ireland,  in  the  far  west,  in  Scotland, 
in  distant  Scandinavia,  in  Germany,  or  still  farther  east,  in  the 
Sclavonic  countries,  they  are  the  same — not  similar  in  char- 
acter^ hut  identical.''''  Says  Sir  John  Lubbock  ("  Prehistoric 
Times,"  p.  59),  "Not  only  are  the  several  varieties  of  celts 


.   ibliS  FKOM  MOITNDS  IN  TDE  MIS8ISSI1': 


found  throughout  Europe  alike,  but  some  of  the  swords,  knives, 
daggers,  etc.,  are  so  similar  that  they  seem  as  if  they  must  have 
been  cast  by  the  same  maker." 

What  race  was  there,  other  than  the  people  of  Atlantis,  that 
existed  before  the  Iron  Age — before  the  Greek,  Roman,  Etrus- 


THE  BRONZE  AGE  IN  EUROPE. 


261 


can,  and  Phoenician — that  was  civilized,  that  worked  in  metals, 
that  carried  on  a  commerce  with  all  parts  of  Europe?  Does 
liistory  or  tradition  make  mention  of  any  such  ? 

We  find  a  great  resemblance  between  the  pottery  of  the 
Bronze  Age  in  Europe  and  the  pottery  of  the  ancient  inhabi- 
tants of  America.  The  two  figures  on  page  260  represent  vases 
from  one  of  the  mounds  of  the  Mississippi  Valley.  Compare 
them  with  the  following  from  the  lake  dwellings  of  Switzer- 
land : 


VASES   FKO.H   BWITZEELANU. 


It  will  be  seen  that  these  vases  could  scarcely  stand  upright 
unsupported;  and  we  find  that 
the  ancient  inhabitants  of  Switz- 
erland had  circles  or  rings  of 
baked  earth  in  which  they  placed 
them  when  in  use,  as  in  the  an- 
nexed figure.  The  Mound  Build- 
ers used  the  same  contrivance. 

The  illustrations  of  discoidal 
stones  on  page  263  are  from  the 
"North  Americans  of  Antiquity," 
p.  77.  The  objects  represented 
were  taken  from  an  ancient 
mound  in  Illinois.  It  would  be 
indeed  surprising  if  two  distinct 
peoples,  living  in  two  different  continents,  thousands  of  miles 


ANCIENT   8W1HS    VA8K   AMD   SUP- 
POBTEB. 


262 


ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 


apart,  should,  without  any  intercourse  with  each  oth- 
er, not  only  form  their  vases  in  the  same  inconven- 
ient form,  but  should  hit  upon  the  same  expedient 
as  a  remedy. 

We  observe,  in  the  American  spear-head  and  the 
Swiss  hatchets,  on  the  opposite  page,  the  same  over- 
lapping of  the  metal  around  the  staff,  or  handle — a 
very  peculiar  mode  of  uniting  them  together,  which 
has  now  passed  out  of  use. 

A  favorite  design  of  the  men  of  the  Bronze  Age 
in  Europe  is  the  spiral  or  double-spiral  form.  It 
appears  on  the  face  of  the  urn  in  the 
shape  of  a  lake  dwelling,  which  is  given 
on  p.  255 ;  it  also  appears  in  the  rock 
sculptures  of  Argyleshire,  Scotland,  here 
shown. 


Central  America.         Switzerland. 
UKONZE   OniSELS. 


Bl'lBALS,  FKOM   SCOTLAND. 


We  find  the  same  figure  in  an  ancient 
fragment  of  pottery  from  the  Little  Colorado,  as  given  in  the 
"  United  States  Pacific  Railroad  Survey 
Report,"  vol.  iii.,  p.  49,  art.  Pottery.  It 
was  part  of  a  large  vessel.  The  an- 
nexed illustration  represents  this. 


SPIRAL,  FliOM   NEW   JIEXIOO. 


The  same  design  is  also  found  in 


ancient  rock  etchings  of  the  Zunis  of 
New  Mexico,  of  which  the  cut  on  p.  265  is  an  illustration. 


DISOOIDAL   STONES,  ILLINOIS. 


\'  I ! 


OOPPEK   bl'EAK-HEAl). 
iAKE   SUPEEIOB. 


UATOUETS,  S.VlTZKr.LAM 


THE  BRONZE  AGE  IN  EUROrE. 


265 


MEXICO. 


Vv^o  also  find  this  figure  repeated  upon  a 
vase  from  a  Mississippi  Valley  mound,  which 
we  give  elsewhere.  (See  p.  260.) 

It  is  found  upon  many  of  the  monuments 
of  Central  America.     In  the  Treasure  House 
of  Atreus,  at  Mycenre,  Greece,  a  fragment  of 
a  pillar  was  found  which  is  literally  covered  with  this  double- 
spiral  design.     (See  "  Rosengarten's  Architectural  Styles,"  p. 
69.) 

This  Treasure  House  of  Atreus  is  one  of  the  oldest  buildings 
in  Greece. 

We  find  the  double- spiral  figure  upon  a  shell  ornament 
found  on  the  breast  of 
a  skeleton,  in  a  care- 
fully constructed  stone 
coflSn,  in  a  mound  near 
Nashville,  Tennessee. 

Lenormant  remarks 
("Anc.  Civil,"  vol.  ii., 
p.  158)  that  the  bronze 
implements  found  in 
Egypt,  near  Memphis, 
had  been  buried  for 
six  thousand  years ; 
and  that  at  that  time, 
as  the  Egyptians  had 
a  horror  of  the  sea, 
some  commercial  na- 
tion must  have  brought 

the  tin,  of  which  the  bronze  was  in  part  composed,  from  In- 
dia, the  Caucasus,  or  Spain,  the  nearest  points  to  Egypt  in 
which  tin  is  found. 

Heer  has  shown  that  the  civilized  plants  of  the  lake  dwellings 
are  not  of  Asiatic,  but  of  African,  and,  to  a  great  extent,  of 
Efjvptian  origin.     Their  stone  axes  are  made  largely  of  jade  or 

12 


SHELL   OBSAMEXT.  MOUNT>   XEAB  NASIIVILl 
TENNESSEE. 


266 


ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 


nephrite,  "a  mineral  which,  strange  to  say,  geologists  have 
not  found  in  place 
on  the  continent  of 
Europe.''^  (Foster's 
"  Prehistoric  Races," 
p.  44.) 

Compare  this  pict- 
ure of  a  copper  axe 
from  a  mound  near 
Laporte,  Indian  a,  with 
this  representation  of 
a  copper  axe  of  the 

COPPEK  AXE,  FBOM  A  MOUND      BrOUZC         AgC,      f  OUUd 
NEAR   LAPOETE,  INDIANA.  pit 

near  Waterford,  Ire- 
land.    Professor  Foster  pronounces  them  almost  identical. 

Compare  this  specimen  of  pottery  from  the  lake  dwellings 
of  Switzerland  with  the  following  specimen   from  San  Jose, 


COPPER   AXE,  WATER- 
FORD,   IRELAND. 


FRAGMENT   OF   POTTERY,  LAKE   NEtTF- 
OUATEL,  SWITZERLAND. 


FRAGMENT  OF  POTTERY,  SAN   JOSE, 
MEXICO. 


Mexico.  Professor  Foster  calls  attention  to  the  striking  resem- 
blance in  the  designs  of  these  two  widely  separated  works  of 
art,  one  belonging  to  the  Bronze  Age  of  Europe,  the  other  to 
the  Copper  Age  of  America. 

These,  then,  in  conclusion,  are  our  reasons  for  believing  that 
the  Bronze  Age  of  Europe  has  relation  to  Atlantis : 

1.  The  admitted  fact  that  it  is  anterior  in  time  to  the  Iron 
Age  relegates  it  to  a  great  antiquity. 

2.  The  fact  that  it  is  anterior  in  time  to  the  Iron  Age  is 


THE  BRONZE  AGE  IN  EUROPE.  267 

conclusive  that  it  is  not  due  to  any  of  the  known  European  or 
Asiatic  nations,  all  of  which  belong  to  the  Iron  Age. 

3.  The  fact  that  there  was  in  Europe,  Asia,  or  Africa  no  cop- 
per or  tin  age  prior  to  the  Bronze  Age,  is  conclusive  testimony 
that  the  manufacture  of  bronze  was  an  importation  into  those 
continents  from  some  foreign  country. 

4.  The  fact  that  in  America  alone  of  all  the  world  is  found 
the  Copper  Age,  which  must  necessarily  have  preceded  the 
Bronze  Age,  teaches  us  to  look  to  the  westward  of  Europe  and 
beyond  the  sea  for  that  foreign  country. 

5.  We  find  many  similarities  in  forms  of  implements  be- 
tween the  Bronze  Age  of  Europe  and  the  Copper  Age  of 
America. 

6.  If  Plato  told  the  truth,  the  Atlanteans  were  a  great  com- 
mercial nation,  trading  to  America  and  Europe,  and,  at  the 
same  time,  they  possessed  bronze,  and  were  great  workers  in 
the  other  metals. 

7.  We  shall  see  hereafter  that  the  mythological  traditions  of 
Greece  referred  to  a  Bronze  Age  which  preceded  an  Iron  Age, 
and  placed  this  in  the  land  of  the  gods,  which  was  an  island  in 
the  Atlantic  Ocean,  beyond  the  Pillars  of  Hercules;  and  this 
land  was,  as  we  shall  see,  clearly  Atlantis. 

8.  As  we  find  but  a  small  development  of  the  Bronze  Age 
in  America,  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  there  must  have 
been  some  intermediate  station  between  America  and  Europe, 
where,  during  a  long  period  of  time,  the  Bronze  Age  was  de- 
veloped out  of  the  Copper  Age,  and  immense  quantities  of 
bronze  implements  were  manufactured  and  carried  to  Europe. 


ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 


Chaptee  IX. 
ARTIFICIAL  DEFORMATION   OF  THE  SKULL. 

An  examination  of  the  American  monuments  shows  (see  fig- 
ure on  page  269)  that  the  people  represented  were  in  the  habit 
of  flattening  the  skull  by  artificial  means.  The  Greek  and 
Roman  writers  had  mentioned  this  practice,  but  it  was  long 
totally  forgotten  by  the  civilized  world,  until  it  w^as  discover- 
ed, as  an  unheard-of  wonder,  to  be  the  usage  among  the  Ca- 
rib  Islanders,  and  several  Indian  tribes  in  North  America.  It 
was  afterward  found  that  the  ancient  Peruvians  and  Mexicans 
practised  this  art :  several  flattened  Peruvian  skulls  are  depict- 
ed in  Morton's  "  Crania  Americana."  It  is  still  in  use  among 
the  Flat-head  Indians  of  the  north-western  part  of  the  United 
States. 

In  1849  a  remarkable  memoir  appeared  from  the  pen  of 
M.  Rathke,  showing  that  similar  skulls  had  been  found  near 
Kertsch,  in  the  Crimea,  and  calling  attention  to  the  book  of 
Hippocrates,  "  De  Aeris,  Aquis  et  Locu,"  lib.  iv.,  and  a  passage 
of  Strabo,  which  speaks  of  the  practice  among  the  Scythians. 
In  1854  Dr.  Fitzinger  published  a  learned  memoir  on  the  skulls 
of  the  Avars,  a  branch  of  the  Uralian  race  of  Turks.  He  shows 
that  the  practice  of  flattening  the  head  had  existed  from  an 
early  date  throughout  the  East,  and  described  an  ancient  skull, 
greatly  distorted  by  artificial  means,  which  had  lately  been 
found  in  Lower  Austria.  Skulls  similarly  flattened  have  been 
found  in  Switzerland  and  Savoy.  The  Huns  under  Attila  had 
the  same  practice  of  flattening  the  heads.  Professor  Anders 
Retzius  proved  (see  "  Smithsonian  Report,"  1859)  that  the  cus- 
tom still  exists  in  the  south  of  France,  and  in  parts  of  Turkeij. 


ARTIFICIAL  DEFORMATION  OF  TEE  UKULL. 


269 


*'  Xot  long  since  a  Frcncli  physician  surprised  tlie  world  by 
the  fact  that  nurses  in  Normandy  were  still  giving  the  chil- 
dren's heads  a  sugar-loaf  shape  by  bandages  and  a  tight  cap, 


.i^^Mi^^_i^^sMJ___U 


8TUO0O   UA8S-BEIJEF   IN   THE   I'ALACK   OF   PAT-ENQUE. 

while  in  Brittany  they  preferred  to  press  it  round.  No  doubt 
they  are  doing  so  to  this  day."  (Tylor's  "Anthropology," 
p.  241.) 

Professor  Wilson  remarks : 

"  Trifling  as  it  may  appear,  it  is  not  without  interest  to  have 
the  fact  brought  under  our  notice,  by  the  disclosures  of  ancient 


270 


ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 


barrows  and  cysts,  that  the  same  practice  of  nursing  the  child 
and  carrying  it  about,  bound  to  a  flat  cradle-board,  prevailed  in 
Britain  and  the  north  of  Europe  long  before  the  first  notices  of 
written  history  reveal  the  presence  of  man  beyond  the  Baltic  or 
the  English  Channel,  and  that  in  all  probability  the  same  cus- 
tom prevailed  continuously  from  the  shores  of  the  German  Ocean 
to  Behring's  Strait."     ("  Smithsonian  Report,"  1862,  p.  286.) 


Dr.  L.  A.  Gosse  testifies  to  the  prevalence  of  the  same  custom 
among  the  Caledonians  and  Scandinavians  in  the  earliest  times ; 
and  Dr.  Thurman  has  treated  of  the  same  peculiarity  among 
the  Anglo-Saxons.     ("  Crania  Britannica,"  chap,  iv.,  p.  38.) 

Here,  then,  is  an  extraor- 
dinary and  unnatural  prac- 
tice which  has  existed  from 
the  highest  antiquity,  over 
vast  regions  of  country,  on 
both  sides  of  the  Atlantic, 
and  which  is  perpetuated 
unto  this  day  in  races  as 
widely  separated  as  the 
Turks,  the  French,  and  the 
Flat -head  Indians.  Is  it 
possible  to  explain  this  ex- 
cept by  supposing  that  it 
originated  from  some  com- 
mon centre? 

The  annexed  cut  repre- 
sents an  ancient  Swiss  skull, 
from  a  cemetery  near  Lau- 
sanne, from  a  drawing  of  Frederick  Troyon.  Compare  this  with 
the  illustration  given  on  page  271,  which  represents  a  Peruvian 
flat-head,  copied  from  Morton's  "Ethnography  and  Archaeology 
of  the  American  Aborigines,"  1846.  This  skull  is  shockingly 
distorted.  The  dotted  lines  indicate  the  course  of  the  band- 
ages by  which  the  skull  was  deformed. 


ANCIENT  8WI88  SKULL. 


AUTIFIVIAL  DEFORMATION  OF  THE  SKULL.         271 


PEEUVIAN   SKULL. 


OUINOOK    (flat-head),  AFTER    CATLIN. 

The  following  heads  are  from  Del  Rio's  "Account  of  Pa- 
lenque,"  copied  into  Nott  and  Gliddon's  "  Types  of  Mankind," 
p.  440.  They  show  that  the  receding  forehead  was  a  natural 
characteristic  of  the  ancient  people  of  Central  America.  The 
same  form  of  head  has  been  found  even  in  fossil  skulls.  AVe 
may  therefore  conclude  that  the  skull-flattening,  which  we  find 
to  have  been  practised  in  both  the  Old  and  New  \Yorlds,  was 


272  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 

an  attempt  of  other  races  to  imitate  the  form  of  skull  of  a  peo- 
ple whose  likenesses  are  found  on  the  monuments  of  Egypt 
and  of  America.  It  has  been  shown  that  this  peculiar  form 
of  the  head  was  present  even  in  the  foetus  of  the  Peruvian 
mummies.  • 

Hippocrates  tells  us  that  the  practice  among  the  Scythians 
was  for  the  purpose  of  giving  a  certain  aristocratic  distinction. 


HEADS   FROM    PALENQUE. 


Amedee  Thierry,  in  his  "History  of  Attila,"  says  the  Huns 
used  it  for  the  same  reason ;  and  the  same  purpose  influences 
the  Indians  of  Oregon. 

Dr.  Lund,  a  Swedish  naturalist,  found  in  the  bone  caves 
of  Minas-Geraes,  Brazil,  ancient  human  bones  associated  with 
the  remains  of  extinct  quadrupeds.  "  These  skulls,"  says  Lund, 
"show  not  only  the  peculiarity  of  the  American  race  but  in  an 
excessive  degree,  even  to  the  entire  disaj^pearance  of  the  for e- 
head.^^  Sir  Robert  Schomburgh  found  on  some  of  the  affluents 
of  the  Orinoco  a  tribe  known  as  Frog  Indians,  whose  heads 
were  flattened  by  Nature,  as  shown  in  newly-born  children. 


ARTIFICIAL  DEFORMATION  OF  THE  SKULL.  273 

In  the  accompanying  plate  we  show  the  difference  in  the 
conformation  of  the  fore- 
head in  various  races.  The  >'"'                    "^'•>. 
upper  dotted  line,  A,  rep-  /     ^^,-<<^^'"^^^^?^  J«"\ 
resents  the  shape  of  the  /'    t'<^'-^                        'N>.   \ 
European    forehead  ;   the  /    //y''                                 \  \  \  *1 
next  line,  B,  that  of  the  j  Z/^'          '  .                            \\V 
Australian  ;  the  next,  C,  V,  y                                              \  ^ 
that  of  the  Mound  Build-  v'                                               \  J 
er  of  the  United  States; 

,  x-w        1  PI  ODTLISE8  OF  SKULLS  OF  DIFFEEENT   BACKS. 

tlie  next,  D,  that  of  the 

Guanche  of  the  Canary  Islands;  and  the  next,  E,  that  of  a 
skull  from  the  Inca  cemetery  of  Peru.  We  have  but  to  com- 
pare these  lines  with  the  skulls  of  the  Egyptians,  Kurds,  and 
the  heroic  type  of  heads  in  the  statues  of  the  gods  of  Greece, 
to  see  that  there  was  formerly  an  ancient  race  marked  by 
a  receding  forehead ;  and  that  the  practice  of  flattening  the 
skull  was  probably  an  attempt  to  approximate  the  shape  of 
the  head  to  this  standard  of  an  early  civilized  and  dominant 
people. 

Not  only  do  we  find  the  same  receding  forehead  in  the  skulls 
of  the  ancient  races  of  Europe  and  America,  and  the  same  at- 
tempt to  imitate  this  natural  and  peculiar  conformation  by  arti- 
ficial flattening  of  the  head,  but  it  has  been  found  (see  Henry 
Gillman's  "Ancient  Man  in  Michigan,"  "Smithsonian  Report," 
1875,  p.  242)  that  the  Mound  Builders  and  Peruvians  of  Amer- 
ica, and  the  Neolithic  people  of  France  and  the  Canary/  Islands, 
had  alike  an  extraordinary  custom  of  boring  a  circular  hole 
in  the  top  of  the  skulls  of  their  dead,  so  that  the  soul  might 
readily  pass  in  and  out.  More  than  this,  it  has  been  found 
that  in  all  these  ancient  populations  the  skeletons  exhibit  a 
remarkable  degree  of  platicnemism,  or  flattening  of  the  tibics 
or  leg  bones.  (Ibid.,  1873,  p.  367.)  In  this  respect  the  Mound 
Builders  of  Michigan  were  identical  with  the  man  of  Cro  Mag- 
non  and  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  Wales. 

12* 


274 


ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 


The  annexed  ancient  Egyptian  heads,  copied  from  the  mon- 
uments, indicate  either  that  the  people  of  the  Nile  deformed 
their  heads  by  pressure  upon  the  front  of  the  skull,  or  that 


EGYPTIAN   UEAD8. 


there  was  some  race  characteristic  which  gave  this  appearance 
to  their  heads.  These  heads  are  all  the  heads  of  priests,  and 
therefore  represented  the  aristocratic  class. 

The  first  illustration  below  is  taken  from  a  stucco  relief 

found  in  a  temple 
at  Palenque,  Central 
America.  The  sec- 
ond is  from  an 
Egyptian  monu- 
ment of  the  time 
of  Rameses  IV. 

The  outline  draw- 
ing on  the  following 
page  shows  the  form 


OENTKAL  AMEBIOAM  HEAD. 


EGYPTIAN  HEAD. 


ARTIFICIAL  DEFORMATION  OF  THE  SKULL. 


215 


of  the  skull  of  the  royal  Inca  line :  the  receding  forehead  here 
seems  to  be  natural,  and  not  the  result  of  artificial  compression. 

Both  illustrations  at  the  bottom  of  the  preceding  page  show 
the  same  receding  form  of  the  forehead,  due  to  either  artificial 
deformation  of  the  skull  or 
to  a  common  race  charac- 
teristic. 

We  must  add  the  fact 
that  the  extraordinary  prac- 
tice of  deforming  the  skull 
was  found  all  over  Europe 
and  America  to  the  cata- 
logue of  other  proofs  that 
the  people  of  both  conti- 
nents were  originally  united 
in  blood  and  race.  With 
the  couvade,  the  practice  of 
circumcision,  unity  of  relig- 
ious beliefs  and  customs,  folk-lore,  and  alphabetical  signs,  lan- 
guage and  flood  legends,  we  array  together  a  mass  of  unan- 
swerable proofs  of  prehistoric  identity  of  race. 


PEKirVIAN    INO.V   SKULL,  FEOM   TUE   ANCIENT 
CEMETKEY  OF  PAOHAOAMAO. 


276  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 


PART  IV. 

THE  MYTHOLOGIES  OF  THE  OLD  WOELD 
A  KECOLLECTION  OF  ATLANTIS. 


Chapter  I. 
TRADITIONS  OF  ATLANTIS. 


We  find  allusions  to  the  Atlanteans  in  the  most  ancient 
traditions  of  many  different  races. 

The  great  antediluvian  king  of  the  Mussulman  was  Shedd- 
Ad-Ben-Ad,  or  Shed- Ad,  the  son  of  Ad,  or  Atlantis. 

Among  the  Arabians  the  first  inhabitants  of  that  country  are 
known  as  the  Adites,  from  their  progenitor,  who  is  called  Ad^ 
the  grandson  of  Ham.  These  Adites  were  probably  the  people 
of  Atlantis  or  Ad-lantis.  "  They  are  personified  by  a  monarch 
to  whom  everything  is  ascribed^  and  to  whom  is  assigned  sev- 
eral centuries  of  life."  ("Ancient  History  of  the  East,"  Lenor- 
mant  and  Chevallier,  vol.  ii.,  p.  295.)  Ad  came  from  the  north- 
east. "  He  married  a  thousand  wives,  had  four  thousand  sons, 
and  lived  twelve  hundred  years.  His  descendants  multiplied  con- 
siderably. After  his  death  his  sons  Shadid  and  Shedad  reign- 
ed in  succession  over  the  Adites.  In  the  time  of  the  latter  the 
people  of  Ad  were  a  thousand  tribes,  each  composed  of  several 
thousands  of  men.  Great  conquests  are  attributed  to  Shedad ; 
he  subdued,  it  is  said,  all  Arabia  and  Irak.  The  migration  of 
the  Canaanites,  their  establishment  in  Syria,  and  the  Shepherd 
invasion  of  Egypt  are,  by  many  Arab  writers,  attributed  to  an 
expedition  of  Shedad."     {Ibid.,  p.  296.) 


TRADITIOXS  OF  ATLANTIS.  277 

Shedad  built  a  palace  ornamented  with  superb  columns,  and 
surrounded  by  a  magnificent  garden.  It  was  called  Irem.  "  It 
was  a  paradise  that  Shedad  had  built  in  imitation  of  the  celes- 
tial Paradise,  of  whose  delights  he  had  heard."  ("Ancient 
History  of  the  East,"  p.  296.)  In  other  words,  an  ancient, 
sun-worshipping,  powerful,  and  conquering  race  overran  Arabia 
at  the  very  dawn  of  history ;  they  were  the  sons  of  Adlantis : 
their  king  tried  to  create  a  palace  and  garden  of  Eden  like  that 
of  Atlantis. 

The  Adites  are  remembered  by  the  Arabians  as  a  great  and 
civilized  race.  "  They  are  depicted  as  men  of  gigantic  stature; 
their  strength  was  equal  to  their  size,  and  they  easily  moved 
enormous  blocks  of  stone."  {Ibid.)  They  were  architects,  and 
builders.  "  They  raised  many  monuments  of  their  power;  and 
hence,  among  the  Arabs,  arose  the  custom  of  calling  great  ruins 
"buildings  of  the  Adites."  To  this  day  the  Arabs  say  "as 
old  as  Ad."  In  the  Koran  allusion  is  made  to  the  edifices  they 
built  on  "  high  places  for  vain  uses ;"  expressions  proving  that 
their  "  idolatry  was  considered  to  have  been  tainted  with  Sa- 
bseism  or  star-worship."  (Ibid.)  "  In  these  legends,"  says  Le- 
normant,  "  we  find  traces  of  a  wealthy  nation,  constructors  of 
great  buildings,  with  an  advanced  civilization,  analogous  to  that 
of  Chaldea,  professing  a  religion  similar  to  the  Babylonian ;  a 
nation,  in  short,  with  whom  material  progress  was  allied  to  great 
moral  depravity  and  obscene  rites.  These  facts  must  be  true 
and  strictly  historical,  for  they  are  everywhere  met  with  among 
the  Cushites,  as  among  the  Canaanites,  their  brothers  by  origin." 

Nor  is  there  wanting  a  great  catastrophe  which  destroys  the 
whole  Adite  nation,  except  a  very  few  who  escape  because  they 
had  renounced  idolatry.  A  black  cloud  assails  their  country, 
from  which  proceeds  a  terrible  hurricane  (the  water -spout?) 
which  sweeps  away  everything. 

The  first  Adites  were  followed  by  a  second  Adite  race ;  prob- 
ably the  colonists  who  had  escaped  the  Deluge.  The  centre 
of  its  power  was  the  country  of  Sheba  proper.     This  empire 


278  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

endured  for  a  thousand  years.  The  Adites  are  represented 
upon  the  Egyptian  monuments  as  very  much  like  the  Egyp- 
tians themselves ;  in  other  words,  they  were  a  red  or  sunburnt 
race  :  their  great  temples  were  pyramidal,  surmounted  by  build- 
ings. ("Ancient  History  of  the  East,"  p.  321.)  "The  Sabse- 
ans,"  says  Agatharchides  ("De  Mari  Erythraeo,"  p.  102),  "have 
in  their  houses  an  incredible  number  of  vases,  and  utensils  of 
all  sorts,  of  gold  and  silver,  beds  and  tripods  of  silver,  and  all 
the  furniture  of  astonishing  richness.  Their  buildings  have 
porticos  with  columns  sheathed  with  gold,  or  surmounted  by 
capitals  of  silver.  On  the  friezes,  ornaments,  and  the  frame- 
work of  the  doors  they  place  plates  of  gold  incrusted  with 
precious  stones." 

All  this  reminds  one  of  the  descriptions  given  by  the  Span- 
iards of  the  temples  of  the  sun  in  Peru. 

The  Adites  worshipped  the  gods  of  the  Phoenicians  under 
names  but  slightly  changed ;  "  their  religion  was  especially 
solar.  ...  It  was  originally  a  religion  without  images,  without 
idolatry,  and  without  a  priesthood."  {Ibid.,  p.  325.)  They 
"worshipped  the  sun  from  the  tops  of  pyramids."  (Ibid.) 
They  believed  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul. 

In  all  these  things  we  see  resemblances  to  the  Atlanteans. 

The  great  Ethiopian  or  Cushite  Empire,  which  in  the  earli- 
est ages  prevailed,  as  Mr.  Rawlinson  says,  "  from  the  Caucasus 
to  the  Indian  Ocean,  from  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  to 
the  mouth  of  the  Ganges,"  was  the  empire  of  Dionysos,  the 
empire  of  "  Ad,"  the  empire  of  Atlantis.  El  Eldrisi  called  the 
language  spoken  to  this  day  by  the  Arabs  of  Mahrah,  in  East- 
ern Arabia,  "  the  language  of  the  people  of  Ad,"  and  Dr.  J.  H. 
Carter,  in  the  Bombay  Journal  of  July,  1847,  says,  "It  is  the 
softest  and  sweetest  language  I  have  ever  heard."  It  would 
be  interesting  to  compare  this  primitive  tongue  with  the  lan- 
guages of  Central  America. 

The  god  Thoth  of  the  Egyptians,  who  was  the  god  of  a  for- 
eign country,  and  who  invented  letters,  was  called  ^^hothes. 


TRADITIONS  OF  ATLANTIS.  279 

We  turn  now  to  another  ancient  race,  the  Indo-European 
family — the  Aryan  race. 

In  Sanscrit  Adim  means  first.  Among  the  Hindoos  the 
first  man  was  Ad-\m?i,  his  wife  was  Heva.  They  dwelt  upon 
an  island,  said  to  be  Ceylon ;  they  left  the  island  and  reached 
the  main -land,  when,  by  a  great  convulsion  of  nature,  their 
communication  with  the  parent  land  was  forever  cut  off.  (See 
"Bible  in  India.") 

Here  we  seem  to  have  a  recollection  of  the  destruction  of 
Atlantis. 

Mr.  Bryant  says,  "Ad  and  Ada  signify  the  firsts  The  Per- 
sians called  the  first  man  "Ad-amah."  "Adon"  was  one  of 
the  names  of  the  Supreme  God  of  the  Phcenicians ;  from  it 
was  derived  the  name  of  the  Greek  god  "  Ad-onis."  The  Arv-ad 
of  Genesis  was  the  Ar-Ad  of  the  Cushites ;  it  is  now  known 
as  Rn-Ad.  It  is  a  series  of  connected  cities  twelve  miles  in 
length,  along  the  coast,  full  of  the  most  massive  and  gigantic 
ruins. 

Sir  William  Jones  gives  the  tradition  of  the  Persians  as  to 
the  earliest  ages.  He  says :  "  Moshan  assures  us  that  in  the 
opinion  of  the  best  informed  Persians  the  first  monarch  of 
Iran,  and  of  the  whole  earth,  was  Mashab-^c?;  that  he  received 
from  the  Creator,  and  promulgated  among  men  a  sacred  book, 
in  a  heavenly  language,  to  which  the  Mussulman  author  gives 
the  Arabic  title  of  '  Desatir,'  or  *  Regulations.'  Mashab  -  Ad 
was,  in  the  opinion  of  the  ancient  Persians,  the  person  left  at 
the  end  of  the  last  great  cycle,  and  consequently  the  father  of 
the  present  world.  He  and  his  wife  having  survived  the  former 
cycle,  were  blessed  with  a  numerous  progeny ;  he  planted  gar- 
dens, invented  ornaments,  forged  weapons,  taught  men  to  take 
the  fleece  from  sheep  and  make  clothing ;  he  built  cities,  con- 
structed palaces,  fortified  towns,  and  introduced  arts  and  com- 
merce." 

We  have  already  seen  that  the  primal  gods  of  this  people 
are  identical  with  the  gods  of  the  Greek  mythology,  and  were 


280  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

originally  kings  of  Atlantis.  But  it  seems  that  these  ancient 
divinities  are  grouped  together  as  ^'' the  Aditya  ;^''  and  in  this 
name  "  Ad-itya"  we  find  a  strong  likeness  to  the  Semitic  "  Ad- 
ites,"  and  another  reminiscence  of  Atlantis,  or  Adlantis.  In 
corroboration  of  this  view  we  find, 

1.  The  gods  who  are  grouped  together  as  the  Aditya  are  the 
most  ancient  in  the  Hindoo  mythology. 

2.  They  are  all  gods  of  light,  or  solar  gods.  (Whitney's 
"  Oriental  and  Linguistic  Studies,"  p.  39.) 

3.  There  are  twelve  of  them.     (Ibid.) 

4.  These  twelve  gods  presided  over  twelve  months  in  the 
year. 

5.  They  are  a  dim  recollection  of  a  very  remote  past.  Says 
Whitney,  "  It  seems  as  if  here  was  an  attempt  on  the  part  of 
the  Indian  religion  to  take  a  new  development  in  a  moral  direc- 
tion, which  a  change  in  the  character  and  circunl stances  of  the 
people  has  caused  to  fail  in  the  midst,  and  fall  back  again  into 

,  forgetfulness,  while  yet  half  finished  and  indistinct."     (Ibid.) 

6.  These  gods  are  called  "  the  sons  of  Aditi,"  just  as  in  the 
Bible  we  have  allusions  to  "  the  sons  of  Adah,"  who  were  the 
first  metallurgists  and  musicians.  "Aditi"  is  not  a  goddess. 
She  is  addressed  as  a  queen's  daughter,  "she  of  fair  chil- 
dren." 

7.  The  Aditya  "  are  elevated  above  all  imperfections ;  they 
do  not  sleep  or  wink."  The  Greeks  represented  their  gods  as 
equally  wakeful  and  omniscient.  "  Their  character  is  all  truth  ; 
they  hate  and  punish  guilt."  We  have  seen  the  same  traits 
ascribed  by  the  Greeks  to  the  Atlantean  kings. 

8.  The  sun  is  sometimes  addressed  as  an  Aditya. 

9.  Among  the  Aditya  is  Yaruna,  the  equivalent  of  Uranos, 
whose  identification  with  Atlantis  I  have  shown.  In  the  ve- 
das  Varuna  is  "  the  god  of  the  ocean.''^ 

10.  The  Aditya  represent  an  earlier  and  purer  form  of  relig- 
ion :  "  While  in  hymns  to  the  other  deities  long  life,  wealth, 
power,  are  the  objects  commonly  prayed  for,  of  the  Aditya  is 


TRADITIONS  OF  ATLANTIS.  281 

craved  purity,  forgiveness  of  sin,  freedom  from  guilt,  and  re- 
pentance."    ("  Oriental  and  Linguistic  Studies,"  p.  43.) 

11.  The  Aditya,  like  the  Adites,  are  identified  with  the  doc- 
trine of  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  Yama  is  the  god  of  the 
abode  beyond  the  grave.  In  the  Persian  story  he  appears  as 
Yima,  and  "  is  made  ruler  of  the  golden  age  and  founder  of  the 
Paradise:'     {Ibid.,  p.  45.)     (See  "  Zamna,"  p.  167  ante.) 

In  view  of  all  these  facts,  one  cannot  doubt  that  the  legends 
of  the  " sons  of  Ad,"  "  the  Adites,"  and  "the  Aditya,"  all  refer 
to  Atlantis. 

Mr.  George  Smith,  in  the  Chaldean  account  of  the  Creation 
(p.  78),  deciphered  from  the  Babylonian  tablets,  shows  that 
there  was  an  oiiginal  race  of  men  at  the  beginning  of  Chaldean 
history,  a  dark  race,  the  Zalmat-qaqadi,  who  were  called  Ad-mi, 
or  Ad-ami;  they  were  the  race  "who  had  fallen,"  and  were 
contradistinguished  from  "  the  Sarku,  or  light  race."  The 
"fall"  probably  refers  to. their  destruction  by  a  deluge,  in  con- 
sequence of  their  moral  degradation  and  the  indignation  of  the 
gods.  The  name  Adam  is  used  in  these  legends,  but  as  the 
name  of  a  race,  not  of  a  man. 

Genesis  (chap,  v.,  2)  distinctly  says  that  God  created  man 
male  and  female,  and  "  called  their  name  Adam."  That  is  to 
say,  the  people  were  the  Ad -ami,  the  people  of  "Ad,"  or 
Atlantis.  "  The  author  of  the  Book  of  Genesis,"  says  M. 
Schoebcl,  "  in  speaking  of  the  men  who  were  swallowed  up  by 
the  Deluge,  always  describes  them  as  '  Ilaadam,' '  Adamite  hu- 
manity.'" The  race  of  Cain  lived  and  multiplied  far  away 
from  the  land  of  Seth;  in  other  words,  far  from  the  land  de- 
stroyed by  the  Deluge.  Josephus,  who  gives  us  the  primitive 
traditions  of  the  Jews,  tells  us  (chap,  ii.,  p.  42)  that  "  Cain 
travelled  over  many  countries"  before  he  came  to  the  land 
of  Nod.  The  Bible  does  not  tell  us  that  the  race  of  Cain 
perished  in  the  Deluge.  "Cain  went  out  from  the  presence 
of  Jehovah;"  he  did  not  call  on  his  name;  the  people  that 
were  destroyed  were  the  "  sons  of  Jehovah."     All  this  indi- 


282  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

cates  tbat  large  colonies  had  been  sent  out  by  the  mother-laud 
before  it  sunk  in  the  sea. 

Across  the  ocean  we  find  the  people  of  Guatemala  claiming 
their  descent  from  a  goddess  called  At-tit,  or  grandmother,  who 
lived  for  four  hundred  years,  and  first  taught  the  worship  of 
the  true  God,  which  they  afterward  forgot.  (Bancroft's  *'  Na- 
tive Races,"  vol.  iii.,  p.  15.)  While  the  famous  Mexican  calen- 
dar stone  shows  that  the  sun  was  commonly  called  tonatiuh^ 
but  when  it  was  referred  to  as  the  god  of  the  Deluge  it  was 
then  called  Atl-tona-ti-uh,  ov  At-onatiuk.  (Valentini's  "Mexi- 
can Calendar  Stone,"  art.  Maya  Archceology,  p.  15.) 

We  thus  find  the  sons  of  Ad  at  the  base  of  all  the  most 
ancient  races  of  men,  to  wit,  the  Hebrews,  the  Arabians,  the 
Chaldeans,  the  Hindoos,  the  Persians,  the  Egyptians,  the  Ethi- 
opians, the  Mexicans,  and  the  Central  Americans ;  testimony 
that  all  these  races  traced  their  beginning  back  to  a  dimly-re- 
membered Ad-lantis. 


A7.NG>b  UF  ATLANTIS  THE  OOBJS  OF  THE  GREEKS.    283 


Chapter  II. 

THE  KINGS  OF  ATLANTIS  BECOME  THE  GODS  OF  THE 
GREEKS. 

Lord  Bacon  said : 

"The  mythology  of  the  Greeks,  which  their  oldest  writers 
do  not  pretend  to  have  invented,  was  no  more  than  a  light  air, 
which  had  passed  from  a  more  ancient  people  into  the  flutes  of 
the  Greeks,  which  they  modulated  to  such  descants  as  best  suit- 
ed their  fancies." 

This  profoundly  wise  and  great  man,  who  has  illuminated 
every  subject  which  he  has  touched,  guessed  very  close  to  the 
truth  in  this  utterance. 

The  Hon.  W.  E.  Gladstone  has  had  quite  a  debate  of  late 
with  Mr.  Cox  as  to  whether  the  Greek  mythology  was  under- 
laid by  a  nature  worship,  or  a  planetary  or  solar  worship. 

Peru,  worshipping  the  sun  and  moon  and  planets,  probably 
represents  very  closely  the  simple  and  primitive  religion  of  At- 
lantis, with  its  sacrifices  of  fruits  and  flowers.  This  passed 
directly  to  their  colony  in  Egypt.  We  find  the  Egyptians  in 
their  early  ages  sun  and  planet  worshippers.  Ptah  was  the 
object  of  their  highest  adoration.  He  is  the  father  of  the  god 
of  the  sun,  the  ruler  of  the  region  of  light.  Ra  was  the  sun- 
god.  He  was  the  supreme  divinity  at  On,  or  Heliopolis,  near 
Memphis.  His  symbol  was  the  solar  disk,  supported  by  two 
rings.     He  created  all  that  exists  below  the  heavens. 

The  Babylonian  trinity  was  composed  of  Hea,  Anu,  and  Bel. 
Bel  represented  the  sun,  and  was  the  favorite  god.  Sin  was 
the  goddess  of  the  moon. 

The  Phcenicians  were  also  sun-worshippers.     The  sun  was 


284  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 

represented  by  Baal-Sainin,  the  great  god,  the  god  of  light  and 
the  heavens,  the  creator  and  rejuvenator. 

"  The  attribntes  of  both  Baal  and  Moloch  (the  good  and  bad 
powers  of  the  snn)  were  united  in  the  Phoenician  god  Melkart, 
"  king  of  the  city,"  whom  the  inhabitants  of  Tyre  considered 
their  special  patron.  The  Greeks  called  him  "  Melicertes,"  and 
identified  him  with  Hercules.  By  his  great  strength  and  pow- 
er he  turned  evil  into  good,  brought  life  out  of  destruction, 
pulled  back  the  sun  to  the  earth  at  the  time  of  the  solstices, 
lessened  excessive  heat  and  cold,  and  rectified  the  evil  signs  of 
the  zodiac.  In  Phoenician  legends  he  conquers  the  mvage 
races  of  distant  coasts,  founds  the  ancient  settlements  on  the 
Mediterranean,  and  plants  the  rocks  in  the  Straits  of  Gibral- 
tar.    ("  American  Cyclopaedia,"  art.  Mythology.) 

The  Egyptians  worshipped  the  sun  under  the  name  of  Ra ; 
the  Hindoos  worshipped  the  sun  under  the  name  of  Rama ; 
while  the  great  festival  of  the  sun,  of  the  Peruvians,  was 
called  Ray-mi. 

Sun-worship,  as  the  ancient  religion  of  Atlantis,  underlies  all 
the  superstitions  of  the  colonies  of  that  country.  The  Sam- 
oyed  woman  says  to  the  sun,  "  When  thou,  god,  risest,  I  too 
rise  from  my  bed."  Every  morning  even  now  the  Brahmans 
stand  on  one  foot,  with  their  hands  held  out  before  them  and 
their  faces  turned  to  the  east,  adoring  the  sun.  "  In  Germa- 
ny or  France  one  may  still  see  the  [)easant  take  off  his  hat 
to  the  rising  sun."  ("Anthropology,"  p.  361.)  The  Romans, 
even,  in  later  times,  worshipped  the  sun  at  Eraesa,  under  the 
name  of  Elagabahis,  "typified  in  the  form  of  a  black  conical 
stone,  which  it  was  believed  had  fallen  from  heaven."  The 
conical  stone  was  the  emblem  of  Bel.  Did  it  have  relation  to 
the  mounds  and  pyramids  ? 

Sun-worship  was  the  primitive  religion  of  the  red  men  of 
America.  It  was  found  among  all  the  tribes.  (Dorman,  "Ori- 
gin of  Primitive  Superstitions,  p.  338.)  The  Chichimecs  called 
the  sun  their  father.     The  Comanches  have  a  similar  belief. 

But,  compared  with  such  ancient  nations  as  the  Egyptians 


KL\GS  OF  ATLAXTia  THE  GODS  OF  THE  GREEKS.    285 

and  Babylonians,  the  Greeks  were  children.     A  priest  of  Sais 
said  to  Solon, 

"Yon  Greeks  are  novices  in  knowledge  of  antiquity.  You 
are  ignorant  of  what  passed  either  here  or  among  yourselves  in 
days  of  old.  The  history  of  eight  thousand  years  is  deposited 
in  our  sacred  books;  but  I  can  ascend  to  a  much  higher  antiq- 
uity, and  tell  you  what  our  fathers  have  done  for  nine  thousand 
years  ;  I  mean  their  institutions,  their  laws,  and  their  most 
brilliant  achievements." 

Tlhe  Greeks,  too  yonng  to  have  shared  in  the  religion  of  At- 
lantis, but  preserving  some  memory  of  that  great  country  and 
its  history,  proceeded  to  convert  its  kings  into  gods,  and  to  de- 
pict Atlantis  itself  as  the  heaven  of  the  human  race.  Thus  we 
find  a  great  solar  or  nature  worship  in  the  elder  nations,  while 
Greece  has  nothing  bnt  an  incongruous  jumble  of  gods  and 
goddesses,  who  are  born  and  eat  and  drink  and  make  love^and 
ravish  and  steal  and  die ;  and  who  are  worshipped  as  immortal 
in  presence  of  the  very  monuments  that  testify  to  their  death. 

"These  deities,  to  whom  the  affairs  of  the  world  wei'e  in- 
trusted, were,  it  is  believed,  immortal,  though  not  eternal  in 
their  existence.  In  Crete  there  was  even  a  story  of  the  death 
of  Zeus,  his  tomb  being  pointed  out."     (Murray's  "  Mytholo- 

The  history  of  Atlantis  is  the  key  of  tlie  Greek  mythology. 
There  can  be  no  question  that  tliese  gods  of  Greece  were  hu- 
man beings.  The  tendency  to  attach  divine  attributes  to  great 
earthly  rulers  is  one  deeply  implanted  in  human  nature.  The 
savages  who  killed  Captain  Cook  firmly  believed  that  he  was 
immortal,  that  he  was  yet  alive,  and  would  return  to  punish 
them.  The  highly  civilized  Romans  made  gods  out  of  their 
dead  emperors.  Dr.  Livingstone  mentions  that  on  one  occa- 
sion, after  talking  to  a  Bushman  for  some  time  about  the 
Deity,  he  found  that  the  savage  thought  he  was  speaking  of 
Sekomi,  the  principal  chief  of  the  district. 

We  find  the  barbarians  of  the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean  re- 


286  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

garding  the  civilized  people  of  Atlantis  with  awe  and  wonder : 
"  Their  physical  strength  was  extraordinary,  the  earth  shaking 
sometimes  under  their  tread.  Whatever  they  did  was  done 
speedily.  They  moved  through  space  almost  without  the  loss 
of  a  moment  of  time."  This  probably  alluded  to  the  rapid 
motion  of  their  sailing-vessels.  "They  were  wise,  and  com- 
municated their  wisdom  to  men."  That  is  to  say,  they  civil- 
ized the  people  they  came  in  contact  with.  "  They  had  a  strict 
sense  of  justice,  and  punished  crime  rigorously,  and  rewarded 
noble  actions,  though  it  is  true  they  were  less  conspicuous  for 
the  latter."  (Murray's  "  Mythology,"  p.  4.)  We  should  under- 
stand this  to  mean  that  where  they  colonized  they  established 
a  government  of  law,  as  contradistinguished  from  the  anarchy 
of  barbarism. 

"There  were  tales  of  personal  visits  and  adventures  of  the 
gods'  among  men,  taking  part  in  battles  and  appearing  in 
dreams.  They  were  conceived  to  possess  the  form  of  human 
beings,  and  to  be,  like  men,  subject  to  love  and  pain,  but  al- 
ways characterized  by  the  highest  qualities  and  grandest  forms 
that  could  be  imagined."     (ibid.) 

Another  proof  that  the  gods  of  the  Greeks  were  but  the  dei- 
fied kings  of  Atlantis  is  found  in  the  fact  that  "  the  gods  were 
not  looked  upon  as  having  created  the  world."  They  succeed- 
ed to  the  management  of  a  world  already  in  existence. 

The  gods  dwelt  on  Olympus.  They  lived  together  like  hu- 
man beings;  they  possessed  palaces,  storehouses,  stables,  horses, 
etc. ;  "  they  dwelt  in  a  social  state  which  was  but  a  magnified 
reflection  of  the  social  system  on  earth.  Quarrels,  love  pas- 
sages, mutual  assistance,  and  such  instances  as  characterize  hu- 
man life,  were  ascribed  to  them."     (Ibid.,  p.  10.) 

Where  was  Olympus?  It  was  in  Atlantis.  "The  ocean  en- 
circled the  earth  with  a  great  stream,  and  was  a  region  of  won- 
ders of  all  kinds."  (Ibid.,  p.  23.)  It  was  a  great  island,  the 
then  civilized  world.  The  "  encircling  ocean  "  w^as  spoken  of 
in  all  the  ancient  legends.     "  Okeanos  lived  there  with  his  wife 


KIXGS  OF  ATLANTIS  THE  GOBS  OF  THE  GREEKS.    287 

Tethys  :  these  were  the  Islands  of  the  Blessed,  the  garden  of  the 
gods,  the  sources  of  the  nectar  and  ambrosia  on  which  the  gods 
lived."  (Murray's  "  Mythology,"  p.  23.)  Xectar  was  probably 
a  fermented  intoxicating  liquor,  and  ambrosia  bread  made  from 
wheat.  Soma  was  a  kind  of  whiskey,  and  the  Hindoos  deified 
it.  "The  gods  lived  on  nectar  and  ambrosia"  simply  meant 
that  the  inhabitants  of  these  blessed  islands  were  civilized, 
and  possessed  a  liquor  of  some  kind  and  a  species  of  food 
superior  to  anything  in  use  among  the  barbarous  tribes  with 
whom  they  came  in  contact. 

This  blessed  land  answers  to  the  description  of  Atlantis.  It 
was  an  island  full  of  wonders.  It  lay  spread  out  in  the  ocean 
"  like  a  disk,  with  the  mountains  rising  from  it."  {Ibid.)  On 
the  highest  point  of  this  mountain  dwelt  Zeus  (the  king),  "  while 
the  mansions  of  the  other  deities  were  arranged  upon  plateaus, 
or  in  ravines  lower  down  the  mountain.  These  deities,  includ- 
ing Zeus,  were  twelve  in  number :  Zeus  (or  Jupiter),  Hera  (or 
Juno),  Poseidon  (or  Neptune),  Demeter  (or  Ceres),  Apollo, 
Artemis  (or  Diana),  Hephsestos  (or  Vulcan),  Pallas  Athena 
(or  Minerva),  Ares  (or  Mars),  Aphrodite  (or  Venus),  Hermes 
(or  Mercury),  and  Hestia  (or  Vesta)."  These  were  doubtless 
the  twelve  gods  from  whom  the  Egyptians  derived  their  kings. 
Where  two  names  are  given  to  a  deity  in  the  above  list,  the 
first  name  is  that  bestowed  by  the  Greeks,  the  last  that  given 
by  the  Romans. 

It  is  not  impossible  that  our  division  of  the  year  into  twelve 
parts  is  a  reminiscence  of  the  twelve  gods  of  Atlantis.  Diodo- 
rus  Siculus  tells  us  that  among  the  Babylonians  there  were 
twelve  gods  of  the  heavens,  each  personified  by  one  of  the 
signs  of  the  zodiac,  and  worshipped  in  a  certain  month  of  the 
year.  The  Hindoos  had  twelve  primal  gods,  "the  Aditya." 
Moses  erected  twelve  pillars  at  Sinai.  The  Mandan  Indians 
celebrated  the  Flood  with  twelv^e  typical  characters,  who  danced 
around  the  ark.  The  Scandinavians  believed  in  the  twelve 
gods,  the  Aesir,  who   dwelt  on  Asgard,  the  Norse  Olympus. 


288  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

Diligent  investio-ation  may  yet  reveal  that  the  number  of  a  mod- 
ern jury,  twelve,  is  a  survival  of  the  ancient  council  of  Asgard. 

"  According  to  the  traditions  of  the  Phoenicians,  the  Gardens 
of  the  Hesperides  were  in  the  remote  west^  (Murray's  "  Man- 
ual of  Mythology,"  p.  258.)  Atlas  lived  in  these  gardens. 
(Ibid.,  p.  259.)  Atlas,  we  have  seen,  was  king  of  Atlantis. 
"  The  Elysian  Fields  (the  happy  islands)  were  commonly  placed 
in  the  remote  loest.  They  were  ruled  over  by  Chronos."  {Ibid., 
p.  60.)  Tartarus,  the  region  of  Hades,  the  gloomy  home  of 
the  dead,  was  also  located  "  under  the  mountains  of  an  island 
in  the  midst  of  the  ocean  in  the  remote  west."  {Ibid.,  p.  58.) 
Atlas  was  described  in  Greek  mythology  as  "  an  enormous  giant, 
who  stood  upon  the  western  confines  of  the  earth,  and  support- 
ed the  heavens  on  his  shoulders,  in  a  region  of  the  west  where 
the  sun  continued  to  shine  after  he  had  set  upon  Greece." 
{Ibicl.,^.  156.) 

Greek  tradition  located  the  island  in  which  Olympus  was 
situated  "  in  the  far  west,"  "  in  the  ocean  beyond  Africa,"  "  on 
the  western  boundary  of  the  known  world,"  "  where  the  sun 
shone  when  it  had  ceased  to  shine  on  Greece,"  and  where  the 
mighty  Atlas  "  held  up  the  heavens."  And  Plato  tells  us  that 
the  land  where  Poseidon  and  Atlas  ruled  was  Atlantis. 

"The  Garden  of  the  Hesperides"  (another  name  for  the 
dwelling-place  of  the  gods)  "  was  situated  at  the  extreme  limit 
of  Africa.  Atlas  was  said  to  have  surrounded  it  on  every  side 
with  high  mountains."  (Smith's  "  Sacred  Annals,  Patriarchal 
Age,"  p.  131.)     Here  were  found  the  golden  apples. 

This  is  very  much  like  the  description  which  Plato  gives  of 
the  great  plain  of  Atlantis,  covered  with  fruit  of  every  kind, 
and  surrounded  by  precipitous  mountains  descending  to  the  sea. 

The  Greek  mythology,  in  speaking  of  the  Garden  of  the  Hes- 
perides, tells  us  that  "  the  outer  edge  of  the  garden  was  slightly 
raised,  so  that  the  water  might  not  run  in  and  overflow  the 
land."  Another  reminiscence  of  the  surrounding  mountains 
of  Atlantis  as  described  by  Plato,  and  as  revealed  by  the  deep- 
sea  soundings  of  modern  times. 


KINGS  OF  ATLANTIS  THE  GODS  OF  THE  GREEKS.    289 

Chronos,  or  Saturn,  Dionysos,  Hyperion,  Atlas,  Hercules, 
were  all  connected  with  "  a  great  Saturnian  continent ;"  they 
were  kino-s  that  ruled  over  countries  on  the  western  shores  of 
the  Mediterranean,  Africa  and  Spain.  One  account  says : 
"  Hyperion,  Atlas,  and  Saturn,  or  Chronos,  were  sons  of  Ura- 
nos,  who  reigned  over  a  great  kingdom  composed  of  countries 
around  the  western  part  of  the  Mediterranean,  with  certain  isl- 
ands in  the  Atlantic.  Hyperion  succeeded  his  father,  and  was 
then  killed  by  the  Titans.  The  kingdom  was  then  divided  be- 
tween Atlas  and  Saturn — Atlas  taking  Northern  Africa,  with 
the  Atlantic  islands,  and  Saturn  the  countries  on  the  opposite 
shore  of  the  Mediterranean  to  Italy  and  Sicily."  (Baldwin's 
"Prehistoric  Nations,"  p.  357.) 

Phito  says,  speaking  of  the  traditions  of  the  Greeks  ("  Dia- 
logues, Laws,"  c.  iv.,  p.  713),  "There  is  a  tradition  of  the  happy 
life  of  mankind  in  the  days  when  all  things  were  spontaneous 
and  abundant.  ...  In  like  manner  God  in  his  love  of  mankind 
placed  over  us  the  demons,  who  are  a  superior  race,  and  they, 
with  great  care  and  pleasure  to  themselves  and  no  less  to  us, 
taking  care  of  us  and  giving  us  place  and  reverence  and  order 
and  justice  never  failing,  made  the  tribes  of  men  happy  and 
peaceful  .  .  .  for  Cronos  knew  that  no  human  nature,  invested 
with  supreme  power,  is  able  to  order  human  affairs  and  not 
overflow  with  insolence  and  wrong." 

In  other  words,  this  tradition  refers  to  an  ancient  time  when 
the  forefathers  of  the  Greeks  were  governed  by  Chronos,  of  the 
Cronian  Sea  (the  Atlantic),  king  of  Atlantis,  through  civilized 
Atlantean  governors,  who  by  their  wisdom  preserved  peace  and 
created  a  golden  age  for  all  the  populations  under  their  control 
— they  were  the  demons,  that  is,  "  the  knowing  ones,"  the  civ- 
ilized. 

Plato  puts  into  the  mouth  of  Socrates  these  words  ("Dia- 
logues, Cratylus,"  p.  397) :  "  My  notion  would  be  that  the  sun, 
moon,  and  stars,  earth,  and  heaven,  which  are  still  the  gods  of 
many  barbarians,  were  the  only  gods  known  to  the  aboriginal 
Hellenes.  .  .  .What  shall  follow  the  gods?     Must  not  demons 

13 


290  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

and  heroes  and  men  come  next?  .  .  .  Consider  the  real  meaning 
of  the  word  demons.  You  know  Hesiod  uses  the  word.  He 
speaks  of  'a  golden  race  of  men'  who  came  first.  He  says  of 
them, 

"  'But  now  that  fate  has  closed  over  this  race, 
They  ai^e  holy  demons  upon  earth, 
Beneficent  averters  of  ills,  guardians  of  mortal  men.* 

He  means  by  the  golden  men  not  men  literally  made  of  gold, 
but  good  and  noble  men ;  he  says  we  are  of  the  '  age  of  iron.' 
He  called  them  demons  because  they  were  ^ar^fioveg  (knowing 
or  wise)." 

This  is  made  the  more  evident  when  we  read  that  this  region 
of  the  gods,  of  Chronos  and  Uranos  and  Zeus,  passed  through, 
first,  a  Golden  Age,  then  a  Silver  Age  —  these  constituting  a 
great  period  of  peace  and  happiness ;  then  it  reached  a  Bronze 
Age ;  then  an  Iron  Age,  and  finally  perished  hy  a  great  Jlood, 
sent  upon  these  people  by  Zeus  as  a  punishment  for  their  sins. 
We  read : 

"  Men  were  rich  then  (in  the  Silver  Age),  as  in  the  Golden 
Age  of  Chronos,  and  lived  in  plenty ;  but  still  they  wanted  the 
iimocence  and  contentment  which  were  the  true  sources  of  hu- 
man happiness  in  the  former  age ;  and  accordingly,  while  liv- 
ing in  luxury  and  delicacy,  they  became  overbearing  in  their 
manners  to  the  highest  degree,  were  never  satisfied,  and  forgot 
the  gods,  to  whom,  in  their  confidence  of  prosperity  and  com- 
fort, they  denied  the  reverence  they  owed.  .  .  .  Then  followed 
the  Bronze  Age,  a  period  of  constant  quarrelling  and  deeds  of 
violence.  Instead  of  cultivated  lands,  and  a  life  of  peaceful 
occupations  and  orderly  habits,  there  came  a  day  when  every- 
where might  was  right,  and  men,  big  and  powerful  as  they 
were,  became  physically  worn  out.  .  .  .  Finally  came  the  Iron 
Age,  in  which  enfeebled  mankind  had  to  toil  for  bread  with 
their  hands,  and,  bent  on  gain,  did  their  best  to  overreach 
each  other.  Dike,  or  Astrsea,  the  goddess  of  justice  and  good 
faith,  modesty  and  truth,  turned  her  back  on  such  scenes,  and 
retired  to  Olympus,  while  Zeus  determined  to  destroy  the  hu- 
man race  hy  a  great  flood.  The  whole  of  Greece  lay  under  wa- 
ter, and  none  but  Deucalion  and  his  wife  Pyrrha  were  saved." 
(Murray's  "  Mythology,"  p.  44.) 


KINGS  OF  ATLANTIS  THE  GODS  OF  THE  GREEKS.    291 

It  is  remarkable  that  we  find  here  the  same  succession  of  the 
Iron  Age  after  the  Bronze  Age  that  has  been  revealed  to  scien- 
tific men  by  the  patient  examination  of  the  relics  of  antiquity 
in  Europe.  And  this  identification  of  the  land  that  was  de- 
stroyed by  a  flood  —  the  land  of  Chronos  and  Poseidon  and 
Zeus  —  with  the  Bronze  Age,  confirms  the  view  expressed  in 
Chapter  VIII.  (page  237,  ante)^  that  the  bronze  implements 
and  weapons  of  Europe  were  mainly  imported  from  Atlantis. 

And  here  we  find  that  the  Flood  that  destroyed  this  land  of 
the  gods  was  the  Flood  of  Deucalion,  and  the  Flood  of  Deuca- 
lion was  the  Flood  of  the  Bible,  and  this,  as  we  have  shown, 
was  "  the  last  great  Deluge  of  all,"  according  to  the  Egyptians, 
which  destroyed  Atlantis. 

The  foregoing  description  of  the  Golden  Age  of  Chronos, 
when  "men  were  rich  and  lived  in  plenty,"  reminds  us  of 
Plato's  description  of  the  happy  age  of  Atlantis,  when  "  men 
despised  everything  but  virtue,  not  caring  for  their  present  state 
of  life,  and  thinking  lightly  of  the  possession  of  gold  and  other 
property  ;"  a  time  when,  as  the  chants  of  the  Delaware  Indians 
stated  it  (page  109,  a7^^e),  ''all  were  willingly  pleased,  all  were 
well-happified."  While  the  description  given  by  Murray  in 
the  above  extract  of  the  degeneracy  of  mankind  in  the  land  of 
the  gods,  "a  period  of  constant  quarrelling  and  deeds  of  vio- 
lence, when  might  was  right,"  agrees  with  Plato's  account  of 
the  Atlanteans,  when  they  became  "  aggressive,"  "  unable  to 
bear  their  fortune,"  "  unseemly,"  "  base,"  "  filled  with  unright- 
eous avarice  and  power,"  and  "  in  a  most  wretched  state." 
And  here  again  I  might  quote  from  the  chant  of  the  Delaware 
Indians — "  they  became  troubled,  hating  each  other ;  both  were 
fighting,  both  were  spoiling,  both  were  never  peaceful."  And 
in  all  three  instances  the  gods  punished  the  depravity  of  man- 
kind by  a  great  deluge.  Can  all  these  precise  coincidences  be 
the  result  of  accident? 

May  we  not  even  suppose  that  the  very  w^ord  "Olympus"  is 
a  transformation  from  "  Atlantis,"  in  accordance  with  the  laws 


292  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

that  regulate  the  changes  of  letters  of  the  same  class  into  each 
other?  Olympus  was  written  by  the  Greeks  "  Olumpos."  The 
letter  a  in  Atlantis  was  sounded  by  the  ancient  world  broad  and 
full,  like  the  a  in  our  words  all  or  altar;  in  these  words  it  ap- 
proximates very  closely  to  the  sound  of  o.  It  is  not  far  to  go 
to  convert  Otlontis  into  Oluntos,  and  this  into  Olumpos.  We 
may,  therefore,  suppose  that  when  the  Greeks  said  that  their 
gods  dwelt  in  "  Olympus,"  it  was  the  same  as  if  they  said  that 
they  dwelt  in  "  Atlantis." 

Nearly  all  the  gods  of  Greece  are  connected  with  Atlantis. 
We  have  seen  the  twelve  principal  gods  all  dwelling  on  the 
mountain  of  Olympus,  in  the  midst  of  an  island  in  the  ocean 
in  the  far  west,  which  was  subsequently  destroyed  by  a  deluge 
on  account  of 'the  wickedness  of  its  people.  And  when  we 
turn  to  Plato's  description  of  Atlantis  (p.  13,  ante)  we  find  that 
Poseidon  and  Atlas  dwelt  upon  a  mountain  in  the  midst  of  the 
island ;  and  on  this  mountain  were  their  magnificent  temples 
and  palaces,  where  they  lived,  separated  by  great  walls  from 
their  subjects. 

It  may  be  urged  that  Mount  Olympus  could  not  have  refer- 
red to  any  mountain  in  Atlantis,  because  the  Greeks  gave  that 
name  to  a  group  of  mountains  partly  in  Macedonia  and  partly 
in  Thessaly.  But  in  Mysia,  Lycia,  Cyprus,  and  elsewhere  there 
were  mountains  called  Olympus;  and  on  the  plain  of  Olympia, 
in  Elis,  there  was  an  eminence  bearing  the  same  designation. 
There  is  a  natural  tendency  among  uncivilized  peoples  to  give  a 
"  local  habitation  "  to  every  general  tradition. 

"Many  of  the  oldest  myths,"  says  Baldwin  ("Prehistoric 
Nations,"  p.  376),  "relate  to  Spain,  North-western  Africa,  and 
other  regions  on  the  Atlantic,  such  as  those  concerning  Her- 
cules, the  Cronidffi,  the  Hyperboreans,  the  Hesperides,  and  the 
Islands  of  the  Blessed.  Homer  described  the  Atlantic  region 
of  Europe  in  his  account  of  the  wanderings  of  Ulysses.  .  .  . 
In  the  ages  previous  to  the  decline  of  Phoenician  influence  in 
Greece  and  around  the  ^gean  Sea,  the  people  of  those  re- 
gions must  have  had  a  much  better  knowledge  of  Western 


KJXGS  OF  ATLANTIS   THE  GODS  OF  THE  GREEKS    293 

Europe  than   prevailed  there   during  the   Ionian   or  Hellenic 
period." 

The  mythology  of  Greece  is  really  a  history  of  the  kings  of 
Atlantis.  The  Greek  heaven  was  Atlantis.  Hence  the  refer- 
ences to  statues,  swords,  etc.,  that  fell  from  heaven,  and  were 
preserved  in  the  temples  of  the  different  states  along  the  shores 
of  the  Mediterranean  from  a  vast  antiquity,  and  which  were 
regarded  as  the  most  precious  possessions  of  the  people.  They 
were  relics  of  the  lost  race  received  in  the  early  ages.  Thus 
we  read  of  the  brazen  or  bronze  anvil  that  was  preserved  in  one 
city,  which  fell  from  heaven,  and  was  nine  days  and  nine  nights 
in  falling ;  in  other  words,  it  took  nine  days  and  nights  of  a 
sailing-voyage  to  bring  it  from  Atlantis. 

The  modern  theory  that  the  gods  of  Greece  never  had  any 
personal  existence,  but  represented  atmospheric  and  meteoro- 
logical myths,  the  movements  of  clouds,  planets,  and  the  sun, 
is  absurd.  Rude  nations  repeat,  they  do  not  invent;  to  sup- 
pose a  barbarous  people  creating  their  deities  out  of  clouds 
and  sunsets  is  to  reverse  nature.  Men  first  worship  stones,  then 
other  men,  then  spirits.  Resemblances  of  names  prove  noth- 
ing; it  is  as  if  one  would  show  that  the  name  of  the  great 
Napoleon  meant  "the  lion  of  the  desert"  (Napo-leon),  and 
should  thence  argue  that  Napoleon  never  existed,  that  he  was  a 
myth,  that  he  represented  power  in  solitude,  or  some  such  stuff. 
When  we  read  that  Jove  whipped  his  wife,  and  threw  her  son 
out  of  the  window,  the  inference  is  that  Jove  was  a  man,  and 
actually  did  something  like  the  thing  described ;  certainly  gods, 
sublimated  spirits,  aerial  sprites,  do  not  act  after  this  fashion  ; 
and  it  would  puzzle  the  myth-makers  to  prove  that  the  sun, 
moon,  or  stars  whipped  their  wives  or  flung  recalcitrant  young 
men  out  of  windows.  The  history  of  Atlantis  could  be  in  part 
reconstructed  out  of  the  mythology  of  Greece ;  it  is  a  history  of 
kings,  queens,  and  princes ;  of  love-making,  adulteries,  rebellions, 
Avars,  murders,  sea-voyages,  and  colonizations ;  of  palaces,  tem- 
ples, workshops,  and  forges ;  of  sword-making,  engraving  and 


294  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 

metallurgy ;  of  wine,  barley,  wheat,  cattle,  sheep,  horses,  and 
agriculture  generally.  Who  can  doubt  that  it  represents  the 
history  of  a  real  people  ? 

Uranos  was  the  first  god  ;  that  is  to  say,  the  first  king  of  the 
great  race.  As  he  was  at  the  commencement  of  all  things,  his 
symbol  was  the  sky.  He  probably  represented  the  race  previ- 
ous even  to  the  settlement  of  Atlantis.  He  was  a  son  of  Gaea 
(the  earth).  He  seems  to  have  been  the  parent  of  three  races — 
the  Titans,  the  Hekatoncheires,  and  the  Kyklopes  or  Cyclops. 

I  incline  to  the  belief  that  these  were  civilized  races,  and 
that  the  peculiarities  ascribed  to  the  last  two  refer  to  the  ves- 
sels in  which  they  visited  the  shores  of  the  barbarians. 

The  empire  of  the  Titans  was  clearly  the  empire  of  Atlan- 
tis. "The  most  judicious  among  our  mythologists "  (says  Dr. 
Rees,  "  New  British  Cyclopaedia,"  art.  Titans) — "  such  as  Ge- 
rard Vossius,  Marsham,  Bochart,  and  Father  Thomassin — are 
of  opinion  that  the  partition  of  the  world  among  the  sons  of 
Noah — Shem,  Ham,  and  Japheth — was  the  original  of  the  tra- 
dition of  the  same  partition  among  Jupiter,  Neptune,  and  Pla- 
to^'' npon  the  breaking  up  of  the  great  empire  of  the  Titans. 
"The  learned  Pezron  contends  that  the  division  which  was 
made  of  this  vast  empire  came,  in  after-times,  to  be  taken  for 
the  partition  of  the  whole  world ;  that  Asia  remaining  in  the 
hands  of  Jupiter  (Zeus),  the  n)ost  potent  of  the  three  brothers, 
made  him  looked  upon  as  the  god  of  Olympus;  that  the  sea 
and  islands  which  fell  to  Neptune  occasioned  their  giving  him 
the  title  of  '  god  of  the  sea ;'  and  that  Spain,  the  extremity  of 
the  then  known  world,  thought  to  be  a  very  low  country  in  re- 
spect of  Asia,  and  famous  for  its  excellent  mines  of  gold  and 
silver,  falling  to  Pluto,  occasioned  him  to  be  taken  for  the  'god 
of  the  infernal  regions.'"  We  should  suppose  that  Pluto  possi- 
bly ruled  over  the  transatlantic  possessions  of  Atlantis  in  Ameri- 
ca, over  those  "portions  of  the  opposite  continent"  which  Plato 
tells  us  were  dominated  by  Atlas  and  his  posterity,  and  which, 
being  far  bevond  or  below  sunset,  were  the  "  under-world"  of 


^5^._:-. 


KL\OS  OF  ATLANTIC  THE  GODS   OF  THE  GREEKS.    297 

the  ancients ;  while  Atlantis,  the  Canaries,  etc.,  constitnted  the 
island  division  with  Western  Africa  and  Spain.  Murray  tells 
us  ("Mythology,"  p.  58)  that  Pluto's  share  of  the  kingdom 
was  supposed  to  lie  "  in  the  remote  west."  The  under-world 
of  the  dead  was  simply  the  world  below  the  western  horizon ; 
"  the  home  of  the  dead  has  to  do  with  that  far  west  region 
where  the  sun  dies  at  night."  ("Anthropology,"  p.  350.) 
"  On  the  coast  of  Brittany,  where  Cape  Raz  stands  out  westward 
into  the  ocean,  there  is  '  the  Bay  of  Souls,'  the  launching-place 
where  the  departed  spirits  sail  off  across  the  sea^  (Ibid.)  In 
like  manner,  Odysseus  found  the  land  of  the  dead  in  the  ocean 
beyond  the  Pillars  of  Hercules.  There,  indeed,  was  the  land  of 
the  mighty  dead,  the  grave  of  the  drowned  Atlanteans. 

"  However  this  be,"  continues  F.  Pezron,  "  the  empire  of  the 
Titans,  according  to  the  ancients,  was  very  extensive ;  they  pos- 
sessed Phrygia,  Thrace,  a  part  of  Greece,  the  island  of  Crete, 
and  several  other  provinces  to  the  inmost  recesses  of  Spain. 
To  these  Sanchoniathon  seems  to  join  Syria;  and  Diodorus 
adds  a  part  of  Africa,  and  the  kingdoms  of  Mauritania."  The 
kinojdoms  of  Mauritania  embraced  all  that  north-western  reo;ion 
of  Africa  nearest  to  Atlantis  in  which  are  the  Atlas  Mountains, 
and  in  which,  in  the  days  of  Herodotus,  dwelt  the  Atlantes. 

Neptune,  or  Poseidon,  says,  in  answer  to  a  message  from 

Jupiter, 

Xo  vassal  god,  nor  of  liis  train  am  I. 
Three  brothers,  deities,  from  Saturn  came. 
And  ancient  Rhea,  earth's  immortal  dame ; 
Assigned  by  lot  our  triple  rule  we  know ; 
Infernal  Pluto  sways  the  shades  below: 
O'er  the  wide  clouds,  and  o'er  the  starry  plain 
Ethereal  Jove  extends  his  high  domain ; 
My  court  beneath  the  hoary  waves  I  keep, 
And  hush  the  roaring  of  the  sacred  deep. 

Iliad,  book  xviii. 
Homer  alludes  to  Poseidon  as 

"  The  god  whose  liquid  arms  are  hurled 
Around  the  globe,  whose  earthquakes  rock  the  world." 
13* 


298  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

Mythology  tells  us  that  when  the  Titans  were  defeated  by 
Saturn  they  retreated  into  the  interior  of  Spain  ;  Jupiter  fol- 
lowed them  up,  and  beat  them  for  the  last  time  near  Tartessus, 
and  thus  terminated  a  ten-years'  war.  Here  we  have  a  real 
battle  on  an  actual  battle-field. 

If  we  needed  any  further  proof  that  the  empire  of  the  Ti- 
tans was  the  empire  of  Atlantis,  we  would  find  it  in  the  names 
of  the  Titans :  among  these  were  Oceanus,  Saturn  or  Chronos, 
and  Atlas;  they  were  all  the  sons  of  Uranos.  Oceanus  was  at 
the  base  of  the  Greek  mythology.  Plato  says  ("  Dialogues," 
Tiraaeus,  vol.  ii.,  p.  533) :  "  Oceanus  and  Tethys  were  the  chil- 
dren of  Earth  and  Heaven,  and  from  these  sprung  Phorcys,  and 
Chronos,  and  Rhea,  and  many  more  with  them  ;  and  from  Chro- 
nos and  Rhea  sprung  Zeus  and  Hera,  and  all  those  whom  we 
know  as  their  brethren,  and  others  ivho  were  their  childreuy  In 
other  words,  all  their  gods  came  out  of  the  ocean ;  they  were 
rulers  over  some  ocean  realm  ;  Chronos  was  the  son  of  Oceanus, 
and  Chronos  was  an  Atlantean  god,  and  from  him  the  Atlantic 
Ocean  was  called  by  the  ancients  "the  Chronian  Sea."  The 
elder  Minos  was  called  "  the  Son  of  the  Ocean  :"  he  first  gave 
civilization  to  the  Cretans ;  he  engraved  his  laws  on  brass,  pre- 
cisely as  Plato  tells  us  the  laws  of  Atlantis  were  engraved  on 
pillars  of  brass. 

The  wanderings  of  Ulysses,  as  detailed  in  the  "  Odyssey  "  of 
Homer,  are  strangely  connected  with  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  The 
islands  of  the  Phseacians  were  apparently  in  mid-ocean : 

We  dwell  apart,  afar 
Within  the  unmeasui-ed  deep,  amid  its  waves 
The  most  remote  of  men  ;  no  other  race 
Hath  commerce  with  us. —  Odyssey,  book  vi. 

The  description  of  the  Phseacian  walls,  harbors,  cities,  pal- 
aces, ships,  etc.,  seems  like  a  recollection  of  Atlantis.  The  isl- 
and of  Calypso  appears  also  to  have  been  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean, 
twenty  days'  sail  from  the  Phaeacian  isles;  and  when  Ulysses 


KINGS  OF  ATLANTIS  THE  GOBS  OF  THE  GREEKS    299 

goes  to  the  land  of  Pluto,  "  the  under-world,"  the  home  of  the 

dead,  he 

"  Reached  the  far  confines  of  Oceanus," 

beyond  the  Pillars  of  Hercules.  It  would  be  curious  to  in- 
quire how  far  the  poems  of  Homer  are  Atlantean  in  their  rela- 
tions and  inspiration.  Ulysses's  wanderings  were  a  prolonged 
struggle  with  Poseidon,  the  founder  and  god  of  Atlantis. 

"The  Hekatoncheires,  or  Cetira sen i,  beings  each  with  a  hun- 
dred hands,  were  three  in  number  —  Kottos,  Gyges  or  Gyes, 
and  Briareus — and  represented  the  frightful  crashing  of  waves, 
and  its  resemblance  to  the  convulsions  of  earthquakes."  (Mur- 
ray's "  Mythology,"  p.  26.)  Are  not  these  hundred  arms  the 
oars  of  the  galleys,  and  the  frightful  crashing  of  the  waves  their 
movements  in  the  water  ? 

"The  Kyklopes  also  were  three  in  number — Brontes,  with 
his  thunder;  Sterupes,  \'ith  his  lightning;  and  Arges,  with  bis 
stream  of  light.  They  were  represented  as  having  only  one 
eye,  which  was  placed  at  the  juncture  between  the  nose  and 
brow.  It  was,  however,  a  large,  flashing  eye,  as  became  beings 
who  were  personifications  of  the  storm-cloud,  with  its  flashes 
of  destructive  lightning  and  peals  of  thunder." 

We  shall  show  hereafter  that  the  invention  of  gunpowder 
dates  back  to  the  days  of  the  Phoenicians,  and  may  have  been 
derived  by  them  from  Atlantis.  It  is  not  impossible  that  in 
this  picture  of  the  Kyklopes  we  see  a  tradition  of  sea-going 
ships,  with  a  light  burning  at  the  prow,  and  armed  with  some 
explosive  preparation,  which,  with  a  roar  like  thunder,  and 
a  flash  like  lightning,  destroyed  those  against  whom  it  was 
employed?  It  at  least  requires  less  strain  upon  our  credulity 
to  suppose  these  monsters  were  a  barbarian's  memory  of  great 
ships  than  to  believe  that  human  beings  ever  existed  with  a 
hundred  arms,  and  with  one  eye  in  the  middle  of  the  forehead, 
and  giving  out  thunder  and  lightning. 

The  natives  of  the  West  India  Islands  regarded  the  ships  of 
Columbus  as  living  creatures,  and  that  their  sails  were  wings. 


300  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

Berosns  tells  us,  speaking  of  the  ancient  days  of  Chaldea, 
"  In  the  first  year  there  appeared,  from  that  part  of  the  Ery- 
thraean Sea  which  borders  upon  Babylonia,  an  animal  endowed 
with  reason,  by  name  Oannes,  whose  whole  body  (according  to 
the  account  of  Apollodorus)  was  that  of  a  fish ;  that  under  the 
fish's  head  he  had  another  head,  with  feet  also  below,  similar 
to  those  of  a  man,  subjoined  to  the  fish's  tail.  His  voice  too 
and  language  was  articulate  and  human,  and  a  representation 
of  him  is  preserved  even  unto  this  day.  This  being  was  accus- 
tomed to  pass  the  day  among  men,  but  took  no  food  at  that 
season,  and  he  gave  them  an  insight  into  letters  and  arts  of  all 
kinds.  He  taught  them  to  construct  cities,  to  found  temples, 
to  compile  laws,  and  explained  to  them  the  principles  of  geo- 
metrical knowledge.  He  made  them  distinguish  the  seeds  of 
the  earth,  and  showed  them  how  to  collect  the  fruits;  in  short, 
he  instructed  them  in  everything  which  could  tend  to  soften 
Dianners  and  humanize  their  laws.  From  that  time  nothing  ma- 
terial has  been  added  hy  way  of  imfrovcment  to  his  instructions. 
And  when  the  sun  set,  this  being,  Oannes,  retired  again  into  the 
sea,  and  passed  the  night  in  the  deep,  for  he  was  amphibious. 
After  this  there  appeared  other  animals  like  Oannes." 

This  is  clearly  the  tradition  preserved  by  a  barbarous  people 
of  the  great  ships  of  a  civilized  nation,  who  colonized  their 
coast  and  introduced  the  arts  and  sciences  among  them.  And 
here  we  see  the  same  tendency  to  represent  the  ship  as  a  living 
thing,  which  converted  the  war-vessels  of  the  Atlanteans  (the 
Kyklopes)  into  men  with  one  blazing  eye  in  the  middle  of  the 
forehead. 

ITranos  was  deposed  from  the  throne,  and  succeeded  by  his 
son  Chronos.  He  was  called  "the  ripener,  the  harvest-god,'' 
and  was  probably  identified  with  the  beginning  of  the  Agricult- 
ural Period.  He  married  his  sister  Rhea,  who  bore  him  Pluto, 
Poseidon,  Zeu".,  Hestia,  Demeter,  and  Hera.  He  anticipated 
that  his  sons  would  dethrone  him,  as  he  had  dethroned  his  fa- 
ther, Uranos,  and  he  swallowed  his  first  five  children,  and  would 
have  swallowed  the  sixth  child,  Zeus,  but  that  his  wife  Rhea 
deceived  him  with  a  stone  image  of  the  child ;  and  Zeus  was 
conveyed  to  the  island  of  Crete,  and  there  concealed  in  a  cave 


KLXGii  OF  ATLANTIS  THE  GODS  OF  THE  OJiEEKS.    301 

and  raised  to  manhood.  Subsequently  Chronos  "  yielded  back 
to  the  light  the  children  he  had  swallowed."  This  myth  prob- 
ably means  that  Chronos  had  his  children  raised  in  some  secret 
place,  where  they  could  not  be  used  by  his  enemies  as  the 
instruments  of  a  rebellion  against  his  throne ;  and  the  stone 
image  of  Zeus,  palmed  off  upon  him  by  Rhea,  was  probably 
soine  other  child  substituted  for  his  own.  His  precautions 
seem  to  have  been  wise;  for  as  soon  as  the  children  returned 
to  the  light  they  commenced  a  rebellion,  and  drove  the  old 
gentleman  from  his  throne.  A  rebellion  of  the  Titans  fol- 
lowed. The  struggle  was  a  tremendous  one,  and  seems  to 
have  been  decided  at  last  by  the  use  of  gunpowder,  as  I  shall 
show  farther  on. 

We  have  seen  Chronos  identified  with  the  Atlantic,  called 
by  the  Romans  the  "  Chronian  Sea."  He  was  known  to  the 
Romans  under  the  name  of  Saturn,  and  ruled  oyer  "a  great  Sa- 
turnian  continent"  in  the  Western  Ocean.  Saturn,  or  Chronos, 
came  to  Italy:  he  presented  himself  to  the  king,  Janus,  "and 
proceeded  to  instruct  the  subjects  of  the  latter  in  agriculture, 
gardening,  and  many  other  arts  then  quite  unknown  to  them ; 
as,  for  example,  how  to  tend  and  cultivate  the  vine.  By  such 
means  he  at  length  raised  the  people  from  a  rude  and  compara- 
tively barbarous  condition  to  one  of  order  and  peaceful  occupa- 
tions, in  consequence  of  which  he  was  everywhere  held  in  high 
esteem,  and,  in  course  of  time,  was  selected  by  Janus  to  share 
with  him  the  government  of  the  country,  which  thereupon  as- 
sumed  the  name  of  Saturnia — '  a  land  of  seed  and  fruit.'  The 
period  of  Saturn's  government  was  sung  in  later  days  by  poets 
as  a  happy  time,  when  sorrows  were  unknown,  when  innocence, 
freedom,  and  gladness  reigned  throughout  the  land  in  such  a 
de'gree  as  to  deserve  the  title  of  the  Golden  Age."  (Murray's 
"  Mythology,"  p.  32.) 

All  this  accords  with  Plato's  story.  He  tells  us  that  the  rule 
of  the  Atlanteans  extended  to  Italy  ;  that  they  were  a  civilized, 
agricultural,  and  commercial  people.     The  civilization  of  Rome 


302  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

was  therefore  an  outgrowth  directly  from  the  civilization  of 
Atlantis. 

The  Roman  Saturnalia  was  a  remembrance  of  the  Atlantean 
colonization.  It  was  a  period  of  joy  and  festivity  ;  master  and 
slave  met  as  equals ;  the  distinctions  of  poverty  and  wealth 
were  forgotten  ;  no  punishments  for  crime  were  inflicted ;  ser- 
vants and  slaves  went  about  dressed  in  the  clothes  of  their  mas- 
ters ;  and  children  received  presents  from  their  parents  or  rel- 
atives. It  was  a  time  of  jollity  and  mirth,  a  recollection  of 
the  Golden  Age.  We  find  a  reminiscence  of  it  in  the  Roman 
"  Carnival." 

The  third  and  last  on  the  throne  of  the  highest  god  was 
Zeus.  AVe  shall  see  him,  a  little  farther  on,  by  the  aid  of  some 
mysterious  engine  overthrowing  the  rebels,  the  Titans,  who 
rose  against  his  power,  amid  the  flash  of  lightning  and  the 
roar  of  thunder.  He  was  called  "the  thunderer,"  and  "the 
mighty  thunderer."  He  was  represented  with  thunder-bolts  in 
his  hand  and  an  eagle  at  his  feet. 

During  the  time  of  Zeus  Atlantis  seems  to  have  reached  its 
greatest  height  of  power.  He  was  recognized  as  the  father  of 
the  whole  world ;  he  everywhere  rewarded  uprightness,  truth, 
faithfulness,  and  kindness  ;  he  was  merciful  to  the  poor,  and 
punished  the  cruel.  To  illustrate  his  rule  on  earth  the  follow- 
ing story  is  told : 

"  Philemon  and  Baukis,  an  aged  couple  of  the  poorer  class, 
were  living  peacefully  and  full  of  piety  toward  the  gods  in  their 
cottage  in  Phrygia,  when  Zeus,  who  often  visited  the  earth, 
disguised,  to  inquire  into  the  behavior  of  men,  paid  a  visit,  in 
passing  through  Phrygia  on  such  a  journey,  to  these  poor  old 
people,  and  was  received  by  them  very  kindly  as  a  weary  trav- 
eller, which  he  pretended  to  be.  Bidding  him  welcome  to  the 
house,  they  set  about  preparing  for  their  guest,  who  was  ac- 
companied by  Hermes,  as  excellent  a  meal  as  they  could  afford, 
and  for  this  purpose  were  about  to  kill  the  only  goose  they  had 
left,  when  Zeus  interfered ;  for  he  was  touched  by  their  kindli- 
ness and  genuine  piety,  and  that  all  the  more  because  he  had 


KINGS  OF  ATLANTIS  THE  GODS  OF  THE  GREEKS.    303 

observed  among  the  other  inhabitants  of  the  district  nothing 
but  cruelty  of  disposition  and  a  habit  of  reproaching  and  de- 
spising the  gods.  To  punish  this  conduct  he  determined  to 
visit  the  country  with  a  fiood,  but  to  save  from  it  Philemon 
and  Baukis,  the  good  aged  couple,  and  to  reward  them  in  a 
striking  manner.  To  this  end  he  revealed  himself  to  them  be- 
fore opening  the  gates  of  the  great  flood,  transformed  their 
})oor  cottage  on  the  hill  into  a  splendid  temple,  installed  the 
aged  pair  as  his  priest  and  priestess,  and  granted  their  prayer 
that  they  might  both  die  together.  When,  after  many  years, 
death  overtook  them,  they  were  changed  into  two  trees,  that 
grew  side  by  side  in  the  neighborhood — an  oak  and  a  linden." 
(Murray's  "  Mythology,"  p.  38.) 

Here  we  have  another  reference  to  the  Flood,  and  another 
identification  with  Atlantis. 

Zeus  was  a  kind  of  Henry  VHL,  and  took  to  himself  a  num- 
ber of  wives.  By  Demeter  (Ceres)  he  had  Persephone  (Proser- 
pine) ;  by  Leto,  Apollo  and  Artemis  (Diana) ;  by  Dione,  Aph- 
rodite (Venus) ;  by  Semele,  Dionysos  (Bacchus) ;  by  Maia,  Her- 
mes (Mercury) ;  by  Alkmene,  Hercules,  etc.,  etc. 

We  have  thus  the  whole  family  of  gods  and  goddesses  traced 
back  to  Atlantis. 

Hera,  or  Juno,  w^as  the  first  and  principal  wife  of  Zeus. 
There  were  numerous  conjugal  rows  between  the  royal  pair,  in 
which,  say  the  poets,  Juno  was  generally  to  blame.  She  was 
naturally  jealous  of  the  other  wives  of  Zeus.  Zeus  on  one  oc- 
casion beat  her,  and  threw  her  son  Hephsestos  out  of  Olympus ; 
on  another  occasion  he  hung  her  out  of  Olympus  with  her 
arms  tied  and  two  great  weights  attached  to  her  feet — a  very 
brutal  and  ungentlemanly  trick — but  the  Greeks  transposed  this 
into  a  beautiful  symbol :  the  two  weights,  they  say,  represent 
the  earth  and  sea,  "  an  illustration  of  how  all  the  phenomena  of 
the  visible  sky  were  supposed  to  hang  dependent  on  the  highest 
god  of  heaven !"  {Ibid.,  p.  47.)  Juno  probably  regarded  the 
transaction  in  an  altogether  different  light ;  and  she  therefore 
united  with  Poseidon,  the  king's  brother,  and  his  daughter 


304  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

Athena,  in  a  rebellion  to  put  the  old  fellow  in  a  strait-jacket, 
"  and  would  have  succeeded  had  not  Thetis  brought  to  his  aid 
the  sea-giant  ^gseon,"  probably  a  war-ship.  She  seems  in  the 
main,  however,  to  have  been  a  good  wife,  and  was  the  type  of 
all  the  womanly  virtues. 

Poseidon,  the  first  king  of  Atlantis,  according  to  Plato,  was, 
according  to  Greek  mythology,  a  brother  of  Zeus,  and  a  son  of 
Chronos.  In  the  division  of  the  kingdom  he  fell  heir  to  the 
ocean  and  its  islands,  and  to  the  navigable  rivers;  in  other 
words,  he  was  king  of  a  maritime  and  commercial  people.  His 
symbol  was  the  horse.  "  He  was  the  first  to  train  and  employ 
horses;"  that  is  to  say,  his  people  first  domesticated  the  horse. 
This  agrees  with  what  Plato  tells  us  of  the  importance  attached 
to  the  horse  in  Atlantis,  and  of  the  baths  and  race-courses  pro- 
vided for  him.  He  was  worshipped  in  the  island  of  Tenos  "  in 
the  character  of  a  physician,"  showing  that  he  represented  an 
advanced  civilization.  He  was  also  master  of  an  agricultural 
people ;  "  the  ram  with  the  golden  fleece  for  which  the  Argo- 
nauts sailed  was  the  offspring  of  Poseidon."  He  carried  in 
his  hand  a  three-pronged  symbol,  the  trident,  doubtless  an  em- 
blem of  the  three  continents  that  were  embraced  in  the  empire 
of  Atlantis.  He  founded  many  colonies  along  the  shores  of 
the  Mediterranean ;  "  he  helped  to  build  the  walls  of  Troy ;" 
the  tradition  thus  tracing  the  Trojan  civilization  to  an  Atlan- 
tean  source.  He  settled  Attica  and  founded  Athens,  named 
after  his  niece  Athena,  daughter  of  Zeus,  who  had  no  mother, 
but  had  sprung  from  the  head  of  Zeus,  which  probably  signi- 
fied that  her  mother's  name  was  not  known — she  was  a  found- 
ling. Athena  caused  the  first  olive-tree  to  grow  on  the  Acrop- 
olis of  Athens,  parent  of  all  the  olive-trees  of  Greece.  Poseidon 
seems  to  have  had  settlements  at  Corinth,  ^Egina,  Naxos,  and 
Delphi.  Temples  were  erected  to  his  honor  in  nearly  all  the 
seajjort  towns  of  Greece.  He  sent  a  sea-monster,  to  wit,  a  ship, 
to  ravage  part  of  the  Trojan  territory. 

In  the  "Iliad"  Poseidon  appears  "as  ruler  of  the  sea,  inhab- 


KlXiJS  OF  ATLANTIS  THE  GODS   OF  THE  GREEKS.    805 

iting  a  brilliant  palane  in  its  depths,  traversing-  its  surface  in  a 
chariot,  or  stirring  the  powerful  billows  imtil  the  earth  shakes 
as  they  crash  upon  the  shores.  .  .  .  He  is  also  associated  with 
well  -  watered  plains  and  valleys."  (Murray's  "Mythology," 
p.  51.)  The  palace  in  the  depths  of  the  sea  was  the  palace 
upon  Olympus  in  Atlantis;  the  traversing  of  the  sea  referred 
to  the  movements  of  a  mercantile  race;  the  shaking  of  the 


I'ObEIDON,  OK  NEPTUNE. 


earth  was  an  association  with  earthquakes;  the  "well-watered 
plains  and  valleys"  remind  us  of  the  great  plain  of  Atlantis 
described  by  Plato. 

All  the  traditions  of  the  coming  of  civilization  into  Europe 
point  to  Atlantis. 

For  instance,  Keleos,  who  lived  at  Eleusis,  near  Athens,  hos- 
pitably received  Demeter,  the  Greek  Ceres,  the  daughter  of  Po- 
seidon, when  she  landed;  and  in  return  she  taught  him  the  use 
of  the  plough,  and  presented  his  son  with  the  seed  of  barley, 
and  sent  him  out  to  teach  mankind  how  to  sow  and  utilize  that 
grain.     Dionysos,  grandson  of  Poseidon,  travelled  "  through  all 


306  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 

the  known  world,  even  into  the  remotest  parts  of  India,  in- 
structing the  people,  as  he  proceeded,  how  to  tend  the  vine, 
and  how  to  practise  many  other  arts  of  peace,  besides  teaching 
them  the  value  of  just  and  honorable  dealings."  (Murray's 
"Mythology,"  p.  119.)  The  Greeks  celebrated  great  festivals 
in  his  honor  down  to  the  coming  of  Christianity. 

"The  Nymphs  of  Grecian  mythology  were  a  kind  of  mid- 
dle beings  between  the  gods  and  men,  communicating  with 
both,  loved  and  respected  by  both ;  .  .  .  living  like  the  gods  on 
ambrosia.  In  extraordinary  cases  they  were  summoned,  it  was 
believed,  to  the  councils  of  the  Olympian  gods ;  but  they  usual- 
ly remained  in  their  particular  spheres,  in  secluded  grottoes  and 
peaceful  valleys,  occupied  in  spinning,  weaving,  bathing,  sing- 
ing sweet  songs,  dancing,  sporting,  or  accompanying  deities 
who  passed  through  their  territories — hunting  with  Artemis 
(Diana),  rushing  about  with  Dionysos  (Bacchus),  making  mer- 
ry with  Apollo  or  Hermes  (Mercury),  but  always  in  a  hostile 
attitude  toward  the  wanton  and  excited  Satyrs." 

The  Nymphs  were  plainly  the  female  inhabitants  of  Atlantis 
dwelling  on  the  plains,  while  the  aristocracy  lived  on  the  high- 
er lands.  And  this  is  confirmed  by  the  fact  that  part  of  them 
were  called  Atlantids,  offspring  of  Atlantis.  The  Hesperides 
were  also  "  daughters  of  Atlas ;"  their  mother  was  Hesperis,  a 
personification  of  "  the  region  of  the  West."  Their  home  was 
"  an  island  in  the  ocean,"  off  the  north  or  west  coast  of  Africa. 

And  here  we  find  a  tradition  which  not  only  points  to  At- 
lantis, but  also  shows  some  kinship  to  the  legend  in  Genesis  of 
the  tree  and  the  serpent. 

Titaea,  "  a  goddess  of  the  earth,"  gave  Zeus  a  tree  bearing 
golden  apples  on  it.  This  tree  was  put  in  the  care  of  the  Hes- 
perides, but  they  cotdd  not  resist  the  teyyiptation  to  plucic  and 
eat  its  fruit ;  thereupon  a  serpent  named  Ladon  was  put  to 
watch  the  tree.  Hercules  slew  the  serpent,  and  gave  the  apples 
to  the  Hesperides. 

Heracles  (Hercules),  we  have  seen,  was  a  son  of  Zeus,  king 
of  Atlantis.     One  of  his  twelve  labors  (the  tenth)  was  the  car- 


KJXO>S  OF  ATLANTIIS  THE  GODS  OF  THE  GREEKS.    307 

i-ying  off  the  cattle  of  Geryon.  The  meaning  of  Geryon  is 
"the  red  glow  of  the  sunset^  He  dwelt  on  the  island  of 
"  Erythea,  in  the  remote  west^  beyond  the  Pillars  of  Hercules." 
Hercules  took  a  ship,  and  after  encountering  a  storm,  reached 
the  island  and  placed  himself  on  Mount  Abas.  Hercules  killed 
Geryon,  stole  the  cattle,  put  them  on  the  ship,  and  landed  them 
safely,  driving  them  "  through  Iberia,  Gaul,  and  over  the  Alps 
down  into  Italy."  (Murray's  "  Mythology,"  p.  257.)  This  was 
simply  the  memory  of  a  cattle  raid  made  by  an  uncivilized  race 
upon  the  civilized,  cattle-raising  people  of  Atlantis. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  pursue  the  study  of  the  gods  of  Greece 
any  farther.  They  were  simply  barbarian  recollections  of  the 
rulers  of  a  great  civilized  people  who  in  early  days  visited  their 
shores,  and  brought  with  them  the  arts  of  peace. 

Here  then,  in  conclusion,  are  the  proofs  of  our  proposition 
that  the  gods  of  Greece  had  been  the  kings  of  Atlantis : 

1.  They  were  not  the  makers,  but  the  rulers  of  the  world. 

2.  They  were  human  in  their  attributes ;  they  loved,  sinned, 
and  fought  battles,  the  very  sites  of  which  are  given  ;  they 
founded  cities,  and  civilized  the  people  of  the  shores  of  the 
Mediterranean. 

3.  They  dwelt  upon  an  island  in  the  Atlantic,  "  in  the  remote 
west,  .  .  .  where  the  sun  shines  after  it  has  ceased  to  shine  on 
Greece." 

4.  Their  land  was  destroyed  in  a  deluge. 

5.  They  were  ruled  over  by  Poseidon  and  Atlas. 

6.  Their  empire  extended  to  Egypt  and  Italy  and  the  shores 
of  Africa,  precisely  as  stated  by  Plato. 

7.  They  existed  daring  the  Bronze  Age  and  at  the  beginning 
of  the  Iron  Age. 

The  entire  Greek  mythology  is  the  recollection,  by^  a  degen- 
erate race,  of  a  vast,  mighty,  and  highly  civilized  empire,  which 
in  a  remote  past  covered  large  _parts  of  Europe,  Asia,  Africa, 
and  America. 


308  ATLAXriH:    THE  AXTKDILUVIAX   WORLD, 


Chapter  III. 

THE  GODS  OF  THE  PH(ENICIAN8  ALSO  KINGS  OF 
ATLANTIS 

Not  alone  were  the  gods  of  the  Greeks  the  deified  kings  of 
Atlantis,  but  we  find  that  the  mythology  of  the  Phoenicians 
was  drawn  from  the  same  source. 

For  instance,  we  find  in  the  Phoenician  cosmogony  that  the 
Titans  (Rephaim)  derive  their  origin  from  the  Phoenician  gods 
Aorus  and  Ao;rotus.  This  connects  the  Phoenicians  with  that 
island  in  the  remote  west,  in  the  midst  of  ocean,  where,  ac- 
cording to  the  Greeks,  the  Titans  dwelt. 

According  to  Sanchoniathon,  Ouranos  was  the  son  of  Au- 
tochthon, and,  according  to  Plato,  Autochthon  was  one  of  the 
ten  kings  of  Atlantis.  He  mariied  his  sister  Ge.  He  is  the 
Uranos  of  the  Greeks,  who  was  the  son  of  Gcea  (the  earth), 
whom  he  married.  The  Phoenicians  tell  us,  "  Ouranos  had  by 
Ge  four  sons :  Ilus  (El),  who  is  called  Chronos,  and  Betyhis 
(Beth- El),  and  Dagon,  which  signifies  bread- corn,  and  Atlas 
(Tammuz?)."  Here,  again,  we  have  the  names  of  two  other 
kings  of  Atlantis.  These  four  sons  probably  represented  four 
races,  the  offspring  of  the  earth.  The  Greek  Uranos  was  the 
father  of  Chronos,  and  the  ancestor  of  Atlas.  The  Phoenician 
god  Ouranos  had  a  great  many  other  wives :  his  wife  Ge  was 
jealous ;  they  quarrelled,  and  he  attempted  to  kill  the  children 
he  had  by  her.  This  is  the  legend  which  the  Greeks  told  of 
Zeus  and  Juno.  In  the  Phoenician  mythology  Chronos  raised  a 
rebellion  against  Ouranos,  and,  after  a  great  battle,  dethroned 
him.  In  the  Greek  legends  it  is  Zeus  who  attacks  and  over- 
throws his  father,  Chronos.     Ouranos  had  a  daughter  called  As- 


GODS   OF  THE  PH(EmCIANS  KINGS  OF  ATLANTIS.    309 

tarte  (Asbtoreth),  another  called  Rhea.  "  And  Dagon,  after  he 
had  found  out  bread-corn  and  the  plough,  was  called  Zeus-Aro- 
trius." 

We  find  also,  in  the  Phcenician  legends,  mention  made  of 
Poseidon,  founder  and  king  of  Atlantis. 

Cbronos  gave  Attica  to  his  daughter  Athena,  as  in  the  Greek 
legends.  In  a  time  of  plague  he  sacrificed,  his  son  to  Ouranos, 
and  "circumcised  himself,  and  compelled  bis  allies  to  do  the 
same  thing."  It  would  thus  appear  that  this  singular  rite, 
practised  as  we  have  seen  by  the  Atlantidae  of  the  Old  and 
New  Worlds,  the  Egyptians,  the  Phoenicians,  the  Hebrews,  the 
Ethiopians,  the  Mexicans,  and  the  red  men  of  America,  dates 
back,  as  we  might  have  expected,  to  Atlantis. 

"  Cbronos  visits  the  different  regions  of  the  habitable  world." 

He  gave  Egypt  as  a  kingdom  to  the  god  Taaut,  who  had  in- 
vented the  alphabet.  The  Egyptians  called  him  Thoth,  and 
he  was  represented  among  them  as  "  the  god  of  letters,  the 
clerk  of  the  under -world,"  bearing  a  tablet,  pen,  and  palm- 
branch. 

This  not  only  connects  the  Phoenicians  witb  Atlantis,  but 
shows  the  relations  of  Egyptian  civilization  to  both  Atlantis 
and  the  Phcenicians. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  royal  personages  who  form- 
ed the  gods  of  Greece  were  also  the  gods  of  the  Phoenicians. 
We  have  seen  the  Autochthon  of  Plato  reappearing  in  the  Au- 
tochthon of  the  Phoenicians ;  the  Atlas  of  Plato  in  the  Atlas  of 
the  Phoenicians ;  the  Poseidon  of  Plato  in  the  Poseidon  of  the 
Phoenicians ;  while  the  kings  Mestor  and  Mneseus  of  Plato  are 
probably  the  gods  Misor  and  Amynus  of  the  Phoenicians. 

Sanchoniathon  tells  us,  after  narrating  all  the  discoveries  by 
which  the  people  advanced  to  civilization,  that  the  Cabiri  set 
down  their  records  of  the  past  by  the  command  of  the  god 
Taaut,  "and  they  delivered  them  to  their  successors  and  to, 
foreigners,  of  whom  one  was  Isiris  (Osiris),  the  inventor  of  the 
three  letters,  the  brother  of  Chua,  who  is  called  the  first  Phoe- 


310  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOBLD. 

nician."  (Lenonnant  and  Chevallier,  "Ancient  History  of  the 
East,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  228.) 

This  would  show  that  the  first  Phoenician  came  loug  after 
this  line  of  the  kings  or  gods,  and  that  he  was  a  foreigner,  as 
compared  with  them ;  and,  therefore,  that  it  could  not  have  been 
the  Phoenicians  proper  who  made  the  several  inventions  nar- 
rated by  Sanchoniathon,  but  some  other  race,  from  whom  the 
Phoenicians  might  have  been  descended. 

And  in  the  delivery  of  their  records  to  the  foreigner  Osiris, 
the  god  of  Egypt,  we  have  another  evidence  that  Egypt  derived 
her  civilization  from  Atlantis. 

Max  Muller  says : 

"  The  Semitic  languages  also  are  all  varieties  of  one  form  of 
speech.  Though  we  do  not  know  that  primitive  language  from 
which  the  Semitic  dialects  diverged,  yet  we  know  that  at  one 
time  such  language  must  have  existed.  .  .  .  We  cannot  derive 
Hebrew  from  Sanscrit,  or  Sanscrit  from  Hebrew ;  but  we  can 
well  understand  how  both  may  have  proceeded  from  one  com- 
mon source.  They  are  both  channels  supplied  from  one  river, 
and  they  carry,  though  not  always  on  the  surface,  floating  ma- 
terials of  language  which  challenge  comparison,  and  have  al- 
ready yielded  satisfactory  results  to  careful  analyzers."  ("  Out- 
lines of  Philosophy  of  History,"  vol.  i.,  p.  475.) 

There  was  an  ancient  tradition  among  the  Persians  that  the 
Phoenicians  migrated  from  the  shores  of  the  Erythraean  Sea, 
and  this  has  been  supposed  to  mean  the  Persian  Gulf;  but 
there  was  a  very  old  city  of  Erythia,  in  utter  ruin  in  the  time 
of  Strabo,  which  was  built  in  some  ancient  age,  long  before  the 
founding  of  Gades,  near  the  site  of  that  town,  on  the  Atlantic 
coast  of  Spain.  May  not  this  town  of  Erythia  have  given  its 
name  to  the  adjacent  sea?  And  this  may  have  been  the  start- 
ing-point of  the  Phoenicians  in  their  European  migrations. 
It  would  even  appear  that  there  was  an  island  of  Erythea. 
In  the  Greek  mythology  the  tenth  labor  of  Hercules  consisted 
in  driving  away  the  cattle  of  Geryon,  who  lived  in  the  island  of 
Erythea,  "  an  island  somewhere  in  the  remote  west,  beyond  the 


GODS   OF  THE  PHCENICIANS  KINGS  OF  ATLANTIS.    311 

Pillars  of  Hercules:'  (Murray's  "  Mythology,"  p.  257.)  Her- 
cules stole  the  cattle  from  this  remote  oceanic  island,  and,  re- 
turning, drove  them  "through  Iberia,  Gaul,  over  the  Alps,  and 
through  Italy."  (Ibid.)  It  is  probable  that  a  people  emigrat- 
ing from  the  Erythraean  Sea,  that  is,  from  the  Atlantic,  first 
gave  their  name  to  a  town  on  the  coast  of  Spain,  and  at  a  later 
date  to  the  Persian  Gulf — as  we  have  seen  the  name  of  York 
carried  from  England  to  the  banks  of  the  Hudson,  and  then  to 
the  Arctic  Circle. 

The  builders  of  the  Central  American  cities  are  reported  to 
have  been  a  bearded  race.  The  Phoenicians,  in  common  with 
the  Indians,  practised  human  sacrifices  to  a  great  extent ;  they 
worshipped  fire  and  water,  adopted  the  names  of  the  animals 
whose  skins  they  wore — that  is  to  say,  they  had  the  totemic 
system — telegraphed  by  means  of  fires,  poisoned  their  arrows, 
offered  peace  before  beginning  battle,  and  used  drums.  (Ban- 
croft's "  Native  Races,"  vol.  v.,  p.  11.) 

The  extent  of  country  covered  by  the  commerce  of  the  Phoe- 
nicians represents  to  some  degree  the  area  of  the  old  Atlantean 
Empire.  Their  colonies  and  trading-posts  extended  east  and 
west  from  the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea,  through  the  Mediterra- 
nean to  the  west  coast  of  Africa  and  of  Spain,  and  around  to 
Ireland  and  England ;  while  from  north  to  south  they  ranged 
from  the  Baltic  to  the  Persian  Gulf.  They  touched  every  point 
where  civilization  in  later  ages  made  its  appearance.  Strabo 
estimated  that  they  had  three  hundred  cities  along  the  west 
coast  of  Africa.  When  Columbus  sailed  to  discover  a  new 
world,  or  re-discover  an  old  one,  he  took  his  departure  from  a 
Phoenician  seaport,  founded  by  that  great  race  two  thousand 
five  hundred  years  previously.  This  Atlantean  sailor,  with  his 
Phoenician  features,  sailing  from  an  Atlantean  port,  simply 
re-opened  the  path  of  commerce  and  colonization  which  had 
been  closed  when  Plato's  island  sunk  in  the  sea.  And  it  is 
a  curious  fact  that  Columbus  had  the  antediluvian  world  in 
his  mind's  eye  even  then,  for  when  he  reached  the  mouth  of 


I 


312  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOBLD. 

the  Orinoco  he  thought  it  was  the  river  Gihon,  that  flowed 
out  of  Paradise,  and  he  wrote  home  to  Spain,  "  There  are 
here  great  indications  suggesting  the  proximity  of  the  earthly 
Paradise,  for  not  only  does  it  correspond  in  mathematical  po- 
sition with  the  opinions  of  the  holy  and  learned  theologians, 
but  all  other  signs  concur  to  make  it  probable." 

Sanchoniathon  claims  that  the  learning  of  Egypt,  Greece, 
and  Judaea  was  derived  from  the  Phoenicians.  It  would  ap- 
pear probable  that,  while  other  races  represent  the  conquests 
or  colonizations  of  Atlantis,  the  Phoenicians  succeeded  to  their 
arts,  sciences,  and  especially  their  commercial  supremacy ;  and 
hence  the  close  resemblances  which  we  have  found  to  exist 
between  the  Hebrews,  a  branch  of  the  Phoenician  stock,  and 
the  people  of  America. 

Upon  the  Syrian  sea  the  people  live 

Who  style  themselves  Phoenicians.  .  .  . 

These  were  1he  first  great  fownders  of  the  loorld — 

Founders  of  cities  and  of  mighty  states — 

Who  showed  a  path  through  seas  before  imkiiown. 

In  the  first  ages,  when  the  sons  of  men 

Knew  not  which  way  to  turn  them,  they  assigned 

To  each  his  first  department ;  they  bestowed 

Of  land  a  portion  and  of  sea  a  lot, 

And  sent  each  wandering  tribe  far  off  to  share 

A  different  soil  and  climate.     Hence  arose 

The  great  diversity,  so  plainly  seen, 

'Mid  nations  widely  severed. 

Dyonysius  of  Susiana,  a.d.  d?0. 


TEE  GOB   ODIN,  WODEX,  OR  WOT  AN.  313 


Chapter  IY. 

THE  GOD    ODIN,  WODEN,  OR   WOTAN. 

In  the  Scandinavian  mythology  the  chief  god  was  Odin,  the 
Woden,  Wotan,  or  Wuotan  of  the  Germans.  He  is  represent- 
ed with  many  of  the  attributes  of  the  Greek  god  Zeus,  and  is 
supposed  by  some  to  be  identical  with  him.  He  dwelt  with 
the  tivelve  ^sir,  or  gods,  upon  Asgard,  the  Norse  Olympus, 
which  arose  out  of  Midgard,  a  land  half-way  between  the  re- 
gions of  frost  and  fire  (to  wit,  in  a  temperate  climate).  The 
Scandinavian  Olympus  was  probably  Atlantis.  Odin  is  repre- 
sented as  a  grave-looking  elderly  man  with  a  long  beard,  car- 
rying in  his  hand  a  spear,  and  accompanied  by  two  dogs  and 
two  ravens.  He  was  the  father  of  poetry,  and  the  inventor  of 
Runic  writing. 

The  Cliiapenese  of  Central  America  (the  people  whose  lan- 
guage we  have  seen  furnishing  such  remarkable  resemblances  to 
Hebrew)  claim  to  have  been  the  first  people  of  the  New  World. 
Ciavigero  tells  us  ("  Hist.  Antiq.  del  Messico,"  Eug.  trans.,  1807, 
vol.  i.)  that  according  to  the  traditions  of  the  Chiapenese  there 
was  a  Votan  who  was  the  grandson  of  the  man  who  built 
the  ark  to  save  himself  and  family  from  the  Deluge;  he  was 
one  of  those  who  undertook  to  build  the  tower  that  should 
reach  to  heaven.  The  Lord  ordered  him  to  people  America. 
"  He  came  from  the  East.''''  He  brought  seven  families  with 
him.  He  had  been  preceded  in  America  by  two  others,  Igh 
and  Imox.  He  built  a  great  city  in  America  called  "  Nachan," 
City  of  the  Serpents  (the  serpent  that  tempted  Eve  was  Na- 
hash),  from  his  own  race,  which  was  named  Chan,  a  serpent. 
This  Nachan  is  supposed  to  have  been  Palenque.     The  date  of 

14 


314  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

his  journey  is  placed  in  the  legends  in  the  year  3000  of  the 
world,  and  in  the  tenth  century  b.c.  He  also  founded  three 
tributary  monarchies,  whose  capitals  were  Tulan,  Mayapan,  and 
Chiquimala.  He  wrote  a  book  containing  a  history  of  his 
deeds,  and  proofs  that  he  belonged  to  the  tribe  of  Chanes  (ser- 
pents). He  states  that  "  he  is  the  third  of  the  Votans ;  that 
he  conducted  seven  families  from  Valum-Votan  to  this  conti- 
nent, and  assigned  lands  to  them ;  that  he  determined  to  travel 
until  he  came  to  the  root  of  heaven  and  found  his  relations, 
the  Culebres,  and  made  himself  known  to  them ;  that  he  ac- 
cordingly made  four  voyages  to  Chivim ;  that  he  arrived  in 
Spain ;  that  he  went  to  Rome ;  that  he  saw  the  house  of  God 
building ;  that  he  went  by  the  road  which  his  brethren,  the 
Culebres,  had  bored ;  that  he  marked  it,  and  that  he  passed  by 
the  houses  of  the  thirteen  Culebres.  He  relates  that,  in  return- 
ing from  one  of  his  voyages,  he  found  seven  other  families  of 
the  Tzequil  nation  who  had  joined  the  first  inhabitants,  and  rec- 
ognized in  them  the  same  origin  as  his  own,  that  is,  of  the  Cu- 
lebres; he  speaks  of  the  place  where  they  built  the  first  town, 
which  from  its  founders  received  the  name  of  Tzequil ;  he  af- 
firms that,  having  taught  them  the  refinement  of  manners  in 
the  use  of  the  table,  table-cloths,  dishes,  basins,  cups,  and  nap- 
kins, they  taught  him  the  knowledge  of  God  and  his  w^orship ; 
his  first  ideas  of  a  king,  and  obedience  to  him ;  that  he  was 
chosen  captain  of  all  these  united  families." 

It  is  probable  that  Spain  and  Rome  are  interpolations.  Ca- 
brera claims  that  the  Votanites  were  Carthaginians.  He  thinks 
the  Chivim  of  Votan  were  the  Hivim,  or  Givim,  who  were  de- 
scended of  Heth,  son  of  Canaan,  Phoenicians ;  they  were  the 
builders  of  Accaron,  Azotus,  Ascalon,  and  Gaza.  The  Script- 
ures refer  to  them  as  Hivites  (Givim)  in  Deuteronomy  (chap, 
ii.,  verse  32),  and  Joshua  (chap,  xiii.,  verse  4).  He  claims  that 
Cadmus  and  his  wife  Hermione  were  of  this  stock ;  and  accord- 
ing to  Ovid  they  were  metamorphosed  into  snakes  (Culebres). 
The  name  Hivites  in  Phoenician  signifies  a  snake. 


THE  GOD  ODIN,  WODEN,  OR  WOT  AN  315 

Votan  may  not,  possibly,  have  passed  into  Europe ;  he  may 
have  travelled  altogether  in  Africa.  His  singular  allusion  to 
"  a  way  which  the  Culebres  had  bored  "  seems  at  first  inexpli- 
cable ;  but  Dr.  Livingstone's  last  letters,  published  8th  No- 
vember, 1869,  in  the  "Proceedings  of  the  Royal  Geographical 
Society,"  mention  that  "  tribes  live  in  underground  houses  in 
Rua.  Some  excavations  are  said  to  be  thirty  miles  long,  and 
have  running  rills  in  them ;  a  whole  district  can  stand  a  siege 
in  them.  The  '  writings '  therein,  I  have  been  told  by  some  of 
the  people,  are  drawings  of  animals,  and  not  letters ;  otherwise 
I  should  have  gone  to  see  them.  People  very  dark,  well  made, 
and  outer  angle  of  eyes  slanting  inward." 

And  Captain  Grant,  who  accompanied  Captain  Speke  in  his 
famous  exploration  of  the  sources  of  the  Nile,  tells  of  a  tunnel 
or  subway  under  the  river  Kaoraa,  on  the  highway  between 
Loowemba  and  Marunga,  near  Lake  Tanganyika.  His  guide 
Manua  describes  it  to  him : 

"  I  asked  Manua  if  he  had  ever  seen  any  country  resembling 
it.  His  reply  was, '  This  country  reminds  me  of  what  I  saw  in 
the  country  to  the  south  of  the  Lake  Tanganyika,  when  travel- 
ling with  an  Arab's  caravan  from  Unjanyembeh.  There  is  a 
river  there  called  the  Kaoma,  running  into  the  lake,  the  sides 
of  which  are  similar  in  precipitousness  to  the  rocks  before  us.' 
I  then  asked, '  Do  the  people  cross  this  river  in  boats  ?'  '  No  ; 
they  have  no  boats ;  and  even  if  they  had,  the  people  could  not 
land,  as  the  sides  are  too  steep  :  they  pass  underneath  the  river 
by  a  natural  tunnel,  or  subway.'  He  and  all  his  party  went 
through  it  on  their  way  from  Loowemba  to  Ooroongoo,  and  re- 
turned by  it.  He  described  its  length  as  having  taken  them 
from  sunrise  till  noon  to  pass  through  it,  and  so  high  that, 
if  mounted  upon  camels,  they  could  not  touch  the  top.  Tall 
reeds,  the  thickness  of  a  walking-stick,  grew  inside ;  the  road 
was  strewed  with  white  pebbles,  and  so  wide  —  four  hundred 
yards — that  they  could  see  their  way  tolerably  well  while  pass- 
ing through  it.  The  rocks  looked  as  if  they  had  been  planed 
by  artificial  means.  Water  never  came  through  from  the  river 
overhead ;  it  was  procured  by  digging  wells.  Manua  added 
that  the  people  of  Wambweh  take  shelter  in  this  tunnel,  and 


316  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

live  there  with  their  families  and  cattle,  when  molested  by  the 
Watuta,  a  warlike  race,  descended  from  the  Zooloo  Kafirs." 

But  it  is  interesting  to  find  in  this  book  of  Votan,  however 
little  reliance  we  may  place  in  its  dates  or  details,  evidence  that 
there  was  actual  intercourse  between  the  Old  World  and  the 
New  in  remote  ages. 

Humboldt  remarks : 

"  We  have  fixed  the  special  attention  of  our  readers  upon 
this  Votan,  or  Wodan,  an  American  who  appears  of  the  same 
family  with  the  Wods  or  Odins  of  the  Goths  and  of  the  people 
of  Celtic  origin.  Since,  according  to  the  learned  researches 
of  Sir  William  Jones,  Odin  and  Buddha  are  probably  the  same 
person,  it  is  curious  to  see  the  names  of  Bondvar,  Wodansdag, 
and  Votan  designating  in  India,  Scandinavia,  and  in  Mexico 
the  day  of  a  brief  period."  ("  Vues  des  Cordilleras,"  p.  148, 
ed.  1810.) 

There  are  many  things  to  connect  the  mythology  of  the 
Gothic  nations  with  Atlantis;  they  had,  as  we  have  seen,  flood 
legends ;  their  gods  Krodo  and  Satar  were  the  Chronos  and 
Saturn  of  Atlantis ;  their  Baal  was  the  Bel  of  the  Phoenicians, 
who  were  closely  connected  with  Poseidon  and  Atlas ;  and,  as 
we  shall  see  hereafter,  their  language  has  a  distinct  relationship 
with  the  tongues  of  the  Arabians,  Cushites,  Chaldeans,  and 
Phoenicians. 


PYRAMID,  CROSS,  AND   GARDEN  OF  EDEN.  317 


Chapter  Y. 

THE  PYRAMID,  THE  CROSS,  AND    THE  GARDEN  OF 
EDEN. 

No  fact  is  better  established  than  the  reverence  shown  to  the 
sign  of  the  Cross  in  all  the  ages  prior  to  Christianity.  We  can- 
not do  better  than  quote  from  an  able  article  in  the  Edinburgh 
Review  of  July,  1870,  upon  this  question  : 

"  From  the  dawn  of  organized  Paganism  in  the  Eastern  world 
to  the  final  establishment  of  Christianity  in  the  Western,  the 
Cross  was  undoubtedly  one  of  the  commonest  and  most  sacred 
of  symbolical  monuments;  and,  to  a  remarkable  extent,  it  is  so 
still  in  almost  every  land  where  that  of  Calvary  is  unrecognized 
or  unknown.  Apart  from  any  distinctions  of  social  or  intel- 
lectual superiority,  of  caste,  color,  nationality,  or  location  in 
either  hemisphere,  it  appears  to  have  been  the  aboriginal  pos- 
session of  every  people  in  antiquity — the  elastic  girdle,  so  to 
say,  which  embraced  the  most  widely  separated  heathen  com- 
munities— the  most  significant  token  of  a  universal  brother- 
hood, to  which  all  the  families  of  mankind  were  severally  and 
irresistibly  drawn,  and  by  which  their  common  descent  was  em- 
phatically expressed,  or  by  means  of  which  each  and  all  pre- 
served, amid  every  vicissitude  of  fortune,  a  knowledge  of  the 
primeval  happiness  and  dignity  of  their  species.  Where  au- 
thentic history  is  silent  on  the  subject,  the  material  relics  of 
past  and  long  since  forgotten  races  are  not  wanting  to  confirm 
and  strengthen  this  supposition.  Diversified  forms  of  the  sym- 
bol are  delineated  more  or  less  artistically,  according  to  the 
progress  achieved  in  civilization  at  the  period,  on  the  ruined 
walls  of  temples  and  palaces,  on  natural  rocks  and  sepulchral 
galleries,  on  the  hoariest  monoliths  and  the  rudest  statuary ;  on 
coins,  medals,  and  vases  of  every  description  ;  and,  in  not  a  few 
instances,  are  preserved  in  the  architectural  proportions  of  sub- 


318  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

terranean  as  well  as  superterranean  structures,  of  tumuli  as  well 
as  fanes.  The  extraordinary  sanctity  attaching  to  the  symbol, 
in  every  age  and  under  every  variety  of  circumstance,  justified 
any  expenditure  incurred  in  its  fabrication  or  embellishment; 
hence  the  most  persistent  labor,  the  most  consummate  ingenui- 
ty, were  lavished  upon  it.  Populations  of  essentially  different 
culture,  tastes,  and  pursuits — the  highly-civilized  and  the  demi- 
civilized,  the  settled  and  nomadic — vied  with  each  other  in  their 
efforts  to  extend  the  knowledge  of  its  exceptional  import  and 
virtue  among  their  latest  posterities.  The  marvellous  rock- 
hewn  caves  of  Elephanta  and  Ellora,  and  the  stately  temples  of 
Mathura  and  Terputty,  in  the  East,  may  be  cited  as  characteris- 
tic examples  of  one  laborious  method  of  exhibiting  it ;  and  the 
megalithic  structures  of  Callernish  and  Newgrange,  in  the  West, 
of  another;  while  a  third  may  be  instanced  in  the  great  temple 
at  Mitzla, '  the  City  of  the  Moon,'  in  Ojaaca,  Central  America, 
also  excavated  in  the  living  rock,  and  manifesting  the  same  stu- 
pendous labor  and  ingenuity  as  are  observable  in  the  cognate 
caverns  of  Salsette — of  endeavors,  we  repeat,  made  by  peoples 
as  intellectually  as  geographically  distinct,  and  followers  withal 
of  independent  and  unassociated  deities,  to  magnify  and  per- 
petuate some  grand  primeval  symbol.  ,  .  . 

"  Of  the  several  varieties  of  the  Cross  still  in  vogue,  as  nation- 
al or  ecclesiastical  emblems,  in  this  and  other  European  states, 
and  distinguished  by  the  familiar  appellations  of  St.  George, 
St.  Andrew,  the  Maltese,  the  Greek,  the  Latin,  etc.,  etc.,  there 
is  not  one  among  them  the  existence  of  which  may  not  be 
traced  to  the  remotest  antiquity.  They  were  the  common 
property  of  the  Eastern  nations.  No  revolution  or  other  casu- 
alty has  wrought  any  perceptible  difference  in  their  several 
forms  or  delineations ;  they  have  passed  from  one  hemisphere 
to  the  other  intact;  have  survived  dynasties,  empires,  and  races ; 
have  been  borne  on  the  crest  of  each  successive  wave  of  Aryan 
population  in  its  course  toward  the  West;  and,  having  been  re- 
consecrated in  later  times  by  their  lineal  descendants,  are  still 
recognized  as  military  and  national  badges  of  distinction.  .  .  . 

"  Among  the  earliest  known  types  is  the  crux  ansata,  vulgarly 
called  '  the  key  of  the  Nile,'  because  of  its  being  found  sculpt- 
ured or  otherwise  represented  so  frequently  upon  Egyptian  and 
Coptic  monuments.  It  has,  however,  a  very  much  older  and 
more  sacred  signification  than   this.     It  was  the   symbol   of 


PYRAMID,  CROSS,  AND   GARDEN  OF  EDEN. 


319 


EGYPTIAN  TAU. 


symbols,  the  mystical  Tail,  '  the  hidden  wisdom,'  not  only  of 
tiie  ancient  Egyptians  but  also  of  the  Chaldeans,  Phoenicians, 
Mexicans,  Peruvians,  and  of  every  other  ancient  people  com- 
memorated in  history,  in  either  hemisphere,  and  is  formed  very 
similarly  to  our  letter  T,with  a  roundlet,  or  oval,  placed  imme- 
diately above  it.  Thus  it  was  figured 
on  the  gigantic  emerald  or  glass  statue 
of  Serapis,  which  was  transported  (293 
B.C.)  by  order  of  Ptolemy  Soter  from 
Sinope,  on  the  southern  shores  of  the 
Black  Sea,  re-erected  within  that  fa- 
mous labyrinth  which  encompassed  the 
banks  of  Lake  Moeris,  and  destroyed 
by  the  victorious  army  of  Theodosius 
(a.d.  389),  despite  the  earnest  entreaties 
of  the  Egyptian  priesthood  to  spare  it, 
because  it  was  the  emblem  of  their  god 
and  of  *  the  life  to  come.'  Sometimes,  as  may  be  seen  on  the 
breast  of  an  Egyptian  mummy  in  the  museum  of  the  London 
University,  the  simple  X  only  is  planted  on  the  frustum  of 
a  cone ;  and  sometimes  it  is  represented  as  springing  from  a 
heart;  in  the  first  instance  signifying  goodness;  in  the  sec- 
ond, hope  or  expectation  of  reward.  As  in  the  oldest  tem- 
ples and  catacombs  of  Egypt,  so  this  type  like- 
wise abounds  in  the  ruined  cities  of  Mexico  and 
Central  America,  graven  as  well  upon  the  most 
ancient  cyclopean  and  polygonal  walls  as  upon 
the  more  modern  and  perfect  examples  of  mason- 
ry ;  and  is  displayed  in  an  equally  conspicuous 
manner  upon  the  breasts  of  innumerable  bronze 
statuettes  which  have  been  recently  disinterred 
from  the  cemetery  of  Juigalpa  (of  unknown  an- 
tiquity) in  Nicaragua." 


OBOSS    FROM 

MONUMENTS   OF 

PALENQUB. 


When  the  Spanish  missionaries  first  set  foot  upon  the  soil 
of  America,  in  the  fifteenth  century,  they  were  amazed  to  find 
the  Cross  was  as  devoutly  worshipped  by  the  red  Indians  as 
by  themselves,  and  were  in  doubt  whether  to  ascribe  the  fact 
to  the  pious  labors  of  St.  Thomas  or  to  the  cunning  device  of 
the  Evil  One.     The  hallowed  symbol  challenged  their  atten- 


320 


ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 


ANCIENT  IRISH  OROS8. 


tion  on  every  hand  and  in  almost 

f^   ^:S^r~J>^^^V~IIirj    every   variety   of  form.      It  ap- 
^^       :^zr^^  '    *^  ^—  J    peared  on  the  bass-reliefs  of  ruin- 
.-Jr:z^__<^^^  ;;-^    ..--V   1    ^^  ^^^  deserted  as  well  as  on 
■~       ^  those  of  inhabited  palaces,  and 

was  the  most  conspicuous  orna- 
ment in  the  great  temple  of  Go- 
zumel,  off  the  coast  of  Yucatan. 
According  to  the  particular  lo- 
cality, and  the  purpose  which  it 
served,  it  was  formed  of  various 
materials  —  of  marble  and  gyp- 
sum in  the  open  spaces  of  cities  and  by  the  way-side ;  of  wood 
in  the  teocallis  or  chapels  on  pyramidal  summits  and  in  sub- 
terranean sanctuaries ;  and  of  emerald  or  jasper  in  the  palaces 
of  kings  and  nobles. 

When  we  ask  the  question  how  it  comes  that  the  sign  of  the 
Cross  has  thus  been  reverenced  from  the  highest  antiquity  by 
the  races  of  the  Old  and  New  Worlds,  we  learn 
that  it  is  a  reminiscence  of  the  Garden  of  Eden, 
in  other  words,  of  Atlantis. 
Professor  Hardwicke  says : 

"All  these  and   similar  traditions   are  but 

mocking  satires  of  the  old  Hebrew  story — jarred 

and  broken  notes  of  the  same  strain  ;  but  with 

all  their  exaggerations  they  intimate  how  in 

the  background  of  man's  vision  lay  a  paradise  of  holy  joy — a 

paradise  secured  from  every  kind  of  profanation,  and  made 

inaccessible  to  the  guilty ;  a  paradise  full  of  ob- 

I  I     jects  that  were  calculated  to  delight  the  senses  and 

^— Tj     p"^     to  elevate  the  mind  ;  a  paradise  that  granted  to  its 

I  tenant  rich  and  rare  immunities,  and  that  fed  with 

1^  its  perennial  streams  the  tree  of  life  and  immor- 

tality." 

To  quote  again  from  the  writer  in  the  Udin- 
huryh  Review^  already  cited  : 


CENTRAL  AMERICAN 


OOPrEB  COIN — 
TKOTIUUAO.U*. 


PYRAMID,  CROSS,  AND    GARDEN  OF  EDEN. 


321 


"  Its  undoubted  antiquity,  no  less  tlian  its  extraordinary  dif- 
fusion, evidences  that  it  must  have  been,  as  it  may  be  said  to 
be  still  in  unchristianized  lands,  emblematical  of  some  funda- 
mental doctrine  or  mystery.  The  reader  will  not  have  failed 
to  observe  that  it  is  most  usually  associated  with  water;  it  was 
*the  key  of  the  Nile,'  that  mystical  instruriient  by  means  of 
which,  in  the  popular  judgment  of  his  Egyptian  devotees,  Osi- 
ris produced  the  annual  revivifying  inundations  of  the  sacred 
stream ;  it  is  discernible  in  that  mysterious  pitcher  or  vase  por- 
trayed on  the  brazen  table  of  Bembus,  before-mentioned,  with 
its  four  lips  discharging  as  many  streams  of  water  in  opposite 
directions  ;  it  was  the  emblem  of  the  water-deities  of  the  Baby- 
lonians in  the  East  and  of  the  Gothic  nations  in  the  West,  as 


ANCIENT  lEISn   OKOS8— PUE-OURISTIAN— KILNABOY. 


well  as  that  of  the  rain-deities  respectively  of  the  mixed  popu- 
lation in  America.  We  have  seen  with  what  peculiar  rites  the 
symbol  was  honored  by  those  widely -separated  races  in  the 
western  hemisphere ;  and  the  monumental  slabs  of  Nineveh, 
now  in  the  museums  of  London  and  Paris,  show  us  how  it  was 
similarly  honored  by  the  successors  of  the  Chaldees  in  the 
eastern.  .  .  . 

"  In  Egypt,  Assyria,  and  Britain  it  was  emblematical  of  crea- 
tive power  and  eternity ;  in  India,  China,  and  Scandinavia,  of 
heaven  and  immortality;  in  the  two  Americas,  of  rejuvenes- 
cence and  freedom  from  physical  suffering ;  while  in  both  hemi- 
spheres it  was  the  common  symbol  of  the  resurrection,  or  'the 
sign  of  the  life  to  come ;'  and,  finally,  in  all  heathen  communi- 

14* 


322  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

ties,  without  exception,  it  was  the  emphatic  type,  tlie  sole  en- 
during evidence,  of  the  Divine  Unity.  This  circumstance  alone 
determines  its  extreme  antiquity — an  antiquity,  in  all  likeli- 
hood, long  antecedent  to  the  foundation  of  eith'er  of  the  three 
great  systems  of  religion  in  the  East.  And,  lastly,  we  have 
seen  how,  as  a  rule,  it  is  found  in  conjunction  with  a  stream  or 
streams  of  water,  with  exuberant  vegetation,  and  with  a  hill  or 
a  mountainous  region — in  a  word,  with  a  land  of  beauty,  fertili- 
ity,  and  joy.  Thus  it  was  expressed  upon  those  circular  and 
sacred  cakes  of  the  Egyptians,  composed  of  the  richest  materi- 
als— of  flour,  of  honey,  of  milk — and  with  which  the  serpent 
and  bull,  as  well  as  other  reptiles  and  beasts  con- 
secrated to  the  service  of  Isis  and  their  higher 
divinities,  were  daily  fed  ;  and  upon  certain  festi- 
vals were  eaten  with  extraordinary  ceremony  by 
the  people  and  their  priests.  '  The  cross-cake,' 
says  Sir  Gardner  Wilkinson,  *was  their  hiero- 
0R08B  FROM  KGYP-   nrlyph  for  civilized  land:'  obviously  a  land  su- 

TIAN    MONUMKNTS.       C5»'r  '  .77  777 

perior  to  their  own.,  as  it  ivas,  indeed,  to  all  other 
mundane  territories;  for  it  was  that  distant,  traditional  country 
of  sempiternal  contentment  and  repose,  of  exquisite  delight  and 
serenity,  where  Nature,  unassisted  by  man,  produces  all  that  is 
necessary  for  his  sustentation." 

And  this  land  was  the  Garden  of  Eden  of  our  race.  This 
was  the  Olympus  of  the  Greeks,  where 

"  This  same  mild  season  gives  the  blooms  to  blow, 
The  buds  to  harden  and  the  fruits  to  grow." 

In  the  midst  of  it  was  a  sacred  and  glorious  eminence — the 
umhilicus  orhis  terrarum — "toward  which  the  heathen  in  all 
parts  of  the  world,  and  in  all  ages,  turned  a  wistful  gaze  in  ev- 
ery act  of  devotion,  aifd  to  which  they  hoped  to  be  admitted, 
or,  rather,  to  be  restored,  at  the  close  of  this  transitory  scene." 

In  this  "glorious  eminence"  do  we  not  see  Plato's  moun- 
tain in  the  middle  of  Atlantis,  as  he  describes  it : 

"  Near  the  plain  and  in  the  centre  of  the  island  there  was  a 
mountain,  not  very  high  on  any  side.  In  this  mountain  there 
dwelt  one  of  the  earth-born  primeval  men  of  that  country. 


PYRAMID,  CROSS,  AND   GARDEN  OF  EDEN.  323 

whose  name  was  Evenor,  and  he  had  a  wife  named  Lencippe, 
and  they  had  an  only  daughter,  who  was  named  Cleito.  Posei- 
don married  her.  He  enclosed  the  hill  in  which  she  dwelt 
all  around,  making  alternate  zones  of  sea  and  land,  larger  and 
smaller,  encircling  one  another;  there  were  two  of  land  and 
three  of  water ...  so  that  no  man  could  get  to  the  island.  .  .  . 
He  brought  streams  of  water  under  the  earth  to  this  mountain- 
island,  and  made  all  manner  of  food  to  grow  upon  it.  This 
island  became  the  seat  of  Atlas,  the  over -king  of  the  whole 
island ;  upon  it  they  built  the  great  temple  of  their  nation ; 
they  continued  to  ornament  it  in  successive  generations,  every 
king  surpassing  the  one  who  came  before  him  to  the  utmost 
of  his  power,  until  they  made  the  building  a  marvel  to  behold 
for  size  and  beauty.  .  .  .  And  they  had  such  an  amount  of 
wealth  as  was  never  before  possessed  by  kings  and  potentates — 
as  is  not  likely  ever  to  be  again." 

The  gardens  of  x\lcinous  and  Laertes,  of  which  we  read  in 
Homeric  song,  and  those  of  Babylon,  were  probably  transcripts 
of  Atlantis.  "The  sacred  eminence  in  the  midst  of  a  super- 
abundant, happy  region  figures  more  or  less  distinctly  in  al- 
most every  mythology,  ancient  or  modern.  It  was  the  Me- 
somphalos  of  the  earlier  Greeks,  and  the  Omphalium  of  the 
Cretans,  dominating  the  Elysian  fields,  upon  whose  tops,  bathed 
in  pure,  brilliant,  incomparable  light,  the  gods  passed  their  days 
in  ceaseless  joys." 

"The  Buddhists  and  Brahmans,  who  together  constitute 
nearly  half  the  population  of  the  world,  tell  us  that  the  decus- 
sated figure  (the  cross),  whether  in  a  simple  or  a  complex  form, 
symbolizes  the  traditional  happy  abode  of  their  primeval  ances- 
tors—  that  'Paradise  of  Eden  toward  the  East,'  as  we  find  it 
expressed  in  the  Hebrew.  And,  let  us  ask,  what  better  picture, 
or  more  significant  characters,  in  the  complicated  alphabet  of 
symbolism,  could  have  been  selected  for  the  purpo'^c  than  a  cir- 
cle and  a  cross :  the  one  to  denote  a  region  of  absolute  purity 
and  perpetual  felicity ;  the  other,  those  four  perennial  streams 
that  divided  and  watered  the  several  quarters  of  it?"  (Edin- 
burgh Revieiv,  January,  1870.) 

And  when  we  turn  to  the  mythology  of  the  Greeks,  we  find 


324  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

that  the  origin  of  the  worid  was  ascribed  to  Okeanos,  the  ocean. 
The  worid  was  at  first  an  island  surrounded  by  the  ocean,  as 
by  a  great  stream  : 

"It  was  a  region  of  wonders  of  all  kinds;  Okeanos  lived 
there  with  his  wife  Tethys  :  these  were  the  Islands  of  the 
Blessed,  the  gardens  of  the  gods,  the  sources  of  nectar  and  am- 
brosia, on  which  the  gods  lived.  Within  this  circle  of  water 
the  earth  lay  spread  out  like  a  disk,  with  mountains  rising  from 
it,  and  the  vault  of  heaven  appearing  to  rest  upon  its  outer  edge 
all  around."  (Murray's  "  Manual  of  Mythology,"  pp.  23,  24,  et 
seq.) 

On  the  mountains  dwelt  the  gods;  they  had  palaces  on  these 
mountains,  with  store-rooms,  stabling,  etc. 

"  The  Gardens  of  the  Hesperides,  with  their  golden  apples, 
were  believed  to  exist  in  some  island  of  the  ocean,  or,  as  it  was 
sometimes  thought,  in  the  islands  off  the  north  or  west  coast  of 
Africa.  They  were  far  famed  in  antiquity ;  for  it  was  there 
that  springs  of  nectar  flowed  by  the  couch  of  Zeus,  and  there 
that  the  earth  displayed  the  rarest  blessings  of  the  gods ;  it  was 
another  Eden."     {Ibid.,  p.  156.) 

Homer  described  it  in  these  words : 

"  Stern  winter  smiles  on  that  auspicious  clime, 
The  fields  are  florid  with  unfading  prime, 
From  the  bleak  pole  no  winds  inclement  blow, 
Mould  the  round  hail,  or  flake  the  fleecy  snow ; 
But  from  the  breezy  deep  the  bless'd  inhale 
The  fragrant  murmurs  of  the  western  gale." 

"It  was  the  sacred  Asgard  of  the  Scandinavians,  springing 
from  the  centre  of  a  fruitful  land,  which  was  watered  by  four 
primeval  rivers  of  milk,  severally  flowing  in  the  direction  of 
the  cardinal  points,  '  the  abode  of  happiness,  and  the  height  of 
bliss.'  It  is  the  Tien-Chan, '  the  celestial  mountain-land, .  .  .  the 
enchanted  .gardens'  of  the  Chinese  and  Tartars,  watered  by  the 
four  perennial  fountains  of  Tychin,  or  Immortality;  it  is  the 
hill-encompassed  Ila  of  the  Singhalese  and  Thibetians,  '  the  ev- 
erlasting dwelling-place  of  the  wise  and  just.'  It  is  the  Sineru 
of  the  Buddhist,  on  the  summit  of  which  is  Tawrutisa,  the 
habitation  of  Sekra,  the  supreme  god,  from  which  proceed  the 
four  sacred  streams,  running  in  as  many  contrary  directions. 


PYRAMID,  GROSS,  AND   GARDEN  OF  EDEN.  325 

It  is  the  Slavratta,  'the  celestial  earth,'  of  the  Hindoo,  the 
summit  of  his  golden  mountain  Merii,  the  city  of  Brahma,  in 
the  centre  of  Jambac?\vlpa,  and  from  the  four  sides  of  which 
gush  forth  the  four  prirneval  rivers,  reflecting  in  their  passage 
the  colorific  glories  of  their  source,  and  severally  flowing  north- 
ward, southward,  eastward,  and  westward." 

It  is  the  Garden  of  Eden  of  the  Hebrews  : 

"  And  the  Lord  God  planted  a  garden  eastward  in  Eden ; 
and  there  he  put  the  man  whom  he  had  formed.  And  out  of 
the  ground  made  the  Lord  God  to  grow  every  tree  that  is  pleas- 
ant to  the  sight,  and  good  for  food ;  the  tree  of  life  also  in  the 
midst  of  the  garden,  and  the  tree  of  knowledge  of  good  and 
evil.  And  a  river  went  out  of  Eden  to  water  the  garden ;  and 
from  thence  it  was  parted,  and  became  into  four  heads.  The 
name  of  the  first  is  Pison ;  that  is  it  which  compasseth  the 
whole  land  of  Havilah,  where  there  is  gold ;  and  the  gold  of 
that  land  is  good  :  there  is  bdellium  and  the  onyx  stone.  And 
the  name  of  the  second  river  is  Gihon  :  the  same  is  it  that 
compasseth  the  whole  land  of  Ethiopia.  And  the  name  of  the 
third  river  is  Hiddekel :  that  is  it  which  goeth  toward  the  east 
of  Assyria.  And  the  fourth  river  is  Euphrates.  And  the  Lord 
God  took  the  man  and  put  him  into  the  Garden  of  Eden  to 
dress  it  and  to  keep  it."     (Gen.  ii.,  8-15.) 

As  the  four  rivers  named  in  Genesis  are  not  branches  of  any 
one  stream,  and  head  in  very  different  regions,  it  is  evident  that 
there  was  an  attempt,  on  the  part  of  the  writer  of  the  Book,  to 
adapt  an  ancient  tradition  concerning  another  country  to  the 
known  features  of  the  region  in  which  he  dwelt. 

Josephus  tells  us  (chap,  i.,  p.  41),  "  Now  the  garden  (of  Eden) 
was  watered  by  one  river,  which  ran  round  about  the  whole  earth, 
and  was  parted  into  four  parts."  Here  in  the  four  parts  we 
see  the  origin  of  the  Cross,  while  in  the  river  running  around 
the  whole  earth  we  have  the  wonderful  canal  of  Atlantis,  de- 
scribed by  Plato,  which  was  "  carried  around  the  whole  of  the 
plain,"  and  received  the  streams  which  came  down  from  the 
mountains.  The  streams  named  by  Josephus  would  seem  to 
represent  the  migrations  of  people  from  Atlantis  to  its  colo- 


326  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

nies.  ''  Phison,"  he  tells  us,  "  denotes  a  multitude ;  it  ran  into 
India;  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris  go  down  into  the  Red  Sea; 
while  the  Geon  runs  through  Egypt." 

We  are  further  told  (chap,  ii.,  p.  42)  that  when  Cain,  after  the 
murder  of  Abel,  left  the  land  of  Adam,  "he  travelled  over 
many  countries "  before  he  reached  the  land  of  Nod ;  and  the 
land  of  Nod  was  to  the  eastward  of  Adam's  home.  In  other 
words,  the  original  seat  of  mankind  was  in  the  West,  that  is 
to  say,  in  the  direction  of  Atlantis.  Wilson  tells  us  that  the 
Aryans  of  India  believed  that  they  originally  came  "  from  the 
West."  Thus  the  nations  on  the  west  of  the  Atlantic  look  to 
the  east  for  their  place  of  origin ;  while  on  the  east  of  the  At- 
lantic they  look  to  the  west:  thus  all  the  lines  of  tradition 
converge  upon  Atlantis. 

But  here  is  the  same  testimony  that  in  the  Garden  of  Eden 
there  were  four  rivers  radiating  from  one  parent  stream.  And 
these  four  rivers,  as  we  have  seen,  we  find  in  the  Scandinavian 
traditions,  and  in  the  legends  of  the  Chinese,  the  Tartars,  the 
Singhalese,  the  Thibetians,  the  Buddhists,  the  Hebrews,  and 
the  Brahman s. 

And  not  only  do  we  find  this  tradition  of  the  Garden  of 
Eden  in  the  Old  World,  but  it  meets  us  also  among  the  civil- 
ized races  of  America.  The  elder  Montezuma  said  to  Cortez, 
"  Our  fathers  dwelt  in  that  happy  and  prosperous  place  which 
they  called  Aztlan,  which  means  whiteness.  ...  In  this  place 
there  is  a  great  7nountain  in  the  middle  of  the  water  which  is 
called  Culhuacan,  because  it  has  the  point  somewhat  turned 
over  toward  the  bottom  ;  and  for  this  cause  it  is  called  Culhu- 
acan, which  means  '  crooked  mountain.' "  He  then  proceeds 
to  describe  the  charms  of  this  favored  land,  abounding  in  birds, 
game,  fish,  trees,  *'  fountains  enclosed  with  elders  and  junipers, 
and  alder-trees  both  large  and  beautiful."  The  people  planted 
"  maize,  red  peppers,  tomatoes,  beans,  and  all  kinds  of  plants, 
in  furroivs.'''' 

Here  we  have  the  same  mountain  in  the  midst  of  the  water 


PYRAMID,  CROSS,  AND   GARDEN  OF  EDEN.  327 

which  Plato  describes  —  the  same  mountain  to  which  all  the 
legends  of  the  most  ancient  races  of  Europe  refer. 

The  inhabitants  of  Aztlan  were  boatmen.  (Bancroft's  "  Na- 
tive Races,"  vol.  v.,  p.  325.)  E.  G.  Squier,  in  his  "Notes  on 
Central  America,"  p.  349,  says,  "  It  is  a  significant  fact  that  in 
the  map  of  their  migrations,  presented  by  Gemelli,  the  place 
of  the  origin  of  the  Aztecs  is  designated  by  the  sign  of  water, 
Atl  standing  for  Atzlan,  a  pijramidal  temple  with  grades,  and 
near  these  a  palm-tree^  This  circumstance  did  not  escape  the 
attention  of  Humboldt,  who  says,  "  I  am  astonished  at  finding 
a  palm-tree  near  this  teocalli.  This  tree  certainly  does  not  in- 
dicate a  northern  origin.  .  .  .  The  possibility  that  an  unskilful 
artist  should  unintentionally  represent  a  tree  of  which  he  had 
no  knowledge  is  so  great,  that  any  argument  dependent  on  it 
hangs  upon  a  slender  thread."  ("  North  Americans  of  Antiq- 
uity," p.  266.) 

The  Miztecs,  a  tribe  dwelling  on  the  outskirts  of  Mexico, 
had  a  tradition  that  the  gods,  "in  the  day  of  obscurity  and 
darkness,"  built  "a  sumptuous  palace,  a  masterpiece  of  skill, 
in  which  they  made  their  abode  upon  a  mountain.  The  rock 
was  called  '  The  Place  of  Heaven ;'  there  the  gods  first  abode 
on  earth,  living  many  years  in  great  rest  and  content,  as  in  a 
happy  and  delicious  land,  though  the  world  still  lay  in  obscu- 
rity and  darkness.  The  children  of  these  gods  made  to  them- 
selves a  garden,  in  which  they  put  many  trees,  and  fruit-trees, 
and  flowers,  and  roses,  and  odorous  herbs.  Subsequently  there 
came  a  great  deluge,  in  which  many  of  the  sons  and  daughters 
of  the  gods  perished."  (Bancroft's  "  Native  Races,"  vol.  iii., 
p.  71.)  Here  we  have  a  distinct-  reference  to  Olympus,  the 
Garden  of  Plato,  and  the  destruction  of  Atlantis. 

And  in  Plato's  account  of  Atlantis  we  have  another  descrip- 
tion of  the  Garden  of  Eden  and  the  Golden  kgQ  of  the  world : 

"  Also,  whatever  fragrant  things  there  are  in  the  earth,  wheth- 
er roots,  or  herbage,  or  woods,  or  distilling  drops  of  flowers  and 
fruits,  grew  and  thrived  in  that  land ;  and  again  the  cultivated 


328  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

fruits  of  the  earth,  both  the  edible  fruits  and  other  species  of 
food  which  we  call  by  the  name  of  legumes,  and  the  fruits  hav- 
ing a  hard  rind,  affording  drinks  and  meats  and  ointments  .  .  . 
all  these  that  sacred  island,  lying  beneath  the  sun,  brought  forth 
in  abundance.  .  .  .  For  many  generations,  as  long  as  the  divine 
nature  lasted  in  them,  they  were  obedient  to  the  laws,  and  well- 
affectioned  toward  the  gods,  who  were  their  kinsmen  ;  for  they 
possessed  true  and  in  every  way  great  spirits,  practising  gentle- 
ness and  wisdom  in  the  various  chances  of  life,  and  in  their  in- 
tercourse with  one  another.  They  despised  everything  but  vir- 
tue, not  caring  for  their  present  state  of  life,  and  thinking  light- 
ly of  the  possession  of  gold  and  other  property,  which  seemed 
only  a  burden  to  them ;  neither  were  they  intoxicated  by  luxu- 
ry ;  nor  did  wealth  deprive  them  of  their  self-control ;  but  they 
were  sober,  and  saw  clearly  that  all  these  goods  were  increased 
by  virtuous  friendship  with  one  another,  and  that  by  excessive 
zeal  for  them,  and  honor  of  them,  the  good  of  them  is  lost,  and 
friendship  perishes  with  them." 

All  this  cannot  be  a  mere  coincidence ;  it  points  to  a  com- 
mon tradition  of  a  veritable  land,  where  four  rivers  flowed 
down  in  opposite  directions  from  a  central  mountain -peak. 
And  these  four  rivers,  flowing  to  the  north,  south,  east,  and 
west,  constitute  the  origin  of  that  sign  of  the  Cross  which  we 
have  seen  meeting  us  at  every  point  among  the  races  who  were 
either  descended  from  the  people  of  Atlantis,  or  who,  by  com- 
merce and  colonization,  received  their  opinions  and  civilization 
from  them. 

Let  us  look  at  the  question  of  the  identity  of  the  Garden  of 
Eden  with  Atlantis  from  another  point  of  view : 

If  the  alphabet  of  the  Phoenicians  is  kindred  with  the  Maya 
alphabet,  as  I  think  is  clear,  then  the  Phoenicians  were  of  the 
same  race,  or  of  some  race  with  which  the  Mayas  were  connect- 
ed ;  in  other  words,  they  were  from  Atlantis. 

Now  we  know  that  the  Phoenicians  and  Hebrews  were  of 
the  same  stock,  used  the  same  alphabet,  and  spoke  almost  pre- 
cisely the  same  language. 

The  Phoenicians  preserved  traditions,  which  have  come  down 


PYRAMID,  CROSS,  AND   GARDEN  OF  EDEN.  329 

to  us  in  the  writings  of  Sanchoniathon,  of  all  the  great  essen- 
tial inventions  or  discoveries  which  underlie  civilization.  The 
first  two  human  beings,  they  tell  us,  were  Protogonos  and  Aion 
(Adam  and  'Havath),  who  produce  Genos  and  Genea  (Qen  and 
Qenath),  from  whom  again  are  descended  three  brothers,  named 
Phos,  Phur,  and  Phlox  (Light,  Fire,  and  Flame),  because  they 
"  have  discovered  how  to  produce  fire  by  the  friction  of  two 
pieces  of  wood,  and  have  taught  the  use  of  this  element."  In 
another  fragment,  at  the  origin  of  the  human  race  we  see  in 
succession  the  fraternal  couples  of  Autochthon  and  Technites 
(Adam  and  Quen  —  Cain?),  inventors  of  the  manufacture  of 
bricks;  Agros  and  Agrotes  (Sade  and  Ced),  fathers  of  the  ag- 
riculturists and  hunters ;  then  Amynos  and  Magos,  "  who  taught 
to  dwell  in  villages  arid  rear  flocks." 

The  connection  between  these  Atlantean  traditions  and  the 
Bible  record  is  shown  in  many  things.  For  instance,  "the 
Greek  text,  in  expressing  the  invention  of  Amynos,  uses  the 
words  Kojfiag  Ka\  7roip.vag,  which  are  precisely  the  same  as  the 
terms  ohel  ujniqneh,  which  the  Bible  uses  in  speaking  of  the 
dwellings  of  the  descendants  of  Jabal  (Gen.,  chap,  iv.,  v.  20). 
In  like  manner  Lamech,  both  in  the  signification  of  his  name 
and  also  in  the  savage  character  attributed  to  him  by  the  le- 
gend attached  to  his  memory,  is  a  true  synonyme  of  Agrotes." 

"  And  the  title  of  'AXrjrai,  given  to  Agros  and  Agrotes  in 
the  Greek  of  the  Phoenician  history,  fits  in  wonderfully  with 
the  physiognomy  of  the  race  of  the  Cainites  in  the  Bible  narra- 
tive, whether  we  take  dXrjrai  simply  as  a  Hellenized  transcrip- 
tion of  the  Semitic  Elim^  'the  strong,  the  mighty,'  or  whether 
we  take  it  in  its  Greek  acceptation, '  the  wanderers  ;'  for  such  is 
the  destiny  of  Cain  and  his  race  according  to  the  very  terms  of 
the  condemnation  which  was  inflicted  upon  him  after  his  crime 
(Gen.  iv.,  14),  and  this  is  what  is  signified  by  the  name  of  his 
grandson  'Yirad.  Only,  in  Sanchoniathon  the  genealogy  does 
not  end  with  Amynos  and  Magos,  as  that  of  the  Cainites  in  the 
Bible  does  with  the  three  sons  of  Lamech.  These  two  person- 
ages are  succeeded  by  Misor  and  Sydyk,  '  the  released  and  the 


330  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

jnst,'  as  Sanchoniathon  translates  them,  but  rather  the  '  upright 
and  the  just'  (Mishor  and  ^udiiq),  'who  invent  the  use  of  salt.' 
To  Misor  is  born  Taautos  (Taut),  to  whom  we  owe  letters ;  and 
to  Sydyk  the  Cabiri  or  Corjbantes,  the  institutors  of  naviga- 
tion." (Lenorraant,  "  Genealogies  between  Adam  and  the  Del- 
uge."    Contemporary  Review,  April,  1880.) 

We  have,  also,  the  fact  that  the  Phoenician  name  for  their 
goddess  Astynome  (Ashtar  No'eraa),  whom  the  Greeks  called 
Nemaun,  was  the  same  as  the  name  of  the  sister  of  the  three 
sons  of  Lamech,  as  given  in  Genesis — Na'emah,  or  Na'amah. 

If,  then,  the  original  seat  of  the  Hebrews  and  Phoenicians 
was  the  Garden  of  Eden,  to  the  west  of  Europe,  and  if  the 
Phoenicians  are  shown  to  be  connected,  through  their  alpha- 
bets, with  the  Central  Americans,  who  looked  to  an  island  in 
the  sea,  to  the  eastward,  as  their  starting-point,  the  conclusion 
becomes  irresistible  that  Atlantis  and  the  Garden  of  Eden  were 
one  and  the  same. 

The  Pyramid. — Not  only  are  the  Cross  and  the  Garden  of 
Eden  identified  with  Atlantis,  but  in  Atlantis,  the  habitation  of 
the  gods,  we  find  the  original  model  of  all  those  pyramids  which 
extend  from  India  to  Peru. 

This  singular  architectural  construction  dates  back  far  be- 
yond the  birth  of  history.  In  the  Puranas  of  the  Hindoos  w^e 
read  of  pyramids  long  anterior  in  time  to  any  which  have  sur- 
vived to  our  day.  Cheops  was  preceded  by  a  countless  host  of 
similar  erections  which  have  long  since  mouldered  into  ruins. 

If  the  reader  will  turn  to  page  104  of  this  work  he  will  see, 
in  the  midst  of  the  picture  of  Aztlan,  the  starting-point  of  the 
Aztecs,  according  to  the  Botturini  pictured  writing,  a  pyramid 
with  worshippers  kneeling  before  it. 

Fifty  years  ago  Mr.  Faber,  in  his  "  Origin  of  Pagan  Idola- 
try," placed  artificial  tumuli,  pyramids,  and  pagodas  in  the  same 
category,  conceiving  that  all  were  transcripts  of  the  holy  moun- 
tain which  was  generally  supposed  to  have  stood  in  the  centre 
of  Eden ;  or,  rather,  as  intimated  in  more  than  one  place  by 


PYRAMID,  CROSS,  AND   GARDEN  OF  EDEN  331 

the  Psalmist,  the  garden  itself  was  situated  on  an  eminence. 
(Psalms,  chap,  iii.,  v.  4,  and  chap.  Ixviii.,  vs.  15, 16, 18.) 

The  pyramid  is  one  of  the  marvellous  features  of  that  prob- 
lem which  confronts  us  everywhere,  and  which  is  insoluble 
without  Atlantis. 

The  Arabian  traditions  linked  the  pyramid  with  the  Flood. 
In  a  manuscript  preserved  in  the  Bodleian  Library,  and  trans- 
lated by  Dr.  Sprenger,  Abou  Balkhi  says  : 

"The  wise  m^^, previous  to  the  Mood,  ioremcmg  an  impend- 
ing judgment  from  heaven,  either  by  submerfiion  or  fire,  which 
would  destroy  every  created  thing,  built  upon  the  tops  of  the 
mountains  in  Upper  Egypt  many  pyramids  of  stone,  in  order 
to  have  some  refuge  against  the  approaching  calamity.  Two 
of  these  buildings  exceeded  the  rest  in  height,  being  four  hun- 
dred cubits  high  and  as  many  broad  and  as  many  long.  They 
were  built  with  large  blocks  of  marble,  and  they  were  so  well 
put  together  that  the  joints  were  scarcely  perceptible.  Upon 
the  exterior  of  the  building  every  charm  and  wonder  of  physic 
was  inscribed." 

This  tradition  locates  these  monster  structures  upon  the 
mountains  of  Upper  Egypt,  but  there  are  no  buildings  of  such 
dimensions  to  be  found  anywhere  in  Egypt.  Is  it  not  proba- 
ble that  we  have  here  another  .reference  to  the  great  record 
preserved  in  the  land  of  the  Deluge  ?  Were  not  the  pyramids 
of  Egypt  and  America  imitations  of  similar  structures  in  At- 
lantis ?  Might  not  the  building  of  such  a  gigantic  edifice  have 
given  rise  to  the  legends  existing  on  both  continents  in  regard 
to  a  Tower  of  Babel  ? 

How  did  the  human  mind  hit  upon  this  singular  edifice — 
the  pyramid  ?  By  what  process  of  development  did  it  reach 
it  ?  Why  should  these  extraordinary  structures  crop  out  on  the 
banks  of  the  Nile,  and  amid  the  forests  and  plains  of  Ameri- 
ca ?  And  why,  in  both  countries,  should  they  stand  with  their 
sides  square  to  the  four  cardinal  points  of  the  compass  ?  Are 
they  in  this,  too,  a  reminiscence  of  the  Cross,  and  of  the  four 
rivers  of  Atlantis  that  ran  to  the  north,  south,  east,  and  west  ? 


332  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

"  There  is  yet  a  third  combination  that  demands  a  specific 
notice.  The  decussated  symbol  is  not  unfrequently  planted 
upon  what  Christian  archaeologists  designate  'a  calvary,'  that 
is,  upon  a  mount  or  a  cone.  Thus  it  is  represented  in  both 
hemispheres.  The  megalithic  structure  of  Callernish,  in  the 
island  of  Lewis  before  mentioned,  is  the  most  perfect  example 
of  the  practice  extant  in  Europe.  The  mount  is  preserved  to 
this  day.  This,  to  be  brief,  was  the  recognized  conventional 
mode  of  expressing  a  particular  primitive  truth  or  mystery  from 
the  days  of  the  Chaldeans  to  those  of  the  Gnostics,  or  from 
one  extremity  of  the  civilized  world  to  the  other.  It  is  seen 
in  the  treatment  of  the  ash  Yggdrasill  of  the  Scandinavians,  as 
well  as  in  that  of  the  Bo-tree  of  the  Buddhists.  The  proto- 
type was  not  the  Egyptian,  but  the  Babylonian  crux  ansata, 
the  lower  member  of  which  constitutes  a  conical  support  for 
the  oval  or  sphere  above  it.  With  the  Gnostics,  who  occupied 
the  debatable  ground  between  primitive  Christianity  and  philo- 
sophic paganism,  and  who  inscribed  it  upon  their  tombs,  the 
cone  symbolized  death  as  well  as  life.  In  every  heathen  my- 
thology it  was  the  universal  emblem  of  the  goddess  or  mother 
of  heaven,  by  whatsoever  name  she  was  addressed — whether  as 
Mylitta,  Astarte,  Aphrodite,  Isis,  Mata,  or  Venus ;  and  the  sev- 
eral eminences  consecrated  to  her  worship  were,  like  those  upon 
which  Jupiter  was  originally  adored,  of  a  conical  or  pyramidal 
shape.  This,  too,  is  the  ordinary  form  of  the  altars  dedicated 
to  the  Assyrian  god  of  fertility.  In  exceptional  instances  the 
cone  is  introduced  upon  one  or  the  other  of  the  sides,  or  is  dis- 
tinguishable in  the  always  accompanying  mystical  tree."  (£Jd- 
inhurgh  Review,  July,  1870.) 

If  the  reader  will  again  turn  to  page  104  of  this  work  he 
will  see  that  the  tree  appears  on  the  top  of  the  pyramid  or 
mountain  in  both  the  Aztec  representations  of  Aztlan,  the 
original  island-home  of  the  Central  American  races. 

The  writer  just  quoted  believes  that  Mr.  Faber  is  correct 
in  his  opinion  that  the  pyramid  is  a  transcript  of  the  sacred 
mountain  which  stood  in  the  midst  of  Eden,  the  Olympus  of 
Atlantis.     He  adds : 

"  Thomas  Maurice,  who  is  no  mean  authority,  held  the  same 
view.     He  conceived  the  use  to  which  pyramids  in  particular 


PYRAMID,  CROSS,  AND   GARDEN  OF  EDEN.  333 

were  anciently  applied  to  have  been  threefold  —  namely,  as 
tombs,  temples,  and  observatories ;  and  this  view  he  labors  to 
establish  in  the  third  volume  of  his  '  Indian  Antiquities.'  Now, 
whatever  may  be  their  actual  date,  or  with  whatsoever  people 
they  may  have  originated,  whether  in  Africa  or  Asia,  in  the 
lower  valley  of  the  Nile  or  in  the  plains  of  Chaldea,  the  pyra- 
mids of  Egypt  were  unquestionably  destined  to  very  opposite 
purposes.  According  to  Herodotus,  they  were  introduced  by 
the  Hyksos;  and  Proclus,  the  Platonic  philosopher,  connects 
them  with  the  science  of  astronomy — a  science  which,  he  adds, 
the  Egyptians  derived  from  the  Chaldeans.  Hence  we  may 
reasonably  infer  that  they  served  as  well  for  temples  for  plane- 
tary worship  as  for  observatories.  Subsequently  to  the  descent 
of  the  shepherds,  their  hallowed  precincts  were  invaded  by 
royalty,  from  motives  of  pride  and  superstition ;  and  the  prin- 
cipal chamber  in  each  was  used  as  tombs." 

The  pyramidal  imitations,  dear  to  the  hearts  of  colonists  of 
the  sacred  mountain  upon  which  their  gods  dwelt,  was  devoted, 
as  perhaps  the  mountain  itself  was,  to  sun  and  fire  worship. 
The  same  writer  says : 

"  That  Sabian  worship  once  extensively  prevailed  in  the  New 
World  is  a  well-authenticated  fact ;  it  is  yet  practised  to  some 
extent  by  the  wandering  tribes  on  the  Northern  continent,  and 
was  the  national  religion  of  the  Peruvians  at  the  time  of  the 
Conquest.  That  it  was  also  the  religion  of  their  more  highly 
civilized  predecessors  on  the  soil,  south  of  the  equator  more  es- 
pecially, is  evidenced  by  the  remains  of  fire-altars,  both  round 
and  square,  scattered  about  the  shores  of  lakes  Umayu  and 
Titicaca,  and  which  are  the  counterparts  of  the  Gueber  dokh- 
mehs  overhanging  the  Caspian  Sea.  Accordingly,  we  find, 
among  these  and  other  vestiges  of  antiquity  that  indissolubly 
connected  those  long-since  extinct  populations  in  the  New  with 
the  races  of  the  Old  World,  the  well-defined  symbol  of  the 
Maltese  Cross.  On  the  Mexican  feroher  before  alluded  to,  and 
which  is  most  elaborately  carved  in  bass-relief  on  a  massive 
piece  of  polygonous  granite,  constituting  a  portion  of  a  Cyclo- 
pean wall,  the  cross  is  enclosed  within  the  ring,  and  accompa- 
nying it  are  four  tassel -like  ornaments,  graved  equally  well. 
Those  accompaniments,  however,  are  disposed  without  any  par- 


334  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

ticular  regard  to  order,  but  tlie  four  arms  of  the  cross,  never- 
theless, severally  and  accurately  point  to  the  cardinal  quarters. 
The  same  regularity  is  observable  on  a  much  smaller  but  not 
less  curious  monument,  which  was  discovered  some  time  since 
in  an  ancient  Peruvian  huaca  or  catacomb — namely,  a  syrinx, 
or  pandean  pipe,  cut  out  of  a  solid  mass  of  lapis  ollaris,  the 
sides  of  which  are  profusely  ornamented,  not  only  with  Mal- 
tese crosses,  but  also  with  other  symbols  very  similar  in  style 
to  those  inscribed  on  the  obelisks  of  Egypt  and  on  the  mono- 
liths of  this  country.  The  like  figure  occurs  on  the  equally  an- 
cient Otrusco  black  pottery.  But  by  far  the  most  remarkable 
example  of  this  form  of  the  Cross  in  the  New  World  is  that 
which  appears  on  a  second  type  of  the  Mexican  feroher,  en- 
graved on  a  tablet  of  gypsum,  and  which  is  described  at  length 
by  its  discoverer.  Captain  du  Paix,  and  depicted  by  his  friend, 
M.  Baradere.  Here  the  accompaniments — a  shield,  a  hamlet, 
and  a  couple  of  bead-annulets  or  rosaries — are,  with  a  single  ex- 
ception, identical  in  even  the  minutest  particular  with  an  As- 
syrian monument  emblematical  of  the  Deity.  .  .  . 

"  No  country  in  the  world  can  compare  with  India  for  the 
exposition  of  the  pyramidal  cross.  There  the  stupendous  la- 
bors of  Egypt  are  rivalled,  and  sometimes  surpassed.  Indeed, 
but  for  the  fact  of  such  monuments  of  patient  industry  and 
unexampled  skill  being  still  in  existence,  the  accounts  of  some 
others  which  have  long  since  disappeared,  having  succumbed 
to  the  ravages  of  lime  and  the  fury  of  the  bigoted  Mussulman, 
would  sound  in  our  ears  as  incredible  as  the  story  of  Porsenna's 
tomb,  which  '  o'ertopped  old  Pelion,'  and  made  '  Ossa  like  a 
wart.'  Yet  something  not  very  dissimilar  in  character  to  it  was 
formerly  the  boast  of  the  ancient  city  of  Benares,  on  the  banks 
of  the  Ganges.  We  allude  to  the  great  temple  of  Bindh  Madhu, 
which  was  demolished  in  the  seventeenth  century  by  the  Em- 
peror Aurungzebe.  Tavernier,  the  French  baron,  who  travelled 
thither  about  the  year  1680,  has  preserved  a  brief  description 
of  it.  The  body  of  the  temple  was  constructed  in  the  figure 
of  a  colossal  cross  (^.  e.,  a  St.  Andrew's  Cross),  with  a  lofty  dome 
at  the  centre,  above  which  rose  a  massive  structure  of  a  pyra- 
midal form.  At  the  four  extremities  of  the  cross  there  were 
four  other  pyramids  of  proportionate  dimensions,  and  which 
were  ascended  from  the  outside  by  steps,  with  balconies  at 
stated  distances  for  places  of  rest,  reminding  us  of  the  temple 


FYHAMIB,  cm  OSS,  AND   GAMDEN  OF  EDEN.  335 

of  Beliis,  as  described  in  the  pages  of  Herodotus.  The  ■  re- 
mains of  a  similar  building-  are  found  at  Mhuttra,  on  the  banks 
of  the  Jumna.  This  and  many  others,  including  the  subterra- 
nean temple  at  Elephanta  and  the  caverns  of  Ellora  and  Salsette, 
are  described  at  length  in  the  well-known  work  by  Maurice; 
who  adds  that,  besides  these,  there  was  yet  another  device  in 
which  the  Hindoo  displayed  the  all  -  pervading  sign ;  this  was 
by  pyramidal  towers  placed  crosswise.  At  the  famous  temple 
of  Chillambrura,  on  the  Coromandel  coast,  there  were  seven 
lofty  walls,  one  within  the  other,  round  the  central  quadrangle, 
and  as  many  pyramidal  gate-ways  in  the  midst  of  each  side 
which  forms  the  limbs  of  a  vast  cross." 

In  Mexico  pyramids  were  found  everywhere.  Cortez,  in  a 
letter  to  Charles  V.,  states  that  he  counted  four  hundred  of 
them  at  Cholula.  Their  temples  were  on  those  "high  places." 
The  most  ancient  pyramids  in  Mexico  are  at  Teotihuacan,  eight 
leagues  from  the  city  of  Mexico ;  the  two  largest  were  dedi- 
cated to  the  sun  and  moon  respectively,  each  built  of  cut 
stone,  with  a  level  area  at  the  summit,  and  four  stages  lead- 
ing up  to  it.  The  larger  one  is  680  feet  square  at  the  base, 
about  200  feet  high,  and  covers  an  area  of  eleven  acres.  The 
Pyramid  of  Cholula,  measured  by  Humboldt,  is  160  feet  high, 
1400  feet  square  at  the  base,  and  covers  forty -five  acres! 
The  great  pyramid  of  Egypt,  Cheops,  is  746  feet  square,  450 
feet  high,  and  covers  between  twelve  and  thirteen  acres.  So 
that  it  appears  that  the  base  of  the  Teotihuacan  structure 
is  nearly  as  large  as  that  of  Cheops,  while  that  of  Cholula 
covers  nearly  four  times  as  much  space.  The  Cheops  pyra- 
mid, however,  exceeds  very  much  in  height  both  the  American 
structures. 

Serior  Garcia  y  Cubas  thinks  the  pyramids  of  Teotihuacan 
(Mexico)  were  built  for  the  same  purpose  as  those  of  Egypt. 
He  considers  the  analogy  established  in  eleven  particulars,  as 
follows:  1,  the  site  chosen  is  the  same;  2,  the  structures  are 
orientated  with  slight  variation  ;  3,  the  line  through  the  cen- 
tres of  the  structures  is  in  the  astronomical  meridian ;  4,  the 


336  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

construction  in  grades  and  steps  is  the  same ;  5,  in  both  cases 
the  larger  pyramids  are  dedicated  to  the  sun ;  6,  the  Nile  has 
"  a  valley  of  the  dead,"  as  in  Teotihuacan  there  is  "  a  street  of 
the  dead ;"  7,  some  monuments  in  each  class  have  the  nature 
of  fortifications ;  8,  the  smaller  mounds  are  of  the  same  nature 
and  for  the  same  purpose;  9,  both  pyramids  have  a  small 
mound  joined  to  one  of  their  faces;  10,  the  openings  discover- 
ed in  the  Pyramid  of  the  Moon  are  also  found  in  some  Egyp- 
tian pyramids;  11,  the  interior  arrangements  of  the  pyramids 
are  analogous.     ("  Ensayo  de  un  Estudio.") 

It  is  objected  that  the  American  edifices  are  different  in  form 
from  the  Egyptian,  in  that  they  are  truncated,  or  flattened  at 
the  top ;  but  this  is  not  an  universal  rule. 

"  In  many  of  the  ruined  cities  of  Yucatan  one  or  more  pyra- 
mids have  been  found  upon  the  summit  of  which  no  traces  of 
any  building  could  be  discovered,  although  upon  surrounding 
pyramids  such  structures  could  be  found.  There  is  also  some 
reason  to  believe  that  perfect  pyramids  have  been  found  in 
America.  Waldeck  found  near  Palenque  two  pyramids  in  a 
state  of  perfect  preservation,  square  at  the  base,  pointed  at  the 
top,  and  thirty -one  feet  high,  their  sides  forming  equilateral 
triangles."     (Bancroft's  "  Native  Races,"  vol.  v.,  p.  58.) 

Bradford  thinks  that  "  some  of  the  Egyptian  pyramids,  and 
those  which  with  some  reason  it  has  been  supposed  are  the 
most  ancient,  are  precisely  similar  to  the  Mexican  teocallV 
("  North  Americans  of  Antiquity  "  p.  423.) 

And  there  is  in  Egypt  another  form  of  pyramid  called  the 
mastaba,  which,  like  the  Mexican,  was  flattened  on  the  top ; 
while  in  Assyria  structures  flattened  like  the  Mexican  are 
found.  "  In  fact,"  says  one  writer,  "  this  form  of  temple  (the 
flat-topped)  has  been  found  from  Mesopotamia  to  the  Pacific 
Ocean."  The  Phcenicians  also  built  pyr-amids.  In  the  thir- 
teenth century  the  Dominican  Brocard  visited  the  ruins  of  the 
Phoenician  city  of  Mrith  or  Marathos,  and  speaks  in  the  strong- 
est terms  of  admiration  of  those  pyramids  of  surprising  gran- 
deur, constructed  of  blocks  of  stone  from  twenty-six  to  twenty- 


PYRAMID,  CROSS,  AND  GARDEN  OF  EDEN. 


337 


eight  feet  long,  whose  thickness  exceeded  the  stature  of  a  tall 
man.     ("Prehistoric  Nations,"  p.  144.) 

"  If,"  says  Ferguson,  "  we  still  hesitate  to  pronounce  that 
there  was  any  connection  between  the  builders  of  the  pyra- 
mids of  Suku  and  Oajaca,  or  the  temples  of  Xochialco  and 
Boro  Buddor,  we  must  at  least  allow  that  the  likeness  is  star- 
tling, and  difficult  to  account  for  on  the  theory  of  mere  acci- 
dental coincidence." 

The  Egyptian  pyramids  all  stand  with  their  sides  to  the  car- 


dinal points,  while  many  of  the  Mexican  pyramids  do  likewise. 
The  Egyptian  pyramids  were  penetrated  by  small  passage-ways ; 
so  were  the  Mexican.  The  Pyramid  of  Teotihuacan,  according 
to  Almarez,  has,  at  a  point  sixty-nine  feet  from  the  base,  a  gal- 
lery large  enough  to  admit  a  man  crawling  on  hands  and  knees, 

15 


338 


ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 


which  extends  inward,  on  an  incline,  a  distance  of  twenty-five 
feet,  and  terminates  in  two  square  wells  or  chambers,  each  five 
feet  square,  and  one  of  them  fifteen  feet  deep.     Mr.  Lowenstern 


PYEAMIDS  OF   TEOTIUUAOAN. 


states,  according  to  Mr.  Bancroft  ("  Native  Races,"  vol.  iv.,  p. 
533),  that  "the  gallery  is  one  hundred  and  fifty -seven  feet 
long,  increasing  in  height  to  over  six  feet  and  a  half  as  it 
penetrates  the  pyramid ;  that  the  well  is  over  six  feet  square, 
extending  (apparently)  down  to  the  base  and  up  to  the  sum- 
mit; and  that  other  cross-galleries  are  blocked  up  by  debris." 
In  the  Pyramid  of  Cheops  there  is  a  similar  opening  or  pas- 
sage-way forty-nine  feet  above  the  base ;  it  is  three  feet  eleven 
inches  high,  and  three  feet  five  and  a  half  inches  wide ;  it 
leads  down  a  slope  to  a  sepulchral  chamber  or  well,  and  con- 
nects with  other  passage-ways  leading  up  into  the  body  of  the 
pyramid. 


':!,,. 


W" 


[ 


FTRIMID,  CROSS,  AND   GAIWEN  OF  ED  EX. 


341 


In  both  the  Eg3'ptian  and  the  American  pyramids  the  out- 
side of  the  structures  was  covered  with  a  thick  coating  of 
smooth,  shining  cement. 

Humboldt  considered  the  Pyramid  of  Chokila  of  the  same 
type  as  the  Temple  of  Jupiter  Belus,  the  pyramids  of  Meidoun 
Dachhour,  and  the  group  of  Sakkarah,  in  Egypt. 


GEEAT  PYRAMID  OF  XOOCU,  MEXICO. 


In  both  America  and  Egypt  the  pyramids  were  used  as  places 
of  sepulture ;  and  it  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  the  system  of 
earthworks  and  mounds,  kindred  to  the  pyramids,  is  found 
even  in  England.  Silsbury  Hill,  at  Avebury,  is  an  artificial 
mound  one  hundred  and  seventy  feet  high.  It  is  connected 
with   ramparts,  avenues   (fourteen   hundred   and   eighty  yards 


342  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

long),  circular  ditches,  and  stone  circles,  almost  identical  with 
those  found  in  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi.  In  Ireland  the 
dead  were  buried  in  vaults  of  stone,  and  the  earth  raised  over 
them  in  pyramids  flattened  on  the  top.  They  were  called 
"  moats  "  by  the  people.  We  have  found  the  stone  vaults  at 
the  base  of  similar  truncated  pyramids  in  Ohio.  There  can 
be  no  doubt  that  the  pyramid  was  a  developed  and  perfected 
mound,  and  that  the  parent  form  of  these  curious  structures 
is  to  be  found  in  Silsbury  Hill,  and  in  the  mounds  of  earth  of 
Central  America  and  the  Mississippi  Valley. 

We  find  the  emblem  of  the  Cross  in  pre-Christian  times  ven- 
erated as  a  holy  symbol  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic ;  and  we 
find  it  explained  as  a  type  of  the  four  rivers  of  the  happy  island 
where  the  civilization  of  the  race  originated. 

We  find  everywhere  among  the  European  and  American  na- 
tions the  memory  of  an  Eden  of  the  race,  where  the  first  men 
dwelt  in  primeval  peace  and  happiness,  and  which  was  after- 
ward destroyed  by  water. 

We  find  the  pyramid  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  with  its 
four  sides  pointing,  like  the  arms  of  the  Cross,  to  the  four  car- 
dinal points — a  reminiscence  of  Olympus;  and  in  the  Aztec 
representation  of  Olympos  (Aztlan)  we  find  the  pyramid  as 
the  central  and  typical  figure. 

Is  it  possible  to  suppose  all  these  extraordinary  coincidences 
to  be  the  result  of  accident?  We  might  just  as  well  say  that 
the  similarities  between  the  American  and  English  forms  of 
government  were  not  the  result  of  relationship  or  descent,  but 
that  men  placed  in  similar  circumstances  had  spontaneously 
and  necessariiv  reached  the  same  results. 


GOLD  AND  SILVER  SACKED  METALS  OF  ATLANTIS.   343 


Ceiapter  YI. 

GOLD  AND  SILVER   THE  SACRED  METALS   OF 
ATLANTIS. 

Money  is  the  instrumentality  by  which  man  is  lifted  above 
the  limitations  of  barter.  Baron  Storch  terms  it  "  the  marvel- 
lous instrument  to  which  we  are  indebted  for  our  wealth  and 
civilization." 

It  is  interesting  to  inquire  into  the  various  articles  which 
have  been  used  in  different  countries  and  ages  as  money.  The 
following  is  a  table  of  some  of  them : 

Articles  of  Utility, 

India Cakes  of  tea. 

China Pieces  of  silk. 

Abyssinia Salt, 

Iceland  and  Newfoundland Codfish. 

Illinois  (in  early  days) Coon-skins. 

Bornoo  (Africa) Cotton  shirts. 

Ancient  Russia Skins  of  wild  animals. 

West  India  Islands  (1500) Cocoa-nuts. 

Massachusetts  Indians Wampum  and  rausket-balls. 

Virginia  (1700) Tobacco, 

British  West  India  Islands .  .  .Pins,  snuff,  and  whiskey. 

Central  South  America Soap,  chocolate,  and  eggs. 

Ancient  Romans Cattle. 

"       Greece Nails  of  copper  and  iron. 

The  Lacedemonians Iron. 

The  Burman  Empire Lead. 

Russia  (1828  to  1845) Platinum. 

Rome  (under  Xuma  Pompilins) Wood  and  leather. 

"     (     "     the  Caesars) Land. 


344  ATLANTIS:   TUE  ANTEDU.UVIAN  WORLD. 

Articles  of  Utility — Continued. 

Carthaginians Leather. 

Ancient  Britons Cattle,  slaves,  brass,  and  iron, 

England  (under  James  II.) Tin,  gun-metal,  and  pewter. 

South  Sea  Islands Axes  and  hammers. 

Articles  of  Ornament. 

Ancient  Jews Jewels. 

The  Indian  Islands  and  Africa Cowrie  shells. 

Conventional  Signs. 

Holland  (1574) Pieces  of  pasteboard. 

China  (1200) Bark  of  the  mulberry-tree. 

It  is  evident  that  every  primitive  people  uses  as  money  those 
articles  upon  whicli  they  set  the  highest  value — as  cattle,  jew- 
els, slaves,  salt,  musket-balls,  pins,  snuff,  whiskey,  cotton  shirts, 
leather,  axes,  and  hammers ;  or  those  articles  for  which  there 
was  a  foreign  demand,  and  which  they  could  trade  off  to  the 
merchants  for  articles  of  necessity — as  tea,  silk,  codfish,  coon- 
skins,  cocoa-nuts,  and  tobacco.  Then  there  is  a  later  stage, 
when  the  stamp  of  the  government  is  impressed  upon  paper, 
wood,  pasteboard,  or  the  bark  of  trees,  and  these  articles  are 
given  a  legal-tender  character. 

When  a  civilized  nation  comes  in  contact  with  a  barbarous 
people  they  seek  to  trade  with  them  for  those  things  which 
they  need  ;  a  metal-working  people,  manufacturing  weapons  of 
iron  or  copper,  will  seek  for  the  useful  metals,  and  hence  we 
find  iron,  copper,  tin,  and  lead  coming  into  use  as  a  standard 
of  values — as  money ;  for  they  can  always  be  converted  into 
articles  of  use  and  weapons  of  war.  But  when  we  ask  how  it 
chanced  that  gold  and  silver  came  to  be  used  as  money,  and 
^vhy  it  is  that  gold  is  regarded  as  so  much  more  valuable  than 
silver,  no  answer  presents  itself.  It  was  impossible  to  make 
either  of  them  into  pots  or  pans,  swords  or  spears ;  they  were 
not  necessarily  more  beautiful  than  glass  or  the  combinations 
of  tin   and  copper.     Nothing  astonished  the  American   races 


GOLD  AND  SILVER  SACRED  METALS  OF  ATLANTIS.    345 

more  than  the  extraordinary  value  set  upon  gold  and  silver  by 
the  Spaniards ;  they  could  not  understand  it.  A  West  Indian 
savage  traded  a  handful  of  gold-dust  with  one  of  the  sailors  ac- 
companying Columbus  for  some  tool,  and  then  ran  for  his  life 
to  the  woods  lest  the  sailor  should  repent  his  bargain  and  call 
him  back.  The  Mexicans  had  coins  of  tin  shaped  like  a  letter 
T.  We  can  understand  this,  for  tin  was  necessary  to  them  in 
hardening  their  bronze  implements,  and  it  may  have  been  the 
highest  type  of  metallic  value  among  them.  A  round  copper 
coin  with  a  serpent  stamped  on  it  was  found  at  Palenque,  and 
T-shaped  copper  coins  are  very  abundant  in  the  ruins  of  Cen- 
tral America.  This  too  we  can  understand,  for  copper  was  nec- 
essary in  every  work  of  art  or  utility. 

All  these  nations  were  familiar  with  gold  and  silver,  but  they 
used  them  as  sacred  metals  for  the  adornment  of  the  temples 
of  the  sun  and  moon.  The  color  of  gold  was  something  of  the 
color  of  the  sun's  rays,  while  the  color  of  silver  resembled  the 
pale  light  of  the  moon,  and  hence  they  were  respectively  sa- 
cred to  the  gods  of  the  sun  and  moon.  And  this  is  probably 
the  origin  of  the  comparative  value  of  these  metals :  they  be- 
came the  precious  metals  because  they  were  the  sacred  metals, 
and  gold  was  more  valuable  than  silver — just  as  the  sun-god 
was  the  great  god  of  the  nations,  Avhile  the  mild  moon  was 
simply  an  attendant  upon  the  sun. 

The  Peruvians  called  gold  "  the  tears  wept  by  the  sun,"  It 
was  not  used  among  the  people  for  ornament  or  money.  The 
great  temple  of  the  sun  at  Cuzco  was  called  the  "  Place  of 
Gold."  It  was,  as  I  have  shown,  literally  a  mine  of  gold. 
Walls,  cornices,  statuary,  plate,  ornaments,  all  were  of  gold; 
the  very  ewers,  pipes,  and  aqueducts  —  even  the  agricultural 
implements  used  in  the  garden  of  the  temple — were  of  gold 
and  silver.  The  value  of  the  jewels  which  adorned  the  temple 
was  equal  to  one  hundred  and  eighty  millions  of  dollars !  The 
riches  of  the  kingdom  can  be  conceived  when  we  remember 
that  from    a   pvramid   in  Chimu   a   Spanish   explorer  named 

15* 


346  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

Toledo  took,  in  1577,  $4,450,284  in  gold  and  silver.  ("New 
American  Cyclopaedia,"  art.  American  Antiquities.)  The  gold 
and  silver  of  Peru  largely  contributed  to  form  tbe  metallic  cur- 
rency upon  wbich  Europe  bas  carried  on  ber  commerce  during 
tbe  last  tbree  bundred  years. 

Gold  and  silver  were  not  valued  in  Peru  for  any  intrinsic 
usefulness ;  tbey  were  regarded  as  sacred  because  reserved  for 
tbe  two  great  gods  of  tbe  nation.  As  we  find  gold  and  silver 
mined  and  worked  on  botb  sides  of  tbe  Atlantic  at  tbe  earliest 
periods  of  recorded  bistory,  we  may  fairly  conclude  tbat  tbey 
were  known  to  tbe  Atlanteans;  and  tbis  view  is  confirmed  by 
tbe  statements  of  Plato,  wbo  represents  a  condition  of  tbings  in 
Atlantis  exactly  like  tbat  wbicb  Pizarro  found  in  Peru.  Doubt- 
less tbe  vast  accumulations  of  gold  and  silver  in  botb  countries 
were  due  to  tbe  fact  tbat  tbese  metals  were  not  permitted  to 
be  used  by  tbe  people.  In  Peru  tbe  annual  taxes  of  tbe  people 
were  paid  to  tbe  Inca  in  part  in  gold  and  silver  from  tbe  mines, 
and  tbey  were  used  to  ornament  tbe  temples ;  and  tbus  tbe 
work  of  accumulatino*  tbe  sacred  metals  went  on  from  o-ener- 
ation  to  generation.  The  same  process  doubtless  led  to  tbe 
vast  accumulations  in  tbe  temples  of  Atlantis,  as  described  by 
Plato. 

Now,  as  tbe  Atlanteans  carried  on  an  immense  commerce 
witb  all  tbe  countries  of  Europe  and  Western  Asia,  tbey  doubt- 
less inquired  and  traded  for  gold  and  silver  for  tbe  adornment 
of  tbeir  temples,  and  tbey  tbus  produced  a  demand  for  and 
gave  a  value  to  tbe  two  metals  otherwise  comparatively  useless 
to  man — a  value  bigber  tban  any  otber  commodity  wbicb  tbe 
people  could  offer  tbeir  civilized  customers ;  and  as  tbe  rever- 
ence for  tbe  great  burning  orb  of  tbe  sun,  master  of  all  tbe 
manifestations  of  nature,  was  tenfold  as  great  as  tbe  veneration 
for  tbe  smaller,  weaker,  and  variable  goddess  of  tbe  nigbt,  so 
was  tbe  demand  for  tbe  metal  sacred  to  tbe  sun  ten  times  as 
great  as  for  tbe  metal  sacred  to  tbe  moon.  Tbis  view  is  con- 
firmed by  tbe  fact  tbat  tbe  root  of  tbe  word  by  wbicb  tbe  Celts, 


OOLD  AND  aiLVER  SACRED  METALS  OF  ATLANTIS    347 

the  Greeks,  and  the  Romans  designated  gold  was  the  Sanscrit 
word  karat,  which  means,  ^^  the  color  of  the  sun.''''  Among  the 
Assyrians  gold  and  silver  were  respectively  consecrated  to  the 
sun  and  moon  precisely  as  they  were  in  Peru.  A  pyramid  be- 
longing to  the  palace  of  Nineveh  is  referred  to  repeatedly  in 
the  inscriptions.  It  was  composed  of  seven  stages,  equal  in 
height,  and  each  one  smaller  in  area  than  the  one  beneath  it ; 
each  stage  was  covered  with  stucco  of  different  colors,  "  a  dif- 
ferent color  representing  each  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  the  least 
important  being  at  the  base:  white  (Venus);  black  (Saturn); 
purple  (Jupiter) ;  blue  (Mercury) ;  vermillion  (Mars) ;  silver 
(the  Moon);  and  gold  (the  Sun)."  (Lenormant's  "Ancient 
History  of  the  East,"  vol.  i.,  p.  463.)  "  In  England,  to  this  day 
the  new  moon  is  saluted  with  a  bow  or  a  courtesy,  as  well  as 
the  curious  practice  of  *  turning  one's  silver,'  which  seems  a  relic 
of  the  offering  of  the  moon's  proper  metal.''''  (Tylor's  "  An- 
thropology, p.  361.)  The  custom  of  wishing,  when  one  first 
sees  the  new  moon,  is  probably  a  survival  of  moon-worship; 
the  wish  taking  the  place  of  the  prayer. 

And  thus  has  it  come  to  pass  that,  precisely  as  the  physicians 
of  Europe,  fifty  years  ago,  practised  bleeding,  because  for  thou- 
sands of  years  their  savage  ancestors  had  used  it  to  draw  away 
the  evil  spirits  out  of  the  man,  so  the  business  of  our  modern 
civilization  is  dependent  upon  the  superstition  of  a  past  civiliza- 
tion, and  the  bankers  of  the  world  are  to-day  perpetuating  the 
adoration  of  "the  tears  wept  by  the  sun"  which  was  com- 
menced ages  since  on  the  island  of  Atlantis. 

And  it  becomes  a  grave  question — when  we  remember  that 
the  rapidly  increasing  business  of  the  world,  consequent  upon 
an  increasing  population,  and  a  civilization  advancing  with 
giant  steps,  is  measured  by  the  standard  of  a  currency  limited 
by  natural  laws,  decreasing  annually  in  production,  and  incapa- 
ble of  expanding  proportionately  to  the  growth  of  the  world— 
whether  this  Atlantean  superstition  may  not  yet  inflict  more 
incalculable  injuries  on  mankind  than  those  which  resulted 
from  the  practice  of  phlebotomy. 


348  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOJiLV. 


PART  V. 
THE  COLONIES  OF  ATLANTIS. 


Chapter  I. 

THE  CENTRAL  AMERICAN  AND  MEXICAN  COLONIES. 

The  western  shores  of  Atlantis  were  not  far  distant  from  the 
West  India  Islands;  a  people  possessed  of  ships  could  readily 
pass  from  island  to  island  until  they  reached  the  continent. 
Columbus  found  the  natives  making  such  voyages  in  open 
canoes.  If,  then,  we  will  suppose  that  there  was  no  original 
connection  between  the  inhabitants  of  the  main-land  and  of 
Atlantis,  the  commercial  activity  of  the  Atlanteans  would  soon 
reveal  to  them  the  shores  of  the  Gulf.  Commerce  implies  the 
plantation  of  colonies;  the  trading-post  is  always  the  nucleus 
of  a  settlement;  w^e  have  seen  this  illustrated  in  modern  times 
in  the  case  of  the  English  East  India  Company  and  the  Hud- 
son Bay  Company.  We  can  therefore  readily  believe  that 
commercial  intercourse  between  Atlantis  and  Yucatan,  Hon- 
duras and  Mexico,  created  colonies  along  the  shores  of  the 
Gulf  which  gradually  spread  into  the  interior,  and  to  the  high 
table -lands  of  Mexico.  And,  accordingly,  we  find,  as  I  have 
already  shown,  that  all  the  traditions  of  Central  America  and 
Mexico  point  to  some  country  in  the  East,  and  beyond  the  sea, 
as  the  source  of  their  first  civilized  people;  and  this  region, 
known  among  them  as  "  Aztlan,"  lived  in  the  memory  of  the 
people  as  a  beautiful  and  happy  land,  where  their  ancestors  had 
dwelt  in  peace  for  many  generations. 


THE  CENTRAL  AMEBIC  AX  AND  MEXICAN  COLOXIEH.    349 

Dr.  Lc  Plongeon,  who  spent  four  years  exploring  Yucatan, 
says : 

"  One-third  of  this  tongue  (the  Maya)  is  pure  Greek.  Who 
brought  the  dialect  of  Homer  to  America?  or  who  took  to 
Greece  that  of  the  Mayas  ?  Greek  is  the  offspring  of  the  San- 
scrit. Is  Maya?  or  are  they  coeval?  .  .  .  The  Maya  is  not  de- 
void of  words  from  the  Assyrian." 

That  the  population  of  Central  America  (and  in  this  term 
I  include  Mexico)  was  at  one  time  very  dense,  and  had  attain- 
ed to  a  high  degree  of  civilization,  higher  even  than  that  of  Eu- 
rope in  the  time  of  Columbus,  there  can  be  no  question ;  and 
it  is  also  probable,  as  I  have  showrl,  that  they  originally  be- 
longed to  the  white  race.  Desire  Charnay,  who  is  now  explor- 
ing the  ruins  of  Central  America,  says  {North  American  Re- 
vieio,  January,  1881,  p.  48),  "The  Toltecs  were  fair,  robust, 
and  bearded.  I  have  often  seen  Indians  of  pure  blood  with 
blue  eyes."  Quetzalcoatl  was  represented  as  large,  "  with  a  big 
head  and  a  heavy  beard."  The  same  author  speaks  (page  44) 
of  "  the  ocean  of  ruins  all  around,  not  inferior  in  size  to  those 
of  Egypt."  At  Teotihuacan  he  measured  one  building  two 
thousand  feet  wide  on  each  side,  and  fifteen  pyramids,  each 
nearly  as  large  in  the  base  as  Cheops.  "  The  city  is  indeed  of 
vast  extent  .  .  .  the  whole  ground,  over  a  space  of  five  or  six 
miles  in  diameter,  is  covered  with  heaps  of  ruins — ruins  which 
at  first  make  no  impression,  so  complete  is  their  dilapidation." 
He  asserts  the  great  antiquity  of  these  ruins,  because  he  found 
the  very  highways  of  the  ancient  city  to  be  composed  of  broken 
bricks  and  pottery,  the  debris  left  by  earlier  populations.  "  This 
continent,"  he  says  (page  43),  "  is  the  land  of  mysteries ;  we 
here  enter  an  infinity  whose  limits  we  cannot  estimate.  ...  I 
shall  soon  have  to  quit  work  in  this  place.  The  long  avenue  on 
which  it  stands  is  lined  with  ruins  of  public  buildings  and  pal- 
aces, forming  continuous  lines,  as  in  the  streets  of  modern  cities. 
Still,  all  these  edifices  and  halls  were  as  nothing  compared  with 
the  vast  substructures  which  strengthened  their  foundations." 


350  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 

We  find  the  stroiiirest  resemblances  to  the  works  of  the  an- 
cient  European  races:  tlie  masonry  is  similar;  the  cement  is 
the  same;  the  sculptures  are  alike;  both  peoples  used  the  arch  ; 
in  both  continents  we  find  bricks,  glassware,  and  even  porcelain 
(North  American  Review,  December,  1880,  pp.  524,  525),  "  with 
blue  figures  on  a  white  ground ;"  also  bronze  composed  of  the 
same  elements  of  copper  and  tin  in  like  proportions ;  coins 
made  of  copper,  round  and  T-shaped,  and  even  metallic  can- 
dlesticks. 

Desire  Charnay  believes  that  he  has  found  in  the  ruins  of  Tula 
the  bones  of  swine,  sheep,  oxen,  and  horses,  in  a  fossil  state,  in- 
dicating an  immense  antiquity.  The  Toltecs  possessed  a  pure 
and  simple  religion,  like  that  of  Atlantis,  as  described  by  Plato, 
with  the  same  sacrifices  of  fruits  and  flowers;  they  were  farm- 
ers ;  they  raised  and  w^ove  cotton ;  they  cultivated  fruits ;  they 
used  the  sign  of  the  Cross  extensively ;  they  cut  and  engraved 
precious  stones;  among  their  carvings  have  been  fonnd  repre- 
sentations of  the  elephant  and  the  lion,  both  animals  not  known 
in  America.  The  forms  of  sepulture  were  the  same  as  among 
the  ancient  races  of  the  Old  World;  they  burnt  the  bodies 
of  their  great  men,  and  enclosed  the  dust  in  funeral  urns ;  some 
of  their  dead  were  buried  in  a  sitting  position,  others  reclined 
at  full  length,  and  many  were  embalmed  like  the  Egyptian 
mummies. 

When  we  turn  to  Mexico,  the  same  resemblances  present 
themselves. 

The  government  was  an  elective  monarchy,  like  that  of  Po- 
land, the  king  being  selected  from  the  royal  family  by  the 
votes  of  the  nobles  of  the  kingdom.  There  was  a  royal  fami- 
ly, an  aristocracy,  a  privileged  priesthood,  a  judiciary,  and  a 
common  people.  Here  we  have  all  the  several  estates  into 
which  society  in  Europe  is  divided. 

There  were  thirty  grand  nobles  in  the  kingdom,  and  the 
vastncss  of  the  realm  may  be  judged  by  the  fact  that  each  of 
these  could  muster  one  hundred  thousand  vassals  from  their 


THE  CENTRAL  AMERICAN  AND  MEXICAN  COLONIES.   351 

own  estates,  or  a  total  of  three  millions.  And  we  have  only 
to  read  of  the  vast  hordes  brought  into  the  field  against  Cortez 
to  know  that  this  was  not  an  exaggeration. 

They  even  possessed  that  which  has  been  considered  the 
crowning  featuie  of  European  society,  the  feudal  system.  The 
nobles  held  their  lands  upon  the  tenure  of  military  service. 

But  the  most  striking  feature  was  the  organization  of  the 
judiciary.  The  judges  were  independent  even  of  the  king,  and 
held  their  offices  for  life.  There  were  supreme  judges  for  the 
larger  divisions  of  the  kingdom,  district  judges  in  each  of  the 
provinces,  and  magistrates  chosen  by  the  people  throughout 
the  country. 

There  was  also  a  general  legislative  assembly,  congress,  or 
parliament,  held  every  eighty  days,  presided  over  by  the  king, 
consisting  of  all  the  judges  of  the  realm,  to  which  the  last  ap- 
peal lay. 

"  The  rites  of  marriage,"  says  Prescott,  "  were  celebrated 
with  as  much  formality  as  in  any  Christian  country;  and  the 
institution  was  held  in  such  reverence  that  a  tribunal  was  insti- 
tuted for  the  sole  purpose  of  determining  questions  relating  to 
it.  Divorces  could  not  be  obtained  until  authorized  by  a  sen- 
tence of  the  court,  after  a  patient  liearing  of  the  parties." 

Slavery  was  tolerated,  but  the  labors  of  the  slave  were  light, 
his  rights  carefully  guarded,  and  his  children  were  free.  The 
slave  could  own  property,  and  even  other  slaves. 

Their  religion  possessed  so  many  features  similar  to  those  of 
the  Old  World,  that  the  Spanish  priests  declared  the  devil  had 
given  them  a  bogus  imitation  of  Christianity  to  destroy  their 
souls.     "The  devil,"  said  they,  "  stole  all  he  could." 

They  had  confessions,  absolution  of  sins,  and  baptism. 
When  their  children  were  named,  they  sprinkled  their  lips  and 
bosoms  with  water,  and  "the  Lord  was  implored  to  permit  the 
holy  drops  to  wash  away  the  sin  that  was  given  it  before  the 
foundation  of  the  world." 

The  priests  were  numerous  and  powerful.     They  practised 


352  ATLAXTIS:    THE  AXTEDILUVIiy  WORLD. 

fasts,  vigils,  flagellations,  and  many  of  them  lived  in  monastic 
seclusion. 

The  Aztecs,  like  the  Egyptians,  had  progressed  through  all 
the  three  different  modes  of  writing — the  picture-writing,  the 
symbolical,  and  the  phonetic.  They  recorded  all  their  laws, 
their  tribute-rolls  specifying  the  various  imposts,  their  mythol- 
ogy, astronomical  calendars,  and  rituals,  their  political  annals 
and  their  chronology.  They  wrote  on  cotton -cloth,  on  skins 
prepared  like  parchment,  on  a  composition  of  silk  and  gum,  and 
on  a  species  of  paper,  soft  and  beautiful,  made  from  the  aloe. 
Their  books  were  about  the  size  and  shape  of  our  own,  but  the 
leaves  were  long  strips  folded  together  in  many  folds. 

They  wrote  poetry  and  cultivated  oratory,  and  paid  much 
attention  to  rhetoric.  They  also  had  a  species  of  theatrical 
performances. 

Their  proficiency  in  astronomy  is  thus  spoken  of  by  Pres- 
cott: 

"That  they  should  be  capable  of  accurately  adjusting  their 
festivals  by  the  movements  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  and  should 
fix  the  true  length  of  the  tropical  year  with  a  precision  un- 
known to  the  great  2>hilosophers  of  antiquity,  could  be  the  result 
only  of  a  long  series  of  nice  and  patient  observations,  evincing 
no  slight  progress  in  civilization." 

"  Their  women,"  says  the  same  author,  "  are  described  by 
the  Spaniards  as  pretty,  though  with  a  serious  and  rather  mel- 
ancholy cast  of  countenance.  Their  long,  black  hair  might 
generally  be  seen  wreathed  with  flowers,  or,  among  the  richer 
people,  with  strings  of  precious  stones  and  pearls  from  the  Gulf 
of  California.  They  appear  to  have  been  treated  with  much 
consideration  by  their  husbands;  and  passed  their  time  in  in- 
dolent tranquillity,  or  in  such  feminine  occupations  as  spinning, 
embroidery,  and  the  like;  while  their  maidens  beguiled  the 
hours  by  the  rehearsal  of  traditionary  tales  and  ballads. 

"Numerous  attendants  of  both  sexes  waited  at  the  banquets. 
The  halls  were  scented  with  perfumes,  and  the  courts  strewed 
with  odoriferous  herbs  and  flowers,  which  were  distributed  in 
profusion  among  the  guests  as  they  arrived.  Cotton  napkins 
and  ewers  of  water  were  placed  before  them  as  they  took  their 


THE  CENTRAL  AMERICAN  AND  MEXICAN  COLONIES.   353 

vseats:  at  the  board.  Tobacco  was  then  offered,  in  pipes,  mixed 
with  aromatic  substances,  or  in  the  form  of  cigars  inserted  in 
tubes  of  tortoise-shell  or  silver.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  the 
Aztecs  also  took  the  dried  tobacco  leaf  in  the  pulverized  form 
of  snuff. 

"The  table  was  well  supplied  with  substantial  meats,  espe- 
cially game,  among  which  the  most  conspicuous  was  the  turkey. 
Also,  there  were  found  vegetables  and  fruits  of  every  delicious 
variety  native  to  the  continent.  Their  palate  was  still  further 
regaled  by  confections  and  pastry,  for  which  their  maize-flower 
and  sugar  furnished  them  ample  materials.  The  meats  were 
kept  warm  with  chafing-dishes.     The  table  was  ornamented 


OOMMOX   FOEM    OF    AKOU,  OENTKAT.   AMEBIOA 


with  vases  of  silver  and  sometimes  gold  of  delicate  workman- 
ship. The  favorite  beverage  was  chocolatl,  flavored  with  va- 
nilla and  different  spices.  The  fermented  juice  of  the  maguey, 
with  a  mixture  of  sweets  and  acids,  supplied  various  agreeable 
drinks  of  different  degrees  of  strength." 

It  is  not  necessary  to  describe  their  great  public  works,  their 
floating  gardens,  their  aqueducts,  bridges,  forts,  temples,  pal- 


354 


ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN   WORLD. 


SECTION  OF  THE  TREASURE-HOUSE  OF  ATREUS  AT  MYCEN.E. 


aces,  and  gigantic  pyramids,  all  ornamented  with  wonderful  stat- 
uary. 

We  find  a  strong  resemblance  between  tlie  form  of  arch 
used  in  the  architecture  of  Central  America  and  that  of  the 
oldest  buildings  of  Greece.  The  Palenque  arch  is  made  by 
the  gradual  overlapping  of  the  strata  of  the  building,  as  shown 
in  the  accompanying  cut  from  Baldwin's  "  Ancient  America," 
page  100.  It  was  the  custom  of  these  ancient  architects  to 
fill  in  the  arch  itself  with  masonry,  as  shown  in  the  picture 


ABOII   OF    LAS   MONJA8,  PALENQUE,  CENTRAL   AMERICA. 


THE  CENTRAL  AMERICAN  AND  MEXICAN  COLONIES.   357 

on  page  355  of  the  Arch  of  Las  Monjas,  Palenqne.  If  now  we 
look  at  the  representation  of  the  "Treasure-house  of  Atreus" 
at  Mycenae,  on  page  354  —  one  of  the  oldest  structures  in 
Greece — we  find  precisely  the  same  form  of  arch,  filled  in  in 
the  same  way. 

Rosengartcn  ("  Architectm*al  Styles,"  p.  59)  says : 

"The  base  of  these  treasure-houses  is  circular,  and  the  cov- 
ering of  a  dome  shape ;  it  does  not,  however,  form  an  arch, 
but  courses  of  stone  are  laid  horizontally  over  one  another  in 
such  a  way  that  each  course  projects  beyond  the  one  below  it, 
till  the  space  at  the  highest  course  becomes  so  narrow  that  a 
single  stone  covers  it.  Of  all  those  that  have  survived  to  the 
present  day  the  treasure-house  at  Atreus  is  the  most  venerable." 

The  same  form  of  arch  is  found  among  the  ruins  of  that 
interesting  people,  the  Etruscans. 

"Etruscan  vaults  are  of  two  kinds.  The  more  curious  and 
probably  the  most  ancient  are  false  arches,  formed  of  hori- 
zontal courses  of  stone,  each  a  little  overlapping  the  other,  and 
carried  on  until  the  aperture  at  the  top  could  be  closed  by  a 
single  superincumbent  slab.  Such  is  the  construction  of  the 
Regulini-Galassi  vault,  at  Cervetere,  the  ancient  Cajre."  (Raw- 
linson's  "  Origin  of  Nations,"  p.  117.) 

It  is  sufficient  to  say,  in  conclusion,  that  Mexico,  under  Eu- 
ropean rule,  or  under  her  own  leaders,  has  never  again  risen 
to  her  former  standard  of  refinement,  wealth,  prosperity,  or 
civilization. 


358  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 


Chapter   II. 

THE  EGYPTIAN  COLONY. 

What  proofs  have  we  that  the  Egyptians  were  a  colony 
from  Atlantis? 

1.  They  claimed  descent  from  "the  twelve  great  gods," 
which  must  have  meant  the  twelve  gods  of  Atlantis,  to  wit, 
Poseidon  and  Cleito  and  their  ten  sons. 

2.  According  to  the  traditions  of  the  Phoenicians,  the  Egyp- 
tians derived  their  civilization  from  them  ;  and  as  the  Egyp- 
tians far  antedated  the  rise  of  the  Phoenician  nations  proper, 
tliis  must  have  meant  that  Egypt  derived  its  civilization  from 
the  same  country  to  which  the  Phoenicians  owed  their  own 
origin.  The  Phoenician  legends  show  that  Misor,  from  whom 
the  Egyptians  were  descended,  was  the  child  of  the  Phoenician 
gods  Amynus  and  Magus.  Misor  gave  birth  to  Taaut,  the  god 
of  letters,  the  inventor  of  the  alphabet,  and  Taaut  became 
Thoth,  the  god  of  history  of  the  Egyptians.  Sanchoniathon 
tells  us  that  "  Chronos  (king  of  Atlantis)  visited  the  South, 
and  gave  all  Egypt  to  the  god  Taaut,  that  it  might  be  his 
kingdom."  "Misor"  is  probably  the  king  "Mestor"  named 
by  Plato. 

3.  According  to  the  Bible,  the  Egyptians  were  descendants 
of  Ham,  who  was  one  of  the  three  sons  of  Noah  who  escaped 
from  the  Deluge,  to  wit,  the  destruction  of  Atlantis. 

4.  The  great  similarity  between  the  Egyptian  civilization 
and  that  of  the  American  nations. 

5.  The  fact  that  the  Egyptians  claimed  to  be  red  men. 

6.  The  religion  of  Egypt  was  pre-eminently  sun-worship; 
and  Ra  was  the  sun-god  of  Egypt,  Rama,  the  sun  of  the  Hin- 


THE  EGYPTIAN  COLONY.  359 

doos,  Rana,  a  god  of  the  Toltecs,  Raymi,  tbe  great  festival  of 
the  sun  of  the  Peruvians,  and  Rayani,  a  god  of  Yemen. 

7.  The  presence  of  pyramids  in  Egypt  and  America. 

8.  The  Egyptians  were  the  only  people  of  antiquity  who 
were  well-informed  as  to  the  history  of  Atlantis.  The  Egyp- 
tians were  never  a  maritime  people,  and  the  Atlanteans  must 
have  brought  that  knowledge  to  them.  They  were  not  likely 
to  send  ships  to  Atlantis. 

9.  We  find  another  proof  of  the  descent  of  the  Egyptians 
from  Atlantis  in  their  belief  as  to  the  "  under-world."  This 
land  of  the  dead  was  situated  in  the  West — hence  the  tombs 
were  all  placed,  whenever  possible,  on  the  west  bank  of  the 
Nile.  The  constant  cry  of  the  mourners  as  the  funeral  pro- 
cession moved  forward  was,  "To  the  west;  to  the  west."  This 
under-world  was  beyond  the  water,  hence  the  funeral  proces- 
sion always  crossed  a  body  of  water.  "Where  the  tombs  were, 
as  in  most  cases,  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Nile,  the  Nile  was 
crossed ;  where  they  were  on  the  eastern  shore  the  procession 
passed  over  a  sacred  lake."  (R.  S.  Poole,  Contemporary  Me- 
v/e?^,  August,  1881,  p.  17.)  In  the  procession  was  "a  sacred 
ark  of  the  sun." 

All  this  is  very  plain:  the  under -world  in  the  West,  the 
land  of  the  dead,  was  Atlantis,  the  drowned  world,  the  world 
beneath  the  horizon,  beneath  the  sea,  to  which  the  peasants  of 
Brittany  looked  from  Cape  Raz,  the  most  western  cape  project- 
ing into  the  Atlantic.  It  was  only  to  be  reached  from  Egypt 
by  crossing  the  water,  and  it  was  associated  with'  the  ark,  the 
emblem  of  Atlantis  in  all  lands. 

The  soul  of  the  dead  man  was  supposed  to  journey  to  the 
under-world  by  "a  loater  progress^''  (Ibid.,  p.  18),  his  destina- 
tion was  the  Elysian  Fields,  where  mighty  corn  grew,  and  where 
he  was  expected  to  cultivate  the  earth ;  "  this  task  was  of  su- 
preme importance."  (Ibid., -p.  19.)  The  Elysian  Fields  were 
the  "  Elysion  "  of  the  Greeks,  the  abode  of  the  blessed,  which 
we  have  seen  was  an  island  in  the  remote  ivest.^^     The  Egyp- 


360  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

tian  belief  referred  to  a  real  country ;  they  described  its  cities, 
mountains,  and  rivers;  one  of  tlie  latter  was  called  Uranes, 
a  name  which  reminds  us  of  the  Atlantean  god  Uranos.  In 
connection  with  all  this  we  must  not  forget  that  Plato  de- 
scribed Atlantis  as  "  that  sacred  island  lying  beneath  the  sun." 
Everywhere  in  the  ancient  world  we  find  the  minds  of  men 
looking  to  the  west  for  the  land  of  the  dead.  Poole  says, 
"  How  then  can  we  account  for  this  strong  conviction  ?  Surely 
it  must  be  a  survival  of  an  ancient  belief  which  flowed  in  the 
very  veins  of  the  race."  {Contemporary  Review,  1881,  p.  19.) 
It  was  based  on  an  universal  tradition  that  under  "an  im- 
mense ocean,"  in  "  the  far  west,"  there  was  an  "  under-world," 
a  world  comprising  millions  of  the  dead,  a  mighty  race,  that 
had  been  suddenly  swallowed  up  in  the  greatest  catastrophe 
known  to  man  since  he  had  inhabited  the  globe. 

10.  There  is  no  evidence  that  the  civilization  of  Egypt  was 
developed  in  Egypt  itself;  it  must  have  been  transported  there 
from  some  otiier  country.  To  use  the  words  of  a  recent 
writer  in  Blackwood, 

"Till  lately  it  was  believed  that  the  use  of  the  papyrus  for 
writing  was  introduced  about  the  time  of  Alexander  the  Great ; 
then  Lepsius  found  the  hieroglyphic  sign  of  the  papyrus-roll 
on  monuments  of  the  twelfth  dynasty  ;  afterward  he  found  the 
same  sign  on  monuments  of  the  fourth  dynasty,  which  is  get- 
ting back  pretty  close  to  Menes,  the  protomonarch  ;  and,  indeed, 
little  doubt  is  entertained  that  the  art  of  writing  on  papyrus 
was  understood  as  early  as  the  days  of  Menes  himself.  The 
fruits  of  investigation  in  this,  as  in  many  other  subjects,  are 
truly  most  marvellous.  Instead  of  exhibiting  the  rise  and 
progress  of  any  branches  of  knowledge,  they  tend  to  prove  that 
nothing  had  any  rise  or  progress,  but  that  everything  is  refera- 
ble to  the  very  earliest  dates.  The  experience  of  the  Egyptol- 
ogist must  teach  him  to  reverse  the  observation  of  Topsy,  and 
to  *  'spcct  that  nothing  growed,'  but  that  as  soon  as  men  were 
planted  on  the  banks  of  the  Nile  they  were  already  the  clever- 
est men  that  ever  lived,  endowed  ivith  more  knowledge  and  more 
power  than  their  successors  for  centuries  and  centuries  could  at- 


THE  EGYPTIAN  COLONY.  361 

tain  to.  Their  system  of  writing,  also,  is  found  to  have  been 
complete  from  the  very  first. .  .  . 

"But  what  are  we  to  think  when  the  antiquary,  g-rubbing  in 
the  dust  and  silt  of  five  thousand  years  ago  to  discover  some 
traces  of  infant  effort — some  rude  specimens  of  the  ages  of  Ma- 
gog and  Mizraira,  in  which  we  may  admire  the  germ  that  has 
since  developed  into  a  wonderful  art — breaks  his  shins  against 
an  article  so  perfect  that  it  equals  if  it  does  not  excel  the  su- 
preme stretch  of  modern  ability  ?  How  shall  we  support  the 
theory  if  it  come  to  our  knowledge  that,  before  Noah  was  cold 
in  his  grave,  his  descendants  were  adepts  in  construction  and  in 
the  fine  arts,  and  that  their  achievements  were  for  magnitude 
such  as,  if  we  possess  the  requisite  skill,  we  never  attempt  to 
emulate  ? . . . 

"As  we  have  not  yet  discovered  any  trace  of  the  rude,  sav- 
age Egypt,  but  have  seen  her  in  her  very  earliest  manifestations 
already  skilful,  erudite,  and  strong,  it  is  impossible  to  deter- 
mine the  order  of  her  inventions.  Light  may  yet  be  thrown 
upon  her  rise  and  progress,  but  our  deepest  researches  have 
hitherto  shown  her  to  us  as  only  the  mother  of  a  most  accom- 
plished race.  How  they  came  by  their  knowledge  is  matter 
for  speculation ;  that  they  possessed  it  is  matter  of  fact.  We 
never  find  them  without  the  ability  to  organize  labor,  or  shrink- 
ing from  the  very  boldest  efforts  in  digging  canals  and  irrigat- 
ing, in  quarrying  rock,  in  building,  and  in  sculpture." 

The  explanation  is  simple:  the  waters  of  the  Atlantic  now 
flow  over  the  country  where  all  this  magnificence  and  power 
were  developed  by  slow  stages  from  the  rude  beginnings  of 
barbarism. 

And  how  mighty  must  have  been  the  parent  nation  of  which 
this  Egypt  was  a  colony  ! 

Egypt  was  the  magnificent,  the  golden  bridge,  ten  thousand 
years  long,  glorious  with  temples  and  pyramids,  illuminated 
and  illustrated  by  the  most  complete  and  continuous  records 
of  human  history,  along  which  the  civilization  of  Atlantis,  in  a 
great  procession  of  kings  and  priests,  philosophers  and  astron- 
omers, artists  and  artisans,  streamed  forward  to  Greece,  to 
Rome,  to  Europe,  to  America.     As  far  back  in  the  ages  as  the 

16 


362  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 

eye  can  penetrate,  even  where  the  perspective  dwindles  ahnost 
to  a  point,  we  can  still  see  the  swarming  multitudes,  possessed 
of  all  the  arts  of  the  highest  civilization,  pressing  forward  from 
out  that  other  and  greater  empire  of  which  even  this  wonder- 
working Nile-land  is  but  a  faint  and  imperfect  copy. 

Look  at  the  record  of  Egyptian  greatness  as  preserved  in  her 
works :  The  pyramids,  still  in  their  ruins,  are  the  marvel  of 
mankind.  The  river  Nile  was  diverted  from  its  course  by  mon- 
strous embankments  to  make  a  place  for  the  city  of  Memphis. 
The  artificial  lake  of  Moeris  was  created  as  a  reservoir  for  the 
waters  of  the  Nile  :  it  was  four  hundred  and  fifty  miles  in  cir- 
cumference and  three  hundred  and  fifty  feet  deep,  with  sub- 
terranean channels,  flood-gates,  locks,  and  dams,  by  which  the 
wilderness  was  redeemed  from  sterility.  Look  at  the  magnifi- 
cent mason-work  of  this  ancient  people !  Mr.  Kenrick,  speak- 
ing of  the  casing  of  the  Great  Pyramid,  says,  "  The  joints  are 
scarcely  perceptible,  and  not  ivider  than  the  thickness  of  silver- 
paper^  and  the  cement  so  tenacious  that  fragments  of  the  cas- 
ing-stones still  remain  in  their  original  position,  notwithstand- 
ing the  lapse  of  so  many  centuries,  and  the  violence  by  which 
they  were  detached."  Look  at  the  ruins  of  the  Labyrinth, 
which  aroused  the  astonishment  of  Herodotus;  it  had  three 
thousand  chambers,  half  of  them  above  ground  and  half  below 
— a  combination  of  courts,  chambers,  colonnades,  statues,  and 
pyramids.  Look  at  the  Temple  of  Karnac,  covering  a  square 
each  side  of  which  is  eighteen  hundred  feet.  Says  a  recent 
writer,  "  Travellers  one  and  all  appear  to  have  been  unable  to 
find  words  to  express  the  feelings  with  which  these  sublime 
remains  inspired  them.  They  have  been  astounded  and  over- 
come by  the  magnificence  and  the  prodigality  of  worknianship 
here  to  be  admired.  Courts,  halls,  gate-ways,  pillars,  obelisks, 
monolithic  figures,  sculptures,  rows  of  sphinxes,  are  massed  in 
such  profusion  that  the  sight  is  too  much  for  modern  compre- 
hension." Denon  says,  "  It  is  hardly  possible  to  believe,  after 
having  seen  it,  in  the  reality  of  the  existence  of  so  many  build- 


THE  EGYrriAN  COLOXY.  363 

ings  collected  on  a  single  point — in  their  dimensions,  in  the 
resolute  perseverance  which  their  construction  required,  and 
in  the  incalculable  expense  of  so  much  magnificence."  And 
again,  "It  is  necessary  that  the  reader  should  fancy  what  is 
before  him  to  be  a  dream,  as  he  who  views  the  objects  them- 
selves occasionally  yields  to  the  doubt  whether  he  be  perfectly 
awake."  There  were  lakes  and  mountains  within  the  periphery 
of  the  sanctuary.  "  The  cathedral  of  Notre  Dame  at  Paris 
could  be  set  inside  one  of  the  halls  of  Karnac,  and  not  touch 
the  walls/ .  .  .  The  whole  valley  and  delta  of  the  Nile,  from 
the  Catacombs  to  the  sea,  was  covered  with  temples,  palaces, 
tombs,  pyramids,  and  pillars."  Every  stone  was  covered  with 
inscriptions. 

The  state  of  society  in  the  early  days  of  Egypt  approximated 
very  closely  to  our  modern  civilization.  Religion  consisted  in 
the  w'orship  of  one  God  and  the  practice  of  virtue;  forty-two 
commandments  prescribed  the  duties  of  men  to  themselves, 
their  neighbors,  their  country,  and  the  Deity  ;  a  heaven  await- 
ed the  good  and  a  hell  the  vicious ;  there  was  a  judgment-day 
when  the  hearts  of  men  were  weighed : 

*'  He  is  sifting  out  the  hearts  of  men 
Before  his  judgment-seat." 

Monogamy  was  the  strict  rule;  not  even  the  kings,  in  the 
early  days,  were  allowed  to  have  more  than  one  wife.  The 
wife's  rights  of  separate  property  and  her  dower  were  protected 
by  law;  she  was  "the  lady  of  the  house;"  she  could  "buy, 
sell,  and  trade  on  her  own  account ;"  in  case  of  divorce  her 
dowry  was  to  be  repaid  to  her,  with  interest  at  a  high  rate. 
The  marriage-ceremony  embraced  an  oath  not  to  contract  any 
other  matrimonial  alliance.  The  wife's  status  was  as  high  in 
the  earliest  days  of  Egypt  as  it  is  now  in  the  most  civilized 
nations  of  Europe  or  America. 

Slavery  was  permitted,  but  the  slaves  were  -treated  with  the 
greatest  humanity.     In  the  confessions,  buried  with  the  dead. 


364  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

the  soul  is  made  to  declare  that  "  I  have  not  incriminated  the 
slave  to  his  master."  There  was  also  a  clause  in  the  command- 
ments "  which  protected  the  laboring  man  against  the  exac- 
tion of  more  than  his  day's  labor."  They  were  merciful  to  the 
captives  made  in  war;  no  picture  represents  torture  inflicted 
upon  them ;  while  the  representation  of  a  sea-fight  shows  them 
saving  their  drowning  enemies.  Reginald  Stuart  Poole  says 
{Contemporary  Review,  August,  1881,  p.  43) : 

"When  we  consider  the  high  ideal  of  the  Egyptians,  as 
proved  by  their  portrayals  of  a  just  life,  the  principles  they  laid 
down  as  the  basis  of  ethics,  the  elevation  of  women  among 
them,  their  humanity  in  war,  we  must  admit  that  their  moral 
place  ranks  very  high  among  the  nations  of  antiquity. 

"The  true  comparison  of  Egyptian  life  is  with  that  of  mod- 
ern nations.  This  is  far  too  difficult  a  task  to  be  here  under- 
taken. Enough  has  been  said,  however,  to  show  that  we  need 
not  think  that  in  all  respects  they  were  far  behind  us." 

Then  look  at  the  proficiency  in  art  of  this  ancient  people. 

They  were  the  first  mathematicians  of  the  Old  World. 
Those  Greeks  whom  we  regard  as  the  fathers  of  mathematics 
were  simply  pupils  of  Egypt.  They  were  the  first  land-survey- 
ors. They  were  the  first  astronomers,  calculating  eclipses,  and 
w^atching  the  periods  of  planets  and  constellations.  They  knew 
the  rotundity  of  the  earth,  which  it  was  supposed  Columbus 
had  discovered ! 

"The  signs  of  the  zodiac  were  certainly  in  use  among  the 
Egyptians  1722  years  before  Christ.  One  of  the  learned  men 
of  our  day,  who  for  fifty  years  labored  to  decipher  the  hiero- 
glyphics of  the  ancients,  found  upon  a  mummy- case  in  the 
British  Museum  a  delineation  of  the  signs  of  the  zodiac,  and 
the  position  of  the  planets;  the  date  to  which  they  pointed 
was  the  autumnal  equinox  of  the  year  1*722  B.C.  Professor 
Mitchell,  to  whom  the  fact  was  communicated,  employed  his 
assistants  to  ascertain  the  exact  position  of  the  heavenly  bodies 
belonging  to  our  solar  system  on  the  equinox  of  that  year. 
This  was  done,  and  a  diagram  furnished  by  parties  ignorant  of 
his  object,  which  showed  that  on  the  7th  of  October,  1722  b.c. 


THE  EGYPTIAN  COLONY.  365 

the  moon  and  planets  occupied  the  exact  point  in  the  heavens 
marked  upon  the  coffin  in  the  British  Museum."  (Goodrich's 
"  Columbus,"  p.  22.) 

They  had  clocks  and  dials  for  measuring  time.  They  pos- 
sessed gold  and  silver  money.  They  were  the  first  agricult- 
urists of  the  Old  World,  raising  all  the  cereals,  cattle,  horses, 
sheep,  etc.  They  manufactured  linen  of  so  fine  a  quality 
that  in  the  days  of  King  Amasis  (600  years  b.c.)  a  single 
thread  of  a  garment  was  composed  of  three  hundred  and  six- 
ty-five minor  threads.  They  worked  in  gold,  silver,  copper, 
bronze,  and  iron ;  they  tempered  iron  to  the  hardness  of  steel. 
They  were  the  first  chemists.  The  word  "  chemistry  "  comes 
from  chemi,  and  chetni  means  Egypt.  They  manufactured 
glass  and  all  kinds  of  pottery  ;  they  made  boats  out  of  earthen- 
ware; and,  precisely  as  we  are  now  making  railroad  car- wheels 
of  paper,  they  manufactured  vessels  of  paper.  Their  dentists 
filled  teeth  with  gold ;  their  farmers  hatched  poultry  by  artifi- 
cial heat.  They  were  the  first  musicians;  they  possessed  gui- 
tars, single  and  double  pipes,  cymbals,  drums,  lyres,  harps, 
flutes,  the  sambric,  ashur,  etc. ;  they  had  even  castanets,  such 
as  are  now  used  in  Spain.  In  medicine  and  surgery  they  had 
reached  such  a  degree  of  perfection  that  several  hundred  years 
B.C.  the  operation  for  the  removal  of  cataract  from  the  eye  was 
performed  among  them ;  one  of  the  most  delicate  and  difficult 
feats  of  surgery,  only  attempted  by  us  in  the  most  recent 
times.  "  The  papyrus  of  Berlin  "  states  that  it  was  discovered, 
rolled  up  in  a  case,  under  the  feet  of  an  Anubis  in  the  town 
of  Sekhem,  in  the  days  of  Tet  (or  Thoth),  after  whose  death  it 
was  transmitted  to  King  Sent,  and  was  then  restored  to  the 
feet  of  the  statue.  King  Sent  belonged  to  the  second  dynasty, 
which  flourished  4751  b.c,  and  the  papyrus  was  old  in  his  day. 
This  papyrus  is  a  medical  treatise ;  there  are  in  it  no  incanta- 
tions or  charms ;  but  it  deals  in  reasonable  remedies,  draughts, 
unguents  and  injections.  The  later  medical  papyri  contain  a 
great  deal  of  magic  and  incantations. 


366  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

"  Great  and  splendid  as  are  the  things  which  we  know  about 
oldest  Egypt,  she  is  made  a  thousand  times  more  sublime  by 
our  uncertainty  as  to  the  limits  of  her  accomplishments.  She 
presents  not  a  great,  definite  idea,  which,  though  hard  to  re- 
ceive, is,  when  once  acquired,  comprehensible  and  clear.  Un- 
der the  soil  of  the  modern  country  are  hid  away  thousands  and 
thousands  of  relics  which  may  astonish  the  world  for  ages  to 
come,  and  change  continually  its  conception  of  what  Egypt 
was.  The  effect  of  research  seems  to  be  to  prove  the  objects 
of  it  to  be  much  older  than  we  thought  them  to  be — some 
things  thought  to  be  wholly  modern  having  been  proved  to  be 
repetitions  of  things  Egyptian,  and  other  things  known  to  have 
been  Egyptian  being  by  every  advance  in  knowledge  carried 
back  more  and  more  toward  the  very  beginning  of  things. 
She  shakes  our  most  rooted  ideas  concerning  the  world's  his- 
tory ;  she  has  not  ceased  to  be  a  puzzle  and  a  lure:  there  is  a 
spell  over  her  still." 

Renan  says,  "  It  has  no  archaic  epoch."  Osborn  says,  "  It 
bursts  upon  us  at  once  in  the  flower  of  its  highest  perfection." 
Seiss  says  ("  A  Miracle  in  Stone,"  p.  40),  "  It  suddenly  takes  its 
place  in  the  world  in  all  its  matchless  magnificence,  without  fa- 
ther, without  mother,  and  as  clean  apart  from  all  evolution  as 
if  it  had  dropped  from  the  unknown  heavens."  It  had  drop- 
ped from  Atlantis. 

Rawlinson  says  ("Origin  of  Nations,"  p.  13) : 

"Now,  in  Egypt,  it  is  notorious  that  there  is  no  indication 
of  any  early  period  of  savagery  or  barbarism.  All  the  authori- 
ties agree  that,  however  far  back  we  go,  we  find  in  Egypt  no 
rude  or  uncivilized  time  out  of  which  civilization  is  developed. 
Menes,  the  first  king,  changes  the  course  of  the  Nile,  makes  a 
great  reservoir,  and  builds  the  temple  of  Phthah  at  Memphis. 
.  .  .  We  see  no  barbarous  customs,  not  even  the  habit,  so  slow- 
ly abandoned  by  all  people,  of  wearing  arms  when  not  on  mili- 
tary service." 

Tylor  says  ("  Anthropology,"  p.  192) : 

"  Among  the  ancient  cultured  nations  of  Egypt  and  Assyria 
handicrafts  had  already  come  to  a  stage  which  could  only  have 


THE  EGYPTIAN  COLONY.  367 

been  reached  by  thousands  of  years  of  progress.  In  museums 
still  may  be  examined  the  work  of  their  joiners,  stone-cutters, 
goldsmiths,  wonderful  in  skill  and  finish,  and  often  putting  to 
shame  the  modern  artificer.  ...  To  see  gold  jewellery  of  the 
highest  order,  the  student  should  examine  that  of  the  ancients, 
such  as  the  Egyptian,  Greek,  and  Etruscan." 

The  carpenters'  and  masons'  tools  of  the  ancient  Egyptians 
were  almost  identical  with  those  used  among  us  to-day. 

There  is  a  plate  showing  an  Aztec  priestess  in  Delafield's 
"Antiquities  of  America,"  p.  61,  which  presents  a  head-dress 
strikingly  Egyptian.  In  the  celebrated  "tablet  of  the  cross," 
at  Palenque,  we  see  a  cross  with  a  bird  perched  upon  it,  to 
which  (or  to  the  cross)  two  priests  are  offering  sacrifice.  In 
Mr.  Stephens's  representation  from  the  Vocal  Memnon  we  find 
almost  the  same  thing,  the  difference  being  that,  instead  of  an 
ornamented  Latin  cross,  we  have  a  crux  commissa,  and  instead 
of  one  bird  there  are  two,  not  on  the  cross,  but  -immediately 
above  it.  In  both  cases  the  hieroglyphics,  though  the  char- 
acters are  of  course  different,  are  disposed  upon  the  stone  in 
much  the  same  manner.  (Bancroft's  "  Native  Races,"  vol.  v., 
p.  61.) 

Even  the  obelisks  of  Egypt  have  their  counterpart  in 
America. 

Quoting  from  Molina  ("History  of  Chili,"  tom.  i.,  p.  169), 
McCullough  writes,  "Between  the  hills  of  Mendoza  and  La 
Punta  is  a  pillar  of  stone  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  high,  and 
twelve  feet  in  diameter."  ("  Researches,"  pp.  iVl,  172.)  The 
columns  of  Copan  stand  detached  and  solitary,  so  do  the  obe- 
lisks of  Egypt;  both  are  square  or  four-sided,  and  covered  with 
sculpture.     (Bancroft's  "  Native  Races,"  vol.  v.,  p.  60.) 

In  a  letter  by  Jomard,  quoted  by  Delafield,  we  read, 

"  I  have  recognized  in  your  memoir  on  the  division  of  time 
among  the  Mexican  nations,  compared  with  those  of  Asia, 
some  very  striking  analogies  between  the  Toltec  characters  and 
institutions  observed  on  the  banks  of  the  Nile.     Among  these 


30«  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

analogies  there  is  one  which  is  worthy  of  attention — it  is  the 
use  of  the  vague  year  of  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  days, 
composed  of  equal  months,  and  of  five  complementary  days, 
equally  employed  at  Thebes  and  Mexico — a  distance  of  three 
thousand  leagues.  ...  In  reality,  the  intercalation  of  the  Mexi- 
cans being  thirteen  days  on  each  cycle  of  fifty-two  years,  comes 
to  the  same  thing  as  that  of  the  Julian  calendar,  which  is  one 
day  in  four  years ;  and  consequently  supposes  the  duration  of 
the  year  to  be  three  hundred  and  sixty -five  d^^s  six  hours. 
Now  such  was  the  length  of  the  year  among  the  Egyptians — 
they  intercalated  an  entire  year  of  three  hundred  and  seventy- 
five  days  every  one  thousand  four  hundred  and  sixty  years. 
.  .  .  The  fact  of  the  intercalation  (by  the  Mexicans)  of  thirteen 
days  every  cycle — that  is,  the  use  of  a  year  of  three  hundred 
and  sixty-five  days  and  a  quarter — is  a  proof  that  it  was  bor- 
rowed from  the  Egyptians,  or  that  they  had  a  common  origin.'''' 
("Antiquities  of  America,"  pp.  52,  53.) 

The  Mexican  century  began  on  the  26th  of  February,  and 
the  26th  of  February  was  celebrated  from  the  time  of  Nabonas- 
sor,  747  B.C.,  because  the  Egyptian  priests,  conformably  to  their 
astronomical  observations,  had  fixed  the  beginning  of  the  month 
Tothj  and  the  commencement  of  their  year,  at  noon  on  that 
day.  The  five  intercalated  days  to  make  up  the  three  hundred 
and  sixty-five  days  were  called  by  the  Mexicans  Nemontemi,  or 
useless,  and  on  them  they  transacted  no  business ;  while  the 
Egyptians,  during  that  epoch,  celebrated  the  festival  of  the 
birth  of  their  gods,  as  attested  by  Plutarch  and  others. 

It  will  be  conceded  that  a  considerable  degree  of  astronomi- 
cal knowledge  must  have  been  necessary  to  reach  the  conclu- 
sion that  the  true  year  consisted  of  three  hundred  and  sixty- 
five  days  and  six  hours  (modern  science  has  demonstrated  that 
it  consists  of  three  hundred  and  sixty -five  days  and  five  hours, 
less  ten  seconds) ;  and  a  high  degree  of  civilization  was  requi- 
site to  insist  that  the  year  must  be  brought  around,  by  the  in- 
tercalation of  a  certain  number  of  days  in  a  certain  period  of 
time,  to  its  true  relation  to  the  seasons.  Both  were  the  out- 
growth of  a  vast,  ancient  civilization   of  the  highest  order, 


THE  EGYPTIAN  COLONY.  369 

which  transmitted  some  part  of  its  astronomical  knowledge  to 
its  colonies  through  their  respective  priesthoods. 

Can  we,  in  the  presence  of  such  facts,  doubt  the  statements 
of  the  Egyptian  priests  to  Solon,  as  to  the  glory  and  greatness 
of  Atlantis,  its  monuments,  its  sculpture,  its  laws,  its  religion, 
its  civilization  ? 

In  Egypt  we  have  the  oldest  of  the  Old  World  children  of 
Atlantis ;  in  her  magnificence  we  have  a  testimony  to  the  de- 
velopment attained  by  the  parent  country ;  by  that  country 
whose  kings  were  the  gods  of  succeeding  nations,  and  whose 
kingdom  extended  to  the  uttermost  ends  of  the  earth. 

The  Egyptian  historian,  Manetho,  referred  to  a  period  of 
thirteen  thousand  nine  hundred  years  as  "the  reign  of  the 
gods,"  and  placed  this  period  at  the  very  beginning  of  Egyp- 
tian history.  These  thirteen  thousand  nine  hundred  years  were 
probably  a  recollection  of  Atlantis.  Such  a  lapse  of  time,  vast 
as  it  may  appear,  is  but  as  a  day  compared  with  some  of  our 
recognized  geological  epochs. 

16* 


Chapter  III. 

THE  COLONIES  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY. 

If  we  will  suppose  a  civilized,  maritime  people  to  have  plant- 
ed colonies,  in  the  remote  past,  along  the  headlands  and  shores 
of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  spreading  thence,  in  time,  to  the  table- 
lands of  Mexico  and  to  the  plains  and  mountains  of  New  Mex- 
ico and  Colorado,  what  would  be  more  natural  than  that  these 
adventurous  navigators,  passing  around  the  shores  of  the  Gulf, 
should,  sooner  or  later,  discover  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi 
River ;  and  what  more  certain  than  that  they  would  enter  it,  ex- 
plore it,  and  plant  colonies  along  its  shores,  wherever  they  found 
a  fertile  soil  and  a  salubrious  climate.  Their  outlying  provinces 
would  penetrate  even  into  regions  where  the  severity  of  the 
climate  would  prevent  great  density  of  population  or  develop- 
ment of  civilization. 

The  results  we  have  presupposed  are  precisely  those  which 
we  find  to  have  existed  at  one  time  in  the  Mississippi  Valley. 

The  Mound  Builders  of  the  United  States  were  pre-eminent- 
ly a  river  people.  Their  densest  settlements  and  greatest  works 
were  near  the  Mississippi  and  its  tributaries.  Says  Foster  ("  Pre- 
historic Races,"  p.  110),  "The  navigable  streams  were  the  great 
highways  of  the  Mound  Builders." 

Mr.  Fontaine  claims  ("  How  the  World  was  Peopled ") 
that  this  ancient  people  constructed  "  levees  "  to  control  and 
utilize  the  bayous  of  the  Mississippi  for  the  purpose  of  agri- 
culture and  commerce.  The  Yazoo  River  is  called  Yazoo-ok- 
hinnah — the  River  of  Ancient  Ruins.  "  There  is  no  evidence 
that  they   had   reached  the  Atlantic   coast;   no   authentic  re- 


THE  COLONIES  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY,        371 

mains  of  the  Mound  Builders  are  found  in  the  New  England 
States,  nor  even  in  the  State  of  New  York."  ("  North  Ameri- 
cans of  Antiquity,"  p.  28.)  This  would  indicate  that  the  civili- 
zation of  this  people  advanced  up  the  Mississippi  River  and 
spread  out  over  its  tributaries,  but  did  not  cross  the  Alleghany 
Mountains.  They  reached,  however,  far  up  the  Missouri  and 
Yellowstone  rivers,  and  thence  into  Oregon.  The  head-waters 
of  the  Missouri  became  one  of  their  great  centres  of  popula- 
tion ;  but  their  chief  sites  were  upon  the  Mississippi  and  Ohio 
rivers.  In  Wisconsin  we  find  the  northern  central  limit  of  their 
work ;  they  seem  to  have  occupied  the  southern  counties  of  the 
State,  and  the  western  shores  of  Lake  Michigan.  Their  circu- 
lar mounds  are  found  in  Minnesota  and  Iowa,  and  some  very 
large  ones  in  Dakota.  Illinois  and  Indiana  were  densely  popu- 
lated by  them  :  it  is  believed  that  the  vital  centre  of  their  col- 
onies was  near  the  junction  of  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  rivers. 

The  chief  characteristic  of  the  Mound  Builders  was  that  from 
which  they  derived  their  name — the  creation  of  great  structures 
of  earth  or  stone,  not  unlike  the  pyramids  of  Mexico  and  Egypt. 
Between  Alton  and  East  St.  Louis  is  the  great  mound  of  Caho- 
kia,  which  may  be  selected  as  a  type  of  their  works :  it  rises 
ninety-seven  feet  high,  while  its  square  sides  are  700  and  500  feet 
respectively.  There  was  a  terrace  on  the  south  side  160  by  300 
feet,  reached  by  a  graded  way ;  the  summit  of  the  pyramid  is 
flattened,  affording  a  platform  200  by  450  feet.  It  will  thus 
be  seen  that  the  area  covered  by  the  mound  of  Cahokia  is  about 
as  large  as  that  of  the  greatest  pyramid  of  Egypt,  Cheops, 
although  its  height  is  much  less. 

The  number  of  monuments  left  by  the  Mound  Builders  is 
extraordinarily  great.  In  Ohio  alone  there  are  more  than  ten 
thousand  tumuli,  and  from  one  thousand  to  fifteen  hundred  en- 
closures. Their  mounds  were  not  cones  but  four-sided  pyra- 
mids— their  sides,  like  those  of  the  Egyptian  pyramids,  cor- 
responding with  the  cardinal  points.  (Foster's  "  Prehistoric 
Races,"  p.  112.) 


372  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

The  Mound  Builders  bad  attained  a  considerable  degree  of 
civiUzation  ;  tbey  were  able  to  form,  in  the  construction  of  their 
works,  perfect  circles  and  perfect  squares  of  great  accuracy,  car- 
ried over  the  varying  surface  of  the  country.  One  large  en- 
closure comprises  exactly  forty  acres.  At  Hopetown,  Ohio,  are 
two  walled  figures — one  a  square,  the  other  a  circle — eacb  con- 
taining precisely  twenty  acres.  They  must  have  possessed  reg- 
ular scales  of  measurement,  and  the  means  of  determining  an- 
gles and  of  computing  the  area  to  be  enclosed  by  the  square 
and  the  circle,  so  that  tlic  space  enclosed  by  each  might  ex- 
actly correspond. 

"  The  most  skilful  engineer  of  this  day  would  find  it  diffi- 
cult," says  Mr.  Squier,  "  without  the  aid  of  instruments,  to  lay 
down  an  accurate  square  of  the  great  dimensions  above  repre- 
sented, measuring,  as  they  do,  more  than  four-fifths  of  a  mile  in 
circumference.  .  .  .  But  we  not  only  find  accurate  squares  and 
perfect  circles,  but  also,  as  we  have  seen,  octagons  of  great 
dimensions." 

They  also  possessed  an  accurate  system  of  weights ;  bracelets 
of  copper  on  the  arms  of  a  skeleton  have  been  found  to  be  of 
uniform  size,  measuring  each  two  and  nine-tenth  inches,  and 
each  v^Qighmg  precisely  four  ounces. 

They  built  great  military  works  surrounded  by  walls  and 
ditches,  with  artificial  lakes  in  the  centre  to  supply  water.  One 
work,  Fort  Ancient,  on  the  Little  Miami  River,  Ohio,  has  a  cir- 
cuit of  between  four  and  five  miles;  the  embankment  was 
twenty  feet  high  ;  the  fort  could  have  held  a  garrison  of  sixty 
thousand  men  with  their  families  and  provisions. 

Not  only  do  we  find  pyramidal  structures  of  earth  in  the 
Mississippi  Valley  very  much  like  the  pyramids  of  Egypt,  Mex- 
ico, and  Peru,  but  a  very  singular  structure  is  repeated  in  Ohio 
and  Peru :  I  refer  to  the  double  walls  or  prolonged  pyramids, 
if  I  may  coin  an  expression,  shown  in  the  cut  page  375. 

The  Mound  Builders  possessed  chains  of  fortifications  reach- 
ing from  the  southern  line  of  New  York  diagonally  across  the 


THE  COLONIES   OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY. 


375 


country,  througli  Central  and  Northern  Ohio  to  the  AVabash. 
It  would  appear  probable,  therefore,  that  while  they  advanced 


WAI.1,8    AT   GR.\N-CUIMU.   I'EKU 


from  the  south  it  was  from  the  north-east  the  savage  races  came 
who  drove  them  south  or  exterminated  them. 

At  Marietta,  Ohio,  we  find  a  combination  of  the  cross  and 
pyramid.     (See  p^3S4,  ante.)     At  Newark,  Ohio,  are  extensive 


0KOB8  AND   PYRAMID   MO0>iD,   OHIO. 


and  intricate  works :  they  occupy  an  area  two  miles  square, 
embraced  within  embankments  twelve  miles  long*.  One  of  the 
mounds  is  a  threefold  svmbol,  like  a  bird's  foot ;  the  central 


376  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

mound  is  155  feet  long,  and  the  other  two  each  110  feet  in 
length.  Is  this  curious  design  a  reminiscence  of  Atlantis 
and  the  three-pronged  trident  of  Poseidon  ?  (See  4th  fig.,  p. 
242,  ante.) 

The  Mound  Builders  made  sun-dried  brick  mixed  with  rushes, 
as  the  Egyptians  made  sun-dried  bricks  mixed  with  straw ;  they 
worked  in  copper,  silver,  lead,  and  there  are  evidences,  as  we 
shall  see,  that  they  wrought  even  in  iron. 

Copper  implements  are  very  numerous  in  the  mounds.  Cop- 
per axes,  spear -heads,  hollow  buttons,  bosses  for  ornaments, 
bracelets,  rings,  etc.,  are  found  in  very  many  of  them  strikingly 
similar  to  those  of  the  Bronze  Age  in  Europe.  In  one  in  But- 
ler County,  Ohio,  was  found  a  copper  fillet  around  the  head 
of  a  skeleton,  with  strange  devices  marked  upon  it. 

Silver  ornaments  have  also  been  found,  but  not  in  such  great 
numbers.  They  seem  to  have  attached  a  high  value  to  silver, 
and  it  is  often  found  in  thin  sheets,  no  thicker  than  paper, 
wrapped  over  copper  or  stone  ornaments  so  neatly  as  almost 
to  escape  detection.  The  great  esteem  in  which  they  held  a 
metal  so  intrinsically  valueless  as  silver,  is  another  evidence  that 
they  must  have  drawn  their  superstitions  from  the  same  source 
as  the  European  nations. 

Copper  is  also  often  found  in  this  manner  ^)/a?ec?  over  stone 
pipes,  presenting  an  unbroken  metallic  lustre^  the  overlapping 
edges  so  well  polished  as  to  be  scarcely  discoverable.  Beads 
and  stars  made  of  shells  have  sometimes  been  found  doubly 
plated,  first  with  copper  then  with  silver. 

The  Mound  Builders  also  understood  the  art  of  casting 
metals,  or  they  held  intercourse  with  some  race  who  did;  a 
copper  axe  "cast"  has  been  found  in  the  State  of  New  York. 
(See  Lubbock's  "Prehistoric  Times,"  p.  254,  note.)  Professor 
Foster  ("Prehistoric  Races,"  p.  259)  also  proves  that  the  an- 
cient people  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  possessed  this  art,  and 
he  gives  us  representations  of  various  articles  plainly  showing 
the  marks  of  the  mould  upon  them. 


THE  COLONIES  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.        377 

A  rude  article  in  the  shape  of  an  axe,  composed  of  pure 
lead,  weighing  about  half  a  pound,  was  found  in  sinking  a  well 
within  the  trench  of  the  ancient  works  at  Circleville.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  it  was  the  production  of  the  Mound  Builders, 
as  galena  has  often  been  found  on  the  altars  in  the  mounds. 

It  has  been  generally  thought,  by  Mr.  Squier  and  others,  that 
there  were  no  evidences  that  the  Mound  Builders  were  ac- 
quainted with  the  use  of  iron,  or  that  their  plating  was  more 
than  a  simple  overlaying  of  one  metal  on  another,  or  on  some 
foreign  substance. 

Some  years  since,  however,  a  mound  was  opened  at  Marietta, 
Ohio,  which  seems  to  have  refuted  these  opinions.  Dr.  S.  P. 
Hildreth,  in  a  letter  to  the  American  Antiquarian  Society,  thus 
speaks  of  it : 

"  Lying  immediately  over  or  on  the  forehead  of  the  body 
were  found  three  large  circular  bosses,  or  ornaments  for  a 
sword-belt  or  buckler;  they  are  composed  of  copper  overlaid 
with  a  thick  plate  of  silver.  The  fronts  are  slightly  convex, 
with  a  depression  like  a  cup  in  the  centre,  and  they  measure 
two  inches  and  a  quarter  across  the  face  of  each.  On  the  back 
side,  opposite  the  depressed  portion,  is  a  copper  rivet  or  nail, 
around  which  are  two  separate  plates  by  which  they  were  fast- 
ened to  the  leather.  Two  small  pieces  of  leather  were  found 
lying  between  the  plates  of  one  of  the  bosses;  they  resemble 
the  skin  of  a  mummy,  and  seem  to  have  been  preserved  by  the 
salts  of  copper.  Near  the  side  of  the  body  was  found  a  plate 
of  silver,  which  appears  to  have  been  the  upper  part  of  a  sword 
scabbard ;  it  is  six  inches  in  length,  two  in  breadth,  and  weighs 
one  ounce.  It  seems  to  have  been  fastened  to  the  scabbard  by 
three  or  four  rivets,  the  holes  of  which  remain  in  the  silver. 

"Two  or  three  pieces  of  copper  tube  were  also  iowvidi, filled 
with  iron  rust.  These  pieces,  from  their  appearance,  composed 
the  lower  end  of  the  scabbard,  near  the  point  of  the  sword. 
No  signs  of  the  sword  itself  were  discovered,  except  the  rust 
above  mentioned. 

"The  mound  had  every  appearance  of  being  as  old  as  any 
in  the  neighborhood,  and  was  at  the  first  settlement  of  Marietta 
covered  with  large  trees.     It  seems  to  have  been  made  for  this 


378  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

single  personage,  as  this  skeleton  alone  was  discovered.  The 
bones  were  very  much  decayed,  and  many  of  them  crumbled  to 
dust  upon  exposure  to  the  air." 

Mr.  Squier  says,  "These  articles  have  been  critically  ex- 
amined, and  it  is  beyond  doubt  that  the  copper  bosses  were 
absolutely  plated,  not  simply  overlaid,  with  silver.  Between 
the  copper  and  the  silver  exists  a  connection  such  as,  it  seems 
to  me,  could  only  be  produced  by  heat;  and  if  it  is  admitted 
that  these  are  genuine  relics  of  the  Mound  Builders,  it  must,  at 
the  same  time,  be  admitted  that  they  possessed  the  difficult  art 
of  plating  one  metal  upon  another.  There  is  but  one  alterna- 
tive, viz.,  that  they  had  occasional  or  constant  intercourse  with 
a  people  advanced  in  the  arts,  from  whom  these  articles  were 
obtained.  Again,  if  Dr.  Hildreth  is  not  mistaken,  oxydized  iron 
or  steel  was  also  discovered  in  connection  with  the  above  re- 
mains, from  which  also  follows  the  extraordinary  conclusion 
that  the  Mound  Builders  were  acquainted  ivith  the  use  of  iron, 
the  conclusion  being,  of  course,  subject  to  the  improbable  alter- 
native already  mentioned." 

In  connection  with  this  subject,  we  would  refer  to  the  inter- 
esting evidences  that  the  copper  mines  of  the  shore  of  Lake 
Superior  had  been  at  some  very  remote  period  worked  by  the 
Mound  Builders.  There  were  found  deep  excavations,  with 
rude  ladders,  huge  masses  of  rock  broken  off,  also  numerous 
stone  tools,  and  all  the  evidences  of  extensive  and  long-contin- 
ued labor.  It  is  even  said  that  the  great  Ontonagon  mass  of 
pure  copper  which  is  now  in  Washington  was  excavated  by 
these  ancient  miners,  and  that  when  first  found  its  surface 
showed  numerous  marks  of  their  tools. 

There  seems  to  be  no  doubt,  then,  that  the  Mound  Builders 
were  familiar  with  the  use  of  copper,  silver,  and  lead,  and  in 
all  probability  of  iron.  They  possessed  various  mechanical 
contrivances.  They  were  very  probably  acquainted  with  the 
lathe.  Beads  of  shell  have  been  found,  looking  very  much  like 
ivory,  and  showing  the  circular  striae,  identical  ivith  those  pro- 
duced by  turning  in  a  lathe. 

In' a  mound  on  the  Scioto  River  was  found  around  the  neck 


THE  COLONIES  OF  THE  MISSISSIPFl    VALLEY.        379 

of  a  skeleton  triple  rows  of  beads,  made  of  marine  shells  and 
the  tusks  of  some  animal.  "  Several  of  these,"  says  Squier, 
"still  retain  their  polish,  and  bear  marks  which  seem  to  indicate 
that  they  were  turned  in  some  machine,  instead  of  being  carved 
or  rubbed  into  shape  by  hand." 

"  Not  among  the  least  interesting  and  remarkable  relics," 
continues  the  same  author,  "  obtained  from  the  mounds  are  the 
stone  tubes.  They  are  all  carved  from  fine-grained  materials, 
capable  of  receiving  a  polish,  and  being  made  ornamental  as 
well  as  useful.  The  finest  specimen  yet  discovered,  and  which 
can  scarcely  be  surpassed  in  the  delicacy  of  its  workmanship, 
was  found  in  a  mound  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  Chillicothe. 
It  is  composed  of  a  compact  variety  of  slate.  This  stone  cuts 
with  great  clearness,  and  receives  a  fine  though  not  glaring 
polish.  The  tube  under  notice  is  thirteen  inches  long  by  one 
and  one-tenth  in  diameter;  one  end  swells  slightly,  and  the 
other  terminates  in  a  broad,  flattened,  triangular  mouth-piece 
of  fine  proportions,  which  is  carved  with  mathematical  preci- 
sion. It  is  drilled  throughout ;  the  bore  is  seven-tenths  of  an 
inch  in  diameter  at  the  cylindrical  end  of  the  tube,  and  retains 
that  calibre  until  it  reaches  the  point  where  the  cylinder  sub- 
sides into  the  mouth-piece,  when  it  contracts  gradually  to  one- 
tenth  of  an  inch.  The  inner  surface  of  the  tube  is  perfectly 
smooth  till  within  a  short  distance  of  the  point  of  contraction. 
For  the  remaining  distance  the  circular  str ice,  formed  hy  the 
drill  in  boring,  are  distinctly  marked.  The  carving  upon  it  is 
very  fine." 

That  they  possessed  saws  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  on  some 
fossil  teeth  found  in  one  of  the  mounds  the  strioe  of  the  teeth 
of  the  saw  could  be  distinctly  perceived. 

When  we  consider  that  some  of  their  porphyry  carvings  will 
turn  the  edge  of  the  best-tempered  knife,  we  are  forced  to  con- 
clude that  they  possessed  that  singular  process,  known  to  the 
Mexicans  and  Peruvians,  of  tempering  copper  to  the  hardness 
of  steel. 


380  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

We  find  in  the  mounds  adzes  similar  in  shape  to  our  own, 
with  the  edges  bevelled  from  the  inside. 

Drills  and  gravers  of  copper  have  also  been  found,  with 
chisel-shaped  edges  or  sharp  points. 

"  It  is  not  impossible,"  says  Squier,  "  but,  on  the  contrary, 
very  •  probable,  from  a  close  inspection  of  the  mound  pottery, 
that  the  ancient  people  possessed  the  simple  approximation 
toward  the  potter's  wheel ;  and  the  polish  which  some  of  the 
finer  vessels  possess  is  due  to  other  causes  than  vitrification." 

Their  sculptures  show  a  considerable  degree  of  progress. 
They  consist  of  figures  of  birds,  animals,  reptiles,  and  the 
faces  of  men,  carved  from  various  kinds  of  stones,  upon  the 
bowls  of  pipes,  upon  toys,  upon  rings,  and  in  distinct  and  sepa- 
rate figures.  We  give  the  opinions  of  those  who  have  exam- 
ined them. 

Mr.  Squier  observes:  "Various  though  not  abundant  speci- 
mens of  their  skill  have  been  recovered,  which  in  elegance  of 
model,  delicacy,  and  finish,  as  also  in  fineness  of  material,  come 
fully  up  to  the  best  Peruvian  specimens,  to  which  they  bear,  in 
many  respects,  a  close  resemblance.  The  bowls  of  most  of  the 
stone  pipes  are  carved  in  miniature  figures  of  animals,  birds, 
reptiles,  etc.  All  of  them  are  executed  with  strict  fidelity  to 
nature,  and  with  exquisite  skill.  Not  only  are  the  features  of 
the  objects  faithfully  represented,  but  their  peculiarities  and 
habits  are  in  some  degree  exhibited.  .  .  .  The  two  heads  here 
presented,  intended  to  represent  the  eagle,  are  far  superior  in 
point  of  finish,  spirit,  and  truthfulness,  to  any  miniature  carv- 
ings, ancient  or  modern,  which  have  fallen  under  the  notice  of 
the  authors.  The  peculiar  defiant  expression  of  the  king  of 
birds  is  admirably  preserved  in  the  carving,  which  in  this  re- 
spect, more  than  any  other,  displays  the  skill  of  the  artist." 

Traces  of  cloth  with  "doubled  and  twisted  fibre"  have  been 
found  in  the  mounds ;  also  matting ;  also  shuttle-like  tablets, 
used  in  weaving.  There  have  also  been  found  numerous  musi- 
cal pipes,  with  mouth-pieces  and  stops ;  lovers'  pipes,  curiously 
and  delicately  carved,  reminding  us  of  Bryant's  lines — 


I 


THE  COLONIES  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.        383 

*'  Till  twilight  came,  and  lovers  walked  and  wooed 
In  a  forgotten  language;  and  old  tuties, 
From  instruments  of  un remembered  forms, 
Gave  the  soft  winds  a  voice." 

There  is  evidence  which  goes  to  prove  that  the  Mound 
Builders  had  relations  with  the  people  of  a  semi-tropical  re- 
gion in  the  direction  of  Atlantis.  Among  their  sculptures,  in 
Ohio,  we  find  accurate  representations  of  the  lamantinc,  mana- 
tee, or  sea-cow — found  to-day  on  the  shores  of  Florida,  Brazil, 
and  Central  America — and  of  the  toucan,  a  tropical  and  almost 
exclusively  South  American  bird.  Sea -shells  from  the  Gulf, 
pearls  from  the  Atlantic,  and  obsidian  from  Mexico,  have  also 
been  found  side  by  side  in  their  mounds. 

The  antiquity  of  their  works  is  now  generally  conceded. 
"  From  the  ruins  of  Nineveh  and  Babylon,"  says  Mr.  Glid- 
don,  "we  have  bones  of  at  least  two  thousand  five  hundred 
years  old ;  from  the  pyramids  and  the  catacombs  of  Egypt 
both  mummied  and  unmumraied  crania  have  been  taken,  of 
still  higher  antiquity,  in  perfect  preservation;  nevertheless,  the 
skeletons  deposited  in  our  Indian  mounds,  from  the  Lakes  to 
the  Gulf,  are  crumbling  into  dust  through  age  alone." 

All  the  evidence  points  to  the  conclusion  that  civilized  or 
semi-civilized  man  has  dwelt  on  the  Avestern  continent  from  a 
vast  antiquity.  Maize,  tobacco,  quinoa,  and  the  mandico  plants 
have  been  cultivated  so  long  that  their  wild  originals  have  quite 
disappeared. 

"  The  only  species  of  palm  cultivated  by  the  South  American 
Indians,  that  known  as  the  Gulielma  speciosa,  has  lost  through 
that  culture  its  original  nut-like  seed,  and  is  dependent  on  the 
hands  of  its  cultivators  for  its  life.  Alluding  to  the  above- 
named  plants  Dr.  Brinton  ("  Myths  of  the  New  World,"  p.  37) 
remarks,  '  Several  are  sure  to  perish  unless  fostered  by  human 
care.  What  numberless  ages  does  this  suggest?  How  many 
centuries  elapsed  ere  man  thought  of  cultivating  Indian  corn  ? 
How  many  more  ere  it  had  spread  over  nearly  a  hundred  de- 
grees of  latitude  and  lost  all  resemblance  to  its  original  form  V 


384  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

In  the  animal  kingdom  certain  animals  were  domesticated  by 
the  aborigines  from  so  remote  a  period  that  scarcely  any  of 
their  species,  as  in  the  case  of  the  lama  of  Pern,  were  to  be 
found  in  a  state  of  unrestrained  freedom  at  the  advent  of  the 
Spaniards."     (Short's  "  North  Americans  of  Antiquity,"  p.  11.) 

The  most  ancient  remains  of  man  found  in  Europe  are  dis- 
tinguished by  a  flattening  of  the  tibia;  and  this  peculiarity  is 
found  to  be  present  in  an  exaggerated  form  in  some  of  the 
American  mounds.     This  also  points  to  a  high  antiquity. 

"None  of  the  works,  mounds,  or  enclosures  are  found  on 
the  lowest  formed  of  the  river  terraces  which  mark  the  subsi- 
dence of  the  streams,  and  as  there  is  no  good  reason  why  their 
builders  should  hav^e  avoided  erecting  them  on  that  terrace 
while  they  raised  them  promiscuously  on  all  the  others,  it  fol- 
lows, not  unreasonably,  that  this  terrace  has  been  formed  since 
the  works  were  erected."  (Baldwin's  "Ancient  America," 
p.  47.) 

We  have  given  some  illustrations  showing  the  similarity  be- 
tween the  works  of  the  Mound  Builders  and  those  of  the  Stone 
and  Bronze  Age  in  Europe.  (See  pp.  251,  260,  261,  262,  265, 
266,  ante.) 

The  Mound  Builders  retreated  southward  toward  Mexico, 
and  probably  arrived  there  some  time  between  a.d.  29  and  a.d. 
231,  under  the  name  of  Nahuas.  They  called  the  region  they 
left  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  "  Hue  Hue  Tlapalan  " — the  old, 
old  red  land — in  allusion,  probably,  to  the  red-clay  soil  of  part 
of  the  country. 

In  the  mounds  we  find  many  works  of  copper  but  none  of 
bronze.  This  may  indicate  one  of  two  things:  either  the 
colonies  which  settled  the  Mississippi  Valley  may  have  left 
Atlantis  prior  to  the  discovery  of  the  art  of  manufacturing 
bronze,  by  mixing  one  part  of  tin  with  nine  parts  of  copper, 
or,  which  is  more  probable,  the  manufactures  of  the  Mound 
Builders  may  have  been  made  on  the  spot;  and  as  they  had 
no  tin  within  their  territory  they  used  copper  alone,  except,  it 


THE  COLONIES  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.       385 

may  be,  for  such  tools  as  were  needed  to  carve  stone,  and  these, 
perhaps,  were  hardened  witli  tin.  It  is  known  that  the  Mexi- 
cans possessed  the  art  of  manufacturing  true  bronze;  and  the 
intercourse  which  evidently  existed  between  Mexico  and  the 
Mississippi  Valley,  as  proved  by  the  presence  of  implements 
of  obsidian  in  the  mounds  of  Ohio,  renders  it  probable  that  the 
same  commerce  which  brought  them  obsidian  brought  them 
also  small  quantities  of  tin,  or  tin-hardened  copper  implements 
necessary  for  their  sculptures. 

The  proofs,  then,  of  the  connection  of  the  Mound  Builders 
with  Atlantis  are : 

1.  Their  race  identity  with  the  nations  of  Central  America 
who  possessed  Flood  legends,  and  whose  traditions  all  point  to 
an  eastern,  over-sea  origin ;  while  the  many  evidences  of  their 
race  identity  with  the  ancient  Peruvians  indicate  that  they  were 
part  of  one  ^reat  movement  of  the  human  race,  extending  from 
the  Andes  to  Lake  Superior,  and,  as  I  believe,  from  Atlantis  to 
India. 

2.  The  similarity  of  their  civilization,  and  their  works  of 
stone  and  bronze,  with  the  civilization  of  the  Bronze  Age  in 
Europe. 

3.  The  presence  of  great  truncated  mounds,  kindred  to  the 
pyramids  of  Central  America,  Mexico,  Egypt,  and  India. 

4.  The  representation  of  tropical  animals,  which  point  to  an 
intercourse  with  the  regions  around  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  where 
the  Atlanteans  were  colonized. 

5.  The  fact  that  the  settlements  of  the  Mound  Builders  were 
confined  to  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  and  were  apparently 
densest  at  those  points  where  a  population  advancing  up  that 
stream  would  first  reach  high,  healthy,  and  fertile  lands. 

6.  The  hostile  nations  which  attacked  them  came  from  the 
north;  and  when  the  Mound  Builders  could  no  longer  hold 
the  country,  or  when  Atlantis  sunk  in  the  sea,  they  retreated 
in  the  direction  whence  they  came,  and  fell  back  upon  their 
kindred  races  in  Central  America,  as  the  Roman  troops  in 

17 


386  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

Gaul   and   Britain   drew   southward  upon  the  destruction   of 
Rome. 

7.  The  Natchez  Indians,  who  are  supposed  to  have  descend- 
ed from  the  Mound  Builders,  kept  a  perpetual  fire  burning  be- 
fore an  altar,  watched  by  old  men  who  were  a  sort  of  priest- 
hood, as  in  Europe. 

8.  If  the  tablet  said  to  have  been  found  in  a  mound  near 
Davenport,  Iowa,  is  genuine,  which  appears  probable,  the  Mound 
Builders  must  either  have  possessed  an  alphabet,  or  have  held 
intercourse  with  some  people  who  did.  (See  "  North  Americans 
of  Antiquity,"  p.  38.)  This  singular  relic  exhibits  what  appears 
to  be  a  sacrificial  mound  with  afire  upon  it;  over  it  are  the  sun, 
moon,  and  stars,  and  above  these  a  mass  of  hieroglyphics  which 
bear  some  resemblance  to  tlie  letters  of  European  alphabets, 
and  especially  to  that  unknown  alphabet  which  appears  upon 
the  inscribed  bronze  celt  found  near  Rome.  (See  p.  258  of 
this  work.)  For  instance,  one  of  the  letters  on  the  celt  is  this, 
^{\  on  the  Davenport  tablet  we  find  this  sign,  ^EH  i  on  the 
celt  we  have  |^  ;  on  the  tablet,  ^ ;  on  the  celt  we  have  ^  ; 

on  the  tablet,  ^. 


THE  IBERIAN  COLONIES  OF  ATLANTIS.  387 


Chapter  IY. 

THE  IBERIAN  COLONIES  OF  ATLANTIS. 

At  the  farthest  point  in  the  past  to  which  human  knowl- 
eilo-e  extends  a  race  called  Iberian  inhabited  the  entire  penin- 
sula of  Spain,  from  the  Mediterranean  to  the  Pyrenees.  They 
also  extended  over  the  southern  part  of  Gaul  as  far  as  the  Rhone. 

"It  is  thought  that  the  Iberians  from  Atlantis  and  the 
north-west  part  of  Africa,"  says  Winchell,  "  settled  in  the  south- 
west of  Europe  at  a  period  earlier  than  the  settlement  of  the 
Egyptians  in  the  north-east  of  Africa.  The  Iberians  spread 
themselves  over  Spain,  Gaul,  and  the  British  Islands  as  early 
as  4000  or  5000  b.c.  .  .  .  The  fourth  dynasty  (of  the  Egyp- 
tians), according  to  Brugsch,  dates  from  about  3500  b.c.  At 
this  time  the  Iberians  had  become  sufficiently  powerful  to  at- 
tempt the  conquest  of  the  known  world."  ("  Preadamites," 
p.  443.) 

"  The  Libyan-Amazons  of  Diodorus — that  is  to  say,  the  Lib- 
yans of  the  Iberian  race — must  be  identified  with  the  Libyans 
with  brown  and  grizzly  skin,  of  whom  Brugsch  has  already 
pointed  out  the  representations  figured  on  the  Egyptian  monu- 
ments of  the  fourth  dynasty."     (Ibid.) 

The  Iberians,  known  as  Sicanes,  colonized  Sicily  in  the 
ancient  days.  They  were  the  original  settlers  in  Italy  and 
Sardinia.  They  are  probably  the  source  of  the  dark -haired 
stock  in  Norway  and  Sweden.  Bodichon  claims  that  the  Ibe- 
rians embraced  the  Ligurians,  Cantabrians,  Asturians,  and  Aqui- 
tanians.  Strabo  says,  speaking  of  the  Turduli  and  Turdetani, 
"  they  are  the  most  cultivated  of  all  the  Iberians ;  they  employ 
the  art  of  writing,  and  have  written  books  containing  meraori- 


388  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

als  of  ancient  times,  and  also  poems  and  laws  set  in  verse,  for 
which  they  claim  an  antiquity  of  six  thousand  years."  (Strabo, 
lib.  iii.,  p.  139.) 

The  Iberians  are  represented  to-day  by  the  Basques. 

The  Basques  are  "  of  middle  size,  compactly  built,  robust 
and  agile,  of  a  darker  complexion  than  the  Spaniards^  with  gray 
eyes  and  black  hair.  They  are  simple  but  proud,  impetuous, 
merry,  and  hospitable.  The  women  are  beautiful,  skilful  in 
performing  men's  work,  and  remarkable  for  their  vivacity  and 
grace.  The  Basques  are  much  attached  to  dancing,  and  are 
very  fond  of  the  music  of  the  bagpipe."  ("New  American 
Cyclopaedia,"  art.  Basques.) 

"  According  to  Paul  Broca  their  language  stands  quite  alone, 
or  has  mere  analogies  with  the  American  type.  Of  all  Euro- 
peans, we  must  provisionally  hold  the  Basques  to  be  the  oldest 
inhabitants  of  our  quarter  of  the  world."  (Peschel,  "  Races  of 
Men,"  p.  501.) 

The  Basque  language  —  the  Euscara — "has  some  common 
traits  with  the  Magyar,  Osmanli,  and  other  dialects  of  the  Altai 
family,  as,  for  instance,  with  the  Finnic  on  the  old  continent,  as 
well  as  the  Algonquin-Lenape  language  and  some  others  in  Amer- 
ica.''''    ("  New  American  Cyclopaedia,"  art.  Basques.) 

Duponceau  says  of  the  Basque  tongue : 

"  This  language,  preserved  in  a  corner  of  Europe  by  a  few 
thousand  mountaineers,  is  the  sole  remaining  fragment  of,  per- 
haps, a  hundred  dialects  constructed  on  the  same  plan,  which 
probably  existed  and  were  universally  spoken  at  a  remote  pe- 
riod in  that  quarter  of  the  world.  Like  the  bones  of  the  mam- 
moth, it  remains  a  monument  of  the  destruction  produced  by  a 
succession  of  ages.  It  stands  single  and  alone  of  its  kind,  sur- 
rounded by  idioms  that  have  no  affinity  with  it." 

We  have  seen  them  settling,  in  the  earliest  ages,  in  Ireland. 
They  also  formed  the  base  of  the  dark-haired  population  of 
England  and  Scotland.  They  seem  to  have  race  affinities  with 
the  Berbers,  on  the  MediteiTanean  coast  of  Africa. 


THE  IBERIAN  COLONIES  OF  ATLANTIS.  389 

Dr.  Bodichon,  for  fifteen  years  a  surgeon  in  Algiers,  says : 

"Persons  who  have  inhabited  Brittany,  and  then  go  to  Algeria, 
are  struck  with  the  resemblance  between  the  ancient  Armori- 
cans  (the  Bretons)  and  the  Cabyles  (of  Algiers).  In  fact,  the 
moral  and  physical  character  is  identical.  The  Breton  of  pure 
blood  has  a  long  head,  light  yellow  complexion  of  bistre  tinge, 
eyes  black  or  brown,  stature  short,  and  the  black  hair  of  the 
Cabyle.  Like  him,  he  instinctively  hates  strangers ;  in  both  are 
the  same  perverseness  and  obstinacy,  same  endurance  of  fatigue, 
same  love  of  independence,  same  inflexion  of  the  voice,  same 
expression  of  feelings.  Listen  to  a  Cabyle  speaking  his  native 
tongue,  and  you  will  think  you  hear  a  Breton  talking  Celtic." 

The  Bretons,  he  tells  us,  form  a  strong  contrast  to  the  peo- 
ple around  them,  who  are  "  Celts  of  tall  stature,  with  blue  eyes, 
white  skins,  and  blond  hair :  they  are  communicative,  impetu- 
ous, versatile  ;  they  pass  rapidly  from  courage  to  despair.  The 
Bretons  are  entirely  different :  they  are  taciturn,  hold  strongly 
to  their  ideas  and  usages,  are  persevering  and  melancholic ;  in 
a  word,  both  in  morale  and  physique  they  present  the  type  of  a 
southern  race — of  the  Atlanteansy 

By  Atlanteans  Dr.  Bodichon  refers  to  the  inhabitants  of  the 
Barbary  States — that  beipg  one  of  the  names  by  which  they 
were  known  to  the  Greeks  and  Romans.     He  adds : 

"  The  Atlanteans,  among  the  ancients,  passed  for  the  favorite 
children  of  Neptune;  they  made  known  the  worship  of  this 
god  to  other  nations — to  the  Egyptians,  for  example.  In  oth- 
er words,  the  Atlanteans  were  the  first  known  navigators.  Like 
all  navigators,  they  must  have  planted  colonies  at  a  distance. 
The  Bretons,  in  our  opinion,  sprung  from  one  of  them." 

Neptune  was  Poseidon,  according  to  Plato,  founder  of  At- 
lantis. 

I  could  multiply  proofs  of  the  close  relationship  between  the 
people  of  the  Bronze  Age  of  Europe  and  the  ancient  inhab- 
itants of  Northern  Africa,  which  should  be  read  remember- 
ing that  "connecting  ridge"  which,  according  to  the  deep-sea 
soundings,  united  Africa  and  Atlantis. 


390  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 


Chapter  Y. 

THE  PERUVIAN  COLONY. 

If  we  look  at  the  map  of  Atlantis,  as  revealed  by  the  deep- 
sea  soundings,  we  will  find  that  it  approaches  at  one  point,  by 
its  connecting  ridge,  quite  closely  to  the  shore  of  South  Amer- 
ica, above  the  mouth  of  the  Amazon,  and  that  probably  it  was 
originally  connected  with  it. 

If  the  population  of  Atlantis  expanded  westwardly,  it  natu- 
rally found  its  way  in  its  ships  up  the  magnificent  valley  of  the 
Amazon  and  its  tributaries ;  and,  passing  by  the  low  and  fever- 
stricken  lands  of  Brazil,  it  rested  not  until  it  had  reached  the 
high,  fertile,  beautiful,  and  healthful  regions  of  Bolivia,  from 
which  it  would  eventually  cross  the  mountains  into  Peru. 

Here  it  would  establish  its  outlying  colonies  at  the  terminus 
of  its  western  line  of  advance,  arrested  only  by  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  precisely  as  we  have  seen  it  advancing  up  the  valley  of 
the  Mississippi,  and  carrying  on  its  mining  operations  on  the 
shores  of  Lake  Superior;  precisely  as  we  have  seen  it  going 
eastward  up  the  Mediterranean,  past  the  Dardanelles,  and 
founding  Aryan,  Ilamitic,  and  probably  Turanian  colonies  on 
the  farther  shores  of  the  Black  Sea  and  on  the  Caspian.  This 
is  the  universal  empire  over  which,  the  Hindoo  books  tell  us, 
Deva  Nahusha  was  ruler;  this  was  "the  great  and  aggressive 
empire"  to  which  Plato  alludes;  this  was  the  mighty  kingdom, 
embracing  the  whole  of  the  then  known  world,  from  which 
the  Greeks  obtained  their  conception  of  the  universal  father 
of  all  men  in  King  Zeus.  And  in  this  universal  empire  Senor 
Lopez  must  find  an  explanation  of  the  similarity  which,  as  we 


THE  PERUVIAN  COLONY.  391 

shall  show,  exists  between  the  speech  of  the  South  American 
Pacific  coast  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  speech  of  Gaul,  Ireland, 
England,  Italy,  Greece,  Bactria,  and  Hindostan  on  the  other. 

Montesino  tells  us  that  at  some  time  near  the  date  of  the 
Deluge,  in  other  words,  in  the  highest  antiquity,  America  was 
invaded  by  a  people  with  four  leaders,  named  Ayar-manco- 
topa,  Ayar-chaki,  Ayar-aucca,  and  Ayar-uyssu.  "Ayar,"  says 
Senor  Lopez,  "  is  the  Sanscrit  Ajar,  or  aje,  and  means  primi- 
tive chief ;  and  manco,  chaki,  aucca,  and  uyssa,  mean  believers, 
wanderers,  soldiers,  husbandmen.  We  have  here  a  tradition  of 
castes  like  that  preserved  in  the  four  tribal  names  of  Athens." 
The  laboring  class  (naturally  enough  in  a  new  colony)  obtained 
the  supremacy,  and  its  leader  was  named  Pirhua-manco,  re- 
vealer  of  Pir,  light  (Tri/p,  Umbrian  pir).  Do  the  laws  which 
control  the  changes  of  language,  by  which  a  labial  succeeds  a 
labial,  indicate  that  the  Mero  or  Merou  of  Theopompus,  the 
name  of  Atlantis,  was  carried  by  the  colonists  of  Atlantis  to 
South  America  (as  the  name  of  old  York  was  transplanted  in 
a  later  age  to  New  York),  and  became  in  time  Perou  or  Peru  ? 
Was  not  the  Nubian  "  Island  of  Merou,"  with  its  pyratnids 
built  by  "  red  men,"  a  similar  transplantation  ?  And  when  the 
Hindoo  priest  points  to  his  sacred  emblem  with  five  projecting 
points  upon  it,  and  tells  us  that  they  typify  "  Mero  and  the 
four  quarters  of  the  world,"  does  he  not  refer  to  Atlantis  and 
its  ancient  universal  empire  ? 

Manco,  in  the  names  of  the  Peruvian  colonists,  it  has  been 
urged,  was  the  same  as  Mannus,  Manu,  and  the  Santhal  Maniko. 
It  reminds  us  of  Menes,  Minos,  etc.,  who  are  found  at  the  be- 
ginning of  so  many  of  the  Old  World  traditions. 

The  Quichuas — this  invading  people — were  originally  a  fair- 
skinned  race,  with  blue  eyes  and  light  and  even  auburn  hair; 
they  had  regular  features,  large  heads,  and  large  bodies.  Their 
descendants  are  to  this  day  an  olive-skinned  people,  much  lighter 
in  color  than  the  Indian  tribes  subjugated  by  them. 

They  were  a  great  race.    Peru,  as  it  was  known  to  the  Span- 


392  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

iards,  held  very  much  tlie  same  relation  to  the  ancient  Qnicliii.i 
civilization  as  England  in  the  sixteenth  century  held  to  the 
civilization  of  the  empire  of  the  Ca?sars.  The  Incas  were  sim- 
ply an  offshoot,  who,  descending  from  the  mountains,  subdued 
the  rude  races  of  the  sea-coast,  and  imposed  their  ancient  civil- 
ization upon  them. 

The  Quichua  nation  extended  at  one  time  over  a  region  of 
country  more  than  two  thousand  miles  long.  This  whole 
region,  when  the  Spaniards  arrived,  "  was  a  populous  and  pros- 
perous empire,  complete  in  its  civil  organization,  supported 
by  an  efficient  system  of  industry,  and  presenting  a  notable 
development  of  some  of  the  more  important  arts  of  civilized 
life."     (Baldwin's  "Ancient  America,"  p.  222.) 

The  companions  of  Pizarro  found  everywhere  the  evidences 
of  a  civilization  of  vast  antiquity.  Ciega  de  Leon  mentions 
"great  edifices"  that  were  in  ruins  at  Tiahuanaca,  "an  artificial 
hill  raised  on  a  groundwork  of  stone,"  and  "  two  stone  idols, 
apparently  made  by  skilful  artificers,"  ten  or  twelve  feet  high, 
clothed  in  long  robes.  "  In  this  place,  also,"  says  De  Leon, 
"there  are  stones  so  large  and  so  overgrown  that  our  wonder 
is  excited,  it  being  incomprehensible  how  the  power  of  man 
could  have  placed  them  where  we  see  them.  They  are  vari- 
ously wrought,  and  some  of  them,  having  the  form  of  men, 
must  have  been  idols.  Near  the  walls  are  many  caves  and  ex- 
cavations under  the  earth ;  but  in  another  place,  farther  west, 
are  other  and  greater  monuments,  such  as  large  gate-ways  with 
hinges,  platforms,  and  porches,  each  made  of  a  single  stone.  It 
surprised  me  to  see  these  enormous  gate-ways,  made  of  great 
masses  of  stone,  some  of  which  were  thirty,  feet  long,  fifteen 
high,  and  six  thick." 

The  capital  of  the  Chimus  of  Northern  Peru  at  Gran-Chimu 
was  conquered  by  the  Incas  after  a  long  and  bloody  struggle, 
and  the  capital  was  given  up  to  barbaric  ravage  and  spoliation. 
"  But  its  remains  exist  to-day,  the  marvel  of  the  Southern  Con- 
tinent, covering  not  less  than  twenty  square  miles.      Tombs, 


THE  PERUVIAN  COLONY.  393 

temples,  and  palaces  arise  on  every  hand,  ruined  but  still  trace- 
able. Immense  pyramidal  structures,  some  of  them  half  a 
mile  in  circuit;  vast  areas  shut  in  by  massive  walls,  each  con- 
taining^ its  water -tank,  its  shops,  municipal  edifices,  and  the 
dwellings  of  its  inhabitants,  and  each  a  branch  of  a  larger  or- 
ganization ;  prisons,  furnaces  for  smelting  metals,  and  almost 
every  concomitant  of  civilization,  existed  in  the  ancient  Chimu 
capital.  One  of  the  great  pyramids,  called  the  "  Temple  of  the 
Sun,"  is  812  feet  long  by  470  wide,  and  150  high.  These  vast 
structures  have  been  ruined  for  centuries,  but  still  the  work  of 
excavation  is  o-oino-  on. 

One  of  the  centres  of  the  ancient  Qiiichua  civilization  was 
around  Lake  Titicaca.  The  buildings  here,  as  throughout  Peru, 
were  all  constructed  of  hewn  stone,  and  had  doors  and  win- 
dows with  posts,  sills,  and  thresholds  of  stone. 

At  Cuelap,  in  Northern  Peru,  remarkable  ruins  were  found. 
"  They  consist  of  a  wall  of  wrought  stones  3600  feet  long, 
560  broad,  and  150  high,  constituting  a  solid  mass  with  a  level 
summit.  On  this  mass  was  another  600  feet  long,  500  broad, 
and  150  high,"  making  an  aggregate  height  of  three  hundred 
feet!     In  it  were  rooms  and  cells  which  were  used  as  tombs. 

Very  ancient  ruins,  showing  remains  of  large  and  remarkable 
edifices,  were  found  near  Huamanga,  and  described  by  Ciega  de 
Leon.  The  native  traditions  said  this  city  was  built  "  by  beard- 
ed lohite  men,  who  came  there  long  before  the  time  of  the 
Incas,  and  established  a  settlement." 

"  The  Peruvians  made  large  use  of  aqueducts,  which  they 
built  with  notable  skill,  using  hewn  stones  and  cement,  and 
making  them  very  substantial."  One  extended  four  hundred 
and  fifty  miles  across  sierras  and  over  rivers.  Think  of  a  stone 
aqueduct  reaching  from  the  city  of  New  York  to  the  State  of 
North  Carolina ! 

The  public  roads  of  the  Peruvians  were  most  remarkable; 
they  wero  built  on  masonry.  One  of  these  roads  ran  along 
the  mountains  through  the  whole  length  of  the  empire,  from 

17* 


394  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 

Quito  to  Chili;  another,  starting  from  this  at  Cuzco,  went  down 
to  the  coast,  and  extended  northward  to  the  equator.  These 
roads  were  from  twenty  to  twenty-five  feet  wide,  were  macad- 
amized with  pulverized  stone  mixed  with  lime  and  bituminous 
cement,  and  were  walled  in  by  strong  walls  "  more  than  a 
fathom  in  thickness."  In  many  places  these  roads  were  cut 
for  leagues  through  the  rock  ;  great  ravines  were  filled  up  with 
solid  masonry ;  rivers  were  crossed  by  suspension  bridges,  used 
here  ages  before  their  introduction  into  Europe.  Says  Bald- 
win, "  The  builders  of  our  Pacific  Railroad,  with  their  superior 
engineering  skill  and  mechanical  appliances,  might  reasonably 
shrink  from  the  cost  and  the  diflSculties  of  such  a  work  as  this. 
Extending  from  one  degree  north  of  Quito  to  Cuzco,  and  from 
Cuzco  to  Chili,  it  was  quite  as  long  as  the  two  Pacific  railroads^ 
and  its  w^ild  route  among  the  mountains  was  far  more  difficult." 
Sarmiento,  describing  it,  said,  "  It  seems  to  me  that  if  the  em- 
peror (Charles  V.)  should  see  fit  to  order  the  construction  of 
another  road  like  that  which  leads  from  Quito  to  Cuzco,  or 
that  which  from  Cuzco  goes  toward  Chili,  I  certainly  think 
lie  would  not  be  able  to  make  it,  with  all  his  power."  Hum- 
boldt said,  "  This  road  was  marvellous ;  none  of  the  Roman 
roads  I  had  seen  in  Italy,  in  the  south  of  France,  or  in  Spain, 
appeared  to  me  more  imposing  than  this  work  of  the  ancient 
Peruvians." 

Along  these  great  roads  caravansaries  were  established  for 
the  accommodation  of  travellers. 

These  roads  were  ancient  in  the  time  of  the  Incas.  They 
were  the  work  of  the  white,  auburn-haired,  bearded  men  from 
Atlantis,  thousands  of  years  before  the  time  of  the  Incas. 
"When  Huayna  Capac  marched  his  army  over  the  main  road  to 
invade  Quito,  it  was  so  old  and  decayed  "  that  he  found  great 
difficulties  in  the  passage,"  and  he  immediately  ordered  the 
necessary  reconstructions. 

It  is  not  necessary,  in  a  work  of  this  kind,  to  give  a  detailed 
description  of  the  arts  and  civilization  of  the  Peruvians.     They 


THE  PERUVIAN  COLONY.  395 

were  simply  marvellous.  Their  works  in  cotton  and  wool  ex- 
ceeded in  fineness  anything  known  in  Europe  at  that  time. 
They  had  carried  irrigation,  agriculture,  and  the  cutting  of 
gems  to  a  point  equal  to  that  of  the  Old  World.  Their  ac- 
cumulations of  the  precious  metals  exceeded  anything  pre- 
viously known  in  the  history  of  the  world.  In  the  course  of 
twenty-five  years  after  the  Conquest  the  Spaniards  sent  from 
Peru  to  Spain  more  than  eight  hundred  millions  of  dollars  of 
gold^  nearly  all  of  it  taken  from  the  Peruvians  as  "  booty."  In 
one  of  their  palaces  "  they  had  an  artificial  garden,  the  soil  of 
which  was  made  of  small  pieces  of  fine  gold,  and  this  was  arti- 
ficially planted  with  different  kinds  of  maize,  which  were  of 
gold,  their  stems,  leaves,  and  ears.  Besides  this,  they  had  more 
than  twenty  sheep  (llamas)  with  their  lambs,  attended  by  shep- 
herds, all  made  of  gold."  In  a  description  of  one  lot  of  golden 
articles,  sent  to  Spain  in  1534  by  Pizarro,  there  is  mention  of 
*'  four  llamas,  ten  statues  of  women  of  full  size,  and  a  cistern 
of  gold,  so  curious  that  it  excited  the  wonder  of  all." 

Can  any  one  read  these  details  and  declare  Plato's  descrip- 
tion of  Atlantis  to  be  fabulous,  simply  because  he  tells  us  of 
the  enormous  quantities  of  gold  and  silver  possessed  by  the 
people?  Atlantis  was  the  older  country,  the  parent  country, 
the  more  civilized  country ;  and,  doubtless,  like  the  Peruvians, 
its  people  regarded  the  precious  metals  as  sacred  to  their  gods ; 
and  they  had  been  accumulating  them  from  all  parts  of  the 
world  for  countless  ages.  If  the  story  of  Plato  is  true,  there 
now  lies  beneath  the  waters  of  the  Atlantic,  covered,  doubtless, 
by  hundreds  of  feet  of  volcanic  debris,  an  amount  of  gold  and 
silver  exceeding  many  times  that  brought  to  Europe  from  Peru, 
Mexico,  and  Central  America  since  the  time  of  Columbus;  a 
treasure  which,  if  brought  to  light,  would  revolutionize  the 
financial  values  of  the  world. 

I  have  already  shown,  in  the  chapter  upon  the  similarities 
between  the  civilizations  of  the  Old  and  New  Worlds,  some  of 
the  remarkable  coincidences  which  existed  between  the  Peru- 


396  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 

vians  aud  the  ancient  European  races ;  I  will  again  briefly  re- 
fer to  a  few  of  them  : 

1.  They  worshipped  the  sun,  moon,  and  planets. 

2.  They  believed  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul. 

3.  They  believed  in  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  and  accord- 
ingly embalmed  their  dead. 

4.  The  priest  examined  the  entrails  of  the  animals  offered  in 
sacrifice,  and,  like  the  Roman  augurs,  divined  the  future  from 
their  appearance. 

5.  They  had  an  order  of  women  vowed  to  celibacy — vestal 
virgins — nuns;  and  a  violation  of  their  vow  was  punished,  in 
both  continents,  by  their  being  buried  alive. 

6.  They  divided  the  year  into  twelve  months. 

7.  Their  enumeration  was  by  tens ;  the  people  were  divided 
into  decades  and  hundreds,  like  the  Anglo-Saxons;  and  the 
whole  nation  into  bodies  of  500,  1000,  and  10,000,  with  a  gov- 
ernor over  each. 

8.  They  possessed  castes ;  and  the  trade  of  the  father  de- 
scended to  the  son,  as  in  India. 

9.  They  had  bards  and  minstrels,  who  sung  at  the  great 
festivals. 

10.  Their  weapons  w^ere  the  same  as  those  of  the  Old 
World,  and  made  after  the  same  pattern. 

11.  They  drank  toasts  and  invoked  blessings. 

12.  They  built  triumphal  arches  for  their  returning  heroes, 
and  strewed  the  road  before  them  with  leaves  and  flowers. 

13.  They  used  sedan-chairs. 

14.  They  regarded  agriculture  as  the  principal  interest  of  the 
nation,  and  held  great  agricultural  fairs  and  festivals  for  the 
intercliange  of  the  productions  of  the  farmers. 

15.  The  king  opened  the  agricultural  season  by  a  great  cele- 
bration, and,  like  the  kings  of  Egypt,  he  put  his  hand  to  the 
plough,  and  ploughed  the  first  furrow. 

16.  They  had  an  order  of  knighthood,  in  which  the  candi- 
date knelt  before  the  king ;  his  sandals  were  put  on  by  a  no- 


THE  PERUVIAN  COLONY. 


397 


CYCLOPEAN  WALL,  GEEKCE. 


bleman,  very  mncli  as  the 
spurs  were  buckled  on  the 
European  knight;  he  was 
then  allowed  to  use  the 
girdle  or  sash  around  the 
loins,  corresponding  to  the 
toga  virilis  of  the  Romans ; 
he  was  then  crowned  with 
flowers.  According  to  Fernandez,  the  candidates  wore  white 
shirts,  like  the  knights  of  the  Middle  Ages,  with  a  cross  em- 
broidered in  front. 

17.  There  was  a  striking  resemblance  between  the  architect- 
ure of  the  Peruvians  and  that  of  some  of  the  nations  of  the 
Old  World.  It  is  enough  for  me  to  quote  Mr.  Ferguson's 
words,  that  the  coincidence  between  the  buildings  of  the  Incas 


^fe*JtC        'C.>U     3."^' 


OYOLOPKAN   MASONRY,  PEBU. 


398 


ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 


and  the  Cyclopean  remains  attributed  to  the  Pelasgians  in  Italy 
and  Greece,  "  is  the  most  remarkable  in  the  history  of  archi- 
tecture." 

The  illustrations  on  page  397  strikingly  confirm  Mr.  Fergu- 
son's views. 

"The  sloping  jambs,  the  window  cornice,  the  polygonal  ma- 
sonry, and  other  forms  so  closely  resemble  what  is  found  in  the 
old  Pelasgic  cities  of  Greece  and  Italy,  that  it  is  difficult  to  re- 
sist the  conclusion  that  there  may  be  some  relation  between 
them." 

Even  the  mode  of  decorating  their  palaces  and  temples  finds 
a  parallel  in  the  Old  World.     A  recent  writer  says : 

*'  We  may  end  by  observing,  what  seems  to  have  escaped 
Senor  Lopez,  that  the  interior  of  an  Inca  palace,  with  its  walls 


OWL-HEADED   VABE,  TEOY. 


OWL-HEADED   VASE,  PEKU. 


covered  with  gold,  as  described  by  Spaniards,  with  its  artificial 
golden  flowers  and  golden  beasts,  must  have  been  exactly  like 
the  interior  of  the  house  of  Alkinous  or  Menelaus — 


THE  PERUVIAN  COLONY. 


399 


"  *  The  doors  were  framed  of  gold, 
Where  underneath  the  brazen  floor  doth  glass 
Silver  pilasters,  which  with  grace  uphold 
Lintel  of  silver  framed ;  the  ring  was  burnished  gold, 
And  dogs  on  each  side  of  the  door  there  stand, 
Silver  and  golden.'  " 

"I  can  personally  testify"  (says  Winchell,  " Preadamites," 
p.  387)  "  that  a  study  of  ancient  Peruvian  pottery  has  constant- 
ly reminded  me  of  forms  with  which  we  are  familiar  in  Egyp- 
tian arcliseology." 

Dr.  Schliemann,  in  his  excavations  of  the  ruins  of  Troy, 
found  a  number  of  what  he  calls  "  owl-headed  idols"  and  vases. 
I  give  specimens  on  page  398  and  page  400. 

In  Peru  we  find  vases  with  very  much  the  same  style  of  face. 

I  might  pursue  those  parallels  much  farther;  but  it  seems  to 

me  that  these  extraordinary  coin-  

cidences  must  have  arisen  either 
from  identity  of  origin  or  long- 
continued  ancient  intercourse. 
There  can  be  little  doubt  that  a 
fair-skinned,  light-haired,  bearded 
race,  holding  the  religion  which 
Plato  says  prevailed  in  Atlantis, 
carried  an  Atlantean  civilization 
at  an  early  day  up  the  valley  of 
the  Amazon  to  the  heights  of  Bo- 
livia and  Peru,  precisely  as  a  sim- 
ilar emigration  of  Aryans  went 
westward  to  the  shores  of  the 
Mediterranean  and  Caspian,  and 
it  is  very  likely  that  these  diverse 
migrations  habitually  spoke  the  same  language. 

Sefior  Vincente  Lopez,  a  Spanish  gentleman  of  Montevideo, 
in  1872  published  a  work  entitled  "  Les  Races  Aryennes  in 
Perou,"  in  which  he  attempts  to  prove  that  the  great  Qui- 
chua  language,  which  the  Incas  imposed  on  their  subjects  over 


OWL-UKAUED    VASE,  PEBU. 


400 


ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN-  WOULD. 


a  vast  extent  of  territorv,  and  which  is  still  a  livinoj  tono-ue  in 
Peru  and  Bolivia,  is  really  a  branch  of  the  great  Aryan  or  Indo- 


OWL-HKADED  VASE,  TEOY. 


European  speech.     I  quote  Andrew  Lang's   summary  of  the 
proofs  on  this  point  : 

*'Senor  Lopez's  view,  that  the  Peruvians  were  Aryans  who 
left  the  parent  stock  long  before  the  Teutonic  or  Hellenic  races 
entered  Europe,  is  supported  by  arguments  drawn  from  Ian- 


THE  PERUVIAN  COLONY.  401 

guage,  from  the  traces  of  institutions,  from  relioious  beliefs, 
from  legendary  records,  and  artistic  remains.  The  evidence 
from  language  is  treated  scientifically,  and  not  as  a  kind  of  in- 
genious guessing.  Seiior  Lopez  first  combats  the  idea  that  the 
living  dialect  of  Peru  is  barbarous  and  fluctuating.  It  is  not 
one  of  the  casual  and  shifting  forms  of  speech  produced  by 
nomad  races.  To  which  of  the  stages  of  language  does  this 
belong — the  agglutinative,  in  which  one  root  is  fastened  on  to 
another,  and  a  word  is  formed  in  which  the  constitutive  ele- 
ments are  obviously  distinct,  or  the  inflexional,  where  the  aux- 
iliary roots  get  worn  down  and  are  only  distinguishable  by  the 
philologist?  As  all  known  Aryan  tongues  are  inflexional,  Senor 
Lopez  may  appear  to  contradict  himself  when  he  says  that 
Quichua  is  an  agglutinative  Aryan  language.  But  he  quotes 
Mr.  Max  Miiller's  opinion  that  there  must  have  been  a  tiine 
when  the  germs  of  Aryan  tongues  had  not  yet  reached  the  in- 
flexional stage,  and  shows  that  while  the  form  of  Quichua  is 
agglutinative,  as  in  Turanian,  the  roots  of  words  are  Aryan.  If 
tins  be  so,  Quichua  may  be  a  linguistic  missing  link. 

"  When  we  first  look  at  Quichua,  with  its  multitude  of  words 
beginning  with  Aw,  and  its  great  preponderance  of  q's/it  seems 
almost  as  odd  as  Mexican.  But  many  of  these  forms  are  due 
to  a  scanty  alphabet,  and  really  express  familiar  sounds ;  and 
many,  again,  result  from  the  casual  spelling  of  the  Spaniards. 
We  must  now  examine  some  of  the  forms  which  Aryan  roots 
are  supposed  to  take  in  Quichua.  In  the  first  place,  Quichua 
abhors  the  shock  of  two  consonants.  Thus,  a  word  like  irXioj 
in  Greek  would  be  unpleasant  to  the  Peruvian's  ear,  and  he 
says  pillui,  '  I  sail.'  The  plu,  again,  in  'phima,  a  feather,  is  said 
to  be  found  in  pillu,  '  to  fly.'  Quichua  has  no  v,  any  more 
than  Greek  has,  and  just  as  the  Greeks  had  to  spell  Roman 
words  beginning  with  Fwith  Ou^  like  Valerius — OvaXipiog — so, 
where  Sanscrit  has  v,  Quichua  has  sometimes  hu.  Here  is  a 
list  of  words  in  hu  : 

QinCUUA.  SANSCRtT. 

JIuakia,  to  call.  Face,  to  speak. 

Huasi,  a  house.  Vas,  to  inhabit. 

Huayra.,  air.,  avpa.  Vd,  to  breathe. 

Huasa,  the  back.  Vas,  to  be  able  {pouvoir). 

"  There  is  a  Sanscrit  root,  Arr,  to  act,  to  do  :  this  root  is  found 
in  more  than  three  hundred  names  of  peoples  and  places  in 


402  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

Soutbeni  America.  Thus  there  are  the  Caribs,  whose  name 
may  have  the  same  origin  as  that  of  our  old  friends  the  Ca- 
rians,  and  mean  the  Braves,  and  their  land  the  home  of  the 
Braves,  like  Kaleva-hi,  in  Finnish.  The  same  root  gives  karoj 
the  hand,  the  Greek  x^'P?  ^^^^  kkalli,  brave,  vvliich  a  person  of 
fancy  may  connect  with  koXoq.  Again,  Quichua  has  an  'alpha 
privative' — thus  A-stani  means  'I  change  a  thing's  place;'  for 
ni  or  mi  is  the  first  person  singular,  and,  added  to  the  root  of 
a  verb,  is  the  sign  of  the  first  person  of  the  present  indicative. 
For  instances,  can  means  being,  and  Can-mi, or  Cam,  is,  'I  am.' 
In  the  same  way  Munanmi,  or  3Iunani,  is  '  I  love,'  and  Apan- 
mi,  or  Apani,  '  I  carry.'  So  Lord  Strangford  was  wrong  when 
he  supposed  that  the  last  verb  in  mi  lived  with  the  last  patriot 
in  Lithuania.  Peru  has  stores  of  a  grammatical  form  which 
has  happily  perished  in  Europe.  It  is  impossible  to  do  more 
than  refer  to  the  supposed  Aryan  roots  contained  in  the  glos- 
sary, but  it  may  be  noticed  that  the  future  of  the  Quichuan 
verb  is  formed  in  s — I  love,  Munani;  I  shall  love,  Munasa — 
and  that  the  affixes  denoting  cases  in  the  noun  are  curiously 
like  the  Greek  prepositions." 

The  resemblance  between  the  Quichua  and  Mandan  words 
for  I  or  me — mi — will  here  be  observed. 

Very  recently  Dr.  Rudolf  Falb  has  announced  {Neue  Freie 
Presse,  of  Vienna)  that  he  has  discovered  that  the  relation  of 
the  Quichua  and  Aimara  languages  to  the  Aryan  and  Semitic 
tongues  is  very  close;  that,  in  fact,  they  "exhibit  the  most 
astounding  affinities  with  the  Semitic  tongue,  and  particularly 
the  Arabic,  in  which  tongue  Dr.  Falb  has  been  skilled  from  his 
boyhood.  Following  up  the  lines  of  this  discovery.  Dr.  Falb 
has  found  (l)  a  connecting  link  with  the  Aryan  roots,  and  (2) 
has  ultimately  arrived  face  to  face  with  the  surprising  revela- 
tion that  "  the  Semitic  roots  are  universally  Aryan."  The  com- 
mon stems  of  all  the  variants  are  found  in  their  purest  condi- 
tion in  Quichua  and  Aimara,  from  which  fact  Dr.  Falb  de- 
rives the  conclusion  that  the  high  plains  of  Peru  and  Bolivia 
must  be  regarded  as  the  point  of  exit  of  the  present  human 


THE  PERUVIAN  COLONY.  403 

[Since  the  above  was  written  I  have  received  a  letter  from 
Dr.  Falb,  dated  Leipsic,  April  5th,  1881.  Scholars  will  be  glad 
to  learn  that  Dr.  Falb's  great  work  on  the  relationship  of  the 
Aryan  and  Semitic  languages  to  the  Qiiichua  and  Aimara 
tongues  will  be  published  in  a  year  or  two ;  the  manuscript 
contains  over  two  thousand  pages,  and  Dr.  Falb  has  devoted 
to  it  ten  years  of  study.  A  work  from  such  a  source,  upon  so 
curious  and  important  a  subject,  will  be  looked  for  with  great 
interest.] 

But  it  is  impossible  that  the  Quichuas  and  Aimaras  could 
have  passed  across  the  wide  Atlantic  to  Europe  if  there  had 
been  no  stepping-stone  in  the  shape  of  Atlantis  with  its  bridge- 
like ridges  connecting  the  two  continents. 

It  is,  however,  more  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  Quichuas 
and  Aimaras  were  a  race  of  emigrants  from  Plato's  island  than 
to  think  that  Atlantis  was  populated  from  South  America. 
The  very  traditions  to  which  we  have  referred  as  existing 
among  the  Peruvians,  that  the  civilized  race  were  white  and 
bearded,  and  that  they  entered  or  invaded  the  country,  would 
show  that  civilization  did  not  originate  in  Peru,  but  was  a 
transplantation  from  abroad,  and  only  in  the  direction  of 
Atlantis  can  we  look  for  a  white  and  bearded  race. 

In  fact,  kindred  races,  with  the  same  arts,  and  speaking  the 
same  tongue  in  an  early  age  of  the  world,  separated  in  Atlan- 
tis and  went  east  and  west — the  one  to  repeat  the  civilization 
of  the  mother-country  along  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean 
Sea,  which,  like  a  great  river,  may  be  said  to  flow  out  from  the 
Black  Sea,  with  the  Nile  as  one  of  its  tributaries,  and  along 
the  shores  of  the  Red  Sea  and  the  Persian  Gulf;  while  the 
other  emigration  advanced  up  the  Amazon,  and  created  mighty 
nations  upon  its  head-waters  in  the  valleys  of  the  Andes  and 
on  the  shores  of  the  Pacific. 


404  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 


Chapter  YI. 

THE  AFRICAN  COLONIES. 

Africa,  like  Europe  and  America,  evidences  a  commingling 
of  different  stocks:  the  blacks  are  not  all  black,  nor  all  woolly- 
haired  ;  the  Africans  pass  through  all  shades,  from  that  of  the 
light  Berber,  no  darker  than  the  Spaniard,  to  the  deep  black  of 
the  lolofs,  between  Senegal  and  Gambia. 

The  traces  of  red  men  or  copper-colored  races  are  found  in 
many  parts  of  the  continent.  Prichard  divides  the  true  ne- 
groes into  four  classes  ;  his  second  class  is  thus  described : 

"2.  Other  tribes  have  forms  and  features  like  the  Euro- 
pean ;  their  complexion  is  black,  or  a  deej)  olive,  or  a  copper 
color  approaching  to  black,  while  their  hair,  though  often  crisp 
and  frizzled,  is  not  in  the  least  woolly.  Such  are  the  Bishari 
and  Danekil  and  Hazorta,  and  the  darkest  of  the  Abyssinians. 

"  The  complexion  and  hair  of  the  Abyssinians  vary  very 
much,  their  complexion  ranging  from  almost  white  to  dark 
brown  or  black,  and  their  hair  from  straight  to  crisp,  frizzled, 
and  almost  woolly."  (Nott  and  Gliddon,  *'  Types  of  Mankind," 
p.  194.) 

"  Some  of  the  Nubians  are  copper-colored  or  black,  with  a 
tinge  of  red."     {Ibid.,  p.  198.) 

Speaking  of  the  Barbary  States,  these  authors  further  say 
{Ibid.,  p.  204)  : 

"  On  the  northern  coast  of  Africa,  between  the  Mediterra- 
nean and  the  Great  Desert,  including  Morocco,  Algiers,  Tunis, 
Tripoli,  and  Bcnzazi,  there  is  a  continuous  system  of  high- 
lands, which  have  been  included  under  the  general  term  Atlas 
• — anciently  Atlantis,  now  the  Barbary  States.  .  .  .  Throughout 


THE  AFRICAN  COLONIES.  405 

Barbary  we  encounter  a  peculiar  group  of  races,  subdivided 
into  many  tribes  of  various  shades,  now  spread  over  a  vast 
area,  but  which  formerly  had  its  principal  and  perhaps  aborigi- 
nal abode  along  the  mountain  sloi^es  of  Atlas.  .  .  .  The  real 
name  of  the  Berbers  is  Mazirgh,  with  the  article  prefixed  or 
suffixed — T-amazirgh  or  Amazirgh-T — meaning /r^e,  dominant, 
or  '  noble  race.' .  .  .  We  have  every  reason  to  believe  the  Ber- 
bers existed  in  the  remotest  times,  with  all  their  essential  mor- 
al and  physical  peculiarities.  .  .  .  They  existed  in  the  time  of 
Menes  in  the  same  condition  in  which  they  were  discovered 
by  Phoenician  navigators  previously  to  the  foundation  of  Car- 
thage. They  are  an  indomitable,  nomadic  people,  who,  since 
the  introduction  of  camels,  have  penetrated  in  considerable 
numbers  into  the  Desert,  and  even  as  far  as  Nigritia.  .  .  . 
Some  of  these  clans  are  white,  others  black,  with  woolly  hair." 

Speaking  of  the  Barbary  Moors,  Prichard  says : 

"  Their  figure  and  stature  are  nearly  the  same  as  those  of 
the  southern  Europeans,  and  their  complexion,  if  darker,  is  only 
so  in  proportion  to  the  higher  temperature  of  the  country.  It 
displays  great  varieties." 

Jackson  says: 

"  The  men  of  Temsena  and  Showiah  are  of  a  strong,  robust 
make,  and  of  a  copper  color  ;  the  women  are  beautiful.  The 
women  of  Fez  are  fair  as  the  Europeans,  but  hair  and  eyes 
always  dark.  The  women  of  Mequinas  are  very  beautiful,  and 
have  the  red-and-ivhite  complexion  of  English  women.''"' 

Spix  and  Martins,  the  German  travellers,  depict  the  Moors  as 
follows : 

"  A  high  forehead,  an  oval  countenance,  large,  speaking, 
black  eyes,  shaded  by  arched  and  strong  eyebrows,  a  thin, 
rather  long,  but  not  too  pointed  nose,  rather  broad  lips,  meet- 
ing in  an  acute  angle,  brownish-yelloiv  com2yle.xion,t\\\Q\  smooth, 
and  black  hair,  and  a  stature  greater  than  the  middle  height." 

Hodgson  states : 

"  The  Tuarycks  are  a  luhite  people,  of  the  Berber  race ;  the 
Mozabiaks  are  a  remarkably  ivhite  people,  and  mixed  with  the 
Bedouin  Arabs.  The  Wadreagans  and  WurgeJans  are  of  a 
dark  bronze,  with  woolly  hair." 


406  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

The  Foolahs,  Fulbe  (sing.  Pullo),  Fellani,  or  Fellatah,  are  a 
people  of  West  and  Central  Africa.  It  is  the  opinion  of  mod- 
ern travellers  that  the  Foolahs  are  destined  to  become  the  dom- 
inant people  of  Negro-land.  In  language,  appearance,  and  histo- 
ry they  present  striking  differences  from  the  neighboring  tribes, 
to  whom  they  are  superior  in  intelligence,  but  inferior,  accord- 
ing to  Garth,  in  physical  development.  Golbery  describes  them 
as  "  robust  and  courageous,  of  a  reddish-hhick  color,  with  regu- 
lar features,  hair  longer  and  less  woolly  than  that  of  the  com- 
mon negroes,  and  high  mental  capacity."  Dr.  Barth  found 
great  local  differences  in  their  physical  characteristics,  as  Bowen 
describes  the  Foolahs  of  Bomba  as  being  some  black,  some 
almost  white,  and  many  of  a  mulatto  color,  varying  from  dark 
to  very  bright.  Their  features  and  skulls  were  cast  in  the  Eu- 
ropean mould.  They  have  a  tradition  that  their  ancestors  were 
whites,  and  certain  tribes  call  themselves  white  men.  They 
came  from  Timbuctoo,  which  lies  to  the  north  of  their  present 
location. 

The  Nubians  and  Foolahs  are  classed  as  Mediterraneans. 
They  are  not  black,  but  yellowish-brown,  or  red-hrown.  The 
hair  is  not  woolly  but  curly,  and  sometimes  quite  straight ;  it 
is  either  dark -brown  or  black,  with  a  fuller  growth  of  beard 
than  the  negroes.  The  oval  face  gives  them  a  Mediterranean 
type.  Their  noses  are  prominent,  their  lips  not  puffy,  and  their 
languages  have  no  connection  with  the  tongues  of  the  negroes 
proper.     ("American  Cyclopaedia,"  art.  Ethnoloffy,  p.  759.) 

"  The  Cromlechs  (dolmens)  of  Algeria "  was  the  subject  of 
an  address  made  by  General  Faidherbe  at  the  Brussels  Interna- 
tional Congress.  He  considers  these  structures  to  be  simply 
sepulchral  monuments,  and,  after  examining  five  or  six  thou- 
sand of  them,  maintains  that  the  dolmens  of  Africa  and  of  Eu- 
rope were  all  constructed  hy  the  same  race,  during  their  emi- 
gration from  the  shores  of  the  Baltic  to  the  southern  coast  of 
the  Mediterranean.  The  author  does  not,  however,  attempt  to 
explain  the  existence  of  these  monuments  in  other  countries — 


THE  AFRICAN  COLONIES. 


407 


Hindostan,  for  instance,  and  America.  "  In  Africa,"  be  says, 
"cromlechs  are  called  tombs  of  the  idolaters" — the  idolaters  be- 
ing neither  Romans,  nor  Christians,  nor  Phoenicians,  but  some 
antique  race.  He  regards  the  Berbers  as  the  descendants  of 
the  primitive  dolmen-builders.  Certain  Egyptian  monuments 
tell  of  invasions  of  Lower  Egypt  one  thousand  five  hundred 
years  before  our  era  by  blond  tribes  from  the  West.  The 
bones  found  in  the  cromlechs  are  those  of  a  large  and  dolicho- 
cephalous  race.  General  Faidherbe  gives  the  average  stature 
(including  the  women)  at  1.65  or  1.74  metre,  while  the  aver- 
age stature  of  French  carabineers  is  only  1.65  metre.  He  did 
not  find  a  single  brachycephalous  skull. 
The  profiles  indicated  great  intelligence. 
The  Egyptian  documents  already  refer- 
red to  call  the  invaders  Tamahu,  which 
must  have  come  from  the  invaders'  own 
language,  as  it  is  not  Egyptian.  The 
Tuaregs  of  the  present  day  may  be  re- 
garded as  the  best  representatives  of  the 
Tamahus.  They  are  of  lofty  stature, 
have  blue  eyes,  and  cling  to  the  custom 
of  bearing  long  swords,  to  be  wielded 
by  both  hands.  In  Soudan,  on  the 
banks  of  the  Niger,  dwells  a  negro  tribe 
ruled  bv  a  royal  family  (Masas),  who '^^*'^"^'^«*^«'^"''' ^'^^'^"'^-'^ 

■"  .  i'     .  n        1     •  MONUMENTS,  1500  B.O. 

are  of  rather  fair  complexion,  and  claim 

descent  from  white  men.  Masas  is  perhaps  the  same  as  Ma- 
skash,  which  occurs  in  the  Egyptian  documents  applied  to  the 
Tamahus.  The  Masas  wear  the  hair  in  the  same  fashion  as  the 
Tamahus,  and  General  Faidherbe  is  inclined  to  think  that  they 
too  are  the  descendants  of  the  dolmen-builders. 

These  people,  according  to  my  theory,  were  colonists  from 
Atlantis — colonists  of  three  different  races — white,  yellow,  and 
sunburnt  or  red. 


I 


408  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 


Chapter  YII. 

THE  IRISH  COLONIES  FROM  ATLANTIS. 

We  have  seen  that  beyond  question  Spain  and  France  owed 
a  great  part  of  their  population  to  Atlantis.  Let  us  turn  now 
to  Ireland. 

We  would  naturally  expect,  in  view  of  the  geographical  posi- 
tion of  ^he  country,  to  find  Ireland  colonized  at  an  early  day 
by  the  overflowing  population  of  Atlantis.  And,  in  fact,  the 
Irish  annals  tell  us  that  their  island  was  settled  prior  to  the 
Flood.  In  their  oldest  legends  an  account  is  given  of  three 
Spanish  fishermen  who  were  driven  by  contrary  winds  on  the 
coast  of  Ireland  before  the  Deluge.  After  these  came  the 
Formorians,  who  were  led  into  the  country  prior  to  the  Del- 
uge by  the  Lady  Banbha,  or  Kesair;  her  maiden  name  was 
h'Erni,  or  Berba;  she  was  accompanied  by  fifty  maidens  and 
three  men — Bith,  Ladhra,  and  Fintain.  Ladhra  was  their  con- 
ductor, who  was  the  first  buried  in  Hibernia.  That  ancient 
book,  the  "Cin  of  Drom-Snechta,"  is  quoted  in  the  "Book  of 
Ballymote"  as  authority  for  this  legend. 

The  Irish  annals  speak  of  the  Formorians  as  a  warlike  race, 
■who,  according  to  the  "Annals  of  Clonmacnois,"  "were  a  sept 
descended  from  Cham,  the  son  of  Noeh,  and  lived  by  pyracie 
and  spoile  of  other  nations,  and  were  in  those  days  veiy  trou- 
blesome to  the  whole  world.'''' 

Were  not  these  the  inhabitants  of  Atlantis,  who,  according 
to  Plato,  carried  their  arms  to  Egypt  and  Athens,  and  whose 
subsequent  destruction  has  been  attributed  to  divine  vengeance 
invoked  by  their  arrogance  and  oppressions  ? 


THE  IRISH  COLONIES  FROM  ATLANTIS.  409 

The  Fonnorians  were  from  Atlantis.  They  were  called  Fom- 
horaiccy  F''omoraig  Afraic,  and  Formoragh,  which  has  been  ren- 
dered into  English  as  Fonnorians.  They  possessed  ships,  and 
the  uniform  representation  is  that  they  came,  as  the  name 
F^omoraig  Afraic  indicated,  from  Africa.  But  in  that  day 
Africa  did  not  mean  the  continent  of  Africa,  as  we  now  under- 
stand it.  Major  Wilford,  in  the  eighth  volume  of  the  "Asiatic 
Researches,"  has  pointed  out  that  Africa  comes  from  Apar^ 
Aphar,  Apara,  or  Aparica,  terms  used  to  signify  "  the  West," 
just  as  we  now  speak  of  the  Asiatic  world  as  "  the  East." 
When,  therefore,  the  Formorians  claimed  to  come  from  Africa, 
they  simply  meant  that  they  came  from  the  West — in  other 
words,  from  Atlantis — for  there  was  no  other  country  except 
America  west  of  them. 

They  possessed  Ireland  from  so  early  a  period  that  by  some 
of  the  historians  they  are  spoken  of  as  the  aborigines  of  the 
country. 

The  first  invasion  of  Ireland,  subsequent  to  the  coming  of 
the  Formorians,  was  led  by  a  chief  called  Partholan :  his  people 
are  known  in  the  Irish  annals  as  "Partholan's  people."  They 
were  also  probably  Atlanteans.  They  were  from  Spain.  A 
British  prince,  Gulguntius,  or  Gurmund,  encountered  off  the 
Hebrides  a  fleet  of  thirty  ships,  filled  with  men  and  women, 
led  by  one  Partholyan,  who  told  him  they  were  from  Sjyain, 
and  seeking  some  place  to  colonize.  The  British  prince  direct- 
ed him  to  Ireland.     ("  De  Antiq.  et  Orig.  Cantab.") 

Spain  in  that  day  was  the  land  of  the  Iberians,  the  Basques ; 
that  is  to  say,  the  Atlanteans. 

The  Formorians  defeated  Partholan's  people,  killed  Partho- 
lan, and  drove  the  invaders  out  of  the  country. 

The  Formorians  were  a  civilized  race ;  they  had  "  a  fleet  of 
sixty  ships  and  a  strong  army." 

The  next  invader  of  their  dominions  was  Neimhidh;  he 
captured  one  of  their  fortifications,  but  it  was  retaken  by  the 
Formorians  under  "  More."     Neimhidh  was  driven  out  of  the 

18 


410  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

country,  and  the  Atlanteans  continued  in  undisturbed  possession 
of  the  island  for  four  hundred  years  more.  Then  came  the 
Fir-Bolgs.  They  conquered  the  whole  island,  and  divided  it 
into  five  provinces.  They  lield  possession  of  the  country  for 
only  thirty-seven  years,  when  they  were  overthrown  by  the 
Tuatha-de-Dananns,  a  people  more  advanced  in  civilization ;  so 
much  so  that  when  their  king,  Nuadha,  lost  his  hand  in  battle, 
"  Creidne,  the  artificer,"  we  are  told,  "  put  a  silver  hand  upon 
him,  the  fingers  of  which  were  capable  of  motion."  This 
great  race  ruled  the  country  for  one  hundred  and  ninety- 
seven  years:  they  were  overthrown  by  an  immigration  from 
Spain,  probably  of  Basques,  or  Iberians,  or  Atlanteans,  "  the 
sons  of  Milidh,"  or  Milesius,  who  "  possessed  a  large  fleet  and 
a  strong  army."  This  last  invasion  took  place  about  the  year 
IVOO  B.C.;  so  that  the  invasion  of  Neimhidh  must  have  oc- 
curred about  the  year  2334  b.c.  ;  while  we  will  have  to  assign 
a  still  earlier  date  for  the  coming  of  Partholan's  people,  and  an 
earlier  still  for  the  occupation  of  the  country  by  the  Formori- 
ans  from  the  West. 

In  the  Irish  historic  tales  called  "Catha;  or  Battles,"  as  given 
by  the  learned  O'Curry,  a  record  is  preserved  of  a  great  battle 
which  was  fought  between  the  Tuatha-de-Dananns  and  the  Fir- 
Bolgs,  from  which  it  appears  that  these  two  races  spoke  the 
same  language,  and  that  they  were  intimately  connected  with 
the  Formorians.  As  the  armies  drew  near  together  the  Fir- 
Bolgs  sent  out  Breas,  one  of  their  great  chiefs,  to  reconnoitre 
the  camp  of  the  strangers ;  the  Tuatha-de-Dananns  appointed 
one  of  their  champions,  named  Sreng,  to  meet  the  emissary 
of  the  enemy ;  the  two  warriors  met  and  talked  to  one  another 
over  the  tops  of  their  shields,  and  each  was  delighted  to  find 
that  the  other  spoke  the  same  language.  A  battle  followed,  in 
which  Nunda,  king  of  the  Fir-Bolgs,  was  slain  ;  Breas  succeed- 
ed him ;  he  encountered  the  hostility  of  the  bards,  and  was 
compelled  to  resign  the  crown.  He  went  to  the  court  of  his 
father-in-law,  Elathe,  a  Formorian  sea-king  or  pirate;  not  being 


THE  miSH  COLONIES  FROM  ATLANTIS.  411 

well  received,  he  repaired  to  the  camp  of  Balor  of  the  Evil  Eye, 
a  Formorian  chief.  The  Forniorian  head-qnarters  seem  to  have 
been  in  the  Hebrides.  Breas  and  Balor  collected  a  vast  array 
and  navy  and  invaded  Ireland,  but  were  defeated  in  a  great 
battle  by  the  Tuatha-de-Dananns. 

These  particulars  would  show  the  race-identity  of  the  Fir- 
Bolgs  and  Tuatha-de-Dananns;  and  also  their  intimate  con- 
nection, if  not  identity  with,  the  Forraorians. 

The  Tuatha-de-Dananns  seem  to  have  been  a  civilized  peo- 
ple ;  besides  possessing  ships  and  armies  and  working  in  the 
metals,  they  had  an  organized  body  of  surgeons,  whose  duty  it 
was  to  attend  upon  the  wounded  in  battle ;  and  they  had  also 
a  bardic  or  Druid  class,  to  preserve  the  history  of  the.  country 
and  the  deeds  of  kings  and  heroes. 

According  to  the  ancient  books  of  Ireland  the  race  known  as 
"  Partholan's  people,"  the  Nemedians,  the  Fir-Bolgs,  the  Tua- 
tha-de-Dananns, and  the  Milesians  were  all  descended  from  two 
brothers,  sons  of  Magog,  son  of  Japheth,  son  of  Noah,  who 
escaped  from  the  catastrophe  which  destroyed  his  country. 
Thus  all  these  races  were  Atlantean.  They  were  connected  with 
the  African  colonies  of  Atlantis,  the  Berbers,  and  with  the 
Egyptians.  The  Milesians  lived  in  Egypt :  they  were  expelled 
thence ;  they  stopped  a  while  in  Crete,  then  in  Scythia,  then 
they  settled  in  Africa  (See  MacGeoghegan's  "  History  of  Ire- 
land," p.  57),  at  a  place  called  Gsethulighe  or  Getulia,  and  lived 
there  during  eight  generations,  say  two  hundred  and  fifty  years; 
"  then  they  entered  Spain,  where  they  built  Brigantia,  or  Bri- 
ganza,  named  after  their  king  Breogan :  they  dwelt  in  Spain  a 
considerable  time.  Milesius,  a  descendant  of  Breogan,  went  on 
an  expedition  to  Egypt,  took  part  in  a  war  against  the  Ethio- 
pians, married  the  king's  daughter,  Scota :  he  died  in  Spain, 
but  his  people  soon  after  conquered  Ireland.  On  landing  on 
the  coast  they  offered  sacrifices  to  Neptune  or  Poseidon" — the 
god  of  Atlantis.     (Tbid.,  p.  58.) 

The  Book  of  Genesis  (chap,  x.)  gives  us  the  descendants 


412  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

of  Noah's  three  sons,  Shem,  Ham,  and  Japheth.  We  are  told 
that  the  sons  of  Japheth  were  Gomer,  and  Magog,  and  Madai, 
and  Javan,  and  Tubal,  and  Meshech,  and  Tiras.  We  are  then 
given  the  names  of  the  descendants  of  Gomer  and  Javan,  but 
not  of  Magog.  Josephus  says  the  sons  of  Magog  were  the 
Scythians.  The  Irish  annals  take  up  the  genealogy  of  Magog's 
family  where  the  Bible  leaves  it.  The  Book  of  Invasions,  the 
"  Cin  of  Drom-Snechta,"  claims  that  these  Scythians  were  the 
Phoenicians ;  and  we  are  told  that  a  branch  of  this  family  were 
driven  out  of  Egypt  in  the  time  of  Moses :  "  He  wandered 
through  Africa  for  forty-two  years,  and  passed  by  the  lake  of  ■ 
SalivcE  to  the  altars  of  the  Philistines,  and  between  Rusicada 
and  the  mountains  Azure,  and  he  came  by  the  river  Monlon, 
and  by  the  sea  to  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  and  through  the 
Tuscan  sea,  and  he  made  for  Spain,  and  dwelt  there  many 
years,  and  he  increased  and  multiplied,  and  his  people  were 
multiplied." 

From  all  these  facts  it  appears  that  the  population  of  Ireland 
came  from  the  West,  and  not  from  Asia — that  it  was  one  of  the 
many  waves  of  population  flowing  out  from  the  Island  of  At- 
lantis— and  herein  we  find  the  explanation  of  that  problem 
which  has  puzzled  the  Aryan  scholars.  As  Ireland  is  farther 
from  the  Punjab  than  Persia,  Greece,  Rome,  or  Scandinavia,  it 
would  follow  that  the  Celtic  wave  of  migration  must  have  been 
the  earliest  sent  out  from  the  Sanscrit  centre ;  but  it  is  now 
asserted  by  Professor  Schleicher  and  others  that  the  Celtic 
tongue  shows  that  it  separated  from  the  Sanscrit  original  tongue 
later  than  the  others,  and  that  it  is  more  closely  allied  to  the 
Latin  than  any  other  Aryan  tongue.  This  is  entirely  inexpli- 
cable upon  any  theory  of  an  Eastern  origin  of  the  Indo-Euro- 
pean races,  but  very  easily  understood  if  we  recognize  the  Aryan 
and  Celtic  migrations  as  going  out  about  the  same  time  from 
the  Atlantean  fountain-head. 

There  are  many  points  confirmatory  of  this  belief.  In  the 
first  place,  the  civilization  of  the  Irish  dates  back  to  a  vast 


THE  IRISH  COLONIES  FROM  ATLANTIS.  413 

antiquity.  We  have  seen  tlieir  annals  laying  claim  to  an  im- 
migration from  the  direction  of  Atlantis  prior  to  the  Deluge, 
with  no  record  that  the  people  of  Ireland  were  subsequently 
destroyed  by  the  Deluge.  From  the  Formorians,  who  came  be- 
fore the  Deluge,  to  the  Milesians,  who  came  from  Spain  in  the 
Historic  Period,  the  island  was  continuously  inhabited.  This 
demonstrates  (l)  that  these  legends  did  not  come  from  Chris- 
tian sources,  as  the  Bible  record  was  understood  in  the  old 
time  to  imply  a  destruction  of  all  who  lived  before  the  Flood 
except  Noah  and  his  family ;  (2)  it  confirms  our  view  that  the 
Deluge  was  a  local  catastrophe,  and  did  not  drown  the  whole 
human  family ;  (3)  that  the  coming  of  the  Formorians  having 
been  before  the  Deluge,  that  great  cataclysm  was  of  compara- 
tively recent  date,  to  wit,  since  the  settlement  of  Ireland ;  and 
(4)  that  as  the  Deluge  was  a  local  catastrophe,  it  must  have 
occurred  somewhere  not  far  from  Ireland  to  have  come  to 
their  knowledge.  A  rude  people  could  scarcely  have  heard 
in  that  day  of  a  local  catastrophe  occurring  in  the  heart  of 
Asia. 

There  are  many  evidences  that  the  Old  World  recognized  Ire- 
land as  possessing  a  very  ancient  civilization.  In  the  Sanscrit 
books  it  is  referred  to  as  Hiranya,  the  "  Island  of  the  Sun,"  to 
wit,  of  sun-worship ;  in  other  words,  as  pre-eminently  the  cen- 
tre of  that  religion  which  was  shared  by  all  the  ancient  races 
of  Europe,  Asia,  Africa,  and  America.  It  is  believed  that  Ire- 
land was  the  "  Garden  of  Phoebus"  of  the  Western  mythologists. 

The  Greeks  called  Ireland  the  "  Sacred  Isle  "  and  "  Ogygia." 
"  Nor  can  any  one,"  says  Camden,  "  conceive  why  they  should 
call  it  Ogygia,  unless,  perhaps,  from  its  antiquity;  for  the 
Greeks  called  nothing  Ogygia  unless  what  was  extremely  an- 
cient." We  have  seen  that  Ogyges  was  connected  by  the 
Greek  legends  with  a  first  deluge,  and  that  Ogyges  was  "a 
quite  mythical  personage,  lost  in  the  night  of  ages." 

It  appears,  as  another  confirmation  of  the  theory  of  the 
Atlantis  origin   of  these  colonies,  that  their  original  religion 


414  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 

was  sun-worship ;  this,  as  was  the  case  in  other  countries,  be- 
came subsequently  overlaid  with  idol-worship.  In  the  reign  of 
King  Tighernmas  the  worship  of  idols  was  introduced.  The 
priests  constituted  the  Order  of  Druids.  Naturally  many  an- 
alogies have  been  found  to  exist  between  the  beliefs  and  cus- 
toms of  the  Druids  and  the  other  religions  which  were  drawn 
from  Atlantis.  We  have  seen  in  the  chapter  on  sun-worship 
how  extensive  this  form  of  religion  was  in  the  Atlantean  days, 
both  in  Europe  and  America. 

It  would  appear  probable  that  the  religion  of  the  Druids 
passed  from  Ireland  to  England  and  France.  The  metemp- 
sychosis or  transmigration  of  souls  was  one  of  the  articles  of 
their  belief  long  before  the  time  of  Pythagoras;  it  had  prob- 
ably been  drawn  from  the  storehouse  of  Atlantis,  whence  it 
passed  to  the  Druids,  the  Greeks,  and  the  Hindoos.  The  Druids 
had  a  pontifex  maximus  to  whom  they  yielded  entire  obedi- 
ence. Here  again  we  see  a  practice  which  extended  to  the 
Phoenicians,  Egyptians,  Hindoos,  Peruvians,  and  Mexicans. 

The  Druids  of  Gaul  and  Britain  offered  human  sacrifices, 
while  it  is  claimed  that  the  Irish  Druids  did  not.  This  would 
appear  to  have  been  a  corrupt  after-growth  imposed  upon  the 
earlier  and  purer  sacrifice  of  fruits  and  flowers  known  in  Atlan- 
tis, and  due  in  part  to  greater  cruelty  and  barbarism  in  their 
descendants.  Hence  we  find  it  practised  in  degenerate  ages 
on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic. 

The  Irish  Druidical  rites  manifested  themselves  principally 
in  sun-worship.  Their  chief  god  was  Bel  or  Baal — the  same 
worshipped  by  the  Phoenicians — the  god  of  the  sun.  The  Irish 
name  for  the  sun,  Grian,  is,  according  to  Virgil,  one  of  the 
names  of  Apollo  —  another  sun-god,  Gryneus.  Sun-worship 
continued  in  Ireland  down  to  the  time  of  St.  Patrick,  and  some 
of  its  customs  exist  among  the  peasantry  of  that  country  to 
this  day.  We  have  seen  that  among  the  Peruvians,  Romans, 
and  other  nations,  on  a  certain  day  all  fires  were  extinguish- 
ed throuirhout  the  kingdom,  and  a  new  fire  kindled  at  the 


THE  HUSH  COLONIES  FJiOM  ATLANTIS.  415 

chief  temple  by  the  sun's  rays,  from  which  the  people  obtained 
their  fire  for  the  coming  year.  In  Ireland  the  same  practice 
was  found  to  exist.  A  piece  of  land  was  set  apart,  where  the 
four  provinces  met,  in  the  present  county  of  Meath ;  here,  at  a 
palace  called  Tlachta,  the  divine  fire  was  kindled.  Upon  the 
night  of  what  is  now  AU-Saints-day  the  Druids  assembled  at 
this  place  to  offer  sacrifice,  and  it  was  established,  under  heavy 
penalties,  that  no  fire  should  be  kindled  except  from  this  source. 
On  the  first  of  May  a  convocation  of  Druids  was  held  in  the 
royal  palace  of  the  King  of  Connaught,  and  two  fires  were  lit, 
between  which  cattle  were  driven,  as  a  preventive  of  murrain 
and  other  pestilential  disorders.  This  was  called  Beltinne,  or 
the  day  of  Bel's  fire.  And  unto  this  day  the  Irish  call  the  first 
day  of  May  "  Lha-Beul-tinne,"  which  signifies  "  the  day  of  Bel's 
fire."  The  celebration  in  Ireland  of  St.  John's-eve  by  watch- 
fires  is  a  relic  of  the  ancient  sun-worship  of  Atlantis.  The  prac- 
tice of  driving  cattle  through  the  fire  continued  for  a  long  time, 
and  Kelly  mentions  in  his  "Folk-lore"  that  in  Northampton- 
shire, in  England,  a  calf  was  sacrificed  in  one  of  these  fires  to 
"  stop  the  murrain  "  during  the  present  century.  Fires  are  still 
lighted  in  England  and  Scotland  as  well  as  Ireland  for  super- 
stitious purposes ;  so  that  the  people  of  Great  Britain,  it  may 
be  said,  are  still  in  some  sense  in  the  midst  of  the  ancient  sun- 
worship  of  Atlantis. 

We  find  among  the  Irish  of  to-day  many  Oriental  customs. 
The  game  of  "  jacks,"  or  throwing  up  five  pebbles  and  catch- 
ing them  on  the  back  of  the  hand,  was  known  in  Rome.  "The 
Irish  keen  (caoine),  or  the  lament  over  the  dead,  may  still  be 
heard  in  Algeria  and  Upper  Egypt,  even  as  Herodotus  heard 
it  chanted  by  the  Libyan  women."  The  same  practice  exist- 
ed among  the  Egyptians,  Etruscans,  and  Romans.  The  Irish 
wakes  are  identical  with  the  funeral  feasts  of  the  Greeks,  Etrus- 
cans, and  Romans.  (Cusack's  "History  of  Ireland,"  p.  141.) 
The  Irish  custom  of  saying  "  God  bless  you !"  when  one 
sneezes,  is  a  very  ancient  practice ;  it  was  known  to  the  Ro- 


416  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

mans,  and  referred,  it  is  said,  to  a  plague  in  the  remote  past, 
whose  first  symptom  was  sneezing. 

We  find  many  points  of  resemblance  between  the  customs 
of  the  Irish  and  those  of  the  Hindoo.  The  practice  of  the 
creditor  fasting  at  the  door-step  of  his  debtor  until  he  is  paid, 
is  known  to  both  countries ;  the  kindly  "  God  save  you !"  is  the 
same  as  the  Eastern  "  God  be  gracious  to  you,  my  son  !"  The 
reverence  for  the  wren  in  Ireland  and  Scotland  reminds  us 
of  the  Oriental  and  Greek  respect  for  that  bird.  The  prac- 
tice of  pilgrimages,  fasting,  bodily  macerations,  and  devotion 
to  holy  wells  and  particular  places,  extends  from  Ireland  to 
India. 

All  these  things  speak  of  a  common  origin ;  this  fact  has 
been  generally  recognized,  but  it  has  always  been  interpreted 
that  the  Irish  came  from  the  East,  and  were  in  fact  a  migration 
of  Hindoos.  There  is  not  the  slightest  evidence  to  sustain  this 
theory.  The  Hindoos  have  never  within  the  knowledge  of  man 
sent  out  colonies  or  fleets  for  exploration ;  but  there  is  abun- 
dant evidence,  on  the  other  hand,  of  migrations  from  Atlantis 
eastward.  And  how  could  the  Sanscrit  writings  liave  pre- 
served maps  of  Ireland,  England,  and  Spain,  giving  the  shape 
and  outline  of  their  coasts,  and  their  very  names,  and  yet  have 
preserved  no  memory  of  the  expeditions  or  colonizations  by 
which  they  acquired  that  knowledge  ? 

Another  proof  of  our  theory  is  found  in  "the  round-towers" 
of  Ireland.  Attempts  have  been  made  to  show,  by  Dr.  Petrie 
and  others,  that  these  extraordinary  structures  are  of  modern 
origin,  and  were  built  by  the  Christian  priests,  in  which  to  keep 
their  church-plate.  But  it  is  shown  that  the  "Annals  of  Ul- 
ster" mention  the  destruction  of  fifty-seven  of  them  by  an  earth- 
quake in  A.D.  448;  and  Giraldus  Cambrensis  shows  that  Lough 
Neagh  was  created  by  an  inundation,  or  sinking  of  the  land,  in 
A.D.  05,  and  that  in  his  day  the  fishermen  could 

"  See  the  round-towers  of  other  days 
In  the  waves  beneath  them  shinina;." 


THE  IRISH  COLONIES  FROM  ATLANTIS. 


417 


Moreover,  we  find  Diodorus  Siculus,  in  a  well-known  pas- 
sage, referring  to  Ireland,  and  describing  it  as  "  an  island  in  the 
ocean  over  against  Gaul,  to  the  north,  and  not  inferior  in  size 
to  Sicily,  the  soil  of  which  is  so  fruitful  that  they  mow  there 
twice  in  the  year."  He  mentions  the  skill  of  their  harpers, 
their  sacred  groves,  and  their  singular  temples  of  round  form. 

We  find  similar  structures  in  America,  Sardinia,  and  India. 
The  remains  of  similar  round-towers  are  very  abundant  in  the 
Orkneys  and  Shetlands.  "  They  have  been  supposed  by  some," 
says  Sir  John  Lubbock,  "  to  be  Scandinavian,  but  no  similar 
buildings  exist  in  Norway,  Sweden,  or  Denmark,  so  that  this 
style  of  architecture  is  no  doubt  anterior  to  the  arrival  of  the 


THE  KCBGa  OF  MOU88A,  IN  THE  SHETLANDS. 

Northmen."  I  give  above  a  picture  of  the  Burgh  or  Broch 
of  the  little  island  of  Moussa,  in  the  Shetlands.  It  is  circular 
in  form,  forty-one  feet  in  height,  open  at  the  top ;  the  central 

18* 


418 


ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 


space  is  twenty  feet  in  diameter,  the  walls  about  fourteen  feet 
thick  at  the  base,  and  eight  feet  at  the  top.  They  contain 
a  staircase,  wliich  leads  to  the  top  of  the  building.  Similar 
structures  are  found  in  the  Island  of  Sardinia. 

In  New  Mexico  and  Colorado  the  remains  of  round-towers 
are  very  abundant.      The   illustration   below   represents   one 


ROUND-TO  WEB   OF   TUE    CANON    OF    THE   MANGOS,  COLORADO,  U.  8. 

of  these  in  the  valley  of  the  Mancos,  in  the  south-western 
corner  of  Colorado.  A  model  of  it  is  to  be  found  in  the 
Smithsonian  collection  at  AVashington.  The  tower  stands  at 
present,  in  its  ruined  condition,  twenty  feet  high.  It  will  be 
seen  that  it  resembles  the  towers  of  Ireland,  not  only  in  its 
circular  form  but  also  in  the  fact  that  its  door-way  is  situated 
at  some  distance  from  the  ground. 

It  will  not  do  to  say  that  the  resemblance  between  these 
prehistoric  and  singular  towers,  in  countries  so  far  apart  as 
Sardinia,  Ireland,  Colorado,  and  India,  is  due  to  an  accidental 
coincidence.     It  mijrht  as  well  be  arijued  that  the  resemblance 


THE  IRISH  COLONIES  FROM  ATLANTIS.  419 

between  the  roots  of  the  various  Indo-European  languages  was 
also  due  to  accidental  coincidence,  and  did  not  establish  any 
similarity  of  origin.  In  fact,  we  might  just  as  well  go  back  to 
the  theory  of  the  philosophers  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  years 
ago,  and  say  that  the  resemblance  between  the  fossil  forms  in 
the  rocks  and  the  living  forms  upon  them  did  not  indicate  re- 
lationship, or  prove  that  the  fossils  were  the  remains  of  creat- 
ures that  had  once  lived,  but  that  it  was  simply  a  way  nature 
had  of  working  out  extraordinary  coincidences  in  a  kind  of 
joke ;  a  sort  of  "  plastic  power  in  nature,"  as  it  was  called. 

We  find  another  proof  that  Ireland  was  settled  by  the  peo- 
ple of  Atlantis  in  the  fact  that  traditions  long  existed  among 
the  Irish  peasantry  of  a  land  in  the  "  Far  West,"  and  that  this 
belief  was  especially  found  among  the  posterity  of  the  Tuatha- 
de-Dananns,  whose  connection  with  the  Formorians  we  have 
shown. 

The  Abbe  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg,  in  a  note  to  his  transla- 
tion of  the  "  Popol  Yuh,"  says : 

"  There  is  an  abundance  of  legends  and  traditions  concern- 
ing the  passage  of  the  Irish  into  America,  and  their  habitual 
communication  with  that  continent  many  centuries  before  the 
time  of  Columbus.  We  should  bear  in  mind  that  Ireland  was 
colonized  by  the  Phoenicians  (or  by  people  of  that  race).  An 
Irish  saint  named  Vigile,  who  lived  in  the  eighth  century,  was 
accused  to  Pope  Zachary  of  having  taught  heresies  on  the  sub- 
ject of  the  antipodes.  At  first  he  wrote  to  the  pope  in  reply 
to  the  charge,  but  afterward  he  w^ent  to  Rome  in  person  to 
justify  himself,  and  there  he  proved  to  the  pope  that  the  Irish 
had  been  accustomed  to  communicate  with  a  transatlantic 
world  y 

"This  fact,"  says  Baldwin,  "  seems  to  have  been  preserved  in 
the  records  of  the  Vatican." 

The  Irish  annals  preserve  the  memory  of  St.  Brendan  of 
Clonfert,  and  his  remarkable  voyage  to  a  land  in  the  West, 
made  a.d.  545.  His  early  youth  was  passed  under  the  care 
of  St.  Ita,  a  lady  of  the  princely  family  of  the  Desii.     When 


420  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

he  was  five  years  old  he  was  placed  under  the  care  of  Bishop 
Ercus.  Kerry  was  his  native  home  ;  the  blue  waves  of  the 
Atlantic  washed  its  shores ;  the  coast  was  full  of  traditions 
of  a  wonderful  land  in  the  West.  He  went  to  see  the  vener- 
able St.  Euda,  the  first  abbot  of  Arran,  for  counsel.  He  was 
probably  encouraged  in  the  plan  he  had  formed  of  carrying 
the  Gospel  to  this  distant  land.  "  He  proceeded  along  the 
coast  of  Mayo,  inquiring  as  he  went  for  traditions  of  the  West- 
ern continent.  On  his  return  to  Kerry  he  decided  to  set  out 
on  the  important  expedition.  St.  Brendan's  Hill  still  bears  his 
name ;  and  from  the  bay  at  the  foot  of  this  lofty  eminence  he 
sailed  for  the '  Far  West.'  Directing  his  course  toward  the  south- 
west,  with  a  few  faithful  companions,  in  a  well-provisioned  bark, 
he  came,  after  some  rough  and  dangerous  navigation,  to  calm 
seas,  where,  without  aid  of  oar  or  sail,  he  was  borne  along 
for  many  weeks."  He  had  probably  entered  upon  the  same 
great  current  which  Columbus  travelled  nearly  one  thousand 
years  later,  and  which  extends  from  the  shores  of  Africa  and 
Europe  to  America.  He  finally  reached  land;  he  proceeded 
inland  until  he  came  to  a  large  river  flowing  from  east  to  west, 
supposed  by  some  to  be  the  Ohio.  "After  an  absence  of  seven 
years  he  returned  to  Ireland,  and  lived  not  only  to  tell  of  the 
marvels  he  had  seen,  but  to  found  a  college  of  three  thou- 
sand monks  at  Clonfert."  There  are  eleven  Latin  MSS.  in  the 
Bibliotheque  Imperiale  at  Paris  of  this  legend,  the  dates  of 
which  vary  from  the  eleventh  to  the  fourteenth  century,  but  all 
of  them  anterior  to  the  time  of  Columbus. 

The  fact  that  St.  Brendan  sailed  in  search  of  a  country  in 
the  west  cannot  be  doubted;  and  the  legends  which  guided 
him  were  probably  the  traditions  of  Atlantis  among  a  people 
whose  ancestors  had  been  derived  directly  or  at  second-hand 
from  that  country. 

This  land  was  associated  in  the  minds  of  the  peasantry  with 
traditions  of  Edenic  happiness  and  beauty.  Miss  Eleanor  C. 
Donnelly,  of  Philadelphia,  has  referred  to  it  in  her  poem,  "The 


THE  IRISH  COLONIES  FROM  ATLANTIS.  421 

Sleeper's  Sail,"  where  the  starving  boy  dreams  of  the  pleasant 
and  plentiful  land : 

" '  Mother,  I've  been  on  the  cliffs  out  yonder, 
Straining  my  eyes  o'er  the  breakers  free 
To  the  lovely  spot  where  the  sun  was  setting. 
Setting  and  sinking  into  the  sea. 

" '  The  sky  was  full  of  the  fairest  colors — 
Pink  and  purple  and  paly  green, 
With  great  soft  masses  of  gray  and  amber, 
And  great  bright  rifts  of  gold  between. 

*' '  And  all  the  birds  that  way  were  flying, 
Heron  and  curlew  overhead, 
With  a  mighty  eagle  westward  floating. 
Every  plume  in  their  pinions  red. 

*' '  And  then  I  saw  it,  the  fairy  city. 
Far  away  o'er  the  waters  deep ; 
Towers  and  castles  and  chapels  glowing. 
Like  blessed  dreams  that  we  see  in  sleep. 

"  '  What  is  its  name  ?'     '  Be  still,  acusJiIa 

(Thy  hair  is  wet  with  the  mists,  my  boy) ; 
Thou  hast  looked  perchance  on  the  Tir-na-n'oge, 
Land  of  eternal  youth  and  joy ! 

" '  Out  of  the  sea,  when  the  sun  is  setting. 

It  rises,  golden  and  fair  to  view ; 

No  trace  of  ruin,  or  change  of  sorrow. 

No  sign  of  age  where  all  is  new. 

" '  Forever  sunny,  forever  blooming, 

Nor  cloud  nor  frost  can  touch  that  spot, 
Where  the  happy  people  are  ever  roaming, 
The  bitter  pangs  of  the  past  forgot.' 

This  is  the  Greek  story  of  Elysion ;  these  are  the  Elysian 
Fields  of  the  Egyptians;  these  are  the  Gardens  of  the  Hes- 
perides ;  this  is  the  region  in  the  West  to  which  the  peasant  of 
Brittany  looks  from  the  shores  of  Cape  Raz ;  this  is  Atlantis. 


422  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

The  starving  child  seeks  to  reach  this  blessed  land  in  a  boat, 
and  is  drowned. 

"  High  on  the  cUffs  the  light-house  keeper 
Caught  the  sound  of  a  piercing  scream ; 
Low  in  her  hut  the  lonely  widow 
Moaned  in  the  maze  of  a  troubled  dream ; 

"  And  saw  in  her  sleep  a  seaman  ghostly, 
With  sea-weeds  clinging  in  his  hair, 
Into  her  room,  all  wet  and  dripping, 
A  drowned  boy  on  his  bosom  bear. 

'*  Over  Death  Sea  on  a  bridge  of  silver 

The  child  to  his  Father's  arms  had  passed  ; 
Heaven  was  nearer  than  Tir-na-n'oge, 
And  the  golden  city  was  reached  at  last." 


THE  OLDEST  SON  OF  NOAH.  423 


Chapter  YIII. 
THE  OLDEST  SON  OF  NOAH. 

That  eminent  authority,  Dr.  Max  Miiller,  says,  in  his  "  Lect- 
ures on  the  Science  of  Religion," 

"  If  we  confine  ourselves  to  the  Asiatic  continent,  with  its 
important  peninsula  of  Europe,  we  find  that  in  the  vast  desert 
of  drifting  human  speech  three,  and  only  three,  oases  have  been 
formed  in  which,  before  the  beginning  of  all  history.,  language  be- 
came permanent  and  traditional — assumed,  in  fact,  a  new  char- 
acter, a  character  totally  different  from  the  original  character 
of  the  floating  and  constantly  varying  speech  of  human  beings. 
These  three  oases  of  language  are  known  by  the  name  of  Tura- 
nian., Aryan,  and  Semitic.  In  these  three  centres,  more  partic- 
ularly in  the  Aryan  and  Semitic,  language  ceased  to  be  natural; 
its  growth  was  arrested,  and  it  became  permanent,  solid,  petri- 
fied, or,  if  you  like,  historical  speech.  I  have  always  maintain- 
ed that  this  centralization  and  traditional  conservation  of  lan- 
guage could  only  have  been  the  result  of  religious  and  political 
influences,  and  I  now  mean  to  show  that  we  really  have  clear 
evidence  of  three  independent  settlements  of  religion  —  the 
Turanian,  the  Aryan,  and  the  Semitic — concomitantly  with  the 
three  great  settlements  of  language." 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  Aryan  and  another  branch, 
which  Miiller  calls  Semitic,  but  which  may  more  properly  be 
called  Hamitic,  radiated  from  Noah ;  it  is  a  question  yet  to  be 
decided  whether  the  Turanian  or  Mongolian  is  also  a  branch  of 
the  Noachic  or  Atlantean  stock. 

To  quote  again  from  Max  Miiller: 

"  If  it  can  only  be  proved  that  the  religions  of  the  Aryan 
nations  are  united  by  the  same  bonds  of  a  real  relationship 


424  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 

wliicli  have  enabled  lis  to  treat  their  lanajnages  as  so  many 
varieties  of  the  same  type — and  so  also  of  the  Semitic — the 
field  thus  opened  is  vast  enough,  and  its  careful  clearing  and 
cultivation  will  occupy  several  generations  of  scholars.  And 
this  original  relationship,  I  believe,  can  be  proved.  Names  of 
the  principal  deities,  words  also  expressive  of  the  most  essential 
elements  of  religion,  such  as  'prayer^  sacrifice^  altar,  spirit,  law, 
and  faith,  have  been  preserved  among  the  Aryan  and  among 
the  Semitic  nations,  and  these  relics  admit  of  one  explanation 
only.  After  that,  a  comparative  study  of  the  Turanian  relig- 
ions may  be  approached  with  better  hope  of  success;  for  that 
there  was  not  only  a  primitive  Aryan  and  a  primitive  Semitic 
religion,  but  likewise  a  primitive  Turanian  religion,  before  each 
of  these  primeval  races  was  broken  up  and  became  separated  in 
language,  worship,  and  national  sentiment,  admits,  I  believe,  of  lit- 
tle doubt. . . .  There  was  a  period  during  which  the  ancestors  of 
the  Semitic  family  had  not  yet  been  divided,  whether  in  lan- 
guage or  in  religion.  That  period  transcends  the  recollection 
of  every  one  of  the  Semitic  races,  in  the  same  way  as  neither 
Hindoos,  Greeks,  nor  Romans  have  any  recollection  of  the  time 
when  they  spoke  a  common  language,  and  worshipped  their 
Father  in  heaven  by  a  name  that  was  as  yet  neither  Sanscrit, 
nor  Greek,  nor  Latin.  But  I  do  not  hesitate  to  call  this  Pre- 
historic Period  historical  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word.  It  was 
a  real  period,  because,  unless  it  was  real,  all  the  realities  of  the 
Semitic  languages  and  the  Semitic  religions,  such  as  we  find 
them  after  their  separation,  would  be  unintelligible.  Hebrew, 
Syriac,  and  Arabic  point  to  a  common  source  as  much  as  San- 
scrit, Greek,  and  Latin ;  and  unless  we  can  bring  ourselves  to 
doubt  that  the  Hindoos,  the  Greeks,  the  Romans,  and  the  Teu- 
tons derived  the  worship  of  their  principal  deity  from  their 
common  Aryan  sanctuary,  we  shall  not  be  able  to  deny  that 
there  was  likewise  a  primitive  religion  of  the  whole  Semitic 
race,  and  that  El,  the  Strong  One  in  heaven,  was  invoked  by 
the  ancestors  of  all  the  Semitic  races  before  there  were  Baby- 
lonians in  Babylon,  Phoenicians  in  Sidon  and  Tyrus — before 
there  were  Jews  in  Mesopotamia  or  Jerusalem.  The  evidence 
of  the  Semitic  is  the  same  as  that  of  the  Aryan  languages :  the 
conclusion  cannot  be  different.  .  .  . 

"These  three  classes  of  religion  are  not  to  be  mistaken — as 
little  as  the  three  classes  of  language,  the  Turanian,  the  Semitic, 


THE  OLDEST  SON  OF  NOAH.  425 

and  the  Aryan.  They  mark  three  events  in  the  most  ancient 
history  of  the  world,  events  which  have  determined  the  whole 
fate  of  the  human  race,  and  of  which  we  ourselves  still  feel  the 
consequences  in  our  language,  in  our  thoughts,  and  in  our  re- 
ligion." 

We  have  seen  that  all  the  evidence  points  to  the  fact  that 
this  original  seat  of  the  Phoenician-Hebrew  family  was  in  At- 
lantis. 

The  great  god  of  the  so-called  Semites  was  El,  the  Strong 
One,  from  whose  name  comes  the  Biblical  names  Beth-el,  the 
house  of  God;  Ha-el,X\\Q  strong  one;  £l-ohim,  the  gods; 
M-oah,  God ;  and  from  the  same  name  is  derived  the  Arabian 
name  of  God,  Al-lah. 

Another  evidence  of  the  connection  between  the  Greeks, 
Phoenicians,  Hebrews,  and  Atlanteans  is  shown  in  the  name 
of  Adonis. 

The  Greeks  tell  us  that  Adonis  was  the  lover  of  Aphrodite, 
or  Venus,  who  was  the  offspring  of  Uranus — "  she  came  out  of 
the  sea;"  Uranus  was  the  father  of  Chronos,  and  the  grand- 
father of  Poseidon,  king  of  Atlantis. 

Now  we  find  Adondi  in  the  Old  Testament  used  exclusively 
as  the  name  of  Jehovah,  while  among  the  Phoenicians  Adonai 
was  the  supreme  deity.  In  both  cases  the  root  Ad  is  probably 
a  reminiscence  of  ^cZ-lantis. 

There  seem  to  exist  similar  connections  between  the  Egyp- 
tian and  the  Turanian  mythology.  The  great  god  of  Egypt 
was  Neph  or  Num  ;  the  chief  god  of  the  Samoyedes  is  Num  ; 
and  Max  Muller  established  an  identity  between  the  JVum  of 
the  Samoyedes  and  the  god  Yum-ala  of  the  Finns,  and  proba- 
bly with  the  name  of  the  god  Nam  of  the  Thibetians. 

That  mysterious  people,  the  Etruscans,  who  inhabited  part  of 
Italy,  and  whose  bronze  implements  agreed  exactly  in  style  and 
workmanship  with"  those  which  we  think  were  derived  from 
Atlantis,  were,  it  is  now  claimed,  a  branch  of  the  Turanian 
family. 


426  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 

"At  a  recent  meeting  of  the  English  Philological  Society 
great  interest  was  excited  by  a  paper  on  Etruscan  Numerals,  by 
the  Rev.  Isaac  Taylor.  He  stated  that  the  long-sought  key  to 
the  Etruscan  language  had  at  last  been  discovered.  Two  dice 
had  been  found  in  a  tomb,  with  their  six  faces  marked  with 
words  instead  of  pips.  He  showed  that  these  words  were 
identical  with  the  first  six  digits  in  the  Altaic  branch  of  the 
Turanian  family  of  speech.  Guided  by  this  clew,  it  was  easy 
to  prove  that  the  grammar  and  vocabulary  of  the  3000  Etrus- 
can inscriptions  were  also  Altaic.  The  words  denoting  kin- 
dred, the  pronouns,  the  conjugations,  and  the  declensions,  cor- 
responded closely  to  those  of  the  Tartar  tribes  of  Siberia.  The 
Etruscan  mythology  proved  to  be  essentially  the  same  as  that 
of  the  Kalevala,  the  great  Finnic  epic." 

According  to  Lenormant  ("Ancient  History  of  the  East," 
vol.  i.,  p.  62 ;  vol.  ii.,  p.  23),  the  early  contests  between  the 
Aryans  and  the  Turanians  are  represented  in  the  Iranian  tradi- 
tions as  "contests  between  hostile  ftro^Aers  .  .  .  the  Ugro-Finnish 
races  must,  according  to  all  appearances,  be  looked  upon  as  a 
branchy  earlier  detached  than  the  others  from  the  Japhetic  stem.'''' 

If  it  be  true  that  the  first  branch  originating  from  Atlantis 
was  the  Turanian,  which  includes  the  Chinese  and  Japanese, 
then  we  have  derived  from  Atlantis  all  the  building  and  metal- 
working  races  of  men  who  have  proved  themselves  capable  of 
civilization ;  and  we  may,  therefore,  divide  mankind  into  two 
great  classes :  those  capable  of  civilization,  derived  from  Atlan- 
tis, and  those  essentially  and  at  all  times  barbarian,  who  hold 
no  blood  relationship  with  the  people  of  Atlantis. 

Humboldt  is  sure  "  that  some  connection  existed  between 
ancient  Ethiopia  and  the  elevated  plain  of  Central  Asia." 
There  were  invasions  which  reached  from  the  shores  of  Arabia 
into  China.  "An  Arabian  sovereign,  Schamar-Iarasch  (Abou 
Karib),  is  described  by  Hamza,  Nuwayri,  and  others  as  a  power- 
ful ruler  and  conqueror,  who  carried  his  arms  successfully  far 
into  Central  Asia ;  he  occupied  Samarcand  and  invaded  China. 
He  erected  an  edifice  at  Samarcand,  bearing  an  inscription,  in 


THE  OLDEST  SON  OF  NOAH. 


427 


Himyarite  or  Ciishite  characters, '  In  the  name  of  God,  Scha- 
mar-Iarasch  has  erected  this  edifice  to  the  sun,  his  Lord.' " 
(Baldwin's  "Prehistoric  Nations,"  p.  110.)  These  invasions 
must  have  been  prior  to  1518  b.c. 

Charles  Walcott  Brooks  read  a  paper  before  the  California 
Academy  of  Sciences,  in  which  he  says : 

"According  to  Chinese  annals,  Tai - Ko - Fokee,  the  great 
stranger  king,  ruled  the  kingdom  of  China.  In  pictures  he  is 
represented  with  two  small  horns,  like  those  associated  with 
the  representations  of  Moses.  He  and  his  successor  are  said 
to  have  introduced  into  China  'picture-writing,'  like  that  in 
use  in  Central  America  at  the  time  of  the  Spanish  conquest. 
He  taught  the  motions  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  and  divided 
time  into  years  and  months;  he  also  introduced  many  other 
useful  arts  and  sciences. 

"  Now,  there  has  been  found  at  Copan,  in  Central  America, 
a  figure  strikingly  like  the  Chinese  symbol  of  Fokee,  with  his 
two  horns;  and,  in  like  manner,  there  is  a  close  resemblance 
between  the  Central  American  and  the  Chinese  figures  repre- 
senting earth  and  heaven.  Either  one  people  learned  from 
the  other,  or  both  acquired  these  forms 
from  a  common  source.  Many  physico- 
geographical  facts  favor  the  hypothesis 
that  they  were  derived  in  very  remote 
ages  from  America,  and  that  from  China 
they  passed  to  Egypt.  Chinese  records 
say  that  the  progenitors  of  the  Chinese 
race  came  from  across  the  sea." 

The  two  small  horns  of  Tai-Ko-Fokee 
and  Moses  are  probably  a  reminiscence 
of  Baal.  We  find  the  horns  of  Baal  rep- 
resented in  the  remains  of  the  Bronze 
Age  of  Europe.  Bel  sometimes  wore  a 
tiara  with  his  bull's  horns;  the  tiara  was 
the  crown  subsequently  worn  by  the  Persian  kings,  and  it  be- 
came, in  time,  the  symbol  of  Papal  authority. 

The  Atlanteans  having  domesticated  cattle,  and  discovered 


OOWnEADEII  IPOL,  MYOEN/B 
(FROM  SOHLIEMANH). 


428  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

tlieir  vast  importance  to  humanity,  associated  the  bull  and  cow 
with  religious  ideas,  as  revealed  in  the  oldest  hymns  of  the 
Aryans  and  the  cow-headed  idols  of  Troy,  a  representation  of 
one  of  which  is  shown  on  the  preceding  page.  Upon  the  head 
of  their  great  god  Baal  they  placed  the  horns  of  the  bull ;  and 
these  have  descended  in  popular  imagination  to  the  spirit  of 
evil  of  our  day.     Burns  says : 

*'0  thou !  whatever  title  suit  thee, 
Auld  Hornie,  Satan,  Nick,  or  Clootie." 

"Clootie"  is  derived  from  the  cleft  hoof  of  a  cow;  while  the 
Scotch  name  for  a  bull  is  Bill^  a  corruption,  probably,  of  Bel. 
Less  than  two  hundred  years  ago  it  was  customary  to  sacrifice 
a  bull  on  the  25th  of  August  to  the  "God  Mowrie"  and  "his 
devilans"  on  the  island  of  Inis  Maree,  Scotland.     (".The  Past 


EELIGIOUS   KMBLEM   OF  THE   BKONZE  BAAL,  THE   PflCKNIOIAN   GOD. 

AGE,  SWITZERLAND. 

in  the  Present,"  p.  165.)    The  trident  of  Poseidon  has  degener- 
ated into  the  pitchfork  of  Beelzebub  ! 

And  when  we  cross  the  Atlantic,  we  find  in  America  the 
horns  of  Baal  reappearing  in  a  singular  manner.  The  first  cut 
on  page  429  represents  an  idol  of  the  Moquis  of  New  Mexico : 
the  head  is  very  bull-like.  In  the  next  figure  we  have  a  repre- 
sentation of  the  war-god  of  the  Dakotas,  with  something  like  a 


THE  OLDEST  SON  OF-  NOAH. 


429 


trident  in  his  hand ;  wliile  the  next  illustration  is  taken  from 
Zarate's  "  Pern,"  and  depicts  "  the  god  of  a  degrading  worship." 
He  is  very  much  like  the  traditional  conception  of  the  Euro- 
pean devil — horns,  pointed  ears,  wings,  and  poker.  Compare 
this  last  figure,  from  Peru,  with  the  representation  on  page 
430  of  a  Greek  siren,  one  of  those  cruel  monsters  who,  accord- 
ing to  Grecian  mythology,  sat  in  the  midst  of  bones  and  blood, 
tempting  men  to  ruin  by  their  sweet  music.  Here  we  have 
the  same  bird-like  legs  and  claws  as  in  the  Peruvian  demon. 
Heeren  shows  that  a  great  overland  commerce  extended  in 


MOQUl   IDOL. 


1>AK0T.V  II>OT> 


PERCrVIAN   DEVIL. 


ancient  times  between  the  Black  Sea  and  "Great  Mongolia;" 
he  mentions  a  "Temple  of  the  Sun,"  and  a  great  caravansary 
in  the  desert  of  Gobi.  Arminius  Vambery,  in  his  "  Travels 
in  Central  Asia,"  describes  very  important  ruins  near  the  east- 
ern shore  of  the  Caspian  Sea,  at  a  place  called  Gomiishtcpe ; 
and  connected  with  these  are  the  remains  of  a  great  wall 
which  he  followed  "ten  geographical  miles."  He  found  avast 
aqueduct  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  long,  extending  to  the 
Persian  mountains.  He  reports  abundant  ruins  in  all  that 
country,  extending  even  to  China. 

The  early  history  of  China  indicates  contact  with  a  superior 


430 


ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 


race.  "Fuh-hi,  who  is  regarded  as  a  demi-god,  founded  the 
Chinese  Empire  2852  b.c.  He  introduced  cattle,  taught  the 
people  how  to  raise  them,  and  taught  the  art  of  writing." 
("American  Cyclopaedia,"  art.  China.)  He  might  have  in- 
vented his  alphabet, 
but  he  did  not  invent 
the  cattle;  he  must 
have  got  them  from 
some  nation  who, 
during  many  centu- 
ries of  civilization, 
had  domesticated 
them ;  and  from  what 
nation  was  he  more 
likely  to  have  ob- 
tained them  than 
from  the  Atlanteans, 
whose  colonies  we 
have  seen  reached 
his  borders,  and 
whose  armies  in- 
vaded his  territory  ? 
"  He  instituted  the 
ceremony  of  mar- 
riage." (Ibid.)  This  also  was  an  importation  from  a  civ- 
ilized land.  "His  successor,  Shin -nung,  during  a  reign  of 
one  hundred  and  forty  years,  introduced  agriculture  and  med- 
ical science.  The  next  emperor,  Hwang-ti,  is  believed  to  have 
invented  weapons,  wagons,  ships,  clocks,  and  musical  instru- 
ments, and  to  have  introduced  coins,  weights,  and  measures." 
(Ibid.)  As  these  various  inventions  in  all  other  countries  have 
been  the  result  of  slow  development,  running  through  many 
centuries,  or  are  borrowed  from  some  other  more  civilized 
people,  it  is  certain  that  no  emperor  of  China  ever  invent- 
ed them  all  during  a  period  of  one  hundred  and  sixty -four 


I 


THE  OLDEST  SON  OF  NOAH.  431 

years.  These,  then,  were  also  importations  from  the  West. 
In  fact,  the  Chinese  themselves  claim  to  have  invaded  China 
in  the  early  days /row  the  north-west ;  and  their  first  location 
is  placed  by  Winchell  near  Lake  Balkat,  a  short  distance  east 
of  the  Caspian,  where  we  have  already  seen  Aryan  Atlantean 
colonies  planted  at  an  early  day.  "The  third  successor  of 
Fuh-hi,  Ti-ku,  established  schools,  and  was  the  first  to  practise 
polygamy.  In  2357  his  son  Yau  ascended  the  throne,  and  it 
is  from  his  reign  that  the  regular  historical  records  begin.  A 
great  flood,  which  occurred  in  his  reign,  has  been  considered 
synchronous  and  identical  with  the  Noachic  Deluge,  and  to  Yau 
is  attributed  the  merit  of  having  successfully  battled  against 
the  waters." 

There  can  be  no  question  that  the  Chinese  themselves,  in 
their  early  legends,  connected  their  origin  with  a  people  who 
were  destroyed  by  water  in  a  tremendous  convulsion  of  the 
earth.  Associated  with  this  event  was  a  divine  personage 
called  Niu-va  (Noah  ?). 

Sir  William  Jones  says : 

"  The  Chinese  believe  the  earth  to  have  been  wholly  covered 
with  water,  which,  in  works  of  undisputed  authenticity,  they 
describe  as  flowing  abundantly,  then  subsiding  and  separating 
the  higher  from  the  loioer  ages  of  mankind ;  that  this  division 
of  time,  from  which  their  poetical  history  begins,  just  preceded 
the  appearance  of  Fo-hi  on  the  mountains  of  Chin.  ("Dis- 
course on  the  Chinese ;  Asiatic  Researches,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  376.) 

The  following  history  of  this  destruction  of  their  ancestors 
vividly  recalls  to  us  the  convulsion  depicted  in  the  Chaldean 
and  American  legends : 

"  The  pillars  of  heaven  were  broken ;  the  earth  shook  to  its 
very  foundations;  the  heavens  sunk  lower  toward  the  north; 
the  sun,  the  moon,  and  the  stars  changed  their  motions ;  the 
earth  fell  to  pieces,  and  the  waters  enclosed  within  its  bosom 
hurst  forth  with  violence  and  overflowed  it.  Man  having  re- 
belled against  Heaven,  the  system  of  the  universe  was  totally 


432  ATLANTIS:  THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

disordered.     The  sun  was  eclipsed,  the  planets  altered  their 
course,  and  the  grand  harmony  of  nature  was  disturbed." 

A  learned  Frenchman,  M.  Terrien  de  la  Couperie,  member  of 
the  Asiatic  Society  of  Paris,  has  just  published  a  work  (1880) 
in  which  he  demonstrates  the  astonishing  fact  that  the  Chinese 
language  is  clearly  related  to  the  Chaldean,  and  that  both  the 
Chinese  characters  and  the  cuneiform  alphabet  are  degenerate 
descendants  of  an  original  hieroglyphical  alphabet.  The  same 
signs  exist  for  many  words,  while  numerous  words  are  very 
much  alike.  M.  de  la  Couperie  gives  a  table  of  some  of  these 
similarities,  from  which  I  quote  as  follows : 

English.  Chinese.  Chaldee. 

To  shine Mut Mul. 

To  die Mut Mit. 

Book King Kin. 

Cloth Sik Sik. 

Right  hand Dzek Zag. 

Hero Tan Dun. 

Earth Kien-kai Kiengi. 

Cow Lub Lu,  lup. 

Brick Ku   Ku. 

This  surprising  discovery  brings  the  Chinese  civilization  still 
nearer  to  the  Mediterranean  head  -  quarters  of  the  races,  and 
increases  the  probability  that  the  arts  of  China  were  of  Atlan- 
tean  origin  ;  and  that  the  name  of  Nai  Hoang-ti,  or  Nai  Korti, 
the  founder  of  Chinese  civilization,  may  be  a  reminiscence  of 
Nakhunta,  the  chief  of  the  gods,  as  recorded  in  the  Susian 
texts,  and  this,  in  turn,  a  recollection  of  the  Dcva-Nahusha  of 
the  Hindoos,  the  Dionysos  of  the  Greeks,  the  king  of  Atlantis, 
whose  great  empire  reached  to  the  "farther  parts  of  India," 
and  embraced,  according  to  Plato,  "  parts  of  the  continent  of 
America." 

Linguistic  science  achieved  a  great  discovery  when  it  es- 
tablished the  fact  that  there  was  a  continuous  belt  of  languages 
from  Iceland  to  Ceylon  which  were  the  variant  forms  of  one 


THE  OLDEST  SON  OF  NOAU.  433 

mother-tongue,  the  Indo-European ;  but  it  must  prepare  itself 
for  a  still  wider  generalization.  There  is  abundant  proof — proof 
with  which  pages  might  be  filled — that  there  was  a  still  older 
mother-tongue,  from  which  Aryan,  Semitic,  and  Hamitic  were 
all  derived — the  language  of  Noah,  the  language  of  Atlantis, 
the  language  of  the  great  "aggressive  empire"  of  Plato,  the 
language  of  the  empire  of  the  Titans. 

The  Arabic  word  bin,  within,  becomes,  when  it  means  inter- 
val, space,  hinnon ;  this  is  the  German  and  Dutch  hinnen  and 
Saxon  binnon,  signifying  within.  The  Ethiopian  word  aoi-f,  to 
fall  asleep,  is  the  root  of  the  word  Morpheus,  the  god  of  sleep. 
The  Hebrew  word  ckanah,  to  dwell,  is  the  parent  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  inne  and  Icelandic  inni,  a  house,  and  of  our  word  inn, 
a  hotel.  The  Hebrew  word  naval  or  nafal  signifies  to  fall; 
from  it  is  derived  our  word  fall  and  fool  (one  who  falls) ;  the 
Chaldee  word  is  nabal,  to  make  foul,  and  the  Arabic  word 
nabala  means  to  die,  that  is,  to  fall.  From  the  last  syllable  of 
the  Ghaldee  nasar,  to  saw,  we  can  derive  the  Latin  serra,  the 
High  German  sagen,  the  Danish  sauga,  and  our  word  to  saio. 
The  Arabic  najida,  to  fade,  is  the  same  as  the  Italian /at/o,  the 
Latin  fatuus  (foolish,  tasteless),  the  Dutch  vadden,  and  our  to 
fade.  The  Ethiopia  word  gaher,  to  make,  to  do,  and  the  Ara- 
bic word  jabara,  to  make  strong,  becomes  the  Welsh  word 
goberu,  to  work,  to  operate,  the  Latin  operor,  and  the  English 
oj)ei'ate.  The  Arabic  word  abara  signifies  to  prick,  to  sting; 
we  see  this  root  in  the  Welsh  bar,  a  summit,  andjodr,  a  spear, 
andjoer,  a  spit;  whence  our  word  spear.  In  the  Chaldee,  Syri- 
ac,  and  Arabic  zug  means  to  join,  to  couple ;  from  this  the 
Greeks  obtained  Zvyog,  the  Romans  jugum,  and  we  the  word 
yoke;  while  the  Germans  obtained  70^  ov  jog,  the  Dutch  ^w^, 
the  Swedes  ok.  The  Sanscrit  is  juga.  The  Arabic  sanna,  to 
be  old,  reappears  in  the  Latin  senex,  the  Welsh  hen,  and  our 
senile.  The  Hebrew  banah,  to  build,  is  the  Irish  bun,  founda- 
tion, and  the  Latin /undo,  fundare,  to  found.  The  Arabic  ba- 
raka,  to  bend  the  knee,  to  fall  on  the  breast,  is  probably  the 

19 


434  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 

Saxon  brecau,  the  Danish  brdkke,  the  Swedish  brdcka,  Welsh 
bregu,  and  our  word  to  break.  The  Arabic  baraka  also  signi- 
fies to  rain  violently ;  and  from  this  we  get  the  Saxon  rcegn,  to 
rain,  Dutch  regen,  to  rain,  Cimbric  rcekia,  rain,  Welsh  rheg, 
rain.  The  Chaldee  word  braic,  a  branch,  is  the  Irish  braic  or 
raigh,  an  arm,  the  Welsh  braic,  the  Latin  brachium,  and  the 
English  b)'ace,  something  which  supports  like  an  arm.  The 
Chaldee  frak,  to  rub,  to  tread  out  grain,  is  the  same  as  the 
Latin  frico^frio,  and  our  word  rake.  The  Arabic  word  to  rub 
is  fraka.  The  Chaldee  rag,  ragag,  means  to  desire,  to  long 
for ;  it  is  the  same  as  the  Greek  optyio,  the  Latin  porrigere,  the 
Saxon  rceccan,  the  Icelandic  rakna,  the  German  reichen,  and  our 
to  reach,  to  rage.  The  Arabic  ratika,  to  strain  or  purify,  as  wine, 
is  precisely  our  English  word  7'ack,  to  rack  wine.  The  Hebrew 
word  bara,  to  create,  is  our  word  to  bear,  as  to  bear  children  : 
a  great  number  of  words  in  all  the  European  languages  con- 
tain this  root  in  its  various  modifications.  The  Hebrew  word 
kafar,  to  cover,  is  our  word  to  cover,  and  coffer,  something 
which  covers,  and  covert,  a  secret  place;  from  this  root  also 
comes  the  Latin  cooperio  and  the  French  couvrir,  to  cover.  The 
Arabic  word  shakala,  to  bind  under  the  belly,  is  our  word 
to  shackle.  From  the  Arabic  walada  and  Ethiopian  walad,  to 
beget,  to  bring  forth,  we  get  the  Welsh  llawd,  a  shooting  out ; 
and  hence  our  word  lad.  Our  word  matter,  or  pus,  is  from 
the  Arabic  madda ;  our  word  mature  is  originally  from  the 
Chaldee  mita.  The  Arabic  word  amida  signifies  to  end,  and 
from  this  comes  the  noun,  a  limit,  a  termination,  Latin  meta, 
and  our  words  meet  and  mete. 

I  might  continue  this  list,  but  I  have  given  enough  to  show 
that  all  the  Atlantean  races  once  spoke  the  same  language,  and 
that  the  dispersion  on  the  plains  of  Shinar  signifies  that  break- 
ing up  of  the  tongues  of  one  people  under  the  operation  of 
vast  spaces  of  time.  Philology  is  yet  in  its  infancy,  and  the 
time  is  not  far  distant  when  the  identity  of  the  languages  of 
all  the  Noachic  races  will  be  as  clearlv  established  and  as  uni- 


THE  OLDEST  SOX  OF  NOAH. 


43  i 


versally  acknowledged  as  is  now  the  identity  of  the  languages 
of  the  Aryan  family  of  nations. 

And  precisely  as  recent  research  has  demonstrated  the  rela- 
tionship between  Pekin  and  Babylon,  so  investigation  in  Cen- 
tral America  has  proved  that  there  is  a  mysterious  bond  of 
union  connecting  the  Chinese  and  one  of  the  races  of  Mexico. 
The  resemblances  are  so  great  that  Mr.  Short  ("  North  Ameri- 
cans of  Antiquity,"  p.  494)  says,  "There  is  no  doubt  that 
strong  analogies  exist  between  the  Otomi  and  the  Chinese." 
Senor  Najera  ("  Dissertacion  Sobre  la  lingua  Othomi,  Mexi- 


co,   pp.  8  < 
folio  win  q:  : 


gives  a  list  of  words  from  which  I  quote  the 


Chinese. 

Othomi. 

English. 

Chinese. 

Othomi. 

English. 

Cho 

Y 

Ten 

Siao 

To 

N-y 

(Ju,  mu . . . 
Sui 

The,  that. 
A  wound. 
Head. 
Vifht 

Pa 

Tsun 

Hu 

Xa 

Hu 

Ye 

Hoa 

Xugo 

Xi 

Hao 

Ta 

Li 

Ho 

Pa 

Mu,  mo  . . 

Da 

Xsu 

Hmu 

Xa 

He 

He 

To  give. 

Honor. 

Sir,  Lord. 

That. 

Cold. 

And 

Tien 

Ye 

Ky 

Ku 

Po 

Xa 

Xin      . 

Tsi 

Yo 

Hy(ji)... 

Du 

Yo 

Ta 

Xsu . . 

Tooth. 

Shining. 

Happiness. 

Death. 

Xo. 

Man. 

Female. 

Son. 

To  perfect. 

True. 

To  mock. 

Hia 

J;> 

Xuy 

Xho 

Da 

Ti 

To 

Pa 

Me 

Word. 
L 

Thou. 
The  good. 
The  great. 
Gain. 
Who. 
To  leave. 
Mother. 

Tseu 

Tso 

Tsi,  ti . .  . . 
Tsa 

Kuan 

Siao 

Khuani... 
Sa 

Recently  Herr  Forchhammer,  of  Leipsic,  has  published  a 
truly  scientific  comparison  of  the  grammatical  structure  of  the 
Choctaw,  Chickasaw,  Muscogee,  and  Seminole  languages  with 
the  Ural-x\ltaic  tongues,  in  which  he  has  developed  many  in- 
teresting points  of  resemblance. 

It  has  been  the  custom  to  ascribe  the  recognized  similarities 
between  the  Indians  of  America  and  the  Chinese  and  Japan- 
ese to  a  mim-ation  bv  wav  of  Behrino;'s  Strait  from  Asia  into 
America ;  but  when  we  find  that  the  Chinese  themselves  only 


436  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

reached  the  Pacific  coast  within  the  Historical  Period,  and  that 
they  came  to  it  from  the  direction  of  the  Mediterranean  and 
Atlantis,  and  when  we  find  so  many  and  such  distinct  recol- 
lections of  the  destruction  of  Atlantis  in  the  Flood  legends  of 
the  American  races,  it  seems  more  reasonable  to  conclude  that 
the  resemblances  between  the  Othomi  and  the  Chinese  are  to 
be  accounted  for  by  intercourse  through  Atlantis. 

We  find  a  confirmation  in  all  these  facts  of  the  order  in 
which  Genesis  names  the  sons  of  Noah  : 

"  Now  these  are  the  generations  of  the  sons  of  Noah :  Shem, 
Ham,  and  Japheth,  and  nnto  them  were  sons  born  after  the 
flood." 

Can  we  not  suppose  that  these  three  sons  represent  three 
great  races  in  the  order  of  their  precedence  ? 

The  record  of  Genesis  claims  that  the  Phoenicians  were  de- 
scended from  Ham,  while  the  Hebrews  were  descended  from 
Shem  ;  yet  we  find  the  Hebrews  and  Phanicians  united  by  the 
ties  of  a  common  language,  common  traditions,  and  common 
race  characteristics.  The  Jews  are  the  great  merchants  of  the 
world  eighteen  centuries  after  Christ,  just  as  the  Phoenicians 
were  the  great  merchants  of  the  world  fifteen  centuries  before 
Christ. 

Moreover,  the  Arabians,  who  are  popularly  classed  as  Semites, 
or  sons  of  Shem,  admit  in  their  traditions  that  they  are  de- 
scended from  "Ad,  the  son  of  Ham;''''  and  the  tenth  chapter  of 
Genesis  classes  them  among  the  descendants  of  Ham,  calling 
them  Seba,  Havilah,  Raamah,  etc.  If  the  two  great  so-called 
Semitic  stocks — the  Phoenicians  and  Arabians — are  Hamites, 
surely  the  third  member  of  the  group  belongs  to  the  same 
"  sunburnt "  race. 

If  we  concede  that  the  Jews  were  also  a  branch  of  the 
Hamitic  stock,  then  we  have,  firstly,  a  Semitic  stock,  the  Tura- 
nian, embracing  the  Etruscans,  the  Finns,  the  Tartars,  the  Mon- 
gols, the  Chinese,  and  Japanese ;  secondly,  a  Hamitic  family, 


I 


THE  OLDEIST  SON  OF  NOAH.  437 

"the  sunburnt"  race  —  a  red  race  —  including  the  Cusliites, 
Phoenicians,  Egyptians,  Hebrews,  Berbers,  etc. ;  and,  thirdly,  a 
Japhetic  or  whiter  stock,  embracing  the  Greeks,  Italians,  Celts, 
Goths,  and  the  men  who  wrote  Sanscrit — in  other  words,  the 
entire  Aryan  family. 

If  we  add  to  these  three  races  the  negro  race — which  cannot 
be  traced  back  to  Atlantis,  and  is  not  included,  according  to 
Genesis,  among  the  descendants  of  Noah — we  have  the  four 
races,  the  white^  red^  yellow,  and  black,  recognized  by  the  Egyp- 
tians as  embracing  all  the  people  known  to  them. 

There  seems  to  be  some  confusion  in  Genesis  as  to  the 
Semitic  stock.  It  classes  different  races  as  both  Semites  and 
Ilamites ;  as,  for  instance,  Sheba  and  Havilah  ;  while  the  race 
of  Mash,  or  Meshech,  is  classed  among  the  sons  of  Shem  and 
the  sons  of  Japheth.  In  fact,  there  seems  to  be  a  confusion  of 
Hamitic  and  Semitic  stocks.  "  This  is  shown  in  the  blending 
of  Hamitic  and  Semitic  in  some  of  the  most  ancient  inscrip- 
tions; in  the  facility  of  intercourse  between  the  Semites  of 
Asia  and  the  Ilamites  of  Egypt ;  in  the  peaceful  and  unobserved 
absorption  of  all  the  Asiatic  Hamites,  and  the  Semitic  adoption 
of  the  Hamitic  gods  and  religious  system.  It  is  manifest  that, 
at  a  period  not  long  previous,  the  two  families  had  dwelt  to- 
gether and  spoken  the  same  language."  (Winchell's  "Pre- 
Adamites,"  p.  36.)  Is  it  not  more  reasonable  to  suppose  that 
the  so-called  Semitic  races  of  Genesis  were  a  mere  division  of 
the  Hamitic  stock,  and  that  we  are  to  look  for  the  third  great 
division  of  the  sons  of  Noah  among  the  Turanians? 

Francis  Lenormant,  high  authority,  is  of  the  opinion  that  the 
Turanian  races  are  descended  from  Magog,  the  son  of  Japheth. 
He  regards  the  Turanians  as  intermediate  between  the  white 
and  yellow  races,  graduating  insensibly  into  each.  "  The  Uz- 
becs,  the  Osmanli  Turks,  and  the  Hungarians  are  not  to  be  dis- 
tinguished in  appearance  from  the  most  perfect  branches  of  the 
white  race;  on  the  other  hand,  the  Tchorides  almost  exactly 
resemble  the  Tongouses,  who  belong  to  the  yellow  race. 


438  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 

The  Turanian  languages  are  marked  by  the  same  agglutina- 
tive character  found  in  the  American  races. 

The  Mongolian  and  the  Indian  are  alike  in  the  absence  of  a 
heavy  beard.  The  royal  color  of  the  Incas  was  yellow;  yellow 
is  the  color  of  the  imperial  family  in  China.  The  religion  of 
the  Peruvians  was  sun-worship ;  "  the  sun  was  the  peculiar  god 
of  the  Mongols  from  the  earliest  times."  The  Peruvians  re- 
garded Pachacamac  as  the  sovereign  creator,  Camac-Hya  was 
the  name  of  a  Hindoo  goddess.  Haylli  was  the  burden  of 
every  verse  of  the  song  composed  in  praise  of  the  sun  and  the 
Incas.  Mr.  John  Ranking  derives  the  word  Allah  from  the 
word  HaylU,  also  the  word  ^«//e-lujah.  In  the  city  of  Cuzco 
was  a  portion  of  land  which  none  were  permitted  to  cultivate 
except  those  of  the  royal  blood.  At  certain  seasons  the  Incas 
turned  up  the  sod  here,  amid  much  rejoicing  and  many  cere- 
monies. A  similar  custom  prevails  in  China:  The  emperor 
ploughs  a  few  furrows,  and  twelve  illustrious  persons  attend 
the  plough  after  him.  (Du  Halde,  "Empire  of  China,"  vol.  i., 
p.  275.)  The  cycle  of  sixty  years  was  in  use  among  most  of  the 
nations  of  Eastern  Asia,  and  among  the  Muyscas  of  the  elevated 
plains  of  Bogota.  The  '"'' quipu,''''  a  knotted  reckoning-cord,  was 
in  use  in  Peru  and  in  China.  (Bancroft's  "  Native  Races,"  vol. 
v.,  p.  48.)  In  Peru  and  China  "  both  use  hieroglyphics,  which 
are  read  from  above  downw^ard."     (Ibid.) 

"  It  appears  most  evident  to  me,"  says  Humboldt, "  that  the 
monuments,  methods  of  computing  time,  systems  of  cosmog- 
ony, and  many  myths  of  America,  offer  striking  analogies  with 
the  ideas  of  Eastern  Asia — analogies  which  indicate  an  ancient 
communication,  and  are  not  simply  the  result  of  that  uniform 
condition  in  which  all  nations  are  found  in  the  dawn  of  civili- 
zation."    ("  Exam.  Crit.,"  tom.  ii.,  p.  68.) 

"  In  the  ruined  cities  of  Cambodia,  which  lies  farther  to  the 
east  of  Burmah,  recent  research  has  discovered  teocallis  like 
those  in  Mexico,  and  the  remains  of  temples  of  the  same  type 
and  pattern  as  those  of  Yucatan.     And  when  we  reach  the  sea 


THE  OLDEST  SON  OF  NOAH.  439 

we  encounter  at  Siiku,  in  Java,  a  teocalli  which  is  absolutely 
identical  with  that  of  Tehuantepec.  Mr.  Ferguson  said,  'as 
we  advance  eastward  from  the  valley  of  the  Euphrates,  at  every 
step  we  meet  wjth  forms  of  art  becoming  more  and  more  like 
those  of  Central  America.'  "     ("  Builders  of  Babel,"  p.  88.) 

Prescott  says : 

"The  coincidences  are  sufficiently  strong  to  authorize  a 
belief  that  the  civilization  of  Anahuac  was  in  some  degree  in- 
fluenced by  that  of  Eastern  Asia ;  and,  secondly,  that  the  dis- 
crepancies are  such  as  to  carry  back  the  communication  to  a  very 
remote  periody     ("  Mexico,"  vol.  iii.,  p.  418.) 

"All  appearances,"  continues  Lenormant  (" Ancient  History 
of  the  East,"  vol.  i.,  p.  64),  "  would  lead  us  to  regard  the  Tura- 
nian race  as  the  first  branch  of  the  family  of  Japheth  which 
went  forth  into  the  world ;  and  by  that  premature  separation, 
by  an  isolated  and  antagonistic  existence,  took,  or  rather  pre- 
served, a  completely  distinct  physiognomy.  ...  It  is  a  type  of 
the  white  race  imperfectly  developed." 

We  may  regard  this  yellow  race  as  the  first  and  oldest  wave 
from  Atlantis,  and,  therefore,  reaching  farthest  away  from 
the  common  source ;  then  came  the  Hamitic  race ;  then  the 
Japhetic. 


440  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 


Chapter  IX. 

THE  ANTIQUITY  OF  SOME  OF  OUR   GREAT  INVEN- 
TIONS. 

It  may  seem  like  a  flight  of  tlie  imagination  to  suppose  that 
the  mariners  compass  was  known  to  the  inhabitants  of  Atlan- 
tis. And  yet,  if  iny  readers  are  satisfied  that  the  Atlanteans 
were  a  highly  civilized  maritime  people,  carrying  on  commerce 
with  regions  as  far  apart  as  Peru  and  Syria,  we  must  conclude 
that  they  possessed  some  means  of  tracing  their  course  in  the 
great  seas  they  traversed;  and  accordingly,  when  we  proceed 
to  investigate  this  subject,  we  find  that  as  far  back  as  we  may 
go  in  the  study  of  the  ancient  races  of  the  world,  we  find  them 
possessed  of  a  knowledge  of  the  virtues  of  the  magnetic  stone, 
and  in  the  habit  of  utilizing  it.  The  people  of  Europe,  rising 
a  few  centuries  since  out  of  a  state  of  semi-barbarism,  have 
been  in  the  habit  of  claiming  the  invention  of  many  things 
which  they  simply  borrowed  from  the  older  nations.  This 
was  the  case  with  the  mariner's  compass.  It  was  believed  for 
many  years  that  it  was  first  invented  by  an  Italian  named 
Amalfi,  A.D.  1302.  In  that  interesting  work,  Goodrich's  "Life 
of  Columbus,"  we  find  a  curious  history  of  the  magnetic  com- 
pass prior  to  that  time,  from  which  we  collate  the  following 
points : 

"In  A.D.  868  it  was  employed  by  the  Northmen."  ("The 
Landnamabok,"  vol.  i.,  chap.  2.)  An  Italian  poem  of  a.d.  1190 
refers  to  it  as  in  use  among  the  Italian  sailors  at  that  date. 
In  the  ancient  language  of  the  Hindoos,  the  Sanscrit — which 
has  been  a  dead  language  for  twenty-two  hundred  years — the 


ANTIQUITY  OF  SOME  OF  OUR  GREAT  INVENTIOXS.    441 

magnet  was  called  "  the  precious  stone  beloved  of  Iron."  The 
Talmud  speaks  of  it  as  "  the  stone  of  attraction  ;"  and  it  is  al- 
luded to  in  the  early  Hebrew  prayers  as  Kalamitah^  the  same 
name  given  it  by  the  Greeks,  from  the  reed  upon  which  the 
compass  floated.  The  Phoenicians  were  familiar  with  the  use 
of  the  magnet.  At  the  prow  of  their  vessels  stood  the  figure 
of  a  woman  (Astarte)  holding  a  cross  in  one  hand  and  point- 
ing the  way  with  the  other;  the  cross  represented  the  com- 
pass, which  was  a  magnetized  needle,  floating  in  water  cross- 
wise upon  a  piece  of  reed  or  wood.  The  cross  became  the 
coat  of  arms  of  the  Pha;nicians — not  only,  possibly,  as  we 
have  shown,  as  a  recollection  of  the  four  rivers  of  Atlantis, 
but  because  it  represented  the  secret  of  their  great  sea-voy- 
ages, to  which  they  owed  their  national  greatness.  The  hy- 
perborean magician,  Abaras,  carried  "  a  guiding  arrow,"  which 
Pythagoras  gave  him,  "  in  order  that  it  may  be  useful  to  him 
in  all  difficulties  in  his  long  journey."  ("  Herodotus,"  vol.  iv., 
p.  36.) 

The  magnet  was  called  the  "  Stone  of  Hercules."  Hercules 
was  the  patron  divinity  of  the  Phoenicians.  He  was,  as  we 
have  shown  elsewhere,  one  of  the  gods  of  Atlantis — probably 
one  of  its  great  kings  and  navigators.  The  Atlanteans  were, 
as  Plato  tells  us,  a  maritime,  commercial  people,  trading  up  the 
Mediterranean  as  far  as  Egypt  and  Syria,  and  across  the  At- 
lantic to  "the  whole  opposite  continent  that  surrounds  the 
sea;"  the  Phoenicians,  as  their  successors  and  descendants, 
and  colonized  on  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  inherited 
their  civilization  and  their  maritime  habits,  and  with  these, 
that  invention  without  which  their  great  voyages  were  impos- 
sible. From  them  the  magnet  passed  to  the  Hindoos,  and  from 
them  to  the  Chinese,  who  certainly  possessed  it  at  an  early 
date.  In  the  year  2700  b.c.  the  Emperor  Wang-ti  placed  a 
magnetic  figure  with  an  extended  arm,  like  the  Astarte  of  the 
Phcenicians,  on  the  front  of  carriages,  the  arm  always  turning 
and  pointing  to  the  south,  which  the  Chinese  regarded  as  the 

19* 


442 


ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 


principal  pole.    (See  Goodrich's  "  Columbus,"  p.  31,  etc.)    This 
illustration  represents  one  of  these  chariots : 


CHINESE   MAGNETIC   CAE. 


In  the  seventh  century  it  was  used  by  the  navigators  of  the 
Baltic  Sea  and  the  German  Ocean. 

The  ancient  Egyptians  called  the  loadstone  the  bone  of 
Haroeri,  and  iron  the  bone  of  Typhon.  Haroeri  was  the  son 
of  Osiris  and  grandson  of  Rhea,  a  goddess  of  the  earth,  a  queen 
of  Atlantis,  and  mother  of  Poseidon ;  Typhon  was  a  wind-god 
and  an  evil  genius,  but  also  a  son  of  Rhea,  the  earth  goddess. 
Do  we  find  in  this  curious  designation  of  iron  and  loadstone  as 
"bones  of  the  descendants  of  the  earth,"  an  explanation  of  that 
otherwise  inexplicable  Greek  legend  about  Deucalion  "throw- 
ing the  bones  of  the  earth  behind  him,  when  instantly  men 
rose  from  the  ground,  and  the  world  was  repeopled?"  Does  it 
mean  that  by  means  of  the  magnet  he  sailed,  after  the  Flood, 
to  the  European  colonies  of  Atlantis,  already  thickly  inhabited? 


AXTIQUITY  OF  SOME  OF  OUU  GREAT  IXVEXTIOXS.    443 

A  late  writer,  speaking  upon  the  subject  of  the  loadstone, 
tells  us : 

"  Hercules,  it  was  said,  being  once  overpowered  by  the  heat 
of  the  sun,  drew  his  bow  against  that  luminary ;  whereupon 
the  god  Phoebus,  admiring  his  intrepidity,  gave  him  a  gold- 
en cup,  with  which  he  sailed  over  the  ocean.  This  cup  was 
the  compass,  which  old  writers  have  called  Lapis  Heracleus. 
Pisander  says  Oceanus  lent  him  the  cup,  and  Lucian  says  it 
was  a  sea-shell.  Tradition  aflBrms  that  the  magnet  originally 
was  not  on  a  pivot,  but  set  to  float  on  water  in  a  cup.  The 
old  antiquarian  is  wildly  theoretical  on  this  point,  and  sees  a 
compass  in  the  Golden  Fleece  of  Argos,  in  the  oracular  needle 
which  Nero  worshipped,  and  in  everything  else.  Yet  undoubt- 
edly there  are  some  curious  facts  connected  with  the  matter. 
Osonius  says  that  Gam  a  and  the  Portuguese  got  the  compass 
from  some  pirates  at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  a.d.  1260.  M. 
Fauchet,  the  French  antiquarian,  finds  it  plainly  alluded  to  in 
some  old  poem  of  Brittany  belonging  to  the  year  a.d.  1180. 
Paulo  Venetus  brought  it  in  the  thirteenth  century  from  China, 
where  it  was  regarded  as  oracular.  Genebrand  says  Melvius,  a 
Neapolitan,  brought  it  to  Europe  in  a.d.  1303.  Costa  says 
Gama  got  it  from  Mohammedan  seamen.  But  all  nations  with 
whom  it  was  found  associate  it  ivith  regions  ivhere  Heraclean 
myths  2>revailed.  And  one  of  the  most  curious  facts  is  that 
the  ancient  Britons,  as  the  Welsh  do  to-day,  call  a  pilot  llywydd 
(lode).  Lodemanage,  in  Skinner's  '  Etymology,'  is  the  word 
for  the  price  paid  to  a  pilot.  But  whether  this  famous,  and 
afterward  deified,  mariner  (Hercules)  had  a  compass  or  not,  we 
can  hardly  regard  the  association  of  his  name  with  so  many 
Western  monuments  as  accidental." 

Hercules  was,  as  we  know,  a  god  of  Atlantis,  and  Oceanos, 
who  lent  the  magnetic  cup  to  Hercules,  was  the  name  by  which 
the  Greeks  designated  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  And  this  may  be 
the  explanation  of  the  recurrence  of  a  cup  in  many  antique 
paintings  and  statues.  Hercules  is  often  represented  with  a 
cup  in  his  hand ;  we  even  find  the  cup  upon  the  handle  of  the 
bronze  dagger  found  in  Denmark,  and  represented  in  the  chap- 
ter on  the  Bronze  Age,  in  this  work.     (See  p.  254  ante.) 


444 


ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 


So  "oracular"  an  object  as  this  self-moving  needle,  always 
pointing  to  the  north,  would  doubtless  affect  vividly  the  minds 
of  the  people,  and  appear  in  their  works  of  art.  When  Hercules 
left  the  coast  of  Eni'ope  to  sail  to  the  island  of  Erythea  in  the 
Atlantic,  in  the  remote  west,  we  are  told,  in  Greek  mytholo- 
gy (Murray,  p.  257),  that  he  borrowed  "the  cup"  of  Helios, 
in  (with)  which  "  he  was  accustomed  to  sail  every  nighty 
Here  we  seem  to  have  a  reference  to  the  magnetic  cup  used  in 


ANOiENT  COINS   OF   TYRE. 


night  sailing;  and  this  is  another  proof  that  the  use  of  the 
magnetic  needle  in  sea -voyages  was  associated  with  the  At- 
lantean  gods. 

Lucian  tells  us  that  a  sea-shell  often  took  the  place  of  the 
cup,  as  a  vessel  in  which  to  hold  the  water  where  the  needle 
floated,  and  hence  upon  the  ancient  coins  of  Tyre  we  find  a 
sea-shell  represented. 

Here,  too,  we  have  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  supposed  to  have 
been  placed  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  the  tree 
of  life  or  knowledge,  with  the  serpent  twined  around  it,  which 
appears  in  Genesis;  and  in  the  combination  of  the  two  pillars 
and  the  serpent  we  have,  it  is  said,  the  original  source  of  our 
dollar  mark  [$]. 

Compare  these  Phoenician  coins  with  the  following  repre- 


ANTIQUITY  OF  SOME  OF  OUR  GREAT  INVENTIONS.    445 

sentation  of  a  copper  coin,  two  inches  in  diameter  and  three 
lines  thick,  found  nearly  a  century  ago  by  Ordonez,  at  the  city 
of  Guatemala.  "  M.  Dupaix  noticed  an  indication  of  the  use 
of  the  compass  in  the  centre  of  one  of  the  sides,  the  figures  on 
the  same  side  representing  a  kneeling,  bearded,  turbaned  man 
between  two  fierce  heads,  perhaps  of  crocodiles,  which  appear 
to  defend  the  entrance  to  a  mountainous  and  wooded  country. 
The  reverse  presents  a  serpent  coiled  around  a  fruit-tree,  and 
an  eagle  on  a  hill."  (Bancroft's  "Native  Races,"  vol.  iv.,  p. 
118.)  The  mountain  leans  to  one  side:  it  is  a  "culhuacan," 
or  crooked  mountain. 

We  find  in  Sanclioniathon's  "Legends  of  the  Phoenicians" 
tliat  Ouranus,  the  first  god  of  the  people  of  Atlantis,  "  devised 


COIN   FEO.M    OESTE.VL    AMEEIOA. 


Baetalia,  contriving  stones  that  moved  as  having  H/e,  which 
were  supposed  to  fall  from  heaven."  These  stones  were  prob- 
ably magnetic  loadstones ;  in  other  words,  Ouranus,  the  first 
god  of  Atlantis,  devised  the  mariner's  compass. 

I  find  in  the  "  Report  of  United  States  Explorations  for  a 
Route  for  a  Pacific  Railroad"  a  description  of  a  New  Mexican 
Indian  priest,  who  foretells  the  result  of  a  proposed  war  by 
placing  a  piece  of  wood  in  a  bowl  of  water,  and  causing  it  to 


440  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 

turn  to  the  right  or  left,  or  sink  or  rise,  as  he  directs  it.  This 
is  incomprehensiUe,  unless  the  wood,  like  the  ancient  Chinese 
compass,  contained  a  piece  of  magnetic  iron  hidden  in  it,  which 
would  be  attracted  or  repulsed,  or  even  drawn  downward,  by 
a  piece  of  iron  held  in  the  hand  of  the  priest,  on  the  outside 
of  the  bowl.  If  so,  this  trick  was  a  remembrance  of  the  mar- 
iner's compass  transmitted  from  age  to  age  by  the  medicine 
men.  The  reclining  statue  of  Chac-Mol,  of  Central  America, 
holds  a  bowl  or  dish  upon  its  breast. 

Divination  was  the  ars  Etrusca.  The  Etruscans  set  their 
temples  squarely  with  the  cardinal  points  of  the  compass;  so 
did  the  Egyptians,  the  Mexicans,  and  the  Mound  Builders  of 
America.  Could 'they  have  done  this  without  the  magnetic 
compass  ? 

The  Romans  and  the  Persians  called  the  line  of  the  axis  of 
the  globe  cardo,  and  it  was  to  cardo  the  needle  pointed.  Now 
'■'■Cardo  was  the  name  of  the  mountain  on  which  the  human 
race  took  refuge  from  the  Deluge  .  .  .  the  primitive  geographic 
point  for  the  countries  which  were  the  cradle  of  the  human 
race."  (Urquhart's  "  Pillars  of  Hercules,"  vol.  i.,  p.  145.)  From 
this  comes  our  word  "  cardinal,"  as  the  cardinal  points. 

Navigation. — Navigation  was  not  by  any  means  in  a  rude 
state  in  the  earliest  times: 

"  In  the  wanderings  of  the  heroes  returning  from  Troy,  Aris- 
toricus  makes  Menelaus  circumnavigate  Africa  more  than  500 
years  before  Neco  sailed  from  Gadeira  to  India."  ("  Cosmos," 
vol.  ii.,  p.  144.) 

"  In  the  tomb  of  Rameses  the  Great  is  a  representation  of 
a  naval  combat  between  the  Egyptians  and  some  other  people, 
supposed  to  be  the  Phoenicians,  whose  huge  ships  are  propelled 
by  sails."     (Goodrich's  "  Columbus,"  p.  29.) 

The  proportions  of  the  fastest  sailing-vessels  of  the  present 
day  are  about  300  feet  long  to  50  wide  and  30  high;  these 
were  precisely  the  proportions  of  Noah's  ark — 300  cubits  long, 
50  broad,  and  30  high. 


AyriquiTY  of  some  of  our  great  INVEI^TIONIS.   447 

"Hiero  of  Syracuse  built,  under  the  superintendence  of  Ar- 
chimedes, a  vessel  which  consumed  in  its  construction  tlie  ma- 
terial for  fifty  galleys;  it  contained  galleries,  gardens,  stables, 
fish-ponds,  mills,  baths,  a  temple  of  Venus,  and  an  engine  to 
throw  stones  three  hundred  pounds  in  weight,  and  arrows 
thirty-six  feet  long.  The  floors  of  this  monstrous  vessel  were 
inlaid  with  scenes  from  Homer's  '  Iliad.'  "     {Ihid.^  p.  30.) 

The  fleet  of  Sesostris  consisted  of  four  hundred  ships;  and 
when  Semiramis  invaded  India  she  was  opposed  by  four  thou- 
sand vessels. 

It  is  probable  that  in  the  earliest  times  the  vessels  were 
sheeted  with  metal.  A  Roman  ship  of  the  time  of  Trajan 
has  been  recovered  from  Lake  Ricciole  after  1300  years.  The 
outside  was  covered  with  sheets  of  lead  fastened  with  small  cop- 
per nails.  Even  the  use  of  iron  chains  in  place  of  ropes  for  the 
anchors  was  known  at  an  early  period.  Julius  Caesar  tells  us 
that  the  galleys  of  the  Veneti  were  thus  equipped.  (Goodrich's 
"Columbus,"  p.  31.) 

Gunpowder. — It  is  not  impossible  that  even  the  invention 
of  gunpowder  may  date  back  to  Atlantis.  It  was  certainly 
known  in  Europe  long  before  the  time  of  the  German  monk, 
Berthold  Schwarz,  who  is  commonly  credited  with  the  inven- 
tion of  it.  It  was  employed  in  1257  at  the  siege  of  Niebla,  in 
Spain.  It  was  described  in  an  Arab  treatise  of  the  thirteenth 
century.  In  a.d.  811  the  Emperor  Leo  employed  fire-arms. 
"  Greek-fire  "  is  supposed  to  have  been  gunpowder  mixed  with 
resin  or  petroleum,  and  thrown  in  the  form  of  fuses  and  ex- 
plosive shells.  It  was  introduced  from  Egypt  a.d.  668.  In 
A.D.  690  the  Arabs  used  fire-arms  against  Mecca,  bringing  the 
knowledo-e  of  them  from  India.  In  a.d.  80  the  Chinese  obtained 
from  India  a  knowledge  of  gunpowder.  There  is  reason  to 
believe  that  tlie  Carthaginian  (Phoenician)  general,  Hannibal, 
used  gunpowder  in  breaking  a  way  for  his  army  over  the  Alps. 
The  Romans,  who  were  ignorant  of  its  use,  said  that  Hannibal 
made  his  way  by  making  fires  against  the  rocks,  and  pouring 


448  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

vinegar  and  water  over  the  ashes.  It  is  evident  that  fire  and 
vinegar  would  have  no  effect  on  masses  of  the  Alps  great 
enough  to  arrest  the  march  of  an  army.  Dr.  William  Ma- 
ginn  has  suggested  that  the  wood  was  probably  burnt  by  Han- 
nibal to  obtain  charcoal ;  and  the  word  which  has  been  trans- 
lated "vinegar"  probably  signified  some  preparation  of  nitre 
and  sulphur,  and  that  Hannibal  made  gunpowder  and  blew  up 
the  rocks.  The  same  author  suggests  that  the  story  of  Hanni- 
bal breaking  loose  from  the  mountains  where  he  was  surround- 
ed on  all  sides  by  the  Romans,  and  in  danger  of  starvation,  by 
fastening  firebrands  to  the  horns  of  two  thousand  oxen,  and 
sendinor  them  rushins:  at  nio-ht  amono;  the  terrified  Romans, 
simply  refers  to  the  use  of  rockets.  As  Maginn  well  asks, 
how  could  Hannibal  be  in  danger  of  starvation  when  he  had 
two  thousand  oxen  to  spare  for  such  an  experiment?  And 
why  should  the  veteran  Roman  troops  have  been  so  terrified 
and  panic-stricken  by  a  lot  of  cattle  with  firebrands  on  their 
horns  ?  At  the  battle  of  Lake  Trasymene,  between  Hannibal 
and  Flaminius,  we  have  another  curious  piece  of  information 
which  goes  far  to  confirm  the  belief  that  Hannibal  was  familiar 
with  the  use  of  gunpowder.  In  the  midst  of  the  battle  there 
was,  say  the  Roman  historians,  an  "  earthquake ;"  the  earth 
reeled  under  the  feet  of  the  soldiers,  a  tremendous  crash  was 
heard,  a  fog  or  smoke  covered  the  scene,  the  earth  broke  open, 
and  the  rocks  fell  upon  the  heads  of  the  Romans.  This  reads 
very  much  as  if  the  Carthaginians  had  decoyed  the  Romans 
into  a  pass  where  they  had  already  planted  a  mine,  and  had 
exploded  it  at  the  proper  moment  to  throw  them  into  a  panic. 
Earthquakes  do  not  cast  rocks  up  in  the  air  to  fall  on  men's 
heads ! 

And  that  this  is  not  all  surmise  is  shown  by  the  fact  that 
a  city  of  India,  in  the  time  of  Alexander  the  Great,  defended 
itself  by  the  use  of  gunpowder :  it  was  said  to  be  a  favorite  of 
the  gods,  because  thunder  and  lightning  came  from  its  walls  to 
resist  the  attacks  of  its  assailants. 


ANTIQUITY  OF  SOME  OF  OUR  GREAT  INVENTIONS.    449 

As  the  Hebrews  were  a  branch  of  the  Phoenician  race,  it  is 
not  surprising  that  we  find  some  things  in  their  history  which 
look  very  much  Hke  legends  of  gunpowder. 

When  Korah,  Dathan,  and  Abiram  led  a  rebellion  against 
Moses,  Moses  separated  the  faithful  from  the  unfaithful,  and 
thereupon  "  the  ground  clave  asunder  that  was  under  them : 
and  the  earth  opened  her  mouth,  and  swallowed  them  up,  and 
their  houses,  and  all  the  men  that  appertained  unto  Korah,  and 
all  their  goods.  .  .  .  And  there  came  out  a  fire  from  the  Lord, 
and  consumed  the  two  hundred  and  fifty  men  that  offered  in- 
cense. .  .  .  But  on  the  morrow  all  the  cono-refration  of  the 
children  of  Israel  murmured  against  Moses  and  against  Aaron, 
saying,  Ye  have  killed  the  people  of  the  Lord."  (Numb,  xvi., 
31-4L) 

This  looks  very  much  as  if  Moses  had  blown  up  the  rebels 
with  gunpowder. 

Roger  Bacon,  who  himself  rediscovered  gunpowder,  was  of 
opinion  that  the  event  described  in  Judges  vii.,  where  Gideon 
captured  the  camp  of  the  Midianites  with  the  roar  of  trumpets, 
the  crash  caused  by  the  breaking  of  innumerable  pitchers,  and 
the  flash  of  a  multitude  of  lanterns,  had  reference  to  the  use  of 
gunpowder;  that  the  noise  made  by  the  breaking  of  the  pitch- 
ers represented  the  detonation  of  an  explosion,  the  flame  of 
the  lights  the  blaze,  and  the  noise  of  the  trumpets  the  thunder 
of  the  gunpowder.  We  can  understand,  in  this  wise,  the  re- 
sults that  followed  ;  but  we  cannot  otherwise  understand  how 
the  breaking  of  pitchers,  the  flashing  of  lamps,  and  the  clangor 
of  trumpets  would  throw  an  army  into  panic,  until  "  every 
man's  sword  was  set  against  his  fellow,  and  the  host  fled  to 
Beth-shittah ;"  and  this,  too,  without  any  attack  upon  the  part 
of  the  Israelites,  for  "they  stood  every  man  in  his  place  around 
the  camp ;  and  all  the  host  ran  and  cried  and  fled." 

If  it  was  a  miraculous  interposition  in  behalf  of  the  Jews, 
the  Lord  could  have  scared  the  Midianites  out  of  their  wits 
without  the  smashed  pitchers  and  lanterns;  and  certain  it  is 


450  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

the  pitchers  and  lanterns  would  not  have  done  the  work  with- 
out a  miraculous  interposition. 

Having  traced  the  knowledge  of  gunpowder  back  to  the 
most  remote  times,  and  to  the  different  races  which  were  de- 
scended from  Atlantis,  we  are  not  surprised  to  find  in  the 
legends  of  Greek  mythology  events  described  which  are  only 
explicable  by  supposing  that  the  Atlanteans  possessed  the 
secret  of  this  powerful  explosive. 

A  rebellion  sprang  up  in  Atlantis  (see  Murray's  "Manual  of 
Mythology,"  p.  30)  against  Zeus ;  it  is  known  in  mythology  as 
the  "  War  of  the  Titans  :" 

"The  struggle  lasted  many  years,  all  the  might  which  the 
Olympians  could  bring  to  bear  being  useless,  until,  on  the  ad- 
vice of  Gsea,  Zeus  set  free  the  Kyklopes  and  the  Hekaton- 
cheires  "  (that  is,  brought  the  ships  into  play),  "  of  whom  the 
former  fashioned  thunder-bolts  for  him,  w4iile  the  latter  ad- 
vanced on  his  side  with  force  equal  to  the  shock  of  an  earth- 
quake. The  earth  trerahled  down  to  lowest  Tartarus  as  Zeus 
now  appeared  with  his  terrible  weapon  and  new  allies.  Old 
Chaos  thought  his  hour  had  come,  as  from  a  continuous  blaze 
of  thunder-bolts  the  earth  took  fire^  and  the  waters  seethed  in 
the  sea.  The  rebels  were  partly  slain  or  consumed,  and  partly 
hurled  into  deep  chasms,  with  rocks  and  hills  reeling  after 
them.'''' 

Do  not  these  words  picture  the  explosion  of  a  mine  with  a 
"  force  equal  to  the  shock  of  an  earthquake  ?" 

We  have  already  shown  that  the  Kyklopes  and  Hekaton- 
clieires  were  probably  great  war-ships,  armed  with  some  ex- 
plosive material  in  the  nature  of  gunpowder. 

Zeus,  the  king  of  Atlantis,  was  known  as  "  the  thunderer," 
and  was  represented  armed  with  thunder-bolts. 

Some  ancient  nation  must,  in  the  most  remote  ages,  have 
invented  gunpowder ;  and  is  it  unreasonable  to  attribute  it  to 
that  "  great  original  race "  rather  than  to  any  one  people  of 
their  posterity,  who  seem  to  have  borrowed  all  the  other  arts 
from  them ;    and  who,  during  many  thousands  of  years,  did 


ANTIQUITY  OF  SOME  OF  OUR  GREAT  INVENTIONS.    451 

not  add  a  single  new  invention  to  the  list  they  received  from 
Atlantis  ? 

Iron. — We  have  seen  that  the  Greek  mythological  legends 
asserted  that  before  the  submergence  of  the  great  race  over 
whom  their  gods  reigned  there  had  been  not  only  an  Age  of 
Bronze  but  an  Age  of  Iron.  This  metal  was  known  to  the 
Egyptians  in  the  earliest  ages;  fragments  of  iron  have  been 
found  in  the  oldest  pyramids.  The  Iron  Age  in  Northern 
Europe  far  antedated  intercourse  with  the  Greeks  or  Romans. 
In  the  mounds  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  as  I  have  shown,  the 
remains  of  iron  implements  have  been  found.  In  the  "  Mercu- 
rio  Peruano  "  (torn,  i.,  p.  201, 1791)  it  is  stated  that  "  anciently 
the  Peruvian  sovereigns  worked  mao-uificent  iron  mines  at  An- 
coriames,  on  the  west  shore  of  Lake  Titicaca."  "  It  is  remark- 
able," says  Molina,  "that  iron,  which  has  been  thought  un- 
known to  the  ancient  Americans,  had  particular  names  in  some 
of  their  tongues."  In  official  Peruvian  it  was  called  quillay, 
and  in  Chilian  2m?z///c.  The  Mound  Builders  fashioned  im- 
plements out  of  meteoric  iron.  (Foster's  "  Prehistoric  Races," 
p.  333.) 

As  we  find  this  metal  known  to  man  in  the  earliest  ages  on 
both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  the  presumption  is  very  strong  that 
it  was  borrowed  by  the  nations,  east  and  west,  from  Atlantis. 

Paper. — The  same  argument  holds  good  as  to  paper.  The 
oldest  Egyptian  monuments  contain  pictures  of  the  papyrus 
roll ;  while  in  Mexico,  as  I  have  shown,  a  beautiful  paper  was 
manufactured  and  formed  into  books  shaped  like  our  own.  In 
Peru  a  paper  was  made  of  plantain  leaves,  and  books  were  com- 
mon in  the  earlier  ages.  Humboldt  mentions  books  of  hiero- 
glyphical  writings  among  the  Panoes,  which  were  "  bundles  of 
their  paper  resembling  our  volumes  in  quarto." 

Silk  Manufacture. — The  manufacture  of  a  woven  fabric  of 
great  beauty  out  of  the  delicate  fibre  of  the  egg -cocoon  of 
a  worm  could  only  have  originated  among  a  people  who 
had  attained  the  highest  degree  of  civilization ;   it  implies  the 


452  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 

art  of  weaving  by  delicate  instruments,  a  dense  population, 
a  patient,  skilful,  artistic  people,  a  sense  of  the  beautiful,  and 
a  wealthy  and  luxurious  class  to  purchase  such  costly  fabrics. 

We  trace  it  back  to  the  most  remote  ages.  In  the  intro- 
duction to  the  "History  of  Hindostan,"  or  rather  of  the  Moham- 
medan Dynasties,  by  Mohammed  Cassim,  it  is  stated  that  in  the 
year  3870  b.c;  an  Indian  king  sent  various  silk  stuffs  as  a  pres- 
ent to  the  King  of  Persia.  The  art  of  making  silk  was  known 
in  China  more  than  two  thousand  six  hundred  years  before  the 
Christian  era,  at  the  time  when  we  find  them  first  possessed  of 
civilization.  The  Phoenicians  dealt  in  silks  in  the  most  re- 
mote past;  they  imported  them  from  India  and  sold  them 
along  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean.  It  is  probable  that 
the  Egyptians  understood  and  practised  the  art  of  manufac- 
turing silk.  It  was  woven  in  the  island  of  Cos  in  the  time  of 
Aristotle.  The  "Babylonish  garment"  referred  to  in  Joshua 
(chap,  vii.,  21),  and  for  secreting  which  Achan  lost  his  life, 
was  probably  a  garment  of  silk;  it  was  rated  above  silver  and 
gold  in  value. 

It  is  not  a  violent  presumption  to  suppose  that  an  art 
known  to  the  Hindoos  3870  b.c,  and  to  the  Chinese  and 
Phoenicians  at  the  very  beginning  of  their  history  —  an  art 
so  curious,  so  extraordinary — may  have  dated  back  to  Atlan- 
tean  times. 

Civil  Government. — Mr.  Baldwin  shows  ("Prehistoric  Na- 
tions," p.  114)  that  the  Cushites,  the  successors  of  the  Atlan- 
teans,  whose  very  ancient  empire  extended  from  Spain  to 
Syria,  were  the  first  to  establish  independent  municipal  repub- 
lics, with  the  right  of  the  people  to  govern  themselves;  and 
that  this  system  was  perpetuated  in  the  great  Phoenician  com- 
munities; in  "the  fierce  democracies"  of  ancient  Greece;  in 
the  "village  republics"  of  the  African  Berbers  and  the  Hin- 
doos; in  the  "free  cities"  of  the  Middle  Ages  in  Europe;  and 
in  the  independent  governments  of  the  Basques,  which  con- 
tinued down  to  our  own  day.     The  Cushite  state  was  an  ag- 


ANTIQUITY  OF  SOME  OF  OUR  GREAT  INVENTIONS.    453 

gregation  of  municipalities,  each  possessing  the  right  of  self- 
government,  but  subject  within  prescribed  limits  to  a  general 
authority ;  in  other  words,  it  was  precisely  the  form  of  gov- 
ernment possessed  to-day  by  the  United  States.  It  is  a  sur- 
prising thought  that  the  perfection  of  modern  government  may 
be  another  perpetuation  of  Atlantean  civilization. 

Agriculture. — The  Greek  traditions  of  "  the  golden  apples 
of  the  Hesperides"  and  "the  golden  fleece"  point  to  Atlantis. 
The  allusions  to  the  golden  apples  indicate  that  tradition  re- 
garded the  "Islands  of  the  Blessed"  in  the  x\tlantic  Ocean  as 
a  place  of  orchards.  xVnd  when  we  turn  to  Egypt  we  find  that 
in  the  remotest  times  many  of  our  modern  garden  and  field 
plants  were  there  cultivated.  When  the  Israelites  murmured 
in  the  wilderness  against  Moses,  they  cried  out  (Xumb.,  chap. 
xi.,  4,  5),  "  Who  shall  give  us  flesh  to  eat?  We  remember  the 
fish  which  we  did  eat  in  Egypt  freely ;  the  cucumbers,  and  the 
melons,  and  the  leeks,  and  the  onions,  and  the  garlic."  The 
Egyptians  also  cultivated  wheat,  barley,  oats,  flax,  hemp,  etc. 
In  fact,  if  we  were  to  take  away  from  civilized  man  the  domes- 
tic animals,  the  cereals,  and  the  field  and  garden  vegetables 
possessed  by  the  Egyptians  at  the  very  dawn  of  history,  there 
would  be  very  little  left  for  the  granaries  or  the  tables  of  the 
world. 

Aatronomy. — The  knowledge  of  the  ancients  as  to  astronomy 
was  great  and  accurate.  Callisthenes,  who  accompanied  Alex- 
ander the  Great  to  Babylon,  sent  to  Aristotle  a  series  of  Chal- 
dean astronomical  observations  which  he  found  preserved  there, 
recorded  on  tablets  of  baked  clay,  and  extending  back  as  far  as 
2234  B.C.  Humboldt  says,  "The  Chaldeans  knew  the  mean 
motions  of  the  moon  with  an  exactness  which  induced  the 
Greek  astronomers  to  use  their  calculations  for  the  foundation 
of  a  lunar  theory."  The  Chaldeans  knew  the  true  nature  of 
comets,  and  could  foretell  their  reappearance.  "  A  lens  of 
considerable  power  was  found  in  the  ruins  of  Babylon  ;  it 
was  an  inch  and  a  half  in  diameter  and  nine-tenths  of  an  inch 


454  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

thiclv."  (Lfiyard's  "  Nineveh  and  Babylon,"  pp.  16, 17.)  Nero 
used  optical  glasses  when  he  watched  the  fights  of  the  gladi- 
ators ;  they  are  supposed  to  have  come  from  Egypt  and 
the  East.  Plutarch  speaks  of  optical  instruments  used  by  Ar- 
chimedes "  to  manifest  to  the  eye  the  largeness  of  the  sun." 
"  There  are  actual  astronomical  calculations  in  existence,  with 
calendars  formed  upon  them,  which  eminent  astronomers  of 
England  and  France  admit  to  be  genuine  and  true,  and  which 
carry  back  the  antiquity  of  the  science  of  astronomy,  together 
with  the  constellations,  to  within  a  few  years  of  the  Deluge, 
even  on  the  longer  chronology  of  the  Septuagint."  ("The 
Miracle  in  Stone,"  p.  142.)  Josephus  attributes  the  invention 
of  the  constellations  to  the  family  of  the  antediluvian  Seth, 
the  son  of  Adam,  while  Origen  affirms  that  it  was  asserted  in 
the  Book  of  Enoch  that  in  the  time  of  that  patriarch  the  con- 
stellations were  already  divided  and  named.  The  Greeks  as- 
sociated the  origin  of  astronomy  with  Atlas  and  Hercules,  At- 
lantean  kings  or  heroes.  The  Egyptians  regarded  Taut  (At?) 
or  Thoth,  or  ^Miotes,  as  the  originator  of  both  astronomy  and 
the  alphabet ;  doubtless  he  represented  a  civilized  people,  bj'- 
whom  their  country  was  originally  colonized.  Bailly  and  oth- 
ers assert  that  astronomy  "  must  have  been  established  when 
the  summer  solstice  was  in  the  first  degree  of  Virgo,  and  that 
the  solar  and  lunar  zodiacs  were  of  similar  antiquity,  which 
would  be  about  four  thousand  years  before  the -Christian  era. 
They  suppose  the  originators  to  have  lived  in  about  the  for- 
tieth degree  of  north  latitude,  and  to  have  been  a  highly-civil- 
ized people."  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  fortieth  degree 
of  north  latitude  passed  through  Atlantis.  Plato  knew  ("  Dia- 
logues, Phsedo,"  108)  that  the  earth  "  is  a  body  in  the  centre  of 
the  heavens"  held  in  equipoise.  He  speaks  of  it  as  a  "round 
body,"  a  "  globe ;"  he  even  understood  that  it  revolved  on  its 
axis,  and  that  these  revolutions  produced  day  and  night.  He 
says — "Dialogues,  Timseus" — "The  earth  circling  around  the 
pole  (which  is  extended  through  the  universe)  he  made  to  be 


ANTIQUITY  OF  SOME  OF  OUR  GREAT  INVENTIONS.    455 

the  artificer  of  night  and  day."  All  this  Greek  learning  was 
probably  drawn  from  the  Egyptians. 

Only  among  the  Atlanteans  in  Europe  and  America  do  we 
find  traditions  preserved  as  to  the  origin  of  all  the  principal  in- 
ventions which  have  raised  man  from  a  savage  to  a  civilized  con- 
dition.    We  can  give  in  part  the  very  names  ni  the  inventors. 

Starting  with  the  Chippeway  legends,  and  following  with 
the  Bible  and  Phoenician  records,  we  make  a  table  like  the 
appended : 


The  Invention  or  Discover}'. 

The  Race. 

The  Inventors. 

Atlantean 

Chippeway. . . . 

Atlantean 

u 

Hebrew 

Greek 

Phos,  Phur,  and  Phlox. 
Manaboshu. 

Autochthon  and  Technites. 
Argos  and  Agrotes. 

Amynos  and  Magos. 

Misor  and  Sydyk. 

Taautos,  or  Taut. 

The  Cabin,  or  Corybantes. 

Jubal. 

Tubal-cain. 

Pan. 
Hermes. 

The  bow  and  arrow 

The  use  of  flint 

The  use  of  copper 

The  manufacture  of  bricks 
Agriculture  and  hunting. . 
Village     life,   and    the  ) 
rearing  of  flocks.  .  .  .  ) 
The  use  of  salt 

The  use  of  letters 

Navigation 

The  art  of  music 

Metallurgy,  and  the  use  ) 
of  iron ) 

The  syrinx 

The  lyre 

I 


We  cannot  consider  all  these  evidences  of  the  vast  antiqui- 
ty of  the  great  inventions  upon  which  our  civilization  mainly 
rests,  including  the  art  of  writing,  which,  as  I  have  shown,  dates 
back  far  beyond  the  beginning  of  history ;  we  cannot  remem- 
ber that  the  origin  of  all  the  great  food-plants,  such  as  wheat, 
oats,  barley,  rye,  and  maize,  is  lost  in  the  remote  past;  and 
that  all  the  domesticated  animals,  the  horse,  the  ass,  the  ox,  the 
sheep,  the  goat,  and  the  hog  had  been  reduced  to  subjection 
to  man  in  ages  long  previous  to  written  history,  without  having 
the  conclusion  forced  upon  us  irresistibly  that  beyond  Egypt 
and  Greece,  beyond  Chaldea  and  China,  there  existed  a  mighty 
civilization,  of  which  these  states  were  but  the  broken  fragments. 


456  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 


Chapter  X. 
THE  ARYAN  COLONIES  FROM  ATLANTIS. 

We  come  now  to  another  question :  "  Did  the  Aiyan  or 
Japhetic  race  corne  from  Atlantis  V 

If  the  Aryans  are  tlie  Japhetic  race,  and  if  Japlieth  was  one 
of  the  sons  of  the  patriarch  who  escaped  from  the  Deluge, 
then  assuredly,  if  the  tradition  of  Genesis  be  true,  the  Aryans 
came  from  the  drowned  land,  to  wit,  Atlantis.  According  to 
Genesis,  the  descendants  of  the  Japheth  who  escaped  out  of 
the  Flood  with  Noah  are  the  lonians,  the  inhabitants  of  the 
Morea,  the  dwellers  on  the  Cilician  coast  of  Asia  Minor,  the 
Cyprians,  the  Dodoneans  of  Macedonia,  the  Iberians,  and  the 
Thracians.  These  are  all  now  recognized  as  Aryans,  except  the 
Iberians. 

"  From  non-Biblical  sources,"  says  Winchell,  "  we  obtain  fur- 
ther information  respecting  the  early  dispersion  of  the  Japheth- 
ites  or  Indo- Europeans  —  called  also  Aryans.  All  determina- 
tions confirm  the  Biblical  account  of  their  primitive  residence  in 
the  same  country  with  the  Hamites  and  Semites.  Rawlinson 
informs  us  that  even  Aryan  roots  are  mingled  with  Presemitic 
in  some  of  the  old  inscriptions  of  Assyria.  The  precise  region 
where  these  three  families  dwelt  in  a  common  home  has  not 
been  pointed  out."     ("  Preadamites,"  p.  43.) 

I  have  shown  in  the  chapter  in  relation  to  Peru  that  all  the 
languages  of  tl>e  Hamites,  Semites,  and  Japhethites  are  varie- 
ties of  one  aboriginal  speech. 

The  centre  of  the  Aryan  migrations  (according  to  popular 
opinion)  within  the  Historical  Period  was  Armenia.     Here  too 


I 


THE  ARYAN  COLONIES  FROM  ATLANTIS.  457 

is  Mount  Ararat,  where  it  is  said  the  ark  rested — another  iden- 
tification with  the  Flood  regions,  as  it  represents  the  usual  trans- 
fer of  the  Atlantis  legend  by  an  Atlantean  people  to  a  high 
mountain  in  their  new  home. 

Now  turn  to  a  map :  Suppose  the  ships  of  Atlantis  to  have 
reached  the  shores  of  Syria,  at  the  eastern  end  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean, where  dwelt  a  people  who,  as  we  have  seen,  used  the 
Central  American  Maya  alphabet ;  the  Atlantis  ships  are  then 
but  two  hundred  miles  distant  from  Armenia.  But  these  ships 
need  not  stop  at  Syria,  they  can  go  by  the  Dardanelles  and  the 
Black  Sea,  by  uninterrupted  water  communication,  to  the  shores 
of  Armenia  itself.  If  we  admit,  then,  that  it  was  from  Ar- 
menia the  Aryans  stocked  Europe  and  India,  there  is  no  reason 
why  the  original  population  of  Armenia  should  not  have  been 
themselves  colonists  from  Atlantis. 

But  we  have  seen  that  in  the  earliest  ages,  before  the  first 
Armenian  migration  of  the  historical  Aryans,  a  people  went 
from  Iberian  Spain  and  settled  in  Ireland,  and  the  language  of 
this  people,  it  is  now  admitted,  is  Aryan.  And  these  Iberians 
were  originally,  according  to  tradition,  from  the  West. 

The  Mediterranean  Aryans  are  knowm  to  have  been  in  South- 
eastern Europe,  along  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  2000  b.c. 
They  at  that  early  date  possessed  the  plough ;  also  wheat,  rye, 
barley,  gold,  silver,  and  bronze.  Aryan  faces  are  found  depict- 
ed upon  the  monuments  of  Egypt,  painted  four  thousand  years 
before  the  time  of  Christ.  "  The  conflicts  between  the  Kelts 
(an  Aryan  race)  and  the  Iberians  were  far  anterior  in  date  to 
the  settlements  of  the  Phoenicians,  Greeks,  Carthaginians,  and 
Noachites  on  the  coasts  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea."  ("  Ameri- 
can Cyclopaedia,"  art.  Basques.)  There  is  reason  to  believe 
that  these  Kelts  w^ere  originally  part  of  the  population  and 
Empire  of  Atlantis.  We  are  told  (Rees's  "  British  Encyclo- 
ptiedia,"  art.  Titans)  that  "  Mercury,  one  of  the  Atlantean  gods, 
was  placed  as  ruler  over  the  Celtse,  and  became  their  great 
divinity."     F.  Pezron,  in  his  "Antiquity  of  the  Celta3,"  makes 

20 


458  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

out  that  the  Celt<'e  were  the  same  as  the  Titans,  the  giant  race 
who  rebelled  in  Atlantis,  and  "  that  their  princes  were  the 
same  with  the  giants  of  Scripture."  He  adds  that  the  word 
Titan  "is  perfect  Celtic,  and  comes  from  tit^  the  earth,  and 
ten  or  den,  man,  and  hence  the  Greeks  very  properly  also  called 
them  terrigiiice,  or  earth-born."  And  it  will  be  remembered 
that  Plato  uses  the  same  phrase  when  he  speaks  of  the  race 
into  which  Poseidon  intermarried  as  "  the  earth-born  primeval 
men  of  that  country." 

The  Greeks,  who  are  Aryans,  traced  their  descent  from  the 
people  who  were .  destroyed  by  the  Flood,  as  did  other  races 
clearly  Aryan. 

"The  nations  who  are  comprehended  under  the  common 
appellation  of  Indo-European,"  says  Max  Miiller — "  the  Hin- 
doos, the  Persians,  the  Celts,  Germans,  Romans,  Greeks,  and 
Slavs — do  not  only  share  the  same  words  and  the  same  gram- 
mar, slightly  modified  in  each  country,  but  they  seem  to  have 
likewise  preserved  a  mass  of  popular  traditions  which  had 
grown  up  before  they  left  their  common  home." 

"  Bonfey,  L.  Geiger,  and  other  students  of  the  ancient  Indo- 
European  languages,  have  recently  advanced  the  opinion  that 
the  original  home  of  the  Indo-European  races  must  be  sought 
in  Europe,  because  their  stock  of  words  is  rich  in  the  names  of 
plants  and  animals,  and  contains  names  of  seasons  that  are  not 
found  in  tropical  countries  or  anywhere  in  Asia."  ("American 
Cyclopaedia,"  art.  Ethtology.) 

By  the  study  of  comparative  philology,  or  the  seeking  out 
of  the  words  common  to  the  various  branches  of  the  Ai-yan 
race  before  they  separated,  we  are  able  to  reconstruct  an  out- 
line of  the  civilization  of  that  ancient  people.  Max  Miiller 
has  given  this  subject  great  study,  and  availing  ourselves  of 
his  researches  we  can  determine  the  following  facts  as  to 
the  progenitors  of  the  Aryan  stock  :  They  were  a  civilized 
race;  they  possessed  the  institution  of  marriage;  they  recog- 
nized the  relationship  of  father,  mother,  son,  daughter,  grand- 


I 


THE  ARYAN  COLONIES  FROM  ATLANTIS.  459 

son,  brother,  sister,  mother- in -law,  father-in-law,  son-in-law, 
daughter-in-law,  brother-in-law,  and  sister-in-law,  and  had 
separate  words  for  each  of  these  relationships,  which  we  are 
only  able  to  express  by  adding-  the  words  "in-law."  They 
recognized  also  the  condition  of  widows,  or  "the  husband- 
less."  They  lived  in  an  organized  society,  governed  by  a  king. 
They  possessed  houses  with  doors  and  solid  walls.  They  had 
wagons  and  carriages.  They  possessed  family  names.  They 
dwelt  in  towns  and  cities,  on  highways.  They  were  not  hunters 
or  nomads.  They  were  a  peaceful  people ;  the  warlike  words 
in  the  different  Aryan  languages  cannot  be  traced  back  to  this 
original  race.  They  lived  in  a  country  having  few  wild  beasts; 
the  only  wild  animals  whose  names  can  be  assigned  to  this 
parent  stock  being  the  bear,  the  wolf,  and  the  serpent.  The 
name  of  the  elephant,  "  the  beast  ^vith  a  hand,"  occurs  only 
twice  in  the  "Rig- Veda;"  a  singular  omission  if  the  x\ryans  were 
from  time  immemorial  an  Asiatic  race ;  and  "  when  it  does  oc- 
cur, it  is  in  such  a  way  as  to  show  that  he  was  still  an  object 
of  wonder  and  terror  to  them."  (Whitney's  "  Oriental  and 
Linguistic  Studies,"  p.  26.)  They  possessed  nearly  all  the  do- 
mestic animals  we  now  have — the  ox  and  the  cow,  the  horse, 
the  dog,  the  sheep,  the  goat,  the  hog,  the  donkey,  and  the  goose. 
They  divided  the  year  into  twelve  months.  They  were  farmers; 
they  used  the  plough ;  their  name  as  a  race  (Aryan)  was  de- 
rived from  it ;  they  were,  par  excellence,  ploughmen  ;  they  raised 
various  kinds  of  grain,  including  flax,  barley,  hemp,  and  wheat; 
they  had  mills  and  millers,  and  ground  their  corn.  The  presence 
of  millers  shows  that  tliey  had  proceeded  beyond  the  primitive 
condition  where  each  family  ground  its  corn  in  its  own  mill. 
They  used  fire,  and  cooked  and  baked  their  food ;  they  wove 
cloth  and  wore  clothing;  they  spun  wool ;  they  possessed  the  dif- 
ferent metals,  even  iron:  they  had  gold.  The  word  for  "water" 
also  meant  "salt  made  from  water,"  from  which  it  might  be  in- 
ferred that  the  water  with  which  they  were  familiar  was  salt- 
water.   It  is  evident  they  manufactured  salt  by  evaporating  salt- 


460 


ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 


water.  They  possessed  boats  and  ships.  They  had  progressed 
so  far  as  to  perfect  "a  decimal  system  of  enumeration,  in  it- 
self," says  Max  Miiller,  "  one  of  the  most  marvellous  achieve- 
ments of  the  human  mind,  based  on  an  abstract  conception  of 


ANCIENT    EGYl'TIAN   PLOUGH. 


quantity,  regulated  by  a  philosophical  classification,  and  yet 
conceived,  nurtured,  and  finished  before  the  soil  of  Europe  was 
trodden  by  Greek,  Roman,  Slav,  or  Teuton." 

And  herein  we  find  another  evidence  of  relationship  between 
the  Aryans  and  the  people  of  Atlantis.  Although  Plato  does 
not  tell  us  that  the  Atlanteans  possessed  the  decimal  system  of 
numeration,  nevertheless  there  are  many  things  in  his  narrative 
which  point  to  that  conclusion  :  "  There  w^ere  ten  kings  ruling 
over  ten  provinces ;  the  whole  country  was  divided  into  mili- 
tary districts  or  squares  ten  stadia  each  way;  the  total  force  of 
chariots  was  ten  thousand ;  the  great  ditch  or  canal  was  one 
hundred  feet  deep  and  ten  thousand  stadia  long;  there  were 
one  hundred  Nereids,"  etc.  In  the  Peruvian  colony  the  decimal 
system  clearly  obtained:  "The  army  had  heads  of  ten,  fifty,  a 
hundred,  five  hundred,  a  thousand,  ten  thousand.  .  .  .  The  com- 
munity at  large  was  registered  in  groups,  under  the  control  of 
oflBcers  over  tens,  fifties,  hundreds,  and  so  on."  (Herbert  Spen- 
cer, "Development  of  Political  Institutions,"  chap,  x.)  The 
same  division  into  tens  and  hundreds  obtained  among  the  An- 
glo-Saxons. 

Where,  we  ask,  could  this  ancient  nation,  which  existed  be- 


\ 


THE  ARYAN  COLONIES  FROM  ATLANTIS.  461 

fore  Greek  was  Greek,  Celt  was  Celt,  Hindoo  was  Hindoo,  or 
Goth  was  Goth,  have  been  located?  The  common  opinion 
says,  in  Armenia  or  Bactria,  in  Asia.  But  where  in  Asia  conld 
they  have  found  a  country  so  peaceful  as  to  know  no  terms  for 
war  or  bloodshed ; — a  country  so  civilized  as  to  possess  no  wild 
beasts  save  the  bear,  wolf,  and  serpent  ?  No  people  could  have 
been  developed  in  Asia  without  bearing  in  its  language  traces 
of  century -long  battles  for  life  with  the  rude  and  barbarous 
races  around  them ;  no  nation  could  have  fought  for  ages  for 
existence  against  "man-eating"  tigers,  lions,  elephants,  and 
hyenas,  without  bearing  the  memory  of  these  things  in  their 
tongue.  A  tiger,  identical  with  that  of  Bengal,  still  exists 
around  Lake  Aral,  in  Asia ;  from  time  to  time  it  is  seen  in  Si- 
beria. "The  last  tiger  killed  in  1828  was  on  the  Lena, in  lati- 
tude fifty-two  degrees  thirty  minutes,  in  a  climate  colder  than 
that  of  St.  Petersburg  and  Stockholm." 

The  fathers  of  the  Aryan  race  must  have  dwelt  for  many 
thousand  years  so  completely  protected  from  barbarians  and 
wild  beasts  that  they  at  last  lost  all  memory  of  them,  and  all 
words  descriptive  of  them ;  and  where  could  this  have  been 
possible  save  in  some  great,  long-civilized  land,  surrounded  by 
the  sea,  and  isolated  from  the  attack  of  the  savage  tribes  that 
occupied  the  rest  of  the  world  ?  And  if  such  a  great  civilized 
nation  had  dwelt  for  centuries  in  Asia,  Europe,  or  Africa,  why 
have  not  their  monuments  long  ago  been  discovered  and  identi- 
fied? Where  is  the  race  who  are  their  natural  successors,  and 
who  must  have  continued  to  live  after  them  in  that  sheltered 
and  happy  land,  where  they  knew  no  human  and  scarcely  any 
animal  enemies  ?  Why  would  any  people  have  altogether  left 
such  a  home  ?  Why,  when  their  civilization  had  spread  to  the 
ends  of  the  earth,  did  it  cease  to  exist  in  the  peaceful  region 
where  it  originated? 

Savage  nations  cannot  usually  count  beyond  five.  This  peo- 
ple had  names  for  the  numerals  up  to  one  hundred,  and  the 
power,  doubtless,  of  combining  these  to  still  higher  powers,  as 


462  A  TLANTIS :   THE  ANTEDIL  UVIAN  .  WORLD. 

tbree  hundred,  five  hundred,  ten  hundred,  etc.  Says  a  high 
authority,  "  If  any  more  proof  were  wanted  as  to  the  reaHty  of 
that  period  which  must  have  preceded  the  dispersion  of  the 
Aryan  race,  we  might  appeal  to  the  Aryan  numerals  as  irre- 
fragable evidence  of  that  long-continued  intellectual  life  which 
characterizes  that  period."  Such  a  degree  of  progress  implies 
necessarily  an  alphabet,  writing,  commerce,  and  trade,  even  as 
the  existence  of  words  for  boats  and  ships  has  already  implied 
navigation. 

In  what  have  we  added  to  the  civilization  of  this  ancient 
people?  Their  domestic  animals  were  the  same  as  our  own, 
except  one  fowl  adopted  from  America.  In  the  past  ten  thou- 
sand years  we  have  added  one  bird  to  their  list  of  domesticated 
animals !  They  raised  wheat  and  wool,  and  spun  and  wove  as 
we  do,  except  that  we  have  added  some  mechanical  contrivances 
to  produce  the  same  results.  Their  metals  are  ours.  Even 
iron,  the  triumph,  as  we  had  supposed,  of  more  modern  times, 
they  had  already  discovered.  And  it  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  Greek  mythology  tells  us  that  the  god-like  race  who  dwelt 
on  Olympus,  that  great  island  "  in  the  midst  of  the  Atlantic," 
in  the  remote  west,  wrought  in  iron ;  and  we  find  the  remains 
of  an  iron  sword  and  meteoric  iron  weapons  in  the  mounds  of 
the  Mississippi  Valley,  while  the  nanie  of  the  metal  is  found  in 
the  ancient  languages  of  Peru  and  Chili,  and  the  Incas  worked 
in  iron  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Titicaca. 

A  still  further  evidence  of  the  civilization  of  this  ancient  race 
is  found  in  the  fact  that,  before  the  dispersion  from  their  origi- 
nal home,  the  Aryans  had  reached  such  a  degree  of  development 
that  they  possessed  a  regularly  organized  religion :  they  wor- 
shipped God,  they  believed  in  an  evil  spirit,  they  believed  in  a 
heaven  for  the  just.  All  this  presupposes  temples,  priests,  sac- 
rifices, and  an  orderly  state  of  society. 

We  have  seen  that  Greek  mythology  is  really  a  history  of 
the  kings  and  queens  of  Atlantis. 

When  we  turn  to  that  other  branch  of  the  great  Aryan 


THE  ARYAN  COLONIES  FROM  ATLANTIS.  463 

family,  the  Hindoos,  we  find  that  their  gods  are  also  the  kings 
of  Atlantis.  The  Hindoo  god  Yaruna  is  conceded  to  be  the 
Greek  god  Uranos,  who  was  the  founder  of  the  royal  family 
of  Atlantis. 

In  the  Veda  we  find  a  hymn  to  "King  Varuna,"  in  which 
occurs  this  passage : 

"This  earth,  too,  belongs  to  Varuna,  the  king,  and  this  wide 
sky,  with  its  ends  far  apart.  The  two  seas  are  Varuna'' s  loins; 
he  is  contained  also  in  this  drop  of  water." 

Again  in  the  Veda  we  find  another  hymn  to  King  Varuna: 

"  He  who  knows  the  place  of  the  birds  that  fly  through  the 
sky ;  who  on  the  waters  knows  the  ships.  He,  the  upholder 
of  order,  who  knows  the  twelve  months  ivith  the  offspring  of 
each,  and  knows  the  month  that  is  engendered  afterioardy 

This  verse  would  seem  to  furnish  additional  proof  that  the 
Vedns  were  written  by  a  maritime  people;  and  in  the  allu- 
sion to  the  twelve  months  we  are  reminded  of  the  Peruvians, 
who  also  divided  the  year  into  twelve  parts  of  thirty  days  each, 
and  afterward  added  six  days  to  complete  the  year.  The 
Egyptians  and  Mexicans  also  had  intercalary  days  for  the  same 
purpose. 

But,  above  all,  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  Greeks,  an 
Aryan  race,  in  their  mythological  traditions,  show  the  closest 
relationship  to  Atlantis.  At-iW^  and  ^^-hens  are  reminis- 
cences of  Ad,  and  we  are  told  that  Poseidon,  god  and  founder 
of  Atlantis,  founded  Athens.  We  find  in  the  "  Eleusinian  mys- 
teries" an  Atlantean  institution;  their  influence  during  the 
whole  period  of  Greek  history  down  to  the  com-ing  of  Chris- 
tianity was  extraordinary ;  and  even  then  this  masonry  of  Pre- 
Christian  days,  in  which  kings  and  emperors  begged  to  be  ini- 
tiated, was,  it  is  claimed,  continued  to  our  own  times  in  our 
own  Freemasons,  who  trace  their  descent  back  to  "a  Dionysiac 
fraternity  which  originated  in  Attika."  And  just  as  we  have 
seen  the  Saturnaliau  festivities  of  Italy  descending  from  At- 


4G4  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 

laiitean  harvest -feasts,  so  these  Eleusinian  mysteries  can  be 
traced  back  to  Plato's  island.  Poseidon  was  at  the  base  of 
them ;  the  first  hierophant,  Eiimolpus,  was  "  a  son  of  Posei- 
don," and  all  the  ceremonies  were  associated  with  seed-time 
and  harvest,  and  with  Demeter  or  Ceres,  an  Atlantean  goddess, 
daughter  of  Chronos,  who  first  taught  the  Greeks  to  use  the 
plough  and  to  plant  barley.  And,  as  the  "  Carnival "  is  a  sur- 
vival of  the  "  Saturnalia,"  so  Masonry  is  a  survival  of  the  Eleu- 
sinian mysteries.  The  roots  of  the  institutions  of  to-day  reach 
back  to  the  Miocene  Age. 

We  have  seen  that  Zeus,  the  king  of  Atlantis,  whose  tomb 
was  shown  at  Crete,  was  transformed  into  the  Greek  god  Zeus ; 
and  in  like  manner  we  find  him  reappearing  among  the  Hin- 
doos as  Dyaus.  He  is  called  "  Dyaus-pitar,"  or  God  the  Fa- 
ther, as  among  the  Greeks  we  have  *' Zeus-pater,"  which  be- 
came among  the  Romans  "  Jupiter." 

The  strongest  connection,  however,  with  the  Atlantean  sys- 
tem is  shown  in  the  case  of  the  Hindoo  god  Deva-Nahusha. 

We  have  seen  in  the  chapter  on  Greek  mythology  that 
Dionysos  was  a  son  of  Zeus  and  grandson  of  Poseidon,  being 
thus  identified  with  Atlantis.  "When  he  arrived  at  manhood," 
said  the  Greeks,  "he  set  out  on  a  journey  through  all  known 
countries,  even  into  the  remotest  parts  of  India,  instructing 
the  people,  as  he  proceeded,  how  to  tend  the  vine,  and  how  to 
practise  many  other  arts  of  peace,  besides  teaching  them  the 
value  of  just  and  honorable  dealings.  He  was  praised  every- 
where as  the  greatest  benefactor  of  mankind."  (Murray's  "My- 
thology," p.  119.) 

In  other  words,  he  represented  the  great  Atlantean  civiliza- 
tion, reaching  into  "the  remotest  parts  of  India,"  and  "to  all 
parts  of  the  known  world,"  from  America  to  Asia.  In  conse- 
quence of  the  connection  of  this  king  with  the  vine,  he  was 
converted  in  later  times  into  the  dissolute  god  Bacchus.  Bat 
everywhere  the  traditions  concerning  him  refer  us  back  to 
Atlantis.     "  All  the  legends  of  Egypt,  India,  Asia  Minor,  and 


THE  AHYAX  COLOXIES  FROM  ATLANTIS.  465 

the  older  Greeks  describe  him  as  a  king  very  great  during 
his  life,  and  deified  after  death.  .  .  .  Amon,  king  of  Arabia  or 
Ethiopia,  married  Rhea,  sister  of  Chronos,  who  reigned  over 
Italy,  Sicily,  and  certain  countries  of  Northern  Africa.''''  Diony- 
sos,  according  to  the  Egyptians,  was  the  son  of  Amon  by  the 
beautiful  Amalthea.  Chronos  and  Amon  had  a  prolonged 
war;  Dionysos  defeated  Chronos  and  captured  his  capital,  de- 
throned him,  and  put  his  son  Zeus  in  his  place;  Zeus  reigned 
nobly,  and  won  a  great  fame.  Dionysos  succeeded  his  father 
Amon,  and  "  became  the  greatest  of  sovereigns.  He  extend- 
ed his  sway  in  all  the  neighboring  countries,  and  completed 
the  conquest  of  India.  ...  He  gave  much  attention  to  the 
Cushite  colonies  in  Egypt,  greatly  increasing  their  strength, 
intelligence,  and  prosperity."  (Baldwin's  "Prehistoric  Na- 
tions," p.  283.) 

When  we  turn  to  the  Hindoo  we  still  find  this  Atlantean 
king. 

In  the  Sanscrit  books  we  find  reference  to  a  god  called  Deva- 
Nahusha,  who  has  been  identified  by  scholars  with  Dionysos. 
He  is  connected  "  with  the  oldest  history  and  mijthologij  in  the 
loorldP  He  is  said  to  have  been  a  contemporary  with  Indra, 
king  of  Meru^  who  was  also  deified,  and  who  appears  in  the 
Veda  as  a  principal  form  of  representation  of  the  Supreme 
Being. 

"  The  warmest  colors  of  imagination  are  used  in  portraying 
the  greatness  of  Deva-Nahusha.  For  a  time  he  had  sovereign 
control  of  affairs  in  Meru;  he  conquered  the  seven  dwipas,  and 
led  his  armies  through  all  the  known  countries  of  the  ivorld ; 
by  means  of  matchless  wisdom  and  miraculous  heroism  he 
made  his  empire  universal.''''     (Ihid.,  p.  287.) 

Here  we  see  that  the  great  god  Indra,  chief  god  of  the  Hin- 
doos, was  formerly  king  of  Meru,  and  that  Deva-Nahusha 
(De(va)nushas  —  De-onyshas)  had  also  been  king  of  Meru; 
and  we  must  remember  that  Theopompus  tell  us  that  the  isl- 
and of  Atlantis  was  inhabited  by  the  "  Meropes ;"  and  Lenor- 

20* 


466  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

mant  has  reached  the  conclusion  that  the  first  people  of  the 
ancient  world  were  "  the  men  of  Mero." 

We  can  well  believe,  when  we  see  traces  of  the  same  civiliza- 
tion extendino-  from  Peru  and  Lake  Superior  to  Armenia  and 
the  frontiers  of  China,  that  this  Atlantean  kingdom  was  indeed 
"universal,"  and  extended  through  all  the  "known  countries  of 
the  world." 

"  We  can  see  in  the  legends  that  Pururavas,  Nahusha,  and 
others  had  no  connection  with  Sanscrit  history.  They  are  re- 
ferred to  ages  very  long  anterior  to  the  Sanscrit  immigration, 
and  must  have  been  great  personages  celebrated  in  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  natives  or  Dasyus.  .  .  .  Pururavas  was  a  king  of 
great  renown,  who  ruled  over  thirteen  islands  of  the  ocean,  al- 
together surrounded  by  inhuman  (or  superhuman)  personages; 
he  engaged  in  a  contest  with  Brahmans,  and  perished.  Na- 
husha, mentioned  by  Maull,  and  in  many  legends,  as  famous 
for  hostility  to  the  Brahmans,  lived  at  the  time  when  Indra 
ruled  on  earth.  He  was  a  very  great  king,  who  ruled  with 
justice  a  mighty  empire,  and  attained  the  sovereignty  of  three 
ivorldsy  (Europe,  Africa,  and  America?)  "  Being  intoxicated 
with  pride,  he  was  arrogant  to  Brahmans,  compelled  them  to 
bear  his  palanquin,  and  even  dared  to  touch  one  of  them  with 
his  foot"  (kicked  him?),  "whereupon  he  w^as  transformed  into 
a  serpent."     (Baldwin's  "Prehistoric  Nations,"  p.  291.) 

The  Egyptians  placed  Dionysos  (Osiris)  at  the  close  of  the 
period  of  their  history  which  was  assigned  to  the  gods,  that 
is,  toward  the  close  of  the  great  empire  of  Atlantis. 

When  we  remember  that  the  hymns  of  the  "  Rig-Yeda"  are 
admitted  to  date  back  to  a  vast  antiquity,  and  are  written  in 
a  language  that  had  ceased  to  be  a  living  tongue  thousands  of 
years  ago,  we  can  almost  fancy  those  hymns  preserve  some  part 
of  the  songs  of  praise  uttered  of  old  upon  the  island  of  Atlantis. 
Many  of  them  seem  to  belong  to  sun-worship,  and  might  have 
been  sung  with  propriety  upon  the  high  places  of  Peru : 

"  In  the  beginning  there  arose  the  golden  child.  He  was  the 
one  born  Lord  of  all  that  is.  He  established  the  earth  and  the 
sky.     Who  is  the  god  to  whom  we  shall  offer  sacrifice? 


THE  ARYAN  COLONIES  FROM  ATLANTIS.  467 

"He  ^Yho  gives  life;  He  wlio  gives  strength;  whose  com- 
mand all  the  bright  gods "  (the  stars  ?)  "  revere ;  whose  light 
is  immortality ;  whose  shadow  is  death.  .  .  .  He  who  through 
his  power  is  the  one  God  of  the  breathing  and  awakening  ivortd. 
He  who  governs  all,  man  and  beast.  He  whose  greatness  these 
snowy  mountains,  whose  greatness  the  sea  proclaims,  with  the 
distant  river.  He  through  whom  the  sky  is  bright  and  the 
earth  firm.  .  .  .  He  who  measured  out  the  light  in  the  air.  .  .  . 
Wherever  the  mighty  water -clouds  went,  where  they  placed 
the  seed  and  lit  the  tire,  thence  arose  He  who  is  the  sole  life 
of  the  bright  gods.  .  .  .  He  to  whom  heaven  and  earth,  stand- 
ing firm  by  His  will,  look  up,  trembling  inwardly.  .  .  .  May  he 
not  destroy  us;  He,  the  creator  of  the  earth;  He,  the  righteous, 
who  created  heaven.  He  also  created  the  bright  and  mighty 
loaters.'*'' 

This  is  plainly  a  hymn  to  the  sun,  or  to  a  god  whose  most 
glorious  representative  was  the  sun.  It  is  the  hymn  of  a  peo- 
ple near  the  sea;  it  was  not  written  by  a  people  living  in  the 
heart  of  Asia.  It  was  the  hymn  of  a  people  living  in  a  vol- 
canic country,  who  call  upon  their  god  to  keep  the  earth 
"firm"  and  not  to  destroy  them.  It  was  sung  at  daybreak, 
as  the  sun  rolled  up  the  sky  over  an  "  awakening  world." 

The  fire  (Agni)  upon  the  altar  was  regarded  as  a  messenger 
rising  from  the  earth  to  the  sun : 

"  Youngest  of  the  gods,  their  messenger,  their  invoker.  .  .  . 
For  thou,  O  sage,  goest  wisely  between  these  two  creations 
(heaven  and  earth,  God  and  man)  like  a  friendly  messenger 
between  two  hamlets;" 

The  dawn  of  the  day  (Ushas),  part  of  the  sun-w^orship,  be- 
came also  a  god : 

"  She  shines  upon  us  like  a  young  wife,  rousing  every  living 
being  to  go  to  his  work.  When  the  fire  had  to  be  kindled  by 
man,  she  made  the  light  by  striking  down  the  darkness." 

As  the  Egyptians  and  the  Greeks  looked  to  a  happy  abode 
(an  under-world)  in  the  west,  beyond  the  waters,  so  the  Aryan's 
paradise  was  the  other  side  of  some  body  of  water.     In  the 


468  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD.    . 

Veda  (vii.  56,  24)  we  find  a  prayer  to  the  Maruts,  the  storm- 
gods  :  "  O,  Maruts,  may  there  be  to  us  a  strong  son,  who  is  a 
living  ruler  of  men ;  through  whom  we  may  cross  the  ivaters 
on  our  way  to  the  happy  abodes  This  happy  abode  is  de- 
scribed as  "  where  King  Yaivasvata  reigns ;  where  the  secret 
place  of  heaven  is;  where  the  mighty  waters  are  .  .  .  where 
there  is  food  and  rejoicing  .  .  .  where  there  is  happiness  and 
delight ;  where  joy  and  pleasure  reside."  (Rig- Veda  ix.  113,  7.) 
This  is  the  paradise  beyond  the  seas ;  the  Elysion ;  the  Elysian 
Fields  of  the  Greek  and  the  Egyptian,  located  upon  an  island 
in  the  Atlantic  which  was  destroyed  by  water.  One  great 
chain  of  tradition  binds  together  these  widely  separated  races. 

"  The  religion  of  the  Veda  knows  no  idols,"  says  Max 
Miiller;  "the  worship  of  idols  in  India  is  a  secondary  forma- 
tion, a  degradation  of  the  more  primitive  worship  of  ideal 
gods." 

It  was  pure  sun-worship,  such  as  prevailed  in  Peru  on  the 
arrival  of  the  Spaniards.  It  accords  with  Plato's  description 
of  the  religion  of  Atlantis. 

"The  Dolphin's  Ridge,"  at  the  bottom  of  the  Atlantic,  or 
the  high  land  revealed  by  the  soundings  taken  by  the  ship 
Challenger,  is,  as  will  be  seen,  of  a  three -pronged  form — one 
prong  pointing  toward  the  west  coast  of  Ireland,  another  con- 
necting with  the  north-east  coast  of  South  America,  and  a  third 
near  or  on  the  west  coast  of  Africa.  It  does  not  follow  that 
the  island  of  Atlantis,  at  any  time  while  inhabited  by  civilized 
people,  actually  reached  these  coasts;  there  is  a  strong  proba- 
bility that  races  of  men  may  have  found  their  way  there  from 
the  three  continents  of  Europe,  America,  and  Africa;  or  the 
great  continent  which  once  filled  the  whole  bed  of  the  present 
Atlantic  Ocean,  and  from  whose  debris  geology  tells  us  the  Old 
and  New  Worlds  were  constructed,  may  have  been  the  scene  of 
the  development,  during  immense  periods  of  time,  of  diverse 
races  of  men,  occupying  different  zones  of  climate. 

There  are  many  indications  that  there  were  three  races  of  men 


THE  ARYAN  COLONIES  FROM  ATLANTIS.  469 

dwelling  on  Atlantis.  Noah,  according  to  Genesis,  had  three  sons 
— Shera,  Ham,  and  Japheth — who  represented  three  different 
races  of  men  of  different  colors.  The  Greek  legends  tell  us  of 
the  rebellions  inaugurated  at  different  times  in  Olympus.  One  of 
these  was  a  rebellion  of  the  Giants,  "a  race  of  beings  sprung 
from  the  blood  of  Uranos,"  the  great  original  progenitor  of 
the  stock.  "  Their  king  or  leader  was  Porphyrion,  their  most 
powerful  champion  Alkyoneus."  Their  mother  was  the  earth : 
this  probably  meant  that  they  represented  the  common  people 
of  a  darker  hue.  They  made  a  desperate  struggle  for  suprem- 
acy, but  were  conquered  by  Zeus.  There  were  also  two  rebel- 
lions of  the  Titans.  The  Titans  seem  to  have  had  a  govern- 
ment of  their  own,  and  the  names  of  twelve  of  their  kings  are 
given  in  the  Greek  mythology  (see  Murray,  p.  27).  They  also 
were  of  "  the  blood  of  Uranos,"  the  Adam  of  the  people.  We 
read,  in  fact,  that  Uranos  married  Giea  (the  earth),  and  had 
three  families:  1,  the  Titans;  2,  the  Hekatoncheires ;  and  3, 
the  Kyklopes.  We  should  conclude  that  the  last  two  were 
maritime  peoples,  and  I  have  shown  that  their  mythical  char- 
acteristics were  probably  derived  from  the  appearance  of  their 
ships.  Here  we  have,  I  think,  a  reference  to  the  three  races: 
1,  the  red  or  sunburnt  men,  like  the  Egyptians,  the  Phoeni- 
cians, the  Basques,  and  the  Berber  and  Cushite  stocks ;  2,  the 
sons  of  Shem,  possibly  the  yellow  or  Turanian  race ;  and  3, 
the  whiter  men,  the  Aryans,  the  Greeks,  Kelts,  Goths,  Slavs, 
etc.  If  this  view  is  correct,  then  we  may  suppose  that  colonies 
of  the  pale-faced  stock  may  have  been  sent  out  from  Atlantis 
to  the  northern  coasts  of  Europe  at  different  and  perhaps  wide- 
ly separated  periods  of  time,  from  some  of  which  the  Aryan 
families  of  Europe  proceeded;  hence  the  legend,  which  is  found 
among  them,  that  they  were  once  forced  to  dwell  in  a  country 
where  the  summers  were  only  two  months  long. 

From  the  earliest  times  two  grand  divisions  are  recognized 
in  the  Aryan  family :  "  to  the  east  those  who  specially  called 
themselves  Arians,  whose  descendants  inhabited  Persia,  India, 


470  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

etc. ;  to  the  west,  the  Yavana,  or  the  Young  Ones,  who  first  emi- 
grated westward,  and  from  whom  have  descended  the  various 
nations  that  have  populated  Europe.  This  is  the  name  (Javan) 
found  in  the  tenth  chapter  of  Genesis."  (Lenormant  and 
Chevallier,  "Ancient  History  of  the  East,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  2.)  But 
surely  those  who  "  first  emigrated  westward,"  the  earliest  to 
leave  the  parent  stock,  could  not  be  the  "  Young  Ones ;"  they 
would  be  rather  the  elder  brothers.  But  if  we  can  suppose 
the  Bactrian  population  to  have  left  Atlantis  at  an  early  date, 
and  the  Greeks,  Latins,  and  Celts  to  have  left  it  at  a  later 
period,  then  they  would  indeed  be  the  "  Young  Ones"  of  the 
family,  following  on  the  heels  of  the  earlier  migrations,  and 
herein  we  would  find  the  explanation  of  the  resemblance  be- 
tween the  Latin  and  Celtic  tongues.  Lenormant  says  the  name 
of  Erin  (Ireland)  is  derived  from  Aryan  ;  and  yet  we  have  seen 
this  island  populated  and  named  Erin  by  races  distinctly  con- 
nected with  Spain,  Iberia,  Africa,  and  Atlantis. 

There  is  another  reason  for  supposing  that  the  Aryan  na- 
tions came  from  Atlantis. 

We  find  all  Europe,  except  a  small  corner  of  Spain  and  a 
strip  along  the  Arctic  Circle,  occupied  by  nations  recognized  as 
Aryan ;  but  when  we  turn  to  Asia,  there  is  but  a  corner  of  it, 
and  that  corner  in  the  part  nearest  Europe,  occupied  by  the 
Aryans.  All  the  rest  of  that  great  continent  has  been  filled 
from  immemorial  ages  by  non-Aryan  races.  There  are  seven 
branches  of  the  Aryan  family:  1.  Germanic  or  Teutonic;  2. 
Slavo-Lithuanic;  3.  Celtic;  4.  Italic;  5.  Greek;  6.  Iranian  or 
Persian  ;  7.  Sanscritic  or  Indian  ;  and  of  these  seven  branches 
five  dwell  on  the  soil  of  Europe,  and  the  other  two  are  intru- 
sive races  in  Asia /ro??i  the  direction  of  Europe.  The  Aryans 
in  Europe  have  dw^elt  there  apparently  since  the  close  of  the 
Stone  Age,  if  not  before  it,  while  the  movements  of  the  Aryans 
in  Asia  are  within  the  Historical  Period,  and  they  appear  as 
intrusive  stocks,  forming  a  high  caste  amid  a  vast  population 
of  a  different  race.     The  Vedas  are  supposed  to  date  back  to 


THE  ARYAN  COLOXIES  FROM  ATLANTIS.  471 

2000  B.C.,  while  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  the  Celt 
inhabited  Western  Europe  5000  b.c.  If  the  Aryan  race  had 
originated  in  the  heart  of  Asia,  why  would  not  its  ramifications 
have  extended  into  Siberia,  China,  and  Japan,  and  all  over  Asia? 
And  if  the  Aryans  moved  at  a  comparatively  recent  date  into 
Europe  from  Bactria,  where  are  the  populations  that  then 
inhabited  Europe — the  men  of  the  ages  of  stone  and  bronze? 
We  should  expect  to  find  the  western  coasts  of  Europe  filled 
with  them,  just  as  the  eastern  coasts  of  Asia  and  India  are 
filled  with  Turanian  populations.  On  the  contrary,  we  know 
that  the  Aryans  descended  upon  India  from  the  Punjab,  which 
lies  to  the  north-toest  of  that  region ;  and  that  their  traditions 
represent  that  they  came  there  from  the  ivest,  to  wit,  from  the 
direction  of  Europe  and  Atlantis. 


472  ATLANTIS:  THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 


Chapter  XI. 

A  TLANTIS  RECONSTR  UCTED. 

The  farther  we  go  back  in  time  toward  the  era  of  Atlantis, 
the  more  the  evidences  multiply  that  we  are  approaching  the 
presence  of  a  great,  wise,  civilized  race.  For  instance,  we  find 
the  Egyptians,  Ethiopians,  and  Israelites,  from  the  earliest  ages, 
refusing  to  eat  the  flesh  of  swine.  The  Western  nations  de- 
parted from  this  rule,  and  in  these  modern  days  we  are  begin- 
ning to  realize  the  dangers  of  this  article  of  food,  on  account 
of  the  trichina  contained  in  it ;  and  when  we  turn  to  the  Tal- 
mud, we  are  told  that  it  was  forbidden  to  the  Jews,  "  because 
of  a  small  insect  which  infests  it.'* 

The  Egyptians,  the  Ethiopians,  the  Phoenicians,  the  He- 
brews, and  others  of  the  ancient  races,  practised  circumcision. 
It  was  probably  resorted  to  in  Atlantean  days,  and  imposed  as 
a  religious  duty,  to  arrest  one  of  the  most  dreadful  scourges 
of  the  human  race — a  scourge  which  continued  to  decimate  the 
people  of  America,  arrested  their  growth,  and  paralyzed  their 
civilization.  Circumcision  stamped  out  the  disease  in  Atlantis; 
we  read  of  one  Atlantean  king,  the  Greek  god  Ouranos,  who, 
in  a  time  of  plague*  compelled  his  whole  army  and  the  armies 
of  his  allies  to  undergo  the  rite.  The  colonies  that  went  out 
to  Europe  carried  the  practice  but  not  the  disease  out  of  which 
it  originated  with  them  ;  and  it  was  not  until  Columbus  re- 
opened communication  with  the  infected  people  of  the  West 
India  Islands  that  the  scourge  crossed  the  Atlantic  and  "  turned 
Europe,"  as  one  has  expressed  it,  "  into  a  charnal-house." 

Life-insurance  statistics  show,  nowadays,  that  the  average 


ATLANTIS  BECONHTRVGTED.  473 

life  and  health  of  the  Hebrew  is  much  greater  than  that  of 
other  men ;  and  he  owes  this  to  the  retention  of  practices  and 
beliefs  imposed  ten  thousand  years  ago  by  the  great,  wise  race 
of  Atlantis. 

Let  us  now,  with  all  the  facts  before  us,  gleaned  from  vari- 
ous sources,  reconstruct,  as  near  as  may  be,  the  condition  of 
the  antediluvians. 

They  dwelt  upon  a  great  island,  near  which  were  other  small- 
er islands,  probably  east  and  west  of  them,  forming  stepping- 
stones,  as  it  were,  toward  Europe  and  Africa  in  one  direction, 
and  the  West  India  Islands  and  America  in  the  other.  There 
were  volcanic  mountains  upon  the  main  island,  rising  to  a 
height  of  fifteen  hundred  feet,  with  their  tops  covered  with 
perpetual  snow.  Below  these  were  elevated  table-lands,  upon 
which  were  the  royal  establishments.  Below  these,  again,  was 
"  the  great  plain  of  Atlantis."  There  were  four  rivers  flowing 
north,  south,  east,  and  west  from  a  central  point.  The  climate 
was  like  that  of  the  Azores,  mild  and  pleasant;  the  soil  vol- 
canic and  fertile,  and  suitable  at  its  different  elevations  for 
the  grow^th  of  the  productions  of  the  tropical  and  temperate 
zones. 

The  people  represented  at  least  two  different  races :  a  dark 
brown  reddish  race,  akin  to  the  Central  Americans,  the  Ber- 
bers and  the  Egyptians;  and  a  white  race,  like  the  Greeks, 
Goths,  Celts,  and  Scandinavians.  Various  battles  and  struggles 
followed  between  the  different  peoples  for  supremacy.  The 
darker  race  seems  to  have  been,  physically,  a  smaller  race, 
with  small  hands;  the  lighter-colored  race  was  much  larger — 
hence  the  legends  of  the  Titans  and  Giants.  The  Guanches 
of  the  Canary  Islands  were  men  of  very  great  stature.  As  the 
works  of  the  Bronze  Age  represent  a  small-handed  race,  and 
as  the  races  who  possessed  the  ships  and  gunpowder  joined  in 
the  war  ag^ainst  the  Giants,  we  mio-ht  conclude  that  the  dark 
races  were  the  more  civilized,  that  they  were  the  metal-work- 
ers and  navigators. 


474  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

The  fact  tbat  the  same  opinions  and  customs  exist  on  both 
sides  of  the  ocean  implies  identity  of  origin ;  it  might  be  ar- 
gued that  the  fact  that  the  explanation  of  many  customs  exist- 
ing on  both  hemispheres  is  to  be  found  only  in  America,  im- 
plies that  the  primeval  stock  existed  in  America,  the  emigrating 
portion  of  the  population  carrying  away  the  custom,  but  for- 
getting the  reason  for  it.  The  fact  that  domestic  cattle  and 
the  great  cereals,  wheat,  oats,  barley,  and  rye,  are  found  in 
Europe  and  not  in  America,  would  imply  that  after  population 
moved  to  Atlantis  from  America  civilization  was  developed  in 
Atlantis,  and  that  in  the  later  ages  communication  was  closer 
and  more  constant  between  Atlantis  and  Europe  than  between 
Atlantis  and  Ainerica.  In  the  case  of  the  bulky  domestic  an- 
imals, it  would  be  more  difficult  to  transport  them,  in  the  open 
vessels  of  that  day,  from  Atlantis  across  the  wider  expanse  of 
sea  to  America,  than  it  would  be  to  carry  them  by  way  of  the 
now  submerged  islands  in  front  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea  to 
the  coast  of  Spain.  It  may  be,  too,  that  the  climate  of  Spain 
and  Italy  was  better  adapted  to  the  growth  of  wheat,  barley, 
oats  and  rye,  than  maize  ;  while  the  drier  atmosphere  of  Amer- 
ica was  better  suited  to  the  latter  plant.  Even  now  compara- 
tively little  wheat  or  barley  is  raised  in  Central  America,  Mex- 
ico, or  Peru,  and  none  on  the  low  coasts  of  those  countries; 
while  a  smaller  quantity  of  maize,  proportionately,  is  grown  in 
Italy,  Spain,  and  the  rest  of  Western  Europe,  the  rainy  cli- 
mate being  unsuited  to  it.  AVe  have  seen  (p.  60,  ante)  that 
there  is  reason  to  believe  that  maize  was  known  in  a  remote 
period  in  the  drier  regions  of  the  Egyptians  and  Chinese. 

As  science  has  been  able  to  reconstruct  the  history  of  the 
migrations  of  the  Aryan  race,  by  the  words  that  exist  or  fail 
to  appear  in  the  kindred  branches  of  that  tongue,  so  the  time 
will  come  when  a  careful  comparison  of  words,  customs,  opin- 
ions, arts  existing  on  the  opposite  sides  of  the  Atlantic  will 
furnish  an  approximate  sketch  of  Atlantean  history. 

The  people  had  attained  a  high  position  as  agriculturists. 


ATLANTIS  RECOXSTIiUCTED.  475 

The  presence  of  the  plough  in  Egypt  and  Peru  implies  that  they 
possessed  that  implement.  And  as  the  horns  and  ox-head  of 
Baal  show  the  esteem  in  which  cattle  were  held  among  thera, 
we  may  suppose  that  they  had  passed  the  stage  in  which  the 
plough  was  drawn  by  men,  as  in  Peru  and  Egypt  in  ancient 
times,  and  in  Sweden  during  the  Historical  Period,  and  that 
it  was  drawn  by  oxen  or  horses.  They  first  domesticated  the 
horse,  hence  the  association  of  Poseidon  or  Neptune,  a  sea- 
god,  with  horses ;  hence  the  race-courses  for  horses  described  by 
Plato.  They  possessed  sheep,  and  manufactured  woollen  goods; 
they  also  had  goats,  dogs,  and  swine.  They  raised  cotton  and 
made  cotton  goods;  they  probably  cultivated  maize,  wheat, 
oats,  barley,  rye,  tobacco,  hemp,  and  tiax,  and  possibly  potatoes ; 
they  built  aqueducts  and  practised  irrigation;  they  were  archi- 
tects, sculptors,  and  engravers;  they  possessed  an  alphabet; 
they  worked  in  tin,  copper,  bronze,  silver,  gold,  and  iron. 

During  the  vast  period  of  their  duration,  as  peace  and  agri- 
culture caused  their  population  to  increase  to  overflowing,  they 
spread  out  in  colonies  east  and  west  to  the  ends  of  the  earth. 
This  was  not  the  work  of  a  few  years,  but  of  many  centuries ; 
and  the  relations  between  these  colonies  may  have  been  some- 
thing like  the  relation  between  the  different  colonies  that  in  a 
later  age  were  established  by  the  Phoenicians,  the  Greeks,  and 
the  Romans;  there  was  an  intermingling  with  the  more  ancient 
races,  the  autochthones  of  the  different  lands  where  they  settled; 
and  the  same  crossing  of  stocks,  which  we  know  to  have  been 
continued  all  through  the  Historical  Period,  must  have  been 
going  on  for  thousands  of  years,  whereby  new  races  and  new 
dialects  were  formed ;  and  the  result  of  all  this  has  been  that 
the  smaller  races  of  antiquity  have  grown  larger,  while  all  the 
complexions  shade  into  each  other,  so  that  we  can  pass  from 
the  whitest  to  the  darkest  by  insensible  degrees. 

In  some  respects  the  Atlanteans  exhibited  conditions  similar 
to  those  of  the  British  Islands :  there  were  the  same,  and  even 
greater,  race  differences  in  the  population  ;  the  same  plantation 


476  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

of  colonies  in  Europe,  Asia,  and  America;  the  same  carrying 
of  civilization  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  We  have  seen  colo- 
nies from  Great  Britain  going  out  in  the  third  and  fifth  centu- 
ries to  settle  on  the  shores  of  France,  in  Brittany,  representing 
one  of  the  nationalities  and  languages  of  the  mother-country — 
a  race  Atlantean  in  origin.  In  the  same  way  we  may  suppose 
Hamitic  emigrations  to  have  gone  out  from  Atlantis  to  Syria, 
Egypt,  and  the  Barbary  States.  If  we  could  imagine  High- 
land Scotch,  Welsh,  Cornish,  and  Irish  populations  emigrating 
en  masse  from  England  in  later  times,  and  carrying  to  their 
new  lands  the  civilization  of  England,  with  peculiar  languages 
not  English,  we  would  have  a  state  of  things  probably  more 
like  the  migrations  which  took  place  from  Atlantis.  England, 
with  a  civilization  Atlantean  in  origin,  peopled  by  races  from 
the  same  source,  is  repeating  in  these  modern  times  the  em- 
pire of  Zeus  and  Chronos ;  and,  just  as  we  have  seen  Troy, 
Egypt,  and  Greece  warring  against  the  parent  race,  so  in  later 
days  we  have  seen  Brittany  and  the  United  States  separating 
themselves  from  England,  the  race  characteristics  remaining 
after  the  governmental  connection  had  ceased. 

In  religion  the  Atlanteans  had  reached  all  the  great  thoughts 
which  underlie  our  modern  creeds.  They  had  attained  to  the 
conception  of  one  universal,  omnipotent,  great  First  Cause. 
We  find  the  worship  of  this  One  God  in  Peru  and  in  early 
Egypt.  They  looked  upon  the  sun  as  the  mighty  emblem, 
type,  and  instrumentality  of  this  One  God.  Such  a  conception 
could  only  have  come  with  civilization.  It  is  not  until  these 
later  days  that  science  has  realized  the  utter  dependence  of  all 
earthly  life  upon  the  sun's  rays : 

"  All  applications  of  animal  power  may  be  regarded  as  de- 
rived directly  or  indirectly  from  the  static  chemical  power  of 
the  vegetable  substance  by  which  the  various  organisms  and 
their  capabilities  are  sustained ;  and  this  power,  in  turn,  from 
the  kinetic  action  of  the  sun's  rays. 

"Winds   and   ocean   currents,  hailstorms  and  rain,  sliding 


ATLANTIS  RECONSTRUCTED.  477 

glaciers,  flowing  rivers,  and  falling  cascades  are  the  direct  off- 
spring of  solar  heat.  All  our  machinery,  therefore,  whether 
driven  by  the  windmill  or  the  water-wheel,  by  horse -power 
or  by  steam — all  the  results  of  electrical  and  electro-magnetic 
changes — our  telegraphs,  our  clocks,  and  our  watches,  all  are 
wound  up  primarily  by  the  sun. 

"  The  sun  is  the  great  source  of  energy  in  almost  all  terres- 
trial phenomena.  From  the  meteorological  to  the  geographi- 
cal, from  the  geological  to  the  biological,  in  the  expenditure 
and  conversion  of  molecular  movements,  derived  from  the  sun's 
rays,  must  be  sought  the  motive  power  of  all  this  infinitely 
varied  phantasmagoria." 

But  the  people  of  Atlantis  had  gone  farther;  they  believed 
that  the  soul  of  man  was  immortal,  and  that  he  would  live 
again  in  his  material  body ;  in  other  words,  they  believed  in 
"  the  resurrection  of  the  body  and  the  life  everlasting."  They 
accordingly  embalmed  their  dead. 

The  Duke  of  Argyll  ("  The  Unity  of  Nature  ")  says : 

"We  have  found  in  the  most  ancient  records  of  the  Aryan 
language  proof  that  the  indications  of  religious  thought  are 
higher,  simpler,  and  purer  as  we  go  back  in  time,  until  at  last, 
in  the  very  oldest  compositions  of  human  speech  which  have 
come  down  to  us,  we  find  the  Divine  Being  spoken  of  in  the 
sublime  language  which  forms  the  opening  of  the  Lord's 
Prayer.  The  date  in  absolute  chronology  of  the  oldest  Vedic 
literature  does  not  seem  to  be  known.  Professor  Max  Miiller, 
however,  considers  that  it  may  possibly  take  us  back  5000 
years.  .  .  .  All  we  can  see  with  certainty  is  that  the  earliest 
inventions  of  mankind  are  the  most  wonderful  that  the  race 
has  ever  made.  .  .  .  The  first  use  of  fire,  and  the  discovery  of 
the  methods  by  which  it  can  be  kindled ;  the  domestication  of 
wild  animals;  and,  above  all,  the  processes  by  which  the  vari- 
ous cereals  w^ere  first  developed  out  of  some  wild  grasses — these 
are  all  discoveries  with  which,  in  ingenuity  and  in  importance, 
no  subsequent  discoveries  may  compare.  They  are  all  unknown 
to  history — all  lost  in  the  light  of  an  effulgent  dawn." 

The  Atlanteans  possessed  an  established  order  of  priests; 
their  religious  worship  was  pure  and  simple.     They  lived  under 


478  ATLANTIS:    THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WOULD. 

a  kingly  government ;  they  had  their  courts,  their  judges,  their 
records,  their  monuments  covered  with  inscriptions,  their  mines, 
tlieir  founderies,  their  workshops,  their  looms,  their  grist-mills, 
their  boats  and  sailing-vessels,  their  highways,  aqueducts, 
wharves,  docks,  and  canals.  They  had  processions,  banners, 
and  triumphal  arches  for  their  kings  and  heroes;  they  built 
pyramids,  temples,  round-towers,  and  obelisks ;  they  practised 
religious  ablutions ;  they  knew  the  use  of  the  magnet  and  of 
gunpowder.  In  short,  they  were  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  civiliza- 
tion nearly  as  high  as  our  own,  lacking  only  the  printing-press, 
and  those  inventions  in  which  steam,  electricity,  and  magnetism 
are  used.  We  are  told  that  Deva-Nahusha  visited  his  colonies 
in  Farther  India.  An  empire  which  reached  from  the  Andes  to 
Hindostan,  if  not  to  China,  must  have  been  magnificent  indeed. 
In  its  markets  must  have  met  the  maize  of  the  Mississippi 
Valley,  the  copper  of  Lake  Superior,  the  gold  and  silver  of 
Peru  and  Mexico,  the  spices  of  India,  the  tin  of  Wales  and 
Cornwall,  the  bronze  of  Iberia,  tlie  amber  of  the  Baltic,  the 
wheat  and  barley  of  Greece,  Italy,  and  Switzerland. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  when  this  mighty  nation  sank 
beneath  the  waves,  in  the  midst  of  terrible  convulsions,  with 
all  its  millions  of  people,  the  event  left  an  everlasting  impres- 
sion upon  the  imagination  of  mankind.  Let  us  suppose  that 
Great  Britain  should  to-morrow  meet  with  a  similar  fate. 
What  a  wild  consternation  would  fall  upon  her  colonies  and 
upon  the  whole  human  family  !  The  world  might  relapse  into 
barbarism,  deep  and  almost  universal.  William  the  Conqueror, 
Richard  Coeur  de  Lion,  Alfred  the  Great,  Cromwell,  and  Victo- 
ria might  survive  only  as  the  gods  or  demons  of  later  races; 
but  the  memory  of  the  cataclysm  in  which  the  centre  of  a 
universal  empire  instantaneously  went  down  to  death  would 
never  be  forgotten  ;  it  would  survive  in  fragments,  more  or 
less  complete,  in  every  land  on  earth;  it  would  outlive  the 
memory  of  a  thousand  lesser  convulsions  of  nature;  it  would 
survive  dynasties,  nations,  creeds,  and  languages ;  it  would  never 


ATLANTIS  RECONSTRUCTED.  479 

be  forgotten  while  man  continued  to  inhabit  the  face  of  the 
globe. 

Science  has  but  commenced  its  work  of  reconstructino;  the 
past  and  rehabilitating  the  ancient  peoples,  and  surely  there 
is  no  study  which  appeals  more  strongly  to  the  imagination 
than  that  of  this  drowned  nation,  the  true  antediluvians.  They 
were  the  founders  of  nearly  all  our  arts  and  sciences ;  they  were 
the  parents  of  our  fundamental  beliefs ;  they  were  the  first  civ- 
ilizers,  the  first  navigators,  the  first  merchants,  the  first  colo- 
nizers of  the  earth ;  their  civilization  was  old  when  Egypt  was 
young,  and  they  had  passed  away  thousands  of  years  before 
Babylon,  Rome,  or  London  were  dreamed  of.  This  lost  people 
were  our  ancestors,  their  blood  flows  in  our  veins ;  the  words 
we  use  every  day  were  heard,  in  their  primitive  form,  in  their 
cities,  courts,  and  temples.  Every  line  of  race  and  thought,  of 
blood  and  belief,  leads  back  to  them. 

Nor  is  it  impossible  that  the  nations  of  the  earth  may  yet 
employ  their  idle  navies  in  bringing  to  the  light  of  day  some 
of  the  relics  of  this  buried  people.  Portions  of  the  island  lie 
but  a  few  hundred  fathoms  beneath  the  sea ;  and  if  expeditions 
liave  been  sent  out  from  time  to  time  in  the  past,  to  resurrect 
from  the  depths  of  the  ocean  sunken  treasure-ships  with  a  few 
thousand  doubloons  hidden  in  their  cabins,  why  should  not  an 
attempt  be  made  to  reach  the  buried  wonders  of  iVtlantis?  A 
single  engraved  tablet  dredged  up  from  Plato's  island  would 
be  worth  more  to  science,  would  more  strike  the  imagination 
of  mankind,  than  all  the  gold  of  Peru,  all  the  monuments  of 
Egypt,  and  all  the  terra-cotta  fragments  gathered  from  the 
great  libraries  of  Chaldea. 

May  not  the  so-called  "Phoenician  coins"  found  on  Corvo, 
one  of  the  Azores,  be  of  Atlantean  origin  ?  Is  it  probable  that 
that  great  race,  pre-eminent  as  a  founder  of  colonies,  could  have 
visited  those  islands  w  ithin  the  Historical  Period,  and  have  left 
them  unpeopled,  as  they  were  when  discovered  by  the  Portu- 
ji'ucse  ? 


480  ATLANTIS:   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

We  are  but  beginning  to  understand  the  past :  one  hundred 
years  ago  the  world  knew  nothing  of  Pompeii  or  Herculaneum ; 
nothing  of  the  lingual  tie  that  binds  together  the  Indo-European 
nations;  nothing  of  the  significance  of  the  vast  volume  of  in- 
scriptions upon  the  tombs  and  temples  of  Egypt ;  nothing  of 
the  meaning  of  the  arrow-headed  inscriptions  of  Babylon ;  noth- 
ing of  the  marvellous  civilizations  revealed  in  the  remains  of 
Yucatan,  Mexico,  and  Peru.  We  are  on  the  threshold.  Scien- 
tific investigation  is  advancing  with  giant  strides.  Who  shall 
say  that  one  hundred  years  from  now  the  great  museums  of 
the  world  may  not  be  adorned  with  gems,  statues,  arms,  and 
implements  from  Atlantis,  while  the  libraries  of  the  world  shall 
contain  translations  of  its  inscriptions,  throwing  new  light  upon 
all  the  past  history  of  the  human  race,  and  all  the  great  prob- 
lems which  now  perplex  the  thinkers  of  our  day  ?